As Ace guessed, O’Brien’s head instantly reformed as though the previous attack had never transpired.
Still, as fast as it was, the fact that her attack landed so cleanly shocked Fain and the rest of the audience – from the looks of it, they were still underestimating her.
O’Brien’s expression was also one of shock, but unlike his disciples and the rest of the audience, he didn’t appear to have eyes for Arianna, despite her having shown strength that seemed to be able to threaten him. No, in that moment, his full, undivided attention was solely on the shivering-robed mortal woman on the back of the peak saint stage lion.
“Arianna…” O’Brien called out, excitement seeping out every fibre of his being. “My wife is th…”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Ace roared with pure, unbridled rage. “KEEP MY MOTHER’S NAME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!”
Whilst everyone else stared at Ace incredulously for daring to raise his voice at a deity, O’Brien was focused on something else entirely.
“Mother?” O’Brien asked, not quite able to believe what he was hearing. “Arianna’s your mother?”
As he asked that, O’Brien’s mind raced as he began doing calculations, comparing Ace’s age to when he last ‘saw’ Milianna.
With the power of his soul, like Aiden, he too was capable of accurately assessing the age of a mortal, and as he did, his body couldn’t help but tremble with excitement as he roared with laughter.
Other than Ace, his group, and the War God’s disciples, no one was 100% sure what was going on, but picking up on the clues left from the conversation so far, several were able to make a guess as to what was going on.
Still, O’Brien’s following sentence confirmed their guesses.
“Hahaha, now it makes sense!” O’Brien nodded excitedly as he began to study the dark-haired youth in front of him, having already completely forgiven him for his prior indiscretions. “Only a son of mine could be born with such talent!”
Though they had already guessed the truth, jaw-dropping gasps could be heard from just about everyone present when they heard the confirmation from O’Brien, causing them to look back and forth between the father and son pair.
Still, the more they thought about O’Brien’s words, they couldn’t help but think about the heaven-defying talent Ace had shown.
Despite only being at the early stages of the sixth rank, Ace had been able to defeat a genuine saint. That kind of talent is one you could only expect to see in the child of a god like O’Brien.
This time it was Ace’s turn to burst out laughing, but it was clear from the ever-growing killing intent he was radiating that it had no positive connotations.
Still, O’Brien didn’t seem to mind. A warm smile suffused his lips as he looked at his biological son. “Is something funny?”
“Yeah, haha. It’s you; you’re hilarious!” Ace laughed coldly. “You really overestimate yourself if you genuinely believe I inherited my talent from you!”
As he said that, his laughter came to a sudden halt, his expression turning completely indifferent as he stared straight into his biological father’s eyes. “My name’s Gol D. Ace, and I inherited both my bloodline and talent from my mother – Gol D. Milianna.”
Hearing his words, although she was still trembling uncontrollably in fear, Milianna couldn’t help but look at the surprisingly broad back of her son. A hint of subconscious pride beginning to shine through the abyss of fear threatening to swallow her whole.
She didn’t understand how or why, but it was like the more Ace chose to believe in her, the more she couldn’t help but have faith in herself.
“Hahaha, your mother?!” Byrius sneered. “You mean that trembling mess of a woman behind you? Do you really believe your talent came from her instead of our ancestor, one of the most powerful beings on our continent?
You may not have inherited her talent, but you sure as hell inherited that woman’s stupidity!”
“Do you think you’re qualified to even pass judgement about my talent?” Ace asked directly. “You’re over 1000 years old, and yet your comprehension hasn’t even reached the prime saint level. If I were you, I would’ve killed myself from the humiliation.
If it wasn’t for the fact that you and your pathetic excuse for a family had to get someone to cripple my master because of your inferiority, chances are, you wouldn’t be alive to even talk to me today.
In front of me and everyone in my Yin-Yang Pavilion, you are nothing more than trash!”
Byrius’ eyes reddened with rage. Never in his life had he felt such humiliation. Still, there wasn’t much he could say in response. No matter how much he refused to admit it, deep down inside, he knew everything Ace said was true.
Still, it took every ounce of self-control and willpower to keep himself from rushing over and incinerating Ace where he was.
But in his defence, most of those present felt irked by Ace’s arrogance, including O’Brien.
“Enough!” O’Brian growled in frustration as he released a terrifying energy that made almost everyone cower in fear.
Even Ace’s eyes suddenly constricted in shock as he was suddenly rendered unable to move so much as a muscle. ‘So this is the power of a deity.’
It was as though spacetime had suddenly frozen, preventing even the saints among them from moving.
Still, after the initial shock, Ace calmed down. His cold and indifferent eyes remaining trained on his biological father.
“Even if you are my son, your insolence will not be tolerated,” O’Brien snorted as he lifted his hand in the direction of his son, causing Ace and Milianna’s bodies to suddenly float up towards him. “Now come, it’s time for you both to return to your rightful place by my side.”
In that moment, the whole of War God’s Mountain was deathly silent as they watched a deity act with impunity, but that silence only made the sound of Arianna’s swordlight streaking through the sky all the more audible.
“My disciple and martial nephew won’t be going anywhere with you,” Arianna said lightly, leaving no room for discussion as both Ace and Milianna fell back on Carter’s back.
Even though O’Brien didn’t need to move out of the way to dodge her strike, his brows couldn’t help but furrow as he looked cautiously at Arianna. “Why are you unaffected by my Godrealm?”
The Godrealm of a deity was effectively the domain of said deity. Its more subtle uses include allowing the deity to communicate telepathically with others or even the use of telekinesis – as seen when O’Brien attempted to bring Ace and his mother to him.
But its most practical and popular use was to suppress all targets within the user’s range. It was so effective that ordinarily, all those beneath the deity realm – including prime saints – were incapable of even moving a finger inside it.
As far as O’Brien was concerned, even if Arianna wasn’t rendered completely immobile, she should still be somewhat suppressed, but from the looks of things, she was completely unaffected. Not only that, but her last strike had actually shattered his Godrealm.
“The Godrealm of a second-rate Demi-God is too weak to affect me,” Arianna said, maintaining her usual air of indifference.
“Second rate?” O’Brien snarled.
“What would you call someone who can only become a deity by absorbing a divine spark?” Arianna asked back in a calm yet very straightforward manner.
Surprisingly, O’Brien didn’t seem angry when he heard that; instead, he seemed to go through a moment of internal struggle as he looked back and forth between Ace and Arianna as though he was trying to decide on his next course of action.
There were two ways to become a deity; the first, and by far the most easiest of the two options, was to do precisely what O’Brien had done and absorb a divine spark – a deity’s version of a dantian/beast core.
The only prerequisites for this are that the expert in question needs to have become a saint of the same law or edict of the divine spark they’re trying to absorb, and the divine spark is one that belonged to a Demi-God level deity before they died – also known as the first stage of Godhood.
After absorbing it, they will automatically assimilate the insights of the completed Profound Mystery comprehended by the original owner of said divine spark. However, after that Profound Mystery has been completely assimilated, forget fusing Profound Mysteries, it becomes virtually impossible for them to comprehend more profound mysteries by themselves in the future. The only way they can progress is by absorbing the divine spark of a deity of the same law or edict at a higher level.
The second way is to do what Arianna and Ace had done and comprehend the Profound Mysteries by themselves. Although more difficult and much slower, they can still comprehend and fuse further Profound Mysteries, meaning their ceilings are much higher than their counterparts.
Although this was common knowledge for the rest of the universe, the vast majority of the Yulan Continent had no idea about these simple facts – including O’Brien!
Although not on the level of Ace or even Olivier, O’Brien had once been a genius allowing him to become a saint in under 100 years. Then, after exploring a certain ruin, he had been lucky enough to discover the divine spark of a Demi-God.
Not knowing the future limitations it would put on him, he immediately absorbed it and soon became one of the very few deities on the continent.
That was over 5000 years ago, and since then, he had desperately searched for answers or a way out of his current predicament, but unfortunately, ever since becoming a deity, no matter how hard he tried, he had been unable to improve even a little bit.
That was the main reason he had initially been so interested in Arianna and her Qingya clan’s teachings.
He couldn’t be sure, but he desperately hoped they held the answers he needed, so although he was essentially being insulted when he heard Arianna’s assessment of his strength, he couldn’t help but be excited – to the point where he was even considering giving up his pursuit of forcefully capturing his son and ‘woman’, after all, he was well aware that in this world, ultimately, nothing was more important than your personal strength.
“I had no idea that my woman had become your disciple,” O’Brien said, deciding to change his approach as he once again turned to Arianna, this time talking to her like an equal.
Ace’s killing intent once again soared as O’Brien addressed his mother as his ‘woman’; in fact, he wasn’t alone. Even Lance had a hard time holding back his anger, but before either could say or do anything, O’Brien continued.
“Since that’s the case, we’re effective all one family,” O’Brien said warmly as excitement seeped into his voice. “I say we let bygones be bygones and move on.
Tell you what, how about you stay here in my Empire, and I’ll have my people organise a banquet to celebrate.”
Hearing that, a gentle smile suffused Arianna’s angel-like face, which only seemed to add to her enchanting beauty, but the moment O’Brien saw it, he felt like he was being eyed by the grim reaper himself.
“O’Brien,” Arianna said softly. “You can forget about ever laying your hands on my family’s teaching!
The only reason I have allowed you to live all this time after finding out that you had raped my disciple is because I agreed to let Ace be the one to take your pathetic excuse for a life in the future!”
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Book 11: Part 6 – News of Cesar and Wukong in the Infernal Realm
