"Hold on, ria," I interrupted, preventing her from spilling any important information here. Old Man Leng and his wife were still present, so…


    "Hm?"


    "Let''s go to a hotel first. I''m tired and want to just lie down," I lied, making an excuse. Then, I turned to Mrs. Leng. "Uh, Mrs. Leng…"


    "Heh. Follow me, I''ll get you a room," she said, walking out of the shop, then turned to Old Man Leng. "Take care of the store for a bit."


    He nodded in response, and we followed Mrs. Leng out.


    She led us to the same hotel we stayed at before, booking us a room and leaving shortly after the process was done. She couldn''t leave the shop hanging for too long, after all - Old Man Leng still had his own ce to worry about.


    We quickly entered the room, and after checking the ce for any monitoring devices, I sat down on the couch and turned to ria.


    "Now, talk. What new powers did you obtain?"


    "Heheh, finally. Okay, so, starting off, I can now freely transform between phoenix and human form instantly," ria said proudly. "There is no limit to how quick or how frequent I can change form, so I could essentially change into my real form during battle, unleash a powerful attack, then go straight back to my human form before anyone could even react."


    "Really? It''s that quick?" Qing Yue''s eyes widened in surprise.


    ria nodded, rubbing her nose in confidence. "Yep! Not only that, but my raw power has also increased by a lot. My strength in this form should be on par with an Ancestral Mage, but in my true form… I should be able topete with ate-stage Golden Monarch."


    "Ate-stage Golden Monarch… that''s only one step away from Ling Xin''s cultivation!" Feng Mian eximed. "If it''s like this, then if we had ria back there, we could''ve beaten her easily…?"


    I shook my head. "Maybe if Ling Xin had just stepped into the Holy Emperor realm. But from what it seemed like to me, she''s already been in it for quite a well. I''ve fought various Golden Monarchs before, and she''s definitely a lot stronger than them… possibly even close to the Saint stage."


    "Saint… that seems… so distant from where we are," Yu An Yan murmured with a hint of sadness in her eyes.


    "No… in fact, despite being Intermediate Mages, you all have strength on par with that of Advanced Mages," I said. "Especially now, since we got the Awakening Stones, you might as well have be fully-fledged Advanced Mages."


    "Oh yeah, speaking of, we never went to im our rewards for bing Intermediate Mages, huh?" Qing Yue said thoughtfully. "Where could we do that, hm…"


    "We can do that tomorrow," Xiang Peng interjected. "There''s an IMF branch in every district of the Fortress, and I just happen to know where the branch in this district is."


    "Sounds good," Feng Mian winked.


    "ria, what other abilities did you gain other than instant form swap and increased overall firepower?" Lan Xiao Su asked excitedly. She knew ria was a phoenix, so naturally she was excited. It was like this with the elves too. She also didn''t seem to stutter when she was genuinely interested in something like this, which was pretty cute.


    "Well, I don''t know if this can be called a new ability, but…"


    "What is it?" I asked.


    "… During my hibernation, I kept seeing visions of a war. Which was weird, since I haven''t witnessed any wars in my time. There was this… woman I was spectating from the outside. She looked simr to myself in human form, but a lot more grown."


    "Was she… your mother?" Yu An Yan asked hesitantly.


    Slowly, ria nodded. "Yes… but when I called out to her, she didn''t answer… it was as if… I wasn''t there at all."


    <em>That''s because it was only a vision. Just a memory of the past, nothing more. But ria said it herself - there were no wars in her time… so why was she seeing these scenes, rted to her mother?</em>


    <em>In any case… this must be hard on her. Even though it''s just a vision - a dream - calling out to your beloved mother and not being responded to had to be painful… especially since you''ve already lost her once. I knew that feeling all too well.</em>


    "ria…" the girls murmured worriedly.


    "Could it be… the Golden Phoenix Bloodline…?" Obsidia muttered, almost inaudibly. But I caught it.


    "The Golden Phoenix Bloodline? What''s that?" I asked, turning everyone''s attention towards Obsidia. Her eyes widened a bit, and she bit her lip.


    "… I do not know much about it, myself, but… the Golden Phoenix Bloodline could be considered to be the ''royalty'' of phoenixes, passed down from generation to generation. They are the most powerful among the race, and are worshipped as leaders. While dragons and phoenixes are on equal footing, it would take multiple Elder Dragons together to take on the Golden Phoenix of any given generation."


    I frowned. "So what makes you say ria is the descendant of the Golden Phoenix Bloodline?"


    "I heard from my seniors back in the tribe… Golden Phoenixes are rumored to receive visions of their past generation. These appear suddenly and unpredictably. If the phoenix is able to grasp the meanings of these shbacks, then their power will be increased by a lot. At least… that is what they said."


    "Grasp the meaning…" ria tightened her fists, a look of determination in her eyes.


    "That is all I know. I am not a phoenix myself, after all," Obsidia said, before walking away into the bathroom. "I will shower first."


    "The Golden Phoenix Bloodline, huh?" Xiang Peng murmured.


    "You know more about it?" Lan Xiao Su asked.


    She shook her head, "No, but I have heard of it. It is said that once, a long time ago, a Golden Phoenix wiped out half the in a rampage."


    "N-Nya, you''re kwidding, right? H-Half the ply?!" Amane eximed in shock, then looked at ria with fear.


    I chuckled and patted ria''s head. "Don''t worry, Amane… even if our phoenix here turns that powerful, she won''t be able to break the naturalws of Magic Beasts. She signed a lifetime contract with me, so as long as I''m still alive, she cannot go against my orders."


    "Grr…" she growled at me, but didn''t make a move to pry my hands off. An improvement, I suppose.


    "Is that all, ria?"


    She nodded slowly, remaining silent.


    I sighed. "Alright. The hibernation was worth it, it seems. And if you really are this Golden Phoenix Bloodline or whatever…"


    "I know, I know… I''ll grasp the meaning to be more powerful. That way, you can use me better, right?"


    I blinked.


    "No."


    "… Huh?"


    "I was actually going to say… if it''s too hard for you to look at those visions with your mother in them… then don''t do it at all."


    "But… the meaning…"


    "So what? I would rather have a healthy, happy phoenix over a powerful, mentally broken one. I don''t care if you don''t grasp the meaning or whatever. As long as don''t force yourself."


    "Master…"


    "Go take a shower already," I rolled my eyes. "You haven''t done that in… what, two weeks now, right?"


    "W-Wah! Are you saying I smell?!" she eximed, shaking my shoulders back and forth.


    "N-No, I''m just saying, even Magic Beasts need cleaning, right? Hey, Obsidia, righ- oh wait, she''s showering… hey, let me go!"


    She never did.


    *****


    The next morning, we all set out to the IMF branch Xiang Peng had mentionedst night. We decided not to do any training and just rx, take it easy, since overworking yourself wasn''t good considering we had a tournamenting up tomorrow.


    "Here it is," Xiang Peng smirked as we arrived before a decently-tall building that looked quite aesthetically-pleasing.


    "This is… smaller than I expected for an IMF building," Feng Mian mused, ncing up.


    "Well, the IMF isn''t extravagant in everything they do," Xiang Pengughed. "C''mon. Let''s head in."


    We followed her inside, where plenty of people were waiting in line behind receptionists. We found the shortest one and waited patiently.


    Ten minutester, it was our turn.


    "Good morning," the receptionist said with a bright smile. "How may I help you today?


    "We''re… looking to get our Awakening Tests done," I said, unsure if that''s what they were called. "We ranked up to Intermediate Mage a while ago, but never got the chance to do it due to… certain circumstances."


    "Ah, okay, no problem. I just need your Mage IDs…"


    The process waspleted in a few minutes. She handed Feng Mian, Yu An Yan, Yu An Xue, Qing Yue, and I an Awakening Stone each, contained within small ss cubes.


    "Because of the high amount of traffic going in and out… the wait-list for a proper Awakening test is long," the receptionist exined. "Therefore, we have adapted this method instead, just giving out Awakening Stones to people. The chance of sess is lowered due to inadequate equipment and environment for some people, but… we apologize for the inconvenience. If you wish to wait for your turn for a proper test, though, I can arrange that for you as well."


    I shook my head. "No need. Thank you."


    "You''re very wee. Have a good day, ande again."


    We said our farewells and exited the building. The wait-list being long may be a bad thing for most people, but to us, this was actually a blessing in disguise. By giving us Awakening Stones directly, we could transfer them however we wanted among us. I, for example, already had ess to all 21 elements, so I didn''t need to use one, and could instead give it to someone else. Mei Gui was in the same situation.


    I took a deep breath.


    "For now, let''s head on back to the hotel room and use these."


    The girls nodded, and we made our way back to the hotel.