CHAPTER 331: CHAPTER 331: PEACH VALLEY

*TSCISCH!*

Visible ripples could be seen for multiple kilometers as two beings shot in and out of spatial tunnels.

One second, they appeared in one spot, the next second, they were ten kilometers away.

The spatial rifts and tunnels mended themselves as soon as they were formed, closing just before two entities rushed.

This was a mixture of teleportation and spatial tunneling, they interchanged in a while. Coming out of a tunnel before immediately disappearing and appearing in another place.

But before they appeared, another spatial tunnel had formed and they rushed in.

This was the fastest mode of transportation ever known.

The two entities that were traveling using this method were none other than Kael and Katari.

The faint golden fur could be seen at those half seconds where his body was briefly exposed to the world.

To Kael, it felt like he was constantly being plunged into a strange ethereal state. In his vision, the world twisted beyond imagination, he had no words to describe what it looked like.

Everything just twisted and turned into a myriad of colors like a series of advanced televisions that didn’t show anything clearly.

For close to thirty minutes, Kael and Katari continued moving around like this until they finally stopped in front of a river.

Space overlapped and adjusted as one lion and one lioness walked out of the spatial tunnel.

In front of Kael and Katari, a small and calm river flowed ahead of them. The river was curvy like a giant snake, twisting around even though it was going in the same direction.

The place they had arrived at was a bit different from the environment Kael was used to.

This place had more trees than what was usually in the wild plains. It wasn’t a lot like the forest but it was considerably more than what the wild plains had to offer.

Not just regular trees, Kael could see a few trees mixed in that were covered in pink flower blossoms.

These trees were probably what Isaiah meant when he was talking about a place where the trees are pink.

This was the border between the peach valley and the wild plains.

Kael and Katari walked forward, their ears and eyes scanning everywhere for any sign of danger.

The deeper they got, the more of these pink-flowered trees they could see. Soon, the only trees in sight were these trees with pink blossoms.

Kael immediately noticed something, same with Katari.

They both took in deep breaths, feeling the cool air and comfort that had come over their bodies.

Every breath they took made them feel more energized and they became more and more weary.

There was something here, something invisible, something lingering in the atmosphere that was interacting with them without their permission.

"Origin Essence," Kael muttered to Katari.

Chloe had mentioned that she could detect higher levels of Origin Essence in his place when she came here for the first time.

Chloe had lived in heaven and been to a couple of other worlds, she had more experience than Kale when it came to Origin Essence.

If she said that what she felt was Origin Essence, it was probably true.

Indeed, Kael could feel how the origin Essence seemed to make him feel lighter and more comfortable, as though he were a baby entering his mother’s embrace.

His movements were starting to feel less cumbersome, even his breathing felt freer for some reason.

The intelligence of a Spirit and Magus Lion proved useful here as Kael could quickly deduce that what he was feeling was nothing more than a psychological dissonance.

An illusion.

As expected, the feeling was starting to fade away quite fast. He could still sense that something was lingering around in the atmosphere but that feather-like sensation was gone.

This was Origin Essence, Kael recalled what he had learned from the info orb before handing it to N’bayé.

Origin Essence was everywhere, literally. There was no place where Origin Essence did not exist. This was because according to the authors of that info orbs, everything came from Origin Essence as everything was basically just Origin Essence in another form.

It was just like one of the laws of physics from Kael’s past world which stated that energy could neither be created nor destroyed, however, it can exist in different forms.

Solid, liquid, gas, plasma, and possibly space-time, everything was all just energy taking on a different form.

Therefore, energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be converted, transferred, lost, and gained.

That same logic was seemingly also applied to Origin Essence. It could not be created or destroyed, just converted from one form to another.

Basically, everything in existence, including Kael and the powers he had, even his consciousness, came from Origin Essence.

It was a terrifying thought that made Kael suddenly feel infinitely small compared to the cosmos.

Thinking about it too much could cause anyone to entertain nihilistic thoughts.

Origin Essence existed on Eridoria already, just that it existed at a low level in general which was lower than the average according to Chloe.

If Origin Essence were at its standard level across the planet, then the average creature should be comparable to a tier 3 lion.

If that was so, Eridoria would have been filled with a lot more humanoids and would probably look different than how Kael was seeing it now.

This didn’t mean that Origin Essence could be actively absorbed to accelerate evolution, that wasn’t how it worked.

Origin Essence interacted with everything in a mysterious way, acting as a rocket-strapped crutch. It may not be absorbed but its mysterious interaction with everything ensured some interesting effects.

One of which was an increase in evolutionary potential. Origin Essence could be thought of as a very passive catalyst for change of any kind, and the act of evolution was in itself Change.

The stronger an entity became, the more Origin Essence would be unknowingly added to its being, an act of balance. It wasn’t being absorbed, it was just automatically added to make up for the gap that an increase in power level created.

Without Origin Essence, no matter how much evolution a creature went through, it wouldn’t be able to get stronger. It might even get weaker.

It explained why there were so many so-called ’ordinary’ creatures

For the lion civilization and many other powerful civilizations across the universe, Origin Essence was also a power source for their machines.

Things like Magic Shuttles, Arkship, cannons, and Lion Pyramids were powered by Origin Essence.

Although Kael had lived in the Iron Blood Pyramid for a while and had flown the Iron Blood Pyramid, this was the first time that he was ever getting a good sensation of Origin Essence.

As Kael and Katari walked deeper into the Peach Valley, Kael realized that getting this Arkship might not be as easy as he thought.

If this was the amount of Origin Essence in this place, that meant that the average level of any creature in the peach valley should be equivalent to a tier 3 lion.

And if there were tigers, that meant tier 3 and above tigers would be present, guarding the Arkship.

"It’s not theirs to begin with," Kael said to himself.

"Camouflage, be vigilant," He said to Katari beside him.

Katari nodded before erecting a spatial camouflage barrier around the both of them.

Their figures distorted and disappeared from view quickly.

As they went deeper, Kael brought out the semi-transparent screen of the lion system so that he could chat with Chloe and ask her for directions.

***

Kael: Chloe, where are you? I and Katari have arrived at the Peach Valley.

...

There was a pause as Chloe did not respond immediately.

...

Chloe: Oh, you came with Katari?

Kael: Yes, where are you?

Chloe: Wait, which Katari are you talking about?

Kael: How many Kataris do you know?

Chloe: Oh...

Kael’s Where are you?

Chloe: We’re parked west of the valley’s river. Some of our scouts are out already, I’ll send them over to look for you.

Kael: No problem, how is the mapping?

Chloe: That’s what we are currently working on. I’ll show you once you get here...

...

*BAM!*

Kael was suddenly distracted as Katari launched herself from beside him, shooting out of the camouflage field.

The ground beneath them exploded and the nearby trees were tilted the other way.

Kael’s pupils shrank as his mind instantly comprehended what was happening.

With killing intent brimming within her eyes, Katari pounced on a hidden figure hiding behind one of the trees.

Green vines with blue flowers shot up into the sky, attempting to bind Katari. But they were instantly shredded to tiny bits the moment Katari got close.

Two roars resounded within the area, one from Katari and one from the other greenish figure. Katari’s roar was a roar of intimidation, while the roar that came from her victim was due to pain.

Kael got a good look at this creature. Green fur, black stripes, and two deer-like antlers were positioned on his head. The creature had the visible traits of a feline.

He growled fiercely at Katari even though he was being held down and just a few actions away from certain death.

It was a tiger, the second tiger Kael had seen in this world besides Darius.