The Messenger of Death

A good 10 months had gone by since the tragic events that went down in the Severance academy happened. The people of the Western continent dubbed that day as the day of Ascent and Descent. They called it that because of the casualties count and other factors.

It was dubbed a day of ascent because of the number of good people that were killed on that day. Mother, children, fathers, none were spared. They believed that these people had ascended to Heaven. And it was called a day of descent because the most notorious syndicate of criminals on the Western continent perished that day, so did the Class-3 Ancient bloodline-bearing family that had been supporting the syndicate.

This day became a day of grieving, but also, a day to celebrate.

The Western continent became more peaceful with the disappearance of these tumors that had been causing them to fear for their safety. Also, the news of old man Fang ascending to the Ordain plain realm spread through the entire Lower plain realm.

Being one of the strongest that used to roam the Lower plain realm, a lot of people came to the Severance academy not only to pay their respects to the dearly deceased but also to congratulate the people of the Severance academy.

Some people even believed that old man Fang passed away during the invasion of the criminal syndicate, but that rumor had been repeatedly rebutted by facts that people presented. This rumor kept on resurfacing until the people instigating it disappeared one evening.

Nobody knew what had happened to them, nobody but the people involved. The culprit of this was no other than Xiao En. She convinced Tsukishima into doing this for her.

Xiao En hated that people were saying that her grandfather had died that day and after a while, she couldn't sit still and let others soil his name and reputation. So she made a deal with Tsukishima, telling him that she would return to cultivating if he did this for her.

Tsukishima saw no reason not to help her with this, especially if it will get her back to cultivating, he would do it two times over if he was required to…

  Bram and Sakura successfully escaped from Amir, returning to the Ordain plain realm before Amir caught up with Bram. The Finals of the Continental competition was postponed till further notice, however, they announced that it was going to be held in the Central continent of the Lower plain realm.

During these 10 months, a lot of unexpected things happened in the Lower plain realm. Old man Fang wasn't the only one to ascend to the Ordain plain realm, a lot of old cultivators that had been stuck at the peak of the spirit Condensing realm suddenly had an awakening and broke through to the Spirit Awakening realm before ascending to the Ordain plain realm too.

Many people then ascended to the Ordain plain realm. This incited excitement in the minds of many cultivators, encouraging them to cultivate harder. Most of them thought it was Heaven's compensating the people of the Lower plain realm for the losses that they incurred that day in the Severance academy.

Some people thought that the people that thought like this were naïve, the Heavens didn't need to compensate for any being underneath it. To a skeptical few, they thought that it was just a season of spring for cultivators. Like the way flowers have a specific time to bloom, it was time for the cultivators of the Lower plain realm to bloom.

But one point that all of them agreed on is that this season of 'spring' wouldn't last long. So everyone that wishes to ascend will have to do it before it passes them.

As auspicious as everything played out, they were all right about one thing, this was Heaven's doing. But this was not the Heaven's trying to compensate for anything, instead, it was to put a grand plan in motion. A plan to eliminate that which was not meant to be…

Argus, being the former Vice-principal of the Severance academy was made the principal. None of the staff in the academy could refute or object to this.

With Argus as the head now, they put every class and school activity on hold for about 4 months, in the name of reconstructing the academy and tightening its security so that nothing of the sort would happen in the history of the Severance academy again.

Alexander and his teammates spent this holiday in the Avanti mansion. They bonded a lot, sharing their secrets and fears with each other. However, Alex didn't do much of that, he only told them an abridged version of how his first love died in his arms.

After enjoying the little holiday that they got, Alex went for more training under Nana, and he found a way to convince Nana to train his teammates for a bit too. Although Nana didn't want to waste her time doing that, after she noticed the peculiarities of the Seraphim team's abilities, her curiosity made her do it, but only for a short time.

The Seraphim team members were all scared to the core when they were training under her, they all wondered how Alex hadn't died after going through her training. Nana forced results out of them regardless of their opinions. It was like she was doing it for herself and not for them.

Nonetheless, the battle strength of everyone in the Seraphim team has increased exponentially, even though there wasn't much change to their cultivation ranks. Nana's training solidified their foundations to the limits…

…

In the underground bunker's training ground, the Seraphim were currently undergoing training with Nana.

"Ahh!! No more! No more, please!" Drake cried in exhaustion as tears gushed out of his eyes. Drake slumped to the ground weakly

"Stop being a bitch, Drake!" Katherine complained too as she too had tears gushing out of her eyes. She then fell on top of Drake's stomach.

"Ough!" Drake exclaimed before foam began forming in his mouth as he passed out.

-Pat! Pat! Pat!

"Ah! Wake up! I'm not even that heavy, why will you pass out and leave me to suffer this alone!! Wake up!" Katherine complained while slapping Drake's face as hard as she could.

By the corner of the training ground, Nana watched Drake and Katherine misbehave with an expression of disgust on her face. Alex and Adrian were standing close to her and noticed the expression on her face.

Alex chuckled but quickly covered it up with a realistic coughing fit. Adrian did better by only smiling at this.

"I have been training these idiots for over 5 months now and I still feel disgusted by their relationship," Nana uttered as she sucked her teeth.

"They are not dating… yet," Alex said from the side. He acted as if he was talking to the metal ceiling. Nana had just given him a little break to rest so he didn't want to cut his break short by making unnecessary comments.

"Even more disgusting, how are they not together when they are equally repulsive to me," Nana responded.

Alex wanted to speak but quickly decided against it. Since this joint training started, he had been the one to suffer the most. Even after the damage that had been done to his foundations by the last Midas petal he consumed bad healed, Nana didn't let him hear the end of it.

She kept on saying that his foundation wasn't solid enough. Even more weirdly, it was as if Nana could read his mind these days.

['I need to find a way to escape this training, this woman might kill me if I remain here. Al, this is your fault.'] Alex complained.

['Oh, really? I didn't know that I was the one that caused this. Besides, we all take turns going through the training with Nana so stop complaining like a bitch on her period. And if you try to run away and you get caught… well it is your funeral.'] Al replied boorishly.

"Alexander," Nana called.

"I swear I wasn't thinking about escaping training," Alex immediately blurted out.

"Shut up boy, who asked you about that? Try running away and see if I don't break those toothpicks you call legs into two." Nana snapped at him.

"I dare not ma'am, Nana, I mean Master." Alex gulped his saliva down. He immediately erased the thought of running away because he knew that Nana could definitely do that to him.

"You better not," Nana said. 'Ugh, he looks so adorable when he's frightened.' Nana thought while resisting the urge to smile. She shook this thought away and focused on what she initially wanted to ask.

"I've been wanting to ask, why did you beg me to train your teammates alongside you? Now I understand that they have special abilities…" Nana involuntarily glanced at Katherine who was still slapping Drake's face.  "Well, at least most of them, but that's not enough for you to continue to insist on this. So why?"

"Well, I thought it was obvious to you that's why I didn't say anything all this while." Alex scratched the back of his neck a bit, looking away from Nana's eyes.. "I want to take them to the next location of the Midas petal," Alex revealed.