Even a man like him had faced so many monts where he could barely hang on, so many tis he wanted to give up... He stood there in a daze, looking at the calm and composed Paige Sumrs across from him. ’I should have known all along,’ he thought, ’just how incredibly strong-willed this woman is!’
For every training thod he proposed along the way, she always did more and pushed herself harder than any of the other team mbers. While they were groaning in misery and on the verge of collapse, she would carry on with a smile, not even batting an eye. And in every battle, she was always the first to charge into the fray...
A dejected look unwittingly crept into his eyes.
’A woman like her... am I even worthy of her?’
He stood rooted to the spot, lost in thought, the joy he’d felt just monts before at the prospect of eting a master who had reached the Innate Realm completely forgotten.
The man from the inner room strolled out. He gave Paige Sumrs a single glance and shook his head with regret. His interest, instead, was captured by Zephyr rcer, whose eyes were vacant and unfocused.
"You, co with ."
He patted Zephyr rcer on the shoulder, snapping him out of his reverie. Zephyr quickly offered a respectful bow, and the man gestured for him to follow, leading him into the inner room.
When Paige Sumrs opened her eyes, her heart was filled with joy.
A superpower promotion was its own reward. It was like studying hard for an entire sester and acing the final exams to move up to the next grade—the ultimate validation of her hard work. And this was no ordinary academic pursuit; it was a matter of life and death.
She smiled at Ben, who was watching over her. "Thank you. I feel safe with you here." Ben couldn’t speak or make complex facial expressions like a normal human, but he trusted and depended on her more than anyone else—unconditionally. Paige had always treated him as an equal, returning his trust and reliance in kind.
Ben clearly enjoyed this sort of interaction. He arched his brows and his eyes curved slightly in her direction. The action was quite difficult for him, as his facial muscles were still rather stiff, but it was more than enough to show that he was very happy.
Paige Sumrs stood in the main room. She knew Zephyr rcer and the man were inside the other room; their breathing was steady, and though there were no voices, she had the good sense not to disturb them. She began searching her mories again, looking for any trace of that voice.
Before her search yielded any results, there was a stir from the inner room, and soon the two n walked out, one after the other.
The man in the lead was the master planter.
The mont she saw his face, Paige Sumrs’s expression froze!
The face wasn’t one she personally recognized, yet it was seared deep into her mory—a mory that belonged not to her, but to this body’s previous owner.
In the mind of that girl, he was, after her father and grandfather, the person who had treated her best—the one she was closest to and trusted the most. And in the mories she had reviewed, the man with this face had indeed lived up to that trust, saving her life at a mont of peril, at the cost of his own!
Even so, the body’s previous owner had still fallen from a cliff, while he had died a violent death on the spot.
Hugo Perry... While saving her, his abdon had been pierced clean through, his organs spilling onto the ground. Not even a Superpower User specializing in healing could possibly have brought him back from that!
And yet, the man standing before her now was unmistakably him, though his entire deanor seed completely different.
’Resurrection?’
All the information flashed through Paige Sumrs’s mind. The original Hugo Perry was rely a low-level superpower user who had been dood to die. Yet now, after nearly two years, he was not only alive upon their reunion but was very likely a Cultivator.
It made no sense.
’Unless... he’s a transmigrator, too!’
The theory clicked into place in Paige Sumrs’s mind. Her eyes, which had been frozen wide, darted back to life. She rushed forward, her face a mask of joyous surprise. "Big Brother Perry! You’re alive!"
"You two know each other?"
"Who are you?"
The two questions were asked at almost the sa ti.
The man frowned. Zephyr rcer couldn’t help but look back and forth between them and repeat, "Paige Sumrs, you know Mr. Rhodes?"
’So his surna is Rhodes...’ Paige Sumrs thought, but her face showed only confusion. "Mr. Rhodes? No, no, that’s Hugo Perry! Big Brother Perry! We grew up together, of course I know him!"
"Huh?!"
Zephyr rcer was utterly astonished, but the other man’s body went rigid.
Paige Sumrs didn’t miss his reaction and breathed a sigh of relief. ’Good, so he’s not so cunning as to be flawless.’ Dropping her feigned expression, she fixed her eyes on him and said to Zephyr rcer, "Could you please step outside and wait for a mont? I have a few things I’d like to say to Big... Brother... Perry."
Soon, only the two of them remained in the main room, with Ben perceptively standing guard at the door.
Paige Sumrs didn’t bother beating around the bush. She spoke bluntly, "I know you’re not Hugo Perry. So, let’s hear it. What’s your na, and where did you transmigrate from?"
A flicker of emotion crossed the man’s indifferent eyes. He paused for a long mont before saying, "I am indeed not the person you know. I co from under the banner of the Mount Longpeak Sect in Aethelgard. When my Primordial Spirit arrived in this plane, he had just breathed his last. I, Rhonda Rhodes, do not stoop to acts of possession. I am rely borrowing his body."
’Just as I thought...’ Paige Sumrs sized the man up and down. She didn’t think he was lying.
For one, there was no reason for him to lie. For another, the man’s entire bearing was otherworldly. The original Hugo Perry had been good-looking enough, but with this new aura, even a set of ordinary clothes on him seed like the robes of a transcendent master. ’That makes sense,’ she thought. ’Mount Longpeak and the like... it sounds like a Cultivation Sect. Don’t those people dedicate their lives to the pursuit of immortality? It’s natural they wouldn’t care for worldly matters, so it’s not surprising they can produce soone with the bearing of an Immortal.’
Under her sharp gaze, Rhonda Rhodes remained perfectly calm, showing no sign of discomfort. He projected an air that said, ’Stare all you want.’ When she had finally looked her fill, he spoke in a leisurely tone. "You... you are not from Aethelgard, I presu."
Paige Sumrs nodded, unwilling to elaborate on the era she ca from. "That’s right. There are no Cultivators where I’m from."
Rhonda Rhodes’s eyebrow twitched. "And yet, you know the term ’Cultivation’."
"I read about it in novels. Or, I suppose you might call them storybooks where you’re from?"
Rhonda Rhodes clearly understood her aning and didn’t press the issue. Instead, he said bluntly, "Very well. Now that we have a clear understanding, there’s no need to feign familiarity. Why did you seek out? For the sake of our past connection, I will help if I can. If not, you may take your leave."
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