A pair of greyish-blue eyes opened, and the brows of the beautiful face they belonged to furrowed.
Rouxi shot up on the wooden bed in panic, but then, when she looked on the other side of the room, she found Fefei still fast asleep on it.
Yesterday was a nightmare for the two of them, and she could only imagine how much harder it was for Feifei, who, unlike her, could feel the cold.
It had taken them half an hour to realise that they would have to use their Aura and coat their limbs if they wanted to climb that slope, and it was the most physically challenging thing that they had done in their lives.
They had to stop thirteen times to recover their Aura using the One-Fold Heart Pulse technique that Keith had taught them a few days ago, and it took them an entire day to finally reach the summit.
Feifei, who was on the verge of exhaustion could not even move after they reached the summit, and she had to pick her up and bring her inside the wooden cabin she saw a little far away from where they stood.
There was food waiting for them inside it, and two wooden beds with no mattresses. And to her relief, there was even a chimney, where a beautiful golden flame was burning.
Feifei had never before felt so grateful for the warmth in her life as she did in that moment, and after eating as much as they could, they both got into beds and fell asleep.
Strangely enough, despite being made of wood, the beds were comfortingly soft, and given how fresh she felt right now, it was, perhaps, the best sleep of her life.
"Good morning." She heard a familiar voice, and when she looked in its direction, she saw Keith closing a book and making it disappear before he stood up for the study table, and then he turned to smile at her. "You did well yesterday."
"You left us to die there." She smiled at him, rare for her to poke fun, but she just could not help the remark.
"I was always watching."
"Really?" She sceptically asked, and Keith walked over to her and drew his hand to her.
She did not know what he wanted, but she placed her hand in his and then followed him out of the room.
Rouxi became a little conscious when he suddenly picked her up in a princess-carry as soon as they arrived outside.
A blush bloomed on her cheeks when he suddenly leaned in and planted a kiss on her forehead, and before she could react or say something, he moved, and he moved up in the air.
He was constantly stepping on something mid-air as he kept taking her higher and higher into the sky, and a few minutes later, Rouxi was looking down at the most breathtaking scene of her life, standing on an invisible platform with him.
They were thousands of metres up in the air, and the aerial view gave her the idea of how truly beautiful this mystical world was. It was just unreal.
"I was doing my own training up here and having some fun." He told her, and she subconsciously looked down at the mountain that they had ascended yesterday. She could even make out their cottage from this height, which appeared no bigger than a dot. "Have you ever sky-dived, Rou?"
As soon as she heard her question, her heart thumped hard against her chest as she understood what was going to happen next.
She subconsciously locked her hand and fingers with his before she shook her head and just as she had feared, the platform under their feet suddenly disappeared.
"Create a film with aura to protect your eyes." She heard him say, and she subconsciously did as was told.
Now that the air could no longer hurt her eyes, she truly enjoyed the moment as they headed to the ground at a very fast speed.
All traces of fear left her heart, replaced only by euphoria, and a bright smile crept on her lips before she glanced at him.
She knew that nothing would happen to her because he was by her side, and their hands were still locked, which helped a lot in making her feel safer.
However, she did become a little tense when they were only a few hundred metres from the ground, and it was then that she felt an invisible force slowing down their fall.
Rouxi was in shock when their feet landed on the ground as lightly as feathers, and she immediately met Keith's rise.
"Can we do it again? Please?" For the first time in her life, she acted on her child-like impulses, something she had never done in front of her father either.
"Of course," And when Keith readily agreed, she immediately stepped forward and hugged him.
"Let's go!" She said, and he laughed as he picked her up and once again rushed up into the sky.
And Rouxi did not seem to have gotten enough of the thrill as she requested him for another dive over and over again.
When Feifei finally woke up, she confusedly searched around the cottage, and even checked outside but found no trace of her best friend.
"Aaaahhhhhhh!!!"
And just when she was about to call her name loudly, she heard an excited cry, and following it, she looked up into the sky.
Her eyes widened as she saw two figures falling at a break-neck speed, and her heart nearly jumped to her throat when she thought they were going to crash.
However, to her disbelief, both Rouxi and Keith slowed down in midair, and they landed on the snow-covered ground as lightly as it was possible.
She looked at the excitement on her best friend's face, a little shocked at the child-like smile that she was wearing, but then she just stepped forward and tightly hugged her.
"Good morning!" Keith greeted her.
"I am not talking to you! You are cruel." She voiced the dissatisfaction in her heart and felt more irritated when she heard Rouxi giggle.
"Have you noticed any improvements in your Aura?"
The question made her frown, and she finally paid attention to the changes. She was a little surprised at the increase in the quantity of her Aura, and she did feel a lot better than she did yesterday.
"Yes..." She nodded her head in amazement.
"Aerzar is a little special and it is much more abundant in Aura and Mana compared to Gaia. You can improve your Cultivation much faster here." Keith smiled at her and then stepped forward to lift her chin, and then he kissed her.
Feifei subconsciously clutched his shirt as she tip-toed and lost herself to his taste, and just like that, all her dissatisfaction faded away.
It was cruel how just a kiss from him would make her forget that she was mad at him, but Feifei did not care.
She excitedly looked at him when they separated.
"I want to try it too!" She told him, and he simply agreed to her request as he wrapped his arms around their waists and then took them both up in the sky.
Both Keith and Rouxi laughed when they found Feifei transfixed at the beauty of this world.
"How big is this place?" She asked in wonderment.
"As big as Gaia, if not bigger." He mysteriously said, and they both gaped at his words.
"You are kidding, right?"
"No." He shook his head.
"It will take us decades to explore this place!" Feifei complained, and he laughed at her words.
"It will keep growing bigger actually. So, it might even take hundreds if not thousands of years to explore all of it."
"How can a world keep growing bigger?" The girl looked at him in disbelief.
"By evolving." He smiled. "Ready?"
The question tensed her, and then a cry escaped her lungs when she found herself free-falling to the ground.
"Protect your eyes with your aura." He told her, and Feifei finally opened her eyes and looked down as she raced to the ground.
It took her a good few seconds to truly start enjoying the experience, and then her cries were no longer in fear, but in excitement.
After a dozen more dives, Keith finally called a stop to it. And then he made them eat a light breakfast.
"What are we doing today?" Feifei excitedly asked.
"You are climbing up the slope again." He told them, and they both froze at his words.
"No..."
"Yes." He smiled. "There is no room for negotiations. You will do as I say if you want to be trained by me."
"You are cruel!" Feifei accused him, looking quite angry, and then just pouted when he looked into her eyes.
"I know. Let's go." He said and they both hesitantly followed him to the edge they were going to ski down from.
"Keith."
"Yes?" He looked at Rouxi when she called out his name.
"Where is Eira?" The Child of Destiny curiously asked.
"She's at the Palace with Qingyue." He informed them, and they both raised their brows at his words.
"You have a palace here?" Feifie narrowed her eyes.
"Yes."
"And you are making us sleep in a cabin here?" She teasingly complained.
"You mind it?" He smiled back at her.
"Yes!"
"Too bad. I don't care." He grinned at her before he pushed them both off the cliff. "You will keep doing this exercise until you can return to the cabin in under 12 hours." He told them, much to their horror, and then he started walking towards the field behind the cabin.
He took out his training sword and started on his own practice, but kept a watch on two of them through his sense of hearing, which was heightened even further when he was inside Aerzar.
A smile crossed his face when Feifei hurled several curses at him and complained to Rouxi about his cruelty. It was all in a playful manner, and the two girls were joking around today as they started climbing the slope.
However, making it back to the summit in under 12 hours was not possible for them given their current Cultivation Realm. They were going to have to work much harder in the coming few days.