The entire team was dumbfounded by what they were seeing. They saw the most beautiful flower they'd ever seen land in front of them, bringing along their teammate, which they thought was dead.
Lena was the first to approach the flower and Adonis, quickly followed by Mila. Lena first checked on Adonis to see if he was okay.
"Adonis!! Hey! Are you okay?!"
Lena checked Adonis's body, which by the way, was completely naked. She looked to see if there were any wounds or something else on his body. Mila knew Lena was looking after Adonis, so she checked the flower to see if the flower was what she thought it was.
Looking at the beautiful flower and its myriad colors, but most importantly, the golden center of it. "Thi-This has to be the Horizon Flower! The golden center is a special characteristic of the flower!!"
Juniper and Barrett joined the group, Juniper checked on Adonis and Barrett looked at the flower. "Are you sure Mila?! That this is the Horizon Flower!!"
"It has to be! It looks a bit unnatural with the colors, but I swear it's the Horizon Flower!"
Mila and Barrett were bewildered, especially by the fact that Adonis came with the flower. Many questions passed through their head but Mila knows that first, they should get some rest. She also noticed that was Adonis naked, so she covered him with some spare robes she brought.
Mila carefully takes the Horizon Flower from Adonis and put it in her spatial bag, while Barrett carried the unconscious Adonis to the city.
They arrive and go to a good hotel nearby, when they get there the first thing the receptionist said was "Is the boy ok?" They say that he's ok and is just tired from the mission they went on. They bought 2 rooms and Barrett was assigned to look over Adonis. They all got into their rooms and prepared for a long-needed rest.
.
.
.
Adonis woke up and was blinded by the morning sun.
"Uhh...what the...?"
"Adonis?"
Adonis heard a voice and when he turned his head to the person calling his name, he saw a beautiful elf-like girl.
"Lena? Where am I?"
"You're in a hotel we decided to stay at after the mission."
"Oh...where are the others?"
"The girls are still in their room and Barrett went to go get breakfast."
"Cool..."
"...Hey Adonis?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay? Like, you're not in pain or feel weird right?"
"Yeah...I just feel groggy that's all."
"Ok, that's good."
"..."
"..."
"Lena."
"Yeah?"
"How did I get here?"
"Well, you fell from the sky."
"What?"
"We saw something flying in the air and realized it was getting closer to us. When it did land in front of us, imagine our surprise when it turns out to be the Horizon Flower and who we thought to be our dead teammate."
"..." Adonis was shocked and took a few seconds to process what he heard.
"...Really?!"
"Yeah, now time for my question. What the hell happened to you in that cave?!"
"Oh, well-" Adonis was going to say it before someone came barging into the room.
"Adonis!"
"Wha-Ahh!" Juniper proceeded to jump on Adonis.
"Thank god you're okay," Juniper said while on top of Adonis.
"Y-yeah, I'm glad I'm ok too." Adonis looked at Juniper on top of him and internally told himself that he really liked this position.
"Get off him already. The last thing he needs is you jumping on him." Mila said as she pinched Juniper's cheek.
"Ahh! Ok, ok! I'll get off; just let go already!"
"Good. Now, Adonis, what exactly happened to you?" Mila said seriously and calmly.
"Ok, here's what happened..."
Adonis told them the whole story of what happened, he obviously left out some parts that he wanted to keep secret (Anima, soul domain, evolution of his techniques, and his Demon) except for that he told the entire truth. Barrett entered in the middle and Lena caught him up on what happened.
Adonis finished telling them what happened. "And that's the entire thing, so, any questions?"
The team stared at him with nothing but shock in their eyes as if he had grown a second head. Juniper was the first to say something "Yeah, um, how lucky are you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You are telling us that you killed 3 people in the Refinement Stage, fought a Shadow Lion, gained Evolution, proceed to kill said lion, and get the Horizon Flower to bloom which also helped you escape!!"
"Yeah."
"...He's a fucking monster," Barrett said while trying to fully understand everything Adonis said.
"To think that ambush would be able to make so strong so fast," Lena said, still amazed by Adonis.
"Yeah, you can say it was a blessing in disguise," Adonis said happily
"This is really great for you Adonis, but remember to not let your power get to your head." Mila gave Adonis a warning because he doesn't want to see him turn arrogant, unlike many others that have high potential like him.
"Don't worry, if know one thing it would be that."
The four were thinking to themselves about everything that happened during this mission. Adonis was thinking about him in his Evolution state. He thought he had already had a firm grasp of how powerful he could be as he cultivates, but now he had a hint of the true power he could hold. His fire, lightning, ki, and most importantly, his Anima. He felt that if he could at least control Anima as he did during that, he could overcome the gaps between cultivation levels and defeat someone many times stronger than him.
Adonis couldn't help but feel excited, not only by the power he could hold but also by the entire process of getting there. Adonis couldn't help but be excited about the journey that lies before him, to the point of smiling twistingly.
Lena noticed this and asked, "What are smiling about?"
Adonis put his hand over his mouth but he already had everyone's attention again.
"Umm...nothing...I'm just excited that I could be so much stronger." He looks away from the group but his smile doesn't fade away.
The others become a bit nervous again since there is now a chance that Adonis could become a megalomaniac.
"Uhh, alright! How about we all get breakfast and head back to the sect?" Juniper says trying to steer away from the emotions everyone is feeling.
"Juniper's right, now that we have the Horizon Flower our mission is complete and we need to report it to the Sect."
Everyone headed down and ate breakfast at a nearby restaurant, except for Barrett since he already got some. Afterward, they went toward the entrance of the city and prepared to go back.
"Uuuhhh...do we have to go back on foot again?" Juniper complains
"Yeah, after the amount of running and walking we did yesterday, my feet are still tired." Barrett agrees with Juniper
"...Well, I guess we do have some leftover Magic crystals. Fine, we can rent a carriage." Mila decides after everything they have been through, they deserve at least this much.
"Praise the leader!!" Barrett and Juniper yell.
After shutting up the two, Mila rented a nice carriage for them to ride on and go back to the sect. Adonis honestly wanted to see if could use 'Raiju's Leap' or see if his ki made him any faster, but decided to hold on to that for everyone's sake.
The carriage ride was pleasant as they even had cushioned seating. The team talked to each other about different topics that weren't about 'Beast Land Cave' and enjoyed their time until they eventually got back to the sect.