Tap. Tap. Tap.

The wooden floor creaked as two individuals stepped on it and made their way down to the Inn's cafeteria.

One of the two was an almost two meter tall man while the other was a petite blonde-haired lady with shoulder length hair, donning a pair of formal black trousers, and white blouse. Her head barely managed to reach the man's chest even after wearing two inch tall heels.

Fei's footsteps came to a halt just before the steps leading to the ground floor.

"Master," she said.

"Hm?" Lith halted and turned around.

Fei took a step close to him and sniffed around his chest area, making Lith raise an eyebrow in amusement.

"As I thought" Fei commented after backing off.

She craned her head up to look right into Lith's eyes.

"You're severely lacking in the Dark and Time elemental laws. No, there's Lightning, Life, Death, and Water too."

"Huh?"

Lith was confused.

"Master, this won't do." Fei shook her head. "You must be balanced in all twelve elements and not focus or overuse one or two of them."

The little petite lady in front could sniff out what elemental laws he's lacking. Now this was news to him.

Before answering Fei, Lith called out in his mind:

'Elemental laws status.'

+

[Elemental Laws Progress]

Cultivation: King Rank

Fire: 51%

Water: 2%

Earth: 19%

Wind: 44%

Lightning: 9%

Life: 0.2%

Light: 27%

Dark: 0.04%

Death: 0.007%

Destruction: 56%

Space: 68.99%

Time: 3%

+

Lith facepalmed noticing the numbers.

These progress numbers would reset and go back to zero with each ascension. They had to be at a hundred percent if he wanted to ascend.

Whatever Fei had stated wasn't wrong. Light, Dark, Death the numbers were below one it was so painful to look at.

'Shit, I really have neglected them, haven't I?'

He had only recently become a King Rank, and being cooped up in the castle, there weren't many opportunities to use all the elemental laws.

That's what Lith wanted to think to himself and convince himself that it was okay to have neglected things.

'Tch. If I was in the castle, I could've sparred with the maidservants and progressed by at least 15-20% in all elemental laws.'

Understanding the laws required one to go out and adventure. There was a limit to how much one could comprehend those while sparring.

Only battle maniacs like Lucy or Alexandra could grow to the max via sparring, but they had their limits too. It was for this reason that Lucy had to venture out to the herb world while Alexandra was still adventuring.

Not only them, most of the wifeys had gone to unknown places for their ascension, and Lith had a feeling that even Alea and his aunt Agalea weren't sitting still.

'But oh well, there's no rush.'

Time was a constraint. Even if Lith had a vast understanding of the elemental laws, without a powerful soul and body, trying to ascend was asking to be killed.

The soul and body grew naturally with time. If external sources were used to strengthen them, the foundation may become weak and crumble in the far future.

Hence, people did not try to strengthen themselves via potions or pills or artifacts.

Lith's body could be said to be on the far superior side as compared to his peers. Going to Dushkarbor's world made it peerless, but the thing about soul still remained.

Watching her Master be in daze, Fei waved her hand in front of Lith's face.

"Master? Are you listening?"

Lith was back to reality and watched Fei's small hand waving in front of his face.

"You're right." Lith said after grabbing Fei's hand and pulling her close in his embrace.

There was no reaction from Fei due to such a gesture. She was used to it by now.

Wrapping his arm around her waist, Lith continued, "I am lacking in a few places. Maybe I should train."

Fei nodded. "Yes. Master must at least close the vast gap between each element. I can barely smell Death and Dark elements from you."

Lith raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you develop such a sense of smell?"

"I had it from the start. Never had any use of it until now."

'Yikes. That doesn't feel good to hear. It seems the lack of elemental energies is too glaring.' Lith smiled and shook his head. "Let's go train then. We have a week."

"We?" Fei tilted her head in confusion.

"Do you not want to come?"

"No, no. I am wondering how I could help Master train. I don't have any elemental affinity except Time, Earth, and Dark." Fei spread her hands out and said.

Fei was already peerless for having three elemental affinities. The members of her bloodline did not have any affinity other than Time. They were destined to be Time Path experts from birth.

Still, even though she had three elemental affinities, it did not account for much when compared to the rest of the people of this world, let alone her Master, who had an all elemental affinity.

Lith rubbed her head and said with a smile, "You don't need a lot of elemental affinities to train. You're quite strong as is, that's what is required. Now go ask Meryl to take care of Liz and Sylvia to be around aunt. We'll leave in a few minutes."

Lith let her go and slapped her small butt, gesturing her to hurry.

Fei left the place and Lith went down to the cafeteria to have some tea.

The Druid Meryl was comfortable around people with no kill streak. Liz was as clean as a blank sheet of paper and pure too. The two could become best of friends if they hung out.

Putting them in each other's care wasn't on Lith's agenda, but since Fei was going to be with him, the situation seemed perfect. As for Sylvia being with his aunt, it was so that she could drink freely while he was away.

The quest she gave was ongoing. The infighting may have stopped but the Giants haven't submitted to her yet.

Lith had a cup of tea in the cafeteria and planned a bit for the upcoming few years. The schedule was tight, to the point where he couldn't even fool around.

Not only did he have to take care of the world's politics but also reward Luna when she comes back, then meet all his wives and spend time with them, then leave for the Sacred Celestial Realm, and attend the banquet.

Lith forgot the name of the banquet since it was too long. Was it celestial banquet? Sacred banquet? He couldn't recall since he didn't pay attention at that time.

While all of this were the main things to do, there was also one important thing left.

The old man of Zhongxuan City. He was the reason why Lith went on a two hundred year long cooking journey and became a master chef.

Lith was supposed to cook better than that old man. That was the challenge given to him.

It wouldn't take long and was at best a few hours of work.

'Hmm maybe I should do it right now and finish with it?'

'Should I go or should I send Dennis instead? He was the one that initiated all of this after all.'

After pondering over it, Lith decisively chose to go on his own.

He was the one that gave the old man his word. And since the old man didn't know that not only him, but Dennis, Ralph, and even Miwa were at the pinnacle of culinary in this world, he was definitely in for a surprise.

'I'll go right away and finish the challenge. I will be too busy later on.'

Lith quietly sipped on tea, and left the Inn once Fei returned after finishing her business.

..

Before the mist-covered fantastical immortal mountain ranges began, there stood a mountain housing the last land of mortals in the Human Continent.

A city lay along its slope and this was the gateway to the immortal lands. A place where no mortal should even dare to peek.

This city was the Zhongxuan City, where Lith was currently walking around with Fei.

"Master, why are we here? Weren't we supposed to train?" Fei asked while looking around the ancient palaces and buildings in Zhongxuan.

"I've got some business to finish." Lith said as he took Fei to the old man's restaurant.

The restaurant was as ordinary as it could get and totally resembled an old Chinese restaurant from Earth.

Nobody would look at it and think that this place served the world's best human cuisine. The prices wouldn't cost an arm and leg wither.

Lith walked up to the cashier, who was still busy counting money and taking orders, and asked, "Where's your old man?"

"There is no old man here, sir. Please leave if you don't have anything to order." The boy didn't even bat an eye to Lith.

Fei knitted her brows at this. The disrespect this boy was showing

Lith put his hand in front of Fei and stopped her from making any unnecessary movements. He wasn't displeased by the boy. It was a small fry, at the end of the day, who only loved money.

Lith tossed him an amethyst coin, and as expected, the boy's expression brightened up immediately.

"Might I ask which old man you are looking for, good sir?"

A complete change in attitude. Lith wasn't surprised by this.

"The owner of this place. Where is he?"

"Oh, him! Please come with me!" The boy said cheerfully and took Lith to the old man.

While on their way, Lith signaled Fei to keep calm and not worry about anything. This place wasn't harmful.

Fei wasn't worried about someone physically hurting Lith. She was concerned about the disrespect happening.

In any case, she stopped herself from making a move since they were direct orders from Lith.

Going behind the restaurant and walking into a familiar courtyard, Lith saw the old man sitting on a flat rock, meditating.

Looking at him, Lith smiled internally and thought, 'You took advantage of our pride last time. I'll take advantage of your tastes this time. Heh. Let's see if you'll survive this, old man'