Two Iron Transcendents were fighting right outside Sumatra's barrier. One hailed from Sumatra while the other was one of the scouts dispatched by another Continent's Transcendent force to discern the strength level of Sumatra's Transcendents.
Currently, five Continents were on the move towards Sumatra, with their level of development being somewhat similar. Thereby, the respective Transcendents were evenly matched.
The two Iron Transcendents had been engaged in a battle for two years already. Unless their respective Transcendent Worlds were destroyed, they won't die. Hence, they fought nonstop.
For respective reasons, both Transcendents had been observing the state of events on Sumatra Continent. But after Root made an appearance, Sumatra Continent displayed the latter for an instant before cutting off all means of observation.
The Transcendents were no longer able to observe anything on Sumatra. As a result, they resumed their fights, which stopped all of a sudden, as the eyes of every Transcendent was harnessed upon Sumatra Continent, exactly above the Kalahatra Desert.
Passing through the opaque barrier that prevented them from seeing the Continent was a human figure, short even by Mammoth Clan's conservative standards, average among Free Humans.
A face displaying childlike innocence, widened eyes taking in the surroundings with excitement, and a body exhibiting the same, like a toddler heading to his favourite amusement park after months of begging his parents.
A thin barrier covered the individual, same as the one protecting Sumatra Continent. As a result, the Transcendents were unable to detect anything from the individual other than his appearance, which was revealed by the barrier.
A cord stretched between the individual and the Continent, serving as a tether. Once the time was up, it would pull the individual back into the continent. And of course, it was Sumatra's power. Unless a Transcendent existed at the region capable of killing a Cosmic Being one-on- one, they could forget being able to damage this tether, much less sever it.
Moreover, even if they managed to do something like that, Sumatra would hold them answerable. So even the scouts from other Continents dared not get close. They didn't have much information about the Transcendents of Sumatra Continent, but Sumatra itself was extremely famous in the Sandbox Universe, especially among the older Mystic Transcendents.
Absurdly Strong!
That was the public opinion regarding Sumatra. And now, every single Scout was rampantly communicating back with their Transcendents through their respective Transcendent Worlds.
Everything the Scouts observed was relayed back to their home. And everyone witnessed the unprecedented situation, one where a cultivator didn't walk out of a Continent, but flew out.
Similar to the Mammoth Clan from two millennia ago, many forces attempted to leave their home Continent in an effort to explore outside and reach other Continents. The majority of them died pitiful deaths. But there were success cases too.
Hence, leaving a continent wasn't anything special. As long as one could reach the border, they could simply walk out. That was all.
But the individual before them was different. He...flew out, which was absurd, incomprehensible even.
Unlike newborn Continents that had yet to establish any defensive means, every decently developed Continent had a method or two to restrict flight for obvious reasons. They didn't want the corruption from beyond the Continent to be carried by beings capable of flight and fall back into the Continent, which would result in devastating consequences.
A Continent as developed as Sumatra out to have plenty of methods. And yes, even if the Hidden Eye was compromised, the barrier covering the continent wouldn't allow anyone to pass through it. So, it was impossible to fly out.
Even a Mystic Transcendent couldn't force itself through this barrier, not to mention a mere cultivator. But what was this? Not only was the individual capable of flying out, but he was also assisted by Sumatra Continent to do so?
"That's absurd..." The Iron Transcendent from another Continent muttered, only to blink once and flinch in shock to see Inala standing before his face. He dwarfed Inala by a large extent. However, even though he couldn't perceive anything other than Inala's appearance, he felt nervous, scared even, feeling as if he was being stared at by a predator, 'Dangerous! He's fucking dangerous!'
"A Pranic Beast from another Continent. That's interesting," Inala muttered as he observed the Iron Transcendent who was approximately thirty kilometres tall, resembling a bull-like entity covered by fish-like gills.
Inala let out a cheerful smile and extended his hand forward, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Inala."
The Royal Zinger-Inala!
Even though the Iron Transcendent was already aware of Inala's existence, being introduced by the latter still generated a formless pressure on his being. 'T-This is someone who can already kill me without entering the Transcendence Stage.'
"I...I am..." The Iron Transcendent quickly regained his bearings, intending to introduce himself when Inala retracted his hand.
"Just kidding, I'm not interested in knowing who you are," Inala scratched the side of his cheek and commented casually, "You're mere prey, hehe."
'This bastard!' Just as the Iron Transcendent felt insulted and raged in response, he was stunned to see that Inala was no longer standing before him. Blinking in confusion once, he turned around and noticed a Bolt of Transcendence moving through the Sandy-Grey Void tunnel and heading towards the Transcendent Worlds.
'This is taking a while.' Inala thought as his figure travelled as a Bolt of Transcendence. It was
a risky mode of travel, since his entire information was transformed into a Bolt of Transcendence. If any individual were to intercept the bolt and absorb even a portion of it, Inala would lose that data permanently from his build.
Even with his upcoming fight against Brangara, he didn't plan on using this method. The only reason he attempted it now was thanks to Sumatra's protection. Even as he travelled as a Bolt of Transcendence, the barrier formed by Sumatra perfectly outlined him.
It was a long tunnel, taking him minutes to travel even at the speed of light, which is what he travelled at as a Bolt of Transcendence, 'Approximately fourteen minutes, that's a long distance indeed.'
It was significantly longer than the distance between the Sun and Earth. 'Then, how are the Bolts of Transcendence unleashed by the Transcendent Worlds almost instantaneous?'
'Is it a power of Sumatra?' He couldn't understand it for the time being, but Inala didn't wrack
his brain for it, 'On Earth, there's a famous quote that a thought can travel the universe in a single second. Maybe it's some aspect of the mind or soul that allows instantaneous communication between a cultivator and their respective force's Transcendent through their cultivation technique.'
By the time he concluded his thoughts, he had arrived at the cluster of Transcendent Worlds hailing from Sumatra.
The Bolt of Transcendence condensed into a Spirit Container, followed by a heart. Inala's body was recreated around it, a perfect transition between matter and energy. Observing his body, Inala noticed that he hadn't sustained any damage from the action. His energy too hadn't been consumed, since Sumatra had assisted him with the process, 'Having a powerful backer is always amazing!'
Transcendent World-Tentacles of Tusk!
Inala had arrived at his destination and stared down at the figure of Mahira Tusk, "You're bigger than I thought."
"Inala..." Mahira Tusk glared up from her Transcendent World and eyed the figure of Inala, "What are you planning? You're not even a Transcendent. It's suicidal to come here..."
"Wow, is that concern I see?" Inala acted like a third-rate thug and made exaggerated facial expressions with accompanying body language, "Now, that's some of the finest horse shit I have ever witnessed."
An ivory tusk sprouted out of Mahira Tusk's Transcendent World and slammed into Inala. However, nothing happened, as Sumatra's barrier solidly protected Inala.
"See, it took you less than a second to attack me," Inala uttered casually and looked around, noticing another Gold Transcendent belonging to the Mammoth Clan, "Is that you, Undrakha? I saw you in Gannala's memories."
"What are you after, Inala?" Mahira Tusk glared at Inala, helpless as even she wasn't capable
of destroying Sumatra's barrier. She didn't have the guts either, for that would immediately imply making an enemy of both Sumatra Continent and Sumatra's Transcendent Eater.
It might seem like they were in a cooperative relationship where the Sumatra's Transcendent Eater would funnel energy into Sumatra Continent through Parute Trees to develop the Continent and in response, gain records of every individual that die on the Continent to further its strength.
It might seem that way, but in reality, Sumatra's Transcendent Eater was Sumatra's subordinate, a fanatic subordinate at that. Facing a Transcendent Eater was one of the most foolish endeavours, even for a Transcendent.
'The energy supply for my Transcendent World too comes from it.' Mahira Tusk thought in helplessness, which was why she could only glare at Inala, incensed because she was assured that Inala was aware of this information, which was why he behaved so smugly towards her.
There was a small energy fluctuation from her spot as Mahira Tusk analysed the situation.
'There's only one option then.'
'Wake up, Cutie Ren!'
In response to the energy fluctuation, a spherical plushie jumped out of a hole from one of the
spikes covering the Transcendent World-Tentacles of Tusk.
It rolled across the spike and accelerated, following which it scaled up another spike, using it
as a ramp to fly out and landed next to Mahira Tusk, "Yes! I'm here, Mo...!"
The spherical plushie paused all of a sudden and glanced at Inala. It shrugged and reverted its
gaze to Mahir Tusk. Two seconds later, it swerved in Inala's direction and exclaimed in
surprise, "What the fuck, Inala?"
"Why are you here?"