Maria's father was a sage, and he wasn't the only expert she had seen in her life.
She knew that to enter the Realm of Sages, one had to see the Traces of Tao. In general, the Traces of Tao were useless in terms of combat power in these realms. But they made a difference.
You could tell the difference between someone who had seen the Trace of Tao and someone who hadn't by the way they spoke. They spoke with words that belonged to Tao. When Maria looked at Mais, she could see that he spoke like her father. Their similarities were so striking that it was impossible not to be suspicious. He might have seen the Trace of Tao, too. That was what was so shocking.
Maria knew such a thing was possible. Some incredible geniuses saw the Tao before passing into the Sage Realm. She just didn't expect to meet one of them, especially in such a remote place. Especially in such a remote place.
His only problem was his eyes. Otherwise, Maria probably wouldn't be Mais's equal in terms of talent despite the difference in their cultivation levels.
When Kasuur put Maria down and left, she saw Mais approaching her. He really did look as small as she had expected. In fact, he might have been younger than Kasuur, which Maria found impossible.
"What an incredible thing you are." She realized a little too late how rude her words had been. Her momentary shock quickly passed. She bowed her head in embarrassment, but Mais ignored her completely. Faced with this situation, Maria regained her courage and locked her beautiful, large eyes on Mais's face. It was as if she wanted to memorize every inch of his face.
Mais didn't notice her gaze. Had he seen such a beautiful girl staring at him so boldly, perhaps he would have looked away in embarrassment. Or maybe he would have tried to hide it.
At that moment, Maria noticed the cat on Mais's shoulder. As Mais leaned over Maria, the cat examined her wounds closely. Maria wondered how a three-tailed cat and a blind child could treat her wounds.
"Tell me about your wounds and any problems you may have. Little White will see what you cannot."
The cat, which the blind child seemed to be using as his eyes, was looked at by Maria with a strange expression. Could he understand her, even if he was being used as her eyes? Could it speak?
Maria didn't think about it too much. She described the places where she felt pain and where she was bleeding. She also described where she had been hit. Mais shook his head and started walking back to his hut.
"Are you going to leave me like this?"
"I'm sure you're not as helpless as I am."
Mais didn't care about Maria's thoughts. After escaping for so long, wouldn't this woman be able to enter the hut a few meters away? He certainly didn't believe that. Kasuur had already wrapped her wounds. He was just checking to see if the girl had been poisoned, and he was absolutely sure she had been.
'If there was a chance the person I was trying to kill might escape, I would definitely use poison.'
You might be wondering why poison wasn't used on Mais when she was targeted for assassination in the past. Even if Lagos hadn't used poison, he was a genius cultivator at the peak of the Core Realm. There was no need to poison someone from the Beginner Realm. He had already blinded his eyes. Even if Lagos had poisoned Mais, he likely would have survived with the pill he was using at the time.
Mais threw in a few more herbs. He began stirring the cauldron that he couldn't see. The large ladle kept hitting the sides of the cauldron, producing an annoying sound. When Maria entered the cabin, she looked at the herbs Mais had thrown into the cauldron.
"Are you an alchemist?"
"No, I'm the cook."
Maria frowned. She approached Mais. She could see the black cauldron shaking. With fear, she moved closer to the cauldron and looked inside. Yellow syrup flowed inside, swirling with particles resembling seaweed. She grimaced and covered her nose.
"This doesn't look very appetizing."
At that moment, Mais reached out and held Maria's beautiful chin. It was so sudden that not even this core expert could react in time. Her gaze shifted to Mais's serious face. Maria remembered the city gossip and conversations among young girls. Were romantic moments like this? Maria was overcome by the fear of giving her first kiss to someone younger than her and couldn't even react.
And this child was blind. If she wanted him to take responsibility, she would have to take responsibility herself.
She had waited all those years for her white knight. But then, the white knight had been afraid of her and run away. He was clearly much less talented than she was. As he fled on his horse, she caught up to him barefoot and ripped out the horse's lungs.
In hindsight, it seemed very cruel.
At the time, though, her dreams had been shattered and she was filled with anger. Fortunately, she didn't kill the prince.
He died of a heart attack a few nights later from fear.
The kiss of her dreams would now be taken here.
Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.
She closed her eyes. She wanted to remember this moment forever.
TAKKK...!!!
"AH!"
Mais twisted Maria's neck so quickly that if she hadn't been a cultivator, her neck would have definitely broken. Now, only a crackling sound came from her neck.
The next moment, Maria vomited a mouthful of blood.
"Please don't spit blood into the cauldron. I'm making a pill to cure your poison. If you spit into it, it could make things worse."
Maria wiped her mouth. In that moment, she wanted to swallow the blood she had spat out and spit it back in Mais's face.
"I'm 15 years old."
"So?"
"Doesn't it surprise you that I've entered the Core Realm at this age?"
Kasuur is 11 years old and has reached the tenth stage of the Origin Energy Realm, but that doesn't surprise me. Do you think you should surprise me?"
Yes, Kasuur was at that level at this age. How could Maria possibly impress Mais?
She was aware of this. Her face fell. For the first time, she encountered someone who acted so nonchalantly toward her. She was meeting someone who treated her ordinarily for the first time.
It won't last long.
She slowly extended her arm toward Mais's cheek. Before she could touch him, however, the staff intervened. As he moved his arm, only a slight breeze arose. He was reacting too quickly. Mais turned to her again. Though his eyes seemed to be looking off into the distance, it was clear who he was addressing.
"Fuck off!"
Yes, it was rude, but Maria didn't matter to Mais. He hadn't been happy for about a year. There was no need to understand the reasons for his bad mood. Besides, the idiot next to him was trying to seduce a blind person with beauty and lust. Of course, that is, if we forget that he was nine years old.
Should he really pay attention to this nonsense? He thought about treating her and sending her on her way, but then he had an idea. He turned back to Maria, who was about to leave and constantly grumbled.
"You came from a city, didn't you? Probably a state capital."
Maria looked at Mais, who had suddenly started talking, with an unhappy expression and shook her head.
"From an ordinary city. My father is the city lord. When I was born with an amazing talent, he kept me in the city all the time. He was afraid that his enemies would harm me."
The young girl continued, stroking her neck.
"It seems he was right. The first time I wanted to see the outside world, several town leaders and a few Core Realm cultivators trapped me. I'm lucky to be alive, aren't I?"
Mais said nothing. He kept the question he wanted to ask to himself.
Through the city's resources, he could learn what had happened to the empire, his family, and his people. Maria must have heard about the rebellion. Mais wanted to ask her what had happened, but he didn't want to relive the memory of asking her that question.
"When you get better, we'll go to the city together," said Mais. He turned back to the cauldron in front of him. He didn't want to talk to Maria. Besides, he had noticed her sudden excitement.
"Really?"
Maria was surprised, too, of course. It was normal for her to think it was chivalrous. Her cheeks flushed, and she tugged at Mais's clothes like a little child. She was also taller than him, which made for an odd scene. Even though Mais didn't care in the slightest, Maria thought he was actually skilled at hiding his feelings. Considering the wound and the cause of his blindness, these were reasonable conclusions.
"Yes, we can't stay here forever."
Mais could stay, but Kasuur would definitely want to go with the girl. Mais preferred to be the one making the decision rather than appear to be following Kasuur.
"Great! I can't wait to introduce you to my father! Maybe with me... together to the State Tournament... the tournament... ahh..."
Maria was about to faint from blood loss. Mais noticed this, but did not move toward Maria, who was floating beside him. Instead, his sage beast, Little White, acted.
For a moment, Lady Maria thought Mais had caught her as she lost consciousness.