Ula started to charge her own Purple Tribulation Lightning and was about to strike the mountain. It was not that she understood the truth, but because she thought that whoever it was, it was definitely inside the mountain—a simple misunderstanding. So she decided to simply... blast it away.
But just as she was about to do so, Ula and Ao heard a Divine Sense message.
"What do you want?"
The discharge was immediately canceled, and under their own feet, the mountain started to shrink at a frightening speed. Before Ula and Ao's eyes, a naked girl appeared beside an Earth Beaver.
Be it Ula or Ao, both of them have the Elemental Meridians, so their cultivation speed during this entire time wasn't slow. Ula was in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm while Ao was in the 3rd. However, compared to the Blackhole Divine Soul and Heavenly Fragment combo, they were still not a match. Especially since she can use the entire extent of her mountain body to absorb Spiritual Energy. Simply put, they would be hard-pressed against Lia's 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm.
"The entire mountain was your body?!"
Sure enough, both Ao and Ula couldn't believe what they saw.
Lia was also surprised since she thought that they had identified her. But it was a misunderstanding of both parties.
"So you didn't know I was the mountain... Anyway, you said that I have some familiar smell and came to check, what is it?"
Ula could see that Lia's cultivation was a lot higher, but not to the point where she and Ao would be helpless, so she wasn't afraid.
"That's correct, you have a familiar smell. For some reason, you remind me a friend who left this Universe several years ago."
Ula had heard from Ao everything about Krune, Feifei, and their Heavenly Fragments. For some reason, although Lia's scent was different, it reminded her about them.
"Left this Universe?"
Ula then approached and introduced herself.
"I'm Ula, a member of the Divine Path Sect of the western protectorate. This guy beside me is my husband, Ao Sulian."
Ao nodded at her.
"Nice to meet you. We definitely didn't have any bad intentions against you or your friend. Ula just thought that the thing she had been following for several planets was inside the mountain. She wouldn't have tried to attack your body if she knew that you were a sentient being. Please understand that we really had never heard about a mountain gaining sentience before."
Lia dropped her guard a little after hearing that. After traveling for so long, she understood that cases, where unanimated objects gained sentience, are extremely rare. There are even more ordinary Major Divine Souls than beings like herself. Their misunderstanding was totally understandable.
Trata patted Lia's head and smiled at her.
He came forward and gave Ao a handshake.
"I'm Trata, and the mountain girl is called Lia. You are quite far away from the western protectorate, arent you?"
Ao smiled and nodded.
"Indeed. We are traveling to temper our skills. We had been to the north and south as well, and we stayed quite a few years out. This place was supposed to be our last stop before returning to the Divine Path Sect."
Ao then looked at Lia for a second and then looked away.
"Cough, cough. Would your female friend mind put some clothes?"
Ao was the only human between the four, so the others really didn't mind Lia's naked body. Still, she also understood that humans don't like to see other human bodies naked, so she put some plain clothes on. Ula also returned to her human form, putting her clothes on too.
"There is no need for us to keep floating like this, let's go down to talk."
Ao had taken Krune's taste for food, so although he wasn't as good of a cooker, he still knew how to prepare his own share. Ula, obviously, loved that too. He made some simple and fast thing and shared with Trata and Lia.
Lia could see Ula's eyes glued on her and her nose twitching now and then. It finally reached a point where she couldn't hold her curiosity anymore.
"Is my scent really that similar to your friends?"
"It is, and at the same time, it is not. Now that I'm close to you, I finally understood why, though. It is because the smell is mixed with your own body scent."
Ula looked at the position where Lia's core should be and then asked.
"Do you perhaps have something inside your Divine Soul? Like... something that looks like a fragment?"
Let alone Lia and Trata, even Ao Sulian, was shocked by that question.
"Ula, you can't possibly be saying..."
Ula looked at Ao and nodded.
"That's the only thing I could think of. Your friend, Krune, always had a specific scent that I could only feel on Feifei."
"In Krune's case, his body smell only got mixed with the other when he was in his human form. After all, Krune didn't have a scent in his Wisp Form. During the times Krune was in his original form, only this particular smell remained."
"Feifei was pretty much like Lia, though. She also had a similar smell to Krune's, but her body scent was also mixed with it. Feifei and I had very little interaction, so I didn't have much of a chance to talk to her. However, other than the two of them, I have never felt this smell before. Well, not until a few days ago back in the Earkei Planet."
Trata was surprised to hear that.
"We indeed passed by the Earkei Planet on our way here. Just like you, we are also traveling around."
Lia was more preoccupied with the Fragment part, though.
"So, this smell is something left by this fragment that you talked about?"
Ula pondered a bit and said.
"Well, as I said, it is just a conjecture. Perhaps there are more people and beasts out there with this specific smell too. If you say that you don't have this Fragment I told you about, then you can forget I said anything."
Lia looked deeply at Ula. Although they had just met each other, it didn't feel like Ula was lying. Besides, she does indeed have a fragment inside her Divine Soul but had only told Trata about it. Trata would definitely not spread this information around, so it served as proof that Ula was probably not lying.
"Indeed, I do have something that looks like a Fragment in my Divine Soul. Would you mind telling me what it is? So far, I have not met anyone with similar characteristics."
Ula and Ao were really shocked to hear. That was a blind shoot. After all, there is supposed to be only 9 Heavenly Fragments in the entire Universe!
Looking at Ao and Ula's expressions, it was evident that the Heavenly Fragment inside her Divine Soul wasn't anything simple. But just as she was about to ask more.
"Ah!"
Ula showed a startled expression. Right after, she took out a small box, or to be more specific, a pocket dimension spatial box. In the next second, a little guy who seemed to be a mix of wolf and human came out. He had a human form but with cute wolf ears with snow-white fur on them. The white fur contrasted with his white hair too. It was also easy to notice his 4 canine teeth, two up, and two down. Not to mention the catchy White and Furry wolf tail on the back.
His name was Ewan Sulian, the child of Ao and Ula that was born during their travels. Obviously, a hybrid of Moon Wolf and Human. It turns out that Ao and Ula were a lot later than Krune and Feifei or Tiane and Ruik. Their kid was only a few months old now and was still breastfeeding. As one can imagine, Ewan also has the Elemental Meridians instead of the normal ones. Not to mention that he, too, was born in the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.
Ula and Ao reached the same idea as Krune's group. They bought a pocket dimension spatial box where they could keep Ewan while he was sleeping or if there was any danger.
"Sorry, he is just hungry. But we can continue to talk while I feed him."
Lia looked at the child, feeding on Ula's milk and nodded.
"Very well. Can you tell me more about this Fragment that I have in my Divine Soul?"
Ao and Ua looked at each other and then nodded at Lia too.