Lining up along the gates of Xin's house, over a dozen men and ladies had their masks all glowing with their energies.

Right in the centre, waiting by the door was the person he was there for. Veronica held her arm while another lady stood by their side. The only unveiled woman was a mature-looking lady, rather short in stature at 1.6 metres tall.

Ebony knew who she was by her presence. The Saint of the Nings. The woman who protected him in Shi Tao's place in their exclusive dungeon.

He ignored them all.

His eyes zoomed only in on the woman in bright red, with a veil over her masked face. She was dressed in many layers, it almost looked stuffy under those clothes. The outer layer was bright red with feather patterns matching her mask. To be free and unfettered was the theme of the design. Having learnt about their culture, he wondered if they were telling him that he couldn't tie her down or wished he wouldn't impede her wishes.

He could be overthinking it, the dress just looked amazing and matched her aura.

He chuckled, his perception sensing her twitching under the dress, but she was controlling herself with as much self-control as she could. He didn't show it but hoped she could feel what he was feeling. He missed her too.

The Nings were patient people and allowed him to admire his soon-to-be wife or maybe they were letting him prepare himself for their resistance.

Ebony noted that they placed themselves well, guarding any husbands that weren't Ning-born but from a different Clan. These people were also the weakness that Ebony was hoping to be able to take advantage of.

"Do you have a word or two?" The Saint of the Ning's gentle but cold voice cut the silence.

He shook his head.

Actions first, words could come after he succeeded.

No matter how fast he tried to act or how ghostly his movements seemed, he was beats slower than the fastest man of the Xengs under the second generation. Lightning tore apart the space he was moving towards, cutting him off from grabbing his bride.

That was predictable but his gravity spell falling to cut a path ahead was not, for another unknown Ning must have dispersed his spell. They were momentarily confused when they had to prevent themselves from using Will to tear a Will-infused spell but from what he knew, none of them were supposed to have used Will as a Grandmaster and they were playing fair.

Ebony successfully attached his mana to his bride and with a zip, he Flickered away with her while keeping close to the ground.

He expected them to stop him but none of the Nings except for Ning Xun moved.

Seemingly as fast as light, Ning Xun sent a kick down his neck while aiming to snatch his descendant into his arms. The man couldn't predict where Ebony went with all the light refractions and models conjured but Ebony's ability to hide his real body from them was futile.

His opponent simply failed to expect him to take the hit without letting the woman in his arms go. The force of the kick made Ebony spin in the air mid-Flicker but the gravity tunnel didn't stop pulling him away.

The air felt hot and full.

Ebony and Xin looked up after he landed on his feet.

The sky was bright with elements of numerous types. Dusk's Domain failed to keep them out and gravity resisted by the elements.

They couldn't see the sky anymore. The Nings might be quarrelling about space for their spells with the sky being too small for them.

Ebony's mind was rammed by dozens of other minds, affecting his spell-casting ability. They were aware that it wouldn't matter with his Domain active but that sure didn't stop them from trying.

Some of them were already tracking his Will down to destroy or inhibit the Will and mana transfer. Mildly impressing Ning Xun with the speed that the sky between them and the innumerable spells were divided with layers of scale shield, Dusk managed to place between them.

But it didn't last.

The Will-enhanced turtle shell felt like paper when the colourful bombardment of spells showered them. He didn't skimp on mana density and none of the spells hitting his shield were anywhere as dense. But they were exceedingly pure and backed by so much mental power he wondered if they had Intelligence stats base effect hundreds of times higher than a base human.

There was nothing sophisticated about their approach; they were overwhelming him with firepower, just the way mages were supposed to.

Ebony's Flickers had him charging into Ning Xun at every step, the man ahead of him every single time. But he couldn't be stopped.

At least his body was durable enough to take these hits. As for the attacks in his mindspace, they were making progress but nothing got to his core yet.

It felt like they were making things easy for him as he broke free from the colourful bombardment around the halfway mark from Xienor to Tidal. It took way too many hours. The shields might break easily but they gave him plenty of time to gauge the trajectory. And gravity magic helped a lot if his opponents couldn't use Will to fight back so he was able to slip past most of the explosive range or the direct impact.

Perhaps he was finally out of most of their ridiculous mental reach. He only had the range he had thanks to the Will Relay Buffers and even then, it was far from a perfect all-round scan that the base mental reach could provide.

With a brief moment of peace, he got his bride to stop strangling him so tightly with her embrace. There was no doubt this was her…but he had to confirm he wasn't under any mental influence. But how could he confirm if they were all mind mages beyond his abilities?

The truth was, they were not beyond his mental defences in their suppressed state.

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He scanned her from head to toe, Mantle of Reservation was placed over her, and he didn't see any damage or injuries.

A couple of them were too accurate and could resist the gravity and the Will so his suit had a few marks but not torn anywhere.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" He asked, unsure what to say.

"What is that music in the background…it's distracting me."

"…I tried to write a song but realized that I'm no good with words once again. So I tried something else more suitable for you, do you like it?" Dusk had speakers going loud and strong everywhere they went.

" Could you shut it off…please, I can't take it much longer." His Bride covered her face with her hands. With the veil and the mask already doing that, she was adding another layer of redundant protection.

"You'll have to feel it forever so deal with it." The Numbers continued to play their acapella across the toure back to Tidal, there was no silence. There were no lyrics either.

Ebony drafted some lyrics but he failed to consider his lack of forte when it came to words. They don't seem to be able to carry what he feels. So he worked around it with an acapella that was imbued with Will carrying what he felt. The sounds that the vibrations made were not of human vocal cords or of any instrument he knew of, they simply vibrated according to his Will.

It was an extended low hum to the ears.

But to Xin who could feel emotions, she should be able to feel his desire for her to be by his side. His--passion for lack of better word.

It worked well enough to keep her silent till they had a pause.

She was steaming from under her mask by her body temperature alone.

"Hurry, go left into that jungle and into that waterfall. There's a cave there, I placed one of sister Jing's spatial stones there so you can take a break," She pointed diagonally down and left.

"When did you do that?" He blinked. He already knew of this ceremony of theirs and had the Numbers paved the routes numerous times while he was sleeping, he should know of a cave or if she was here recently.

"A few days ago, I just felt like doing that. Seems like it's paying off."

"Are you sure you can't read the future?" Ebony felt her soft but firm muscles shift in his grasp. The warmth she was producing seemed to be affecting him.

"I can't, I was just passing by and coincidentally got a spatial stone from sister Jing and coincidentally forgot about it here after using it as a heating rock to grill river fish I caught…yeah okay, I didn't leave it on purpose, I don't know why I forgot about it." She shied her face away."Ar-are you going to put me down?"

"Not yet, not until I get you to our destination. While you're in my range, the gravitational spell around you can react to your Intent so it lets what you want through and what you don't want touching to be repelled." Ebony added at the end.

Will imbued Mantle of Reservation meant only for her.

As long as she was within his Will network, the spell would always be on her no matter the distance, Will or mana cost. Since what he deemed as a threat and what she deemed as one was different, the Will was crafted to react to her Intent, effectively giving her control over the spell at his cost. It was hard to develop it and he had to thank Shi Ling for letting him experiment with her Intent.

He walked through the small waterfall he was led towards and came out dry but noticed Xin was drenched. She must have been unaccustomed or still stunned and hadn't thought about reflecting water. "You can repel them all with just a thought." He didn't have to say that since she could simply dry herself off with heat, their clothes wouldn't burn or tear even if they tried their best.

But she remained silent and unmoving in his arms. Water dripped down her veil and bun and braided hair.

"Don't you have anything to say to me…" Her quivering voice echoed in the small cave right beside his ears. She was taking advantage of his weak spot right now.

"You look gorgeous in that dress."

"Anything else?"

'That's not what she was looking for? She seems happy from that.' Ebony didn't make any confused reaction while he was thinking, he added. "I missed you."

"I did too. Anything else?"

'I didn't think so far…what am I missing?' Ebony blinked, his mind furiously searching for an answer.

"I'll give you a second before I call for my grandmother…"

Ebony had to cut his mental reach for more processing power. He expected the Nings to be the greatest test, but he was wrong. So wrong.

Numerous simulations ran in his mind in parallel.

Through the process of elimination, it had to be something she was expecting him to say. Something he was missing out on that she wanted to confirm before he took her hand in marriage. That seemed most likely, but what exactly?

If only he had her Intuition.

With only a second, he only had one attempt.

This feels worse and more uncertain than jumping off a cliff as a normal human. At least his body could be a fallback.

But there was no fallback for his words.

"Scarlet Rhael Ning Xin, be mine."

She exhaled and pulled her head in, "And you, mine."

Just as her mask was closing into his face, their waterfall evaporated. The cave they were in disintegrated. The floor, ceiling and water disappear in moments.

Ebony saw Xin's hair stand and was in the midst of turning red before he felt her hit with a foreign mana. He flinched, unable to protect her from a mental attack. They were forcing her to stay in her rest state.

The disintegrating energy was eating through his gravity mana and easily tore through the vibrational shield.

The Nings just cast some kind of combined spell at them. It erased everything in its path.

Water splashed and rained on them from the river they were under.

"What do you think you're doing? You're not together yet my dear little Xin." Veronica muttered. He couldn't see through her mask but he was very sure she was smirking in tease.

"You said you won't make things difficult for us." Ning Xin grumbled.

"We gave you space, didn't we?"

"hmph!"

"Aww my cute granddaughter no longer wants me. Haven't even stepped past his doors and you're already siding with an outs--already against family."

Ebony felt a loss in stats, skill levels and Class levels. This was the rumoured debuff he had all about from the Divination mage. He didn't even know how he was hit much less attempt to dodge. No mana touched or was aimed at him after all.

'A total of eleven of them. 7 Nings, 5 women, 2 men including Ning Xun. 2 husbands from the…Xu clan, crafter not a threat as a Grandmaster. Yang Clan - some kind of violent heat-based fighter most likely solar, fire or maybe light. 2 wives, Zhao Ya, the divination lineage that Veronica is from and Yin Clan, lunar, light and destruction. The base of the previous light spell is probably from her and maybe a combination with the Yang.

The unmarried Ning women were less harsh in their spells, he felt that from the previous bombardment. So the people that were most serious about this event was Xin's grandmother, Ning Xun and one more. The third-generation lady who took Xin back and fought Shi Qiang during the festival.

There was no chance of straightforward success, he had to show them he was willing to take drastic measures. Any measures.

Elva would have to be cold for a day. He raised his feet high in front of their gazes and sent it smashing into the ground.

Every Will Relay Buffer in range quaked and he set the continent around them on fire.

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