Chapter 1364: Not-So Subtle Changes

Everyone had expected him to return stronger. That much had been obvious the moment Sienna explained that Phei had experienced nearly an entire year while only two weeks passed for them, and nobody familiar with him believed he could spend that long inside a place called the Primordial Frozen Zone without returning with several unreasonable improvements and deep hunger for sex.

They had still underestimated what a year had done to him.

The first difference was the easiest to appreciate and, judging by the way several women continued looking at him, possibly the most immediately important to some of them.

Phei had become unfairly more handsome.

Whatever softness still lingered around his old godly features before had been refined by time, hardship and the relentless tempering of his body without making him look any older than experienced while preserving the beauty that had always made him irritatingly attractive. His longer hair framed that face differently now, and the gold beneath his eyes possessed a depth that made their color seem almost brighter despite the sensation of something immeasurable sitting behind them.

His body had changed even more profoundly.

Body Cultivation alone had rebuilt him in ways clothing could conceal visually but could never truly hide from perception. Every muscle, bone, tendon, organ and drop of blood had endured repeated refinement, first beneath the power of Sienna’s elixir and then through nearly a year of deliberately throwing himself into some of the most brutal environments the Primordial Frozen Zone could offer.

He had trained within ancient pressure, frozen storms capable of shredding weaker flesh, killing cold, monstrous gravity-like forces and battles where his body was repeatedly broken, healed and driven forward before recovery had even finished.

That kind of tempering left something behind.

His body had changed even more profoundly, and there was a strange brightness to it now that nobody could properly explain. It was not light in the literal sense, nor some aura glowing over his skin, but every visible inch of him somehow looked cleaner, smoother and almost impossibly alive.

His skin carried a gentle softness that seemed completely at odds with the monstrous power beneath the smooth perfection that made him look as though hardship had never touched him at all until someone remembered what that same softness had survived.

Sienna’s elixir, Body Cultivation and nearly a year of relentless tempering had refined everything from his muscles and bones to his organs, blood and skin until even the surface of his body seemed to possess a quiet vitality of its own.

That deceptive softness was perhaps the funniest part.

Phei could look almost delicate beneath the penthouse lights, every inch of exposed skin smooth enough that touching him probably felt more pleasant than threatening, while in reality very few weapons could leave so much as a meaningful mark upon it anymore. World Transcendent attacks had already shattered against his tempered flesh during the battle in the abyss even though they blasted him into distances, and although overwhelming force could still send him flying or destroy things inside him, simply cutting through that beautiful skin had become an entirely different problem.

Phei himself had wondered more than once how ridiculous things had become.

Would an ordinary bullet even manage to make him feel a sting now?

Perhaps it would flatten itself against his skin and leave him staring down at the mangled metal wondering whether getting shot had somehow become less impressive than being bitten by an insect.

Standing near Phei now therefore created an almost contradictory impression.

Everything about his appearance had become brighter, gentler and more refined, yet the longer someone sensed what lay beneath that beautiful surface, the more obvious it became that the softness was only appearance. There was something terrifyingly durable underneath, a body that had been broken, healed, tempered and rebuilt so many times that beauty and monstrosity had somehow ended up occupying the same skin.

His clothes only made the whole thing worse for the women watching.

Phei had conjured something simple before returning, a pair of soft dark trousers fitted comfortably around his waist and legs with a clean white long-sleeved shirt above them. The sleeves had been folded carelessly to his forearms, exposing smooth skin and the lean definition beneath it, while several upper buttons had been left undone enough to reveal part of his upper chest.

There was nothing extravagant about the outfit, yet on Phei it looked criminal.

The shirt rested across broad shoulders and a sculpted torso without needing to cling desperately to advertise what sat beneath it, while the trousers followed the powerful lines of his lower body just enough to remind several women exactly what they had been deprived of.

After everything he had gone through, his body possessed a strange brightness too, something difficult to explain because his skin was not literally glowing. Every exposed inch of him simply looked extraordinarily healthy, smooth and alive, with a soft almost gentle quality that completely contradicted what now existed beneath it.

His skin looked as though it should feel warm and pleasant beneath wandering fingers, yet very few weapons on Earth could probably leave a meaningful dent in that apparent softness anymore.

The contradiction only made him hotter.

Soft enough to touch.

Hard enough to survive monsters.

Beautiful enough to make several women inside the penthouse immediately imagine what those powerful hands would feel like wrapped around them and fuck them to make up to all the time he had been gone.

Phei also carried a weight that had not existed when he left.

It had nothing to do with him intentionally releasing his cultivation or trying to intimidate anyone.

In fact, Phei was suppressing nearly everything because flooding the penthouse with his true power’s pressure would have been an incredibly stupid way to say hello.

Yet his restraint could not completely erase what his existence had become.

His body felt impossibly solid.

His Essence felt ancient despite how young he was.

His soul was way off the charts!

Trying to sense too deeply into Phei produced an uncomfortable awareness of enormous hidden depth, as though perception had reached the edge of something and discovered there was still an entire world beneath it. Void clung invisibly to his existence, while Void, Void-Ice, Primordial Blood, his Cosmic Dragon Bloodline presence he didn’t know he was starting to awaken and everything else that had grown during that year layered themselves beneath the surface until distinguishing one from another became difficult.

Even the space surrounding him seemed subtly different.

That was perhaps what made the change so profound.

Phei had always possessed an unusual presence since his awakening, we’ve all seen that and although mostly through his abilities. There had always been something too deep about him, something strange enough that experienced people occasionally looked twice even before they understood what they were sensing. Now every one of those qualities had been taken through relentless slaughter, survival and growth and returned magnified until the person standing inside the penthouse felt almost unfairly complete.

More profound, unfathomable, dangerous... beautiful.

Everything Phei had been before, except pushed so far beyond its previous level that putting the difference into ordinary words became almost stupid.

If someone insisted on reducing that sensation into the language of a normal person who did not want an hour-long explanation about Body Cultivation, Soul Ranks, Void, Primordial Blood and the consequences of surviving World Transcendents, then perhaps there was only one accurate description.

The Phei after the Void and Anarctica, multiplied by 300x.

For several moments, nobody inside moved.

The women who had spent the past minutes waiting for him simply stared with widened eyes; he was casually standing off the floor as though gravity had become another rule he had eventually grown bored of following.

Soraya had considerably less interest in pretending respectable thoughts were occurring and had blurted.

"You’re so freaking hot," she breathed, speaking aloud what a disturbing number of women had apparently been thinking.

A/N: There have been probably a few reputations here and there from the other Chapter to the two but there’s also a reason why there had to be a Chapter for the the Island and it’s ancientness, please his presence and the reaction he has on the the island itself. This Chapter especially was to bring us to where Soraya had blurted her words. The rest was just me making sure you know how much he’s changed although you already know. It’s just a single Chapter you guys can not hate me for that, can you? 😂😂