Chapter 1696: Essence Veins At the center of the secret world where the Pyro Faction was located, Grey saw a small island, around a kilometer in radius, floating in the air. He was a good distance away, but he could still sense that the entire island is kept in the sky with the aid of an array. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞 Grey looked at the land floating in the sky, and the essence he could sense from that place alone was tremendous. If he were told there's a place that had so much essence in the Aurora Continent, he'd never believe it. In the group, Grey wasn't the only one who had his eyes on the floating land, all the youths were also staring at it intently. When Ezekiel and his companions saw their looks, they shook their heads, there was even a hint of disdain in their eyes. This was something they've grown accustomed to seeing, but now these guys were staring like it was something impossible to achieve in this world. Grey didn't spend a long time staring at the floating land. He barely gets shocked when he sees things like these. Faction Leader Bertram walked closer to Grey, as if seeing his show of disinterest in the floating land, he chuckled and asked Grey. "Do you know about essence veins?" He whispered to Grey. Hearing the words essence veins, Grey recalled reading about it. When he first came to the Aurora Continent, the first thing he did was read about the history and everything he could learn from books in the Aurora Continent. Apparently, thousands of years ago, the Aurora Continent was filled with hundreds of veins, which brought about a large growth in humans. As at that time, achieving Godhood doesn't seem as impossible as it does now. Grey hadn't heard about seeing any essence veins in the Aurora Continent, since according to what he knew, after the great war, most of the veins were either exhausted, or destroyed. In multiple of the ancient Factions that collapsed during the great war, they self-destructed their essence veins when they noticed they were about to be defeated by the Gnomes who attacked them. The essence veins are one of the few resources the Gnomes wanted to extract from the human world. Unfortunately, it's not the only thing, else the Gnomes wouldn't want to try to invade the Aurora Continent once again after their failure the last time. There are some things that can't grow in the Gnome World, and it's very beneficial to the growth of Gnomes. It even aids them when they're on the verge of breaking the barrier and ascend to Godhood. Grey nodded to the Faction Leader after some time. "A vein is here, and it's why you noticed the massive spike in the quality of the essence present here." Grey could already guess this when he heard the Faction Leader's words. He didn't expect to see an essence vein in the first ancient Faction he visited. 'If only I started out here.' This was the thought in the heads of everyone present, even Grey wasn't an exception. This place was heavenly to Elementalists. If he had started his cultivation here, he's confident that he'd at least be a Peak Ninth stage Sovereign by now who's preparing to break through to the Half God Plane. Grey took a glance at Ezekiel and the rest and he couldn't help but feel a tad disappointed in their abilities. The fact that they hadn't gotten to the Ninth stage of the Sovereign Plane while being in such an essence rich condition shows that they were lacking in a lot of things. Even Klaus who had the lowest elemental grade of the group when they started out in the Lunar Academy wouldn't do this bad if he were dropped here. If the group had come to a place like this when they just got to the Aurora Continent, there's a great chance that they might've broken through to the Ninth stage by now, even though they would be behind others when they first arrived. Grey hasn't spent more than a year in the Sovereign Plane, yet he was already in the Sixth stage. A lot of people spend years in a single stage in the Sovereign Plane. Take Elder Benedict for example, he has been stuck in the Seventh stage for hundreds of years, and it was only due to luck while battling with Grey did he get some sort of epiphany that helped him break through the chains holding him back. Ezekiel and his group noticed Grey's gaze, and the hint of pride they had in their eyes while staring at the others disappeared. This is because they could tell from Grey's gaze that he seemed to be looking down on them. Ezekiel felt irritated by this look. It was the first time someone was giving him this sort of look, someone that isn't her. He approached Grey and made a comment. "I know you don't see things like these everyday in the outside world." Grey kept his gaze on him, but he stopped looking down on him. After all, he couldn't be that blatant with it. "Naturally not." He responded and turned his gaze back to the world, "Are you going to take us in or..." Grey noticed that no one was making a move, and Ezekiel, their supposed host, wasn't making any attempts to take them further into the Pyro Faction. It was as if he wanted them to just look from the gate, which didn't sit too well with Grey. The Elders from the Pyro Faction were the first to realize that standing there might've been wrong, hearing Grey's question, they couldn't help but drop their heads. Actually, this was all Ezekiel's idea. He said he wanted to show those from the outside world the prestige of a great Faction. They didn't expect that someone would speak up, and the person isn't even the Faction Leader nor an Elder, but a youth. This made the Elders feel a bit embarrassed by their actions. "Forgive my manners, please, this way." Ezekiel reacted quickly, inviting them in.