Until now, the technique had at best been used as a glorified refining furnace for Ice and Fire Monster Cores and at worst, it had been relegated to being a standard cultivation technique. Now, with the proper environment established… To call its growth explosive was a ma.s.sive understatement.

Before the hour had pa.s.sed, the technique's Level, which had previously only reached Level 4 more than tripled to sit at Level 14. Moreover, with this being the first time it was applicable for Cultivation, the Absorption Subskill of the Mystic Art went haywire. So much energy was collected, that Elizabeth developed another Spiritual Pillar within her Dantian.

Two hours later, Elizabeth had yet to even slow down from treading the path through the Cloudsnow Sector. In fact, due to how well the Const.i.tution of Ice and Fire Mystic Art performed, she had even deactivated the Acupoints that had been needlessly galvanized as she wasn't even slightly perturbed by the ever-increasingly destructive Cloudsnow.

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With no sign of her Mystic Art slowing down, the faint outline of another Spiritual Pillar could be seen forming along with the six in Elizabeth's Dantian.

Nearly three hours after that, Elizabeth woke up confused. The impact of the snow had stopped and within her Soul Land, she no longer had mysteries to decipher.

To her shock, when she left her meditative trance and returned to the world outside her Soul Land, she had crossed the remaining length of the Cloudsnow Sector to end before yet another entrance to the Ancient Redvile Temple.

Even more shocking, though, was the change she found in her Status upon checking.

[Status

Name: Elizabeth Ultimatia

…

True Qi: 6.7

Innate Skills:

Ice Affinity

Tier: Good

*New) Understanding: Rudimentary 61%

Skills:

Spirit Mystic Art: Const.i.tution of Ice and Fire

Level 37

Experience: 3,901,500/3,930,348

Spirit Grade: C

Primary Effect: Increases the rate of your physical cultivation by a factor of 3.7

Secondary Effect: Increases the effects of your Blaze Spirit Body and Crystal Spirit Body by 185%

Absorption

*New) Stage: 1

Current Effect: Against Fire or Ice-type attacks conjured with an Understanding Value of Rudimentary 100%, 10% of the energy used in the attack will be absorbed and instantaneously converted into True Qi that the user may use. With every 10% decrease in Understanding Value, the percent of absorbed energy doubles.

*New) Utmost Frigidity

Stage: 0

Description: After absorbing an extreme quant.i.ty of pure Ice True Qi, the user's Crystal Spirit Body has been refined to the point of evolution. The user has developed an iota of the Essence of Ice.

Current Effect: As the body now holds an inkling of the Essence of Ice, all Ice-type Skills are mastered faster, twice as potent, and the Cultivation of Energy with Ice Energies becomes faster the higher the Skill's Stage.]

Pleasantly surprised by the boost she had received from crossing the Cloudsnow Sector, Elizabeth took a moment to monitor the changes to her Dantian.

As expected, despite every Spiritual Pillar holding the equivalent of 100,000,000 Inner Strength, it would be exponentially difficult to condense subsequent pillars.

Increasing one's Cultivation Base in the Spirit Realm wouldn't be as easy as the simple absorption process of the Mortal Realm. Now, it would be next to impossible to see any ma.s.sive leaps in Levels as even a Substage difference in Cultivation put Cultivators in different leagues entirely.

Elizabeth thought, 'Nearly six hours worth of this kind of training yielded only 1.7 more True Qi. It will only get harder to increase that number in the future and I haven't even started improving my Physical Stats.'

"Hmm," she shook her head to quell any unproductive thoughts as the answer to her problem was always within her grasp.

"Guess, I just gotta train that much harder," she said, sighing.

Unfortunately, she had used just about all the treasures capable of a.s.sisting her in Cultivation when she entered seclusion to acquire her 20 Divine Meridians and 108 Heavenly Acupoints, and then break through to the Transcendent Foundation Stage.

Thus, Elizabeth used the remaining half an hour or so before the week-long deadline ended to cultivate with her Const.i.tution of Ice and Fire Mystic Art. By cultivating by the edge of the Cloudsnow Sector closest to the Ancient Redvile Temple she would see the highest gains to both her Energy Cultivation and Law Cultivation.

However, despite putting the totality of her focus into cultivating the missing three-tenths of a Spiritual Pillar, Elizabeth needed a whole hour to finish the construction of her seventh Spiritual Pillar.

It was of mild annoyance that she was delayed once again, but at least the delay this time put her that much closer to reaching Level 32.

…

There was palpable excitement in Elizabeth's tone after she gathered her expedition's party and finally managed to say, "Alright guys, we can finally enter the Temple now."

"As you wish, Shaman Priestess," Ygny said, nodding.

"However, since you've crossed both the Cloudrain and Cloudsnow Sectors una.s.sisted," he gulped before continuing, "A forked path lays ahead of you."

Seeing the look of confusion on Elizabeth's face, Ygny explained, "Now that I have a better understanding of your, um—" he struggled to find the right word before he settled on, "frightening talent… I'll have to ask that you excuse my delayed explanation."

"You see, normally, even if Cultivators are talented in multiple areas, usually said Cultivators specialize in one area. That being said, though no one truly understands the mindset of the Ancient Redvile Temple's master, it is unanimously agreed by people like me, who have visited and studied the Temple site for years, that he designed the Temple with that in mind."

"It's speculated that the Temple Master was beyond the Core Formation Stage, maybe even the Core Bearing Stage, during the time he created the Ancient Redvile Temple. The Temple Master probably created the Temple as his lifespan was entering its final stretch, so that the younger generation could inherit his legacy."

"However, by the design of the Cloudsea Domain and the interior layout of the Temple, it can be inferred that the Temple Master Majored in Yang and Lightning. He was one of the few Cultivators with several areas of specialization and to supplement his Yang and Lightning, he cultivated Ice and Water."

As Ygny paused her to gauge Elizabeth's reaction, yet he was still caught unprepared when faced with her nonchalant, "Ok?"

It was as if that level of achievement was below her acknowledgment, and to an extent, it was. After all, Elizabeth cultivated eight types of Energies. Ten if the fusions s.p.a.cetime and Blazebreeze were counted. Moreover, the Temple Master only majored in one Origin Energy where Elizabeth majored in two.

Thus, most of her respect for the Temple Master was awarded by virtue of how far he had made it up the martial ladder. To a Level 31 Transcendent Foundation 'weakling' like her, Cultivators at the Core Formation Stage and beyond were virtually unbeatable.

It was like the gap between Saint Pract.i.tioners and Transcendent Foundation Cultivators. The qualitative difference brought by a major breakthrough in Cultivation was nearly impossible to surmount.

"Anyway," Ygny continued, "the point is that I completely underestimated you. When father asked me to take you through the Ancient Redvile Temple, he only mentioned that you wanted to experience a Danger Zone. Due to ignorance, I couldn't forsee you actually running the gauntlet, so to speak. At most, I thought my group and I would take you through the first couple instances of the Water Trial and after you understood the danger our journey here would end."

"Since you completed the first two instances of the Temple's first trial for both Water and Ice by yourself, however," Ygny sighed, knowing his situation had just gotten complicated.

He concluded, "You should be capable of attempting at least the next two instances of the Temple's Trials by yourself as well."

"What are these instances you keep mentioning," Elizabeth asked.

"An instance can be thought of as a level of the Temple Master's Trials. Since you pa.s.sed through both the Cloudrain and Cloudsnow Sectors by only relying on your Understanding of Water and Ice respectively, it const.i.tutes as completing the first instance for both the Water and Ice Trials. With those accomplishments, you can try the next two instances of the Temple Master's Water and Ice Trials," Ygny said.

"So it's safe to a.s.sume that the different entrances to the Temple don't lead to the same place?" Elizabeth asked.

When she had made it through the Cloudsnow Sector she found that there was a second entrance into the Ancient Temple from the north side. Though until now, she a.s.sumed that it would lead to the same place as the entrance from the Cloudrain Sector on the east side.

"Right. Moreover, though no one has completed all the instances of any of the Temple Master's Trials, the difficulty of the instances changes based on what Trial a person attempts. From easiest to hardest, the order goes: Water, Ice, Lightning, Yang."

"Tsk," Elizabeth clicked her tongue.

"So I've only completed the two easiest instances of the Trials?" She remarked in self-deprecation.

As a stark silence broke amidst Elizabeth's comment, Kirou spoke to break the silence. She said, "Be that is it may, you only recently broke through to the Transcendent Foundation Stage."

As the resident expert of Water in Ygny's party, she confidently continued, "From what I could see, when you started working on clearing the Cloudrain Sector, you clearly had no experience in manipulating Water. Yet it took less than two weeks for you to build up an Understanding great enough to complete the first instance of the Water Trial. It took less than six hours for you to complete the first instance of the Ice Trial!"

"That's right," Kirun added, "Usually only veterans of the Transcendent Foundation Stage can pa.s.s the first instance of a Trial, and that's only if they happen to specialize in one of the four Energies the Temple Master cultivated in the first place."

Elizabeth closed her eyes, as she deliberated on what to do with this information. 'Even if I continue, it's disheartening to learn that the Temple Master didn't even cultivate something that I Major in.'

With one of her eyes peeking open to catch a glimpse of Sun, she thought, 'Sun might get something good if he can pa.s.s more instances of the Yang Trials. h.e.l.l, even Jane would get more out of the Ice Trials here than I ever could, considering I have a G.o.dking's Cultivation Method. By now, she should be done breakthrough to the Spirit Realm—'

Her train of thought was broken as Yrre coughed to get her attention and said, "You know master, If my memory serves me right, you recently completed a major breakthrough in your cultivation, right?"

Something about the smug smirk etched onto Yrre's face, complemented by the emphasis on "major breakthrough," caused Elizabeth to stare aimlessly. The frustration she felt would only intensify by the second as it was clear to all that Yrre knew something that Elizabeth had clearly forgotten.