Sanity-Questioning Increase In Power

Elizabeth exited the Meditation Chamber both feeling satisfied for having developed her Cultivation Base to its current state, while paradoxically holding a deep dread for the future as she now held a more profound understanding of how much energy she would need, going forward.

[Status

Name: Elizabeth Ultimatia

Level: 42 (42/44)

Rank: Nascent Purple Core Formation

Sex: Female

Strength: 66,000

Endurance: 66,000

Speed: 66,000

Defense: 66,000

Intelligence: 89,000

Luck: 10

Core Qi: 3,300 (+17,000 True Qi)

Name: Chaos Seals

Spirit Grade: Incomprehensible to the user

Current Status: Seals 1 - 9 Complete (Core Grandmist 100%)

First Set Effect of Pressure: With the user acting as the epicenter, the heavy pressure of Chaos influences everything with a Spirit Grade of A or below, a Cultivation Base of Core Bearing or below, in a 5-kilometer radius.

Second Set Effect of Augmentation: Fourth Seal activation yields a 50% increase to all stats for five minutes. Fifth Seal activation yields a 100% increase to all stats for ten minutes. Sixth Seal activation yields a 500% increase to all stats for thirty minutes.

Third Set Effect of Transformation: Half of the Major Grandmist Body is complete with the cultivation of Core Grandmist in the legs. One Halo of Chaos is added to the Full Transformation after activating the Chaos Seals of Transformation.]

Though she had spent the majority of the thirty-five days she had been in the Meditation Chamber perfecting her cultivation Chaos Requiem, when that was converted by the distortion factor of her Sanguine Moon Tickets, it amounted to nearly two and a half years.

Fortunately, the Meditation Chamber's rate of time was decided by the highest marked Ticket used during a session, else Elizabeth might have been cultivating for "true" years and not years under time distortion.

Of course, the close to three years she had spent during this second visit to the Sky Seizing Castle, under distorted time or not, chipped away at her lifespan. Though, after making a double breakthrough from Transcendent Foundation to Core Formation, her lifespan had actually increased overall.

An average Core Formation Cultivator had a lifespan of 1,000 years; so what was there to say about someone like Elizabeth who had a Spirit Body count in the double digits from all the Energies she had cultivated, her half-completed True Grandmist Body, and semi-complete Exalted Core?

Still, Elizabeth found it amusing how the time aligned for her departure from the Sky Seizing Castle.

'I started cultivating in the middle of summer when I was fifteen,' She chuckled.

'Now I'm technically more than eighteen years old, but on Earth, today would be my sixteenth birthday,' she sighed in wonder of how quickly the time had passed.

'Five Earth months ago I was an aimless game addict and now—' She paused with a smirk before entertaining her self awareness, '—now, my obsession has made me a powerhouse at the Core Formation Stage.'

Elizabeth found Yrre outside, by the Sky Seizing Castle's entrance. With nothing for them to gain by staying around any longer, they promptly teleported back to Endrin.

…

During the eighty-plus days Elizabeth had spent in the Sky Seizing Castle, Ygny remained cultivating by the Ancient Redvile Temple. Naturally, as Elizabeth wanted to give her allies as much time to train while she was away, those eighty-odd days were impacted by the time distortion of her Shadow Realm Gateway Time Art.

Unfortunately, because she had to be present in the Shadow Realm to change its rate of time distortion, it remained at 36:24 despite her Understanding of Time rising to the level of two Profound Truths. As a result, only a hundred-twenty-some days had passed on Endrin.

To Ygny, who was several times older than Elizabeth and her party combined, the time spent cultivating by the Ancient Redvile Temple passed quickly enough. At his Level, it was common for cultivation sessions to last for years, but the hundred-twenty days provided a decent boost to his Cultivation Base.

The Nascent Foundation he had built up in the Transcendent Foundation Stage had even taken its next step towards complete saturation in the Foundation Collapse Stage; rising from Level 38 to Level 39.

All in all, Ygny was a talented Cultivator. Despite being born on a planet as backwater as Endrin, he had the potential to make it to the Nascent Stages. He was still young and his bloodline was naturally strong, having been born from the Monster King.

However, nothing could prepare him for what he would witness after Elizabeth and Yrre returned from the void.

"Did you really wait for us all these days?" Elizabeth's ever-neutral voice was the first thing Ygny perceived as his eyes had been closed while he meditated.

'What?!' Panic set in immediately as Elizabeth's voice came through sonically; not through a sound transmission. Somehow she had gotten so close without him noticing.

Ygny might have been able to hide his shock, had he kept his eyes closed. But, after Elizabeth's Wolf God Form underwent an evolution after mending Zhenlang's Soul with several Profound Truths that were compatible with his bloodline, she looked remarkably different.

[Innate Skills:

Name: Rudimentary Wolf God Form

Description: Evolved from the Infantile Wolf God Form upon acquiring Profound Truths for Wind, Earth, Yin, and a Bad Tier Affinity for Chaos, purity of the Primordial Ghost God Bloodline has reached 0.5%.

Effect: When assuming this form, all of the user's senses increase by a factor of ten. Additionally, Wind, Earth, Yin, Chaos Affinities and Understanding develops faster at a rate proportional to how complete the bloodline is.]

Whereas before, Elizabeth only had markings underneath her eyes while she was in the Infantile Wolf God Form, now it's Rudimentary evolution layered black inscription-like strokes from the top of her head down the length of her right hand in a diagonal fashion. To the layman, the markings looked innocuous enough, but Cultivators like Ygny could feel horrific insights into several Energies coming from them; as if Elizabeth was marked by the Energy Laws themselves.

Ygny had to actively fight the feeling of dread that arose when he carelessly tried to probe Elizabeth's cultivation as his Spiritual Sense was effectively pressured close to annihilation upon coming into contact with Elizabeth's Core Sense; that was when Elizabeth kept her Core Sense passive. With just a twitch of her Core Sense, Elizabeth could instantly kill any Cultivator in the Foundation Stages or below.

"Are you ok?" Elizabeth felt just the slightest bit of remorse as she read Ygny's expression. He had concealed it more than well enough to fool most Cultivators, yet not Elizabeth; especially after her proficiency in Acupoint rose to Saint Rank.

"Um… Yes," Ygny took a deep breath as he avoided eye contact.

"It's just, our Cultivation Bases… The gap is too large," Ygny concluded.

His problem was exacerbated by the lack of consolidation which Yrre had worried about before Elizabeth entered the Meditation Chamber for the final time. Though, in reality, Elizabeth had much more control than Yrre expected, else Ygny wouldn't have gotten off with just a feeling of dread from attempting to probe her Cultivation Base.

"Eh, it'll probably be alright after a couple days of consolidation," Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders.

"Now, um…" Ygny stumbled awkwardly as he felt an even greater pressure from Elizabeth than he did from his father, "Why don't we return to the palace? It's been months since your friends managed to clear three out of the four Trials of the Ancient Redvile Temple and they've been training with my family's Royal Arrays ever since."

"Sure," Elizabeth nonchalantly said as the most basic form of her Blood Blade Armament, Inferioria, appeared in her right hand after she retrieved it from her Spatial Ring.

"Here, let's take a shortcut," she said before the short blade transformed into a rapier.

With an unassuming thrust of Blade Armament's new form, a miniature wormhole of sorts manifested before Ygny's eyes. Ygny didn't know it, but the technique Elizabeth had used was completely dissimilar to Liam's; from the type of Energy used to its complexity, everything was different.

"Let's go," Elizabeth said as she slowly floated into the wormhole, completely confident in her ability to keep the construct stable for minutes if need be.

Speechless, Ygny followed and nearly fainted after spotting the Royal Palace not long after.

"W-what kind of ability was that?" He stuttered as this first taste of Elizabeth's ascendant power was left to digest in his mind.

[Status

Name: Gigadia Blood Armament

Spirit Grade: A-Ranked Core Armament

Speed: +1,575,000

Strength: +889,000

Description: Currently set to the Tertiary State of the Blood Armament's four available states, Gigadia takes on the form of a thrusting double-edged and pointed blade: a rapier. Its effects have improved after evolving to gain a Quaternary State and further boosted by the Tier 1 Enhancement of Gravity inscribed by its user.

Primary Effect: Speed in the Core Stages increases by 100% at a cost of 1 unit of Core Qi per minute.

Secondary Effect: Blade length can be increased to up to ten times its original size. Only usable on this Blood Armament's Secondary State or higher.

Tertiary Effect: Blade Qi can galvanize the blade's potential and release micro-blades after successfully piercing a target. Only usable on this Blood Armament's Tertiary State or higher.

Quaternary Effect: Blade Qi can be used to increase the blade's thickness by up to twice its original size. Exclusive to this Blood Armament's Tertiary and the Quaternary States.

Tier 1 Enhancement of Gravity: Doubles the potency of all Gravity-based Space, Time, or Spacetime Skills at or below a Spirit Grade of SSS, while reducing their cost by half.

Special Effect: Can evolve or devolve between Stages through its Master's will.

Skills:

Name: Spirit Mystic Art: Spacetime Blade Essentials

Level 62

Experience: 13,500,000/14,368,348

Spirit Grade: A

Primary Effect: Armed combat with a blade as a Cultivator in the Core Stages yields a 714% buff to Strength and Speed. (Total Applied: 714%; Total Achieved: 3,564%)

Secondary Effect: Distills the Essence of Spacetime into one's blade to make all Spacetime Skills easier to conduct.

Wielder of Spacetime

*New) Stage: 3

Current Effect: All Spacetime-related abilities become 100% more potent by simply using a blade. The more the Mystic Art is cultivated, the higher the Stage of this skill becomes, and the more Blade-Time abilities become available.

Sands of Spacetime

*New) Stage: 3

Current Effect: 10% of all damage dealt by Cultivators in the Core Stages is negated. This effect doubles for every Stage below the Core Formation Stage. Additionally, 1% of any energy source the user exhausts is not consumed.

Gravitational Supplementation

*New) Stage: 2

Description: Directed by the user's Understanding of the Spacetime Profound Truth of Gravity, Gravity-based Skills become increasingly easy to sustain and control.

Current Effect: Gravity-based Skills become twice as easy to sustain and control.

Name: Spacetime Art: Wormhole Gating

Level 62

Experience: 14,250,000/14,368,348

Spirit Grade: A

Energy Cost: 10 units of Core Qi

Description: Gained during the Spacetime Substation Trial in the Sky Seizing Castle, this Skill can potentially be used Offensively, Defensively, or Auxiliarily. The user uses their Understanding of the Profound Truth of Gravity to fold Spacetime such that a wormhole forms, resulting in either a monumental eruption of power should the wormhole close out of dysfunction or a method of long-distance movement for the user.

Range: 100,000 kilometers omnidirectional about the user. However, the farther the wormhole's range is set, the more inaccurate it becomes, unless the user can provide specific spatial coordinates.

Primary Effect: Creates a wormhole before the user. Size, stability, and range of the wormhole depend on the user's Understanding of Spacetime, intent, and method of creation.

Ultimate Effect: Volatile wormholes used offensively can detonate with hundreds of times the potency of the Core Qi used to create it.]

In the Challenge Chamber of the Skyseizing Castle, Elizabeth had spent several of the rewards that otherwise would have been left to gather dust. Among them, the choice of Cultivation Method she had been awarded from breaking into the Spirit Realm, was spent on completing the Space and Spacetime Blade Essentials. Despite being more a Skill rather than a fully-fledged Cultivation Method, she was allowed to ask for it.

Elizabeth naturally withheld the offensive ability of her Skill, else she might have frightened Ygny to death. She simply said, "I used the Profound Truth of Gravity to make a type of Spatial Gate."

Fortunately, Ygny was ignorant of the fact that the Profound Truth of Gravity belonged to the Spacetime Laws and assumed she was talking about an obscure Spatial Profound Truth. As his area of expertise had nothing to do with Space or Spacetime, for his sanity's sake, he wisely refrained from asking any more questions.