Breakthrough to Star-class
Seastar City was the capital of the Kingdom of Merlin. And with a population of 20 million people, it was one of the largest cities in the Europa Continent.
The Kingdom of Merlin was one of the superpowers on Gaia, a nation that possessed strong military, rich economy, and high-living standards. The kingdom was ruled by an absolute monarchy, and the royal family has a very high approval rating and was greatly revered by the citizen thanks to their well satisfactory governance and conducts.
Currently, Helena Carter was sitting in the middle seat of one of the three SUVs which were traveling at high speed through a highly-congested highway. She was accompanied by two men and another woman inside the car, including the cold man from earlier.
"Is that location still far, Ramon?" Helena asked the cold man, Ramon, who was sitting silently in the front seat.
Ramon turned his head behind, "No, Master. That place is located just outside Seastar's southern edge. We'll be there soon."
"Okay... But, are you sure the place is far enough from any settlements? Just like you said, it's not really far from Seastar." Helena inquired once more.
"Absolutely. Mary already scouted the place many times as soon after you've told us you'll be making a breakthrough in Gaia." Ramon confidently replied.
Helena shifted her gaze to the woman in the driver's seat, "Is that true, Mary?"
Mary, the SUV's driver, nodded, "Affirmative, Master. That place is quite and rather isolated despite its distance to the city. The concentration of martial essences around that place is also rich."
"How did you find the place?"
"I stumbled it coincidently about a year ago. Since then, I've been using the place to cultivate whenever it was my turn to rest from protecting your family. The other brothers and sisters also visited it occasionally." Mary answered.
"Very well. Everything is good then." Helena calmly said as she ended the conversation.
The reason they were traveling right now was for the sake of a very urgent matter.
Helena's cultivation was on the verge of a breakthrough. Together with her subordinates, they were heading for the place where Helena could execute her breakthrough peacefully and safely.
One of the things Helena was excited about after reincarnated into this world was the fact that the cultivation system in Gaia was almost strikingly similar to her previous life.
Cultivation in Gaia was segregated into seven classes: Bronze, Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium, and Diamond.
Each class was divided further into four sub-stages: Early, Intermediate, Late, and Peak.
Actually, there was another cultivation realm above the first seven classes, known as Star-class. However, because of the scarcity of information, common people only knew a little about that cultivation realm. Not to mention, there was only one cultivator from Gaia who has successfully managed to reach the Star-class so far.
Therefore, Star-class was almost a complete mystery to the people of Gaia.
But not for Helena. She was, in fact, extremely familiar with the Star-class.
Her cultivation currently stands at the peak stage Diamond-class, the highest of the seven classes. She was considered to be one of the most powerful people in the world.
However, Helena was completely not known to the public, at least not under her real name.
Diamond-class represents the apex powerhouse in the world of Gaia, as well as within Heavenly Tower's 1st layer. Presently, Gaia only has five Diamond-class rankers in total. A truly small number considering that the planet was populated by nearly 10 billion people.
Ranker was a moniker used in this world to describe cultivators or people who thread in the path of cultivation. Apparently, the usage was first originated from Heavenly Tower. Helena had decided to use this world's terms in her daily lives since her reincarnation, to make things easier and not confusing.
Each of those five Diamond-class rankers possessed unimaginable power and strength beyond what ordinary people could imagine. All of them enjoyed exalted statuses and were respected throughout the world.
Among the five, one was particularly special and tremendously famous as she was known as the youngest Diamond-class ranker of all time. A monster genius who was able to reach the highest of the seven classes before the age of 20.
Gaia's proudest daughter as she was called. A young woman that has the highest potential to become the second Star-class ranker from Gaia.
It must be known that the rest of the four Diamond-class rankers from Gaia were all old people, who have exhausted their potential and nearing the end of their lifespans.
Along with the ranker who already advanced to the Star-class, that young Diamond-class ranker has become the object of admiration and a goal to strive for by a plethora of youths across the world.
That young woman was precisely Helena Carter, who mostly operating under the alias: Amethyst Queen.
Using this alias, Helena always opted to stay under the radar and performed her activities in elusive manners. This was why her real identity remained unknown even to this day, except to a few individuals and of course, her subordinates.
After she regained the memories of her past life at the age of 4, she immediately started cultivating and building her own forces. When she was 11, Helena entered Heavenly Tower for the first time, expanding her horizon and experience.
Thanks to the vast knowledge and comprehension from her previous life, Helena was lucky to face only fewer hindrances during cultivation compared to other rankers. Her cultivation's speed was extremely fast and smooth. Any problems that occurred during cultivation, she could easily solve them within a short time.
At 19 years old, she finally broke through to the Diamond-class and later, successfully killed a Diamond-class ranker from a foreign world and occupied his territory, located in the most lucrative region within Heavenly Tower's 1st layer. Shocking the entire 1st layer and nearly every world connected to it.
Right now, who doesn't know the name of Amethyst Queen, the ruler of Purple Sky Castle?
She was someone who has raked a record of three Diamond-class and several Titanium-class kills in the span of merely three years.
And that formidable woman was currently in the process of making her breakthrough to the Star-class. If the news was spread out, undoubtedly, it will shock the whole world.
One hour later, the three SUVs arrived in a rural forest area. The only settlement nearby was a small village, just 10 km to the east.
After getting out of the car, Helena quickly scans the surrounding area with her Martial Sense.
Martial Sense was a sensory ability, capable of detecting and sensing various different kinds of situations and things within its coverage radius, similar to radar. It's an ability that only Gold-class or above rankers can have.
The stronger a ranker was, the more potent his/her Martial Sense would be. But Helena wasn't just some ordinary Diamond-class ranker.
As Martial Sense would only manifest when the soul of a ranker has undergone a major upgrade, which will happen when they breakthrough to Gold-class, and would grow further as long as their cultivation keeps rising, Helena's Martial Sense could be said dozens of time more powerful than ordinary Diamond-class rankers. Because her soul has been upgraded to the maximum level that mortals could reach.
After all, Helena was a quasi-immortal being in her previous life. Even though her physical body was destroyed, her formidable soul able to survive while only suffering small damage, which was now already entirely healed by the passage of time.
With her current power, Helena's Martial Sense could cover tens of kilometers of the radius. As a result, as soon as she deploys her Martial Sense, the entirety of the surrounding area was instantly covered and thoroughly scanned.
'Good, no one else here but us, even ordinary animals are scarce here. It's a perfect place.' Helena inwardly commented.
She also already found the exact place where she would make the breakthrough.
Several hundred meters forward, there was an open field right in the middle of the forest, where the concentration of martial essences was truly dense and rich.
"Ramon, I already know the place, I'm heading there right now. You know what to do, right?" Helena said to Ramon, who was standing right next to her.
"Yes, Master. You can count on us." Ramon replied with a serious face.
Helena nodded and then calmly walks alone, leaving her subordinates behind.
Ramon turned his attention to the rest of his comrades, "Alright... Master is gonna make her breakthrough now. We must make sure that nobody and nothing is going to disrupt her. Do all of you understand?"
"Understood."
"Roger."
Those people in black simultaneously complied.
Truthfully, even without being told, this group of men and women will no doubt try their hardest to protect Helena from any mishap. They absolutely won't allow any harm to befell upon their master.
Helena was someone who had saved all of them in the past. Each of them had their own story and difficulty, but Helena took them under her wing and rescued them unconditionally. She gave each of them a new life, guide them in cultivation, and kept them safe. Their loyalty to her was undying.
In fact, if Helena orders them to commit suicide, they would gladly do so without any hesitation.
These men and women each possessed formidable strength. Their cultivations were high. Due to Helena's guidance and combined with their own talent, the weakest of them already at Platinum-class while the strongest one, which was Ramon, was at late stage Diamond-class.
Together, every one of them served as both Helena's sword and shield, who will vanquish her enemies and defend her with their lives.
Therefore, with this conviction inside their hearts and minds, Helena's subordinates begin to perform the procedure to protect and isolate the surrounding area.
After her cultivation reached Silver-class, it's rare for Helena to operate in Gaia. She mostly does her things and adventures inside Heavenly Tower and would only return once in a while. However, she still had many enemies within Gaia and particularly, in the Kingdom of Merlin.
She didn't know whether they still hold grudges against her or not. To be honest, she doesn't really care about them at all.
But she wanted her breakthrough moment to be smooth and without being harassed by problems. That's why she picked this rural place and brought nine subordinates with her, just in case something happens.
Besides, there were three Titanium-class powerhouses within the ranks of Merlin's military, and several Platinum-class rankers belong to the local noble clans, even though Helena and her subordinates possessed the strength that could overwhelm all of them at once, It still unwise to alarm the kingdom at this moment. Not to mention, waging war against her homeland country would bring no benefit at all.
Walking alone through the darkness of the forest might be eerie and quite scary for most people, but Helena felt nothing of that. On the contrary, she was rather excited and a little bit impatient.
Not long, she made her way into the open field.
She can felt the richness of martial essence's concentration in this place.
'At least 3 or even 4 times denser than the outside. Almost reach Heavenly Tower's level… But how is this place still unknown? Did the kingdom's government never found it? Impossible…it's just 40 kilometers from Seastar, how could they not know about this place?' Helena wondered.
A location like this will normally become the target of any government or forces to covet. But somehow, the government of Merlin never found or perhaps never even knew about this place.
Since thinking about it further was useless, and also because that's not the reason why she was here, Helena tossed away her thoughts, and instead, shifted her focus back to her original intention.
A while later, at the center of the open field, Helena begins to sit down in a cross-legged position on the ground.
Bzzzt!
Bzzzt!
A huge dome of blue light was formed above the open field, enveloping the forest entirely.
It seems Helena's subordinates have spread themselves throughout the area surrounding the forest, and they have deployed a high-level formation array, which had been taught to them by Helena herself, according to the arrangement they have made before.
The array completely isolated the forest from the outside world, blocking off any martial essence's wave from coming out and preventing any sound from escaping.
Seeing that everything was in place, Helena closed both of her eyes and shutting off all of her senses.
Next, she starting to circulate the martial essences inside her body per the instructions of cultivation art that she was practicing.
Basically, in order for rankers to be able to raise their cultivation, they need to absorb martial essences into their bodies while at the same time practicing their choice of cultivation arts. The essences they have absorbed will be purified inside their body, and as a result, cultivators' physical strength will be enhanced further.
Every living being has the so-called Meridian which spread out within their bodies. This meridian was the main organ line, where the absorbed martial essences will circulate during cultivation until it reaches the state of enough purity that it can be used to strengthened one's body.
However, meridian would not be completely linked due to the existence of clogs, which partially hindered the circulation of martial essences. Most of the time, there would be too many clogs inside one person's meridian that would render him/her unable to either sense or absorb martial essences. Thus, it explains the 'talentless' people's inability to cultivate.
The higher the percentage of the linked meridian that rankers have, the faster their cultivation's speed would be.
Although having 100% linked meridian would not make someone unparalleled, since there were other important factors that could determine the success of one's cultivation, there was still some correlation between the percentage of linked meridian with how much talent a person has.
Most rankers with average talents would have 40% of their meridians linked, while the ones with top-notch talents have 60% linked meridians. Helena for example, had a 60% linked meridian when she was born. That's why since a child, she's already regarded as a genius.
According to Gaia's common sense, the condition of one's meridian was fixed since the day a person was born and it could not be altered. Hence, there was a notion that talentless people were fated to be unable to cultivate at all, no matter how hard they try.
However, this was nothing but a misconception.
Helena does not know the reason why the natives of this world have that kind of notion. She postulated that, maybe, it was because cultivation heritage in Gaia was still very shallow. After all, their martial era only begin 150 years ago. Understandably, many trials and errors still persist.
They didn't know that meridian's clogs could be forcibly opened.
But, the process of opening even a single clog will be tremendously painful.
Not to mention, it was extremely risky! One mistake was enough to damage someone's meridian beyond repair and made them into a cripple.
The danger of clearing meridian's clogs has stopped many cultivators back in Helena's past life to even think of performing the act. Besides, the act of opening clogs could only be done by high-level cultivators or divine doctors, in which both did not exist in this world.
Therefore, theoretically, everybody, no matter who they were, unless if their meridian were destroyed, have the potential to cultivate.
Once a person was able to cultivate, they need to keep accumulating the purified martial essences until their meridian was full and packed, which signified the time for breaking through to the next class. And if they succeeded, then their meridian would expand to allow more amount of martial essences to be absorbed.
Cultivators with larger martial essences' pool would be able to execute more profound combat techniques or skills. That was one of the reasons why strong rankers could overpower the weak ones.
As a former near-immortal being, it's obvious that Helena had some tricks to opens her meridian clogs. However, she already cleared and linked her meridian completely, so there's no need for her to do that again.
The cultivation art that Helena has always practiced ever since her reincarnation was called,
It was a different art than the one she practiced back in her previous life.
Due to her new feminine body, she was unable to practice her original cultivation art as it was unsuitable for females.
Soon, a dense swirl of martial essences begins to converge around Helena.
Winds and dust were blowing chaotically as Helena unleashed her power that she always held back most of the time.
The martial essences inside her meridian keep circulating near the speed of light.
The Star-class represents the untouchable level. It was technically the first major hurdle in the path of cultivation.
For Diamond-class rankers to successfully breakthrough to the Star-class, they must form the so-called Star Core inside their bodies.
Star Core was basically a condensed form of a meridian which has been forcibly melded, changing its structure, as well as its function completely.
The procedure to form a Star Core was too complex and difficult for many rankers, and not to mention, extremely painful. The process must be done carefully, meticulously, and under proper guidance. Otherwise, meridians would be damaged or worst, completely destroyed.
Most Diamond-class rankers have been prevented from advancing further due to these elaborate and complex procedures. Some of them couldn't progress simply because they didn't even know how to form a Star Core due to the limited information and heritage.
Hence why, within Heavenly Tower's 1st layer and every world connected to it, the amount of Star-class rankers were truly scarce. According to rumors and hearsay, no more than 50 individuals.
But obviously, as a person who used to be just a step away from ascending to the Divine Realm, Helena had no problem forming her own Star Core.
Boom!
A booming sound resounds throughout the forest.
Helena's meridian was twisted and melded repeatedly. Changing its size from spreading out evenly to slowly gathering to the center of her body.
She gritted her teeth, resisting the horrible pain that can cause death to lower class rankers. A copious amount of sweats drenched her whole body and also, her dress.
After what it felt like an eternity…
Boom!!!
Another boom resounds.
A ball of glowing light the size of a tennis ball appeared within the center of Helena's body. Just like a star floating in the outer space, the ball was rotating endlessly albeit faster than the speed of light.
Helena's meridian was finally condensed and has been turned into a genuine Star Core.
The core purified the martial essences she absorbed at a faster rate and better efficiency than before.
Helena's overall aura has changed, her demeanor became even more exaggerating. She could felt that her power has grown exponentially,
Her cultivation officially entered the Star-class.
She was the second ranker from Gaia who managed to progress beyond the first seven classes. There's no doubt that this achievement was truly remarkable.
Star-class has three sub-stages: Birth, Fusion, and Neutron.
Thus, Helena was currently a Birth stage Star-class ranker.
As her cultivation stabilized, the chaotic situation around the forest returned to normal.
She checks her body and found herself drenched in sweats. Even her black dress was completely wet as well. Moreover, she smells really dreadful.
Helena sighed and thought, 'I need a bath... Urgently.'