BOOM!
The sky and the earth trembled. A light illuminated, and destruction spread throughout the abyss like a literal divine annihilation. All the demons who had survived until that moment exploded into a bloody mist. Cultivation made no difference; only something terrifying that could make them resist and the purest willpower to endure without giving up being annihilated could keep someone alive.
Near the epicenter, Corin’s entire body began to explode. His will was ignited, and he gritted his teeth, clenching his muscles with all his might, trying to prevent the explosion from continuing. In his mind, only the whale’s orders came; protect!
Corin then turned and jumped toward the fallen demoness just behind him; that level of power would surely kill her, so he threw himself over her and embraced her with all his strength, using himself as a shield. Even if he died, he wanted to fulfill his master’s orders.
Calirer initially saw the unknown youth trying to direct the entire lightning towards himself, but it soon became clear that he couldn’t bear it. She closed her eyes, accepting fate, expecting it to engulf her in a second. However... she only felt her body being fiercely pressed.
Only each other’s heartbeats could be felt in the midst of that destructive sea of lightning. But Calirer felt no pain; those lightning bolts were still being absorbed by the unknown youth.
One second... two seconds... three seconds...
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His trembling body seemed on the verge of collapsing every second, but Corin refused to give up. And somehow, Calirer wasn’t receiving any of it. Then, instinctively, her body, mind, and soul moved, and her arms crossed over him with a strong and warm grip.
Corin felt like every millisecond was like the end of the world, but suddenly, he experienced an external warmth invading his body, something he had never felt before. His heart pounded for a few seconds. Then, he felt a hand touching his nape, and soon, his face was pulled... he realized he was in the middle of something soft. The hand gently ran through his hair, and he felt his mind and soul relaxing.
Two seconds passed...
Then, suddenly, Corin’s entire body lit up with boundless multicolored power. Every cell in his body roared, and something unexpected happened: all the bloodline runes on his body began devouring celestial power, much like the process of tattoos refining the runes. However, this time, the entire primitive bloodline seemed to ascend to another level and didn’t stop.
A minute passed... soon, the black clouds in the sky disappeared. The ground was a complete mess, and a lingering destructive aura was still present.
The soil swelled, and a blackened and charred hand burst from the ground.
The whale emerged, spitting out a mouthful of blood and also some broken pieces of his organs. Now, he was just a breath away from death. His entire body was charred, as the final attack was extremely terrifying. His insides had already been destroyed, and his body looked like a cracked porcelain pot.
The whale stood up with calm eyes, as if they were on a wild adventure. Pieces of his skin constantly fell to the ground, revealing his internal flesh. However, mentally, they wanted to jump for joy.
’Meridian Training Complete!!!!’ Bruno mentally spoke a bit breathlessly.
The two now separated souls were completely shattered and destroyed, not much better than the body. Even life force was severely lost, as they used the Eternal Bond alone, without Ruri to support them. They only sucked a bit of mental power through the array, but without Ruri present, it wasn’t enough, and they had to compensate with life force.
Everything was consumed... from the Yin absorbed from the black tower to the remaining divine QI from the main mission, and the power of faith... in the end, even the divine soul was used. But it wasn’t enough; so, as a last desperate resort, they redirected the power to their meridians.
In the end, after depleting all resources and reducing power by sixty percent, the remaining was used to refine the meridians and complete this physical cultivation training. It fell short... very little for the end, and definitely, the divine QI made the difference. Heaven’s Will seemed to foresee that they would need it, and even though it was little, it saved their skins.
As they turned to the side, looking for something distant, they clearly felt that Corin and Calirer were alive. But, upon meeting their eyes, a strange feeling permeated them.
’What the hell!’ At that moment, they experienced exactly what Langrum felt when seeing the whale and Ruri embraced in the desert city.
The two were alive, and... without clothes... hugging tightly. Unbelievably, Corin had no major burns or external damage, while Calirer seemed to only contain the wounds caused before by the demon. Corin’s face was firmly pressed between two elevated mounds, and Calirer seemed to want to keep him there forever, with her arm holding his nape.
’Cough, cough... how come there’s no harm to them?’ Alm said, after coughing, trying to push away that strangeness from his mind.
Curious, the whale tried to move towards them, but his body didn’t respond well. However, they soon turned to the other side and saw the earth opening up. A figure covered in black blood emerged, in an even more terrible state than the whale.
"How resilient you are, brother!" The whale didn’t miss the opportunity to taunt when their eyes met.
Everything in him — body, cultivation, QI, bloodline, and soul — was consumed. He burned everything, and the whale even saw him pulling out some strange bones to survive in the midst of the chaos. His state was so weakened that it was hard to say if he could even defeat a cultivator without cultivation. Only his eyes trembled violently upon hearing the whale’s words.
Alm and Bruno clearly realized that his soul was wounded to an almost insurmountable point. In the Spiritual Fusion Realm, the soul was refined by the heavens and ceased to be a normal mortal soul, acquiring slight divine properties. This was his greatest asset, and it was what allowed him to survive. However, he was on the brink of death, both in his body and soul; if nothing was done soon, he would perish.
The demon struggled to move, and then a dull glow appeared on his forehead. In the next second, a gray light enveloped him, and he disappeared.
Alm and Bruno immediately felt an urgency. It didn’t take long for them to realize that something was changing in the abyss. That realm of ashes, more specifically, the place where they were, next to the ancient black tower, was the center of the abyss.
’We have to flee; he must have a method to use the abyss to recover and survive,’ Alm said dryly. Then, they closed their eyes... and far away, Almin and Runula felt all the QI from their bodies being drained and flowing into the array.
Ruri didn’t have her QI taken, but she felt the movement and jumped with tears in her eyes, while Almin and Runula sighed in relief. He was alive and well enough to use the array.
The whale quickly recovered the minimum of his body. Ruri didn’t have much, and the other two, even though everything was taken from them, wouldn’t be completely restored. But now, they could move a little.
They took quick steps towards the two fallen. "Hey, lovebirds, save the continuation of this for later; species procreation can wait. We have to run!"
Calirer opened her eyes in alarm, then saw the whale looking at her and looked down. But... seeing that boy there... she felt an immense lack of will to remove him. But even if she wanted to, her body was previously destroyed and now hadn’t changed; she couldn’t move.
Corin, on the other hand, tried to get up... but his body wasn’t responding either. Despite looking fine on the outside, everything inside was damaged. The whale snorted; the two were in a deplorable physical situation.
"Corin, activate your bloodline to the max," the whale spoke, and he merely nodded, making Calirer give a slight sigh.
A multicolored aura slowly emerged... then the whale jumped when a ring of thousands of meters appeared and rose. ’What the hell, your bloodline is multiple times stronger. And this is just a remnant due to your injuries,’ Bruno spoke surprised.
’Can you feel it, Ruri?’ Alm spoke through the array.
’Yes! I will open it, master!’ Ruri immediately replied.
Now, Ruri was a cultivator of spatial laws, and through the array, she could transmit these laws or create a spatial connection. However, due to the distance, even through the array, it was difficult for her to know the coordinates. However, Corin’s bloodline was conspicuous, and the abyss was literally a giant hole. Ruri and the others were on the first level, and with the help of the array, she managed to see at the bottom a subtle and delicate glow, like a star in the night sky.
Then, knowing the coordinates, she released the spatial rune with her last strength. And soon, a fissure in space appeared in front of her.
As it opened, something flew out. It was two bodies firmly entwined. But Corin and Calirer were now wrapped in black fabric; courtesy of Bruno.
So, when the whale came out, the spatial rune was sealed. And this time, it was Ruri who jumped and clung to the whale, fainting immediately after.
"Come on, we have to escape the abyss," the whale spoke, turning to everyone who looked at him.