The whale and everyone were intrigued; it was a creature that couldn’t be determined if it was a beast, a spirit, or something common. Soon, Alm and Bruno thought of various things that existed only in the realm of gods. This planet had already shown numerous connections with the upper world; it wouldn’t be a surprise to have one more.
Then, the whale spoke emotionlessly. "Does this ’monster’ have cultivation? What is their danger level?"
"No one could identify any cultivation, or even a core in that thing. But at the same time, even someone in the middle of the Core Formation Realm would have difficulty defeating it," said the dwarf king seriously. "The secret tunnel connects to a lower cave where we don’t know its real size; right at the beginning of it was where we found the gigantic moon crystal. These monsters live inside the cave and don’t allow us to fully explore everything. If we stay at the entrance, few attack us; so we only benefit from the tip of the iceberg."
"Although its individual attack power is minimal, basically using the laws of the earth, its defense is powerful enough to easily destroy our weapons," the dwarf finished, then continued with a bit of pride in his words. "It’s a plague that no one knows where it came from, but we dwarves equally benefit from it. By killing one of them, a large amount of Qi and laws of the earth is dispersed in the environment; we use the place for mining and practicing bloodline use, also cultivating our people. Even as forgers, we have an average cultivation level just below the Three Extremes Sect. Our natural affinity to the earth has blessed us with this opportunity."
Alm and Bruno nodded, having some ideas. The monster used the laws of the earth and prevented exploration as if it were a defensive program or in search of something. It seemed to be driven by a will, similar to the queen’s will. But using the laws of the earth and being very close to many of these crystals, they could only think of one thing: the behemoth.
The whale then, seeing the dwarf king’s proud expression, spoke dryly. "Cultivation for cultivation solves nothing. Despite the high average level, Ruri alone could wipe out all the soldiers. Against the general, it would be a complicated fight due to the cultivation difference, but she would never die. You don’t know how to use what you have, and even if you have an average cultivation equal to the sect, you would be easily massacred."
The dwarf king narrowed his eyes; he couldn’t deny it. He had seen the girl in action himself, and this problem had been clear for a long time. But...
The whale continued, "However, on this planet, humans are the majority. And humans care about appearances and fear the powerful. So, having a high cultivation has an efficient defensive effect, even if it’s just illusory," added the whale, as if easily reading the dwarf’s thoughts.
The dwarf only agreed with a glance and didn’t respond. The whale then continued to speak quickly. "Anyway, I can take everything I can from that cave, right? If I hypothetically mine that giant crystal, it’s mine, right?"
The whale’s words were said casually, but the dwarf king and everyone in the hall jumped. The whale wasn’t joking; if he said that, he could somehow make it happen. The dwarf king just widened his eyes, but there were no precedents or rules for this.
"Everyone who entered there got very little. Only the dwarves, being familiar with the laws of the earth, end up getting something more. So, those who entered always got everything," commented the thoughtful king.
The whale then didn’t let him reflect too much. "Great, let’s go there now."
They spoke while moving, and the king didn’t mind. He had some confidence in this human, and he felt that he wouldn’t do any harm. If he wanted to, he would have simply entered there without bothering to ask for permission.
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Soon, the new general of the dwarves was called, a young man who had fought for decades in the secret cave cultivating himself. All dwarves passed through the cave at some point to cultivate. Even the king’s daughter, Oldis, spent years there; hence, her cultivation was so high, but her talent stood out more than the others. The king himself had the longest time there until now, and, for his achievements in cultivation and leadership, he was chosen as the new king.
As for Vuard, due to the king demanding that he become a master forger to marry his daughter, he gave up on that and ventured into the world in search of that goal. Hence, his cultivation was minimal. In the dwarf realm, Vuard saw no hope of evolving, so he decided to let fate guide him towards this goal by adventuring into the world; in the end, his risky decision proved to be correct. Alm and Bruno knew this information from Ruri, who already knew a lot about the relationship of those dwarves.
The new general personally escorted the group of four ’humans.’ They entered a random room on the ground floor of the castle, and the general activated numerous hidden formations.
Everything was well guarded, and the room was indistinguishable from the others, making it impossible to find the entrance without knowing its location. Not even Alm and Bruno were sure they could find the entrance in a short period; it was well-planned to delay any invader, unlike the secret entrance of the Divinestone clan, which was ridiculous in comparison.
In no time, they descended through an entrance going deeper into the earth. Everything was dark, and the temperature became scorching as they descended. The general was concerned about the cultivation of the girl and the young man; the environment was very harsh and inhospitable for those who were not dwarves, but they seemed to be on a walk in the park. That, compared to the realm of ashes, couldn’t even be put on the same table.
They went down and down, walking non-stop for half a day. Soon, a silver illumination covered everything around. As they looked ahead, they saw the tip of a colossal moonlight crystal.
Next to the crystal, hundreds of dwarves meditated with their hands on it. The power of their bloodlines could be felt; they were burning everything to mine a bit of it. And around them, hundreds of other dwarves, of various cultivations, were armed and vigilant.
"Everyone has spatial rings filled with weapons. As powerful as they may be, they break very easily against the monsters. Every day, several monsters attack, and they face them here, taking turns every month with other dwarves," the general spoke lightly to everyone.
The whale nodded and bid farewell to the general; they would go alone. Alm and Bruno passed by the grand moonlight crystal and clearly felt their bloodline and the soul fragments they received vibrating. Inside the crystal, there should be a fragment hundreds of times larger than the one they absorbed.
As they entered and took quick steps, everything became dark due to the countless earth runes covering the cave. Alm and Bruno then felt, with their divine souls, the entire interior of the cave.
’It’s not excessively large. But these monsters... we have to analyze them closely; I feel a subtle connection to their bloodline.’ Bruno commented, taking quick steps with the whale.
Alm and Bruno felt the bloodline pulsating so subtly that they could barely sense or judge the connection to the monsters. Soon, in a few minutes, they encountered the first of them.
It was... strange, to say the least. It looked like a rock block but had six legs made of smaller, rounded stones. It walked in a peculiar way, and countless earth runes followed its movement.
’This looks like a creature from a certain game with pocket monsters... Well, let’s run some tests,’ Bruno said and first tried to manipulate the laws of the earth around the monster.
The laws were not inert and seemed to have minimal consciousness while controlling the monsters. Soon, they activated their bloodline, making their eyes light up. The creature simply ignored them and continued rolling in their direction.
’Hm... maybe the soul fragments?’ Bruno thought and moved the fragment he received inside the prison and the one he gained inside the moonlight crystal.
The air chilled with the power of the soul, everyone in the group watched the creature with curious and intrigued eyes. Then, suddenly, the creature froze.
The whale smiled internally; it was as expected. ’Definitely has the same origin as the moonlight crystal; the behemoth is involved in this,’ Alm said coldly, then they walked quickly towards the monster.
The monster remained completely inert and motionless, and the whale did not hesitate to touch its cold, rocky surface. Soon, he felt a will imprinted inside the monster.
’It’s the same method as the queen,’ Bruno stated with conviction. ’The will sensed that we were of the same origin and lowered its defenses, so we could easily invade its runes. Let’s head to the end of this place and gather more clues.’
Alm then looked around and spoke calmly. ’No need to hurry. These strange golems are good for training, and the accumulated laws of the earth are a treasure of QI.’
Quickly, the tattoos lit up, and all the laws of the earth were converted into QI. The whale called Ruri and transferred everything to her. Soon, her body made a muffled sound, breaking through a level.
"Corin, you can only use your spear and your physical power to attack. Train your concentration and movement technique," Alm said, turning to them. "Ruri and Loeus, these monsters’ defense is extreme. You should only attack to push them away, or they will destroy your weapons. So, identify a weaker point in the rocks of their bodies and cut to bring them down slowly. We have free time, so let’s advance and cultivate ourselves."
"YES!" Everyone responded energetically.
Soon, they moved forward carelessly. It was a chance for everyone: when few earth monsters appeared, the young ones fought. Eventually, a dozen or even several dozen came; then Alm and Bruno took the opportunity to observe their use of the laws of the earth. That defense was powerful, and they felt it could be useful for them.
At first, Corin struggled without being able to use his QI or bloodline. The monsters didn’t have great offensive capabilities, but that was only if you used your QI. Soon, Corin, who led the way, was hit and beaten several times; but with the whale guiding and cursing, he quickly got the hang of it. The pain of the mistake was the best teacher. In his case, he broke so many bones in a single day that he no longer felt pain.
He had always relied on his bloodline and was finally learning to fight without depending on anything, even if he was without QI or without weapons, he should raise his fists and fight; that was the whale’s principle.
Loeus and Ruri had a moderate difficulty. Loeus cracked his sword in several places, almost destroying it; it was difficult to hit exactly the weak point. But over time, he began to use his Yang power to create chains to restrain the monster and hit it. The whale was satisfied; he had managed to adapt his power creatively, which, in the midst of battle, was a valuable weapon.
As for Ruri, the whale had to criticize her several times. She couldn’t attack with all her strength for fear of breaking her new katana. But after a while, she seemed to light up. And with only mental power, to the amazement of Alm and Bruno, she mastered the subtle will inside the earth monsters. Her mental power was already something frightening for anything without much intelligence, even being a powerful and divine will. As a result, with a single movement, they were destroyed.
Three months passed slowly. After collecting the laws and transforming them massively into QI, within an area closed off by the whale, Ruri finally began to break through realms. Her core began to form, progressing towards the Core Formation Realm. The whale acted quickly, guiding her through the array.
’Use your mental cultivation, activate it all, and add it to the core to expand it.’
It was a method similar to what Alm and Bruno did when forming their core, but they used physical cultivation instead. Ruri sweated and obeyed her master, with the whale providing support, analyzing the condition of her body and guiding her at every step. After several minutes, everything calmed down, and Ruri opened her eyes.
"Good job, your core is now twice the size of an ordinary cultivator." The whale congratulated her. Corin felt intimidated by her dense core, but the whale had already told him that in the future, there were methods to improve the core, and this difference would be diluted.
They then moved forward, and now Alm and Bruno focused more on themselves. After another two months, they reached the innermost part of the cave, and finally, new monsters appeared. They were similar, but within them, several fragments of moonlight crystals existed.
These new monsters only existed in the depths of the cave, and the dwarves probably never saw them. Their power was multiple times greater, but the rewards were equally superior. After countless monsters were killed, the trio of companions fought hard, and their techniques were refined to a frightening level.
Now, almost all the rewards went to the whale. Soon, Alm and Bruno were excited, finally ascending from the elementary level to the first level of the Heaven Stage Realm.
Excluding Almim, the burden decreased significantly. But still, Ruri broke through at her own expense to the first level of the Core Formation Realm. Runula reached the seventh level of the Elemental Condensation Realm. She had already accumulated a lot of QI in the abyss, but only now, with the ’help’ of the whale, did she advance. Corin also advanced to the first level of the same realm as the whale. And Loeus stopped at the fifth level of the Core Formation Realm.
In the end, after five months of walking in the cave and cultivating calmly, they finally found themselves in a closed silver world, reaching the bottom of everything. In front of them was a giant crystal block, fifty meters tall, much larger than the one at the entrance.
’Throughout the inner part of the cave, there are no crystals; those superior monsters must have devoured everything. In the beginning and at the end, there are only giant crystal blocks... probably at both points, there is not just a will, but a large fragment of the behemoth’s soul.’
Alm commented, while Bruno was speechless with excitement. That crystal had an affinity with life, something Bruno mastered due to having a Yang soul. So, when they decided to make a weapon with the moonlight crystal and use the new runic seal, it would obviously be combined with the power of faith and Yang. What would come out of it was unpredictable, but Bruno could hardly wait.
The whale moved slowly, and they had no doubt about the next step. So, they touched the giant block of silver crystal and used their souls to invade it without hesitation.
In the next second, they found themselves in a brown earthy world. But... now they turned and faced gigantic eyes that were looking in their direction. They wouldn’t be surprised anymore, and they wouldn’t play defensively anymore. So, a sinister smile appeared on both souls.
’In this crystal, you’ve put a large amount of your soul... you better start talking, or we’ll have to take some not very pleasant actions.’ Bruno said softly before Alm started to act recklessly.