It was early morning when a patch of the sky above the Black Forest darkened with storm clouds. These were celestial tribulations, marking the moment Quirio and Zaimo were breaking through to the Body Destruction Realm.
Meanwhile, the whale was inside the mountain, hands on Calirer’s forehead, analyzing her carefully. She was completely comatose, her body covered in pulsating demonic bloodline runes.
Calirer had absorbed the pure and dense bloodline of three of the four Empyreans, while Runula took the last one. Calirer’s bloodline was already dense enough, but now it had reached the next level, and she was undergoing a new metamorphosis.
Alm and Bruno were helping stabilize the bloodline runes faster. There was no time to waste; danger was at the door, and more bloodline could arrive at any moment.
It took half a day for Quirio and Zaimo to finish their tribulations and the first reconstruction. The whale then removed his hand from Calirer’s forehead, confirming everything was complete and that she would wake up soon.
Corin, after helping those two, ran to Calirer’s side, watching her with a fascinated look. Physically, she hadn’t grown, but her previously defined muscles had disappeared. Her horn was still present, now radiant and much more powerful-looking. Her dark, wavy hair flowed with an ethereal movement. Her previously dark skin now glowed with a bluish tone, and a subtle scarlet aura surrounded her, intensifying the atmosphere around her and complementing her new mystical appearance.
The whale also took a second look, noticing she was now a completely different person from the first time they saw her. It was impossible to connect the two appearances to the same person; she was now hypnotically beautiful. At that moment, the two Feys woke up, and Ruri sent a message.
He moved to another cave where they were. Upon entering, he saw Idris and Ruri trying to calm them, but the Feys’ gazes turned to the whale suddenly, and they reflexively started to cry.
"Again with this? Are you crying now for all the times you didn’t cry in your life?" The whale spoke dryly.
"Sir... I..." Ambry tried to say something but couldn’t.
"Forget it. The moment I sent you, I knew this could happen. But there was no way to avoid it, or you’d be labeled traitors and expelled from your clans," the whale said emotionlessly.
"Well, now you see reality more clearly. Race, clan, sect, etc... these things are fleeting and meaningless. The only thing that matters is what people have inside them. Look at Idris; he’s a little Fey from a pathetic clan you’d never give a second glance. But he didn’t leave your side and would do anything to help you if he could. I can guarantee he has no ulterior motives; he’s an example of what truly matters, remember and value that. Fight to protect and become adults who foster this."
The whale turned to leave, but Kisala spoke quickly, in desperation. "Sir, forgive us. Please, don’t expel us."
The whale turned to them, and Bruno remembered emphasizing that he didn’t tolerate betrayals or similar things. Looking into their tearful eyes, he saw clearly that they had completely changed and grown. The path to becoming decent adults was already laid out; from today on, they would act differently in the world and become trustworthy.
"Why? You contributed to everyone getting stronger. Calirer and Runula gained a lot thanks to you, and everyone will become stronger," the response was dry. "You’ve already wasted half a day, stop crying and go cultivate."
"Yes!"
They responded energetically, and the whale nodded. The tattoos on their wrists glowed, and he gently infused the two and Idris, who was nearby; all accepted without hesitation. It took a minute, and the whale withdrew.
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"Ruri, teach them how to use this power quickly. We don’t have free time."
Ruri smiled gently, her eyes full of tenderness. As soon as he left, the three seemed to come back to their senses, and a golden mark pulsed on their foreheads. They were now Empyreans like the others and were accepted as part of the group.
Alm and Bruno had concentrated all the heroic power from those four into the three. They could have distributed it to the others in their group, but it wouldn’t have made much difference. Transforming the three would increase the group’s power more quickly. The Qi from those four demons would be used for cultivation, while the divine Qi from the queen’s domain would be kept as a trump card for the future.
Alm and Bruno spent the rest of the day analyzing the underground and the planet’s core. In two days, another batch of Yinblood Jewelry would emerge a few kilometers away. The draconic beasts were being nurtured and trained, and their allies were in intense training; everything was progressing while they walked on a knife’s edge.
’Last night was the best chance they had using their own forces,’ Bruno reflected mentally.
’They can’t increase their power level. If I were them, I’d start pressuring in a more sinister way,’ Alm said coldly. ’In a little over two months, the sect’s sealed world will open, and we’ll be forced to enter. It’s a sect-exclusive place, but they’ll certainly find a way in by buying off the High Elders.’
Bruno agreed and added, ’There’s a cultivation limit to enter, and they’ve already realized it’ll be tough to kill us with people only in the Divine Origin Realm. Their goal will be to wear us down until then, then inside, they’ll devour us.’
How they’d do that was the question. Sending more demons would only feed them and waste many cultivators. The answer for Alm and Bruno was as clear as day, and ironically while it was still day, proof knocked on their door.
’Sir, several Fey sect disciples are approaching the mountain,’ Runula, who was training the beasts outside, said through the array.
The whale stepped out slightly and saw hundreds of sect disciples divided into two factions approaching. They belonged to the Feral Fey and Barbarian Fey clans.
When they saw the whale coming out, their eyes turned red, and a small Fey roared, "YOU EVIL HUMAN! HOW DARE YOU TAINT MY CLAN’S NAME! RELEASE MY SISTER!"
The whale looked at him without any emotion, and at that moment, Ambry quickly came out, stunned.
"Veian, what the hell are you talking about!?" She said dryly to that Fey.
Pointing his axe at the whale, he simply said, "Sister, I’m here to save you! He won’t leave here alive! All the clans have been mobilized!"
"What are you accusing me of, and what proof do you have?" The whale said lazily.
He twisted his face and threw something at the whale. "You bastard! Everyone got the images, there’s no denying it!"
The whale caught the object, a Jade Slip with some recorded images. He looked at its content and sighed. There were Kisala, Ambry, and several other Fey girls they had never seen before. All were tied up, and the whale was capturing them, doing abusive things, and placing a sinister seal on them.
It was a simple image manipulation for a high-level cultivator. From a certain cultivation level, no one was stupid enough to believe images, no matter their nature. If these Feys thought a little, they could see the manipulation. But surely their clans were corroborating this, encouraging them.
At the same time, it was incomprehensible to everyone why these two Feys, who were the most talented and prestigious from the major clans, were so faithfully with him. During the recruitment, they put on a show that left them stunned. Now, this explanation fit well in their minds.
’So that’s it. They won’t send assassins so often; they’ll use the sect disciples to attack us. But by the rules, we can’t kill them openly. We won’t gain anything and will be attacked day and night relentlessly,’ Bruno said, scoffing.