After the events, Ruri spent time taking care of Lieson until he learned how to use his shapeshifting ability. Still very young and awkward, he needed guidance.
Meanwhile, the whale was checking all the internal facilities of the sect. The place looked like a small city, full of buildings. In the center, there was a huge area completely sealed by a powerful formation, accessible only to black disciples and Elders. There was no mystery about what was there: it was the heart of the formation where the Yin Chaos Dragon was sealed.
They weren’t in a hurry to access that place. Even if they could, it wouldn’t be worth removing the dragon’s seal now, as it could cause a stir across the universe. They were already lucky enough to free the Behemoth without being detected.
The gray disciples basically lived to complete tasks for the sect in exchange for points, which they could trade for resources or access to training fields.
They were forced to form factions because there were 11 sealed gray worlds that were visited annually. These worlds didn’t belong to any sect, and all sects sent disciples to explore them. To increase their chances of survival, the disciples would join factions for protection.
But all that lost its meaning. No one could take on missions anymore because they involved leaving the planet, and Mistie ordered the sect to close its doors, preventing anyone from leaving. The sect also decided to stop participating in expeditions to the sealed worlds, focusing solely on exploring the Twelve Peaks Forest.
In the end, only the training fields were left. But by the whale’s standards, they were ridiculously simple and too costly for the sect to maintain; the benefits for the disciples didn’t justify the expense.
Alm and Bruno saw the need for change. The Twelve Peaks Forest was already a far superior substitute for the sealed worlds, but if the disciples couldn’t cultivate properly, they would easily die in that place.
After hearing everything about the place from the group members, Bruno quickly thought of the best solution. What was the greatest weapon they always used to survive in dangerous places? Their sharp instincts and divine souls.
But it wasn’t necessary to have a divine soul; a powerful soul already allowed the cultivator to sense the environment around them more easily, drastically increasing their chances of survival.
The whale then summoned Mistie and asked for her authorization. "I’m going to build a new underground training zone for the gray disciples. Everyone can enter for free, but there will be very specific rules. The rewards, however, will be proportional to the difficulty; this opportunity could change their future forever."
Mistie’s eyes widened. Did he still have more surprises?
"You know the four Empyrean families who take care of my home planet?" the whale commented casually, and Mistie nodded. "You must also know they have a technique that turns their members into Empyreans. As you can imagine, my allies who came with me initially became Empyreans this way."
Mistie nodded again. The four families were rewarded for being descendants of companions of a hero from the past. The method to create an Empyrean was something of incalculable value and impossible to obtain. Few families or sects possessed it, and it was strictly forbidden to divulge or steal it; whoever did so would be considered a sinner and hunted by the heroes.
This was why the Yinblood sect didn’t even consider creating an Empyrean artificially. Suddenly, Mistie’s eyes widened, sensing the whale’s next words.
Noticing her look, the whale continued, "Yes, I have the technique. It’s simpler than you think, but becoming an Empyrean is a huge challenge. Ruri will create a formation for those who want to try. Those who succeed will become Empyreans."
Mistie froze. "You... you didn’t steal this technique, right?"
"Hm? No, Ruri is part of the Moonlight family. She received the method legally, and I’m married to her; it’s normal for me to know about it," the whale replied, innocently.
Mistie nodded, though she still felt something was off. Ruri did indeed have the characteristic appearance of members of that family. If this became a problem, they could justify it to the heroes; as long as it wasn’t stolen, they wouldn’t be punished. At most, everything would be destroyed.
The whale then began constructing a huge earthen building in the center of that area. In the underground, he called Coltia, who worked hard using the Void Dream Law she had recently learned from the inheritance.
She was still practicing but created a micro dream world a few meters wide that functioned as a battle arena. Then, Ruri and Coltia worked together to create a powerful formation underground.
It would be called the ’Empyrean Tower.’ Those who wanted to enter wouldn’t pay anything, but there would always be only two inside at the same time. Their souls would be transported to the dream arena, where they would fight each other using only the power of their souls.
Ruri set up the formation with the time-reversal technique. The goal was for the two cultivators to fight until one destroyed the other’s soul, but without anyone dying. With her knowledge of time laws learned from the Immortal Crane, Ruri was already able to use the technique on a smaller scale.
Those who managed to win a hundred consecutive fights would earn the ultimate prize: the right to climb to the top of the earthen tower.
The cultivation level didn’t matter much because, between a cultivator at the beginning of the divine realms and another at the last realm, the soul power difference would be at most twice. If the cultivation difference didn’t exceed three realms, the fight would be considered fair.
Everyone would fight using only the power of their souls, and in each battle, the soul would lose a lot of energy. It was theoretically impossible, with a normal soul, to win more than twenty fair consecutive fights.
However, if a cultivator tried infinitely, even being repeatedly defeated, their soul would grow stronger. Like the four beast races, eventually, they would have souls so powerful they could defeat a hundred opponents.
With this training, a shocking change would happen among the disciples in no time. Those who persisted and won, upon reaching the top of the building, would see the whale’s statue. Then, Bruno would turn them into Empyreans and, as a bonus, remove any remnants of the Queen that still lingered within them.
If the winner was well-intentioned and grateful, they might become devoted to the whale and join his group. If not, they’d just become a basic Empyrean without causing any trouble.
’This visit to the four nations brought us a lot of rewards. The calamity sent us to a gold mine,’ Bruno remarked mentally.
’Yes, but in return, we’ve been marked by the heroes and lost our anonymity,’ Alm replied with a sigh. ’We’ve gained a lot, but now, with the slightest mistake, we could lose everything.’
Mistie stared at the new earthen building, which looked like a tower, in complete shock. Alm and Bruno could easily turn anyone with potential into Empyreans, but they had to pretend it was extremely difficult to achieve.
They justified that all this training was part of the process of becoming an Empyrean. She had no idea that the disciples, by constantly killing each other, were actually strengthening their souls.
But indeed, only one in ten thousand would actually become an Empyrean. It was truly difficult, but both she and all the High Elders, as well as the gray and black disciples, rushed to try it out.
After finishing everything, Alm and Bruno focused on studying the new array and implementing the necessary changes.
Meanwhile, the group members were instructed to recruit the gray disciples, with incredibly high selection standards; they had a lot of experience and knew how to evaluate people. This was a good opportunity to start building their armies and take advantage of the benefits of the new array.
A month passed quietly until Bruno murmured in surprise, ’Someone succeeded so quickly?’
Before finishing the sentence, Ambry and Kisala called the whale.
They had fulfilled all the orders and reclaimed the place where their families lived in the forest, precisely where the two seals of the Chaos Yin Dragon were located.
The whale was the Sect Master and a well-known figure among all the Fey. Using his name, the two were accepted as leaders of their clans. However, they appointed a vice-leader to handle everything practically, as they didn’t want to leave the whale’s group and waste time managing the two clans. This was common practice, as the Yinblood Sect leader was also the leader of her clan.
At the center of these locations was a secret area, a dead zone with no life, where an immense pressure brought the Fey to the brink of death. The two clans used this area to train their minds, but the gains were minimal.
Ruri got excited with the news, and just as they were about to set off to explore the place, Idris burst into the room, ecstatic.
"Sir, my mother did it."
Bruno confirmed. Fiby, Idris’ mother, was the first to win a hundred consecutive fights in just one month.
"How many times did she lose?" Alm asked.
"She lost three times. I was with her every time, helping her train and win," Idris responded calmly.
Alm nodded, realizing that Idris had already become a reliable person with the right mindset. His mother, who was already talented, made great strides with her son’s help.
That test was basically about willpower and technique. You had to defeat your enemy as quickly as possible, without wasting energy, and endure the torture of having your soul weakened. She had already experienced high-level torture, which helped her a lot.
The whale, pleased, said, "Great, use my name to gather your father’s Blood Tears Fey clan. Then, go to your mother’s Aurora Fey clan and unite them all. I need your mother to become their leader so Ruri can easily access their secret location."
"Yes!" Idris replied seriously, already aware that Ruri’s goal was to gather the scales, which were in those places. Now, as a member of the group, he had received an important mission and had to meet expectations.
As soon as Idris left, Alm and Bruno felt satisfied. Bruno turned to Ruri and commented, "With this, you’ll have three scales to absorb soon." Ruri smiled, excited.
When they were about to head back to the forest again, they were interrupted once more. Quirio entered the room, bringing Mistie along.
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"Sorry, brother. I accidentally let something slip."
The whale turned to Mistie with a serious look. She smiled and said, "I heard you’re getting close to the biggest Fey clans?"
The whale nodded seriously, relieved that Quirio hadn’t revealed anything truly critical. Mistie was experienced and knew how to get information from her brother; Alm and Bruno always warned him to be careful not to reveal anything important.
"It happens that I’m the sect leader, but I’m also the head of my clan, the Haze Fey. Don’t you want to get close to my clan?"
The whale placed his hand on his chin and observed her carefully.
’If you do something to keep him close to me, I’ll give you whatever you want from my clan,’ Mistie’s voice echoed in the whale’s mind.
’I’ve told you before, my brother must want to stay close to you,’ the whale responded dryly.
Mistie’s eyes saddened. ’Don’t be so strict. I just want him to be closer, I won’t force anything. I hardly see him these days; it’s really tough like this. He’s so shy. If I become someone familiar who’s always around, he’ll feel more comfortable with me.’
The whale snorted, unsure how to respond. Love can’t be forced. If he doesn’t show interest, she might end up as just a close friend, which could be incredibly painful for Mistie.
’Give me another chance. Look, he’s recently started talking about his mother. He admires her a lot. I’ve already become someone he trusts, which let me get that information. All that’s left is for him to see me as a woman...’
Bruno snorted. He was talking about his mother? Was he a child or something? He thought seriously. Then Alm responded.
’I’ll allow it, but from today on, don’t take on a regular human form.’ Bruno and Mistie were confused and doubtful until Alm nodded and an image flowed into Mistie’s mind. ’This is our mother. Use metamorphosis to look something like this.’
’This... so tall and strong... does he like that?’ Mistie murmured.
’You have the advantage of shapeshifting. Where he grew up, there were a lot of big and strong women. Maybe he prefers something like that and finds your current form too weak and boring,’ Alm added.
Bruno jumped, and the image of Langrum and other hybrid women from his town popped into his mind. Except for the women from Montide, who were small like Ruri, almost two-thirds of the others were pretty strong and tall. This was because there were many hybrids with beasts, and when using metamorphosis, the women preferred to resemble Langrum, the inspiring leader of them all.
Quirio was born and raised among these women, and even his mother was like that. Maybe he really does prefer a more imposing and wild form.
The exchange of messages lasted only a few seconds. Quirio, anxious, knew they were talking mentally. Until the whale turned to him. "You leaked something without permission, that’s a serious mistake, young man."
Quirio’s eyes widened, and he lowered his head, regretful. "Luckily, Mistie is trustworthy. As punishment, you’ll stay by her side and train her rigorously until she wins the top prize in the Empyrean Tower."
Mistie’s eyes widened at hearing this. She had already won twenty victories, and now she would have to let herself be defeated so he wouldn’t leave. She turned to the whale with a cold look. Was he punishing her too?
"Yes! I won’t do it again," Quirio responded seriously. Mistie sighed, at least she got what she wanted.
’I want access to your clan’s training area, and I don’t want to have to explain anything,’ the whale sent the message, and Mistie nodded in agreement.
The two left together. The whale snorted heavily, but in the end, they still came out ahead. "Now it’s four scales," he said to Ruri beside him.
"Maybe five," Ruri replied lightly. "Remember Nafeyu? He and his brother are from the Whirlwind Fey clan and are gray disciples."
Alm and Bruno now remembered Nafeyu. He was their connection on the Pristine planet. When they met in the sect, he gave them a lot of information and also mentioned that when they became gray disciples, they could join his faction. (Chapter 532/533)
But now that they were so famous, he didn’t have the courage to try talking to them again. And the two had completely forgotten because they were so busy.
"During the week we were together, Nafeyu came to talk to Corin. He didn’t try to recruit us, but he wanted him and his brother to join us. Corin ignored him at the time, but now that Master ordered recruitment, Lansha tested them harshly. Surprisingly, they’re holding up. Now they’re being trained even more rigorously by her, but it looks like they won’t give up."
The whale nodded, and Ruri added, "It turns out Nafeyu’s brother is the closest candidate to lead the Whirlwind Fey. If he proves trustworthy until the end, it’ll be easy to take over the clan and then gain access to the place."
Alm and Bruno took a deep breath; with that, only two scales would be missing. Things were going so well that it felt like something disastrous was about to happen.
At that moment, it seemed the heavens heard. While they were reflecting on this, they suddenly felt a frantic movement coming from far away from the building. At the same time, a message arrived in their minds.
The message they received was from Nebai. At the same moment, Mistie returned to the room with wide eyes. The voices of the two sounded almost in sync.
"The Heroes! Something huge happened."