The next day Kieran followed the expedition through the forest.

The whole forest was quiet. Not a single crystal beast could be seen as if, in one night, they were all gone.

As he followed the expedition, he occasionally glanced at Anna walking silently beside him.

'Why is she walking next to me? Although having a pretty woman like her next to me doesn't bother me, I wonder why she's not upfront with the rest of her guild.'

Finally, he couldn't stand the silence anymore and asked a question.

"Do you need me for anything?"

"No."

Anna's face was still expressionless as she continued to walk.

Silence fell between the two for a moment before Anna finally spoke.

"Your ability looks like a lycan transformation. Your crystal tree must have a good grade to be able to kill a Bronze rank while you are only at the middle stage of Iron rank."

Kieran was surprised for a moment to hear Anna's voice.

"My ability isn't a lycan transformation. It's a wolf transformation ability."

"Wolf transformation? With such an ability, you shouldn't even have scratched the minotaur's skin, let alone killed it."

"I had a double awakening. In addition to the wolf transformation, I also have a giant transformation ability."

Kieran saw emotion for the first time on Anna's face. She looked at him with shock on her face.

"Did you cultivate both at the same time?"

"Yes."

"That's why you were able to kill the minotaur. Even if you are not yet a Bronze rank, your crystal essence is already at the same level as those who have just broken through in Bronze rank, and your body which has been nourished by so much crystal essence, must be closer to that of a Bronze rank too."

"Since I crossed this rift, more and more people have been able to identify my cultivation level. I wondered how you know how many crystal essences a crystal tree has? Is it only because you are sensitive to crystal essence?"

"In part."

Anna raised her hand in front of her, and a circle of crystal essence formed above her palm.

"The crystal essence is not only used to strengthen your body or your abilities. You can also use it outside your body. By creating a circle of crystal essence around you, you can detect anything that crosses it. We call it crystal sense.

Each time we cultivate, we refine our crystal tree, which in turn releases crystal essence which is unique to us, but this crystal essence changes drastically depending on the rate of refinement of our crystal tree. It is not for nothing that there are different stages at each rank. Each time we progress to the next stage, it brings an improvement to our crystal tree, thus changing the crystal essence that circulates in our body."

Anna paused for a moment to see if Kieran understood everything she said before continuing.

"Each cultivator or crystal beast constantly unconsciously circulates a tiny part of their crystal essence inside their body. Depending on your control over your crystal essence, you can use it to scan them and thus know their level of crystal essence. Apart from those who hide their crystal essence very well, you will be able to discover their level just by feeling this tiny part of crystal essence that circulates in their body, but when it comes to double awakened like you, that technique doesn't tell us your maximum of crystal essence, only the quality of it. The more your control over your crystal essence increases, the more easily you can change its form, even making it invisible to prevent others from detecting it is possible. Having a sensitivity to the crystal essence helps to make this operation easier to perform."

As Anna spoke, the circle of crystal essence above her hand moved non-stop, expanding and shrinking at will. Kieran watched the whole process with a contemplative gaze.

'I never thought of using the crystal essence in this way. I should try to learn more information when I return to Ozryn.'

He raised his hand, trying to replicate what Anna had done with her crystal essence.

Crystal essence slowly accumulated above his hand, taking the shape of a circle, but unlike Anna's, the one he had formed was unstable. He tried to enlarge it slowly when the circle dissipated.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

*sigh*

"It's not as easy as it looks."

"Without a high sensitivity to crystal essence, it takes time to master it," Anna said before looking in his direction.

"May I ask you why do you want to enter the secret realm?"

"I want to try my luck inside and try to get materials to evolve my crystal trees. If I can't find them, I hope to get enough treasure to be able to buy them. With the minotaur soul crystal there, I shouldn't need much to be able to buy everything."

"What materials are you looking for?"

"One Earth Elemental Stone Bronze Grade and one Fire Elemental Stone Bronze Grade."

Anna was silent for a few seconds before a red stone appeared on her hand, intense heat emanating from the stone.

"Is this a Fire Elemental Stone Bronze Grade?" Kieran asked.

Anna nodded.

"I can trade it to you at the market price if you're interested."

"How much does it cost?"

"Fire elemental stones are the most researched elemental stone, they are hard to find, and many cultivators want to form an evolutionary path tied to the fire element. A bronze grade fire elemental stone costs 36,000 nova credits. If you're interested, I can exchange it for the soul crystal of the minotaur in addition to adding 20,000 nova credits."

'36,000 nova... A Bronze rank soul crystal sells for at least 50,000 nova. On the other hand, the minotaur soul crystal isn't in high demand, so I doubt I can get much more than what she's offering me."

"Okay, I accept."

He took the soul crystal out of his aurora collar before proceeding with the exchange. A notification appeared in front of him, telling him that the money had been transferred to his account.

He looked at the red stone in his hand with a smile on his face.

'With this, the giant's transformation will be able to evolve to Bronze rank, and with the 20,000 nova I received, I only have to hunt around twenty Iron rank crystal beasts to have enough to buy the Earth Elemental Stone Bronze Grade.'

Away from the two, Alexei occasionally glances in their direction with a smile on his face.

'It seems that Anna has managed to get along well with him. It may still be possible to recruit him.'

Finally, after ten hours of crossing through the forest, Kieran saw long cracks in the space in front of the expedition.

Deep waves of crystal essence emanate from the cracks, sending chills to each cultivator present.

All the cultivators stopped one after the other as Alexei and the other guild representatives stood in front of them.

With a wave of Alexei's hand, a huge purple crystal two meters high filled with inscriptions appeared in front of him. When the purple crystal touched the ground, a formation with a diameter of 20 meters formed under it.

Following his example, the other guild representatives took out the same purple crystals from their aurora collars all around the space cracks.

Soon the entire space around the cracks was filled with twenty purple crystals, which formed a giant formation. It was then that the voice of Alexei's was heard by all the cultivators as their eyes were fixed on the purple crystals.

"These crystals are called crystal essence accumulators. Once inside their formation, you can conduct your crystal essence through the formation to infuse it into the crystal essence accumulators. Each crystal essence accumulator can accommodate 300 cultivators within it. Once the 26 crystal essence accumulators are filled, we will use them to pierce a path through the cracks and thus open the secret realm."

When Alexei finished speaking, each cultivator headed for one of the 26 crystals.

Kieran followed the movement, stepping inside the formation. He felt the crystal essence inside his body being slowly drawn to the formation beneath his feet.

'This formation attracts my crystal essence without my will.'

He glanced at the cultivators all around him, seeing them with an expression lost by what was happening inside their bodies.

"Let everyone concentrate their crystal essence within the formation to fill the crystal essence accumulators."

Following Alexei's order, each cultivator began to circulate their crystal essence inside the formation.

Gradually the whole formation began to light up with a blue tint as the crystal essence accumulators were filled.

After 20 minutes, a blue pillar formed on each of the crystal essence accumulators one after the other.

Once all the pillars had finished forming, Alexei walked in front of the crystal essence accumulator in the center of the formation. He slowly placed his hand on its surface when a circle filled with inscriptions formed in the air in front of him.

In an instant, all the crystal essence in the vicinity of the formation was attracted inside the circle of inscriptions while each accumulator of crystal essence emptied one after the other to be attracted in their turn.

A terrifying pressure was emitted from the circle of inscriptions that made all the cultivators tremble.

Alexei started gesturing in the air with his hands as the circle of inscriptions began to change, slowly rotating on itself.

"Crystal Essence Discharge!!"

Following Alexei's scream, a beam of pure crystal essence was emitted from the circle of inscriptions, which instantly pierced inside the spatial cracks.

A spatial distortion began to form where the crystal essence ray had pierced the spatial cracks.

The spatial distortion begins to vibrate and spin at high speed until it forms a gigantic swirling vortex. The surrounding air currents around the vortex were drawn towards it, causing the wind to howl.

Eventually, the rotation of the vortex began to slow, and when it came to a complete stop, every cultivator present could see a hole in space that was forming within the vortex allowing everyone to see what was on the other side, leaving each of them speechless.

A wave of thick crystal essence invaded the senses of all the cultivators as their eyes were fixed on a thousand steps made of white jade that formed a staircase leading to a huge palace made entirely of immaculate white stones with golden decorations.

In the sky above the palace was a giant golden sun that seemed to threaten to swallow everything within it.

The sight unfolding before them sent shivers down the spines of all the cultivators present.

After several seconds of being amazed by the scene, Alexei woke up.

"Let's go. Remember, once you enter the secret realm, you will be alone. Any treasures you find will be entirely up to you and your ability to keep them."

Alexei's voice woke up everyone as each of them began to be wary of those close to them.

Then without waiting for an answer, Alexei entered the secret realm, followed by the rest of the expedition.