A massive and round man was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere as he stared intently at the young woman sleeping on the bed. Drops of sweat slowly trickled down his chubby face, and if anyone else had been in the room, they would have felt the sour odor emanating from his entire body. Of course, in the face of this scene, which was unsettling and disturbing, that would be the least of their concerns.
'What the hell is this?' Zane retorted. They had only activated the tattoos, but they felt a dense and formidable barrier.
'She obviously has a higher and more stable cultivation level than her subordinates, but her body... we can't even penetrate her meridians,' Gael said as he focused again on the sensations from the collecting technique.
'Someone with this level of physique on a mortal ascending planet? This is ridiculous; she's still a woman. She's already in a deep coma; let's use everything we've got. She might be the answer we're looking for,' Zane said, now manipulating the Qi within the tattoos with sinister intent.
'No. Take it easy, or we'll kill her. Her meridians are securely protected by a strange physical purity and hardness; she seems to have skin from a divine beast,' Gael quickly replied, using the Yang tattoo to restrain Zane's Yin.
'You and your ridiculous compassion. We have to read her memories, even if it's by force. A clan that, even judged by low and mediocre standards, has no physical refining skills. She, unlike us, is entirely human,' Zane said with a harsh tone.
Gael then calmly observed the young woman's physique for a few minutes and commented, 'It's not something exceptional; the issue is that we're still weak. It seems she underwent a true bloodbath against demon beasts, and the resentment and fury contained in that blood seeped into her body.'
'A brat who probably hasn't even killed an insect? Don't be ridiculous,' Zane said impatiently as he discreetly tried to use the power of the tattoo on her soul.
'Stop! Don't be impulsive.' Gael mentally shouted before adding. 'Can't you see? This seems like a crude and unusual refinement. But didn't you hear what I said about where our clan is located, you idiot?'
'This is one of the oldest clans on the planet, and at the same time, they have low and mid-level cultivators. How many clans are destroyed every year on a planet of this size? A clan of this level would need a lot of luck to survive for so long; otherwise, it would be impossible,' Gael said severely.
'We're not experts in alchemy, but extracting the beneficial part of the blood and core of beasts is a high-level job. It would be suicide to attempt something like that, even for us.' He guessed that the young lady's unbelievable meridian features had to be due to something the Divine Realm cultivator did. That she probably got some kind of physical changing pill that caused her meridians to be like that. Someone like that could indeed have a level high enough in alchemy to achieve it.
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'Even if the cultivator in the divine realm is involved in this, why would he give a pill or something to a slightly above-average cultivator from this pathetic clan?' argued Zane.
'The clan is hiding something very deep; we have to read her memories, but without killing her. Let's use all the Qi we've collected to break her defenses first, and after we have a bit more information, we can steal Qi from her body,' Gael said, somewhat reluctantly.
'You idiotic bastard, do you want to burn the Qi of five people just to save one ridiculous woman? We could easily reach the sixth or seventh level with this; you must be kidding,' Zane mentally shouted.
'Stop complaining,' Gael replied, not leaving room for negotiation. 'I won't kill her just because we want to find out something. She hasn't done anything deserving of death; losing all her cultivation is punishment enough.'
Zane felt intense anger, almost making him spit blood, but he finally came to the conclusion that it would lead to nothing. He understood that discovering what was happening could result in greater benefits than the stolen Qi, trying to come to terms with this idea.
Shortly after, the two runic tattoos on the palms of their hands lit up, and they joined hands with a focused look. After feeling a torrent of Qi flow through their meridians, Zane, with tears of blood, and Gael used it all in a single attack that resembled an arrow of pure Qi.
Time passed slowly, and two hours later, when midnight had already passed, they opened their eyes again. The expressions on their faces were serious, and they both remained silent for a while, trying to process the information.
'An underground lake? It's impossible that there's an earth vein here, and we didn't sense it,' Zane thought.
About two years after she started her cultivation, the young female cultivator, a relative of a trusted elder of the patriarch, showed above-average talent among the clan's young members. This elder, who had barely noticed her presence before, suddenly became extremely excited and used all his contacts and favors to benefit her.
It didn't take long for something strange to completely change her destiny. She was taken to a private room with the patriarch, who told her that she had been chosen to receive the clan's divine blessing, one of the three young people of her generation selected for this.
She tried to ask some questions, but the patriarch only mentioned that he himself had been one of the chosen in his generation and ended up becoming the patriarch. As for the other two chosen ones, they were names she didn't recognize, but they were certainly people of great importance. It was then that she realized the unlimited future that had opened up, and excitedly, she didn't try to obtain more information.
That same night, she was taken to a place in the innermost part of the main building, following a dark path for several hours under the guidance of the patriarch. The only thing she knew was that they were descending deeper and deeper underground.
After reaching a wide cavern, she noticed a strange illumination. She soon realized that the glow came from thousands of blood-red runes covering every inch of the walls and ceiling. The runes pulsed sinisterly, and each pulse seemed to converge at the center of the cave.
Continuing to be guided by the patriarch, they reached the center of the strange place, where there was a small lake. The lake wasn't big, only about three meters of depth, and its waters had a strange yellowish color.
She realized that the substance in the lake wasn't water but something closer to what she would call "energy essence." Looking at the edge of the lake, she noticed that traces of this energy were missing. She was the last to use the lake, as the other two had been there before.
She then entered the lake and immediately felt as if she had plunged into a sea of scorching lava. Shortly afterward, her world was tinged with red, as if she were undergoing a trial in the very depths of hell, and her whole body underwent a painful refinement that lasted for several days.