"..." Speechless, Elizabeth cleaned the dust off her body with a couple pats and the exertion of her Neutral Magic before sighing. 'That takes care of that, I guess...' She had nothing else to do in this cave system with both Side Quests relating to it being complete. So, after completing her restoration — both physically and mentally — Elizabeth returned to her pillaging ways and ransacked what remained of treasures on her path back to the pool of Yin-Yang Dew.
Not sparing even Zhenlang's "resting grounds," Elizabeth picked up quite the number of Low and Mid Grade Spirit Veins which explained more or less why the seemingly worthless Forest of Beginnings housed so many powerhouses underground along with the Soliger. When she consulted with Lisa, the Godfiend Slaying Incarnation said, "What a good God Beast! Even with a decaying Divinity and shattered eternal body, that big pup's ridiculous energy gave birth to all these treasures! Surely, I don't have to tell you to take its remnants..."
"Of course… that's probably what it would have wanted..." Not bogged down by Belle as the goddess was in hibernation along with Zhenlang, Ellie didn't really think too much before she did the most pragmatic action.
A couple minutes later, what used to be a treasure trove for even beings at Level 45 turned into a rather ordinary cave end. Elizabeth was ten Spirit Veins richer and possessed enough Low Grade Spirit Ores and Herbs to set the Martial Society on earth ablaze. She walked and excavated many more ores and herbs until the same small pool of Yin-Yang Dew from before was within reaching distance.
'Heh… This shit wasn't really worth the fight with the Soliger, but now that I have access to it… Those fuckers will owe me big time, hahaha~' Referring to her friends in what most wouldn't consider an endearing way, Elizabeth revelled at the magic transformation those closest to her would undergo after taking in the Yin-Yang Dew. Even if ingesting the mystical liquid would give her some benefits, from the very moment she laid her eyes on the pool, she had decided to give it away to the people in her party that were cultivating Extreme Paths. After all, they wouldn't just benefit from it, they would undergo a transformation.
At most Elizabeth would take in the Dew and make some more Inner Strength or create fragmented grandmist to excavate hidden potential or unlock her final Seal of Chaos. But those in the Path of Extreme Physicality or Spirituality would see their respective Major Affinities skyrocket and there was a decent chance that new Extreme Innate Abilities would follow, too. Moreover, now that Elizabeth's party was working towards specialization, the thought of gifting this special spiritual essence was nothing but an investment in Elizabeth's mind. If anything, the stronger her party, the more ridiculous stunts they would be able to pull off.
[Name: Seal of Yin and Yang
Grade: Peak Tier Spirit Grade
Description: Created in the image of Taiji, this small seal can store virtually endless amounts of Mortal Grade Yin or Yang essence, a respectable amount of Spirit Grade Yin or Yang Essence, and a small amount of [REDACTED] Grade Yin or Yang Essence.
Effect: Regardless of volume, this Seal can store up to 108,000 units of True Qi of either Yin or Yang energies.]
Upon materializing the Seal of Yin and Yang, Elizabeth activated the small circular seal and watched in amusement as the small pool of Yin-Yang Dew before her defied gravity to flow into the seal's space.
Drip! A minute into the collecting process, as Elizabeth was thinking about what she would do next, her heightened senses were startled. Looking at the rippling shockwave moving across the mirror perfect surface of the pool, Elizabeth's attention turned to the cave roof; the source of the disturbance. She stared in thought for a couple seconds before her augmented eyesight picked up on what was happening.
With eyes widening as she formulated a guess, she launched herself into the cave ceiling — her left hand literally sinking into the rocky surface. With her right hand glowing in a blaze from its several tens of thousands of degrees in centigrade, she carefully excavated away at the precipitous and sharp point where Yin-Yang Dew was falling from and after a couple seconds, she struck gold. Upon hitting a ridiculously hard material that barely budged even after cranking up the flames and strength in her hand, Elizabeth abruptly stopped as she called for the material's Status.
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[Status
Name: Supreme Duality Spirit Vein
Grade: High Tier Spirit Grade
Description: Made up of only Yin and Yang Essences, Core quality or above, this Spirit Vein — though relatively conceived of recently — is indescribably rare for a world as low leveled as the one you currently inhabit; never mind this backwaters region within the already abysmal world.
Current Effect: Moderately releases and nurtures its immediate environment with Yin and Yang Essences. Suitable to create a Spirit Armament Embryo.
Lifespan: 5,000 Years]
Elizabeth visibly trembled as she read through the Spirit Vein's description. Her hands quaking as the light in her eyes brightened up to dangerous levels. 'WAHAHAHAHA… And here I thought the pool Yin-Yang Dew would turn out to be the most valuable treasure I would gain in this little hunting ground.' Rather maniacally, she dug out the Spirit Vein and tossed it into her Seal of Yin and Yang.
She waited for about ten minutes for the rest of the pool to be transported into her seal's space and was honestly dumbfounded after seeing that the small pool was actually several meters deep; contrary to its puddle-like appearance which suggested it to be inches deep. Still satisfied with a "shit-eating" grin plastered on her face, Elizabeth didn't mind the fact that the path she took to get this far into the cave system was no longer viable; the path had collapsed due to her battle with the Soliger. Teetering as she looked at the cave ceiling and the smile on her face intensified, the temperature in the cave system began rising as if a volcano was about to erupt.
…
On the surface, about a kilometer away from where Elizabeth was, two roughly clothed men in robes were patrolling the area. "Steady your breath Palsino… While it's highly improbable that there would be something stronger than us in these parts, I think it's best we are on the side of caution." The older man, one adorned with slightly higher quality clothes who also looked about a decade or so older than the other, said.
"For something to have made such a loud sound to reach us in the village… It's got to have been a natural disaster, right? An Earthquake? Maybe Landslide? Why fret on superstitious nonsense. It's not like a person..."
BOOM!!! As if cued from fate itself, Elizabeth picked this moment to rend the ground and escape out of the cave system. She added rock disintegrating heat to her fist before opting to launch herself like a rocket out of the underground cave system. Bringing with her attack a shockwave that could be heard dozens of kilometers away and a smoking trail dozens of meters tall, Elizabeth was too happy with the spoils she took from the cave to even notice as she joyously followed gravity back down.
Her eyes still glittering at the thought of implementing her Supreme Duality Vein even as she landed, Elizabeth materialized the Enchantment that would point her in the direction that would lead back to her group's encampment. Unbeknownst to her, a couple dozen meters to the left, behind her, the two men from before were both having a mental breakdown trying to avoid detection.
The older man had reacted to the explosion Elizabeth caused by tackling his partner into the ground and was currently trembling as he held his partner still. 'How unlucky do we have to be? To actually encounter a Saint… No, it could be a fully-fledged cultivator… Fuck...' As the man looked at Elizabeth through the foliage that covered him, he panicked as it seemed like Elizabeth turned to make eye contact with him.
Now entering a cold sweat as he looked down, the man froze in fear as he saw his partner had vanished from under him. He looked to his side and with fear he didn't know he could experience, his only thought was, 'This fucking kid will kill us both!'
The other man — the younger one — had gone berserk. Without any other words, he activated his Earth Magic, sacrificing the majority of his energy reserves to launch a heavy rock at Elizabeth. "Demon of the Empire, Die!" He roared, smiling in ignorant bliss at the thought that his ultimate attack would surely kill Elizabeth.
Of course, Elizabeth didn't even flinch as a weak punch from her decimated the Magical attack. Even if the young man had not said anything and attempted to ambush Elizabeth, she would have reacted the same way, as the only reason she turned to face the party of two was because her spatial ripple detection method had located them upon reactivation.
Upon assessing the two men as nothing but ants she could kill at will, Elizabeth's mind relaxed just a bit, which lead her to think, 'Was that supposed to be Earth Magic? Mhmm...' Although she wasn't a practitioner of Earth, she thought it to be strange for such a weak attack to come from a Soldier Stage Mage. But for the moment, since she was still in the heat of "combat," she decided to resolve the conflict before digging up some information from these strangers.
'Residents of the Shadow Realm… This could prove useful~' Elizabeth thought, as she calmly walked towards the two men without drawing any weapons or activating any magic; her physical strength alone was already overkill…