“All right everyone,” Elizabeth started. She was overlooking all her apprentices, standing by the entrances to the beach resort they had all called their home for the past week. Bearing a striking resemblance to how she began the week-long boot camp, Elizabeth was now giving a farewell hearing before she left for the Shadow Realm.
“This marks the end of the training week I arranged for you to become Mages.” As she looked at her apprentices, a smile of satisfaction dawned as she said, “All of you have exceeded my expectations. With the slowest of you still managing to train up to the Late Phase of the Pawn Stage in a mere week’s time and the strongest,” she paused to look at Jasper before continuing, “breaching four stages in cultivation, I can confidently say that this boot camp was a resounding success.” His Consummate Tier Affinity for Yin wasn’t without merit...
“I’ve taught most of you all I can to propagate a new era on Earth; an era that integrates Mages to the Martial Society. So, now it is up to you to decide how hard you wish to train.” Looking on with a steady gaze, she said, “The doors to this place will always be open to you should you decide to continue training as Mages as strictly as I’ve had you behave over the course of these weeks; or perhaps even harsher...”
“However, you won’t have the luxury of having me around all the time to give out pointers or help you make new spells. I am but a single Mage with just a handful of affinities and even fewer spells to my name. It is now up to you to develop the path of Magic with your own specialized fields and hopefully even teach more Mages later down the road.”
Feeling the tension in the atmosphere weighing down on everyone, even Sun and Yrre who stood next to her, Elizabeth concluded her speech by saying, “But I’ll still come around every once in a while. So for now, just focus on cultivating yourselves, your magic, and help cut down on the invading force whenever possible. That is all...”
…
With her speech finished and her new party of three ready, Elizabeth walked back to the beach resort’s lounge and teleported Sun, Yrre, and herself back to the room she was last seen, in Ygdris’ Palace. Despite being the Shaman Priestess herself, Elizabeth was just as surprised as her two companions after returning to her room.
Yrre being the least shocked as her original Level of 79 probably lead her to see much better cultivation grounds, she was followed by Elizabeth who was thinking to herself, ‘Mhmm… Not too shabby. It’s no Supreme Duality Vein Powered Formation, but clearly, there are other types of resources her to make up for that. Actually,’ she eyed the various fruits, pills, and talismans to the far side of the room on her left, and smirked, ‘this might even be better, for a breakthrough event.’
Sun was the odd man left out, both literally and figuratively. But it was understandable, as he was a Pure Yang practitioner of Extreme Physicality in a room that was threatening to burst with Yin energies. As the room was fitted for Elizabeth, who had revealed one of her bloodlines being that of the Primordial Ghost God, Yin and Wind Energies were the most abundant in the space Ygdris had arranged for her to cultivate and live in, during her stay in the Agrian Empire.
After once again reiterating their standing to the Agrian Empire, Elizabeth left Sun and Yrre in her room in search of the Monster King. As she had grown into a slightly-more sensible person after the dramatic shift that changed her life, she didn’t forget to assume her Infantile Wolf God Form before leaving the room. Moreover, because Ygdris had taken the time to show her around the palace before they had their chat about her bloodline and she took her leave, Elizabeth found it easy to traverse the palace in search of its owner.
Making her way through the palace halls, Elizabeth put on a thoughtful expression. Despite the fact that she had toured the premises the last time she was here, it was still surreal seeing a real King’s Palace. Walking along the spiritually enriched marble floor and passing by countless ornate banners and furnishings on her way, Elizabeth was able to express amusement as there failed to be any other demi-human along her path.
Things remained this way until a faint voice attracted Elizabeth’s attention. “Ah... The Shaman Priestess has returned!” This distant voice both attracted countless others' attention towards Elizabeth’s form while simultaneously growingly louder with its owner’s approach. “Incorruptible Miss, Please head towards his majesty’s throne room. The King asked us to point you in his direction whenever you inevitably returned!”
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Nodding at this zealous palace-dweller, Elizabeth continued on her way to the throne room. Incorruptible Miss, Shaman Priestess, even Goddess were terms she had grown used to hearing since her last visit. Like the pious messiah of a religion, she was celebrated to a level she previously thought impossible. Moreover, she wasn’t even a real god yet! What would it be like after she reached the end of the Level spectrum and actually had divine powers?
Paying small head nods to the groups of demi-humans she crossed on her way to the throne room, even with her tempered body, Elizabeth thought this to be exaggerated. But she couldn’t help herself. Looking at all their encouraging faces and palpable devotion to her very being, she just rolled with the punches and eventually entered the throne room.
Much like the halls themselves, the throne room was decorated so much so that Elizabeth would have to wonder if it was a fault in Ygdris’ ego. Everything, literally everything, from the floor to the ceiling was made out of precious materials. Even the carpet which people walked on to approach the throne was made out of the silk of a Foundation Collapse Stage Spider. The throne itself was made out of spiritual gold and platinum that could have easily been forged into legendary armaments to the people on earth...
Naturally, both Elizabeth and Ygdris knew of each other’s locations simply by being in close proximity to one another. It was merely a benefit of the Spirit Bound Contract. Now that the two were facing each other again, Ygdris smiled as he watched Elizabeth approach.
“Ygdris, I’ve only come to tell you about my return,” by the look on Elizabeth’s face Ygdris understood what she meant by “return.” “No need to stop with your business to attend to me, I’ll probably come out of seclusion in a couple of days or a week.”
“Very well,” Ygdris started, “Have you decided on where you’ll go after breaking through?”
“Ancient Redvile Temple,” Elizabeth said; no emotion could be seen on her face.
Cringing slightly, Ygdris said, “Fine… But be sure to visit me before leaving. I can’t have you leaving without ‘some’ safety measures, now can I?” The others in the room who were privy to the King’s conversation with the Shaman Priestess had long since gone pale-faced.
Nodding, Elizabeth was waved out by Ygdris, whereafter she went straight to her room. With her breakthrough to the Spirit Realm in sight, Elizabeth had been growing more and more excited until she returned to her room. There, she found Yrre and Sun handling some of the resources Ygdris had left for her and her excitement temporarily smoothed over.
But then it was redoubled after Sun handed a pill he had been tampering and explained what he and his Djinn companion were doing. Sighing, as he watched Elizabeth approached with a bemused expression, Sun put the pill in his hand in a pill bottle and gave it to Elizabeth before continuing with another pill bottle. “These Agrians probably aren’t too well acquainted with Alchemy it seems.”
“Hah, that’s putting it mildly,” Yrre commented from her side. She was constantly handling two or more pills at any given time. She continued saying, “These people are actually worse than a beginner like Sun! How shameful...”
Holding up the bottle of pills she was given, Elizabeth checked its status and then compared it to the pills in the bottle Sun was still in the middle of handling. The results were disheartening, to say the least. Dense and Compact pills — which equated to pills that were refined to 50-59% and 60-69% respectively — were all leveled by Sun to at the very least Core pills — 80-89% refined. Yrre being a Level 79 enigma didn’t settle for anything less than nigh perfect 99% Consummated Pills and with Sun’s help, she made the process go by at a rate posthaste.
Smiling at this sight, Elizabeth put down the pills and walked over to the formations that had been inscribed by the cultivation cushion she had been given along with the rest of the resource in this room. A light of anticipation crossed her eyes as she read through the details of the Yin enhancing Formations as she recalled that the Agrians were most adept in the realm of formations.
“A Mid Tier Spirit Grade Formation threatening the boundary to High Tier… Ygdris must have paid a heavy price for this.” These were a set of cultivation formations of the highest grade Elizabeth had seen thus far in her life. Perhaps, the material of that powered the formations weren’t as precious as her Supreme Duality Spirit Vein and Yin-Yang Dew powered formations back on earth. But the quality of the formations themselves far outclassed anything Jane could make at the moment.
As Elizabeth marveled over the Formations and simultaneously sighed for no one in her group had a use for the Wind-type cultivation formations, only the Yin-type cultivation formations that augmented every cultivator’s ability to commune with the world, Sun called out to her. She could begin her seclusion at a moment’s notice.