[Alert!
Chosen Werst has drawn first blood against Chosen Goulin and moved up from 8th Ranked to 5th Ranked Chosen.
99 Chosen Remain.]
With the advent of this news, Elizabeth awoke from her peaceful meditation. Upon checking in with her internal clock, she confirmed that about a day had passed.
As her thoughts raced, she looked over her Status before deciding it was time to move on.
[Innate Skills:
Water Affinity
Tier: Mediocre (Pseudo Good)
Understanding: Rudimentary 30%]
Comparing her Water Affinity to the rest of her Affinities, she deduced that she would reach Good Tier Affinity after reaching an Understanding Value of Rudimentary 40%.
With her current level of proficiency, though traveling through the Cloudrain Sector should be possible, crossing all the way to the Ancient Redvile Temple wasn't feasible. At best she would only be able to move into an area with harder-hitting rain to increase the rate she gained insights.
'With Chosen already starting to kill one another, I gotta turn up the intensity of my training,' she thought.
Rolling her eyes, she muttered, "No pain, no gain, right?"
Her movements were naturally caught by those in her party as she was the de facto leader. But as she only made a relatively short jump, moving from the edge of the Cloudrain Sector to middle territory, where each raindrop would hit with the intensity of an Early-Mid Phase Saint Stage Practitioner, no one followed.
Ygny and his group were already much deeper into the Cloudrain Sector and thus wouldn't bother moving until Elizabeth attempted to enter the Ancient Temple. With their power, they could directly enter the actual site of the Danger Zone at any time.
Sun had long since passed the middle territory as well. Though he wasn't as powerful as Ygny or the other Foundation Collapse Stage practitioners, he also didn't follow Elizabeth's attempt in gaining Affinity for Water. From the very beginning, he stuck to fighting Cloudrain with Fire and Spatial True Qi. Moreover…
[Status
Name: Sun
…
Innate Skills:
Fire Affinity
Tier: Exceptional
Understanding: Rudimentary 70%]
"This fucking guy," Elizabeth muttered to herself as a vein on her forehead twitched.
She could imagine how handy his Exceptional Affinity for Fire would be in deciphering insights to combat the suppressive rain. Though she hadn't previously checked the level of Sun's Understanding, now she was certain he was approaching levels of proficiency only seen in Foundation Collapse Stage Cultivators.
She thought, 'Though I'll probably never live down the bullshit of everyone on Earth getting buffed by the Dimensional Upgrade, while I, the person who earned it, got diddly-squat. It's counterproductive to get jealous of Sun's progress. Let's just be happy that my number one supporter is getting more powerful and get back to training.'
Up until now, she had prioritized safety in her training. However, a familiar spike of insanity had been awakened in her after seeing Sun's vastly superior Understanding of Fire. Moreover, with the pressure of the Cataclysm's Chosen starting to be eliminated, Elizabeth made it her temporary mission in life to passing through the Cloudrain Sector as soon as possible.
The Chosen that had been killed was Ranked 5th and she was merely Rank 11th. Even if she was Ranked 1st, she wouldn't feel safe after knowing that one of her Chosen peers had jumped three Ranks to draw first blood.
So, upon reaching the boundary separating Cloudrain that her current Understanding of Water could completely cancel, Elizabeth took a moment to eat a Spiritual Meal to boost her natural regenerative factor before returning to a meditative posture.
Hovering only a couple inches off the ground, she pushed herself past the boundary slowly. Ignoring the damage that was gradually accumulating, she used the pressure of the increasingly profound Cloudrain to propel her own Understanding of Water.
She moved at a disconcertingly slow pace. Slower than even a non-practitioner walking. However, as increasing Understanding was just as difficult as, if not even more so than, Cultivation, it wasn't long before Elizabeth donned a frown. She would cross nearly half a kilometer before the damage she was sustaining prompted her to stop for the first time since she started.
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Of course, if she decided to stay there and train her Understanding of Water to a higher level before moving on, her actions might not have constituted insanity. Alas, that was a move Elizabeth didn't even consider, as a psychotic smile manifested on her face and the Spacetime around her condensed.
"Why… is she so desperate?" Yrre asked herself as she watched Elizabeth's evidently suicidal actions.
She could tell from the Law Linking Chains that bound her to her master, that Elizabeth wasn't truly in any mortal danger. Her vitality was far from diminishing. In reality, it was more like the vitality she using up was being replenished faster than the Cloudrain could decay it. However, to a normal bystander, Elizabeth's Understanding of Water was about as useful as a paper shield to the condensing Cloudrain.
Still, after Elizabeth started using a barrier of Spacetime True Qi, she continued to move. Albeit, moving even slower than before. Slow enough to be overtaken by an infant that had just learned to crawl.
Effectively ridding herself of her somatosensory system with her arcane Acupoint Technique, she put all her effort into deciphering the mystery of the Cloudrain that fell on her. As the highly destructive rain fell on her body, all she felt were slight numbing taps and was thus able to focus on her perception.
However, Elizabeth was not without limits. She couldn't continue this for long.
In fact, before another half-day passed, she had to retreat back to middle territory despite having nearly come close to a kilometer away from the Ancient Temple. Still, the results of pushing herself so hard couldn't be argued against.
[Innate Skills:
Water Affinity
Tier: Mediocre (Pseudo Good)
Understanding: Rudimentary 34%
Spacetime Affinity
Tier: Good
Understanding: Rudimentary 53%]
It would take three hours of dedicated rest to recover from stimulating her body such that she could ignore the pain and increase the pressure of the Cloudrain she faced. Then another five days of this kind of torturous training to manage reaching the Temple with stimulated Acupoints and her Spacetime Barrier.
Unfortunately, just as Elizabeth was about to call for the party to continue on with actually entering the Ancient Temple, Yrre confronted her with an objection.
"Master, you aren't thinking of entering the Temple as you are now, right?" Yrre asked, despite fully knowing Elizabeth's intentions.
"I am," Elizabeth said. Casting a dubious look she asked, "Why? You don't think I'm ready or something?"
Truth be told, Yrre was more than content with Elizabeth's irrational growth rate. However, she said, "Unfortunately, I truly don't believe you should enter until you can stand at the edge of the Cloudrain Sector's barrier."
Yrre moved to where she meant Elizabeth should be able to stand. The harshest hitting Cloudrain looked more as if it were common rainwater hitting her as she continued, "I believe the Master of this Ancient Redvile Temple wanted the challengers attempting his trial to be able to make their way through the Cloudrain Sector with only their comprehension on the Laws of Water."
Sighing in mild frustration, Elizabeth asked, "So you're telling me to only continue when I can make it through the entirety of the Cloudrain Sector without Spacetime Barriers or Acupoint assisting me?"
"Master is free to do as she pleases. That would only be my suggestion," Yrre ever-respectfully said.
A cursory look at Elizabeth's Status put her Water Affinity just over the mark for Good Affinity. Currently, her Understanding of Water was at an appropriate 43%. It was an expected value for a Transcendent Foundation Stage Cultivator that had just broken through to the Spirit Realm. At that level, she could just about manage to stand a kilometer away from the edge to the Ancient Temple.
After deliberating about the magnitude of Yrre's request, Elizabeth said, "At most I'll stay in the Cloudrain Sector for another week. I can't waste any more time on something as unimportant as developing my Understanding of the Water Laws."
Smiling, Yrre nodded and said, "Good luck."
Leaving Elizabeth to continue perfecting her Understanding of Water, Yrre flickered away. As she watched her master train, she thought, 'Seems like my decision to withhold passing down any more 'Cultivation Methods' to Master was the right call after all.'
Back when she had passed the amalgamation of her Understanding of Death to Elizabeth after her she had been tainted with the Ancient Godslayer Fiend Bloodline, Yrre had only done so as it was a matter of life or death. As Elizabeth had no Cultivation Method for Death, what Yrre had done was a final resort of sorts.
To train with another's Understanding of a Law… It was a taboo and dangerous gamble that usually only Cultivators desperate for quick results would attempt. Usually, the best outcome for following through with such a path would narrow down a Cultivator's potential to that of the person they were imitating.
It was the reason Cultivators devised and followed Cultivation Methods and not direct teachings. Everyone's path was different in the road of Cultivation. Thus, if Cultivation were just a direct transmission of one person's experience, no one would be able to realize their full potential.
Of course, with Elizabeth's Goldfinger it was next to impossible to limit her potential. At best, following another's Understanding would make her personal Cultivation slow as she sifted through the truths that her Status counted as Experience. But Yrre didn't know that, nor did Elizabeth wish to clarify the point.
Though she could have asked Yrre for more of her Recollection-type Cultivation Methods, Elizabeth didn't. From her experience with Death Thai, a Mystic Art derived from a Martial Art which wasn't even a proper Cultivation Method, it was clear that her achievements with Death Energies would be much higher if she had something to follow other than Yrre's Recollection Of Minor Death Understanding.
In any case, despite neither of them knowing what the other was truly thinking, both were content with leaving Elizabeth to cultivate her Understanding of Water without a Cultivation Method. For their individual reasons, it was better this way.