It would take six and a half days with Elizabeth doing everything in her power to pressure herself into understanding the Laws of Water before she achieved her goal.
To the horror of everyone who knew she had only begun training with Water True Qi not two weeks ago, Elizabeth could now manage crossing the Cloudrain Sector with only her Understanding of Water.
[Innate Skills:
Water Affinity
*New) Tier: Good
Understanding: Rudimentary 55%
Current Effect: Cultivation of energy remains unimpeded until Level 50. Low-Mid Spirit Grade Water-type buffs are 100% more potent.
*New) Name: Fluid Spirit Body
Description: Attaining Good Tier Water Affinity has integrated Water True Qi into your Seamless Magic Connection.
Current Effect: Cultivation through any source with Water Energies exponentially increases the higher your Affinity with Water. Your perception towards “Changes” and “Forms” increases the higher your Affinity with Water. All Water-type techniques are both easier to learn and countless times more potent than they ever could be with a Mortal Realm Tier Affinity.]
Elizabeth could only point to the special benefit of the Fluid Spirit Body as the most important reason for why she managed to beat the deadline she had given herself.
At first, she had taken the “Changes” and “Forms” it would increase her perception towards for granted. Presuming it was similar to the Form Sharpening she had gained from attaining Trash Tier Water Affinity. That it would purely help her in training or combatting Martial Skills. However, while she later confirmed that her assumption was correct, it was far from the best benefit she would gain. Nevermind the only one.
About halfway into the week she had given herself to reach Yrre’s task in crossing the Cloudrain Sector with only her Understanding of Water, Elizabeth once brought up the strange efficiency with which she could decipher the mysteries in the Cloudrain to Yrre.
“Yrre, shouldn’t it be impossible for my Understanding to rise faster, the higher it is?” Elizabeth asked. At that time, several days had passed since she had developed her Fluid Spirit Body and its effect had crept up on her too slow to instantly be determined to be the cause of her ever-increasing perception.
She continued, “Understanding Energy Laws are universally learned from basic to complex. So, how can I be deciphering increasingly more complex mysteries in this rain faster the longer I train here?”
Despite having her Functions as her Goldfinger, Elizabeth wasn’t all-knowing. She couldn’t appraise all her problems with a Status check. Thus, though rare as they were, there were times where she asked Yrre questions.
“Oh my,” Yrre beamed. She had faith that Elizabeth would develop a Fluid Spirit Body before the week, but for her to already be questioning her about its effects…
She had to have manifested it days ago. Perhaps even before they had their talk and Elizabeth had put down the ultimatum of one final week of training in the Cloudrain Sector.
“Master should already know that different Energies, and different Laws by proxy, bring different benefits to Cultivators.” Yrre patiently explained.
After she saw Elizabeth nod, she continued, “You’ve already seen several examples first hand as a Cultivator training in several Elemental and Origin-type Energies. Yang nourishes the body, while Yin nourishes the spirit. Fire and Ice are polar opposite Energies of versatile combat. While Space and Time are self-explanatory.”
“The point is,” Yrre continued, “Water is the same. It most resembles Yin in its special effect. Though, instead of nourishing your spirit, it nourishes your perception.”
“Of course,” Yrre concluded, “That’s a very generalized summation of the greatest benefit granted to those who cultivate Water. But it stands true nonetheless.”
“So, Yin’s special ability is making it easier to cultivate Energy, while Water’s special ability is making it easier to cultivate Laws?” Elizabeth asked.
“That would be accurate, yes.”
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…
After reaching her goal, Elizabeth flickered over to Sun’s side. He had long since finished training his Understanding of Fire and was instead working on Space by the time Elizabeth appeared to pick him up.
“Oi,” Elizabeth called out to him. “You wanna stay here and continue working on—”
Sun’s Forever Loyal Affection Rating didn’t disappoint as Elizabeth couldn’t even finish her proposal before all the rain in a three-meter radius around Sun evaporated.
Sun asked, “Are we finally going to enter the Temple?”
Smiling, as his actions were predicted accurately, albeit a bit aggressive, Elizabeth almost started speaking when she suddenly noticed the faint scent of blood clinging to Sun’s body. If she hadn’t been in her Wolf Form she probably wouldn’t have noticed at all.
“Hmm?” Elizabeth shook her head at him, her smile adopting a hint of smugness.
She said, “Seems like you haven’t been training to your fullest."
With mock-sadness, she wiped a nonexistent tear across her face and added, "To think that a goody two-shoes like you would actually turn to fighting when we were all supposed to be increasing our Understanding.”
“I was challenged,” Sun rubbed the back of his head as he explained, “You know, since I’m hated here for being a human.”
“Well, you don’t seem injured so congrats on winning however many fights I missed,” Elizabeth said.
Thinking back to the fifth time someone had challenged him and the remark his defeated opponent had left him, Sun said, “Since the cultivators around here have accepted that I’m a part of your group, no one with a Cultivation Base higher than the two of us dares to try anything.”
“And to think I was actually starting to feel a bit jealous,” Elizabeth remarked.
“Now I sort of feel sorry you had to fight off a bunch of entry-level Transcendent Foundation Cultivators.”
“The fights aren’t really worth mentioning, however,” Sun’s expression brightened as he continued, “thanks to them, I found some interesting information.”
Elizabeth and Sun continued their conversation as they traveled over to Ygny’s group. Though before they made it to their destination, Yrre cut in to say, “What a great idea, Sun!”
Though she couldn’t identify any traces of amusement from Yrre, Elizabeth could almost feel the internal smile Yrre must have been holding as she said, “Master, there’s still about half a day left, right? Why don’t you visit the other Sectors in the Cloudsea Domain?”
Sun, not knowing how desperate Elizabeth was to finally get on with increasing her Cultivation Base, added, “If you really haven’t checked the other Sectors, I’d personally recommend you visit the northside Cloudsnow Sector. It should do wonders for your Understanding of Ice. Like the Cloudsun Sector was for my Understanding of Yang. As for the Cloudstorm Sector, unless you want to develop your Understanding of Lightning or at the very least learn to combat it, I wouldn’t recommend you go in there.”
“Fine,” Elizabeth flatly said. Venom spilled from her eyes as she agreed to visit the other Sectors. Though, for what it's worth, she was slightly less peeved than would have been as the Cloudsnow Sector was right up her alley with Ice. At worst she would ‘waste’ half a day improving her Understanding of Ice and at best, she would be able to make use of the environment with the methods of the Book of Ice and Fire.
Thus, the plan to gather Ygny and his group ended before it began and Elizabeth separated from Sun to visit the Cloudsnow Sector. With her speed, it only took a minute to leave the Cloudrain Sector and travel northward around the Cloudsea Domain to reach the Cloudsnow Sector. Naturally, she had to go about things in such a roundabout way, else she risked the chance of injuring herself needlessly if she traveled between Sectors directly.
Elizabeth took a quick glance at her Ice Affinity Skill before entering the Cloudsnow Sector.
[Innate Skills:
Ice Affinity
Tier: Good
*New) Understanding: Rudimentary 49%]
Compared to the unrelenting barrage of rain that fell in the Cloudrain Sector, the snow that fell in the Cloudsnow Sector was more of a slow trickle. However, the tradeoff for that change in pace was balanced by the much harsher force concealed in the Cloudsnow. Even at the edge farthest from the Ancient Redvile Temple, Elizabeth could estimate that the force of the Cloudsnow was comparable to Cloudrain in the middle territory of its respective Sector.
Still, with her achievements in Understanding Ice, it was hardly a challenge for Elizabeth to persist through the weakest area of Cloudsnow. Unfortunately, such a claim would not extend for long as she couldn’t even cross into middle territory.
‘Great,’ Elizabeth internally remarked, ‘The level of difficulty for this Cloudsnow Sector is even higher than that of the Cloudrain Sector.’
If she couldn’t even make it to middle territory with a near 50% Rudimentary Understanding Value for Ice, it was safe to assume that she wouldn’t be able to make it to the Temple without at least another 10%.
‘Is this even the hardest Sector to cross?’ Elizabeth thought. The Cloudrain Sector certainly wasn’t, but since the other two wouldn’t support Energies she was already studying, she gave up on investigating.
Elizabeth prepared herself for another torturous round of meditation before she slowly started drifting past the point her Understanding of Ice could nullify the Cloudsnow. She had increased her Understanding of Water from nothing to being even better than that of the Energies she Majored in, in less than a fortnight with this method. Yet, the increase she saw to her Understanding of Ice wouldn’t even come close to being the primary benefit she gained from attempting the journey through the Cloudsnow Sector.