"Motherfu—" Elizabeth bit her tongue as she tried to get a handle on the frustration she felt.
Having just upped the difficulty from level nine to ten, she wasn't just dodging arrows. Now, there were all kinds of projectiles being shot her way. Moreover, they seemed to have gained a homing property.
Phantom cold weapons would thrust, swipe, and chop at her, as arrows and bullets threatened to pierce from hundreds of points at the same time. Yet, with her cultivated Precognitive Divination and other Time-type Skills, Elizabeth just about managed to avoid any significant damage.
'I expected the Time Substation Trial to be the hardest of all the Origin-type Energies, but this is ridiculous,' she flickered around the white void, dodging as she thought.
Even with her Fragmented Transcendent Affinity for Time, Elizabeth had taken about twenty hours to enter the tenth and final level. She had formed an Understanding of other Origin Energies at the level of Profound Truth with a faster time. However, just like all the other Substations thus far, the moment eventually came where her Understanding crossed a critical point.
Twenty-two hours in, the longest she had taken to complete a Substation thus far, bar her first attempt at the Water Substation, Elizabeth's eyes shined with the insights needed to trivialize the Substation.
[Foundation Trial of Time
Performance: 1?? (Highest Core)
Rewards: 3 Twinkling Comet Gold Tickets, 25 Twinkling Comet Yellow Tickets, 1 Twinkling Comet Black Ticket, 50 Twinkling Comet Grey Tickets
Time Remaining: 62D 1H 34M 28S
Innate Skills:
Name: Time Affinity (Fragmented Transcendent)
Tier: Good
*New) Understanding: Profound Truth (Divination, Possibility)
Skills:
Name: Precognitive Divination
Level 62
Experience: 14,250,000/14,368,348
Spirit Grade: A
Primary Effect: Within the user's range of sense, the movements of all objects can be divined. Accuracy and clarity descend from highest to lowest by order of the sense used: seeing, Spiritual Sense, touching, smelling, hearing, tasting.
Ultimate Effect: While the Skill is active, the user can divine their own actions. The higher the user's Understanding of Time, the more potential outcomes can be divined simultaneously.]
"Two Profound Truths of Time?" Elizabeth mused, "Tsk, no wonder the Time Substation Trial was by far the hardest."
As she headed over to the Spacetime Substation, Persephone said, "Actually, you could have learned multiple Profound Truths in any of the Substations thus far."
With Elizabeth stopped in her tracks, Persephone continued, "The only reason you managed to learn two Profound Truths of Time at the same time was because of how unreasonably difficult you set your own conditions."
"What? I just went with the most logical course of action. Actually, how did I make it 'unreasonably difficult' after using my own Skills outside those provided by the Substation?"
With a sigh, Persephone said, "I'm sure you understand that not all Energies are equal; nevermind, behave in the same way. Time Energies are among the most difficult to comprehend and most techniques ever created to utilize them are either auxiliary or offensive in nature. Yet, you only relied on two Time Arts, Precognitive Divination and Temporal Pulse, which are both auxiliary-type skills to complete a Substation focused on putting you on the defensive."
P continued, "No one said you couldn't use any of your other Skills while challenging the Substations. With regards to the Time Substation Trial, it would have been almost impossible for you to succeed you had you not developed two Profound Truths, since you abstained from using more abilities."
"Hmm," Elizabeth grumbled, "Even if that is the case, wouldn't it be counterintuitive to lower the difficulty of the Trial by using more Skills? Sure, I probably could have made it to the tenth level of the Time Substation Trial dozens of times faster if I used my Space and Spacetime Skills along with my Time Skills. But, I'd have too many things to worry about to be focusing on cultivating my Understanding of Time and Time Skills…"
Persephone chuckled, "And that is precisely why you're getting such so many incalculable scores. You perform beyond what is reasonably expected of even Cultivators with godly talent."
"If you say so," Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders as checked her Upper Dantian.
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Unfortunately, Belle showed no signs of recovering despite Elizabeth's major advancements in understanding Time. Elizabeth's Soul Land and Spiritual Sea continued to evolve with the addition of the two Time Profound Truths, and even a bit of color had been restored to Belle's frail form. But to revive her outright, a more profound development was needed.
With a sigh, Elizabeth entered the Spacetime Substation Trial.
…
"Tsk," Jane clicked her tongue as she picked herself off the ground, "It took you long enough, slowpoke."
Along with Liam and Ygny's group, she had been waiting for Sun to leave the Yang Trial, by the entrance to the Ancient Redvile Temple.
"It's been so long, Sun," she continued, complaining, "The Ice Trial was hardly even a challenge and I've been bored out of my mind fighting these guys."
"I can imagine why you'd feel that way," Sun said as he carefully studied her.
"From the void I get trying to probe your Cultivation Base, I'd imagine you have even more Spiritual Pillars than me, and the aura you project… You've learned a Profound Truth as well, haven't you?"
"Oh, please," Jane chuckled as two streams of Ice and Water True Qi intertwined atop her palm, "It was beyond easy to just cheat the Water Trial after completing the Ice Trial. With the treasures at the core of the Water Trial and Kirou's guidance, I formed my second Profound Truth after ten days."
As Sun looked at Kirou, he could empathize with the helplessness she felt. Jane had essentially made a mockery of her Cultivation of Water. She had taken ten days to take her previously non-existence Understanding to a level Kirou couldn't even comprehend.
"So you want to spar now?" Sun asked.
"Perhaps…" Ygny cut in, "it would be best if you hold your fighting until we return to the palace."
"You're not going to wait for Elizabeth?" Sun asked.
"Well yes, but it would be unproductive to have all of us wait when we could be training elsewhere," Ygny said.
He continued, "Since father handed me the responsibility for her well being, I'll stay here and wait for her to return. The six of you should return to the palace. Not only will it benefit your cultivation to meditate with our Royal Arrays, but you all now qualify for special statuses after leaving Temple with the power to threaten Core Formation Stage powerhouses."
"So, Sun," Liam asked, "You plan on staying behind or coming along?"
Sun thought, 'Seems pretty rude to just ditch her after she gave all of us this chance in the first place. But…' he shuddered, 'I'd rather not irritate her by acting with pretentious chivalry when I could be cultivating for her, instead.'
He accepted to leave with them, but instead of flying away, Liam began using his Space Profound Truth of Warp to teleport the parting group several times.
There might not have been a Space Trial in the Ancient Redvile Temple for Liam to benefit from, but as a Keter proficient in Space Energies, he cultivated the Forsaken Continuum Baptism method.
After being left behind by Sun, Liam didn't manage to get past the third instance of the Yang Trial, but he managed to improve his Understanding of Yang substantially before leaving and finding Jane. With Jane wanting to cultivate her Understanding of Water, the two sparred until eventually, they both developed their Profound Truths.
…
"You know, you're a real piece of work," Persephone sighed.
"What?" Elizabeth feigned ignorance, "I did what needed to be done to reach Highest Core."
"Of all the Profound Truths you could have learned during the Blazebreeze Substation Trial, you just had to learn the Profound Truth of Antinomy."
"It's fucking epic, no?" Elizabeth chirped as she walked to collect her rewards.
"On Earth, you'd be a walking calamity…" Persephone quipped.
"Yeah, for the Opal Devil invaders," Elizabeth retorted.
She walked into the Chaos Substation Trial and frowned.
[Foundation Trial of Chaos
ERROR: Either Chaos Requiem or the Nine Chaos Seals have yet to be fully cultivated in the Mortal Level. Return only after BOTH have been cultivated to the peak of their respective limits.]
'Hmm… Chaos Requiem has already been perfectly cultivated,' Elizabeth sighed as she left the round room, 'But I've only cultivated eight out of the nine Chaos Seals.'
She entered the Meditation Chamber and gave herself a day to focus purely on her Cultivation Base and the final ninth Chaos Seal. However, as Elizabeth had come to expect, she was interrupted by happenstances out of her control.
Since she had broken through to the Spirit Realm, this second cultivation session in the Meditation Chamber would be Elizabeth's first time utilizing her newly ascended Trash Tier Chaos Affinity; her Base Grandmist True Qi. Consequently, it would also reveal to her what a mistake it had been to rush through her cultivation without completing the Nine Chaos Seals while she was still in the Mortal Realm.
[Skills:
Name: Chaos Seals
Spirit Grade: Incomprehensible to the user
Current Status: Seals 1 - 8 Complete (Fragmented Grandmist 100% | Base Grandmist 0.01%), Seal 9 (Base Grandmist 0.01%)]
"You've got to be kidding me," Elizabeth smiled helplessly.
'Not only do I have to activate my ninth Chaos Seal, but it has to be cultivated along with the other nine to the peak of its potential with Base Grandmist?' Elizabeth thought.
She didn't hesitate to pull out two of the dozens of Gold Tickets she had amassed over the course of completing the Elemental, Origin, and Fusion Energy Substations, and directly paid for the four weeks she estimated it would take to complete the task at hand.
Under time distortion, she would spend less than three days in the Meditation Chamber. Even if she needed more time, she had accrued over two months to do as she pleased in the round room.
However, with Elizabeth's obsession to attain perfection wherever cultivation could be applied, it didn't surprise Persephone to see Elizabeth continue on for longer than need be after deciding that she should also raise Chaos Requiem to its peak in the Foundation Stages.