With physical cultivation now bordering on dangerous, Elizabeth stopped and joined Sun and Jane in their spiritual meditation. She ignored the notification of joining the ranks of Legendary Pseudo Soldier as it was to be expected that she had completed yet another quest, after analyzing the long string of hidden quests she'd already completed.
Like Sun, the reason Elizabeth gained that title was because she went above and beyond what should have been possible for her physical limits and developed enough cultivation potential to cross over an entire stage and then some! Of course, while Sun had worked night and day for 7 years to gain such limit-breaking strength, Elizabeth had taken a shortcut with the help of divine methods.
However, unlike Sun, who didn't have any inkling of Inner Strength coursing through his body during the seven years he built up a body nearly five times as powerful as the average person, Elizabeth, who did have Inner Strength from the very start of her physical training, had very stringent restrictions because she possessed said energy. Because she carried with her the intention of becoming as perfect as can be, the spiritual and physical components that made up her body couldn't stray too far from one another or from her current level of cultivation.
Her path had already been set from the moment she constructed a Seamless Magic Connection, so unlike others that would set extreme spiritual or physical paths from crossing beyond the "Legendary Pseudo" title, she would directly die as a result. Sun, who had been set for the path of extreme physicality before Elizabeth entered his life, didn't quite pass the two-Stage or ten-Level mark. Thus, after jumpstarting his cultivation, he reverted back to being a regular cultivator.
Of course, it would normally be a mark of irrevocable talent to join the ranks of either extreme physical or spiritual alignment, but in Sun's case, he nearly lost it all had it not been for Elizabeth's intervention. Once one entered the path of either extreme physicality or spirituality, there was no going back, meaning one's Dantain would never have been able to reset. One's path and future requirements to advance would become dozens of times harder when compared to the traditional route of the average cultivator, but extreme cultivators would have hundreds of times the strength of said average cultivators.
Elizabeth herself was on an extreme path so to speak. It's just that the superiority of perfection would only slowly unveil its ungodly power as she climbed higher and higher through the stages of cultivation. At the moment, Elizabeth "sole" supreme ability lay in her Seamless Magic Connection which granted her extreme control over her personal energy, clouded her Dantain from virtually all not above the Mortal Realm, and expedited the flow of energy in her body.
Compared to the marvelous abilities of extreme physical or spiritual cultivators, Seamless Magic Connection might not seem like much. Whereas Seamless Magic Connection was mostly beneficial for one's foundation and growth, the aforementioned extreme paths gave abilities that were immediately in battle, like Hyper Regeneration or Spiritual Breakthrough; all being very broken abilities that would put Elizabeth's current arsenal of moves to shame.
…
Elizabeth stopped her needless reflection on what the various extreme paths of cultivation were to her as she had yet to encounter person like herself; an extreme cultivator. After attempting to start meditation and being stopped by Atid, the reason being his insistence that she should sit on a cushion and not on the bare bones floor, Elizabeth got herself a comfy little seating cushion and started pondering on the messages within her [Darkyin Cultivation] method and almost instantly entered a meditation trance.
It would have amazed her if she paid attention to the startling difference there was between the time it took her to enter meditation this time compared to her last attempt with the methods of [Spatial Meditation]. Alas, because her focused intent on entering meditation had reached an all-time high — this after all being the first time she tried meditating for gains out of her room and not in a "comfortable" place — Even Elizabeth couldn't easily pull herself out of a trance as deep as the one she'd currently entered.
[Darkyin Cultivation] was after all a method to understand Yin, and with Elizabeth's Intelligence Stat crossed the expected value for even those at Level 13, it's no wonder her descent to emptiness in heart and mind came so quick. Recalling, the Status of Darkyin Cultivation and pairing that up with Elizabeth's existing Yin Affinity, her Inner Strength was increasing at a staggering rate; albeit much slower when compared to the absurd internal refinement method straight out of a Godking's method.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
[Name: Darkyin Cultivation
Description: A Mortal Grade meditation technique of the highest level. Given to the user by way of Hidden Quest Completion, this cultivation manual will last the user till the end of the Mortal Stages of cultivation.
Effect: Training with the mantras and methods of Darkyin Cultivation will yield the user 0.05 * [Intelligence Stat] units of yin-type Inner Strength per minute of successful meditation.]
Every single minute Elizabeth gained approximately five units of Inner Strength — 5.115 to be specific — and for about three and a half hours, she sat like a statue earning the respect of others and gaining over a thousand more units of Inner Strength to her max capacity. She would have stayed in the meditation loop for much longer if it wasn't for a strange evil like energy source she had started sensing draw near her. Eventually, after the evil energy felt like it would consume her and block off all paths of retreat out of her state in emptiness, Elizabeth's eyes snapped open as she started gasping for air and sweating bullets. To others, she looked like she had just woken up from a terrible nightmare.
Her outburst was so extreme, it disturbed Sun out of his own meditation. Though he didn't seem to mind as he worriedly asked, "Are you alright?"
'Do I fucking look alright to you?!' was what Elizabeth thought, but considering the overt care and compassion Sun was displaying, she didn't have the heart to curse him. Instead, Elizabeth just voiced out a weak, "I'm fine… Though it seems like we're being visited by some old friends~"
"Old friends?" Sun didn't immediately draw a connection as he was too busy thinking about Elizabeth's well being. But it didn't take long for him to understand, as it did not take even ten seconds after Elizabeth came out of her meditation for the entrance of the dojo to be slammed open — nearly to the point of shattering — and for familiar faces to show up in Sun's line of sight.
Immediately, the entire atmosphere of the dojo's training environment was thrown into disarray, as both physical and supernatural energies alike started jumbling up the air. From inside the dojo, several variably intense and different chilling killing intent coalesced alongside Jane's equally chilling Ice energy, and from outside the entrance creeping in, a single mark of killing intent contented equality against all the hatred directed towards its side.
Elizabeth could see as she turned to face Atid, a serious look dawn on Atid's face for the first time. Atid, looked on from his drinking table and downed the liquor in his cup before saying, "Jhan… What business do you have here today?"
"Hehehe… Is this how you greet an old friend? Tsk, tsk! To think you and I used to cross arms and win wars together." Until this point, the man known as Jhan had refrained from doing anything too ridiculous, but after a look of disgust appeared on his visage and a "Hmph!" escaped his lips, the regular civilians and even some of the weaker Martial Practitioners felt their blood turn over as blood etched out of the orifices on their heads.
With a voice that would eclipse even state-of-the-art speakers at 11/10 volume, everyone in the dojo felt their body's balance encounter some degree of turbulence as Jhan said, "How times can change even the best men!"
"Need I remind you what happens to those that violate our code of ethics?" Rather calmly, Atid voiced out a threat that Elizabeth couldn't comprehend and like clockwork, the overwhelmingly bleak pulses of energy escaping Jhan's body which were causing harm to those around him stopped as if it were never present in the first place.
"Che! Rely on your shitty Society's code of ethics like you have for the past couple years, you worthless coward." Jhan shook his head as if to show disappointment, though after he finished his sentence, he froze and the disgust on his face blossomed into a cheeky smile as he said, "Though you better cherish your life while you can… Cause your days are numbered! And the expiration date is the next International Wushi Tournament."
With a sigh and a look of disappointment on his own face, Atid asked "Did you come here just to rant and rave? Could it truly be that the King of Slaughter himself has so much free time that he can do things as pointless as this?"
"No, idiot, I didn't just come here to talk. Are your eyes' already failing you old man? Can't you see the line up of "fine" disciples behind me?"
"The nerve of some people… Aren't you only a month younger than him?" From the sidelines, Luca couldn't help but thrown in some shade as he was last remaining powerhouse in this situation and had yet to say anything.
"Hmph!" In that instance, the totality of Jhan's almost corporeal killing intent descended onto Luca's body which resulted in him dropping down on one knee as if overwhelmed by gravitational pressure. Looking the part of the most stereotypical gangster imaginable, Jhan directed his attention to Luca as he said, "No one invited you into our conversation, kid! Now quiet down and take a sippy cup, or I'll have to personally discipline you, got that?"
Atid, extended his own neutral Qi to help Luca as he intervened and asked, "Well, if you didn't come here to talk, what do you want?"
"What do I want?" As Jhan repeated the question, his gaze landed on Elizabeth…
"You must be insane if you think I'm going to offer up a personal disciple." Atid instantly understood Jhan's intentions as it was clear from the get-go that Elizabeth had crossed the madman's crosshairs. Though, even if it wasn't Elizabeth that Jhan wanted, Atid would still be up in arms to defend his dojo's members.