Her shallow breathing was the first symptom to clear and no longer could they hear the rasping wheezes of Catarina’s body struggling to keep itself oxygenated.

Purple and swollen veins gradually retreated back under the skin and she took on a healthy reddish glow, now looking like sleeping beauty rather than a hospital patient.

After double checking her pulse and feeding her a minor healing pill to assist her body in recovering from the damage wrought by the Assassin Macaque’s venom, everyone let out deep sighs.

It had been extraordinarily tense for the group, wondering if they’d be able to cure Catarina in time or if they’d end up losing one of the outer sect’s most talented disciples to a spiritual beast attack.

Particularly Kade, given that she was practically his only friend in the sect; the prospect of losing her right after he’d regained hope of catching up to her cultivation was a terrifying one.

Aurora cooked for them once more while they waited for Catarina to awaken, another hearty stew that warmed from the core, even providing a small boost to their cultivation thanks to the addition of some spirit herbs she’d scrounged in the cavern while searching for a cure.

Three hours later, the sleeping girl finally woke up to much cheer from the group, especially Aurora who rushed over and pulled her into a bear hug before she’d even had a chance to wipe the sleep from her eyes.

“Calm down Aurora, I still feel like crap. The last thing I need is to get suffocated back into unconsciousness,” she giggled.

“You don’t know how worried we were. I seriously thought you might die! We even met that disgusting pervert Edwin in the spirit well. He nearly..” she paused midway through her sentence, a pained expression on her face, before continuing, “It doesn’t matter, no one has to worry about him anymore thanks to Kade. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Catarina looked surprised to find out another group of disciples had arrived as quickly as they had and Kade could tell from the look in her eyes that she was questioning the integrity of her source.

While they were in the midst of making sure she was okay and chatting merrily, Lawrence returned, looking haggard and sweating profusely.

The boy nearly collapsed into his twin’s arms before she propped him up against a tree and offered him a bowl of the delicious stew, which he accepted gratefully, shoving mouthfuls of the stuff into his gullet and letting the juices spill down his chin rather uncouthfully.

After eating the whole bowl in under a minute, he paused to catch his breath and chugged some water to push the food down into his stomach.

He seemed terribly stressed and was about to say something when he spotted Catarina sitting up, looking healthy as ever and giving him strange looks after his ravenous display.

“Bless the heavens, I rushed back thinking I would be ruining everyone’s day with the bad news that there were no physicians in the town but it seems like you were able to find a cure in the spirit well,” he blurted out.

“Yeah, we came across a Three Purifications Lotus, thankfully it did the trick,” said Kade, “Speaking of the spirit well, we should probably head back there and loot the place entirely. Now that Edwin’s group is dealt with we’re probably the only ones on the mountain, though others will surely arrive soon. We might even have a shot at harvesting the core.”

The others nodded in agreement, since the traps had already been disabled and the early competitors wiped out there was no reason to turn their backs on free treasure.

Catarina was still feeling a little weak, so Kade supported her as they made their way back up to the spirit well.

The journey was much smoother than their initial attempts and while they did encounter a few fourth stage spiritual beasts along the way they posed little challenge for the group, whose coordination was much improved after the battle against the Assassin Macaques.

Kade could feel his own foundations solidifying. Jumping up another stage while in the spirit well had left him a little unsteady during the fight against Edwin but he was slowly getting used to it.

Advancing through the stages of cultivation quickly wasn’t an inherently bad thing, as long as one took proper precautions and didn’t leave behind flaws or impurities that would hinder them or lead to deviation in the future.

Especially in the martial refinement realm; some cultivators might look down on the foundational realm of all cultivation due to the fact it was a purely physical process and lacked any sort of qi gathering and refinement, but a sturdy and powerful body was a must in order to channel the energies of the world efficiently in later realms.

They soon arrived outside the entrance to the cave, which seemed undisturbed compared to when he and Aurora had rushed out.

Perhaps due to their hurry they might not have memorised the exact condition but unless they were masters of the stealth arts, another group of disciples entering would have left easily discernible signs of their travel.

Unfortunately many of the traps in the tunnel had regenerated and some new, trickier variants had even spawned, hindering their progress towards the central cavern.

Led by Aurora and Kade however, the group made rapid work of the obstacles in their way, eventually arriving at the tunnel’s exit that led to the spirit well.

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Catarina and the twins marvelled at the serene beauty of the cavern, largely undisturbed despite the intense battles that had happened just a few hours prior.

In fact, looking around Kade wasn’t able to spot the bodies of Edwin and his unfortunate allies, the spirit well having already made use of their corpses and reclaimed them as nature tended to, if not a little faster than expected.

It was probably for the best that the rest of them didn’t see the state of his body given how brutally Kade had dealt with him while caught up in the heat of the moment.

Thus far he’d held off on explaining the incident to the rest of the group, largely due to Aurora’s discomfort whenever the topic was mentioned, but they would need to get their stories straight for the elders.

It would be simple to claim that they’d not seen any other disciples during their journey, but when others saw them with new treasures and later groups realised the spirit well had already been harvested, it would be a piece of cake to connect the dots.

Rather than face the wariness of their fellow disciples, it would be the smarter move to get ahead of the rumours and simply explain a slightly altered version of the truth.

Once they explained Edwin’s despicable acts, the other disciples and the elders would likely be on their side regardless, given how unfavourably traitors were looked upon in Mystic Solar Valley.

Treasures were everywhere to be seen, even after Kade and Aurora had done their best to grab the most valuable looking ones in their previous hunt.

With five of them to cover ground however, harvesting everything took just under two hours, leaving only the spirit well itself atop its elegant dais of flowers and qi crystals.

The cavern was noticeably dimmer, the group not even giving up on the many qi crystals that were embedded in the walls - they were highly valuable cultivation resources for practitioners of the spiritual assimilation realm and above.

Kade sat at the edge of the serene pond, undisturbed but for the occasional gurgling bubble from the spring beneath, looking across at the other four members of the group.

“There’s a little over a week left until the inner sect examinations. While I’d love to simply stay here and use the rich spiritual energy to cultivate for the entire time possible, we’d run the risk of other groups discovering us and attempting to rob us for the treasures. I suggest we spend the rest of today and perhaps tomorrow morning cultivating, then harvest the core and leave once we’re successful. Any objections?” Catarina declared.

No one argued with her plan, they all felt the same way. Besides, it was rumoured that harvesting a spirit well’s core could often boost one’s cultivation by an entire stage or more, depending on the quality of the spirit well.

Just then, Lawrence piped up, “When are we going to distribute the loot? Our agreement was an equal five-way split.”

They all fell deep into thought. None of them expected a betrayal at this point; if one of the group members had such thoughts there had been plenty of incredible opportunities to strike already.

It seemed Catarina had already expected this and developed a plan which she shared readily, “The sect will let us choose what we offer as tribute, as long as it comes to the five percent they demand. We can just figure it out back at my place. Everyone will get their fair selection of the treasure.”

It was a reasonable plan and they knew her well enough to take her word that none of them would be getting a raw deal when it came to the distribution of loot.

The next day flew by as they were all lost in the fervent pursuit of cultivation, each employing their own unique methods.

While the base for each of their cultivations was Mystic Solar Valley’s 【Nurturing Radiance Art】, they all had complementary methods such as Kade with his 【Flowing River Art】or Aurora with her clan’s signature technique.

His experimentation with the mantra of the unique technique had led to some interesting thoughts. Most cultivation methods followed a singular path to refine the body during the martial refinement realm, yet the 【Flowing River Art】seemed to be an exception.

While he’d initially believed it to be a simple staff technique, it was rapidly proving to be far more effective, with each time he experienced the cold waves bolstering his reaction time, battle instincts and the fluidity of his movements, which obviously benefited staff combat, but was mainly a huge boost to his overall prowess.

Using the time they had in the extraordinarily energy rich environment of the spirit well, Kade decided to test his hypothesis.

First, he followed the standard meditation method, adopting the lotus pose while internally chanting the mantra.

It took nearly seven hours of unbroken concentration, but eventually the familiar dizziness overwhelmed him, even stronger than the previous time had been, almost knocking him out.

He clung to consciousness long enough to be relieved of his suffering by the invigorating cold wave, already noticing his mind was slightly sharper, his senses a little more focused.

With plenty of time left before the designated finish mark, he then proceeded to take out the Resonant Echo Staff and drill the various staff strikes, chanting all the while.

‘Stillness without form, strength without limit.’

It took far longer than just seven hours this time, using up the entire remaining time they’d allowed themselves to cultivate, but the dizziness struck right in the middle of a thrust, sending him careening off course and planting his face into the comforting embrace of the mossy ground.

He picked himself off the ground once the coldness had bolstered his energy once more, making a grand total of five times he’d experienced the phenomenon.

In the distance he spotted Catarina and Aurora pointing at him and giggling to themselves, much to his embarrassment.

Catarina called everyone over at that point to begin harvesting the spirit well’s core. Each of them had experienced brilliant results from just a single day spent cultivating in that rich environment that was far greater than anything an outer sect disciple could experience in Mystic Solar Valley.

Surprisingly, the process of harvesting the core was extremely simple. Once they’d determined what the core was - it turned out to be the stone tablet beneath the spring, he’d likely overlooked it since it was still tainted by the Demon God’s inheritance at the time - all they needed to do was join hands and follow Catarina’s lead after she’d inscribed a formation around the spirit well.

The pond began to glow a vibrant blue, and the spring started to spew forth a much greater number of bubbles than before.

A surge of energy filled Kade from the outside in and he could feel his cultivation skyrocketing even without him actively putting much effort in.

Not wanting to let himself be caught up in the wave, he focused on chanting the mantra of the 【Flowing River Art】and ensuring he left no flaws in his body as he rapidly approached the barrier to the sixth stage of martial refinement.