Forty-five minutes before Elizabeth caught sight of the dangerous situation this group of cultivators would soon enter, back in the village, three male and one female cultivators met and agreed to train whilst making a quick buck in the eastern forest outside Sharktop Island"s princ.i.p.al village. Unlike the antisocial Elizabeth, a grand majority of the cultivators that would later partake in the compet.i.tion understood the opportunity having so many strong peers gathered together, presented. Even the members of Atid"s dojo understood without anyone telling them the importance of going out and potentially meeting lifelong friends.The group of four cultivators was made up of mostly Warrior Stage martial pract.i.tioners, with the only female of the group being a Beginner Phase Martial King. They decided to enter the forest at the eastern front relative to the village even after being warned by the elders of the dangerous King Stage Beasts they might run into. But because they possessed a King in their group, the pract.i.tioners arrogantly dismissed the warnings and charged head first.
Unfortunately, the very first King Stage wild beast the group came across turned out to be a crafty and stealthy black panther. Though only Level 21, the same level as the group"s own Martial King, because they were in such unforgiving enemy territory, the panther managed to land a nightmarish first blow to the group. Targeting the group"s one and only King Stage combatant, the panther directly crippled the group"s only real safeguard after tearing out a gnarly gash on the female cultivator"s stomach region; even disemboweling her.
Luckily, even though the damage she sustained would have killed off a regular person outright, because she possessed a King"s cultivation and vitality, with her organs starting the integration process with Qi, amidst all the pain, the female King Stage martial pract.i.tioner quickly picked herself off the ground, using one hand to keep her internal organs from spilling and another on her sword with only thoughts of surviving this bleak situation on her mind.
Upon activating her Qi and drenching her wounds in water, the Martial King said, "f.u.c.k! Everyone stick close to me! The moment the beast pounces, work together to hold it down for a moment and I"ll counterattack."
Listening to her words and nothing but, the three Warrior Stage cultivators surrounded their leader. Entering a triple formation, each Warrior nervously covered 120 degrees to the edge of their vision, covering for any blind spots their companions might miss. Hearts pounding and alerted by the slightest bit of sensory stimulation, every moment that pa.s.sed felt like an eternity to the group.
Crack! At the edge of two of the Warrior"s sides, the sounds of a crunching branch alerted everyone to turn in that direction with weapons positioned at the defensive. Alas, by the time the group gauged the source of the noise to be what had to be a Mortal Stage rabbit creature, the panther had snaked around them and launched itself to finish the King Stage pract.i.tioner off.
The Warrior Stage cultivator nearest to the panther, moved instinctually in fear, dodging to the side whilst thrusting his spear to offset the panther"s strike. But because of the panther"s superior speed, the spear barely even cut into its hide as the panther ducked underneath the spear path. Temporarily ignoring the Warrior, the panther continued pressuring its King Stage opponent, treating all the other cultivators as nothing but helpless prey without the help of their leader.
"Hmph!" A single snort caused the entire situation to change as invisible grandmist and time energy crushed the panther to the point where it smashed against the earth. Before anyone else could even register what happened, Elizabeth had used [Spatial Contraction] subsequently to not only kill the panther, but also store its body in her spatial ring as she continued running away at maximum speed.
Leaving behind the bewildered group of now-safe cultivators, Elizabeth had a self-deprecating version of her signature schadenfreudian smile brightening up the world around her as her heart pounded and her thoughts raced. "What the f.u.c.k is he doing here?! Oh my G.o.d, oh my G.o.d, oh..." between the "oh my G.o.ds," "s.h.i.ts," and "f.u.c.ks" Elizabeth uttered as she ran for dear life, she maxed her daily quota at least a dozen times over.
Still donning her Magic Armor, apparently, catching sight of one of the three men in the group was catalyst enough for her to activate Ominous Pa.s.sage. Experiencing the Innate Skill for the first time Elizabeth initially couldn"t make heads or tails out of the depressing feelings that overwhelmed her. However, given her current level of time cultivation, as quickly as the feeling arrived, they were just as easily gone.
Eventually, she thought of something absurd as she rushed back to the village. She didn"t stop for anything and only took about fifteen minutes to reach the village entrance. Confronting the guards, Elizabeth was quickly let in as her image was very hard to forget. After all, very few cultivators had naturally white hair; even less also carried around red eyes. Not needing to stop, Elizabeth ran all the way back to the Inn and immediately called for Yrre to help her with a most pressing issue.
Knowing her master to be a machine-like training fanatic, Yrre"s shock wasn"t unfounded when she heard Elizabeth ask, "Yrre! Please, I need you to help make me seem more girly!" The juxtaposition between the meaning behind that sentence and the seriousness with which Elizabeth spoke caused Yrre to do a double take…
"Uh… What?" Seriously, everyone would need more context; especially in Yrre"s case.
"Oh right, I haven"t told you yet..." Though not as harsh as the feeling that a.s.saulted her when she gave rise to the idea of shocking Sun by letting him know of her past as a guy, Elizabeth felt a heavy pressure try to convince her that this was a bad idea. This time, ignoring the feeling as Yrre was quite literally her most loyal confidant — objectively speaking — Elizabeth explained her situation, "You see… Before we met in the castle, about a week earlier, I entered the world of cultivation with a set of "unique" circ.u.mstances. I can"t explain it in detail, but suffice to say I was a male turned female… As for why I"m asking for your help to "seem more girly," I"ll soon be meeting my family again and the excuse I"ll give them for my transformation will have to do with me wanting to express my "true self." The reality of the situation is more ridiculous than any lie I tell them, so… Yrre?"
"You… what? What did you say?" As if she couldn"t understand, Yrre asked Elizabeth to repeat herself.
"I… was a guy and now I"m a girl..." Having to repeat herself, Elizabeth felt shame for the first time surrounding her transformation.
"Wh- How? You"re clearly just a regular mortal human. I"ve heard that only some of the strongest Immortals can shapeshift seamlessly into either s.e.x alongside G.o.ds. But to transform a mortal? That"s just unheard of..." Yrre didn"t seem to care at all that Elizabeth used to be a male. Instead, she couldn"t imagine the power behind such an insane transformation.
"Like I said, I can"t explain it in detail. But, I swear I"m not lying… Look." Pulling up her phone, Elizabeth felt compelled to convince Yrre with evidence in the form of some older pictures of when she was still Adrian. Alas, given her antisocial behavior, the last image she possessed of her yet to be transformed body was a picture of when she was twelve-years-old.
Yrre looked at the image and couldn"t deny the uncanny resemblance the boy in the picture had when compared to the Elizabeth before her, yet that wasn"t what convinced her. Putting her master at ease, Yrre said, "Master, you don"t have to prove anything. As your servant, I"ll believe anything you tell me..." After spotting the hesitance when mentioning her change, Yrre continued, saying, "I don"t care what you are. Male, female, it doesn"t matter. You are you and that"s all I care to serve. You should take note that at high enough levels of cultivation, the mind and soul are all that matter..."
Before her very eyes, Elizabeth watched Yrre change in a similar manner to the one she experienced to become a handsome man. Yrre said, "Beings with enough power can change their physiology at will, so we don"t generally care too much about trivial things like s.e.x..." Changing back to the form most comfortable to her, Yrre took on her — female — Djinn appearance.
Listening to Yrre"s words of encouragement, Elizabeth felt a bit more secure. However, on a subconscious level, she questioned how the background she gave… herself, would clash with what she had just learned from Yrre. Elizabeth Ultimatia was supposed to be a Fallen G.o.ddess, her fall caused because she was the strongest heir to the G.o.d of s.p.a.ce and Time"s Legacy. At the time, Adrian wrote that Elizabeth"s fall was caused because a council of heavenly sovereigns wouldn"t allow a female the position. Wondering how such a conflict of thought would be fixed in the true world of cultivation she"d entered, Elizabeth left with Yrre in pursuit of learning how to act more girly.
a.s.suming the worst after seeing the face of her own brother, in a place as dangerous as the forest to the east of the village, Elizabeth"s Ominous Pa.s.sage Innate Skill, spurred her own to think that she"d probably meet with her family sooner than expected. Though she couldn"t be sure anyone else from her family might be in the Island, the time of her Ominous Pa.s.sage was too coincidental for her to think it might be highlighting anything else.
Yrre might have been accepting of Elizabeth"s change because of her own insights into the nature of living things through her cultivation. But Elizabeth couldn"t guarantee her parents would be so understanding; especially if she didn"t act the part of a "changed" and "new" girl. Not willing to give them the benefit of doubt, Elizabeth had Yrre release whatever method she used to hide her appearance from the rest of the world and the fearsome Void Stage Djinn started yet another session of coaching; this time the subject matter having nothing at all to do with cultivation...