Within a lavish castle at the heart of the Irelian Empire, in the center of the city of Inghile. An unprecedented commotion was jump-started when the Chief Eunuch burst through the Emperor"s gathering."My lord! There"s been a call for a Level 5 Alert!" Indifferent to the looks he was given or the pressure cast upon him by the various guards within the room, the Eunuch ran with a jade slip presented above his head. Taking a knee to present himself before his Emperor, the Eunuch waited for his master to direct him.
The Emperor"s initial reaction of frowning, displeased to have been interrupted quickly neutralized with the call of a Level 5 Alert before turning grim upon scanning through the contents of the jade slip his Chief Eunuch pa.s.sed on to him. With palpable seriousness, the Emperor said, "The meeting is hereby postponed. A Shaman Priestess has been spotted by the Western region of Ultera."
Immediately, the n.o.bles in attendance reacted with equal seriousness as they understood the gravity of the situation. Their seriousness slowly devolved to hope as the Emperor debrief the room as to details of the situation, letting them all in the first responder"s suspicion that the Shaman Priestess had only recently awakened and only possessed strength at the Level of a Transcendent Foundation Stage.
"A pity that Viscount Libra was slain by that high-demon, but fortunately she"ll have to pa.s.s by the territory of Marquess Ujin if she"s on the straight path to Agrian land." One of the n.o.bles commented.
"Still, I think at least some of us should leave to make sure that threat is expunged. A Shaman Priestess" value to the Agrians is too high. My lord, I would gladly volunteer to immediately head to the Marquess" territory and take over the situation..." One of the higher ranking Dukes offered.
"Fine… Since we"ve started this debriefing session, over a dozen reports have confirmed that demon is on the straight path closest to the Agrian Empire. By my estimations, she"ll reach the Marquess" territory within five minutes. Her speed nears that of a Marquess itself even with her strength as a Viscount, but I want no leeway for accidents to occur; the situation is too important to lose..."
Turning to the Duke that had volunteered, the Emperor said, "Duke Koloryt, head to the Marquess" territory and help detain the Priestess." Upon receiving a bow in affirmation and courtesy, the Emperor gave the man a nod before turning to a different Duke and saying, "Duke Gryzmott, I"ll also request you head to the border city of Ygjam. You"re to prevent her from escaping if by some miracle she pa.s.ses by the Marquess and Duke Koloryt."
With a similar bow to the other Duke, Koloryt left the castle to catch up to his peer. As a legendary expert of the Core Formation Stage, he and Koloryt moved several times faster than Elizabeth"s "mere" 10,000 kilometers per hour speed. Moreover, the Emperor didn"t send just about any Duke, both Koloryt and Gryzmott were famed for their speed. With one being a cultivator who Majored in Light and the other in Thunder, catching up to Elizabeth was an inevitability.
Alas, Elizabeth had already made it over three-quarters of the way over to Agrian territory. Moreover, she had already healed up as over half an hour had pa.s.sed. It would be a total loss if Elizabeth managed to make it over the border, so the outcome of this chase was yet to be set in stone.
…
Around ten minutes after the Dukes had left from the Emperor"s Castle, Elizabeth met with trouble for the first time since taking off. She had crossed well over 7000 kilometers without a hitch; in fact, her speed was slowly increasing as she recovered with the effects of Sun"s Pills, her spiritual cooking, and acupoint treatment. But, as she came upon the sight of what had to be the third or four-hundredth city along her path, an attempt at ambush almost ended her life.
"f.u.c.k!" Elizabeth cursed as she felt the side of her face heat up consequent of a long dart that had grazed her. Just like her previous encounter with Libra, her Ominous Pa.s.sage activating had saved her from being ambushed; this time, the situation being much more dangerous.
"Halt!" An authoritative voice demanded she stop. It was something Elizabeth didn"t even register as a warning notification she had yet to see for a long time suddenly popped up before her.
[Danger!! Hostile Qi Detected
Updating Status
Status
Name: ???
Level: 37
Rank: Early Foundation Collapse Stage]
"f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k!" Elizabeth went all out without hesitation as she felt herself slip right into the jaws of death. Again her Seals of Chaos activated; all of them... Fortunately, she didn"t suffer any horrifying backlash from activating the 8th Seal as she had when she faced the Soliger as the black scale armor that manifested on her fingers didn"t cause a hint of discomfort.
Immediately, the extent of Elizabeth"s speed became evident as she blazed through her obstacle without it even being able to react; her speed night-instantly shooting into the double digits of Mach Speed; it wasn"t even slowing down. Left unable to do anything against Elizabeth"s increasing speed, the man could only look on in horror before bringing the communication artifact he had on hand, near his face to report, "This is Marquess Ujin. The target has… escaped. Requesting the Alert Level be raised to 6 as the target has just blown past me with speeds comparable to Core Formation masters… She"s still on the path to Ygjam."
"d.a.m.n it," Elizabeth did the math in her head and at her current speed she"d still be several thousand miles away from the Agrian Empire before her time limit expired and she took another hit from the backlash of her Chaos Seals. Losing speed now would prove to be fatal, especially if the Foundation Collapse cultivator she had left behind decided to give chase. Thus, Elizabeth grew increasingly mad as the time limit of her 6th Chaos Seal drew near…
"Those f.u.c.kers will pay for making me do this..." Elizabeth mumbled to herself before directing part of her consciousness to draw energy from the ma.s.sive reserves of stolen cultivation bases she ama.s.sed over the past couple days within her Dantian. Along with the Soliger"s 18 leftover Foundational True Qi Blocks and Viscount Libra"s leftover 27, Elizabeth had an additional 7.78 blocks worth of energy from when she helped her brother Grey enter the Extreme Path of Perfection; with all the other energy she had stored away not even amounting to an additional block of True Qi. Thus, even if it pained her to no end seeing all her savings go to waste, she didn"t hesitate to burn away a truly baffling amount of energy to temporarily extend the time she was under the effects of her 6th Chaos Seal.
Like a pile of money that had been lit aflame, Elizabeth lost the equivalent of millions of units of Inner Strength every second. But at least her absurd speed which peaked at 50,000 kilometers per hour was sustained without an issue. With that kind of speed, Elizabeth"s control over the solidified s.p.a.ce platforms she had been materializing to sustain herself in the air was barely viable as step resulted in shattering sounds; leading her to be a bit unstable along the flight. But just over ten minutes later she found herself at the border between the Irelian and Agrian territories.
Alas, she still couldn"t afford to stop as there was no telling what kind of forces might have been sent after her and as she thought of the worst-case scenario — the one being played out in reality, where Core Formation experts were trailing her at full speed — it would be unwise to slow down until she was deep within the Agrian territory; even better would be if she was intercepted by high-ranking Agrian Spirit Realm experts as her transformation would probably lead to a good reception.
As Elizabeth hoped, within just a short five minutes after she pa.s.sed by the border, several reports of her disturbances were made to the heart of the Agrian Empire, where a certain Monster King was currently being debriefed.
"My King, we"ve just received our seventh unconfirmed sighting of a Shaman Priestess! This unconfirmed ent.i.ty has yet to stop even after pa.s.sing by three Vice Generals and one Gener-" The half-reptile half-human demihuman that was in the midst of speaking suddenly paused as new information flood to his head from the earpiece attached to his head.
"There"s been a sudden development, My King! Two of the Irelian Empire"s Dukes with General-level Strength have just been spotted pa.s.sing by the same area as the unconfirmed Shaman Priestess. They appear to be hot on her trail and have refrained from attacking any of our cities; within two minutes they are estimated to make contact!"
With his brows rising and an eager smile appearing on the King"s remarkably human face, he said "Che! It seems the situation is getting more and more interesting… I"ll go sort this mess out myself."
…
[Danger!! Hostile Qi Detected
Updating Status
Status
Name: ???
Level: 42
Rank: Early Core Formation Stage]
[Danger!! Hostile Qi Detected
Updating Status
Status
Name: ???
Level: 41
Rank: Beginner Core Formation Stage]
"Tsk," Elizabeth clicked her tongue as she was irritated by the two specks that were fast approaching. Though she had won in the end, having made it to the Agrian Territory before having to teleport back to Earth, she couldn"t help but grow irritated by the sheer quant.i.ty of energy lost during the short period of time she kept her Chaos Seal for deactivating.
"Core Formation experts or not, those two f.u.c.ks will utterly destroy me if they get too close, so It"s best that I just teleport back from here… I"ve made it several thousand kilometers into Agrian territory, so it should be fine to return after a couple of hours pa.s.s. Surely such high ranking members of the Irelian Empire will not be welcomed here," Elizabeth thought to herself as she continued to build up enough Time Magic to teleport instantly; a feat easier said than done when 99% of her focus was on continuing to supply her 6th Chaos Seal with energy.
She was about 80% finished when suddenly the world seemed to freeze; time coming to a halt. Just then, she had almost pa.s.sed by the most human-looking cultivator she had pa.s.sed by thus far in her journey without even realizing it. Now as she flashed by the man"s side and looked into his eyes, a trepidation she had only felt those few times she was a.s.sured her life was out of her hands consumed her being once more as the man just smiled and looked at her without intent.
"Relax," the man"s words somehow registered in her mind in the small period of time they could still see each other; she was still flying at around Mach 40…
[Updating Status
Status
Name: ???
Level: 45
Rank: Peak Core Formation Stage]
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While she registered her goodwill and strength as being more than enough to protect her, she still continued running away for at least a couple more kilometers lest the two hostile Core Formation experts from the Irelian Empire kill her, should her savior give them the chance. She also didn"t want to put her life in the hands of another without knowing their true motives when her Gateway Magic had yet to completely charge as well.