Flying across the Agrian Territory, Elizabeth and company were treated to many wondrous sights; several of which were impossible to see on Earth with its currently level of a.s.similation into a Cultivation Society. Like in Tyre of the Irelian Empire, it was the norm to see a mish-mash of cultures and styles, but that trend appeared to slowly diminish the higher the level of a city one visited.Previously, as Elizabeth was running like her life depended on it, though she had crossed over a large part of Endrin, she naturally missed out on most of what there was to see. Now, despite the group"s still ridiculous traveling speed, with her recent breakthrough to the Spirit Realm, Elizabeth had little trouble keeping up and amusing herself with the spectacles below.
Even as she faced all manner of weather through the skies, it did little in the way of hindering her as her eyes pierced right through the wind, rain, thunder, and snow. Needless to say, it was a pleasant hour of cruising until the group approached the Danger Zone. As the group approached, it immediately became apparent that they were about to enter a place vastly above their level of understanding.
Even from dozens of kilometers away, a barrier of sorts could be made out which seemed to manipulate the weather itself. Elizabeth"s group approached the site of the Danger Zone from the east, where a ma.s.sive downpour threatened to flood the plains below. To the north of the Danger Zone, the rainfall turned into a snowstorm, while to the south there was lightning added to the rain. Most bizarre though, was that from the west, it was clear that there was no rain or snow at all; solely overcast.
"Alright everyone, we"re about to enter the least dangerous area of the Ancient Redvile Temple, the Cloudsea Domain. However, even if it is the so-called least dangerous area, it still makes up part of the Danger Zone. It would serve you all to never underestimate even the most benign of aspects here."
Ygny, holding back the group just before the barrier, gestured to Elizabeth to come over. As he slid his hand through the barrier, it was immediately engulfed by hundreds of rain droplets, but aside from a bit of shaking, he didn"t react much. Elizabeth, looking intently at his submerged hand felt a chill run down her spine characteristic of her Ominous Pa.s.sage Innate Skill settling into motion.
Before she could deduce the nature of whatever horrible thing might happen, Ygny explained, "Crossing this rain is the first trial anyone intent on entering the Danger Zone must face. Just across this barrier, every drop of rain has the force of a Peak Phase King Stage Martial Pract.i.tioner; and that"s just by the outer area. As you progress further into the Cloudrain Section of the Cloudsea Domain, the force behind each rain droplet slowly increases; reaching strength levels comparable to Peak Phase Saints just before the Ancient Temple"s entrance."
"Mhmm…" Elizabeth"s eyes narrowed as she digested this information. Sure, King and Saint Ranked Martial Pract.i.tioners were less than ants in the face of her current strength, but even a mighty elephant would fall to a horde of several hundred thousand ants. Even she would be overrun and grounded into a mist of blood if she suddenly had to bear through the force of several thousand Peak Phase Saint level attacks, and long before that point her stamina and energy would be consumed leading to an arguably worse fate.
So far, this Danger Zone lived up to its name as even before entering the construct that gave it its name, the grand majority of Transcendent Foundation Cultivators would find it almost impossible to persist through the first challenge. Elizabeth, however, didn"t let this dissuade her from trying; if anything, it lit a fire in her desire to see how far she could get.
Thus, with as much care and caution as she was capable of mustering, she stuck a finger into the Cloudrain Domain. Nigh-instantaneously, she had to pull her finger back out as just a fraction of a second of exposure led to microfractures developing along her index finger. It didn"t even take an acupoint needle to recover as Elizabeth could activate some of the more basic acupoint healing arrays internally now that she had 108 active acupoints, but that wasn"t what was plaguing her mind at the moment.
"This… why does the rain feel like ordinary water?" Elizabeth thought she was imagining things as it was clearly absurd to compare rain capable of annihilating armies of Mortal Realm pract.i.tioners with everyday drinking water.
However, Yrre was quick to nod in praise as she said, "Because it is ordinary water. It"s just been augmented with some concepts and insights into the Laws of Water. If I"m not mistaken, this trial isn"t meant to be resolved through brute force." She hovered over like a fairy, crossing into the Cloudrain Sector before adding, "Rather, if your understanding of Water is high enough, you"ll be able to treat this like common rain."
Looking at Yrre, Ygny and his party finally fully trusted Elizabeth in that this woman was her teacher. Normal rain was what she said, but before their very eyes, the rain from the Cloudrain Sector literally parted before meeting her. This was far and beyond any understanding they might have with an elemental energy they majored in! At the very least, she had to be a Core Formation Ranked Cultivator and considering that was the peak of what Endrin was capable of supporting, no one dared to think and deeper on the subject.
"Are you joking? I"m already trying to juggle between close to ten types of elemental and origin energies and Sun is about as competent as I am when it comes to understanding Water. Are we really going to waste our time trying to decipher Laws to THAT level, right here; right now?!" Though Elizabeth still had some Affinity Stones which could help her case, she really didn"t want to pick up a new path of cultivation when she was barely keeping up with the myriad selection of energy sources she was already learning. The goal of returning to the Shadow Realm and visiting a Danger Zone was for the purpose of quickly growing stronger to counter the inevitable Cataclysm and its unstoppable growth. Wasting her time was completely out of the question.
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"Alright, riddle me this: If it was such a waste of time, why would I, being as strong as you know I am, bother becoming proficient in so many types of energies?" Rather cheekily, Yrre stood amused midair as she watched Elizabeth nearly short circuit her brain as she tried to logically respond to her.
After a minute pa.s.sed, Yrre couldn"t bear to keep watching her cute little Master continue to make such an expression, so she added, "The last thing I need you thinking is that learning from an outside perspective is a waste of time. Listen, it"s fine for you to specialize; everyone does that. But, if you want to get far as a cultivator, it"s imperative that you at least familiarize yourself with many types of energies. Even if you"ll never use them personally, through one way or another, all types of energy are connected, so who knows… Maybe you"ll make a breakthrough with one of the energies you major in by studying and understanding Water."
"Besides…" An aura of death suddenly spread out from Yrre with such intensity Ygny"s group and Sun all had to take a step back, "It"s not like you"re not allowed to make progress in energy aside from Water to combat this rain." Now, instead of the rain avoiding Yrre as she had willed for it with her understanding of the Laws of Water, her insights into Death were what allowed her to fly as the potency behind the falling rain was reduced to little more than spiritually inert water not even capable of sustaining life.
"Miss," Ygny suddenly chimed, "Are you perhaps a Lord of Water and Death?" If before he was impressed with Yrre"s understanding of the Laws of Water, now he was scared out of respect for her accomplishments in two separate Law systems; neither of which had much to do with one another.
"Not really," Yrre naturally spoke through the same kind of Translation Spell that Elizabeth used. She understood what he was trying to learn about her so she succinctly said, "Most of my accomplishments lie in the Soul, Karma, and Curses."
"K-karma?" If ever there was the sight of what someone looked like after having a bombsh.e.l.l dropped on them, Ygny portrayed it perfectly. However, now was not the time to gawk, so he quickly fixed his expression and tried to correct his blossoming stutter as he said, "anyway, I w-was going to say something along those lines."
Despite there still being a clear influence of anxiety in his mannerisms, he turned to Elizabeth and asked, "How do you want to proceed? I would have suggested our group shield you as we made our way into the temple"s entrance, but it"s not my call to make…"
"Just train your ability in deductions for a while first," Yrre voice suddenly came through a sound transmission in Elizabeth"s head. "Like I mentioned earlier, this was probably set up by someone who intended for people to pa.s.s through with their insights, not overwhelming power. Like the Sky Seizing Castle, this is probably the site for some sort of legacy, so take advantage of that."
"I guess it"ll be fine if we stay for a little while…" Elizabeth muttered to herself, before she asked, "What about you guys? Will you just wait for us or…"
"We wouldn"t dare stray too far from the Shaman Priestess! Not in the presence of a Danger Zone!" Kirun nearly shot out of his skin from Elizabeth"s insinuation of them leaving. "Besides, even Ygny, the strongest one out of all of us, can"t do what your teacher just did. It"s not like there"s nothing for us to learn by being here."
With the nonchalance of a normal person going to the store to buy groceries, Elizabeth nodded, saying, "Mhmm… I see. Well, let"s spread out and begin a round of meditation then." With the activation of her Transillusionary Return Enchantment, her clothes were replaced with the usual dual armor sets she wore when heading into battle and after descending to the ground with the group, Elizabeth walked back into the Cloudrain Sector.