A note from Calm Wanderer
Hello, dear readers! Here's your weekly chapter!
The first case of my new detective story is available on youtube, along with the first chapter being available on patre0n if you're interested. it's a story following a detective and a new police officer who partner together to resolve crimes committed or linked to extraordinary beings. The setting is a 1920 style parallel world.
Do check the first case of 'Everlight City's Extraordinary Investigations' : https://youtu.be/BKCr9mg4OeQ
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Flowing Stars Archipelago, Earth
Omniscient P.O.V.
Hearing the warmth in the younger man's words, Gregorov wanted to respond in kind, but Demian's and the three ladies' energy fluctuations were growing more and more oppressive, forcing him to resist with all his might and leaving him with little energy for pleasantries.
With a wry smile, Stanislav responded, his voice strained.
"Lord, the feeling is mutual, but could you and the Ladies rein in your Aura? It's getting difficult to breathe..."
Shaking his head slightly, Demian replied while the same wry grin appeared on all four faces.
"This is us actually reining in our Auras as much as we can... Let's just say our breakthroughs went a bit too well, so now it's difficult for us to control our aura. At least until we leave the secret realm."
Before he could say anything else, Sera furrowed her brows slightly and interjected.
"Demian, we need to leave the secret realm as quickly as we can, so there's no time to waste."
Turning toward Gregorov with a neutral expression, Sera ordered while throwing the large-sized flying boat she had previously picked up from that guard team to Stanislav.
"Gregorov, you're in charge of leading the others toward the realm's headquarters, while we'll go ahead first. Don't waste time, or we'll have to leave you behind in this realm, and you'll have to wait for the Void Channel's reformation to be able to leave."
Although the older man had many questions, none needed an immediate answer, and thus he simply bowed while assuring he would follow her orders.
When the old enforcer rose from his bow, the four figures had disappeared without him sensing anything.
If before their breakthroughs his senses were still able to catch a hint of their movements, now the man had truly and completely been left behind with not the slightest hope of catching up.
Still, Gregorov had been through enough in his long life to know not to compare himself with geniuses as monstrous as those four.
Shaking his head, the man then flew toward the caves beside his own, where the others were waiting while pondering absentmindedly.
'At our level, controlling one's aura is almost innate, so why...? Is it because they broke through too quickly?'
Well, the man was only half-right.
On Demian's side.
Although the four Mikhailovs were only travelling 'slowly' to avoid any incidental realm-breaking, their speed was a dozen times faster than when they were at the Peak Foundation Building Level, turning a journey of an hour and a half into barely a few minutes.
Letting out a sigh, Demian commented sullenly through the Soul Bond.
["Who would have known that having our Pseudo-Immortal Physique breaking through to Minor Success would be so problematic..."]
The words brought a few giggles from the other three before Adeliya replied with an amused grin on her face.
["Darling, you really sound like a spoiled child."]
Brynhild, with a slight upturn of her lip corners added.
["Our husband is too used to having it easy. It's not really a good thing."]
Then, Sera continued in the same chiding tone.
["And it's not as if you don't have the perfect solution to our problem right in your Soul Space."]
Turning his head toward the three, he narrowed his eyes while responding in mock seriousness.
["We aren't even married yet, and you three are already bullying your husband, huh? Seems like I need to show you who's in charge once we leave this realm."]
His serious expression quickly vanished, however, as the group burst into a fit of chuckles before Demian continued in a more serious tone.
["Jokes aside, I really didn't expect that once at Minor Success, we'd need to cultivate with that so-called Mortal Immortal Energy. It's a good thing I've got the Chaos Soul Ring to provide the energy for us, or we'd have been stuck at the Early Core Formation until our death..."]
Shaking her head slightly, Adeliya corrected.
["I don't think we'd have been able to get our Physique to that level without that Ring of yours anyway, even with your Perks, so it's pretty much a non-problem."]
Nodding his head, Demina replied with a simple 'that's true', while recalling their current circumstances.
At first, the breakthrough went well, with the tribulation reaction being close to what they had expected previously.
However, after a while, the Chaos Soul Ring in his Soul Space suddenly activated and, like a vacuum cleaner, absorbed the whole tribulation cloud clean without leaving the slightest hint of lightning Energy.
At that time, the four had felt completely bewildered, though their confusion only lasted a few moments before they had felt a torrent of powerful Energy washing over their bodies, an Energy that resembled normal Elemental Energy, but its Essence felt a lot nobler, purer, and... more perfect.
While that energy was quickly transforming their physique, elevating their Essence to something greater, a torrent of information appeared in each of their minds, explaining many things they had never even heard about in the past, and among them was the origin of that energy.
Mortal Immortal Energy was one of its names.
As it implied, it was Mortal Elemental Energy filled with Immortal traces, though faint, it was enough to thoroughly transform one's physique to an unimaginable degree.
Normally, it could only be found in Immortal Realms and was used by those Mortal cultivators up there.
Mortal Worlds, however, were incapable of producing it for obvious reasons.
This was why Immortal Realms' inhabitants were not only inherently stronger than their counterparts in Mortal Worlds at the same level, but also boasted better potential, even though at the immortal level, the difference completely leveled out.
Now, normally, getting that sort of physique would have been a massive boon, but in reality, it created two problems, one major and one minor.
The minor one was that a Minor Success Physique was the equivalent of the Void Seed Level.
Thus, their bodies were like bottles whose internal size had suddenly grown many times and had been placed standing in the sea, which resulted in a vacuum suction toward the External Elemental Energy, which in turn kept pushing their cultivation toward the Void Seed Level at an uncontrollable speed.
The problem with that was that the secret realm only allowed for Peak Core Formation at best, and any Void Seed cultivators forcing their way inside would provoke a total collapse of said realm.
Fortunately, with both Sera's innate Void Affinity and his recently evolved Soul Shield, the four were barely able to stop themselves from breaking that last barrier separating them from the Void Seed Rank.
Barely.
Of course, their new physique had been thoroughly remodeled, making it effortless for them to wander in the First Void Layer, erasing the threat of dying in the Void Sea.
However, it was different for Gregorov's group and those imprisoned in the headquarters.
This was why they decided to leave for the latter, quickly get rid of any resistance before finding the Void Channel's location and using the most fragile location in the Void realm Barrier to leave the realm, which should hopefully avoid the awkward situation of being the only four left alive.
As for the way to take the rest out of the place, the Mikhailovs believed that by breaking through in the Void Sea, they might reach sufficient power and Void comprehension to bring the rest of the group with them.
As for the risk of going through another Tribulation in the Void Sea?
Although they were still in a Mortal World, their Essence had already transcended to become similar to that of the Peak Immortal Realms' inhabitants, and the weakest newborn there had Void Seed strength, meaning no need to go through any Tribulation for the Void Seed Rank.
They only needed to let go of their cultivation, and they would instantly and naturally break through.
Although it sounded 'broken', Tribulations were both tests and rewards for cultivators, but can a Mortal World test a Mortal Immortal cultivator?
Also, can its rewards be of any significance?
As for the second, and major, problem of having their Essence elevated so much, it was that their bodies now rejected any Mortal Elemental Energy around them, finding it too impure to integrate.
It could be controlled, but not absorbed, making it impossible for them to increase their cultivation if it had not been for the young man's Soul Ring converting the energy around them into Mortal Immortal Energy.
While the four lovers were conversing with each other, bantering joyfully, Quil Grayson, the one in charge of the Wolven Pleasure Realm, was growing more and more nervous.
Indeed, as soon as those hundred or so guards died, the humanoid-shaped Wolf Demon had received the news through a special Soul Lamp device which was used to record the life signs of every one of his subordinates.
Killing Foundation building cultivators, even if it were a hundred, was extremely easy for any Core Formation cultivators, so he only felt surprised at first.
Killing Early and Mid Core Formation cultivators would mean being at least a strong Later Core Formation, so that was when he started feeling worried.
However, killing a Late Core Formation meant that the enemy was at least as strong as Greyson himself, and might even be more powerful, so when he felt Garett's death a few instants later, that was when a seed of fear appeared in his heart.
Fortunately, even if it was the second and worst case scenario, with the Defensive Formation in place, the Wolf Demon should be safe until the Void Channel recovered and he was able to contact his people outside of the Realm.
Still, what he found strange was that, aside from those deaths, there was not the slightest trace of the enemies, as if the latter had gone into hiding after doing the deed.
Now, it would have been good news for him, if not for a dreadful intuition that had been growing in his heart for the last two or so months.
It was a feeling of unavoidable death, as if some dreadful beings had targeted him, someone beyond his Rank.
But in this weak realm, who could be strong enough to elicit that sort of feeling in him?
The worst, however, was that a few minutes ago, that intuition grew wildly stronger, making his hair stand on end, and his heart beat at an abnormally high speed.
A few minutes later, his pupils suddenly constricted while his breathing turned ragged as he mumbled.
"It's coming..."
As soon as those words left his mouth, he felt the Peak Tier 3 Protective Formation crumble like a sand castle, its usually formidable power incapable of withstanding the new arrival's overwhelming strength.
In the Wolf Demon's view, four people suddenly appeared in the sky, their appearances blurry as a thin layer of Void Energy distorted others' perception, making it impossible for anyone to guess their identities.
Aside from the Void Energy that his own Peak Tier 3 senses were barely able to perceive, a few strands of energy kept escaping their bodies, each time creating cracks in the Void as if their simple presence was too much for the secret realm to bear.
Although his own cultivation was too weak to properly assess the enemies' strength, he had met enough Void Seed cultivators and King-Grade Beasts to understand that those four should be beyond average among Tier 4 beings, something that should have been impossible in a Tier 3 secret realm.
With a wry smile on his face, Quil muttered.
"Seems like I'm done for this time."
Trying to defend against four powerful Tier 4 cultivators?
Although he was only a breakthrough away from that Rank, it was akin to the difference between Mortals and Immortals, with no way to compare unless he had been one of those monstrous Peak Mortal geniuses and the opponents were the weakest Tier 4s possible.
Clearly, none of those criteria were met, so he had no chance.
As for outrunning a Void Seed being?
Even though he possessed a Tier 4 Random Teleportation talisman, using it would either bring him somewhere inside the realm or to the Void Sea outside the realm if unlucky.
The latter would end up in death, and the former would be futile, as those four would be able to track him through the Void fluctuations the talisman would leave behind.
No matter how he thought about it, the only way for him to survive would be through those four's mercy.
As the Wolf Demon was doing his best to find a solution to save himself from the current desperate situation, he suddenly felt a crushing pressure appear on his body, with his bones as strong as Tier 3 metals now bearing growing cracks while his flesh was starting to rupture, forcing him to grit his teeth from the pain.
Lifting his head, he noticed four pairs of eyes directed at his body, each of them filled with cold majesty, akin to the Heavens' eyes looking down on Mortals.
The only thing that betrayed their mortal's origin was a trace of barely contained anger filling their gazes.
A brief moment later, three pairs of eyes disappeared, leaving only two deep blue eyes, whose bottomless depths seemed to contain a trace of Heavenly phenomena, with two Yin-Yang fish turning into the Sun and Moon floating around each other harmoniously.
While his mind was growing dazed, a magnetic, male voice reached his ears, making his entire body shudder, feeling like an insect in front of a lofty Immortal.
"You lot from the Wolven Pleasure Consortium are truly beyond redemption. I promised that guard team leader of yours that I'd exterminate your kind as soon as I grew strong enough, and since I'm a man of my words, here I am today."
As those last words left his lips, Quil's body disintegrated, leaving only one thought in his mind before he fell into death's embrace.
'This is beyond a Void Seed cultivator's capability...'
After he sensed that Wolf Demon's demonic aura had disappeared along with his body, Demian let out a breath, feeling his anger greatly alleviated.
With a sweep of his Soul Power, a Void Ring appeared in his hand before his Soul Sense investigated its content.
Seeing what was inside, Demian felt a mix of disgust and delight.
The former was because of the Demonic items it contained, from organ parts to Evil Soul remnants, while his delight came from the more normal 'treasures' he now possessed, from Spirit stones to Spirit herbs, along with artifacts, Pills, etc.
Although he was too lazy to count, he was sure that he was now richer than an average Void Seed cultivator, though it was mostly in terms of quantity, as the items only ranged from Tier 1 to Tier 3, while Void Seed cultivators usually possessed at least one or two Tier 4 items with them.
Still, fortunes falling from the sky should be appreciated, not complained about.
Shaking his head slightly, he removed all those Evil items and, with a single thought, a trace of Heavenly Water Element Energy eroded them all into nothingness, even those radiating Peak Tier 3 fluctuations.
After checking through the Soul Bond, he found that while Seraphine and Brynhild had already dealt with most of the Wolven minions, Adeliya had been scouring the place, healing those who could be saved and letting those who were too far gone pass away as painlessly as possible.
Honestly, even some of those she had chosen to heal were beyond help in his opinion, merely human husks at this point.
However, healing was her specialty, not his, so he would not comment on it.
Instead, he opted to fly toward the sky above the headquarters, finding the Void Realm barrier at that location much thinner than anywhere else.
Of course, it was still not something a normal Peak Core Formation could break, as it touched on some Void principles that only those at the Half-step Tier 4 and above could comprehend.
However, for Demian, a simple touch from his finger was enough to breach it,
Thinking about the fact that three months prior, their group had barely survived from contacting Wild Void Energy for less than a second, Demian felt a slight sense of surrealism.
Indeed, now, he was certain that even if he broke the Void barrier and entered the Void Sea, he would be completely unscathed.
Letting out a sigh, the young man mumbled.
"Funny how things can go from one extreme to another in so little time."
While the young man contemplated the recent changes in his life, he kept observing the Void barrier, trying to find a way to break it without destroying the realm alongside it.
Actually, as long as he was precise enough, the realm's self-repair mechanism would be able to fix the hole he made.
However, that was exactly the problem.
Because of his cultivation having risen too quickly and also having to restrain his cultivation from advancing to the next Rank, he was pretty much using 99.9% of his mind power already, leaving too little to perform any intricate action.
Killing someone like that Wolf Demon was fine, but breaking the Void Barrier demanded too much brain processing for his current self.
It was like the difference between using a mass to break a door and using some tools to remove the door's locking mechanism.
Both options would open the door, but the first would make it impossible to use that door again.
Still, the four Mikhailovs had already found a solution to that problem in the form of Seraphine and her high Void Affinity coming from her Void Shadow Elf bloodline, especially since her bloodline seemed to have started evolving toward a higher race, a phenomenon that both Bryn and Liya were also experiencing.
Even Demian's Elementary human race gave him the feeling of being on the brink of transformation, though his knowledge was too little to guess the exact result of such a change.
The only thing he and the three women were sure of was that it would only be beneficial to their cultivation, so there was no need to overthink it.
Time passed by, and around 45 minutes later, the three Mikhailov women reappeared by his side, with each wearing a different expression.
Seraphine seemed outwardly unaffected, though the occasional strands of killing intent that escaped her body told him otherwise.
Unlike her sister, however, Bryn did not even try to hide her own killing intent, as her entire body was splattered with blood, though none of it was her own.
While gripping her halberd tightly, the tall redhead looked toward the other three and stated.
"Wolven Pleasure Consortium... It seems like the Federation needs some serious cleansing if those devils can operate here freely."
Although her killing intent was so powerful that anyone below the Void Seed Rank would have their mind obliterated instantly, the other three were completely unaffected, with Liya even replying, her slender brows slightly furrowed as a thought came to her mind.
"Honestly, with how large the Federation is, I'm surprised about how few in number those crime syndicates are. But then again, we've only been to Bright Star Island, so it may be worse than we think. As for this branch of the consortium, there's bound to be some people from the Administrative Hall covering for them, most likely someone at the Governor or Vice-Governor level. Otherwise, that level of activity would have been discovered long ago."
The other three nodded with Demian suggesting.
"The Governor we were supposed to investigate might be the one behind that cover-up operation."
While the rest looked thoughtful, Seraphine interjected.
"No matter if he is or not, we need to move now, or we'll end up destroying the secret realm."
Indeed, with almost an hour having come and gone, the four lovers' hold on their own cultivation was growing more and more tenuous, with a progressively high number of energy strands escaping their bodies, creating several-meter-long Void fissures all around them.
Although each crack recovered relatively swiftly, their number and size kept growing, and it was clear to their strong senses that the speed at which they healed was progressively decreasing.
With a quick calculation, the group found that if they did not leave the realm in the next half an hour, it would disintegrate completely.
The realization brought a solemn look to everyone's faces, with Liya telling her elven daughter.
"We'll follow your lead, sweetie."
With a light nod, Sera then turned her focus toward the Void Barrier, using the new bloodline memories she had received after breaking through to Tier 3 to wield the Void Energy around her.
Unlike other races, Void Shadow Elves were able to naturally control Void Energy as soon as tier 3, making them a deadly force feared by many.
Even those Tier 1 and Tier 3 possessed innate pseudo-Void power, though their usage was much less flexible than wielding true Void Energy.
Still, against those at their level, it was incredibly effective, and even those at a higher Rank may be affected by it.
And that was 'normal' Void Shadow Elves.
However, Seraphine was anything but normal, as her bloodline had already reached Peak Purity a while ago, with her Physique having now evolved toward Immortality.
Among the many benefits it brought to her, she could feel her elven bloodline evolving toward a higher level, which made her Void Affinity grow even further.
While wondering how strong she would become once the evolution ended, the purple-haired woman used a thought to shape the Void Energy around her, first in the form of a needle.
Once she punctured the Void barrier, she turned her needle into a small disk before making the latter grow slowly.
On one side, it expanded the hole, while on the other, that same hole was obstructed by her Void disk, blocking any Wild Void Energy from entering the realm to wreak havoc.
The maneuver seemed simple from the outside, but only she knew how difficult it truly was.
Indeed, despite all her advantages, she also had to stop her cultivation from breaking through, which occupied a significant portion of her Soul Power, making her feel a bit strained.
Fortunately, she still succeeded after around five minutes, though the other three could see the fatigue on her face as she gestured toward the human-sized disk and instructed.
"Go through it quickly. I won't be able to hold on for much longer."
Without wasting time, Liya and Bryn flew through the grey Disk, the sensation being somewhat similar to going through a water curtain.
An instant later, the mother and daughter duo found themselves floating inside the Void Sea, with none of the destructive sensation they had experienced a few months prior.
Instead, both felt a warm and comfortable sensation, something that neither of them had expected.
Before they could say anything, Demian suddenly appeared by their side, quickly followed by Seraphine, who immediately turned toward the hole, which had started to grow smaller at the same time as her Void Disk.
Although the other three felt a bit concerned for the dark elf, the only thing they could do was wait silently on the side while the Void barrier was slowly recovering.
The recovery was slow at first, as the 'injuries' were relatively large, but the smaller the hole became, the quicker it healed, until it reached the size of a coin and Seraphine was finally able to let go completely, her body shaking slightly from the mental strain she had been under.
Seeing her state, Demian immediately brought her into his arms, where she stayed for half a minute before she pushed him back gently and stated, while grinning proudly.
"Am I awesome, or am I awesome?"
Seeing her proud expression, Demian let out a few chuckles before replying.
"I'd say extraordinary fits you better, but awesome is pretty good too."
Giggling, she then retorted.
"Both are good."
While the two were flirting with each other, Liya's face was still tense.
Thus, at one point, she interjected, her voice a bit strained.
"You two, I can't hold on anymore. I have to break through."
Indeed, even the others were close to the limit, with their Inner Elemental Core pulsating so strongly that their entire bodies were vibrating abnormally.
With a serious expression on his face, Demian suggested.
"Let's get a bit farther from the secret realm to avoid damaging it. Even though there shouldn't be any Tribulation, it's better to be safe than sorry, especially since we've already left it successfully."
Thus, the four of them, using their new and somewhat rough mastery over Void Energy, started moving away from the realm, though still close enough to reach it in less than a minute if needed.
Once they were satisfied with the distance, the four triggered their respective breakthrough.
Or more specifically, they let go of their cultivation, letting their own bodies evolve naturally.
On Demian's side.
Although he did not need to personally intervene, the young man still chose to observe the transformation with his Soul Sense, recalling the general information about the different cultivation Ranks.
The Chi Gathering needed to gather Elemental Energy into a gaseous form, with each level increasing the energy reserve through compression, which also increased the Lower Core Space's size each time.
The Foundation Building, as the name implied, built the Elemental Foundation by choosing one or several Elements to cultivate, turning the previously gaseous energy into a liquid orb, with the same principle of compression. It also increased the Lower Core Space's size with each level.
Once one formed a solid Core, then mere energy absorption was not sufficient to improve.
Instead, one needed to comprehend an Elemental Intent, using it to create nine Elemental Rings around the Core to strengthen it, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Once at the Peak of Core Formation, however, another limit was reached, and comprehending Elemental Intent was not enough to progress further.
The solution to that problem was introducing a strand of Void Energy into the Core, which, once assimilated, would result in an overall qualitative improvement to one's entire body beyond what was normally possible.
After all, Void Energy, although merely the surface of Space Law, did touch on the Universe's fundamental structure, though it was closer to brushing against than truly touching.
With all that, although possible, introducing Void Energy inside the Core was still extremely dangerous and would often result in death, similar to what happened a few months prior to the Mikhailovs.
Thus, to succeed, one needed to comprehend at least a sliver of Void Intent to be able to slowly guide the Void Energy into one of the Elemental Rings circling their Core until it was completely assimilated by it.
Upon success, it would instantly trigger a massive evolution of their body, becoming a Void being from now on, though the weakest of them.
As for Demian's Core?
Well, the solid blue Core had nine grey blue rings circling it, with some Mortal Immortal runes engraved on it, representing both his understanding of Water Intent and his Minor Success Immortal Physique.
Aside from the runes themselves, each of the rings had hints of grey, which should have normally only been found in a Peak Void Seed cultivator, although for the latter, their Core would have also gained strands of grey colors at the same time.
That was his state before, but now his Core was starting to slowly transform with his breakthrough, prompting him to mutter.
"It's getting more and more interesting..."