Yin & Yang Pleasures of Cultivation

Chapter 169: Breakthroughs

Right when the Grand Sage scorpion blared its immense power, it shot its huge tail straight at the trio. 

When firing off its tail, the Grand Sage scorpion still couldn't believe its eyes. It felt even more, fear seeing as neither Darcel, Aniela, nor Masami was even affected by its full power!

The scorpion tail moved incredibly fast. Faster than what Darcel, Aniela, or Masami had ever experienced before. 

The ghastly purple hue tail reached them in a mere half-second and was inches away from Darcel's chest.

However, Darcel didn't even put any thought into it, and his Chaotic Energy hand moved at an even faster pace than the Grand Sage scorpion! 

'Bang!!' 

A tremendous impact blared in everyone's ears.

The scorpion tail didn't impale into Darcel's chest; no, he had actually caught it using his Chaotic Energy hand! 

The Grand Sage scorpion felt its pupil dilated to tiny needle sizes.

Darcel's smile turned savage, and the ghastly purple hue shrouding the scorpions' tail was instantly vaporized by Darcel's Chaotic Energy! The poisonous stench couldn't affect Darcel, Aniela, or Masami at all now.

Immense panic and fear erupted in the Grand Sage scorpion. It couldn't sense even the speck of power from Darcel, Aniela, or Masami. 

Yet, the Spirit Monster knew its death was near!

The scorpion began to tremble uncontrollably, desperately trying to surge its Sage power and break free from Darcel. However, under Darcel's Chaotic Energy hand, the Spirit Monster couldn't move its body nor summon any of its Sage Qi!

Incredible power rushed to Darcel, Aniela, and Masami's hands, and their Chaotic Energy aura intensified. 

The whole space around the trio froze. 

Another second passed, leaving them with only five seconds.

And Darcel, Aniela, and Masami didn't wait a single second longer. Darcel briefly let go of the scorpions' tail and, 

'Chi!!!' Three gray beams shot forth from his, Aniela, and Masami's palms!

When the gray beams shot towards the scorpions, the whole rumbling and destruction of the cave stopped. The Grand Sage scorpions simply couldn't move at all.

The power behind the Chaotic Energy beams was immeasurable, far beyond the mere limits of Sage's prowess. 

The gray beams shot right through the Grand Sage scorpion, instantly vaporizing it into mere gray dust!

The gray beams didn't even cause a tremendous collision or any kinds of noise. Without stopping, the gray beams sailed into the darkness, still not making any sort of impact.

And in only a mere three seconds, a Grand Sage, a being that could dominate in most places they go to, was just instantly vaporized. All of this was done by two True Soul Core and one Innate Core juniors, no less.

Darcel, Aniela, and Masami felt mild surprise at just how effective Chaotic Energy was. 

But after everything was said and done, the trio immediately collapsed to their knees.

"Haaah.fuuu." Darcel, Aniela, and Masami exhaled a long sigh. 

All of their power and stamina was nearly depleted from that one attack. Their bloodline state automatically turned off, giving them some breathing room.

"Huuu.as powerful that was.haah.we can't be just spamming that for any last resorts." Darcel panted out, feeling like he was on the verge of passing out.

Aniela had her hand to her forehead, trying to wipe off the sweat forming. But no matter how much she swiped off, more and more sweat kept pouring down her face.

"Hueee~....sheesh. I wonder just how strong we'll need to be for this overwhelming power. Haah." 

Masami shot her eyes towards the broken roof, torn ground, and the darkness hole.

She quickly came to a conclusion, telling the duo, "We.we can't stay here. What if there's another terrifying beast like that somewhere around here. Let's force ourselves to that hole!"

"Haaah~, right!" Both Darcel and Aniela didn't reject Masami's words and determinedly nodded. 

Though their Spirit Sense isn't picking up anything now, who knows if there will be another Grand Sage ambush.

Darcel, Aniela, and Masami pushed down all of their exhaustion. They forcefully rose to their feet and tense their legs. 

Against their depleted stamina, the trio took off in a mad dash!

The distance between them and the darkness entrance was still only several feet. Still, the trio felt like they were running a marathon. They had to carefully avoid the many deep craters in the ground and destroyed rocks on the path.

But they did manage to cross over into the darkness hole in a timely manner. 

Once inside the darkness, the trio stopped and put their hands on their knees, panting slightly. Their vision went entirely black for a split second. 

Darcel, Aniela, and Masami blinked their eyes, and their scenery changed again.

"Hooh? This is.beautiful!" Aniela loudly exclaimed as she, Darcel, and Masami's eyes were awe at their current site. 

Beyond the darkness, they came to a room that was littered with bright, beautiful pieces of shards.

Darcel, Aniela, and Masami couldn't even tell how many shards were on the ground. Each shard was in a beautiful blue-silverish glow, causing the whole room to dazzle in its glamorous shine.

The only variant in each shard was their sizes and shapes. 

Some shards were as long as an arm, short as a finger, or as wide as a hand. And the shards weren't the only glorious sight in the room.

The trio trailed their eyes over to the center of the room, and their awe increased. 

Floating elegantly in the air was a huge bright silverish-blue stone. At the top of the radiant stone, a string of blue silverish energy shone out of it and was drilling into the roof.

What made this beautiful sight even more perfect was the vibrant energy enrapturing the room. 

Just being here, Darcel, Aniela, and Masami felt their exhaustion leave them, and their stamina slowly climbed back to them.

"Just our luck, we desperately fight only to come to a glorious reward and, and.ooh?" Masami's full attention began to shift when a sudden pull was calling to her soul.

Her eyes trailed back to the shards littering the ground, feeling that's where the pull was coming from. And the longer she stayed in this room, the stronger the pull the shards had.

Aniela walked over to one of the shards and crouched down. The same pulling feeling in Masami's soul, she as well was experiencing it. 

Her eyes deeply gaze into the blue-silverish shard sensing a very similar quality coming from it.

"Mnh.that's right little fox! I'm also feeling these wonderful shards hold a divine quality just so similar to our Chaotic Energy." And as Aniela said it, she also felt there was another similar vague quality about these shards. 

But she just couldn't put her finger on it.

Darcel, too felt the same pull to his soul. And the vague feeling Aniela couldn't precisely tell also nestled inside Darcel. Although, he could tell it was directly coming from something else inside his soul space.

Try as he might, though, Darcel couldn't remember just exactly what was so similar about these shards besides their Chaotic Energy. 

The only thing he was assured of was that these shards wouldn't hurt them.

So Darcel went with the most direct method. He walked over to a shard and casually picked it up! 

'Chi!' 

A bright blue-silver flash illuminated the whole room!

Both Aniela and Masami were taken off guard and quickly shut their eyes. The blinding flash only filled the whole room for a second. 

Once the flash quickly died down, Aniela and Masami reopen their eyes and promptly snapped their heads over to Darcel.

Though they didn't hear him scream out in pain, they still were concerned for any other surprising element that could affect him. They felt a great relief pass through them as Darcel appeared to be completely fine.

He was only staring at his palm, clenching them for some reason. 

Aniela quickly got up to Darcel, saying to him in a comforting tone, "Ah, Darcy! You almost gave me a heart scare. Thankfully nothing happened. You should've at least waited a bit."

Darcel turned his head, smiling at how cute Aniela was being. He was about to talk when, 

"Hmph! You need to learn from me on how you are supposed to reprimand someone Aniela. But we'll do that later. Inside though, are you feeling alright?"

Masami had swiftly walked over and gently touched Darcel's chest. Her tone started off a bit heated but turned incredibly cute and warm at the end. 

And a burst of soothing warmth shot through Darcel's chest, though he didn't need it.

"Hehe~, little fox, I leave the cute embarrassed aggressiveness caring to you. But you do raise a good point!" Aniela glowed her hand in a radiant white light and placed her hand near Masami's.

"So are you.hm?" Aniela stopped as she did sense a slight change in Darcel. 

And Darcel actually felt a healing property come from Aniela's white hand. 

He smirked when seeing Aniela stopped and began telling the girls, "Relax, girls, I already sensed it, and these shards won't hurt us. And you can sense the change in my Nascent Core, right Aniela?"

"Ah.ah! It's very slight, but like this, I can sense your Nascent Core permanently grew just a little bit." 

Aniela's explanation caused questions to fly into Masami's mind.

"Eh? Really? Is it because of your light you can sense it? I don't sense anything different." 

Aniela smiled and rapidly nodded her head. As she said, Darcel truly did feel his Nascent Core grow in power.

Picking up that shard was so automatic and quick. It was even faster than if they were just regularly cultivating! 

"Trust us, Masami, this little shard actually grew my cultivation just a bit. You two should try it now."

Aniela and Masami took their hands off Darcel's chest and looked back down to shards. Of course, they hold full trust in his words, so the girls didn't have any objection. 

They too casually picked a single shard, a bright blue-silver flash sparked the room, and a smile graced the girls' lips. Just like Darcel, they felt their cultivation permanently grow as if they were regularly cultivating.

Aniela's eyes trailed all over the room, becoming more pleased with each passing shard. "Like this, we literally have a vault of resources here. Oh! And I bet depending on the size varies the amount of energy we get."

Masami was instead starting to look a bit weary while running her eyes at all the shards here. "There's almost too many shards here. Haah.this is going to take us quite a while." 

A smirk curved up Darcel's lips as he told the girls, "Well then, let's get to it."

.

Several hours passed, and endless blue-silver flashes continually sparked in the room. After so much time, the initial bright radiance this room was bathed in had considerably gone down.

The only radiance left came from the huge blue silverish stone floating at the center of the room. 

And for Darcel, Aniela and Masami, they had just got done absorbing the last shard in the room.

A vast, broad smile was etched on each of their faces. 

With dozens and dozens of shards littering the ground, all with various quantities of energy, the trio managed to have repeated significant breakthroughs!

Now, Darcel, Aniela cultivation shot right up to the fifth layer link of the True Soul Core realm! While Masami cultivation jumped straight up to the sixth rank of the Innate Core realm!

With each breakthrough that came to them, neither Darcel, Aniela, or Masami experienced any mental blocks. 

Everything was as simple as just touching and absorbing to breakthrough.

This kind of cultivating method would make any regular or talented cultivator's hearts bleed at how oversimplified the trio had it! Weeks of cultivating that would've taken even Darcel, Aniela, and Masami some time to achieve was done in a mere few hours.

"Fuuu~...." Darcel, Aniela, and Masami exhaled a long breath after absorbing the last blue silverish shard. 

Instead of their breath just being normal, now there was a unique gray color quality in the breaths they take.

Masami clenched her fist, feeling incredibly excited at the overwhelming power running in her Martial veins. "Now probably won't need to team up for stronger foes. We could literally take on late ranks Heavenly Kings in a snap!"

Once the initial excitement ran through Darcel, he had calmed down and looked over to Aniela. Out of everything in these rapid breakthroughs, Darcel was now sure of the other vague feeling he felt in these shards.

His eyes locked with Aniela, and he asked her, "You felt it, right? A small bit of her presence in these shards. Hell, I can now sense it more clearly coming from that stone."

Aniela had a rare serious expression and slowly nodded. "Mnh.it was so very vague. But.there's no way I can ever forget Sari's presence."

Questions rapidly popped up in Masami's mind from the duo's vague conversation. Her two tails shook in rapid curiosity, gaining back Darcel and Aniela's attention.

With their attention on her, she asked, "Uuuh? Just who the hell is Sari?"