57 Breaking the Coccoon

Nearly seven months after the closing of the cultivation chamber doors they began to open again. Slowly they opened and an oppressive heat roiled out of the door, washing the entire hallway in a pressure wave. As she stepped out from within the doorway a heat mirage could be seen around her body and her fur fluttered gently in the air currents caused by this heat.

Within her personal room Zhu Cai woke up with a start and dashed to the front room. As she was preparing to open the door she noticed the intense heat flowing under it and hesitated, with this level of heat she could easily burn her hand by grabbing the door handle!

Outside, walking down the hall, the temperature of the space began to quickly recede, returning to normal. Due to the quick cooling some gentle cracking noises could be heard from the stones around her recovering their temperature. Most of the stones in this region were very heat resistant due to the large volcanic activity, so there was little concern of cracking them with heat changes.

Zhu Cai continued to hesitate as the heat began to dissipate, but finally grabbed the door and swung it open just as Yun stepped in front of it.

She immediately flung herself out the door and tackled Yun to the ground in a hug.

"You little idiot, I was worried sick! Don't do that to me, I swear I've lost a few years of my life thanks to you!"

"But Cai'er, you already gained a few extra years from joy because of this Yun before, so haven't I just balanced the scales of fate?"

Zhu Cai was stunned for a moment, staring at Yun's playful expression, before putting on mock anger, "You little rascal, those extra years were going to be the years I spent making sure you had good equipment! Now I'll definitely die before a genius like you."

Yun laughed like the tinkling of bells, lighting up the hallway with the beautiful sound.

"You silly cat, hasn't this Yun given you so many gifts? Even if you had nine lives you'd never be able to use everything I give you!"

They both laughed lightly a bit before finally dragging themselves off the still-warm floor. After going inside the personal space Yun's stomach began to grumble loudly, much to the amusement of Zhu Cai.

"Yun'er, it looks like your stomach really missed my cooking, shall we have breakfast? I've only just gotten up."

"Let's do, Cai'er."

Soon they sat down at the small table and were happily eating their food, tails swishing as they both enjoyed some delicious local fish seared and served with a rice congee. After breakfast they cleaned up and began talking about what state everything was in.

Was there news about the Volvaka preparing to attack? None yet.

Was there anything new from the Elders that she needed to pay attention to? Nothing mentioned.

What sort of preparations had been made? The vast majority of the disciples that are strong enough to contribute have been put through a tournament to rank them.

Yun sighed to herself. This was certainly going to be an interesting experience in the near future. They still had a little over three years before the true battles would begin, but within the next year there would be opportunities for skirmishes with advance scouts and small parties of Volvaka roaming the woods during the warmer months.

Looking at Zhu Cai she wondered whether the glint in her eye was mischief or simply amusement.

"So, Cai'er, what have you been doing while this Yun was otherwise engaged?"

"A bit of this and that, Yun'er. Maybe I'll show you one of these days."

Yun felt a great deal of suspicion from this statement, but she couldn't bring herself to ask about it, as this was Zhu Cai's personal work and livelihood. After breakfast and their chat she got up and decided to go talk with Elder Lei about the war that was swiftly approaching and what could be done to prepare the disciples for it.

After walking down the stairs she arrived at the small table outside her Master's cave and stood near it to wait respectfully for Elder Lei to arrive. After a few moments he exited his cave and greeted her before staring fixedly at her before a look of surprise crossed his face.

"Tell me, Yun'er, what is your current cultivation?"

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Zhu Cai quickly left the private quarters after Yun had headed down the stairs, heading upstairs as fast as she could. Soon enough she arrived on the fourth floor and knocked on a door. Opening that door gently, she then crept into the room and went to talk with a dark robed figure next to a cauldron before handing over a storage artifact and heading back out the door with a smile.

This exchange only took a few moments, and as soon as she left this room she darted into the stairwell again, heading back to the private quarters. On arrival she began to prepare a large lunch and started cooking.

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"Master, can you not accurately tell my cultivation? This Yun would think that you need not ask such a question."

"Young Disciple Yun, this old man asks because he cannot believe his senses anymore. Tell me what you've managed in this round of cultivation."

In response to this question Yun stood and walked to the center of the Elder's Cavern. There she took out her spear and stood tall with it standing up next to her, a head taller than herself. Suddenly she unleashed her aura as she twirled her spear into a ready position and began to display her skills.

First she displayed what she had previously achieved. This began with stabbing out her spear rapidly and creating myriad spear shadows from the Golden Fluttering Spear technique. Elder Lei praised this spear skill in his heart, as Yun made it look like a work of art with her beautiful spear technique.

Next she displayed her Brazen Moon Flame as the blue flaming aura covered the blade of her spear. After the aura glowed on the spear tip for a few moments she slashed out vertically, activating another skill! As her slash carried across it created a crescent shaped bluish-white projectile, this was the Undaunted Crescent Moon Slash! As the projectile traveled forward a few meters she suddenly slashed out her spear using Golden Fluttering Spear with the Brazen Moon Flame to destroy the Crescent Moon, scattering lightning bolts across three meters of ground around the broken slash.

Finally she displayed her illusory footwork in the Chromatic Aurora Steps, where her Lightning cultivation helped her move at extreme speeds and change directions mid-step without effort due to the erratic nature of lightning.

After all of these Yun stood and prepared once more to show the new skills she had worked on this time.