55 Results of Determination

Zhu Cai sat in the chair for a few incense sticks worth of time, utterly stunned by the insane changes that just passed over her best friend in such a short period. This moment really hammered home how much of Yun was wrapped up in the need to avenge her mother.

Family was obviously extremely important to her, so important that she'd throw her own happiness away to guarantee theirs.

Zhu Cai sprang up as she recovered from her daze and rushed out the door, hoping she wasn't too late to stop her, but obviously it wasn't meant to be. Yun had already sealed the door and activated the arrays. No one could disturb her now without an emergency, not even the Elders would agree to disturb her cultivation at such a time, especially considering the resources she was using to cultivate.

With a heavy sigh of resignation and slumped shoulders, Zhu Cai returned to their rooms and cleaned up everything. Afterward she proceeded to the crafting space and began to work frantically on some equipment that she had kept secret all this time. After nearly a week straight of working on this equipment, someone else entered the space and waited for her attention.

"Senior brother, thank you for coming."

"Zhu Cai, you asked me to help you without even telling me what was being done. My time is precious, and my skills more so. What kind of thing are you making that you need the best rune-forging work available? You've even called in a Gem craft disciple of the highest levels to assist me."

"Let us wait in my quarters for her to arrive before we speak, this will save us all some breath. . ."

Less than an hour later a tall, mature Felis walked into the Direct Disciple quarters and sat down on a couch near the senior brother Zhu Cai had been speaking with. Within the room they spoke for a few hours, heatedly, with much argument between them. At the end of it all, there was a strange light in all of their eyes as each of them was leaving thoughtfully from that room. None of them were seen by anyone else for the next few weeks in their quarters, but strange noises constantly drifted out from the hall of Elder Lei's direct disciples as three different crafting rooms were in use constantly.

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Within the cultivation chamber the air was stifling. The temperature was nearly as high as a Volvaka hive's core regions, the energy density was nearly suffocating, and scattered over the ground were numerous small energy stones in addition to the three God Stones. Yun was sitting in the center of this space with crossed legs, inhaling pure energy and exhaling what looked like a small ash cloud sparkling with static. Arcs of static also jumped across her body, leaping from hair to hair up and down her bare torso. Her bushy tail was curled around flat against her thigh, also bristling with electricity.

Within Yun's core the energy density nearly reached a dangerous level as she began to compress it yet again and prepare for layering it on her Neidan, pushing towards the Large Success sixth stage. If Elder Lei were here he would be exclaiming in shock at this energy density and cultivation pace. Too fast! Too risky! The chances of destroying her foundation, or even her Neidan entirely, were too high in this environment! Suddenly, the array shut off and all the energy in the room began swirling around Yun's core, where her Neidan rested.

As the massive energy began to condense into near liquid form it began to seep into her pores. A snarl could be seen rising in her face, but not a sound came out of her throat. More and more static began arcing off her body, even reaching out and leaving small scorch marks on the walls and roofs, as she continuously drew energy from the air around her to supplement the strength her body was expending.

Within her Neidan a sea of liquid energy began to fill he space around her tiny seed, slowly beginning to be crushed down into a layer of solid crust on top of her current core. This layer, if completed with all this energy, would be thicker than all the previous layers combined. This would create a Neidan larger than many cultivators ninth stage! Yun continued forcibly compressing energy, taking nearly three weeks, before she finally collapsed.

As she lay on the ground a small amount of energy still circulated in her core, nearly solid belts of energy were revolving around her Neidan, trying to create a small world already around the gravity of the seed. Yun had succeeded in forging a massive sixth layer, with very few impurities that could be fixed by some efforts before she advanced again.

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Outside of the cultivation chamber Zhu Cai could be seen bringing a storage artifact to the Gem and Rune forging spaces, handing off her work to them to continue. As she stumbled back out of their areas she collapsed against the wall, mumbling under her breath, "Stupid idiot, if you weren't so dead set on this I would have had more time. . ." as she passed out.

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With a small sneeze Yun woke up three days after her collapse. Examining her inner space she rejoiced at what she was witnessing. Simultaneously, her stomach growled loudly and angrily at her. She had been so busy that she had done nothing but supplement her physical energy with the electricity in the air for the past few weeks, so she retrieved a great deal of food from her spatial storage and slowly ate it, being careful not to rush.

Afterward she began to study her secondary techniques again, and was shocked by what she discovered.