Snowy Dance of Wailing Heaven
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It had been two weeks since the group's arrival in the Extreme North. Daily training and extreme pressure did bring benefits to the group. Ja Sun had experienced a breakthrough, reaching rank 55. Just like him, the extreme conditions also made everyone except Ah Yin and Bibi Dong have their breakthroughs. The fact that Oscar could only breakthrough by a single rank while being a Spirit Elder when Spirit Kings and Ancestor (Jun'er) could easily Breakthrough made the harsh conditions of nurturing a food-type martial soul evident.
Currently, Yuehua's Clear Phoenix would sometimes fly out but would be forced to walk every time due to the chilling weather and no spirit beast was suitable for Yuehua because she could only try to gain a purple spirit ring at best.
However, there were other benefits brought by Yuehua.
Although less talented physically, it did not mean Oscar had low comprehension. It took him a short time to gain his realm of self by increasing the control of his Spirit Energy expertly. Now, he could raise the effects of his production twice. Meaning, using the same amount of energy, Oscar could create two tofus at once. And Ja Sun felt that this ability rivaled his own perfect control. If anyone felt that Oscar was less talented, it ended now. With the right direction and training, it didn't take long for him to reveal his worth.
But what made Bibi Dong and Ah Yin go nuts was that despite being claimed as two amazing control-type spirit masters...
"Hehe, I've got the goods!" Hu Lana cheered. After all, she gained control of her energy, too.
Her realm of self was similar to Liu Erlong's. While Liu Erlong's control strengthened all of her spirit skills by 10% without any added cost, Hu Lana's realm of self made her more 'charming' without any spirit skills. In essence, whenever she spoke, met someone's gaze, or even her bodily fragrance, everything was now enhanced by the spirit energy flowing inside of her. Unlike Ah Yin and others, now it looked like Xie Xan is the one with an actual catch and he wasn't ashamed to flaunt it the slightest bit. Even the girls would feel attracted to Hu Lana.
In essence, the Realm of Self was nothing but the product of extreme control of one's spirit energy. While this control didn't bring any supernatural benefit to Ja Sun such as enhanced firepower, it allowed him to instinctively control every breath of energy inside of him. This reflected his training.
Oscar's realm of self, too, reflected his training since he had always tried to compensate for his weaknesses by increasing his support ability.
Liu Erlong and Hu Lana, meanwhile, focused on their attributes. Violence and Charm, and bore fruits in line with their training.
The duo also thanked Tang Yuehua, whose domain helped them in the first place.
By the end of the third week, Jun'er had made another breakthrough.
By the end of the fourth week, Xie Xan, too, broke through, pulling close to Liu Erlong when others except for Bibi Dong and Ah Yin were feeling complacent about their growth.
The results of the training were—
Bibi Dong: Rank 69
Ah Yin: Rank 65
Ja Sun: Rank 55
Hu Lana: Rank 55
Liu Erlong: Rank 54
Xie Xan: Rank 53
Xiao Jun: Rank 48
Oscar: Rank 39
Tang Yuehua: Rank 20
But the training had yet a week remaining. With that in mind, Bibi Dong made everyone work extra hard. Though nightmarish, those who were surviving at the edge of the Extreme North also bore many quick rewards.
Of course, it wasn't so shockingly quick like Ja Sun's first few years of cultivation until now, but compared to the rest of the world, it was still a startling growth.
"Huff, last day..." Hu Lana heaved deeply, but hearing no response, she looked up and blushed seeing everyone staring at her in a short daze. Impervious to charm, Ja Sun just joined in for fun. He wouldn't want to miss out leering at Hu Lana as a group activity.
"Stop staring!" Hu Lana felt proud previously but now she was quick to feel embarrassed when even Bibi Dong would find herself attracted to the sheer charm that Hu Lana oozed. In their group, Hu Lana was now a synonym to sensuality.
"That's right," Xie Xan coughed, pulling his girlfriend into a hug, "Only I get to stare at her."
He scoffed while Hu Lana wrapped her arms around Xie Xan's bulky body with a sense of satisfaction.
"Ehm, anyway, this is indeed the last day," Bibi Dong rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. She failed to have any qualitative advancement at all and felt distressed. Even she was infected by her quick growth in the Sunset Forest due to the Bloody Swan Kiss.
'I never could have imagined that herbs like this would bring so many benefits. While my cultivation and the quality of poison was increased, I sensed a strange resonance from the Death Spider Emperor but it is now suppressed once again naturally.
If my intuition is correct, then something different might happen at my breakthrough in rank 70... Can I find a herb beneficial for my other martial soul?
These Immortal Herbs... need to be collected. Even if unusable to oneself, with proper records and research, these can become a major resource for cultivation aside from healing and alchemy.'
Bibi Dong had the same thought any rational individual would have and she glanced at Ja Sun for a moment. If possible, she wanted to keep this individual close to her for personal and professional reasons. After all, Ja Sun was younger than her but despite his love for sheer chaos, he had never brought any disadvantage to the group as a whole. Even his endeavor of bringing Tang Yuehua had proved fruitful.
"I miss hot baths... and my shit not being frozen," Ja Sun muttered and Bibi Dong looked away.
'Of course, I wouldn't have been able to endure the man if it was my past self riddled with killing intent.' Bibi Dong sighed internally. Admitting to the fact that she found Ja Sun more... 'pleasing' to her eyes once he was taken by Ah Yin, Bibi Dong felt quite complicated. But then again, she, Liu Erlong, and Tang Yuehua were single. And even if for some strange reason Tang Yuehua hadn't shown any form of attraction to a capable man, indicating that she might already have someone in her mind, Bibi Dong had noticed Liu Erlong going into a daze while looking at Ja Sun but for another strange reason, Ah Yin seemed pretty chill about it.
"Hush... someone is near...? She? No, a group... they're moving... around?"
Ah Yin whispered. Her domain wasn't well-received by the Extreme North but it still worked when close in range. Liu Erlong patted away the fire, not fearing flames at all while everyone grew vigilant. They hadn't surpassed the range of outskirts because, in the Extreme North, the cold climate is uniform entirely. Since they weren't planning to face off ice and cold-attributed beasts in their turf for no reason when they had no spirit master related to the attribute.
After all, it isn't only strength they had to consider, but also the environment and other factors.
But their passive stay didn't mean other beasts didn't approach them.
The group had to battle against a few spirit beasts during the stay. Every corpse was once again purchased by Ja Sun for a good sum of gold, leaving Jun'er and Oscar particularly giddy.
With the lack of effective scouting skills from Ah Yin and Jun'er, Ja Sun, who was originally dubbed as the scouter of the team, moved out with his forehead flashing and his skull bone skill activated.
Yin-Yang True Illusion.
Layers of robes and tunics covered by one heavy fur-lined coat kept Ja Sun warm. He didn't try to fly in this climate. Although he could replicate a bird's skill, even Clear Phoenix couldn't fly easily in this situation. The footprints left by his thick boots were quickly covered by more snow. With his vision and mental energy being one of the few advantages, Ja Sun finally observed a group of women moving around uphill. Strangely, this group of women wore thin clothing but entirely white that seemed to melt with the snow. Instead of the term movement, dancing would be more apt.
These women danced.
A form of tribal dance, Ja Sun would have assumed had he not understood the origin of these... spirit beasts.
Violet looked entirely like a human from the front but Lamias had coarse and green skin despite being half-humanoid. However, the group of Spirit Beasts in front of him looked entirely human.
Flowing snow-white hair, and piercing blue eyes.
Heavenly Snow Women.
His eyes twitched violently as he observed the celestial light of the Extreme North forming above the small group, moving alongside the dancing tribe towards the cave Ja Sun and his group inhibited.
Just one look was clear to affirm that all the spirit beasts were easily over 10000 years of cultivation. But that one woman who kept her eyes locked with his...
'Well... even I won't fight a monarch in his domain without a plan,' Ja Sun turned around without any hesitation. His Yin-Yang True Illusion didn't work on the woman until he activated the two-fold enhancement out of the three-fold limit of his Fiery Golden Pupils and he instantly felt her intent vanishing. His fifth spirit rings appeared in front of him, voiding him of his spirit energy and creating a clone. Instead of putting his Death Astral Combatant in any form of danger, Ja Sun kept a rudimentary control of his clone and sent it away in an instant.
It worked. For the time being, the direction of the group following him began to shift slightly.
On the other hand, Ja Sun used his Sigh of Immortal to get enough spirit energy and activate his first spirit skill, Silver Burst, and added all the enhancement to his two legs, rushing as quickly as possible.
"Pack up," he huffed, surprising the group as he 'reappeared' inside the cave, "There's a tribe of Heavenly Snow Women dancing."
They pursed their lips and Ja Sun rolled his eyes. These spirit beasts were too rare to be appearing in the outskirts for no reason and in the tome that described one of the most disastrous or dangerous spirit beasts to have ever appeared in the continent, the Heavenly Snow Women took the prize when it came to cold attributes.
"I don't have time to explain but we need to leave. Now."
Sensing the urgency of his tone, everyone nodded and quickly moved out.
'We've been here for a month but the moment we decide to leave, they appear. Confidence? I think not,' Ja Sun speculated as he constantly urged to move everyone faster. He was barely connected with his clone now and without the Death Astral Combatant, he didn't have his senses shared with the clone. In essence, that clone was just an expendable tool that Ja Sun tried to draw the attention of the tribe with.
But it had been only a few minutes after the group left the cave that he found his connection with his clone severed. The clone was intact, Ja Sun was sure of it, but he wasn't connected to it which would only have one consequence.
---
"I sensed beasts inside you... where are they?"
A pale hand stretched out and 'Ja Sun's' expression froze. His originally gold-green eyes brightened and preparing for an attack dulled before turning grey. So did his entire body.
With a swift gust impacting the area, the clone broke into ashes.
The arm that almost reached the clone stopped.
"They left... how?"
The tribe's attention turned based on their monarch's whims and they began dancing once again.
With each step, the light above them brightened but even if it looked beautiful, only this group of heavenly maidens could hear the soft, tearful cries and wailing that were emitted from the celestial lights above them.
The crying begged them to stop. Their identities exposed, their breathtaking beauties shared, and their dance witnessed, the heavens wailed, unwilling to share this with anyone else.
"Dance," the majestic voice whispered, "Let the Heaven and Earth wail. We will move to our whims."
---
"Ah!"
Everyone was surprised as Ja Sun kept creating clones upon clones. Within a few seconds, seven clones ran alongside him and without giving others anytime to question his actions, each of the clones instantly picked up his teammates. Men and women both. Every one of them sacked over his shoulder with Ja Sun personally sacking Ah Yin upon his.
"Everyone, bear with it," Ja Sun shouted, drowning out resistance and he and his clones used Silver Burst at once.
No matter how and why, the group of Heavenly Snow Women slowly building a dangerous snowstorm that even made the air screech in dismay seemed to be interested in their direction.
They may not have any malicious intentions, but Ja Sun was more than happy to meet with such a group in an area that is not their turf even without a plan.
Elements can support a spirit beast greater than one's imagination. Just like when Ja Sun wasn't going to commit suicide by entering Ground Devil's domain back then, he wasn't willing to meet with another 100000-year-old beast in its literal domain, too. He had grown stronger since then, but it was barely enough to adequately contend with the Ground Devil with the handicap of not using his domain.
Now Ja Sun fully knew the terror of such beasts, and hence knew how to handle the situation.
Presently, retreat.
On the way, Ja Sun explained the little knowledge he had on these beings and everyone sighed in relief.
Heavenly Snow Woman.
A Spirit Beast that is not formed through biological mating but the concentration of the snow and ice that reaches a certain threshold and only in certain locations. Ja Sun was sure that natural arrays were involved once again, but he would need time and an S-ranked mission as enough motivation to enter the deepest parts of the Extreme North and verify his ideas.
But aside from their birth and the fact that each Heavenly Snow Woman would surely have a domain, Ja Sun also shared the fact that these Spirit Beasts were peaceful. However, if they moved, literally, each step of theirs brews the element of snow and when they finally stop walking, the accumulated element is unleashed in the form of a dangerous snowstorm.
Ja Sun himself was not quite sure if this ability was controllable or not, but he surely didn't want to stay and wait for it.
"Then... did some treasure appear for such mighty spirit beasts to appear in the outskirts?"
Bibi Dong inquired, trying to cover her embarrassment by igniting her natural greed for treasure... although, she couldn't shake the feeling the side of her butt being pressed against Ja Sun's face was intentional or not. If Ja Sun's silver burst wasn't the safest and the quickest path out, she would have rather used her external spirit bone to fly.
"No treasure," Ja Sun scowled. His nose would have caught the scent of treasures... and he suddenly began missing Olivia and Caihong again.
'Damn it,' Ja Sun sighed.
"I think they are interested in you if they have locked onto us!"
Erlong snickered.
"Clone, spank her!" Ja Sun scowled and the clone carrying Erlong instantly whipped a mighty spank.
*Pah*
"Aaagh! Hey!" Erlong growled.
"No jokes!" Ja Sun shouted back. This certainly quietened Xie Xan. He was sure that his butt wouldn't be left untouched in this vulnerable period, too, if he spoke out of bounds.
The group ran for two hours. Every hour, Ja Sun would create another clone and send it away.
With so much buffer time, the spirit energy stored inside the Sigh of Immortal was definitely awe-inspiring.
Ja Sun understood that expending so much would certainly bring some doubt but right now, he would much rather save the group.
As for the mission?
[Objective: Escape the pursuit of the tribe of Heavenly Snow Women and find an enclosed space privately to pump your fist in.
Optional Objectives:
1) Escape within 5 hours.
2) Escape within 6 hours.
3) Escape within 7 hours.
4) Escape with none of your teammates left behind.
Mission Rank: B-A/B/C-E
Mission Rewards: Snow Tear— Northern Pride/Southern Pride/Eastern Pride— Ice Crushing Boots
Mission Time: 7/5/6/7/7 hours]
Though staying in the outskirts of the Extreme North, there were quite a few hours left before reaching Crystal Lake once again.
Feeling the connection with his second scouting clone severed, only the third one left bravely fending off a pack of Blizzard Lions, Ja Sun decided to use his second spirit skill.
Extremely tiny pairs of Silver Light Wings appeared on every Ja Sun's back. Since he wasn't planning on flying, he didn't put too much spirit energy into the skill and controlled his clones to follow his actions. He just wanted to add more limbs to his body.
With the task completed, the enhancement to Ja Sun's speed drastically increased.
---
"Not this one, too..."
The outstretched hand was retracted.
One of the dancing women inquired. It wasn't human speech, but the group had their own language.
"Empress, why pursue humans?"
"I have felt living spirit beasts inside of a human... they are happy. I observed him for a month, but they are leaving. Thus, I wish to pursue this new relationship... Spirit beasts and humans together? It sounds so dangerous... that heaven would have another reason to wail."
"I... don't understand."
"New things are exciting," the voice remained patient, "At least, I want to understand the law behind it.
Maybe there is a path for every one of us aside from being turned into a human eventually."
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