Advancing Forwards

By the end of the 3 month period, the preparations were pretty much complete and the move to the next world could be in motion at any time. However, they were waiting for one vital thing to happen, for Lucius to breakthrough!

Lucius had reached the peak of the Spirit Condenser stage and his 5 elemental continents were now their own planets. The elements were thick and heavy as they spread throughout the land in various forms. To break through to the next level Lucius would need to condense runic pillars. These runic pillars would act as a pillar for the elements to gather and condense in his bodies much faster than they currently did. Currently, Lucius would have to refine the ambient qi into spirit qi and then revolve that spirit qi through his primordial runes to change their nature into elemental qi but once the runic pillars were created, this process would be shortened as the pillars would refine ambient qi straight into elemental qi instead. It essentially cut out the middle process and would greatly increase Lucius' cultivation speed.

The runic pillars also served as a pivot to the element itself meaning that if Lucius were to refine a technique into the pillar, he would be able to execute that technique in a much smoother and faster pace. Every technique would have its own casting time since it took time to gather the elements and turn them into attacks but with the pillar, the elements would directly become attacks.

The number of runic pillars was the way that the Elemental Ascension realm was rated, 1 runic pillar was the beginning, 5 runic pillars was a low level Elemental Ascension, 20 was mid level, and 80 was high level. 100 pillars was the peak and then one would break through to the Elemental Conqueror realm, the third tier! Delilah currently had 63 pillars made! Lucius would be starting with 5 runic pillars though because of the Cosmological Art and thus started the realm with a higher strength than others. However, this also meant that he had 5 times the difficulty in breaking through as he had to simultaneously create 5 runic pillars as soon as he started. It was also vital that these 5 pillars be the biggest and strongest of the pillars he would create as they would be the baseline pillars that the consequent pillars would be arranged around in a formation.

Lucius was not nervous though as he had the guidance of Orion and Acacia and had listened to the experience of Delilah. He had ample knowledge of what to expect and was excited to finally be considered a true cultivator. The process was actually quite simple but it was the fact that he had to do it 5 times that was challenging.

Lucius sat cross-legged as he breathed in deeply, he looked inside himself as he concentrated on the 5 different sections of his elemental core. He reached out with his mind and began to rotate the 5 planets, slowly getting faster and faster. The planets began to shine and give off a feeling of satiety as they were currently full to the brim with elemental qi, they were resisting Lucius' attempt to add more qi in. This was a sign that he was already at the peak and he could now breakthrough successfully. Lucius reached out to the primordial runes and began to wrap the elemental qi of the planets' cores around each of the runes. He enveloped the runes and began to construct webs around the runes. The webs then turned into strings, and then into ropes, he twisted the ropes and bound them together. He dragged the ropes up and began to build bricks out of those ropes of elements. He stacked those bricks one by one and quickly condensed a tower of bricks.

The bricks were surrounding the primordial runes like a wall protecting the rune from any harm. The rune began to shine further as it started pulsating. The rune started oscillating and pulsing in a rhythm that Lucius quickly memorised. He condensed new ropes but developed them further into chains and had them revolve the now pulsing runes. He began to count along with the beat of the runes and then looked for an opening. As the rune pulsed again, Lucius thrust one of the chains from each element into their respective runes and hooked them into the rune. The rune shivered and stopped oscillating for a while but soon continued oscillating and pulsing to a new rhythm. Lucius learnt the rhythm again and then hooked another chain into the rune.

This went on for a full day as Lucius successfully attached 360 chains to the runes. The chains were then built into the foundations of the tower of bricks and were slowly fused together. The towers of bricks formed pillars that became chained to the primordial runes. Lucius breathed out deeply as he let go of his tension and concentration and slumped down to the ground. There was a big grin on his face and his body was covered in sweat and his veins were popping out of his body.

He successfully broke through to the Elemental Ascension realm!

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"Waaaaah! I'll miss you so much! Ahhhhhh!" cried Julia as she hugged her mom tight enough to break her ribs.

"I-I-Its fine darling, you can always come back whenever you want, right? Lucius said it would be as fast as one takes to blink!" replied Jessica as she began to tear up herself.

"B-b-b-but I won't see you for a long time!" Julia cried as she rubbed her head onto Jessica's ample chest.

"I'll miss you too sweetie!" Jessica exclaimed as she burst into tears along with her daughter.

"Look at these two, their such an embarrassment, right?" Maria said as she hid her sniffles and looked to her father.

"It's good, let them cry. You don't need to act brave Maria, cry as much as you want!" Michael said as he pulled Maria into a hug which immediately made her start crying too.

The trio stood to the side as they watched this touching scene. Lucius was smiling while Delilah was crying herself, wiping her tears with a tissue as she looked on at the heart warming scene.

"What, I thought you were supposed to be the tough one, weren't you big sister?" Lucius joked as he looked to her.

"Shut up! Even the strongest people can cry you know? And why do you only call me big sister when you're making fun of me?" Delilah questioned while looking away from Lucius with a pout on her face.

"You alright, Johnny? This is probably tough on you right?" Lucius commented as he put his arms around Johnny's shoulder.

"No, I'm fine. Really, I'm fine. They're in a better place now, right?" Johnny joked with a dry chuckle as he leaned in to Lucius' arms.

"Hmmm, I've decided! Once we're strong enough, we'll go to heaven and find your parents! With my mothers help we can probably make them new bodies. I promise you Johnny, I'll bring your parents back to you one day!" Lucius exclaimed with determination and courage.

"Hahaha, big bro, the souls in heaven belong to the Goddess you know? How are you supposed to take them away?" Johnny joked further.

"I don't know, maybe I'll seduce her and ask for your parents as a dowry or something, hahaha!" Lucius burst into uproarious laughter.

"Pfft, you? I have more of a chance then you! I'll seduce her instead Johnny, and I'll have her bring Jack and Milly directly to you!" Delilah remarked as she tried to one-up Lucius immediately.

In the midst of this boisterous banter, the family of four couldn't help but stop crying and look over, amazed by the things being said. This was the Goddess they were talking about! The Goddess! She was the ruler of the heavens and a supreme expert! Yet two kids were talking about wooing her!

Disrupted by the jokes, the family separated as Julia and Maria walked over to join the trio. They were going to leave Hazmit with the trio and become key members of their clan in the future. Maria was heading the production, assimilation and direction of the wrist screens. These were basically holographic tablets that were attached to ones wrists like a bracelet and were the key feature of the new clan. They had many features and acted as a phone, map, scanner and library all in one. It would contain the database and would be distributed to every disciple in the future. These would be the vital point that would accelerate the growth of the clan even further. Julia on the other hand would be training the disciples in military discipline and tactics which were just as vital.

The group of five waved goodbye for the last time before moving directly into the Clan building sector of the Garden. The clan building sector could be entered in two ways only, if an admin of the Garden administered a blood rune or if one had a sect token. The blood rune was what Lucius had drew on Johnny back in the forest before going on to fight the decrepit prince. This was a direct link and meant one could come and go as they pleased and so far only Johnny, Maria and Julia had one. As an admin of the Garden herself, Delilah didn't need one. The sect tokens were a much simpler method as one could enter or leave with these tokens without the need for a blood rune but this method was hindered by the fact that they could only do so if they were approved to do so by an admin. The tokens were bound by blood and qi and so were unable to be transferred and if they were lost or stolen, it would be fine. They were also a form of identification as someone of the clan and would be used later as such. Currently they were simply plain black tokens as they had yet to decide on a name for the clan.

The group of 5 gathered round and looked at each other with excitement before the twins went back to their own work. They were still too weak to join the trio as they arrived at the new world. It was a tier 5 world after all and they hadn't spent that long on their cultivations yet.

The trio looked at each other and nodded before Lucius said the command and they were sent to the new world, the high grade tier 5 world, Ventolin!