Su Yan groaned softly while placing a hand on her forehead— massaging away the dizziness. She opened her icy eyes and looked around. "Huh... Where is this place?"
She now stood in front of a lake— shimmering with the glow of sunlight— a cool wave of wind blew, making her silky black long hair blow. She placed a hand on the side of her head, supporting her hair.
Just as she was looking around her. She heard a pair of soft groans. She vigilantly turned around with her cold face and saw Hu Mie'er and Hu Jiao'er standing near a tree with their hands joined.
She frowned and looked around, ".. where's Wang Feng?", she muttered to herself. Using her perception and cultivation, she tried to find his aura— but came out empty handed.
She frowned, 'looks like we're separated now.', that was the only conclusion she came to. 'did he not know this? Or had he forgotten about this?', she wondered, not taking her focus away from the Hu Sisters.
Hu Jiao'er recovered from the dizziness and found Su Yan standing a few meters away from her and her sister with her usually neutral face.
"Su Yan...", Hu Jiao'er muttered before she looked around and was slightly stunned upon seeing the open sky and deep lake in front of her.
Though, she broke out of her shock the next second and looked at her sister and helped her stabilize while still paying attention to Su Yan.
Su Yan saw that Hu Jiao'er had recovered completely and simply turned around and started walking away. Hu Jiao'er looked at her retreating back with a slightly complicated gaze— eventually sighing and focusing on helping Hu Mie'er.
Su Yan walked around— constantly observing her surroundings and on alert. 'the Qi in this place is quite rich', she thought in astonishment, as she felt that if she cultivated here normally for a few months, she might be able to reach Peak True Element Realm.
She travelled for a few minutes before she found a few herbs— taking them with her. After which, her journey remained uneventful as she didn't encounter anything.
It was only a few hours later that she spotted a cave in the distance. What attracted her though, was the cold Yin aura emitting from the cave.
Her eyes shined as she cautiously approached the cave and stood at the mouth of the tunnel.
After confirming that no one was around her and finding no secret trap in the tunnel, Su Yan slowly walked into it. Just by crossing the threshold of the tunnel, she felt the temperature plummet along with the dampness of the wall.
She grew excited with each step she took in that dark tunnel. Just after a few dozen steps into the tunnel, she saw a dull blue glow in the cave ahead.
Sharpening her senses and revolving her Qi in her body, she took a step forward— entering the cave.
The cave was only a few dozen meters wide, a few uneven stalactites hanging above. While in the center of it was a small pool of only 5 meters radius.
The liquid in the pool was deep blue— while threads of cold Qi rose rose from it like a wave.
Upon laying her eyes on the water, Su Yan felt an almost magnetic pull towards it— as if the water was calling out to her— causing her Qi to fluctuate slightly and her expressions to turn into a rare show of surprise and excitement.
Still Vigilant— Su Yan stepped closer to the pool. As she was just a few steps away, she saw something next to the pool— which she had previously disregarded as a boulder.
Only when she came near did she clearly see that it wasn't a boulder, but something curled up to look like one.
From what she could make out— it was a three meters long creature with an twin oval body and eight long legs that were curled around it's body like ropes. It's whole body was of black and blue color, while it's legs were bluish white. It just laid there without any sign of life or movement. The only thing helping identify it as a living being was a sense of vitality Su Yan felt From it.
Su Yan's eyes narrowed, she took just another step forward while preparing to defend if the creature attacked. But... The attack never came.
Su Yan stood there with a confused look, "what..?", her frown deepened as she took another step forward, then another and another, until she was next to the being.
She stood next to it, but the creature was still unmoving like a rock. Su Yan wondered to herself, "is it... Asleep?", she muttered to herself in disbelief and doubt.
Strictly speaking, this was a Spider Monster Beast and from what she could sense, a low Tide 4 Beast, so— like any spider monster beasts, this beast should have above average senses among Tier 4 beasts.
But, even now, it remained unmoving as if it didn't sense her presence.
Su Yan hesitated for a moment before she stepped back a little and attacked the Spider with a powerful attack.
A wave of crushing Ice Qi slapped onto the spider.
But there was still no response!
Su Yan's eyes narrowed, 'It's like... It can't wake up...', she muttered, "It's being forced to stay asleep...?", that was the only thing that made sense to her.
Ultimately, she shook her head and with two more attacks, she felt the vitality drain from the Spider as it bled out.
Taking a light breath, Su Yan turned back to the pool— slowly walking into it under her intuition. From her ankles, legs, waist, neck and finally, getting completely submerged.
As soon as she submerged into the pool, she felt a comfortably cold sensation overcome her. The icy tendrils of Qi escaping form the pool turned towards her and started entering her body. The cold water prickled her skin and opened the pores all over her body before transversing through her.
All the while, Su Yan held an expression of comfort and ease, as if getting a very comfortable massage. Although it was unnaturally cold and frosty— for her, it was a comforting bath of sort.
This water was Ice Water Essence, a rare find of Mysterious Grade Water and Yin Resource. It is a very powerful tonic for a female or Ice Qi cultivators. Not only does it provide a great boost in cultivation and wash away the impurities of the body, it's most striking effect was the fact that it remained stored inside the cultivator's body and was gradually used to strengthen the cultivation and cultivation speed of the cultivator.
....
Boom! Splash!
With a soft boom, the water in the pool erupted and splashed high above— trickling down with a downpour.
At the center of the surface of the pool stood Su Yan with a healthy and refined glow on her skin. Her slightly damp black hair flowed down her back. She slowly opened her crystalline Blue eyes and smiled.
She had broken through!
And not just once!
Before entering the inheritance cave, she was at the 2nd Stage True Element Realm. But now? Now, she had directly broken through to the 5th Stage in just 2 days!
Not only that.... She felt a reserve of great energy in her body— waiting to be utilized. From what she could estimate, that energy might be enough for her to breakthrough many more realms, maybe even into the Immortal Ascension Realm— though, the energy couldn't be used all at once since it would trickle in slowly, continuously.
Su Yan — with joy in her eyes— walked out of the cave, taking the beast core of the Spider with her.
She frowned for a moment after exiting the cave. Her surroundings... 'It feels slightly different... More alive?', she wondered as she looked around.
'I need to find othered', she thought with a serious expression. As the Senior Sister and the most powerful of her sect, it was her duty to look after her Juniors in this secret realm.
Wang Feng's face flashed in her mind at this moment, making her sigh as she shook her head, 'that hateful guy would probably be alright by himself.', she thought before she condensed Qi wings behind her and flew away.
As she flew, she observed the forest and scenery below, feeling that it was more alive, more bustling than it was two days ago.
...
After a few hours of flying, Su Yan heard sounds of fighting for the fifth time. But she still turned and looked towards the source to identify the ones fighting— to find her sect members.
After a few seconds, screams and shouts reached her ears clearly, along with loud growls containing a mountain of power behind it.
Her expressions tightened as she felt many life signatures a few hundred meters away from her. But that wasn't what startled or worried her. What caused her expressions to worsen was the source of the growls.
There, less than a 100 meters away from her was a 35 meter long Tiger with Golden fur and Black Stripes. It large blood red eyes starred hungrily, menacingly at nearly a hundred humans around it.
'Tier 5, Mountain Golden Tiger.', that was the only thing that appeared in her mind as she saw the beast in front of her.
But the sight of those nearly 100 humans— many of whom were her sects desciples— she steeled her resolve as with a wave of her hand, sent out a gust of chilling, sharp Qi towards the Tiger that was about to tear apart three High Heaven Pavilion desciples with it's razor claws.
Attacked by the sudden unpredictable outsider, the Tiger couldn't defend and was sent sliding back a few meters.
The Tiger along with the many people looked over with surprise and saw her land on the ground.
"Senior Sister!"
"Senior Sister Su!"
"Senior Sister Su!!"
"Su Yan!"
Excited exclaims sounded around her. The desciples of her sect were overjoyed and shouted— turning towards the tiger with renewed confidence.
While the few disciples of Storm Manor and Blood Battle Gang were also surprised and a little at ease upon seeing her.
Su Yan didn't respond to their shouts and greetings— especially ignoring an excited Xie Hong Chen— her focus still on the tiger. Her frown didn't leave her face as she asked the people who were around her now, "was it injured before?".
"Ah, n..no, Senior Sister..it..", just as a nervous desciple was answering. A voice sounded from the side, "No, it wasn't injured."
Su Yan spared a glance to who came. Seeing a man with brown hair held in a ponytail and with bangs over his face— wearing core desciple uniform of Storm Manor.
It was Fang Ziji, the No. 1 Core Desciple of Storm Manor.
Su Yan looked back at the tiger, "it wasn't?", Fang Ziji nodded, ignoring her cold, emotionless tone, "you felt it, didn't you", he said as he too looked at the tiger that stomped towards them.
Su Yan nodded and leaped back while unleashing another attack on the beast, "It's weak.."
Feng Ziji nodded, attacking as well, "we all discovered this. Today is the third day of the opening of this secret realm. From day one— as time passes— more and more monster beasts and opertunities keep appearing."
"It was only today that this Tiger Beast, a Tier 5 Beast, Appeared. At first, everyone was scared because of it's aura ... But when someone fought back to save his life, we discovered that it was actually pretty weak, weaker than even a High Tier 4 Monster Beast."
"It's almost as if..", Su Yan, who was hearing all this for the first time, narrowed her eyes and interrupted Feng Ziji, "recovering themselves... Isn't it?"
Seeing Feng Ziji nod, Su Yan felt a layer of her confusion fade. The behavior of the sleeping Spider Beast now made sense to her. It was only the first day— a few hours after entering the secret realm— when she found the cave. And if we go with Feng Ziji's logic, the Spider Beast, a Tier 4 Beast, still hadn't recovered enough to wake up and thus stayed asleep, even through it's death.
But that brought another question, 'how or who forced these things to happen?'
"Not good!", Feng Ziji suddenly exclaimed as he saw the Tiger attack a female desciple of his sect and with a burst of momentum, shot forward.
"Haa!", He attacked the Tiger with a long sword, successfully saving the desciple and distracting the Tiger.
Su Yan saw that the Tiger was only slightly injured. She grew serious. Even if the beast was weaker compared to a Tier 5 beast, it was still comparable to a High Tier 4 Beast—which was still more than what 99% of people here could handle.
She took a deep breath and shot forward, her hand completely covered in her Qi. When she was just a few step away from the Tiger, she thrusted her palm forward, making a large white and icy silhouette of her hand — of about 5 meters — erupt and attack the Tiger.
This time, the Tiger was aware and could react. So it did. It's paw got covered in red glow as it too attacked. The two attacks collided and both got pushed back a little.
The Tiger growled as it felt it's hand go numb from the frost that now clung to it's paw. Su Yan narrowed her eyes and shouted, "All of you, Attack the beast with your strongest attacks!"
Hearing her words, the desciples were first dumbfounded before they snapped out of it and did as told.
For the next fifteen minutes, the place emitted continuous Martial Technique Auras, along with growls and shouts of the Tiger Beast and the Desciples.
Su Yan looked around at the many exhausted desciples— each having satisfied and proud expressions— after all, they had just killed a Tier 5 monster beast.