Chapter 40 – Leaving The Secret Realm

Eight days passed, and Kieran was still standing in the middle of the crystal essence gathering formation. His body hadn't moved since he started cultivating. A thick layer of black soot stuck to his body.

Kieran had no idea how much time had passed. His whole mind was fully focused on cultivating with the Heavenly Sun Body. During these eight days, he managed to reduce the time for a full rotation to 1 hour. A slight glow of gold begins to appear inside each of its cells.

Inside his spiritual world, the two lakes of crystal essence that had formed under his two crystal trees had now disappeared. Above its two crystal trees, a cloud of golden crystal essence surrounds a small, unstable pale yellow sphere that grew and shrank every second like a heartbeat, continually spinning, attracting the crystal essence cloud inside it, sometimes the sphere will collapse on itself, becoming part of the crystal essence cloud before reforming again and maintaining this process of unstable compression and expansion.

A path of golden blue crystal essence constantly enters his spiritual world. Being drawn to the pale yellow sphere above, passing through his crystal trees, refining them as they went before being fully assimilated into his own crystal essence and rejoining the golden crystal essence cloud.

The golden path faded away as Kieran had just completed another full rotation of the Heavenly Sun Body when Runihoril's voice echoed through his spiritual world.

"I see that you have progressed well. You have reached the beginning of the first stage of the Heavenly Sun Body, Proto-Sun."

"Thank you. Should I call you Master now?"

"Ahah, it's been a long time since I had a disciple. Being called like that brings back old memories. I'll let you choose what you want to call me."

"Okay, it will be Master then."

Kieran bowed politely to Runihoril.

"Thank you for your teaching, Master."

Runihoril looked at Kieran with a nostalgic look in his eyes, a slight smile appearing on his face.

"How long has it been since I started cultivating?" Kieran asked.

"It's been eight days. That's why I came to get you. The dimension will collapse soon."

"Eight days?! It feels like less time has passed."

"It's easy to lose track of time when you enter a certain state of mind during cultivation. Come on, if you stay too long, you might be swept away by spatial storms formed by the collapse of the dimension."

"Okay."

He quickly left his spiritual world. Runihoril took one last look at the Proto-Sun spinning above the crystal trees.

"It's a really good result in eight days. I'm curious to see what this youngster will achieve in the future."

His figure disappeared the next moment.

Kieran's consciousness returned to his body as he slowly opened his eyes, a faint golden glow shining inside his two reddish-brown eyes. Now that he was conscious again, he felt a deep strength running through his whole body.

"Only eight days of cultivation, and I feel like my body has been transformed!"

A big smile appeared on his face when he suddenly smelled a foul odor coming from his body. Looking down, he saw a thick layer of black soot stuck all over his body.

"What is that?!"

"These are the impurities that you expelled during your cultivation."

Kieran was struggling to breathe with the smell. He quickly grabbed jugs of water from his aurora collar to wash his body.

After several minutes, he finally felt refreshed. He wore a new set of clothes before standing in front of Runihoril.

"Will this happen every time I cultivate?"

"Yes and no. It's the first time you go through a cleansing process. A lot of impurities had accumulated in your body and spiritual world. Now that you train with the Heavenly Sun Body, fewer impurities will remain in your body until they all disappear. Of course, some environment or cultivation resources may create impurities in your body again, so this kind of cleansing process will never really stop."

"I understand. I should just prepare accordingly from now on so I have something to wash myself."

"That's right. Now follow me. I'll take you to the transmission formation to leave the dimension."

"I can't go back through the opening we created in the dimension?"

"You stayed eight days indoors. Do you think other cultivators would let you go easily if you appeared in front of them?"

"You're right. I didn't think of that."

"Let's go."

He followed behind Runihoril. As they walked through the long corridors of the palace, he decided to check the results of his cultivation in the last eight days.

[ Kieran Arvost]

[Crystal Tree Status (1):

Name: Wolf Transformation

Refinement Rate: 66.49/100]

[Crystal Tree Status (2):

Name: Giant Transformation

Refinement Rate: 66.32/100]

[Crystal Essence: 132.81]

'Before entering the palace, my crystal essence was at 110.46. In these eight days, my crystal essence increased by 22.35. Even though it's slower than absorbing crystal cores, the effect of the Heaven Sun Body is amazing! I feel like my body is light, my crystal essence is also much thicker than before. I wonder how fast the crystal essence can move now inside my body.'

"Crystal Essence Claw"

A pair of blue claws with a slight golden tint formed in an instant on his hand. At the same time, a surprised look appeared on his face.

'It's incredible! Crystal Essence Claw is formed in an instant, the claws feel much stronger than before too, and my crystal essence has barely reduced. I could only use it 6-7 times before, but now I feel that even using it twenty times would only drain half of my crystal essence.'

He continued to circulate the crystal essence inside his body, amazed at how much his body and his crystal essence had changed in such a short period of time.

Runihoril continued to lead the way while pretending not to see what Kieran was doing, but a slight smile appeared on his face every time he saw his look of surprise.

After several minutes of wandering the corridors, Runihoril stopped in front of a door filled with inscriptions. He formed several seals with his hands before the inscriptions on the door disappeared.

Kieran followed Runihoril inside the room, where he found an altar in the middle with a circle of inscriptions covering the whole room. Crystals were scattered around the room connected to the inscriptions, forming a complex formation.

Examining the crystals, he could feel a pure crystal essence emanating from them.

"What are these crystals?"

"These are high-quality crystal essence stones. Crystal essence stones form in an environment with a high concentration of crystal essence. They have very little impurity in them, and they often serve as a catalyst for formations or alchemy. They can also be used to increase cultivation speed."

Kieran's eyes gleamed as he gazed at all the crystal essence stones in the room.

"Can I take some?"

"Unfortunately, no. Apart from my coffin and my weapon, all the other objects in the palace are linked to it and cannot be removed."

"That's a shame."

"Don't worry, although rare. You can find this kind of crystal essence stone in nature. They even serve as currency for some cultivators."

Kieran nodded slightly, but his gaze was still fixed on the crystal essence stones.

"Place your hand on the altar. I will activate the transmission formation."

"Yes."

He arrived in the middle of the room and put his hand on the altar. At the same time, Runihoril activated the transmission formation, and the whole room was illuminated with a blue glow before Kieran's silhouette disappeared.