Death... and me



When Rean and Kentucky arrived at the continent where they could find a Long-Distance Teleport Formation, they didn't go there straight away. Instead, Roan and Celis called the two back into the Dimensional Realm. "We have reached the limit of the Late Stage of the Elemental Space Realm. It's time to get another breakthrough."

Let's not forget Rean spent five years outside using Spatial Gates to travel, only coming into the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm to recover his energy. During this time, the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm was still running at an accelerated pace while Roan, Kentucky, and Celis cultivated.

Rean and Kentucky nodded, seeing no issues with a quick breakthrough. There were no barriers in their cultivations, after all. They quickly gathered the energy from the Divine Origin Energy Cores and pushed for the next stage. As always, another wave of Divine Energy spread out as their cultivation rapidly raised. Finally, it settled into the Peak Stage of the Elemental Space Realm.

Right after that, Rean went to the Time Acceleration Building, where the formation was located. Without thinking twice, he deactivated the time acceleration, returning the speed inside the Dimensional Realm to the same flow as outside. "It was good while it lasted..."

Roan nodded, having followed Rean. "The formation has spent a lot more Divine Origin Energy Cores than we did with our cultivations. If we want to have enough of these Cores to reach the Divinity Realm, we can't keep the formation running anymore."

Celis, on the other hand, was happy to hear that. "I was always against using the cores for time acceleration. We could have just cultivated normally. But nooooo... you were worried about your girls and wanted to go back fast. Don't blame me if the remaining Divine Origin Energy Cores are not enough to reach the Divinity Realm."

They still had to cultivate the Peak Stage of the Elemental Space Realm and then all the Space-Time Realm right after. That obviously would use even more of their cores. 

Rean and Roan ignored Celis, already knowing what he thought about the expenditure. "In any case, we achieved our objective of opening Spatial Gates. Also, now that we are in the Peak Stage of the Elemental Space Realm, our ability to control time increased once again."

Sister Orb warned them, though. [Don't get complacent. Sure, you can control Time Power a little bit better now. Still, you are not as good with it as an Initial Stage Space-Time Realm cultivator. The reason is simply that your Realm isn't supposed to have it available for you.]

"But if we use all our trump cards, we shouldn't have a problem fighting an Initial Stage Space-Time Realm enemy, no?" Rean asked back.

[That's obvious. You can definitely make up for it with your other strengths, like the Starlight Body Cultivation Technique, Sky Energy, Weapon Intent, etc. Just don't expect to be able to jump an entire realm to fight like before. Time Power makes a huge difference in battle. When you were in the Space Bending Realm, you definitely could jump a Realm to fight. But now, in the Peak Stage Elemental Space Realm, I reckon you would be similarly matched with a Middle Stage Space-Time enemy, perhaps a Late-Stage one if you push your limits.]

In the end, if the enemy could increase their speed or slow down the twins' speed instead, any other advantage the twins have would be much more impacted than it was during the previous realms. Nothing can escape time, after all.

Roan agreed with Sister Orb. "I've never let my guard down, and it won't happen now."

Rean then looked at Kentucky. "Alright, we are done with our breakthroughs. Let's go to the city."

Kentucky was waiting for those words. "Great! Let's go!"

Celis returned to his normal cultivation schedule while Roan decided to practice some combat on his own to get used to his new Realm. He just wished he had someone to test his power against. "Wait, there is one..."

Roan remembered that Werin was caught with his female humanoid friend, Pulanli. Pulanli had been cultivating in silence during these many hundred years, never to bother the twins. It was to be expected since she and Werin got a huge and very enticing deal with the Divine Origin Energy Cores. What were some hundred years compared to that? If anything, Pulanli was happy to simply wait there.

Still, Pulanli was a Space-Time Realm Late Stage cultivator! Now that Roan was in the Peak Stage of the Elemental Space Realm, wouldn't she be perfect to test his abilities? According to Sister Orb, the limit of his combat power would be against someone like her.

Roan quickly focused on his connection with the Soul Gem Dimensional, finding Pulanli in a moment. Right after, he sent her a Divine Sense Message. 'Are you busy at the moment?'

Pulanli was taken aback, not having heard that voice for a long time already. 'Oh! So you are finally back. Could it be we arrived at the Floating Islands of Time?'

Roan shook his head. 'No. But we aren't that far anymore. Anyway, the reason I called you is that I wish to test my combat abilities, and you are just in the perfect cultivation realm for that.'

Pulanli smiled in response. 'I don't mind helping you... given the right payment, of course.'

'The payment is not to get beaten too badly,' said Roan before using the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm to teleport Pulanli to the arena. "I will simply attack, and you can decide if you want to defend or not." Roan saw absolutely no need to pay her anything else.

Pulanli shrugged her shoulders. "Is that so? And here was I intending to give proper advice while not humiliating you too much. You are only at-"

Yet, it was at that moment her body froze. "Peak Stage Elemental Space Realm?! How the hell did you get that far?"

Roan looked at Pulanli as if he was looking at an idiot. "Isn't that obvious? I was hiding my cultivation realm when we first met." 

"Hmph!" Pulanli truly accepted that. After all, even with the Divine Origin Energy Cores, she believed it was impossible to improve one's cultivation that fast. Naturally, Roan had to be hiding his cultivation from the very start. "So what? Don't expect me to show mercy."

"I wouldn't want anything else," Roan answered with a cold smile.