Death... and me

Wano quickly recovered from his laughter and then asked.

"Well, then. We will need you to use it on us so that we can train. Won't it get in the way of your own training?"

Caline and Malaka nodded in response. Only Rean could make that change on their bodies. Besides, it was all fake and would disappear with time if Rean didn't 'recharge' the change. However, Rean didn't mind.

"It's fine. It's quite simple to make it. In fact, it would be better if we start right now. After all, we just came back from one of our attacks, so we need time to rest and ponder over everything."

Roan and the others nodded. Soon after, Rean did the same thing to Calina, Malaka, Wano, and Roan. Malaka and Calina, as women, felt more uncomfortable, though.

"These red veins are really ugly."

Malaka nodded.

"I truly don't want the others outside to see us like this."

Rean shook his head in response.

"Do you think the women of the Lakure Race are ugly with their red meridians?"

Malaka and Calina subconsciously nodded, which made Rean laugh.

"Hahaha! That's where you're mistaken. They aren't ugly at all. Or, to be more specific, they are definitely beautiful... for the Lakure Race's men. Trust me, the same way you feel uncomfortable with the 'fake red meridians,' so do the women of the Lakure Race when they see you don't have them."

Calina and Malaka nodded before saying.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. Now, then. Try to drive your Spiritual Energy through the veins. You won't get it at first, but you will understand after a few days."

Calina and Malaka tried it, and sure enough, it felt incredibly uncomfortable. It was as if they were moving some gel through their veins instead. It was a weird feeling. Wano was no different. He also felt like his veins had some problems when they were fine, in fact.

Rean looked at their attempts with his Spiritual Sense and could feel that they failed several times to drive the Spiritual Energy through their meridians. It's just that they had many of them, so it was complicated to run through all of them evenly like a real Lakure Race member.

However, Roan was different from them. He did fail four times, but with every attempt, he became several times better. On the fifth attempt, he could already use it to an acceptable level.

"You're no fun."

Roan glanced at Rean.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, just forget it."

Well, Roan didn't care to start with, so he ignored Rean's comment.

Around an hour later, Roan finally finished his practice on driving Spiritual Energy through the meridians.

"Alright, I'm done with it. Let's go back and cultivate."

*Chick!*

The moment Kentucky heard that, its eyes lit up. They had brought their sixth red crystal back, but Rean and Roan prohibited him from eating it while they were out. Even after they came back, they kept talking about other things instead of letting it eat the crystal.

"Fine, fine! I'll let you eat it in a second. Let me just fill Wano, Illia, and Malaka with the Light Element again."

Rean then sent his Light Element into them and reinforced the change on their bodies. With that, it would take at least four to five hours before they came back to normal.

Rean and Roan then went back to their cave rooms before telling Kentucky that he could eat the red crystal again. As always, Kentucky ate only a third of it, while the twins used Rean's formation to obtain as much energy from the crystal as possible.

When the effect on Calina, Malaka, and Wano's bodies began to disappear, Rean came out once again to help them. They continued that process until the next day when Kentucky was finally allowed to eat the second part of the red crystal.

Rean could also see that the three were getting used to driving Spiritual Energy through their fake red meridians.

'It should take them at most a week to finish understanding how to use it properly.'

Rean then returned to his cave room and continued to cultivate with Roan.  On the third day, Kentucky ate the last part of the red crystal. However, that was also the moment that the twins had been waiting for.

All of a sudden, Calina, Malaka, and Wano felt a huge burst of Spiritual Energy coming from their rooms. However, because there was a Spiritual Sense formation in place, they couldn't see what was happening. Well, they could guess what had happened anyway.

Around an hour later, the twins came out of the room, allowing Wano, Malaka, and Calina to check their cultivation. Sure enough, Rean and Roan had broken through the bottleneck barring them from the Late Stage of the Core Formation Realm. They were now at the same level as Calina. Well, it's like Sister Orb had always said. If they followed the Soul Gem's Light and Dark Element cultivation technique, bottlenecks wouldn't really exist for them. The breakthrough for them went very smoothly.

Seeing that, Malaka couldn't help but sigh.

"And now I'm the only one in the lower range of the Core Formation Realm..."

She also looked at Kentucky. Since Kentucky's cultivation was held down by Rean and Roan's existence, the moment the twins broke through, Kentucky also achieved the Late Stage-Three Demon Beast level. That only made her sigh even more.

Rean patted her head as he laughed. Even now that they were seventeen, he never lost this habit, nor did Malaka want him to stop anyway.

"It's fine. We all know that you're very close to reaching the middle stage. How much are you lacking? Like another two or three months?"

Malaka smiled as she nodded.

"Yep! With the ice block looking over me all this time, I really never had any chance to laz- cough cough, rest. At least, that has been improving my cultivation very quickly."

Roan's mouth twitched in response. Any idiot could tell that she was going to say 'laze around.'

However, he ignored that before he looked at Wano.

"It seems like Malaka isn't the only one close to a breakthrough, am I right?"

Wano was taken aback by Roan's words. However, he laughed out loud after that.

"This brother here really has sharp senses. Well, I've been in the Middle Stage of the Core and Soul Fusion Realm for way longer than you guys had been in the same stage of Core Formation. To be more specific, it has been almost sixteen years already. I might look young because of my cultivation, but I'm quite old, you know?"

Rean then patted the man's shoulders as he said.

"Then, I shall congratulate you, Brother Wano. By the way, how about you telling us more about yourself after your breakthrough?"

Wano shrugged his shoulders as he said.

"Sure, as long as you tell me more about your demon bird over there."

Wano then looked at Kentucky, who was sound asleep while it digested the red crystal.

Rean laughed out loud in response. He knew it wouldn't work, but it wasn't a bad thing to give it a try.

"Well, maybe another day, then."

Wano didn't mind.

"That's fine. By the way, when do you want to go out and test these fake meridians?"

Roan pondered for a bit.

"This breakthrough happened a little faster than I expected, thanks to the red crystals. Because of that, our foundation isn't 100% stable. Battles would be the best way to get it back on track, especially with the help of my pills. That said, I intend to go out again as soon as you guys finish getting used to the fake skin meridians."

Wano, Malaka, Calina, and Rean nodded in response. That would be the best choice.