Death... and me

Rean then got up and moved out of the pool before putting a new set of clothes on.

"Phew... That was really nice. My Meridians did really get stronger and wider. Too bad that I reached my limit so soon."

Roan glanced at him.

"I could only stay for half of your time. What are you complaining about?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders.

"Does it matter? Our cultivations are done through our exchange of elements, so the better I get, the faster you become as well."

Roan narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything. What Rean said was true, after all.

"What about Kentucky?"

"Still swimming in the pool. It won't take long for Kentucky to come out as well, though. We both stayed there for much longer than others would be able to, so we absorbed a lot of the pool's medicinal properties already. Can you see the color of the water? It is a lot clear now. Even if Kentucky can hold for much longer, the pool doesn't have much more to give him anyway."

Roan nodded, not minding too much. It's still the sixth day, so they had time to spare.

Roan then looked behind.

"I hope you two didn't stop processing the Vermilion Pool's medicinal properties."

*Tremble.*

Malaka and Calina's heart jumped a bit after hearing that. Doing that all the time nonstop was boring for the two young ladies, so they did indeed stop for some time.

Malaka immediately nodded.

"O-Of course not!"

Calina did the same right after.

"How could we? We haven't moved at all since yesterday."

Roan snorted in response. How could he not know the truth?

*Pah! Pah!*

"Ouch, Ouch!*

Malaka felt gloomy and immediately concentrated once more. As for Calina, she felt even more indignant.

"How can you hit a girl's head like this? I'm also a member of the Imperial Family, you know?!"

Roan then raised his fist once more, not minding her words at all.

"I see, so you still have time to talk."

"Wait, wait, wait! I'll do it, I'll do it!"

Finally, Roan returned to his position and started to do the same thing as the girls once more.

Calina, of course, wasn't happy. No one had ever treated her like that ever since she was born. Roan's ice-cold face was being engraved in her memory more and more as time passed, which made her even angrier.

It was then that she received a Spiritual Sense message from Rean.

'Don't take it too seriously. That's just Roan's way of showing how much he cares about you. After all, he is dead set to make you the empress, isn't he?'

Well, of course, Roan cared about her... After all, her progress was directly linked to his own life. Different from Malaka, that was the only reason Roan cared so much about Calina at the moment.

Rean just... twisted the meaning of his words... a little bit.

Still, Rean's words made Calina remember the time Roan pulled her into his embrace during the battle against Valeu. Soon after, a tinge of red appeared on her cheeks as she immediately shook her head.

Rean couldn't help but laugh inside when he saw that reaction from the young girl. That was what he wanted exactly! He then looked at Roan, who seemed to not have noticed anything.

'This is going to be fun! Hahaha!'

Roan then glanced at Rean with a dark expression.

"Why haven't you started to process the Vermilion Pool's medicinal properties yet?"

Rean nodded while seemingly in a good mood.

"Yea, yea... I'll start now."

In the end, Kentucky came out of the Vermilion Pool a few hours later. Just like Rean mentioned, the medicinal properties of the Vermilion Pool were basically almost gone now. It would be useless for Kentucky to stay in there any longer. Not to mention that even Kentucky was reaching its limit as well.

Roan then got up and looked outside. Because the pool was almost entirely used up, the Decaying Fog from outside got quite close to it. Then again, that didn't matter. Their main objective in coming to the Profound Abyss had been completed. It was time to leave.

"Alright, let's go back."

Rean nodded and approached Calina once more. He then used his Light Element to reinforce her appearance change once more. Following that, their group departed from the Vermilion Pool. On their way back, Calina decided to ask something else.

"Are we meeting with Tuve and Weren?"

Roan shook his head.

"It will be better if we leave the Profound Abyss at different times. Even better if no one sees us together on our way back. I want the elders outside to think that we selected different paths, although we are from the same sect. It will give more credibility to their claim."

Calina and the others nodded.

"Rean, Malaka, remember to not say anything. If anyone asks, we know nothing. At most, just say that you believe our seniors' words."

"Alright."

As for Calina, she was still puzzled about how Roan would pull her out of the Profound Abyss without anyone noticing. After all, Rean himself said that his appearance changing ability would not fool those at the Nascent Soul Realm and above.

"Can you tell me already? How are you going to bring me out?"

"Don't worry, you will understand once we get closer to the entrance. At the moment, take your chance to train since we are battling our way out."

Rean, Malaka, and Calina sighed. Sure enough, Roan wouldn't give them even a second of respite.

On the tenth day, Rean's group came out of the Decaying Caves. Sure enough, no one else entered a cave with a much higher concentration of Decaying Fog. That being said, they only found Demon Beasts on their way out, but no humans.

From here on out, they were only two days away from the entrance. Of course, they finally began to bump into other teams who also started to make their way out of the Profound Abyss. However, since they all seemed to only want to leave this place, almost no one tried anything. The only exception was another group from those ones Valeu had promised a reward for the Pendant and Rean's group lives. 

It couldn't be helped. After all, they didn't know that Valeu was already dead. Unfortunately for them, Rean's group was already hard to deal with before, let alone now that Calina was also helping. Calina wasn't as merciful as Malaka, though. Since those guys came after Rean's group because of Valeu's words, she made sure to dispatch them to the next world. Besides, no one would complain about a few Core Formation Realm cultivators that wanted to use their higher cultivation to bully Foundation Establishment ones.

Malaka didn't like that, but she knew how angry Calina was because of Erna and Silo's death. As for Rean and Roan, well, they weren't much happier now that they got that ridiculous quest either. Those guys could only blame their luck for trying to find problems with those three.

A day quickly passed until suddenly, Malaka asked them to stop for a while.

"Why?"

Malaka then explained.

"I reached the limit of what I can do in the Middle Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. I would like to make a breakthrough into the Late Stage. Master also said that I shouldn't hold my cultivation back once I reached the limit and should go into the next stage straight away."

Roan nodded. If that was the case, then he had no reason to deny that. Rean then gave Malaka a few Rank Three Spirit Stones and touched her back with his hand. He would send Light Element into her body during the process to keep the Decaying Energy away. That would make her breakthrough easier.

Malaka then took a deep breath and began her breakthrough. She used one of the best Water Element cultivation manuals of the sect, Mia's one. Water Element quickly began to gather around her as her Spiritual Energy raised quickly. The Spiritual Energy inside the Rank Three Spirit Stones also began to come out at a fast pace. The process inside her Dantian then started.

Roan and Calina kept their eyes open, looking around to see if there wasn't any danger. But at some point, Calina's eyes narrowed as she looked at Malaka. Roan, who was beside her, noticed that change.

"What is it?"

Calina then sighed before saying.

"Malaka's cultivation technique is quite good. Still, it doesn't use Yin Energy. That's also why my control over Water Element is so much better than her. You should consider changing her cultivation manual into a Yin Energy Water Element one."

Roan shook his head in response.

"We don't have such a thing in our Dalamu Sect. Cultivation Techniques that use Yin Energy are too rare for us."

Roan then glanced at her before saying.

"She could make good use of yours, though."

Calina also thought about that. However...

"The Imperial Family's Cultivation Techniques shouldn't be passed outside. Those are the rules. Sorry."

Roan nodded. He was expecting that answer already.

Roan definitely had the highest talent for Yin Energy, but he couldn't help Malaka with it. That's because he didn't have a Water Element Affinity. Not only that, but his own cultivation manual was not made by him, but the Soul Gem System instead. Cultivation manuals are several times harder to create than skills. So much so that the Sect's Repository only had around a hundred skill manuals for every cultivation manual.

It was then that Rean warned Roan through their Soul Connection.

'Just our luck... Someone is coming again.'