The Mirror nodded and prepared to start the Transference Ritual. For that, it needed to take its current base form and leave Angel's shape.
The small Angel grew in height, and her hair changed from blonde to white. Her body became more slender, and her blue eyes became lighter, icy like the coldest of ices, and filled with pride. Then, it said, "Good, let's begin the inheritance ceremony."
Fu Jing Jing nodded.
First, she made Angel's robe disappear, making her completely naked. Then, she laid the catatonic Angel on the crystal bed she was previously sitting on. Angel's creamy skin touched the cold crystal mattress, but not a single twitch could be perceived from her.
The moment Fu Jing Jing laid her on it, the aura of the whole cave took a turn.
From stillness, the energy began rotating with increasing strength and momentum.
All energy accumulated across hundreds of thousands of years inside the cave moved and followed hidden paths inside the walls. The energy moved in complex patterns and concentrated on six spots above them, slowly activating a gigantic formation covering the whole place.
Then, Fu Jing Jing waved her long white sleeve, and a beam shot toward Angel's heart. It struck precisely in the middle and created a small hole. From it, a drop of blood left Angel's body. Following that, the wound closed, and that drop very slowly floated upward.
Since Angel's mind was broken, forcing things on her was easy for Fu Jing Jing. She sighed and said, "No matter if you wanted to gain it, I can only follow through with this, or else you will remain like that for the rest of your life. I hope you don't hate us, little Angel."
She said that because, besides forcing Angel to do this, the drop of blood was not a normal drop of blood.
That drop of blood was a drop of precious blood essence.
Blood essence was basically the vitality and strength of a cultivator.
Losing a single drop of this blood that only resided in the heart was enough to lose lifespan, cultivation, soul strength, and potential. In worst-case scenarios, losing blood essence could lead to cultivation base degradation, and hurting the foundation, making it impossible to advance and basically crippling the cultivator. The total amount a cultivator below the Transcendence Level had was ten drops of that blood.
Angel had only four since she was young, and her cultivation base was low. This meant that losing one drop was an even bigger disaster.
Nevertheless, Fu Jing Jing wouldn't let any side effects happen since this process was necessary for the Ritual.
Moreover, she was a Saint. She was someone with such a broad knowledge of cultivation that she could fight directly against the Heavens. Even if her current self were incomparable to the past, she wouldn't mess up in her own inheritance ritual.
Even so, the loss of lifespan was inevitable since there had to be a price for using essence blood and not returning it to the body. Unlike the Blood Contract, where the drops combine and return to the body, here Angel was about to give her blood essence to the Mirror.
Still, as long as Angel continued cultivating and advancing, she would not even realize it.
When the drop of blood essence floated thirty centimeters above her heart, Fu Jing Jing chanted in a low voice and at high speed. It was like a gentle yet imposing murmur guiding the Formation around her. Her ethereal voice filled the crystal cave as the energy began gathering toward it from the outside.
The cultivators in the surrounding area realized something was wrong because the natural flow of energy was disrupted. This alerted most of them, and they began gathering in that spot.
Meanwhile, the Mirror finished transforming into its current spiritual form.
If you looked closely, it resembled Fu Jing Jing, but it had white hair and blue eyes. Its demeanor was more similar to the imposing Saint in the vision than the current soft and gentle one.
Then, it floated above Angel's immobile body, mirroring her perfectly. Even her hair seemed to be affected by reverse gravity as it spread in the air.
The Mirror closed its eyes and let the spiritual body connect with the Formation covering the cave. Then, Fu Jing Jing clearly pronounced, "[Mirror of Truth], an item born between Heaven and Earth. You gained consciousness, improved across the countless generations of owners, and grown to become one of the strongest in the world. Do you accept Angel Glassheart as your new owner?"
The Mirror's voice reverberated with conviction, "I do."
With its approval, Angel's blood essence entered mirror-Angel's heart area.
Then, the energy outside the cave went berserk as it got absorbed without limits toward the Ritual area. This created a powerful vortex that rustled the forest into a loud and natural cacophony.
All that energy divided into seven portions. Most of it rushed through the formation lines toward the center of the altar and entered the [Heaven Refining Crystal Mattress]. The mattress gave a prismatic glow, and Angel's body absorbed it.
The rest of the energy went toward the six spots that glowed above them. Fu Jing Jing looked up and chanted, "I, Fu Jing Jing, Heaven's Truth Saint, hereby declare that Angel Glassheart is my inheritor!"
The energy concentrated on the six spots burst outward quickly and changed forms.
Blue crystal chains were what erupted from the cave walls toward Angel.
These six chains rapidly tore the air and lodged deep inside the woman lying on the mattress.
The chains pierced her hands, feet, stomach, and forehead. However, there wasn't a violent collision of any sort. It was like they entered the water, not creating the slightest of injuries on Angel.
From the six spots where the chains appeared, a powerful energy pulse traversed them toward Angel's body, hitting her moments later.
Then, Angel's naked chest shone with a blinding golden light, and a single golden chain shot out toward the Mirror spirit above her.
Of course, Angel still couldn't make sense of anything. She didn't know what was happening. At that moment, Angel couldn't even speak or think, much less understand the ongoing Ritual.
To end the initial part of the Ritual, Fu Jing Jing chanted with a clear voice, "Inheritor, you who incarnates pureness. You who shall bear the weight of the truth. I now let you be reborn under my inheritance. [Heavens Truth Crystal Coffin]."
From the blue chains lodged into the walls, the crystal crept toward Angel. It was as if it was sentient. The crystal covering the cave advanced through the chains and reached the lying Angel.
When it touched her, it began covering her body, surrounding her.
From her hands, feet, chest, and forehead, the blue crystal slowly created a cocoon around Angel.
After not more than ten minutes, Angel was crystallized inside a beautiful blue crystal coffin.
Then, the Mirror spirit floating above her began dematerializing from her fingers, hair, and toe tips, slowly sending itself into Angel through the golden chain that connected their chests.
Outside there was a big commotion. The place where the inheritance was hidden was absorbing energy from the surroundings violently. A visible energy vortex was rotating rapidly on top of the place, and the cliff covering the crystal cave was being destroyed.
The energy was extremely abundant yet so violent that people couldn't cultivate it. Moreover, the surroundings were starting to become crystallized. Some people even had their fingers covered by crystal.
"What is happening?" Said a random man.
"Did someone enter those doors?" Asked a beast-woman.
"Impossible. We have been guarding them at all hours for the past two weeks!"
"Then, is it gathering energy to open?"
"That is the most probable thing. Prepare yourselves. When it opens, we are going in to gather treasures!"
"Are you all living under a rock!? A blonde woman entered not long ago!"
"Huh? How dare a single woman to enter and steal all the treasures!"
"Yeah!"
"Who dares go before us, Demons!"
"Bah! You are only ten. What are you going to do against all the cultivators here."
"Right, stop being so arrogant. Without numbers, we are not scared."
"You dare disrespect our race? Be prepared for the consequences when we go out!"
"Ha! Do you think that we will let you out!?"
And so, another battle began for another unreasonable squabble between cultivators, reducing the number of cultivators in the secret realm one more time.
Meanwhile, as Angel slowly absorbed the inheritance, Kali walked around aimlessly.
She could have returned to the town, gathered more Trial Points, and kept buying things.
But she had already bought almost one of each herb and the most useful Pill recipes.
Her remaining points were enough to buy an Alchemy book, but nothing had gained her interest during the time they were looking around. 'Dr. Ava's books are as good if not better than those in the town.'
When walking with Angel toward the inheritance point, she spotted some interesting herbs. Therefore, she realized there were still some wild and rare herbs, fruits, and other spirit flora outside.
So, she went on a journey to collect things. Kali spoke to the tall three-meter-tall lady beside her. "I will use the nights to cultivate and the day to look around. I may be lucky and find something useful. If I hide myself in the town, I can not call the experience "Secret Realm Exploration," right, Valeria?"
Valeria, who was walking beside Kali, didn't answer. But she still looked at Kali with her soothing and attractive smile.
Kali felt her heart skip a beat and laughed, "You already were beautiful, but after gaining Yasenia's qualities, you've become too beautiful, Valeria. You just made my heart skip a beat!"
Kali thought to herself and said, "Let's see if we find something to increase your sapience. I really want to be able to talk with you."
Then, she caressed her stomach, and her face blushed. "It still feels warm..."
She hadn't cultivated Yasenia's Yang energy since she still couldn't believe that her uterus had received her dearest seed. Although Yasenia had mostly reduced the energy with her acupuncture manual and expelled the semen, her meridians still had Yang energy in them.
Her hand would always go to her stomach each time she felt it. The experience was something that made her feel hot in the cheeks each time she remembered it. 'This means that, even if we can't advance any more in the future, she reached my deepest part so I still can get…'
Her face gained a red color, her fox ears twitched with delight, and her tail wagged so hard that she was creating wind behind her. She felt extremely giddy and delighted, a smile never leaving her face. 'To think I would be able to do what I did... Even if the experience was too much, once I get accustomed, we will be able to... Kya! Even thinking about it is embarrassing!' Kali fanned her red face and chuckled with a silly lovestruck expression.
Valeria felt her dear mistress's happiness, and a foreign but familiar emotion burned inside of her. Her developing mind flashed with foreign memories for a second, she could see herself on a throne of some sort, but that memory left her almost instantly.
Valeria ignored that strange flash and focused on the feeling in her chest. She didn't understand what it was, but it felt very similar to her mistress's current feelings as if her emotions were contagious.
Her face gained a smile, and even her steps became lighter, flowers blooming each time her feet touched the ground. Kali discovered Valeria happily skipping beside her and laughed, "You also feel happy? There are even flowers blooming in your steps."
Valeria looked down at Kali and nodded. Kali was momentarily surprised, but she didn't delve deep into it. She looked at the blue sky and said, "Today's weather is great."
As they were happily walking, Kali suddenly felt Valeria stopping. She also stopped and looked toward her, confused. "Is something wrong?"
Valeria seemed not to listen to her as she was looking to their right, her green eyes shining with a soft glow.
Kali looked in that direction and asked, "Is there something in that way?"
However, to her surprise, Valeria didn't answer but began walking in that direction alone.
Kali blinked twice, unable to believe what was happening. 'She is moving without me ordering it? This is a first.'
Curious about what caused this, the fox didn't stop her and followed after the [Golden crown].
Like that, a fox woman and her summon disappeared deep into the forest.