After she overcame the tribulation, Yasenia took a deep breath and then moved as she exhaled. There was plenty of Tribulation Energy inside her body, and she wanted to absorb all she could before leaving here.
For the first realm of Body Cultivation, the Initial Foundation Phase Realm, what the cultivator needed to do was coat the insides of their body with energy.
Unlike the Spiritual Path, where you needed to build the meridians and the dantian and then connect them, this was done in the second realm for the body cultivator.
The "body" was the cultivator's Dantian in the first realm. This was why body cultivation could start while being young instead of later in life when the body reached maturity.
With that in mind, Yasenia looked thoughtfully at the Tribulation Energy inside her. While it was negligible compared to the amount of energy she was used to dealing with, for a Body Cultivator in the first realm, this amount of energy was staggering.
She still had her Unification Realm cultivation locked away for fear that she would absorb this energy with her Spiritual Path instead.
Therefore, she could feel how the light but abundant energy strands rushed inside her.
Without delaying it anymore, Yasenia moved.
Unlike before, there were minor fluctuations that followed her movements, and the very essence of her motions had changed.
If she was similar to an expert martial artist before, now Yasenia looked like a supernatural being dancing. The extra layer of energy Yasenia created with her movements accentuated her ethereal nature.
The dragoness created these strands of energy around her tensing and relaxing muscles, and with the expertise that she had gained with her Spiritual Path, she would tangle the Tribulation energy and the standard energy to consolidate a part of her body.
She decided to go from the outside to the inside so that she could trap the energy inside herself with her cultivation.
First, the outer layer of her skin was coated. Her movements included stretching motions that reached her body, her tail included, and with these skillful stretching motions, she trained everything without leaving anything behind.
Yasenia already had extreme control over herself, and with the tips and tricks she heard from Andrea and her own cultivation technique, an event that left the ones outside flabbergasted occurred one more time.
As Yasenia moved and followed the technique's motions, her body greedily absorbed the environment's energy, using the Tribulation energy as the conductor.
When her entire skin was coated with energy, a small shockwave occurred around her, and Yasenia went from the low-level first body realm to the middle level.
From the outside, the girls could see a very thin but sturdy layer of energy coating her skin, her tail, and even her hair.
If she stood in a dark space, her body would have a very gentle and dim glow.
It happened in nothing but a few minutes. However, she was far from getting done with it.
Yasenia's mind became increasingly focused, and her genius exploded. She could feel the Tribulation energy trying to escape the confines she had created. Still, each time it decided to exist from a place, Yasenia would do a martial movement that included that body part.
Did it try to exist from her leg? Then, she would do a kick routine.
Did it try to exist from her abdomen? Then, she would do a series of crouching and swiping motions that used her core for the movement.
If it tried to exist from her arms, she would do a punching series, and so on.
Yasenia kicked the air, followed by a spin to swipe with her tail, and then continued the spin to do an ax kick, taking a step forward to do three quick punches. She followed it with a frontal kick, taking two quick steps forward and attacking the foe that would be on the ground with another ax kick.
The abundant tribulation energy sunk into her muscle fibers, entangling and becoming her own energy, increasing the capacity of her Body Cultivation energy and also coating increasingly more parts of her body with it.
When her heel touched the floor, it created a gentle and powerful wind gale, and Yasenia's aura once again exploded, signifying her breakthrough into the high level of the Initial Foundation Phase Body Realm.
By now, she had about 40% of her internal muscles completely coated in energy.
Without stopping, Yasenia fluidly spun thrice, using her tail in a complex series of attacks that were aided by her kicks. The beauty and coordination of her movements were mesmerizing as the energy levels inside her increased.
The girls outside realized that Yasenia was now focusing on her tail, as every movement was accompanied by a tail strike.
The Tribulation energy coiled around the extremely complex muscle network that was her dragon tail moving through the tendons and fibers and elevating Yasenia's strength by the second.
As said previously, the increase in energy was negligible compared to her actual cultivation, but her mortal movements had stopped being mortal for a while.
If an average human could follow her speed at first, by now, she was moving quickly enough to start appearing blurry.
The dragoness's routine was unstoppable; her eyes focused and forgot everything that wasn't her movements.
With increased charm and agility, the people outside looked on, excited if she would break through again.
Yasenia followed her recent strike with a step back and turning right, allowing her tail to strike the imaginary opponent once more. After that, she resumed her attack with a combination of kicks and punches, and when she finished with an uppercut and a spin that dropped the tail from above, slamming it on the ground with an echoing explosive sound.
Her aura ballooned once more, breaking through into the peak level of the first realm!
Her entire body was coated in energy inside out, making it more than clear that she just skipped the whole first realm. Moreover, it was with a highly sturdy foundation.
She could probably break through into the second realm if she wanted to.
Still, Yasenia didn't do that.
After reaching the peak level, she stopped and sat down cross-legged to absorb her gains and solidify her foundation even further.
About 30% of the initial Tribulation Energy remained in her body, and she was going to use that not to break through but to perfect every single energy trace inside and around her.
In Yasenia's mind, anything less than "as perfect as possible" was not worth it.
Outside, our girls looked on with trembling eyes.
With Spiritual Cultivation, other than speed, it was hard to really tell how talented a cultivator was at first sight. It was a bit of an abstract concept. After all, meditation was the only way for a cultivator to, well, cultivate.
There were a few exceptions of breakthroughs during combat because the situation was right, but it was just that, an exception. Something that happened very rarely.
However, Body Cultivation showed talent in a highly straightforward way.
They knew, since day one, that their lover was monster-class.
She was a creature that was born to become powerful. Everything in her life was literally threaded in a way that, if she didn't reach high levels of cultivation, it would be because the heavens wanted to stop her.
If let to her own devices, her climb to supremacy was nothing but a countdown.
However, even with the many demonstrations, it never felt like a despairing difference for our girls. After all, weren't they keeping up? Even if they could barely do it and had to put in extreme amounts of time and effort, they were able to keep up thanks to Yasenia's Dual Cultivation aiding them.
Yet, while all of them but Andrea, who had a three-year head start, were still in the middle level of the first realm, Yasenia had breezed the entire realm in just 30 minutes.
30 minutes!
How quick was that? An average Body Cultivator might take about a year or so to create a perfect foundation for the first realm.
A year has 525,000 minutes. Well, Yasenia took 30 minutes. Quite literally 17,520 times faster than an average cultivator.
Monster class? That was insulting Yasenia's talent. Yasenia was quite literally in a league of her own.
An unparalleled genius that would make those who were proud of their talent feel worthless.
After seeing Yasenia sitting down to consolidate, all the girls left without saying a single word.
The maids thought they had taken a big hit, and one of them asked worriedly. "Will they be okay, Lady Tatyana?"
Tatyana smiled. "Don't worry. If something like this were enough to stump them, they wouldn't have followed little treasure until today. They've just got a clear look at what their wish to 'Keep up' with little treasure means."
As Tatyana said, the girls didn't leave with a depressed mood. On the contrary, their eyes were blazing with determination and fighting spirit.
All of them had the same thought.
'I won't let you sprint ahead to a place I can't see you. I swear I'll catch up to you!'
This was their vow since the day they decided to follow a True Dragon in her cultivation journey. Regardless of how far ahead or how fast Yasenia ran, they swore they would never stop pushing forward.
Two hours later, Yasenia exited her room, drenched in sweat and tired but with a satisfied expression.
Seeing the maids and Tatyana, the dragoness grinned toothily. "I finally managed to break through!"
All the maids clapped with proud smiles.
"Congratulations, Young Miss!"
"As expected, our Young Miss is the best!"
"In a few years, all those who looked down on Young Miss will regret it dearly!"
Yasenia giggled as she heard their praises. Suddenly, her nose twitched, and her pupils expanded for a second. "Oh? My dears were here?"
Tatyana laughed. "Such a sharp nose. They were here for a while, looking at you as you broke through."
The dragoness's lips arched, and she hummed happily. "I hope they are proud of me. Did they see how I managed to reach the peak level of the first realm?"
Tatyana nodded with a laugh. "Of course, they left after you sat down to consolidate your power."
Yasenia nodded thoughtfully as she approached Tatyana and took Kaleina into her arms. Then, she asked, confused. "Why didn't they wait for me, though?"
Tatyana lifted her eyebrow. "How could they wait after your little demonstration? They are probably in their cultivation rooms."
Instead of worrying, Yasenia puffed her chest out of the gratification and pride she felt, making it jiggle deliciously. "As expected of my dears!"
The maids and Tatyana laughed, although they couldn't resist stealing a few glances at the proud pair of white mountains.
Yasenia looked around and commented. "Well, since they will probably be busy for a while, let's study formations."
Tatyana nodded. "Sure. Come with me. Flora, Selena, Alaia, Leila, Maria, come with me to give her a lesson on each of your specialties later. This afternoon will be a theoretical lesson."
"Yes, Lady Tatyana!"
Maria was the most knowledgeable tailor in the maid squad and Evelyn's current teacher. She had recently entered the seventh level of the Dantian Spiritualization Realm and was a human.
Yasenia called Clara as they left. "When Flame is done learning from Gireila, you can call her to dinner with us. I'll prepare food in about 3 hours… Well, since we are at it, invite all the leaders that are around. We can have a small talk."
Clara acknowledged with a smile. "Yes, Young Miss."
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Andrea: Too much talent on such a lovable and cute girl.
Yasenia: *Grrr*
Author: Well, while Andrea scratches and pampers Yasenia, let's get going. I summon you!
Andrew Miles: It's me this time.
Angel: Hi!
Andrew Miles: Hello, Angel. Tatyana and Valeria, since upgrading a cultivation technique is possible, how about downgrading a technique to allow more people to cultivate it? A power could then use it as an incentive for others to access the original version after enough merits are awarded to them. My thinking is that since the source is the same, it would be little trouble to change cultivation methods.
Valeria: That's a good idea, and it is used in higher realms quite often. For example, a technique called "Divine Sword." It is divided into 12 stages. Each one increases the potency and deepness of the technique by heaps and bounds, and to get them, you have to become a more important member of the Divine Sword Art Sect.
Valeria: Even at the same level, someone who understands the first stage would create much weaker effects compared to someone who understands the second stage, not to mention the twelfth.
Andrew Miles: I see.
Valeria: Yes, but doing so for mortal-level techniques is something most cultivators don't bother doing. For top-level cultivators, a level one Meridian and Dantian Creation Realm Cultivator is almost the same as a Half-step Dantian Spiritualization.
Author: Yup, things like that are a bit more complex and bound to happen later. For now, that's all for today's chapter~. See you later, dear.