Since then, one week has passed, and Yasenia has started working a bit daily. The maids have been relatively busy managing the sect during this time after the summit. Many reports indicated how the newly established sects were doing. From the looks of it, they were still mid-building, as their defensive formations were not finished yet.
Yasenia was honestly tempted to send her 50 maids to attack them and raze them to the ground. However, she was also not ready to take part in the war; she was too weak. If all-out war broke out, having time to break through might be lacking, effectively locking her in the fourth realm for a while.
The dragoness moved into her room, following her usual martial art moves while thinking about all of these things. She felt her pores and breath sucking in energy while her meridians transported it toward her Dantian. Her smooth movements allowed energy to spread quickly while her energy reserves constantly increased.
Little by little, Yasenia got stronger as she practiced, and her Body Cultivation level increased. The feeling of getting stronger was delightful for Yasenia. 'It has been a while. With all the summit, my cultivation realm got stuck for a while.'
As her energy rotated around her body, the Yin energy stored from her dual cultivation sessions with all the girls merged with it, increasing the effects it had on her body.
The two immortal-ranked cultivation techniques worked together in tandem, gently but rapidly increasing her own strength. The effects were noticeable and quick, becoming a source of motivation.
Yasenia lost herself in the sensations and didn't realize she had been cultivating for three days. By the time she snapped out of her daze, it was the morning of the fourth day. The dragoness stopped, her body glistening with sweat, but her breath was calm and collected.
Her hand flicked and summoned a towel from her Spatial Ring. Then, she took off her clothes and lightly wiped her body. She grabbed one of her breasts and lifted it, cleaning below and in between where sweat accumulated the most.
The towel had self-cleansing abilities, so she didn't need a shower. Moreover, thanks to Yasenia's particular constitution, even her sweat smelled fragrant, so it wasn't like she needed showering at all in the first place.
Still, Yasenia liked to keep herself fresh if she could, so she often cleaned herself after training. After putting her dress back on, the dragoness walked outside, tying her hair in a loose braid.
Her hands were nimble and quick, making the usually time-consuming hairstyle a quick hand gesture. "Today is Andrea's breakthrough. I wonder if there will be any complications."
Yasenia was curious about the implications of breaking through while treading two cultivation paths. She had made quite a few assumptions that she wanted to confirm with Andrea's breakthrough.
Yasenia flew quickly through the sect while mounting on Draheart, and she was quick to arrive at the Tribulation Plaza, the place where most people came to break through. It was filled with formations that helped channel Heaven's energy and became helpful all around the sect.
Once there, she couldn't see anybody. While Tribulations were not something common, with the number of people in the sect, it actually happened much more often than one would think.
Still, today, there was no one here as Ghana promised, leaving the place entirely for Andrea.
Everyone arrived half an hour later and saw Yasenia standing there with a calm and free expression. Her beautiful, simple white dress and braided hair gave her a demure, pure appearance that was rarely seen on her.
Even when her curves pushed the dress in tempting arcs, the feeling of peaceful gentleness didn't disappear. On the contrary, her curves now looked more motherly and gentler than seductive and alluring.
The people who arrived couldn't help but pause and stare as Yasenia looked over and smiled. "Welcome. How are you feeling, Darling?"
Andrea scratched her cheek with a bit of shyness, feeling like a husband who was welcomed by his wife. "I feel perfectly fine, love. Thanks for asking."
Kaleina trotted forward with a beaming smile. "Mommy, you are so pretty today!"
The dragoness leaned down and swopped her up, placing one arm under her butt while guiding her to hug her neck for balance. "Thanks, little baby. You are also looking very pretty today."
Kaleina laughed, her bright smile seemingly illuminating their surroundings.
Yasenia looked at Cecile and Soluna and smiled. "How was your hunt? You took a while to return, eh."
Cecile commented. "Soluna lost a few times in a row, so she didn't want to return until she won at least once."
Soluna coughed. "But I won in the end!"
Cecile gave her a side glance. "You did, but with what methods? Who goes deep into the forest and uses a mountain-razing attack to hunt their prey?"
Soluna coughed twice this time, feeling guilty. "W-Well, it didn't die, did it."
Cecile was as brutal as ever and cut her excuses short. "They would honestly be better dead than alive. They lost a limb, after all."
Soluna fiddled with her fingers while looking at Yasenia pitifully. The dragoness laughed. "Well, I'm glad you had fun, even at the cost of the lives of some beasts."
Cecile had probably carried over every creature they had killed, if they had killed any, making their deaths not useless. Legendary Core Beast Rank materials were very sought after for the highest-level blacksmithing and tailoring. So, in the end, being hunted while competing or when another person was alone made little of a difference.
Andrea walked forward, donning her black and golden armor, and summoned her halberd.
Yasenia approached right before she put on the helmet and planted a kiss on her cheek. Then, she teased. "Don't come back darker than you currently are. Your skin tone is perfect now~."
Andrea rolled her light green eyes with a smile and returned the kiss with a light lip-to-lip touch. "Sure, sure. I will try and avoid my skin tone from darkening." Yasenia laughed.
Angel and the rest cheered from behind when they saw Andrea putting on her helmet and finally walking toward the center.
The spirits were also curious about human tribulation. They expected it to be similar to theirs, as the heavens didn't change their cards much during the tribulations before the Transcendent realm.
Andrea reached the middle of the Tribulation Plaza and took a deep breath. Then, she connected with her dantian and started circulating her Spiritual Path cultivation method.
Her energy quickly moved through her meridians as she attacked the bottleneck holding her back from the Dantian Spiritualization Realm. With each energy rotation, that bottleneck was loosened, and after one hour of meditation, she managed to do so.
Boom!
An explosion of energy swallowed her surroundings, and energy became turbulent and rushed toward the armor-wearing woman.
However, there was an unexpected event. While this happened, another explosion of energy around Andrea of similar strength occurred.
The girls were confused, but the seniors quickly understood. Tatyana asked with a frown. "Both paths at the same time?"
Mirrory frowned. "Wrong, it wasn't intentional. Andrea's composure faltered for a fraction of a second. She probably was surprised that it happened."
Yasenia listened to them and looked upward with a grave expression. The initial dark grey clouds had turned blacker and denser, followed by a booming thunderclap.
RUMBLE!
The sky roared, seemingly ready to tear everything asunder, and a massive pressure descended from the clouds onto Andrea.
Andrea felt her entire body becoming at least ten times as heavy, making her face change to one of horror. 'Why did I break through the other path? While I had both paths at the limit of the fourth realm, I could feel that the loosening of the Body Path bottleneck was around three weeks away. However, I broke through. Moreover, so naturally? Why?'
She did not know the answer to her doubts because where would you be able to find a similar situation to the one that she was going through?
RUMBLE!
Another deafening rumbling was heard as lightning serpents began appearing one after another in the skies. The clouds, darker than ever for Andrea, looked like a sea hiding hundreds of lightning dragons as they were as such.
A total of 181 Lightning Bolts were rumbling in the sky, ready to fall.
Yasenia looked at Andrea with concern, still not understanding why Andrea broke through both paths at once. "Have you discovered why it happened? Why did Andrea breakthrough the second path when she purposely left it out?"
Mirrory answered. "Her Spiritual and Body Path might be different cultivation methods. Still, both methods reside in the dantian. If the Spiritual Path is triggered, the Body Path will try to follow behind regardless of the cultivator's control as long as it is close enough to be triggered."
Mirrory pointed at something. "Did you see how quickly her body absorbed energy during those moments when she was concentrating? She took an hour because the body was not only preparing to break the Spiritual bottleneck but also the Body one."
Mirrory looked at Yasenia and spoke. "In short, you girls will have to break through all your paths at once."
The dragoness grimaced. "All of them at once?" The girls understood what that meant and couldn't help but worry about Yasenia.
Yasenia shook her head, recovering her expression and looking at Andrea. "Flora, prepare yourself and all the medical staff nearby. Valeria, please help Andrea when she finishes if she is in a critical condition."
Meanwhile, on Andrea's part, the first of the 162 lightning bolts descended. Andrea waved her halberd, striking it with enormous strength and blasting it into light particles.
Still, the heavens didn't give her a single second of rest. One after another, a rain of lightning bolts thicker than a house rained one after another with increased intensity.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Andrea used her skills, defense, and martial arts to defend herself from the onslaught. And yet, with each attack, she was being pushed down stronger and harder each time.
Andrea began shouting the number of the bolt to motivate herself. "Sixty-one! Sixty-two! Sixty-three! COME ON! [HEAVEN BORN FLAME DEFENSE]"
81… 102… 115…
Lightning bolt after lightning bolt rained. By now, chunks of her magma armor had been cleanly blasted off, revealing her armor in many places. However, Andrea didn't stop swinging her halberd for a second.
Her Perseverance Intent strongly affected her body as she became increasingly injured. Her skin was being charred by lightning, her muscles were incessantly twitching, and her vision kept flickering with white as each Heavenly Lightning Bolt illuminated her vision with raw power.
145… 154… 159…
With three Lightning Bolts left, even her trusty Quasi-transcendent had been pierced through in a few places, revealing her now burnt skin.
Andrea was exhausted beyond belief, but she pushed on with an echoing shout. "I'M NOT DONE YET, HEAVENS! [SUN DEVOURER]!"
Her attacks had created a scorching inferno around her, but that was all absorbed as the first of the last three bolts descended with incredible might.
The strength behind the Heavenly Lightning Bolt was probably enough to flatten an entire mountain.
However, Andrea's feet remained stuck on the ground as her position was as stable as when she first started.
The ground around Andrea was scorched black, but the ground below her soles was as spotless as it was when she arrived. Meaning that during the entire onslaught, Andrea didn't move an inch!
With [Sun Devourer] active, Andrea's halberd left a trail of searing flames in its wake as a massive crescent of pure Sun energy was blasted into the sky.
BOOM!
The attacks collided, nullifying each other.
Andrea was not done yet, as she used [Molten Sun] to create a massive golden star on top of her that collided with the second to last attack.
Finally, using all her remaining strength, Andrea roared and used her newest skill of the warring sun art series.
"DISAPPEAR! [WARRING SUN BATTLE ART: SUN WAVE LIBERATION]."
All her accumulated heat was channeled into the halberd, and as she pierced upward, a pillar of red light pierced toward the heavens, smashing right against the last descending Lightning Bolt.
BOOOOOOM!
The sky was ripped asunder as the massive collision created a blast that pushed the clouds apart.