I moved ever closer to the Thunder Temple. Or at least the thing I believe might be the Thunder Temple. My Senior brothers and sisters are also tagging along. There was some light conversation going on between them. However, it wasn't important enough for me to worry about it. That was because of the great number of monster beasts that came to attack our party.
*slice!* Every time my spear would make this sound, a monster beast would die. This continued for a few days. Why was it taking so long? Well simply put. It's these Seniors of mine.
"Ugh, we should take a break." A senior brother said.
"Yes, let's take a break. We've been walking so long." Another complained.
"And why are you two complaining? Junior brother is the one doing all the work. He's killed every single monster beast we have come across." Senior brother Xiang scolded them.
"Senior brother, why can't we just fly there? It would be so much faster." The first one to complain, said, complaining again.
"Because if we flew then we wouldn't have the chance to gather materials." Senior sister Xun said.
"Also it provides us cover from being spotted by that saint realm guy." Senior sister Xue hmpfed, crossing her arms.
They continued to bicker while we forged ahead. I guessed that given how far we had been and how close we were now it would be a day and a half on foot. While I was thinking this I felt a good thing just ahead. When it came into view I was so excited. Finally I could do this. That thing was to stop the bickering that made it more difficult to keep on moving. Or in other words something that would give us a good excuse to stop for a short time.
"Perhaps we should stop?" I said, intersecting myself into the conversation.
"Oh why is that Junior brother?" Senior brother Xiang asked.
"There's a spiritual hot spring ahead. I'd like to take an actual bath after all this fighting." I said, pointing in the direction of the hot spring.
"A SPIRITUAL HOT SPRING! SENIOR BROTHER XIANG! WE HAVE TO STOP FOR THAT DON'T WE." All three Senior sisters shouted at once having heard the news and used their divine sense to verify it.
"I guess we can set up a small camp there to enjoy this good thing. Sisters will take the first bath while us brothers process the monster beasts." Senior brother Xiang said.
"Woo-hoo!" The others all said.
We arrived at the hot spring quite quickly. Not a soul complaining the rest of the trip there made it so much more fun. Of course I killed more monster beasts on the way. I swear these things are just courting death.
We set up a small camp and began working on the monster beasts. There were dozens of them by this point. None of them were lower than 6th order. It seems I have become a fair bit stronger than I had initially realized. The real surprise was when I took down a 7th order monster beast. At least it was a surprise the first time it happened. Not any of the subsequent times that followed directly after.
"Junior brother's strength is impressive. To think you're able to kill 7th order monster beasts." Senior brother Xiang said, as he continued to drain the monster beast's blood.
"It truly is impressive to see. These 7th orders are equivalent to the saint realm." The second most senior brother said.
"Brother Ming, it's clear from what we have seen that Junior brother Wang has heaven defying methods. I wouldn't be surprised if he is number 1 among the geniuses in the Void Temple." Senior brother Xiang said in response to what his junior brother Ming had said.
"Senior brothers, I wouldn't be able to do these things without my saint king spear. I don't deserve such praise from my seniors. Rather I must thank you for taking care of the processing. So let's split the rewards." I said, happily smiling, drinking some juice my Senior sister Xue gave me.
"Sounds good Junior brother Wang. Though we wouldn't dare ask for much." Senior brother Xiang said.
"Alright, I'll be over there cultivating while we wait for Sisters to be done." I said, leaving to sit underneath a nearby tree.
My Senior brothers were now more eager to get the processing done. This was because they now knew they would be able to claim some of the rewards for themselves now. Meanwhile my senior sisters were splashing around in the pond and giggling. It was loud enough for us to hear.
I focused on my cultivation while the others did their own things. I advanced two whole minor realms in the span of a single fight. And my body grew a little in the process. I began thinking of ways to passively heal my injuries. Pills would be the traditional way of going. However it felt… too simple and didn't stand out as unique. "Perhaps I'll find something that can give me a clue to this at some point." I whispered to myself.
At that moment the senior sisters were on their way back. Once they got back to the camp they saw that I had a ton of energy converging around me. Thus they joined the senior brother's in watching.
Energy flowed and surged. Creating a place filled with dense True Qi and Lightning Qi. In a flash I broke through to the 7th layer True Element Realm. My cultivation speed is truly something crazy to behold. It wasn't even that long ago that I even started cultivating. Now I'm in the upper end of the True Element Realm. And this is without the help of the training spot my father told me to find.
With my new minor realm promotion. I felt quite a bit stronger. It wasn't so ludicrous that I'd be willing to fight saint kings but it was enough that I wouldn't be worrying about anything in this ring of the Mountain forest that was certain.
My only challenge would have to be the Taboo Brother Lin. However, given how the power gap has changed dramatically since the last fight I doubt he will attack again. At least not without a slew of back up. So we would be safe for a while yet. After breaking through always comes consolidation. Hence I went to the spiritual hot spring the moment I noticed the senior sisters were back.