"Infernals are a bunch of annoying things, but they'll mostly face some low-level ones. Well, that aside, did you enjoy your disciple's first fight?" Asty asked as she munched on the popcorn.
"I don't know what to say. I like how she used the situation to her favor, but I didn't enjoy it much, so I'll just give this battle six out of ten," Aadi said as he put his hand on the bucket to take the last popcorn, but another claw already took it before he could.
Aadi's face darkened as he said in a low voice, "Give that back, Asty."
Asty just snorted and ate the popcorn, licking her paw.
"I was thinking of getting another one of those boxes, but now it seems it isn't necessary," Aadi chuckled and said sinisterly.
Asty's eyes widened, and she stuttered, "Y-Y-You're joking, right? You can't do this. I'm telling you, you'll regret it."
This time, Aadi scoffed and teleported himself to his bookstore. Asty, realizing that nothing could be done now, also teleported back to the bookstore.
On the other side, Aurora was climbing up the stairs while analyzing her battle.
She was sure that the power level she faced wasn't of the Heaven Profound Stage, even though Liam was a Heaven Profound Stage Artist. Aadi had taught her about the differences in various cultivation realms.
First, Foundation Profound Stage. In this stage, you have to build your foundation as solid as you can, mainly strengthening the physical body.
Second, Essence Gathering Profound Stage. In this, you have to sense the profound energy in the atmosphere and take it into the body, storing it across the body.
Third, Spirit Profound Stage. In this stage, you have to create an ethereal spirit of your consciousness.
Fourth, Origin Profound Stage. In this stage, you have to create an origin core just below your heart, which lets you store profound energy in massive quantities and even increases the quality of the profound energy.
Fifth, Earth Profound Stage. In this stage, you have to solidify the origin core as hard as earth, meaning the harder and more solid the origin core, the more profound energy it can store.
Sixth, Heaven Profound Stage. In this stage, you have to connect the origin core with environmental profound energy.
Aurora didn't understand much about this stage as it was far from her, but she knew that after connecting the origin core with environmental profound energy, one could gain the ability to fly and levitate.
The Heaven Profound Stage Artists were considered to be very powerful compared to Earth Profound Stage Artists. After you connect your origin core to the environmental profound energy, you gain immense control over profound energy and techniques.
That's why they were named Heaven and Earth, because they had the difference of heaven and earth. One Heaven Profound Stage Artist could defeat ten Earth Profound Stage Artists.
This was the reason Aurora didn't know why, but she was sure that Liam wasn't using the power of the Heaven Profound Stage.
Aurora's eyes lit up as she remembered the strike Liam used to disperse the Penetrating Flames. That punch contained the power of the Heaven Profound Stage, now that she thought about it.
'Maybe he has some hidden injuries that he didn't recover from,' Aurora could only come to this conclusion; otherwise, there was no way one would lower his power level in a life-and-death match.
Another thing Aurora noticed was the rune formations. At first, she thought the two big formations that Liam talked about were engraved by him. But Liam didn't activate them even when he was going to die. That only left one conclusion: he wasn't the one who engraved them.
'Maybe it was the Tier 3 Runemaster that dumbass was talking about who engraved those, and that dumbass just used them. Well, I have much to learn; it looks like I have to talk to Master,' Aurora thought as she finally reached the top of the stairs.
Aurora then went towards the place where she fought the Red Horned Rat and stopped, seeing the wall in front of her.
"Ah, I completely forgot about those shrimps of Red Horned Rats," Aurora facepalmed and muttered.
By then, everyone had arrived. Shihab went forward and asked, "How much time do you think we have? We can't kill all those rats, especially since you're heavily injured."
Aurora shook her head and said, "Well, one of us has to stay and shift their focus until everyone has entered those caves. We can do the same as we did here in those caves."
Everyone's face paled when they heard Aurora; nobody wanted to stay as that was a suicidal move.
"Oh yeah, I'm not staying, as I can for sure survive. I'm just helping with whatever I can," Aurora said as she sat down near the wall. "And decide quickly; we don't have much time before this tomb explodes."
Everyone began eyeing each other, as they were truly afraid. Aurora scoffed in her heart at these so-called geniuses of the kingdoms. Just after going through this much, they were already this afraid.
After some time passed and seeing that the situation was going nowhere, a small boy came forward and said, "I'll handle those damn rats. I'm a fifth-grade Origin Profound Stage Artist with the wind element as my element, so I'm much faster than those rats. I was the first one to arrive here, so leave those rats to me."
The boy wasn't an idiot; he just wanted to survive. His specialty was his agility, and his combat power was very low. So, if he went alone, he wasn't sure that he would survive.
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief and looked gratefully at the boy.
Seeing that they had made the decision, Aurora stood up and looked at the boy who was standing beside her.
The boy nodded at her, signaling that he was ready. Aurora then gathered some profound energy in her fists, making them even bloodier as some cuts opened up.
She then punched the wall in front of her, and cracks began appearing on the wall, which collapsed rapidly.
"Eh? How's he still alive?" Aurora asked in a surprised tone.