Chapter 253: The Fourth Rank

With the gate broken open, Nisha had no chance to hesitate anymore.

The rushing current of mana and aura inside her body accelerated more and more, until it finally overflowed and bridged the grand gap between the third and fourth rank.

Through cultivation, lifeforms longed to improve their order of life, attaining a higher rank and obtaining new capabilities and longer life.

While the division between the third and fourth rank was not a major leap such as the distance between different realms, it was still the first major divide in cultivation and numerous humans and monsters never managed to take this first step until they died of old age or other reasons.

On top of that, there was a difference between a natural breakthrough and forcefully advancing - Nisha held back her improvement until the energy in her body naturally overflowed, forming new channels for the aura to course through her flesh and new pathways for the mana to invigorate the dragon’s spirit.

Before molding the physical and spiritual form to enable handling fourth rank energy, it did not matter how much greater aura and mana an individual consumed. 

The superior energy would not remain within the body, at most it gave the illusion of handling it at a higher cultivation rank than one’s own felt.

Following the natural breakthrough, changes happened to Nisha’s body and mind.

In the first three levels of cultivation, aura enhanced the skin, flesh and bones, making them increasingly tough at each rank.

Currently, the overflowing vitality drew on the existing foundation and invigorated the dragon’s blood, adapting to the changes that came with improved cultivation.

One difference between attaining a natural breakthrough and forcing the improvement manifested itself in the foundation going forward in cultivation.

By forcing the rank up, the cultivator needed to address the flaw in their skin, flesh and bones first by nurturing them with fourth rank aura for a long time.

Nisha, on the other hand, waited until the [Dragon Force] perfected the first three levels of her foundation, excavating all the potential and strengthening them to their limit.

Right from the start, her abundant vitality did not need to waste part of itself to repair the flaws and sublimated her blood instead, changing it in the process and adapting the whole body to the fourth rank.

The difference in foundation appeared small at the beginning, but with every future advance, the gap between the elf and others who forced themselves to advance would only widen.

Similar to the physical changes, a new spring of mana welled up and invigorated her [Inner World].

Normally, a magician that opened the [Inner Space] would also experience changes to the invisible space with a rank up, such as increasing the area or enriching the environment, yet the dragon already transformed the space into her personal world, full of life and a functioning ecosystem, spanning over a seemingly infinite area.

Nevertheless, Nisha did not really possess an infinite amount of space, her cultivation was way below the requirements to sustain such a miracle.

Within the [Inner World] existed two foci of mana, sustaining the life and activity of the surroundings.

Centered around the throne room in the center of her mental landscape, the dragon had unconsciously hoarded her treasures and possessions, as the mana springs in the cave sustained the life of the surroundings.

Synchronously, the avatar of her thoughts roamed the lands in search of new landscapes or interesting sights, eager to explore and enjoy the hidden miracles of nature inside her mind.

Wherever the girl moved, the mana radiated by her avatar invigorated the land and sustained the ecosystem, giving the illusion of a boundless world.

Once the dragon moved on, the mana drained from the environment and returned to stillness, saving energy and falling into inactivity.

That way, she managed to sustain the entirety of her [Inner World] with a rather meager cultivation rank in the grand scheme of things.

Attaining the fourth rank increased the radius of activity centered around the throne room overseeing the mana springs as well as the avatar’s range of activity.

Fourth rank mana filled all three of the existing springs and with a new one welling forth, the mana crystals on the cave walls grew in size and the flora and fauna near the central island bloomed wildly.

The area teeming with life outside of the throne cave doubled in diameter, with new herbs and rare natural treasures sprouting left and right.

Advancing to a higher realm was similar to a rush, the elf’s thoughts cleared up and problems that troubled her before suddenly seemed easy and new inspirations sprung forth.

Her body rapidly strengthened and began to produce fourth rank aura, matching the new vitality of her flesh and blood.

Since the great divide between the third and fourth rank was seen as a wide chasm, it naturally meant that the jump in powers was equally great after crossing it.

As dragons had a high life order from the start, Nisha far eclipsed a regular human or elf when it came to strength, speed and other raw parameters.

Even other beasts lacked when compared to her, sans a few mythological beasts that were just as rare as dragons, such as unicorns or the snake tailed tortoise, which were similarly elusive and seldomly seen.

At the third rank, the girl already had little trouble to overpower three to four third rank humans without having to use her skills and abilities.

With a natural breakthrough and a perfect foundation, the advantages stacked on top of each other and easily allowed Nisha to fight nearly ten fourth rank knights all at once in a match of strength.

Exhaling a stream of turbid breath, the dragon enjoyed the elation from stepping into a higher level and prepared to consolidate her cultivation.

Having just broken through, it took some time to convert the entire foundation of her body and mind from the third to the fourth rank, ensuring that a steady supply of newly converted fourth rank energy nurtured herself.

Only after consolidating her strength would Nisha firmly step into the early fourth rank and be capable of exerting the true prowess of her rank.

There was a difference between the usable energy pool of a cultivator and the total amount of aura and mana stored in the body.

Overall a cultivator converted mana and aura from outside sources and nurtured their own body and mind with it - cultivation resources offered more energy than regular food as an example - which then seeped deep into their foundation.

Not all of that energy was easily retrievable at a moment’s notice, however.

Depending on an individual’s constitution, a warrior or magician tapped into the usable energy pool to sustain their combat skills, drawing on their foundation in the process.

Some individuals were naturally talented and managed to draw upon a greater pool within the same rank, enabling them to execute more skills than others.

Naturally, they had to bear a risk as well, risking to damage their foundations and falling down a rank if they overdrafted their foundation, similar to forbidden skills that granted a burst of strength in exchange for damage to their foundation in a moment of life and death.

Nisha needed to establish the same foundation with her newly adapted fourth rank mana and aura, then she would officially step into the early fourth rank and have the combat strength to match.

As the girl prepared to experience the elevated aura and mana, getting used to them and guiding them into her body to strengthen her blood, the element tempered during the fourth aura cultivation rank, an anomaly happened.

Instead of slowing down and tempering her foundation, the mana and aura circulating in the dragon sped up, gaining speed as time passed.

Nisha furrowed her brows and wanted to take charge of her cultivation progress, but the runaway energy threw off her control and rampaged wildly, while an outside source of power entered her body.

All of a sudden, the elf realized that the invading force was not entirely foreign to her, it was the [Dragon Force] that usually helped to excavate her potential.

Her body lacked the capacity to house the entirety of it, hence the power usually stuck close  to the dragon.

Whenever the pressure from the [Dragon Force] forged the elf’s body a step further, another tiny sliver of the power entered her body, leading to a positive reinforcement cycle.

Currently, however, the situation was similar to a dam that had broken with the increase in cultivation.

More and more of the force flooded inside her body and polished the dragon’s bloodline, looking for a new balance with the higher limit after her body’s breakthrough.

Sadly, the sudden rush happened too fast and put a great burden on Nisha’s physique, who almost failed to bear the burden.

The aura and mana inside Nisha’s room boiled as the [Dragon Force] circulated faster and faster around the girl sitting on the bed.

Unbeknownst to her, night had already fallen and a sheet of darkness covered the capital of Leandar while she experienced her breakthrough, making her unaware of the passage of time.

The storm of energy was not limited to her room alone, the mana and aura within the entire city went wild and thrummed with purpose.

Several powerful entities within the city walls noticed the unusual movement and looked for the source of the disturbance, but the tide of mana and aura was closer to natural phenomena, with no clear origin point.

The shield arrays and inscriptions shielded the capital, yet they also worked in the opposite direction as well and prevented those inside from sensing the outside situation as well.

From a bird’s point of view high above, the energy all over the Leandar kingdom showed signs of agitation, albeit not as strongly as near the river delta.

Vaguely, the form of a gigantic pool of mana and energy developed, startling beasts and men alike in the area.

Nisha gave up on reigning in the overwhelming [Dragon Force] the hard way, a rather familiar course of action.

While the force was ultimately benign in nature, it did not forcefully intrude her body before.

After taking it from Bael the goddess, the [Dragon Force] attached herself to the elf, but it mostly adhered to her like a veil, since it was far too severe for Nisha to bear at that time.

Some of the force had already dissipated over time, although it was similar to a hair from nine oxen compared to the entire amount of force attached to the dragon.

Since it was impossible to stop the process or strenuously change the course of the [Dragon Force] washing through her skin, flesh and blood before finally melting into the blood coursing through her body, Nisha saw her only choice in maintaining her meditation and endure it with all she had.

Black smoke drilled out of her skin and hissed as it came into contact with the air, similar to steam meeting cold air.

Normally, impurities would get expelled during a major breakthrough, such as the first great divide, but once the grime came into contact with the dragon’s boiling blood while getting pushed out of the body, the high temperature incinerated it right away and turned it into nothing.

Rather than a gentle tempering to nurture the foundation for the early fourth stage, the [Dragon Force] fused into the dragon’s blood and bloated all of her vessels, nearly rupturing them in the process.

The force was not meant for her current realm and some damage inevitably occurred when it forcefully melded with her body.

Perhaps the only saving grace was that the dragon blood showed a far greater capacity to store it, already excavating the potential and improving its quality by force, same as before.

It only split apart the elf’s limbs and torso in the process, spilling plenty of blood on the bed.

Before the bedding had a chance to burst into flames, the boiling blood turned the fabric to ashes whereas the wooden frame withered and broke apart.

Nisha remained oblivious to the state of her room, unaware of the world outside of her mind.

Having their blood seethe and rather large rifts appear on their limbs would have killed most monsters and humans, yet the dragon focused on the warmth and life hidden inside her bloodline.

The dragon’s natural regeneration kicked in and competed in mending wounds with the destructive effect opening streaks of wounds left and right on her body, reaching a tense but delicate equilibrium after some effort, preventing the situation from deteriorating.

She had no idea what the end result would be, but the elf persevered and trusted her own physique and bloodline to weather her through the crisis this time.

When the entire [Dragon Force] finished the process of merging, there was bound to be a result one way or another.

And while the cycle of splitting and regenerating wreaked havoc on the girl, a change happened in the ambient energy phenomena as well.

Seen from above, a large pool of shadow mana and aura congregated to form a deep well, with the shadow of a dragon grasping a fiery pearl swimming inside.

Over time, the outline of the illusory phantom became clearer and more real.

The unfortunate place where the fire dragon pearl rested burst into flames and a small mountain was reduced to ash filled barren earth.