97 Subtle Change

To those with no Affinity for Space, Sun only looked to be focusing on the galvanization process of his Qi. Aside from Elizabeth, only Luca and Atid, the only two Spirit Realm cultivators aboard the ship, could feel the change in the spiritual air outside. Those two popped out the other side of the ship to meet Elizabeth in understanding.

After making eye contact with Sun, Elizabeth shook her head and returned inside the ship to retrieve her acupoint needles. After entering a room devoid of people and taking the needles out of her spatial ring, she already knew what procedure she would conduct on Sun. A part of her felt partially guilty for ignoring both Sun and Jane's advancement to the perfect path; especially since she knew for a fact that they possessed the requirements to make the shift since she left the Sky Seizing Castle.

However, as she was analyzing the situation in the short span of time she returned inside the ship to retrieve her needles, Elizabeth recalled that she never even thought about what they might want. Not taking their opinions into account before deciding what was best for them... such a realization caused Elizabeth to reevaluate what kind of relationship she wanted with her two most loyal companions.

Initially, the thought of treating them as servants or even slaves, because of their loyalty and what sparked such intense loyalty in the first place, came to her naturally, as if by instinct. Those two were just some people that felt the need to repay her for her actions in either restoring their Dantian or saving their lives and sharing some cultivation methods. Life is a series of transactions, with every action resulting in an equal or similar reaction. Such a philosophy was what Elizabeth had cultivated when she lived as Adrian.

Living in a game world where emotion held no value and only stats and strength mattered, she treated every interaction with that kind of mindset. But now… After experiencing care and others' altruism, Elizabeth was starting to feel her psyche slip. In truth, a large part of herself wished to toss such nonsensical and utterly unpragmatic thoughts out of her head.

'What use was there thinking of others as anything other than tools? Why care about their feelings, all I'm doing is preparing them for a perfect life with a perfect foundation and a perfect cultivation! Even now, I'm wasting my precious sparing time with Yrre on fixing this idiot who couldn't even form a Seamless Qi Connection his first time through the gauntlet. Care and Compassion? Altruism and Heroism? Fuck that! I just want… I want… Numbers? Skills? Cultivation and Strength? Mhmm…'

When Elizabeth actually thought about her actions, her goals, she couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what it was that she wanted. 'I know I don't want to die, but if it was just that then I wouldn't be pushing myself so hard. The numbers and strength are fun to grind, but they're not really what I value. Is it the challenge? Maybe the feeling of being superior after working hard? No… No, no, no… Games always bore me after I reach the point of absolute superiority. It's… it's being entertained, isn't it? It's not fun? Taking charge of others and leaving them without free will is not fun?'

It was light a bulb lit up in her head as Elizabeth came to the conclusion that being in total control of others, and micromanaging them as if they were soulless artificial intelligence, wasn't the kind of game she wished to play. After all, even if her life had in fact been turned into a game, it didn't mean that others were like her. She might seem as serious as everyone else when it came to practicing and cultivating, but the truth of the matter was that there was a huge disconnect between her mindset and that of the normal cultivator.

Now that a bit of self-reflection drew Elizabeth out of her fantasy, she felt at odds with how she wished to proceed. For now, rescuing Sun was the priority as either mindset wished for his well being. So, while she continued to sort out this conflict of the heart, Elizabeth approached Sun and started adjusting her needles into his body.

'Fuck!' Elizabeth cursed as she realized even with her impressive 130+ units of Speed, she wouldn't be able to insert and activate the acupoint formation required to drain Sun of his overflowing unstable Space Qi. It was like activating a timed bomb as Elizabeth's first couple needles acted as a catalyst for the already unstable Space Qi to turn even more savage.

'NO!!! What is this idiot doing?!' Elizabeth couldn't believe her eyes as she watched Sun choose self-detonation over letting the rampant Space Qi explode outside of his body. Now there was only one option to save the situation, and given Elizabeth's most basic desire to not see either her friend or servant needlessly die, she didn't hesitate to drop everything and embrace him from behind.

Unfortunately, even opting to use her own Magic Connection to siphon out the deadly Space Qi through a resonance, by the time Elizabeth began the process, she understood that the Space and Fire Qis already began the process of fission entanglement. Elizabeth called for Sun's status to appear to see if she could deduce anything else that might be able to save him.

[Status Updating…

Status

Name: Sun

*New) Level: 18

Rank: Mid-Phase Warrior

Affection Rating: Forever Loyal

Sex: Male

Strength 159

Endurance 180

Speed 160

Defense 175

Intelligence 129

Luck 8

Inner Strength: 305,000

Innate Skills

Fire Affinity

*New) Tier: Excellent

Description: Well on his way to rising his talent to Mediocrity, after Sun experienced the Dimensional Upgrade's baptism, his affinity for Fire skipped Mediocre-tier altogether to ascend to Good. Then after training in cultivation, his fire affinity evolved just recently.

Space Affinity

*New) Tier: Pseudo Good

Description: An Affinity for Space that is in the midst of evolving.]

"..." At this moment, Elizabeth wanted nothing more than to smack the idiot who decided everyone should have their natural talents improve whilst she was left alone and unconscious, losing time all the while in the Sky Seizing Castle. Excellent and Pseudo Good-tier Affinities generate a quality of energy even her Seamless Magic Connection couldn't easily influence and with circumstances as dire as the one Sun was placed under, he couldn't wait for her Bad and Trash-tier Space and Fire affinities to slowly work their magic.

Entirely out of options, Elizabeth willed for a Mediocre Tier Spatial Affinity Stone to materialize in her hands. She activated the Souljade, effectively placing the last of her chips on elevating her Space Affinity in hopes of being able to boost her Spatial Magic so as to mitigate the fission within Sun's body.

Time stopped as Elizabeth's soul was sent into an absolute void in a separate dimension. Again, she felt herself become powerless, with not a speck of Inner Strength or Magic in her constitution. However, with her preexisting Bad-tier Affinity for space and the [Spatial Meditation] method, Elizabeth quickly understood how best to upgrade her Affinity.

She quickly got used to moving in the zero-gravity environment of the absolute void and assumed the standard lotus meditative pose. Then, like a railgun, Elizabeth's body slowly started accelerating through the void as she began comprehending better ways to handle Space. The further along the void she travelled, the stronger the repellant force she received and after reaching her limits, the only way to keep progressing was to perceive space on a deep level the before.

Unlike the hell she went through to get Affinity for Fire, because Elizabeth already possessed both affinity and an appropriate meditation technique, her time within the trial wasn't nearly as traumatic. It only took a short 36 hours for her Bad-tier Affinity for Space to rise to Mediocrity, as this was one of the best environments for her to study space without distraction. In this second run using a Souljade to upgrade her affinity, Elizabeth tried cheating the system by meditating on energies aside from space. Alas, there was nothing but spatial energy existing within this dimension, leaving her unable to exploit the time stopping powers of the Affinity Stone.

Naturally, even if 99% of her focus whilst in the void lay in improving her Spatial Affinity, Elizabeth couldn't stop a small part of herself from continuing to debate what she would do with Sun if she succeeded in stopping the rampant Qi. Though it irked her most basic understanding of the nature of dealing with others, she decided to try playing into her conflicting emotions. Pragmatically reasoning that it wouldn't matter if she gave her servants a small amount of freedom to make their own choices. As long as she was there to support them, they'd turn out to be great tools to support her at the end of the day.

She didn't notice, but at the same moment those empathetically thoughts triumphed in convincing her, a subtle change manifested within her Soul Land. In the small world residing at the core of her soul, several of the various lights that represented her various Affinities started congealing a solid core. The starry sky decorating the atmosphere of her Soul Land seemed to blaze in splendor as stars that were previously undetectable began blessing the world with their rays. The murky black and yellow earth, while still appearing exceptionally ghastly, had its essence nurtured with richer hues. Even the Stargazer Lilies changed with faint streaks of purple in the leaves striking a fierce contrast with their main pink bodies.

For a split second, a phantom image of Elizabeth appeared in her Soul Land. This Elizabeth looked nothing like usual one… Her general composure and aura giving off a confident and reserved feeling. With eyes that approved of the changes taking place within her little domain, the phantom slightly smiled as it faded back to nothingness.

Returning to the real world, Elizabeth hastened the decaying process of the Soul Jade in her hands by clenching her right fist. She tossed the ashes out of her hand before hugging Sun even tighter, and the Space Magic within her Magic Connection began cycling through her body so quickly that a faint humming could be heard next to her.

Within Sun's body, the fission that previously seemed unstoppable now completely froze, as small chunks of overflowing Qi began transferring over to Elizabeth through her Magic Connection. Being as close as she was to Sun, Elizabeth whispered in his ear, "Focus on controlling your Qi to the best of your ability… I'll absorb any extra Qi until you resolve the fission within your Dantian."

Then, without waiting for his response, she closed her eyes and concentrated on converting Sun's Qi into fragmented grandmist through the activation of Chaos Requiem. Sun nodded and gestured to Atid and Luca who had long since evacuated the ship's deck and layed barrier after barrier around his person, before sinking into his inner viewpoint of his Dantian and beginning the process of untangling the various wisps of yellowish-orange and gold.