Left and right, up and down, every wall was shining with golden light. Even with almost no light coming from the outside, the cavern was lit up. The grin on Drakos' face couldn't be bigger.
"Hahahahahahah!" He laughed loudly and hopped forward, entering inside. "One hundred… two hundred… three hundred…"
He began to count the overall value of the mine, taping each Fate Stone one by one. With each tap, the stones disappeared, entering inside the Storage Ring hanging around his neck. The more he collected, the happier he got. It felt like finding money on the street, earning without doing anything.
What was the best was the fact that the cavern was huge and he could barely see ten percent of it. Each Fate Stone was much bigger than normal, having a lot more Fate Qi stored inside.
"Just in this small room, I got almost a million Fate Stones in value! If I'm lucky, I can get at least ten million! Hahahaha!" Drakos burst out laughing after a few tens of minutes of collecting stones.
He wasn't even a bit bored with such activity, knowing he was closer to regaining his peak strength with each Fate Stone. He couldn't only depend on Xuefeng. If he did, the debt to pay later would be immense, too much for him to bother with.
"Second room!" He announced happily, moving through a narrow gap in the wall and his eyes widened, seeing even more and bigger Fate Stones.
"This…" He was speechless as his gaze focused on the middle section where a giant Fate Stone was rooted to the ground.
It was taller than his own body!
His eyes were glued to it and his mouth opened unconsciously, drolling. Before he knew, Drakos was already hugging the golden crystal, calculating it's value.
"O-one Million…" He stuttered, barely able to talk anymore only to burst out laughing once again. "Hahahahaha! Bella, get ready for smacking! Once I absorb the whole mine, we will see who is more powerful!"
———
'Day 182, Hidden Realm.
We survived… The night on Xuefeng's birthday was nothing but easy and calm. It was the longest night so far, praise you, Lisa. I have never seen Xuefeng this energetic. Just one pill created so much chaos.
When he entered me, my body burned with a strange fire, making me hot all over. Aside from crazy pleasure that made me go blank, my Cultivation exploded. As I and mom are already at the peak, we couldn't really cultivate but it turned out we can still use the powers of the pill to reinforce our Qi, making it much stronger.
Tianshi had the biggest growth from us all, directly breaking to the new stage, closing the gap between us. With such a pill, there was no way anyone would be lagging behind.'
'Day 365, Hidden Realm.
One year passed! Today Bella announced she is close to breaking through and decided to seclude herself. We will finally have a new sister joining us, I'm so excited. Though, I will miss her soft feathers.
Surprisingly, Drakos also returned that day, his body much bigger than before. He was almost five-meter tall, with a thick dark blue tail and long wings that spread far and wide. The force created by the mountain didn't affect his flying anymore. What's more, he regained his flames, finally spewing something else other than curses from his mouth.
He immediately challenged Bella for a fight yet she wasn't available, making him salty. As punishment for screaming, I made him fly me around on his back, hehe.
Oh! And Xuefeng finally joined us in the battle training!'
———
"Aaaah… Took me a year but I finally did it!"
Bella called out as she stretched her wings, waking up from her sleep. She lit up her body in flames and aside from feeling that her flames were more powerful, nothing else changed. But that wasn't what her mind was occupied with.
She could finally change into her new humanoid body!
Taking a look around her house made by Yiren she made sure she was alone and closed her eyes. Colorful flames wrapped her body, dancing around her till she disappeared within them.
A moment later, her flames began to lessen until they took the shape of a human.
Flames were her and she was flames.
Swoosh!
She waved with her hand and the flames separated from her, revealing her new naked body.
"Feels weird…" Bella commented, moving with her limbs while checking out her new body. "So short… How can I attack from such a short-range?"
She swung with her arm as if sending flaming feathers out yet nothing happened.
"Oof, I guess I will need to create some new moves for this body…" Bella commented, creating a fireball on top of her palm. "And my voice…"
She grabbed onto her throat, finding herself sound much different, sweeter, and more delicate. How could a powerful Phoenix as her sound so innocent?
"At least my skin is tender…" Bella muttered, feeling her face then her hair and finally her body. She got used to her soft feathers so she was happy at least that stayed behind.
Then, she noticed something heavy and squishy at the front. She couldn't help but feel weird when she pulled on the two rosy things sticking out of them.
"What's the purpose of those lumps of fat on my chest? I saw other girls have it but it seems useless…" Bella pointed out as she rubbed the two softies. "I guess I will need to ask the rest. They have such bodies for much longer."
She continued to explore and her eyes widened when she reached her lower belly and touched the little bean at the top.
"It kinds of feels good…"
It was quite an interesting feeling so Bella investigated further, rubbing it with her fingers. The more she did, the more pleasure she felt, feeling weaker on her legs.
Ahh!
An uncontrollable moan escaped from her mouth which scared her. She quickly covered her mouth and looked down, no longer touching herself. After a while, she finally returned to normal, regaining her strength.
"How is that safe?!" she actually got angry, not expecting her body would have such a weakness. "What if my enemies find out about it and use it against me? I need to ask the girls how they got rid of this problem."
Bella didn't wait and rushed out of her house.
———
Xuefeng and his wives had their usual dinner time, eating the beasts they hunted just earlier. Since he joined them in hunting, they started eating together as well, allowing them to spend a lot more time together.
"Xuefeng, how about we face the White Claw tomorrow? We should be able to deal with him with our current strength. He still didn't enter the Immortal Stage so we can beat him now," Wuying asked as they ate, preparing the plan for their tomorrow hunting.
"Sure, I was also about to propose—"
Xuefeng didn't get to finish as a sudden noise disturbed him. They all looked to the side and saw a naked beauty of rainbow-colored hair walk out of Bella's house.
Who else could it be other than Bella? The only question, why was she naked?
"Bella!" Yiren called out in surprise, getting up from the table when Bella stopped in front of them, her face grim.
"Girls! You need to help me!" Bella called out while reaching to her crotch and displayed it for them, asking desperate, "What did you do with this?"
Pfffft!
Xuefeng spat out his food, almost choking.
"Xuefeng! Don't look!" His wives immediately scolded, covering his eyes.
At the same time, Drakos who has been hunting returned, landing next to them.
"Haha! You finally left! I challenge you t— Cough! Why are you naked?!"