Chapter 102: Stunning Return

Before Darcel could even ask why she is so overly happy, Aniela quickly rushed into his chest, giving him a gentle, loving hug. Aniela's sweet intoxicating fragrance trailed into Darcel's noise like scented candles.

On instinct, Darcel wrapped his arms around Aniela, enjoying the smooth silkiness of hair and soft, tender back.

"Mnh-mnh! I'm just so happy and filled with energy over our breakthrough Darcy! I feel like I can take on anybody!"

"Right, right. Just don't let too much air get to your head, you know. Although, I suppose those Innate Core powerhouses, even for high ranks, won't be much of an issue to us. Now then…."

As Darcel spoke, he, on instinct, began petting Aniela's silky smooth hair.

Doing this was almost second nature to Darcel, and he always felt his soul soothe with warmth doing this.

While petting Aniela's luxurious white hair, Darcel's eyes had also trailed over to the rest of the deep fog covering the Misty Haze Pits.

And like Aniela could read his mind, her eyes had also trailed over to the deep fog.

"Nnng….though I just said I feel invincible….whatever else deep in the fog is quite terrifying!" Though she said it like it was a problem, the excited tone of her voice and zealous smile obviously whistle a different tune for Aniela.

"Just another thing for another time. But unlike things around Necrotic City, I'm sure it won't be long before our power becomes enough to freely traverse anywhere in these Snowy lands."

"Ah! Speaking of these Snowy lands, what should we do now? Unless you're up for an endless snowy walk Darcy, I think we should join Fruna's group for the time being."

Darcel was already pondering on their next course of action as Aniela spoke, and he didn't see a problem with this.

"While I can't say much about those three guys, at least we know Fruna can secure us a position. Furthermore, their group is a perfect testing ground for our current prowess."

The roaring intent of constant battles once again started to excite Darcel and Aniela.

While they don't necessarily consider themselves as battle junkies, they can't deny the exciting freeness of fighting against strong or weak enemies.

And with the so-called Nobe's Fang group, which is full of powerful Innate Core warriors. Darcel and Aniela knew the fastest way to get a secure position is through pure strength and abilities.

More so than Sects, Academies, or Organizations of the likes, groups akin to the Nobe's Fang group would be considered Mercenaries bands.

And compared to Mercenaries bands, there were a lot more things Darcel and Aniela could experience.

Unlike the shelter lives, young talents can live in Sects or Academies. Darcel and Aniela could tell, just by their talks with Fruna, that everything needs to be backed up by your own actions, no matter how talented you are.

With several rummaging thoughts like this swirling in the duo's minds, they turn around and prepare to use their Spirit Sense to get themselves out of this Misty Haze Pits.

But right then, Darcel had suddenly clenched his left hand, and his eyebrows raised a bit.

"Hm? Oh, this pendant thing. It seemed like it broke quite a while ago."

"Ah? Oooh….I guess it couldn't just stand the might of our powerful breakthrough!" Aniela casually remarked as her eyes gazed upon the shattered pendant in Darcel's palm.

Pure white chunks were spread out on Darcel's palm, and the strings of fabric were split in half.

Although one curious thing to Darcel and Aniela was the fact that pure white chunks of the pendant were still slightly glowing up.

"Well, it's not completely useless yet. See? In the last portion of its power, I can sense it directing my soul back to the place's entrance. Let's go; Fruna's group is probably just dying in anticipation to see our treasure."

"Oh, are they? They'll definitely see a great treasure then!"

Hand in hand with Aniela, Darcel began leading themselves out of the dense Misty fog under the broken pendant guide.

Truthfully, all Darcel did was unintentionally surged his soul when wanting to leave this place.

And unknown to him and Aniela, the soul pendant immediately reacted to his call to leave.

….

Back at the top of the cliff just before the Misty Haze Pits, a group of four were silently cultivating and waiting. Their eyes were heavily focused on the Misty Haze Pits, waiting for any sign of life.

Most obviously, the group was Fruna, Robert, Reyney, and Hurey.

After they were swept up by the stormy wind of the Misty Haze Pits, the four of them all awoke on the cold hard icy ground.

None of them knew how long they were out, but they immediately felt a crushing pain coursing their bodies and souls when awaking.

Pushing themselves to the absolute extreme even with Darcel and Aniela help nearly wrecked their bodies.

Thankfully, they all came prepared with various Mage's pills and potions to heal themselves right back up. Although damage to the soul was a far longer healing process than damage to the body.

An hour has passed since they awakened, and they all were content to at least wait and see if Darcel and Aniela would show up while they healed.

And out of the whole group, only Fruna was getting a bit anxious.

Even if they did have incredibly powerful souls, that Misty Haze Pits could throw out something unexpected even for them. Admittedly, Fruna would like it if those charming kids could come back, treasure or not.

Robert and Reyney, however, were of more apathetic opinions.

Seeing as they were a couple of Nascent Core youths but just with unique souls, they weren't all that worried about those two coming back.

Though their souls may be powerful and could lead them to be something powerful in the future. It all meant nothing if their regular cultivation wasn't high and slow.

The biggest and only concern for them was if Darcel and Aniela could come back with that treasure.

And if not, they could always just try again with more powerful soul Artifacts.

"You know Fruna, maybe those kids might've just hit the jackpot. But they most likely aren't in a condition to make it back." Robert shrugged his shoulder and casually threw out to say.

Fruna only took a quick glance at him before continuing back to obverse the Misty Haze Pits. It would be useless to try to argue, plus even she knows he very well might be right.

During this whole time, Hurey was the only that had some other thoughts swirling around in his mind. Yet, depending on whether or not Darcel and Aniela came back, would he bring it up, and he continued on staying silent.

And just when the area would fall back to silence, Fruna, Robert, Reyney, and Hurey all spiked up!

Their senses just now could only pick up on something rapidly approaching from below, swift like lightning!

'Hua!'

A Darkness and white Light streak burst from the icy hail of the Misty Hail Pits!

Fruna's group all snapped their heads up as the Darkness, and white Light streak went at least several meters high in the air.

And quickly as they jumped up, the Darkness and white Light streak dived straight back to the ground.

Two charmingly gorgeous youths crashed on the icy blue ground with a loud thud, causing several spider web cracks to form in the icy road.

"Ahh….I hope we didn't keep you all waiting for too long!"

The sweet alluring voice of the energetic Aniela burst into Fruna's group eardrums.

Standing right in front of their faces, indeed, was Darcel and Aniela.

Yet, there were dramatic changes to the duo that nearly caused Fruna, Robert, Reyney, and Hurey to leave their jaws hanging wide open.

The most immense shocking change was that they were both True Soul Core cultivators!

The tremendous barrier that kept hundreds of thousands average Nascent Core cultivators and even talented geniuses stuck for the rest of their lives.

Yet in just hours at best, these kids suddenly broke through in a single step?!

The only thing that could explain this outrageous phenomenon was Darcel and Aniela's must've gained some sort of high tier Heavenly Treasure!

Immediately, Robert, Reyney, and even Hurey's eyes lit up with the excitement of greed.

Although Fruna's eyes took more notice of Darcel and Aniela's slightly changed appearance and presence. Somehow them being a True Soul Core cultivator gave them a more pure, vibrant beauty.

It was as if any previous small imperfection on their faces were dramatically improved, changing their already alluring charming looks to a devilish beauty.

Fruna was the first to quickly break out of her shock stupor and broadly smile at Darcel and Aniela.

"Congratulations, you two! Not only have you made it out alive, but you've also crossed the boundary to the True Soul Core realm!"

Without any hesitation, Fruna casually walked up to Darcel and Aniela to properly congratulate them.

Though this was a pretense in order to not let her partners act rash. She could clearly feel the apparent greed swirling in their eyes.

"Why, thank you, Fruna! It was a bit difficult, but Darcy and I easily pulled through. Just one small thing, though….we don't have any more of the treasure that we picked up in there." Aniela explained without a care in the world.

And indeed, it was the truth. That magical blue flower disappeared once Darcel and Aniela crossed into the True Soul Core realm.

However, Robert, Reyney, and Hurey weren't all too keen on hearing this.

In fact, a shock expression mixed with rising rage appears specifically on Robert and Reyney faces.

"The hell do you mean you have no more treasure left?! You already used everything that got you to breakthrough to a whole new major realm?!" Robert harshly accuses, raising his voice higher and higher.

No matter what kind of Heavenly tier treasure they got, it all couldn't have been wasted all on breaking two mere Nascent Core brats to the True Soul Core realm!

Which led Robert to suspect they were obviously lying!

"You two must've gotten a treasure that felt unfathomable to you, right? Akin to something even more powerful than a Heavenly King at your original sect, right? And you expect us to believe that kind of powerful energy was all wasted on one mere little breakthrough?!"

Reyney as well didn't believe Aniela's words for a second.

Sensing the situation rapidly deteriorated, Fruna quickly turned around and told the two,

"Relax, will you! Robert! Weren't you just saying they probably wouldn't even return? A life or death situation most likely forced them to use the damn treasure!"

"Heh? Oh, really, then?" Robert snorted, and he and Reyney started aggressively walking up to Fruna.

"I don't care why you like these two so much, but they're obviously bullshiting. But to convince you, Fruna. We want Darcel and Aniela to fork over their Spatial ring now. Then we'll see the truth." This time Reyney spoke as they both neared Fruna.

"Just calm the hell down already. We haven't even asked for their side of the story yet! In a calm manner, we all can discuss this."

While speaking, Fruna's eyes quickly trailed over to Hurey.

But when making eye contact, Hurey stayed unmoving, letting all of this play out and giving Robert and Reyney his silent agreement. He never felt one hundred percent on the duo in the first place, and Hurey kind of expected this to eventually happen.

"Last time Fruna. Get out of the way."

Robert and Reyney's face was twisting into a more annoyed and pissed expression by the second. To reinforce their point, both Robert and Reyney began to leak a small dosage of their fourth rank Innate Core aura!

Fruna's eyes slightly widened, and she immediately surged her own fourth rank Innate Core aura. She extended her aura to wrap around Darcel and Aniela, protecting them and bear against both Robert and Reyney's auras.

But still, two against one already put her at a grave disadvantage.

And Fruna was already feeling a mighty suppression stack on her body. "Do you really need to go so hard? You're just going to drive them off!"

"Oh, finally, you brought this point up! You know, on further thinking about it, you should damn well know why our group won't let mere True Soul Core kids join us at this time. Even if their souls are special!" Robert stood his ground against Fruna.

"Look at this way, Fruna. The heavenly treasure will be far more useful to us than with them. Realistically, how far can being a mere True Soul Core cultivator get you in our province?"

Fruna was beginning to grit her teeth against this double suppression. The pressure was straining, yet Fruna didn't back down.

"Still, come on, you guys. We're not the same as those barbarians at the Silver Bloody Hammer group. We can be reasonable about this."

Robert snorted at her accusation, "If they wanted to be reasonable, they shouldn't have lied in the first place. You know they would only continue their lie if we don't force them. Besides Fruna, us acting reasonably? That's all surface level when the powers are equal between two parties! Don't let some little attachment get in the way of good judgment."

"Tch….Hurey! What's your opinion about this!"

Fruna pleaded to him, and yet Hurrey still remained indifferent to this entire debacle. He still didn't move and just shook his head.

"Hmmm….alright! The show has gone on long enough!"

Finally, then, Aniela's voice burst right back up, having no fear indicated in her tone.

"Hmph, these two sure like to run their mouths." Darcel also snorted as all eyes gathered on him and Aniela.

Before Robert, Reyney, or Fruna could say anything, Darcel and Aniela finally moved!

'Hua!'

A chaotic burst of wind blasted right past everyone!

Robert, Reyney, Fruna's, and Hurey's eyes all burst open as Darcel and Aniela suddenly disappear from their spots.

None of their eyes could track that kind of speed. "Hey now! Where's all that previous bravado!" Darcel's cold voice slithered into Robert and Reyney's ears.

They almost jumped out of their skins as somehow Darcel and Aniela popped right in front of Fruna and stood imposingly before them.