Chapter 1084: 1084. Heartbeats

June felt the spikes piercing her skin and pouring poison inside her body. Her mind began to feel dizzy even if the higher energy suppressed the foreign substance.

The face of her lover appeared in her vision while she amassed power. Noah would have never suffered that kind of injury, especially from a cultivator that relied on his potions and pills to match those on his level.

'I'm still so far away,' June thought as the poison and the higher energy fought inside her.

Noah was a powerhouse. His dantian was still in the solid stage, but he was a true member of the higher stage. He was even fighting on a battlefield that she and other weaker cultivators had to abandon.

He was in another league, and his next step was the Immortal Lands. Their paths would diverge once again, and it was unclear how long it would take for them to reunite once he left.

'Only you can be my eternal opponent,' June smiled as a peculiar scene appeared in her mind. She saw Noah disappearing in the white sky and becoming out of her reach.

That vision made her sad but also extremely motivated. Her individuality depended on strong opponents, and her lover was the most powerful of all of them.

"He could kill weaklings like you when he was only in the liquid stage," June said. Gustavo's eyes sharpened when he heard those words, but his actions didn't slow down.

The Royal continued to pour potions on the cage. The pressure accumulated was enough to destroy most rank 5 cultivators. However, June remained still. She kept her eyes closed as she let her centers of power fill the Perfect Circuit with higher energy.

The structure of her dantian, body, and mind had improved after she used the prototype. She had no more limits inside the fifth rank, but she still wanted to see if she could reach higher levels.

There was an unreachable target in her vision. She recalled the toughness of Noah's skin as she evaluated the energy accumulated inside her, and only one thought resounded in her mind. 'This isn't enough to defeat him.'

Many experts had to control their ambitions once approaching the sixth rank. A broad individuality hindered the path toward the higher ranks, and it usually misled cultivators.

Yet, some couldn't stop themselves from following their true calling.

Noah's ambition prevented him from cutting away any part of his individuality. King Elbas' pride and curiosity forced him to pursue every path in the inscription field.

Other experts in the past had found themselves in the same situation. Legendary names like Divine Demon, Divine Architect, and others had pursued their paths without leaving anything behind.

June's path was the same. She could either soar while carrying everything with her or die trying.

Gustavo smiled when he sensed that June's body functions were slowing down. The poison was finally taking effect. Yet, a loud heartbeat affected the environment once again at that point.

The cage began to contract together with the heartbeat. June's aura then affected the gas and spread until it covered the entire cloud.

Gustavo felt a dangerous sensation rising in the back of his mind. He hated that such a weak cultivator could make him so scared, but he knew that he had to retreat.

The Royal jumped off the cage and tried to hide his presence in the dark-green gas again, but the explosion arrived before he could escape its range.

An orange light spread from the poisonous cage, and lightning bolts shot from the enlarging halo, creating cracks on the dense gaseous layers. Gustavo had to dodge some of them while he retreated, but the influence of the heartbeat reached him during his evasive maneuvers.

Gustavo began to sense the rhythm of June's heartbeat while the orange light covered the entire cloud. A pulling and pushing force pressed on his body according to the rotation of the Perfect Circuit.

The beat pushed him away from the expanding lightning storm, while the silence pulled him closer. He felt as if he was in a series of tides that kept him locked in the same area.

The black lightning storm expanded together with June's heartbeat. It destroyed everything it touched, and it increased in power after every cycle.

June could feel that too. Her heart was the center of the Perfect Circuit, and each of its beats slightly increased her power. The lightning storm reflected that feature and expanded as she produced more energy.

Terror appeared on Gustavo's expression. June's power didn't make sense, and she kept on becoming stronger even!

His first spell should have been enough to kill her, but she had survived all his attacks. Moreover, her body didn't suffer from his poison's effects since her black sparks isolated its properties.

That was the worst possible outcome for him. He was a wind cultivator that relied on poison in the end. His strategies often saw him slowly damaging his opponent until he could deliver the final blow.

That didn't happen with June. Her individuality made him see the exact opposite of what he was expecting, which ruined his battle plan.

Gustavo's expression became resolute when the lightning storm was only a few heartbeats away from him. Countless pills came out of his space-ring and released a red smoke as they fused with the dark-red cloud.

Gales blew through the cloud and gathered all the poison in the air in Gustavo's position. The red and dark-green gas condensed until they turned into a liquid armor that covered the Royal and turned him into a giant.

The lightning storm eventually arrived and clashed with him. Layers of poison splashed in every direction as the black sparks raged on its surface. However, the dark liquid's corrosive properties managed to extinguish them before they reached Gustavo's body.

June shot forward at that sight. Green blood came out of her injuries and tainted her orange robe, but a wide smile shone on her face.

She felt delighted that her opponent had survived the last attack. Her centers of power were producing even more energy now, and the world of the laws appeared in her vision as her existence strived toward the higher ranks.

Her centers of power weren't advancing. The energy they produced was so dense that the world mistook her for an existence near the peak of the solid stage!

June bathed in that feeling as lightning bolts shot from her figure. They didn't seem to have a target, but they stopped mid-air once they crossed the giant.

Gustavo didn't care about June's strategy. The poison covering him was so strong that even his skin began to burn. That was his most potent attack, and he didn't dare to prolong his suffering by using its energy to defend.

The giant waved its limbs, and massive dark-red wing blades shot from its figure. Dark sparks exploded under June's feet and allowed her to perform short accelerations that made her dodge the incoming attacks.

Yet, the blades exploded every time June dodged one of them and the poison that they released managed to touch her from time to time.

June charged forward, uncaring of the injuries accumulating on her body. Her figure continued to release lightning bolts that stopped mid-air behind and around the giant.

Then, when she reached her opponent, the floating lightning bolts expanded to create a dark net that surrounded the red giant.

Gustavo tried to stop the net from covering him, but the poison that made his armor fell apart when it touched the black lightning. June's spell had successfully trapped him.

The heartbeat resounded again at that point. It beat once when June landed on the net. It beat the second time when she raised her arms to the sky, and it beat a third time when a thick lightning bolt formed between her hands.

The fourth heartbeat arrived when she threw her lightning bolt on the net, but Gustavo didn't hear it.