Death... and me

Later that night, Kentucky couldn't help but say, "It's so boring! Isn't there anything I can do? I mean, other than just helping alleviate the energy in the core."

Rean shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "If there is, then I don't know what it is. Well, just help us alleviate the extra Divine Energy, will you?"

Celis didn't mind as all he wanted to do was to cultivate. "Let's stop wasting time and start already."

The twins' group then left the Lukimira Sect since they couldn't simply disappear there. They just told them that they would be back later that night. Rean and Roan weren't slaves or anything like that, so the sect couldn't stop them from going either, nor did they want to. After all, they didn't want to get on the bad side of the twins before they at least helped them with the issue regarding the Divine Vein.

After getting that sorted, Celis, Kentucky, Rean, and Roan entered the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm, instantly feeling the enormous concentration of Divine Energy there. "Indeed, the core is probably not ready for all of this. Perhaps we should think about upgrading the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm later."

"We can talk about that another time," Roan said. "Let's start."

Everyone nodded as they quickly began to absorb the Divine Energy present there. As they did that, Rean couldn't help but think, 'Just how many Divine Stones worth of Divine Energy do we have in this place?'

Time passed quickly as everyone's cultivation increased nonstop. However, it was, as Rean mentioned. They eventually reached the limit of the Initial Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm, and there was still some extra Divine Energy to spare.

Celis, of course, wanted to use it straight away as he asked, "Can't we really make a breakthrough? With the rest of the energy, we should be able to break the bottleneck."

Roan shook his head as he said, "Give it some time first. After all, we've already saved..." It was then that Roan remembered something. "Oh, that's right. Sister Orb, how much faster are we cultivating compared to the Realm of Mortals?" Roan could get an average guess, but he knew Sister Orb would have a more approximate answer.

[Oh, I haven't told you that yet either. I checked your absorption rate and the energy in your dantians when you were cultivating normally outside. If you don't consider Celis's ability to gather Divine Energy in a single point, your cultivation speed is around 4 times faster here than in the Realm of Mortals. Of course, things like the Divine Stream Lake's Divine Energy can't be counted on either.]

Rean couldn't help but comment, "That's still a huge increase. Divine Energy is truly capable of saving us many, many years of cultivation."

Celis nodded in response. "Indeed. My cultivation is limited to the same level as you two and Kentucky. Nevertheless, I can tell how much faster I'm cultivating as well. Even if I cultivate alone and drag your cultivation with me, I would still be slightly faster than if we cultivated together down there."

Roan then pondered over something for a bit before asking, "Sister Orb, how many years would it take for us to go from the Middle to the Late Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm?"

Sister Orb understood what Roan meant. [If you were in the Realm of Mortals, such a thing would take you around eight to nine years. Here, it will only take two years and some months. Of course, because you never know when you'll all be cultivating together or not, this time can deviate somehow. Also, if Celis finishes spreading his roots and gathers all the Divine Energy in the surroundings to a single spot, you'll be able to cultivate even faster.]

Rean then looked at the World Swallowing Cedar after that, asking, "Celis, is your performance at gathering Divine Energy the same as it was with Spiritual Energy?" One must remember that Celis gathered enough Spiritual Energy in the Freedom Sect for it to be equivalent to Rank Three or Four Spirit Stones.

Celis couldn't help but laugh out loud in response. "Hahaha! As if!" He then explained, "Divine Energy is definitely much better, but it is also much stronger and puts a lot more restrictions on us. You saw it yourself, right? How strong you were in the Initial Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm compared to the Realm of Mortals?"

Obviously, Roan tested it already. "In the Late Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, we were somewhat comparable to Core Formation Realm cultivators in the Realm of Mortals. Now that we're in the Soul Transformation Realm, I believe it's somewhat similar to Core and Soul Fusion Realm cultivators at the same stage."

Celis nodded after hearing that, telling them, "Well, it's basically the same for my combat strength AND my ability to gather energy. The 'me' at the moment is somewhat similar to a Core and Soul Fusion Realm World Swallowing Cedar. Do you think I can gather a lot of Divine Energy with this mediocre performance? I believe I'm only able to gather enough energy to be equivalent to the lowest grade of Divine Stones."

"Lowest grade?" Kentucky asked with a puzzled expression.

Celis nodded as he replied, "Obviously! So far, we've only heard everyone talking about Divine Stones. However, you don't really think that there's only a single grade of it, right?"

Rean agreed with Celis. "It's just that we have been dealing with poor sects, groups, and people. For them, other ranks of Divine Stones are probably a hard-to-reach dream since even the most common ones are that hard to acquire. However, I'm sure there are higher ranks of Divine Stones as well."

Rean then looked at Celis after that, telling him, "In any case, I still think that your gathering power is great, Celis. The lowest grade of Divine Stones is still better than the normal Divine Energy in the air."

Celis nodded in response. "But of course! This amount of Divine Energy should decrease our cultivation time by at least 10 to 20%."

It was then that Celis remembered. "Wait, You still haven't convinced me why we can't break through!"

Roan nodded, saying, "Because it would be too suspicious if the four of us broke through together once again."

"Just that?" Celis obviously didn't care about it. "Let me ask you. Why should we care even if they find it suspicious?"