Chapter 280. Crystal Cave and Mysterious woman.

When Angel activated the formation, everything lit up for a second as the lasers bounced from node to node at extremely quick speeds, creating geometrical shapes.

Most of the lasers traversed at an extremely quick speed. It all disappeared in less than three seconds, returning the forest to its previous quietness.

Of course, this flash alerted some of them, but since it was just a short time frame, they didn't give it too much importance.

Regardless, they raised their guards. No matter how little importance, a flash in the middle of the night was nothing but suspicious. However, just raising their guards alone would not be enough to spot Angel.

The [Mirage formation] she built was different from the one she used in combat. It was much more powerful because she took time with it. She didn't cut on complex patterns and filled everything nicely.

The formation she built would be enough to fool even Unification Realm experts, not to mention these level eight and nine Mental Nourishing realm cultivators. Moreover, it also created an illusion that made people subconsciously ignore strange happenings around them for the duration of it. All events that would otherwise increase brain activity considerably entered the definition of "Strange happenings."

This was the main reason there wasn't an overreaction to her formation flash. Only those that previously were very attentive would have a chance to spot the strangeness of the situation, but who would be like that when most people standing on guard were basically forced to be there?

In short, Angel was able to walk across the people patrolling as if she didn't exist and reach the door.

After Angel approached the three-meter-tall light blue door, she took out the [Crystal Key] and searched for a place to insert it. However, things got out of control pretty quickly.

The key in Angel's hand dissolved and flowed toward the center of the three-meter-tall Crystal door. There was an opening there that filled the moment the key flowed into it.

The hole was precisely in the middle of a woman holding a mirror. The door had two main carvings: the woman holding a mirror and another woman looking at the heavens with majesty.

The whole door only had shades of blue, so even if it was an impressive work of art, the details in her facial features were limited. However, it was clear that this woman was someone important since even her carving gave a strange aura that imposed respect.

The hole the key filled was around the Heart area. Even the shape was heart-like. Of course, not the childlike heart shape, but a real heart shape.

Then, to Angel's surprise, the crystal heart pulsated, and the door radiated a multicolored light.

*Thump-Thump.*

Angel felt it in her chest as if her own heart coordinated to do that heart palpitation. Angel rubbed her chest, feeling strangely connected to that crystal heart. But she didn't focus too much on that since the multicolored light it was emitting was not dim at all! Angel had a droplet of sweat going down her temple as her body became stiff, 'There is no way my formations can hide this...'

As if that wasn't enough to test her formation limits, another big event happened when the door opened in the middle, parting the two carvings.

The sound of moving doors was loud and imposing. Even the sweet and cute Angel was about to curse. She looked back, and as she expected, even her formation was not enough to make them ignore such a spectacle. 'Why do seniors like to make everything imposing!? Don't they know that they only make other people suffer!?'

But to Angel's surprise, the forest around them suddenly came to life as countless roots lashed around randomly, slamming every part of the area with big explosions. This event took the attention of every cultivator away from the doors.

"Careful, the forest is attacking us!"

"Go wake up the others! I don't even know why they haven't yet, sleeping like a fucking dead person."

"Wait, what about the opening door?"

"Are you stupid? We can cross after we defend against the attack!"

Angel felt her heart warm, and a smile appeared on her face, 'Thank you, Kali!'

Then, the moment she could enter through the opening doors, she stepped forward and did so. Behind her, many cultivators saw her actions and followed her.

"Don't you dare enter first!"

"Who do you think you are!? We are going to kill you if you dare enter!"

However, Angel ignored them and went through the doors. Then, the doors that had opened slowly closed extremely fast.

*BOOM!*

The visible air shockwave of the doors closing sent the people in the surroundings flying for tens of meters. Making every single one of them roll on the floor.

After the doors closed, the forest also seemed to relax and return to normal.

Everyone was looking at the crystal doors with stupid faces.

"What happened?"

"They closed."

"..."

"Who is the stupid one now!? I'm going to kill you. That woman took the chance and was the smartest of us!"

"Right! Retarded woman, I'm going to beat you up!"

"Wait! So what if she entered? Once she comes out, we can overwhelm and kill her!"

The more than sixty cultivators in the surroundings relaxed and nodded. "We can do that."

"But who knows how much time she will take?"

"They may even have another exit..."

"..."

"Let's beat her up."

And so, wanting to place the blame on someone, the woman that gave the previous call was beaten to a half-dead state, showing again how unreasonable was the Cultivation world.

Meanwhile, Kali had already left the area with Valeria's help. She looked back and smiled, 'Go for it, little Angel. I know you can do it.'

After leaving a little prayer to her little friend, she sped up and disappeared in the darkness of the night.

Angel was unaffected by the closing doors, as they seemed to only affect the outside. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean she got a big jumpscare and was now patting her chest, "That really scared me. With all this stress, this senior is going to kill me before I even reach the trial."

She looked in front of her, and a passway met her. It had blue torches on the sides. These torches were special since the "flame" was literally crystal in the gaseous state, giving light. This made the light refract strangely. The torches created a mystical atmosphere that Angel found unsettling.

However, the blonde girl's big blue eyes locked on the end of the passage and hardened her will. "I will gain all there is here! And then… uh, then... Yasenia will pamper me!"

As always, our baby's priorities were a little twisted. Nonetheless, Angel strode forward with confident steps and with her big mirror shield equipped.

The silence was unsettling, and her steps echoed. Even if the passage was illuminated, the torches also gave a strange feeling of respect, making the atmosphere tense.

However, Angel's mental fortitude was high, and she advanced slowly and constantly. Step after step, approaching the end of the long tunnel while not dropping her guard for a second. This mental fortitude came from formation mastery since a Formation Master needed absurdly high levels of concentration not to make mistakes when creating a delicate formation.

Training with Tatyana, Angel had to maintain her focus for more than a day without rest to eat, sleep, or anything else. This was Tatyana's first step in teaching Angel personally. She told her, "If you can't do this, then I won't teach you."

Angel took three months to reach that level of concentration, surprising Tatyana. That was honestly very little time to increase concentration levels that much. To reward her, Tatyana even joined Yasenia that night to pamper the little girl to Heavens and above.

After twenty minutes of silence and only hearing her own steps, Angel reached the end of the tunnel. 'It was much longer than I expected.'

Angel looked around, and when she saw the surroundings, her little mouth opened wide, impressed at the beauty of the place she currently was.

It was a cave made of crystals.

They were mainly sky-blue colored, but some of them shone with multicolored light each time a light beam hit them.

These light beams came from the ceiling that seemed to be connected to the outside one way or another. The light beams visibly bounced, and there were five of them at all times.

The ceiling was made of five big white crystals, and these crystals were the ones that shot those light beams. They shot these beams straight down to another group made of similar material.

There was a pure white circular altar between these gorgeous walls and below the impressive ceiling. It wasn't very big, at most one-hundred meters in width.

In the middle of the mystical altar, there was a crystal cluster, roughly creating a bed-like shape that spread these light beams to the surroundings. The crystal bed wasn't too big nor small, but it stood out because of its kaleidoscopic shine.

When Angel laid her eyes on it, she couldn't look away. She felt the altar calling her. It was a feeling that came from the depths of her soul.

Angel could resist the strange urge, but since she didn't know where to go besides that place, she began walking towards it.

The entrance to the open altar was a gate that followed the surroundings, creating a multicolored crystal arch.

Angel was mesmerized by everything, but her steps continued forward, uninterrupted, getting closer to the beautiful and pure-looking altar.

When she could see the center of it, she could see more detail of the bed she saw in the distance. Now that she looked at it up close, it was very similar to the cultivation mattresses that exist on the outside but made out of sky-blue crystal with a kaleidoscopic shine.

Angel didn't directly go there and looked around, trying to spot something harmful.

Even if she was tempted to go there, sit, and start cultivating right away, the constant nagging of her dear dragoness made her careful before unknown things. No matter how enchanting they looked, she would first look for danger.

Angel feared that if she didn't do so, Yasenia would scold her. What was more fearful than getting a serious scolding from her dear dragoness? Angel couldn't really think of anything.

Therefore, she looked around carefully.

Nonetheless, Angel didn't spot anything, literally.

There was just the altar and the walls.

There wasn't even an exit place besides the place she came from. The whole cave was at least one hundred meters tall and one kilometer wide. The altar was somewhat small compared to the entirety of this place.

Still, Angel was determined to get whatever there was here.

She even tried mining some of the crystals on the walls without success. 'So stingy. There is so much, but I can't take anything.'

So after trying to break the crystal unsuccessfully to give some to Yasenia, she walked inside the altar again.

Then, Angel cutely pointed at the cultivation mattress and declared. "Hmph, I'm not easy to trifle with, mister altar. If you dare do a bad thing to me, I will create a formation to blow this place up! And if that doesn't work, be prepared to be beaten to a pulp by Yasenia!"

"Fufufu, you are very cute."

"Ahh!" Angel, who didn't expect an answer, almost had her heart jump out of her chest.

"W-What are you!? Show yourself!"

"Should I~? Or should I not~? Your scared face is very amusing, to be honest."

The voice that answered Angel belonged to a female and was gentle and ethereal, with a touch of amusement.

Angel didn't see anybody in the surroundings, so she asked aloud, "Where are you, senior? Are you a ghost?"

"A ghost? Not quite. I haven't become a soul out of resentment, after all. I just asked the creator of this secret realm to hide my inheritance here."