231 Childish Frustration

At a depth of nine kilometers underneath the ninety-ninth kilometer mark along the Profound River Elizabeth's calm meditative state jolted awake. Only the soft glow of her crimson eyes remained where she sat before fading as her body seemingly teleported straight to the top of the river.

Elizabeth seemed almost possessed as her movemenents carried her along the final kilometer to the Waterfall of Insight. To unassuming eye, she appeared to be dancing as she utilized her Seamless Water Steps. For the length of the remaining kilometers, the water around her could do nothing to drive her away.

"Damn it," Elizabeth grumbled, incredibly frustrated with her current situation.

She had achieved her goal of crossing the Profound River and there was even a fourth fragment of the Water Tablet of Flow at the base of the Waterfall of Insight for her. Yet only a couple minutes were left on the clock before the Water Substation Trial would force her out.

She did everything in her power, even going so far as ignoring the Status notifications that had been piling up since she reached the ninety-kilometer mark, to get this far. To get any form of benefit, she had to ignore the waterfall and meditate on the river's surface until the last second.

[Foundation Trial of Water

Performance: 100 (Highest Foundation)

Rewards: 1 Twinkling Comet Gold Ticket, 50 Twinkling Comet Yellow Tickets, 75 Twinkling Comet Grey Tickets

Time Remaining: 7D 11H 55M 41S

Innate Skills:

Water Affinity

Tier: Good

*New) Understanding: Rudimentary 100%

Skills:

Water Art: Seamless Water Steps

Level 33

Spirit Grade: C

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…

Primary Effect: Increases Speed by 33%.

Secondary Effect: Resistance to all forms of friction increases by 66.5%

Tertiary Effect: Resistance to water increases by 133%

Quaternary Effect: Resistance to wind increases by 266%

Ultimate Effect: Resistance to all forms of pressure increases by 330%

Quests:

Hidden Quest: Elemental Law Novice (Complete)

Spirit Grade Difficulty: C

Degree of Completion: TRANSCENDENTAL

Objective: Reach an Understanding of Rudimentary 100% with any Elemental Energy.

Afterword: Congrats, your Understanding of Water is comparable to Core Formation Stage Cultivators that Major in Water. More impressive than that is that you managed to get it that high in under two weeks without assistance. No Goldfinger, nor teachers, nor Cultivation Method. Just the Seamless Water Steps, the Cloudrain Sector, the Profound River, and your own efforts in meditation.

**********: Aren't you supposed to be a Time-type Cultivator? This is like your fourth Transcendental achievement and we've yet to see any record-breaking achievement with regards to Time!

Reward: Leviathan Sovereign's Sacred Water Scripture

Bonus: 10 Spiritual Pillars of Water-type Energy]

"Oh," Elizabeth mumbled blankly. It was the only thing she could do after realizing how childish her earlier frustrations were.

"Master?" Yrre's voice only registered after the fifth time, when she gave Elizabeth a light shake.

"Huh? What?" Elizabeth dismissed her Status prompts to focus on Yrre.

"Are you alright?" Yrre said, "I was going to congratulate you, seeing as how you did well enough to gain an additional thirty-six hours, but you were spaced out and unresponsive."

"I was just reviewing all the gains I got from this trip," Elizabeth said, drawing Yrre's attention to the table in the center of the round room.

She added, "Look, I got quite a decent amount of tickets. We should go over to the Exchange Hub to trade in for some rewards."

"Righ—" Yrre froze in her spot as she appraised the tickets.

'A Twinkling Comet Gold Ticket and fifty Yellow Tickets?' She thought, 'How is that even possible? She doesn't have a Cultivation Method?!'

As a follower of the Castle Lord, she understood the hierarchy of the ticket currency system. Unmarked Tickets were passed down to Mortal Realm Practitioners who challenged the Substations on the Castle's first floor, while Tickets marked with the signature of a Twinkling Comet were passed down to those building their Foundation.

She speculated, 'Did she really score that high on the test of Understanding Water? For a Substation that she started practicing less than half a month ago?'

"Say," Yrre asked as they walked out of the round room to the Exchange Hub, unable to contain her curiosity, "Can you show me your Water True Qi signature? I want to see how much you improved."

Smirking, Elizabeth complied with Yrre's wishes. She produced a small streak of Water True Qi so vivid, it all but looked like real water.

Elizabeth teased, "Pretty cool, right?"

"R-right…" Yrre could only shake her head at the absurd talent her master possessed.

Walking into the Exchange Hub, the white room from the outside looking in transformed into a lively bar. Lively with regards to its atmosphere anyway, as only Elizabeth and Yrre were there to accompany the sole bartender.

Elizabeth walked with Yrre over to a barstool and greeted the energy construct consigned to its position for all eternity.

"Scion," she gave him a nod.

"Oh? You're back already?" The golden naked man replied.

Elizabeth nodded before asking, "Do you actually serve drinks here or is this room just built this way for aesthetics?"

"I was created with the contribution of thousands of Spiritual Cooks across dozens of Planes and hundreds of Dimensions. However, since you're still building up your Foundation and challenging the second floor of the Castle, only Mortal Grade drinks can be served free of charge."

"That works for me," Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders as she ordered, "Can I get an Iced Green Tea. I also want to trade in some tickets I've earned."

"Right away," Scion said as he went to prepare Elizabeth's drink.

Quietly, Elizabeth nodded in appreciation as she watched Scion both bring out quality ingredients that she approved of and used top-tier tea making skills to make the most out of the ingredients. Though to Yrre, it looked like Elizabeth was appreciating Scion's naked form as she stared at him with ambiguous approval.

When the tea was served, Scion asked, "So, what would you like to trade for at this point in time?"

"I'm assuming you have an updated Jade Slip for me, right?"

With a nod, Scion passed Elizabeth a Jade Slip.

After accepting the Jade Slip, Elizabeth scanned through its contents as she sipped her tea. Even with her Aberrant Spiritual Sea, it took several seconds to go through and sort out the hundreds of thousands of options she now had access to.

Near the end of the process, however, Elizabeth stopped. With uncontainable excitement, she asked, "This… Can I really trade in seventy-five Yellow Tickets for another shot at the Water Substation?"

"You can," Scion calmly explained, "The Castle Lord created this Legacy Site knowing fully well how valuable the Substation Trials would be for the challengers. He understood that some Cultivators, like you, would much rather appreciate his Trials than accept the materialistic rewards usually traded for with the colored tickets."

"However," Scion added a disclaimer, "Be warned that the second attempt of any Substation will only yield rewards relative to your first attempt. If you hardly progress, you'll have mostly wasted your time, and if for whatever reason you happened to not even reach the potential of your first attempt, you may even receive a punishment from the Legacy Site itself."

"Heh," Elizabeth chuckled as she schemed mentally.

She said, "I guess, I'll return to get a second chance for the Water Substation after visiting the Meditation Chamber.

"See you then," she added as she stood up in preparation to leave the Exchange Hub.

"About the Meditation Chamber," Scion's words stopped Elizabeth from leaving as he said, "Now that you're on the second floor, the quality of the Energies in the Meditation Chamber has increased, as has the time-to-cost ratio and time distortion rates. Be mindful that all the Chambers will continue to improve in quality the further up the Castle floors you reach."

"Thanks for the heads-up," Elizabeth said, continuing to walk out the room with Yrre.

On their way to the Meditation Chamber, Elizabeth asked Yrre, "Are you going to follow me into the Meditation Chamber?"

"I won't be of much help to you there. Though, if you ever decide to pick up Alchemy in the Practice Chamber or want to go a few rounds in the Challenge Chamber, I'll be more than happy to accompany you," Yrre said.

"Maybe later… The Challenge Chamber, not Alchemy," Elizabeth said, with cold sweat dripping down her forehead. Cultivation was becoming more complex and time-consuming by the Stage and she already couldn't practice most of the Secondary Occupations she had learned. Learning a new Secondary Occupation in Alchemy was simply not feasible.

"Suit yourself," Yrre said, sounding somewhat annoyed.

She added, "Though, I have to ask what it is that you're planning. It seems to me that you really want to go back into the Water Substation, but you didn't even buy a Cultivation Method."

"Don't worry about that," Elizabeth couldn't suppress the smug expression that possessed her visage. "By reaching my current level of Understanding of Water, my Goldfinger Functions rewarded me with a Water Cultivation Method."

"If you say so," Yrre said, stopping before the entrance to the Meditation Chamber. She only had a basic understanding of Elizabeth's Goldfinger, but every Goldfinger was a reality-breaking ability and with Elizabeth's past history, she believed Elizabeth had every right to her trust.

Elizabeth said, "Anyways, if you're only going to be following me into the Practice and Challenge Chambers, I'll call you when that time comes."

Yrre and Elizabeth exchanged nods before going their separate ways, Elizabeth to the Meditation Chamber and Yrre to the round room.

Elizabeth, upon crossing into the Meditation Chamber watched as a plain altar was created in the center of the Castle's signature white rooms. She saw no other development and thus went over to investigate the altar.

[Welcome to the Meditation Chamber,

Cost:

Unmarked Tickets: 1 Grey, Yellow, Blue, Clear Ticket = 1 Hour at Mortal Grade Density, Time Distortion 1:2

Unmarked Tickets: 1 Black, Gold, Cyan, White Ticket = 1 Week at Mortal Grade Density, Time Distortion 1:3

Twinkling Comet Tickets: 1 Grey, Yellow, Blue, Clear Ticket = 2 Hours at Mortal Grade Density, Time Distortion 1:5

Twinkling Comet Tickets: 1 Black, Gold, Cyan, White Ticket = 2 Weeks at Mortal Grade Density, Time Distortion 1:10

Current Setting: None]