Chapter 271: A Sense Of Trust

Bella's eyes roamed up and down the frozen headless corpses of the White Demon squadron. Her expression turned inquisitive as she was searching for something specific within their Ice Qi prison.

Soon enough, her eyes quickly fell on their spatial rings. For a moment, a twinkle sparkled within Bella's eyes, but it had immediately disappeared, not even a second afterward.

'Hmmm….with that talisman….yea, those rings are destroyed.' Bella slightly lamented the overwhelming effects of her Heavenly talisman. 

Sure, it had the powerful effect of freezing even seventh-level Heavenly Kings, but it also means everything on their corpses is forever ruined.

Compared to the body of a Heavenly King cultivator, the items they have on them, such as a spatial ring, wouldn't be nearly as tough. The penetrating Ice Qi renders those rings completely useless now.

And it wasn't like Bella was some greedy person. Far from it, but she did want to help Darcel's group in any way she could. 

Even though Aniela and Masami probably won't get over their overwhelming dislike for her as of now, she still wanted them to vehemently support them.

When Bella made her proclamations straight at Darcel's face, it wasn't any words of fluff at all. 

Still, since nothing could be done about the White Demon squadron's useless frozen corpses, Bella turned her attention towards that frozen Spirit Monster polar bear.

Right then, she casually raised her Royal Spirit sword again, coated the whole blade entirely in Gray Sword Qi, and swiped her sword at the frozen beast. 

Like last time, Bella unleashed a wave of Gray Sword Qi that soared with lightning speeds straight at the monstrous bear.

Bella's wave of Gray Sword Qi crossed hundreds of feet of distance in mere seconds, tore right through the Ice Qi, and drilled into the monstrous polar bear's skull. 

Immediately, Bella's wave of gray Sword Qi sliced the beast's brain into thousands of pieces, killing it in one strike. 

Throughout this entire time, the Spirit Monster bear had never opened its eyes once.

With everything dead and taken care of, Bella flashed her Royal Spirit back inside her spatial ring, and a wave of tension left her body. 

"Fuuu…." 

Bella leaked a large breath, feeling some beads of sweat roll down her face.

"This is why I prefer to sleep in all day. Still….that ability really is showing off its usefulness." Bella remarked to herself. All of this was only possible because of her masked presence abilities.

While masking her presence doesn't make her invisible, it does make her essentially impossible to detect if one doesn't see her first. The White Demon squadron was too focused on their greed to ever think someone was trailing right behind them.

Moreover, Bella had even managed to erase any potential noise she could possibly make, allowing her to score an easy ambush. 

And since Bella had already precharged her Heavenly talisman, it was ready to fire in a mere instant.

This was only the surface of the terrifying abilities of Darcel's specific masking presence abilities. 

A battle that Bella would have an immensely troublesome time to do if she were to face them head-on was cleared with no damage suffered to her. 

Suddenly then, while Bella was lost in how incredible her masking presence ability was, she sensed three other presences appearing by the now-dead Spirit Monster bear.

Bella quickly flashed over to those three presences, and she soon heard Masami's energetic voice. 

"I wonder when we can go back to being loud and flashy? Oh well….I guess it's better for this to be over in an instant than dragged out."

As Masami spoke, she, Darcel, and Aniela had appeared about twenty feet to the left of the monstrous bear. Similar to Bella, they too were hiding their presence, allowing them to play a significant part in the ambush.

Though none of them could get close to their enemies like Bella could, standing still together still let them go invisible within anyone's Spirit Senses. 

And now, after reaching the Innate Core realm, Darcel and Aniela felt their combined masking presence abilities had improved.

Darcel had an indifferent expression, while Masami and Aniela had slight wistfulness swirling in their eyes. 

Aniela had followed up right after Masami and said, "Still, you're right, Sami. I, too, can't help but miss the days where we can fight freely."

Though none of them were battle nuts, the art of fighting did genuinely excite Darcel, Aniela, and Masami. However, now, they could no longer engage in their earth-shattering fights from before.

With their current prowess, Darcel had fathomed that they could probably barely match very early rank Heavenly Kings. 

Considering their current realms, that kind of combat prowess was still incredible. But Darcel could understand that there was a certain discontent of not being able to have complete free reign anymore. 

Although, Darcel did reckon that when they get out of this independent realm, they could adequately fix their mental state.

He realized that they don't need to go out and face all immensely powerful late-rank Heavenly Kings. As long as they could simply face cultivators at their current level of prowess, Darcel was assured they could sharpen their minds better than before.

While Darcel was musing to himself, Bella had already gotten close to them. Her presence made the trio snap their attention over to her, and Bella began to speak, having the same relaxed smile on her face.

"From what I'm seeing, your problem now is a lack of cultivation, right? Well then, I think I sensed something that can be useful now." 

Before Darcel, Aniela and Masami could question her, Bella turned her attention to the frozen beast corpse. She raised her finger, and at the tip of it, a small ball of Heavenly Qi energy formed. 

Bella had then flicked the small ball of Heavenly Qi energy towards the frozen beast corpse. Just with a tiny portion of her power, her energy ball destroyed the whole frozen beast corpse into tiny little pieces. 

With the humongous beast corpse no more, Bella had then made a grasping motion with her hand.

'Hua!' 

Right then, a glowing green object burst from the ground and flowed right into Bella's hands. 

Bella felt a rich sum of Qi energy pulsate within her hand, and she peered her eyes down at the treasure that made the White Demon squadron get risky.

Mild surprise ran through Bella's as she saw a star-shaped green crystal that was now in her hands. 

"Th-this energy!" 

At the same time Bella pulled the green crystal star from the ground, Darcel, Aniela, and Masami nearly went wide-eyed. 

The Qi energy treasure Bella had just dug up was even more potent than the Qi Root fruit they had previously absorbed! 

That kind of energy would tremendously help them out now. However, the only problem was that Bella held it in her hands. 

More specifically, Aniela and Masami found it an issue seeing as they couldn't get over their distrust over Bella.

But Darcel wasn't worried at all. And Bella proved why he shouldn't be concerned as she simply said, "Fu~. Now, this is a nice treasure. No wonder those guys were throwing caution into the wind."

After giving her general appraisal, Bella turned around to the trio and tossed the green star crystal straight at Darcel. 

With a small smile of his own, Darcel promptly caught the green star crystal. There was a sense of gratitude surging within his eyes when looking at Bella now. 

Without her, they for sure wouldn't be able to kill either the White Demon squadron or that Spirit Monster polar bear. And despite her really have no real reason to do it, she quickly tossed over a great treasure without any questions. 

Even as Darcel was a lot more cautious now, he couldn't help but feel more trust inside Bella's earnest actions.

Aniela and Masami as well couldn't simply look past her actions anymore. More begrudging birth in their hearts as they had no choice but to accept that Bella wants to genuinely help

But before Darcel, Aniela, and Masami could say any sort of thanks, Bella spoke first again. 

"Now then, since we're here, do you sense the portal around here?"

Darcel, Aniela, and Masami blinked their eyes, a bit taken aback at first. But they almost instantly realized Bella's subtle gesture. 

Darcel gained a slight smirk as he had then flashed the green star crystal in his spatial ring. He had then brought out the special compass and the black Magical Crystal orb from the same spatial ring. 

After closing his eyes for a moment to feel out the portal, Darcel felt a rise of anticipation. Opening his eyes back, he told the girls, "The portal….it's actually right by us." 

"Perfect!" 

Both Aniela and Masami felt their excitement shot through the roof. Finally, they could be back on safe lands!

Since Darcel said it was here, Aniela and Masami began to scan their eyes over the area. A rise of confusion started to mix in with their excitement as they couldn't spot any spot where a hidden teleportation portal could possibly lie.

"Uhm….but where exactly is it, Darcy?" Aniela raised the question that was on her and Masami's minds. 

Darcel didn't immediately respond. Under the girl's question gazes, he began to walk forward just a few feet. He had then raised the black Magical Crystal orb a bit and abruptly stopped. 

Right then, the Magical Crystal orb violently pulsated, spewing out a strong wave of Magical energy.

Before Aniela, Masami or Bella could even question what was happening, several black Magical tendrils discharged from the Magical Crystal orb. 

The black Magical tendrils tore right through the ground, drilling thousands of miles deep in just mere seconds!

'Rumble~!!' 

Suddenly then, the ground beneath Darcel's group started to violently tremble. A few feet from Darcel, numerous spider web cracks started to split through the snowy soil.

And soon enough, a black-yellowish glow bubbled up from the center of the spider web cracks. 

'Bang!' 

Snow flew everywhere as the ground burst wide open! 

And like it was rising from the depths of the abyss, a black-yellow color mixed teleportation spatial portal arose from the broken ground.

A strange form of energy that neither Darcel, Aniela, Masami, or Bella could understand began to flow through the air. 

Nobody made any sudden moves then.  Everyone stared unblinkingly at the teleportation spatial portal, nearly getting lost in its enchanting glow. 

For some reason, this hidden teleportation spatial portal looked thousands of times more profound than the ones the City Lord Mage managed to create.