Chapter 637 - 0637 – Spar With Me

Over the past year or so, Lucas had spent quite a bit of time working with Supreme Elder Elizabeth Carlson, and he greatly respected the old woman who, while sometimes acted a bit patronizing and doting towards him, was always incredibly serious when it came to their research.

What’s more, from the very first day they met, Elizabeth had never once underestimated Lucas, nor had she ever looked down on him despite his young age and immature looks, which was quite a rarity amongst all the masters and nobles he had interacted with.

Knowing he could postpone having to say a painful, final goodbye to the Supreme Elder for several more decades thus came as a great relief to the boy.

Just how many more years this breakthrough would add to Elizabeth’s life was unclear, as the science behind something as complicated as individual life expectancy was pretty spotty, but going by her own estimations, if she did not achieve a breakthrough, she would at most likely live for another 10 or 20 years at most.

By breaking through to the Low-Rank Martial Adept Realm, however, Elizabeth expected to increase that time to 70 or 80 years.

Now, 380 years was still well below the average for an Adept Realm Cultivator on the Blue Sky Continent, but it was a significant boost none-the-less.

Sitting down next to the two women who were rapidly working their way through the basket of sandwiches, Lucas settled in and gently released his Soul Sense.

He may not have been able to ’see’ as many details as the High-Rank Soul Adept Celestina, or the Low-Rank Soul Initiate Louise, but Lucas was still eager to monitor this entire process, figuring that in-person observations would help him further refine his new method of cultivation.

.....

Unfortunately, Allina was still away on business, Christina was currently en-route from Amherst, and Farah had agreed to supervise another training exercise for the Raging River Legion, so she had to leave last night.

The fact that these 3 were going to miss this was surely going to be something they complained about for a long time to come, but the situation was what it was.

That said, all the others who were involved directly wit Project Ascension gradually arrived at the pool over the next couple of hours, and when they learned that Elder Elizabeth was creeping closer and closer to a breakthrough, they all smiled brightly and eagerly took their seats.

It was clear from everyone’s body language, the fidgeting, the looking around, and the constant hand wringing, that they were all nervous. Even Celestina, with her arms crossed and eyes closed, was drumming her fingers lightly, something she only did when she had something on her mind.

Finally, at roughly the 64-hour mark, there was a sudden and abrupt shift in the flow of World Qi, with the centre of the pool suddenly becoming like a vortex, sucking in everything from both the air and water that it could.

Everyone stood, there eyes lighting up with anticipation.

This was it, the moment of truth.

1 minutes passed...

2 minutes...

5 minutes...

7 minutes and 22 seconds after the World Qi phenomenon began, it reached some kind of peak, held steady for a good 10-count, then began to ebb.

There was no flash of light, or explosive *bang*, or anything else of the sort, which somehow felt anti-climactic, but that did nothing to dampen the spirits of the 7 observers who were now crowding around the edge of the pool, staring towards the submerged woman at its centre.

The urge to cheer was extremely difficult to resist, but Lucas, Celestina, Louise, Eris, Sasha, Edward, and Amalia all somehow held it in, knowing that despite having successfully achieved her breakthrough, Elizabeth Carlson wasn’t finished cultivating just yet.

Typically, after a breakthrough, one needed to spend a bit more time in meditative cultivation in order to adjust to the increased strength and regulate the greater flow of their Internal Qi, this was especially true when breaking through to a new Major Realm like Elder Carlson had just done.

Still, the hardest part was definitely behind her now, so no one anticipated Elizabeth having any troubles now.

It was truly an event worth celebrating, so it was fortuitous that the end of year banquets would soon be upon them.

Now, whether Elizabeth Carlson would be spending this New Years together with them, or she would be returning home to Iron Rock to share the joy of her breakthrough with her family, wasn’t clear yet, but either way, toasts would definitely be made in her honour as the newly promoted 27th Adept-Realm Cultivator of the Rockwell Kingdom.

.....

Roughly an hour after her breakthrough, Elizabeth Carlson slowly emerged from the water, removing the face-mask and pulling down the hood of her chainmail suit.

She still looked the same as before, like a kind but slightly stern 70-year-old woman, but there was now a much more potent aura lingering about her. There even seemed to be a rosy glow on her cheeks, though that might have simply been from exhaustion.

Elizabeth Carlson had been cultivating non-stop for nearly 3 days straight, constantly moving through the water while wearing clothes that weighed twice as much as she did. It would be perfectly understandable if she was feeling tired.

However, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Clenching and unclenching her fists, Elizabeth seemed to be examining herself while also contemplating something.

Seeing this, no one disturbed her, all of them simply waiting for her to speak first.

When the Carlson Family Supreme Elder finally did lift her head to say something, her first words took everyone by surprise, "Celestina, would you mind sparring with me?"

Raising her brow, Celestina was a bit taken-aback at first, but she soon grinned and nodded, "Alright. I’ll wait for you outside."

10 minutes passed, and Lucas, Louise, Eris, Sasha, Edward, and Amalia had now gathered at The Lab’s large experiment field, the one where Lucas and his crew of eccentric inventors ran all their more dangerous tests.

You know, the ones that tended to result in explosions.

Or rather, ’bigger’ explosions.

Here, even if two Adept-Realm Cultivators went a bit crazy, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Celestina was still dressed in her casual clothes, while Elizabeth had changed into an outfit resembling a martial arts’ gi, something Lucas had Issac and Felicity put together as training gear and that had become quite popular recently.

The two women squared off against one another, with Celestina looking relatively relaxed while Elizabeth wore a calm but serious expression.

For a moment, nothing happened, then...