After meditating through the rest of the cloudless night, Aria and Cely resumed their journey to Xilia.
The gentle hills and flower fields seemed to flow on to infinity. Occasionally, merchants and travelers would pass them. Most of them were comparatively weak. Showing cultivation at Tier 2 or 3, though most were just beginners at Tier 1, or even plain mortals who never practiced (technically Tier 1 as well)
Generally though, every group travelled with at least one Core Tier cultivator as an escort. A few hours in, another group came towards them. This one, though, was obviously injured.
"Young ladies, halt! You shouldn't head this way! Take the route to the east, then take the long way around the area up ahead. There are bandits in this forest."
"Thank you for the warning. May I inquire about their strength?"
"Uh? Yes, sure. There's a dozen in the Core Tier, and the two leaders seem to have broken through to the Soul Tier. That's definitely not something you can take on. We're lucky to be alive because a talisman gave us time to escape, but you likely wouldn't make it."
Cely just nodded, though, and continued on her way. Aria happily followed, completely oblivious as she was munching on a bird leg Cely had packed as travel rations. Things in her storage ring wouldn't decay or lose quality over time. So, any food she put in there comes out as fresh as when she put it in.
The escort wanted to talk again, but seeing as his warnings were ignored, he tactfully stood down. The woman seemed to get the danger, so she likely had a trump card to deal with it.
Meanwhile, Cely casually walked into the small forest, followed by Aria. It was Aria's first time seeing a forest, so she was captivated by the fauna and flora around her. Towering trees lined the road, caked in leaves.
Small critters jumped through the surrounding bushes, and butterflies and other insects buzzed all around. The bird song echoing throughout created a calming ambiance, hiding malicious intent beneath.
Cely wasn't blind, though.
Malicious intentions like this can't be hidden from her this easily. She was an expert in that field, after all.
"Ohya, ohya? What do we have here? Some delectable merchandise delivering itself to us? Kehehehe!"
An extremely nasal voice echoed on the path, as figures started stepping out of the flora to reveal themselves. Hearing this tone of voice, Cely's eyebrows couldn't help but jump in annoyance.
"Mueheh! Right, right, boss! Since those dames just now escaped, why don't you leave them for us to... enjoy? Hehehe"
Another voice echoed, this one obviously a subordinate to the previous, who was likely one of the two leaders of this group. Looking at this person, Cely's annoyance only deepened as she saw this scrawny bandit lick a bloody knife with a perverted smile.
"Nonsense! We two obviously get right of way! Brother, I'll take that sma-"
Cely didn't let this fat bandit, the other Soul Tier bandit leader, finish these words, though, as a small hole suddenly appeared through this perverted guy's head.
Brother! What-"
The other leader couldn't continue that sentence, though, since they, too, had a hole through their noggin. Both his and his brother's secondary souls had been destroyed in that attack as well.
Before the other bandits could process what had happened, with a few more piercing sounds, they too landed on the ground dead.
Cely had already been strong enough to fight a late-stage Soul Tier when she was merely at Stage 4 of the Golden Core realm. Not to mention now, with her cultivation fully stabilized at the peak of Golden Core and having gone through her second evolution.
These bandits were small fry.
"How cliché."
Cely's disgust with these bandits came from this. These were truly lowlifes who did naught but harm and rob. Not because they needed to, but because they could. She despised trash like this with a passion.
Her only regret was not torturing them to death slowly. Though hearing them talk for a second more likely would have far surpassed the pleasure it would have brought her. Especially that fat one.
"Would be a waste to waste food, though."
So, she put all the bodies in her ring for later consumption. Yes, they were humans. Cely couldn't care less, though. Empathy and respect are reserved for those who deserve it.
"Mommy is strong! Hehe~"
Aria was delighted to see her mom do some cool stuff. She was just a child, so she didn't know about the value of life. Nor would she learn it in any human manner with the mother she had.
"Let's go, sweetie. We still have ways to go."
After Cely ruffled her daughter's hair, the two continued their journey.
Days went by until one day, at night, Cely's eyes sprang open.
"It's time."
Having consumed her own mystic dishes made from the flesh of those Soul Tier bandits, she reached the barrier a bit quicker than planned. Having been ready for this day to come, though, she wasn't nervous. Not only had she done this before, but she was also more prepared this time than in her previous life.
Breaking through from the Core Tier to the Soul Tier is the first major hurdle for cultivators to cross. In Cely's opinion, at least. The large number of deaths at both the breakthrough from Energy to Foundation and from Foundation to Core would disagree, though.
Concentrating on her core, Cely began to infuse more and more energy inside. Slowly, but surely, she gained something akin to a second line of thought. Her perspective changed, becoming split into two distinct viewpoints. One was her own, and the other was her forming Nascent Soul.
The perspective of her Nascent Soul was plunged into darkness, surrounded by the large amount of energy that forms her cultivation.
Taking control of that second perspective she now had, Cely began to concentrate that energy around it into one point, before striking the shell that was her Golden Core at full power.
With a bang that one could hear even outside her body, cracks formed on her core. Mercury-like blood began to flow from her orifices when, with another strike, Cely's Nascent Soul broke the Golden Core, and purer, more condensed power began to radiate throughout her dantian.
The power that radiated out began to dissolve the remnants of the Golden Core, fusing it into her Nascent Soul and stabilizing Cely's cultivation.
The process after the shattering of the core, though described quickly, actually took over a day. All the while, Aria watched on with interest. She could tell her mother was fine, and even that she seemed to be getting better by the second, so she wasn't worried.
Even if she wasn't worried, subconsciously, a pure radiance began to emit from her body. Shining on Cely and helped her stabilize her cultivation more quickly.
Finally, when the sun began to rise again, Cely opened her eyes. For a moment, a wave of presence was released from her, though it seemed to meld into the background the second after.
Divine Sense.
It is an ability one gains after entering the Soul Tier. The theory behind it is that the user expands their awareness, over which they gain control due to their extremely heightened soul strength, outward like a domain. Within this domain, they can sense anything that does not specifically try to hide from Divine Sense.
This sensing is superior to even the body's senses, unless the path one cultivates focuses on the body.
Divine Sense can also be used to attack, and it massively decreases the initial consumption one needs to construct a domain.
Seeing the world in this way again, Cely smiled. Looking at her daughter, she noted her eager expression.
"You want to eat something?"
Aria started nodding furiously at her mother, who could only giggle and ruffle her daughter's hair.
Taking out the meat of some boar monster, Cely began to cut away the fat. After thoroughly coating the meat with some spices and salt, before dipping them in scrambled egg. After thoroughly coating them in flour, she threw the fat she had cut away into a pan.
Carefully, she controlled the heat of the campfire and her energy to completely dissolve the fat before throwing in the marinated meat. It didn't take long before, under her masterful cooking, it was done frying.
Plating it with some potato-like plants she had been boiling in the background and some garnish, Cely presented it to her daughter, who, of course, watched in unbroken excitement.
"Enjoy. Be sure to eat slowly."
Not listening at all and just nodding her head to agree, Aria dug into the dish with fervor. Enjoying the food until suddenly, she stopped, as her cultivation had pretty much automatically broken through to the second stage of Light Gathering.
That didn't stop her for long, though, before she continued digging in.
Cely watched this with an unbroken smile.
'If only you could be here too, Nick. I know you would love her just like I do.'