"To think that this whole time you were Bai Fulong… I never suspected you !"

Shin Sumi was glad that Xiao Yue wasn’t angry at her. After explaining the entire story to her, how she also became Yan Yan and then Bai Fulong, Xiao Yue’s furrowed brows relaxed and her crossed arms fell to her side.

She looked much more amazed than mad, impressed by Shin Sumi's journey through the trial.

Because of the threat posed by Elder Zhu on one side and Chu Erlong on the other, Shin Sumi had not wanted to risk danger for her and her friends.

Xiao Yue gasped and cursed when Shin Sumi told her about what had happened to Lan Hui just because Chu Erlong knew how close they were.

"I wonder where he is now… Well as long as he stays with Bai Xuengen far away from Chu Erlong, they should be fine."

Xiao Yue vigorously shook her head.

"No, I think you’re wrong. Even before you were like suuuper strong and now you’re in the Liquid Realm. From here on out that stupid b*tch will definitely stay away from you and the people you value."

Xiao Yue’s harsh words were deadlier than steel. Shin Sumi almost broke out in laughter and had to resist the urge to hold her sister against her.

"I’ve missed you, Yue" she said softly instead.

Xiao Yue grinned and blushed a little bit, waving away at her.

The two girls were leisurely walking along the path to the next arena, Xiao Yue often spacing out while taking in the long story that Shin Sumi had brought her. On her side, Shin Sumi was reflecting upon herself and her new level of cultivation.

Telling her story, Shin Sumi had purposefully omitted the little nut and the Copper Bell. Somehow she felt that this kind of thing was completely out of the norm. She didn’t mind telling Xiao Yue about them, but they were still in the Rising Star Tournament dimension, where Elders could watch anything at any time.

Now that Shin Sumi was on another level, she could feel divine senses on her, the sort that didn’t belong to people physically close. The Elders obviously had a way of spying on them from outside the dimension.

Because of people like Elder Zhu, Shin Sumi could not reveal her secrets, even to Xiao Yue. Only the things that the administration of the Dark Sky Starry Sect ought to know, like the fact that she had the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword and that she had refined it in the five Veins of Hell Fire.

However, now that Shin Sumi was in the Liquid Realm and acknowledged as the first of the Tournament to reach the next step in cultivation, she finally felt like she could openly speak about Elder Zhu.

If other Elders found out about his actions, now that was his problem. Knowing that the Elder was in the latter stages of the Liquid Realm, even if it was an entire realm above her, Shin Sumi still felt much more confident.

Not that she would fight him, she wasn’t suicidal. But at least she wasn’t in danger anymore.

Elders were paying attention to her and if anything happened to a talented disciple like her, Zhu Yunhai would definitely pay the price.

"Oh, right !" Shin Sumi’s eyes suddenly lit up, "Yue I have something for you !"

Uh ? Xiao Yue was perplexed. What could it be ?

"A while ago, I tried refining the Liquid Pellet. My goal was to kill the poison inside it and use it on myself, but I had no way of knowing if the refining process had worked or not. In the end I did not need it because of the Veins of Hell Fire, but now that I’ve reached the next step I can sense things better. The refinement was a success !"

Xiao Yue could not believe her ears. Had she heard right ?!

"I know these things are pretty valuable, and I am no apothecary but I think the success rate of breaking through with it should be around sixty to seventy percent."

Pretty valuable ?! Liquid Pellets could fetch a price above several hundred spirit stones in the market of the lower valley ! And that was only for random pellets not above a thirty percent success rate !

What Shin Sumi was giving to Xiao Yue was priceless !

A bit in a daze, Xiao Yue held the pill in her hand for a while before remembering to put it away.

Xiao Yue once more jumped into her friend’s arms, almost making her fall to the ground. Xiao Yue wasn’t fond of using outside help in cultivation, but it was different coming from Shin Sumi.

She was so anxious to use the pellet to break through and join her sister in the Liquid Realm, but she was forced to wait. Because of the laws in place she felt that a breakthrough was impossible for now. Only Shin Sumi who had opened the Sixty-Four Shinsoo Doors could ignore the Star Zheng’s rules and break reality like she did.

Xiao Yue would have to go through the trials of the monolith, along the path to the top of the mountain.

"We’ve reached the next arena, I will wait for you outside," Shin Sumi said casually, while Xiao Yue readied herself and her Black Devil Spear.

Because Shin Sumi was in the Liquid Realm, she was almost considered out of the Rising Star Tournament already and she could now walk through the Shinsoo barriers along the mountain like they were made of smoke.

The only reason she stayed for now was to ensure Xiao Yue’s safety, and act as a Dao Protector for her when she reached the top and attempted a breakthrough.

Sitting cross-legged, Shin Sumi spread out her divine sense to make sure that nobody was even close to her.

Since she had not done it for a long time, Shin Sumi decided to clean a little bit of the insides of her bag of holding, assessing an inventory of everything she had.

Soon, a single thought was all it took for a scroll to appear in her small pale hands.

"The parchment I took from the worm in the underground maze" she recalled.

The nut had been the one to force her to plunge her hands into the entrails of the slain spirit creature. There she had found the moon crescent blade, wrapped in a blood soaked scroll.

"Uh? Why is it still there?"

For some reason, unlike all the other magical writings Shin Sumi had come across, this particular one had not been stolen by the little grey nut. Not yet at least.

Inscribed on the scroll was a cultivation technique for the Liquid Realm. It was something fundamentally impossible to comprehend while in the Shinsoo Gathering Realm.

Now that Shin Sumi could read it, she had a feeling that things had changed.

As soon as her eyes set on the old wrinkly surface, the little nut materialized on her wrist. The leaf pattern on her skin glowed dimly for a second, the sign that the nut was out of her body.

Following the movement of her eyes on the characters, the nut rolled all along the paper, stealing the writings.

Shin Sumi smiled. She could hardly contain her excitement.

"I already have a cultivation technique for the Liquid Realm ! Moon Severing Ephemeral Shadow, even the name sounds amazing. I bet the nut will make it even better !

To harness the power of a shadow, now that is something coming from the Immortal World ! »

Over the course of the next few hours, Shin Sumi accompanied Xiao Yue along her trials, always waiting outside for her friend to surpass whatever challenge was coming her way.

Because the both of them were already in the lead position along the path, the adversaries were no longer disciples but rather illusions created by the monolith. Powerful foes that could compare with yellow robes in power but lacked determination and personality.

While Xiao Yue was fighting, Shin Sumi was reflecting on her power and the changes it had brought along with her breakthrough. The parchment for the new cultivation technique was still being refined by the nut and that was the only thing Shin Sumi could do while waiting.

In her arsenal of magical artefacts and treasures, the only obvious change came from the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword.

Taking out the weapon, Shin Sumi was lost in deep thoughts.

In her hand was the handle that she herself had carved out of the spine of a Stone Leaf Tortoise. After many refining processes, the handle had changed drastically and thin golden lines had appeared along its length.

The rough piece of bone clumsily pierced to arrange for the fitting of the blade had slowly morphed into a grip made perfectly for her hand.

The change had been gradual and had happened over the course of many months of trial and many more fights for survival.

But now after the fifth Vein of Hell Fire, the change was so drastic that Shin Sumi was speechless.

The Gold Tyrant Flying Sword was missing its blade.

"I can feel the blade but it’s not there" was the simplest way to resume Shin Sumi’s complex thinking.

The vibrating metal was gone, only Shin Sumi’s divine sense could feel it but her eyes could not.

"I can hardly call it the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword… It’s not even a sword anymore !"

The golden blade was gone and yet the weapon thrummed with greater power.

Opening her fingers, Shin Sumi sent a simple thought through her link to the sword. With no delay the artefact slowly rose into the air, following her every order.

Twisting and spinning, the sword revolved around her, the ‘Flying Sword’ part of the name suddenly meaningful.

Shin Sumi slashed the air with two of her fingers in the general direction of a nearby boulder. The golden arc followed as fast as lightning, cleaving the rock with the tiniest sound.

Shin Sumi opened her eyes in full and her jaw hit the floor.

"Un-unbelievable … !"

After the white crane carried Shin Sumi to the last Vein, she had found herself unable to use it, an orb made of Shinsoo forming a barrier out of nowhere around the weapon.

It had led to much more trouble during the fight against Jun Qian and Chu Erlong, to the point where her life could have been in great danger, had Xiao Yue not arrived.

Of course, Shin Sumi suspected rightfully that it had all been part of the plan of the mysterious white crane.

After her breakthrough though, the Shinsoo threads around the blade had dissipated, revealing the new Gold Tyrant Flying Sword, missing its length.

"Maybe I can go see Elder Xi or Senior Brother Fen after the tournament. They will know what is going on, especially Senior Brother Fen since he was the previous owner."

But a realization dawned on her this instant.

"Wait, he gave the sword to Yan Yan ! Can I even still turn into her ?!!"

She had not yet tested the Copper Bell. What if Shin Sumi had become too strong for the little bell’s powers and they were not sufficient to change her cultivation and appearance ?

Shin Sumi rang the small bell while fumbling around for a Confusion Pill to trigger the transformation when her hand stopped.

Right there in front of her face, the pale skinned hand was morphing !

Without needing the Confusion Pill, Shin Sumi had already transformed into Yan Yan, taking less than a breath of time to do so.

Shin Sumi’s wish for experiments brought her back to the time where she spent her days in the dark chasm in the sect’s training grounds.

"Now that’s an interesting result. I wonder if I can-" but the fire ignited in her was cut short by the glowing of the monolith.

Xiao Yue appeared, breathing heavily but a content smile on her face. She froze for a split second at the sight of the unfamiliar face before letting out a relieved breath.

"Sumi don’t scare me like that ! Why are you looking like Yan Yan ?!"

Shin Sumi explained that she just wanted to see how her switch in identity was affected by her breakthrough. She had not yet told Xiao Yue about the Copper Bell, not having found a good explanation as to how she could have found it.

Seemingly convinced by the answer, Xiao Yue didn't probe any further. She was getting excited, her Shinsoo levels already full to the brim since quite a long time.

"Only a few arenas left I think!"

The two girls had already gone through a lot of them, and that was without counting all the ones they had skipped due to the actions of the white crane.

Similarly, other disciples had been watched by the white crane, like for example Tai Bu, Sui Lin and Fu Xue. But the mysterious plan of the sentient bird didn't involve putting them in Shin Sumi and Xiao Yue's way.

A full week after she had crossed the last mountain range, entering the fifth and last ring of the floating continent, Shin Sumi arrived with Xiao Yue at the top of the mountain.

From the biggest spirit formation she had ever seen, centered at the very top of the continent, rose an enormous pillar of yellow light.

It had been that same pillar that guided all the disciples ever since they had first reached the floating continent.

Because she was previously so far away and since it was basking in brilliant yellow light, Shin Sumi didn't know that the uppermost part of the mountain was visible from almost everywhere on the landmass.

In concentric rows were first the mountain path, snaking around the entire domain with plazas adorned with grey monoliths.

After that came the yellow and orange desert, pierced only by the gigantic rock formations.

Next was the underground circle, which turned out to be even deeper in the ground than Shin Sumi had thought and formed a massive basin full of what could only be water, shining under the sunless red sky.

Then came a plain of pure white and blue, the Icy Tundra of the second domain.

Even at her level of power, which made her sight ten times better than before, Shin Sumi only discerned a little bit of green here and there from the last ring.

Thousands of kilometers away from where they were standing, the end of the continent was invisible, even to the eyes of a Liquid Realm cultivator.

"Can you see all the way to the start?" asked Xiao Yue, whose sight was limited to a few hundred kilometers.

This was what it meant to reach a superior Realm of cultivation. Every single aspect of the human body was refined in incredible ways. Like how a blacksmith turned a piece of metal into the best of weapons, cultivation was the way for humans and beasts to reach new levels of power.

To rise.

"Rising Star Tournament. So we really were the stars" Shin Sumi spoke in a low voice.

"Uh?" Xiao Yue had heard but not understood her sister's words.

"Oh it was nothing, don't worry. Are you ready to start the process?"

Of course Shin Sumi was talking about breaking through to the Liquid Realm. Even with one of the most beautiful sights that ever entered her eyes, all Xiao Yue could think about was the feeling in her guts, telling her that it was finally the time.

On the top of the mountain, under the yellow pillar of light, the restrictions on breaking through were finally lifted. In fact Xiao Yue even felt a sense of rejection from the pillar, as if it was reluctant to let her come close unless she first reached the Liquid Realm.

All was made to ensure that the best of the best could leave the trial first. And although the best of the best was Shin Sumi, she first wanted to act as a Dao Protector for Xiao Yue.

Sitting down behind her, in the same cross-legged position, Shin Sumi spread out her divine sense, wrapping the entire top half of the mountain with her perception.

It was truly like being omniscient, every blade of grass, every fly, every rock a part of her spiritual awareness.

Concentrating on her breathing first, calming the surging emotions within her, Xiao Yue took out the Liquid Pellet when she was ready.

Trusting Shin Sumi a hundred percent with regards to the purification of the poison that the pill had once contained, Xiao Yue popped it in her mouth with no hesitation.

With her divine sense, Shin Sumi could feel the energy inside Xiao Yue. Because she had practiced cultivation according to the Shinsoo Gathering Manual given by the sect and not the refined version, Xiao Yue had not yet opened her Shinsoo Doors.

It was this way for regular cultivation, Shin Sumi being an exception in the sense that she had refined her Shinsoo over and over by opening the doors and delaying her breakthrough until she was in the great circle of Shinsoo Gathering.

By using the Yin Aperture Shinsoo Awakening method though, Xiao Yue had already prepared her meridians for the breakthrough. That at least ensured that she opened at least ten Shinsoo Doors.

With the power of the high grade Liquid Pellet and her own energy, Xiao Yue launched the assault on the first Shinsoo Doors. As long as she opened one, her breakthrough would be a success.

The only thing that mattered now was how many she could open before running out of energy and before the plasma cloud in her dantian condensed into a liquid drop of Shinsoo.

Shin Sumi surveyed the entire process, making sure nothing went awry, ready to act if she sensed the slight disturbance in her sister’s Shinsoo flow, when a strong divine sense entered her thoughts.

"You need to leave the tournament now. The orange girl will be okay but you have to leave, all preparations have already been completed outside. "

From the aura of the divine sense, Shin Sumi could not tell who had spoken to her exactly as well as the cultivation level of the anonymous speaker.

One thing was certain though, the male voice was infinitely stronger than her and there was no way of impeding the teleportation process that was already starting under her feet where an invisible spirit formation had sprung up to life.