"Will you accept healing, Kalima?" Pef asked in a soft voice, as if speaking to the air.

"That is not healing!" the Goddess answered with a gust of wind, still invisible.

'How is she doing this? I can't even sense her presence!' Pef wondered inward, but the glove had no answer this time.

Instead, it was the seed of the World Tree who bothered to answer, possibly woken up by all the commotion with Xie. 'Kalima has merged with this realm. You may say she is everywhere.'

Pef rose an eyebrow. 'I am stronger than her. Why can't I do the same? Or even find her...'

'Why can't the Taotie cook? That monster has never bothered to learn, since he eats his prey raw.' the World Tree replied in a dismissive tone, then curled into its seed once more, and fell asleep.

Pef sighed and glanced at Vela, who was still holding Xie in her arms.

"She has reached the peak of Tier 6. Perhaps you should let Lia continue that seal integration..." Vela sent into his mind.

"Then it will not be our Xie that returns from the other side. As powerful as that tulpa might be, it is not a human. No, we will do the unexpected here." Pef decided with a frown.

Since Xie was able to create a self already, why not more? It was clear that cultivation had a myriad of paths to develop, just like attaining a Domain earlier than Tyrant realm was sometimes possible.

Pef himself had two selves in Tier 5 as well, although his second self was a stored copy in his glove. But the method wasn't that important.

Thinking fast, Pef separated two selves of his own, then delegated each of them to dedicate towards cultivating Light and Dark elements, and transferred them to the glove.

Then he approached Xie and patted her purple hair, and made her vanish into the glove pocket as well. They did have that mountain Artifact, and what better place to explore the next elements?

Vela smiled at her husband, then offer him a hug. "You found a way?" she asked in a hopeful voice.

"Nothing is certain, my love. However, Xie is strong enough. She just needs balance." Pef offered in a mysterious manner, then began moving towards the Unreal River, still holding Vela in his arms.

"Oh no! This is not a pool, idiot!" Vela shouted in fear.

"Think of it as pool, made of acid. Only it is an abstract acid, dissolving anything not true. Formations are by definition mere abstract shapes, given form by our imagination, then made real by willpower. But, you have seen that Tao Seal, withstand the Unreal without a care." Pef explained as he submerged into the raging torrents of unreality. while shaping his Formations to cover Vela as well.

He did need the extra motivation, since keeping the Elf Goddess safe would be even more difficult. Vela might not last a single second if his Formations failed too fast, before another one could replace the broken one before.

With a splash, Lia landed beside them, covered in a immutable Formation, as if mocking Pef constant failures.

"Taking a pleasure bath?" Pef asked curious with an envious glance towards the Tao Seal.

"Polishing, it says. Plus it should make me stronger as well. My Oracle skill fails to compute any odds in this river." Lia explained with a tiny shrug.

Pef nodded and sat himself comfortably, with Vela in his arms. 'Polishing, huh?'

'Repairing, most likely. Otherwise, it would take me only a few years to break that seal.' the glove said in a grand voice, full of confidence.

Pef had learned not to argue with the glove. It may even be true, as the glove was able to evolve itself at a faster pace than he could.

'I need to grow stronger too.' Vela murmured inward. Although the red-cloud eye meal had indeed brought her to the peak of Tier 7, the last step wasn't easy. In fact it may be even harder, because she lacked the prerequisite experiences of cultivating to this realm. Not everyone could be so lucky as Lia.

------------

Far in a hidden corner of the Mirror Realm, Lady Zara sat on a top of a mountain overlooking the Icefire Sect.

She was invisible and undetectable by the lower realm cultivators below, and not even their Divine Founder could notice her if she didn't allow it.

Inside her dantian, the Nether Lotus meditated as well, mostly on the nature of Yang energy.

As a being of pure Yin, the Nether Lotus was by definition antithetical to anything Yang, yet...they had a clue how to cultivate, left behind by her Master in the stone scriptures of the Icefire halls. To Ascend further, one had to comprehend the opposite aspect of their innate qi. It was hard, but it had to be done.

Zara had four Shadow Clones now, each practicing different elements, and each growing in a separate direction.

'I should take up a hobby. Maybe learn the sword properly? Or the saber?' she mused inward, as her eyes fell on the Saber Saint, who was secretly training in a back garden.

'Ask a mere Saint to teach you?' the Nether Lotus answered with a tiny laugh.

'Exactly! Pef has never entered even Monarch Realm as long as he was here. He just stepped directly in Tier 5.' the woman exclaimed with an inner joy.

'Send a clone, if you really want this. There are still a few Icefire sprites among their Elders. Those will see through any disguise if you still carry me inside your dantian.' the Nether Lotus advised her with a warning tone.

Zara nodded and began focusing her Skill, slowly birthing a new child-shaped clone. In a few days, she grew the clone to the size of a 5 year old girl.

With a nod towards the primary, the clone vanished and arrived a few kilometers away from the Sect's gate, dressed in a peasant garb .

Looking around, the young girl picked up a sturdy stick, then waved it around. It would do.

She began climbing the mountain, tiring easily due to her lack of cultivation and weak body.

By the time she reached the Sect gate, her garb was frayed and dirty, full of twigs and leaves and even a few spiders.

With the last burst of energy, she smacked the gate with her wooden stick, then fell to her knees, too tired to stand.

"There's someone outside!" a red-haired girl exclaimed as she heard the noise.

"Maybe an animal? I can't sense any qi at the gate." her brother argued as he focused again on his stone tablet containing the Outer Sect teachings.

"I'm still going to check." the Outer disciple said confidently, then climbed the stairs to the top of the wall.

"Well?" her brother shouted after a minute.

"It's a small child. A mortal!" the red haired girl yelled and jumped down to open the gate.

"Damn it! At least follow protocol and notify an Elder..." her brother muttered as he inserted his meager qi into the blue stone inside the guardhouse.

There might be a trap or ambush, with that child as bait. Not likely, with so many Saints and even a Divine Master in the Sect, but you never knew, right?

A minute later, an Outer Sect Elder arrived at the gate, and saw the young disciple carry a dirty child into the Sect.

"You realize you have just admitted a new disciple like this? And without a proper test." he admonished the red-haired girl.

The disciple bowed towards the Elder. "She did climb the mountain by herself. I think that makes a first test passed, right?" she answered in a calm voice.

"Take her to the Medicine Hall, for now. She might not even live until tomorrow." the Outer Sect Elder spoke with a cold voice, then rose to the sky and flew away.

The child didn't die.