Yin & Yang Pleasures of Cultivation

Between Darcel and Yasami, there were no words. 

Yasami was in silent amazement while Darcel smirked, knowing precisely why she was so amazed.

The main reason why this is considered a hard tier mission is because of the swarm of Ice demons waiting underground for any unsuspecting humans. 

And while their prowess was low, these Ice demons are reported to have powerful, tough bodies.

So powerful that even sixth rank Innate Core warriors have trouble killing a single one of those fifth rank Ice demons. 

The only saving grace about the mission was the fact it was also reported you need to be within a specific range for the Ice demon to come out.

It didn't matter if one was walking or flying; once human flesh crossed that area, all Ice demons would instantly swarm that unlucky cultivator. 

However, the downside to this was the fact that Innate Core cultivators need to walk up close to the tree to gain its treasures.

Innate Qi, which can usually pull anything into its grasp, didn't work at all on these Ice seeds. And supposedly, one would need to use their pure physical strength to rip off the ice seeds.

But of course, this wasn't a problem for Aniela's telekinesis. She was able to easily bypass the unique defense the ice seeds may have. 

Though Darcel wasn't worried at all from getting swarmed by Ice demons, it was still busy work he didn't really want to bother to do.

Even someone as battle-hungry as him didn't want to drone on and mindlessly kill beasts without any sort of challenge. 

"Fuuu! You two are always full of surprises, eh? At least we can get back to town quickly now." Yasami got over her slight awe and was already losing interest in the crystal tree since they got what they needed. 

"Mnh! You know, besides those slight interruptions from the silver eyesores, this was a nice morning walk!" Aniela stated while stretching out her fingers.

Admittedly Yasami had to agree with Aniela's remark, finding that she very much enjoyed every second that they walked towards their mission. 

The girls were ready to leave; however, Darcel had yet to move.

His eyes curiously stared at the tree, and right then, Darcel told the girls, "Let's not be so hasty to leave now. Look. Seems like whatever is up or inside the tree isn't too peachy on us causally plucking its seed."

Aniela and Yasami instantly whipped their heads back around to the crystal tree. Their eyes widened a bit at sudden changes occurring within the tree. 

Just like Darcel pointed out, the crystal tree had actually begun to violently quake as if it had some sort of consciousness.

"Hm? Oh?! You guys feel that?!" 

Aniela blurted out her shock when a powerful aura began to burst for miles from the crystal tree!

Even though Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami were at least dozens of meters away from the crystal tree vicinity, the tree's powerful aura still managed to wash over them.

"Certainly shocking, to say the least. But nothing really that much worth of concern." Yasami had quickly gotten over her shock as the burst of sudden aura couldn't affect her, Darcel, and Aniela at all. 

They roughly equated the aura to the prowess of a seventh rank Innate Core powerhouse. 

Still, the trio was curious to see what was going to come out of the crystal tree. They remained rooted in their spot, and promptly then, none of them had to wait long for the crystal tree to blast out their entertainment. 

"KWAU!!!" 

A ferociously booming monstrous roar blared out from the crystal tree!

Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami never heard a creature with quite the strange roar such as this one. It resembles nothing like any other past Spirit Monsters they ever fought before.

Suddenly then, after the booming roar blasted into Darcel's group eardrums, two colossal figures rushed out from the branches of the crystal tree!

Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami saw two massive creatures made up entirely of ice, having a frightening appearance. 

Their physiques were similar to humans yet had more monstrous proportions that gave them such a terrifying look. 

Such as their creepy long sharp, ice nails, disgustingly long ferocious ice teeth, and a gross face nobody would want to stare at for a second longer. 

These creatures were specifically the Ice Demons!

For any other group cultivators, even if they were all at the eighth rank of the Innate Core realm, their wits would've been frozen as soon as these creatures appeared. 

Mainly because both these Ice Demons were at the seventh rank of the Innate Core realm!

The Ice Demons' speed was lightning-like. In just a mere second, the Ice Demons already crossed out of the crystal tree vicinity and were halfway near Darcel's group. 

If the trio were a standard group of cultivators, they wouldn't even be able to outrun the Ice demons.

However, despite bearing the full brunt of their tremendous auras, Darcel and Yasami simultaneously snorted. 

"Hoh, and here I thought it would be at least something interesting." 

Darcel mockingly spoke and had then activated his Yang Spiritual state, unleashing his powerful bloodline powers!

A hypnotic Darkness glow shrouded his bloodline arm as his exotic tattoo markings instantly formed. Darcel immediately surged his overwhelming aura to the Ice Demon, making their eyes burst open.

"Heh, at least we're getting some target practice in." 

At the same time Darcel unleashed his powers, Yasami as well donned her powerful blue fire fox cloak aura.

Yasami's two blue fire fox tails crazily swirled behind her, dramatically increasing his power to a level that neared Darcel's overwhelming bloodline powers!

Just like Darcel, Yasami surged her overwhelming aura to crush down on the two Ice Demons. 

And when Yasami's tremendous power combined with Darcel, the two Ice Demons felt as if their world were shattered to bits and pieces.

The Ice Demons were locked in place in midair. Neither could move under the combined overwhelming might of Darcel and Yasami. 

They were powerful creatures holding prowess that can wipe groups of seventh rank warriors with ease! Yet now, they were nothing but mere ants under Darcel and Yasami's powers. 

"Ok! Now that we got them right where we want them. What should we do with these demons?" Aniela asked as her eyes took in the Ice Demons' peculiar appearance.

Since Darcel and Yasami had already cleanly handled the situation, Aniela felt no need to bring out her bloodline powers. 

That would only be an unnecessary overkill then.

"You know….I'm tempted to just cripple these Demons and inspect if they, too, would have a Core we could potentially use. Buut….I'm not in a particular mood to risk activating that crystal tree trap. Let's just wipe them off Yasami."

Darcel told the girls after a second of thinking. Though he had explicitly waited for the crystal tree to unleash the Ice Demons on them, Darcel expected a bit of a more formidable challenge. 

But since it's only this, Darcel finally saw no reason to continue staying here.

"Mnh, if you say so. I wouldn't actually mind killing swarms of Ice Demons. But I am enjoying our walk together. Alright! Let's end this." Yasami agreed with Darcel, and they both began to move.

Darcel and Yasami simply pointed their fingers out to the frozen Ice Demon, gathering a mass of powers at their fingertips. 

Instantly, a swirl of raging black flames formed on Darcel's fingertip. While Yasami gained a swirl of sizzling blue flames on her fingertip.

"Now!"

Simultaneously both Darcel and Yasami shouted and blasted out a massive beam of their powerful flames from their fingertips! 

All the Ice Demons could do is look on in utter despair as two beams of black and blue flames crazily blitz towards them.

Darcel and Yasami's flame's attacks crossed the distance in a split second, tearing right through the Ice Demons, instantly vaporizing them to small specks of ashes spewing in the air.

"Oh? Look! Your-eh?!" 

Aniela was about to point out that Darcel and Yasami flames attack might accidentally burn a part of the crystal tree. 

But not only her eyes widened, Darcel and Yasami found shock plastering their faces when their attacks reached the crystal tree.

Because it wasn't their bodies specifically crossing over in the crystal tree vicinity, they don't have to worry about the swarms of Ice Demons activating. 

But when Darcel and Yasami's fire beams neared an inch from the crystal Ice tree, their fire beams abruptly stopped.

And right when their fire beams stopped, the beams just up and vanished into thin air! There wasn't any trace of power being emitted, yet their attacks were so easily dealt with!

"Hoh? So the tree offensive capabilities can't harm us. But we too, can't directly harm the tree. Interesting indeed." 

Darcel remarked as the crystal tree went back to being still and serene.

"Oooh~, definitely this is another area worthy of checking out when we grow stronger. Thinking about it, those lists of places are growing quite large….but hey! We can now officially get back to town."

Aniela said out loud, getting Yasami curious about that list of areas they were going to return to. 

But it was a question for another time. 

Yasami already began turning on her heels once again, telling Darcel and Aniela, "Let's go then. Seems like the crystal tree won't bother acting up again. No point in seeing if it would do so another time." 

For a brief moment, Darcel trailed or at least tried to trail his eyes all the way up the tree.

He was unsuccessful, though, as the tree height pierced deep into the sky. 

Darcel shook his head, getting the crystal tree out of his mind, deciding to investigate for a later date. And with that, he began walking with the girls back to town at their usual relaxed pace.

….

It didn't take long before Darcel's group made it back on the road leading to Mawold Town. They were enjoyably chatting it up on their way back here, feeling fulfilled over a mission well done.

However, things started to change when Darcel's group made it on the main road for Mawold Town. 

The trio all stopped, and their eyes curiously watched as a surprising abundance of people were all quickly shifting into town.

Considering the fact that during the course of their two-day stay in the town, neither Darcel, Aniela, nor Yasami saw such a jam pack crowd going into town. This was too odd to just ignore.

The crowds of people here even surpassed the number of people they saw regularly walking around in Mawold Town.

"Most obviously, some unique event is going on around here. The question is, should we follow them or get back to the Fang's place?" Yasami proposed to Darcel and Aniela.

Aniela only took a second to think about it before responding with, "We already did our mission so fast. Soo, let's just enjoy the rest of our day. And whatever going on could be fun!"

Yasami thought about it for a second as well before quickly nodding to Aniela's suggestion. 

Darcel had then spoken up, telling the girls, "When we get into town, make sure you girls have your senses ready. Though we are going to mask our presence, it'll still help if any one of those silver eyesores luckily manages to spot us."

"Hmph, if they know what's good for them, they would stop bothering with us." Yasami chortled and began flowing her Qi to suppress her cultivation and mask her presence.

"Hehe~, if they did that, then where would we get a great source of entertainment?" Aniela giggled out and also began flowing her Qi to mask her presence.

It only took a second for Darcel, Aniela, and Yasami to mask their presence. 

Once they were in their virtually undetectable state, the trio walked towards the crowds of people, blending perfectly in as they enter the now bustling Mawold Town.