Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

After they were done, the group split off when they got outside of the infirmary. Standing by the doors, the two juniors had their heads down in gratitude. 

Xuan Yin gave her friend a look and a smile. 

"I have to go into closed-door cultivation! With what we harvested from the Nuwa Clan, I might be able to get past my little slump."

She waved goodbye, calling her falcon to her and leaving. 

Ming Yue had similar thoughts, she'd been pushing it off for a while but it was time for her to break through. 

"Come on, you two, let's clean ourselves up before we start. The smell from the Primeval Forest isn't exactly gone."

The two beasts happily followed her for that sickly sweetness clung to their bodies.. A good bath would do them all well and it did, washing away the fatigue. By the time, they were all in their room, Hei Yie and Xiao Yin were fast asleep, able to relax their noses. 

On the other hand, Ming Yue took something out from her spatial ring, a single berry covered with gold and white swirls. A more earthy and bitter smell came from it as she held it in the palm of her hand. 

"A Nascent Soul Berry at about the thousand-year mark... A Rank 7 at the highest level."

She moved the berry around her hand, looking at it with a bit of wonder. The highest-ranked medicinal treasure was Rank 5 and now she had a Rank 7 right before her. 

"Not only can this berry heal a person's mind and soul, but it will also nourish them both. If I use this to break through, my soul will become that much stronger. I won't just complete the shell, I'll make it as thick as possible!" 

With that in mind, she ate the berry and sat in position, circulating her energy. Within seconds, the Nascent Soul Berry slowly broke away into a stream of energy, slow and calm. Guiding it through her body, she sent it towards her soul and her mental force, splitting them in half. 

And in mere seconds, the shell of power surrounding her soul had been completed. Within, the island that was brimming with life suddenly expanded into an entire world. But she wasn't finished just yet. 

With the shell complete, she began to build up upon it, making it thicker. Just a few millimeters more took a third of berry's energy. But just those few millimeters created a wealth of difference for the small world within her core flourished and grew. 

And the remaining half of the berries energy had gone into strengthening her mind, expanding the pool of Mental Force that she had. 

The entire process was smooth and went by without a hitch. 

With the shell of energy surrounding her soul completed, she was at the Boundary Stage. And by thickening the shell and nourishing her mind, attacks on her consciousness would become that much more difficult. Illusions would be easier to break through and her own mental attacks would be stronger. 

But this was the side benefit to the real advantage of breaking through. The point of the Soul Stage was to strengthen one's mentality with the previous stages about strengthening other aspects of her body. In this way, she was preparing herself for the Boundary Stage and for the Sky Realm. 

And now that she was in the Boundary Stage, things had begun to change. It was like breaking through the Sight and Perception Stage again. Her body seemed to become even more sensitive to everything around her. 

Ming Yue opened her eyes and looked around, slowly taking in her room. After a few moments, she stood up and left, walking to the lakeshore where the sun was rising. 

"Is this what it feels like? To be this close to the Sky Realm?" she wondered. 

Her eyes wandered everywhere. Before she could see and feel all of the energy around here, the various forces at work from air to wind to water, the world itself. Now it was as if she understood it, something that couldn't be explained. 

Suddenly, she knew where the energy would go, what it would do. Her comprehension skills grew and her understanding of the worldly laws grew as well. 

There were rules in place, patterns for everything, Ming Yue knew it but she couldn't put it into words. Stepping right up to the edge of the lake, the young woman knelt down and dipped her hand into the water. The surface rippled and she watched the rings spread out. 

She moved her hand, studying the movements of the water. The rippling continued until her hand stopped and began to move differently. Suddenly, the surface of the water no longer rippled even as she continued to shift her hand from one place to another. 

To any ordinary person, it would seem strange, magical even. But to her, she was just counteracting the ripples caused by her earlier movement. In other words, she had complete control. 

But the changes would become much more apparent in her spars with the soldiers. 

"Ah, I surrender. Thank you for teaching me."

"I surrender." 

"I surrender." 

All of the soldiers that sparred with her ended up repeating those words. But unlike the helpless looks from before, they had rather excited ones. In the next spar, a young soldier wielded her sword, pointing it at Ming Yue, who fought with only her hands. 

She didn't even have her Boltwind Nails or Zephyr Claws, it was just her hands. 

The soldier did not move forward or move back, she held her sword tightly. But there was a bit of uncertainty in her eyes. 

"We can begin", said Ming Yue. 

She waited patiently before her opponent took a deep breath and struck out, attacking with a lunge. Ming Yue parried the strike, knocking it away with the back of her hand but she didn't end the fight. Instead, she let it continue, allowing the soldier to attack more and more. 

She didn't just dodge or parry but guided the blade around, taking full control over the rhythm of the fight. After one hundred moves, the soldier stopped, looking at her sword before bowing to Ming Yue. 

"Thank you for teaching!"

Ming Yue smiled and nodded before waiting for the next. From just the first look, she knew where the soldier would go, predicting their attacks right before they come and then correcting them.

After a hundred moves, they would all instinctively understand their rhythm. Even if they couldn't put it to words, it would have felt like they've been enlightened. 

And at the end of the day, she began practicing with her dagger, using each technique over and over again. And each time, it would be improved either in executing the skill or using it, there was always something to improve. 

And when it came to her swordplay, she began to create patterns upon patterns, chaining different attacks together. But the rhythm was always different, from fast to slow, and yet there was a pattern there. Safe to say, the level of complexity within her swordplay had gone to another level. And this was just ordinary attacks: thrusts, slashes, swings, and more. 

It was as if a whole new world had been revealed to her. 

And she was just taking her first steps. 

After all, from the Boundary Stage to the Sky Realm, such a crossing was simple. All they had to do was pass through the Heaven's Tribulation, to just calmly sit and wait for it to come. But all of this depended on the person, whether they thought it was the right time to do so or not. If they understand enough of the world to reach the skies and challenge the Heavens. 

That was what Ming Yue had to do before she could become a Sky Realm expert.