Chapter 43: Breakthrough
"My Space ring!" Maria exclaimed in shock. She then frantically started searching for it.
"I crushed it," Aakesh told her to stop her frantic search.
Maria stopped her search. She then confusedly looked at him and asked, "Why?"
He ignored her and waved his hands. Every content in her ring, except all the body healing and one mental healing pill, appeared in front of her.
Maria looked at the contents in surprise when she found the pills missing. She gratefully looked at Aakesh and thanked him, "Thank you for saving me, store owner!"
"It was not a big deal. I think you can buy a new ring with the wealth you would get from these rings," He responded as he pointed at 101 space rings floating in the air.
"I can't take this many rings," She refused straight away and moved two steps backward. The blood pearl was still stuck in her right hand. She didn't want another 101 space rings.
"Take it! It's your compensation. Either I can make you forget that attack, or I can give you these rings," He responded as Maria stopped in her steps.
"Store owner, I don't want compensation. It all started due to me, so I'm the one at fault here," She shook her head, refusing to take compensation.
"Let me tell you about the blood pearl. It's created from the combination of 100 blood sources from 100 peak nascent soul experts. I have already cleaned any kind of impurity from it so you can eat it without any problem. If you eat it right now, it will help you reach the level of peak Nascent Soul in a single swoop," Aakesh ignored her refusal as always and started explaining about the blood pearl.
A shocked expression appeared on Maria's face after listening to the explanations about the blood pearl. She even forgot about space rings at that moment.
"Directly peak Nascent Soul!" She exclaimed in shock. Her mouth was wide open as she gawked in shock at the tiny blood pearl in her hand.
"Yes, I combined the blood sources to help you get a direct breakthrough to peak Nascent Soul," He expressionlessly responded.
"What is blood source, senior?" Maria asked. She didn't even notice that she called Aakesh senior instead of the usual. Unknown to her, a feeling of reverence started appearing inside her heart.
"It's the source of all power of the cultivator. This source creates the blood that flows in your veins," He answered her.
"Source of all the power!" She exclaimed. Suddenly, an urge to eat the blood pearl emerged in her heart. She tried to control it, but it only got stronger. In the end, she gave in to her urge and put the blood pearl in her mouth.
Aakesh couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment, seeing her giving to her urge rather than controlling it. He had seen various scenes of breakthroughs when his previous customers got breakthroughs on a regular basis, so he wasn't interested. He returned to his chair and sat down, and started thinking of ways to defeat the competitor.
The moment Maria ate the blood pearl, it burst into the pool of blood, resulting in the bloating of her body. Suddenly the next moment, blood started leaking out of several pores in her body. The leaking blood, instead of falling to the ground, started making a blood cocoon surrounding her. Maria watched all of what was happening as she watched a ball made of blood form a cocoon to cover her.
Since she was currently a late Soul Formation expert, her soul didn't have a spiritual form. It was still a ball of light the size of a tennis ball. The blood from the pearl started seeping into the ball of light, making it larger in size.
The color of the ball of light remained unchanged despite the dark red blood seeping into it without stopping. The ball only stopped growing when it reached the size of half of her body. After it stopped growing, the momentum of the blood only got powerful, and instead of only seeping, it started bombarding the ball of light to change its shape.
It only stopped when the shape of the ball of light turned into a newborn baby. The momentum of the blood increased even more. After a few seconds of bombardment, the color of the baby turned from white to the color of Maria. The bay then opened his eyes. That moment, a storm of Qi erupted in the store. Aakesh ignored the Qi storm and focused on visualizing the battle scene.
The Qi storm then started bombarding the cocoon, resulting in the breaking of it. After the cocoon disintegrated, the Qi flowed into Maria's body, resulting in her having a breakthrough. The Qi storm continued until she reached the peak and successfully broke the barrier between the Soul Formation and the Nascent Soul.
The storm then disappeared, but the breakthrough hasn't stopped yet. As soon as the baby opened its eyes, it eagerly inspected the blood surrounding it as if it were some delicacy reserved just for it. The baby opened his mouth and tried to suck the blood. The blood, as if following the baby's command, followed.
In no time, the remaining blood from the blood pearl covered the baby. The baby then absorbed it in its entirety in several moments. After the blood wall disappeared, there were significant changes in the baby. It was as if time flew several months and affected the baby, and it turned into a baby the age of walking.
Maria opened her eyes after the blood got absorbed since the breakthrough had ended. She was now a peak Nascent Soul expert. She became one of the powerhouses of the Bisan Kingdom since the king was only a Void Condensation expert.
She then looked down to check her body, only to see her sitting naked in the store since her clothes got torn after her body bloated. Her face got red as she looked at Aakesh, but she took a relieved sigh the next moment, seeing him not looking at her. This sigh contained a bit of disappointment, as he didn't find her body interesting to look at.
If Aakesh knew Maria's thoughts, he would only respond, "Not worth my time."