Looking at the six clusters of stardust, each brimming with magic to the brim and whose stars were enhanced by souls, I couldn't help but rejoice.
Three years of hard work. Twelve hours on Cultivation, six hours of sleep, and the remaining time spent either gathering resources or hunting one-eyed rats, DAILY. Sometimes school squeezed into the schedule, where I frankly relaxed.
I'm the kind of person who doesn't get pleasure from the process of achieving a goal. Take my first life, without any magic. I liked having a beautiful, toned body without excess fat. Not for anyone else, no. Just for the thrill of waking up calmly in the morning without wanting to lie in longer. For the convenience in daily life, when you can lift a heavy thing and walk on calmly. For the lack of shortness of breath climbing to a high floor. And simply for the feeling of a healthy body without pains, which, as you know, won't let you down.
But what I hated was the path to such a body. Damn diets, eating a couple of meager meals a day while walking around angry at the whole world the rest of the time. Damn pains after the gym, when in the first days even walking is hard. Damn injuries when you accidentally strain your arm loading too many plates on the barbell. I HATED that. But I endured, because I wanted the result that would follow this nightmare.
The same with magic.
I hate sitting most of the day in the lotus position Cultivating like some xianxia protagonists. I don't get a thrill from an even fight, because in an even fight, I inevitably get injured, and that's painful and unpleasant. But I do all this. For the result. So I can crush my opponent into a bloody puddle without a chance to fight back. So I can have the power to protect the people dear to me. And for the result, I can endure these boring and painful things.
And today, I'm rejoicing because I've reached the first major result in this life! Breakthrough to Intermediate Tier! So no dragging it out, time to move to the next level, leaving most mages in the dust.
"Time Acceleration x4," I applied the fourth step of the beginner level of the time element, starting to absorb the magic energy diffused in the air four times faster.
In normal Cultivation, this is pointless. There's too little ambient magic, and if I absorb it quickly, it'll take time to recover, giving no boost to Cultivation speed—nothing to absorb.
But in magically saturated places like the Holy Spring, there's magic energy to scoop by the bucketful. So here, the trick works. I immediately divert part of the incoming magic to sustain the Time Acceleration spell, or my reserves definitely won't hold for the time needed for the breakthrough.
So, I have seven days, or with acceleration, a full four weeks. Let's begin.
First, direct the magic flow into the ice element stardust. I'll break through there first, as a nod to this body's original element. And for maintaining the disguise, of course.
Two hours real time and eight subjective hours later, the ice element yielded. The main blue star blazed, covering all the stardust with its light and spreading it further.
Expanding its territory sevenfold compared to the original, the light faded, revealing not stardust anymore, but a star cloud with forty-nine starlets, most of which I don't control yet. Without stopping to subdue the stars yet, I redirected the now much thinner energy flow to the space element. My main hidden weapon in this catastrophe.
Since the magic energy flow was much thinner, this breakthrough took a full fourteen real hours and 56 subjective ones. I expected a bit earlier, but the body started building resistance to such a magic flow. Nothing to be done, it's a natural process, and in a few months, I can break through to the next level in other elements just as fast.
After the second breakthrough, the Holy Spring dimmed significantly, barely distinguishable from ordinary water. No surprise. The spring is calibrated for one breakthrough to Intermediate Tier per year. I saved some energy by enhancing stars to the fourth step, but two breakthroughs barely held. I sense it'll take over a year to recover now.
Stopping Cultivation, as it's inefficient now, I pulled the star control pendant from my pocket. I planned to spend all remaining time in the Holy Spring controlling the little troublemakers.
When the armored door began opening four days after I entered, instead of the allotted seven, I sighed wearily. I thought my actions would delay this moment a bit, but so be it.
Fortunately, I subdued the 49 ice element stars four hours ago, and the space element stars obey me as perfectly as in my past life, as expected. Now I was just stabilizing my Cultivation post-breakthrough.
When the armored door finally opened, a cute 23-year-old girl with shoulder-length dark blue hair, brown eyes, in military uniform, and measurements 74-53-76 rushed in...
Damn, spatial perception is back; not sure if I should be glad or embarrassed. After all, I raised my spiritual boundary to the third. The spirit element resources consumed, two breakthroughs in a row, and prior peak second boundary took their toll.
The girl wanted to yell something at me but froze in shock for a couple seconds.
"What did you do to the Holy Spring, kid?!" she expressed her righteous indignation.
"I didn't do anything, just broke through, and it got dim like this. Maybe you guys Cultivated a bit on the sly, and it ran out," I offered a version they'd believe more than a young mage depleting the Holy Spring like that.
"...No time for that! The wolf tribe attacked the city, bringing hordes of rats as backup! The military blockade couldn't hold all the monsters, and some broke into the city!" She dumped the info while activating the Holy Spring's evacuation mechanism. So that's which wall it was in.
The entire volume of spring water began compressing and flowing into a small bottle on a pyramid of cubes that emerged from the stone platform.
"Take the Holy Spring and run. I'll open a secret passage for you," she handed me the glowing bottle and opened a small passage in the wall.
"Along with the monsters, Black Church members attacked the city. The spring's guards repelled the first wave but took heavy losses—I'm the only one left. I'll distract the next wave; you run to the safe zone and deliver the Holy Spring to Commander Zhang Kong. It must not fall into Black Church hands," the girl confessed, ready to sacrifice herself.
"What if I help? If I just run, the threat doesn't vanish. And they might know about the secret passage," I offered my help.
"We intercepted their comms—a Intermediate Tier mage is coming. Don't play hero, get in the passage!" The girl was adamant in her suicidal passion.
"Eee, oop!" I caught the girl who lost consciousness from my spirit element knockout, placed her in the open secret passage, and sealed it.
Now with the lady safe, I can thin the attackers' ranks a bit and go check on the future Parthenon Goddess's safety. Resurrection is very useful; wouldn't want to lose it.