169 The Realization of Perseverance

Theresa awoke from her deep meditation. As she opened her eyes, she happened to see a dazzling array of blue, purple, silver, and multicolored electrical arcs scattering everywhere. Some swirled in clusters, while others darted about like turbulent currents, creating a magnificent spectacle in the air. As the electrical discharges continuously released and faded, Theresa felt her mental energy throbbing incessantly, accompanied by a dull ache in her head as if something was about to burst forth from her mind.

Following her instinct, she guided the conflicting energy outward. In an instant, a powerful repulsive force surged from her body, pushing everyone around her back by several meters—granted, this only happened because the others made no deliberate attempt to resist.

"Heh, not bad," Lambert said, being pushed back naturally. After steadying himself, he raised an eyebrow and let out a soft exclamation of surprise.

Flora, standing nearby, nodded vigorously, her expression a mix of surprise and delight. "Oh! Oh! Theresa has actually reached the peak of the first tier so quickly. That is so fast—wait? What is Theresa doing?"

After pushing everyone back, Theresa's mental energy swiftly re-gathered, pulling along several wisps of stray electrical currents from the air. Under the conscious control of her mental energy, the chaotic electric arcs gathered and took shape like a long whip, dancing in the air, tracing a large arc, and then striking fiercely downward!

"Snap!" Everyone seemed to hear a loud cracking sound—yet, in reality, electric currents could not produce such a noise. What created this illusion for everyone was the resonant effect of Theresa's mental energy!

The "lightning whip" plunged violently downward through the air, naturally generating a powerful atmospheric pressure in its wake. Wherever the pressure passed, both the electric currents and the white mist were cleanly split apart, as if an invisible blade had torn space itself asunder.

"Let's go!" Before Theresa's command had even faded, Lambert had already swept his arm around her waist and carried her swiftly away into flight. Almost simultaneously, the others also darted forward, faster or slower, through the smooth path cleanly "cleaved" right in front of Theresa—

"Roar!" An angry beast's roar echoed from the depths of the white mist. The louder the roar, the faster Theresa and her party moved. Before long, they had arrived at the edge of the shallow pool. As soon as she stood firm, Theresa noticed that not far from where they stood was the large pit she had previously dug while unearthing the green worm carcass powder.

"Lambert, look." Theresa pointed at the pit to remind him. He glanced back, nodded in understanding, and then turned his head once more to face the closest and most immediate threat before them.

Not far ahead, the white mist churned violently. The previously calm fog surged rapidly as if disturbed, gradually gathering into a shape. After a dozen seconds or so, Theresa finally made out a beastly face protruding from the mist, its maw wide open, pouncing toward the crowd with a roar!

Glein-Mo and Qina moved almost simultaneously upon seeing this. The moment they both stepped forward, each noticed the other's action and stopped at the same time. They exchanged a brief, face-to-face glance, and finally, Glein-Mo smiled, made a polite gesture of yielding, and stepped back half a step, signaling Qina to take action.

Qina likewise smiled and nodded in acknowledgment, then turned to face the beastly visage formed by the white mist. Her expression darkened, and with a wave of her right hand—out of nowhere—a long whip appeared in her grip. The whip was as black as ink, dancing through the air and forming a stark contrast with the misty beast head. Of course, an even starker contrast was the difference in their sizes: the white mist beast head was over ten meters high and seven or eight meters wide, while the long whip was barely a meter long, its thickest part no wider than two fingers...

Yet physical size did not dictate the scale of power. Qina's long whip lashed out fiercely, and a black sliver of light shot forth from the whip body. At first glance, it looked as though the whip had suddenly elongated; however, Theresa knew that was Qina's battle qi. To materialize battle qi so effortlessly meant Qina was at least a tier-seven powerhouse!

The heavy black whip-image struck the white mist beast head squarely, instantly tearing the beast's head into two halves and carving a long, blank corridor right through the middle!

Though the power of this whip strike was immense, the moment the whip moved away, the white mist rapidly converged once more, pressing forward with its momentum entirely undiminished.

Qina evidently had not expected a single whip to resolve the issue. With a flick of her wrist, the long whip spun flexibly in the air, moving faster and faster. Striking the white mist countless times in a blur of motion, she manipulated it somehow to forge a black tornado right within the fog. Drawing in a powerful suction force, the technique soon tore that massive beast face into tattered fragments.

"Amazing," Theresa murmured, looking up in sheer awe. The beast head had charged with such ferocious intensity, yet Qina handled it with such casual ease, as if merely teasing a tiny puppy. The gap in their strength was truly staggering!

At the same time, Theresa could not help but reflect inwardly on the inadequacy of her own abilities. It seemed her previous notion of seeking justice for her mother was laughably naive...

Just as a mild wave of depression washed over her, Theresa suddenly felt another series of throbbing pains in her head—

"Lambert, to the right!"

Theresa's sudden cry startled the others slightly. The quickest to react, naturally, was Lambert. He pushed Theresa behind Flora and transformed into a sharp arrow, charging toward the right flank of the group. After covering some four or five meters, Lambert thrust out both hands, striking empty air and producing a continuous chain of sparks akin to metal clashing!

While the battle raged on that side, Theresa cradled her throbbing head, gritting her teeth. A powerful wave of mental energy was continuously invading her sea of consciousness, attempting to seize control of her body. She knew that the mental-type magical beast hidden within the white mist was attacking her!

"Theresa, what's wrong with you?" Flora half-supported and half-embraced Theresa, asking with deep concern. At that moment, however, Theresa lacked even the strength to offer a sliver of a reply. All her attention was focused entirely on her own sea of consciousness, locked in a desperate struggle for dominion.

Seeing that Theresa not only failed to respond but was also exhibiting increasingly alarming physical symptoms, Flora anxiously turned to Glein-Mo for help. "Uncle Mo, what's happening to Theresa?"

Glein-Mo had already noticed Theresa's anomaly. Hearing this, he merely shook his head slightly and said, "She is being invaded by a mental-type magical beast. I am not an alchemist, so I cannot intervene with medical treatment. However, judging by her condition, she seems to be holding up. You don't need to worry too much for now—Lambert is also dealing with that magical beast. With him dividing its attention, the beast's power should be somewhat restricted."

Realizing there was nothing else to be done, Flora could only hold Theresa with a worried expression. Mental energy was the force most closely tied to the soul; it could not be casually employed, and once deployed, it was extremely difficult to defend or control. As non-alchemists facing such pure mental warfare, they were simply powerless to help.

At this moment, Theresa felt her mind and body split into two parts. One part resided within her sea of consciousness, fighting off the relentless invasion of the mysterious mental energy, while the other was tormented by physical and mental agony. Over time, she almost developed a sensation of suffering from multiple personality disorder. Through these hardships, she struggled to steady her mind, trying her best to transform herself into a stabilizing anchor stone, driving roots deeper and deeper and deeper still into the abyss... No matter how powerful or relentless the attacks were, she stubbornly played the role of a tortoise hiding in its shell, refusing to waver under any circumstances...

Well, this was truly the only helpless method left to her. The disparity in their strength made it impossible for her to counterattack; she could only hold her ground to prevent her spiritual core from scattering. As for repelling the magical beast, that was Lambert's job...

"Roar!" After enduring for who knows how long, an angry and fearful beastly roar echoed faintly. It seemed to come from outside her body, yet also from within her sea of consciousness—the distinction between the two had grown too blurred for Theresa to tell apart. She could only instinctively seize the fleeting instant when the roar sounded to mobilize all her strength for a desperate counterattack!

In a flash, Theresa felt countless brilliant lights explode before her eyes like dazzling fireworks. Amidst the glaring white light, a pool of water-blue slowly swirled into a cluster, floating like an orb within the illumination. One could faintly see the energy inside the blue sphere flowing according to certain specific laws. Shortly after, another bright hue emerged within the white light, brilliant and gorgeous like the rising sun—that was another sphere, golden and breathtakingly beautiful, though somewhat smaller than the blue orb.

Gazing at the two spheres, Theresa was suddenly struck with a profound realization: defense and attack were actually of equal importance. If one could not preserve oneself, how could one hope to launch a counterattack at the appropriate moment?

Proper silence and restraint served only to pave the way for a more effective strike in the future. Therefore, she need not feel depressed over a temporary inability to match her foe; the future remained unwritten—even though that unwritten future would demand far, far more effort from her than ever before!

With her mind settled and her condition fully recovered, Theresa opened her eyes to meet Flora's worried gaze. At this, she smiled slightly.

"Theresa, you're awake! How do you feel?" Flora asked with pleasantly surprised eyes, carefully helping her up.

"Very well." Borrowing Flora's strength, Theresa quickly rose to her feet, stretched her arms out in a chest-expansion movement, and smiled, "I feel fantastic~"

"Ah, Uncle Mo was right after all. Once you woke up, you'd be fine~" Flora stood up as well, speaking happily.

Theresa looked around and noticed that only the two of them were left in the vicinity. She couldn't help asking, "Where are they?"

"They went to clear out the mutant black-necked green worm larvae. Aunt Qina said that creatures like these usually have a mother worm, and once the mother worm is dealt with, the larvae will naturally die off. So, they went to find the worm nest."

Hearing Flora's choice of address for Qina, Theresa fell silent for two seconds before saying, "That's for the best. It saves me from being a hindrance on the side."

Flora giggled at this and said, "Look at you! In a moment, finding the 'Source of Vitality' will depend entirely on you—here, take this. Lambert got it after killing that magical beast. He said keeping this trinket on him would just be a waste, and it happens to suit you perfectly."

As she spoke, Flora handed over a neatly folded white, membrane-like substance.

The moment the item touched Theresa's hands, she immediately heard the Book Spirit screaming frantically in her sea of consciousness: "Spirit skin! Spirit skin! I want it! I want it!"