"Oh, okay. Now what?" Jade asked.

"Simple. We focus on breaking through to the next rank of course" Muku replied.

"What about those favours you promised?" Lisa chimed in.

"Don't worry. I got you. Let's break through first. As you know, the war back home is already waging, so right now we need to lock in even if time is moving a lot faster for us in here" Muku replied.

"Ah, that makes sense. And at this point, we're all at a higher level than you really. After all, we've already started on that path" Lisa replied understandingly then gloated a bit.

"Tsk. Like I'd need too much time to catch up to this little progress. I can just speed up the time around me a bit further. While I currently do it for the whole embryo, I can do it for my room at least" Muku replied with a smug look on his face.

"What? That's not fair!" Lisa exclaimed dejectedly.

"No, wait. Do it. Make the time in your room faster" Jade suddenly chimed in with glowing eyes.

"Huh?" Muku looked at her confusedly. The others did the same.

"Can't you all understand this obvious thing? He can speed up time in that room alone then we'll all go in and cultivate there. He can let the rest of the embryo work like the normal world within his input. Our cultivation speed should be countless times faster than before that way. Even if Althea doesn't feed us the mana but just provides it, if we are moving a thousand times faster than the rest of the world, we will have more than enough time to reach the peak of R9 and join the war since she said that's the minimum requirement we need to be secure for now" Jade explained

"That's.... That's genius! Why didn't I think about that? Were you always so smart?" Muku spoke in surprise and amazement.

It was mostly faked to piss off Jade... And it worked.

"Tsk! I only let you all speak because you're usually on top of things. But at times like this when I catch you lacking, of course I have to step in lest we miss out" Jade replied in an annoyed voice but not too much as she knew she was in the advantaged position.

"Yes, yes. Thank you for your wisdom sage Jade. I'll do just as you said. Now can someone go tell Althea about it while I prepare the room?" Muku didn't argue.

"Why can't you do it? I mean, you're always eager to be the one to speak to her, saying that you don't trust that we can always say the right things and you don't want Audrey to trouble herself" Jade asked with a suspicious look on her face.

"That was in the past when our safety wasn't guaranteed around her okay? Now go and do it since you're feeling chatty today" Muku casually lied again.

"Hmm...fine" Jade gave him one last suspicious gaze before walking off and letting the matter go.

Muku secretly sighed in relief. He was cursing Jade for being so perceptive. She also caught on.

Fortunately, he was a seasoned veteran who would never slip up easily.

"As for the rest of you. Get into proper form for we are not leaving that room until we've all reached PR9!" Muku declared.

The girls nodded. They felt it was a bit too much to do that. But considering the situation they were in, maybe it wasn't too much.

And so, in no time at all, they were all ready. Althea was notified and she promised to give them mana and seal it in the room as well as reinforce it.

That way, they really won't have to leave it even for breakthroughs.

She was also happy that things turned out like this because it meant that she didn't need to be alone with Muku again.

Who knows if he would try something like that again? After she started it, she couldn't admonish him since it was too hypocritical for her. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

And she wasn't sure whether she would be able to say no again.

The first time she was surprised, but the second time she would know what to expect, and she kinda wanted it too. So yeah, she couldn't risk it for now.

Wouldn't she seem a bit too loose if she were taken before some of the girls who had been around for years when she had only been around for a few months if the time manipulation was ignored?

As a Monarch, her pride wouldn't let her be so easily conquered. He had to try harder if he wanted her. Maybe only after he catches up to her will she let him do what he wants.

But her beastly instincts were unreliable, if she went into heat because of his touches then it's over, so she had to be careful...

....

A day later....

All the furniture in Muku's room was removed. All that was left were eleven mats, where the group would sit when they cultivate.

Of course, it was so saturated with golden mana that they couldn't even see each other with their eyes and had to use their divine sense.

In fact, the mana was so dense it had liquefied.

It was a weird golden liquid that radiated life but when one touched it, it didn't make them wet as a typical liquid would. It more or less had the properties of mercury.

Anyway, everyone seriously took their places on their mats... It didn't need to be said that Jade got her Beast Aura supply too right?...

At that point, they had to get to Peak Psuedo R8 first. And the requirements were simple. They just had to reinforce their various properties again and reforge their mana cores.

It would literally be broken and reforged in their bodies. It was an extremely painful process. But when was gaining power ever easy?

It couldn't be done all at once as that would cripple them. So they would destroy and reform small parts at a time and reform them with outside mana and belief energy.

At that point, the girls who had advanced first were almost halfway.

They might not have been too serious about cultivating but they had grit which allowed them to break off the biggest chunks possible.

Honestly, the process won't last too long if one is willing to tank the pain. Which was something they were obviously willing to do. They had gone through similar painful experiences during Mrs C's trials. Maybe not as painful. But not too far away. And that was a stable foundation for this.

And so, everyone immediately got into it with scrunched faces and all as they broke some and reforged their cores. What made them feel worse was how they were told that it was the same thing they had to do for R8 to R9 as well.

But hey. That's how it was, it couldn't be avoided. And for power, they were more than willing.

They simply refused to be the weak ones in the apocalypse like the first days.

Though honestly, everyone was weak back then.

That is if we only looked at humans that is...

....

Back on the blue planet...

As the group was busy suffering through their cultivation. War was already waging back home.

As Althea said, both sides now had their tried vest soldiers in the fight.

Since the planet's spirit didn't allow R6 fights on it, then there was no way R7 and beyond fights would be acceptable.

For that reason, the war was decided on the planet when the beasts came through, and then fought in space.

Space was now so chaotic that random sounds from shockwaves were always being heard on the planet.

As for where the human experts came from. Well, some were actually sealed in statue forms, others in some secret chambers all over the world buried deep in the ground.

Some were actually in skeleton states before being awakened and their flesh grew back like vampires or something.

Most were in secret dimensions in deep sleep and had only awoken when the first R7 appeared and the world went all out and reinforced itself to support R9s.

.

Which honestly was debatable whether it was a good move or not as it only allowed stronger foes to come.

But hey, the spirit seemed to be in its infancy stage or it was just fulfilling destiny, whatever the reason was, things happened and war had come. At that point, everyone could only take up arms and fight.

At that point, the current generation of humans was the most pitiful.

After all, out of nowhere, all these experts and expert-level enemies appeared when they were still struggling with the grunts.

Fortunately, the humans from the past took them in and placed them under their control in their Kingdoms.

That's right, Kingdoms had reappeared on the planet.

It seemed, no matter what era they were from, humans always had an urge to lead those they seemed lesser than them.

And as always, the lesser could only fall in line initially since they neither have the solidarity nor the strength to resist.

And honestly, only a few felt like resisting when they were faced with what seemed like the second coming of the apocalypse so it wasn't too bad right?

Wrong...

End of Volume...