It's been 4 months now since Celaine left Maria to go train on her own and the latter has made tremendous gains over the last year.
First of all, her cultivation was able to advance from the Mid-Xiantian Stage to the Late-Xiantian Stage of the Foundation Realm. It may seem like this is fairly slow progress since it took her over a year to reach this point, but remember that Maria needs much more Qi compared to others to breakthrough because of how strong her Foundation is. Her body can hold several times more Qi than a normal person and therefore she needs several times more Qi to advance.
Considering that, 1 year actually isn't that long since even the average person from Lunar Fox City or the Battle Maiden Sect would possibly need years just to advance 1 Minor Realm.
That's why this Secret Realm is a godsend opportunity though since not only is the Qi many times denser here than it is on the outside world, but the opportunities one can find in this Secret Realm can increase one's stage at an incredibly fast pace.
Now, Maria may not have found any 'amazing' lucky chances, but she has been working very hard.
She's basically been doing the same thing Celaine spent doing during her training: Fighting.
Except compared to how the fights went for Celaine when she was still traveling with Maria, the latter's fights are a bit different.
In Maria's words, the beasts here are a huge pain in the ass to deal with!
That's mainly because they are using the same element and unlike the beasts who instinctively know how to use the Light Element to fit their needs, Maria's comprehension is very elementary.
Maria, knowing these next 2 years are training, doesn't just want to brute force her way through and kill them but instead wants to use everything in her arsenal. Especially her Light Dao.
But because of that, Maria's gains in her Light Dao have made tremendous strides and as of now, it's finally reached a point where it's somewhat useful as an offensive tool in battle. It's still comparatively weaker compared to her Sword Skills and Cultivation, but still… It's gone from being something that was either used only for support or on weaker opponents to something that can scratch those of the same level as her just based on her Light Dao comprehension.
Speaking of Sword Skills, these have also undergone a bit of a change over the last year. Maria has realized her weakness as being too linear of a fighter and she needs to be a bit more unpredictable. She's been working hard to incorporate that characteristic with the sword, but that's easier said than done.
For example, most people generally have a preference when they fight whether that be they favor their right side, left side, using long-range attacks, using short-range attacks, attacking with your fists, attacking with your legs, or maybe they telegraph their movements.
Everybody has a preference and everybody has a pattern that their mind and body tend to lean towards and just trying to understand this is difficult not to mention changing it.
Maria doesn't necessarily want to change or create a new style since she's not naive enough to think she can do that in a few years without any proper guidance. Maybe if Mira or Celaine was with her every day pointing out what she needs to do and fix, they most likely wouldn't do that even if they weren't already busy. Actually, Mira might not even need to watch her and should just be able to tell her what she needs to work on or look out for…
That's when an idea struck her!
"Elenei! I know you can hear me! Can you ask Mira what it is I need to work on in order to not telegraph my movements and also help me make my moves a bit more unpredictable?"
Maria yelled at nothing looking like a crazy person while waiting for a response, but after a few minutes, she didn't receive a response. She thought that Mira was just going to ignore her and make her find out herself, but then she finally received a response from Elenei in her mind!
"Mira said 'You finally learned to ask the right questions, idiot. She said that the eyes are the window to the soul and are one of the biggest indicators for an opponent to read your movements. Control where you look and you'll not only be able to prevent others from reading you, but you'll be able to deceive them with enough proficiency. The next thing you should look out for is your limbs. It's easy for an opponent to grasp your attack and defense pattern based on the movement of your limbs. Since you already don't have many blindspots due to my training, just make sure that each of your movements flows naturally. You don't want any choppy attacks except in certain scenarios. You can also create a bunch of attack, defense, movement, and auxiliary techniques and constantly switch between with smooth fluid motions, but that's impossible for you to do in just a bit over a year. Lastly, try to switch up your timing of attacks.' That's all she said! Happy Training!"
Elenei transferred Mira's advice then cut off the connection.
Maria took in everything that Elenei said and immediately started coming up with ways she could improve herself.
"Thank you!"
Then she ran off to try it out first hand!
From that point on, Maria's sword and combat training became much more efficient than it was before and she was able to fight stronger beasts for longer in order to hone her skills.
That is, until today when she spotted a gigantic light pillar that shot up all the way past the sky and beyond.
Maria was so excited that she ran full speed ahead, ignoring everything in her way. The beasts that were gathered around the pillar were all roaring and chasing after her trying to prevent her from getting close to the light, but she was like a slippery eel dodging everything!
Her bodily strength plus her cultivation and upgraded Light Dao have made her exceptionally fast when it comes to running away and there aren't many beasts in this world who can catch her. Even Mira would find it annoying to catch her!
There were tons of beasts roaming around this Light Pillar, but for some reason, they were unable to enter.
Whatever the reason is, it doesn't matter to Maria so without even thinking about the consequences she dived right into the Light Pillar, but just as she got her body through the barrier her body crashed onto the ground due to the pressure.
