The Inner Region of the Dark Moon Forest was full of dangerous beasts for people that are still in the Qi Condensation Realm, but the main reason that the forest is called a Rank 2 or Psuedo Rank 3 forest is that people don't usually see the truly powerful creatures in the Inner or Core Regions. The same applied to Mira and Maria.
They had just entered the Inner Region, but have only seen weaker Rank 2 magical beasts. Mira wanted to avoid as many magical beasts as possible, but not because she couldn't deal with these weaker beasts. What she was worried about was what came after defeating them. They didn't know if a bunch of magical beasts would come charging over to try and take the spoils from her. So they just kept exploring through the forest. If they could assassinate a beast and kill it in 1 hit then they would do that and immediately store the corpse, but most of the time they would just try to avoid any wandering magical beasts.
As they were exploring the Inner Region, they came across something peculiar. There was a small cottage in the middle of the forest. It was in perfect condition and seemed like it was just randomly placed. Maria was extremely curious and wanted to go to the cottage and started walking over to it, but Mira felt that this entire scene was eerie. Why was there a cottage like this here? Mira felt like this is something you do when you just get too bored and don't know what else to do. The only people that get too bored with things are older people that have lived a long time. In other words, it is very likely someone incredibly strong lives here. Mira had no intention to run directly into the tiger's den so she grabbed Maria and started to run the other way. Mira did not want to see or talk to some eccentric and strong old man. Maybe they could get something out of it, but they might just end up stuck listening to the ramblings of an old man.
As they ran they heard a voice that seemed right next to them.
"Why don't you come here? It's been a while since I've had visitors and it's also rare to see kids your age out here too." An aged male voice said.
"Fuck. You talk." Mira said to Maria briefly and Maria nodded and felt like that might be for the best too.
They ended up walking to the cottage and the front door opened for them as they walked up to it. They walked into the cottage and saw an incredibly old man there. He was rather tall at 210 centimeters, had long white hair, and was covered in wrinkles. He didn't have a beard and looked cleanly shaven. As they walked in they heard the same voice speak out again.
"Oho! You two really are young and the little miss there is exceptionally beautiful. Even in the cultivation world, you rarely see this kind of beauty. Also, I've never seen this kind of fox before. Come, come, let me treat you to some tea. You can tell me your story then." The old man spoke and started preparing some tea. Mira and Maria went and sat down and waited. Soon the old man came back with some tea.
"You can call me Abe or Old Man Abe, whatever works. So, what are you two kids doing this deep in the forest? It's pretty dangerous here you know?" Abe spoke again with curiosity.
"Hello, Mr. Abe. My name is Maria Zaria and this is Mira. We are here to go off adventuring and gaining experience, but our main goal is the ruins here in the forest." Maria spoke up and tried to speak in a polite tone. She knew this man was probably incredibly strong.
"You're very smart, Miss Maria. Gaining experience is extremely important to a cultivator. Gaining strength and knowing how to use it are two different things. And the Ruins huh? There is only one place that I can think of that might be what you call a ruin. It's near the border to the Core Region, but for some reason, I can't enter. There seems to be some sort of barrier in place to prevent someone as strong as me from entering. It can be hard to miss though. It's underground, so you will have to look for a cave. I was only able to spot the cave and felt the barrier. The barrier was strong enough to keep me out, so it must have some conditions to enter. I don't know if you will be able to get in, but just because I couldn't get in doesn't mean you can't. That's all I know. So, why do you want to go there?" Abe asked them.
"Well, we don't really have a reason, but Mira said that she feels this forest is more mysterious than it seems. A ruins here can't have nothing in it. So we set that as one of the goals of our adventuring. Even if it does have nothing then at least we still got to explore and gain experience." Maria tried to explain to him.
"I see. That's a good way to look at things. It also looks like you wouldn't be leaving empty-handed. I also see that you probably obtained this fox recently. I've never seen anything like this little guy here. He will be extremely powerful in the future, but even in all my years, I have never seen something like this little guy. Are you able to tell me more about him?" He asked some more.
Maria was about to speak when Mira stopped her. Mira then spoke up.
"No." That's all Mira said. Abe was surprised that some little girl spoke to him like that. Most people tried to suck up to him or gain his favor. He found it slightly interesting. He decided to push a bit more.
"Where did you encounter him?"
"The forest."
"How did you find him?"
"Luck."
"Do you know how he was born?"
"I wonder."
"You do know that I could force the information out of you right, little girl?" Abe said with a hint of killing intent. Mira just shrugged.
"Then do it." Mira said with resolve, but she also knew this old man wouldn't do it. Abe paused for a second, not expecting that answer. Then he burst out laughing.
"HAHA! Interesting! You are very interesting, little girl! If I was younger, I would want you as an apprentice! HAHA!" Abe started yelling and laughing.
"I would have declined immediately. Besides reasons such as I don't need your help until I become similar in power to what you are right now. I hate old men like you. You would probably try to make my life a living hell and bother me to no end. And since I'm too weak to kill you, then I have no way to do anything." Mira said. She might've said more info than she needed to, but part of it was just to satisfy some of this old man's curiosity.
"I see. So you would've tried to kill me if you were strong enough?" The old man asked
"Only if you kept bothering me." Mira said back to him.
"You know little girl, it's not good to be that rash. You might end up with a lot of enemies." The old man tried to give some advice.
"Then what's the point of becoming strong? If I can't kill who I wish, look down on who I wish, then what's the point? Did you become strong just so you could sit in a tiny cottage in the middle of some forest filled with ants?" Mira asked back. The old man thought for a minute.
"No, I guess not. HAHA! Now I do have a question that I know you can answer to some extent. Why did you start cultivating so young?" The man laughed and asked.
"My village was raided by bandits when I was younger. And well, look at me. It's not like I wasn't pretty back then either. If men lust over pigs, then what would go through their brains if a goddess with no power showed up? The choices were either die in a forest as a weak mortal, get captured, or get strong. At least now I'm a goddess with a bit of strength." Mira said.
"I see. So that's why. And you're probably right. You were lucky to not get captured by bandits in the first place. Well, enough of that. I can see that both of you are close to breaking through to the next stage. I'd recommend you do so before you continue your travels. You can stay here until you break through, but it probably won't be too long." Abe offered. Mira and Maria thought about it for a minute. They were very close to the next stage and they couldn't find a safer place than this. Mira didn't like the sound of staying in some random old man's house but reluctantly accepted for a couple of reasons. This old man gave them a clue that might save them months of searching and also it'll take them a while to break through in the forest while running and searching for the ruins. Mira decided that they wouldn't get a better opportunity to break through, plus if Abe wanted to do something to them he didn't have to play any tricks. He was too strong and they were too weak. So they reluctantly accepted his offer.
Abe then showed them to a room for them to stay in. They both sat down and started focusing only on cultivating.
A month quickly passed by. They had both broken through to the next stage. Since they were able to focus only on cultivating, it only took them a month to breakthrough. If they were still running in the forest, it might've taken them several months.
Mira broke through to Stage 2 Qi Condensation and Maria broke through to Stage 3 Qi Condensation. Their power went up by about 50% this time too. That's not to say that Maria is necessarily stronger than Mira though because Mira is able to collect and condense more Qi in her meridians than Maria.
Nothing special or out of the ordinary happened with this breakthrough either. They both just absorbed and condensed enough Qi in their meridians to breakthrough.
After both of them finished their breakthrough, Maria went and told Abe that they were leaving.
"Come back again!" Abe said as Mira, Maria, and Vulcan left. They both started heading for the ruins that Abe talked about that were near the Core Region of the forest.
"He sure was interesting. I never thought that I'd meet some eccentric old man out in the forest like this." Maria said as they traversed the forest.
"Yeah, I never thought we'd run into someone of that strength here either. I just hope what he told us is true." Mira said back.
"He has no reason to lie. I think we could at least go and look for it. It's the only lead we have anyways." Maria said while Mira just nodded.
They continued their journey. It was going smoothly pretty much this whole time. They barely ran into any magical beasts. But of course, a journey to the Core region can't always go smoothly. They soon realized why they haven't run into many magical beasts recently. It's because they just entered the territory of a Mid-Stage Rank 2 magical beast.
'I guess it's time for a rematch.'
