Step!

  I took one more step, and as I did, I felt like the world was crushing me as I nearly fell to the floor. I did not let that happen and resisted with my all as I kneeled to stabilize myself.

  Once I fell on the floor, it would be impossible for me to get up, and I would have to look up for old women to drag me out; it would be a little humiliating as she had warned me about it.

  So, as I got the breathing time, I started to circulate the bloodline energy again, as fast as I could. My bloodline energy began to take this energy, and very slowly, like trickling water from the tank, I felt the pressure on me is lessening little by little.

  The circulation under this pressure is not easy, but I am doing it as I have no choice but to do it; without it, I would not be able to bear the pressure.

  As pressure lessened with my circulations, I slowly began to get up before I was able to stand tall and bring my back leg in front.

  While I stood up, I still did not take a step ahead; the pressure was still too much for me, I will only take a step ahead only when my bloodline finished absorbing all the energy it could, and that would take little time.

  Twenty minutes passed by, and pressure on me decreased considerably; though I am still facing the immense pressure, it is still is not much as before.

  "You are right; this energy is really helpful, but why suddenly it stopped working," Councilwomen Marla asked behind me. "Like the fruits, the energy also is limited. You have to take a step forward before you can start absorbing it again, and this energy will be of higher quality than you are absorbing," I said, and her eyes lit up.

  She flew one step forward without changing her sitting position and closed her eyes again, "You are right; my method had started working again," She said without opening her eyes. A few seconds later, her face had become completely focused as she lost completely in practice.

  I also tried to circulate faster and faster, and fifteen minutes later, my runes had finished absorbing all the energy of this step.

  As I took the step, the crushing pressure increased on me tremendously, and I had not been prepared. I would not have been, I would have fallen down on the floor, but still, it had made me kneel with my whole body shaking; it looked like I could fall down any moment.

  I started circulating, which itself had become a struggle, not to mention the difficulty of itself; the energy and gravity also make it harder to circulate that I am circulating at the pace of a snail, with each second trying to get faster and faster.

  The more energy my bloodline take, the more it will help me relieve the pressure, and for it, I have to circulate faster.

  Hun!

  Time passed by, and twenty minutes later, a ruby seal began formation inside me; it took a minute to form, and when it, it released its energies which got absorbed by my bloodline. The energies ruby seal offer is wat too little; it is not enough to make any changing progress.

  This one was the eighth ruby seal; I will have to make another two before I can have the fourth Diamond Seal; that is something very amazing and extremely helpful to me.

  Creating a Diamond Seal is not easy even when it is only two ruby seals away; though I am going to circulate with all my strength, I don't think I will be able to able to create the Diamond seal here.

  Another forty minutes passed, and my runes stopped taking the energy; I only needed to take the two steps now, and in two steps, I will reach the tree of Malachite Apple tree and pluck those crystalline juicy apples off it.

  I took a deep breath, and again the crushing pressure hit me, forcing me to kneel on the ground, shaking my body all over. It took me more than ten minutes of circulation before I stopped shaking and another half an hour before I was able to stand straight.

  Thud!

  I did not waste any time and took that step, and just as I did, immense pressure hit me, and I fell to the ground before I could stop myself, and my hand also touched the ground, and just as it, the pressure on me increased even more.

  Crack Crack Crack

  "Ehhhhhh…."

  I screamed out loud as my bones began to crack and my skin began to splinter, and the worse thing was, I could not even scream properly under this pressure.

  I had taken two steps instead of one; when my hands touched the ground, pressure on me increased even more, and I had reached this precarious state where my bones were breaking, and skin was splintering, and all I could spread was healing energy and rule power all over my body as I circulate the supreme combat exercise which a great task itself.

  I looked at the old woman from the corner of my b?r?ly working bloody eyes and saw her busy meditating. I don't whether she heard me falling and my scream or not; I really hope she had and now just acting because I really need help and now b?r?ly hanging onto my life.

  The healing energy and rule power are b?r?ly holding on, and as time passes on, the damage on my body is becoming greater…… Soon the time would come where my injuries would exceed what I could handle, and I would die.