《Investment banker in cultivation world》


 Deadwood city

    Yawn!


    A middle-aged man in his 40s yawned with a peaceful expression on his face. His brows, which were usually scrunched up together, were relaxed.


    "What a peaceful day today," The man thought in his head. He was a local businessman in the city of Deadwood. Because of the nature of his business, he rarely got time to relax.


    The interior of the shop was meticulously decorated with rows of shelves filled with exotic herbs and rare artifact''s placed by the entrance.


    However, before he could think about anything else, the door of his shop was suddenly pushed open, and a man in his early twenties walked inside carrying a brown bag on his back.


    The young man''s skin was white as snow, with a pointed nose and sword-like eyebrows that were capable of charming any young lady in the city.


    The middle-aged man frowned. He wasn''t expecting any customers today, so he thought the youth in front of him was a busybody.


    The City of Deadwood was celebrating a once-a-decade festival and most of the city''s population was busy celebrating.


    The youth didn''t seem to care about middle-aged man. He walked up to the counter quickly and threw the bag that he was carrying on his back on top of the counter.


    "Old man, how much can you give me for this." David looked at the man and asked in a plain voice. Although he wanted to sound calm, his voice carried a trace of urgency.


    And why wouldn''t he be in a hurry as his chance to rise to the top of the food chain was disappearing every passing minute?


    How can the middle-aged man who had dealt with all sorts of people, fail to recognise his predicament?


    As this young man was a potential customer, his earlier behavior could be ignored. The middle-aged man thought and glanced at the bag and a blue window popped up in front of him.


    [Eyes of Frost Deer(10 spirit stones), Heart of Frost Deer (25 spirit stones), Antlers¡­.]


    The middle-aged man went through the list one by one.


    David knew the man was using his Crystallisation of life. From the day of his transmigration, the thing that fascinated him the most was this.


    You guessed it right, David wasn''t a native of this world and this was one of his closely guarded secrets.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    David patiently waited while glancing at rows upon rows of items that were neatly placed. He started to mentally calculate their value in his head to pass the time.


    However, His thoughts were interrupted by the middle-aged man, who looked at him and commented in a plain voice.


    "I can give you five spirit stones for the eyes and fifteen for the heart."


    After saying this he looked at David without any hesitation. He wasn''t guilty about the fact that he was buying the goods at half their value.


    David just nodded at his words and agreed, he didn''t realize the middle-aged man was taking advantage of him.


    Hearing David''s words the middle-aged men smiled and looked at him with kindness.


    "Here are your fifty spirit stones"


    David hurriedly grabbed them and left without saying anything.


    The middle-aged man looked at the young man calmly and didn''t say anything else.


    Sometimes he felt glad about his Crystallisation of life - The Eyes of the Beholder, his Crystallisation gave him a fair value of the goods.


    And one more thing, it wasn''t like he cheated the youth in fact he had bought everything at the market price but it was just that the goods were of higher quality.


    *


    *


    David on the other hand ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He zipped through the busy streets of Dreadwood City and quickly arrived in front of a huge building made of white sandstone.


    Before David could even enter inside the building, he was surrounded by several men with shiny eyes.


    "Why are you here young man..," a man with his hair dyed red asked him with a smiling face.


    "Don''t listen to him. Tell me, I will help you." Before dyed man could finish speaking, he was interrupted by another man with few of his teeths missing.


    David didn''t care about them, he ignored their words and rushed inside the building.


    This wasn''t David''s first time dealing with these people. They were middlemen who were always ready to help him in return for money.


    "Hey, you! stop. Where are you going."


    "Listen to me, young man."


    The man with dyed hair chased David from behind, but he wasn''t able to stop David from entering inside the office.


    David breathed a sigh of relief and curiously looked at the men sitting on a wooden chairs in front of him talking to another middle-aged man with a smiling face.


    However, the smile on his face suddenly froze when His eyes landed on David, and before he was able to speak David opened his mouth and voiced his request.


    "Sir, I am here to take the building on Dreadwood Street for rent." David asked politely, while directly looking the middle man in the eyes.


    The gate of the office opened once more, and the dyed-haired man entered.


    "Mr. Alex, I tried to stop him but he didn''t listen and entered."


    Hearing the words of the red-haired man, Mr. Alex eyes flashed, and he looked at David coldly.


    "Young man, where are you from, you can''t just enter inside my office there are protocols that you have to follow."


    "Now get out of my sight."


    David wanted to argue, his mouth opened and closed a few times, but in the end he could only swallow his words and leave the office.


    The red-haired man followed him.


    "Now, tell me why are you here for." the red haired man asked with a greedy look on his face.


    The red-haired man wasn''t a newbie in the administrative office. He had seen a lot in life, and by what he could tell the young man was in a hurry.


    Thinking up to this point a smile that was difficult to conceal appeared on his face.


    In the eyes of the red-haired man David wasn''t a human anymore but a human ready for exploitation.

 Domain of Zenith Sovereign

    Sigh!


    David let out a frustrated sigh. The bureaucracy and the blatant red tapism was really getting on his nerves.


    Sighing once more, David told the man about his request and hoped that he could do things faster.


    Hearing that David was looking for a building on Deadwood street, the information made the red haired man extremely happy.


    Contrary to his appearance, the man was extremely quick in his actions, in just half an hour he finalized the agreement and handed a copy to David.


    *


    *


    Walking through the streets of Deadwood City. David could finally relax, after working tirelessly for three years he had finally managed to save enough to complete his mission.


    A window that constantly served as a grim reminder of his predicament looked especially pleasing to the eye today.


    [Mission: Find a suitable place to establish the Bank.]


    [Status: ongoing]


    [Time left: 5 hours]


    After taking a quick look, David willed for the window to disappear.


    He still remembered the day when the window first popped in front of him. He was super excited at the prospect of finally being able to change his life with help of Crystallisation of life.


    He had witnessed firsthand the magical powers of these things.


    Overturning the mountains and flipping the sky with a single palm wasn''t just empty talks.


    But his dreams were crushed as soon as they were formed. His Crystallisation was weird, it didn''t grant him the power that he needed but instead wanted him to lease a building at a prominent location.


    Earning money in the city of Deadwood was difficult and for someone like him who didn''t even have an offensive crystallization of life it was even harder.


    But David couldn''t afford to give up; he worked day and night and trained himself. Took up odd jobs every day and learned to hunt wild animals in the nearby forest.


    Finally managing to save enough for this day.


    Unknowingly, after walking for some time, David arrived at his destination.


    The central area of Deadwood city.


    Men and women dressed in luxurious clothing were moving back and forth on fully paved streets.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Each and every building was beautifully carved with exquisite designs of flowing petals and mythical monsters of various shapes and sizes looking incredibly awe inspiring.


    After walking for another five minutes, David stopped in front of average-looking three-story building.


    He used the key provided by the red haired man to open the gate and enter inside.


    David was greeted by dust and spider webs, it appeared that the building hadn''t been visited by anyone in the ages.


    Hopefully, he didn''t need to clean all of this.


    "I would like to select this place."


    David mentally yelled in an attempt to complete his mission. Even though it had been three years since his awakening, he still didn''t properly understand how to communicate with his Crystallisation of life.


    Whatever the case may be, the banking system seemed to understand his word and a floating window appeared in front of him following his words, and yes, he decided to call his Crystallisation of his life banking system as the former was too wordy.


    Anyway, who even named this phenomenon Crystallisation of Life? They could have used some simpler words.


    For example super destructive power, inner demon release, etc. these words were easier to pronounce and sounded cooler than Crystallization of life.


    [The building had been successfully registered and recognised.]


    [Transformation will begin in 5,4,3¡­.]


    David didn''t have the time to understand the meaning behind those words and before he could, the world around started to twist and turn like a whirlpool.


    A golden light flooded his vision out of nowhere. Under the wide opened eyes of David, the dust covered floor was replaced by white marble and the walls which were filled with cracks and moisture turned into shining walls made out of gold.


    The boring ceiling which was waiting to fall at any time, was completely replaced by a circular design that caved inwards like a concave mirror, filled with murals of mythical dragons and mighty warriors with fierce momentum, looking extremely imposing.


    The place looked almost unrecognizable!


    [Transformation complete]


    [Initial seed capital of 100,000 spirit stones is successfully deposited in your account.]


    [Shop of Eternal Origin is permanently opened.]


    [Status is successfully initialized]


    [Origin Guard is successfully placed in your inventory.]


    David''s mind was flooded with a ton of information. He felt as if his mind was lagging


    as the information was too much for him to process in an instant.


    He took a deep breath to calm down his mind and go through the information that suddenly appeared in his head one by one.


    After half an hour, in which David acted like a zombie, staring into the air while muttering incomprehensibly with a disgusting smile on his face. Thankfully there was no one witnessing this otherwise the consequences would have been¡­ well let''s not talk about it for the time being.


    After going through the information David got a general idea of how the bank worked. Basically it was like a non-bank financial company that couldn''t accept deposits from the public but could make advances.


    But how he was going to make advances if he couldn''t accept deposits was something worth thinking about.


    And second most important thing was the function of "status" it allowed him to find investment opportunities to generate profit and how would that work.


    Simply by paying a certain amount of spirit stones to the bank, he could find crucial information about anything.


    David decided to test the feature on himself to get a better idea of it.


    [Request for status report.]


    [Target- Host]


    [Cost-1000 spirit stones]


    [Yes/No]


    David proceeded to pay 1,000 thousand spirit stones, and a floating window appeared in front of him.


    [Name- David Well-wisher


    Cultivation- None


    Crystallisation of Life- Bank of Eternal Origin, Domain of Zenith Sovereign.


    Vitality- Low Body Refining Realm


    Remark- physically strong but lacks the will to push himself beyond his limits, unsuitable for investment.]


    David carefully scanned each and every word, and his lips couldn''t help but twitch uncontrollably while reading the last line of paragraph.


    But that wasn''t really important. What really caught his eye and made his heartbeat accelerate was the information in the section of Crystallisation of Life.

 Worries of an investment banker

    There was one more Crystallisation of life.


    But how was that possible? As far as David knew, there had never been any instance in the past in which a person had two Crystallisations of life.


    The simple principles which govern Crystallisation didn''t allow such a thing to happen.


    As the name itself suggests, every person''s Crystallisation of life depended on their past life experience.


    Each and every action they took and every single achievement that they had under their belt decided what your Crystallisation of Life going to be in your next life.


    For example, due to some unfortunate event or bad luck, you didn''t manage to awaken your Crystallisation of life when you turned eighteen. Hopeless, you lost the will to live and spent the rest of your life in mediocracy.


    There was a high chance, that your fate in your next life was going to be the same, and if you were even going to have another life as human was another question altogether.


    And, on the other hand there was another person who, just like you didn''t manage to awaken but he wasn''t as pessimistic as you, his will was firm as iron.


    He didn''t give up, lived his life to the fullest, chased his dreams and passions. There was a very high chance that he was going to awaken in his next life.


    Of course, there were other factors that affected your chances of awakening in your next life, you might not know about the existence of Crystallisation of life and therefore you didn''t push yourself to the extreme, you might not be human in your previous life but it didn''t matter. What really mattered was your attitude towards life.


    Moreover, an individual couldn''t live two live''s at the same time; therefore, it was impossible to have two Crystallisations of Life.


    That''s why David could hardly believe his eyes.


    furthermore, its name sounded way cooler


    "Domain of Zenith Sovereign." What a grand name. After some time, David muttered with a serious voice.


    After initial exhilaration, David was able to connect the dots together and understand why he had two Crystallisations of Life.


    he thought that the second one might not be his own but belonged to the original owner of his body.


    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    As soon as this thought entered David''s head it became uncontrollable and led to more questions.


    But how could the original have a crystallion of life as he hadn''t awakened at that point?and suppose even if he had a Crystallisation of Life, why it didn''t disappear after his death?


    Does that mean the previous host wasn''t dead?


    Suddenly, David felt a chill run down his spine. He felt as if someone had placed a sharp blade on his neck.


    The implications were horrifying to say the least.


    David''s mood instantly hit rock bottom; the earlier joy that he felt completely disappeared.


    "Calm down." David muttered and tried to calm himself down. Overthinking wasn''t going to solve his problem.


    Maybe the previous host was dead but not completely; that is why his Crystallization didn''t disappear. In the process of Transmigration, some part of him merged with David.


    David still vaguely remembered that there wasn''t any sign of wound or injury on his body when he arrived in this world.


    Although he had no direct evidence, his intuition told him that he wasn''t far from the truth.


    David finally sighed with relief and felt more confident instantly.


    More importantly, he didn''t want to think about such questions that he had no answer and one such question was why did he even transmigrate in the first place.


    David''s memory of his previous life was fuzzy; he only remembered some things like he wanted to be an investment banker and other things such as the name of his parents and friend had completely disappeared from his memories as if they didn''t exist in the first place.


    that wasn''t always the case when he was young. He vaguely remembered their names, but as he grew up their memories started fading away.


    Sighing, David gave up thinking about these things.


    He decided to examine the rest of the functions.


    The shop function was pretty much self-explanatory, but he still decided to take a look. He hoped to find the technique needed for cultivation, but his hopes were soon crushed. There wasn''t any technique or legendary weapon, but a bunch of crap needed to run day-to-day operations of the bank.


    Sighing, once more he moved on to the last thing.


    He opened his inventory and clicked on the first box out of fifty.


    Following his actions, a warrior dressed in full plate armor materialized in front of David.


    David looked at the behemoth with his mouth wide open.


    The Origin Guard was a towering behemoth measuring over ten feet in height; its simple presence alone was enough to intimidate David.


    However, David felt he could control the Origin Guard with his thoughts if he wanted.


    He instantly felt more at ease.


    After looking here and there, David realized he could check the status of Origin Guard without having to pay in spirit stones.


    So without wasting any time, David did just that, and a window similar to his own appeared in front of him.


    [Name- Origin Guard


    Cultivation- Peak Body Refining Realm


    Crystallisation of Life- Sword of Eternal Debt.


    Remark- Will guard the Bank of Eternal Origin till his death]


    Oh boy, oh! David wasn''t ready for the information that was in front of him.


    He got the protection of a cultivator at the Peak of Body Refining Realm. Although it didn''t State anywhere that this thing would protect him, but that didn''t stop David from concluding this on his own.


    After taking one last look at the Guard, David allowed it to roam here and there to fulfill its duties.


    Every step of the giant caused the floor to quake.


    David was finally done; now he just wanted to rest for the remaining day without even looking at the other floors, he exited the building and looked for a place to relax.

 Shameful act

    David nimbly walked through the busy streets of Deadwood city trying to find something to eat. Obviously he was hungry, he hadn''t eaten anything since morning.


    Luckily he didn''t have to walk for long as he managed to find a good restaurant nearby.


    Without hesitating David entered inside with the intention to splurge his newly acquired wealth.


    To begin with that was what seed capital was used for anyways.


    Men and women elegantly dressed were silently talking to each other. Food didn''t seem to be their priority; their main focus was mainly on socializing.


    From time to time the eyes of everyone would land on a youth dressed gracefully in white robe with the symbol of black skull engraved on his back.


    "Look, I didn''t lie right even the students of Deadwood academy frequented this place."


    A man said to a pretty girl beside him in a hushed tone, appearing slightly proud of his choice.


    However, the girl didn''t seem to care about the guy''s words as her eyes were fixed on the student from Deadwood Academy.


    It wasn''t really hard to tell what was going on in the pretty girl''s mind.


    Sitting alone the youth didn''t seem to mind their reaction.


    Contrary to the attention received by the white robed youth not a single being except a waiter paid attention to David''s entrance.


    "Sir, welcome to the Flower Merchant Eatery." The waiter dressed in black long coat bowed respectfully towards David and made an inviting gesture.


    David acknowledged him with a nod and followed his direction.


    Coincidentally, the waiter led him to a table not too far away from the youth dressed in white robe.


    Of course David wasn''t a country bumpkin, he was able to recognise the symbol on youth back. As the most prestigious academy in Deadwood city it would be surprising if he didn''t.


    It was the dream of every single youth in the Deadwood city to join Deadwood Academy after their awakening.


    But David''s experience with this academy was terrible.


    He wasn''t even qualified to fill the entrance form as he didn''t even know what his Crystallisation of life was capable of.


    David shrugged his shoulders and ordered something that sounded aesthetic from the menu provided by the waiter.


    While waiting for his food to arrive David decided to check the status of white robed youth.


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    [Request for status report.]


    [Target- Carl Weiss]


    [Cost-3000 spirit stones]


    [Yes/No]


    "3000 spirit stones."


    David eyebrows scrunched up together at such a high number. It was costing him three percent of his entire capital.


    David hesitated for a second but then went ahead.


    It was necessary for referencing.


    Accepting his confirmation, the window disappeared and a new window popped in front of him, invisible to the people surrounding him.


    [Name- Carl Weiss


    Age- 21


    Potential- G grade


    Cultivation- Body Refining Rank 3


    Crystallisation of Life- Sonic Embargo.


    Investment Grade- Junk


    Remark- born with a golden spoon in his mouth this man still wasn''t able to take advantage of his headstart, spent his life in debauchery. If you want to become a millionaire fast just invest a billion in this young man and you will be only left with a million in no time]


    David was left speechless, especially at the remark.


    Other than that, he also noticed a couple of extra things that weren''t on his status Report, were present on the status screen of this Carl Weiss like Potential and investment grade.


    While David was going through the report his food arrived.


    David closed the window and focused on his food as Carl Weiss wasn''t worth his attention anymore.


    After ten minutes, David was done eating and promptly left after settling the bill.


    David walked with a serious face while thinking about a major problem that he was facing.


    Carl Weiss might be good for nothing but he was at the Body Refining Rank 3 and on the other hand he hadn''t even begun cultivating.


    David was way behind his peers.


    If he didn''t begin cultivating fast, the gap between them would continue to rise until it became insurmountable.


    He needed to find a cultivation technique fast.


    But finding a cultivation technique was easier said than done.


    Cultivation technique were strictly regulated by authorities and the only way to get them was to join an academy after awakening.


    But he couldn''t join academies anymore as he was well past the age limit.


    After walking for some time, David was back at his bank and decided to explore the remaining floors.


    The problem of cultivation technique couldn''t be easily solved so it was better to not waste time in thinking about it.


    Walking inside, the Origin Guard was still at his original position, vigilantly surveying his surroundings.


    While surveying the interior of the first floor David couldn''t help but think that this place looked more like a cathedral than a bank.


    But whatever, it wasn''t like he paid for it so he couldn''t complain.


    David surveyed the entire building in fifteen minutes. The interior of all three floors was the same except for some minor changes.


    The second floor was mainly dedicated to meetings and gatherings of the bank and while the third floor was the place for him to stay and any other employees that the bank might have in future.


    Now that David thought about it, there weren''t any arrangements for customers to sit on the first floor and for other amenities.


    But that wasn''t really a serious problem as he could easily solve it with the help of Shop.


    David decided to purchase some wooden furniture that looked graceful and classy.


    David bought two pairs of chairs and a table made out of white rosewood, costing him roughly 500 spirit stones a pair.


    As soon as David clicked on the buy button, his goods arrived in front of him out of nowhere.


    Surprised for a moment, David inspected them to check their quality.


    Just as his landed on the chair and he tried to lift the chair David expresion changed.


    The chair refused to budge, David felt ashamed that he wasn''t able to move the chair even a little bit.


    Moreover David also felt the gaze of the origin guard in his direction.


    He didn''t want loose face in front of the guard.


    His face turned red and veins started to be visible on his arms due to the extreme pressure.

 Drug of an investment banker

    It had been three days since that incident, it was neither a long period of time or short.


    In these three days David had managed to adjust to his newfound life. He had also bought himself a new pair of clothes, to make him look more charismatic.


    Dressed in a plain white shirt with a long navy blue overcoat on top to create a classy appearance.


    He had to dress neatly to make himself more charismatic and approachable as this was part of his job.


    "Yawn!"


    David was sitting on the first floor with a cup of coffee in front of him waiting for his first customer to arrive.


    He hopefully looked at the entrance of the bank from time to time. In these three days not a single soul had visited his bank, his career as an investment banker might come to an end at this rate.


    He had a feeling that the bank might cook something impossible, if he himself didn''t take the initiative.


    Suddenly, an astute middle aged man appeared at the entrance of the bank. He had a slim figure and his brown coloured hairs were neatly tied in a bun behind his head.


    He was looking at the interior of the bank in confusion and when his eyes landed on the Origin Guard he unconsciously flinched and the eyes of the middle aged man flashed with strange light.


    The name of the middle aged man Bryan Krack, he was a local merchant in the city of Deadwood.


    It wasn''t his first time coming to Deadwood street but he hadn''t noticed this bank before.


    Bryan wasn''t someone who was ignorant about this main financial institution, as his business mostly survived because of the timely credit provided by the bank in his early days.


    Before he entered Bryan didn''t really care about it but once he was inside his pupils shrunk and he unconsciously sucked in a breath of cold air..


    Bryan was easily able to recognise the guard standing beside the entrance as a cultivator


    As if that wasn''t shocking enough, he noticed one more thing, the cultivator didn''t seem to be the owner of this place.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    "Then who was in-charge here?"


    Just when this thought came to Bryan''s mind his eyes met David sitting at one corner of the hall, calmly looking at him with a plain gaze.


    "Welcome to the Bank of Eternal Origin Gentleman."


    "How can I help you?"


    David got up from his seat and bowed while respectfully addressing the middle aged men.


    David''s philosophy was simple, he wanted to treat the customer like a king.


    For him a customer wasn''t someone who came to his place once in a lifetime, but someone who was going to come again and again.


    But before that he just wanted to have a quick idea about his customer.


    [Request for status report.]


    [Target- Bryan krack]


    [Cost- 5000 spirit stones]


    [Yes/No]


    "Holy moly 5000 spirit stones that''s lot of amount for him"


    David inwardly commented while maintaining his poker face. From his past experience he judged Bryan as a worthy customer and not to go ahead with the status report.


    "Bank of Eternal Origin"


    Bryan repeated those words while frowning hard, his brows were tightly scrunched up together. He had never heard about such a bank.


    Although he was suspicious, his circumstances didn''t allow him to question the authenticity of David''s words.


    "Pardon my rudeness! Let me introduce myself first. You can call me Bryan and for the fact why am I here.. isn''t it pretty obvious."


    Bryan calmly spoke while looking at David.


    Hearing his words David smiled and pointed towards the chair.


    "Let us discuss the details over a cup of coffee."


    Hearing David words the expression on Bryan''s face stiffend.


    "Coffee?"


    Bryan had no idea what David was talking about although he was familiar with cups but he had never heard about Coffee.


    David walked ahead and sat down on one of the nearby chairs.


    Following behind David, Bryan also wanted to sit down and see what coffee really was?


    However, when he tried to move the chair closer his expression froze.


    "What the¡­.!"


    Confused, Bryan took a closer look at the chair, upon closer inspection he found the chair to be a little familiar.


    "Yes, city lord mansion." Suddenly his eyes flashed with clarity. Moreover, upon a closer look everything in this hall screamed luxury.


    "Here is your coffee Mr. Bryan, hope you like it."


    David placed a cup made of unknown material filled with pre black coffee.


    After placing the cup and not waiting for Bryan''s reaction. He in a practiced motion bought the cup closer to his mouth and took a sip.


    Throwing caution to the wind Bryan also took a sip with a little bit of expectation as he couldn''t feel the presence of mana inside the cup.


    As no matter how good this coffee was without the presence of mana it was worthless.


    The moment drops of coffee entered his mouth, Bryan''s lips quivered. He felt as if it was struck by lightning.


    The world around became much more clearer, the bottleneck that he was stuck on started to disappear as if it never existed to begin with.


    A single sip of coffee caused such huge changes in his body. Bryan found his situation quite laughable.


    The decades of training and resources that he had consumed felt worthless in front of this seemingly ordinary black liquid without mana.


    In this hall Bryan wasn''t the only one who was shocked. David was also looking at the changes in facial expressions of Bryan in wonder.


    He was wondering how could human beings display such a myriad of emotions while sipping coffee.


    He wondered if there was really something different about it.


    In order to test, he took a large mouthful and gulped it down. However, to him it was the same old coffee, bitter and sweet at the same time.


    "Thank-you so much Mr¡­?"


    "David" David just casually threw his name.


    "Thank-you so much Mr. David I will forever remain indebted."

 All hail the coffee

    "Ahem! Mr. David, do you have more of this Coffee?"


    Bryan asked with an ecstatic look on his face. If he managed to get a steady supply of this drink, the profit that he made would be unimaginable.


    Hearing Bryan''s inquiry, David raised one of his eyebrows and looked and looked at him questioningly. However, suddenly something seemed to have clicked in David''s mind.


    He first looked at Bryan and then at the coffee cup in his hand instantly understanding everything.


    So after hearing Bryan''s words, he casually nodded as If it was no big deal, and it wasn''t like he was lying here from what he could tell there was almost unlimited supply of coffee in the shop function.


    Seeing David nod, Bryan became even more excited forgetting that he didn''t even know David properly.


    Bryan wasn''t a foolish man. After a moment of excitement his head became clear and he was able to think properly before doing anything he had to build trust first.


    "Mr. David I need an immediate loan of 50,000 spirit stones to repay my dues. If I don''t credit on time I am afraid this will be disastrous for myself."


    Bryan placed himself in a disadvantageous position by telling David about his precarious situation but Bryan didn''t mind as it was necessary for his plan.


    David nodded at him smilingly, he couldn''t bother about these minor details.


    "No big deal,"


    David looked at Bryan encouragingly. At the same time a white paper appeared in his hand out of nowhere.


    "For how long do you need, just fill in the details and sign the agreement. I will hand the amount to you."


    He slid the paper in front of Bryan and smiled.


    "Spiritual agreement!"


    Bryan muttered albeit a little absentmindedly. He was more focused as to how this paper appeared out of thin air.


    "Are the rumours really true?"


    Bryan suddenly remembered about a hot rumour that was circulating throughout the Deadwood city.


    "A genius from the Rising Sun Empire had managed to create an unconventional storage treasure that could make things appear out of nowhere."


    "Was Mr. David from the Rising Sun Empire?"


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Bryan''s head was filled with tons of questions but he shook his head and focused on the agreement in front of him.


    Bryan started to read casually and was instantly surprised.


    "2 percent per month for short term loans."


    Bryan found the interest really low but he wasn''t happy. He guessed there might be something more to it.


    As soon as he reached the last line of the agreement he finally understood.


    "50 percent per day, if anyone missed the deadline."


    "Bank Of Eternal Origin my foot, it was better to call it the bank of Eternal Debt."


    Bryan cursed in his head. Whoever came up with such a condition really had a black heart.


    He looked at the innocently smiling black haired youth in front him. Who knew such a handsome and charismatic youth would have such a black heart.


    Unknowingly, Bryan had misunderstood something: these conditions weren''t the Brain child of David but were cooked by The bank of Eternal Origin.


    However, without hesitating Bryan signed the agreement with his mana as he didn''t need the money for a long period of time.


    After signing, he handed the agreement to David. Who carefully looked at it after confirming everything, he nodded.


    "50,000 spirit stones for a period of one month."


    "Here you go."


    Once again a bag filled with spirit stones appeared out of nowhere on the table.


    "Feel free to count yourself."


    David smilingly said, he was also curious about what method the people here use to count money.


    However, Bryan just shook his head.


    "It''s okay I''m sure you wouldn''t try to scam someone in such a broad daylight."


    Bryan just commented with a smile on his face. He didn''t really need to count every spirit stone individually, here his Crystallisation of life came into play.


    Money talks was the name of Bryan''s Crystallisation which allowed him to accurately assess the amount of money that was in front of him instantly.


    After picking the bag he bowed and hurriedly left.


    David looked at the receding back of Bryan''s and wondered how long it would take for him to come back.


    Just as he was about to get up from his chair his vision was bombarded by floating windows one after the other.


    [Congratulations on successfully disbursing your first loan but it''s just the first step. Banking isn''t just about handing money to people but also protecting your own interest. Host is deemed too weak and puts the bank in a vulnerable position, so it is advisable for the host to begin cultivating as soon as possible.]


    "Okay but I ain''t reading all that." David nonchalantly commented and skipped the reading the first box and focused on smaller ones that had little text in them.


    [Mission: find a way to Cultivate within one month.


    Reward: Helping staff


    Penalty: the shop function will be turned off for two months.]


    David closed the last window and got up from his seat.


    He didn''t mind this new mission as it perfectly aligned with his goals and reward was also something that he needed.


    In fact, David was thinking about hiring some employees.


    The mission came just at the right time.


    David also left the vicinity of the bank and headed out. Cultivation technique wasn''t going Fall on his lap from the sky, he had to go out of his way and find it himself.


    Within the bustling city, the streets were packed full of people and noises made by them could be heard everywhere. On both sides of the streets were buildings similar to David''s bank with people going in and coming out in large numbers.


    David walked through the busy streets of Deadwood city. No matter where he looked he wasn''t able to find a single cultivator let alone clues about cultivation technique.


    Deadwood city was one of the four main cities of the Blackthorn Empire ruled by the Blackthorn family for hundreds of years.


    The city was divided into two parts similar to every other city in the Blackthorn Empire. Upper and lower city, David''s bank was situated just at the border of upper city and was one of the busiest places in the city.

 Arrogant Lady

    Not far away from the place where David''s bank was situated.


    In a highly luxurious building made entirely from white marble an important meeting was taking place.


    Sitting on a throne made of unknown material a man with broad shoulders and and hair that reached below his waist was looking into the distance without any emotion.


    Anyone who was living in the Deadwood city for enough time knew who this man was, the leader of Black Horse trading company Clio.


    His story was a classical one, rising from rags to riches within a span of a single decade.


    Contrary to the calm and uncaring appearance of the Clio.


    A man fearfully looked at Clio while holding a piece of paper. The uncomfortable silence was causing the man to shiver. The back of the man was drenched in cold sweat.


    "So you''re telling me someone else took the property that I was eyeing for."


    Clio suddenly spoke, his voice was slightly hoarse as If he hadn''t spoken for a long time.


    "B~Boss! Please forgive me. I ¡­" The man realised what awaited him next. In desperation he started to beg for forgiveness.


    Swoosh!


    Suddenly, Clio disappeared from his throne and appeared in front of the man like a ghost. With a single hand he grabbed the man''s throat and lifted him up in the air.


    "Let me tell you something. If I don''t get the property in three days, you wouldn''t have to worry about your daughter going to the Deadwood academy ."


    When Clio said those words his eyes turned slightly reptilian. After saying those words he threw the man to the side and muttered in a low voice.


    "Bank of Eternal Origin¡­hmm interesting."


    *


    *


    David wasn''t just randomly moving, he decided to visit the store of the middle aged men that he had visited a few days before.


    He had a gut feeling that the place might give some clues.


    David followed the direction from his memories and arrived at the familiar looking shop.


    Unlike before the shop was filled. With people going in and coming out one after the other.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    David was also able to find the shopkeeper sitting on the counter while haggling with a young lady similar to his age with a calm expression on his face.


    The young lady was dressed in a green gown covering her entire body except her milky hands. She pointed her finger in one corner of the room and said something which David wasn''t able to hear. Strands of her black hair danced in front of her forehead as she haggled with the shopkeeper.


    The scene was quite mesmerising. Some of the men were intently looking at this scene with strange looks in their eyes. While the women looked at it with a tinge of jealousy in their eyes.


    David didn''t directly approach the shopkeeper but scanned the shop looking for clues.


    He ignored everything else and directly moved to the corner where he was able to find a bookshelf.


    He started picking books one by one.


    "History of the Blackthorn Empire."


    "How Great cultivator Rexton discovered the principle behind teleportation."


    "Why is the city named Deadwood city?"


    "How to survive in Deadwood forest."


    "You failed to enter Deadwood Academy, Now what?"


    David raised his eyebrows at the names of the books. The author really knows how to name their books.


    He was interested in every book that he came across but strangely there wasn''t any book dealing with cultivation.


    The bookshelf was filled with books of myriad topics ranging from strange topics explaining how to drink water, to the incomprehensible topic such as where to find Dystopian Dragon.


    David had no ideas what a Dystopian Dragon was.


    After some time he decided to pick a book that he found suitable and walked toward the middle aged shopkeeper.


    Fortunately, he was just in time as the shopkeeper had just finished dealing with the young lady who was grinning from ear to ear while counting the number of spirit stones that she had received from the shopkeeper.


    The shopkeeper seems to have recognised David and smiled at him.


    David realised that and smiled back in courtesy while placing the book that he wanted in front of him.


    "1,000 spirit stones!"


    The shopkeeper looked at the book lying on the counter and quoted a price with a serious face.


    Hearing the shopkeeper''s words David almost fell down.


    "1,000 spirit stones for a book." David inwardly cursed while trying to maintain a poker face.


    However, the shopkeeper seemed to have understood his thoughts and smiled amicably at him and spoke while laughing.


    "Ha ha ha.. you think I am taking advantage of you.


    "Do you even know, it is one of the books authored by General Bikali when he was young."


    By the way, the young lady seemed to have done counting her money and heard the shopkeeper ''s words.


    "Country Bumpkin." She looked in the direction of David and disdainfully commented before walking away.


    She seemed quite proud and raised her head a little higher.


    However David paid no heed to her words but he made a mental note of her.


    David just placed a pouch containing 1000 spirit stones in front of the shopkeeper that he had prepared earlier.


    "Here you go."


    The shopkeeper smilingly said and gave the book to David.


    "Ahem! Shopkeeper.."


    "I wanted to ask if you have any cultivation techniques."


    David politely said and expectantly looked at the shopkeeper.


    "Oh! Cultivation technique. Unfortunately, the merchants of lower city can''t sell cultivation techniques. It''s prohibited by the government."


    "However, if you want to buy one you can always try your luck in the upper city."


    The shopkeeper added in the end after some thought.


    "There is no restriction in the upper city?"


    David asked while frowning.


    The shopkeeper just nodded at his words, and didn''t have the time to elaborate further as he couldn''t keep his customer waiting for long.


    David thanked the shopkeeper and hurriedly left while carrying the book with him.


    He tried to look for the lady in a green gown. However, she was nowhere to be found.

 Origin guard in action

    Unknowingly, it was already night-time. The silvery rays of the moon lit up the surroundings.


    Compared to day, the streets of Deadwood City were even more lively at night.


    Something similar to streetlights kept the road and shops running.


    David''s mood eased; he preferred nightlife more in comparison to the day. Now, in a good mood, he forgot about the lady in the green gown and started walking happily, while humming a tune.


    After some time, he finally arrived near his bank. However, the scene in front of the bank caused him to frown.


    Dozens of fierce-looking men, dressed in black coats were coldly looking at the entrance of the bank. Each of them were holding a sword in their hands; anyone could tell with a glance their intentions weren''t good.


    Moreover, some of them appeared to be cultivators.


    And, as to why they were waiting at the entrance instead of charging inside was a mystery.


    However, David didn''t have to wait for long, and he soon found his answer.


    A man came running toward the group from a distance. Similar to the group, he was also dressed in a black coat.


    The man got closer to the leader of the group and said something. David wasn''t able to hear everything properly due to the distance between them, but he understood one or two things.


    He was talking about permission and bringing local officials who maintained law and order in this market.


    "Hmmm! So, they were waiting for the right moment to attack."


    David muttered under his breath. Vigilant, he started backing away a little, not daring to attract attention.


    First, he needed to assess the level of danger. He didn''t want to deal with anything beyond his control.


    Eyeing the leader of the group, he requested a status report from the bank.


    [Warning! Hostile intent from the target detected]


    [Charges for status report are waived as the target is a direct threat for the foundation of the bank.]


    [Target- Clio henchmen]


    [Cost- nil]


    [Yes/No]


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    David instantly proceded with the status report, and window displaying the status of Clio henchmen appeared in front of him.


    [Name - Mat Henry


    Age - 21


    Potential - G grade


    Cultivation - Body Refining Rank 2


    Crystallisation of Life - Minor inconvenience.


    Investment Grade - Junk


    Remark - Following his boss'' orders to reclaim the bank building. Please neutralise the target quickly.


    Affiliation- Black Horse Trading Company]


    David first sighed with relief. The leader of the group Mat Henry was just at body Refining Rank 2, he was just a minor inconvenience.


    While David was examining the status report, the group wasn''t idle. They started charging towards entrance of the bank led by Mat Henry.


    "Dammit, how dare a no-name bank try to take the building which our Black Horse Trading company had its sights on."


    "Owner come the fuck out, and kowtow three time in front of us, and we might show little mercy."


    Mat Henry shouted with a ruthless grin on his face.


    Hearing his words, strange smiles appeared on the faces of his subordinates. They were aware of the weird fetish of the boss Henry, giving false hope to the target.


    "I am going to smash this place if you don''t come out here right now." Mat arrogantly raised his sword above his head. He wanted to strike terror in the heart of the bank owner. From what he had heard, the owner of this bank was just a poor mortal.


    To him this task was already finished, but he wanted to toy with the mortal for enjoyment.


    However, after repeatedly shouting, there was no reaction from the bank. Mat''s expectations of the mortal running down  and kowtowing did not come true.


    Mat was furious. How dare a mere mortal ignore his words? He felt as if the crowd behind was gloatingly looking at him.


    Unknown to Mat, his life was going to take a u- turn before he could even realise it.


    Just as Mat was about to enter the bank and punish the mortal for his audacity, a towering behemoth dressed in full plate body armour appeared in front of them and blocked their way.


    "Warning! Intruder detected."


    "Initiating stage One protocol."


    The last thing that Mat heard was a ghostly voice before a sword hit him directly on his chest, sending him flying along with his group.


    The rest of the people who weren''t directly hit by the sword felt as if their mind wind was being hit by a sharp nail and fainted on the spot.


    The gap between the Origin Guard and Clio''s henchmen was huge. The origin Guard practically didn''t need to do anything to take care of them.


    His actions weren''t deadly as the guard judged the threat to be minimal and thereby adopted softer measures to deal with the problem.


    When the Origin Guard was done dealing with Clio''s henchmen, David came out of the shadows and looked at the scene with a serious face.


    Looking at the people scattered on the ground, he realised a serious problem. If these people, instead of targeting the bank, had targeted him directly, then the consequences would have been unimaginable.


    David suddenly felt a sense of urgency in his heart. He couldn''t afford to delay his cultivation any longer.


    Origin Guard couldn''t be at two places simultaneously; either he could guard the bank or stay with him.


    Taking a deep breath and calming down his raging thoughts, David walked toward the unconscious Mat and crouched down.


    David started checking his body to find anything useful.


    After searching for a minute, he found a pouch in his back pocket filled with spirit stones.


    David weighed the pouch with his hand to estimate the number of spirit stones in it.


    According to his guess, there were barely a thousand spirit stones in the pouch.


    "What a poor scumbag."


    David cursed and started searching bodies of the other members.


    After half an hour, he was done and he managed to find roughly 5,000 spirit stones. After placing these stones with the bank, he ordered the Origin Guard to throw these people away from the bank.

 Oppressive feeling

    "Man, I''m so tired."


    David took a sip of coffee and muttered in a tired voice. He had huge dark circles under his eyes, looking like someone who hadn''t slept for ages.


    Because of yesterday''s incident, David didn''t sleep last night. In fact, he went through the book that he had purchased yesterday, and by the morning he was done reading the book.


    Overall, it was worth 1,000 spirit stones. He managed to learn some crucial information.


    A cultivator who hadn''t managed to get into Deadwood Academy could take two paths: either to join an organisation or to wander around as a rogue cultivator.


    Well, let''s not even talk about being a rogue cultivator as it was pointless; no one wanted to be in their position.


    So, after careful consideration, David decided to join an organization. Even the author of the book was in favour of that decision and had repeatedly stressed on that point.


    The book had named three or four organization''s that were active in the upper city.


    The secretive Black Spades, the organisation was mysterious compared to the others. The author only knew that it existed but he didn''t have any other information about it.


    The Society of Enlightened: the tone of the author was a little strange when he had mentioned this organization.


    Third was the North River Sect, about which the author was the most optimistic and had repeatedly expressed his regret in not being able to join.


    And lastly, the strongest of them all, the Nether Cult. As the name itself would suggest, they mainly dealt with dead beings and therefore were not looked upon favorably by others.


    If it weren''t for the City Lord, the Deadwood City would have long been taken over by them.


    Now that he had a general idea about the political situation of the city, David decided to move ahead and join one of the organisations.


    Although the author hadn''t explicitly mentioned the reason, he had repeatedly advised joining one of the organization''s to make your journey smoother.


    David had a gut feeling that the author could be trusted. Moreover, judging by the reaction of the shopkeeper and the green gowned lady, the author of the book had a great reputation. Therefore, his words could be trusted.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    After finishing his coffee, David exited the building and started walking in the direction of the upper city. From the bank, the upper city wasn''t far away.


    Contrary to its name, the upper city wasn''t really an upper city in a literal sense. It was called the upper city because that''s where cultivators and wealthy people lived.


    The upper city and lower city were separated by a huge circular wall made of sandstone for unknown reasons.


    Walking for merely five minutes, he arrived near the wall and looked at the row of people standing in a straight line waiting for their chance to get inside after proper verification.


    David found these scenes strange; they were treating people of their own city with such strict measures.


    He hadn''t been inside the upper city before, so he had indeed no idea what they were doing.


    "Punk don''t cut the line."


    Somebody grabbed David shoulder from behind and forcefully pulled him back.


    Unknowingly, while pondering he had walked ahead in the line.


    David raised his eyebrows and turned his head to look at the person who dared to grab his shoulder.


    His gaze met a burly man dressed in leather armor and with a couple of blood stains on his torso.


    "Did this bastard think he could intimidate him?"


    David angrily thought and brought one of his fingers to his lips in a gesture to silence the man.


    "Was he a pushover?"


    "Next?"


    However, their little episode had to be interrupted; because it was the burly man''s turn next.


    The burly man looked at David coldly and moved ahead.


    After some time, it was David''s turn.


    Standing in front of a three-foot-tall cube made of metal, David patiently waited for the procedure to finish.


    Suddenly, his whole being was drowned by red light from all directions.


    "Contamination level - 10%"


    "Status - safe"


    A man with a head full of white hair announced a plain voice.


    "Next."


    "This is your report, please carry it with yourself all the time. And in case you lose it, please contact the staff as soon as possible."


    A woman dressed in official attire handed David a red slip, and spoke with an amicable smile on her lips.


    David nodded, took the slip from her, and walked away from the cube.


    He could finally enter the city.


    David felt like he was trying to cross a border from one country to another.


    After the test, he was on the other side of the wall.


    Just as David crossed the boundary and entered upper city, he suddenly felt an oppressive feeling from all around him, as if the world itself was rejecting him.


    He wondered what had changed; he had never felt such a feeling when he was in the lower city.


    David found it difficult to breathe and in barely a moment, his clothes were drenched in sweat.


    Huff! Huff!


    He took in a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. After five minutes, his body had finally calmed down.


    "Are you okay, sir? It seems this is your first time coming here."


    A young melodious voice called out to David from his side.


    David turned his head in surprise; he didn''t feel the presence of anyone beside him. So, how can he suddenly hear someone''s voice?


    Beside him was a girl not much older than him, who was politely looking at his face.


    The girl had oval face and almond shaped green eyes that were focused on David.


    She was dressed in a white robe that hid her curves perfectly. Her long blonde hair gave her an alluring appearance. Her cherry red lips opened as she spoke again.


    "I can help you navigate through the city in return for a small amount of spirit stones."


    Her voice had strange attractiveness that made it hard for David to resist her words.


    He subconsciously nodded at her words.

 Cooked

    Suddenly, he felt a rush of energy coming from his head and diffusing through his body.


    The attraction he felt from the girl''s voice disappeared. Finally understanding what had happened, David''s eyes grew cold.


    The girl had tried to manipulate him. Such actions were unforgivable.


    "Oh really, why do you think I need your service?"


    David spoke in a cold voice and looked around him. He was able to find a couple in similar situations to his own.


    David might not know it, but the girl who approached him was a guide who helped the newcomers adjust to this new environment.


    In fact, it was a pretty common sight in the upper city.


    The blonde-haired girl looked at David with a shocked expression on her face. Her name was Emilia, and this wasn''t her first time when she used her Crystallisation of Life on mortals who had just arrived in the upper city to make a killing.


    There has never been anyone below foundation building Realm; who had been able to resist her, let''s not even talk about mortals. Therefore, her shock was genuine.


    David decided to look at her Crystallisation of Life because he was also curious about it. In case he encountered something similar he wanted to have some degree of countermeasures.


    [Request for status report.]


    [Target- Emilia Blackthorn]


    [Cost- 10,000 spirit stones]


    [Yes/No]


    "Blackthorn?"


    "10,000 spirit stones for a status report."


    David yelled in his head. Half of the hostility that he felt disappeared as if it never existed.


    Ahem!


    He cleared his throat and took one good look at the girl in front of him.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "O~of course, i would be grateful for your help"


    David smiled charmingly and politely said. At the same time, he also paid 10,000 spirit stones for the report.


    [Name- Emilia Blackthorn


    Age- 20


    Potential- A grade [The Mind Demoness]


    Cultivation- Half-Step Foundation Building


    Crystallisation of Life- Sentient Seer


    Investment Grade- AAA


    Remark- the love affair between the city lord of Deadwood city and house help resulted in her birth. She was abandoned by her parents right after being born but all wasn''t bad for her, she was blessed by immense talent and is bound to soar to greater heights in the future.]


    David was left speechless by the information in front of him.


    "Hello! Sir, are you okay?"


    Emilia worriedly looked at David''s face and asked with concern. Her eyebrows were scrunched up together in confusion.


    However, David didn''t care about her words, he was more concerned with the information that he was seeing.


    "AAA investment grade."


    "Half-Step Foundation Building."


    David had recently come to know that the next realm after body Refining was Foundation Building. She was the strongest cultivator that he had met in his life.


    But David didn''t understand one thing why she was doing such odd jobs.


    Moreover, she had the best investment grade that he had seen. He had to invest in her at all costs.


    His Crystallisation of Life wasn''t just about giving loans to people, but it also had an important function.


    If he somehow helped a cultivator or for that matter invested some amount of capital. He was going to receive something back in return when that cultivator breakthrough.


    Let''s take Emilia as an example: if David invested his capital in her or helped her. His cultivation was going to increase, every time she made a breakthrough.


    David''s eyes started to shine. He forgot about her earlier behavior, to him she was just like a penny stock that was ready to boom given her potential.


    David decided to yolo all his capital on her.


    "Ahem! I am fine. I was just momentarily confused due to the change in environment."


    David took a deep breath and calmly spoke while trying to hold his excitement back.


    "I understand."


    Emilia''s eyes suddenly shone with understanding; she seems to have understood something and nodded.


    "I see, your body isn''t familiar with mana."


    "Concentration of mana in the upper city is higher compared to lower city; some difficulty in adjusting is to be expected."


    Hearing her words the doubts that David had in his head were also cleared.


    "Anyways, can you please help me? I want to join the North River."


    "Also can you help me familiarize with the general situation of the upper city."


    Emilia nodded at his words but kept silent as if waiting for something.


    David took the cue and hurriedly brought a bag filled with spirit stones and threw it in her direction.


    Emilia caught the bag and smiled. David also felt a thin connection forming between Emilia and himself.


    "Oh! So you want to join the North River Sect, an excellent choice."


    "Let us talk while we walk towards the office of the sect."


    Emilia started to walk after finishing her sentence. He also followed behind her, Emilia''s pace was neither too fast nor slow, so David was able to comfortably keep up with her.


    David looked at the buildings and alleys and found many differences between the architecture design of the two cities.


    The general design was the same, however compared to the lower city, the walls of the upper city seemed to have been carved with unknown symbols.


    David wanted to ask her about these symbols but before he could even open his mouth Emilia pointed at the pouch filled with spirit stones and demanded more.


    David was more than happy to give all his life-saving but he had to pretend with a frowning expression he handed her more spirit stones.


    She took the spirit stones from him in a flash and happily started to explain.


    "Well, these are the arrays carved by a formation master to increase the concentration of mana¡­"


    Emilia spoke at great length about the array with a serious expression on her face.


    Just like this, whenever David encountered something new he would look at Emilia and give her more spirit stones.


    And soon it had reached to the point where even Emilia was looking at David strangely, after all David was too eager to give her money.


    In half an hour she had received roughly 10,000 spirit stones from this black haired youth beside her.


    She then suddenly remembered a quote from a book that she had read recently.


    "Handsome people were generally dumb."


    When they finally reached their destination, Emilia had only one question in her mind.


    "He can''t be the illegitimate son of City Lord, right?"

 Joined the North river sect

    Emilia looked at David worriedly. She felt he was too innocent for his own good.


    The upper city was a ruthless place for young and innocent people like him. After all, only she knew how she had survived when she was still a frail youth.


    Her destiny only changed when she awakened her Crystallisation of Life.


    She had received a total of 40,000 spirit stones from David. If not for her refusal, he would have given even more spirit stones.


    David looked a little sad after her repeated rejections and muttered something that wasn''t audible to Emilia.


    "Please take care of yourself, sir."


    With those words she expressed her gratitude and left.


    David looked at her receding figure blankly, not caring about the grand building in front of him.


    "Dammn, if only I had more spirit stones."


    "That bastard Bryan! if he hadn''t come that day, I would have even more money for yoloing."


    David was pretty sure he was not going to meet any such talented individuals on a daily basis.


    Right now his feelings were just like an investor who had missed a bull market.


    Whatever. He will have even more chances in the future.


    "Get out of the way, you moron!"


    David suddenly heard the sound of something coming in his direction at a fast speed, instinctively he sidestepped.


    Nyihhh! Huff!


    A carriage pulled by demon horses zipped past him. If he hadn''t moved when he heard the warning¡­..


    David finally realized he was standing in the middle of a road that led to the huge building in front of him.


    He hurriedly moved to the walkway and looked at the stunning scene before him.


    A tall building with an even more tall gate was situated beside a serene river.


    Pointed arches and humongous windows gave the place a noble air.


    This building was the headquarters of NorthRiver Sect.


    Rows of people dressed in flowing navy blue robes entered and exited the place in large numbers.


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    David followed them and entered inside. He found himself in a large hall filled with people sitting and doing their own things.


    Some were chatting, while some were eating their food.


    "Have you heard about the genius from the Rising Sun Empire?"


    "Who gives a shit about that pipsqueak."


    "Take this money and bring a bottle of wine for me."


    The atmosphere was extremely wild.


    They were drinking and chatting happily.


    David noticed a girl with the word help written in front of her desk.


    He hurriedly walked in her direction and cleared his throat before speaking.


    "Ahem! I want to join the North River Sect."


    The girl ignored his words and didn''t even look at him. She pointed to the rows of chairs to the left of her desk and said in a plain voice.


    "Wait here."


    Shaking his head he went to one of the chairs and sat down.


    He was furious, David absolutely hated it when he wasn''t taken seriously.


    Sigh!


    David shook his head and cleared his head of useless thoughts. He looked here and there to kill time.


    After some time a boy, roughly twenty years old, arrived at the girl''s desk and repeated the same words that he had spoken a moment ago. And just like the last time the reaction of the girl was the same.


    He came to the side and sat down. And,


    after one hour there were at atleast twenty people beside him sitting on the chair.


    When people started to get anxious, an elder dressed in a navy blue robe arrived. He scanned all the people present with a sharp gaze.


    David felt a sudden pressure weighing down on his shoulders when the elderly man looked at him. He could only relax when the man shifted his gaze away from him.


    "Anyone above 20 percent contamination, raise your hand?"


    The elder announced in a loud voice.


    Of the twenty people present, roughly 10 to 11 raised their hands.


    "Move to the side and leave."


    The elder nodded at them and announced in a plain voice without any emotion.


    The people who had raised their hand were shocked by the sudden words of the elder. After all, they have come here with hopes, and dreams not to be suddenly rejected.


    "Elder Milke, I was told by my father about your great name. Please accept this token of appreciation from him."


    At this time a youth dressed in luxurious clothing suddenly spoke. He bowed and handed the elder a pouch.


    After receiving the pouch, the elder looked at the youth approvingly and signalled him to join the group which was allowed to stay.


    The luxuriously dressed youth thanked the elder and looked at the people present with a disdainful gaze.


    And for the rest of the people, no matter how much they begged, they were not allowed to stay.


    "Congratulations,everyone. Welcome to the North River Sect."


    The elder suddenly smiled and spoke in a cheerful voice. His face, which was filled with wrinkles, looked especially hideous when he smiled.


    "Just like this, I have joined."


    David muttered with an unbelievable expression on his face. Considering that he didn''t find a single clue about the cultivation technique, he thought joining an organization was going to be a seriously challenging task.


    The luxuriously dressed youth seemed to have noticed David''s reaction and spoke in a haughty tone.


    "They don''t want to give techniques to the people with high levels of contamination."


    David quietly listened to his words and waited for him to elaborate.


    Although David didn''t understand the meaning of the boy''s words, he just nodded. He didn''t want to appear ignorant.


    He seriously lacked in the information department.


    "Hmmmph! Enough chit-chatting."


    "Now, follow me to get your cultivation technique."


    After saying these words, the elder started to walk.


    They moved deeper inside the building, and elders started to explain the rules and regulations about the sect.


    "Although the joining process is lax, don''t expect us to feed you with a silver spoon."


    "You will have to work for the sect and contribute."


    The elder continuously spoke for half an hour without stopping, familiarising them with ins and outs of the sect.


    After some time they finally stopped in front of a huge hall that was filled with bookshelves to the brim.

 Purple thunder

    "Choose a cultivation technique carefully, as it is going to be one of the most important decisions of your cultivation journey."


    Elder Mike announced in a serious voice, and signaled them to enter and choose.


    Finally getting permission from the elder, David rushed inside the hall and started to go through books one by one.


    According to what Elder Mike had just told them, it was better to choose your first cultivation technique as a simple technique. After familiarizing yourself with the process, you can switch your technique once again.


    Although cultivation techniques were important, what was even more important was their Crystallisation of life.


    They had to choose a technique that matched their Crystallisation of Life.


    But here, David found himself in a dilemma; unlike others, he wasn''t familiar with his Crystallization of Life.


    As he had just truly awakened unlike them who had the clear advantage.


    Moreover, he couldn''t ignore the fact that he had two Crystallisations.


    Bank of Eternal Origin seemed to be an auxiliary type of Crystallisation, and he didn''t even know what his second Crystallisations of Life was capable of.


    He just knew its name.


    "Domain of Zenith Sovereign."


    Other than that he had no ideas about it.


    David glanced through books after books without any direction.


    Unlike him, the luxuriously dressed youth moved with clear purpose.


    His eyes seem to be looking for something in this ocean of books.


    Suddenly, the youth expression turned overjoyed and he rushed in the direction of David.


    David was surprised by the sudden appearance of the luxuriously dressed youth and frowned.


    Wondering why the guy had suddenly appeared here?


    However, the youth ignored David and looked at two books with a difficult expression on his face.


    As if he was not sure about which book to choose.


    Suddenly, youth took a deep breath and decisively chose one of the books and left.


    David watched this scene without any reaction.


    From the youth reaction, he could guess that he had some insider information.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Suddenly, understanding something David walked towards the book that youth hadn''t chosen.


    The book appeared ancient; it was covered in dust as if one had even bothered to touch it in years.


    David knew the value of insider information, and decisively chose the book and left.


    He walked back to where the elder was and told him about his choices.


    Elder Mike simply looked at him and nodded.


    He didn''t seem to be particularly interested in David''s book.


    "Come here."


    He signaled David to come near him.


    As instructed before he handed the book to Elder Mike and waited.


    As soon as the book reached the hands of Elder Mike it started to glow with a silvery color.


    Elder Mike''s eyes flashed and he threw the flow in the direction of David''s forehead.


    The silvery glow hit David''s forehead and disappeared.


    In an instant, David fell Into a trance-like state, and unknown information started to flood his mind.


    When his mind finally cleared, David was covered in sweat.


    "Purple Thunder Technique."


    "So, this is a cultivation technique. It''s so wondrous¡­"


    David thought to himself, the first level of the technique generated a purple thunder in his body.


    The purple thunder with the passage of time would nourish his body and strengthen it.


    And of course, it would also allow him to absorb Mana from the surroundings.


    David was very excited, he had finally gotten his hands on a cultivation technique.


    However, when he tried to remender the technique he couldn''t.


    "Quit daydreaming young man and prepare yourself for your first mandatory mission."


    The voice of Elder Mike brought him out of his daydreams.


    David shook his head, calmed himself down and nodded.


    As Elder Mike said, he will have to do at least one mission mandatorily. David had no problem with the mission and he was going to be paid as well.


    David bowed in the direction of Elder Mike and left.


    "And one more thing, don''t forget to collect your monthly allowance and necessary items from the reception desk."


    David heard the voice of the Elder from behind him and nodded in acknowledgement.


    So he just walked directly toward the reception desk.


    The girl didn''t treat him like last time and smiled while looking at him.


    "Congratulations! Junior brother."


    "You can call me senior sister Jessica from now on."


    David was stunned by her behavior. He only nodded at her words and didn''t say anything else.


    "And here is your storage ring."


    Jessica didn''t seem to care about David''s reaction. Following her words, she threw a ring in the direction of David.


    David caught the ring and looked at the ring in confusion.


    He had just heard a rumor about it now he was seeing the real deal.


    Senior sister Jessica seemed to have understood Dawn''s thought and smiled mysteriously before speaking.


    "The news is five years old, don''t worry about it."


    Indeed, it was to be expected.


    "This ring will be used as the main channel of communication and also as your identification badge, so please take care of it."


    David thanked her and took his leave. He couldn''t wait to reach his home and began cultivating.


    *


    *


    At night.


    David was sitting inside his room, in a cross-legged position. He followed the instructions and tried to feel the mana present in the atmosphere.


    He wasn''t very optimistic. According to the instructions. If your talent was average, it might take up to one month to feel the mana.


    However, to his shock as soon he tried it he felt a gentle current of mana rushing toward his head.


    David was stunned. He didn''t know how to react.


    Even the most talented people took at least one day before they were able to feel the mana in the atmosphere. However, he succeeded as soon as he tried it.


    David found the situation to be unbelievable. He had to pinch his cheeks to make sure he wasn''t dreaming.


    Only after that he felt a slight pain, that he realized he wasnt in a dream.


    He had managed to succeed in his first try.


    When David was in a shock, the mana continued to flow inside his body as if a black hole was inside him.


    Unknown to David, a strange scene was happening inside his head or to be more specific in his spiritual sea.

 Smile of a devil

    Two beads of light, one black and the other white, circle around each other like two neutron stars. Their spinning seemed to be distorting the space inside David''s spiritual sea.


    Unknown to David, cracks had started to appear inside his spiritual sea. The power emitted by the two beads was frightening.


    However, none seemed to overpower the other. Soon, they come into harmony, like yin and yang. Strengthening and empowering each other.


    As soon as the two symbols stabilized, David felt a sense of Dejavu that he had never felt before.


    He felt as if he had been reborn.


    The way he perceived the world had changed.


    His vision became even more clearer. Earlier, if his vision was like a 144p camera then now it was like a 4k video.


    Although he was sitting on the third floor of the building, he could slightly hear the footsteps of the Origin Guard on the first floor.


    His skin, which was whiter than snow, suddenly started to wrinkle and was repeatedly replaced by even more perfect skin.


    David felt as if his entire being was transformed.


    He was like a caterpillar that had transformed into a butterfly, ready to spread its wings and fly away.


    David tried to take control of the mana that was rushing toward his head with the help of the Purple Thunder technique.


    Something even more magical happened. The mana that was earlier like a rebellious child suddenly became docile as a puppy.


    Hummm!


    Surge of purple currents started to appear around David like dancing snakes.


    They appeared and disappeared in a flash.


    The scene caused a smile to appear on David''s face.


    He had finally succeeded.


    He was now a Body Refining Realm cultivator.


    All the hard work had been worth it.


    [Mission successfully completed.]


    [Reward has been deposited in your inventory.]


    David suddenly heard the notification from the bank of Eternal Origin. However, before he could properly take a look at it and see what the reward was¡­


    David felt an unprecedented surge of mana coming in his direction.


    The amount was huge, far greater than what he had handled just a moment ago.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    David''s expression darkened. He mentally prepared himself for the impact.


    However, the impact that he was waiting for didn''t happen.


    In fact, it was the opposite.


    The mana gently cradled him like a baby that finally found its mother.


    David was stunned and couldn''t understand what was going on.


    However, upon thinking about it he finally understood.


    "That girl broke through."


    David muttered with a surprise on his face as the face of a blonde-haired girl appeared in his head.


    His investment had finally started to pay dividends.


    It was understandable. Emilia was already at the half-step Foundation Building realm when he had met her.


    David also understood why she was in a hurry to leave that day.


    What the hell!


    David suddenly muttered in shock.


    The white shirt that he was wearing was torn to shreds, exposing his well-developed chest muscles.


    David had gotten huge.


    That surge of mana wasn''t for nothing; it had directly promoted David to the Body Refining Realm Rank five.


    And as the name implied, his body had gotten faster and better at everything.


    When David was checking and flexing his muscles, the sun rays had started to peak inside though the window of his room.


    Unknowingly, it was already morning.


    David had been cultivating for hours without even realizing how much time had passed.


    He was on cloud nine, and the feeling of getting stronger was so addictive.


    Just like that days passed, and in the blink of an eye more than half a month flew away.


    These days David was like a child that had gotten a new toy.


    Everyday after washing up, he would perform the same routine.


    Sitting cross-legged and absorbing the mana from the atmosphere to nourish his body with the help of the Purple Thunder technique.


    Ten days ago, he had broken through and now he was at the rank six body refining realm, just inches away from rank seven.


    David found his progress to be slow. After all, Emilia who was similar to him in age was already at the Foundation Building realm.


    If someone from the Deadwood Academy were to hear his thoughts, they would surely spit blood in anger.


    This bastard had the gall to complain about his cultivation speed. The top students of Deadwood City had to work hard for three years, then only they were barely able to reach Body Refining Rank seven.


    And here he was, breaking through ranks like breathing, he still had the gall to complain.


    Too arrogant!


    Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps and a voice that he wasn''t familiar with coming from the first floor.


    "Bryan, why are you in such a hurry?"


    "What happened, can you please tell me."


    "I will help you! Please tell me, Bryan."


    David also heard a voice that he was a little familiar with.


    "So, this guy is finally back."


    David checked the time on the clock that he had recently bought from the bank''s shop and smiled.


    However, his smile was like that of a devil that had finally caught an innocent soul.


    Bryan had already defaulted on his payment. He was supposed to repay the loan yesterday.


    "Ahhh! What a good day today."


    David cheerfully commented and wore the brand new outfit that he had bought from the bank.


    After changing. He hummed a happy tune and walked downstairs.


    As soon as he got down, David eyes landed on a lady dressed in purple leather armor looking at the Origin Guard with curiosity.


    She tapped on the guard''s chest with her fingers without fear. Not caring about the middle aged men by her side who was looking at her actions a little worriedly.


    He didn''t want to anger the owner of this place.


    Bryan Krack was again in urgent need of money. Therefore, he had rushed towards the bank once again.


    The girl beside him was Fiona, his ally whom he had worked with several times in the past.


    Although, if he wanted, he could get the money from her, but Bryan didn''t want to owe her a favor.


    Moreover, the bank charged a relatively low interest rate.


    If David were to hear his thoughts, he surely would have laughed devilishly. Bryan seemed to have forgotten about the fifty per cent per day clause.


    David, however, wouldn''t surprised as this was human nature; they tend to ignore the cons and only focus on the benefits.


    He had little expectations in his heart because Bryan was a cultivator. As it turned out, he was no different than an ordinary human.

 Very good proposal

    David frowned; he felt a slight sense of danger from the girl, even when she was not looking directly at him.


    Sensing the arrival of David, Fiona looked at him and was momentarily stunned.


    What a handsome guy!


    Such a thought automatically came to her mind. Black hair and equally black eyes coupled with his chiseled face, made David look extremely attractive.


    Soon, she noticed one more thing: there was not a single strand of mana in David''s surroundings.


    That was also one of the reasons for her confusion.


    Her Crystallisation of Life allowed her to feel the mana emitted by cultivators unconsciously.


    Even Golden Core experts emitted a little bit of mana unknowingly.


    "Was he using a magical treasure to hide..."


    "Or was he a powerhouse above Golden Core¡­"


    When Fiona''s train of thought reached this point, her heartbeat started to accelerate.


    David also found her gaze to be uncomfortable.


    "Ahem! Bryan, who is she¡­?"


    He coughed and looked at Bryan questioningly.


    "Well, she is Fiona Allison, my friend."


    Bryan introduced her with a smiling face.


    When David heard his words, he couldn''t help but smile strangely.


    A middle-aged man and a girl in her early twenties.


    Bryan knows his game.


    "The girl was clearly stronger than Bryan, maybe..."


    David shook his head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts; he looked at Bryan and smiled knowingly.


    "Welcome, please take a seat." David gestured to both of them to sit down on the chairs beside him.


    Meanwhile, he placed three cups of coffee in front of them.


    Fiona seemed to be lost in her own thoughts and didn''t care about the sudden appearance Of the cup.


    Bryan, on the other hand, looks at the coffee in front of him with excitement. He hadn''t forgotten the miraculous effect of Coffee in front of him.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Without paying attention to the two of them, David gently took a sip, and a pleased expression appeared on his face.


    His taste buds seemed to be screaming in joy, demanding more.


    Similar to David, Bryan also eagerly held the pristine white cup in his hand.


    Different from the casual style of David, Bryan''s actions were gentle and careful, as if he was holding the most precious treasure in the world.


    Bryan brought the cup closer to his face and savored the aroma.


    The rising steam from the cup made his skin tingle with joy.


    He took a sip and immediately muttered.


    "So satisfying."


    "Impossible." Beside him, Fiona looked at the coffee and shouted in shock. Her eyes were opened wide as she looked at the coffee incredulously.


    When she took a single sip, she felt her body filling with an unprecedented sense of euphoria and energy; the bottlenecks that she was facing melted away like snow under the sun.


    Some people might say, what''s the big deal? Even Bryan had broken through, when had taken a sip, so what''s so surprising about it.


    But, Bryan was a lowly Body Refining cultivator, while Fiona was a full-fledged expert at the Foundation Building Realm.


    Fiona looked at Bryan and David for confirmation, if they were really witnessing this strange scene.


    However, both of them were looking at her oddly, especially David, whose gaze was a little disdainful.


    Fiona took a deep breath and calmed down; her earlier conjecture that she had regarding David solidified.


    Only an expert above Golden Core could pull out treasure like this as if they were candies.


    David looked at her strange behavior with a poker face. He could feel respect and a little bit of worship in her eyes.


    "Okay! This girl was crazy."


    David silently concluded in his head and decided to stay away from her in the future.


    Time continued to pass in silence. The three of them sat together and sipped their coffee.


    Before the situation could turn even more uncomfortable, Bryan broke the ice and spoke hesitantly.


    "Ahem! Mr. David, can you please lend me money once again?"


    David looked at him and spoke while raising his eyebrows.


    "I am afraid, I can''t. Mr. Bryan, you have not repaid your previous loan.


    "My hands are tied. I can''t issue more loans to you."


    David''s voice was a little apologetic. However, in his head, he couldn''t help but think why he needed more money.


    And to be honest, he wasn''t in favor of loaning money. After he found out how effective investments were, he was also running low on cash.


    Suddenly, David''s eyes flashed. He sat up straight and said while looking at Bryan seriously.


    "I have a proposal for you Mr. Bryan."


    Hearing his words, Bryan''s face also turned serious. Bryan had a vague feeling that this was the moment that was going to change his life forever.


    David had decided to sell the coffee through Bryan, and it wasn''t a decision that he and randomly taken, but one that he had thought a lot about.


    He needed to bolster the bank capital; moreover, he didn''t want to find himself in a situation where a gold mine was in front of him but he couldn''t buy it because of money.


    But he was also worried, given Bryan''s and Fiona''s reaction. Would he able able to handle the task?


    For David, the cost of Coffee was negligible and he could buy almost an infinite number of times from the shop.


    After hearing David''s proposal, a smile that was difficult to conceal appeared on his face.


    Fiona was also looking at this scene with bated breath. She was filled with mixed emotions, listening to their conversation. Fiona felt the world was going to change forever and the image of David in her head became even more mysterious.


    David told him to come back here five days later and he would give him a batch of freshly brewed coffee.


    Although David could give him right here and now, but he didn''t want to flood the market.


    He wanted coffee to become a novelty that was difficult to get their hands on.


    Five days later.


    Bryan came back along with Fiona. This time, he looked at the Origin Guard a little fearfully.

 D-DAY

    The aura unconsciously released by the Origin Guard made Bryan''s heart palpitate; he wasn''t the only one to have this feeling.


    Fiona was also looking at the Origin Guard with a grim expression on her face.


    Without a shred of doubt, the ten-feet tall behemoth in front of her was at the peak of Foundation Building Realm.


    But he was only at the Body Refining Realm last time she visited.


    How could he suddenly jump to a major realm?


    It was impossible.


    "Or maybe he was at the peak of the Foundation Building Realm from the beginning."


    Fiona finally understood. Thinking about it clearly, it wasn''t impossible; after all, according to her previous analysis David was someone with cultivation above the Golden Core Realm.


    She had to finally stop thinking about it as David finally arrived.


    "You guys are finally here."


    "I thought you had forgotten about my proposal."


    David happily greeted them with a wide grin on his face. He flicked his wrist in an odd manner, and following his actions, a wooden box filled with cans of coffee appeared on the ground.


    "Here are the goods. Due to shortage of supply, this is the best that I was able to do."


    Bryan looked at the rows upon rows of small cylinders neatly placed in the wooden box in amazement.


    This was his first time seeing such a strange way of storing things.


    Fiona walked forward, and picked one of the cylinders from the box, and looked at it in wonder.


    From a cursory glance, there were at least 50 such cans in the box.


    She could feel the heat emitted by the hot coffee inside the cylinder.


    "Ok, let''s discuss important matters."


    David''s face turned serious. He wanted to finish the matter and train as soon as possible. His one-month deadline was fast approaching.


    Bryan''s face was also serious. He took a deep breath and nodded.


    After a relatively long discussion of two hours, they finally agreed to split the profit in the ratio of 1:9. David would get 9 spirit stones out of 10 for example if they sold the coffee for 100 spirit stones, David would get 90 spirit stones and the remaining ten would go to Bryan.


    An extremely good deal from David''s perspective; at this point, this coffee was going to become a money-printing machine for David.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    When both of them finally left. David fell onto one of the chairs exhausted, the negotiations were always the hard part of any deal.


    During negotiations, David also understood how Bryan was able to stay in business for so many years despite being only a Body Refining Realm cultivator.


    He had almost lost it when Bryan demanded a 50 percent share.


    He was so speechless that he had forgotten to speak for a moment. It was only when David showed him his place in this deal that he reluctantly agreed.


    There was also the role of Fiona; she seemed to have convinced Bryan, as it was only after she spoke did Bryan change his stance.


    Anyways, the deal was finally sealed, so he wouldn''t have to worry about finances for the short term.


    Now that he was free, David decided to look at the reward that he had gotten after completing the bank mission.


    He gently tapped on the first column of the inventory.


    A white light flashed, and three people appeared in front of him.


    "Greetings, master."


    They bowed and respectfully greeted David.


    Among the three, one was a man, dressed in a butler uniform with a neatly groomed beard, and the other two were beautiful women.


    David was stunned by their beauty.


    Both of them were dressed in black gowns, hiding their curvaceous figures. Their black shiny hair cascaded like a waterfall behind their backs.


    One of them seems to be the embodiment of fire while the other of ice.


    When they bowed down their soft white rabbits wanted to jump down on the floor.


    David hurriedly shook his head and turned his gaze away from them.


    He nodded in their direction and signaled for them to stand up straight.


    "Introduce yourself."


    "Master, I am Sebastian."


    The man dressed in the butler uniform introduced himself gracefully.


    After which, the girl with vermilion red eyes spoke in a plain voice.


    "Ruby Vermilion."


    She only uttered two words and didn''t say anything else. Finally, it was the turn of the last girl to speak.


    "Mary Suian, please use me as you deem, fit master."


    The last girl spoke in a voice that sounded highly seductive to David.


    David looked at the three of them and assessed the trio in his head.


    Sebastian looked like a loyal knight that would follow all your orders without blinking.


    And Ruby was like a reserved and cold lady. On the other hand Mary, when his gaze landed on her, she seemed to have noticed and raised her plump bosom a little higher.


    David hurriedly averted his gaze.


    All three of them were at the Peak of Body Refining Realm, but their aura was similar to that of Foundation Building Realm.


    David wanted to check their status but he was broke and couldn''t afford it.


    Unlike Origin Guard, David wasn''t able to get their Status report for free. He wondered why?


    But he got a general idea as the price for their status report was 10,000 spirit stones, which was similar to Emilia when he met her.


    After telling the three of them about their duties and showing them their room, he went back to the third floor to finally practice his skills.


    *


    *


    At night.


    David was standing in one of the empty rooms on the third floor.


    His body was tense, and beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.


    Crackle!


    Suddenly, a surging purple current appeared below his feet, and in an instant, David disappeared from his original position and appeared in another corner of the room.


    David currently was using one of the Techniques mentioned in the Purple Thunder technique.


    "Purple Flow Technique."


    It was a movement technique that allowed him to cover short distances in the blink of an eye.


    He was preparing for the upcoming mission of the North River Sect.


    Suddenly, David raised his arms and slashed the air in front of him.


    Sizzle! Sizzle!


    A sword made of purple thunder materialized in front of David, cutting the air apart.


    After practicing for more than two hours, David finally sat down in the middle of the room and started to absorb the mana and recover his reserves.


    The speed at which he absorbed the mana was getting faster and faster every moment.


    In just barely five minutes, all the mana that he had consumed was already recovered.


    Just like this ten more days passed and finally the day for the mission arrived.

 Surprise

    David was waiting outside the city gate, looking at the scenery from time to time.


    Dozens of people were lined up before the city and were waiting for their chance to enter.


    Some of the youthful ones once glanced in his direction from time to time.


    David was dressed in a navy blue suit with the logo of a river flowing down a mountain embroidered on the back of it. Although everyone was supposed to wear a crappy- looking robe provided by the sect, David didn''t care.


    In the past month, his hair had grown long enough to be tied in a ponytail coupled with a light beard on his face made him look extremely handsome.


    Last night, he received a message instructing him to wait outside the city gate. Someone was supposed to come here and join him.


    Now that he could finally utilize mana, he was able to access the contents inside the storage ring without any issue.


    There was enough space inside the ring to fit a couple of human bodies and still have some space left to spare.


    David found a badge that represented his identity, a communication talisman, and roughly 5,000 spirit stones.


    In the past ten days, David hadn''t been sitting idle but he was pushing his body to its limits and had managed to reach rank 8 Body Refining Realm, just inches away from the Rank 9.


    Moreover, he noticed one more thing: his control over mana was so fine that he barely released any fluctuations.


    From his experiment in the city, and especially on animals who were highly sensitive to mana, he was able to conclude that if he wanted no one would be able to know about his cultivation level.


    And one more thing, the speed at which he was progressing had left him speechless.


    He couldn''t believe it. David was afraid that he would suddenly wake up and all of this would disappear as if it were a dream.


    At this rate, he was going to reach the Foundation Building Realm within a month.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Although David had no idea how to break through to the next realm.


    "Here you are."


    Suddenly, David heard a voice that he found to be a little familiar. Turning his head, David''s eyes landed on two people coming in his direction.


    One was the surprisingly luxuriously dressed boy from before, and the other was a girl whom David hadn''t met before.


    Both of them were dressed in navy blue robes with the symbol of the river engraved on their backs.


    The girl had long legs that stretched to infinity, coupled with her angelic face and shining red hair that made her look really mesmerizing.


    From what David could tell, the girl was at the Body Refining Realm Rank seven, and luxuriously youth dress was also at the Body Refining Realm Rank two.


    David was surprised; he didn''t think the guy was this talented, given the fact he had to bribe his way to get in.


    "Hello! I am David Wellwisher. Nice to meet you."


    David smiled and politely greeted both of them.


    "I am Leon Curtis." The luxuriously dressed youth proudly declared, emphasizing his surname a little more.


    Leon looked at both of them one by one for their reactions.


    David didn''t seem to react to his name, as if he hadn''t heard about it.


    Leon shook his head and ignored the country bumpkin, and looked at the girl beside him. i


    Indeed, the eyes of the girl flashed for a moment and quickly reverted to their original state.


    Anyways, who didn''t know about the Curtis family?


    Ahem!


    Except David, as a family that managed the Curtis trading hall spanning across the Blackthorn Empire they were really famous.


    "Sophie Fate. You can call me senior sister, Sophie."


    "I will be leading you on this mission."


    Sophie announced in an authoritative voice that demanded respect.


    David heard her words and nodded.


    She seemed to be trying especially hard to sound imposing. If not for her slightly shaking figure, David would have been convinced.


    On the other hand, Leon had a thoughtful expression on his face. He seemed to have heard about the surname before.


    "Hmmm! Father mentioned something about getting closer to the Fate guy."


    Leon vaguely remembered some details his father had mentioned when he was about to leave his home.


    "Okay, if everyone is ready, let''s leave. We are already running late."


    With those words she took the lead and started to run, her pace was neither too fast nor slow.


    David had no trouble keeping up with her. He had a feeling that if he wanted, he could easily leave her behind.


    Moreover, he wasn''t even using his movement technique.


    Compared to the laid-back attitude of David, it was clear from Leon''s face that he was having trouble keeping up.


    Sophie also looked at him from the corner of her eye and wanted to stop, but suddenly she remembered something and didn''t bother decreasing her speed.


    In just five minutes, Leon''s face turned red like a tomato, his chest violently heaving up and down.


    It appeared that he would collapse at any moment.


    At this moment, a green colored pill appeared in Leon''s and without hesitating, he threw it into his mouth and swallowed it.


    Surprisingly, after swallowing the pill, he was able to persist for ten more minutes.


    At this moment, David decided to slow down; otherwise it would be awkward, someone with higher cultivation than him was having trouble keeping up with him.


    In these twenty minutes, they had left Deadwood City behind them.


    Although David had lived in Deadwood City for a long time, even then he had never come this far.


    Right now, the three of them were surrounded by Deadwood trees as far as his eyes could see.


    Thousands of trees stood there like empty husks devoid of all life, without a single sign of greenery.


    The ground beneath David''s feet was filled with cracks as if it hadn''t rained for a long time.


    Moreover, He had never seen such trees before.


    Curious, David walked near one of the trees and extended his hands towards it.


    "Idiot, stop!"


    Sophie suddenly yelled and rushed in David''s direction.


    However, it was too late.


    As soon as David moved his hand towards the tree, it suddenly seemed to come to life.


    Swish!


    David heard the sound of something cutting the air at high speed rapidly coming in his direction.

 Useless Daughter

    A branch of the tree moved at high speed toward David.


    Although unprepared, David swiftly reacted and hurriedly jumped to the side.


    Booom!


    A loud explosion suddenly occurred, and a small crater formed where David was standing a moment ago.


    The explosion sent dust and particles of stone flying everywhere.


    Leon hurriedly covered his eyes and retreated; just now, he wasn''t able to clearly see from where the branch suddenly appeared.


    It was too dangerous for him to stay close to that thing.


    David barely had the chance to get up, when like snakes, dozens of branches attacked him from all directions.


    But he wasn''t afraid. Just as he was about to use his movement technique, Sophie''s figure materialized in front of him.


    David saw a flash of light and all the branches that were coming in his direction were slashed apart.


    Sophie''s red hair danced wildly in the air. Holding a sword in her hand, she looked extremely heroic.


    "Get back."


    Sophie spoke in a shaky voice without even looking back.


    She wasn''t going to let any incidents happen under her watch.


    Sophie was going to prove everyone wrong who doubted her ability.


    The daughter of the North River Sect Master wasn''t useless.


    Suddenly, Sophie''s sword flashed once more and all the Deadwood trees that came in contact with her sword were cleanly split into two parts.


    After taking one last look at her surroundings and confirming everything was safe, Sophie finally sighed with relief.


    She wanted to blame David, but upon thinking about it for a moment, she realized it was her own mistake.


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    As the leader of the team, it was her responsibility to warn others.


    Treating it as another lesson, she looked in David and Leon Direction.


    Both of them were looking at her silently.


    Finding their gaze focused on her made her face red like a tomato.


    "Ahem! Let''s Discuss the objectives of our mission."


    "We have to investigate a strange occurrence in the nearby village."


    After taking a deep breath, Sophie calmly said.


    Leon and David just listened without commenting.


    They seemed to want her to continue.


    "There have been reports of multiple disappearances of people near that village."


    "Moreover, the village lies on an important trading route connecting Deadwood City with the capital of the empire."


    Sophie explained what she had been told in the briefing. She tried to sound as calm as possible. Stopping for a moment to confirm that the attention of both of them was on her, she continued to speak.


    "If this news spreads, the route might be abandoned by the merchants, and thereby directly affecting Deadwood City."


    David nodded, understanding the implications of her words.


    As an astute investor, he knew the critical role played by trade routes.


    At this time, Leon casually asked.


    "How far away are we from that village?"


    Sophie looked at him and answered.


    "It''s nearby, let''s go."


    "And one more thing: stay away from these Deadwood trees. Although they are harmless, but if you get too close to them they will suck all of your vitality."


    Sophie looked at David and spoke in a stern tone.


    After hearing her words, David wanted to say something but in the end he didn''t.


    After finishing her words, Sophie started to walk.


    David also silently followed her from behind.


    After walking for five minutes, Sophie suddenly started to speak.


    "Deadwood forest wasn''t always like this."


    "It was a forest filled with vitality."


    Her voice was peaceful, filled with a tinge of reminiscence."


    "One day, a meteorite fell from heaven, and sucked all the vitality of this place..."


    David listened to her words silently. This was the first time he was hearing something like this.


    Meanwhile, Leon''s thoughts were somewhere else.


    "Fate, Fate," Leon focused and tried to remember where he had heard the word Fate.


    Suddenly, his eyes, flashed and he remembered.


    "Hmmm! Now I finally remember. Father wanted me to get close to the Sect master of the North River Sect, Edward Fate."


    "Ahhh!"


    "I get it the Sect master also has a useless daughter."


    Leon thought about the rumors he had heard about the sect''s master daughter.


    Twenty-five years old and still hasn''t been able to break through to the Foundation Building Realm.


    Sophie suddenly looked in his direction with narrowed eyes.


    Leon shivered and turned his head away.


    He looked at the sky and commented in a cool voice.


    "The weather sure is lovely today."


    However, the weather was anything but lovely.


    The sun was high up in the sky, scorching the earth.


    After some time, signs of human life started to appear around them.


    David could even see dozens of tiny homes further away from him.


    Sophie, who was at the front, raised her hand and said in a low voice.


    "Stay alert!"


    After receiving her signal.


    Leon''s face turned vigilant, and a sword appeared in his hand.


    David frowned because he didn''t have a sword.


    The idea of buying a sword hadn''t even crossed his mind once, as he was all day busy cultivating.


    Thinking for a moment, he bought one of the cheapest chairs that was available in the shop.


    In his hand, a cheap-looking chair that appeared to be made of plastic suddenly appeared.


    "Country bumpkin! What are you doing?"


    Leon looked at his actions with wide eyes and couldn''t help but yell.


    Was this guy going to use this flimsy-looking chair as his weapon?


    David coldly looked at the direction of Leon, he was getting tired of this guy.


    "Wanna taste the power of the chair?"


    David spoke in a provocative tone and released a little bit of his pressure, aimed at Leon.


    Leon suddenly felt as if someone had placed a thousand kilogram boulder on his shoulders.


    "Cut it out, both of you."


    Just as David was about to increase the pressure, he heard the voice of Sophie form ahead.


    After hearing her words, David stopped.


    Leon instantly felt the weight disappear from his shoulders. His back was drenched in cold sweat.


    David and Sophie had left him behind.


    Leon took a deep breath and looked at David''s back.


    A smile appeared on his face and he muttered in a low voice.


    "Looks like I am not the only one with a little secret."


    Leon started to run to catch up with them.

 Terrifying monster

    "Here!"


    "Respected cultivators, please save me."


    Just as Sophie and David entered the vicinity of the village, a plump middle-aged man came running towards them with a fearful expression on his face.


    "Calm down old man, and tell us your name, first."


    Leon arrived and asked while surveying his surroundings.


    The ground was dyed red and an unbearable smell permeated in the surrounding.


    David was even able to find an animal that looked like a rat munching on a dead body of a child.


    The situation was beyond horrible.


    Suddenly, Sophie''s eyes also landed on the dead body.


    Disgusted, she hurriedly turned her head away.


    The scene was too much for her, since she was young, she had barely seen a dead body and now suddenly a body of a child appeared in front of her.


    Among the three Leon, showed the least reaction to his surroundings.


    He wasn''t disgusted, but calmly analyzed the situation.


    David was feeling nauseous, he felt, if he stayed here for any longer he would puke.


    He focused on the man that had suddenly appeared to calm his mind.


    Tears were running down the man''s face; his clothes were drenched in blood, he looked extremely miserable.


    Sophie walked near the men and with a flick of her wrist a water bottle appeared on hand.


    "Water, Give it to me."


    As soon as the water bottle appeared in front of the man, not caring about Sophie''s status as cultivator, he screamed and moved his hands forward to snatch the bottle from Sophie.


    Sophie didn''t resist; she gave the bottle to the man and waited for him to calm down.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Gulp! Gulp!


    The man took large mouthfuls of water, as if fearing that the water would suddenly disappear.


    While the plump middle-aged man was calming down, David was peering deeper into the village.


    The whole place was giving him a dangerous feeling, as if someone or something was watching him constantly.


    The man seemed to have calmed down after drinking water, and he finally started to speak.


    "My name is Rick Loaf, a merchant from Teravista City."


    David was also listening to his words carefully; he knew about Teravista City. It was one of the major cities of the Blackthorn Empire.


    "Yesterday, when I came here with my crew, they suddenly started to disappear one after the other."


    "And those who didn''t disappear exploded¡­."


    Rick''s eyes were filled with fear when he uttered the last line.


    The image of his friends exploding was still clear in his mind. His clothes were dyed with their blood.


    After hearing his words. David frowned, the situation was extremely strange. He looked at Sophie from the corner of his eyes to look at her reaction.


    She appeared calm on the surface, but internally she was frowning.


    Half of Rick''s words matched with the information that she had received, but she had no idea about people exploding.


    The mission was going beyond her capacity.


    But she couldn''t return without a single clue. If she failed this mission, her reputation would further go down the drain.


    David was looking at the middle-aged man with narrowed eyes. He felt that something was wrong with this man.


    "Let''s look for clues. If we don''t find anything within one hour, then we will leave this place at the earliest."


    Sophie suddenly spoke and started to walk.


    David and Leon also nodded at her words. David agreed with her that it was too reckless to stay here unnecessarily.


    When the three of them started to move further into the village, the fearful expression on the plump middle-aged man disappeared and was replaced by a cold looking face.


    The plump middle-aged man licked his lips and followed the trio.


    "Why are you following us here?"


    David suddenly said as he felt the man following them from behind.


    "Please, cultivators, don''t leave me alone."


    The man started to beg, afraid that three of them would leave him alone to die in this place.


    Looking at his pathetic condition, Sophie couldn''t help but pity him.


    "Let him follow us."


    David wanted to refuse but thought he might be too paranoid, so in the end, he didn''t say anything.


    Suddenly, David''s eyes flashed; he had an idea.


    [Request for status report.]


    [Target- Rick]


    [Cost-20,000 spirit stones]


    [Yes/No]


    David suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.


    He didn''t need anything else; he was sure there was definitely something wrong with the man in front of him.


    "20,000 spirit stones. This was the amount that he was seeing for the first time."


    "Damn it! The middle aged man was definitely in the foundation building Realm." he furiously cursed in his head.


    David started backing away and prepared himself to explode with his peak strength at any moment.


    "What happened, Junior Brother?"


    Sophie looked at David in surprise, wondering what happened.


    Leon was also puzzled by David''s reaction.


    "Run!"


    Without bothering to reply to Sophie''s question, he shouted and started to run as fast as his legs could carry him.


    Sophie only heard a loud thunderclap, following which David''s figure disappeared.


    Leon didn''t understand what was going on, his head was filled with thousands of questions, but given David''s momentum just now, if he was running, then nothing good would happen to him if he stayed here.


    Without hesitating, he also took action and placed a talisman on his head.


    Leon''s body turned into a gust of wind and followed David from behind.


    "Where are you going, respected cultivators?"


    Rick''s eyes turned red and he started to hoarsely mutter in a low voice.


    "I said stop." Rick suddenly shouted in an ear-piercing voice.


    Following his shout, his head suddenly exploded like a watermelon; hundreds of paper thin tentacles emerged out of his head.


    Sophie looked at this scene in shock. Out of nowhere, she was abandoned by her teammates.


    A fragile-looking man who needed her help a moment ago, transformed into a terrifying-looking monster.


    Luckily for Sophie, Rick or the monster wasn''t interested in her.


    He turned in the direction in which David and Leon had gone.


    The monster pushed his body towards the ground, preparing himself to jump.


    The ground caved beneath the monster''s feet with a slight push and he was catapulted into the air at high speed.


    Just after the monster left, Sophie felt a terrifying force wrapping around her and suddenly her body also disappeared.

 A strange place

    "Damn it," Leon cursed while gritting his teeth.


    He couldn''t believe he had to use the wind escape talisman on his first mission. Moreover, the talisman wasn''t easily available as the process of making it was extremely hard.


    Suddenly, Leon''s eyes narrowed. He felt a terrifying pressure approaching his direction at high speed.


    And in just a blink of an eye, the monster with thousands of tentacles floating around in the air appeared in front of Leon.


    Before Leon had the chance to react, his body was engulfed by thousands of tentacles and disappeared.


    The monster didn''t stop after taking care of Leon. The monster''s body once again flashed and he disappeared.


    At the same time, David was running for his life. He had no idea how strong a cultivator was in the foundation establishment realm, and he had no intention of finding it out today.


    While running, he made a mental note of testing Origin Guard power once he got back.


    With every step David took, his body covered a large distance, he was like a purple thunderbolt dancing through the Deadwood Forest.


    The Deadwood forest was lit up with purple light.


    Every fiber of David''s being was pushed to its limits.


    David felt he could run like this forever. The mana that he was consuming was rapidly recovering with the help of the Purple Thunder technique.


    Suddenly, David felt his scalp tingle.


    Without hesitating, he sidestepped.


    Swish!


    Thousands of tentacles like missiles fell on the place where David was standing a moment ago.


    "Come at me, you bastard."


    "You think I am afraid of you."


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    David looked around him to find where the monster was and shouted.


    Behind him the monster was silently floating in the air.


    David took a deep breath and tried to calm his raging heart.


    This was going to be his first fight with a cultivator, and someone of higher level at that.


    Moreover, he was at a disadvantage. The monster was flying in the air, while he was on the ground.


    David couldn''t understand what the monster was waiting for. He raised his hand, and a chair appeared out of nowhere.


    Even the monster was confused by the sudden appearance of the chair, not understanding what the ant in front of him was trying to achieve.


    "Haaaaa!"


    David shouted and pushed his body backwards while firmly planting his legs on the ground.


    His torso formed an angle of ninety degrees at his knees. Just as the chair was about to touch the ground, the veins on David''s hand bulged, mustering as much strength as possible as he threw the chair in the direction of the monster.


    After a flash of purple thunder the chair left David''s hands at insane speed.


    However, the monster easily intercepted the chair, his tentacles caught the chair before it could even reach him.


    Even for the monster, the force was too great; he was pushed a couple of meters back in the air.


    And if you looked closely, the tentacles which had caught the chair appeared somewhat burned by the purple thunder.


    The force generated was too much for David''s body to handle, because of inertia his body was pushed to the ground.


    However, it was all for naught, David looked at the monster, who easily stopped his attack.


    It was at this moment that David realized, he was fucked.


    He hurriedly tried to get up and run as fast as possible.


    However, this time the monster wasn''t in a mood to play with him.


    Like a demon from hell the monster suddenly appeared in front of him.


    One of its tentacles moved towards David''s throat at high speed and grabbed it.


    David felt like his neck was crushed, the tentacles were like an iron chain that wrapped around his throat.


    David struggled to breathe and mustered all his strength to kick the monster in an attempt to free himself.


    But all of his efforts were in vain, the monster was completely unaffected by David''s actions.


    David started feeling regretful. If he had invested all his money on Emilia that day, he might have been at the Foundation Building Realm today, and his fate wouldn''t be as miserable.


    However, there was no medicine for regret.


    Thankfully for David, the monster had no intention of killing him; otherwise, if he wanted, killing him would be as simple as crushing an ant.


    The monster suddenly disappeared along with David.


    *


    *


    In a dark hall, Rick suddenly appeared out of thin air.


    "Old Third, you are finally back."


    "How many did you manage to catch this time?"


    Suddenly a voice echoed in the hall, it was hard to determine where it was coming from.


    The voice was somewhat hopeful.


    Hearing the voice, Rick, who had been called Old Third, calmly raised three fingers in the air.


    "Only three."


    "Why? Last time there were ten." This time the voice was a little furious.


    Rick didn''t react to his words, and sat down on the ground and closed his eyes.


    "Calm down, old Second, it was to be expected."


    "But¡­" Old Second wanted to speak, but he was cut midway by another voice, which sounded slightly mature.


    "No buts, we have already discussed this."


    If the old Second voice was like a teenager then the new voice sounded like a fully grown human adult.


    *


    *


    White ground!


    White sky!


    David''s unconscious body was lying on the white ground as far as eyes could see. Beside him were Leon and Sophie. Similar to David, the eyes of both were closed.


    Time continued to pass.


    Hours.


    Days.


    Or years.


    Time continued to pass.


    After who knew how long, David''s eyelids finally started to twitch.


    He groggily opened his eyes. The first thing he felt was his throat was a little too dry, and he was hungry as if he hadn''t eaten anything for a long period of time.


    And keep that in mind, he was feeling all these sensations, when he didn''t need to eat for a long period of time.


    "Who the fuck turned on the bright mode?"


    David cursed in a sleepy voice. The complete whiteness and absence of any other color was making him uncomfortable.


    "Who the fuck.."


    "Who the fuck.."


    However, there was no response to his words; only the echo of his voice echoed in the place repeatedly.

 Trapped for thousands years

    Moreover, David noticed one more thing: he felt as if the world was trying to squeeze and push him out of existence.


    And if that wasn''t enough, the place that he was in was devoid of mana. Surprisingly, he had broken through. Now he was at the peak of the Body Refining Realm.


    His body, although a little tired, was filled with tremendous strength.


    David was now at the peak of strength that a mortal could achieve. Not just that, he was currently feeling a sensation that he had never felt before.


    As if he was above everything upto a certain distance. The feeling was extremely strange.


    Everything that happened to him now was connected to that weird monster. Given the fact he was alive and well, that could only mean the monster was somewhere, closely watching his every move.


    Like a lab rat.


    David wanted to check if anything weird was going on with his body. Without hesitating, he asked for a status report from the bank.


    Without any delay, a window popped up in front of him displaying his stats.


    David went through it and everything seemed okay, but one thing caught his attention.


    The description of his Crystallization of Life had changed.


    [Name- David Well-wisher


    Cultivation- Peak of Body Refining Realm.


    Cultivation Technique - Purple Thunder.


    Crystallisation of Life-


    1 - Bank of Eternal Origin


    2 - Domain of Zenith Sovereign


    Skills


    1 - Pride of Zenith Sovereign (No one is above you inside your domain)


    Remark- Don''t get too full of yourself, the journey has just begun.]You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    A new skill had surprisingly appeared in the status menu.


    "Pride of Zenith Sovereign?" David muttered in a low voice. He had no idea what the skill was about and the description wasn''t helping.


    "No one is above you."


    David became lost in thought. The description was a bit vague.


    It could also imply that he was stronger than everyone in his domain. But that would be too overpowered; if that was true, he would be invincible.


    Before David could ponder further, a voice echoed in the white expanse, grabbing his attention.


    "Welcome to the training ground of Hegemony."


    David looked around him to find the source of the voice, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere.


    "Hegemony?" David frowned, He had never heard of such a word before. His eyes landed on Leon lying on the ground with his eyes closed.


    "Maybe this guy might know something."


    While David was pondering about the sudden voice, inside a pitch black hall, two blobs of light and Rick were looking at the glowing screen in front of them.


    The screen displayed David along with his two sleeping companion.


    The smaller blob of light, who was known as the Old Second, spoke in an impatient voice.


    "Old First, why do we have to go through all this hassle? Why can''t we just take over their body?"


    "I don''t want to stay in this god-forsaken place for any longer."


    In the end, the Old Second voice became a little aggrieved.


    "Why don''t you go ahead and pick one of the new bodies." The larger blob of light known as the Old First said in a cool and calm voice.


    After hearing Old First words, the smaller blob of light fell silent.


    Although he was impatient, he wasn''t stupid. Looking at Rick beside him, Old Second couldn''t help but feel pity.


    After all, the three of them had been trapped in this place for hundreds of thousands of years.


    "Enough!"


    "Deploy the Body Refining level elite soldier to test the waters first."


    Old First spoke in an authoritative voice.


    After his words, Old Second and Rick started to move.


    On the screen, which was displaying David and his group, changes started to happen.


    In front of David, an unknown man clad in silver armor made of unknown material, suddenly appeared out of thin air.


    "The duel will begin in 3, 2¡­" The voice sounded once again; this time it carried a strange power that seemed to wake up David''s sleeping companions.


    "Just let me sleep a little longer." Leon spoke while rubbing his eyes. He didn''t seem to be aware of his situation.


    Sophie on the other hand was checking her body and looking at David with a weird gaze.


    After confirming everything was fine, she sighed with relief.


    "Where are we?" Sophie asked in a low voice, her question directed at David.


    However, at this time, his attention was entirely on the Silver-armored man. Although he heard her question, he chose to ignore it.


    The silver-armored man finally moved.


    Swish!


    A sword made of the same material as his armor appeared in the man''s hand.


    He charged directly towards David at insane speed.


    David was already prepared to meet his charge. He flicked his wrist, and the same chair that had used to fight with Rick earlier appeared in his hand.


    In the hall, Rick''s face turned green as he looked at the scene on screen.


    Noticing Rick''s strange behavior, Old Second asked in confusion.


    "Old Third, what happened?"


    Rick just shook his head and didn''t comment. After all, he couldn''t tell him about the earlier incident, could he?


    Rick took a deep breath and his face returned to normal.


    Given his previous mistake he could only help these two and hope they would help him back.


    "Why was he in such a hurry that day?" Rick couldn''t help but think in remorse. On the surface, his face remained calm, not letting his internal thoughts leak.


    Old Second could guess something was wrong. Now that Old Third wasn''t willing to speak he wasn''t going to push him. After all, he depended greatly on Old Third for his freedom.


    Just when the man reached near David, the man slashed in his direction.


    However, David was momentarily stunned as the unknown information was flooding his mind.


    "Silent kill training manual."


    "Seven steps to the front and chop at the opponent."


    David''s mind was filled with the experience of sword training that he had never performed before.


    Before he could even think further, the silver armored man in front of him suddenly took seven steps in rapid succession..


    David found the actions of the silver-armored man a little familiar, as if he had practiced them for countless number of times.


    Moreover, that wasn''t all; he was even able to find some openings that the silver armored-man had in his stance.


    While David was thinking, his body instinctively reacted and he blocked the chop of the man with his chair.

 Going to any length

    David and the silver-armored man exchanged tens of moves in an instant.


    The silver-armored man''s sword was like a flying dragon, filled with terrifying momentum. Each and every strike of the sword was aimed at David''s vitals.


    However, in front of David, he wasn''t able to do anything.


    No matter what he tried, David perfectly countered his every move, and it looked like David wasn''t even trying hard.


    "So fierce," Leon looked at the scene in front of him and couldn''t stop himself from commenting. He had never thought the black-haired youth was so strong.


    Remembering that he had earlier called him a country bumpkin made him shiver.


    Leon could only hope that David didn''t take his words to heart.


    At this time, Sophie, who was also watching the fight between the two intently, commented.


    "If he doesn''t finish it quickly, he might get in trouble."


    Her voice was low, as if she was talking to herself. Compared to Leon, the shock she felt was greater. After all, she was the leader of the team.


    Her face turned red when she remembered how she had tried to save him back in the forest; he must have been laughing inside.


    Leon heard her words and agreed with her. Although he couldn''t guess at which rank David was, he could tell he was still at the Body Refining Realm.


    Therefore, he was bound to have a low mana reserve.


    The fight continued for half an hour, and neither of them showed any sign of fatigue.


    David had a feeling that if he wanted to finish the man in front of him he could easily do so, the man wouldn''t survive more than one move of his, but he refrained; he wanted to test the power of his new skill.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Turns out he made the right choice. Whenever the silver-armored man was near him, he would easily counter the man''s move, but when the man moved away, the experience that he received would disappear form head as if it never existed.


    After more experimentation, he concluded the range of the domain was two meters around him.


    Satisfied, David decided to finish things quickly.


    He raised his chair, which had started glowing with purple thunder, and smashed it on the silver-armored man''s head, who was still trying to attack him after repeated failures.


    The chair drew an arc in the air and struck the man''s head like a hammer.


    Bam!


    The man''s skull caved in upon impact and exploded like a watermelon, sending brain juices flying in every direction. Some of it fell on David''s coat.


    The pristine white floor was painted red.


    Thud! A headless body fell on the ground.


    Sophie who was intently watching suddenly turned her head away; this scene was too much for her to see.


    Even Leon swallowed his saliva at this gory scene.


    "Finally, someone was able to defeat an elite soldier. There is still hope," Old First commented in a happy voice while looking at the scene. Beside him, Old Second also beamed in happiness.


    They had reason to feel happy; after all, those who came before David''s group were brutally killed by elite soldiers.


    The scene had caused the three to feel despair.


    Fearing they were in a barren wasteland, Old Third had taken over the body of a waste and sealed his fate.


    Only, Rick gritted his teeth in anger, the veins on his forehead bulged.


    "Check the potential of the other two," Old First quickly ordered after calming down.


    Just as Sophie and Leon were about to recover from the gory sight, two silver-armored men similar to the one lying on the ground appeared in front of them.


    It didn''t take long for them to understand what was going on.


    Both of them brought out their weapons and got ready to fight.


    Meanwhile, David was looking at the window that had suddenly popped up in front of him when he killed the silver-armored man.


    [Would you like to sell the body to the bank?]


    [Yes/No]


    He looked at the window in wonder.


    He could even sell dead bodies.


    As the Bank hadn''t quoted a price, he was confused. But after thinking the body was useless anyway, he might as well sell it.


    David confirmed, and immediately the body in front of him disappeared.


    [50,000 spirit stones had been deposited in your account.]


    "Holy shit," David cursed in amazement. He wasn''t expecting such a large sum.


    Before he could even digest the shock, he heard another voice.


    "The reward will be issued shortly," Old Second spoke in a pained voice. He still had to follow the rules of this place.


    He didn''t want to give anything to these people that could be of use to him.


    Turns out, these three people were nothing more than spirits who had gained sentience after a long period of time.


    No matter how reluctant Old Second was, he still had to follow the will of the creator of this place.


    Old First seemed to have understood Old Second''s thoughts and laughed.


    "Don''t be stingy. From the moment they step inside this place¡­" Old First''s voice was a little sinister when he uttered those words. He didn''t even have to finish his words to make Old Second understand their implications.


    The Old Second blob flashed as he understood.


    On the screen, Leon and Sophie were fighting with all their strength.


    David looked at their fight while sitting on the blood-stained chair.


    Both of them were performing exceptionally well. Especially Leon, whose opponent was at the same cultivation as him at the second Rank of Body Refining Realm.


    Leon''s body was like a ghost that moved unpredictably.


    David wondered what his Crystallisation of Life was.


    Shifting his eyes away from Leon, he focused on Sophie. The silver-armored man and Sophie seemed evenly matched.


    Clang! Clang!


    Their swords sent sparks flying everywhere. However, if you look closely, Sophie''s sword seemed to be glowing with a white light that was slowly cutting the sword of the silver-armored man little by little.


    David sipped on the coffee that he had just purchased from the shop and watched the fight with gusto.

 Taking advantage of others

    Ultimate Slash," Sophie muttered in an incredibly low voice. Her sword flashed with blinding light, and the silver-armored man was split into two.


    Thud!


    From his head to his torso, his body cleanly split into two parts and fell to the ground.


    All of this took too long to describe, but the following actions happened in a split second.


    "Excellent," Old First muttered in astonishment.


    "Finally, this time we have hit a jackpot," Old Second also spoke with satisfaction.


    Hearing their voices of praise, Rick''s face turned ugly. He was starting to regret not killing the three of them when he had the chance.


    David suddenly thought of something and started walking in the direction of Sophie.


    "Are you okay?" David asked in a low voice, his face filled with concern.


    At the same time, David was rejoicing in his heart. His guess was spot on. When he reached near Sophie, a window popped in front of him.


    [Would you like to sell the body to the bank?]


    [Yes/No]


    Without hesitating, he clicked on yes.


    After all, nobody knew what happened to the silver-armored man''s body.


    Following David''s actions, the body disappeared, and no one seemed to find anything suspicious as it was similar to what happened when David killed the man earlier.


    He once again heard the sweet voice of money flowing into his account.


    [30,000 spirit stones had been deposited in your account.]


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    David was instantly on cloud nine; he managed to earn a ton of money without doing anything. Hearing David''s words of concern, Sophie was a little touched. After all, no one other than her father treated her with kindness.


    The fight on Leon''s side was also coming to an end. Sophie and David, both of them, were focused on Leon. The silver-armored man took seven steps to the front and raised his sword at high speed.


    "That move!" David muttered. He recognized this was the same move that the man had used. Leon ignored the silver-armored man coming in his direction and stood still.


    In the blink of an eye, the man was near Leon and aimed at his waist with his sword.


    Swish!


    Leon didn''t react. His eyes were unusually calm, as if the actions of the man posed no threat.


    "Idiot! Move," Sophie couldn''t help herself from shouting. She was worried that if Leon didn''t move, he was going to die a gruesome death.


    Just when the sword was about to reach Leon''s body, Sophie closed her eyes. She didn''t want to watch any longer.


    David also looked at this scene in wonder. He knew Leon definitely wouldn''t do something reckless. And indeed, in the next moment, David was proven right.


    The sword struck Leon''s body and passed through it. His body turned formless for a moment, like a particle soup.


    Taking advantage of the moment, Leon''s hand moved at lightning speed and pierced the silver-armored man''s chest.


    Huff!


    The silver-armored man coughed blood, the light in his eyes dimmed, and he fell to the ground like a kite with its string cut.


    David looked at this scene in confusion, not understanding what happened in front of him. Although he didn''t understand, he still moved closer to Leon and only stopped when the window popped in front of him.


    The body disappeared, and David heard a notification once more.


    [5,000 spirit stones have been deposited in your account.]


    To not attract attention to his sudden action, he asked Leon about his well-being.


    "Are you okay, brother?"


    Leon looked at him and happily smiled. "I''m okay. Thank you, senior brother, for your concern."


    Leon''s voice was respectful, and the way he addressed David had also changed. After all, Leon knew he had to depend on David to get out of this place.


    No matter how impressive it looked, he had just defeated a small fry at Body Refining Rank 2. At this time, Sophie also arrived.


    After hearing David''s words, her mood turned a little sour. She thought he was treating her with special care.


    Old First and Old Second looked at the screen. The hall had fallen silent.


    "King level Crystallization of Life."


    Both of them muttered simultaneously. Beside them, Rick''s expression was something to look at.


    They never expected to find someone with King level Crystallization of Life in the barren wasteland. Old Second and Old First knew about a lot of things, and still they were shocked.


    "Old First, I want this boy''s body." Old Second''s blob excitedly flashed, and he spoke in a jovial tone.


    "Hmmm! Let''s not hurry. Send king level talent."


    Although excited, Old Second agreed with Old First. It was better to be cautious. He didn''t want his newly acquired body to suddenly explode because it wasn''t able to handle his consciousness.


    From their past experiments, the three of them had concluded that for them to successfully take over a body, the body needs to have high spiritual strength.


    The space in front of David flashed, and a box appeared in front of him.


    "This is your reward," Old First announced in a plain voice. Hearing the voice, David understood.


    Looking at the two of his companions, they also had a box lying in front of them.


    He cautiously opened the box to look at what was inside it. Inside the box was a beautifully made katana with a glossy finish.


    The katana seemed to be crafted by an unparalleled artist. David grabbed it and swung it around to get a feel of it.


    David looked unimpressed; it was more fragile than the chair that he had used earlier.


    While David was swinging the katana, Sophie was looking at it intently while holding a box in her hand. David felt her gaze and threw the katana in her direction.


    He wanted to test something.


    Sophie was stunned and hurriedly grabbed it. She looked at David with complicated emotions.


    She didn''t know how to feel. David felt a thin thread connecting Sophie and him.


    Just like last time when he had invested in Emilia, his actions of giving the katana to Sophie were treated as an investment by the bank.

 Strike when the iron is hot

    However, compared with Emilia, he didn''t have any expectations from Sophie.


    Now that he was at it, he might as well check her attributes.


    [Request for status report.]


    [Target - Sophie Fate]


    [Cost - 7,000 spirit stones]


    [Yes/No]


    David went ahead and clicked on yes. Immediately, a detailed report displaying Sophie''s attributes appeared in front of him.


    [Name: Sophie Fate


    Age: 28


    Potential: B grade


    Cultivation: Body Refining Rank 7


    Crystallization of Life: Demon of Fate


    Investment Grade: AAA


    Remark: Daughter of Sect Master of North River Sect, born with a golden spoon in her mouth but due to some reasons failed to capitalize. Although lacking in potential, the target represents an opportunity to make huge profit.]


    David blinked and read the entire thing again. There was a huge difference between her potential and investment grade.


    Had the bank made a mistake in calculating her investment grade? Moreover, her Crystallization of Life was also weird.


    "Demon of Fate." The name itself was weird. However, before David could think about anything further, the space in front of him flashed and a woman dressed in onyx armor appeared.


    She had long white hair tied together in a ponytail, and she looked at David with her purple eyes that contained no emotion.


    David looked at her with narrowed eyes. He could clearly tell her cultivation was the same as his at the peak of the Body Refining Realm, but the feeling that she gave him was something that David hadn''t felt before.


    "Trainee, prepare yourself for the second round. This round isn''t going to be as simple as the first round, where you could directly fight with your opponent and win," Old First announced in a calm and composed voice.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    When he finished his words, the space around them flashed once again, and two spears made of unknown material appeared beside David and the white-haired woman.


    The white expanse that stretched endlessly started to flow, as if it was made of water, and barely in a moment, two platforms that were slightly raised appeared.


    "The rules are simple: whoever manages to throw the longest will win."


    David, however, frowned. There were no signs of escaping out of here. If things continued like they had been, after he defeated her, someone even more powerful would appear, and the cycle would continue. He couldn''t let things go on like this; he had to take the initiative.


    The white-haired girl walked towards the platform and took her position. Her actions seemed to be preprogrammed as if she had no will of her own. After watching this scene, David became even more confident in his actions, and given the fact the monster didn''t want to kill them, he could just go ahead.


    Sophie and Leon were also watching the actions of the white-haired woman intently. Both of them were sure, after David, it was their turn.


    Instead of following her actions, David started to gather mana and concentrate.


    "What is he doing?" Old First couldn''t help but comment as he looked at the unusual actions of David on the screen.


    "What is this tiny thing in his hand?"


    Under the bewildered gaze of Old First, an object with a pointed tip, barely a few centimeters long, appeared in David''s hand.


    "Old Third, do you know what is this thing in the man''s hand?" Old Second''s blob wiggled with curiosity.


    Old Third, aka Rick, had been outside a few times, so it was expected that he might know something about it.


    "I have no idea," Old Third spoke in a cold voice and disappeared from the hall. He didn''t want to be tormented further. From the look of it, the two of them were going to get better bodies than him. Now that Rick remembered Old Second and Old First''s words, he felt cheated.


    "Is that a pen?" Leon muttered in confusion, not understanding what David was trying to do.


    David paid no heed to their actions and started moving.


    "Flow," David muttered in his head. Following his words, David''s body suddenly accelerated. Sparks of purple thunder appeared on his legs.


    "Witness the power of the almighty pen." David shouted and threw the pen in the white-haired woman''s direction.


    Crackle!


    With the sound of thunder, the pen moved like a laser pointer, instantly appearing behind the woman''s neck.


    Puchi!


    The pen instantly pierced through her neck and came out from the other end. Following a shower of blood, the white-haired woman fell to the ground.


    David didn''t stop and continued to run. When he was close enough to the body, he sold it to the bank.


    "60,000 spirit stones have been deposited in your account."


    "What the¡­" Sophie looked at the scene incredulously, her mouth opened wide enough to fit an egg inside it. She wasn''t the only one surprised; Old First and Old Second were also looking at this scene dumbfoundedly.


    A king-level talent died just like that.


    Leon''s worldview was shattered today. Although he knew David would win, he didn''t expect it to be in this way. Just as they were feeling shocked, something even more unexpected happened. Rick appeared in front of David out of nowhere.


    "What is Old Third doing?" Old Second muttered in surprise.


    Before Old Second could understand Rick''s intentions, he suddenly transformed, and hundreds of tentacles moved towards David at incredible speed.


    "Stooooop," Old Second shouted, his voice filled with fury. Each of Rick''s tentacles was like a bloodthirsty sword filled with bone-chilling killing intent.


    "Hmmp," Old First didn''t say anything and directly disappeared from his position. Old Third was out of his mind. He had to stop him before it was too late.


    If it had been before, David might have struggled to keep up with Rick, but now he was not the same as before. Time seemed to have stopped for David; of course, it was just an illusion created by his brain, which was processing the events at light speed.


    "What to do? This bastard is too close to me. I won''t be able to dodge in time." David instantly thought of tens of countermeasures, but none of them seemed effective. However, suddenly an idea struck him, causing the corners of his lips to curl up.

 Like a pig on the chopping board

    David brought a table from the shop and threw it in the direction of the incoming tentacles.


    It would be inappropriate to call it a throw; rather, the table just appeared in front of him.


    However, this time Rick seemed to have prepared for something like this, given his previous experience.


    As soon as the table appeared, all of his tentacles hurriedly evaded it.


    Thud!


    The table fell to the ground with a loud noise, causing the ground to shake. It couldn''t even be imagined what would happen if it fell on someone.


    A few of Rick''s tentacles that were trying to sneak under the table were brutally crushed into liquefied jelly.


    Although the table hadn''t done what David expected it to do, it had bought enough time for him to react.


    Quickly jumping to the side, without even thinking, he activated purple thunder flow to create some distance between him and Rick.


    On the other hand, Leon and Sophie didn''t even have time to react; after all, it happened too quickly.


    They were only able to react when the table fell to the ground.


    Looking at the scene, Leon sucked in a cold breath of air. If instead of targeting David the monster had targeted him, he would have been as good as dead.


    And secondly, how the hell did the fucking table appear out of thin air?


    It was too huge to fit in a storage ring.


    "Stop! you fucking brat," Rick shouted in a voice that sounded like a demon crying.


    "Let me kill you peacefully, or be prepared to suffer a fate worse than death."


    Now that David had a chance to move, he was using Purple Thunder Flow to an extreme degree, appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Rick''s words fell on deaf ears. Instead of answering, David threw a barrage of chairs in his direction.


    Each of them, glowing in purple thunder, moved at breakneck speed.


    The scene was comedic; chair after chair continued to hit Rick like a bullet.


    Each of the chairs that hit Rick made his expression change.


    Only when they hit him did he realize how heavy these simple-looking chairs were.


    If it continued like this, he would die without a doubt.


    His non-existent eyes suddenly shone with a cold glint. He hurriedly changed his targets.


    Rick moved like a ghost and appeared in front of Leon instantly, his hundreds of tentacles split into even more tentacles as thin as hair and attacked Leon from every direction possible.


    "Somebody will have to die today," Rick maniacally roared. At this point, he had lost it.


    The last bit of sanity that he had left was gone.


    His body completely changed into a monster with thousands of tentacles, looking extremely hideous.


    Leon didn''t even realize one of the tentacles was about to pierce his heart.


    Sophie, on the other hand, was frozen in fear. The sight of the monster made her heart palpitate in horror.


    Puchi!


    Like a knife through butter, the tentacle pierced Leon''s chest and came out of his back. However, that wasn''t the end. Just after Leon''s chest was pierced, his body glowed in golden light.


    But that didn''t stop hundreds of other tentacles, which pierced his body one after the other.


    Leon''s body was torn to shreds in barely a moment, and what remained of him fell to the ground.


    After tasting blood, Rick¡ªno, it was better to call him a monster at this point¡ªbecame even more frenzied.


    His body doubled in size with red veins running on each of his tentacles.


    Roar!


    Hearing the bone-chilling roar of the monstrous being, Sophie fainted on the spot.


    "What the fuck?" David muttered in shock, his heart engaging like a war drum.


    What just happened?


    Suddenly, one of his teammates died, and in such a brutal way at that.


    David didn''t know what to feel; at this moment, his mind wasn''t working properly.


    "Calm down, panicking isn''t going to solve anything,"


    David thought in his head and forced himself to calm down. He had to calm down; otherwise, his fate would be no different than the meat patty lying on the ground.


    Suddenly, David''s eyes widened. The monster moved towards Sophie lying on the ground.


    The distance between him and the monster was too much; even if he ran at his fastest speed, he wouldn''t be able to save her.


    But he just couldn''t. After he had just invested in her, if she died it would be too much of a loss. Moreover, she was the daughter of the Sect master. At least he had to try.


    However, before he could take a step forward, a giant blob of light appeared in the air.


    David felt as if the giant blob had eyes and was looking at him. He hadn''t been able to solve one problem, and another appeared.


    "Look what happened to you, Old Third,"


    A voice that David had heard many times in this place reverberated. It was filled with pity.


    Roar! After hearing the voice, the monster became even more frenzied, as if it had met its arch enemy.


    "Let me end your suffering, my brother."


    "It pains my heart to see you in such a state."


    The blob wiggled as if he was really sad about Rick''s situation.


    Forgetting, he was the one who persuaded him to take over the body.


    "Disappear," Old First spoke once again in a cool and calm voice.


    Following his words, Rick''s body started to liquefy and flow toward the ground slowly at a snail''s pace. Of course, Old First was using his authority as the spirit; he wasn''t strong enough to directly kill Rick.


    Roar!


    The monster roared again. However, this time his roar was filled with pain.


    "Now what to do with you?" Old First turned his attention away from Rick and focused on David.


    David was looking at the scene in front of him with a plain expression on his face. Internally, however, he was shouting.


    "Fucking hell! What is this thing?"


    Old Second also looked at the screen while frowning; things weren''t going as they had planned before.


    He had to take action before things went out of control.

 Swallow more than

    With those words, Old First wiggled and, with a flash of light, he appeared in front of David''s forehead and disappeared.


    David''s mind went blank, and he fell to the ground.


    Thud!


    "Let''s begin." Old First appeared inside David''s spiritual sea and muttered with unconcealed ecstasy in his voice.


    He was surrounded by dark fog as far as his eyes could see.


    Old First was like a little bulb in the sea of darkness.


    Finally, the moment that he had been waiting for.


    All the suffering was worth it; now he was going to be finally free.


    He wouldn''t be trapped inside this godforsaken place anymore.


    Old First started to feel emotional and couldn''t handle the surge of emotions he was feeling.


    The spiritual space was the same as he remembered from countless experiments.


    He held some expectation in his heart, thinking a king-level talent might be different.


    But, thinking about it further, it was to be expected.


    As the human hadn''t even cultivated properly and had just started refining his body.


    He had to quickly move toward the center and merge with space in order to take over the body perfectly.


    Without wasting time, Old First started to move forward.


    However, after some time, his blob flashed in puzzlement.


    The further he moved toward the center, the rate at which mana was increasing was abnormal.


    Soon, he started to feel a terrifying suction force, and the mana around him was so dense that Old First felt suffocated.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Why hasn''t he exploded already?" Old First thought in shock.


    A cultivator at the Body Refining Realm wasn''t supposed to have this much mana. Hell, from what he knew, even some Golden Core experts didn''t have such a high concentration of mana.


    Although Old First was under an attractive force, it wasn''t such that he couldn''t resist. As a thousand-year-old spirit, he could easily resist some pressure.


    Just as Old First moved some meters ahead, the pressure suddenly multiplied enormously.


    Old First started to have trouble even floating properly.


    "Hmph! If you think just this is going to stop me, then think again." Old First''s blob suddenly shone with bright light, and the pressure he was feeling lessened by a huge margin.


    At this point, all around him was black fog that looked like it would liquefy at any point.


    Old First persisted and kept moving forward.


    If it was any other sane being, they would have given up because of the abnormal circumstances. But because of the situation Old First was in, he couldn''t think properly.


    After all, his goal was right in front of him.


    It was difficult to give up when you have planned and waited for so long and climbed ninety-nine steps, but suddenly at the hundredth step, someone told you that you can''t move forward.


    In most cases, you would generally ignore the advice.


    In the next moment, the pressure that was bearable suddenly multiplied by thousands.


    Old First''s blob was like a little wooden boat swept away in a raging ocean. He lost control of his body and was pulled by the attractive force at an insane speed.


    In just a moment, he appeared under a black and white symbol that was rapidly spinning like a vortex, spewing black fog inside the spiritual space.


    The black fog around the symbol had liquefied, shown by the little black rivers flowing in the air.


    "What is this thing?" Old First roared and tried his best to stop himself from rushing toward the symbol.


    But no matter how much he tried, his efforts were in vain. It was like throwing a bucket of water on the sun, hoping to cool it down.


    Utterly moronic and beyond comprehension.


    Soon, his body was swallowed by the vortex, leaving no trace behind.


    Just like that, he died, and no one would ever know why.


    If he had been only cautious enough, his fate might have been completely different.


    After Old First was torn to shreds, David woke up feeling refreshed.


    He felt as if he had suddenly grown stronger. The world around him seemed more colorful, and his vision seemed to have improved once again.


    He could even see the little pores on Sophie''s face, who was lying hundreds of meters away from him.


    Then David''s eyes fell on the blob of light around Sophie.


    As soon as his gaze landed on the blob of light, David''s eyes opened wide in surprise.


    The laziness he was feeling instantly disappeared like smoke.


    "Where did that bastard go? And why had I fallen asleep?"


    David suddenly had tens of questions in his head. The last thing he remembered was that the blob of light had suddenly disappeared, and he didn''t know anything after that.


    "Old First, how do you feel?" Old Second seemed to have noticed David''s strange behavior and moved toward him.


    "Why did you do that to Old Third? After all, he was one of us." Old Second''s voice was filled with a tinge of anger.


    Although Rick had failed, he was still someone with whom Old Second had spent a considerable amount of time. They could be considered brothers.


    Hearing his words, David understood what was going on, so he played along.


    "It was necessary; he had gone too far." David spoke in a regretful voice.


    He turned his head and looked at the place where a pool of red liquid was, his gaze filled with guilt.


    "But still¡­" Old Second wanted to retort, but in the end, he fell silent.


    "Enough! Let''s not talk about it anymore." David resolutely spoke in a voice that had no room for argument. After speaking, he walked in the direction of Sophie and Old First.


    Hearing David''s words, Old Second didn''t say anything more and moved over Sophie''s head.


    David didn''t know what the guy was going to do, but he had no way of stopping him. He might as well just see what he was trying to do.


    However, that didn''t mean he was going to slow down.


    But just as Old Second touched Sophie''s forehead, something unexpected happened.


    Impossible!


    Old Second yelled in an incredulous voice; he wasn''t able to enter her spiritual space.


    Not giving up, he tried again, but the result was the same. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn''t enter.