《Foundation Master》


 Chapter One - Gaining a Cultivation Legacy

    "Hey kid wake up" said a voice in my head that sounded like a tired old man. I struggle to wake up, but I''m cold and wet and feel my legs are in water. As I push my forearms into the soft sand to lift my head up to peer around the dark cave. There are some strange crystals imbedded randomly in the walls and cealing giving off a dim glow. There also seem to be some luminescent mushrooms and patches of moss helping to light this underground cave. I pull my legs out of the cold stream with effort, I''m cold and sore and struggle with my thoughts. I don''t know where I am and wonder how I came to this underground cave.


    "Who are you senior?'' I asked and wonder if it was my imagination since I don''t see anyone around.


    "Do you see the mushroom patch to your right? come here" replied the tired voice, again the voice in my head. Interesting I thought, telepathy I inquire? "yes" came the voice. Great I thought as I glance over to the right and saw a large patch of mushroom that provide the largest light source in the cave. I''m too tried to stand so I crawl my way over, the closer I get the warmer it becomes. By the time I reached the patch, my skin feels like sunbathing under the summer sun. The central mushrooms look a little scary because there are glowing red blood vessels can be seen on the stems and cap. But what catches my attention was a skull half buried in the middle of those mushrooms.


    "Your in luck kid, I sense we came from Earth so I''ll help you with the last of my strength. I don''t have much time so listen to me. First dig out that dagger, you should be able to see the hilt near my feet" came the voice much weaker than before. I glance over and saw the hilt and with a quick pull, a beautiful dagger came out of the dirt. The foot long blade was pristine with engraved patterns all along it''s length on both sides and extremely thin. It looks light weight but in reality weighs about thirty pounds, in my weaken condition it''s difficult to lift.


    The senior''s weakening voice whispers "now uncover my chest armor and use the dagger to cut a finger and place that finger on the armor. Don''t stop until you recieve my legacy. Hurry my soul is about in enter the reincarnation cycle."


    I mumble "legacy?"


    "Yes my cultivation legacy, I can help you learn the first part while I''m still conscious, but if I enter the reincarnation cycle you won''t be able to gain my legacy" his faint reply pushes me into action and with a quick swipe of my finger and press on his armor my mind falls into a deep abyss. When I wake up, I realize I am wearing that armor of his, it''s like a body suit, it''s comfortable and warm under my now dried clothes.


    His last memory sudden awakens in me "good luck kid, I gift you my treasures and hope someday we can meet again." I quickly send a prayer "Good luck senior, I hope you succeed in your reincarnation." I dug around a bit and uncover his void ring and long sword. From seniors memories, this void ring is like a self contained subspace for holding non living materials. The long sword is a match to the dagger with the same elegant patterns scrolling along it''s length. I know it weighs about two hundred pounds, but the sword has accepted me as it''s master and in my hands it weighs next to nothing. I picked up the dagger and it''s now light as a feather.


    Like a child I play with the ring on my right hand, with just a thought I make the sword and dagger enter and leave the ring continuously. I also pull out items in the ring to examine. After that I sat for who knows how long in that dark timeless cave as I search my memories of his legacy called Etherial Foundation Technique to make it my own.


    I stay in that cave for years, the first reason was to avoid my step brothers who tried to kill me by pushing me into a sink hole. The second was to learn my master''s legacy and his various hobbies he acquired. At first I was skeptical about the whole thing, but the more I understood the more I wanted to cultivate it. I was running low on sustence pills and various cultivation resources after so many years of training. So I put on a dark jacket and pants I found in my master''s ring and began following the slight constant breeze out.


    It didn''t take long to find a vent to the ground above, with a thought I feel my divine sense fill the vent and widen it enough for me to pass though in a blink of an eye. As I flew up a memory intrudes into my conscious. I died on earth and reincarnated into a minor clan, my mother was a new favorite wife of an elder who died while traveling to visit her parents when I was old enough to start cultivating. With out my mother, my step brothers decide to get rid of me since resources were limited. At first I was vengeful, but after a few year training, that thought just slide into oblivion. Let them eek out a meager life as country bumpkins in their little world.


    The reason I no longer hold a grudge? Well the legacy of my master taught me about the vast cultivation multiverse. I was the frog in the well staring at the moon wondering if this is what life had to offer. But now my eyes are wide open, within my master''s memories where countless worlds that he never had the chance to explore. My adventurous spirit peaked as my desire to explore these worlds fills me with anticipation.


    I have to admit flying is fun and spent a few hours enjoying the feeling and practice flying skills. Hovering in different poses, climbling up and down and doing it backwards too, diving at different angles while never loosing sight of a particular leaf. Sliding around trees trucks without moving your body and never stop facing the tree, then start moving though the branches at high speed but never exceeding an arms length away from the trunk. That was my favorite one to practice, but didn''t realize it would turn my flying style like an insect that darts all over the place. As well as all the standard stuff that I could think of for an aerial battle. My master''s basic combat moves were all about always facing your opponent, all moves ended up facing the opponent in order set up for a counter attack. So I practice circling trees hacking off limbs with my sword. Being gawked at by farmers and travelers didnt bother me, the only thing on my mind was having fun flying.


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    My altitude was just under the first cloud I explored when my divine sense warned me of a danger from above. I instantly went into a dive to give me some time. As I glance over my shoulder I see a grey feather stage six birdbeast following me. There is a patch of scales protecting it''s chest and had a long beak to stab prey with and it''s much faster than me. I turn around to face it and just as it about to come into melee range I use a vertical circle strike to get above the beast. It tried to dodge but was unable to change it''s dive momentum other than to veer off to the side a little. As I arch over the birdbeast, I aim for the closest wing and heard a sudden screech of pain, then I watch the one wing birdbeast fall to it death.


    Remembering the demonbeast may have cores, I follow the birdbeast down. I avoided the droplets of blood for practice as I dive. The birdbeast last breaths of life began sending sonic shockwaves at me in vengeful fury. I avoided the brunt of shockwaves allowing my Qi barrier take some of the heat. Not bad, the Qi barrier is not even weaken at all, so I test it on a full blown shockwave. The Qi barrier fluctuated a little, but that about it. I''m quite happy with the result, it would appear rank six demonbeasts will have great deal of trouble breaking though my Qi barrier.


    As the birdbeast slams into the ground and bounces up from the rebound, my right foot hammers it''s neck back into the ground and with a quick slash of my sword remove it''s head. My divine sense seeps into it''s body, but after a bit realize there is no core. With a sigh, I fly back up and look for more birdbeasts, but they are too far away to bother with. So I fly north toward a city I spotted from the clouds.


    As I close on the city, I can see the massive beastwave walls and other flying cultivators. The walls are about a hundred meter tall and just as thick. I can see array circles on wall fortifying them to extreme levels. They practically glow in broad daylight. As I pass over the wall I see various seige engines, single and multi shot ballista and giant cauldrons along the battlements followed by rolls of catapults, after catapults another wall of battlements. The cascading battlements rise every twenty meters for a total of four extra battlements on top of the first wall. There are command towers and stairs leading down into the wall, no doubt leading to garrisons and storerooms.


    This huge city was built on a large rocky hill that has three inner walls. Each wall was a hundred meters higher than the previous wall, so the inner wall was four hundred meters up on the giant hill. The palaces I see in the inner wall are all unique and stunning in appearance. The next layer was filled with large mansions, many have exotic gardens. These two inner regions are protected by a translucent dome barrier. The third layer is obviously filled with middle class citizens, their clean two story houses create uniform neighborhoods. The common area that I am currently flying over is a sloppy mishmash of buildings that defile common street logic. The streets meander all over the place, including many dead ends. The poor and homeless are at their usually play, but I ignore them and fly over the next wall into the merchant quarter.


    The merchant quarter is a huge area filled with open tents to keep the sun from baking the merchants all day. Surrounding the tents are various size building selling higher quality goods. The bigger stores has guards protecting their expensive store fronts and most likely keeping undesirables away too. I stop by a largest store selling cultivation resources and stock up on the one I need most. Inside my master''s ring made me kind of rich, so it didn''t bother me paying for the somewhat expensive resource.


    As I left the private room that I made my purchase, I notice a young man with a pair of goons watching his back brush past me as he entered the room I vacated. He gives me the usually upper class looking down on common trash glare. Then I notice the two cultivators that was waiting line behind me look somewhat scared. That idiot must have some background in this city to cut in front of the line, so I ask "Who was the guy who cut in line?" as I past them by.


    My reply I heard was "young master Gibbons, a branch of the royal family."


    Ahh I thought, no wonder he''s so stuck up. As soon as I leave the shop I shoot up into the sky to look around some more. Quickly I appraise the surrounding herb shops and picked the one that seems to know the business. So I flew down and enter this extremely large building with plots of medical gardens on the roof growing rare spiritual herbs. The entire roof and building is shimmering of a powerful and extremely thick barrier to protect these extremely expensive herbs. As I fly down I see that the top three floors are nothing but windows and these rooms are filled with plots of medicinal earth each grown a crop of living spirtual herbs. This is followed by a couple of floors without any windows at all. Then two floors with normal windows before reaching the ground and enter the building.


    The inside smells wonderful, rich earthly aromas filled with the spicy tang of flowers. I ignore the stairs to my right and head to the third corridor for private rooms. Most of these people around me are alchemists, their pupils or servants. The ones that stick out like me are cultivators who are not wearing alchemist set pieces who found some rare herbs to sell. As I stood waiting I appraise the aura of these cultivators and see them lacking. Their auras are shallow, almost transparent when I view their bodies. Then I look at an aura that catches my eye the most and see that it''s from a alchemist.


    This alchemist has a much stronger foundation, his aura is not as transparent as the cultivators. An Alchemist''s cultivation will advance naturally over time I was told, so they would spend all their time study alchemy. As I watch the alchemist I realize he as strong as me and would make a good sparing partner. With so many private rooms, the wait isn''t long before I''m a small room with a polite man. I hand him a small list of things I wanted before he can say any greetings. After reading the list he promptly opens the back door and hands the list away. "The items you requested should be here shortly. How would you like to pay for them?'' asked the polite young man.


    From my master''s ring I willed out three of the cheapest swords to come out and appear on the table and replied "I believe these will do" then turn around to sit back down then ask "do you have something better" as I pick up the bottle of complimentary wine. "Yes! Yes of course" and draws out a bottle from his void pouch. "Please enjoy sir" and hands the bottle to me then left the room with those swords. Now I can enjoy a much better cultivation wine as I wait.


    After finishing two glasses there was a knock on the table and the young man opened it and enters. He walks over and state "Sir! The items you requested" he presents the pouch with a bow and arms raised up. I take the pouch and bottle into my master''s ring and leave. I immediately take to the air in the direction of the building that caught my eye earlier.

 Chapter Two - The Auction House

    As I fly toward this magnifcent building, I can see large crowds of people entering and leaving it''s hundred yard entrance. As I land near the entrance, I couldn''t help but give the building''s protective barrier a good appraisal. The showcases on the walls display various treasures for their end of the week auctions. There are teams of guards patrolling the area, not that they are needed, the barriers that protect the showcases are just too strong.


    After passing the showcases, I enter a oval room subspace with a extremely wide staircase in the middle leading to the second floor. The the oval room walls glows a soft white on the floor and cealing, and I''m walking on an translucent almost invisible barrier for a floor. I look down at my feet and see the outline of my feet surrounded by the soft fuzzy white glow from a restriction that creates a white ground fog. At the bottom of the staircase are scores of people waiting to help customers who intend to go upstairs. But very few approach the stairs as most people head for the multitude of corridors that lead to private rooms. The place is busy, a steady flow of people entering and leaving from each of the corridors.


    I head for the base of the stairs and a pretty girl in a tight dress bows to me and ask "what can this auction house do for you sir?" My reply was "I would like to rent a workshop to practice tier six Artificing. Standard rates?" as I hand her a list of things I wanted to work with. She smiles and answers "Ah, you done this before, please follow me young master" while passing the list to a runner.


    As a man I watch her ass up the stairs, it''s like how can I not look. She then leds me to an area with crystal tubes running up into the cealing and stops by one of them and says "please sir, this tube lead to the workshops. Please remember you can only fly inside these tubes. There are flying restrictions thoughout this auction house." I nodded to her and step into the tube and will myself to fly up.


    As I land on the exit floor I was greeted by another pretty girl who inquires "what kind of room do you like sir?" I reply "a room with a view." She nods and says "I know of good one sir, this way please." As she leads the way she informs "If there is anything you need during your stay, please don''t hesitate to ask any of our staff." My curiosity kicks in and I inquire "does that includes even you?" She stops and looks at me and responds "a tier six artificer as young as you, my answer is yes." She bows politely before leading me away again often commenting on other rooms available if I am dissatified with the one I choose. She takes her time, it''s obvious she stalling until they can gather up the items I requested, so accepted the well rehearsed tour. I even injected a few points of interest to keep up the game, which she smiled in appreciation.


    She finally stops before a triple barrier warded door manned by a servant holding a silver tray. She picks up a key jade and a void pouch and presents them to me, then tells "this token will allow you to control these barriers and call for a servant if you ever need something. This pouch has the materials you requested young master." I take both items with my left hand and with a thought to my master''s ring willed the cheapest spear to come out. I hand the spear to the young girl and ask "can you please auction this spear for me for the end of the month auction and please advertise as well. If your abiltiy to handle my crafts satisfy me I will increase your tip by as much and ten percent of final price. I will add auctions as I finish crafting them, right now I''ll take that nice girl who brought me to my workshop to run errands for me. Tell her I''ll give her a tier five niravana breakthough pill if she helps me out until I decide to leave this city." then willed the token to ''open'' the barriers then walk through barriers and enter into the workshop.


    The workshop is on the top floor of the auction house. The entire workshop is just a slab of array hardened rock extending out from the building sheathed in an invisibility formation, allow anyone who walks on it see the outline of the transparent bridge. With the ground fog, I feel like I am walking on clouds. There is even a formation to make me feel the ground as a little give in it as if walking on cotton.


    The three shimmering barrier protects the workshop and provide privacy. Through the token I willed "clear to see" restriction in the key jade and the opaque barrier turns invisible and I can see the view of the city. Since the workshop extends out of the building I will be able to see both the sunrise and sunset. I know the barrier is one way, outside of the workshop is concealed by invisibily formations as part of the guareentee the auction house privacy crafter''s demand while crafting.


    With my eyes I see the invisible restrictions clearly protecting the adjacent worshops from view. The staff was kind of enough to put me at the very top, so no invisible restriction block my sky view but looking down, I see two more floors of workshop invisibity restrictions blocking more than half the ground view as illusionary distortions. After enjoying the view for bit then will the token ''white and bright'' and the invisible barrier turn soft white to illuminate the space.


    I send my thoughts into the void pouch to check the materials. I see them all plus a score of large vials filled with sustenence pills and ten bottled gifts of cultivation wines. I put those into my master''s ring then empty the materials into the work area. Crafting anything is mentally consuming work that often induce headaches and a whole lot of insomnia. Only thing I can say is that I sink into my work at the cellular level and forget the outside world ever existed.


    When I come to my senses, there a marvelous weapon in my hands. I made a heavy blade this time, it''s about three hundred pounds of polished steel and emits both Sword Qi and Earth Qi in overlapping waves. I put the weapon aside and began cultivating with the resources I bought earlier. This was my routine until three days left of my auction. The first servant girl I requested liked men and provided an entertaining break. I rewarded her a pill suitable for her cultivation level in gratitude for her time. The following girls were even more enthusiastic in entertaining me. When I work, I like to splurg on breaks.


    I create a total of fourteen weapons, as I handed the last one to my last break girl, I remember her being the one who brought me to this workshop and occasionally runs errands for me. I examine her aura and see it''s much stronger than before. I spoke up "that foundation pill I gave you worked extremely well." Her smiling reply was "thank you very much for your help young master" before marveling at the warbow I just made. "You have made fourteen weapons during your stay young master. Your auctions will end in three days, would you like to attend in a private booth young master?" I reply "no thanks, it''s boring going to an auction that I can''t bid on" I give her a grin then hand her a list of herbs I want to buy, I offer "I''ll buy these herbs with the auction winnings, can you convert the excess winnings to stage nine resources please. I''ll wait in this workshop." As I turn away my curiosity asks "would like seconds with me tonight my dear?" Her reply was "I''ll return to you as soon as I can" and left to take the warbow away.


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    We used a duo cultivating technique, we follow the scripted moves and enjoy it as much as we can. We go through five cycles before we are both satisfied. After she leaves with another foundation pill today, I get back to work, but this time I''m working with alchemy. Because I am using my artificing to pay for my alchemy hobbie.  It''s just like artificing, I get total sucked into my work I forget everything. When I come to my senses I push my mind into my master''s ring and know there is a new batch of pills are in there.


    While examining the last of the new pills the door chime sounded. My thoughts delve into the token and command "open door." Two auction elders entered and delived a void pouch, "your winnings and spirtual herbs you wanted young master." I replied "thank you for your good services" as I sent the pouch into my master''s ring. The other elder respectful replied "it''s a pleasure having to sell your art here. Please come back anytime." He then willed the returned token to open up the cealing. I watch a hole form on the top of the barrier that expands and drop instantly to floor level. I cup my hands and say "elders, thank you for sending me off" and flew away.


    I head back to that dark cave in a round about way to make sure I wasn''t followed. Now that I got supplies to last a few years I can go back to my studies. Why would I return to that dank cave, it''s because my master place a concealing array and a temporal array in there. The temporal array shifts time to three days in the array will only be one day in the outside world. Learning my master techniques and hobbies kept me entertained for years inside until I ran out of sustence pills again.


    I sigh with regret as I leave the my cave for the last time. With my master reincarnating, the two arrays have been deteriorating. As my eyes appraise the decaying arrays, I know they will last a couple of months at most. I cup my hands and bow to the cave and respectively say "master, may we again in the future." I turn and flew back to that city auction house.


    When I arrived at the foot of that masive stairs a young lady steps to me and purrs out "young master! Welcome back to our auction house. Do you require the same services?" I smiled a nod as I pass her and continue up the stairs. She smiles back and inquires "would like the same workshop or would you like a different one? I laugh out "It''s my home when I am here" and thus head home. When I reach the workshop landing a pretty girl offer out her hand and I hand her the list of the items I wanted to work on this time. I smile at her and say "you learn fast! Come over sometime and I''ll treat you right." She laughs out "It would be a great honor young master."


    As I walk to my workshop I see a servant with the silver tray. I step up and picked up the key jade off the tray let my awareness activate token to ''open my door.'' I watch the barriers open and I step through. Then I thought ''let the sunshine in'' and barriers turn invisible. I watch over the my home town until the door chime rang and a voice say "your items you requested young master." I reply "just put on the table" and continue to enjoy the view. I soon hear "please enjoy your stay young master." I then think ''soft white and seal door'' and the barriers turn into that fuzzy white light I like to use when crafting. Tier seven artificing is a bit interesting, I use centrifugal forces, gravity waves and dimensional rifting to make great looking weapons.


    Can''t go into the details because I made an oath to my ancestor spirit to keep everything a secret. Best I can do is discribe one of my master''s weapons. The story I liked the most is the ship in the bottle sword. It was a crystal clear sword that had a diaramma of a ship in a storm held up by a wave in a bottle in exquisite detail. The sword was the sea that held the diaramma. Bidders laughed at the ridiculous design. My master replied ''of course it''s ridiculous! That the whole point in this auction. My weapons I am selling tonight are meant to be your final trump card. Since your going to use the weapon once, might as make them look ridiculous. Beside who uses scabbards these days, we store our weapons in void rings! With out scabbards confining me, I had fun making some bizarre toys. I''ve definitely be making some fun toys in the future.''


    Another one I like is the rocket spear. It was carved from a tree and had a child like innocence to it. It''s cartoony big nose and faded paint truely look like it was an old toy. My ancestor loved of trump cards are funny. I wonder if I have to skills to make such powerful trump cards someday. With that thought I sink myself into my work and forget the world again.


    As I become conscious of the world, I have four new weapons, each radiating a different elemental qi. The elemental qi pour out of the blades in torrents, as if the swords could no longer contain the excess qi. Surrounding each elemental qi is the same amount of sword qi pouring out, but it is so well fused together the you would think it was the same qi at first glance. I thought ''nice blades!'' and picked one up to examine. The crystal blade is like a window into the Elemental Earth Plane, the living earth constantly flows upwards from the pummel all the way to the tip of the blade. As it travels down the blade it exudes that torrent of perfectly fused duo qi. I see, I guess the show this month is about elemental weapons. I smile as I pull out my resource pouch and start cultivating.


    Once I recover my energies, I send the thought "I need a cute servant girl" to the token and received an instant reply "at once young master!" After enjoying duo cultivating for a number of times, I sent her off happily with the four weapons and a pill to help her cultivation. A quick look at the city before dissappearing back into my work. This time I made four elemental bows, very impressive looking work. Their exaggerated looking bows gives you more territory to watch the captivating living elements flow around ornate bow form.


    After examinging each bow I move back to cultivating. I spent a ton buy all these resources from the auction house meant for tier nine experts, but I am eating them like candy at tier seven. Each small advance is a bottomless abyss. If a normal tier seven tried to refine one of these resources they would explode into bloodmist then ignite into an infernal due the excess energy. Not only does my master cultivation technique raise the amount needed for each small advance, it also deepens my foundation capacity. This duo expansion is starting to get ridiculous in the shear amount of energy required for the tiniest advance.


    The next girl was an old friend from that last time I was here so I greeted "girlfiend! How have you been?" She laughs and take my hand and directs me to the bed, this makes me laugh back, and enjoy the time I spent with her. We used a tier six duo cultivation technique, she actually broke though to tier seven in the middle of our fun. So I promptly pulled out a jade with a tier seven duo cultivation technique and spent the rest of our time enjoying a much more pleasurable experience. As a congratulatory gift, I gave her a pill to solidify her foundation as she took the bows away.


    As I watch the city scape as I finish off a bottle of cultivation wine, I decided on a change of plans and order up a servant from the token and handed the girl a new list of spiritual fruits, herbs and liquids. When she returned I had a large jade barrel ready and began refining new materials into a liquid to fill the barrel. Once filled the liquid has a slight gold shimmer, I seal it and place a temporal array on the barrel it to make it age faster. Then willed the barrel into my master''s ring, in a few months I can take it out for a taste.

 Chapter Three - Dragonbone Home

    Just thinking about drinking that wine after it''s done fermenting changes my mood, after all it''s one of master''s cultivation wine recipe. So I decide I''ll work on alchemy for the rest of the show. So I sweep everything away into my master ring and pull out my alchemy stuff. Damn I feel pumped up as I seek that white infinity that leads into alchemy. When my senses comes to, I see a five ornate jade vials each with a single pill vibrating in their confined space, I sense ten more inside master''s ring. The medicinal odor in the workshop is intense, I can feel my cultivation raising a little. I can''t help think ''damn what the hell did I make'' as I stare at those pills. They act as if they are alive and terrified of their captivity.


    Damn I feel exhausted so I drag my resource pouch over and started cultivating with glee. I can''t wait to examine those pills. Once I finish cultivating, I sense my cultivation has risen to mid tier stage seven. I only recently solified early tier not too long ago. This make me even more curious about the pills and open my eyes.


    The five dazzling pills illuminates the space with a rainbow of colors. As my divine sense infiltrate those jade vials I''m pleasantly surprise these pills possess pill spirits. The effect of these pills are guaranteed because of these pill spirits. But master''s techniques put in a bonus effect of refining the pill taker''s body to make it a little bit tougher that a body crafting specialist would appreciate.


    I also realize these are stage eight pills, I thought ''that''s pretty cool I can make pills one grade higher than my cultivation.'' No wonder my cultivation rose so suddenly today. I can see why alchemist don''t bother with cultivating, all they have to do is craft higher quality pills and their cultivation will raise a little. I can see why top experts will take a hobbie once their cultivation stop growing, because all three can provide growth to their stagnate cultivation. I see before me Two Nirvana Breakthough pills, two Total Foundation pills and one Pheonix Rebirth pill.


    As my divine sense enter the Nirvana Breakthough pills, it will allow the person to strengthen their will so when the times comes they won''t forget to reform their body. Not only that it possess enough energy to solidify their foundation to the next level.


    As my mind enters the Total Foundation pills, I know this pill make a mid stage eight to become a peak tier eight expert with a solid foundation that also been upgrade to the next level.


    When I delved into the Pheonix Rebirth pill, the person who takes this pill will explode into a body of flames when they take lethal damage and emit a stage eight killing intent aura. They will be given a choice of fight or flee. If fight is choosen then the person will be reborn right there with all wounds healed and a temporary full cultivation one stage higher with the only after effect being their foundation will be a small step higher. If flee was choosen they will be teleported in the direction of their choice with a distance that a stage eight expert to take a tenday to fly too. The body will then be reborn with full health and their foundation will have risen by a small degree.


    I eyeball the Total foundation pills and realize I have a short cut when I break through to stage eight. But thinking about it a bit more I realize my foundation would be weak due to lack of energy. Right now it''s looking like I need to be at late stage eight to use the pill to get to peak stage. Well if I can get five color pill lightning that would cover fifty percent of the energy I needed. So I just to come up fifty percent more energy and make a Total Formation pill to work for me at mid stage eight. Offhand, I can think a several energy spiritual materials that can cover thirty percent, that leaves twenty percent to fill in. I become happy because twenty percent is too easy, so I breeze into the token and ordered me a pretty girl.


    The pretty girl was shocked and just stared at the pills until I interrupted her with a query "nice pills?" She jumps like a scared cat and joyfully says "young master make really nice pills!" We both laugh as she drags me to the bed for some duo cultivating. As she gather up the vials and about to leave I come over and pat her head and say "I like your enthusiasm, when I call for a pretty girl next time come instead" and hand her a tier five Nirvana Breakthough pill.


    Now that I got my alchemy kick out of the way I sweep the stuff into master''s ring and withdraw the artificing materials. Not much time left is left for the show, so I''ll forge a special blade then. With that thought I enter the white light of oblivion. When I come too I open my eye and just stare at the blade before me. It''s a crystal longsword polish so I can easily see my reflection on the blade. Yet molden lava flow endlessly inside the crystal. The aura of the three merged sword qi, earth qi and fire qi forms illusionary copies of itself that dissipate as they drifts away from the sword. The sword''s spirit is strong enough to materialize the tri qi into a physical form. As I pick the sword up, sword hymm fills the workshop. I laugh as I playfully slash the air to hear the glorious sword hymms. "Good sword" is all I thought, I guess I''ll keep this one and sent it into my master''s ring.


    Then proceeded to order that girl again and remove three weapons from master''s ring and place them for auction. The girl looks at the weapons and playfully says "back to weapons?" I replied "I had a fond memory of my ancestor so felt like making some pills last time." She laughs "time to make some fond memories too" as she drags me to the bed, I laugh to enjoy the moment and teased "don''t hurt me with your new found strength" and laughed back. Her response was "let me show you how enthusiastic appreciative I can be!" while dragging me even harder with a joyful smile.


    She showed me the stamina of tier six cultivator, in appreciation I gifted her a foundation pill and playful slap her ass as she leaves my home, I informed "I''ll wait here until the show is over" then stuff a list into her bosom and kiss her goodbye. I then swept the token into my master''s ring and thought ''seal door, open outer barrier" and flew out into the city. I sent a farewell thought ''close outer barrier'' and flew down to check out the shops.


    I go back that medicinal herb store just to breath in that air but manage to buy a few rare herbs. I probe the other shops from the air with my divine sense but find no treasure qi worth investigating. My master used to like dining at famous restaurants serving high end demonbeast meal. So I toss my divine sense around me to search for a good restaurant. There one to my right, and my awareness focus on that restaurant. The Dragonbone Home sign was the aura of a treasure qi blazing forth above the entrance archway. It''s a famous restaurant my master use to love to go. Damn, what luck as I rush down to the entrance, there is already a steady stream of people entering and at the other archway more people leaving.


    As I fly lower I see that the archways act as a simple boundary of two gates. The swirling gate aura end in a short tunnel into the courtyard of the restaurant. I fly though the tunnel and enter the courtyard. It''s like I entered deep underwater subspace without the water. There are exotic fishes flying around me, but what catches my attention is the giant sharkbeast flying in the middle of the courtyard lazy swimming there like it''s water. But notices me and begin swimming in my direction. It''s terrifying tier nine aura forces me gently to the ground, as I land the sharkbeast then ignores me and swims back to the center of the courtyard.


    You see the startled look of the surrounding customers as they step away from me but then realize they were stepping away from the sharkbeast instead. Then they all sigh in relief as it swims lazily back to the center of the courtyard. ''Right'' I think and realize there must be flying restrictions here and begin walking around the sharkbeast like the rest of the customers. I can see it chase the fleeing customers on the other side of the courtyard as they try to leave the restaurant. I can''t help but laugh, who ever designed this entrance courtyard is too funny. This watery illusion is a nice trick, with all the restriction all over the place, no one could get out of line.


    By sending my tier seven qi to empower my eyes, I can now see restriction qi emitting all over the place. It''s impressive tier nine might can''t be felt but my divine sense knows it''s there. My awareness hoover near a restriction and sense "anyone who disobeys a family member will be teleported out of the restaurant and their family aura banned for a century." I see, these restriction serve to protect the restaurant''s reputation. This is hollowed ground! I recognized in thought. The restaurants attitude is clear, that serve good food and don''t want their customer bothered by worldly affairs.


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    There are many hostess standing before different portals sending each group away after confirming the experience they want with their dinner. I step in front of a free hostess and smile, she charmingly smiles back and ask "what can we do for the young master tonight?" Out of curiosity I replied with "can I eat with the sharkbeast?" The girl burst out laughing and said "that''s a first! The boss is gonna like that!" Then with the roll of her hand and a bow included, she points to the gate and says "your wish is our command." I laugh and enter the gate.


    As soon as I entered the subspace of illusionary water, the sharkbeast glares at me and huffs until I sit down on a couch chair that sways from minute currents. The sharkbeast does his lazy dance until he is a safe distance for me. I put my mind near the restriction and know it for ''when the client sits swim causual away until the client feels your at safe distance.'' I laugh as I willed that safe distance I felt to grow smaller. I see in the corner of my eye the waitress step away from the fast approaching sharkbeast in shock.


    Oh! I make the sharkbeast swim away. "Nice pet!" I replied covering my mistake. She just stares at me with a smile and hand me the menu and utters "please take your time young master." As I accept the menu I notice a sheen of persperation of the girls brow and sprout "please treat me well and I will be grateful." Then I stare at the scaly skinned menu that actually looks like part of some monsterous demonbeast. The words engraved in the scales blaze with harmless fire qi. The Dragonbone Home inscibed in the scales make it look like an enchanted spellbook of a powerful wizard.


    I quickly open it up and notice only five items for sale. Glancing at the price I was most definitely shocked, the chef''s choice was equal to one of my foundation pills. I focus on the the menu''s restriction and felt ''provide a menu fit for the customers cultivation.'' Nice I thought, and looked at the food fit for my stage seven.


    The Chef''s Choice title was ''Dragonbone BBQ'' This meat is cut from the rib bones of a peak tier seven Celestial Tigerdragon. Cooked in a honey bbq sauce, it''s rich and tangy flavor is served with spiritual rice and a bottle of my homemade cultivation wine. Ahh I thought, now it''s getting interesting.


    The other entres are good, but the chef''s choice was something my master only ordered. With a little bit of digging in my master''s memories I realize the reason, it''s because the owner of the Dragonbone Home will personally cook it. In my master''s memories, the owner is the only grandmaster of demonbeast cooking he has ever met. The owner is a notorious wanderer and rarely leaves his restaurant open for long. Quickly I made up my mind I reply "I''ll have the chef''s choice and something to feed my senior brother sharkbeast." Then pull out a tier seven nirvana breakthough pill and continue with "I will pay with this pill" from the extras I made last week and put on a smile. She takes the vial and with a deep bow and disappears to management.


    I stare at the heavy water table that float before me, I can even push my finger though the darker waters of the table. When I do that I attract the sharkbeast attentions and start lazily swim towards me with it''s sharky grin. I glance into the table restriction and sense ''solify when a family member orders with their command ring.'' Then I place my full attention on senior sharkbeast.


    Senior sharkbeast doesn''t like me when I touch the table, so I play with him through the fear restriction I sense on the table. I wonder how strong in knowledge in restrictions you need to be make it feel so real to make even a tier seven expert need to abid by the rules. All my senses are telling me this subspace is real, but my divine sense say it''s an illusion filled with restrictions.


    A voice interupts my play "I see you like my sharkbeast." I quickly remove my hand from the table and turn to see the speaker. I see a young man wearing a classic black chef outfit with red acents smiling at the sharkbeast. Who I notice has spotted it''s master and can see it''s flashing tail of happiness. I see there are three girls with trays behind him. The chef then says "I know you will enjoy the dinner I made for you." The first girl steps forward and places the dish on the solified table and steps away. His voice continues "this is a bottle of cultivation wine I made when I was tier seven expert, it aged quite well." The second girl steps foward with a glass and bottle, she calmly fills the glass two thirds and place both on the table and steps away.


    He then follow up with "these three treats I carefully crafted for your entertainment." The third girl lays out three frozen creatures behind me and to the left before bowing and leaving the subspace. He then pull out a pill vial and reminisce "I had an old customer that use to give me pills like yours. I''m glad he finally found a pupil to pass his legacy," the vial vanishes and a token that looks like a small version of the menu complete with harmless fire qi for the lettering. "A pupil of a good customer is always welcome here" and tosses me the token. I sent the token into master''s ring and supplied "my master alway''s enjoyed the chef''s choice, so of course I had to try it as well" and laughed.


    "I sense my old customer has enter the reincarnation cycle recently, now we just have to wait until he returns."


    Laughing I replied "I know, I can''t wait to talk to my master."


    He nods and finalize with "enjoy your dinner, I have new customers that ordered the chef''s choice to satisfy," and then dissappears. I can barely hear him as all my senses are riveted on the giant slab of slice meat on the first dish. It''s peak tier seven aura waffs from the meat in gentle waves. My nose is filled with a spicy and tangy scent. All my senses are helplessly drawn to it. The bbq sauce is still bubbling on the meat. It''s golden glaze smothers the meat and fills the plate. I can see finely chopped spiritual onions cooked in the bbq sauce. There is a bowl of spiritual rice with three slices of meat on top place in front of me and a large extra bowl rice to the side.


    As I lift the first bowl, I fill my nose with it''s spicy but tangy scent that complemented by the slightly sweet scent of the rice. With no choice I scoop a slice a meat with some rice put in my mouth and feel the explosion of flavors. The tender meat and rice melts into a fine liquid that gushes toward my cells, I can feel my body refine toward the toughness of this peak tier seven Tigerdragon. I was awed, cultivation demonbeast chefs are amazing. If I were to eat a hundred such dishes I definitely have the body resilience of a peak tier seven Tigerdragon.


    I glance over the the wine cup, I notice the rich spicy scent of good cultivation wine a while ago but was too enraptured by the first dish. I took a drink and was stunned when I feel my cultivation rise a little. My eyes lit up as I thought ''good wine.'' I''m really glad I came here but notice the sharkbeast still flashing it''s tail and realize it''s staring at the treats in glorious happiness that only the sharkbeast ''see treat'' restriction applies.


    With a laugh I pick up the first treat with my divine sense, it hovers in front of me as I inspect it with my divine sense wonder what kind of treat is this. What a strange looking fishbeast, I see a restriction freezing the fishbeast movements. I delve near the restriction and feel ''when toss into the illusionary water remove the time freeze restriction.'' That''s when I notice the sharkbeast had swam closer and showing me it''s toothy grin of excitement. With a laugh, I send the treat into the illusionary water to the left, away from the sharkbeast. It instantly explodes into life and race away from the sharkbeast. I dive into the restriction on the flashing tail and see it as ''prepare to chase treat by swinging your tail as fast as you can but don''t move forward yet until three breaths of time. However if the customer gives any kind of encouragement give chase immediately.''


    With a laugh and point and I say "Go!" and the sharkbeast roars forward in glee. I look at the remaining two treats and smile. As I eat the view of the chase remains constant at the sharkbeast left profile. The sharkbeast is faster, but the treat is more agile and avoid being eaten for nearly twenty breaths of time. I ate a third of the roast and on the second bowl of rice when I toss in the second treat at the still spastic sharkbeast staring intently on the remaining treat. I toss in the last treat at the happy sharkbeast before starting on my last bowl.


    Every thing I ate and drink was absorb directly into my cells. I feel my body crafting technique raise up a small level and my culitivation go to late tier seven. This spiritual meal was amazingly helpful. As I finish the meal I sigh with pleasure. I stood up and wave at sharky and utter "til next time senior" and head for the exit portal, I hear the the sharkbeast roars a response behind me. The waitress stands by the exit portal and inquiries "was your dinner to your satisfaction?"


    I pull out a tier six foundation pill and replied "most satisfied, please tell your master I will come again" and hand the pill over as her tip then step into the exit portal. I enter the exit part of the courtyard and see sharky terrorizing the fleeing customers. Gnashing it''s sharky grin and rush hither and thither if any exiting customers that make so much as a twitch. I laugh and play with sharky like the rest of the customers and inch my way to the exit while affected by the ''terror'' restriction.

 Chapter Four - Return to the Dragonbone Home

    I spent the rest of the night in the workshop solidifying both my body foundation and cultivation foundation due to the sudden unexpected but much appreciated increase today. When I come to my senses, I see the sun illuminate an area on the barrier and estimate is as two hour before noon.


    I enter my body to sense the new strength hidden there. My master''s body refining technique requires extremely rare spiritual herbs and natural wonders to advance. Getting a boost from eating a dish made by a grandmaster in spiritual cooking is simply amazing too me. When I have time I going to learn that too. I laugh at that thought and zoom out of my home like a bird and directly went to the Dragonbone Home entrance courtyard.


    As I step into the courtyard, sharkbeast rushes at me in happiness as it knows I am the only customer that order treats for it. It''s happy toothy excited grin freightens the nearby customers away from me. I reach out as if to pet the sharkbeast and say "don''t worry senior, I''ll feed you too!" and step happily to the entrance gates. I notice there is a game going on with the new customers with senior sharky. I glance at the game restriction and know it for ''increase the fear pressure as the coin is pushed towards the goal line.'' I ignore the game not caring for the free meal offered if the coin reaches the goal.


    I step into the hostess area and look for a free hostess and instantly step in front of her with a smile. She gives me a charming smile and a sleight bow "young master, welcome back! Would you like to dine with senior sharkbeast again? I smile and give an enthusatic nod. She laughs and does her bow, roll her arms and then point to the gate and breathes out "senior sharkbeast awaits young master."


    As I enter sharkbeast home I annouce "sharky! I''m back" and saunter into my couch chair. Sharkbeast glares at me until I sit then glimmer of awareness awaken his eyes as he goes through his restriction queue and rushes forward wagging his tail like a found puppy. "Yes, yes, I promise you some treats" as I wave at sharky and accepted the menu from the giggling waitress. Before opening, I state "I''ll have the chef''s choice" with a flick of a finger I presented my payment. Standing on the tip of my finger was the ornate vial of another nirvana breakthough pill. As she pockets the vial in her void ring her pleasant voice tingles my ears "my master will be pleased that you''ve returned young master."


    I open the heavy menu and read the chef''s choice and pleasantly surprise its a different dish. The title was Celestial Seafood Stew. A select variety of peak tier seven seafood and spiritual herbs blended in a creamy stew with a touch of elemental earth milk. This dish is serve with a bottle of hand crafted cultivation wine. I slap my hands together in anticipation then out of curiosity I scan the restriction on the name of the chef''s dish and know is as ''if the young master returns, show Celestial Seafood Stew as the chef''s choice. I laugh and promptly clamp my hand on the table to draw on  sharky''s fear restriction.


    After a time the young man''s voice intrudes on my play with sharky, laughing "sharky? that''s a new one."  I can sense he is pleased, he then begins with "this seafood stew I especially made for you, I notice you have the same body type as my old customer. This stew served him well." With that the first girl places a huge bowl on the table. He then continues with "this is another bottle from my old days, I have no doubt you will appreciate this one."


    The second girl step up and fills a glass two thirds with sky blue liquid with a golden aura. She places the tantalizing glass next to the bowl of stew and places the bottle back into it''s ice holder before stepping away. His laughter continues with "your spoiling my pet" with a grin then adds "these three treats are much stronger than last time." He then turns away and heads for the exit then says "I''m leaving tonight, I hope to see you again in the future," then raises his right arm and lazily waves goodbye as he vanishes into the portal.


    I immediately dug into the fabulous stew. The taste that exploded in my mouth was like the symphony of best tasting seafood I could think off. It all melted down into a creamy liquid that seeps into my cells and soul. I can feel my Deepwater Spiritual fire affinity rise to peak tier five.  Which is a great surprise to me, with a quick calculation I realize I will break though to tier six and now can be considered a master with this type of spiritual fire after finishing this stew. This leaves just two spiritual elemental fire affinities to level up. I''m pumped because I can''t wait to add water qi to my weapons.


    As I taste the new cultivation wine, the harmony of the stew is enhance. I can understand why he pick this wine for me tonight. It was a total luxury for a cultivator to have the chef''s choice here. So I enjoyed my dinner while teasing sharky with a treat. The treats were all combat class rather the run away kind. They put up an entertaining arena show as I ate. Once I see sharky recover his injuries from the turtlebeast monster treat, I begin the teasing game again. After seeing his pitiful sad sharky grin I toss the next treat in.


    The treat exploding in size almost as big as sharky, I see a squidbeast that start lashing it''s tenticles against my senior. But sharky just mosey on in and begin chowing down on the tenticles. The squidbeast had a great regeneration restriction the regrew new tenticles almost as fast as they were eaten. Like a true shark, senior just never stop eating. So much that I glance and the restriction on sharky''s grin that allow him to ''eat to your heart''s content when it comes to your favorite squid meat'' I can see my favorite sharky grin between bites.


    The third treat was an gotorsharkbeast, it had a croc''s mouth with a shark like body. It move just as fast as sharky and was simply a clash of underwater titans. I finish my meal and the two were still ripping into one another as they felt no pain. But sharky got in a bite on the treat''s tail finally, which slowed the beast down considerabally. It didn''t take long after that to finish the monster treat off.


    As I watch sharky finish his last treat, I look inward to see my cultivation risen to peak tier seven and my spiritual soul force increase small advance as well. Nice I thought, using artificing and alchemy takes a huge strain on my spiritual soul force. That seafood stew really hit the spot. As I stand up I wave at sharky and say ''take care sharky, see ya in the future!'' Sharky roars out a response and I hand the waitress a tier six foundation pill and pleasantly say "please thank your master, I most enjoyed his cooking tonight." She gives a deep bow and replies "I think sharky going to miss you more young master." I smile a reply and step though the portal into the outer courtyard.


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    I see sharky playing it up with the fleeing customers. I watch sharky herd them back and forth though the courtyard allowing a few to escape each time. As I step in, sharky attitude changing and rush up to me for a pet. I laugh as I pet sharky tough skin and say "be a good boy and work hard! I''ll see you again in the future" Sharky then rush away to slam his sharky grin at a fleeing customer face who thought he could get away when I was distracting him. I simply laugh at sharky antics and mosely over to the exit, just before I reach the exit I hear sharky give one last forlorn roar of goodbye.


    My master''s restriction techniques are only at tier six so I never bother to learn them, but after playing with sharky, I realize you can do alot with restrictions. So I spent the rest of the night going over master''s restriction memories. I figure learning the basics wouldn''t hurt. Before I know it I can see the sun illuminating though the barrier, and with a thought the barrier vanish so I can see the end of the sunrise. I pull out my resource pouch and begin cultivating as I bask in the newly risen sun, I need to solidify my peak seven cultivation.


    It takes all morning and most of the afternoon, and several thousand tier nine resources to finish my peak seven foundation. I can even sense the boundry of tier eight, it''s still an abyss away, but at least I can finally see the goal that my fellow cultivators enjoy feeling the most. My only reget this morning is the Dragonbone Home will be gone, so I pull out the token that was given too me and send in my divine sense. I feel the Dragonbone Home is northwest of me and seems already the distance that would take me a few months flying to get too. I cup my hand and bow toward it''s direction and mutter a prayer "Dragonbone Home master, live long and prosper!"


    I zip out of the closing workshop barriers and dive down to take a look at the showcases. The place is crowded around my show pieces displayed in a central revolving case in front of the staircase. But I ignore my dazzling works of art in favor of viewing the top pieces of my fellow artificer''s works. My critical eye break down each work down to their very ingrediants. I can easy see the lack of energy in one piece was the reason why it turn out as a high work instead of a supreme work. Another piece had poor techique ruins it''s elemental affinity of high grade to mid grade. I sigh as I appraise each piece lacking one or more aspects creating flaws that reduced their potential.


    Then I come across a strange spiritual fruit, I glance at the name plate "Celestial Dao Purpleflame Pineapple" I quickly check my master''s memories and was surprise master was looking for this fruit. So I beckon over one of the nearby hostess by the stairs. She calmly waltz over and smiles "young master, are you interest in this celestial fruit?" I smile a nod and respond with "please add it to the items I want to purchase with my winnings" Her reply "rest assured young master it is already your property" she then gives a deep bow before leaving to inform management.


    I return to the earthly pleasure of the medicinal store, even asked if I could visit the green houses upstairs to see them harvest the herbs I wanted. The earthly aroma is even better up here and the sweet tang of spiritual herbs mix nicely with that aroma.


    The windowless floors contains underground spiritual plants and aquariums that possess tiny streams of liquid qi darting all over their confined space.  Until I find the alchemist harvesting my lightning affinity and wood affinity spiritual herbs into jade boxes and store them in void pouch. The polite mother type personality fits well with this lady alchemist. As she harvest each herb, she absentmindly gives motherly advice on each herb. I let her take her time and give her some encouragement with a select point of interest now and then. She takes my points quite happily and goes into more detail. I don''t mind the small talk, the earthly aroma here makes my soul settle.


    I leave the medicinal shop with sigh and venture back into the air. I casually look around as I meander back home. Most of the talk I pick up with my divine sense is about the Dragonbone Home, it''s been a year since it last opened on an adjacent continent. That they would open up in their city for two days was a total shocker. The only news worth mentioning was the unexpected number of breakthroughs that occured the last two nights.


    Out of curiosity I decide to enter though the front entrance and nearly bump into the stuck up royal from the first time in the resource store. I swing around him and his groupies and head for the staircase. With a quick glance at the available hostress, I appear before girl that appeal to me the most and smile a greeting "hello my dear, would you like to come up with me to my workshop?"


    The cute redhead smiles delightfully before snagging on to my left arm afraid I might pick a different girl. I laugh at her and check her cultivation to be early tier five and replied "looks like your cultivation could use a foundation pill" then smiled at her. Her eye''s light up and purr softly "young master takes such good care of us sisters."


    I laughed and pick her up and carried her to the crystal tubes and ask her about her dreams. To those dreams I would disagree with if I couldn''t help with my alchemy. She gives me strangest looks until finally says something I can help with "well I do like alchemy, and I''m also a fire affinity expert." Then I replied "I could give some pointers if choose that one." Her shock replied was "are you sure you want to waste your time teaching me about alchemy?" I replied "I don''t have a problem talking about basic alchemy to you even after the show is over. You can always come over my workshop if you any have questions."


    I carry her up the crystal tubes to the workshop floor as we discussing basic alchemy. She''s tucked so neatly in my arms and chattering like a magpie makes me laugh as I give encouraging words. I swept into the workshop and head directly to bed for some serious cyclic duo cultivating followed by same thing in the morning. Then we talked about basic alchemy for the rest of the day. I made a tier three pill by steps for her to understand what she is getting in to. After seeing each step that is required to make a tier three pill, she now knows the correct path to produce her first pill if she decided to learn alchemy.


    That''s when the workshop door chime sounded. With a thought, barriers open and two elders step though. They both give a bow and presents a void pouch and state "you auction winning and the items you requested young master." I hear the girl sigh in disappointment and stand to attention.


    I smiled at the elders are reply "elders, you two shouldn''t have bother to waste your time tonight and come in the morning. But since you are here" I pull out sword from my ring and hand it to one the elders and swept the pouch into my master''s ring. "Let''s use this sword for the start of the next show." The delight that filled the elders faces that I''m sticking around another month make me smile but I quickly usher them out for privacy. Then I stalked back to my red headed kitten and ask "do you still want to talk about alchemy?"

 Chapter Five - Nefarious Black Clouds

    Her answer was to spend the next month inside the workshop with me. The first thing I need to address was her faint pheonix bloodline. With master''s ring providing the ingredients, I make a tier six Blood Reversion Pill. The main ingrediant was a drop of true pheonix blood, I gave her an extra two drops because she was my pupil. As the pill was forming I instill as much soul force into the pill that I could maintain safely. After all I wouldn''t want the pill to explode because I couldn''t keep it together.


    This girl is full of questions and basically non stop verbal abuse to my ears. But I give it a go and try my best to answer her questionable quries on life in general followed by actual questions on alchemy. Of course she questions why I like alchemy. My answer was of course due to my master''s influence. But that really don''t cut it for an answer for such a inquisitive girl. So had to spill the beans a little before she was satisfied. So I told her this spiel "if I was to recieve a gift, then I would want something to help my cultivation. In that regards, I felt that alchemy would provide me the best way to give gifts to my friends" This seem to satisfy her line of thought on this matter and smoothly switch the next thing on her unrelenting list of things she wants know.


    When I tinkered around in the with foundation pills infused with master''s foundation technique, I created a series of foundation pills that was a step stronger than what I could normally make. Not only does the solidifies a cultivator''s foundation, it also permanently expands it''s capacity a little. I like to use these babies as gifts and added the effect to nirvana breakthough pills as well. So I top off my supply of gift pills from stage five to stage eight while happily discussing life and alchemy with this curious girl.


    The Blood Reversion pill shows a touch of half form pill spirit which is the maximum it could form for a tier six pill. That was what I was aiming for when instilling all the extra soul force. Most alchemists that my divine sense has touch has shown that they are all weak in spiritual force. They can make only one pill at a time with a great deal of effort and nearly all of their spiritual force is used. The vast majority of alchemists don''t have enough spiritual force to create a pill spirit.


    I tell her the Blood Reversion Pill will be painful. She smiles and bravely takes the pill and suffers for the rest of the night as her bloodline transform from faint to high bloodline. I watch her blood vessels expand and dialate as if worms were forcing their way though them. In the morning I smiled at the results, and treat her to some good old pampering for the next week.


    Her next problem was she needed a good spiritual fire, lucky for me master''s ring is too awesome. He collected some true fireseeds from a few of the divine ranked spiritual fires. I grab the one most suited for her, the Blazing Dao fireseed. Then I search my master''s memories about spiritual dao fires. I realize I need to create some fire protection for her and search for the appropiate recipe.


    Got it, Ancestial Soul Ice Armor pill. As I breeze into the recipe I also drag out the ingrediants for it from master''s ring. This pill also had the effect in strengthening soul force a small degree, so it''s perfect for my pupil. After pampering her all week I said "an alchemist needs good spiritual fire" I then present her the dao fireseed. Take this pill at the same time, it will help you survive your fight with the spiritual fire. I watch her change from half frozen to half turned crispy for the better part of the night. When she groans awake I pamper her for another week.


    I told her all her suffering has made her body affinity to alchemy the best I could give her with my current alchemy skills. "This is for you my dear pupil" then I give her a tier six spiritual force foundation pill. "A good alchemist needs a strong soul force, this pill will get you started on the right path." Then I hand her two jades and inform "the large jade is my notes on basic alchemy. You may copy them if you wish. The small jade is a spiritual force cultivation technique, return the jade when you master it, it belongs to my master."


    I stays there for five shows teaching her my secrets in basic alchemy. With my help, Mara became a tier four alchemist in those five months. So one morning I tell Mara "this is as far as I am willing to teach you alchemy, make a name for yourself in the alchemy world and then I might consider you as true disciple and teach you my advance alchemy secrets. If your a good girl, I''ll let you bother me once a month to ask a question. Take these three weapons to start your tab in the auction house for your supplies for your show, make it end one week before mine. I already paid for your workshop, just pick the one you would like to work in."


    Late that night I hear the workshop chime sound and I open up a window and see Mara''s upset face there. I quickly let her in and asked "what''s wrong Mara?" she sweeps into the workshop in a big huff, even stamping a cute feet in tantrum. "Master! I can''t rest well if we don''t duo cultivate." I smile a reply as I get up from my prep work for a new weapon,"I guess I''ll help you with that then." Hmm, if I knew it was like this, why did I bother buying her a workshop.


    Then the reason surfaces, I remember the stench of her failed half fried pills. I became a hair trigger when it comes to commanding the key jade to open the barrier to be able to see again. I can''t tell how many nefarious black clouds wafted away from my workshop training her, Mara made me promise to forget the numbers.


    Somewhere in the middle of training Mara and completing my five shows I naturally advance to stage eight expert. I not looking forward to the long haul towards stage nine. This is the reason why many old masters take up one of the triple A hobbies, Alchemy, Arficing, or Arrays. When I used the Blood Reversion Pill on myself back in the cave, I awoken my ancient bloodline legacy which gave me advance artificing secrets due to my founding ancestor used to forge weapons for the next higher dimension.


    I watched the various powers bid enthusiastically when Mara''s first show began. Not doubt trying to score brownie points, I give a shallow smile in appreciation. All in all, Mara was pleased with her first show. So I don''t mind rewarding the winners of the ten pills in her show. So I toss them all a nirvana breatkthough pill and say "each winner can enjoy another elder in their ranks, but of course the three most entertaining bids I suppose they can use another supreme elder in their ranks."


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    After cupping of my hands and providing shallow bow I spun around and made my way back to my workshop. With telepathy ''Mara nice job with your first show, I''m heading back to my workshop. I leave you to fraternize with your guests.'' The call of ''young master!'' filled the air as I went for the floor tubes.


    As I landed on the workshop floor I swept forward and gather up the hostess and breathed "how about joining my in my workshop?" Her eyes lit up and nods "I would most certainly like that young master!" I laugh as I peer into her soul and replied "looks like you will need a tier five nirvana breakthough pill soon." She laughs agreeably "young master takes such good care of us sisters!" I smiled a returned "but it''s because you sisters take such good care of me."


    We do a few rounds of duo cultivating before I let her go with the promised pill. With a sweep of an arm I let everything get suck into my master''s ring. With a thought I make two openings, one for the door so they can fetch the key jade and another with ''open a window for three breaths then close.'' I slip out of the city in an attempt to clear my growing wonderlust.


    I think I''ll head to the overlord''s capital, there should be a few good stuff going on over there. I use a flying sword large enough to mount a comfortable chair on it. This flying sword I made for traveling long distances between teleportation gates. This is about the best I can do for now, because master never bother to raise his knowledge in arrays beyond this point. This is just a prototype, but this got me going. I ponder the improvement on this idea for weeks, I eventually decided to build a flying ship instead one day after peering into my master''s memories for flying tools!


    I get a hit on my pressure field emitted as a tier eight expert, some beast got the balls to intrude. I glance over my left to see a classic chocobo all decked out in scaled armor and a sawbill beak about two foot long that''s lined with some wickedly sharp black teeth. My eyes lit up as I thought ''that''s good eating!'' and stare fondly at the late tier stage eight Firecrazed Raptor.


    I simutaneously packed up my flying chair and called forth my new sword from master''s ring. I feel the rush of battle fill my very being as I launch myself to practice my new tier eight techniques on this arrogant punching bag. But first thing to do is seal the space so it can''t escape later, so I activate a jade token I summoned up into my left hand and instantly transport everything a few miles radius into a subspace before sending jade back into master''s ring.


    My new sword is simply a mass of living flames that make a formless blade. I can go toe to toe with an early stage nine expert. With this blade in hand I feel sorry for the raptorbeast as I basically torture it to death testing out my battle techniques powered by stage eight cultivation. I remove it''s fire affinity core and put the carcass in a special void pouch that maintains the freshness of the meat via stasis. You can buy a bunch of useful tools at the auction house.


    I have a new wine pouch too, it has a temporal feature to double the time inside, so net effect on my times three arrayed wine barrels is times six. During this trip over endless forests and mountains I started to sample some of master''s cutivation wines, what can I say I''m a happy camper. Drinking cultivation wines all the way up to half step tier nine would be amazing. Now if I can learn to be a master chef in spiritual cooking then I would be set for life.


    As I ponder life on my flying chair, I come to appreciate master even more. His knowledge has transformed me into a powerful cultivator. I make occasional side trips when my divine sense picks up something tasty or a rare herb to store away. I also stare at my inner world that currently has only clouds, land and oceans that reside inside my dantian''s soul spirit. As I advance to half step tier nine, this inner world will slowly prepare to accept to life. A living sustaining dantian inner world is the hallmark of a tier nine expert.


    As I travel, I get strange glares from fellow traveling cultivators, they apparently don''t approve of my ugly flying chair. But I don''t mind it at all, I rather sit than stand endlessly for weeks at a time. Then I sigh realizing my fellow cultivators must think I''m an arrogant young man. I didn''t realize master''s temporal array would set my appearance to be so young looking as I reach stage six expert in the cave as I blindly pursue my master''s techniques and using up the cultivation resources as well. I blindly level up so I could master higher tier alchemy secrets without realizing that when a cultivation reaches stage six, my appearance won''t change for hundreds of years. This will only increase as I advance through new stages. This is also the stage all female cultivators dream of reaching, having a youthful appearance for hundreds of years is the ideal dream of a loli.


    As I stare at my reflection, I would guess people would imagine I was sixteen to eighteen years old. But due the temporal effects of the cave, I think I am around thirty. As I ponder my image, I realize just my looks alone will get me in trouble. Overlords are not going to be happy seeing a young expert muscle in on their territory. But others would think I must have a scary background and worry about an hidden elder that supposed to be protecting me.


    I cast my pondering aside as I stop in mid air and stare at the cultivators to my left. I had hope to ignore them but when the men describe in detail what they are going to do the girls they surrounded I decided to step in. These demonic cultivators were going to use them as cultivation furnaces to absorb the girls cultivation. With out their cultivation the girls will return to the their true age as mortals.


    I didn''t bother speaking as I simply grounded the stage six trashes down into pancakes with my oppressive might. As I zip back on course on my flying chair I call out "be more careful when your out girls" Normally I wouldn''t bother with such small matters, but my master''s memories instill an animosity for demonic cultivators. They destroy other peoples cultivation in order to give a small boost to their own.


    As I travel, various spiritual treasures and a natural oddity joins my collection. However, I also realize the cultivation world is a bit scary. Most cultivators steal from the weak for their treasures. To that end, I ended up killing a lot of trash thinking they could steal from me. I have their void tools with me now, I guess I steal from trash that dare to overestimate themselves. I guess I am not that different from my fellow cultivators. I think my farming style is alot more entertaining. So I breeze pass my fellow cultivators to see if I get a reaction and ponder what treasures they may bring me.


    I guess my idea of fun is strange as I travel towards my destination. But my master''s memories taught me eye for an eye and a life for their entire clan. Respect me and I respect you, dis me and I''ll kill you and your damn family mentality of a stage eight expert. My personality has changed drastically in the past four years. Well thinking about it makes sense, after all I just crammed twelve years of laborious studies into four years of growth.

 Chapter Six - A Slice of Primal Fire

    As I wonder towards my destination, I come across all sorts of fellow cultivators despotic actions. In the end I began to appreciate those who overestimate themselves and attack directly, thus saving me time from dealing with such nonsense. The only reason to follow some trash was to check out what treasures they have in their homes. In the end, these treasure runs sure help break up the monopoly of endless trees and mountains.


    In the end my stockpile of looted void containers number so far three hundred and forty two.  I am far too lazy to search though them other than send in my divine sense to check for anything I would consider a treasure.  So far nothing really worth my effort, but I just won''t let others loot these bodies. It''s not in my nature to leave loose change lying around, besides having extra disposable void containers come in handy.


    The next interesting event was discovering a particular enclosed mountain valley that was protected by a decaying camoflage restriction. I entered to check it out and found an unclaimed medical garden. In each raise plot of medicinal earth grows a single surviving spiritual plant. I harvest the usable parts from each plant and tossed the rich medicinal earth into my dantian''s inner world. I watch the barren lands show a trace of vitality as grass and simple plants give my innerworld a touch of green.


    Most cultivators can only just cultivate as they struggle towards the peak of stage eight. But with master''s inner world techniques, I can enhance my inner world directly. The inner world directly relates to how much potential you gain each small and large advances for a stage nine expert. So the better inner world I can create before I advance to stage nine would simply be a huge bonus in the long run. I''ll be able stand proud when I greet my master!


    Enough reminescing, I feel a pulse of energy nearby, that fades in and out of my divine sense. Most likely a concealment formation is running out of energy or is damaged in some way. I cut my divine sense on my right side off leaving only my left side still watching for trouble, and notice the faint pulse is missing. Good, let do that again and put up my right flank back up and and again no faint energy pulse. Then let cut it down some more as I let my divine slowly intrude into the search area until half is remaining. So it''s in that area and I look to my two o''clock and begin moving that way.


    It did not take long to find a vent on the side of a mountain imitting the faint energy pulse. So it''s somewhere deep inside this mountain as I let my divine sense enter the vent and begin probing it''s depths. It didn''t take long for my divine sense to bump into a barrier. The formation that is concealing the barrier is fading ever so slowly. The energy pulse is from that tier nine barrier exceeding the concealment formation''s abilty to hide it''s energy emissions in some kind of cyclic rotation.


    I immediately place a new concealment formation over the entire mountain. Then create a false copy of the energy pulse and threw it over the next mountain range where suddenly gave off powerful surge of tier eight weapon qi energy that disappears in an instant. Any cultivator who''s divine sense can pick up this surge of weapon qi would instantly lock on to the false mountain range.


    With a thought I make my divine sense enlarge the path to the barrier and dove right into the underground maze and reaching the barrier in a few minutes. I put a new concealment formation behind me and with with a quick wave of my hand cause the malfunctioning concealment formation to vanish and then stare intently into the array barrier. A stage nine expert created this barrier, but he was no expert in arrays. My knowledge in arrays also basic because I use a branch that specialize in artificing arrays. Even so, I can tell the barrier isn''t anything special, just a lot of power was imbued in it.


    I set up my master breaching array quickly and power it up and see how it works. It latches on to barrier and begins adapting to the barrier''s energy signiture. As it slowly infiltrates the barrier, it begins to emulate the barrier itself. Eventually an hour passes before it takes over enough of the barrier to opens a doorway for me to pass though. I order the door to close, no sense letting some one else in for free. I watch the formation still slowing eating away at the protective barrier expanding its area of control.


    I am on the edge of the space under the branches of a Tivari Nettoflower tree who branches are long enough to reach out thirty meters creating a cealing under the tree about thirty meters high. At the base of the tree is a pair of peak tier seven beastfolk with wolfish faces with attitude as they growl at me to leave.


    I look at the Tivari Nettoflower as scintillating energies slowly rise up from the ground though the invisible tree. But the rising energy causes that part of the tree to appear. On a low branch near the trunk is a beautiful night flower with shades of purples and orange veins and outlines. That pulse goes directly to the single fruit the flower is bearing . I see all remaining branches except this one holding the fruit have all died off. All the lifeforce this giant tree once had has been sacrificed to bear this one nearly ripe fruit.


    The flower itself is also valuable. Having survived on the excess energies the tree was providing to rear this one fruit, a single pedal can be use to boost the effectiveness of tier seven nirvana breakthough pills. I look up to see the outer branches have been sucked dry by the fruit, and the wind is slow erroding the branches away into fine dust.


    Then I glance at the growling wolf folk and with a thought draw my sword and charge forward. They go full beast on me right away, no playing around with the spiritual fruit about to be born. As we dance under the pulsating dying tree, I quickly realise just how slow they are ay end of the our first exchange. I see the two are unable to react to my last attack as they are still recovering from their last parries.


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    So I put my sword away then step into Whitelocks personal space grabbing his right hand with my right hand so the the sword''s guard is against my thumb and fore finger. Then I use my might to squeeze his hand as hard I can to to force his hand to slip towards the pummel.


    While I spin counter clockwise he can''t keep up and is forced to be dragged trying to hold on to his sword as I use it to parry the other opponent''s sword and push it up high causing the sword''s owner to finally let go. I continue to spin until I see the back of the his neck and behead him. Then I simply attack other until he can''t block no more I land in my free hit. This time I push his sword from the left to right and stepped into is personal space and drove the dagger in my left hand into is right eye to finish the battle.


    I look at the Tivari Nettoflower as scintillating energies slowly rise up from the ground though the invisible tree. That pulse goes directly to the single fruit it''s bearing . I see all remaining branches except this one holding the fruit have finally erroded away. All the lifeforce this giant tree once had was finally sacrificed to bear this one offspring and the flower that bore it.


    This fruit is the key ingrediant for tier eight nirvana breakthough pills. While each pedal of the flower can boost the effectiveness of tier seven nirvana breakthough pills by as much twenty percent. In my master''s memories it is common to see fellow cultivators bring in the fruit at auction houses, and when ask about the flower they would often state they didn''t know it was valuable too. I stare at the flower full of vibrancy and energy, how could they think the flower wasn''t valuable?


    I pull out a large jade case and check the formations within to see that they are all working fine. I gingerly take hold of the two inches of branch at the base of the flower with my right hand and with a thought and cut it with a wisp of qi empowered divine sense. Then I slowly place the fruit and flower intact into the case and watch the formation hold it place away from the sides and place it in time suspension when I sealed the lid on.


    Then I place it in master''s ring before looking though the wolf folk void containers. I put the tradeable assets into master''s ring and toss the two void containers into the junk pouch. When I arrive at the now deceased barrier my divine sense tell me no one has been here. A quick peek with my divine sense tells me no cultivators are nearby and I fly low as I head away from the searching cultivators in the nearby mountain range.


    A few days later I ask the fellow cultivators I pass by for the direction of the nearest auction house. It still takes a few days on my flying sword to get there. Like the first city I called home, this place is fortified by only two walls and probably only eighty percent of the population of my city. Seeing there is no flying restrictions as I watch fellow cultivators fly right in with out worry.


    Sending in my divine sense I quickly locate the action house and fly in for a landing on it''s barrier protection surface. Above the ground entrance is a giant balcony where cultivators can land and enter though a more elegant entrance with beautiful tier five hostesses to greet you. I pick out a free one and use a movement skill to move towards her. She notice me and smile and gives a formal bow as I stop before her.


    "Greeting young master, how can this auction house serve you?" asks the blond hostess.


    I smile her a greeting and reply "a workshop please, perhaps for two tendays."


    She gives me a even more lovely smile before attending me "this way young master! I have never seen a crafter so young before. You must have some serious background young master!"


    I let her prattle with her girlish ways while giving the occasional encouragement to prove I was listening to her." She gives me a smile in gratitude and continue her hostessing in a more relaxed manner. We humor each other as we fly though the central open shaft in the middle of the building to reach the top floor.


    Our word play eventually evolves to her asking me "do you like to see the sun rise or the sunset? Or do you like both?"


    Understanding her meaning I settle for "both, north if you have it" in after thought.


    She sends her thought elsewhere for a bit before announcing "your in luck, the north workshop is now yours. Is there anything our auction house can provide you?"


    Her polite prying I decide to answer with "tier seven artificing materials will be appreciated" then I hand her my premade void pouch with three tier seven spears and a list of materials I wanted to work with. Then to answer her growing question "please sell these spears to fund the materials I requested. As a friendly reminder I state "the second half of the list is for when I leave and to give your people time to collect some of those items."


    She gives another dazzling smile as she hands me the control jade key and bows as I activate the key and enter a workshop I am used to seeing. So it''s a common design in this world, most likely designed by a crafter since it is appealing to work in. This soft white space with minimal distractions is a perfect place for crafting with no shadows to hide any details.


    I settle in to wait for the materials with a random jug of cultivation wine from my loot as I view this new city. Only two palaces in the inner wall seems intimadating enough to take notice of them. Which promptly asked when the hostess returns with the materials I requested. She tells me "the central palace is owned by the city lord''s family and the other is the owner of this auction house. We are a branch family, the main branch lives in our capital."


    "How far is the capital" I asked.


    "Our merchant ships usually take four to five tendays to fly a round trip" she supplies.


    "Thank you for your assistance" as I show her out of the workshop. Closed the door and turn the outside view into that fuzzy white I like to work in. After so many days traveling, the itch to work was quite fierce. I spend the days in blessed emptiness as I let my knowledge work it''s wonders. While traveling I finally figured out the A Slice of Primal Fire technique.


    Basically I time freeze some Primal Fire then shape it using my spiritual force into the shape of the sword that I have in mind. Using a formation I take a slice of the Primal Fire and solified it into a sword though the use of many formations. Then feed it eighty seven fire attributed tier seven materials to strengthen it''s material form, then finally use that tier eight Firecrazed Raptor core to serve as a spirit host. Tie in a few maintence formations and I got myself a slice of pure destruction.


    My ancestor was damn cool to create this technique as I watch this slice the living Primal Fire exude an aura of divine class spiritual fire. It''s flame like aura greedily attacking the surrounding air as it sucks in latent energies. I swing the weapon experimentally and watch the perfectly merged Primal Fire Qi and sword qi leave after affects as it passes though space.

 Chapter Seven - Slice of Time

    I guess I got myself a new main weapon, I sat down and begin working on adding the artificing arrays for Burning Rage. Appraising my new sword, I see it can hold a total of eight weapon arrays but only three of them can be made into a permanent buff. But my knowledge in artificing arrays is still at early tier eight, so my choice is limited to basic arrays.


    So I decide to add the Quickening array to increase my ability to handle another exchange in battle. The second one I added was a Qi Leeching array that absorb twenty percent of the qi used to block my attacks to help me replenish my own qi. Then a Regeneration array to help me regenerate my physical body during battle.


    As for the other five arrays, I decided to just add an eight layer power array for each. Each power array stores enough qi to power up an early stage eight battle skill. With five power arrays, Burning Rage''s sword qi now emits sword hymms when it moves. Basically a sword that covers my bases, all I need now is to work on my armor.


    Making armor is totally a different mind set as I ponder the mysteries of my ancestor''s knowledge of armor smithing and I know I going to be at this for the long haul and set it aside as I will ponder the basics. With that in mind I don''t expect to forge my first defensive gear anytime soon. So I just forge sellables with one permanent buff as I erase the forging itch away at a decrepidly slow rate.


    I partition my work mind away and begin investigating basic smithing. The idea is to create armor strong enough to go toe to toe with my own weapon creations. As I delve into these mysteries my thirst for learning grows as I practice forging armors in my mind. I partition that part of my mind away as well and see my soul force is divided in roughly into thirds to maintain the three separate minds, but all still linked as one subconscously.


    As I ponder which branch of knowledge to work on next it occured to me high gear armor are also equip with powerful defensive arrays. I guess I''ll use this me for figuring out defensive arrays. I wait until the physical me finished forging a weapon and send control back over to him.


    I wake up from my fuzzing crafting time to see a new batch of tier seven weapons. Swords and spears and a hammer? I pick up the first hammer I ever forged and took a few heavy swings. It''s ponderous as it moves shattering the space as if smashing though it. Which makes the hammer look like it''s charging up as it''s surfaces crackles with energy from the shattering space.


    I touch the key jade with a thought "I need a cute girl please" and got confirmation right away. I finally get rid of the forging itch as I duo culivate with the girl they sent up. The girl was pleasant diversion and surprised by the tip I gave her, a tier five nirvana breakthough pill. She happily kissed me goodbye as she took the weapons away for auction and another list of new materials needed for armor smithing. Might as well start collecting materials for my first set of battle gears.


    I spent the time casually topping off my pill collection until the actions were over. I recieve the customary overly gratitous servitude as the elders handed over my winning and requested items in a void pouch. I thank them for their services and left though the open barrier I made when I heard the door chime.


    I learned from the information services at the auction house that a teleportation gate has been repaired at a nearby castle. If I can skip the boring flight on a ship at a cost of some tier six demon cores, totally worth it.


    Eventually I arrive at the military castle and see the operational teleportation gate inscribe in a slab of marble. I quickly flew down when I see the frowning faces of the nearest patrol. I bow and cup my hands to the patrol leader and reply "sorry first time coming to an imperial castle." Then I pulled out a bottle of tier four healing pills "for my lack of foresight" and hand it to strike leader who happily accept the life saving medical pills for soldiers and waved me back to my own business. I should have known flying near a castle would be perk for military personal or high tier cultivators.


    Sure I could flash them my aura, but I like to keep it simply, and walking feels good after flying so long. Besides that bottle cost me less than a cheap tier six resource. With all the looting I had to deal with from would be thieves, I had a ton of all level of cultivation resources. The teleporation array is protected by a small keep attached to the castle wall and reminds me of a kennel build next to a house. It even looks like it''s the right proportions from house to castle. I enter the oversize gate and join the line of cultivators waited for transit.


    Displeased by the line I walk up to the captain on duty and show him a bag and ask "can I use these ten tier six demon cores to jump ahead of the line? I can even take the next group of people with me so you get their fee as a bonus."


    The uniformed men smiles and I was escort to the front to the line as we wait for the teleportation array cool down to finish. I heard and exclaimation from the man I gave the cores too and watch him return to me and ask "are you sure you want to use these? There are enough energy for two standard jumps."


    "They are the weakest quality cores I have, add in the next group then and lets be on our way" I decided. The next group is ushered in and we go zapping into our destination. It''s the strangest feeling being turned into bloodmist then subjected to the gravational pull of a black hole and sucked in to reach the other side. Where your bloodmist regenerate upon arrival. Watching new arrivals is of course not for the faint hearted. I can understand why some people won''t use a teleportation array a second time.


    However, the feeling of being reconstituded from bloodmist is actually beneficial to those who intend to breakthough to become a stage nine cultivator. It''s simular to how to reform your soul during the end of the breakthough. You need to shatter your soul and reform it using the surrounding immortal qi to recreate your soul into an immortal soul. Going though the teleporation array made me understand what master''s research on stage nine breakthoughs are like. Now that I know how to reform a immortal soul, I just need to work on how to survive it.


    My cultivation has barely moved since I left home, despite chewing on a ton of tier nine cultivation resources everyday. Which is the main reason my wonderlust kick in so hard. Since the grind is getting me no where, looking for lucky chances would be more fruitful.


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    The capital of this region''s overlord is about a tenday flight away. No overlord would care to have a gate too close to their home. They all opt to have one or two rings of loyal cities to act as shields to give them time to prepare a proper welcome for uninvited guests.


    Three nights later my camp get surrounded by local bandits. The strongest meathead among them is a weak ass tier five has been cultivator still wearing his sect basic armor. His age is too old and still at stage five, he is just a wash out earning a life leading a band of trash.


    I pull out my first sword I crafted for myself to defend myself. The crystal clear sword was like a sword shape window submerged in a slow moving stream of living primal earth. The bandits stare at my sword and none too keen to test it''s edge and keep a wide circle around me.


    I listen to their leaderss prattle about how I should surrender all my treasures, the typical yarn spewed forth from all the bandits I''ve met since beginning my wonderlust journey. I decided to prank this stupid idiot by acting when he blinks his eyes. So each time he blink his eyes I use my movement techique to kill one of his followers in a flash and return to my exact position and pose. His mental picture of me matches what he now sees after the blink and never knows what I do as he naturally blinks. To him I never moved, yet his strongest followers would suddenly cry out as he falls apart in pieces.


    He thinks someone out there sniping away as them and never realizing I am the one killing his men. I go as far as yell "friend, I must thank you for killing my enemies before me. If you help me escape tonight, then consider me owing you a favor. If you want some life saving pills or a powerful new weapon you and your decendants will be proud to own, these I can do." Of course the sniper never said a word, but the big bully spew forth his rage against my imaginary helper instead of me was a nice change.


    I wait til he has his back to me yelling the his imaginary friend to show himself, I end the lives of all his remaining men. When he turn around, I watch his eyes widen in shock at seeing the rest of his men fall apart in pieces. Then I calmly tap the back of my sword to cause the blood to form a line of droplets on the ground before saying "trash, I killed all your men and you never suspected me. No wonder you are a wash out from your sect. Which means I don''t have to worry if I kill you. I give him the last grin he''ll ever see and take his head off, the loot I got was trash as well.


    Later on I ran into a small herd of Angari Triplodons racing pass. My eye widen as I only see a herd of rare delicacy racing away, when properly cooked it will help refine the body''s toughness and stamina. The strongest are only at stage five, so I picked three fat ones and swooped in for the kill. I bury my sword though their ears to scramble their brains by jerking my blade around the inside of their skull. I quickly place two corpses into a void container that will freeze it in statis which is the by product of a temporal shift formation.


    A temporal shift formation is quite interesting, when activated anything that no longer possess a soul is frozen in a slice of time. When released the items remain as fresh as when it was captured. The temporal shift formation is what controls capture and release function. By taking that slice of time and inserting it back into the timeline when needed. This also happens to be one the bypasses to avoid the various time police agencies.


    I enter a small tribal village dragging a third carcass just past sunset, when the village guards arrives I tell them "give me a place to cook this up and I take my share to eat and your village can have the rest for dinner." The guards gladly show me to their cooking area.


    I started practicing spiritual cooking with demonbeast meat for the past month or so and cooking up the most common ediable demonbeast meat is no longer an issue. This is my first attempt to cookin a little more difficult type of meat. This Angari Triplodon meat is extremely resistant to being cooked. Not enough heat and it''s still poisonous or too much heat and it turns to char. It''s a fine line between being cooked or burnt to ash.


    Not to mention the marinade that was used to remove most of the toxins that reside in the meat. Who would have thought the key ingrediant was the flesh and liquid inside the three horns they grow on their forehead. After a hour treatment of that, the flesh is almost ediable, just the heat treatment to turn it into something juicy.


    I pull out my cooking cauldron and instill enough spiritual Primalfire to heat it ten degrees lower that was needed. Then I wash and dry the meat and dust them with the proper spiritual cooking herbs and stuff it in the caldron. I clean and dust the remaining pieces until most the cauldron is full of floating meat. The formations inside keep the individual pieces separate and away from the cauldron walls. Seeing the formations doing their jobs, I crank in up to the proper temperature and now have to wait one and half hours.


    It takes no effort for my teeth to carve though the meat that desolves into a liquid that saturates my mouth and infiltrates into my body upon contact. As it spread from my mouth into the rest of my body I feel energy from this bite is slowly refining my body toughness and stamina. I look at the two large plates piled high in inch thick steaks. This should be enough for a small advance for both. So I happily munch a long without getting full, enjoying the taste of a well made steak that melts with each bite.


    The village elders are very pleased with me helping to strengthen the entire village with this meal. It has been many generations since the last master chef cooked such a rare delicacy for the village. So they are extremely grateful for my sudden arrival and treat me like an honored guest.


    They brought out their best jug of cultivation wine for me to drink.


    I laugh and refused "spread the wine among the most deserving to taste it be it man, woman or child. When I see the elder empty the jug I continue with "my fine hosts, let us toast to remember this night the taste the best cultivation wine this village has to offer and my best cooking ever." Then I take a large hit from my jug and watch them drink their wine.


    "Now that you know your limits, allow me to introduce you something I made a few years ago." Then proceed to pull out a large barrel and place it on the ground near the central pyre and broke the seal and remove the lid. I willed a large bowl into my hand and submerge it into the brew filling the bowl to the rim. I pull it to my lips and drank it all down. The fluid flow over my tongue as my cells greedily absorb the tangy and semi sweet wine that remind me of a summer breeze. Nice, I can feel my mental capacity increase a notch and my spiritual force strengthening as well. When I am done I refill my bowl and state "this is good wine! Help yourselves."


    They even brought out their kids as they work to get rid of a ton of meat before sunrise. I laugh at their wonderful greedy survival instinct to improve the tribe strength by any means. The past six hours the villagers are eating the best meat they ever tasted without worry about getting full. Best of all they can wash it down with a cultivation wine that puts their jug meant for vips to shame. When morning arrives, my divine senses tell me the entire village has advance in both toughness and stamina by leap and bounds. The elders invited me to stay for the day, but I politely refuses stating the sun is up and a new day has begun. I took my leave with a wave at the glutinous children and flew towards the capital.

 Chapter Eight - Shall We Bring it Up a Notch

    I finally spot the capital surrounded by tended croplands and the larger cash crop fields. This is interspersed with barrier protected walled gardens where abundant natural energies allow rare spiritual plants to grow.


    This capital is a five walled fortress with thousands of cultivators flying all over the place except for the inner two walls. I fly on over and easily spot the massive building of an auction house on the third level. I land on an open air platform on the third floor and head on in. The hostesses do their thing, but in a more practiced elegant manner. Their dresses are different cut but made from the same fabric they use for their uniforms. It is appearant a skilled designer had tailor all the dresses for the hostesses of the auction house, while the servants wear a standardized uniform.


    There are of course male varients of a host, but I pay no heed to these custom raised playboys all the auction houses train to serve their female guests. I have nothing against other guys, but I rather be looking at a lovely girl than the chisel features of these all muscles and zero fat freaks.


    I was broadcasting peak stage seven cultivation as I arrive in front of a hostess. She gives a formal bow and says "welcome to our auction house young master. How can we be of service?"


    "Thank you, I would like a workshop until the end of the month." Then I presented her a list and continue with "these are the materials I would like to work on during my stay."


    I see her eyes widen as she glances though the list and pours out "these are tier seven materials!"


    So I added "I''m halfway to stage eight, so I need to practice when I can."


    She blinks and smiles and quickly motion over a young hostess girl in training and hands out "take this young master to the workshops" then she bows and heads inside with the list. The slip of a girl smiles and grabs my left hand and and pulls me forward "this way young master!" I laugh and provide "ok, lead on." I let her pull me to the central shaft about thirty meters across where I see a score of cultivator flying up and down to various floors. Then she pulls me into the air and we fly up to the workshop floor where she motions me to land near another hostess, then she bows and voice "enjoy your stay young master!" and turns to heads back down. I notice she is using a flying artifact in the shape of a bracelet since her cultivation is too low to fly herself.


    I shook my head and thought they certainly start teaching them at a young age, but that girl seem to enjoy the work. So I reach over to tap her shoulder before she can finish turning and hand her a void pouch full of resources for her stage three cultivation and supplied "don''t forget your tip young miss" I watch the young girl go wide eye at the unexpected surprise and remembering her manner give a deep bow in gratitude.


    I smile at the new hostess and she promptly bows and ask "any particular direction you like facing young master?"


    "North or south is fine" I provided and smiled again.


    She bows once again and informs "north is taken," then brighten and spills out "but south is available young master" as she completes her telepathic conference.


    So I give her a third smile and lift my hand and gesture right of way to her and include "please, show me the way."


    She bows again and lead me to my new workshop, her roleplaying is top notch and peaks my curiosity by providing interesting unconfirmed gossip floating around the city. I waited the materials to arrive before closing the view and put my artificing to work. The forging itch isn''t too bad this time I just forge three swords and topped off my supplies of pills and tinkered around with armor techniques. I am mainly here to auction some weapons for more tier nine resources. I learned most tier seven artificers usually take up to a tenday to finish a single artifact. So I don''t go over board and practice these new armor techniques.


    The various tempering and refining techiques I understand, it''s the Dimensional Layering is a bit tough to handle. By making the artifact exist in multiple dimensions, it gives the artifacts high toughness and durability. Placing Dimensional Anchors is simply too taxing for the current me. So I continue to practice and I feel myself inching closer to my distant goal of mastery.


    I sent the new girl away with a stage six foundation pill with my third forged sword. I did my usual last request before leaving and listen to the best news available and was surprise to learn an ancient remnant is showing signs of opening after a thousand years of slumber. The thing this particular remnant was known for is large amount of high tier medicinal herbs that was taken out the last time it had open.


    What finally caught my interest was that even a couple of tier eight medicinal herbs were recovered. But what was even better was only alchemists can can enter. The final piece of info was that it''s expected to open in about month, if the records how it operated last time can be trusted. So I went a head and order me a full copy of all information on this renmant. After one last question I found out I can get there with a single gate jump followed by a week of flying.


    While waiting for a copy to arrive I went ahead and check though master memories and found he entered a thousand years ago when he was a late stage seven expert. With his memories, I can avoid searching the places he has already successfully gain rewards. I also know the seven trials he fail on, but in his legacy he mastered the recipes so he could complete them next time. Since I already master the pills during my training, I look forward in gaining those rewards.


    After recieving my winning of tier nine resources, I played a week with girls and looking through the auction list for anything worth buying. While snacking on a ton of tier nine resources everyday. I eventually won a few auctions for rare materials before heading over to the teleport gate. I do my usual cut in line with a bag a demonbeast cores and two groups transit with me to my destination. We all waited for the guards to lift exit gate, people have known to die trying to leave before their insides finish reforming. Once the gate is open, I step out of the gate building and see flocks of cultivators flying in the direction of the remnant.


    My divine sense tells me most of them are not even alchemists, and it boggles my mind why so many would waste their time to watch alchemists raid a remnant. Since there are no magic mirror to show them what the hell we do inside, so did they all come to goof off with a bunch of like minded idiots? Ok, well more power to you folks as I hop on my flying chair and follow the crowd.


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    Anyways, a weeks travel and not a single demonbeast to be found as the steady stream of cultivators from the teleport gate made sure they all been hunted out along this invisible aerial road only cultivators can make. I can see cultivators have spread out from the invisible path towards the remnant, so I don''t even bother to look for demonbeasts.


    As I flew seated on my flying sword and allowing only peak stage seven to show to tell everyone a seventh stage cultivator is passing though. Nobody bothers me as sat on my chair and distill what I just read of the peak stage ten renmant I am heading to who was a grandmaster in both alchemy and arrays. The entrance plate was etched this ''There are tests though all known branches of alchemy. Any alchemist who reach the pinacle of their branch may be worthy of one of my favorite treasures.''


    Currently only one branch of alchemy has been breached. Rewards are everywhere, even the ends of branches the experts didn''t think possible. Most of the treasures from the first four level are dry, but they still recovered a good amount of tier five treasures. The top treasure last time was the three tier eight treasures along with several scores of tier sevens treasures. All Seven grandmasters of alchemy in the world will be attending this time.


    The recommended tactic is clear out your personal knowledge before exploring, more than seventy percent of alchemists claimed rewards in their specialties. With that experience I would have some knowledge to how proceed in exploring the unknown.


    But I have my own thoughts and master''s memories to plan differently, strong alchemists would power on though to get to the best rewards, so they wouldn''t waste any time exploring the lower branches. I go as high as I can so I can explore those branches after clearing seven trials master failed on last time.


    The reward I recieved from following master''s branch was a ten percent increase in spiritual force along with a bunch of resources. While the off branch I personally enjoyed strengthen my spiritual meridians and a new alchemy cauldron that is comparable to masters. So now I have more spiritual force but also at the next level of purity, so I use a noticably less amount of spiritual force to get things done now and my recovery is slightly better. The first week I mastered three new recipes and two recipes I can try to master for the next time I come here.


    But the best thing was my cultivation rose from early stage to mid stage eight. So I pretty much a happy camper right now as I hum along as I continue exploring the unknown. There are a lot of rooms with a pill tests with unknown ingrediants that made me failed the test. I''ve been adding the names of these unknown pills and my experience with them into a recording jade so I could study how to make them before this place opens up again.


    I was harvesting herbs in a large open medicinal garden and was working my way to the other side when an older man enter the garden from the opposite side. I glance at him to see what he looks like and notice between us just expose behind a rock was a pulsating spiritual flower. I immediately jump towards it and he does the same.


    We landed next to the pulsating spiritual herb at the same time. He is wearing raggity clothes over mismatched armor pieces that screams of a mercenary background. The sword he is carrying is rather strong peak tier eight profound weapon. It oozes out waves of Fire Qi and Sword Qi and the sword is a living twisting thing of pure Livingfire. The face of it''s sword spirit show itself on the Livingfire as to peer out at me and the surroundings with interest.


    He politely ask "I wouldn''t suppose you''ll let me have this herb?"


    "I need it for my alchemy, so afraid not" I replied.


    "You are a bit young for high level alchemy" he becomes disrespecting already.


    "You seem to be a decent guy, but your out of your league here" I disapprove with a poke. He snorts and gives "kids these days, they all think they are all tough but in reality are small fry when they reach the cultivation of their dreams. Newbies like you can never stand up to a veteran like me."


    I poke back with "I am appalled by your blindness old one, It''s one of the reasons true experts call people like you trash." Then I start activating the Blessing of the Faithful technique to increase my attack speed. Then I activate my defense artifacts to increase my physical and soul defenses. With a thought to my battlegear, it raises it''s protective force barrier in transparent mode. Completely hidden within the white burning Qi barrier I raise at the same time for my first line of defense. From my other artifacts I boost my blocking and dodging skills. I can''t wait to learn how to add permanent buffs to armor.


    I materialize Burning Rage in my right hand and feel the three permanent buff boost my battle power. It doesn''t take long for my qi to recover. Thanks to my master''s dantian foundation techniques, I recover twice the amount of qi in battle has really given me some serious staying power.


    Once I''m ready, I start the first exchange with a charge forward as I rush to attack. I watch him unleash some of his strength and he breaks through to early stage eight cultivator, so I follow suit and continue my rampage with my battle grin. His eyes narrow and gives his own grin and in this first exchange he attempts to remove my head so I did a quick duck and even quicker lunge forward to try to skewer him near the heart.


    He hops back for his dodge and sweeps back in with a slashing upper cut which I dodge with a sidestep to the right with a slight tilt to my right.


    Then I sweep in to try to take off his expose left leg, but he dances away with another dodge before springing back probably hoping for a quick hit. But I block again and we push at each with our swords until I start inching him backward.


    He gives me his unbelievable expression which I love making people show me, and with a great heave sent him back staggering several paces then I sprung forward for my own attempt for a quick kill. But the he dances away again with another dodge.


    Next he goes low this time aiming with a slash at my left leg, I hop back and to increase the momentum of his blade I bring my own sweeping blade on the back of his blade. As I help sweep his blade to my right, I twist my hand to bring Burning Rage up and hack heartily at his sword arm. He brings his armored bracer on his left forearm to block. Thus ended our first exchange.


    The old man pushes off and jumps back and shows some respect with "not bad kid, not bad at all! Looks like I can finally stretch my muscles" and looks at me appreciatively as his cultivation rises to mid stage eight.


    Not to be out done I follow suit and added "don''t you know it, I''m in the same boat you know, it''s hard finding another battle fiend I can test my skills on." He gives me his huh? expression before quickly snapping back together as I inquire "shall we bring it up a notch and use Qi to empower our swords or do you need some more warm up? Not that I wouldn''t mind another exchange, but I''ll be more exciting if we put some Qi to work."


    He glances over to the pulsating plant and surrounding plants and asks "won''t our shock waves damage all these herbs?"


    I replied "the alchemist made sure his all plants are protected."


    "Formation?" he asks which I nod with assurance. Then his battle grin returns and continues with "well then, let''s go for it then." Then we both pump Qi into our swords which makes them finally wake up and roar with approval as gouts of elemental Qi fused with Sword Qi pour out in waves from our living weapons. My sword turns into a black shadow inside a wreath in burning flames. His is like a free flowing tentical that freely moves about as if searching for prey.


    My mind goes into overdrive and adds new battle calculations. His weapon can possible act like a whip and might be able to replicate one or more tenticles. It''s free flowing form can withdraw causing my blocks to miss, make sure to ready to jump back at any moment. As my mind prepare my defenses I''m already charging forward to begin the next exchange.

 Chapter Nine - Light of the Divine sure is Amazing

    This time I go in low for his knees but he jumps back to dodge and counter attacks with a strike to my neck. I bring my sword up and knock his blade over my head for the block, the reverberating clash as our living weapons met for the first time sent a shockwave thoughout this public garden subspace. The violent energy shatters the space as it passes though. But a pale green formation protects all the spiritual plants, but all normal plants, the trees, grass and even the weeds are all gone as they instantly turn into fine ash.


    I stare grinning at that powerful protective formation below me and understand only a little as I imprint the entire formation into my mind for later study. I''m going to learn alot from this formation, I got a treasure, just like that. I look over to the berserker next to me and see his grinning and he continues to study the formation then sprouts "good call my young friend, looks like we can go all out" and pumps his cultivation to late stage eight.


    But I just grin back since I can''t go any higher and give a slow shake of disappointment. Not that I worry, I can go toe to toe with a mid stage nine cultivator, but then I remember he is an alchemist while I am a cultivator than happens to be good at alchemy. I doubt I would have to give up of this magnificant speciman of the Light of the Divine even if he stronger than mid stage nine. This tier eight material is famous for being one of the main ingredients for peak tier eight Broaden Ones Horizons longevity pill.


    Broaden One Horizons will extend a peak stage eight cultivor''s life by one hundred years and the potential that is gain by these extra years maybe enough for a breakthough for a peak stage nine expert. This is the pill to have as a peak stage eight cultivator, because this is how all the breakthoughs in this era has ever known. All the other paths learn from the last era has somehow failed to produce a single stage nine expert this era, and this is a dilemma the whole world is facing.


    The surviving stage nine experts from the last era are panicking, because their own path of cultivating is no longer allowing their followers and decendants to breakthough to stage nine. They all felt the timeshift that started the current Era of Alchemy for only by alchemy can you become a stage nine expert, as such the seven Grandmaster Alchemist has the entire attention of populous of this world.


    For the first time in this era the ability to craft a tier nine pill has been achieved. The pill is called Primvadia Decluasia that will advance a stage nine elemental affinities up three levels to a maxium of tier eight while their strongest affinity is boosted to tier nine. Divine Alchemist Talonrod promptly consume that pill to boost his fire affinity to tier nine, it is said many a tears fell from the alchemists watching him craft that pill that day. However, one can not say they were crying for the glory for the first branch of alchemy to produce a tier nine pill or because they shed tears for a pill they could no longer hope to buy.


    As our swords grind against one another I slowly push him back a few inches at a time unless he goes all out and stops me in my tracks for a breath of time. It''s your basic strength test we check our manliness index of who is stronger while we continue to study the formation below us. Since I already have a full copy, let''s make him regret trying to steal my things. I step to the right and twist of my hand so my sword grinds up his sword and his sudden test of strength dissolve into his sword swooshing pass my body and I give him an over hand chop to interupt his study time. But he pounces away with another dodge and goes right back in to take a stab at my heart but his grin is gone for a moment of disappointment. Serves you right for losing a chance to learn the most you can from that formation.


    Then I blocked his attack and gave a sudden heave and send him off balance backwards a few paces again. I jump forward with a swing at his closest leg. But he manages to block it and jump back before I can heave him off balance again. This time he takes a swing at my sword arm, so I twisted my hand and punched upwards to give me some momentum to help block some of force of his attack.


    I used that momentum to continue to press until I stagger him backwards again. I launch my next attack with a swing at his gut. But he manages to block and back peddles a bit but still in control as we end our second exchange.


    We both glance around to see the remaining spiritual herbs still unharmws, covered by that green barrier. My hands regenerates as we study the surrounding spiritual plants and just happy to see that the green barrier is just working fine. I been watching the blood drip from his hands slowly dwindle, compared to me his recovery is slower which means his body crafting technique is much weaker than mine.


    Each time our swords clash, the reverberation shred our palms. Since he is still regenerating, I open up the next exchange with Shake the Heavens, a late tier eight battle skill. I drew both Profound Qi and Elemental Deepwater Qi from my dantian and with my spiritual force weave and mix them together with a spiritual technique to strengthen the weave before pouring that into my sword in order to make that skill happen.


    My sword burst into life and grow to about three times longer radiating massive spikes of water qi fused with sword qi which I quickly slash at the space above. A giant many armed stroke of heat lightning lit the sky above permanently leaving a black imprint of itself there. From these cracks water pour out and form into spining blades filled with the fused water and sword qi.  Every inch of space of this subspace is sudden bombarded and slashed apart except for the small space surrounding me. All the spiritual plant have fading remains of those spinning disks embedded in that protective green barrier.


    When I see him again an instant later as the hail of blades finish their flight. I see several slashes covering his body, so I gain first blood and smile with "old man, Light of the Divine is mine. But I wouldn''t mind another exchange to prove it, and it will be your turn to attack if that helps. But if I win again, all these herbs are mine."


    It does as I see his cultivation rise to peak stage eight and his grin returns with "that sounds good welp, I don''t believe someone as young as you could possibly use it. It would be a waste having you experiment on it just to increase your mastery" with shakes of his head in disapproval.


    I''m already pouring Profound Qi into my sword and wait to see what elemental signs when he begin his skill and I provide "disrespect is all I get old man, stopping pulling your punches and let see what you really got." I buff my nails of my left hand on my chest before inspecting them, before adding "I really thought I could cut loose today, but I''m already bored" and then sigh in mock displeasure as I watch him with the corner of my right eye.


    I watch his eyes twitch to my enjoyment before he utters "I wanted to enjoy the moment, but if you insist on going to the endgame already, then fine" and he breaks though to early stage nine. I raise my eyebrow of is that all? Then I see him punch through to mid stage nine, then I give him the thumps up.


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    I see signs of Wind Qi on his weapon, so I pour in earth qi and settle in with A Touch of Heaven, an peak tier eight defensive battle skill. Soon I was surrounded by a illusionary mountain peak of fused earth and sword qi. Then I made eight slashes to imprint the inside edge of the mountain with eight defensive layers. Each strike materialize the mountain more and turning the inside where I am standing into shade. The mountain I created has a touch of divine presence, as if it might have really came from some heavenly plane.


    I watch him power up his skill of wind and sword qi to form a thousand wind spears as sharp as mid stage nine blades. They come hurdling in and pummeled my defensive mountain. They eat though all eight layers and a single one come though to be intercepted by a slash of my sword and shrug off the rest of the force without stepping back and hand out "is that all old man? Run along old one, this place is mine." Then I use my left hand to gesture go away.


    He gives my his huh? look before his shoulders goes slumping to his sides in defeat, turns around and pick a random door out. As soon as he leaves I go about harvesting the remaining spiritual herbs. Once done I shave off the top layer of medicinal earth and dump it into my inner world. With a second dose today, my inner world has become rich and vibrant. Large patches of greenry can be see here are there if I inspect my tiny world closely. My alchemy sensibility stops me from stealing to much medicinal earth here, after all, this place will continue to produce spiritual plants.


    As I explore I test my abilities in trying to pass the treasure pill tests. But my success rate is poor, it''s obvious that unknown techniques were developed just to make many of these pill. It''s intriguing to try to find all the answers to make these pills. I fail five times and only manage one success which gave some tier seven materials mainly used for body crafting techniques. I almost have enough to make a broth to soak in that will increase my meridians and spiritual veins up another notch in purity while also completely cleansing the body of any remaining impurities.


    Thanks to master''s foundation techiques I know there is another use for Light of the Divine. By adding it to the ingrediants of the broth I can increase it power by another level. I''ll be able to increase both my meridians and spiritual veins by two small advances. It might even be enough to pull my spiritual veins up to the next tier.


    I stare into my master ring to see it caged in the best clear perservative jade case my master owned pulsating silently in the ring''s void space. When I placed it with my other spiritual herbs, I notice the pulsating light work wonders on the nearby spiritual herbs.  So I shoved all the most rarest herbs around it to absorb the pulsating glow. I see damage herbs slowly regenerate and even watch near ripe herbs start ripen a little more with each pulse of light. Light of the Divine sure is amazing, it''s almost worth keeping to tend to my store of spiritual herbs.


    All I need now is the Seed of the Undertow, which can only be found in the deepest ocean depths with a floor of volcanoes for light. This spiritual herb is most difficult to get as the Denizens of Deep war upon any outsiders that enter their territory. However, it''s one their flagship products that they auction off on average every hundred years. The next auction is expected to be announce in the next few years, this is the second tidbit of news from the auction house I found important.


    My master''s memories flood in so I now know that trade will be thriving as all interested parties have set up a temporary head quarters in the city Karvallus that the Denizens of the Depths has their main auction house in as they wait for news on the seed. On a large island off the eastern edge of this continent that I am currently residing on.


    All manners of rare alchemy materials are being sold there, especially as the seafolk as my master calls them, begin selling ever more rarer materials to build up their prestige before their official announcement. Looks like that is my next destination, so I stop staring at the memorizing pulsating flower and get back to exploring as I chew on tier nine resources as snacks.


    I go though a door to discover a sub branch of alchemy with a pill called ''Cliffs of Insanity'' as I read it''s description, it is for curing insanity with a counter treatment of another form of instanity. As I examine the ingrediants I brighten up, sub branches are not too difficult, just got to be very careful with each step.


    So I step in to the subspace simulator to activate the test and begin displaying my alchemy to produce the pill in real time with my illusionary materials. The reward I recieve was a small advance in my soul''s purity which makes me a little more resistant to mental attacks. I love this place, searching though this trapped filled labyrinth to find secrets rooms containing a subspace simulator for pills I never heard of and hope I can solve for the rewards. Even if I fail these tests, I learn the recipe for the pills and have plenty of time to master them before I return.


    I occassionally find unfunctioning simulator pads indictating that someone has taken it''s reward. I quicken my pace as I do not know if there is a nearby cultivator competing with me or these closed down as a result for the first two times this remnant has been opened. My thoughts dwell on the guy I beat earlier so I pick up the pace some more.


    I come to a sudden stop in front a defensive array and I began pealing away it''s substance with my own breaching array. As I fed in qi I watch the space around me for intruders. As soon as I breach the defense array I quickly step though and the defense array reforms behind me. I glance over to the path I would have taken if I couldn''t breach this array and notice I would have to deal with a lot more time wasting traps.


    I smiled and continue my search knowing my fellow alchemists without mastery in arrays would spend most of their time entangled in those traps. Especially that sinister looking illusionary array in the middle of that path. I enter the second stage where this part of the labyrinth may contain several secret rooms with a simulator pad.


    I finally run into my third medicinal garden, but this time I quickly tour the place and mark the place with the strongest spiritual herb and started harvesting in decending importance. I harvest nine herbs before an alchemist reared his ugly mug. I popped the newly harvested Crimson Elderberry into my masters ring and made a shooing motion with my left hand and provide "go away, this place is mine, I found it first" and hope he''ll buy it. I head toward the next herb on my mental list while keeping an eye on this unwanted intruder.


    He responds with "come on, there are plenty of herbs to go around and begins harvesting the closest spritual plant. I tsked and continue with my declining list. Let him take to lessor plants while I take the good stuff first before he catching on to what I am doing. I even act like a newbie and pretend I don''t know how to harvest some of spiritual plants so I can move closer to the ones I wanted.


    Everytime I voice a complaint I see him grin as he continues to harvest the closest plants to him. I laugh silently at him as I plucked the tenth most wanted plant on my list and properly store it away. Then I got to work racing clear as many spiritual plant in this garden relying on my knowledge to work toward the remaining plants of intesting.


    Eventually I only sense a few spiritual plants remaining and so I take a break and let him have the remaining. I take a quick breeze though my new stockpile of spiritual plants from two and a half medicinal gardens I''ve raided and my mind goes into convulsions at the thought of the number of pills I can make with this new stock.


    Ugly Mug goes on with "thanks for letting me have the remaining plants fellow alchemist" and cups his hands and leaves. I quickly got up and sweep the top inch of medicinal earth into my inner world and race out though a different door. A quick glance at my newly evolved inner world show that most of the desert areas have shrunk considerably, while the green areas have expanded some more.  Looking even closer, I realize there are small bushes and saplings growing in the center of the larger green patches.

 Chapter Ten - As a Living Embodiment of Earth

    The next subspace I enter had a glorius fountain spewing forth water nearly five meters high to land in a elaborate catch basin formed by the fountain walls. I stood there gaping at the glistening water tainted with liquified qi. Before I knew it I was diving right in and gulping down as much as I can and refine the tiny streams of liquid qi to deluge my inner world with it''s life giving effects. I watch tiny lakes start to form in my inner world and the greenery explodes as is slowly creeps across to fill the surface.


    I refined the liquid qi into my inner world until I finally had many lakes and rivers. By then I had taken more than two thirds of the liquid qi from the fountain. But according to master''s memories I just need a bit more medicinal earth and then all I need now is to find nine dragon veins. In my master''s ring I see a weak dragon vein in it''s jade seal box. I can place nine dragon veins in my inner world, but has to be in decending strength. So I need to find the strongest highest quality dragon vein for my first installment.


    With all the small time auction houses I been since I left my home town, I know dragons veins are rare but not so rare that I can''t find them. It just none of them caught my eye so far and I wasn''t expecting to need them so soon. I truely have to thank the spirits of this remnant for having such useful rewards. Not too mention an interesting way to learn new recipes and experience refining unknown herbs.


    The hints from the known ingredients and the reason for the pill was enough select the correct techniques and a little fiddling around to successfull crafted a new pill to pass the test. Now all I need is to tweak it and fusing it all together properly and get it up to one hundred percent efficiency to satisfy my requirements for a sellable product.


    Divine Alchemist Talonrod was the only one to clear the final test for his branch on his second try. Fortunately his branch of alchemy is the most popular one currently used by most alchemists in the past seven hundred thousand years. Competely on the opposite side of my master''s alchemy, so there is a very good chance that I can finding some real treasures.


    So basically competing against my master''s fellow branch members in this area of the tomb, my master was their hope to break the last test for the honor of the branch. Talonrod faction has been acting snobbishly as the only branch that can produce tier nine pills. So the remaining eight branches of alchemy have become individual war camps and all secrets are forbidden to outsiders. Each branch striving to break though the last test and join Talonrod as another branch that can produce tier nine pills.


    Since master was the strongest practitioner of our branch, I stand to profit highly here. So of course I record and map everything here so when master and I return here next time it opens, we won''t waste time exploring what I have already done this time around. My master was one stage weaker than me when he first came here, so diligently record all the new areas that master didn''t search.


    It took a while but I finally found a new simulation pad and step right on. The space swirl around me and I read Soul Sensing pill and look at the list of rare ingrediant and smile in graditude knowing I won''t be dealing with an unknown herb. This being the main culprit of me failing so much and my chances are starting to look decent and read the reason for the pill''s existence. It will strengthen one divine sense a notch or two and increase your sensing range by half, my mind automatically converts that to one hundred and fifty percent range. It''s another interesting pill that good for the soul.


    Besides the rewards, actually learning new pill recipes is a great bonus. So I happy delve into my techniques and begin my attempt in make this new pill. It was touch and go on several points, but due to my experience I was able to push though and create the pill. It wasn''t anything fancy, just a basic mid grade pill, but that is good enough to get the reward of more tier seven materials.


    It took a few more hours of searching to find another secret room, but as I approach, Ugly Mug opens the door and leaves with a face filled with discontentment. It''s obvious he failed the create the pill and stumps away is fury. I enter the room and step on the simulation pad and discover the reason, there are two unknown spiritual herbs listed in the recipe for Soul Purification pill.


    The first unknown spiritual herb I see is like a gingeroot, it''s has three thick stubby growths.  It also has a bushy crown of oranges leaves on the top and some tiny purple flowers.  I toss the Fartaurkin Pyroroot in the cauldron and instill it Magmasterrin Coreflame.


    I was playing it safe and used my earth affinity spiritual fire, it''s my second strongest affinity and is best for refining spiritual herbs.  I rarely use it since I am trying to level up the other affinities, but today is special as I gaze at the spiritual herb in the cauldron.


    So the needs to be spiritual side so I look at the two techniques I have decided to go with Spectralizing technique. It''s a technique to drain the essense of a spiritual herb and transfer that essense into a new medium.  I used a dose of Earthmilk because is like a universal solvent that just goes well with everything.  I begin transferring the Pyroroot essense into the Earthmilk and watch closely for any reaction, but to goes smoothly by using the Earthmilk.


    The other spiritual plant is an Oskonney Velaseed. A dark green lopsided heart shape seed.  My divine sense tells me there is a good measure of liquid inside and that sixty percent of it''s spiritual power is in the liquid.  So I can''t drain and discard it.  So I decide to use my Deepwater spiritual fire for this herb.


    I don''t want to refined the husk and sudden vaporize the liquid insides because of too much heat.  By using the water affinity of my Deepwater I should be able to protect that liquid.  It works beautifully and I find I have the spiritual essence of two new herbs.


    However combining all the eighty six essences was a bust as I watch the half formed pill fade away in my cauldron.  I chalk it up to experience and left happily with new data on two more herbs. It''s better than nothing, so I record my impression on my first attempt at crafting a Soul Purification pill.  Recording these two new spiritual herbs with the rest of my experience since I arrive at this amazing remnant has made my researcher self very happy.


    In the end I did exceptionally well as I felt I gain good deal of treasures but I learned a great deal more so I am as happy as I can be. But I was kicked out of the remnant by a tomb wide mass teleporter array after a month of exploring and the remnant disappears into it''s hidden dimension for another thousand years.


    All the alchemists present all began a debate on alchemy and the grandmasters brag how close they are in defeating the final test. I couldn''t leave because of the huge crowd of cultivators surrounding us just to listen on to the grandmasters of alchemy leading the debate until the nine branches of alchemy entered the stage. I''m just tripping out on such an idea that the nine branches would debate on who was going to the next branch of alchemy to be able to produce tier ten pills in front of such a large crowd of people.


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    At one point I couldn''t help laugh out loud at the absurdity of having to stay and watch this alchemy debate that has nothing to do with me. My master was an aloof personality even with his fellow branch members. He didn''t really hate anyone in the branch, but he didn''t like any of them either. So he only deal with branch members who have a good reason to bother him. So he always pretended to be in closed door cultivating or traveling for lucky chances.


    Of course my laughter isn''t taken kindly even from my own branch, so I simply state "this debate has nothing to do with me, I just find is absurd to debate on alchemy in front of so many non alchemists." With that thought, I flew off and head towards the teleportation gate. I could tell many of my fellow juniors feel the same way, but they have no courage to speak up against their elders.


    The audience also not happy about my declaration, but I let my cultivation break though to early stage eight and those who thought to teach a junior like me a lesson quickly settle down. Top rank experts aren''t stupid, a stage eight alchemist as young as me has good chances of becoming another grandmaster. None of them is willing to make a enemy of me, so I fly away on my sword without mishap. They just chalk it up to me being the typical extravagant alchemist making a scene. However, I feel seven sets of eyes on my back, but I don''t bother looking back since it''s obvious who they are.


    No one bothers me as I finally spot the teleportation gate, just as I land Mara''s danger jade goes off and forms a portal in front of me. I send my divine sense though as I step into the portal and my divine sense can see Mara running from a bunch of trash and I see a old man leading them use a peak stage seven battle skill with lightning arcing from his sword.


    I flash forward and begin powering up to save my apprentice and yell out "trash you dare attack my apprentice!" and use my qi fused with earth qi to fuel Titan''s Fist, an early tier eight battle skill that suppose to creates a giant first to materialize over my head and strike forward smashing anything in it''s path. My divine sense see thousands of sand particals form above me and my Profound Qi diving to each sand crystal which causes them to expand at an enormous rate. In an instant the growing sand merge together until they formed into a giant fist of living rock about thirty meter tall.


    Massive amounts of earth qi penetrates the surrounding air as it drums the space as it passes though. This slow measured beat vibrates out as the earth qi causes the titanic fist to come to life. As a living embodiment of earth, the fist squeezes itself before striking forward. The ground shakes in joy as if it''s god was passing though.


    That dark lightning strike shatters on impact on my Titan''s First and slams home on the old man that attacked Mara. I see the bastard tumbled about fifty paces and finally rolls on his back still spitting gouts of blood. His blood covered face and spattered blood trail made the on lookers gasp in shock seeing a peak stage seven expert knocked rolling like that.


    The old man struggles to raise his head so he can see over his fat belly to glare at me and struggle to respond with "your apprentice raided my house, killed my people and looted my treasures. Don''t you think I have the right to seek revenge and recover my treasures?"


    "Mara, are you causing trouble?" I turn my head to face Mara but keep my divine sense locked on the group of trash.


    She looks meekly away in guilt and give me an imperceptable nod before facing me again and supporting herself with "but they deserved it! They hurt my friend!" She looks at me with hope.


    I reach over and pat her head and give her a smiling encouragement "since you have good reason to cause trouble, then relax and I will take care of this" then my eyes glare at the old man "you should have accepted my apprentice''s punishment for hurting her friend. Had you done so, you wouldn''t be facing me right now" and I unleash my killing intent upon his people and I watch them scream and vomit in agony as I snuffed out their weak life force, the strongest was only an early stage six cultivator. I watch the old man''s face turn to horror as he struggles to sit up.


    I quickly form a soul cage formation and form my qi into a simple spear that extended to shoot the struggling old man though his heart. Then I withdraw my qi spear with the his soul struggling on the spear''s tip which I promptly thrust into the soul cage. I watch the soul struggle to escape before the sealing finish closing. In his weaked condition he has no hope of beating the suppression from the suction coming from the center of the soul cage and could only watch helplessly as the opening of soul cage seal itself into an impenetrable barrier.


    My divine sense tells me there are two stage seven experts among the watchers so I pull out a late tier seven sword and announce "fellow stage seven cultivators, would either of you want to earn this blade? All you have to do is wipe out this trash''s clan" and I give the soul cage a shake for emphasis.


    "I''ll do it young master!" yells the closest one.


    I followed up with "give me a pledge and you can use his clan to wet this blade for the first time"


    Then he announces "on my word I shall destroy that one clan" and point at the soul cage in my hand.


    "That''s good enough for me" and I toss the blade over to him and stored the soul cage into master''s ring. I see him marvel at the blade before cupping his hands and bowing "thank you young master, I have a grudge with one of his sons, with his old man gone I can finally seek revenge."


    I nod with approval before facing Mara and muttered "you cost me a tier seven weapon my beloved little trouble maker" and I watch her pout, then and give her a grand kiss as I fought her tongue for top position. Then I watch her snuggle my left arm while sporting her happy victory look of anticipation. Which forces me to give her a smile of good sportsmanship then followed it up with "is your friend ok?"


    She nods and supplies "I healed her! When I learn their clan lord was leaving for a dinner party, I snuck in and beat the girl who hurt my friend. Then her elders jumped in so I beat them too. Because they wasted my time, I decided to raid their vault."


    I blink at her and provided "you do know I don''t care if you have a reason or not, so cause all the trouble you want, I have your back my precious" and I brought her in for another round for who''s on top. I give her a satisfied smirk since I won that round.


    She pouts then gives me a hug, as she buries her face I hear her mutter "your so mean leaving me like that."


    I laughed and sprout "I said good bye to you for two weeks before I finally left," then I humphed and state "if your gonna be like that, then the next time I leave I''ll only spend just one week to say goodbye. I see her face pop up and disparagingly utter "no! Master, I''m a good girl, don''t leave me so suddenly!" Then she clutches me possessively, so I hug her back and stroke her head comfortably.


    Then I smile and poke her with "how are you a good girl? Today you proved to be a trouble maker that cost me a peak tier seven sword that took me, well um, a whole candle mark to make! What a troublesome girl you are," then I began tickling her to make her giggle and laugh. Before she could recover I fought her a third time to win two out of three for who''s on top, so I picked her up in my arms as she pouted adorable in my arms.


    But soon a flood of words pour out of her as she shares her adventures to find me. They mostly consisted of pervy men trying to get their hands on her. After her stories she adds "if it weren''t for the cultivation technique you gave me and the weapon and protective gears, I couldn''t have made it this far to find you master. I did make a new friend and some sisters I owe a small favor for helping me in a bind."


    "Oh? What kind of bind?" I inquired.


    "I breath in some poisonous fumes from a demonbeast I was killing and was wondering around aimlessly when some sisters from the Garden of Blooming Lillies sect found me. They knew how to cure the poison and brought me back to my senses" was her response.


    "I see, shall visit your friend and this sect?" I asked.


    Mara looks happy and replies "please master, I really want to see them again."

 Chapter Eleven - Goes Full Crinos on Me

    I watch Mara''s gloomy face so I ask "what''s wrong Mara?"


    Mara disparagingly reply "I can''t hold your hand while flying master." I blink at her and wonder ''she certainly keeps me busy'' as my mind goes into overdrive to consider my two options. Do I take the easy route and make her happy by agreeing with her. Or do my duty as her master and do something about it? I sigh and head down to land on the road we were following to get to the nearby city.


    I took out a small couch and cut it in half and use a formation to anchor them to their relative position with the following restrictions. First on command ''merge'' to restore the durability of the couch to make it whole again. Second on command ''split'' to remove the restriction to return to the cut halves.


    Then I take out two new flying swords and with a formation I anchor one to the bottom of each half. Then I put a restriction to anchor them to their relative position with the following restrictions. First on command ''merge'' link up with partner flying sword following this relative position template. Second on command ''split'' release partner flying sword from this restriction. This will allow Mara to control her flying sword encase we need to split up in a hurry, since I will be in control when in flying couch mode.


    Once we are settled in and flying once more, she roleplays the snuggle buni with her mastery in tasty waifuese techniques. When we arrived at the city I checked on local news and we learned that there is going to be a tournament for the younger generation, no weapons or battle skills allowed. It is strictly a hand to hand combat tournament with emphasis on body crafting techniques and brawling talent. They also allow personal equipment, you just can''t use weapons or battle skills.


    The occassion is the one hundred year ''Brawl of the Century'' that is run by famous body crafting masters though out the world. Their disciples always taken the top ten positions and a good percentage of the top one hundred. Anyone who practices a body crafting technique to their limits know everyone by name and probably their entire history of their favorites as fans as they most likey practice the same type of technique.


    First place reward is a peak tier seven sword called Render that can create cracks in space leading to the outer void, created by the famous master artificer Wurkorin from the last age. He is famous because more of his weapons are discovered than any artificer from that age by an hefty margin of six to one, but he is consider average in abilities among the master arificers from that age.


    I tsked in disgust, my ancestor''s memories consider him nothing but trash because he was still a few small advances away from actually full mastery and only through shear lucky manage to forge a pair of peak tier seven weapons. My ancestor consider any artificer trash if they can''t even forge peak quality weapons regularily.


    Mara then state "Master! Why don''t you fight, I know you can win!"


    I blink at her and wonder ''she sure is difficult to satisfy'' then give her a smile and provide "sure, I guess I can do that."


    Mara hugs my left arm smiling and continues with "I can''t wait to watch you fight master." So we head over to the local sect holding the tournament and I signed up to participate. We rented a cultivation room in the sect as we waited for the tournament to start. Since she is now a early stage seven cultivator, I spend great deal of time satisfying Mara as we enjoy using the tier seven ''Fly into the Heavens'' duo cultivation technique.


    I''m not too worry about the tournament because high mastery of body building has taken a steep decline since the last age as the many medicinal herbs have gone extinct. Out of master''s body building techniques, the best suited for me I was able to get to early tier five mastery of Dragon Physique a peak tier eight body building technique back in master''s cave. Tier five is basically the best most cultivators can do these days if they have access to the best resources for the past three hundred thousand years.


    With my master''s foundation techniques I am comparable to a mid tier five body crafter. With my mid stage eight cultivation pumping qi into my body crafting technique, I should be able bring out it''s full potential. So I am actually looking forward to compare my Dragon Physique against other techniques.


    In the end, it was truely dissappointing as there was only three cultivators who manage to gain tier five in their body crafting technique. Two of them was early stage five body crafters and were stage seven cultivators, so it was obvious to me they will take third and forth places. The only interesting fellow was Lindin who was a mid stage five body crafter and currently showing peak stage seven cultivation.


    From the response from the crowd, I take it that Lindin was expected to win this tournament. As he battles the third place opponent, I can see he has advantage over him and wins after three long exchanges with five moves each. The crowd goes wild with the expected outcome, so I step into the battle ring before my name is announced as I feel somewhat excited to fight this peak stage seven cultivator who obviously holding back.


    We both eye each other and I state "senior brother if you need a break, I can wait, I want to fight you at your best for the most enjoyment."


    He nods in gratitude "my thanks little brother, give me a moment to restore my balance." He closes his eye and take several calming breaths before finally saying "ok, I am ready."


    We both power up our body techniques, our muscle bulge and our skin toughen as we prepare for battle. Qi exude from our bodies as we strengthen ourselves to our limits and we both break though to early stage eight. We watch each other during the tournment and so we didn''t bother with warming up and went straight to the end game.


    To anyone below late stage seven we appear as a blur or vanish from sight. The concussion of our first attack sent a shockwave that sent tiny particles of the platform in the air due to tiny fractures in the formation hardened platform. Neither of us block or dodge, we just pummel each other waiting to see who can out last the other. It wasn''t pretty like the previous battles, this was nothing to pure berserker fury as we tried to laid waste to the other.


    After the first exchange of six moves, we were both basically unharmed as the bruises we got were quickly regenerating. His smile was of pure satisfaction and I was grinning from ear to ear from the enjoyment of the first exchange. He then goes with "shall we pick out the pace?" and goes full crinos on me. I watch him turn into his alter form from his body crafting technique, and pretty much goes werewolf on me.


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    So I pump my qi into my Dragon Physical alter form and turn into a dragonling in humanoid form. My skin harden into scales and I even grew a pair of horns to boot. I stump my right foot once and shatter a depression few inches deep into the platform. This alter form is quite expensive to maintain, fortunately I have plenty of qi to use. I watch his tail swing enthusiastically as he witness the strength of my right foot.


    Our second exchange first couple of moves shatter the top layer of the platform, so we took to the air to enjoy pummeling each other. We were too fast for most stage eight cultivators to see properly, but we didn''t care, our battle spirits didn''t want to hold back and we unleashed our full fury on each other. It was obvious that both of us wanted to see what our body crafting technque was capable of achieving.


    We were both grinning from ear to ear as we ripped each other apart until the end of the second exchange. In was apparent I had the advantage, my dragon scales provided me a great deal of protection as my wound were not so deep as his. Although his regeneration is better than mine, my dragon claws rent deeper than his wolf claws.


    In the third exchange, the platform was shattered into three large pieces and I sent Lindin finally flying off the ring coughing up a little bit of blood as he staggered back to his feet. He had run out of qi and was unable to maintain his alter form. I was hoping for another fun exchange, but his body crafting techique alter form must use a tremendous amount of qi to maintain.


    Some trash blurts out "he must have cheated to beat senior brother Lindin!"


    I glance over to see the trash wearing the same sect outfit and supplied "trash, you insult the eyes of the honorable judges and seniors, but most of all you give no face for grandmaster Karrellin who set the formation to protect against cheating."


    Before any of the seniors could complain, and his elder slaps the trash rolling a good twenty paces and utters "useless trash! How dare you insult grandmaster Karrellin and the judges!" Then cups his hands and bow deeply to Karrellin and continues with "please forgive me for having such a useless disciple!" The judges and the grandmaster decide to drop the subject seeing the trash has already passed away and wave their hands of we are not happy but will let it pass expression.


    Then the principal judge asks "who is your master and is there a sect you belong too?"


    I announced "I never formally accepted a master and never joined a sect seniors, all I ever done was follow an inheritance. I hope someday to meet the reincarnation of this inheritance and hope to call him master one day."


    The judge then ask "who''s inheritance did you receive?"


    I sigh, no need to hide anymore since I can protect myself as mid stage eight cultivator, then respectfully replied "Randurin Andessel was his name senior."


    I watch many of the seniors stood up in surprise, and from the comotion I hear they had expected he has pass away but there was no evidence until now. Then Karrellin speak up with "that means your an alchemist, what tier of alchemy have you achieved?"


    I smiled as I thought and decided to put out "tier six senior, but working on tier seven, I need more experience to improve the success rate." My personal belief as I know I can do better eventually, so I know their truth sense won''t be to alarming. It seems to work as Karrellin nods in understanding.


    But the crowd isn''t as trusting and I hear people''s outrage whispers saying I''m too young to be a master alchemist. Many of the seniors start frowning as they also begin to doubt what I said. So I pull out my cauldron and materials and began refining a tier six nirvana breakthough pill to prove my alchemy skills to the doubters.


    When the pill is finally form I instill as much spiritual force into the pill that it can handle and I hear the thunder crackle above me. I hear people shout "pill lightning" and start counting out loud the different colors above and ends up with four. I raise my left hand with palm held up to take on the four lightning strikes with out flinching. As each lightning strikes my palm the residual energy gets absorb by the pill marking it until four lightning pattern appears.


    Once the pattern is completed I make a grabbing motion and draw out the newly formed pill in a qi grip and presented to the Karrellin and request "grandmaster Karrellin, there is no eyes better than yours present, would you be so kind to inspect this pill with your divine sense?"


    Karrellin puffs up being on display and stares at the pill before announcing "it is a peak tier six nirvana breakthough pill." I see all the seniors nod in agreement and stumping all the nay sayers to silence, and then a chorus of apologies issue from the crowd.


    I put the pill into a jade container then add "grandmaster, please accept this pill as a gift for one of your grand children," and toss the container to him.


    As the grandmaster catches the pill he smiles and asks "are you sure about this?"


    I laugh and provide "exchanging the pill for your friendship is a small price to pay," and I smile.


    The grandmaster laughs and nod in understanding "I''ll gladly accept it my young friend."


    So I cup my hands and bow to the grandmaster and pull out my flying sword and step on and called out "seniors and fellow cultivators, live long and good fortune!" Then begin to take off.


    One of the judges called out "what about the prize? Render is a peak tier seven sword."


    I responded by pulling out Burning Rage "no need, I prefer to make my own weapons." The shock expressions from everyone was to die for and gave me a hearty laugh.


    An elder speaks "then why did you join the competition?"


    I replied "I joined because we were just passing by and my disciple wanted to see me fight. Mara, lets go!"


    Mara jumps on her flying sword and joins me as we fly south towards the nearest teleportation gate while the crowd stare at us in disbelief. Mara''s bright and cheerful face was all I needed to make it worth the effort to win the tournament.


    How can I say no to this cheerful chatterbox, she like having the time of her life sprouting her nonsense about this or that. None of it has anything to do with me, but I listen to her cheerful chatter and reply with correct answers that keeps her happy and content to continue snuggling me like it''s her favorite thing to do.


    So I pet her hair as she continues with her line of reasoning over anything that seems to randomly pop in her head. We would be talking alchemy then suddenly be off to some tangent of someone she didn''t like. After a while it just became a habit to listen to her trying to convince me she is right for some reason I didn''t care about. If I give in too quickly she gets mad, so I learned to hold and play poker face and play the game with her.


    It didn''t take long for me to enjoy this game with her, flying is just plain boring after few hours of flying, playing with her I lose track of time. I was emitting early stage eight cultivation coming though so nothing dare to twitch my way as we flew past. A few stage eight cultivators I past do as I do and ignore each other out of respect for reaching the peak cultivation in this realm. Only a few broke through to reach stage nine in the past four hundred thousand years.


    It is common knowledge that only a true genius that is blessed with outstanding luck could possibly break though to stage nine cultivation. No stage eight practioner is going to cause trouble for another one passing though. Everyone has their trump cards at this stage so why risk injury or possible death for someone who rudely passing though who don''t want to be bothered at all. Everyone at that stage gets in that mood every now and then so it just best to stay out of their way by keeping their distance.


    But if they listen carefully, they might catch a whisper of laughter in the wind as Mara and I talk about hair ornaments. I mention chopsticks and I cement another area of her heart as we laugh at the more creative uses. We ended talking about recent string of public executions cause by the Chopstick Ninjagirls Clan and their chopstick hair weapons.

 Chapter Twelve - Dislikes Holding on to Unpaid Favors

    It took us a month to reach the Garden of Blooming Lillies Sect and I just follow Mara''s lead, since I''m her master I shouldn''t butt in on her personal life and just watch it as live action sitcom. We land and the guard ask "what''s your business here fellow cultivators" and I give him a quick peek at my cultivation by leaking out a sliver when Mara finish saying her introduction "I came to see elder Vandressia, I meet her several months ago which she aided me and I came today to pay my respects! This is my master!"


    Then she grabs my left arm into a bear hug and gives a smile of pure pleasure. I see the frown of ''this young man is her master?'' Then sliver slams home into his brain and he goes to ''stage eight cultivator?! Oh shit!'' response. Then gives a belated bow and utters out "welcome young master! It has been way too long since the sect recieved such a rare visit. I''ll immediate escort your to a vip manor house!"


    So I give faint grunt of approval and smile approvingly to Mara''s antics. She litterly goes out of her way to play with me, even in public she acts perfectly delectable. Her mastery in waifueses just blows me away. That''s that game we play when we are together, I once watch her go about her daily life and realize she puts on a different personality when ever she talks to someone new.


    I always wonder why, but I never wanted ask because I never wanted her know I followed her. As her prospective master I just wanted to know if she was hiding anything I might find offensive, how could I take her as a disciple if she does things against my beliefs? So of course I followed her for a few days to see if I could really take her as my disciple.


    Other than the particular habit of role playing a different personality with anyone she is close with, I didn''t find anything wrong with her life and she seems genuine happy to have found a master. And with that I found a waifu in my life dragging me from one episode of her life to the next with the only regards was just to have some fun.


    We quickly flew up and heads towards a mountain peak near the sect lord''s mansion. The guard stops and gestures us to move forwards to the mansion and provides "I can not go any further, but please make yourselves at home. Do you require a servant young master?"


    I respond "No need, I''m here on behest of my disciple. I''m not visiting the sect for myself, so please consider me as Mara''s guest." Lets see how you roll with this one my dear disciple and a feel faint twitches as she considers her new options. I stroke her back and blow into her ear to rattle her a bit, after all she been clingy from the start so it''s finally time to fight back I whisper into her ear "flying into the heavens is waiting my dear Mara."


    Mara slowly tilts her head away to face the guard and commands "return to your duties then, we will wait here until I recieve my benefactor''s invitation." It was amusing to see the guard bows hastily before retreating and give Mara a poke "are we going to heaven anytime soon my dear?" She laughs and drags me towards the mansion for a landing. As soon as she arrives she flips up the sign ''Close Door Cultivating'' and activates the protective barrier.


    We come out of our private affair with a five color pill lightning as I made another peak tier eight nivana breakthough pill. But this is a keeper, this is the first time I gathered five color auras in the sky above. The clouds has scatter to show perfectly the five colors in a loose circle. The color to appear first will be the last color to drop down as it has gathered the most celestial energy than the rest.


    I raise my hand and activate master''s Pill Lightning Rejuvination technique that allow me to refine a large part of pill lightning disruptive energies toward improving my foundations and lightning resistance. The last stroke cause my entire left are to go numb and I smell wisps of burnt flesh and look at my arm. There is about a dozen smoking holes in my arm, but I can tell my regeneration is slowly kicking in as I watch smoking holes slowly close up.


    That fifth stroke as great, it boosted my lightning resistance up a small step and feel my alchemy improve a tad. Best of all my cultivation took a noticably jump half way to late stage eight, that probably saved a few years of munching on tier nine resources. So I quickly store the pill next to the Light of the Divine and was memorize by the sparkling radiance the beats out as a wave of vitality. Before I leave I quickly replace any fully revived medicinal herbs to new ones on my must repair list.


    Since the return drops with each peak eight pill produced, I expect I need to make five more to get to late stage eight. But I only have enough for one more pill so I hold off and pluck Mara off me and happily request "lets have some fun today since I put up a show, would be a waste if I let it pass!"


    Mara goes wide eye in happiness and responds "yes master!" and drags me out of the mansion obvious worried I might change my mind and was tempted to poke her with that thought but reminded myself to wait and put on my poker face for the best results!


    Of course, surrounding the out guest mansion is a horde of pretty flowers gawking at us as we drop the privacy barrier and came into each other''s view. A quick glance and Mara drags me over to a nearby group of elders and announce "benefactor Vandressia! Sorry for the wait, my master had an epiphany when we arrived and immediate went into alchemy afterwards. She glanced up and smiles "you saw the results for yourself" and watched the fading five colors in the sky then adds "five master! You out did yourself this time!" then hugs my left arm like there is no tomarrow.


    The sect elders immediately begin praising me this young master or that young master, so I repond with a smile "senior Vandressia, please enter" and use my left hand to invite, then I politely request to the crowd "fellow cultivators, please allow me to take care of business first, then I will be happy to listen to request as I intend to spend some time visiting to repay senior Vandressia her timely help to my disciple."


    As soon as Vandressia step over the threshold I activate the privacy barrier then offer up "Mara tells me you helped her recover from some poison, you have my gratitude" I look at her mid stage seven cultivation and offer "if there is a tier seven artifact or pill you require, I can do that. This is the sole reason for my visit. If you choose to accept my thanks, then I will stay one week afterwards to produce pills or artifacts with your sect warehouse at no cost. I wish I could stay longer, but I have an oppointment in the east that I can not miss."


    I watch iris in her eyes go wide and she stutters out "you are a master of both alchemy and artificing?" Then realizing her social blunder goes into a deep bow and follows up with "sorry young master, I thought I rid myself of the habit of speaking out my thoughts!"


    I smile amusingly at her and stroke Mara''s chin to gentle push her mouth over for a kiss for who is on top. I feel her push at me to no avail, she ends up giving me the quick win and breaks away to supply "benefactor! You can not bow like that!" and helps her stand upright. "My master insist on coming to repay my debt because he really dislikes holding on to unpaid favors."


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    I nod and supply "my dad told me to always pay my debts, and only when you don''t owe any favors can you face death like a real man. For cultivation I can offer you a tier seven niravana breakthough pill or an peak tier seven livingwind type artifact." I can see tiny movements on her clothes and hair indicating she has wind affinity as tiny streams of air swirl happily around her.


    She looks at Mara for support and Mara hands out "don''t be shy! Tell my master want you need" then leans in and begins nibbling on my left ear. I reach over to pet her hair as I contemplate my next move.


    Vandressia finally announces the cultivator route "I''ll take the pill please young master! Thank you!" and I can see she almost into tears. Her youth has switch over to the big sister look and obviously looking for ways to breakthrough to stage eight to lock down her looks before aging anymore. I hand over a niravana breakthough pill and a pouch of a thousand tier seven resources and inform "please use this these resources to get to peak stage seven." Which reminds me, so I pull out a tier nine resource and start on my daily chew.


    I see Vandressia shakes her head in disbelief on how I handle my cultivating resources, I find it easier to refining the shattered bits in my stomach than waste time refining them one at a time. With master''s Inner Furnace technique, I modified my stomach into a living furnace that specialize in refining cultivation resources.


    Seeing me chewing on tier nine cultivation resources that would make any tier eight expert explode, I see her turn into an obediant fan girl. Then I hear the transmitted message in Mara mind "your master sure is amazing!" I nearly choked out some laughter but I manage to keep the poker face with a faint smile for a trace of my sudden amusement.


    Since our minds are always connected with a spiritual mental channel when we are close, she knows I barely held back my laughter and I feel her body shake faintly as she considers her next move so I go ahead and begin exploring her back by giving her finger massages with my left hand then I lean forward to peer at her beautiful face from below.


    As I watch her eyes flick upward to see over my head she goes on with "thank you for clearing my debt, my master has decide to spend week to change your high end materials to treasures for free. Please inform your sect''s seniors of my masters offer." Then I steal my first kiss for the day, that''s my free kiss move that I get three times a day. Of course she has her own move which is hug me like a teddy bear and begin slowly kissing down my cheek until she reaching my mouth.


    We hear Vandressia back away and escape while providing "thank you young master! Thank you little sister! I''ll inform my seniors at once" and scuttle out of here by opening a door in the privacy barrier. Mara seals the door and we burst out laughing and gives me a tackle hug in graditude for playing with her.


    After that we headed out to check on the sisters that she befriended, fortunately they were smart enough to wait nearby. Once Mara spotted them she drags me over for her form of show and tell as she clings to me as she starts up the next act of the day. I go along for the ride, adding in twists to make her stumble as I force her to consider new options.


    Eventually when it came time for me to act and seeing they are all stage six cultivators, so I hand out tier six nirvana breakthough pill to each of them and then add "consider these small gifts for aiding my disciple."


    Then I did a medical check on all them to see if they have any flaws in their cultivation but found none. But I was able give them advice after checking their body type and elemental affinity. I was able to give clear advice to shore up weak points and give them a firm path towards stage seven.


    After that, they happily gave us a tour around the inner sect until elder Vandressia arrives and hands over a void ring and provides this clue "the sect leader''s thank you kindly for your offer and has provide the raw materials and list of items we hope you can produce for the sect." Then she bows deeply with sincerity.


    I tap Mara''s ass lightly to give her the lead and she responds with "benefactor, please don''t bow! My master and I are happy to help your sect!"


    After a week I had produced several tier seven weapons, and a bunch of tier six and seven pills from their stockpile of materials that they have given me. Mara and Vandressia chit chatted away and from their talks was able to convince their sect lord to provide us an alternate travel route.


    The Garden of Blooming Lillies has a hidden teleportation gate to a remnant to the north near Mara''s friends sect and was more than willing to offer it''s use so we could save nearly a month of travel time. In gratitude I toss a handful of various tier seven weapons to the escorting elders before we took the jump.


    A quick look told me the remnant is still sealed, so with the information we were given we head south westerly towards the distant sect Mara''s friend attends. We had stop by her clan, but found out she was recruited by a wondering sect elder from the Pavilion of Silver Moon. A mid size sect with a good reputation that recently promoted an elder that reached stage eight as it''s new sect lord.


    It is the first time the sect has produced a stage eight expert, so they are experiencing a sudden growth. As many juniors find the sect more appealing and willing to negotiate to join the growing power. So as we near the sect we encounter many young cultivators heading over to participate in the three month long recruitment qualification tests.


    We arrive at the entrance of the Pavilion of the Silver Moon, the guards immediately directed us to the nearby qualification grounds with "fellow cultivators, the qualification grounds is in that direction" and points to the crowd to the West.


    I growled out "treating me like an idiot?" then I expose early stage eight cultivation and see the guards all drop to their knees and beg forgiveness. I watch an elder come rushing up after sensing my cultivation and seeing the guard prostrate themselves and begging for forgiveness for offending me.


    Realizing the guards were at fault jumps in with "young master! Please forgive my juniors, the recently recruitement has made them forget their manners," and he cups his hands and bows deeply and sincerely. So I drop my oppressive might down to a sliver and push Mara sleightly forward.


    Mara smoothly responds "I am Mara and this is my master, we have come to see my friend Josephine Ceirdan who recently been recruited by one of your wondering elders who calls himself Wispy Cloud."


    The elder blinks as he take that in before replying "I see, please follow me to a guest quarters," and then to one of the guards "deliver a message to the outer sect to bring miss Ceirdan to these distinguish guests." We followed the elder to the elaborate palace to settle down, he quickly excused himself as Mara brags about Josephine and can''t wait to congradulate her for joining a sect. Beside I can tell he is itching to leave to tell his seniors that a tier eight guest had unexpectantly arrived.


    It didn''t take long for an elder escorted Josie in for a landing. I watch Mara and her friend hug each other and begin sprouting non stop of their adventures. Eventually the excitement of seeing each other dies down and Mara introduces me with "Josie, this is Drake, my master!"


    I watch her cup her hands and bow deeply and begins with "Mara has told me all about you, it is an honor to meet you young master!" I can see her foundation is solid, most likely Mara gave her a foundation pill and probably a breakthough pill as well. She is also has earth affinity and a touch of fire, but she is only working on earth, so does that mean she has no idea she has dual elements or is she just ignoring her fire affinity?


    My divine thought scans though master''s rings and I see I have the basics material I needed to boost her fire affinity so I go with "hmmmm, I see you have dual elements, but it seem you don''t know or just ignoring your fire affinity. You should strengthen your fire affinity while your still young, dual elements will awaken your full potential far more than just one elemental affinity."


    She looks at me in shock and utters "I have dual elements?"


    I nod yes and Mara then goes on "Josie! Congrats! I can''t believe you have two elements."

 Chapter Thirteen - Laughing Drunk

    Josie suffered all night soaking in a fire essence bath to build up her fire affinity and master suggested I take her to scout the nearby city before he joins us later to do some shopping. He in a mood to forge a weapon for Josie, so I drag her over to the city for some fun. Josie knows the city quite well having been their a few times already, and quickly shows me her favorite places.


    I take notes on where cultivators hang out, especially the Tavern of Guilty Pleasures that specializes in cultivation wines and rare spiritual fruits. I also spotted a few high end clothing stores for men, but I know master likes to window shop to see what men''s fashions are like as we travel. He makes his own clothes, since he rarely finds anything he likes at the stores.


    As for me, I smile at the few stores I marked that want to drag master into give him a show. I just love watching his face brighten up whenever I display a new outfit for him, especially those of the more naughty kind. Since he reached mid stage eight, he has been spending more time with me and rarely bothers with cultivating. He just chews on his resources these days, which I don''t mind, spending more time with master makes me happier.


    I''ve also starting turning my stomach to help refine resources, but my body crafting techique is only at early stage four and chewing on tier seven resources is a bit tough. Master is working on getting the materials to help me get mid stage, but it''s probably going to take a while since body crafting materials are so rare in this world.


    While running around with Josie, we were stopped by a group of men, the elder speaks to me with "young lady, be honored and serve my son!" I sense the bystanders feel sorry for me and even go so far as whisper how unlucky I am for meeting these people. They must have done this before and must have some background to force girls to serve his son.


    I glance at the beaming young brat next to him and respond "no thanks! I already have a master!" and secretly snap an I''m in danger jade when I sense the elder show his early stage eight cultivation in response to my refusal. Then I summoned a protection token into my hand and then decided to poke with "besides, your brat is too scrawny for my tastes and his trashy early stage six cultivation is an eyesore."


    The growing crowd is a bit shock at my boldness, but I don''t care, master will be here soon. I drag Josie close to me as I activate the protection token as soon as I sense the elder start powering up a battle skill. A golden formation fly out of the protection token to create barrier around me and Josie. It''s a transparent golden armored fire serpent that coils around us protectively and it''s head rears above us hissing out in anger as the elder smashes his fist against it armored coils.


    As the user of the protection jade I had just snapped to activate, I can see some of the restrictions and also can see though it''s outer appearance to see that insides nothing but living lava. As I peer at the core I see an fragment of the soul of a living lava, I see it draw tremendous power from the layers and twist and weave the qi into the proper forms to initial the final charge of an mid stage eight defense skill.


    The elder is complete shocked as his fist bounces off harmlessly against the formation protecting the scales, but I can see his right fist is smoldering from the contact. On closer inspection I see his knuckles are charred black and the stench of burning flesh sudden fills the air. I see the elder gather more qi into his fist for another punch when I hear "die bastard!"


    Turning towards master''s voice I see him still stepping out of a portal unleashing his attack. It''s the peak stage eight battle skill Infernal Dragon that I watch him practice over the past month that he purchased from the last major auction house. I watch the serpentine dragon of fire and qi roar out from point blank range and engulf the startled elder caught in mid punch.


    The last thing I saw was his face had drained of color and his eyes grow wide in fright. I watch the Infernal Dragon soar into the sky and explode causing the temperature to sharply rise to nearly unbearable levels for several breaths of time. I watch people rush into buildings to avoid the heat wave, while stronger cultivators rush on over to see what the excitement was all about.


    When I glance over to where the elder was standing I see a pair of legs still standing charred down to below the knees and the remains of the right arm burnt down to just the hand and wrist. The rest of the body is just gone, burned to ash in an instant.


    I watch master''s oppressive might force down the trashy son and his clansmen to the ground while he makes a grabbing motion. An instant later I see the elder''s soul has been captured and placed into a soul cage as it screams for mercy. But master never shows mercy when they try to bully me, so I happily give master a flying hug and shout out "master! The old coot wanted me to serve his trashy son!"


    I watch master''s happy face from my hug go cold and I glance at the trash and his clansmen to see them crush into a pools of gore. Then his right hand begins to pet me possessively and then adds "don''t worry your pretty head, I''ll always come to your rescue." Then he pulls out a early tier eight sword and announces "fellow stage eight cultivators, I forged this weapon recently," and displays it for all to see. I''ll give it to the one who swears to destroy this idiot''s clan," and points the sword to the remains.


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    An instant later a man appears next to the remains with cup hands and a bow "young master! My clan has been feuding with this refuse" and gestures towards the remains, "for generations. Now that you killed their clan lord, please allow me and my clan to finish the job! I swear on my ancestors, not a single one will remain alive by the end of the day in this city!"


    I watch master nods in approval and tosses the sword over "that''s good enough for me, take this sword and test it''s edge." I watch the expert catch the new sword and swing it experimentally and see the after images of the blade continue to shatter the space. The expert''s expression went from open curiosity to out right joy and pronounces "what a great blade! Much better than what I am using. Thank you young master!" and bow deeply in gratitude.


    Masters return was "if your really feeling grateful, then begin your hunt, how dare they bully my disciple!" I bury me head into my master chest while hugging him even tighter, because I never want to let him go when he acts like this.


    The expert shouts "at once young master!" and bolts away while yelling at his men "someone go gather the clan for war, the rest of you follow me!"


    Master continues to pet me until I calm down before asking "shall we go shopping? Or do you want to head back to Josie''s sect?"


    I don''t care either way, but the thought of putting on a fashion show for his smiles wins in the end and I ask "can we go shopping?"


    Master nods in approval and continues with "sure we can, it''s what we planned to do today. I just wasn''t sure you were up to it after this" and waves absently at the remains.


    So I go with "as long as your with me master, I feel better already!" and snuggle his left arm between my breasts as I drag him to a near by mens clothing store where I saw an outfit that would look good on him. He smiles at the outfit, but I can see he has memorize the cut and style, which is all I wanted him to do.


    He give me his hopeless smile as he allows me to drag him to the stores I wanted to visit today. I feel sorry for Josie, but she keeps up a good poker face and tries to have a good time too. I can see that she is jelly of me, as she can see how my master takes such good care of me.


    In public with master I always show him the perfect adoring lover and he seems to enjoy it and even willing to play the fawning master role with growing expertise. But in private, when I roleplay for him in other personas, it really gets him excited. Just thinking of how I can excite him makes me ponder what to roleplay next, I just wish he would do the same for me.


    I enjoy putting on shows for him in a few stores, he always tells me which outfits that he likes on me. Personally I don''t care if he buys them for me, I just wanted to see him smile as I play dress up and hear him praise me for looking adorable.


    Josie also tries to dress up along with me, but I can tell she not used to displaying herself in front of a man. I can see master plays along and tries not to embarrass her too much, I can tell from the spiritual link that he is just humoring her because of me. I can tell he doesn''t think too much of her, but hides it well as he gives praise to outfits that do look good on her. In the end he buys all the outfits he likes for me and Josie, he tosses low level cultivation resources by the hand fulls for payment. The shopkeepers simple gawk at master in disbelief because he overpays by a huge margin and thinks nothing of it.


    I can tell master is in a good mood, because I can feel him enjoying the day rathering than thinking of crafting something or on cultivation. So I ask master though telepathy why he is in a good mood and his reply was taking a break on cultivation and relaxing his mind. He is still chewing on resources like candy, but I can tell it''s more out of habit since his daily intake has drop to about half.


    Eventually we ended up at the Tavern of Guilty Pleasures and I can tell master is excited to be at our last stop for the day. Master leaks out stage eight cultivation as we enter and the hostess began with "it is an honor to serve you today young master!" and we were led back to a garden where experts sat enjoying their wine and fruits.


    Master is looking above the garden, so I focus my eyes as well and slowly I see tell tale signs for formations surrounding the entire garden. I think I see a privacy barrier as well as the normal protective barrier. But it''s very powerful, well beyond my means to fully see and understand.


    However master is studying the formations as we wait for first jug of cultivation wine to arrive. So I don''t bother master and chat with Josie until master finish studying the formations. It didn''t take long, so I ask "master, do you learn anything from the formations?"


    He smiles and provides "yes, I was able to decipher most of it and memorized the rest for later," then I see him levitate a spiritual fruit from the bowl on the table and slice it up with tiny qi blades and feeds me a slice. Which I happily ate and thus began a new game of feeding each other until the wine arrives.


    Then the owner of the tavern arrives very best jug of cultivation wine they could offer. The owner is stage eight cultivator and has an alchemist badge indicating he has mastered tier six alchemy and offers up "greeting fellow cultivators, my name is Laughing Drunk" and grins at us and continues "this is my best jug of wine, I hope the young master appreciates it."


    Master grins back and takes a chug from the jug, then closes he eyes and after a bit shows a smile and answers "good wine! I see you use Athea Berries as a base and Kolathian Snow Apples to smooth the bitterness. I would recommend Kylarik Fireberry or two to give it some added kick, but that''s my preference," and gives Laughing Drunk a grin back.


    Of course Laughing Drunk rubs his chin with his right hand in thought and soon replies "that a good idea! I take it you make your own cultivation wines?"


    Master laughs and provides "I learned a thing or two from my master," and pulls out a jug from his ring and continues with "this is from my last batch and is ready for a taste test" and fills four glasses. Of course I grab two and hand one to Josie and tell her "master''s cultivation wines are the best!"


    As I drink the semi sweet wine with sleight fiery kick to it, I feel my cultivation raise a little and my spiritual force strengthen a bit as well. I keep my eyes on the owner to see his reaction, and he didn''t disappoint as he utters "what a great wine! It even strengthen spiritual force!" Then he gives a deep respectful bow to master.

 Chapter Fourteen - Power up the Breach and Brainwashing Formations

    Looks like I got enough materials to make a batch of jade tokens. I have enough to make about thirty of them and decide to make three ''I''m in danger, please help!'' jade tokens for Mara. I tie in a formation to open a one way portal to these three jades. Then I engrave the skull symbol on one side and the other I inscribe ''Break this token to summon me to kill someone'' This will increase my stock to six.


    Then I make two tokens for ''I miss you'' with the same portal formation but this time I know I don''t in with my strongest battle skill charged up and ready launch. I engrave the symbol of a heart on one side and on the other side I inscribe ''I miss you'' Now I have five of these tokens to spare.


    Now then for auction items, I use a pair to jade tokens for these. One to open a portal to it''s paired token and allow it''s owner to pass though. These sell as well as tier seven nirvana breakthough pills. I can''t believe how many parents out there are willing to buy this for their beloved child. So I make ten of them for sale.


    Then I begin working the rest on golden serpent protection jades. I decided to use a Spirit of Lava that has learn to shapeshift to any creature it has killed for an outward appearance. That took a serious amount of time for this three layer formation to be set in the remaining jades. Two of those layers was need to hold the power need to power my best early stage eight defense skill called Dimensional Barrier that the Spirit of Lava can use. These sell for about the same as tier seven Foundation pills so I was able to make eight of these and enough raw materials for a special one.


    This last token I make is an attack jade, but I add four more layers so it has the capacity to hold the power of my Infernal Dragon battle skill. However I secretly make it harmless for me and Mara then launch the battle skill into the jade''s storage bank. I engrave a fire breathing dragon head on one side and on the other I inscribe ''Focus on your target and break this jade'' This sells as good as my tier eight Foundation pill, but even more of a pain to make.


    A seven layer formation is just about as much as my spiritual force can handle without it blowing up in my face. I''ll need at least twenty two layers if I wanted to put a late stage eight battle skill in a jade, so I can''t imagine what I need to do to increase my spiritual force to that degree. My skills in arrays has come along quite nicely since I mainly focus on artificing type arrays.


    But my basic knowledge in arrays has always been like two tier lower then my artificing specialization. However, I been learning quite a bit recently and manage to cut the gap by one level. I think if I can raise it to tier eight I could probably cut that twenty two formation layer by half. That is doable, just four more layers then and I search though master''s legacy for answers.


    Got it, it''s a peak tier eight pill called Mental Awakening, looking through my stock of herbs I find I am missing two items. A Starbright Lilly and a Nardin Blizzardfruit, I should be able to find the lilly on the island I am headed, but the Nardin is going to be tough. It is used in two other peak tier eight pill recipes, however master never shared the Mental Awakening pill recipe to his guild.


    Showing the recipe would cause too much of a sensation in the alchemy world. Beside, this kind of pill should be kept as a family secret and for personal use. From master''s memories, when he found the recipe, it also came with a pill which he took. His massive sudden increase in spiritual force rocketed him to the head of his alchemy guild as he advance in leaps and bounds and eventually became the guild''s number one alchemist.


    Once we left Josie''s sect, it was uneventful getting to the island of Karvalla. Sure we had some fun with Mara''s curiosity leading us astray now and then, but nothing I need to talk about at this time. The city of Karvallus was build on a cliff over looking the ocean, and was about nine hundred meters above the ocean. It''s a three walled city that survived the onslaught of the seafolk for many wars, but eventually peace was brokered which has been maintained for more than several hundred thousand years. Today the islanders and the seafolk live on the island as equal cititzens, and nearly a third of the population are seafolk.


    As I traveled to the main auction house, I found out all the workshops are occupied by visiting crafters, and they suggested I rent a small manor house in an upscale area guarded by stage six cultivators. Leaving my name on the waiting list for a workshop I then found a manor house that suited us.


    I set up a spacial anchor and gave Mara a return jade and she takes portal away back to our first city to spend time with her parent''s birthdays that happen to be just a month a part. So I ended up having a month on my own as winter begins to arrive on my new home.


    I was drinking from a jug of wine examing the pill I just crafted before popping it into my mouth and feel my divine sense breakthough to tier six finally. I finally crafted enough pills to make the breakthough. I open the workshop walls and let out my divine sense into the city and become impressed by the range and detail I can obtain with such a quick scan. I focus on a distant point near the horizon and I zoom in and see what really there. I check out a few more points of interest before waving my hand and think close walls and the privacy barrier enclose the workshop once more. Once again I am grateful of the Alchemist Tomb.


    Since I have a month to kill I decided to participate in an alchemy tournament that being held by the various visiting master alchemists on the island. Gaining the highest points after the first three rounds was quite easy. Pumping in my excess spiritual force to call down more pill lightning ensures my pills quality. The first two pills allow me to create a batch of them to give me quantity too, so my points quickly took me to the dazzling lead which I nearly double the points of the runner up.


    As we begin the final test, my divine sense detect something flying into the standard caldron that everyone is using to give the participants a equal footing and sudden it goes berserk and about to explode in my face. I Immediatedly set up a temporal freeze formation on it to lock down it''s status, then I set up another formation to bring it back under control.


    While I''m doing that, when I have a spare moment I begin tracing back my divine sense to that stone then back to it''s sender. With my spiritual force going full bore trying to keep everything together so I can solve the issue of what the stone did to my caldron.


    I focus on the stone as I backtrack though my divine trace and see the stone for what it was an instant before it struck my caldron. It''s a Dislocating Murky Stone, a tier eight material use mainly with sensory type pills and illusionary formations. Now that I know the culprit, it''s easy to stablize the caldron. It''s material form is actually in another dimension but it just leaves it''s shadow in ours because it from an adjacent dimension with the exact timelime as ours but with one different restriction.


    It''s a very difficulty material to use as it naturally drains away any energy it encounters, so you have to account for this drain in order to use it properly. But there is another use for it in artificing. It adds dimensional attack techniques to weapons and well as anti dimensional defense techniques to armor and items.


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    The best thing about a Dislocating Murky Stone, it isn''t consumed with the refining of materials. It''s the effect of the shadow is what''s needed, so I would never need to acquire another one until the stone''s shadow has absorbed enough energy and disappears back into it''s dimension. So I immediately begin weaving another layer into the formation so I can take control of the stone. This is a rare treasure that even master never owned, so I got to have this stone.


    Being the first new layer, trapping the shadow and taking control of it was too easy. First I built a formation cage to forcibly keep it under my control. Then I added a third layer with a formation to slowly erode it''s owner''s spiritual mark so I can put my own in. Once that happens I added forth power layer just to power up the breach and brainwashing formations as quickly as possible to brute force my way though to make the stone accept me as it''s owner. I want to take over as quick as possible and then erase any bad memories of me, making the stone truely believe I was it''s owner all a long.


    Then I created a subspace using the weak dragon vein in master ring as the backup power source. Then I added a layer to allow the stone to modify the subspace to create any type of world it wanted. Then I added as many power layers my spiritual force could handle to serve as the main self regenerating power supply and ended up putting in five such layers.


    I hear my owner say "sorry buddy, I know you hate being loaned out, but I really owe that guy a favor. So thanks for going along with it, you know how I hate owing favors."


    I hear my self reply "yeah, I know, but next time make sure it''s a female. That''s gotta be on my bottom line for now on."


    "Sure thing buddy, I''ll put you back in your home now. I''m sure you gotta be thirsty by now" so says my owner. Yeah, I thought, my owner gave me this awesome home he build with formations and what other tricks he has up his sleeves. He designed it with my help to create a subspace filled to the brim with energy. I never drank a better energy source thoughout my existance, with this mortal owner, I just might realize my wish to make it to the next dimension and give my true self a shadow.


    So I go with "no worries mate, just take me home," I''m pinning my hopes on this mortal. Thanks the spirits that this one is a gifted mid stage eight cultivator with a very long lifespan. I can''t wait to enter my subspace home that I have full control over. I''m never bored while sucking in all that delicious energy.


    I remember him bitching because of all the added layers he needed to add complete my restrictions for my home gave him a serious bad headache for days afterwards. He had placed me right next to my home entrance and said it''s my punishment until his head feels better. Soaking in scraps of energy instead of gulping as much as I can down made me realize one thing.


    I better not piss off this owner or I just might lose this great home, and with that thought I feel him toss me into my home which has been frozen in time until I return. It''s one of my pet peeves, I like to control everything in my home. My world starts revolving around me and sigh in relief as I begin absorbing all that stored up energy.


    I pet the stone''s subspace pouch I made for it and laugh, altering its memories was easy enough but required hefty amount of work. I add ''loan out to females'' to this stone''s work habits. This fake contract is part of the story which we negotiated terms for his service. To added one new minor detail to the contract every time it has to leave the home that I built, so he can to help me with something. Making this fake contract and story is important to convince the stone of our background. With the fake memories and the lure of the home, the spirit of the stone quickly accepted my hard work as reality.


    From master''s memories he was told that the spirits of these stones can be hard to handle. They stay with the mortal who can supply them with greatest amount of energy. Since he added a new detail, I have the right to make a minor counter clause, so I add he will work for free if I have a personal need to use his shadow. Good, making it believe it worked for that alchemist as a favor, and tweaking it''s memories so that it felt contempt for the man would make him add a new clause so I can add in my first planned counter clause.


    Spirits can be so finicky since they stay with anyone who can provide them with better energy filled home. My divine sense has improved greatly from the new pill recipe I finally mastered from that Alchemist Tomb. So backtracking my memory through divine trace, I see who tossed the Dislocating Murky Stone into my caldron, it''s the runner up, so I record everything he did into a jade. Then I made some mysterious gestures with my hands to mystify my techiques for the audience and bring back my caldron back into real time to complete the pill.


    The audience goes bonkers at what should have been a exploding caldron settling down and I complete the pill. Then I activated the recording jade so the audience can see in slow motion what had happened, and the runner up was disqualified and was promptly exiled from the island. I had a lot of fun playing with the tournament, and I even ruined the reputation of a master alchemist for additional entertainment.


    The first place reward is a Fastglow Shockmelon, it''s a spiritual herb I never had the chance to refine before. I knew the shockmelon as part of a game called Shocktag, but I never owned one to try out in alchemy or artificing. It''s a strange dark green colored melon that starts flashing from the base to it''s tip in ever increasing strobes of pale white light. It builds to a crecendo until it stops strobbing and become a solid glow, then it discharges when touched by a foreign presence.


    The shock is said to turn to ash anyone under stage seven in cultivation. A stage seven cultivator would lose all control and feeling of his arm for a few hours. For a stage eight, a minor electical discharge that make you feel when your arm has fallen asleep and entering the inital stages of awakening. The pins and needles feeling last only briefly as their stage eight bodies recovers quicky.


    There is a popular gambling practice of tossing the shockmelon and the participants must be a stage six cultivator. The rules was simple, if the shockmelon to thrown at you, you must use your means to harmlessly divert it to another opponent. Damaging the shockmelon and stopping it for charging cause you to lose your participation fee that is equal to a mid tier eight artifact. The game continue with each new round less one player, any player can quit after finishing a round.


    The reward is always a late to peak stage eight material, so many crafters are willing to play since their spiritual force is much stronger than martial cultivators. There was a famous game I played once, on the last round I faced a peak six alchemist who also possessed wind affinity and forced to played hot potato with shockmelon for thirty six exchanges.


    I remember standing in a circle about one hundred meters across, the other nine players stand at an equal distance around the circle. A fully charged shockmelon is on a stand by the side of the first pitcher. A tier eight guest is given the honor of starting them game by touching the shockmelon to discharge it and hands it over to the first player. The game a Shocktag begins and he tosses slowly charging shockmelon to the first reciever, the girl alchemist next to me.


    She follows the rule and sends the shockmelon to someone not two places adjacent to her. It was during the eighth exchange when I see the shockmelon heading my way. So I proactively encase it in positive charged cocoon of lightning, using the electrical discharges to lockdown it''s spacial coordinates. Then I weave a formation to use my gravity manipulation techniques to slow the spinning down. With another formation I create a tight tunnel the curved back toward my target.


    Eventurally it came down to just one oppenent left and using wind techiques to catch and throw the shockmelon. Since he is playing dirty using wind techniques to give it a crazy spin, I decide to do the same and twist the tunnel near the end to give it a spin as well. Then to boost the speed, I use cascading positive lightning dischanges to speed the cocoon along in the tunnel. Once it leaves the tunnel I let the formation for the cocoon fail, and watch it blitz toward the wind user as I take another step closer to the thirty meter inner circle.


    I watch the wind user become more desparate as the distance closed, he is reaching the limits of his reaction time and finally at our thirty sixth exchange his desperate actions finally damage the shockmelon causing it to fizzle out. We had reach the inner circle and was on our fifteenth exchange there that I finally won the game.

 Chapter Fifteen - Spectral Phenomenon

    I smile at my fondest peak six stage memory as I watch this Shocktag game at Karvallus''s arena. I quickly appraise that player six, an artificer with wind affinity to be the most skilled player in this group. As I watch each contestant handle the shockmelon, my experience with the game quickly tells me three of them are skill enough to survive to the mid game.


    Looking at the other seven players, I quickly rank them by skill and technique. I quickly come to the conclusion that players two, five and ten have the weakest techniques. Then I called the hostess in and announce "two, five and ten" I pull out three mid tier eight swords and hand them over to her and continue with "I bid a weapon for each of these players to lose on the first three rounds, I would like tier nine resources as compensation as my winnings or items on this list." Then I pulled out a late tier eight sword and go with "I bid this late tier eight weapon for player six to be the final winner."


    I watch the hostess stare hopelessly at the four living elemental weapons in her arms before announcing "ye..yes young master! Such a fine bids! Only a young master such as yourself could possible make such extravagant bids. Our humble arena is honored to provide you with worthy entertainment for you to even make a bid on, let alone four outstanding bids." Then she pulls out a jug of cultivation wine from her void ring and place it on the table next to me and supplies "please accept this small gift as thanks for your outstanding patronage" and cups her hands and gives a deep bow.


    I laugh and nod a thanks and hand out "your welcome my dear" and silently add ''how much is your cut I wonder, ten percent?'' Then I wave that thought away and unplug the jug and take a gulp of the rich wine made with Crystalfreeze Elderberries as a base and Ungthar Quenchpears to tone down the heavy taste of the elderberries. The rest is common spiritual fruits to give it more volumn. It isn''t bad for a early stage seven cultivation wine that gives a boost in cultivation and body toughening. So I cap it and store it away since it''s more suited for Mara to drink and I pull out one of my own that gives the same attributes but much stronger effects. I feel lingering stares but shrug it off since no one is staring right at me now.


    I win all three bids since I appraised the others seven would survive unless they fumble in handling the shockmelon. I didn''t bid for the mid rounds, because I didn''t know the participants well enough to know if they have the balls to continue with the game. Sure enough two quit before the forth round started, with only five players the rules change to can''t throw to adjacent players.


    Since each new round starts where the player left off, the difficulty increase with each step as we close in on the center circle and the shockmelon is going berserk and it strives hard to finish it''s protective charge. It''s about to light up soon and audience stood pose to watch as the difficulty of the game is about to jump to the next level. I had predicted these two survivors of the first round go pale as they realize the chance to be turned ash is about to go up. Only those confident in their technique would continue to play.


    I really look into these two kids and was startled by their potential, they already caught my eye earlier when I appraise them during the first game. These two slaves are beastfolk twin girls about dozen years old each armed with a mismatched pair of crudely curved long blades. They are a wreck, old scars cover their bodies, and in many places including their tails the fur has fallen out displaying the poorly healed battle wounds and whipping scars. Just looking at their hand stitched scars tells me they stitch their own wounds to stay alive.


    The entire island hates the beastfolk, appearantly they did something so bad that the humans and seafolk hate them for the same reason and have allied together ever since. So of course they want to see any beastfolk die in the games, but it so happens that this pair of beast girls have some how survive seven fights. It is certainly way beyond their expectations, everyone now believes that their luck has run out is the common mentality of these islanders.


    Betting goes wild as the choice goes to which of the beast girls die first. Tonight is their eighth game, so everyone is eager to see them finally die. I had this crazy feeling so I called the hostess back and add another handful of five mid tier eight weapons and provide "sorry to bother you again, might I add this bid on the beast girls to survive, thank you."


    The hostess stutters out "rright away yyoung master!"


    I''m grinning as I have a feeling they are going to survive somehow. So l''m looking forward at seeing what crazy skills that these twelve year twins had come up with to survive seven battles. I''m sitting in a vip booth which has been turned invisible so we have full view of everyone, fortuneately the privacy barrier included silence mode whenever I want to make a bid. This is really an old school but professional run establishment with roots from two eras ago. I had made sure to check the privacy barrier settings to see our entire head and part of our chest and shoulders have turned into a being of raging burning energy with synthizied voice of a lavaman.


    They are all staring at me, because I just pulled out a second handful of mid tier eight weapons just to make another crazy unknown bid. The eyes of these expert bulge out because most them are probably still using early tier eight weapons. I was too busy testing the wine to notice the stares last time, but back tracing now they did the samething too I was too busy apprising the wine to care about that nonsense. But this time I have their full attention.


    An older fellow voice with dark green slash in a tannish sect coat speaks up "grandmaster, you honor us with your presense. We all hope to hear of your esteem name!" cups his hands and bows to me.


    Huh, I thought a bit and provide "everywhere I go people call me young master." Playing with Mara taught me well, poker face and distract. None of them has earn my respect, except the beast girls.


    Everyone cup their hands and as one greet me as "young master!"


    I return with "please, let us continue to watch the games. I am here for the grand auction in two months, so plenty of time to get to know some of you." Then I turn my attention the combatants in the arena and I feel all the eyes on me vanish. But if feel the excitement generated around me that I am here for two months, and I''m sure that all want me to make them an artifact.


    The beast girls work well as a team and begin to take out their would be killers one by one. The crowd isn''t too happy seeing the twins manage to kill half the opposing young warriors. More so when they realize that neither of them has taken a wound tonight murmered through the crowd in disgust. Appearently the arena impose some restrictions to give them a fair fight. None of the young warriors possess cultivation higher than the twins.


    They are just outnumbered, and as I suspected the young warriors are unable to work well as a team and get in each other way giving the twins opportunies to wittle down the numbers. With my divine sense, the only strongest warriors are left, allowing the newbies a chance for some fame but fail utterly to take down the beast girls.


    Remaining warriors finally go into action and work the twins hard to stay alive, until they were forced into a corner and open up with first twin skill. Both split into multiple copies and leave a flurry of cuts among the closest warriors forcing them back. Two warriors go down with their throats cut open, and another goes down hamstrung. He crawls away swing his sword wildly to keep the twins at bay. The remaining two warrior try to reach the fallen warrior, but the twin won''t let them and engage them with quick slashing attacks.


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    I can tell the two warrior lost hope in winning, and are doing their best to trick one of the girls into a trap, but the twins keep their distance after making an attack. The beast girls are exhausted, but keep their focus on the two unharmed warriors. The hamstrung warrior has drag himself near the edge of the arena to used the wall to stand up.


    The girls feint a rush at the two warriors before spinning around and rush to finish off the hamstrung warrior. Both warriors jump back to avoid the twins feint, but found themselves sudden alone seeing the backside of the twins running toward the wounded warrior. By the time the two land on their feet and rush to aid the wounded warrior, the twins have already close the distance by half.


    The wounded warrior launched a battle skill in hopes of driving the twins away, but the beast girls use a technique to spacial jump forward and thus bypassing the battle skill. The wounded warrior didn''t stand a chance, still recovering from unleashing his most powerful attack, and the sudden appearance of the twins right in front of him spelled his doom. The twins didn''t hesitate and slash apart the wounded warrior in blink of time before spinning around to face the last two charging murderers.


    Both warriors having powered up a battle skill and cut loose seeing the twin turn around to face them. The beast girls interlace their left arms at the elbows and with their right knives give each other a shallow slash on each other expose left side. I watch their qi merge with twin spray of blood and form a blood barrier around them. The two battles skills then arrive to obscure the blood barrier and we all wait for the qi fallout to disappear to see if the twins had survive or not.


    When the girls finally appear, they are covered in slashes but they charge the spent two warriors before they can recover. The warriors quickly back peddle, but one wasn''t fast enough, and got caught by both twin who maniacally slash the warrior to death. Then the twins charge the last survivior, the exhausted man didn''t stand a chance, he''s just too slow and unable to keep up with the tag teaming demonbeast girls.


    As the last man goes down, the audience begin booing the dead prisoners and gladiators that have been selected to kill the twins tonight. I smile because the odds are quite good, so I made a serious fortune.


    I enter the auction house clan lord''s private quarters and was greeted by an elderly man who is an early stage eight cultivator who chooses to say "you have talented eyes young master, I am awed by such all seeing performance!" and cup his hands and bows to me then presents a ring to me "your winning young master! Ninth tier resources and items from your list as requested. Your foresight is truely amazing young master, to providing us a list before hand so we can cover our debt properly. I know a few old bones who how could learn from you young master, and certainly would make my life a better one if they did. I hope you don''t mind this old man for placing a small gift of gratitude in the ring."


    I nod and reply "your most kind senior, if it''s possible, could you clear the north workshop for me? I don''t like waiting."


    I see his eyes bulged out and sputters out "aat once yyoung master, I''ll see to it personally, give me one hour and you can move in!" He bows and spin around and rushes away.


    I go back to the manor house to pick up the anchor token that Mara return token would open a portal too. I spent the hour going through the spiritual gardens of the auction house until I see the senior coming. He gives me a big smile and supplies "young master, the north workshop is now yours!" and hand me the workshop key token. I slide it under my wristband making it snug against my skin as he escorts me to the workshop.


    Once inside I dished out "senior, I would like the secretly buy the two beast girls slaves I saw tonight." I pull out five more mid tier eight weapons and add in "this is overkill, but I want to make sure their owner can''t say no to my offer."


    "I shall ask my daughter to represent your offer young master!" and gives me a shocked expression before he leaves, with a thought I open and then close the door for him.


    Within an hour the twins is brought to my workshop in a globe of darkness. When they emerge I see they have been cleaned up and what fur they have is still damp from an obvious much needed bath. They glare at me in obvious hate. I step aside and the girls skitter into the workshop to find a place far from me as possible. The young lady then presents four of my weapons back to me saying "he accepted my first bid of one sword young master."


    I nod in understanding and hand out "give me your honest opinion, which of these four swords look the best? I''m curious what a young lady''s opinion would be about these four weapons I crafted" and waved mine hand over the four weapons in her hands.


    She immediately picked the livingwater elemental weapon. It certainly has a more delicate feel to it''s appearance, unlike the raging appearance of fire, lightning and wind affinities or the solid feel of the earth and metal affinities. It calmly ungulates and shift ever so slowly into new razor sharp forms. So I reach out and pick the three other weapons and stuff them back into storage.


    She blinks at me and tries to hand the water sword back to me so I go with "keep Tidebreaker, I like an honest girl. Consider it your tip for working on my behalf to acquire these girls. I trust no one knows of this?"


    She nods and replies "everything has been kept a secret young master, I even change your weapon with one we had in storage. There are also nine dark clouds running around the workshop floors and randomly stopping to hand out small gifts to our best customers."


    Then I continue with "see, you earn your tip, so take it young miss." Then I thought since I''m here for a few months I and add "perhaps you would be so kind to offer me your name young miss?"


    She smiles beautifully and breaths out "Kylie, young master."


    I finalize with "it''s been a long day miss Kylie, you should go and rest." She bows and steps out of the workshop and I send a mental command to the key jade to close the door. I look through my stock of fully cook meat on a spit storage crystals that just finished roasting over a campfire before being store in temportal shift crystal. I cut the temporal shift restraints and watch the roast materialize in the middle of the workshop.


    The smell of finely roasted meat quickly fill the enclosed space. I cut the two hind legs off and put them on a plates and with my divine sense send them over to the girls along with a pair of water skins. They chow down and guzzle like there''s no tomarrow. I can see the bones under the skin between the patches of left over surviving fur, their last owner offer no medical and fed them only scraps. The girls eyes never leave me as they eat.


    I cut a side of rack off and retreat to the far side of the workshop in case they want more. I dine on the ribs of a stage five Metalhide Murcat, I feel my stamina and toughness make a tiny movement. But the starved girls soon perked up and soon pounced the remaining roast on the spit.


    Now they sit just out of reach with their hairless tails waving slowly behind them. They have a wary look about them, but none of that hate they had earlier. They watch me intently and wonder what I am going to do next. After finishing the roast, the twins had filled out almost completely, most of their bones are now hidden by their revitalized flesh.


    I open up my inner world and tell them "go in, you two will be safe in there until I can leave the island. When I return to the mainland, I''ll let you out in a beastfolk town I am friendly with." The view they get from the portal is a grand forest filled with animals so they didn''t hesitate and jumped right in. I closed the portal and picked a random bottle from the ten in senior''s gift and read ''Summer Memories" crafted by Weeping Willow. It''s a taste of citrus over a cool burning kick, it''s quite refined and comparable to master''s recipes. It''s made from Diskallion Citrus Barreltree and Icecapian Thermalcherries.


    Barreltrees are a natural treasures who inner cavity is fill with sap that can be easily refined into culivation wine recipe to increase it''s volumn while providing a base flavor to work with. Tribes and villages are often founded near a barreltree as it is a sign of luck, as the ground around the tree must be rich in nutrients and spiritual qi to support such a lifeform. Not to mention that sap is alcholic and used for every tribal event.


    From my winnings, I almost have enough resources to craft a set of tier eight protective gear. So I need funds to trade for the better materials being auctioned off for the next two months. With my winning, I stock up on basic tier seven and eight crafting materials and as much of the rarer materials that''s available. Including my own stash, I see I can forge about thirty living element weapons. But running low on fire and wind demonbeast cores, but I just got stock up with ten water cores. Looks like I''m going to be crafting a lot of water base gears here so I do a quick check on available water techniques and see some interesting uses.


    I work every day but attend the end of the week auction to check out and possible bid on any rare materials. It doesn''t take long to forge twenty weapons, I keep the rest of the materials for custom jobs. Then I got to work on pills and crafted a mix of tier seven and eight pills. The spectral phenomenon cause by the appearance of newly awakened tier eight weapon spirits or the amazingly colored pill lightning striking the north workshop several times a day brought awe to the city for the past two weeks.

 Chapter Sixteen - Sea King Umbarath

    The entire city of Karvallus knows me as the ecentric bidder at the arena during the beast girls eighth game and the one who took over the residence in the north workshop. I let the aura of my crafting show the world what tier of crafting I was master of. Whenever I came out of the workshop to check on auctions or visit their medicinal gardens, the staff treat me with the utmost respect. Management even surrounded me with a team of cute girls who are more than willing to duo cultivate with me for one of my pills.


    I quickly found out that the title Denizens of the Depths is a term used by the mainland and on the island they perfer to be called the seafolk. The cute girls they provide me provided me a storehouse of information about the history of the island and it''s citizens. By the time I finish my first set of artifacts, I became fairly knowledgeable about the island and its traditions and even adapted to a fair degree in the local dialect.


    Stage eight experts do their best to win my favor and send my way all kinds of gifts that the auction house delivered to my workshop everyday, from cultivation resources to rare materials and spiritual herbs. When the auction house sold the information that I purchase rare demonbeast meat and cultivation wine materials, those resources quickly joins in among the gifts as well. To the gifts that catch my attention I invite them for a consultation to forge a weapon for them. They have already stockpiled the resources they need for their weapon, but unable to find an artificer to forge anything better than early stage eight artifact.


    Seeing the spectral phenomenon of my one weeks of Artificing followed by a week of alchemy crafting made the experts in the city eager to ask for my help in forging their dream weapons and a few rare pills. I made the effort to get aquainted with the islander''s top experts since I figure I will be visiting the island every hundred years for their grand auction. So I listen carefully as they explain their dream weapons and do my best to craft them their dreams.


    By the end of the first month, I had all the top experts on the island in my pocket. I had only forged a handful of custom weapons, but the results made the rest eager to please me. My efforts to befriend the seafolk experts even got me an invitation to visit their sea king. I learned their sea king wants to reforge his clan''s ancestral weapon that was damage in the last war with the beastfolk. Their sea king is unwilling to allow anyone who can''t consistantly forge mid tier eight weapons to reforge his ancestral weapon.


    After hearing me place twenty mid stage weapons I forge the first week on auction, the seafolk experts did their best to invite me to see their king. When I told them the reason why I came to the island is to bid on a Seed of the Undertow, the expert quickly explain that their king has several such seeds. No doubt their king would gift me one if I successfully reforge his ancestral weapon.


    Then I told them I was expecting my disciple to show up within a day or two, the experts quickly dispatch a message to their king for further orders. I was surprise to see that two days later a glorius army of the seafolk arriving under the cheers of the citizens of Karvallus. The citizens line the streets to cheer the arrival of their sea king Umbarath. I watch the hulking sea king strode right up to the auction house and enter though the front doors.


    I swept the workshop clean of my materials and store them back into my void ring and waited for the sea king''s arrival. I pulled out some chairs and brought out a giant roast of a late stage eight Sea Serpent that I recently recieved as a gift a few days ago. Then I pulled out two jugs of my strongest cultivation wine called Alpine Breeze and cut hunk of Sea Serpent and dug in for the wait. I can feel my water affinity rise a tiny bit and my body techique as well, mostly in the speed and toughness departments rather than an over all growth.


    Then I take a chug from the jug Alpine Breeze and feel my spiritual force rise a bit and thicken, I''ve been eating a meal of this each day since I recieve a gift of the Sea Serpent two days ago. Alpine Breeze is made from a berries of a Tracian Icetree that give it strong leafy taste and smell. Then added Kumbiard Hecklefruit to tone that taste down a couple of notches and give it a touch of honey lemon flavor. It smooth and refine and naturally cold to drink, but it is also the strongest alcoholic recipe master owned.


    It''s so strong, a stage six practitioner would past out after one cup, while a stage seven expert would have troubles walking after four or five cups. For a stage eight cultivator, they would probably go with something like ''finally a wine with some kick to it,'' since their stage eight bodies have high resistance to drugs and liquor effects. Then you have those who specialize with body techiques who never get drunk no matter how much they drink. Let them down a jug of Alpine Breeze and they be drunk until their body defenses finally kick in.


    Consider the amount to time it took for the door chime to ring, he must have examined my auctions before finally showing up. He is a big man nearly three meters tall and obvious not used to being overly polite. So I cut to the chase and break the ice and gesture at the roast if he''s hungry, then enjoyed good chat as we dined.


    He is surprised at seeing a section of a roasted Sea Serpent and do as I do and cut off a huge chunk of it and sits down on one of the chair and digs in. He is pleasantly surprised that I manage to properly cook it, then he takes a hit from the jug next to his chair and exclaims "great wine!'' I laugh and supplied "glad you like it, I find it goes well with Sea Serpent."


    Umbarath relaxes and begin a honest story of his wish to reforge his ancestral weapon and ask if I be willing to do it. Then he pulls out the fractured weapon and hands it over to me to examine. Then he pulls out a ring containing all the reforging materials I need for the reforging. After I finish looking though the void ring I nod in approval and he then pulls out perfect specimen of a Seed of the Undertow encase in a high grade jade case and supplied "young master, please accept this for reforging my ancestral weapon."


    I took the case and examing the perfectly preserved specimen and I cup my hand and give a slight bow of thanks. I got up and pour out the raw materials he collected and begin refining them all. I toss the mixture into my furnace to continue the refining and then examine the fractured spear, especially diving into it to memorize the arrays stored inside. The weapon arrays are mid tier eight that I already know, so I see no problem duplicating them for the reforge.


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    I toss the spear into my furnace to refine as well. I draw in both Dragonflames and Deepwater spiritual flames to help the refining process further. I ended up using a ton of spiritual Deepwater because it''s an extreme water affinity artifact. The artifact spirit went crazy soaking in all the Deepwater spiritual fire and revive from it''s sleepy state to a semi conconsious awareness.


    It doesn''t fight me at all, it must have realize I have the ability to reforge it and passively watch me use techniques after techiques to repair the damage. I drain my spiritual force using dimensional rifting to slowly fill in the cracks. Using this technique ensures the spearhead will be as strong as the original as I replicate the blade at the molecular level.


    It''s agonizing slow work, but it the only way to fully restore the spearhead. After fixing the spearhead, I replace the weapon arrays with updated versions so they give a slight over all improvement. Then I leave it the furnace to continue absorbing the excess materials to strengthen it even further. It took nearly a hour of pain staking difficult mental marathon before taking a break and pulling out a new jug of cultivation wine to quickly restore my spiritual force then I hand over the new jug to Umbarath and voice out "it''s all done, the spear spirit is refining the excess materials to strengthen itself. Should take about another hour for it to finish."


    I see he is excited and peers into the furnace to examing the reforged spear with obvious delight, because the spear is no longer a mid tier eight artifact and has advanced to late stage from the reforging. He turns towards me and bows deeply and hands out "young master! You are truely a gifted artificer! If there is anything you need, don''t hesitate to ask my young friend!"


    I laugh and supply "let''s enjoy our dinner until the spear spirit finish refining all that material, in the mean time please continue with your stories of the undersea." So we sat and continue carving chunks off the roast and got drunk as we chatted away about the world of the undersea to satisfy my curiosity. I suppliment my drinking by chewing on resources now and then. Umbarath shakes his head at my outrageous behavior as I down a couple dozen tier nine resources through out the meal. It from habit when I see him shake his head to realize I still unconsciously down hand fulls of resources.


    He is a peak stage eight expert and from his expression probably only refines a single stage nine resource carefully over a long period of time. I feel bad, but I hate the feeling of being weak after using Dimension Rifting for so long, but I''m starting to get the hang of it and have reduce my spiritual force spending by nearly ten percent. So I restore my qi quickly with the resources and my spiritual force with the wine.


    I have no doubt my fellow cultivators would be thinking I waste so much resources, but I don''t care, my cultivation has not move since the Alchemist Tomb. So I treat the tier nine resources like candy, since only then do I feel a tiny growth in my cultivation after week of stuffing my face.


    After hearing his stories about the undersea until the spear spirit finish refining the remaining materials, he hands me his personal mark allowing me to visit him anytime. In the end before he leaves with his reforge spear, he insist I call him big brother, despite that fact he is a couple thousand years older than me. But he does look about early thirties, so I agree to his offer since we hit it off rather well.


    Besides, his stories of the sights he has seen in the undersea has peaked my curiosity. So I''m rather intrigue about the undersea and planned to explore it someday. Like the nations on land, the undersea has many nations and kings as well. Umbarath controls all the surrounding water around the island for nearly six thousand miles north and west and about four thousand miles south.


    His palace is but a thousand miles northwest of the island, he has a secret teleportation gate about a hundred miles north in a hidden underwater cave. He tells me when I want to visit him, his personal mark will grant me full access to teleportation gates thoughout his kingdom. He even allows me to scan and memorize his personal map jade which included nearly a score of underwater kingdoms he has visited.


    Then I give him something to look forward to by adding in "big brother! Please take this selection of my best wines I''ve brewed so far, when we meet again I want your an honest opinion of what you think about them. I hope you can fulfill your promise the next time we meet big brother! If you can satisfy me, I''ll let you pick your favorite wine and give you a unbreached barrel of it." Then I cup my hands and give a slight bow and follow up with "take care big brother."


    He takes the void pouch and take a quick peek and I can see his expression lights up, and he claps my left shoulder and provides "little brother is too kind! I''ll send you a message as soon as my people has searched through the friendly sea kingdoms, when you visit I will wine and dine you until your stuffed!" and laughs as he leaves the workshop.


    I look over to the pile of gifts he had left after appaising the finished spear, with my divine sense I can see I can make another ten weapons. I look at the small pile of thirty water cores and smiled, looks like fate really wants me to work on water attribute artifacts.


    So I stuff the gifts with the rest of my stock and take out the lesser materials and the ten weakest water cores and produced ten more weapons, them I toss them into my void ring for trading. My current auctions should be enough bring in enough funds for now. Besides I already have a Seed of the Undertow, so I no longer need to go all out in crafting and just work on customs for now on.


    I stared at the Light of the Divine and sigh, it''s just too handy fixing and ripening spiritual herbs to their peak as I place the Seed of the Undertow on the outer edge of it''s pulsating light. I replaces the ripe herbs with those on my list of important spiritual herbs that need fixing and decide to hold off until I can find another Light of the Divine or if I truely need to boost to my meridian or spiritual veins. With that in mind, I ask the auction house to spread the word that I am need of one and that I will craft a weapon as a reward.


    I''m already quite happy coming to Karvallus, the seafolk main auction house provided me with six Dragon Veins of high quality, and my new big brother promise to send his people search the auctions houses of friendly sea kingdoms. I had shown him my best Dragon Vein and he promise to find a few better ones for me. He even told me he knew of a supreme quality Dragon Vein that is protected a peak stage eight Kracken that he always wanted to fight, now he is happy that I given him a reason to fight the monster, but I think it is more about testing out his ancestial spear.


    I had already settle in with obtaining the best high quality Dragon Vein for myself, since only a handful of supreme quality exist and they are all own by the six most powerful sects in the world. Minor sects use weak quality Dragon Veins with cultivation arrays to build cultivation chambers with natural qi that double that of the outside world. High quality Dragon Veins can raise that to three or four times the outside world, while supreme quality Dragon Veins would give cultivation chambers at least five times the normal amount.


    So it looks like I''m set for Dragon Veins, now I just need to get to peak stage eight, and I just don''t see that happening any time soon as I crunch down another handful resources and nothing happens as usual. I am begining to believe the dantian inside me is just a void masquerading as a dantian. My thoughts stir about finding another lucky chance like the Alchemist Tomb.

 Chapter Seventeen - Burning Rage

    I sat in my usual vip booth and hooked up my appearance breaching crystal, turn it on and watch the four layers of power quickly drain as it powers up the breach and modify formations. They go down to about thirty percent in a breath of time and now I have the appearence of a Lightning Fiend, a greater demon spirit from the Elemental Lightning Plane. I basically look like a tree composed entirely of lightning.


    My scrawny figure is kind of funny as I have lightning shooting out of my head for hair. I electrify the space above me a good two meters, as it dissipates it forms the canopy over my head is something I made for fun to change my appearance while I''m here. I got bored of being a lava dude, so I made a formation crystal with a new appearance profile to be able to hack into the privacy formation and take over it''s basic appearance restriction.


    I look down to see the inverted yin yang stage with two ramps going into the ground to the auction house basement floor, auctions items are brought up by hostess from the two ramps. There are two types of hostesses, the auction house in their unique dark green dresses and private hostess who wear colorful dresses and work on behalf of their sellers. They walks suductively along the outer edge displaying the auction items and give their best roleplay to attract bids. There are only two hostess walking at a time displaying their common auction goods for stage six and lower items, they each are allowed full a circuit before they head on down.


    The common auctions use bidders token, they just need to select the item displayed above the token to bid. The token always asks to confirm a bid, if a guest wins an auction it is automaticly deducted from their deposited funds. This ensures that the bidder always has enough funds to pay since they can''t bid more than they deposited. This type of bidding offers a means for privacy, as the the current winning offer is displayed on the bidders token. However, many choose to call out their bids as they enjoy yelling their bids for attention.


    Items for the trash is the common mentality of stage seven and eight practitioners. Which I guess is true because truely nothing in the common auctions can interest us. So I called out "senior Mursharkham, why don''t you join me" and I pull out a jug from a new batch cultivation wine that just finished ageing.


    The grin I got from him kind of remind me of Sharky and I can see he is delighted by the invite and hurries on over. My divine sense tells me that the entire vip area is envious of my sudden invite. But I''m kind of picky when it comes to people near my personal space, so I don''t bother inviting any others for a drink.


    "My master called it Burning Murkavien, I hope you like spicy wines" and I pour each a mug of some translucent purple stuff. It''s a bit thick, what did you expect when using an Infernal Root as a base. It''s a turnup sized root has tiny roots that run extremely deep, as long as one root survives it can revive itself in a single day. This spiritual herb has master level earth affinity techniques with a heavy emphasis on gravity techniques. But they also a dual element of fire at the same mastery but a heavy emphasis on maintaining a fire domain.


    It''s purple sap is thick and heavy that''s harvested from the central cavity of the base root. Master has a small medical garden just growing this spiritual herb. I pluck the ripe ones until finally had enough to make a batch of Burning Murkavien that I''ve been dying to try since gaining master''s inheritance.


    I learned a lot from the slavery formation he built around their medical garden. That''s what peak my interest in improving my basic array knowledge since I usually only study enough to satisfy the requirements for my tier eight artificing arrays. Each array is basically becomes it''s own branch, as practioners who want a particular array in their arsonal will join the branch who''s basic tenet is to continue improving the array. Though most don''t care since only a few are skilled enough to actually make improvements, so most support the array improvements by buying the offical updates.


    Anyways, the reason I invited Mursharkham is because he is the official envoy of my big brother Umbarath and I wanted to form at better a business relationship with him. His hammerhead takes time getting used to, but I find him a honorable person and easy to get along. Perhaps he is putting up a facade to get on my good side, but it doesn''t matter to me since we are getting along just fine.


    I can tell he just loves the Burning Murkavien since he inquires on purchasing a jug for his sea king. I promptly hand over a large jug of the stuff and simply state it''s a gift for my big brother. Then we chatted away until my auctions finally come up. I did hint that I would interested in trying out high quality demonfish meat cooked by master chefs of the seafolk. He immediately states he will look into hiring a master chef among his people and treat me to a feast in the near future and leaves to return to his own booth as a hostess brings out my first auction begins her appraisal of the weapon to peak the crowds interest.


    After the auctions are over, I head back to my workshop after picking up a delightful young hostess on the way back. After sending her off the next morning with a tier six foundation pill I collect a pile of invites waiting in my mailbox outside the workshop. After going though them, I select one that peaked my interest and took out a message jade and filled in "Senior Walking Tall, I would be honored to accept your dinner invitation tonight. I look forward in meeting your two seafolk guests as well." Then I summoned a girl to have it delivered.


    But I created a new market by using that custom breaching crystal at the auction house. It was the first question the seafolk asked "''how can a change my appearance at the auction house?"


    When I told them I make it with a seven layer formation breaching crystal that I made for fun. They then asked if I could make one for them. Since I use a seven layer formations for my artifacts I go with a price equal to a late stage seven artifact, gave it a discount since it so specialized and has no combat functions. They can see the materials I used to refine the crystal isn''t cheap, and the dazzling seven layer formation is not something any array master could maintain. I even told them any tier six array master can swap out the appearance profile if they want a new look.


    The first dinner attended and I get to make toys instead of weapons. I never thought this would happen, so I laughed and enjoy the night and even brought out a jug of one of my favorites wines to celebrate the occasion. It took me half the night to complete the breaching crystals, I took my time so I can properly judge my three fellow cultivators. The human calls himself Walking Tall and a proud human. But not the rightous kind, more like proud of being a member of the human race.


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    The two seafolk called themselves Drisksnapper and the female Coralweaver. I wanted to meet the seafolk experts and establish ties with them is the reason for accepting this dinner invite. Being stage eight cultivators, they can almost past as human. For lack of better words have fishy attributes, Drisksnapper has tiny plates scattered about his skin and his thumb and forefinger favor a pincher look. While Coralweaver thick black cable looking hair and skin that randomly fluctuate a rainbow of luminencent colors.


    Coralweaver is still a young looking creature that possess enough natural presense that can charm stage six cultivators with her alien beauty. It''s obvious Drisksnapper invited her to distract me, but I don''t mind, she is a lovely creature and I find her humor veers towards my own. So I play along with Drisksnapper''s game and play hard to get like Mara taught me. I secretly call it Mara''s Bluff and Distract game since I never did ask what she calls it.


    So I ended up drinking a favorite cultivation wine with handfuls of resources to help recover my spiritual force and qi, as I asked each stage eight diner what the would like to look like at the auction house and set the profile to a breaching crystal and earn myself enough to buy the raw materials for three sets of tier seven nirvana breakthough pills. I ignore the strange looks they give me when I started crunching on resources, I guess I gotten used to people glaring at me when I down a handful at a time. By the end of the night they started calling me young sage, since I am a master crafter of everything they ever want in their current life.


    The one thing I notice about Drisksnapper is that his eyebrows would twitch when he is laughing, and a quick look I realise they are actually feathery antennae. The tiny stalk vibrates as he laughs causing the hairy ends to twitch up and down.


    After crafting their appearance breaching crystal we went to the reason for the dinner invite and I take notes on their dream weapons. I take the gentleman approach and ask Coralweaver first, then Walking Tall because he is the host and then Drisksnapper. I recieve a void pouch from each containing the raw materials each has gather, which I notice also include my fee in extra materials.


    After memorizing their weapons I tell them I should send for them when I complete their weapons. I had taken my time to interrogate them about their ideal weapon down the smallest detail. I ended the night by "thanks for your help in designing the appearances of your new weapons, I look forward to seeing what I can do to fulfill your dreams."


    A chorus of "young sage! Rest well tonight" and rest well I did because Mara was waiting in the workshop for me. I had left a sliver of a crack in the barrier to allow Mara''s portal to pass though and materialize inside the workshop. She gets up and slam me a big old flying hug and went straight the the point by giving a who''s on top kiss. I watch her grin victorious at me and then pounce on me for a second round. I battle her tongue foerociously for the win and give her my I miss you more grin.


    Then we engage our third battle of our tongues and never made it to the end results as she pushed me down and begin duo cultivating as we continue to kiss. I give her the win since she so happy right now. So I use my body manipulation technique to give her the length and thickness that makes her go wow. Then we use the Flying into the Heavens technique that stimulate skin contact that causes our skin to feel like a mild electric shock that feels quite pleasurable.


    From our spiritual link, I can tell that Flying into the Heaven does a real number on her. Her body is constant convulsing in pleasure. When her back arches and her body goes taunt, it''s so damn hot, I can''t get enough of her as we spend a long night together as I find how many arches she makes before passing out.


    This past month of crafting has allowed me to advance to mid eighth tier artificing and can now use new mid tier arrays, so I decide to replace the arrays inside Burning Rage. I decide to add a Quickening array to increase my ability to handle another exchange in battle. Then I add in a Exceptional Spirit array that boost my spiritual force to the next level of purity. Then a Fortification array that will boost my Dragon Physique to a whole new level of threat.


    Just having Burning Rage in my hand boost all my combat abilities. I can''t wait to master armoring techniques so I can get three permanent defense buffs. I guess I can start adding a second buff for my sellables, I decided to keep the new three buffs artifacts a secret and equip them for only me and Mara.


    After reaching tier six in artificing I was able to put the first permanent buff instead of formations with an extra power layers for each charge I wanted to give the weapon. But these permanent effects really change things up, I''m looking at an late tier eight array that can boost my culvation, but it''s so complicated with thirty two layers. I''ll have to raise my basic array knowledge to tier eight to get the fifty percent discount in order to even have a chance of putting one of those in an artifact. It would take it down to sixteen layers then, and I only manage to master the eighth recently, which means I really need to make some Mental Awakening pills.


    To that end I make a new list of spiritual herbs to give the auctions house, but as usual I mix in a ton of other materials to obscure the recipe ingredients. I always take precautions when giving a list of materials I wanted, and made sure they not listed were not in any order. I also add in artificing materials, cultivation wine ingrediants and even add in the corpse of a cookable stage seven demonbeast called a Shanglowfen Quillstalker.


    After soaking the meat overnight is a specialize anti venom marinade who''s main ingrediants come from three tier seven spiritual herbs known for anti venom effects. To cook it I have to seal it in my cooking cauldron with a tray of spiritual water, it gets baked and steamed at the same time. The spiritual water expands twice as much as normal water, so the steam becomes a thick fog that fills the cauldron. This pressured steaming causes the remaining poisonous residue to leak out of the meat and drip off along with the excess fat. Once the remaining poison has been removed, I would then soaked in a thick brew of herbs and a sweet and sour mixture with a good dash of any sweet cultivation wine to thin the gooey mixture a little. Then a quick roasting to get the new coating to bubble for the finishing touch.


    This particular Quillstalker meat is good for boosting your speed and toughness. A Shanglowfen has a innate battle skill that allows it to phase a few steps ahead of it''s after image. While it''s tough scaly body is also covered with sharp steel hard quills that serve as it''s first line of defense. There is even a variant that able to shoot it''s quills for a poisonous range attack. The only other important part of a Shanglowfen is it''s pancrea, which is a medical ingrediant for repairing moderately damaged meridans up to tier six and lightly cracked dantians up to tier five.


    I choose the Shanglowfen Quillstalker for Mara, because I think she is just too slow in battle. Granted she is only at mid stage seven, but still, speed is what makes you dangerous. So I been feeding her demonbeast meat and cultivation wines to boost her speed and agility, I went as far as providing a stock of both to her void ring.

 Chapter Eighteen - Mara Sways up the Ramp

    For my next show the auction house advertise that my new weapons all possess a second permanent buff when held. I walked into my booth and pulled out a favorite drinking chair from my ring. With my divine sense I lift the standard auction chair and push it back and put my own chair in it''s place and sat down. I pulled out my breaching crystals and select the one that makes me look like a winged humanoid I saw few months ago. My elongate face which my nose simulates a tiny beak, and my six inch long pointed ears merge nicely with the pale white and black striped feathers for my hair. I have smaller tuff of feathers coming from the jaw line to completely outline my face in black and white. My face is covered with tiny deep dark brown feathers. I have slited yellow eyes inside red eyeballs. Then I activate privacy barrier ready for viewing restriction and I make my appearance known to all the guests.


    As soon as I appear publicly in my vip booth, all the guest around me stop what they were doing as one called out politely "young sage!" and cup their hand and gives a formal bow to me. Being able to put in second permanent buff has really made my show attract a whole new level of clientele. These late and peak stage eight experts in lava suits all politely greet me, appearently they been informed of my ability to breach the appearance formation and put in a custom look so they have amused rocky grins instead of the surprise look the last time I was here.


    Being able to add a second permanent buff is an extremely rare ability for humans, and have not been seen since the last era. Grandmasters of artificing this era have learned arrays late in their life when they have already spent their available potential on leveling up artificing. As such they find it extremely difficulty advance past the early basic array tiers so their artificing arrays never made it past tier five.


    Kibari of the Red Mountain sect and Ruwafen of the Thunderclash sect are the current Sect leaders of these sect, both men are direct decendants of their founding ancestor. Both founding ancestors recieved their apprenticeship years in the last era and even recieved lessons from the some of grandmasters from that era. They survived the aftermath of the ending of the last era because they were still only stage six cultivators and didn''t participate in the War to End all Things. Both created their own sects and pass their ancient knowledge to their decendants.


    The secrets that their founding ancestors gave them made their sects become the two of the most powerful sects the world has ever seen in the world of artificing. These two sects have tier eight artificers among their younger generation, elders, hidden elders and ancestors. They have adapted this mentality to the cultivation world ''Don''t worry we got your future needs in artificing covered!'' and showcase that by advertising their tier eight artificers in the younger generation.


    Tonight I join these two famous sects by producing a second buff for artifacts. I''m pretty sure the human supremacy activists are going to have convulsions when they get wind of me. I sigh, they are going to start advertising me whether or not I want them too. I wonder what I am going to do if they get out of hand with their foolish pride.


    The mid stage eight experts I normally see around me have been displaced and now sitting in the row of booths below me. I see Walking Tall in his Lionman appearance, I had notice him while I was hacking into my vip booth restrictions. His booth was crowded with his friends asking him how he acquired the change in appearance and how much it cost him.


    While the Drisksnapper''s squid headed humanoid and Coralweaver Eldar Sea Serpent form has their booths filled with seafolk doing the interrogations as well. All three look extremely pleased by the fawning that I had to laugh at the sight, and realize I need to make a ton of breaching jade blanks to house the new product that going to be in high demand soon. With that in mind I fill a message jade with a list the required raw materials I need to make one hundred of them and then requested the serving girl to deliver it to management. She gives a cute bow and a crispy sing song voice rings out "at once young sage!" and takes off like a scared deer.


    I cup my hand and give a slight bow to return the greetings to everyone and wonder how everyone now calls me young sage. Appearantly the news of my diverse crafting skills became public and the title young master no longer seem appropiate. After all that title is given to anyone who has locked down their young appearance by reaching stage six in cultivation, however for auction houses that title is also given to a stage six cultivator who also has master a crafting skill to at least tier five.


    I had enter the auction house late because I didn''t want to bother with the common auctions, so I arrived before my auctions would start. This way I could avoid the overly polite greetings everyone tends to give me when I appear in my vip booth. So I wave a last greeting and call out "my fellow cultivators, my auctions are about to begin" then I turn my attention to the stage''s illusionary fireworks used to attract the audience attention that the main event is about to start.


    I watch Mara sways up the ramp into view in a stunning purple and red dress, there are shear areas and many designed cut outs to resemble a rather naughty attire. It''s a dress that stimulate a wicked look but still in a clean package as all the correct areas are properly covered over, as if a princess''s dress been overhaul by a touch of naughtiness of darker passions. She walks the strip between the two ramps as the only hostess for my show and announces "good evening honored guests to my master''s auctions!"


    The audience go wild since this is the first time seeing her and all the vip guests look my way for conformation, so I smile and nod and provide "fairy Dancing Stream is my only disciple." This of course shocks the audience, but many quickly start collecting fawning points by greeting Mara properly with "fairy Dancing Stream, welcome to Karvallus!"


    It''s the name she given to herself when she broke through to stage seven at our home city as her dao name. So I don''t hesitate to spread her dao name in public, I feel from our spiritual link she is smiling at me in appreciation. So I send over a qi pat that make her give me that face I so love, she happily enjoys me petting her and her face shows it with a great big grin of a smile.


    That smile for me lights up the audience completely misunderstanding it for as smile for them and see another path to lavious to get me to make a weapon for them. All I can say it that Mara is going to have a lot of fun here with all the attention those stage eight experts are willing to go though just to get her attention. She plays a mean game of hard to get, I feel sorry for all those guys out there. She gonna grind them up for their treasures and in the end still say no for me.


    The only thing I have to worry about is if Mara gets along with another female cultivator and then I have some custom work to do.


    Mara laughs as she dances across the stage to give everyone a good view, and at the end of her impromtu dance she casually summons up a normal spear and quickly performs to the best of her mid stage seven cultivation can offer. She flawless performs several popular spear techniques for the audience''s pleasure, but not exactly what the vips wanted to see.


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    But then she puts away the normal spear and pull out Wave Piercer and performs the exact same techniques. However, this time it peaks all the vip''s interest as I watch them lean forward in both surprise and growing greed.


    Wavepiercer emits spear hymms and goes into a flurry of spear moves that makes the attending males drool at it''s wielder. With her mid tier seven cultivation, she expertly handles the complicated spear techniques to impress the spear users in the audience. While satisfying the perverts in us as she gives a glimpse of her black and red innerwear during her spins and jumps.


    However the vip experts see something that the audience misses, her every move has a extra layer of attacks. But most importantly she possess an additional exchange despite spending the same amount of time displaying her spear forms. This improvement is more than enough for her to match an early stage eight expert in melee battle.


    She completes her display with a resounding thud as she thumps the spear against the stage and offers "this mid tier eight water affinity war spear is called Wave Piercer! In my hands I am granted an extra exchange in battle and my water mastery is boosted to a whole new level. This is the first weapon my master offers tonight with two permanent buffs. It has also been given a mid tier eight battle skill called Water Dragon." She then points the spear away from me and initiates the battle technique.


    We watch a snake of water shoot forth and begin spiral around the spear at increasing speeds, with each revolution the water snake doubles in size. In a moment of time it reaching maturity as it''s ten foot maw roars out a challenge and Mara unleashes the Water Dragon that soar forwards into the sky and explodes into a deluge of rain that barely misses the edge of the crowd.


    The terrifying mid tier eight water and spear qi that was unleashed was more than enough to peak all the experts interest. A quick scan with my divine sense tells me only a few of the experts in the lower booths seem confident to defend against that Water Dragon, the rest show a pale face of unconscious fear of the qi fallout that would have meant their doom if it was aimed at them.


    Then she begins moving along the stage while thrusting the spear at imaginary targets causing delightful spear hymm to ring out with each thrust and informs "as you can hear, this spear is strong enough to emit spear hymms. As you all know weapons that produce hymms is consider the next stage of evolution for weapons. They produce and store vast amounts of weapon qi so their owner don''t need to supply their own qi for conversion into weapon qi."


    Of course all the experts already know this, but it''s obvious that Mara is talking to the general audience so they bare with it. Other than to look up to give a humoring smile to the vip guests now and then to prove she has not forgotten them. But she dances around the stage displaying the spear is all it''s glory is simply pure entertainment and no one complains as she teaches the audience. Her mid stage seven cultivation enhances her looks far more than the tier five and six hostesses that everyone is used to seeing. So tonight she the rarest eye candy to the starved eyes of this auction house.


    As Mara continues her nimble footwork she then goes on with "Wavepiercer has been given a mid tier eight defense skill called Whirling Waters." Spinning the spear overhead a few times before smacking the butt of the spear on to the stage causes a flash of water erupts into a vortex of water and spear qi that forms a whirling sphere of watery annihilation around Mara.


    I hear the experts discuss it''s defense properties and are quite impressed despite being powered by a mid stage seven cultivator. The appraisal quickly turns to the spear hymm must store a significant amount of spear qi to allow a stage seven expert to use the spear to it''s full potential.


    Mara cancels the defense skill and as it dispates, Mara glides across to the other side of the stage and provides "Wavepiercer also has a wide area attack skill called Tsunami and is also a water escape technique called Undertow." There is no need to demonstrate because both water skills are well known popular choices for water artifacts.


    I already notice the seafolk experts have their eyes glued on the spear and know it''s going to turn into heavy bidding as soon as Mara finish the spear''s introduction. Adding that water affinity mastery boost has made these seafolk expert drool in anticipation. Mara expertly read the vips emotions and ends her introduction smoothly with a swipe of her left hand to muffle the general audience and does a slow spin to make eye contact with many of the vip guests and announces "which honored guest would like to make the first bid for Wave Piercer?"


    The vip booths exploded into action with bid including stage nine resources supplimented by rare medinical herbs and raw materials to sweeten the bid as much as possible. I''ve accepted bids just to acquire the rare items before, so now I pay attention to the rare items offers instead of gaining the most value for an auction. I''ve already given the auction house a great list of items I wanted when I first arrived, so it seems that info was leaked out for the right price.


    The auction house sends gifts of materials to me every now and then with appreciation that my continued presense in the north workshop is making them a ton of profit. In fact they even went ahead and told me all information about me is current the number one seller as every stage eight expert has purchase various tid bits of info they have slowly disclosed. The gifts they have given me this past month is enough for me to produce three more weapons.


    On the third auction someone adds a Light of the Divine to the current bid that makes my heart jump and send a telepathic message to Mara ''I''ll take that offer!'' and Mara smiles at me and hands out "congradulations on obtaining one of my master''s weapons tonight senior! The auction for Wave Slicer is now over."


    A lava suit cups his hands and utter "young sage, your too kind!"


    Then I had notice another vip guest across from me seem disappointed, so out of curiosity I sent a telepathic message ''do you have a Light of the Divine as well?''


    The lava dude snaps his face towards me and nods and I recieved ''yes I do!''


    So I went with ''bid on any of the remaining auctions and I will accept your offer.''


    My auctions are being won by these new faces who have far too many treasures to trade with, these late and peak stage eight experts must be collecting treasures and unable to trade them until now. This of course made me happier than I could be as I am gaining quite a number of resources for tier eight crafting. I just need one more material and I can craft my first armor set.


    Most importantly I got another Light of the Divine for my third auction and a third one for Mara sooner than expected. So I couldn''t wait to get back to my workshop and brew me a hellfire bath. Not really looking forward in being cooked alive all night long, but for every advantage gain in cultivation must be paid in one way or a failure that mars your cultivation and it''s future potential. Cultivating has always been an all or nothing affair with the stakes growing with each stage of advancement.


    So in the end I came away with two Light of the Divine and I cheerfully made my way back to my workshop with Mara hanging on to my left arm while babbling about how fun the auction was. She is so excited, I can''t catch everything she says because she talks too fast when she is this excited. I''ll have to back trace later to see what she''s talking about after she is asleep. But I don''t mind, seeing her so happy now just makes me smile. But I don''t hesitate to play the game, and promptly interjects a few choice comments until leading to my trump card about allowing the pervs to see her innerwear.


    But she fights back with a cute pose and stare at me with innocent doe like eyes "I was just showing you master! Not my problem if a bunch of pervs you surrounding yourself these days are around" then finalize that with a raise of a smirk.


    I blink at her deciding I can''t win against that pose and draw her in close to clamp down on her mouth to begin our nightly ritual of who is on top to end current game.


    She pinches me lightly at my blocking her winning game and goes for enjoying the kiss instead for my win.

 Chapter Nineteen - Payment is a Slice of Kadyshun Frostbear

    The key jade''s distinct chime enters my mind and I acknowledge it and a hostess''s young voice springs forth "young sage, Array Grandmaster Nissian Frost has arrive and will be heading up soon."


    So I go with "thank you my dear, and can you please send up a bottle of her favorite cultivation wine."


    Her crisp reply "it will be delivered as soon a possible young sage."


    I had reviewed the file jade I purchase on Nissian Frost, and found out her name is taken from an extremely cold tier seven danger zo ne on the northern edge of the Eastern Continent. Appearantly during winter the morning frost is so cold that stage six cultivators would freeze to death in hours, while stage seven cultivators would need powerful protective artifacts to keep them alive. She keeps men at arms length to honor her deceased dao companion, however there is no info on how her dao companion past away. Due to her frosty personality, the information jade was rather cheap as it contained only a few useful tid bits of information.


    The door chime rings and I open the door and watch a hostess escort Nissian into my workshop that I had set up with two compfy chairs with a room displaying a place I once camp at and thought what a great place and view. So I hidden a secret recording crystal to capture place and now using that recording to project it though the workshop appearance restrictions.


    It''s a perfect mock up which cause both women to gasp in pleasure and Nissian states "little brother! Your an excellent host, I never would have imagine conversing with you with such a magnificent view."


    I replied "your to kind big sister Nissi" remembering that is what she wanted me to call her. I then hand over "it was once a place I camped for the night, it was such a great place I left a recording jade there and picked it up a month later when I passed by the place again."


    While Nissi is staring at the mountain scenary filled with all manners of demonbeasts, the hostess palms me a void pouch with the wine and then sends a blank paper into her void ring while masking "I''ll have your new list checked right away young sage" and turns around and leaves. The hostess is good enough to fool Nissi''s divine sense lingering around, I like how this hostess maintains secrecy and offer "come pick up my auctions items tomorrow around noon my dear."


    She smiles and gives "I won''t be late young sage!" as she hops out and I close the door that dissipates into the scenary then I continue with "I had to boost the auction house''s appearance restrictions to get this level of reality going" as I head towards her as she gazes out from a wilderness mountain ledge to see a wide valley filled with all manners of demonbeasts roving about.


    It''s sundown and the low mellow rays cast long shadows as the day time demonbeast retire for the night and the night crew comes out to play. As the sunlight streams across the valley and lights up the base of the eastern side of the valley we see the demonbeasts from the day slink into their nest sites. We even see a few even up defensive formations to improves their defenses.


    The darkened half of the western side are encroaching demonbeasts coming out from their lairs and staying out of the sunlight. It''s obvious they are mortal enemies of the demonbeast of the east side as many jeer at the retiring demonbeast as cowards and other treacherous words trying to goad a few of them out.


    But that doesn''t fool any of them and once the sunlight finally ends they rush the eastern lairs and find them too well defended to break though and curse in disgust and many then leave to go hunting. The night view is just as amazing, the heavy qi concentration in the area has cause many plant mutations which include luminescence as a common side effect. A patch work of rainbow colors illuminate the entire valley and half way up the mountains as varius species of plants produce their own colored light.


    The giant moon orbiting overhead about the size of my fist and cheerfully bright, the moonlight bask the land in it''s healthy glow. I can still the backs of the demonbeast that left the valley to go hunting, it''s not sunlight, but the combine light sources is strong enough to see the northern end of the valley without using qi to empower my eyes.


    "Would you like to try a vegetarian or a meat dish?" Since I have to play host today I decide to give her a choice.


    "Oh, I guess a meat dish since I''m rather tired of vegetarian dishes" and gives a friendly smile.


    I guess I go with "no problem" then I activate the new void pouch in my hand and pull out a bottle of Midwinter''s Gale by Ditsy Breeze and two glasses which I quickly fill and hand her a glass while picking up my own and "looking forward to seeing what the future hold for us" she smiles to the toast and we drank. It has an chilling effect as it slide down and permeates my body. It like a cold rage storming though my body as I sense my cold resistance jump up a bit and tiny move to my ice affinity mastery while my spiritual veins toughen as they make a tiny advance.


    It is a decent wine and considering my available food options I decided to pull out a mid stage eight Kadyshun Frostbear that boost ice affinity mastery to get a synergy effect and touch of toughness. I had to slow cook this thing for nearly a month, because if I cooked it touch degree higher it would just melt. My spiritual Ancient Iceflame was a big help with the cooking the meat without charring it. I quickly cut two large slabs and place each on a platter and set it on the table. Then I cause the roast to dissappear back into it''s storage crystal and sat down to enjoy the diner with my guest.


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    I can see she is truely enjoying the dinner as she lets go of her well crafted icy facade and lets the girl in her out. She slowly ramps up her chatting speed trying to gauge how far she could go before becoming an irritation. As her chatterbox nature slowly matures as we eat, I realize she acts like a big sister as she inserts random questions along with her conversational chatter.


    Dealing with Mara all the time I learn to look for these hidden questions snuck in the dinner conversation on how I prepared and cooked the dinner to light interrogation of my life using the excuse of being the big sister to get some answers. Of course I repose back questions about her personal life acting the curiosity of a little brother, can''t have it going one way this soon. As we ping pong spiritual cooking with personal questions we develop a fairly good sketch of each other.


    Of course we don''t pry too deeply into each others secrets, just enough to show respect for each other''s mastery. With dinner over I inquire "big sister Nissi, our agreement was if I provide you a diner to your liking, then you would give me a lesson on arrays. You had nothing but praise thoughout the dinner so I believe I have fullfilled my part of the bargain."


    Nissi looks at me somewhat miffed and states "I didn''t know you are a master of spiritual cooking, that like cheating!" But then she smiles and licks her chops in rememberance and gives "fine! So what does my little brother need help with?"


    I announce "basic late tier seven arrays!" Thus started my daily array lessons tought by the only grandmaster in arrays residing in Karvallus at the moment. The payment is a slice of Kadyshun Frostbear and a bottle of Midwinter''s Gale before each lesson has cause my mastery to shoot up in noticable advances. Learning the new arrays and techniques is a whole lot easier with a grandmaster teaching me, and she even taught me some useful basic array variants to delay for extra meals.


    In the end she ate up half my stock to give me a decent grasp on the new techniques and a good step forward in mastery of each of the new basic arrays. I almost laugh as she was sad to go because there was nothing more to teach me. To satisfy her glutiny nature I toss over the Kadyshun Frostbear''s storage crystal as a bonus for given me her knowledge of basic arrays for the past month caused her big sister looking face to light up as she snatches at the approaching crystal with unabash greed.


    I had also given her a copy of my display crystal since she liked the view so much, but had to cut the month long recording to only the first couple of days to create an all in one display crystal. My current set up using two crystals so I can view the entire month, besides this isn''t the only recording crystal I have. So I need one to breach the appearance formation, link to a recording crystal, display recording and finally boost visual reality with a illusionary array.


    To give her an excuse to come visit me I hand out "if you ever come across a fresh corpse of a Kadyshun Frostbear, bring it to me and I''ll cook it for you for half the meat." Of course nothing is for free like Mara taught me and will take half the meat for my troubles. This has become my standard farewell line, asking experts to bring me something to cook the next time they see me. Of course for those into cultivation wines, I would replace it with something like if you find a wine recipe you want to try then bring me the ingredients I will make half a batch for you.


    There are plenty of cultivation wine recipes sold at auction houses, so finding one for your stage of cultivation is rather easy. However finding the ingredients for higher stage wines can be troublesome, but stage five and six ingredients is easy enough to buy.


    She smiles and goes with "little brother is too kind! I''ll make sure to visit when I can." I guess she is a half the meat is better than no meat cheerful person. These kind of people are so much easier to deal with so I don''t mind have to call this hundreds of unknown number of years my big sister. I guess because she looks like a big sister that I didn''t mind doing what she asks.


    But I didn''t expect her to actually act like a big sister and the game we play is to casually probe around for answers. My first impression of her is fairly good, big sister aside, I find her playful and comfortable to be around. Not to mention her stomach is too easy to please for future lessons, I can tap her knowledge all the way to late stage eight if I keep feeding her to stay on her good side.


    I can already think of a few ice affinity improving dishes, pills and wines, so I take out a memory jade and place them in order of usefulness and titled the jade ''Big Sister Nissi'' Then I take out another memory jade and record the raw materials and call for a serving girl to take it to management.


    I should be able to get all the items soon and I even picked sea type demonbeasts for the dishes. Why procrastinate when I can hand messages off to servants who do all the leg work. The serving girl is a cute late stage five practioner so I give her a tier six resource as her tip. She brighten up as her day is made and bows deeply and offer "thank you young sage"


    I laugh and supply "you servants always work hard for me so I have no choice to but to treat you well." Her pay is probably a few tier five resources and access to the auction house''s cultivation chambers. She can exchange her tip into a giant gift basket of tier five resources, so watching her face light up is a really good feeling.


    It''s a bit of an overbearing tip, but I like seeing those fun expressions, besides how else do I spend tier six resoures from the bandits I killed in my travels. Sure I can exchange it, but I don''t feel like going though all void containers I''ve collected so far.


    I sigh, because I always come up with more work for myself. I begin setting up a formation to organize and separate items, another layer to do the same for resources, a layer for weapons, one for protective gears, and a last for qi emitting artifacts. With an after thought I decide to add one more layer to divide for spiritual foods and cultivation wines. After that I crafting a basic spirit formation to oversee the formation and to open the void containers and even gave it two power layers to help breach any security formations some void containers may have.


    I put the entire set up into a formation crystal to create a permanent tool and activate it off to the side and hand over all my spare void containers I''ve looted. I let auto sorter formation go to work and I head back to center to work on my late tier seven array mastery. Just two more advances to get to tier eight arrays, I am getting a little excited to reduce my layers spiritual cost and thus increase the number layers I could put in each formation.

 Chapter Twenty - Spirit Assisted Flying Craft Prototype

    Due to big sister Nissi help in my basic understanding in late tier seven arrays, I was able to satisfy the requirements to start working on late tier eight artificing arrays. However what is interesting is that one of the new late tier seven arrays is called Stronghold, which basically allows me to build small defensive building about the size of a three bedroom two story house with a basement.


    So I decided I create a square two story building with extra thick walls, and thin horizonal windows on the second floor. The only entrance is the main iron door that has been inset one feet deep so as to allow a iron bar gate to serve as first line of physical defense. I then covered the outer and inner surfaces with layers upon layers of protective restrictions and basically used every type I knew and their variants to create two separate defensive restriction barriers.


    Next I raise a late tier seven formation barrier one foot from the house''s surface to serve as the first line of defense against qi attacks. I use seven power layers to give the barrier the energy reserves needed for a long siege. A final layer to purify the air for toxins thus insuring I always have clean air to breath. With that in mind I toss a few more purification restrictions on the building, you can never be to careful when dealing with toxic attacks.


    I then craft four killing arrays on the four roof corners and gave each a protective barrier to make it even more difficult to disable them. On each outside wall I place two array generators and refine a stage eight demonbeast cores, the generators would read the recorded data from the cores and replicate the demonbeasts so serve as guardians. I could link them all to a single profile, but I decided that a variety of guardians was better than a troop of a single type. So I made sure each had a different elemental affinity and a few cores I had even had dual elements. Each generator uses eight power layers just to create each guardian and provide them enough qi to fight immediately.


    Then I crafted a house spirit formation and tailor it as a butler to provide round the clock security to warn me of any guest or intruders nearby. After that I spend the next few days interior decorating using the basement as a workshop and storage. I turn the first floor for entertaining guests I design the room to look like a ledge on a side of a mountain with a hotspring in the corner where you can soak and look out over the vista. The appearance restriction show a grand vista of the mountain ledge over looking a lake surrounded by an ancient forest. The upper floor I put in two bedrooms and a master suite in the back.


    Once satisfied I put it all into a large formation crystal so I have a permanent tool to summon a mobile base and called it ''Tower.'' Then I went ahead and made a copy for Mara and then I made an extra using only stage seven demonbeast cores to see what it could sell for.


    Since I''m stuck in Karvallus for another month, even though the city has been good to me. I find my wonderlust starting to kick in, so I solve this be deciding to work on upgrading my flying chair. First of all I want a structure around me that has some intelligence to grasp simple flight instructions I give it. So that means an advance spirit formation and I''ll even use a peak eight flying demonbeast Helldrake core that was used to win one of my auctions to serve as base starting profile for the spirit''s mental abilities with dual fire and wind affinity.


    Since the core retains the demonbeast inherit knowledge gain from it''s living host body, the spirit formation I''m creating will have all of it''s living experience at it''s disposal and completely loyal to me. Now I just need to build it''s physical body, add in a workshop and some guest rooms, a kitchen and staff quarters, and finally an armory and storage area.


    Scratched that, I just remembered I learn Subspace Formation and I''ll just toss the entire living area of the ship in subspace of a slice of any world I can think of to impress any guest that I may end up escorting somewhere. Which mean I just need a small craft to house this chair and an area for the formation portal to the subspace. Plus a kitchen for my spiritual cooking and a cargo hold.


    Something came to mind right away, it was in one of the chambers inside the Alchemist Tomb. I had stumbled upon an underground hotsprings where the light filtered down though roof from a giant crystal. The top of this crystal extend though hundreds of meter though solid rock to the surface above. Sunlight is past though the crystal to illuminate this hidden hotspring. There is even a small water fall directly ahead where the water splash on a rocky ledge and filter down to pour into the hotspring to cool the right side of the hotsprings to manageable level to be able to soak in. Then excess water leaks to my right where I see a crack in the floor allowing the water to drain away.


    So I created that memory of the underground hotsprings with a illusion formation. To the right of the hotsprings I see a shallow cave about the size of a large courtyard. I step into the cave looking around I see there is room to put about ten doors. I walk to the very back of the cave and extend the illusion to create a door and I step though. As my thoughts expand to the type of room I wanted, the illusion follows my wishful thinking and create a variety of rooms.


    I dismiss many until I come up with a three step room, basically the ledges of space where the first half of the room is to form by two triangles. Third ledge is the last half the of rectangler room is where I''ll put a bed. I make the entrance the right corner of the two triagles, if I step down I enter the entertaining area. I continue forward creating the rough outline of the room as I head toward the third square ledge.


    As I enter and step up into the bedroom I finalize it''s dimensions. Then I turn around to look into my room and watch the square lines morph into natural stone seen from the hotspring area. I even allow the giant crystal to extend into room from a small expose crystal in the cealing to light the center of the first area up but allow streaks of expose crystal on wall to my right and some of the cealing.


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    I give the room a final appraisal, changing the surface to look more natural and rounded the edges of the ledges more. Once satisfied with the over all look of the cave room, I finalize the formation and link it to the hotsprings formation. After that I step out of my bedroom and I see I can put four doors to my right and six doors my left without looking too crowded. So I went ahead and built ten guest rooms simular to my bedroom in having a natural stone look but each with different dimensions.


    The small area directly facing my bedroom I install a kitchen area for my spiritual cooking and in the couryard I create two long dining tables. I make the tables look like water carved them into long slabs still connected to the floor near the guest rooms. The long slabs extend towards the hotspring like a horizonally growing stalagmites trying to reach the hotspring, then I shave off the top halves to make tables out of them.


    I give all the new formations one final check before finalizing them and linking them to the hotspring formation. Then I took out a high quality formation crystal and carefully instill the formation into it to create an artifact tool to replicate the formation without me needing to do it all from scratch again. I gave it the simple name ''Underground Hotsprings'' to avoid searching though my growing stock of formation crystals to find the right tool because I gave it a stupidly good name. To that end I started rename old tools when ever I have a use for them to make my life easier down the line.


    At first I used something like my tower to fly in, but I found that the square tower would shake do to the wind shear. But discovered that if I controlled the flying Tower from one of the corners, the shaking would be reduced. So I need something like a ship bow to cut through the wind drag and that takes me to a small sailing ship.


    However the top of the ship create another form of wind drag, sure I could place a barrier around it to solve that problem. But I wanted a flying craft that can actually fly well in a combat situation where the barrier may be down. So I decided to do a ground up approach and make a prototype of my new flying craft able to at least fly decently well.


    So I cut the top off the two ships and upend one on top of the other, then I used a formation to fuze the two hulls together. I force a door to appear in the back end and entered, as I move forward I use a formation to recyle the wood except the hull which I made smooth on both sided to make it easier to inscribe certain protective formations. Then I begin laying a simple floor and made a pair cabins on the sides. I add stair going up for to lead to a kitchen and the subspace portal and stairs down for a storage area.


    I then encapsulate the entire project in a formation to refine it into a solid fused mass with out any joints or seams. Then refined it a second time to make it into a more robust air tight non flamable material and lighter weight. Then I add in all the protective formations and restrictions I knew to give the craft a well rounded dual defense that the tower had. With an emphasis on air and lightning affinity defense. I put in an array to provide fresh clean air inside the craft.


    For offense I install six killing arrays to provide me a spherical killing field, two pairs on the lower sides and a pair on top. Then I install four generators on top and used an armored aerial early stage eight demonbeast core of a Thisselesion Skywing and had all four generators link to the recorded profile.


    After that I did the customary outer defense barrier for the first line of qi defense and anti corrosion restriction coating. I look at my bland creation and put up an illusionary formation to make it look like a small floating island. A dozen revelers dance and sing on top while leaving a rainbow trail, then I create a restriction to produce sword hymms while moving. This should be good for a laugh or two, I''ll make something better after running this prototype into the ground.


    I created a formation to allow me to see outside of the ship and use a copy of the comfortable large ornate chair I used for my flying sword chair to sit on when viewing the outside world. With an after thought I link the view of the floating island with the inside appearance restriction so I can turn the first and second floors invisible to see the outside world.


    Time to do the heavy work and I start working on the main restrictions to get this craft flying. First thing I do is put a levitation restriction to lift the craft off the ground, and the best I can do is lift it barely off the ground by two meters. Since it is too heavy so I put in a reverse gravity array on the hull that gave it the lift I wanted when I max out the layers for extra lift power. Now that I solved the vertical issue, I put in a flying formation to move the craft in any direction with access to the gravity restriction to control height.


    Finally I gave the Helldrake craft spirit access to the flying formation and gave it flying and landing instructions which included rules for offense and defense. Once link it to the killing arrays and formation generators, I had the spirit activate them to make sure all the connections are solid.


    To satisify my wonderlust, I take a quick flight every day to hunt aerial demonbeasts. I was satisfied with my spirit assisted flying craft prototype. With an after thought I put in a security restriction to protect access to the craft spirit and keyed in me and Mara as it''s masters.


    I pull out an expensive high quality formation crystal and put in a void restriction and use all the extra layers for space expansion to to make it big enough to store my new flying ride and enough room for three more. I named the crystal ''Flying Thrones'' because of the favorite big compfy chair I molded near the front that I can sit when I want to manual fly the craft. It''s not that I want to fly, but you never know when I have guests that I don''t want to mingle with and can pretend the craft spirit''s connection the the flight restriction was damaged.


    Options, always leave yourself options, especially when dealing with people you don''t like. That is what I learned from playing with Mara, she keeps me on my toes. I would normally just ignore people I don''t care for, but that not good all the time. So options are a better ploy to use to avoid dealing with troublesome people.


    Of course my flying island became the talk of Karvallus, since few artificers have the spiritual force neccessary to build enough formation layers to get even a small craft aloft. So I ended up having a new list of stage eight customers asking me to build them a flying craft.


    I am beginning to regret my curiosity leading me to create useful tools from myself since I ended up getting neck deep in customers every time. Mara just laughs at me and adorably hugs me and ask when she will get a copy of the new flying toy...

 Chapter Twenty One - Murder for Fun by Another Race

    Life has been good here in Karvallus, though the Grand Auction was kind of a let down since I didn''t need to participate. It''s funny though, my auctions seems to attract more attention due to the all the late and peak stage eight experts. Most cultivators never expected to see any of them in their short lives, but here they come to pack the top row of vip booths and tossing nothing but respect towards someone of the younger generation.


    It''s still gives me the laughs when I think about my new seniors after each of my weekly shows. My terrifying success rate crafting has stunned most of them senseless. I start hearing the whispers ''that only the legendary Alchemists and Artificers of the early period of the last era has finally been awaken in our era'' whenever I come out of my shell of a workshop.


    The most popular rumor goes ''his arrivial may be the dawning of a new era, the era of Drake of the Northern Clans.'' This only makes me wonder what master would think about this fame, but my reason is to get my name out there so when he reincarnates I will meet him when he wants an artifact from me. I decided to do it this way encase he has forgotten about me due to issues with his reincarnation. Knowing master, he would definitely want the best artifacts available.


    So I finally got my first stage of my plan successfully going to be able to meet with master someday. Now then on to the second stage, to provide master with a welcoming present. What''s a good gift for an alchemist? Well hell, a fully stocked void ring of the recipes he will need to master to complete the failed tests we manage to discover during our separate attempts.


    I''m sure he will be itching to go back there and I have already figure out one recipe. Karvallus Auction House has been amazing in gathering many rare materials I would have difficult time finding. The seafolk auction house in Karvallus has existed in the middle of the last era so their reputation is unparrelal in the auction world.


    Later I would learn that all the old auction houses in this era was still founded in this era, so they all show a great deal of respect for the Karvallus Action House. So when they sent my grand list to be posted and updated when ever I ask for something new to each auction house in the world. The entire cultivation world goes in an uproar as they search my ingrediants just because they wanted to see what else I could create that was lost from the war that ended the last era.


    When the news I me building a floating island as a new type of ride, the cultivation world celebrated for a week. The idea of living first hand with someone of the younger generation building his own era among the top rank experts of the world has made everyone estatic.


    Of course people wonder why no elders step forth to claim of being one of my instructors and no clan or sect claim responsibility either. The world search but could only find one reference ''of the Northern Clans'' which was used by my founding ancestor who was famous for being the grandmaster artificer to ascend to the next dimension in the last era.


    Next we arrive at my secret goal in this life, to ascend and pay respects to my founding ancestor. I want him to be proud that one of his own decendants has ascended and is also a grandmaster in artificing. I can''t wait to see what kind of look he is going to give me, and this make me smile.


    I''ve talked to many of these new customers and have pretty much confirmed all the known information about breaking though to stage nine and only proved what master knew as truth. So nothing has changed, the five stage nine experts in this world have withdrawn from the world and have put all their efforts on how to break though the dimension of this world. By breaking though the dimension they will become stage ten experts and ascend to a higher dimension.


    Each era showed a decline of ascension to only three last era and only one has ascended this era. Now everyone is waiting to see which of the five will ascend next. However, there has been increasing number of Voidwalkers entering this world causing massacres among the cultivators until stage eight experts arrives to drive them away.


    People are beginning to talk about it as the start of another era ending war, Voidslayers will continue to invade this world because this consider the inhabitants of this world as prey. When cultivators of this world starts getting too strong they come to purge the world of all cultivators above stage six. Because all the peak stage eight expert are in Karvallus for my auctions, they decide to hold a War Council to talk about the increasing raids to our world.


    As a stage eight expert, I was able to attend and listen to information master never knew as a stage seven cultivator. I found out the Voidslayers use this world as training grounds for their younger generation as horrific tales of their butchery plague the world all over. However, they always strike places away from our stage eight experts and disappear back to their dimension before any help could arrive. Life outside the dominion of a stage eight expert is barbaric as death can approach at any time and at any place.


    Each of these Void Wars as the mortal realm calls them, the Voidslayers have allow more stage six cultivators to survive. The War Council believes the Voidslayers are still tweaking out how much to cull us to increase the number of stage eight cultivators they can prey on for their next war. Because they have always met our stage eight experts by exactly double in numbers.


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    It''s obvious the Voidslayers treat this world as stage seven danger zone and actively trying to tweak it to increase the difficulty level. Voidslayers cull though the cultivators after defeating our experts, but left half the stages six cultivators alive in the last war.


    Most of the stage eight cultivators in this world has gather in teams as they travel to each major fortress or Sect. They use all their arts to fortify each stronghold to help protect them from the rampaging Voidslayers. They gather their best disciples to the strongest fortresses since the Voidslayer like to let them survive for the next war and slaughter the rest.


    The dimensional Moongate will open for a month in random cycles that connect our dimension to the Voidslayer dimension. All the stage seven and eight experts in the world will fight at the Moongate to stop them from gaining a foothold. The first two Voidslayer Invasions taught the cultivators of this world they will massacred every time if they didn''t take these invasions seriously. In those first two invasions the Voidslayers slaughtered any cultivator above stage four.


    The first cultivator army changed all that during the third invasion. Even though they ended being completely massacred, they bought enough time so that many of their stage six disciples could survive to carry on their legacy. Because of their sacrifice, all future invasions were called the Voidslayer Wars. Though many still call it the End of the Era Wars or simply the Void Wars.


    Our cultivators have yet to win a war, but due to their sacrifice many clans and sects retain their legacies. Unfortuneately, cultivators are becoming weaker because of declining qi in the world has also caused tier nine spiritual herbs to become extinct. Tier eight spiritual herbs have become even rarer to find, and the best hope to find such spiritual plants is to find them in hidden subspaces and remnants left by the ancients of previous eras.


    By following all historical records, the slowly increasing Voidslayer raids of their younger generation indicates our world has about a hundred years before the next Moongate opens. Because the Voidslayers are a dimensional beings, hiding in hidden subspaces have always failed. So every stage seven and eight expert will defend the Moongate, because fighting together is better than being hunted alone.


    Near the end of the meeting I asked to study a corpse of a Voidslayer, and several experts toss me void containers with various stage seven and eight Voidslayers protected by varius temporal stasis techniques. I have basically a century to figure something out and promise them all new weapons when I do.


    Although I can tell everyone is depress with death looming a century away, they feel grateful for my words. I can tell their fatalistic mentality is ''since we are going to die, let take as many of them with us.''


    I realize then these peak stage eight expert are here for my weapons for their final war. Sure they can go Kibari or Ruwafen for the same class of artifacts, but their success rate is considerable lower than mine. Besides I never auctioned anything lower than high quality artifacts, something those two artificing seniors still have trouble producing.


    In the end, I found myself fully supported by the War Council, and stockpiles of raw materials are suddenly allocated to me. It will take some time to gather the materials from secret stashes and delived to me, but I don''t mind since I still need time to improve my artificing and arrays. Which now becomes a high priority, my goal now is to forge peak tier eight artifacts infused with peak tier eight weapon arrays.


    Also I need to study the Voidslayer corpses to figure out their weaknesses and design new killing arrays. Of course, I can now ask any late or peak stage eight expert in arrays or artificing for lessons. The War Council has promise me all their help, they badly want peak tier eight weapons for their final battle.


    I can''t blame them, if I know I was going to be murder for fun by another race, I would want the best battle gears available and hope I can kill a few of them before I die. I was not expecting a Void War so soon and the only good note I see is that master will reincarnate after the war. With my short life, I will reincarnate before master, since it is a well known fact you spend time inside the reincarnation cycle equal to the time you lived.


    There is a peak tier eight soul array that can help me maintain my memories during the reincarnation cycle. So that is my major survival goal for me and I need to build a tomb to house my treasures and secrets. To that end, I purchase a small void storage at the Karvallus Auction House security vault keyed to my soul as serve as my basic legacy and treasure long term storage. It should be enough to get me restarted when I reincarnate, but I still need to build a tomb for final resting place for all the secrets I have learned.


    I used a long distance communication array to talk to my big brother Umbarath, and he knows a few good hidden underwater caverns I could use as a secondary legacy vault. But I still want to build a hidden tomb of my own, where no one even know of it''s existence.


    My carefree crafting life unexpectedly became a rush to master all that I can. Already ideas pop in my head, but I disregard most of them as they should have been tried already. So I sent in a request for the history of the Voidslayer wars and what the cultivators of this world have tried against our enemies.


    I also set up additional lessons from big sister Nissi. I could have just have the War Council order her to teach me, but I already have a decent relationship with her and consider her a friend of sorts. So I started on my list of improvements for ice affinity to hook her into providing me additional lessons.


    I also have Mara work on her cultivation, after telling her about the Voidslayers. She all for becoming a stage eight expert, and I toss in a early stage eight duo cultivation technique called Epiphany to Estasy as incentive.


    I watch her face light up more than my spiel about Voidslayers and hand over her a five pattern tier seven nirvana breakthough pill. She still has a way to get to peak, but the pill should remove any doubts of her future breakthough. Besides, I fully intend to support her breakthough when the time comes.


    The War Council issues orders to prepare for the next Voidslayer War causes the world to shift into a war footing. Many of the stage seven experts disappear into close door cultivation while other search for lucky chances. Stage eight expert prepare their legacies and negotiate for their best disciples to live in the strongest fortresses.


    For stage seven and eight experts, one hundred years is just too short of a time.

 Chapter Twenty Three - Do not Open until I Become an Old Man

    Umbarath sends word that a undersea remnant is opening up soon and invites Mara to attend as it should be ideal for Mara''s current cultivation. So I prepare to send Mara off to who knows where and find myself having a few weeks to look for some trouble. So after searching the auction house''s information service, I decide to head to a mountain range known for large number of stage eight demonbeasts once Mara is escorted away.


    It''s called the Fangs of Surakang, these jagged mountain peaks cover rough circle about nine thousand miles across. It''s obvious that a huge meteorite blasted these mountains to great heights during the early years of the Era of Transendance. Now it is teeming with demonbeast and the surrounding Fangs of Surakang imprisoned the demonbeasts in the crater creating an self contained environment.


    The peak stage eight demonbeast have created their own factions and war for resources and territory. It is said that a powerful sect once ruled the crater but vanish after the destruction of their era. Two eras have pass, and no news of anyone ever finding the sect''s stronghold. Even the name of the sect has been lost in time.


    The Fangs of Surakang is a famous danger zone for mid stage eight and higher practitioners. Since lucky chances and danger are like lovers, I had crafted my first set on tier eight defensive gears while we had waited for the undersea renmant to open. Not only I had new defensive gears, I also finally finished upgrading my inner world.


    One supreme and eight high quality Dragon Veins deliver close to ten times the normal world qi for my inner world. Suffix it to say, the abundant qi has turned many creatures in my inner world into demonbeasts. I had even put bounties on living demonbeast that''s good for eating so I can seed my inner world with such tasty creatures.


    Since these future meals have higher cultivation than the newly emerging demonbeasts of my inner world, they easily carve out an existence for themselves. I even manage to get big brother Umbarath to score me a few schools of demonfish to inhabit some of the larger lakes. They are a bit on the small side, but Umbarath say give them a couple of decades and I can start cooking them. He even manage to capture a pair of young sea serpents, and I hope they will someday breed.


    As for the beastgirl twins, they have become rather friendly towards me, as I had given them pills to make all their wounds and scars vanish. Then crafted pills to regrow their missing fur and even provided them with custom made peak tier seven equipment. These gears serve as incentive to cultivate and break though to stage seven.


    Their cultivation have rise quickly once I installed the Dragon Veins, now they are trying to solidify their peak stage six cultivation. I had given them both a tier six nirvana breakthough pill and a tier seven foundation pill. I can see they can''t wait to make a breakthough so they can try out their new equipment.


    Although the grand auction ended a month ago, I''m still here on the island because it constantly provides me with what I need to craft. All the late and peak stage experts are still here hoping to have me craft additional artifacts for them. So they happily make farming runs to the main continent to deliver me materials and demonbeasts for cooking.


    I watch as nearly every day a skyship will arrive bearing gifts from powerful sects from all over the world. The auction house had made a grand list of items I wanted and spread that list across the world. So now I look forward to the arrival of each skyship to see what interesting presents they may deliver to me.


    But staying on the island for so long has made my wunderlust burn fiercely. So when Mara was invited to a stage seven undersea remnant, I nearly exploded in tears and took the island teleporation gate as soon as Mara was escorted from my side. I had given her a several jade tokens for protection and a few for attacking as well. I even crafted her a full set of peak tier seven equipment for additional protection, including a spear, a bow and a sword for use against water affinity demonbeasts as we waiting for he seafolk escort to arrive.


    It''s not that I want to leave Mara''s side, I just need to find my own lucky chances as my cultivation has not made any movement for so long. So I happily take the opportunity to try my luck and headed for Fangs of Surakang.


    I was camping and in the middle of cooking up a stage six Kolvari Shellboar when the edge of my divine sense is intruded upon by a group of six cultivator moving fast. So I shifted postion to get a good view of the possible incoming entertainment when I discover a second larger force hot on the heels of the first group.


    The first group is made up of five stage six guards escorting their peak stage five young master wearing those gaudy clothes I saw from the last city where the noblemen seem to favor wearing. I see the nobleman glance my way but has no intentions of involving me in his plight and continues to move across my field of vision. My eyes tells me he is wearing some kind of artifact that misdirect appraisal and divining attempts on him. He could be a old expert with that kind of artifact protecting his identity.


    So I reach up and slice off a chunk of meat and let it disolve in my mouth for a taste. It''s good as I feel my stamina and toughness take a tiny move in the right direction. Satisfied with how the cooking turned out, I pluck a jug of Burning Murkavien from my ring as I feel it would go best of the spiritual meal I just cooked up and settle in watch the show before me.


    A new cultivator arrives before the fleeing group stopping them cold, he is a late stage six cultivator and the guard captain is only at mid stage six. So the fleeing group has no choice but to stop and defend themselves. I glance over to the new comer and his outfit is familiar, so I go over all the friendly factions I know but recieve no hits in my memory.


    Then I switch over to neutral factions then into enemy factions and finally got a hit, the outfit belongs to the faction from that trash that attack Mara after my visit in the Alchemist Tomb so my voice drums the air "fellow cultivators, you are disturbing my dinner, leave before I take action!" and I take another bite of the savory meat.


    The late stage six expert looks my way and is surprise to see me cooking a stage six demonbeast but then offer "this is none of your business boy, you should learn not to interfere with your betters."


    But I reply "it is my business when you take action inside my divine sense range."


    The young nobleman gives politely "my apologies.... master chef, I would leave if I could but I am afraid these trash won''t let me go" and even goes as far as cupping his hands and give a short bow of apology.


    I couldn''t help but smile at his polite ways despite his predicament, so I hand out to the braggart "you belong to that faction that was destroyed a few months ago for attacking my disciple, you really have some balls to threaten me!" With that I charge up an early stage seven earth and fire battle skill called Stonespiker.


    The braggart looks at me as if seeing a ghost and stammer out "yyou wwere the oone to destroy my clan?!" But unfortuneately for him my answer erupted below him as the ground around him erupted with a dozen super heated stone spikes that pierce him from all directions locking him in place. The earth qi formed into solid stone spikes roughly three meter long and about six inches thick, while the fire qi randomly adhere to the spikes forming tiny pockets of lava that begin roasting him alive.


    His screams lasted a breath of time as he did his best to break the confining stone spikes, but his late stage six battle strength could only scratch the surface of the early stage seven spikes before he finally turned into ash. The young nobleman looks like he might lose his lunch after seeing a man roasted alive. The group hunters started to back away in fear realizing I am a lot stronger that expected. So I lock them all down by pouring qi to create an early stage eight oppression and force them down to their knees.


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    I have also been discreetly probing the young nobleman''s protection restrictions and soon realize he is not an old master in hiding as he has not detected my probes. So I go full bore and send over my breaching restrictions to see who he real is, of course the first layer is the new stealth restriction I added to my repertoire of mastered restrictions.


    The stealth restriction I recently aquired at last auction house is a peak late stage eight array and rather devilish to make. It has invisibilty, misdirection, camoflage, dislocation, Ilusionary, and infiltration layers to afford it some serious protection against detection. The remaining four layers is just a qi bank for each of these layers to use when needed, with stealth in place I can even fool a peak stage nine expert with no knowledge in arrays with my current cultivation. If I were to raise to peak stage eight I could fully power up this stealth restriction, then I could fool a mid stage ten cultivator who hasn''t spent time learning about arrays.


    Since this guy is not an old master, it should be a piece of cake to breach those restrictions to see who he really is without him knowing I did it. You just don''t present me a restriction puzzle and expect me not so satisfy my curiosity. I begin stripping though the outer defense restrictions and my divine sense focus on what my curiosity has led me.


    The part of my awareness that has taken to backseat notice the qi fallout cause by various help tokens being broken among the group of hunters peaks my interest as I wonder who is going to show up. I then take a long swig from my jug in my left hand before reaching over to cut me another slice of Kolvari Shellboar. I realize the qi pressure from my divine sense as I continue to lockdown the hunters is the culprit of the activation of those tokens.


    The young nobleman and his guards face me in parade stance and show me the utmost respect. As I take a bite of the meat I see the last defense restrict layer is breached and I enter the first concealment layer. At the same time I see a portal opening up behind the kneeling hunters.


    Three elders arrive and pale at my oppressive might and suddenly found themselves kneeling as well. The strongest is a mid stage seven, so I directed my oppressive might to include the new arrivals. The second concealment layer is an illusionary layer that simulated the physical appearance that everyone sees.


    A weak stage seven elder squeeks out "senior, please forgive these disciples if they offended you." I send over a qi slap that sent the elder sprawling.


    "They did not, but you just did, how dare you insult me!" I stand up and presented myself and continue "what part about me screams at you that I am an old man?" I allow qi to build around me causing my aura to madly spike and then I let my killing intent burst forth in rage.


    I watch the body bouncing off the ground a few before rolling face up about nine meters away against a rock. This explosed the remnant of his left face, the qi slap had turned a palm size imprint on his face into blood mist. Explosing the man''s fractured skull, his labored breathing is sure signs he is barely alive. The mid stage elder provides "my most profound apologies young master! My fellow elder meant no disrespect, he meant you being his senior in cultivation."


    Seeing Slapface''s final breath I drop my qi build up and reign in my killing intent and go with "people who can''t the time to take stock of a situation don''t deserve to be called an elder. The situation here has occured because these two groups of people have invaded my dinner. The stakes are currently going against you because your side has insulted me twice while this young nobleman has treated me with the utmost respect given only to a respected superior officer." The second concealing layer is a misdirection layer so I drop two layers of power to burn though the restriction labyrinth as fast as possible.


    The artifact in question is the innerwear the noble is wearing, and since my breaching array strip though all it''s restrictions to take temporary control of mastery. It gave me a view I wasn''t expecting, my curiosity allow to take this snapshot of a vision of a fairy wearing a very shear see though innerwear. I can see everything and know she is a rare beauty comparable to Mara as her cultivation is early tier six and has locked own her appearance at such a tender young age. I withdrawl my divine sight knowing that vision is permanently etch into my stage eight perfect memory and I couldn''t help think way to go to my curiosity for finding me such a jewel of a memory.


    I glare at the sealed memory restriction that I labled ''Do not open until I become an old man or until my curiosity gets the better of me'' I see that a third item has been placed in it and wonder what it could be before tossing it back of my mind as the hunter''s new speaker interrupts my train of thought an offers "my apologies for the second offense young master, please allow us to withdraw so we won''t bother you anymore" and tosses his void ring toward me as his ante towards peace.


    The simple void restriction are easy to see though and with a glance I was somewhat impressed by some of the items store in his void ring. Which made respect the man, he just handed over the efforts of his life time over to me just to save these disciples so I went with "fellow cultivator, it''s hard not to respect an elder dedicated in protecting his younger generation. You may withdrawl" and I turn my attention to the nobleman as I removed my oppressive might on the hunters, they give a quick bow and escape as fast as they can.


    I watch him cups his hands and give me a formal bow and offers "thank you young master for saving me! If there is anything I can do, please don''t hesitate to ask." I am staring at his protective restriction and wondering why I have not tried to breach it, then this thought crosses my mind, I was going to but I was angered of being thought as an old man and I lost interest in breaching his restrictions and diverted the qi into a qi slap instead.


    Since he being respectful I decide not to indulge me curiosity and hand out "you seem to be a nice fellow, why don''t you join me for a quick bite and tell me what you think of my cooking."


    He goes "I don''t want to impose since your my benefactor," it''s obvious he want to get moving at put as much distance from the hunters as soon as possible, it''s very noobish thinking and decide he is really green, maybe this is the first time he''s come outing?


    I give a smile of should I help, and go with "your forgetting one thing, if you eat a meal with me, I become your brother for a day. Just take a quick bite with me and they can''t touch you for a day without provoking me."


    As that idea hit''s home behind his widening eyes, I adjusted my divine sense and can feel a wisp of divine sense from that speaker still lingering around. So I pull out a simple chair for the nobleman to sit in and gesture ''it''s your move'' as I cut myself another slice of meat and basically slurp it down as it instantly turn to a soft warm thick liquid in my mouth.


    From the corner of my eyes I see him bow and utters "thank you for inviting me for dinner."


    He acts rather shy, so that pushes the boundry of newbish further and I go for the kill "this must be new to traveling, I can see from your nervousness. I won''t bite, just sit down and relax and take a bite on this" and I cut a slice off the roast and put is on a plate and hand it to him. If he was older I wouldn''t bother with a plate, but nobles are kind of finicky there, so I pulled out a plate for him.


    He seems grateful and offers "I heard of demonbeast chefs, but never tried any of their delicacies," and takes what appears to be a single nibble from that slab of meat.


    I laughed heartily and command "that''s no way it eat that, you have to bite off the biggest chunk you can to get the full effect." I watch him hesitantly comply and see his face light up in understanding and see him devour the slice in a blink of time.


    He looks at me and hand out "that was the best meat ever! It melts in my mouth with such rich flavors. Then it invades my body and feel my stamina and toughness shoot up! Young Master! May I know your name?"


    He''s looking a little pitiful so I decide to go with "Drake..." Then I remember what my bloodline ancestor used to introduce himself in his youth. As his direct decendant I would be entitled to use it as well, so when talking to noblemen who attached to where you hail from to their names I add in "of the Northern Clans."


    I seem his thinking hard but finally puts out "you must come far for I have never heard of such people." I couldn''t help but think my name is spoken everywhere, where has this nobleman been hiding?


    I wave that thought away and cut off another slice of meat and gulp it down with satisfaction. Then look at the shy young man try to give a confidance boost by offering "if you want more then help yourself." I head back to my chair for a drink and watch how long it take to gather his nerves to get up. I was rather surprise to see he nervously got off the chair and make he way to the roast. Then I watch him gingerly slice off some meat and timidly backs towards his seat.


    As I alternate between chewing off a chunk from my thick slab of steak and taking a deep dose of the Murkavien. I watch this young man walk back and forth as he slices off several bites of meat at a time so I offer "hey, don''t cut off tiny slices at a time, cut them like this" and I shake my slab of steak when I see him get up for the fifth time.


    This startles him but then I see him nod in understanding and he finally cut himself a decend slab of steak. Then I see him nibble away that steak in record time and then goes "so that''s how it is! I understand now young master chef!"


    I got up and slice a large hunk off and place it in a temporal shift crystal and toss it to the young man and state "eat that someday and remember that you owe me one day calling me brother."


    Then I pack the rest of the roast in another crystal and toss it into my ring. I call out my new flying throne and begin taking off, I glance over to the young noble and hand out "cultivate well and maybe I can collect that day." I see him and his guards cup their hands and bow deeply as I leave, but I finally see recognition is the nobleman''s eyes.

 Chapter Twenty Four - Hydroxian Venomfang

    As I fly over the giant maw of the Fangs of Surakang and enter it''s belly, I see a ring of forest along the edge of the surrounding mountains and a central plain of grass and lakes. Before I could explore my divine sense picks up a spiritual plant I can use and fly over and disembark from my flying throne and pocket it back into it''s crystal garage.


    I head on down to find a Embarca Flamemoss growning a top of a giant Flecio Barreltree, it''s has one of it''s long roots soaking in the barreltree''s liquid sap. It''s a mid stage eight spiritual herb with mastery in fire affinity. As soon as I come in range it begins tossing fire techniques at me. It''s surrounded by the corpses and old bones of the demonbeasts trying to gain it''s spiritual essense.


    So it''s no slouch in battle and never hesitates throw attacks at me just to keep me a bay. It gives me area of effect attacks mixed in with direct fire attacks. Looking at empty circle around it and the barreltree, it must have a trump card to stop anyone from entering that zone. I dodge it''s firebolt techniques as I fly over the short field of bones and close in on the piled circle of bones and rotting corpses around the barreltree.


    My divine sense filters through the earth below me looking for trouble, I notice the barreltree''s roots have extended this far to absorb the nutrients of the dead demonbeasts. So that is why the barreltree is so big. Even though the Embarca is drinking it''s store of sap, it''s gaining as it absorbs the dead demonbeast essence surrounding it.


    Realizing the trouble I send in an illusion of myself while I make myself fade invisible as if I was an after image. As soon as my illusionary self is about to enter the forbidden zone, an earth barrier explodes from the ground and encapsulates the entire barreltree. The Embarca unleashes it''s trump card and causes the entire barrier to explode forth with raging flames to burn to my illusionary self into qi fallout.


    As they stare wondering at the qi fallout I unleash Heavenly Decent a late tier eight spiritual battle technique and the entire sky drops down on them in a form of a spiritual crushing attack. Both reel in pain and shock as I feel their souls get flatten by the powerful soul attack. I don''t hestitate to unleash another gravity blast to their very souls.


    I see the Flecio leaves wilt a little as the soul attack slams home a second time and it''s soul falls unconscious. The flamemoss however has a sleightly better mental defense and hangs on as I feel it''s divine sense radiate nothing but hate at me. I do feel sorry for it, but it''s just too useful of a spiritual herb for alchemy.


    Especially for me because it''s one of the ingrediants for a tier eight foundation pill which I have not even used yet for myself. I harvested the subdued spiritual plant and carefully stored it away in a high jade storage case and put it next of my two Light of Divine. Then I drain the Flecio of it''s store of useful sap into a several empty cultivation wine barrels. I watch my newest spiritual herb in a multi layered sphere get a double dose of vitality from the Light of Divine and hope I can get more.


    This kind of greed is not too bad to have as I watch possessively at the energy brimming spiritual herbs around the Lights of Divine. I''ve taken the habit when I am about to craft pills to leave the ingrediants around the Lights of Divine to get them brimming with energy. The pills I now make cost me less energy to make and a whole new level of strength.


    Seriously, it''s easy to get five pattern pills now, and I just need to put in a little effort have six patterns. Since the herbs bathed in revitalizing light from both Light of Divine, they some how develope a minor affinity to each other. This has made fusing their essence a whole level easier than it should be. So much so that spiritualizing the pills has become so much easier.


    The pill spirits are even abit subdued, they no longer instantly try to escape after forming. So it''s now a simple matter to store them in a soul cleansing storage vials. Not many people can get their hands on two of them at the same time to experiment with the effects of having them on their stock of spiritual herbs. This leads me to wonder if the ancients alchemists did this to make their pills.


    So I put in that I still need more of them and the world goes bonkers wondering why I need still need more. Well I need two for master and two for Mara I explain silently to myself, I''ll only tell my secrets to those I consider family. I hear funny stories of cultivators on their misadventurers searching for my needs.


    After being publicly supported by the War Council, my needs for raw materials end up being delivered rather quickly these days. So my alchemy has finally broken through to early tier eight, finally I can start probbing early stage nine recipes to make. My natural talent for alchemy and master''s foundation techniques allows me to make pills one tier higher has made alchemy so much more fun to do.


    I can''t imagine if I was still stuck tier early tier eight pills, I don''t think alchemy would be as much fun. I would be near the top of the pecking order, but not as outstanding as I am now. When I put in word for early tier nine ingredients of well know recipes, the whole cultivation world went crazy.


    Later I found out everyone thought my alchemy was my secondary profession and thus should be the weaker skill. But I turned that viewpoint upside down when I ask for those ingredients, it proved that alchemy is my primary profession. Which meant I was just playing around with artificing, and that really bothered everyone in the artificing world.


    I really have to say my artificing is a cheat, when the bloodline spirit saw how powerful my spiritual force was. It decided to download into my spiritual force my ancestor''s entire memories on artificing. All I had to do was to train my body to be able use all those intricate refining technique. Those hand signals are a pain to learn, but never took more than a few days achieve mastery equal to my ancestor.


    After refining all the data store in my spiritual force, I was able to satisfy my crafting needs and only limited to my cultivation. As my cultivation advanced, I could start practicing new artificing techniques stored in my memory.


    As I traveled though the outer ring of forest of Surakang, I stop reminiscing when I sense that I was being stalked. Just a feeling as well as at the edge of my divine sense recieving vague intrusions. Whatever demonbeast is stalking me is very good at stealth tactics, since I could never get a handle on what ever it is. Despite setting up a few traps, but none of them was sprung, which leads me to believe it can detect my formations traps.


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    So I ended up using my trump card and I toss a feint formation trap followed by and another with a stealth formations to see if that would work. It did, and was surprised to see trapped in the formation cage a Hydroxian Venomfang who was attacking the restriction with all it''s might to escape the trap. It''s a vicious demonbeast with water and wind affinity that breaks out of the formation cage just as I arrive to see what I caught.


    It''s looks like a hyena hybred with its longer front legs giving it about five feet tall at it''s shoulders, and the head is close to seven feet tall. It''s has armored fish like scales covering the front half of it''s body and crocodile like skin for the later half of it''s body. It''s looks tough and many scars cover it armored hide, but most of the scars appear to be nothing more than scatches rather than actual wounds.


    It''s very angry at me and blurs towards me enraged, having already activated my gears earlier I match it for speed. It attempts to bite my head off with it''s first move which I avoided by jumping to my right. I then gave it a slash towards it''s side, but it becomes insubstantial and my sword flash though it''s suddenly incorporal form. It then twist around in a surprising quick turn around and attempts to bite my left leg off just below the knee. I jump over it''s low striking form and stab downwards to give it a new scratch to remember me by.


    Those overlapping fish scales are extremely tough and durable as I feel the tip of my blade slide around it''s armor hide without drawing blood. I twist in the air to land on my feet and continue exchanging lightning fast moves with this challenging adversary with exceptional defenses. I notice it''s drool cause the ground to sizzle and various plants to decay and turn black from poisonous rot.


    I keep my qi barrier at full strength to avoid the constant flying drool as it dances all over the place trying to land a successful bite on me. It''s obvious a top predator here and not used to stuggling so much for a meal. For my part, it''s not an edible creature and it''s also rather disgusting in both appearance and smell. But it does provide an interesting challenge, so I put up with it and do my best to enjoy the battle.


    It''s not everyday I can fight something tough enough to withstand my basic attacks. So I begin testing mid stage eight techniques for flaws. After several full exchanges I feel my battle techniques have become a bit smoother and the delay between moves are shorter. It''s only a small degree, but a battle between experts, these small improvements would go a long way.


    It''s a very cocky demonbeast and it''s drool is more troublesome than I thought. I get a few splatters on my qi barrier where it sticks and sizzles and tries to eat though my qi barrier. I am force to spend additional qi just to keep the corroding drool from eating though the barrier. It never gives up attacking me, I feel it don''t like losing and continues to go all out trying to turn me into it''s dinner.


    I avoid becoming it''s meal and eventually decided that my antics so far has given me all the benefits I could get. So I send qi into my sword and bring the game to a whole new level of play. It''s not happy to see my sword burning with excess fire and sword qi, but it''s does not back down and continues to try to make me it''s dinner. However, it now avoids my Burning Rage like it''s life depends on it.


    Our battle has turn into a battle of misses as we continue with more exchanges and nothing to show for it. This has turned into a battle of speed, and neither of us has manage anything note worthy to be proud of. However, I am learning to mix and match my defensive and offensive skills more effectively. I don''t fight nearly as much as I want lately, so I am getting a little rusty. So this demonbeast allows me to get back into my battle groove, and I am starting to appreciate the ugly beast for it''s endeavor on my behalf.


    When I finally had enough of fooling around with it, I finally go on the offense and begin tossing battle skills at it. Until now I been simply blocking it''s battle skills to make the battle last. However, it''s instincts are superb, and after tasting a couple of my battle skills it high tails itself out of sight. It used some kind of wind escape technique that I dare not follow in this place where stage eight demonbeast lurk every where.


    Our battle has no doubt attracted unwanted attention from demonbeast wanting to try fishing for an easy meal, so I obfuscate with a concealment formation and do my best to stealthly track the Vemonfang. Fortunately I was able to use some of it''s drool in a tracking formation to get a general directions to move by.


    With it''s wind affinity, the Venomfang has a huge hunting range and I travel a good distance before I find it''s lair up on a mountain ledge cave. I had notice when I first entered this danger zone, there was an ancient restriction which keeps any demonbeast born in the crater from leaving. This wouldn''t be a danger zone without that restriction and I have yet to find it''s source.


    I probe the cave with my divine sense and I recieve a growl in return. It''s sensitivity is extraordinary so I cut loose with mid stage eight battle skill called Earthen Embrace. This technique cause earth and stone to surround and crush my foes. It''s a perfect skill to use in a cave and I watch the cave entrance close like a giant maw and crush everything inside.


    However, an insubstantial Venomfang passes though the sealed entrance and lunges at me in fury for losing it''s home. I don''t understand why, my divine sense didn''t pick up anything of value in the cave. We begin our battle once again, but this time it''s definitely doing it''s best to kill me. I could have defeated several time it not for it''s ability to turn into a vaporish insubstantial form.


    We take turns using doing our best to kill one another, but we finally realize neither of us is going to be a winner any time soon. However, it did have an interesting trump card, a techinque that can cut anything in half. It even cut a stone pillar in half that one of my battle technique could not even scratch. I have pass dozens of these ancient pillars as I track the Venomfang to it''s lair.


    All I saw was a flash of fading light and an ancient pillar was cut in half. I had recording the image with my divine sense and spiritual force to analyze it later when I have the time. It also made me want to get it''s core to examine it''s technique by installing it into a generator. However the battle is getting us no where as time passes, and several stage eight demonbeasts have gather around us waiting kill the wounded.


    So in the end we both withdraw from battle and using our means dissappear from sight to recover our half spend qi. Neither of us was stupid to over spend when enemies begin gathering. But I won''t let this slid in the future, I fully intend to come back when I am stronger to finish this battle we started today.


    After escaping a fair distance, I began searching for any natural treasures and any clues on where that powerful ancient sect might have been hidden. Also I am interested in locating the restriction that keeps the demonbeast born in the crater from leaving. Since no one has found the sect remains after two eras, I don''t have any hopes in finding it. So I throw me efforts in finding the restriction, at least it would be rewarding to study to advance my restriction knowledge.


    Besides I''m here to scout out this danger zone, I don''t have time to thoughly explore it, so I record every thing with a recording jade. Next time I come here I will hunt down the Venomfang and thoughly explore the danger zone. So this time around I search for natural treasures and practice my battle skills.


    I do pick up several anomalies with my divine sense, but when I search their locations I can''t make any heads or tails of them. Obviously my divine sense is not strong enough to completely decipher what I am vaguely detecting. These key points I left in the recording jade and hope when I visit again, my divine sense would have increase by several notches and would be able to fulfill my curiosity.

 Chapter Twenty Five - I sent the Failed Pill to the Auction House

    The encounter with the Hydroxian Venomfang made me request from the War Council all information regarding dimensional techniques. I began studying dimensional techniques officially to develope techniques against the Voidslayers. But in reality, I was doing it so I can finish my battle with the Venomfang. I quickly mastered basic void techniques from a council member who was more than happy to teach me for a new weapon and I was given a complete copies of everything to do with dimensions.


    The first thing I needed was to create a containment zone, so I use a dimensional subspace with powerful dimensional anchors to lockdown the subspace. After testing my subspace trap with peak stage eight expert on dimensional movement, I was finally able to stop him from escaping the subspace. Then I improved it even further by adding a second lockdown layer of dimensional anchors to double the difficulty of breaching this formation. Then I decided to protect these layers by adding a defensive illusionary and misdirection layer.


    Of course the remaining layers are used to reinforce the first three layers of the formation to insure any breaching attempt would take a long time to succeed. Especially the Illusionary formation, I recently acquire Shifting Labyrinth which allow the illusionary formation to endlessly shift the path towards the exit after a set amount of time. Which means if it can''t be breach in a certain amount of time, the illusionary labyrinth would shift and have to restart the breaching all over again.


    The misdirection part of the formation just make it even harder to make the correct choices. As any choice will be filled with doubts, whether the choice is right or wrong. This simple delaying tactic is a perfect supporting layer for the Shifting Labyrinth. Of course there are plenty of time consuming traps scattered thoughout the labyrinth and a number of labyrinth beasts to keep an intruder busy.


    What is even more sneaky is that all the traps I put in the two lockdown layers will send them back into the start of the illusionary layer. I even added a couple of fake exits, exits that will send a breacher back to the start of a new labyrinth. Anyone attempting to breach this formation is going to curse me to no end. Once satisfied with my dimensional lockdown formation, I put it all into a high quality formation crystal to create myself a new tool.


    Next came the dimensional attack array, which was easy to create than I expected because there are versions of dimensional killing array for Voidslayers. So by adapting the killing array with a sample of the Venomfang''s drool, I was able to create a dimensional attack array specially tailored for the beast. Otherwise I would have to use an omni dimensional attack and hope for the best. However, with the Venomfang''s drool, I able to create a killing array that focus on the Venomfang''s own dimensional abilities.


    Realizing the Venomfang would be trapped in the subspace, I decided to turn the killing array from a directed attack to a wide area blast to effect the entire subspace. This dimensional shockwave should keep the Venomfang from attempting to breach the subspace formation by forcing it to defend itself every time the array powers up to launch an attack. I created a new killing tool for my Venomfang friend to enjoy.


    I recieve a door chime and opened up the barriers to see a hostess who smiles and hands out "welcome back young sage, I''m come to deliver your tier nine ingredients you ordered. We all wish you the best of luck!" She then give me a formal bow and backs out of the workshop.


    I give her a smile and offer "thank you, if I succeed I will throw a spiritual dinner party for my dear sisters!"


    Her face lites up and gives "us sisters will be praying for your success young sage!"


    Mara had recieved a message to meet her parents so I figure it time to make an attempt on tier nine alchemy. I don''t expect to make a pill, just going in to experience the new techniques for the first time. After all I have only been practicing the techniques in my mind, not going to waste materials without getting a good handle on them.


    When I created a spectral phenomenon a few hours after the delivery of the the tier ninth ingredients caused a world wide panic. Everyone especially the seven grandmaster of alchemy stared at wonder at spectral phenomenon only summoned by Divine Alchemist Talonrod until now. The idea that I didn''t need to clear the Alchemist Tomb to make tier nine pills shock the masses. Everyone thought I was just practicing my mastery and I inadvertently stepped into legendary status among the common people.


    I sent the failed pill to the auction house figuring someone would buy it. I consider it a failure because I didn''t get a pill marking. I want one one with some pill marking for the extra power, the more exquisite the better. The stockpile of ingredient sets they sent me is enough for about eight more chances. I''ll take the best there is in this batch and save the second for Mara, and hopefully craft a better pill before she has her breakthough.


    After making my first tier nine pill for healing, I gain a few insights and switch back for the rest of the day to modify the two techniques that I was given me a little trouble. The Molecular Rifting technqiue is similar to Dimensional Rifting in that you forcefully merge the two essence together. However, as you press the two essences together you merge the two elements as they continue to touch.


    Basically taking a molecular slice of each other to merged, doing it countless times until you completely rendering the two essences into a new material. But this time instead to creating a catalyst to effect a fusion, I am forcing merging the two essences together. As I use my spiritual force to press the two essences together, I change every collusions of essences into the new desired material.


    At first it was easier to use than Dimensional Rifting, but the toll on my spiritual force was truely draining as I refining the two essences into something new. This was the main reason I didn''t have enough spiritual force left to call down pill lightning. So I''m going to take a short break and deal with my lacking spiritual force.


    But the other tier nine technique called Gravity Influxion uses micro blackholes to draw in the essences and forcably mix them together. The graviational flux combine with high velocity centrifical forces creates a new material in an instant. However, that instant of time required the limits of my control and will be completely wiped out afterwards.


    First I had to timeloop the four essences, then create a micro blackhole inside a subspace. Let the essence be sucked into the subspace to mix and compress into one another. Then you modify the timeloop to compress time of the loop until it becomes an instant of time. This is done by finding the time coordinate for each essence for their successful merger. Discard the remaining failed timelines so you have only the four timelines to combine.


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    Normally when these particular essences are press together the result would be an explosion of heat and flames. However, by compression the time and turning it into an instant, the essences don''t have the time to turn volatile and instead change into a new material. The amount of spiritual force need to successfully use this technique is mind blowing as it takes all my spiritual force to maintain all four techniques that makes up Gravity Influxion.


    I wasted an entire barrel of cultivation wine to replenish my spiritual force because I was too stubborn to quit because I rain out of juice. That was a good tasting wine! Too bad I couldn''t savor it during a spiritual dinner. I have grown resistant to pills, so I can''t wait to make it to mid tier nine alchemy so I can make a new type of replenishment pill that I am not immune too yet. I had used my best peak tier eight cultivation wine to use as substitute qi recovery.


    This recipe I got in exchange for making a weapon, even master did not know this one. I had nothing but good vibes coming from that barrel of Selestein Spice while I waiting for to finishing aging. As I waited I often catch a glimpse of it while sacking though my void ring looking for something useful to craft with. In it''s timed looped subspace aging at six times normal speed. I found that wines spoils if I age it any faster, it turns into a gelatinous gloop that does not even have the tiniest residue of spiritual qi left in it.


    That could also mean my time looping technique might not be good enough for me to accelerate beyond six times normal time. It''s just another reason why I choosen improve my knowledge in the basic arrays. Yeah I know it''s a silly reason, but hey, my curiosity wants to know why I can''t make cultivation wine any faster.


    Time Looping was the very last technique I wanted to learn, if I gain better mastery over it. Then maybe I can go beyond times six speed. My goal is times ten the normal flow of time so I can use the modifying techniques to it for my future homebase subspace. I was basically awakened to cultivation in master''s times three time looping skills. So the memories of training in master''s subspace takes a good deal of my current short term memories.


    Living in a time loop space made me understand how important a time saving tool it was. As such, I want to build better training ground for myself. That is why I want my homebase I build to have times ten the normal time inside. If I have to turtle inside it, might as well give me all the time I could hope for to come up with a solution for my revenge. I have a stockpile of resources to build a small army of battle puppets. Battle puppets uses all three cultivator hobbies and is the only technique to do so.


    After watching the developement of the Moongate Battle Puppets, I was intrigued enough to start learning to make my own. I toss aside the master''s mentality on those ''crazy puppeteers!'' and I find many instances of his friends warning him to keep his distance from these crazy people. Since I practice all three hobbies anyways, might as well learn the technique to build battle puppets.


    I already have high mastery on all three, so my mind is already figuring out how to building a puppet on it''s own. Using alchemy to create a tough durable material. Build the battle puppit with artificing. Then use arrays to bring it to life. Dump in a powerful soul for a controller. Slap down a loyalty formation and then I have a bodyguard worth keeping.


    War puppets served in the end of every era standing along side the cultivators army. It even has a low entrance fee at early stage four to make your basic small servant or spy puppets. Since tier four weapons is the lowest tier created in the cultivation world, any puppet would simple be cut to pieces at this tier. Besides the small amount of material you could refine at tier four will be due to having a small amount of spiritual force to use at that stage.


    The War council sends me full copies on what they have an puppet techniques and even sent a puppet master over to give me a lesson on the higher fusion techniques. After spending a month in a timed loop subspace, I was able to produce a few late tier puppets. I didn''t go over board on design choices for my first batch, I went for a good solid combat design that the Moongate Battle Puppets had.


    Sweet, since I can make late tier eight artifact battle puppets, anyone using a weaker tiered artifact would have a difficult time trying to scratch them. Which means I won''t mass produce late tier or better weapons to sell at auction houses. This is where I draw the line, if someone want something better then it will be a custom job.


    A custom job is my most expensive offer and have turn many away because I didn''t like their offer in exchange. I recieved a large stock of late tier eigth and tier nine materials, it''s a limited stock and highly unlikely to get anymore. So I''m not going to waste my limited supply on a weak offer.


    I kept the three battle puppets in my void ring and left my workshop to check up on the outside world.  There are plenty of message jades waiting, I breeze though them for a quick look and find no one I recognize and leave them be.  I start to head over to the warehouse to check up of any new materials had arrived and a portal appears before me.


    I recieve Mara''s I miss you signal and step though the portal to recieve her flying hug.  She is crying because her parents were forced to engage her to the royal family.  They are only stage six cultivators, so I can understand they could be easy pushed to accept such an offer.  However, when I heard who she being engage too my fury rose unexpectantly and I find myself crushing a handful of summoning tokens and a dozen portals open up to bring forth some of my senior brothers who owe me favors.


    They came in powered up and rearing to go as they stare around looking for threat causing the surprised bystanders to collapse on their knees due to the sudden qi pressure of some many stage eight experts.  Big brother Umbarath caughs "little brother, what seems to be the problem?"


    My raged filled breath enters the picture with "some trash from the royal family is trying to steal my disciple by forcing her to marry him. Her parents are only early stage six cultivators, so they could easily be forced into such an agreement.  I sense three stage eight experts in the palace, I summoned you all to back me up.  Rest assure, I will reward you all for your time here" and started marching over to the palace.


    Umbarath turns frosty and cracks his knuckles "damn filthy pig, how dare he eye my little sister!"  The other senior brothers all call out for the pig''s head as we march though the main gate.  The guards drop to their knees unable to resist the combine pressure of so many experts and many faint into slumberland.


    Our sudden arrival brought out all three of the royal family''s expert who appear shock at our obvious killing intent leaking out.  Their ancestor calls out "fellow cultivators, how has my family offended you?"


    I glare at the man and offer "your trashy decendant has the gall to steal my disciple for his wife.  Mara is the women I been considering to ask to be my dao companion and first wife."  Mara jolts in surprise and immediately lunges in for a hug.


    She peeks her face up and ask "truely master?"


    I smiled at her and continue "your growing repertoire of charm attacks has soften my heart immensely my dear.   These past months have forced me to consider my possible future with you."  Mara indulges herself and face plants herself on my chest and rubs her face in pure delight.  From our spiritual link I sense nothing but unadulterated pleasure and contentment. This cause my rage to collapse and I hug her back.


    Big brother Umbarath goes "little brother is so lucky to have the love of such a fairy!"  Of course the backup goes overboard with the congratulations...

 Chapter One - Gaining a Cultivation Legacy

    Chapter One - Gaining a Cultivation Legacy


    ''Hey kid wake up'' said a voice in my head that sounded like a tired old man. I struggle to wake up, but I''m cold and wet and feel my legs are under water. As I push my forearms into the soft sand to lift my head up to peer around the dark cave. There are some strange crystals imbedded randomly in the walls and cealing giving off a dim glow. There also seem to be some luminescent mushrooms and patches of moss helping to light this underground cave. I pull my legs out of the cold stream with effort, I''m shivering from soaking in cold water and sore as I realize I have a lot of bruises.  But most of all I struggle with my thoughts, trying to make sense of my situation and clear my head for survivial thoughts. I don''t know where I am and wonder how I came to this underground cave.


    ''Who are you senior?'' I asked with my mind and wonder if it was my imagination since I don''t see anyone around.


    ''Do you see the mushroom patch to your right? Come here!'' replied the tired voice, again the voice invades my head as he words faintly echoes to the back of my mind.


    Interesting I thought and counter with "perhaps this is telepathy?''


    ''A form of telepathy, I use a qi technique so we can converse'' came the voice.


    Great I thought, I haven''t lost my mind.  As I glance over to the right and see a large patch of mushrooms that provide the largest source of light in the cave. I''m too tried to stand so I crawl my way over with my forearms as I drag my numb legs.  I wonder how many hours my legs were soaking in that cold underground stream.  As I crawl my way over,  the warmer it becomes and I feel warm air brush against my face. By the time I reached the patch, my skin feels like sunbathing under the summer sun and nice breeze coming from the center of the mushroomm patch.


    Bathing in this wonderful heat, my legs start to awaken and I feel the ache of pins and needles beginning to sting though out my legs.  The flow of warm blood into my legs causing an nearly unbareable ache as I grit my teeth and crawl a little bit further.  The inner mushrooms look a little scary because they have glowing red blood vessels that can be seen pulsating on the stems and caps.   The heat is coming from those blood vessels as they radiate heat with each pulse of life.


    They looked like they mutated compared to the mushrooms growing at the edge of the patch. As they form a oval ring of a single row of strange mushrooms with those heated blood veins.  They have grown much larger than the rest of the mushroom patch, towering over the rest by five to six times their height.


    As I reach the mutated mushrooms, I warm my hands a few inches away from closest stem.  As the blood pulse on the mushroom, I feel warmth radiate from it as the bulge of liquid moves up the blood veins.  I quickly learn to follow bulge with my hand to keep them warm as I wait for my legs to get under control.  I grit my teeth until the pain and needles from the legs became bareable.  I drag my body to the right until my left leg is close enough to feel like it''s roasting.  Despite the duo pain, I feel the pains and needles fading faster.  Finally I sat up cross legged and peer over the top of the mushrooms to see why no mushrooms grow there.


    As I peer over the mushrooms, a skull catches my attention that was a half buried at the other end of opening.  The oval ring of mushrooms have grown around the skeleton, but seem to keep their distance.  As I see decaying mushrooms all around the opening, who knows how many generations of mushrooms have decayed to half bury the corpse with their remains.


    ''Your in luck kid, I sense we came from Earth so I''ll help you with the last of my strength. I don''t have much time so listen to me. First dig out my dagger, you should be able to see the hilt near my feet'' came the voice much weaker than before. I glance over to my left to see the hilt next to his still booted feet.


    I reach over with my left hand and with a quick pull, a beautiful dagger comes out of the dirt. The foot long blade was pristine as no dirt or stains can be seen.  With engraved patterns and scrollwork all along it''s length on both sides and extremely thin blade. I can tell it''s not any metal that I know of as it''s handle pulsates as it has a life of it''s own in my palm.  I can see the energy passing though the hilt and into the blade.  As it does it lights ups the laser-liked carvings on the blade.  It looks light but in reality weighs about thirty pounds, in my weaken condition it''s difficult to lift so I drag it over.


    The senior''s weakening voice whispers ''now uncover my chest armor and use the dagger to cut a finger and place that finger on the armor. Don''t stop until you recieve my legacy. Hurry my soul is about in enter the reincarnation cycle.''


    I mumble "legacy?"


    Why is this kid still talking and the old voics goes ''yes my cultivation legacy, I can help you learn the first part while I''m still conscious, but if I enter the reincarnation cycle you won''t be able to gain my legacy'' his faint reply pushes me into action and with a quick swipe of my finger and press on his armor my mind falls into a deep abyss.


    When I wake up, I realize I am wearing that armor of his, it''s like a body suit, it''s comfortable and warm under my now dried clothes.  I can not believe there is even a daily cleansing restriction activating ensuring I have a clean body and battlesuit everyday.  Because it activate the moment I wake up and my body feels clean and see the dirt covered battlegear get cleaned as well.  With the amount of spiritual force I recover now, it''s basically free to use anytime as I would recover qi usage the instant after.


    My mind comes up with the answer from my legacy memories, it''s essencewear, a type of alchemical material woven into a cloth like material.  Depending on the essense of the prime material used, the essencewear can gain the durability of said material.  Only alchemists that have reached tier seven mastery can make essencewear.  Because of this heavy cloth like material, top powers of the world have coveted the light weight and more comfortable essencewear.  Much perferred over the traditional heavier and bulkier metal and magical hide armors.  Essencewear can even be enchanted with the same restrictions that the prime material has.


    Now battlegears made up entirely of layered essencewear has taken over the top market in personal armor.  These new battlegears have become the desired equipment for stage seven experts.  Even the chosen young masters of various power are given one for their protection.  Most cultivators dream of wearing it under their normal clothes.  Especially if you want to travel in a low profile, mortals tend to gawk at seeing people wearing the older metal battlegears these days.


    Essencewear became popular because famous sects and alchemist guilds would field their battle teams in the annual battle tournament to find who has the best team of the year among the younger generation.  Their teams would wear their sect or guild uniforms made from essencewear.  Many of the rich and power have many children to protect and went to their favorite stage seven alchemist.  Creating a new industry as nobles also took to wearing uniforms made of essencewear as their daily wear.  There are nearly a hundred tier seven great masters of alchemy in the world.


    For the first times in their lives, these stage seven alchemists were ask to craft something other than pills and potions.  All of them have switch this branch of alchemy for its this lucrative business.  The most talented of them, the youngest female alchemist at two hundred and sixteen years old, Ventrea the Silverlark gets the best customers.  First alchemist to promote her half a dozen styles of dairly wear battlegears attracting the civilian market.  The shocking three times the price tag as she gobbled up the civilian market allow her stop her school uniforms sales and go freelance.  Shutting down her store early each day made the rest of the alchemists even grumpier.  As they stare at the ever shrinking list of teams to do and glare at Ventrea and final get their own asses moving to follow their new leader of funds.


    Ventrea laugh heartily each day, selling out in an within an hour and having the rest of the day off was is a nice change of pace for her.  She even did a few girly skips, knowing she be promoted to leader of funds for a good long time.  She then gives her benefactor a repectful cup hands with respectful bow for giving her the idea take the civilian route.  As the new trailblazer, she automatically earn the role of leader of funds once the majority of alchemists begin following her example.  Which means Ventrea will control the Alchemist League''s treasure vault.  Which of course mean control of research funds, it is this last point that has all her senior brothers and sisters of the sect can be heard constantly sighing.


    The quick witted among them jump forward and vote their approval of Ventrea.  It quickly skyrocket, but then slowed to a crawl until it stop short one vote for majority.  The slow witted ones curse the faster ones for getting away clean.  Now the rest knew none of them can afford a change of office just yet.  Now it a race to complete their research first!  While those who sided with Ventrea made schemes to gain her favor to earn research funds.  For those unfortuneately treated their youngest sister poorly, they face a grim future as they realize they are going to have to earn their own funds.


    Seeing the proformance in academy battles, the adults in the world can now own essencewear for their daily protection.   The rich and powerful mortals came in droves to her store, the common folk staying well clear of the crazy bands of bodyguards surrounding the store.  Since the guards are not allow to enter the store, they have no choice but guard the building until their boss comes out.  Unless they have armed bodyguards too, and then they just consider them new reinforcements once the newbies reach the door and are told what to do.


    The next youngest alchemist is twice Ventrea''s age, so all these old men and women didn''t know a lick about the mortal world.  They long since been stricten by the cultivation virus and no longer thought about the mortals.  Besides, it common tradition not get too envolved with the mortals.  So cultivators their age have long since followed this tradition for hundreds of years already.  So their fashion sense tend to be copy what the teams wanted, and not a lick of creatativity added by them.  They could only hire skilled seamtresses to add some flavor from their militarish team designs and began added their own daily wear outfits to take their share of what the rich people in the world had to offer, money, and lots of it.


    The alchemists milked the rich folks most vigourously and watch the Alchemist League''s posting on essencewear market pricing with unbashful glee.  The ancient powers behind these alchemist laughed at the unwholesome amount of income their their stage seven alchemists were making.  Running a sect in the modern world is quite expensive.  Providing medical care and retirement for all the mortals working for the strongest powers is staggering.  Considering many sects have millions of followers to take care off.


    The top thirty six sects in the world are treated as independant nations and are called supersects.  One thing about sects is that they are all extremely self relient and never relies on anyone to maintain their foundations.  Because of this, the lands around the sect are fully cultivate to provide enough food for their mortal servants.  These supersects guarded by the best equipment money can buy.  Then let the array masters tinker with the equipment.   For instance, added barriers to all air, land and sea units.


    Restriction protected tanks and aircraft will be the first hint for invading troops to start running. If that does not catch their attention, long range sword intent techniques slicing though troops and vehicles like hot laser fire.  Troops to rear watching entire companies before them sliced apart in an instant usually starts the running.  Three idiot tyrants in history died the day they invaded, follow by the destruction of all military and government officials.   The leaderless nations were told to form a new government as their previous form of government was stupid enough to get itself killed.


    Before the sect envoy left, with one leg though a portal he turns slightly to peer back into the room and goes "one more thing, best to put aside your difference and work together as a team.  Today you will make history as founders of a new nation.  Consider your reputations going forward now.  The activities many of you enjoy will not be recieved well by the population your now responsible for.  I hate to return to wipe your government from the face of reality again if you put another idiot in charge."


    Then he goes "tell you what, next time you mortals force me to come back.  I will kill the families of all the government and military officials.  If these families can produce such idiots a second time, then best get rid of them so they won''t produce another!" Then finish stepping though his portal and it vanishes.


    The three foolish led nations over time have develop into powerful capitalist members of Nato.  Their bad rap erase with the passage of two or more centuries and now safely placed into the history books.  Three nations with one common trait, of being ''enlightened'' by a supersect.  They choose capitalism to be the nation''s main focus.  Then a democratic government, after all, every rich person wants to be heard.


    All the powers that didn''t have a stage seven alchemist in their ranks paid enormously for the busy alchemists for make essensewear uniforms for them. I suppose it''s an acceptable reason to change gears and make a ton of money.  It did not take long for tier seven pills to skyrocket in price as the alchemists were too busy on essenceweaving getting filthy rich.  Beside, they know the longer they wait to fullfill orders.  The Alchemist Grand council may raise the price worldwide on essensewear again due to the shortage in supply and demand.  After the inital burst of effort, the alchemist calmed down seeing their inbox stuffed crammed full of paid in full orders.  Sure their inbox for pill orders is stuff even higher, but none of them bothered to take a single order from there.


    The price for essensewear is still soaring and already ten times more than any tier seven pill they ever sold.  The best part, it''s not as gut wretching as making pills can give them.  For most alchemist it is a struggle to make a pill of their own level.  As it gets easier for each tier lower for making pills, so of course the top alchemist rarely make pill of their level.  It just too much of a pain for them to do it, and they just be in tears at the waste of such very expensive precious spiritual herbs if they tried knowing their success rate is anywhere from twenty to forty percent.  Did I mention very expensive?  Yes, very in like once in a life time acquirement type deal.  Of course, if they ascend, then that would be an whole different story.  As all know, spiritual plants become more plentiful in higher dimensions.  So it is a good chance they be able acquire another such rare plant.


    His last memory sudden awakens in me ''good luck kid, I gift you my treasures and hope someday we can meet again.'' I quickly do the dutitful prayer ''good luck senior, I hope I can call you master one day.'' I dug around a bit and uncover his void ring and long sword. His skeleton had vanished while I was mediating to getting a handle on his legacy.  My new memories inform me his skeleton had turn into qi fallout and absorb by the world and turned into the world qi.


    From seniors memories, this void ring is like a self contained subspace for holding his entire inventory of void tools. I search though his void tools collection to find his most prized void ring called Gaia.  This is a rare one, it allows living beings to survive in a small water world with two continents.  My master used the larger land mass for his own medical gardens.  It''s has tier eight subspace qi that has been enhance with an endowment restriction to provide twice the density.  With this much subspace qi, it''s a haven for spiritual beasts and spiritual plants to reach peak stage eight.  The spiritual beasts are kept contained on the smaller continent sealed with a spherical barrier to stop any spiritual beast from leaving the island.


    From master''s memories, He discover the ring on a dead cultivator he looted while in an ancient renmant.  The ring was crafted by Indus Acoma who was the only stage nine Spiritual Cook of the first age.  He had his era on the palm of his hands as all of experts wanted to be invited for his spiritual dinners.  The purpose of the barrier was to stop immortal qi from entering the spiritual beast island.


    Deprived of immortal qi, the spiritual beasts can only cultivate to peak stage eight.  The spiritual beasts are then at perfect stage when treating his guest with his spiritual cooking.  Since the spiritual beasts in this subspace have existed since the era of Aristars Fall, many extinct dishes can now be made.  So I can''t wait to grow strong enough eat those spiritual beast in my new ring.  First thing is finding how to be a spiritual cook.  But it''s is not important until I improve my cultivation, but something on my list to do first chance at an auction house and buy their jade recordings on spiritual cooking.


    Aristar was a comet that was prophised to hit the planet by the famous diviner of the first age Lusharinareous.  He is famous for having all his prophecies become true.  He had prophecized that Aristar will end the first age.  Though none of peers believed him and thought he was a lunatic.  He was known thoughout the first age as the prophet who told of events that happens in future ages.


    There is only one end of an age prophecy remaining.  However he died before could finishing telling of his last prophecy.  As he would sudden go in a trance and become an orator speaking for royalty and in a loud voice anonouce all to hear a fragment of the current prophecy he was working on.  As if he was suddenly inspired and began his rant anew.  Many consider him being a split personality lunatic but listened intently so they can tell all they know what the famous lunatic lastest words.  He even has a small cult of followers who record his prophocies with divine sense recordings. Thousands of copies are spread though out the world and even has spread among the mortals as common knowledge.  Plenty of original recording jades have survived, and highly prized as trophies for collectors of wealth.  The mortals now know the horrifying invaders that plague the countryside, the Voidslayers.


    Six of his prophecies were about how an era would end because of invaders coming through the Moongate which he called Voidslayers.  Their elite younger generation treats our world as their danger zone for stage seven training.  They invade our world by passing though void between worlds. We surmise they are using some kind of treasure that''s locked on to our world.  Thus creating somekind of connection where their innate ability to travel though the void is enhance greatly.  Thus allowing their stage seven experts to reach our world in a reasonable time to use as a training ground.  They invade where our stage eight experts are too far away to help quickly.  By the time they arrive at the scene of the massacres, the invaders have long since returned to the void looking for another place to raid.


    I go ahead and put Gaia on my right index finger since I don''t like the feel of rings clicking against each other.  Also if I put void rings on the same finger, the stronger tier void ring would interfere with commands given to the weaker ring.  Then I tap into master''s legacy for the remaining knowledge on spiritual plants pour into my mind as I refine the knowledge stored in my divine sense and forever burn it into my perfect cultivation memory.  I had only learn the spiritual plants that I could use up to my current abilities.  But now putting on Gaia, I needed learn all spiritual plants so I know what I would be dealing with once I decide to visit inside Gaia''s subspace.  It stings like hell that quickly evolves into a deep throbbing migraine, but I am just glad to have a little more divine sense to work with when it''s over.


    I appraise the long sword and it is a match to the dagger with the same elegant patterns scrolling along it''s length. I know it weighs about two hundred pounds, but the sword has accepted me as it''s master and in my hands it weighs next to nothing. I picked up the dagger and it''s now light as a feather.  There is even a few techiques become available when both are held in battle.  Both are close combat techniques, and best used against multiple opponents.  Once is a forward facing cone attack that gives me three instant moves.  Thus allowing me to attack up to three oppenents as I instantly lunge forward ten meters in Lance and Knife technique.  With Three is a Charm, I divide into three avatars and all three basically do Lance and Knife and clear a bigger area.  Unfortuneatley my cultivation is too low to use the late tier eight weapons to their full potential and forced to stow them away in master''s ring.


    As I about to put the knife away,  my divine sense something glowing inside the groves of the fine scrollwork.  So I spend some qi to focus on my eye and zoom where I settle my view hovering on the bottom of one the grooves that was carved to make the scrollwork.  I see the fine groove has been perfectly square cut away.  The walls and floor are flawlessly glass smooth, cut by a restriction.  A mono filiment gate carves through surface of the blade. Because of mono filiment extistance, the cutting gate makes ultra smooth curves and corners.  But what catches my eye is a continuous elegant scrollwork a horizonal vines growing towards the tip of the blade on both walls of the etching.  The end of each extravagant branch is power array circle, while the leaves of the vine are made up smaller arrays that fills the walls.


    As the energy pulse moves up the blade, the hiddin restriction releases qi that forms into a qi barrier along the surface of the blade.  The qi barrier not only protects the bladed from damage, it make the surface slick and frictionless.  With the qi protected mono edge blade, it can cut though unprotected durable materials under tier eight. Considering Titanium is only a lowly mortal tier three durable material, I can''t wait to see what these blades can cut.


    I pull back from my microscoping divine sense vision and stop qi use on my eyes to stop my iris from sleightly glowing.  I was impressed, I never imagine tier eight restrictions can be hidden in such a manner.  My divine sense focus back to primary threat detection mode.  Constantly scanning all around me looking for threats and the more insidious illusionary techniques and of course any thing of intrerest.


    Like a child, I play with master''s ring on my right ring finger, with just a thought I willed the sword and dagger to enter and leave the ring continuously. With constant effort it should take a few years to reach mastery to cause them to blink into existense which would normally take a moment of time to materialize.  Most people would never bother with such trivial skill, but pulling things out instantly in battle can be a life saver.  I also pull out items in the ring to examine to become aware of what is valuable in this new life that I became apart of.  After that I sat for who knows how long in that dark timeless cave as I burn into my mind my master''s legacy called Etherial Foundation Technique to make it my own.


    I stayed in that cave for years, the first reason was to avoid my step brothers who tried to kill me by pushing me into a sink hole. The second was to learn my master''s legacy and his various hobbies he acquired. At first I was skeptical about the whole thing, but the more legacy memories I refined, the more I wanted to cultivate and learn.  I soon forgot about revenge, and began thinking them my benefactors, lolololol.


    One of the first things I did when I mastered tier five alchemy was too enhance my bloodline to see if anything would happen.  I had awoken my bloodline spirit who was shocked to see my divine sense large enough to hold my ancestor''s entire artificing legacy.  I had nearly freed sixty percent of my divine sense, my bloodline spirit happily dumped a new lagacy and suddenly filled back up to ninty eight percent.  So I spent the next eleven years majoring in alchemy and artificing techniques.  Then minoring in body crafting and cultivating when there was a need.  Just to free up as much divine sense storage as fast as possible.


    My master didn''t store low level cultivation resources, as he out lived all his friends and family.  He no longer had any desire to save them up as gifts.  Fortunately, his loot bag was full of unlooted void tools.  Sweeping through them was a chore and a half, but they got me to peak tier five.  Then a nirvana pill to put me to early stage six.   Followed by a foundation pill to solify my cultivation, something I must do every time I leveled up to a new stage.   It was real slow going as I was forced to master two legacies at once.  So I only raised my cultivation when I ready to master a new batch of techniques.


    The second thing I did was start body crafting.  Basically turning my body equal to that of a durable material.  So anything of a weaker material cannot harm me.  The spiritual plants needed for tier six and higher body crafting have gone extinct through the passing of ages.  Looking through master ring, I see I have enough to get to mid stage five.  I relax, stage five body crafting is required if I wanted to survive my cultivate technique when I become a stage eight expert.


    On finally reaching stage six, I did what my master did and began turned my stomach into a cultivation furnace.  That way I can just chew down resource and let my new stomach subspace ability to refine cultivation resources.  I don''t have to waste most of the day cultivating, just have to crunch down a handful of resources when ever my stomach subspace get near empty.  My dantian automatically aborbs the stream of refine qi like candy.


    Of course I was possessed with a pulsating migrain most of the time as I burn those legacies into my mind.  As such, I did not leave the cave as I fear becoming a mass murder of mortals due to my surly disposition.  I had to scrounge around master''s loot bag for sustenance pills and spiritual eats to be a shut in for nearly four years in real time.


    When I chewed though my pile of stage six resources and only saw a slight rise in cultivation I was stunned.  I was sure I would advance to mid stage six and possibly late stage.  I stared in disbelief as my unfazed dantian, like a spoiled pet leering back at me saying feed me something better.  I sigh and pulled out a tier seven resource and took a tiny bit off it and swallowed it down.  My divine sense watch this blazing ball of destructive energy go down my throat and drop into my stomach.


    I blink as that ball of death just disappears in an instant.  Oh nice, I chow down the rest of the resource to see what would happen.  It went down in a blazing glory, but only got a slight rise from my cultivation.  I only have a tier one stomach furnace right now, I can try to level it up if I can find the materials needed.  As for now I chow down ten tier seven resources to fill my stomach.  I watch the crushed crystals enter my stomach furnace subspace.  Which is then refined into a pure energy that gets pull in by my dantian without effort.


    I sense my two legacies now controls forty one percent of my divine sense.  So I went ahead and tied off another bundle of divine sense and begin refining all knowledge of crafting materials for my other hobbies.  There should be materials in Gaia for my other hobbies.  I watch a three percent chunk of divine sense begin refining and ignore the pain as my brain starts burning the new memories in.  Looks like I''m going to have another headache for awhile. But I am so used to burning memories into my brain for the past twelve years. That my will power towards pain had deepened considerably.


    I did a quick check on my permanent four divine sense partitions.  The first two are faithfully practicing alchemy and artificing techniques.  While the last two partitions are duking it out in mock mental battles as they continue to refine my master''s battle knowledge.  As I slowly refine and understand master''s battle experience, I sense my own battle power slowly rising.  When I broke through to stage six, my battle power drop to one full stage.  I lost the extra advance I had at stage five, probably due to stage six requiring a lot more battle power to advance.


    A month later the refining of material knowledge is done and I see the legacies now take up thirty eight percent of my divine sense.  My four mental contructs take up forty percent so that leaves me with only twenty two percent of my divine sense to work with for my daily life.  However that amount of divine sense is usually what the average early tier seven alchemist would have.  I can put the four mental constructs on hold and recover another twenty four percent of my divine sense if I am in a pinch.


    The Etherial Foundation Technique has raise my foundations far beyond normal. Not only does it increase the amount of qi I can hold, but increase my foundation.  A stronger foundation mean I recover qi faster and of higher purity.  With each breakthough in cultivation, my foundations expanded to the point that a ton of resources were just a drop in filling my dantian''s two expansions.


    The foundation pills would improve my spiritual veins as well, except my spiritual veins are already tier early tier nine.  So the incremental improvment for the low level pills only aiding in slight purity increasing I would miss if I did not look closely.  I doubt the tier seven foundation pill would make much a difference, but I am looking forward to the tier eight foundation pill doing something at least.


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!I was finally running low on sustence pills and few tier seven cultivation resources that was available from the loot bag.  When I left the cave I had only age four years due to a temporal shift formation that extend time by three times in master''s cave.  So I put on a dark outfit I found in my master''s wardrobe and with a formation shrunk it down to fit me.  Then I followed the slight constant breeze out.  It didn''t take long to find a vent to the surface. With a thought I send my divine sense to fill the vent and add in some qi to force it to widen enough for me to fly though.


    I was a completely different person than the bullied boy I was.  Those memories simply became my childhood memories I was a shamed of being not able to stand up for myself. With no real connection to my family, I felt at ease as I was about to step into my new life as a cultivator.


    I was eager to practice with my qi and spiritual force techniques in a place other than the cave.  It was amazing as long as I have divine sense lock on a target, I can''t miss.  I use qi slash technique that allows me to form qi blades to materialize any where my divine sense is at.  From my ancient memories I practiced until I cut up a leaf several times before it starts breaking apart.  Then the practice really gets ugly, I then cut up all the little pieces and see if I survived for the next exchange.  I focus some qi to lock down on all the tiny bits of leaf. My next exchange I hit the bits with everything my mind can throw and see at least a dozen survivors after my last move.


    Looks like I can''t break under dozen after my third attempt, so this must be my current limit.  So I reach into my ancient memories and pull out qi blast technique.  It''s a directional cone area effect attack.  Blowing up things was kind of fun practice.  It easy to blow up things, but infinitely more difficult to stun them.  I got pretty good at knocking a couple dozen hornets out of air without killing a single one.  More importantly it''s amazing good training for spiritual force users.  After all extreme fine control is something most cultivators don''t bother with since it''s difficult to master.


    After that I practice qi grip, which just grabbing items and then moving them.  I also would grab random spiritual beasts to see how long I can hold them in place.  Though at first I ended up crushing quite a few to death before I gain enough mastery to keep a low tier spiritual beasts subdued.  These three are also the basic techniques of spiritualist.  So I also practice fusing my spiritual force with my qi, as both have the same three basic techinques.  Fusing spiritual force with qi takes a bit a will power since the purity of my spiritual force is higher than purity my qi.  If I can raise my qi mastery, it would be alot easier to fuse the two together.


    Of course after all that mental training, I then study various palm techniques.  Because they offer a variety of offensive and defensive qi techniques.  I quickly found the qi slap to be a versatile palm technique, it''s fast and easy to use.  After I getting a decent handle on my qi and spiritual techniques affects the real world, I decide to take a break and enjoy some flying.


    It''s amazing what you can do when you have a develop a disciplined mind of a spiritual cultivator.  My spiritual techniques are my strongest attacks at early tier nine.  If I use battle intent, I can pump it up all the way to early tier ten.  As such, it is my ace card, but keep it mask and only used it equal to my cultivation level.


    My weakness is I only have early stage seven qi defense with battle power added.  Which means, I should still keep a low profile to keep the slavers off my back for the time being.  But from master''s memories, I already knew what to do, hook up with the largest auction house in the world.


    In a blink I flew up above the trees, then a my list of who I am intrudes into my conscious. I died on earth and reincarnated into a minor clan, my mother was a new favorite wife of an elder.  She had died while traveling to visit her parents when I was old enough to start cultivating. With out my mother, my step brothers decide to get rid of me since resources were limited. At first I was vengeful, but during the first year of seclusion, that thought just slid into oblivion. Let them eek out a meager life as country bumpkins in their private world.  With no real ties for home, I can pursue cultivation without the need to ever return home.


    The reason I no longer hold a grudge? Well the legacy of my master taught me about the vast cultivation multiverse. The small world I used to live just does compare what master had given me.  I no longer think of my past, as it''s just my background story.  With my eyes now opened wide, yeah yeah, I know it''s cliche, but it''s simply the best way to describe how I felt.  I sought to start my life with the aid of my master''s memories of the life he had.  My adventurous spirit peaked as my desire to explore the multiverse fills me with anticipation.


    I have to admit flying is fun and spent a few hours enjoying the feeling and practice flying skills as an excuse to play. Hovering in different poses, climbling up and down and doing it backwards too, diving at different angles while never loosing sight of a particular leaf. Sliding around trees trucks without moving your body and never stop facing the tree, then start moving though the branches at high speed but never exceeding an arms length away from the giant tree trunk.


    That was my favorite one to practice, but didn''t realize it would turn my combat flying style like an insect that darts all over the place. As well as all the standard stuff that I could think of for an aerial combat. My master''s basic combat moves were all about counter attacks, all moves ended up facing the opponent ready to act if there is an opening for a counter attack. So I practice circling trees hacking off tips of branches with my sword. Being gawked at by farmers and travelers didnt bother me, the only thing on my mind was having fun flying with the excuse of training.


    My altitude was just under the first cloud layer as I explored the land below me. My clothes were getting damp going through clouds, so I created a qi barrier set to stop the water vapor and added in poison gas for safety. Then my divine sense warns me of a danger from above. I instantly went into a nose dive to buy me some time. As I glance over my shoulder, I see a grey feather mid stage six birdbeast burst from a cloud and diving for me. There is a patch of scales protecting it''s chest and had a long beak to stab prey with and it''s much faster than me.


    I turn around to face it and just as it was about to come into melee range, I use a vertical circle strike to get above the beast. It snaps it beak at my feet so I raised them at the knees and beak snaps at air for a clean miss.  I give it a love tap with my left knee to it''s forehead telling it was a good try and push off his head and give it a chuckle.  Then I took a swing at it''s left wing as it passes by and heard a sudden screech of pain as my sword shear through the wing bone.  I watch the one winged birdbeast screech towards it''s death.


    Remembering the spirtual beast may have a core above stage three, I follow the birdbeast down. I avoided the droplets of blood for practice as I twist through my dive. The birdbeast last breaths of life began sending sonic shockwaves at me in vengeful fury. I immediately send qi to modify my qi barrier to stop sound and then push the barrier out to the my standard six meter wide battle bubble.  Three meters is plenty of time to act if some get though the barrier.  Six meters give me some room to play.


    I avoided the brunt of the shockwaves allowing the edge of the qi barrier take some of the heat.  Not bad, the qi barrier is not even weaken at all, so I take next shockwave head on. The qi barrier fluctuated a little, but that''s about it.  It would appear mid rank stage six demonbeasts will have great deal of trouble breaking though my qi barrier.  I''m quite happy with the result, I didn''t have to spend any battle power to boost the next barrier.


    As the birdbeast slams into the ground and bounces up from the rebound, my right foot hammers it''s neck back into the ground. A quick slash of my sword removes it''s head to end it''s misery of a shattered body. My divine sense seeps into it''s body, but as it''s life fades there is no core appearing. With a sigh, I fly back up and look for more birdbeasts, but they are too far away to bother with. So I fly north toward a city I spotted from the clouds.


    As I close on the city, I can see the massive beastwave walls and other flying cultivators. The walls are about a hundred meter tall and just as thick. I can see array circles on wall fortifying them to extreme levels. They practically glow in broad daylight. As I pass over the wall I see various seige engines, single and multi shot ballista and giant cauldrons along the battlements.  Behind them are two rows of catapults that has been staggered to provide maximum coverage. Then a new battlement rise after the catapults.  My old memories tell me the seige weapons are maintained by an ancient restriction that is part of the beastwave wall.  So long as the ancient restriction remain undamage, the ancient seige weapons will continue repair or generate new seige engines to replace destroyed ones.


    The cascading battlement rise every twenty meters for a total of four extra battlements on top of the first wall.  On the last battlement, they even use the back of the wall to mount heavy seige catapults with a throwing arms made from a trunks of Ironwood trees.  There are command towers and stairs leading down into the wall, no doubt leading to barracks and storerooms.  My divine tells me the wall is a honeycombs of internal rooms and those rooms next to the outer wall are provided with arrow and ballista slits.  As my divine sense enter the corridors leading to these fire support outer rooms I can see that huge cealing blocks can lowered to block entrance into the inner areas of the massive defense block that formed the outer wall.


    The salients are have no battlements as they completely rely on the multitude of window slits for archers and ballistae to shoot out of.  The thin rows horizon windows which are impossible for the most demonbeast to get in.  The roof is a solid mass as the walls above the windows rise ten meters up and slowly turn into a peak.  Since demon beasts can''t use these windows they are force to climb up and run along the peak towards the first wall.


    Checking the arrays on the walls and understand it is a spike trap killing array.  It causes ten meter long tier eight spikes to shoot from the ground to impale demonbeasts.  By following the array links, I see they are using an artifact spike to generate exact copies.  A quick scan of the array allows me to understand that it sends out a waves of spikes in a ten meters area.  But the farther it travels from the wall it slowly break apart and turns in to a random field of floating death traps that disperse one thousand meters from the walls and salients.  I see the same arrays inscribed on the roofs of the salients to make sure all invaders get the same welcome treatment.  I send my divine sense to probe behind the array and see it supported by eight layers.  Which is not bad since I am still working on the seventh.


    I quickly break off a wisp of divine sense and send if over to appraise the artifact the killing array is cloning.  When the wisp arrives I appraise it and see it''s a high quality mid tier eight artifact.  This ten meter needle thin spike with a three inch thick base.  With closer inspection I see it''s refined from a dragon whisker making the toughness of the spike remarkable.  The tip is treated with the standard sharpen to a single molecular point restriction.  Because the whisker was from a poisonous dragon, the crafter manage to refine it''s essense so the spike also poisons on contact.


    Since it''s only a wisp, I send my it into the artiface to probe the insides.  As soon as it went inside it was destroyed.  As it turns into qi fallout I recieve a fleeting image of the defense layer''s spiritual killing array.  It had blast my wisp and the area around it with spiritual lightning.  It basically refined my wisp of divine sense into qi fallout in an instant with it''s mid stage eight battle power.


    I shrug at my loss as I fly over the first wall I see two more of these walls on this giant rocky hill.  The poor and homeless are at their usually pandering play, but I ignore them as I see most of them well fed.  I frown as I was about to unload all the unwanted foodstuff from looted void tools.  But seeing the pudgy children laughing in the streets.  Better not make them too fat and restash the unwanted food stuff for day I actually meet the poor and hungry.  I have plenty of looted void tools, in those twelve years in master''s cave, I had eventually organized master''s inventory into the best void tools available.


    I fly over the next wall to look for the merchant quarter.  The first area was filled with the ramshackled wooden buildings of the poor.  The second wall protected the skilled citizens and had clean cobble streets and brick buildings. I fly over the third wall as I see many areas are filled with small walled mansions near the next palace wall.  But more importantly I see many massive stores scatter about.


    I quick glance up I see the inner city was built on large rocky plateau that has a castle built on top. The palaces surrounding the castle are all unique and stunning in appearance. There is a ramp carved into the plateau leading up from the far left rising to the right.  The ramp is only noticable due to the many windows cut rising up.  My divine sense wonders over and I see a small fort protecting the entrance of the ramp and as I travel up the windowed ramp I see two open gates  built on the ramp itself for last ditch defense to the palace.  A trick of the light allows me to see the flickering edges of a barrier protecting the inner city.  There is a restriction blocking it''s aura so I can''t tell what tier the barrier is, but is lot more powerful than what I can make earns my respect.


    Enough of tourism, I glance down to examine the merchant quarter.  It is a huge area filled with open tents to keep the sun from baking the merchants all day. Surrounding the tents are various size buildings, two even been constructed by materials created with alchemy with the goal for durability.


    Each of the top powers in the world have creative their own alchemy recipe, let''s say a late stage eight Throsencant Ore as an example, it''s essence is used to mass produce a durable material equal to late stage eight battle power.  This means it can''t be damage by any attacks with a weaker battle power.  I was surprise to see not one but two such buildings in this city a medical gardens and the auction house.


    This tells me this city has great influence and most likely a major trade hub.   I feel lucky to have two  branches rather than dealing with a local power house.  Organizations with this kind of unique look should have many branches to search for things I need in the future.  Nice, I don''t have waste time traveling to a city that does, got lucky right off the bat and with my first city.


    The bigger stores has guards protecting their expansive store fronts and most likely keeping undesirables away too as my divine sense watch their qi enhanced eyes watch for any vagrants heading their way.  I watch one step into the street leading to their stores and sense the tiny qi bolts slam into that poor unfortuneate vagabond.  Tiny welts appear on his exposed skin as the old man beats a hasty retreat followed by chuckles from various high minded individuals present vent their scorn at the retreating old man.


    I sigh and flew down to the old man and gave him a junk pill.  It takes no effort to make as it uses any plant with touch of spiritualism to make.  Useless to cultivators, but does wonders for mortals with small injuries.  I old man is so grateful but does not take the pill.  I raise an eyebrow.


    Seeing my look he goes "I''m used to pain, but my granddaughter does not.  I will save this for her."


    I looked at the old man and he has this mischevious smile thinking about his granddaughter so I go "well in that case, have the rest of the bottle and save her from crying ten times!"


    Of course the old has seen the alchemist tournament that happens every decade.  In his youth, he manage get a job street cleaning and was able to watch first hand how hard to make pills and goes "I know pills take a great deal of effort to make, and the rare spiritual herbs are precious.  I can not accept this bottle young master."


    I roll my eye and retort "that because they are making cultivation pills.  But pills for mortals..."


    I glance around and pick one of the many plants the developed a bit of spiritualism.  With a gentle qi grip I pull a bunch of moss clinging to the under a roof of a building and ask "do you know what the alchemist call this plant?"


    He looks at me strangely before saying "umm, they call it spiritual junk.  Because it useless for cultivation pills."


    I cup my hand about a foot around the floating moss and slightly turn away from the old man and began refining the plant.  I created electric arcs between my hands for show that cause the old man to be awed. Then toss some qi to create a constant breeze flowing from my hands to gently force the old man to take a few steps back.  Gave it a light show so it made it difficult to see me refine the moss into a liquid and then form exactly ten pills.  With a final thought made them sweet to taste.  I pull out a empty bottle and new junk pills flew into the bottle.  I turn to look at the old man and said "these mortal pills uses spiritual junk old man.  It takes no effort to make and comes from something you can pick up anywhere.  Take this bottle too, since you want to help your granddaughter, I made these sweet.  They are only strong enough to heal scraps and bruises.  After all I only use a moss with a tiny bit of spiritualism."  I look around then pointed at an especially glowing moss and go "if I use something like that, I could make a mortal pill capable of reattaching a severed limb."  I took to the air and was soon follow by many thanks from the old man while ignoring the strange glares from everyone else.


    On my way to the medical gardens I flew by a store selling cultivation resources.  What caught my attention was a young female crier calling "new tier seven in stock, come while it last!"  So stopped in and stocked up on tier sevens and sustence pills.  Inside my master''s ring made me kind of rich, I don''t feel guilty because I promise to restock it before master revives.  I got a little over five hundred years to wait so plenty of time stock up.  So I splurge a little and don''t bother about the marked up prices and bought enough to last a month.


    As I left the private room that I made my purchase, I notice a young nobleman with a pair of goons watching his back brush past me as he entered the room I vacated. He gives me the usually upper class looking down on common trash glare. Then I notice the two cultivators that was waiting in line behind me look somewhat scared. That idiot must have some background in this city to cut in front of the line, so I whispered "who was the guy who cut in line?" as I past them by.


    The reply I heard was "young master Gibbons, a branch of the royal family."  So I toss him a random treasure from the pile of unwanted loot as thanks.  My curiosity takes a glance in my divine sense and see him catch a protective item in the shape of a fish.


    Gibbons looked at the youth that exited the barrier of the purchasing booth.  First thing his divine sense tells him was the youth is a early stage six cultivator. He frowns seeing someone younger than him with the same stage of cultivation and gives the twerp a glare of distaining envy.  While waiting for his order to be packaged, he replays his divine sense recording of the brief encounter for a proper appraisal.


    His dark outfit is good quality but has that old school traditional look.  He took the twerp as minor nobility, but then while inspecting the youth''s outfit, he discovered what he thought was his underclothes was actually a form of armor called essencewear.  He seen this on core disciples and powerful experts, as essencewear can only be crafted by tier seven alchemists.  Despite his irritation at the youth his royal training forces him to toss the youth out of his mind.  The royal family has a rule never bother the sects in public, in exchange the local sects won''t cause trouble in the royal controlled cities.


    Gibbons had been forced to serve in clan''s shadow branch for the past two months as punishment for causing a minor scandal.  So he is not keen on being sent back to the shadow branch any time soon and just wants to savor his newly earned freedom.  Raiding rival clans at night has earn him a few new battle scars.  Every noble clan has a shadow branch who actively raid enemy clans for battle experience for their younger generation.  Every young master is expected to command their own warband, especially those who wish to be the next clan lord.  Only the young master with strongest warband can take the title of clan lord.  With battle victories and battlefield merits earned being recorded in the clans younger generation battle ranking.  The noble clan members are filled with fortune seekers and those who plot the downfall of family members with a higher rank.


    Ahh I thought, no wonder he''s so stuck up, he is a damn noble of the arrogant kind. Especially since I see a grey karma line connecting us. I glare at the faint connection and frown, since I can not sense if it good and bad karma.  Our chance meeting today is obvious not enough to guess what the future may hold. But an arrogant young noble is never a good thing and sigh at what fate will make of him of our future encounters.


    As soon as I leave the shop I shoot into the sky and pivot until I spot my first target and take off for a meeting. What a delightful building, it''s made from a dark green material without any seams.  It''s appearance of a giant tree stump for a building with roots included. So I flew down for a landing I see this extremely large building with plots of medical gardens on the roof growing rare spiritual herbs.  The meter thick bark extends five meters above the gardens which includes four meter tall spirtual plants.  The entire roof opening and building is shimmering with a powerful and extremely thick transparent green barrier. I can not actually sense what tier it is with my divine sense, it has a sense of immortality so it''s way pass my pay scale. I quickly refine from master''s legacy about any knowledge on a touch of immortality and found out it is the call sign of a tier ninth craft.


    As I fly down the side of the building, I see that the top three floors are nothing but windows and these rooms are filled with potted spiritual plants. The restrictions on the windows dimming to each rooms private settings to protect the type of spiritual plants within. This is followed by a couple of floors without any windows which is probably for spiritual plants that grow in the dark. Then two floors with normal windows before landing on the ground and enter from one of many entrances of the building.  All the big roots are have been cut off to provide entrances into this giant stump shaped building.


    The giant root entrances are simply portals to enter their subspace.  The subspace is under a canopy of a giant tree.  Sun light is filter down by the leaves above making it a perfect shade to be under.  The subspace smells wonderful, rich earthly aromas filled with the spicy tang of flowers. I ignore the stairs to my right that lead up to a thick walkable branch. I head over to tree trunk that is surrounded by hundreds of opened air booths that are half buried in the ground.  When a customer enters a booths a dark green privacy barrier encloses the business deal.  Scores of runners dash between the booths and the trunk to delivering purchased goods.


    Most of these people around me are alchemists, their pupils or servants and scattering around to look for an open booth. The ones that stick out like me are cultivators who found some rare spiritual herbs to sell. I let my divine sense guide my walking to the nearest open booth.  As I walk I appraise the aura of cultivators around me and see them lacking. Their auras are shallow, almost transparent when I view against their bodies. Then I look at an aura that catches my eye the most and see that it''s from a alchemist.


    This alchemist has a much stronger foundation, his aura is not as transparent as the cultivators around us. An Alchemist''s cultivation will advance naturally over time came from master''s memories.  So they spend all their time trying to produce better pills and stop culivating after reaching stage six.  As I appraise the alchemist I realize he is as strong as me and would make a good sparing partner.  Because my divine sense fills the space under the tree, I catch a hostess in her favorite garden outfit that passed him by greet him as master Rosethorn.  Maybe I''ll look for him another day for a friendly match. The rest of the chatter is about alchemy and plants as apprentices and servants whisper about their daily lives.  The cultivators are more than happy to be directed to an open booth by the garden loving hostesses.


    A better dressed hostess is walking around greeting guests that she passes, she is obvious management as I see girls greet her warmly. When it''s mine turn, I see her eyes widen a fraction as she finish appraising me and bows deeply and comes up with a smile and chimes "young master, welcome to Spiritual Gardens! How can we help you?"


    I return a smile and hand her a message jade and provide "just came to buy some spiritual plants."  I watch her eyes widen as she scans the jade containing a list of thousands of tier six spiritual herbs and a much smaller list of tier sevens.


    Then her sweet girly voice adds "come this way young master, no need for you to wait at a normal booth."  She leads me to large mushroom and fly up to reach the furnished top.  As I come in for a landing, I fly though the tingle of a invisible privacy barrier to land on a well furnished top with a polite man in a bee suit.  I know what your thinking, but no, don''t go that way.  The bee suit I am referring is the one you wear when you want to open a bee hive to collect honey.


    I watch my hostess hand my message jade over and informs "the list of materials elder."  After reading the list with his divine sense he promptly hands a new message jade to a boy in suspenders who used a movement technique to dash away in a blink. "The items we have available will be brought here as soon as possible. How would you like to pay for them young master?" asked the polite young man as he steps in front of me.  Glancing over his shoulders I notice his bee hat flatten on the back rest of his chair.


    From my master''s ring I willed out ten tier seven nirvana pills to come out and appear on the table and replied "I believe these will serve as credit for now, let see how much my order you can fill."  Then walked over to the couch to sit down then ask "do you have something better" as I pick up the tier five bottle of complimentary wine. "Yes! Yes of course" and draws out a bottle from his void ring. "Please enjoy young master" and hands the bottle to me then left the room with the ten vials. Now I can enjoy a much better cultivation wine as I view this comfortable shady garden.


    It''s a late tier six cultivation wine called Walk in the Park.  It''s a semi sweet wine with a taste of Summer Citris.  This late stage six spiritual plant has elemental lightning affinity and it''s soul attack is Spiritual Lightning.  For physical protection, Summer Citris has a lightning aura that extends five meters from it''s trunk.  Anyone who wish to engage in melee combat will suffer a lightning base attack with each move they make inside.


    The wine is ok, nothing special since my spiritual force and stamina rose a smidgen after two glasses.  From my master legacy, I know I can make something better.  One of the reasons I''m here is to buy the ingrediants for four recipes I recently learn after breaking though to stage six.


    After finishing a third glass there was a soft chime and my divine sense see the young man flying back for a soft landing before me state "young master! The items you requested" he presents a void pouch with a bow with arms raised up. I take the pouch and scanned it with my divine sense and see the contents worth the pills I gave and toss it and wine bottle into my master''s ring and call out "nice place you got here, may I ask how many branches do you have?"


    I young man rise with a smile and voice "we have sixteen Spiritual Gardens like this one and forty two Essence Gardens branches young master!"


    I pull out a new message jade containing tier seven and eight materials and hand it over with "my master is interested in these materials.  I''ll be staying here for a month in an auction house workshop.  Please make a list of materials you can deliver by the end of the month.  I can wait longer if your can bring in exceptionally rare materials."


    The young man gives out "all our Essence Gardens have teleportation gates to a Spiritual Garden.  Since all our Spiritual Gardens are connected as well, if we have the material you requested in stock.  It can be delivered tomarrow if you wish young master!"


    I smile back and return "I''ll be crafting at the auction house for about a month, so let your connections do their work and maybe I can cross out a few more things from my master''s list."  He nods in understanding and I immediately take to the air and head for the closest exit portal.  Leaving that subspace was disappointing as I breath in the stink of city life and head towards the direction of the other building that caught my eye earlier.  I smile remember his stunned face when I toss him tier six nirvana pill as his tip. I was fairly happy with what I got, so I gave every hostess I passed an unwanted treasure.


    What is a unwanted treasure you ask?  Well, a treasure that in my appraisal is consider poorly made or something I can make better.

 Chapter two - The Auction House

    Chapter two - The Auction House


    As I fly towards the magnificent building, I can see large crowds of people entering and leaving it''s hundred yard entrance. As I land near the entrance, I couldn''t help but give the building''s protective barrier a good appraisal once I peer though to see the early tier nine barrier supported by nine layers. The showcases on the walls and central pillars display various treasures for their end of the week auctions. There are teams of guards patrolling the area, not that they are needed, the barriers that protect the showcases are just too strong.


    The front of the building is like a roman three arch triumphant gate with a corner end of a colloseum attached to the back.  The small arena space that left over is coverted into a stage.  It big enough to bring in exotic  mounts and pets.  The main building and the stage is protected by a barrier.  While the large rear colloseum is protected by a different barrier, possible meaning the colloseum might have been added later.


    After passing the showcases, I enter a oval room subspace with a extremely wide staircase in the middle leading to the second floor. The oval room walls glows a soft white on the floor and cealing, and I''m walking on an translucent almost invisible barrier for a floor. I look down at my feet and see the outline of my feet surrounded by the soft fuzzy white glow from a restriction that creates a white ground fog. At the bottom of the staircase are scores of people waiting to help customers who intend to go upstairs. But very few approach the stairs as most people head for the multitude of corridors that lead to private rooms. The place is busy, a steady flow of people entering and leaving from each of the corridors.


    As I head toward the stairs, I did a proper count and come up with a line of  thirty hostesses.  Ten of which were are groomed males doing their best to what they were train for and intercept female guests with ease.  Their tight fitting jackets show off their impressive musculature.  Behind the line of hostesses a big sister type wearing a dress with alot more accents overseeing the younger hostesses.


    I head for the base of the stairs, a pretty hostess in a tight dress makes eye contact and intercepts me away from the line and bows to me and ask "What can this Celestial Accord''s auction house do for you, young master?" My divine sense tells me she drawing qi into her eyes.  I glance around and notice all the staff are doing the same, so I took a quick peep in the hostess with the weakest cultivation.  It''s an eye technique that allows them to pierce though one level of treasure protection at it''s basic mastery.  But also allows them to see people''s cultivation stage one level above their own.


    My reply was "I would like to rent a workshop, standard rates for a month stay?" and hand her a message jade listing the ingrediants I wanted to work with.


    She smiles and politely accepts the jade and begin scanning the contents with her divine sense.  She sees long list of ingrediants, each had a divine sense recording of the actual spiritual plant with proper harvesting tips and management.  It was the most organized message jade she ever seen, and intend to copy for her own use.  The divine sense recordings ensure the different regions or a different world may have different names for the spiritual plant.  So the recordings makes sure they know the right spiritual plants I wanted. The ingrediants she sees are early tier seven common crafting materials and a smattering of alchemy materials.


    With her her late stage five cultivation, it only took a blink of time to scan though the contents of the jade and smoothly tosses "Ah, you done this before, please follow me young master" while passing the jade to a runner.  I see a sight frown flicker as her eyes tells me she is looking at my early stage six cultivation, then the raise eyebrow of can craft with early tier stage seven materials?  I watch qi flow into her ear ring, after a brief glance know it has a restriction to serve as a communication tool with stealth encoding.  Since I can detect up to late tier seven stealth restrictions.  The fact that I can''t sense anything tells me it''s at least tier eight stealth protected comm link.


    I continue with "But I would like to request all crafted artifacts be sold at the end of the month auction, the day before I am leaving.  I request my auctions be promoted with all the influence you have.  I like my winnings to be converted to tier nine resources.  Here is a list of materials I am looking for my master," after all I have to stock up what I am using.  I will not suffer master too much of a loss taking me in when I return his ring.  "I would like to buy them with my auction winnings starting with the most expensive items available.  Let''s start with this spear."


    I materialize a spear in hand "To bring in the crowd at the end of the month, please sell this spear at the end of the week.  I crafted this spear a few months ago," doing a quick calculation automatically for curiosity''s sake, it''s been almost two years in master''s cave.  Then continue with "Master ordered me to go out and earn some fame," dramatically sighing at such troublesome work.


    She chuckles at that before handing out "Young master, I have no doubt you will earn more fame than you want!" Her shocked eyes appraising the spear as something already special enough to auction for a high price.  Even peak stage seven expert would want this spear, her divine sense can even tell the weapon spirit is in hibernation waiting for it''s first master.  Most importantly, it was a bloodline artifact. It would be bound to the first masters bloodline, so only direct decendants can touch it.  Even their parents and siblings could not touch it.


    As a man I glance at her ass as I climb the stairs, it''s like how can I not look. So I pretend to be a tourist, and glance around me that my divine sense has already mapped out. She leads me to an area with translucent crystal tubes running up into the cealing and stops by one of them and says "Please sir, this tube lead to the workshops. Please remember you can only fly inside these tubes. There are flying restrictions thoughout this auction house." I nodded to her and step into the tube and will myself up with a dose of qi.  I could use spiritual force, but decided to pretend to be a normal qi cultivator.


    As I land on the exit floor I was greeted by another pretty girl who inquires "What kind of room do you like sir?" I reply "a room with a view." She nods and says "I know of good one sir, this way please." As she leads the way she informs "If there is anything you need during your stay, please don''t hesitate to ask any of our staff."


    My curiosity kicks in and I inquire "Does that includes even you?"


    She stops and looks at me and responds with a blush "A tier seven artificer as young as you, my answer is yes." I smile back, laughing inwardly as my curiosity gets the better of me.  She bows politely before leading me away again often commenting on other rooms available if I am dissatified with the one she has chosen. She takes her time, it''s obvious she is stalling until they can gather up the items I requested, so accepted the well rehearsed tour. I even injected a few points of interest to keep up the game, which I earn a smiled in appreciation.


    She finally stops before a triple layer barrier warded door, manned by a servant holding a silver tray. She picks up a jadekey and a void pouch and presents them to me, then tells "This jadekey will allow you to control these barriers and call for a servant if you ever need something. This pouch has the materials you requested young master."


    I wisk them into master''s ring with a thought, and continued with "I''ll take that nice girl who brought me to floor tubes to run errands for me. Tell her I give her a tier five niravana breakthough pill if she runs errands for me until I decide to leave this city." Then willed the jadekey to open the barriers and then walk through and enter the workshop.


    The workshop is on the top floor of the auction house. The entire workshop is just a circular slab of array hardened rock like substance extending out from the building as a short bridge.  It''s completely covered by an invisibility array,  each step I take my divine sense records the cascating wave the rolls from my steps that outlines the edges of the bridge.  With this safety aid type restriction built into the jadekey,  my steps send out vibrations allowing me know outline of the invisible bridge. With the ground fog, I feel like I am walking on clouds. There is even a formation to make me feel the ground has a little give in it as if walking on a spongy floor, but my divine sense tell me bridge is solid.


    A three layer shimmering barrier protects the workshop and provides privacy. Glancing at the barriers, I see the main protective barrier, followed by a privacy barrier and the third barrier was another protective barrier that also keep the workshop invisible and undetectable.  Through the keyjade I willed "clear to see" and the opaque barrier turns invisible and I can see the view of the city. Since the workshop extends out of the building I will be able to see both the sunrise and sunset. I know the barrier is one way, outside of the workshop is concealed by invisibility arrays as part of the the auction house guareentee privacy that crafters demand while working.


    My divine sense gives me the out line of other invisible workshops below me.  The staff was kind of enough to put me at the very top, so no invisible restriction block my sky view but looking down, I see two more floors of workshop invisibity restrictions distorting some of the view below.  Of course, that if I use my divine sense.  But with my normal vision, they are beautifully absent as I have a perfect view of the auction stage as I am directly above it.  After enjoying the fortress scape view for bit, I then imagine the token ''white and bright'' and the invisible barrier turn soft white to illuminate the space.


    I send my thoughts into the void pouch to check the materials. I see them all plus a score of large vials filled with more sustenence pills and ten bottled gifts of cultivation wines. No doubt the spear I gave them was enough to satisfy management and decided to charge me after my auctions. I am glad to see they are treating me like a true master, gives me a good impression of them.


    It had lowest quality from the artifacts I made in the cave until I ran out of materials to use.  I had already run out of alchemy materials as I had mastered that hobbie first raiding Gaia''s medical gardens all useable materials.  Unfortuately, master had heavily partition the medical garden toward higher tier spiritual plants that I can only use later.  Though I did harvest all the ripe spiritual fruits so that the mother plants can start on a new batch of fruits instead maintaining it current full crop of fruits to perfect quality.


    After all, as a perisable fruit, it has a short evolution tree.  Ten years, fifty years, one hundred year, one thousand years and ten thousand years.  Though many agree waiting beyond one hundred years is going overboard.  After all, the gains in potency for aging that long is not worth it.  Because of this reason, most cultivation wines are made from one hundred year old spiritual fruits.  There are a few families that produce one thousand year old wines, but that all goes to the great powers.  Thousand old wines auction off at ridiculous prices that keeps the average joes from bidding.


    In my master''s memories, never stop collecting sustenence pills, because you never know when you might get stuck in a trap.  As an alchemist, I can make them, but it to time consuming to make.  So I place a huge order of superior quality sustence pills along with the raw order list. I put those into my master''s ring then empty the materials into the work area. Crafting anything is mentally consuming work that often induce headaches and a whole lot of insomnia. Only thing I can say is that I sink into my work at the molecular level and forget the outside world ever existed.


    When I come to my senses, there a marvelous weapon in my hands. I made a heavy blade this time, it''s about three hundred pounds of polished metal and emits both Sword Qi and Earth Qi in overlapping waves. I put the weapon aside and began cultivating with the resources I bought earlier. This was my routine until three days left of my auction. The first servant girl I requested liked men and provided an entertaining break. I rewarded her a pill suitable for her cultivation level in gratitude for her time. The following stage five girls were even more enthusiastic in entertaining me once they heard I was gifting a pill that raises cultivation that they would need spent months or even a year working for.  I know their desire to reach stage six to lock in their youthful appearance for two hundred years is every female cultivators dream.  But I don''t feel bad taking advantage of this, after all I''m not forcing the girls to duo cultivate with me.  After twelve years of isolation, my sixteen year old body is cutting loose finally.


    I crafted fourteen weapons earlier, as I handed my last craft to my last break girl.  I remember her being the one who occasionally runs errands for me. I examine her aura and see it''s much stronger than before. I spoke up "That foundation pill I gave you last week worked extremely well, your now a peak tier five expert!" and give a friendly jesting smile as I hand her a tier five Nirvana pill for the night''s duo pleasure.


    Her smiling reply was "Thank you very much for your help young master" before marveling at the warbow I had crafted. "You have total of fifteen auctions young master. Your auctions will end in three days, would you like to attend in a private booth young master?"


    I reply "No thanks, it''s boring going to an auction that I can''t bid." I give her a grin then hand her a new list of herbs I want to buy, I offer "Please add this list to the items I want to purchase with the auction winnings, and a friendly reminder to convert the excess winnings to stage nine resources for my master. I''ll wait in this workshop." As I turn away my curiosity asks "would you like a third time with me tonight my dear?  You will need a pill to solify your tier six foundation."


    She lights up and reply "I''ll return to you as soon as my duties permit young master" and left to take the warbow away to be place in that central showcase with the rest of my auction pieces.


    When she returns, we use a different peak tier five duo cultivating technique, we follow the scripted moves and enjoy it as much as we can. As cultivators we go through five cycles before we are both satisfied. Afterwards she happily leaves with a tier six foundation pill and I watch her sways happily out of the workshop.


    Her only thoughts of knowing she''ll be at the top of her peers once she take these pills and skips away towards a new future with a bright big smile.   I couldn''t help smile, when I see a girl leave knowing I just given them the ticket to become a stage six cultivator.  They get this happy go lucky attitude as they take first opportunity to get to go into close door cultivation to make their dream break though.  Thus locking in their youthful appearance for next two hundred years.  After all, a stage six cultivator has a five hundred year lifespan.


    These girls I''ve gifted a tier five niravana break though pill always leave with a happy as can be vibe.  Granting their dreams of being a young teenager for two centuries with the life of being dolted upon by a mass number of suiters.  A couple of years earlier than they expected, they show their utmost respect as they bow many times as they try to leave. Seeing these girls so happy always makes my day.


    I get back to work, but this time I switch over to alchemy. It''s just like artificing, I get total sucked into my work I forget everything. When I come to my senses I push my divine sense into my master''s ring and know there is a new bunch of pills are in there.


    While examining the new pills with my divine sense, I see I have stocked up on what I was low on.  Either by selling or gifting, my bag of trick or treats is full again.  The door chime sounded, my divine sense dives into the token and see two elders waiting.  They look kind of important so I commanded they keyjade to ''open door.'' Two auction elders entered and delivered a void pouch, "Your winnings and spiritual materials you wanted, young master."


    I replied "Thank you for your exceptional services" as I sent the pouch into my master''s ring.  I had learn much from the information services about this world. The world had not change much from master''s three hundred old memories.  Prices are still roughly the same, though a few more spiritual plants have become rare or extinct.


    The other elder respectful replied "It''s a pleasure having to sell your art here. Please come back anytime." He then willed the returned jadekey to open up the cealing. I watch a hole form on the top of the barrier that expands and drop instantly to floor level. I cup my hands and say "Elders, thank you for sending me off" and took to the skies.


    Last night I visited the information services for anything interesting happening nearby, but nothing that caught my interest.  Also I was able to pick up a decent cache of herbs from Spiritual Gardens as they were able to teleport the available materials in range a day early.  I told them to continue collecting the items on my list and gave them a handful of artifacts to create a tab with.  The last thing I did last night was ask for a friendly spar with master Rosethorn.


    He was a good match, but like most alchemist he lacked battle power.  At first I felt the match would be pointless and wouldn''t gain any insights.  I''m so used to using adding battle power from my years of training, now that I am fighting without it, I suddenly find this fair match interesting as I am being suppressed from the start.  I struggle to quickly adjust to my combat abilities and slowly bring the struggle back to a balance.


    He smiles at my sudden growth and gives "I see now why you wanted to fight me, stabalizing your tier six techniques before adventuring again is a smart move young master."  I give my thanks with cupped hands and a short bow for the hour long workout.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.As I travel though the city, I quickly learned that three color pill lightning struck the north workshop three times during the auctions.  Causing the audience to go into a frenzy and the bidding turned into a battle in gratitude for a wonderful show.  Being able to witness the full fury of early tier seven three colored pill lightning at ground zero was breath taking.  The following strikes increase by a small advance, so the third strike would be at late stage seven battle power.


    The  air becomes electrified as tiny harmless arcs of energy strike everyone making their skin tingle.  This is then followed by the oppressive might that slams down on everyone.  Although the barrier protects everyones life.  The oppressive might still can be felt and thus giving small insights to many cultivators in the audience.  The three auctions that had a pill lightning event ended up nearly doubling the other auctions.


    The appreciation for my unusual gift of close encounter with pill lightning had turn those three auctions into gratuitous bidding wars.  The audience loved the feeling of the three final lightning strikes as many took the opportunely to divine record it and later study for insights.  As oblivion approached the north workshop, the audience craned their neck to see the event unfold above them.   The detonation was awesome and in a blink the colluseum barrier is covered in a cloud of qi fallout.  For the general audience it was the biggest rush they ever felt and cheered for more.


    Thanks to the early tier nine protective barrier, many tier six cultivators would treated it like a lucky chance.  Many would claim to recieve small advances to their cultivation during the auction.  Experiencing the three late stage eight strikes being described as a wonder for the city.  After the auction, many would be rushing back to their cultivation room for close door period.  Studying the three divine sense recordings of the final strikes looking for new insights.


    So I head back to that dark cave in a round about way to make sure I wasn''t followed. Now that I got supplies to last some years I can go back to my studies. Why would I return to that dank cave, it''s because my master place a concealing array and a temporal array in there. The temporal array shifts time to three days in the array will only be one day in the outside world.


    * Reader Scoreon once commented on the Fastglow Shockmelon game, but I never liked my quick answer of using ancient memories from my legacy.  So I finally decided to add the following arc as my new answer.


    However, my plans to return to the cave ended rather quickly as I a mid stage eight expert appear before me.  I narrow my eyes and prepare to fight, though I don''t stand a chance and wonder if I can make it back to the city.  Then the young uncle looking guy exclaims "I have never met such a good seedling before.  I am Krenlin, but everyone calls me Thunderclash, sect master of the Thunderpeak Sect.  My young friend, how would you like to join my sect?"


    I blink once to recall what the auction''s information service gave me concerning the important local powers.  The Thunderpeak Sect is the number one sect, including the adjacent regions.  They also have a decent reputation for fighting demonic cultivators.  The sect is actually quite close, located in a nearby mountain range to the west.  I frown a bit and toss out "I already have a master,"  in my heart I have a master.


    But Krenlin goes "What does that have to do when joining a sect?  There are plenty of disciples with a  master, but they still join sects because of what we can offer."


    With my curiosity peaked I go "What can your sect offer me?"


    Seeing my interest Krenlin smiles and offer "My sect controls serveral ancient renmants for a starter.  Not to mention cultivation techniques, battle skills and raw materials."


    I was interested in the renmants and raw materials so I give "Are you going to provide me with tier seven raw materials?"


    He goes "Of course, your weapon artifacts are amazing!  Not to mention your amazing pills.  If you join my sect, I will grant you full access to our spiritual warehouse.  Plus you can enter the spiritual library to learn any techniques and hobbies you wish.  If you join I give you this void tool filled with resources and promote you as a elder!"


    I blink again, sending my divine sense towards the void pouch in his hands.  It did not take much effort to get a peek inside and I sigh seeing the expected ton wanted of tier seven resources.  I give myself a mental sigh, I suppose I could trade them in for tier nine resources later.  I give a fake smile and hand out "Elder? Great!  But what exact benefits do I get?"  A title of elder is given to stage six experts for any power, so it does not really pump me up.


    He smiles thinking I am hooked and sprouts "Since your a genius crafter, I will give you your own peak!  I know one near the back of the sect that currently free.  That way no one will bother you while your crafting.  No one will be allow to enter your peak with out yours or my instructions.  There is currently a peak tier seven protection barrier around the peak created by the last owner.


    Elder Winesack died from qi diviation while trying to break though to stage eight thirty eight years ago.  Since I have his spare jadekey, I long since buried Elder Winesack and clean up his home and personal affects.  However, I never bother to look for his legacy and his secret treasures.  With his peak stage seven cultivation, you might find some of his treasures useful."


    Krenlin just smiles at me believing I am hooked.  I give him another blink and consider my options.  I could just accept, looting a peak stage seven treasures could kill my curiosity a tad.  But that smug look of his makes me frown.  I see his face freeze a bit so I rebound with "I can already make mid tier seven artifacts, so a peak tier seven treasure is only mildly interesting."


    I watch him start sweating a little but quickly give in with "But I was already interested in joining, so adding Elder Winesack treasures can be considered a small bonus."


    I watch him sigh in relief before going happy go lucky as he guides me west towards a new home and goes "How shall I address you young master?"


    I thought a bit and offer "You may call me that."  I cock my head slightly to the side and hesitated as I watch him frown again so I continue with "But inside the sect you may call me Drake, sect master," then give the cups hand and formal bow of a disciple.  Flying sideways so as not to delay my flight any further.


    He brightens and laughs delays half a moment of time to follow and goes "Of course!  Junior Drake, it a pleasure to have you as a member of my sect!"


    I smile back and bounce off "I like to travel to see the world, so I''ll be leaving when I feel ready to go."


    He replies "You may leave any time!  Just remember to visit the sect when you need a break from the world.


    It tooks two days to reach the sect, and he talked my ears off explaining everything I needed to know about the sect.  "We will have a welcoming ceremony in a few days so everyone here can greet you.  Until then, this peak will be yours until you ascend or die trying."  I looked at the peak we had stop next too.


    Cool I thought, I have a home in a powerful sect, recognized as number one even in the adjacent regions.  I guess I got a homebase, faster than planned, so I am happy.  I was planning on looking for a homebase after my second training session in master''s cave. This ancient young uncle looking dude got a decent aura about him.  I do not sense much evil in his aura, he has lead a good life and I smile and hand out "Just how big is your spiritual warehouse?  Just how much tier seven and eight raw materials do you have?"  Getting back to business, as I don''t want him to think I am a push over.


    He sees my smile and backhands "I think you will be impressed.  The sect has been stockpiles for ages.  Though much have been used for hobbies and auctions that improve our sect reputation.  I believe we have enough to satisify the requirements toward your next break though."


    I go "Really?  I look forward to that then, and thank you in advance sect master!"  Which means I can practice as much as I want to peak seven.


    But realizing he going too easy for me counters with "You must provide the sect with ten artfacts or pills and the end of each month?"


    It''s obvious an after thought, but I don''t mind and pass off "Sure no problem, probably more than ten since I am a craftaholic,"  then watch my new uncle brighten.  Considering that thought I serve "Do you not have tier seven crafters in the sect?"


    He sighs and goes "We have an early tier seven alchemist, but he is getting rather old, he is about to go into final close door soon."


    Understanding the situation I offer "Tell the alchemist to go into closed door, I''ll produce a bunch of tier seven artifacts as soon a possible."  With that I took an empty message jade and filled it with a list of ingrediants and hand it over to senior Krenlin with "Please send these materials as soon as possible."


    I see a grateful expression and goes "Would thirty sets of materials for each hobbie be doable junior Drake?"


    I blink and realize no matter how desparate he is, he still taking advantage of me so contend with "It be best if you give me more since I do not like asking for refills.  However, I should get merits points for each one I hand in?"


    I watch him blink once to let it sink in before going with "Of course, currently tier seven artifacts offer the most merit points."


    Learning two legacies as my main hobbies and various sect activities including a shockmelon challenge kept me entertained for six more years inside my own temporal array.  But just over two years have past in the real world.  As for my sect life, well that will be cover in a flashback.


    I sigh with regret as I visiting master''s cave for the last time. With my master reincarnating, the two arrays have been deteriorating a few months ago. I qi enchanced my eyes to give them a boost, I appraise the decaying arrays and know they will last a couple of months at most. I cup my hands and bow to the cave and respectively say "Master, may we again in the future." I turn and flew back to Celestial Accords.


    When I arrived at the foot of that massive stairs a young lady steps to me and purrs out "Young master! Welcome back to our Cestial Accords. Do you require the same services?" I smiled a nod as I pass her and continue up the stairs. She smiles back and quick steps to hug my left arm, then lean forward a little to see my face and inquires "would like the same workshop young master?" As she escorts me to the floor tubes, with her mid stage five cultivation, her memory is superb.  As we pass the rest of the female hostesses who all chip in various versions of  "Welcome back young master!"  Along with their best poses, so I could not help my smile at all the young flowers perking up as I was possessively escorted past them.


    My divine sense pick up a ton of traffic from their ear rings.  With my improved abilities I translate a few messages about my return to management.  But mostly I also pick up on the girls excitement and even hear a detail report on my vices from my last visit.  At the time I sense their predatory eyes of the new girls locked on me seeing their dreams of reaching stage six just arrived.  Last of all, I hear a manager post ''Everyone is to respect and assist the young master during his stay!''  After that I stop eavesdropping as the girly chatter started to get out of hand.


    Thinking back, about a dozen girls broke though to stage six last time I came here so I laugh out "it''s my home when I am here" and thus headed home. When I reach the workshop landing a pretty girl offer out her hand and I hand her the list of the items I wanted to work on this time. I smile at her and say "You learn fast! Come over sometime and I''ll treat you right."


    She laughs back "It would be a great honor young master."


    As I walk to my workshop, I see a servant with the silver tray. I step up and picked up the token off the tray let my divine sense activate token with ''Open my door.'' I watch the barriers open and I step through. Then I thought ''Let the sunshine in'' and barriers turn invisible. I look over my home town until the door chime rang and a voice say "Your items you requested, young master."


    I reply "Just put on the table" and continue to enjoy the view. I soon hear "Please enjoy your stay young master." I then think ''Soft white and seal door'' and the barriers turn into that fuzzy white light I like to use when crafting.  However, the first thing I do is set up a cultivation array to double the density of the world qi and temporal arrays to increase my crafting time by three.  My time in the sect was quite useful in getting an expert to teach me these two arrays, and all it cost me was an extra artifact I crafted for merit points.  Having being taught by an expert, mastering the temporal array was easy than trying to figure out master''s chicken scratching.  His written notes are terrible, but fortuneately, most of his legacy had auction house legibility quality.


    Tier seven artificing is a bit interesting, I use centrifugal forces, gravity waves and dimensional rifting to make great looking weapons.  Can''t go into the details because I made an oath to my ancestor to keep everything a secret. Best I can do is discribe one of his weapons. The story I liked the most is the ship in the bottle sword. It was a crystal clear sword that had a diaramma of a ship in a bottle in exquisite detail. The sword was the sea that held the diaramma. Bidders laughed at the ridiculous design. My master replied ''of course it''s ridiculous! That the whole point in this auction. My weapons I am selling tonight are meant to be your final trump card. Since your going to use the weapon once, might as make them look ridiculous. Beside who uses scabbards these days, we store our weapons in void tools. With out sheaths confining me, I had fun making some bizarre toys. I''ve definitely be making more fun toys in the future.


    Another one I like is the rocket spear. It was carved from a tree and had a child like innocence to it. It''s cartoony big nose and faded paint truely look like it was an old toy. My ancestor''s one use toys are funny. I wonder if I have to skills to make such powerful toys someday. With that thought I sink myself into my work and forget the world again.


    As I become conscious of the world, I have four new weapons, each radiating a different elemental qi. The elemental qi pour out of the blades in torrents, as if the swords could no longer contain the excess qi. Surrounding each elemental qi is the same amount of sword qi pouring out, but it is so well fused together the you would think it was the same qi at first glance. I thought ''Nice blades!'' and picked one up to examine. The crystal blade is like a window into the Elemental Earth Plane, the living earth constantly flows upwards from the pummel all the way to the tip of the blade. As it travels down the blade it exudes that torrent of perfectly fused duo qi. I see, I guess the show this month is about elemental weapons. I smile as I pull out my resource pouch and start cultivating.


    Once I recover my energies, I send the thought ''I need a cute servant girl'' to the token and received an instant reply ''At once young master!'' After enjoying duo cultivating for a number of times, I sent her off happily with the four weapons and a pill to help her cultivation. A quick look at the city before dissappearing back into my work. This time I made four elemental bows, very impressive looking work. Their exaggerated surface allow you more places to watch the captivating living elements flow around.


    After examinging each bow, I move back to cultivating. I spent a ton to buy all these resources from the auction house meant for tier nine experts, but I am eating them like candy at stage seven. Each small advance is a bottomless abyss. If a normal tier seven tried to refine one of these resources they would explode into bloodmist then ignite into an infernal due the excess energy. Not only does my master''s cultivation technique raise the amount needed for each small advance, it also deepens my foundation capacity. This duo expansion is starting to get ridiculous in the shear amount of energy required.


    The next girl was a big sister from that last time I was here so I greeted "Girlfriend! How have you been?" She laughs and take my hand and directs me to the bed, this makes me laugh back, and enjoy the time I spent with her. We used a tier six duo cultivation technique, she actually broke though to stage seven in the middle of our fun. So I promptly pulled out a couple jades with a tier seven duo cultivation techniques and let her choice which one she wanted.  Then spent the rest of our time enjoying an much more pleasurable experience. As a congratulatory gift, I gave her a pill to solify her foundation as she took the bows away.


    As I my divine sense watch the auctions going on below, a communication restriction displays the current auction item on the workshop wall.  I have it set to chime whenever a rare items comes up, otherwise I had it set to mute.  Listening to all the low level auction chatter got irritating really fast.  I finish off a bottle of cultivation wine, I decided on a change of plans and order up a servant from the token and handed the girl a new list of spiritual fruits, herbs and liquids. When she returned I had a large jade barrel ready and tip the little girl with a pouch of tier three resources and watch her light up in gratitude before leaving.  I began refining new materials into a liquid to fill the barrel. Once filled the liquid has a slight gold shimmer, I seal it and place a temporal array on the barrel it to make it age three times faster. Then willed the barrel into my master''s ring, in a few months I can take it out for a taste.


    Zenia comes over and breaths "you always look so magnificent out there.  What''s your secret?"


    Mara said "you have to enjoy yourself to look good out there.  Don''t tell me you forgot this?"


    Zenia goes "I assure you, I get plenty of reminders.  But really, you are a natural on the stage sister Mara."

 Chapter Three - Dragonbone Den

    Chapter Three -  Dragonbone Den


    Just thinking about drinking that wine after it''s done fermenting changes my mood, after all it''s one of master''s cultivation wine recipe. So I decide I''ll work on alchemy for a change of pace. So I sweep everything away into my master ring and pull out my alchemy stuff. Damn I feel pumped up as I seek that white infinity that leads into alchemy. When my senses comes to, I see a five ornate jade vials each with a single pill vibrating in their confined space. I sense ten more inside master''s ring, but I notice they are only tiger marked pills. The medicinal scent in the workshop is intense, I can feel my cultivation raising a little. I can''t help think ''Damn what the hell did I make'' as I stare at five Ki-Rin divine marked pills in wonder. They act as if they are alive and terrified of their captivity, quivering in fear as they sense my gaze finally upon them.


    I feel exhausted so I drag my resource pouch out and started cultivating with glee. I can''t wait to examine those truely curious pills. Once I finish cultivating to recover my exhaustion, I sense my cultivation has risen to mid stage seven. I only recently solified early stage not too long ago. This makes me even more curious about the pills and open my eyes as I quickly chow down the last of my morning intake.  It''ll take a few hours for my stomach furnace to refine all that so I have plenty of time to examine the pills now.


    The five dazzling pills illuminates the space as a rainbow of colors.  As each pill trying to out dazzle the others with their aura''s output.  As my divine sense infiltrate those jade vials I''m pleasantly surprise they possess pill spirits.  Though a bit childish in their bid for the best aura.  The effect of divine marking caused by the pill lightning is doubled because of having pill spirits, which means the pills have a forty percent increase effectiveness. But master''s techniques, I can put in a bonus effect of refining the pill taker''s body a small advance to make it a little bit tougher that a body crafting expert could appreciate.  Unfortuneately, the main spiritual ingrediants can only be found in ancient renmants that show up every now and then.  Those subspaces are always a battlefield for resources before the subspace closes for what ever default time cycle it was set too.


    After all, the tougher the body, the higher cultivation technique can be learned.  Simply for the sole reason to avoid self implosion due to have too weak a body. Most cultivators can only use basic cultivation techiques that does not require higher level of body crafting.  As they do not have the funds to even consider attempting advance body crafting techniques. The spirituals materials used is equal to an artifact of the same level.  So the average cultivator would spend their available funds for a weapon artifact so they can cut through a body crafter''s body.  Rather than going though torturous body crafting techniques that are known to be lethal for the weaked willed.  That lethality only increases as with higher tiers.  So the normal culivators will logically conclude to buy a weapon artifact to cover their base rather than risk dying to protect themselves from said artifact weapons.


    Besides, they all gone through hell cleansing their bodies as they progress though stages one to three.  That''s body crafting, but at a basic level.  So of course most cultivators grew up hating the self torture and promptly jump ship and change to an adult cultivation technique that does not require any more body crafting when they evolved to stage four.  But a least they have bodies comparable to a tier three artifact.  This is more than suitable for most cultivation techniques.


    There is one kind of cultivator that actually considers body crafting as a must have technique despite it''s lethal flaw.  They come from all walks of life, but they have one thing in common.  They are battle fiends who enthusiastically body craft to the highest level they can afford.  All for the goal of meeting other battle fiends and exchanging advice!


    What is exactly is Ki-Rin marked pill effectiveness?  My curiosity at this moment goes let''s figure this out.  A standard unmarked nirvana pill basically has roughly thirty percent chance of working and provides only thirty percent power needed for a full awakening.  These basic pills are consumed by most cultivators due to lack of funds.  Because of this, cultivators using the basic pill end up having rather shallow foundations.  There foundations becoming worst with each breakthough past stage four.  Therefore, most cultivators will never achieve stage seven due to their weaked foundations.


    However, this can be improved by summoning pill lightning to recieve a divine mark.  Each aura improves the pills effectiveness by five percent.  Normally a tier eight alchemist masters are able to call down three auras, and give their pills the divine tiger mark. The grandmasters can go to four auras and mark their pills with the Ki-Rin.  While divinemasters can reach five auras, which means their divine Phoenix marked pills have seventy five chance of making a breakthough. While providing seventy five percent of the energy needed for a full awakening.  That is a fifty base chance for pills made by a divinemaster, one of their perks.  Five auras will raise the success chance to seventy five percent.  While the base fifty percent effectiveness, again another perk the divinemaster can master.


    Suffix it to say, cultivators desire higher ranked divine marked pills for their breakthoughs.  It just far to expensive for most cultivators to afford Ki-Rin marked pills, let alone Phoenix marked ones.  I am a bit surprise that I can be considered grandmaster level, so I choose to limit my sellables to tiger marks since Ki-Rin marks are still a bit of an effort to achieve with my current cultivation.   But if I really go all out, I can produce the divine Ki-Rin marked pill.  But that will wipe me out until I can cultivate to recover, so l decided to save that kind effort for personal use.


    Back to the story, some may want to kill me, while others would want to be my master.  But I already have a master, I just have to wait and see him reborn some five hundred years in the future.  I decided to build a reputation of someone who has a hidden master the last time I visited.  So I should avoid the troubling fights over who wants to be my master.  With any luck those kind of people won''t bother me since I left a plenty of evidence of my background.  That trail of collecting stage nine resources for my master, since no one would dare try to use one but a stage nine expert.   Not to mention the trails of tier eight materials to bought at both the Spiritual Gardens and Celestial Accords.   Hopefully to keep at bay those who want me dead, after all no one wants to mess with a stage nine''s disciple.  I wonder what faces they will make if they found out I bought the tier nine resource for myself.  Besides, it also helps to support why I have exceptional skills when they believe I have a stage nine hidden master.


    I will thus avoiding the troubles caused by in fighting of those want to be my master.  It will also buy me some time for those who want me enviously dead.  If I can reach peak stage seven, then basically I will be safe.  With my full stage advance if I use my battle power, I can duke it out with stage eight experts.  Only a stage nine expert could threaten me, but they are all hidden away trying to ascend into the next dimension.  They have long lost interest in this one and only want to ascend.  The only ones I need to worry about are those like me with high battle power.


    However, the arrival of pill lightning always has infintessimal chance of bring forth a pill spirit.  I realize my Ki-Rin marked pills is a eighty slash eighty I could not help but smiled, these pills are going to sell for a lot.  I also realize I can increase my chances for pill spirits by pouring in a ton of spiritual force well beyond what is normally needed to make a pill during the fall of pill lightning.  I double check the suppression restrictions on the five vials to make sure that the pill spirits are being properly being brain wash into submission.


    I also realize they are stage eight pills, I thought it was pretty cool I can make pills one grade higher than my cultivation with alchemy as well. No wonder my cultivation rose so suddenly. I can see why alchemists don''t bother with cultivating, all they have to do is craft higher quality pills and their cultivation will raise a little. I can see why top experts will take a hobbie once their cultivation stop growing, because all cultivating hobbies can provide growth to their stagnate cultivation. I see before me two Minerva pills, two Firmament pills and one Pheonix Rebirth pill.


    As my divine sense enter the tier eight Minerva pills, I know it will allow a person to purify their spiritual veins by one to three advances.  Depending on the difference of tier, one with tier eight will gain one advance, a seven would receive two advances, and a six or lower will gain three advances.  With improved spiritual veins, willpower is also increased.  So when the times comes they won''t forget to reform their new stage nine body, many forget to do this time as they are distracted by their ongoing evolution.  I used to gulp these down in my ancient memories, but I no longer need them and wonder how much they will sell for.  Spiritualists under peak stage eight spiritual veins and going to fork over their saving for this.


    As my mind enters the Firmament pills, I know this pill will grant a mid stage eight expert to evolve to a peak tier eight expert and solidify the foundation by two small advances.  Kind of handy for those who ran out of potential for various reasons.  Jump to peak stage eight and spend the rest of their lives evolving to stage nine.  This is another money in the bank and began chuckling.


    When I delved into the Pheonix Rebirth pill, the person who takes this pill will explode into a body of flames when they take lethal damage and emit a stage eight killing intent aura. They will be given a choice of fight or flee. If fight is choosen then the person will be reborn right there with all wounds healed and a temporary advance to early stage eight with the only after effect being their foundation will be a small advance higher. If flee was choosen they will be teleported in the direction of their choice with a distance that a stage eight expert to take a tenday to fly too. The body will then be reborn with full health and their foundation will have risen by a small advance.


    I promptly pop the pheonix rebirth pill and refine the pill energies to permeate through every cell in my body.  My last resort life saving technique, imbued with some serious pill restrictions.  Too bad I failed the first two times, I hoped I had another for Mara to take.  But now I have to wait for the Celestial Accord''s networks and special rewards for bringing in any of the rare materials I needed.


    Pushing my limits as I hobby is the only way to truely grown.  Pain in my heart goes for the rare ingrediates wasted.  Most alchemist have poor success rate even at one or two stages lower than their ranking suggests.  Most lack the spirituals veins neccessary for higher level achemy, and must use alchemic cauldron that specialize in spiritual array support. Higher tier cauldrons even have a cauldron spirit who have learn alchemy by watching the multitude of owners perform their alchemy.  Making them extremely expensives as their are plenty of alchemists that do not have a spirit cauldron.


    I eyeball the Foundation pills and realize I have a short cut to advance though stage eight. But thinking about it a bit more I realize my foundation would be weak due to lack of energy. Right now it''s looking like I need to be at late stage eight to use the pill to get to peak stage. Well if I can get to divine dragon marked pills that would cover fifty percent of the energy I needed. So I just need to cover fifty percent of the energy requirement and make a firmanant pill to work for me at mid stage eight.


    Offhand, I can think a several spiritual materials that can cover thirty percent, that leaves twenty percent to fill in. I tear off two percent of my divine sense to work on the problem before partitioning that away.  I become happy because twenty percent is too easy, just finding the best potential mix will take time.  So losing another two percent of my divine sense is worth it for now.  Since all the research is saved with divine sense recording, I can stop any time with out losing any thing.  Thus basically the first thing I will drop if I need more divine sense.


    So I breeze into the workshop token and ordered me a pretty girl.  I sigh as I wonder how long it''s going to take to find the ingrediants, so I create a message jade as I wait for the girl to arrive.  I randomly pull out a tier five jug of cultivation wine and a spiritual dish I stored away for a lazy day.  Then activated the appearance restriction and went through the image library and decided on a forest glade setting.


    The pretty girl was shocked and just stared at the pills until I interrupted her with a poke "Nice pills?"


    She jumps like a scared cat and takes a deep breath and joyfully dancing around a bit before says "Young master makes really nice pills!" We both laugh as she drags me to the bed for some duo cultivating.


    As she gather up the vials and about to leave I come over and pat her head and say "I like your enthusiasm, when I call for a pretty girl next time come instead and I''ll help you solidfy your stage six cultivation!"  Well I can''t blame her for her energy, the lingering creation qi no doubt the culprit.  Breathing the scent in is intoxicating, but in a good way as it improves the senses.  She striped down instantly and played with me in the woods.  When her back arched and body went taunt, I could not help but think girls are sexy at that moment.  Especially when exploring her body with my right hand.  My fingers gliding over her taunt mucles just feels amazing.


    I hand her a tier five nirvana pill and watch her face lit up in gratitude at the divine tiger markings and chirps "Thank you young master!" She exit my workshop to delivering my new four auctions.


    Now that I got my alchemy kick out of the way, not to mentions filling the workshop with the intoxicating scent of pill creation.  I have a formation just to keep the creation qi from dissipating.  Just breathing in the scent makes my body tingle, I can''t get enough of the drug like addiction.  I feel my entire body is awake as every cell struggle to absorb the creation qi.  I sigh as I realize me and the girl  already reduce the thick creation fog to a light mist.


    Crafting five mid tier pills creates an amazing amount of creation qi.  The best thing about creation qi is that it improves potential, especially those under twenty years of age.  It is not much, but if someone is at the edge and need a tiny push.  Then mastering any hobby is the final choice for many cultivators that is stuck in their cultivation.


    I sweep the alchemy stuff into master''s ring and withdraw the artificing materials. Not much time is left for the end of the month show, so I''ll forge a special blade then. With that thought I enter the white light of oblivion. When I come too I open my eye and just stare at the blade before me. It''s a crystal longsword polish so I can easily see my reflection on the blade. Yet molten lava flow endlessly inside the crystal. The aura of the three merged sword qi, earth qi and fire qi forms phantom copies of itself that dissipate as it drifts away from the main sword. The sword''s spirit is strong enough to materialize the tri qi into a copies. As I pick the sword up, sword hymm fills the workshop. I laugh as I playfully slash the air to hear the glorious sword hymms. "Good sword" is all I thought, I guess I''ll keep this one and sent it into my master''s ring.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.Since a new sun has risen, I proceeded to order that girl again and remove three weapons from master''s ring and place them for auction. When the girl arrives and looks at the weapons and playfully goes "Back to weapons?"


    I replied "I had a fond memory of my master so felt like making some pills last time."


    She laughs "Time to make some fond memories too" as she happily drags me back to the bed.


    I laugh to enjoy the moment and teased "Don''t hurt me with your new found strength" that causing her to laugh with joy.


    Her follow up response was "Let me show you how enthusiastic appreciative the new me can be!" while dragging me even harder with a joyful smile.


    I pulled out a handful of early tier six duo cultivation techniques and ask her to pick one.  I been collecting copies of duo cultivation techniques from the auction house from stage five and up to late stage eight.  There are plenty of stage six techniques, my only requirement is having at least a four star rating.  So each break girl gets to learn a private duo cultivating technique to use with me.


    She showed me the stamina of tier six cultivator, in appreciation I gifted her a foundation pill and a playful patted to her ass as she leaves my workshop, I informed "I''ll wait here until the show is over, here is a new list of items I need," then stuff a jade into her bosom and kiss her goodbye. I then swept the token into my master''s ring and thought ''Seal door, open outer barrier'' and flew out into the city. I sent a farewell thought ''Close outer barrier'' and flew down to check out the shops.


    I go back the medicinal gardens just to breath in that air but manage to buy a few rare herbs that recently arrived. Afterwards I probe the other shops from the air with my divine sense but find no treasure qi worth investigating. My master used to like dining at famous restaurants serving high end spiritual cooking. So I toss my divine sense around me to search for a good restaurant. There one to my far to right, and my awareness focus on that restaurant. The Dragonbone Den sign was the aura of a treasure qi blazing forth above the entrance archway. It''s a famous restaurant my master use to love to go. Damn, what luck as I rush down to the entrance, there is already a steady stream of people entering and at the other archway more people leaving.


    As I fly lower I see that the archways act as a simple boundary of two gates. The swirling gates end in a short tunnel into the courtyard of the restaurant. I fly though the tunnel and enter the courtyard. It''s like I entered deep underwater subspace without the water. There are exotic fishes around me, but what catches my attention is the giant sharkbeast flying in the middle of the courtyard lazy swimming there like it''s water. But notices me and begin swimming in my direction. It''s terrifying tier nine aura forces me gently to the ground, as I land the sharkbeast then ignores me and swims back to the center of the courtyard.


    I watched the startled surrounding customers as they step away from me but then realize they are stepping away from the sharkbeast instead. Then they all sigh in relief as it swims lazily back to the center of the courtyard. ''Right'' I thought and realize there must be a flying restrictions here and begin walking around the sharkbeast like the rest of the customers. I can see it chase the fleeing customers on the other side of the courtyard as they try to leave the restaurant. I can''t help but laugh, who ever designed this entrance courtyard is too funny. This watery illusion is a nice trick, with all the restriction all over the place, no one could get out of line.


    My tier seven eyes can now see restriction qi emitting all over the place. It''s impressive tier nine might can''t be felt by my normal senses but my divine sense knows it''s there. My awareness hoover near a restriction and sense "Anyone who disobeys a den member will be teleported out of the restaurant and their bloodline aura banned for a century." I see, these restriction serve to protect the restaurant''s reputation. This is hollowed ground! I recognized in thought. The restaurants attitude is clear, that serve good food and don''t want their customer bothered by worldly affairs.


    There are many hostess standing before different portals sending each group away after confirming the experience they want with their dinner. I step in front of a free hostess and smile, she charmingly smiles back and seeing my youth and cultivation goes "What can we do for the young master tonight?"


    Out of curiosity I replied with "Can I eat with the sharkbeast?" The girl burst out laughing and said "That''s a first! The boss is gonna like that!" Then with the roll of her hand and a bow included, she gestures to the gate and says "Your wish is our command." I smile at her cute display and enter the gate with a good impression.


    As soon as I entered the subspace of illusionary water, the sharkbeast glares at me and huffs until I sit down on a couch chair that sways from minute currents. The sharkbeast does his lazy dance until he is a safe distance for me. I put my mind on the chair restriction and know it for: when the client sits swim causual away until the client feels your at safe distance. I laugh as I willed that safe distance to grow smaller. I see in the corner of my eye the waitress step away from the fast approaching sharkbeast in shock.


    Oh! I make the sharkbeast swim away. "Nice pet!" I replied covering my mistake. She just stares at me with a smile and hand me the menu and utters "Please take your time young master." As I accept the menu I notice a sheen of persperation on the girls brow and I sprout "Please treat me well and I will be grateful."  Since I forced her to fix her makeup, I guess I''ll tip her something good.  Then I stare at the scaly skinned menu that actually looks like part of some monsterous demonbeast. The words engraved in the scales blaze with harmless fire qi. The Dragonbone Den inscribed in the scales make it look like an enchanted spellbook of a powerful wizard.


    I quickly open it up and notice only five items for sale. Glancing at the price I was most definitely shocked, the chef''s choice was equal my best tier seven pill. I focus on the the menu''s restriction and felt: provide a menu fit for the customers cultivation. Nice I thought, and looked at the food fit for my mid stage seven, no wonder their are only five items.


    The Chef''s Choice title was ''Dragonbone BBQ'' This meat is cut from the rib bones of a peak tier seven Celestial Tigerdragon. Cooked in a honey bbq sauce, it''s rich and tangy flavor is served with spiritual rice and a bottle of my homemade cultivation wine. Ahh I thought, now it''s getting interesting.


    The other entrees are good, but the chef''s choice was something my master only ordered. With a little bit of digging in my master''s memories I realize the reason, it''s because the owner of the Dragonbone Den will personally cook it. In my master''s memories, the owner is the only grandmaster of spiritual cooking he has ever met. The owner is a notorious wanderer and rarely leaves his restaurant open for long. Quickly I made up my mind I reply "I''ll have the chef''s choice and something to feed my senior brother sharkbeast." Then pull out a tier seven nirvana pill and continue with "I pay with this pill" from the best divine marked pills I kept for myself and put on a smile. She takes the vial with a smile and with a deep bow at the knees and disappears to management.


    I stare at the heavy water table that float before me, I can even push my finger though the darker water of the table. When I do that it attracts the sharkbeast''s attention and start lazily swim toward me with showing a sharky grin. I glance into the table restriction and sense: Solify when a family member orders with their command ring.'' Then I ignore the watery table place my full attention on senior sharkbeast.


    Senior sharkbeast doesn''t like me when I touch the table, so I play with him through the fear restriction I sense on the table. I wonder how strong in knowledge in restrictions you need to be make it feel so real to make even a tier seven expert need to abid by the rules. All my senses are telling me this subspace is real, but my divine sense say it''s an illusion crafted with restrictions.


    A voice interupts my play "I see you like my sharkbeast." I quickly remove my hand from the table and turn to see the speaker. I see a young uncle wearing a classic black chef outfit with red accents smiling at the sharkbeast. Who I notice has spotting it''s master and can see it''s flashing tail of happiness. I see there are three girls with trays behind him. The chef then says "I know you will enjoy the dinner I made for you." The first girl steps forward and places the dish on the solified table and steps away. His voice continues "This is a bottle of cultivation wine I made when I was tier seven expert, it aged quite well." The second girl steps foward with a glass and bottle, she calmly fills the glass two thirds and place both on the table and steps away.


    He then follow up with "These three treats I carefully crafted for your entertainment." The third girl lays out three frozen creatures behind me and to the left before bowing and three girls leave the subspace. He then pull out a pill vial and reminisce "I had an old customer that use to give me pills like yours. I''m glad he finally found a disciple to pass his legacy," the vial vanishes and a token that looks like a small version of the menu complete with harmless fire qi for the lettering. "A pupil of a good customer is always welcome here" and tosses me the token.


    I sent the token into master''s ring and supplied "My master alway''s enjoyed the chef''s choice, so of course I had to try it as well" and laughed.


    "I sense my old customer has enter the reincarnation cycle recently, now we just have to wait until he returns."


    Laughing I replied "I know, I can''t wait to see my master again.  Though waiting five hundred years is a bit of a wait."


    He bursts out laughing and goes "I am still waiting for my master to return, and I''ve waited for several thousands years."


    I blink for a proper response and just went with a nod of understanding and give "What is important is that our masters are in the reincarnation cycle.  Waiting for them is just part of the experience."


    He nods and finalize with "Enjoy your dinner, I have new customers that ordered the chef''s choice to satisfy," and then dissappears. I can barely hear his last words as all my senses are riveted on the giant slab of slice meat on the first dish. It''s peak tier seven aura waffs from the meat in gentle waves. My nose is filled with a spicy and tangy scent. All my senses are helplessly drawn to it. The bbq sauce is still bubbling on the meat. It''s golden glaze smothers the meat and drips on the spiritual rice below in the serving bowl. I picked up the bowl and watching the sauce dripping to cover a good portion of the rice.  I can see finely chopped spiritual onions cooked in the bbq sauce.


    I lift the bowl for a wiff and fill my nose with it''s spicy but tangy scent that complemented by the slightly sweet scent of honey and rice. With no choice I scoop a slice a meat with some rice put in my mouth and feel the explosion of flavors. The tender meat and rice melts into a fine liquid that gushes toward my cells, I can feel my body refine toward the toughness of this peak tier seven Tigerdragon. I was awed, body crafting was a pleasure with a spiritual chefs to mooch on.  But that''s not a way to do things since I don''t like mooching.  So I decided there are then to learn spiritually cooking for myself. If I were to eat a hundred such dishes I definitely have the body strength of a peak tier seven Tigerdragon.  It is the only way to level up body crafting beyond tier five, since the raw materials for tier six and higher have gone extinct over the last couple of ages.


    I glance over the the wine cup, I notice the rich spicy scent of a good cultivation wine a while ago but was too enraptured by the barbeque. I took a drink and was stunned when I feel my cultivation rise a little. My eyes lit up as I thought, good wine. I''m really glad I came here but notice the sharkbeast still flashing it''s tail and realize it''s staring at the treats in glorious happiness that only the sharkbeast see treat restriction applies.


    With a laugh I pick up the first treat with a qi grip, it hovers in front of me as I inspect it with my divine sense.  I wonder what kind of treat is this. What a strange looking fishbeast, I see a restriction freezing the fishbeast''s movements. I delve near the restriction and feel: When toss into the illusionary water, remove the time freeze restriction. That''s when I notice the sharkbeast had swam closer and showing me it''s toothy grin of excitement. With a laugh, I send the treat into the illusionary water to the left, away from the sharkbeast. It instantly explodes into life and race away from the sharkbeast. I dive into the restriction on the flashing tail and see it as: Prepare to chase treat by swinging your tail as fast as you can but don''t move forward yet until three breaths of time. However if the customer gives any kind of encouragement give chase immediately.


    With another laugh, I point and command "Go!" and the sharkbeast roars forward in glee. I look at the remaining two treats and smile. As I eat the view of the chase remains constant at the sharkbeast left profile. The sharkbeast is faster, but the tunabeast is more agile and avoids being eaten for nearly twenty breaths of time.


    I ate a third of the rib meat slices and on the second bowl of rice when I toss in the second treat at the still spastic sharkbeast.  This second treat is a pikebeast, long and narrow fish creature that had great darting moves that help it escape by narrow margins until it''s luck finally ran out.  Sharky jaws snap shut on it tail, ending the treat''s long chain of lucky chances.


    Sharky returns to staring intently at the remaining treat. I toss in the last treat and watch the happy sharkbeast hold for three breaths before giving chase as I starting on my last bowl.  The last treat was once a swordfish, heavily mutated as it evolved into a spiritual beast.  The chase lasted quite awhile, but finally sharky jaws snapped shut severing the last treat in half to end the game.


    Every thing I ate and drink was absorb directly into my cells. I feel my body crafting technique raise up a mid stage five and my cultivation go to late tier seven. This spiritual meal was amazingly helpful. As I finish the meal I sigh with pleasure. I stood up and wave at sharky and utter contentedly "Til next time senior" and head for the exit portal, I hear the the sharkbeast roars a response behind me.


    The waitress stands by the exit portal and inquiries "Was your dinner to your satisfaction young master?"


    I pull out a tier six foundation pill and replied "Most satisfied, please tell your master I will come again" and hand the pill over to the stunned girl as her tip then step into the exit portal. I enter the exit part of the courtyard and see sharky terrorizing the fleeing customers which brings a grin to my face. Knashing it''s sharky grin and rushing hither and thither if any exiting customers that make so much as a twitch. I laugh and play with sharky like the rest of the customers and inch my way to the exit while affected by Sharky''s terror restriction.