《Nine Rebirths [Title in Progress]》


 Prolouge

    In the middle of a desolate plain, laid millions of corpses. These corpses belonged to Cultivators, Mortals, strange beasts, demons and so on. It was obvious from a glance that this place had been the location of a great battle not too long ago.


    Among the corpses, grievously wounded and those that had faked death to escape the madness, laid a young boy, no older than ten. His azure blue eyes were dull and his hair had become bleached silver. As he laid there, he took long, weak breaths as he gazed at the sky.


    Suddenly, he smiled as he gazed at the sky, ¡°Finally, I will be free. Mei¡­. I will finally be able to see you again sister.¡± As he mumbled that to himself, blood leaked out fro the corners of his mouth. As he felt his consciousness dim and everything fade to black, he heard an aged voice ring out next to him, ¡°Hmm¡­. Your skeletal age is ten years old but your cultivation is astonishingly in the Peak Stages of Palace Building.¡±


    The young boy tried to vainly turn his eyes towards the hazy figure he could see in the corner of his eyes. ¡°Ahh, I don¡¯t have any strength left any more...¡± As the thought passed his head, his vision turned completely black.


    Last thing he heard was a sorrowful voice, ¡°Those Devil Dao followers truly have no morals what so ever¡­ To force a little boy such as you to cultivate a hidden technique that consumes your vitality¡­. Since we have met, it must have been fate. Let me bestow some good fortune to you.¡± Although his vision was completely black, he still heard what the aged voice had said.


    However, after that, he fell into a deep, deep sleep.


    ***


    Inside a plainly furnished cave the young boy sat at a table, with a knife in hand, carefully carving a figure. The boy had changed a lot, although he still looked around ten years old, his aura and demeanour was vastly different from before.


    He now excluded the astonishing aura of a Nascent Soul Cultivator. Suddenly, a familiar aged voice rang out form behind him, ¡°Now that you have reached the Peak Nascent Soul stage for the 9th time, have you figured out the true strength and meaning behind this technique?¡± The young boy gently blew the wood carvings off from the little figure and set it on the table.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    He then unhurriedly stood up and looked towards the man. The man had long white hair and his skin wasn¡¯t exactly wrinkled but aged. The old man looked at the boy with a smile. The boy let out a sigh as he said, ¡°During the First Rebirth, I thought that the purpose of this 9 Rebirth Techniques was to use 9 different cultivation methods.


    When the Ninth Rebirth was finished and it was time to assault the Mortal Saint stage, you could use the nine Cultivation Arts to gain an extremely wide and varying arsenal.¡± He then let out a gentle breath as he said, ¡°After reaching the Mortal Saint stage, the person would retain all the special abilities and physiques attained from training those techniques. However¡­.¡±


    The old man gently nodded as he listened to the boy, he didn¡¯t say he was wrong or right, just listened. Seeing the old man not betray anything, the boy continued with a sigh, ¡°However, during my Second Rebirth I realized that it was wrong.¡±


    He gently shook his head as he continued, ¡°All those Cultivation Arts would conflict with one another and at best case scenario destroying ones Dantian and destroying his or her cultivation. Worst case scenario¡­.¡± He didn¡¯t have to finish his sentence for the old man to understand what he meant. The old man didn¡¯t say a word but just nodded gently to the boys words, indicating that he was on the right path.


    The boy then continued, ¡°The main use of the technique is to find the most suitable technique for a person during these Nine Rebirths. When the person finds a good Cultivation Art, he or she can immediately disperse all of his cultivation to start over one last time and cultivate the technique most suitable to them.¡±


    The old man nodded his head and opened his mouth but before he could say anything, the young boy continued, ¡°There is also a second guess I have and plan on using.¡± The old man raised his brow in surprise as he gently nodded his head and indicated for the boy to continue. The boy gave a sly smile as he said, ¡°The other option is to use those Nine Rebirths to the best one can and develop a personal Cultivation Art. Although one would train in a different Cultivation Art each time, one can collect as many different Arts as he can during those Nine Rebirths and craft a personalised Cultivation Art most suitable to his or her body. Then after dispersing ones cultivation they would use the Nine Rebirth Technique to cultivate the Art nine times. Since it is all one same technique, the boost in power is amplified several times and there is no fear of the Cultivation Arts conflicting.¡±


    The old man opened his mouth in surprise and then let out a genuine smile as he nodded his head saying, ¡°Good, you truly have figured out the greatest use of this technique. As I promised all those years ago, I will take you to be my personal Disciple now.¡±

 Chapter 1: Starting all over again.

    Inside a small cave room, a young boy was sitting cross legged. As he sat there with his eyes closed, his mind was working hard on the final few problems for his own Cultivation Art. Several months had passed since he became the old man¡¯s disciple. With becoming his disciple, the old man gave him several gifts and also a few words of advice.


    As he was right now, planning on starting his path all over again from scratch, it was a very bad idea to go to the Upper Realm with him to the Main Sect. It was more beneficial for him to keep a low profile by staying in a Branch Sect in one of the Lower Realm with him. Using the identity token he gave, the boy could go to any branch and receive the treatment a Core Disciple would have.


    Plus, the Branch Sect would have no way of ordering him around as technically he is from the Main Sect. Also, once every year, a messenger will come to bring him his annual cultivation resources. As a low level disciple he would get a fixed amount of resources from the sect each month according to the level his cultivation is at and his merits towards the sect.


    Suddenly, the boy opened his eyes and let out a deep breath and mumbled to himself, ¡°I have finally solved the various problems of the Art. Now, it is time to make my preparations for dispersing my cultivation and starting anew.¡± As he mumbled that to himself, he slowly stood up and moved to another room and organized all of his possessions.


    In front of him were four boxes neatly in a row. Inside each were various bottles of pills and various raw materials such as metals, medicinal plants, different types of wood and other things. These four boxes symbolized the four main Cultivation Stages before the Heavenly Tribulation: Qi Gathering, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul.


    The Qi Gathering was Divided into 13 Stages, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation and Nascent Soul Stages were divided into three levels. One could try and enter Foundation Establishment at the 9th stage of Qi Gathering but the chances of it being successful were minimal and those that managed to succeed would be bottom feeders amongst Foundation Establishment Cultivators.


    They also had no more prospect of ever reaching Core Formation. Most of the people that entered Foundation Establishment from 9th stage were forever stuck at Early Foundation Establishment: The Qi Springs Stage. Some lucky people manage to break through to Mid Foundation Establishment: The Qi Sea Stage but only some heavenly blessed with luck manage to enter the Late Foundation Establishment: The Palace Building Stage. However, even if they manage to successfully build their Qi Palace, they will never be able to form their Core.


    When all of the boxes were sorted and in order, the boy stored them all inside his Spatial Ring. Over these Nine Rebirths, he had collected vast amounts of Heavenly Materials, Pills and Treasures. This was all in order to start the strongest with his new round of Nine Rebirths. He now had his own customized and personalised Cultivation Art that he had spent over 8000 years carefully and steadily crafting. The Art was a combination of the three main Cultivation Styles: Body, Qi and Soul. The hardest part about this technique was carefully balancing each of the aspects so that one wouldn¡¯t overpower the other¡¯s but at the same time, they had to be mutually supportive of one another.


    After his chat with his now Master, he entered a state of epiphany and managed to solve the last few problems. Now, he was all done and was planning on dispersing his cultivation yet again to start over. Cultivation was already a long and hard road but to traverse that same path nine times¡­. Most people would never have the patience to do it.


    The select few who do, they would never imagine doing the same process again nine times. However, the young boy was determined and in his mind, two sayings were deeply rooted: ¡°Slow and steady wins the race.¡± and ¡°If you plan on doing something, never half ass it. Either go big or go home.¡±


    During his travels of Minor Worlds as a Nascent Soul Cultivator he had come across a little world where Qi didn¡¯t exist. To be precise, it was so thin that no matter how extraordinary the technique, it was impossible to cultivate it there. However, the humans there had many old sayings, many cultures and many sights for the boy to enjoy.


    Those two sayings also came from that world and for some reason, they resonated with him and from the moment he heard them, he decided to live his life by those words.


    ***


    A few days later, the boy stood in front of the gates of the Branch Sect. He no longer had the oppressive aura of a Nascent Soul Senior but rather, right now he excluded a mild aura of Foundation Establishment. He fished out a small emblem and poured a bit of Qi into it. As it lighted up, a few moments passed before a streak a light broke through the sky. As the streak passed the Sect Gates, it abruptly landed. ¡°Shi Fang greets to the Main Branch Disciple.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The young boy let out a smile as he cupped his hands to the man in front of him, ¡°Disciple Ji Curo greets Branch Leader Shi Fang.¡± After saying so, Ji Curo raised his head as he sized up the middle aged man in front of him. Although he wasn¡¯t muscularly built, his domineering posture radiated dominance. With short chestnut brown hair and sword like eyebrows, the man stood as tall as a mountain. The man let out a smile as well as he said, ¡°It is an honour for you to choose our Sect as the training ground. Lately, the Aboriginals have become more and more ruthless and restless, making it harder and harder for us to stand our ground.¡±


    Ji Curo raised his brows as he asked, ¡°What about the others Sects on the continent?¡± The man let out a sigh as he shook his head, ¡°Each year they give us some resources as ¡°protection fees¡± but as for reinforcements¡­ There is nothing to expect from them.¡± Ji Curo nodded his head and let out a sigh as he said, ¡°Seems like it was a good idea for me to come here.¡± After a few more words, the two head inside and the Sect Master personally took him to receive his clothes, showed him his cultivation area and showed him around.


    They drew a lot of gazes and hushed murmurs from the many Qi Gathering Disciples that were around. It was a miracle to see the Sect Leader outside of the Main Hall, much less showing around a young boy. Due to Ji Curo¡¯s request, they left the mission hall to be the last and as soon as they entered, the whole hall fell deathly quiet.


    Shi Fang then said, ¡°Here is the Mission Hall. You can accept various missions here. I know you already accepted the mission to reinforce our Branch form the Main Sect but you can¡¯t exchange your items here with Merits Points from the Main Sect. If you wish to exchange things here, you need our Branch Merit Points.¡± Ji Curo nodded indicating that he understood.


    A thought passed his mind, ¡°Not to mention not exchanging here, I have no points to exchange in the Main Sect.¡± As they moved around, Shi Fang introduced all of the various post walls. Each held different grade missions. There were thousands of different missions varying from gathering medicinal herbs to reinforcing various key points such as outposts against Aboriginals, Qi Stone Mines, Clans that had tight relations with the Sect and so on.


    As Ji Curo glanced at the missions, his eyes stopped on one that he found peculiar. Seeing Curo¡¯s gaze stop on the mission, the Sect Leader started breaking out in cold sweat as he cursed in his mind, ¡°Why the hell did he have to take an interest in that death trap?¡± The mission Curo was looking at was to reinforce an outpost in a mountain pass. It was a strategically extremely important point however, the monthly pay for it exceeded other missions of the same grade by three times.


    Curo wasn¡¯t planning on taking the mission but seeing the rewards be three times more than other similar mission piqued his interest. He turned his head towards Shi Fang and inquired, ¡°Why is that missions rewards three times more than missions of the same grade and similar in nature?¡± Having heard the dreaded question, Shi Fang let out a deep sigh as he said, ¡°Because it is a death trap to anyone above Qi Gathering.¡±


    As Curo raised an eyebrow to the explanation, Shi Fang rubbed the bridge between his eyes and continued, ¡°Every Foundation Establishment or higher cultivator that steps inside that fortress dies within a month. No discrimination, whether it is a Foundation Establishment Junior or a Nascent Soul Elder, all of them have been killed by the Aboriginals within a month.¡± Curo¡¯s eyes opened wide in astonishment as that truly was a shocking piece of information but before he could ask anything more, Shi Fang said with a serious face, ¡°I don¡¯t have the authority to keep you from accepting the mission if you feel like it but I strongly advise against it and to pick another mission.¡±


    Curo let out a sly smile as he said, ¡°I will keep it in mind.¡± After this little interlude, they visited a few more places and Shi Fang escorted Curo to his cave. After a few more warning about the mission, he turned around and left. Curo didn¡¯t stand on ceremony either and entered the cave. Even though he currently had a Foundation Establishment cultivation, he had been alive for 9000 years.


    These crude formations that were supposed to protect his cave were extremely low grade in his eyes. With a sigh, he took out several formation flags and set down his own formations. After three hours of delicate and precise work he was finished. As he wiped his brow from sweat, he grinned, ¡°Now, even if a Peak Nascent Soul Elder wants to break in here, they will have to consider whether it is worth the risk.¡± After feeling somewhat safe now, he took a look around the cave. It wasn¡¯t big, only about three square kilo meters in total. It was divided into cultivation room, medicinal garden, training room, storage room for his valuables and a small guest room to entertain guests. After feeling the rich Qi in the air, Curo smiled as he planted several of his medicinal plants and trees in the medicinal garden.


    Since all of the rare and precious herbs needed different conditions to grow to their best potential, it took Curo a week to carefully and strategically plant all of his medicinal plants. Some plants would grow far more lively if some other specific plant was planted next to it but some would lose all growth if another was planted next to them. After making sure that none of the plants harmed one another, he was happy with the end result. With a wave of his hand three wooden puppets that looked like humans appeared. They wore green robes and since they had no face sculpted, they had a blank look. Curo then said, ¡°Tend to the plants here. If you discover an intruder, kill him or her, regardless of his background.¡±


    The three puppets nodded their heads and rigidly started walking around tending to the plants. Sometimes watering them, sometimes fertilizing the soil with Mid Grade Earth Arts and so on. After seeing the three Farmer Puppets tending to the plants with upmost care, Curo nodded his head and left the room. He entered the Cultivation Room and sat down cross legged.


    As he closed his eyes, he took a deep breath and a ghostly image of himself appeared to sit behind him. However, he wasn¡¯t exactly like Curo was. The image had black crystal wings on his back and on his skin was jet black with red lines running along like veins.

 Chapter 2: Grim situation

    As Curo sat there cross legged, the image behind him mimicked his actions. With slow and steady breaths, Curo kept sitting there, carefully taking in the Qi all around. Like that, another week slowly trickled by and the bigger commotion of the young boy had died down. One day, Curo slowly opened his eyes as he let out a deep breath.


    He then looked thoughtful as he mumbled to himself, ¡°Seems like skipping the Qi Gathering Stage has not brought me any problems. Currently, I have excavated 13 Qi Springs with Fully Saturated Qi Crystals.¡± As he mumbled that, his thoughts drifted back to when he first started cultivating the Art. He entirely skipped the thirteen stages of Qi Gathering due to his body already being at the level of a Nascent Soul Expert.


    He just sat down and when he started refining Qi, he had reached the thirteenth stage with only three days. Not to mention anyone else, even he was dumbstruck by this. With nothing else to do, he looked at his body inside out several dozen times to see whether this rushing had left behind some hidden problems or something but much to his surprise, there was nothing.


    With that, he started condensing his Qi Crystals and fully saturating them with Qi to excavate the Qi Springs. Most people excavated a Qi Spring as soon as they managed to condense a Qi Crystal, however this approach was wrong in Curo¡¯s eyes.


    By fully saturating the Qi Crystals, the size of the Qi Spring would grow multiple times. Also, the persons Qi would be several times more pure than those that don¡¯t do that. Although his progress in cultivation wouldn¡¯t be as fast as some other people due to it but overall, he could kill several of those ¡°higher levelled experts¡± easily.


    Different Arts had different conditions to condense Qi Crystals. Generally, the higher levelled the Art, the more Qi it needed to condense a Qi Crystal but at the same time it would also be able to store more Qi inside.


    The Art Curo was cultivating could be considered a Top Grade technique. Due to that, he needed ten times more Qi to condense a Qi Crystal. By also fully saturating a Qi Crystal, the purity and amount of Qi he had already vastly surpassed other Early Foundation Establishment Cultivators.


    He reckoned that in a straight up one on one fight, he could possibly fight on par with Middle Foundation Establishment Cultivators. This was the result of doing things thoroughly. Very few people saturated their crystals because it would take ten times more Qi to saturate it than it did to condense it.


    Unless you have a Top Grade Cultivation Area, unlimited supply of Heavenly Pills, a Top Grade technique then most people find it not worth it. They can condense ten Qi Crystals with the amount of Qi it took to saturate one. However, Curo didn¡¯t think like them.


    Even if he didn¡¯t have this Cultivation Area, he would still follow the same plan. The reason was simple, Foundation Establishment was the most important period during Cultivation. It wasn¡¯t wrong to say that how thorough and meticulous you were during Foundation Establishment directly affected how far you can traverse on the path of Cultivation.


    After his First Rebirth, Curo had meticulously started planning and preparing for this. He had collected countless Ancient Pills, Pill Recipes, Heavenly Materials solely for these nine Foundation Establishments. With each Rebirth, he would need more and more resources but the gains would also rise according to it.


    After a few more thoughts, Curo decided to stroll around the Sect a bit. The mission he had seen before was still on his mind so he decided to ask around a bit for information on it. He had a nagging feeling that this situation was far too familiar to him and soon he realized why. After asking a few questions from the Disciple in charge of distributing missions, his face turned sour.


    The young disciple was frightened when he saw Curo make that face that he didn¡¯t even dare to move a muscle. From his eyes, he could see boundless rage and hatred. Although he was on only in Qi Gathering Stages, he knew, if he said anything wrong, then he could easily end up dead. Without saying anything, Curo turned around and headed towards the Main Hall.


    When he arrived he was stopped by two Mid Foundation Establishment Disciples. One of them coldly said, ¡°What business do you have in the Main Hall?¡± Curo stopped and said, ¡°I need to speak with the Sect Leader.¡± The young man then snorted, ¡°Do you think that you can just waltz in when you please? I don¡¯t care that you are form the Main Sect, when you are here, you follow our rules a-¡±


    He didn¡¯t have a chance to finish his sentence before he was smacked off the mountain peak. The other Disciple looked at Curo with an open mouth as he had a hard time registering what just happened. Curo then turned his head towards the other Disciple and coldly asked, ¡°Do you plan on opening the path or do you want to end up like him?¡± The Disciple gulped hard as he looked into Curo¡¯s eyes.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    In front of him stood a boy that looked about ten and radiated the aura of an Early Foundation Establishment Cultivator but he had smacked a Mid Foundation Establishment Cultivator off the mountain before either of them could even react. The young man felt his back become drenched in sweat as he was at a loss of what to do.


    Just as he grit his teeth to stand his ground, Shi Fang¡¯s voice came from behind him, ¡°What happened here?¡± He had felt the Qi fluctuations form inside and was startled. He had immediately come out and heard Curo¡¯s question. It didn¡¯t take a genius to piece together what had happened with Curo looking like he was about to go on a killing spree and one of the gate keepers missing.


    Curo turned his gaze towards Shi Fang and when he looked at him in the eyes, Shi fang felt a shiver run down his spine. He had never seen eyes so cold. Suddenly he shook his head lightly as he looked at Curo again and thought to himself, ¡°Was I just intimidated by his eyes?¡± As the thought passed his head, he felt a cold sweat run down his spine. He was a Peak Core Formation Cultivator that had been through countless slaughters and massacres. To be intimidated by a Foundation Establishment Cultivators gaze was something he never believed would happen.


    Curo opened his mouth and said, ¡°Unless you want your Branch to be exterminated, you need to follow my instructions.¡± Shi Fang was startled but immediately his eyes turned sharp as he straightened his back and asked intimidatingly, ¡°Hoo, by yourself?¡± Curo then shook his head and said with a deadpan expression, ¡°Not by me but by the Aboriginals and the Seven Devils Sect.¡± Shi Fang¡¯s face turned from intimidating to extremely cold as rage simmered inside him.


    He then asked furiously, ¡°What is that supposed to mean?!¡± The disciple in charge of guarding the gate was so startled that he fell on his butt but Curo kept looking at Shi Fang dead in the eyes as he explained, ¡°The Laying Dragon Valley¡¯s fortress. What happens when they decide to over run it? With only Qi Gathering Disciples there, someone that is on par with a Core Formation cultivator would need to only snap his fingers and all of them would die.¡±


    Shi Fang made an ugly face as he said, ¡°Do you think I don¡¯t know that? However what else can we do? Every Foundation Establishment or up Cultivator we send there ends up getting killed within a month. We have already lost over 300 Hundred Foundation Establishment Cultivators, 80 Core Formation Cultivators and 3 Nascent Soul Experts to that Fortress.¡± He then took a deep breath and said loudly, ¡°I can¡¯t just send my Sect Disciples and Elders to their deaths!¡±


    Curo didn¡¯t even flinch as he said, ¡°Do you think I would come to your audience if I didn¡¯t have a plan to combat that?¡± Shi Fang was startled and immediately calmed down. Earlier he had been enraged so he hadn¡¯t exactly thought through what Curo had said but now when he thought back he found the key information they didn¡¯t know: The Seven Devils Sect.


    His eyes narrowed as he asked, ¡°What do you mean?¡± Curo then asked, ¡°Can we talk inside, the walls have ears here.¡± Shi Fang nodded his head and led the way inside. After a couple of minutes of walking in deathly silence, Curo arrived in a luxurious hall. It was adorned with Jade carvings of dragons, Qilins and other Ancient Beasts. When they reached the Hall, Shi Fang turned around and the door behind them closed with a loud ¡°Bang!¡±.


    He then asked, ¡°Tell me what you discovered and what you know.¡± Curo then started explaining, ¡°For some reason, the mission you talked about was still on my mind so I asked around a bit. When I heard that they all had their Foundations, Cores and Nascent Souls stolen, reverting them back to ordinary mortals, I realized why I had a familiar feeling about that place.¡±


    He took a breath and said, ¡°It is the work of the Seven Devils Sect. By stealing someone else¡¯s Foundation Core or Nascent Soul they can raise their own Disciples to become Foundation Establishment, Core Formation or Nascent Soul Cultivators in a short period of time with a secret technique.¡± Shi Fang¡¯s eyes turned round in astonishment as he had never heard of this kind of miraculous technique.


    As he opened his mouth to say something Curo coldly added, ¡°However, they cultivation won¡¯t be stable. Those Disciples would only be able to live for a few years at most, over drafting their vitality. When they die, they will die a slow excruciating death.¡± Shi Fang closed his mouth as he looked at the cold demeanour of Curo. ¡°If they decide to invade through the Laying Dragon Valley with full force, they would need at best three days to surround the Sect and tear down our defences.¡±


    Shi fang¡¯s face turned ugly as he asked, ¡°I understand the situation and that it isn¡¯t good. If we leave Laying Dragon Fortress undefended like that, we will not be able to respond if something happens. However, let¡¯s hear your plan now.¡± Curo smiled coldly as he said, ¡°Let me go and set down a defensive formation that would keep even a Nascent Soul Expert out.¡±


    Shi Fangs eyes turned wide as he asked, ¡°What miraculous formation is that?¡± Curo answered honestly, ¡°The Formations name is: The Divine Protection of the Seven Dragons. If the Sect is willing to compensate the resources needed for the Formation I can also set down a symbiotic attack Formation: The Divine Wrath of the Seven Dragons.¡± Shi Fang fell into thought as he had never heard of the Formation before.


    He felt extremely suspicious about all of this and seeing this Curo smiled as he said, ¡°If you don¡¯t believe me then you can have one of those prying ears go and try to break into my cultivation cave. Unless they decide to burn their Life Flame, they will have no way of ever breaking inside.¡± After saying that, his mouth turned into a wide grin as Shi Fang¡¯s eyes turned round from astonishment again.


    He knew that the Nascent Soul Elders of the Sect were listening to their talk but for Curo to know this¡­. ¡°It was just pure luck, nothing more than a guess.¡± As he thought that to himself, something that turned his world upside down happened. Curo turned towards a corner and said with a smile, ¡°Would this fair lady with the black and gold robes go and try to enter the cave?¡± Shi Fang turned his head towards the corner and he saw a middle aged lady with fair skin, long jet black hair walk out form that very same spot.


    Her eyes were narrowed as she asked, ¡°How did you discover me?¡±

 Chapter 3: The Seven Devils Sect

    The old lady then paused for a moment before asking, ¡°Do you practise the famous Nine Rebirths Technique?¡± Curo was startled and his eyes grew sharp at the question. His somewhat lax posture now straightened and even though he was only a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, the old lady felt a tinge of danger from the young boy in front of him.


    The lady then clarified, ¡°I have met many people from the Main Sect and have also made many friends there during my lifetime. Seeing as my life span is ending, I have nearly finished all of my preparations for the Tribulation.¡±


    She then took a breath and said, ¡°Once I pass the Tribulation, I can no longer stay in a Minor World like this. With my only option of going to the Main Sect to continue cultivating, of course I would make preparations to entry there.¡± Curo nodded his head as he understood the logic but the old lady still hadn¡¯t explained how she knew about the Nine Rebirths Technique.


    Seeing the still present vigilance in Curo¡¯s eyes the old lady let out a soft smile as she said tenderly, ¡°One of my friends from the Main Sect told me to never underestimate anyone that came from the Main Sect. They may have a low level of Cultivation but there is a high chance they are cultivating one of the Sect¡¯s Core techniques, the Nine Rebirths Art.¡±


    She then shook her head slightly with slight sadness as she said, ¡°This miraculous technique allows one to build the sturdiest of Foundations to undertake the Tribulation by allowing one to traverse the path of Cultivation to the Nascent Soul stage nine times. Your Master is the creator of this miraculous technique so it would be weird for you not to practise it.¡±


    As she stated that matter of factly, Curo¡¯s vigilance dropped slightly as he let out a deep sigh and changed his appearance from a young boy about ten years old to a teen boy about 16 years of age. The Sect Leader and the old lady didn¡¯t find it all so surprising and didn¡¯t pay any heed to the transformation. Curo now looked sturdier and on his exposed arms and from what they could see of his chest, it was all riddled with scars. When the two discovered that they frowned a bit.


    These scars must have been acquired before he started treading the path of cultivation because if it had happened later, with some time and a few medicine¡¯s he could get rid of all those scars. Actually, he still could if he invested the time and wealth into it but seeing as he had chosen to keep them, they carried some sort of meaning for him.


    Curo then slightly opened his mouth and said, ¡°I have completed the Nine Rebirths and by choice chose to disperse and abandon all of my achievements to start anew again. This is my First Life so to speak.¡± Hearing this, the old woman nodded slightly before she asked cautiously, ¡°Why did you choose to disperse your cultivation?¡±


    Curo then smirked as stayed quiet and the woman didn¡¯t press for details either. To ask about someone else¡¯s cultivation was already considered rude and seeing Curo brush it off so nonchalantly and not make a fuss of it was already giving her face.


    Her eyes turned serious as she asked, ¡°These Formations, how much confidence do you have in them?¡± Curo smiled as he said, ¡°More than in this Sect Guarding Formation you have. However, actions speak louder than words, so how about you go and inspect the Cultivation Cave I have? I laid that Formation down there as well. You can see for yourself.¡± The old lady nodded her head and then she disappeared from her spot. After a few minutes of waiting in silence, she reappeared and astonishment was obvious on her face as she said grimly, ¡°It truly is as you said. Unless I burned my Life Flame, not even ten of me would be enough to breach it.¡±


    Curo¡¯s smile turned even wider as he said, ¡°If the Sect is willing to compensate the resources needed to set up the Formation, I am willing to set down up to five of these Formations at the places of your choosing.¡± The old lady fell into deep thought and the Sect Leader could only stay quiet. He hadn¡¯t seen or tested the Formation himself so he had no way of knowing how formidable it was. Even more so, that he would never dare to start contradicting a Peak Nascent soul expert like the old lady in front of him. So all he could do was stand where he was and stay quiet.


    After a few moments of deliberation, the old lady said, ¡°Can I get a list of all of the resources you need to refine the Formation Bases and Flags?¡± Curo nodded his head as he had expected this and produced a jade slip that he threw to the old lady. The old lady scanned the contents of the jade slip and her face turned a bit sour. It was obvious that this kind of a Grand Formation could not be produced with ordinary materials but she had never expected that it would need so many rare resources. The Sect truly did have the materials needed and enough of them to lay down over ten of these Formations but still, to use half of these resources to lay down five of these Formations would bleed the Sect quite a bit.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    As the old lady was contemplating whether the cost was worth it, Curo produced another jade slip and said, ¡°Here are listed the general effects of the Formation and also a brief introduction to it.¡±


    He then fished out another Jade Slip and said, ¡°Here is the introduction to the Divine Wrath of the Seven Dragons Formation and also the materials needed for it and also the symbiotic benefits there would be once both Formations were set down.¡± After saying so, he threw those two Jade Slips towards the old Lady as well.


    After catching those two Jade Slips, she quickly scanned them and her face turned more and more serious as time passed on. It was obvious that this decision was hard to reach. At one hand, their Sect would obtain five Top Grade Formations that excelled in both Defence and Attack. However, on the other hand, it would bleed the Sect quite heavily to purchase these Formations. The old lady then asked with a sigh, ¡°What do you want as compensation for refining the Formations and setting them down?¡± Curo nonchalantly then said, ¡°I wish to be given the highest authority in Laying Dragon Fortress, 200 000 Merit Points per Formation and a Top Grade Spatial Estate.¡±


    The Sect Leader involuntarily cried out, ¡°We only have three of the Spatial Estates. It is the life blood of the Sect, that is impossible!!¡± ¡°Silence!¡± As the old woman barked at Shi Fang, he quickly closed his mouth and stood there, gritting his teeth. The old woman then turned towards Curo with a cold gaze as she said, ¡°We can agree to all of the other conditions but the Spatial Estate one. At best, we can give you a High Grade one but a Top Grade one is out of the question.¡± Curo gently smiled as he hurriedly nodded his head, ¡°Fine, I accept.¡±


    He had never entertained the hope of getting a Top Grade Spatial Estate as easy as that. It was already far too generous of them to offer a High Grade one. With a bit of time and resources, Curo possessed a method of raising the High Grade one into a Top Grade one. From them offering a High Grade one instead showed Curo that they truly did value the Formation and gave him plenty of face as well. To keep pushing his luck would have the reverse effect instead. To know when to keep pushing and when to draw back was something needed to conducting these kinds of trades. The old lady nodded and then asked, ¡°Now, do you mind telling me why you decided to come here? To exchange these Top Grade Formations even.¡±


    Curo then honestly answered, ¡°There is some extremely thick bad blood between me and the Seven Devils Sect. To be able to kill as many of them as possible is worth any cost to me.¡± As he said that, his voice turned colder and colder as he neared the end of his explanation. The old lady sized up Curo and slowly nodded her head as she said, ¡°Can you tell me more about the Sect and their way of operations. You seem quite familiar with it.¡± Curo nodded his head and started explaining, ¡°No one knows where The Seven Devils Sect came from or where their Main Sect is but they are quite notorious amongst Minor and Mid Worlds. Where ever there is conflict, you can find their shadow amongst them.¡±


    He then let out a soft sigh as he continued, ¡°No one knows what their goal is by causing all of this chaos or what they are trying to achieve. They have never taken over a World but rather after the conflict dies down either by no one being left to fight or one side winning, they disappear from the World.¡± The old woman and the Sect Leader Shi Fang both frowned as the old lady asked, ¡°So they only deepen conflicts?¡±


    Curo nodded his head and explained, ¡°I have travelled to countless Worlds and behind every bigger conflict, they had been there. After the conflict ended, they disappeared as if their goal was only to cause strife amongst various powers of the Worlds.¡± Curo¡¯s eyes turned cold as he continued, ¡°Wherever there is a slightest bit of friction between two equally powerful large organizations such as the Sect¡¯s here and Aboriginals, they slowly start fanning the flames and also lend a ¡°helping hand¡± from time to time.¡±


    The old lady then asked, ¡°Why do you think that they are behind this incident as well?¡± Curo lightly sighed as he fished out two jade slips and gave each of them one. ¡°This is their usual method of operations. They pick a location and there, they steal one sides Foundations, Cores and Nascent Souls to use on their own disciples. I explained before that those people won¡¯t live long after the Secret Art is used, however, when they have collected enough Foundations, Cores and Nascent Souls, they plan on using them all at once and use their overwhelming numbers to just run over their opposition.¡±


    The two then frowned deeply as they started looking through the information in the jade slips. After a few minutes, they put down the jade slips and both of them fell deep into thought as Curo also stayed quiet. Half an hour later, the Nascent Soul Elder said grimly, ¡°My only question to you is: How confident are you in being able to prevent them from storming us?¡±


    Curo gave her a mocking glance as he flickered a malicious smile, ¡°One hundred per cent sure of it. I have stomped on these pieces of shits numerous times already. First put up the defensive Formations to make sure that even if they move up their plans and attack prematurely, they can only sit outside those Formations and glare menacingly.¡± He then turned serious as he continued, ¡°The reason I want to go to the Laying Dragon Fortress is to find their Vault.¡±


    Shi Fang asked confusedly, ¡°Vault?¡± Curo nodded his head as he said, ¡°You can¡¯t store Foundations, Cores and Nascent Souls in Spatial treasures. If you don¡¯t take special care, they will all dissipate with time. So, they have a special Vault, where they store all the Foundations, Core, Nascent Souls they steal to wait for the right time.¡±

 Chapter 4: Preparations

    Shi Fang looked at the Nascent Soul Elder in front of him and waited for her decision. This matter had flown out of his hands the moment the Nascent Soul Elder showed up. As he waited for her decision, he was quietly calculating and thinking of dealing with the aftermath after she decided to accept the trade.


    This trade would bleed the Sect heavily and it would be his problem to deal with it all. He felt a sever headache coming the more he thought about it. After about half an hour of deadly silence, the old lady said, ¡°I accept the trade. In three days time, we will deliver the materials to your Cultivation Cave. If you have any need for other things, do let me know before.¡±


    Curo nodded his head and after a few more words on how and when he planned to refine the Formation Bases and Flags, Curo left. After Curo had left, Shi Fang cautiously asked, ¡°Is it really worth it?¡± The old lady sighed and said, ¡°These Formations¡­. They exceed Top Grade Formations by an entire level. I think that unless all the Nascent Soul Elders of this World banded together to simultaneously bombard the weak spots of the Formation, there is no way of knocking it down.¡±


    Hearing this Shi Fang¡¯s mouth opened wide as his eyes became round in astonishment. The old lady then added, ¡°If we didn¡¯t only have three Top Grade Spatial Estates, then honestly saying, him asking for a Top Grade Estate isn¡¯t something ridiculous.¡±


    Her gaze moved to the door and she continued, ¡°If he didn¡¯t have such bad blood with them, out Sect would never be able to get our hands on this kind of a Defensive Formation.¡± She then turned her gaze back to Shi Fang and asked, ¡°How is the situation at Endless Heavenly Sea?¡± Shi Fang turned serious as he answered, ¡°Our vanguard has taken full control of the main island and the seven surrounding islands. They have begun setting up the mines and slowly started building.¡±


    He then fell silent and after a few moments he seemed to have realized something as he asked, ¡°Does Elder wish to set one of the Formations up there and start moving the Sect there?¡± The old lady stayed quiet for a while before she let out a deep and heavy sigh, ¡°Currently, the only reason the other Sects have not made things difficult for us is because they know I am stronger than their Elders. However, with my life span reaching it¡¯s end, either I die in seclusion, give my life to annihilate them or pass the Tribulation and move to the higher Realms.¡±


    She then slowly added, ¡°If they push us right now, I could mean the end to them, however, I am not around for long. I have to attempt the Tribulation in 300 years at the latest. When I am gone, who or what will stop them from pressuring the Sect here?¡± Shi Fang could only stay silent as he was well aware that if the Elder in front of him were to disappear, then they could now face the joint pressure from the other Sect¡¯s. The Elder then turned his gaze towards the door again and said, ¡°Our best option is to move the Sect the Endless Heavenly Sea.


    With those Formations in place, no one will be able to breach our Sect¡¯s defences. At the same time, given enough time and resources, that Elder from the Main Sect will be able to grow strong enough to slap all of the other Elders to kingdom to come.¡± Her gaze then grew distant as if she was looking at some really distant place. She added absent mindedly, ¡°We need to make the best of the time he is here. The situation is turning worse and worse with each passing day if the Seven Devils Sec truly is behind the Aboriginals. In the Endless Heavenly Sea, we can establish ourselves and slowly grow stronger and stronger. When our Sect grow steady enough, we can pull back all our disciples and elders from the front lines and let those idiots deal with all those problems.


    Shi Fang nodded his head as his face also turned grim. The amount of ¡°protection fees¡± they received from the other Sect¡¯s was actually quite laughable. Their Sect was the only one that stood on the front line and kept bleeding more and more while all of them sat back and sent some laughable amount of help. It was obvious that they were currently biding their time and waiting for them to weaken enough so they can jointly put pressure on them and take them under their control. If they plan on annexing them so blatantly, they weren¡¯t going to sit around and wait for them to do it.


    They had no obligation to stay here and keep bleeding while they sat back and bickered over who had the strongest juniors. ¡°Go prepare all of the materials here and deliver them to him. Also, brief him on the plan to move the Sect.¡± The Nascent Soul Elder said as she passed the jade slip onto him.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Shi Fang nodded and left to start gathering the materials. The old lady looked at the departing back with a blank gaze before letting out a deep sigh and disappearing.


    ***


    Curo didn¡¯t hear the exchange between the two and even if he did, he wouldn¡¯t have cared much. He could only do so much and those problems were currently way above his head. He sat down cross legged and started slowly adjusting his mind for the intense refining. His Soul Force was on par with an Early Stage Mortal Saint, that was the only reason he had gone forward with the proposal. He already had a Top Grade Refining Furnace he could use to help him and with his immense Soul Force, he could prevent any unexpected mishaps from happening.


    When three days passed, Shi Fang personally came to deliver all of the materials and inquired if he needed anything else. After making sure that Curo didn¡¯t need anything else, he took nine other Core Formation Elders and surrounded Curo¡¯s Cultivation Cave to make sure no one disturbed him. Curo had told him that it was unnecessary but seeing how adamant Shi Fang was with it, he didn¡¯t bother arguing and let them do what they wanted. After sorting all of the materials and preparing them, Curo sat down to adjust his mind. An hour later, the refining began.


    For the next half a year, everything in a ten kilo meter radius of Curo¡¯s Cultivation Cave was considered as a Forbidden Zone by the other disciples. When half a year had passed, the door to Curo¡¯s Cultivation Cave opened. Shi Fang immediately greeted him and asked how it went. Curo threw him five Spacial Rings and said, ¡°In each ring is one Set of Formation Bases with the Flags. I also included detailed instructions on how to set them down and how to control them.¡± After receiving the Spatial Rings, Shi Fang swept his gaze over all of them and after seeing that everything was as Curo had said, he nodded and threw him a black bracelet and a command token with one of the five Spatial Rings.


    He then said, ¡°The bracelet houses the Spatial Estate and is the key to entering there. The command token is for the Laying Dragon Fortress, giving you the highest grade authority over it. Also, since you are going there, how about you set up the Formation there?¡± Curo nodded his head and looked at the Command Token. It was pitch black with a symbol of a dragon on one side and ¡°Commander¡± written on the other side. Just as Shi Fang turned around to leave, it was as though he remembered something and added, ¡°The Merit Points have been added to the Command Token, so take good care of it.¡±


    Curo smiled as well as he watched Shi Fang leave. After he had left, Curo turned around and entered his cave as well. After closing the door and activating the Defensive Formations, he excitedly bound the Spatial Estate. It was impossible to refine a Spatial Estate with the materials found in Mid and Minor Worlds. Only Upper Worlds held the Heavenly Materials needed to create a Spatial Estate. Only Sect¡¯s with connections to the Upper Worlds or people who were lucky enough to stumble across one could acquire them. Now that Curo had one, he immediately replanted all of the Medicinal Plants inside the Spatial Estate and also organized all of his belongings and placed them to various storage rooms inside the Estate. The Estate was like a small world.


    It was approximately 90 square kilo meters big and inside it were four High Grade Qi Springs. After replanting all of his Medicinal Herbs, the first thing Curo did was use his materials and turned those High Grade Qi Springs into Top Grade ones. Once he had done that, the Qi inside the Spatial Estate was over ten times more rich and pure. When he had turned all of those Qi Springs into Top Grade ones, he took out a box from Spatial Ring. After carefully opening the box, he took out a small ball of light from within. The small ball of light was surrounded by countless golden runes that seemed to seal something. ¡°With the addition of this Top Grade Qi Spring, I have succeeded in raising the Spatial Estate into a Top Grade one.¡±


    After flashing a few incantations, he set down the Top Grade Qi Spring and after the Qi Spring had taken root, the Qi in the Estate turned several times richer again. Qi Springs were the most mysterious and most important cultivation resources.


    Each Qi Spring was connected to the Endless Skies where they directly absorbed the endless amounts of Qi and transported it to where the other side was. After taking care of everything and turning the Estate into a Top Grade one, Curo let out a deep sigh. The cost in terms of materials was not cheap in any way. He had to use over 70% of all the materials he had accumulated over the thousands of years. However, the cost had been worth it as training in this Estate was over 20 times faster than in the Cultivation Chamber outside. With everything done for now, he left the Estate and decided to visit the Merit Point Exchange.


    He had one million Merit Points and he would move to the Laying Dragon Fortress as soon as possible. Since he was going to go there, he wouldn¡¯t have the time to come back here to exchange for things he needed, so he decided to exchange the Merit Points for everything he needed before he left.


    After making a mental list of all the things he definitely needed and disassembling the Formation and collecting all of the things he had put down in the Cultivation Cave he set his steps towards the Merit Point Exchange.

 Chapet 5: Merit Points Exchange

    In front of a towering building, stood a lone young man with white hair. As he looked at the tower, his eyes betrayed a bit of surprise. This young man was Curo. Although he hadn¡¯t had any high hopes for this Merit Point Change as it was tailored towards Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment Disciples, he hadn¡¯t expected it to be so populated.


    In the fifteen minutes he had stood there, he had seen hundreds of Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment Disciples enter and leave. He then set his steps inside and was greeted by a sight of rows and rows of stalls with Disciples selling materials and treasures. He had heard that in addition to the ¡°Official Merit Point Exchange¡± the Sect also allowed Disciples to put up stalls to trade among themselves.


    Since the Sect ensured that there was no troubles to be had inside the Sect, a lot of Disciples traded unneeded cultivation resources or treasures with one another for something they needed. Without spending time strolling around, Curo headed straight to the back end of the building where a row of tables with Qi Gathering Disciples were attending to various other Disciples. This was the so called ¡°Official Merit Point Exchange¡±.


    Curo calmly waited in line with the various other Disciples and when it was his turn, he calmly asked the Disciple in charge of the desk for a list of items. After getting the jade slip that recorded all of the items up for exchange with their value in merit points and Spirit Stones, Curo calmly scanned through for the things he needed. After finding all the things he needed and calculating how many Merit Points he would have left over, he started scrolling through the list of items to see whether there would be anything there to pick his interest.


    He found several items that piqued his interest but in the end, he decided not to buy them. He had no need for these items so he didn¡¯t see the point of spending the Merit Points to purchase them if they were only there to collect dust in his Spatial Estate. With everything picked out, he headed back to the desk and gave the list of items he wished to trade, the young lady¡¯s face changed as she said, ¡°I am sorry, I can¡¯t complete a trade of this magnitude. Excuse me for a moment, while I call over someone who can.¡± Curo didn¡¯t raise a fuss and calmly nodded his head and decided to wait.


    Without even a minute going by, a middle aged man came out of the back room. He radiated the aura of a Foundation Establishment cultivator and seeing Curo, his eyes first showed surprise, then they narrowed. ¡°I am not familiar with this Disciple, he doesn¡¯t seem to be from any influential Clan or someone that has stood out¡­. Is he the famous boy from the Main Sect?¡±


    His brows furrowed as these thoughts passed his mind. Without missing a beat, he smiled and gestured towards the back room and said, ¡°Fellow Disciple, please follow me to the back room to complete the trade.¡± Curo nodded his head and followed the middle aged man into the back room. Actually, it was more like an office.


    The walls were filled with bookshelves and in the back of the room was a table with stacks of documents on them. In the middle of the room was a small coffee table with two couches on opposite side of the table. The middle aged man gestured to one of the couches and said, ¡°Please take a seat.¡± Curo nonchalantly headed to one of the couches and sat down. The middle aged man then set down on the opposite side of him as a young Qi Gathering Disciple entered and served them a cup of tea.


    After taking a sip, the middle aged man set the cup down and said, ¡°Without taking too much of fellow Disciples time, I will get down to business.¡± Curo sat up straight and the middle aged man continued, ¡°The purchase you wish to conduct is worth over 700 000 Merit Points and the sheer volume of the materials and Pills that fellow Disciple wishes to purchase is an extraordinary amount.¡± He then took a deep breath as he cautiously said, ¡°It is going to take a few hours to prepare all of the materials and Pills that fellow Disciple wishes to purchase. I am sorry if I seem rude but can fellow Disciple please pay the Merit Points upfront?¡±


    As the man said that, it was obvious that he had an embarrassed expression on his face. Usually, you had to pay the Merit Points upon receiving the materials or Pills. However, since it would take a few hours to only prepare all of the items¡­. If it later turned out that Curo didn¡¯t have enough Merit Points to exchange all of the items, then all of the work would be for naught and they would need to waste several more hours to store everything again. Curo understood the reason that the middle aged man asked him to pay up front. He didn¡¯t know whether there were people that wasted their time like that but it seemed like it had happened before.


    Curo took the Commander Badge out from his Spatial Ring and handed it to the middle aged man saying, ¡°Please deduct the Merit Points from here.¡± After the middle aged man received the Badge, his face didn¡¯t change as he left the room to deduct the points. As soon as he left the room and the door closed, the man¡¯s face changed. He looked at the badge in his hands as he thought back to the incident that shook the Sect half a year ago.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The young man had slapped a Middle Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator down the Main Hall mountain with a single slap. Neither of the two Guarding Disciples had even had the chance to react before one of them had already flown down the mountain. That Disciple needed several months of secluded meditation with several High Grade Healing Pills to recover. Seeing the Badge in his hand, he knew that the young man sitting in the room was that very same person. He quickly deduced the Merit Points and instructed the Disciples in charge of preparing the items to hurry. He then headed back to the room and found the young man slowly sipping tea.


    He sat back down and then produced a jade slip as and handed it to Curo alongside his Commander Badge. He then said, ¡°Listed there are personal trades of Foundation Establishment Cultivators and upwards. If fellow disciple has time, he can take a look and see if anything catches your eye.¡± Curo raised an eyebrow as he had not heard of this kind of thing.


    The middle aged man then let out a hearty laugh as he said, ¡°Usually, only either Disciples with special standings or those that have reached Late Foundation Establishment and are preparing for Core Formation are included in the circle of these trades. It isn¡¯t something weird that fellow Disciple doesn¡¯t know of it.¡± Curo nodded his head and took the jade slip and casually looked through it. It didn¡¯t have anything useful for Curo.


    There were various Cultivation Arts, Pills, Treasures or raw materials. Curo didn¡¯t have any use for any of them as he already possessed a Top Grade Cultivation Art and more Top Grade Pills for Cultivation than all of those people combined. Some of the raw materials did pique his interest however, as with the Official Merit Point Exchange, he didn¡¯t have any use for them so he didn¡¯t see the point of purchasing them. As he scrolled down the list, a certain item made Curo¡¯s eyes turn wide. He quickly checked the description and immediately a wide smile spread on his face.


    Curo then turned to the middle aged man and asked, ¡°These trades¡­. Are the registered items here or do I have to meet the seller to purchase them?¡± The middle aged man quickly responded, ¡°All the items for sale there are stored here. It is to ensure that no one can list an empty trade or change the prices later on.¡± Curo nodded his head and then set down the jade slip and said, ¡°Then I also wish to purchase item number 77, ¡°Soul Seed Refinement Method (Incomplete)¡±¡±


    Hearing this, the middle aged man¡¯s face turned a bit odd. Seeing this, Curo frowned as eh asked, ¡°Is there something wrong?¡± The middle aged man shook his head and gave Curo a pitying glance as he sighed, ¡°To tell you the truth fellow Disciple, I don¡¯t recommend purchasing that¡­. There have been several dozens of Core Formation Elders and even a Nascent Soul Elder that have studied the Art to maybe somehow complete it but all of them have failed.¡± Curo listened to the man and nodded his head. He had expected as much.


    Curo then smiled as he said, ¡°Fellow Disciple doesn¡¯t need to worry. The Art just piqued my interest so I wish to purchase it. If by luck I manage to complete it, then it would good. If not, then I can put it back on sale for someone else to try their luck with it.¡± The middle aged man sighed as he nodded his head and asked for the badge again. After deducting the points, the man handed Curo a worn out jade slip. Curo immediately sent some Qi into the jade slip and carefully read through the contents. The more he read, the wider the smile on his face spread.


    Seeing this, the middle aged man felt curious but felt that it was not his place to ask. After some time passed, a Qi Gathering Disciple entered the room and humbly gave the middle aged man a Spatial Ring. The man sent a bit of Qi into the ring to double check all of the contents before nodding to the Disciple, indicating that everything was there and that he could leave. After the Disciple had left the room, the middle aged man handed Curo the Spatial Ring and said, ¡°All of the items you purchased are in there. Feel free to check them.¡± Curo nodded his head and accepted the Ring.


    He sent a bit of Qi into the Ring and looked over all the items. Seeing that they were all of there, he nodded his head and stood up. After changing a few more words with the middle aged man, Curo left. After exiting the Merit Points Exchange, Curo headed towards the Mission Hall. After talking out all of the details of the mission with the Disciple in Charge, Curo left for the Sect Gates. After leaving the gates, Curo pulled out a small black board.


    The board then enlarged enough for Curo to sit on it and after checking the direction he needed to go in, Curo left the Sect. He was heading towards the Laying Dragon Fortress and the road there wasn¡¯t exactly long. If he kept this pace, he would arrive there in three days time. If he truly hurried he would be able to arrive with only a day. Curo then sat down cross legged and fished out two worn out jade slips. One of them was the one he had purchased an hour ago, the other however looked extremely similar to the one he had purchased.


    He then mumbled to himself, ¡°To think that I would finally find the beginning to this Refining Technique after all these years.¡± As he mumbled that to himself, excitement was obvious in his eyes. He had found the later part of the technique from the ruins of an Ancient Experts Tomb during his First Rebirth. He had always kept this jade slip, even though he couldn¡¯t use it, in hopes of one day finding the beginning of the technique.


    Now, roughly 8000 years later, he had accidentally stumbled on the beginning part of the technique.

 Chapter 6: Taking control of Fengdu

    Three days passed in the blink of an eye and Curo stood in front a massive City. The walls of the city stood over a towering 100 meters tall and from the scars on the walls, it was obvious that it had seen many battles. This was the Laying Dragon Fortress, Fengdu.


    This city was quite famous, their elite squads that compromised solely of 13th stage Qi Gathering Disciples, using a certain Battle Formation, could even kill Early Stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. In this entire city, except for a few wandering Foundation Establishment cultivators that were just passing through, there didn¡¯t exist a person with higher cultivation than Qi Gathering.


    It was obvious that they had been alerted of his arrival as there was a squad of ten people riding pitch black war horses heading his way. They all wore black armour with a golden dragon emblem on their shoulder pauldron. Curo lowered his altitude and jumped down from the board. As he stood there waiting, a bit of time passed before the small squad arrived in front of him. As they all stopped, the middle aged, mountain like man in the middle jumped down from his horse and took off his helmet. When he took it off, Curo¡¯s eyes opened wide as he blurted out, ¡°Zhao Feng?¡±


    The man was startled as his eyes turned sharp and said, ¡°No, I am Fengdu¡¯s current General in Charge Zhao Long. I presume esteemed Sir is Ji Curo, the new Commander?¡± Curo shook his head and took out the Commander Badge he had gotten from Shi. After seeing the Badge, the nine other men also dismounted from their horses and fell to one knee with Zhao Long and cupped their hands, ¡°Greetings Commander.¡± Curo was surprised by the display.


    He didn¡¯t sense any dishonesty or mocking in their salute. Curo had expected he would have to show his might a bit before he could get the people to follow his orders. Every other Foundation Establishment and higher cultivator that was stationed here¡­. They all died within a month of arriving. He had presumed that all of them would snicker to themselves that ¡°Another idiot marching to his death.¡± or ¡°He can throw his weight around all he wants, he will be dead within a month any ways.¡± or something along the lines. He had lived as a Lone Cultivator for 9000 years, schemes and reading people were one of the few things he was certain he was number one in these Minor Worlds.


    He could swipe his Soul Force over all of them and probe them without them being the wiser. However, even then, he still didn¡¯t find a sliver of deceit amongst them. Curo then had them all rise and looked at Zhao Feng with a slightly odd gaze. He then made a few more words as small talk and followed them inside the city. On the way, he was brought up to date about the situation inside the city and outside. Lately, the Aboriginals attacks had lessened for some reason with only having a few skirmishes in the past year. They had no major battles as the years prior.


    Without wasting time, he immediately had them carve out a small part of the city for open trade and for travellers to visit and set out to set down the symbiotic Seven Dragons Formation. The next few days, the city was turned upside down with all of the spare disciples hurriedly constructing a wall in the middle of the city to carve out the Free Trade Zone. Curo carefully set down the formations in the seven locations and after taking a few precautions to keep them hidden and safe, he went to the City Lord¡¯s Mansion. Since he was the highest authority in the City, this was his residence from today onwards.


    After familiarizing himself with the Mansion and setting down a few Formations, he started the purge. This place was at the front lines of war and there were over ten thousand disciples here acting as the army. To have a spy or two amongst them was to be expected. He swept his Soul Force over the city and as he kept a Transmission Talisman in his left hand. Every time he found one that harboured malicious intentions towards them, he immediately notified Zhao Long and had him arrest them.


    Three days passed in this manner and the imprisonment area underneath the City Lord¡¯s Manor was now filled with Qi Gathering Disciples. Even Curo was a bit taken a back by the sheer number of the people imprisoned there. There were over 800 people there, nearly one tenth of the total forces there. Some of these people were also hidden deep as they were greatly respected by others around them and they had done many ¡°meritorious deeds¡± for the City.


    It took roughly two weeks to weed out all the spies, set down the formations and otherwise stabilise the situation in the city. Currently Curo had gathered a bit over two hundred people inside the main reception hall of the Mansion. As these people were all sweating, not knowing what to expect, Curo entered the hall. After all the people present saluted him, Curo asked them to stand. He stood on a bit of a higher ground in front of them and said in a clear loud voice, ¡°You are all probably wondering why I assembled all of you here.¡±


    As the deadly silence reigned in the hall, Curo swept his gaze over all of the people present. From their expressions, he read out that they were all truly wondering and fearful of that. He then chuckled and said, ¡°Can someone tell me what you all have in common in addition to being part of the higher echelon of the City?¡± From the lax way of speaking, they all relaxed a bit. It was obvious that they weren¡¯t here because of something bad or because he wanted to silence them or anything.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    After a few minutes of silence, a quiet voice, filled with uncertainty, sounded out in the deadly silent hall, ¡°We are all at the peak of Qi Gathering and have been forcefully suppressing our cultivations not to enter the Foundation Establishment?¡± Curo¡¯s mouth turned into a smile as he nodded his head and said, ¡°That is right. You have all been suppressing your cultivations because once you enter Foundation Establishment, you would enter the Kill List of the Aboriginals.¡±


    He then took a breath and said, ¡°The reason I gathered all of you here is to say this: With the Formation from the Sect, there is no more reason to be afraid of entering the Foundation Establishment. This Formation is a special one that will not allow even a Nascent Soul Expert enter inside stealthily, not to mention Foundation Establishment or Core Formation Experts.¡±


    He then took a small pause to let it sink into them and then continued in a serious manner, ¡°For the next month, all the affairs of the City will be handled by me and me alone. I have prepared a suitable place for all of you to try and enter Foundation Establishment on your own. After the month, those that have managed to enter Foundation Establishment, will become the hidden Core Force of the City, those that can not, will resume their posts and after being able to enter to Foundation Establishment, will also be able to enter the Core Force.¡±


    These words struck everyone dumb. In addition to no longer having to be afraid of dying the moment they entered Foundation Establishment, they would be given a suitable place to help break through to Foundation Establishment. With all that, Curo would also take over all of their responsibilities for a month to keep their distractions to a minimum. If with all of these conditions they still couldn¡¯t enter Foundation Establishment, then it was their own fault. After saying a few more things, he sent them all to wrap up any immediate affairs and prepare themselves mentally. A week later, they were all to gather at the Hall again.


    As the Hall was emptying, Curo¡¯s voice echoed out, ¡°Zhao Long, stay for a moment.¡± Hearing this, everyone exchanged a glance but swiftly left, leaving the two alone. After everyone had left, Zhao Long stood there rod straight waiting for Curo to talk. Curo then asked, ¡°What has happened to the Zhao Clan?¡± Hearing this, Zhao Long¡¯s eyes first turned wide but then narrowed as he said, ¡°I have no idea what Senior Commander is talking about.¡± Curo then looked at him for a moment longer before sighing and producing a small pendant with a wave of his hand. Seeing the pendant, Zhao Long¡¯s eyes opened as wide as carriage wheels and his heart started beating wildly as he dropped down to his knees and kowtowed towards Curo saying, ¡°This small one greets Lord Ancestor!¡±


    Curo then said, ¡°Rise up and tell me what has happened to the Zhao Clan.¡± Without missing a beat, Zhao Long stood up and said, ¡°Yes, Lord Ancestor.¡± After saying that, he started narrating everything that had happened to the Zhao Clan. They had been at the peak of their power but then, The Seven Devils Sect along with several local Sects and Clans had plotted against the Zhao Clan, nearly annihilating them. They had been forced to take what they could from their Clan¡¯s treasury and flee to several other worlds. After generations passed, the escaped disciples had been all found and killed off except for Zhao Long¡¯s branch.


    And then, after hiding deeply in this world, generation after generation, their Clan kept declining. As of right now, only Zhao Long, his sister and a few other members of the Clan lived. They numbered only around 20 to 30 people in total. And since Zhao Longs status and Cultivation was the highest, he was the current Clan Patriarch.


    Hearing this Curo let out a deep sigh as he said to Zhao Long, ¡°Me and your Founding Ancestor were sworn brothers that have been through countless bloody and deadly slaughters. His kin is my kin. Gather all of your remaining Clan members in this mansion and give them these resources. Even though the Great Mystic Worlds Zhao Clan has fallen, fate has brought us all together. I will look after my brothers Clan with the best I can.¡± After saying so, he threw Zhao Long a Spatial Ring with Top Grade Cultivation Arts and some Top Grade Battle Arts as well. He had included a deed to a First Grade Mansion inside the City and mountains of Pills and other necessary resources.


    After saying a few more words to Zhao Long, he sent him to gather the Clan. After Zhao Long had left, Curo sat in the huge hall by himself. After a few minutes of silence, a deep sigh sounded out with a mumble, ¡°Fate truly is a mysterious thing. Even though I wasn¡¯t able to help your Clan back then, I will not let you blood die Brother Feng.¡± After mumbling that, he fell silent as all sorts of memories came back to him. For 9000 years he had travelled the Worlds as a Lone Cultivator. During those years, he had made many friends, some Brothers and countless enemies.


    Zhao Feng had been his Sworn Brother with who they had been to thick, thin and any mountain of knives or seas of fires the Realm had to offer. When Zhao Feng had passed his Tribulation, he had asked Curo to look after his Clan if they asked for help. Curo would have dropped everything he was doing if the Clan had asked for help back then but they hadn¡¯t.


    He didn¡¯t know why they hadn¡¯t asked for help but even still, Curo felt a bit responsible. He had promised to look after his Clan but when it needed him the most, he hadn¡¯t been there to help.


    With a heavy sigh, Curo disappeared from the hall.

 Chapter 7: Plans for the Future

    When Curo reappeared, he was inside a luxuriously furnished small room. However, he wasn¡¯t alone in there. Besides him, there were three other people: His Master, the Nascent Soul Elder from the Branch and middle aged man. This man didn¡¯t have any distinct features, he only had a slightly robust body, short brown hair with greying temples and a slightly tanned skin.


    He looked like any other mortal man. However, that same seemingly mortal man was the person Curo was most vigilant towards in this room. When Curo arrived, he gave a small bow towards the man and said, ¡°Disciple greets Lord Founding Ancestor.¡± Hearing this, the man nodded slightly as he sat at the highest seat of honour in the room.


    The man then said, ¡°We are all friends here little one. You are my Brothers smallest Disciple and this lady is my youngest Disciple. No need for superficial ceremonies in this room.¡± Curo then nodded his head as he bowed a little and sat down at the small table. Seeing Curo sit down, the man nodded before he started talking, ¡°I guess you have already discovered it but a hundred kilo meters beneath this City lies The Seven Devils Sect¡¯s Vault.¡±


    Curo nodded his head. The man then continued, ¡°This is no ordinary Vault but rather one of the 9 Minor World Great Vaults.¡± Hearing this Curo¡¯s eyebrows furrowed as he looked towards the man. The man then elaborated, ¡°We have traced the Seven Devils Sect¡¯s roots back to an Upper Worlds Devilish Dao sect The Nine Demons Sect. Since the chaos they have caused over the years has bled us neutral Sects a lot, we decided on an alliance.¡± As the middle aged man stopped, Curo lowered his head and fell into thought. The next thing the middle aged man said made Curo sigh heavily.


    He said, ¡°Each of the nine Sects in the alliance secures and locks down one of the Minor World Great Vault. Our Sects Vault is under here and you have been chosen as the Warden for this Vault.¡± Hearing this Curo sighed heavily and asked with a heavy voice, ¡°You guys honestly don¡¯t expect me to hold down this City with only me and a few other Disciples when the Seven Devils Sect comes knocking at full force?¡±


    This startled the three of them as the middle aged man glanced at Curo¡¯s Master. The Master gave a wry smile as he asked, ¡°What is it that you are trying to say little one?¡± Curo sighed more heavily as he said, ¡°I have been travelling the Worlds for 9000 years constantly bickering and massacring one another¡¯s forces with this Seven Devils Sect. Once they discover all of the Great Vaults have been locked down, they will turn to this one because it will have the lowest defence.¡± As he stated so matter of factly, the middle aged man smiled mysteriously as he said, ¡°But this place will be the last one they will try to take over Demonic Death God.¡±


    Hearing this name, Curo¡¯s eyes turned cold as he looked at the man on the main seat. The man continued, ¡°Even though you are currently in Foundation Establishment, I do not believe that you would not be able to hold your own even if a Mortal Saint arrived here.¡± Hearing this, the Nascent Soul Elder from the Branch Sect was flabbergasted. Curo glared at the man a bit before sighing and saying, ¡°It seems like you have truly done your research¡­. I am not going to hide it then, I truly do have the means to hold my ground here even if they gathered every Foundation Establishment and up Disciple or Elder. However, the consequences would also not be something trivial. At best, I would cut off my path of Cultivation, at worst, I would lose my cultivation and fall captive.¡± As Curo said that, the man on the main seat was a bit surprised.


    Before he could ask, Curo clarified, ¡°I have been an enormous headache for these guys for the past eight and a half thousand years, do you honestly think that if I fell into their captivity that I would have a comfortable life?¡± As he asked that, with a tinge of mockery, the three in the hall couldn¡¯t help but glance at each other. Although the Nascent Soul Elder had no idea of Curo¡¯s feats across the worlds, the other two were extremely familiar as they had seen them all with their own two eyes. What Curo said was true, if he was to fall into captivity, then every known and unknown torture method would be used on him to get back at him for all the problems he had caused them over the thousands of years.


    The man then turned serious as he asked, ¡°What do you need to securely hold your ground here?¡± Curo shook his head lightly as he said, ¡°Since I know you wish to relocate the Branch Sect here to another place and pull back all the forces stationed on the Continent, I only want to turn this Fortress into an extension of the Branch Sect and into an independent force.¡± Hearing this, the Nascent Soul Elders¡¯ face changed as she could help but cry out, ¡°But then what would happen once the Sect is attacked?¡± She had been hoping for Curo to stay as a deterrent for the other Sects when she left.


    Curo turned to her and stated, ¡°If they are attacked, I will do everything in my power to go to their rescue. However, since I will be permanently stationed here until I have no other choice but to ascend to Sainthood, I need to make sure that the Vault is locked down. Also, I need to make sure to grow a strong force to protect the Vault after I Ascend.¡± Curo then said, ¡°If I have to deal with the inner squabbles and infighting of a Sect, it is something very hard to achieve.¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Hearing this, the middle aged man and Curo¡¯s Master didn¡¯t even change expressions as they had already thought it through and they had already expected this. Ever since his Master had first passed the Nine Rebirths Art to him, the two had kept a close eye on him. Every trial, every fight, every celebration¡­. They had witnessed them all and due to that, they had a very accurate estimation on his true strength and also on his character.


    The main reason his Master hadn¡¯t hauled his ass to the Main Sect to cultivate diligently under his protection and care was due to Curo¡¯s unique character. He relied on his own strength, not the backing of someone else. He had never used anyone else¡¯s name as a deterrent. Neither had he waited for the things he owned to fall onto his lap, he had fought tooth and nail for every single thing. Over the years, the two had guarded him from the shadows but the amount of times they truly had to interfere could be counted on one hand.


    They had high hopes for Curo in the future to become one of the pillars that broke through the Shackles of Saints and ascend to Godhood. For this reason, although they doted on him, they didn¡¯t raise him to be paper tiger. ¡°The Cultivation Art he created along with all the Battle Arts¡­. They complement one another without leaving a single weak spot however, due to that, it is dozens of times harder to cultivate than a Heaven Grade Art¡­.¡±


    As the middle aged man thought that to himself, he looked at Curo with praise and pride in his eyes. Although their Sect wasn¡¯t the strongest in the Realm, they were in the top three. No matter how strong you are, there is always a sky beyond a sky. Although they were ranked as one of the top three forces amongst the ones in this Realm, the vast Cosmos held countless other Realms bigger and smaller than theirs. Amongst those Realms they were mediocre at best. The Nascent Soul elder then sighed heavily as she thought over Curo¡¯s words.


    He wasn¡¯t wrong, the inner fighting and squabbles were no laughing matter. Also, Curo has a very important mission to guard the Great Vault. She could find no fault in Curo for not wanting to also have to deal with all the Sect troubles and problems in addition to all the other problems he is sure to face. Although she had no idea how strong Curo truly is, for the two Founding Ancestors of the Main Sect to praise him for his strength, it should not be any laughing matter.


    With a heavy heart she sighed and stayed quiet. The middle aged man internally sighed a bit as well seeing this as he understood what his new Disciple was going through. Trying to reroute the topic he asked Curo, ¡°What are your plans from now on?¡± Curo crossed his hands on his chest as he lowered his head in thought. After a few moments of silence he started explaining, ¡°For now, reorganize the City. Since I am going to go as an independent force, I need to give them all an option of going to the Sect if they want. Those that don¡¯t and want to stay, I need to start grooming them.¡±


    He then took a breath before continuing, ¡°I also need to slowly start expanding my area of influence and upgrade my own strength.¡± Hearing this, the middle aged man nodded his head and asked, ¡°You need any resources or any help?¡±


    Curo thought for a moment before saying, ¡°No, I don¡¯t need it. I have more than enough resources on my own to turn this City into a Top Grade Independent City.¡± With this, no one asked any more questions. They talked a bit about the move of the Sect and how it was going to affect the continents balance. After talking for nearly half a day, the three people left.


    Curo then released the information regarding Fengdu becoming an Independent City. Although he didn¡¯t mention the true reason behind it, he was surprised that very few people put in a transfer request in the following month. Only approximately a hundred people wanted to go the Sect while the rest stayed. When Curo thought that most of the people had been born, raised and bled for generations here, he didn¡¯t find it all that odd. To them, it didn¡¯t matter who exactly was at the helm of the City, was it a Sect or someone else, as long as their home was here, this was where they stayed.


    After that month, great changes happened on the Continent that turned it upside down. The Drifting Wanderers Sect had moved their Sect to the Endless Heavenly Seas and withdrawn all of their Disciples from the Continent. All that remained was the City of Fengdu but that City had become an independent force. Several of the Nascent Soul Elders wanted to go and make Fengdu submit to them now to appease their anger a bit but they could do nothing but leave even angrier than when they arrived at the City.


    The person in charge of the City didn¡¯t give them any face at all and even worse, he directly activated the Guarding Formation of the City to beat the crap out of them. Every one of them managed to escape with only a hairs length from death. Great fear rose in their hearts when they were beaten back but they no longer had the luxury of hatching more plans but they had to come together to deal with the other places that the Aboriginals had taken over now that the Drifting Wanderers Sect had abandoned their outposts and fortresses.


    Great changes turned the previously peaceful continent upside down and blood flowed like rivers as the Sects that previously sat back now had to get off their asses and start to pull their own weight in defending their positions on the Continent.

 Chapter 8: Ten years

    It took ten years for all of the commotion and chaos to die down and stabilize. In those years, all of the Major Sects learned what it meant to stand on the front line and in their hearts a tinge of fear and bitter regret manifested itself. All the higher echelons could do nothing but regret pushing all of the responsibilities on the Drifting Wanderers Sect while they sat back in comfort.


    Now that they were put into the front of the spear head, they understood how bitterly the Sect had fought and how strong the Aboriginals were. In these ten years, they had lost mountains of resources, countless Disciples and thousands of Elders. Since they now experienced the bitterness of the spear head first hand, they couldn¡¯t help but think back to their own attitudes ten years ago¡­. They could not find any fault in the Sect relocating.


    Now there were even discussions going around their Sects higher Echelons to relocate their Sects to the Endless Heavenly Seas. They sent one person after another to negotiate with the now Hegemon of the Endless Heavenly Sea, The Drifting Wanderers Sect. In these short ten years, not having to always deploy their Disciples to the front lines ,the Sect had flourished considerably. Although they still had their own problems and troubles to deal with, they weren¡¯t as big as before.


    When Curo heard of these plans and negotiations, he couldn¡¯t help but give a deep sigh. He knew from experience that people don¡¯t appreciate what they have before they lose it. Until ten years ago, the Drifting Wanderers Sect had been an enormous wall keeping the rest of the Sect safe. However, now that that wall had disappeared, they had to first hand experience being the wall.


    To Curo, whether the Sects did relocate or not held no importance at all. His job was to protect the Great Vault not defend those Sects or anything like that. As the Continent went through great changes in these past ten years, the biggest change however took place in the City of Fengdu.


    In these ten years, the City had expanded to twenty times the size it was before with now holding more than five million people of all trades here. The army that protected the City had turned into one of the strongest forces on the Continent as well. It now had over three million soldiers with Core Formation Cultivators acting as Generals, Foundation Establishment Cultivators acting as Battalion and Squad Leaders.


    As Curo expanded the City, he also reorganized the army into four different branches: Azure Dragon, Black Tortoise, White Tiger and Vermilion Bird. Each of the Branches had a different Emblem and different purpose. The White Tiger Army was responsible for patrolling the surrounding areas and were the main fighting force the City that composed of cavalry. The Black Tortoise Army was mainly composed of Infantry with a bit of Cavalry Squads mixed in. Vermilion Bird Army was compromised of people that specialized in using Long Range Arts and healing or support. The Azure Dragon Army was special amongst the four Armies. They were compromised of people that managed to make a Beast Pact with a Dragon and were the elite force of the Four Armies.


    These Dragons had all been brought by Curo from another world a long time ago. He had first thought to sell these Dragon Eggs but now he found that creating an elite Dragon Rider Army with them was more useful than a few cultivation resources. He had acquired over ten thousand of these Dragon Eggs from the ruins of an Ancient Clan and although each Dragon was extremely valuable in terms of raw materials, they were all also extremely strong.


    These impossibly gigantic changes that took place in the city with a measly ten years shocked even the Seven Devils Sect. On the Continent, it was safe to say that the City of Fengdu was most definitely the safest place to be, so many people whose homes had been lost to the chaos and disciples of various Sects that had been destroyed all converged in Fengdu.


    The rise in population grew explosively and with all of the reorganizing of the City, the influx of workforce and fresh blood was greatly welcomed by Curo. As Curo organized the entire City, his own cultivation did not get impacted. His own strength kept growing alongside the City.


    He had reached the Peak of Foundation Establishment, and had already completed his Qi Palace. Since Curo excavated 99 Fully Saturated Qi Springs made from a Quasi Heaven Grade Qi Cultivation Art, he breezed through the Qi Sea and Palace Building Stage. He had spent eight and a half years on Condensing and Saturating Qi Crystals and excavating Qi Springs and half a year on completely flooding his Qi Sea with the pure, rich Qi.


    Then it only took him only a year to build his Qi Palace. Now that the Palace Building had been completed, he slowly circulated his Qi as he prepared to form his Qi Core. In Qi Gathering, you gathered strands of Qi into a mist like substance, to enter Foundation Establishment, you needed to turn that mist into liquid form and to enter Core Formation, you needed to turn it into a solid mass. By inscribing the Core with the your Art, you can birth that Art¡¯s Nascent Soul.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Once a Nascent Soul of an Art is birthed, when a person trains in the Art, their Cultivation Speed will double however, if they were to change their Art, they would first have to change their Nascent Soul. To do that, one needs to spend several hundreds of years in secluded meditation to slowly and safely keep imbuing with the Qi from the Art to change it. Each Art is like a distinct fingerprint. They each have their own characteristics and no two Arts have the same distinct Qi Print.


    With everything in the City now in order and working, Curo made Zhao Long the Acting Commander as he himself focused more on his training. For major decisions or when something big happened, Zhao Long still had to inform Curo and wait for his instructions.


    It wasn¡¯t exactly a surprise for Curo that Zhao Long could handle everything fairly and effectively. Before Curo had come to Fengdu, the one who was acting as the highest authority had been Zhao Long. After informing Zhao Long that he was going to go into Secluded Meditation to break through to the Core Formation, he gave full authority to Zhao Long. After a few more words on how the situation of the City was and after Curo gave some cultivation tips to Zhao Long, he left him to his work and disappeared from the Main Hall.


    A few years back, when Curo saw that Zhao Long could handle all of the matters efficiently and was doing a good job, he had him and his clan move into the City Lord Mansion. He himself however moved his cultivation area down, into the cavern that held the Great Vault. When Curo had declared the City independent, he hastily set down dozens of Top grade Formations to tightly and securely lock down the Great Vault and prevent anyone from accessing it.


    He then turned the area surrounding the Great Vault into his personal Cultivation Area that was off limits to everyone else. Anyone that trespassed into this Forbidden Area was killed regardless of status. When Curo arrived in the Cultivation Area, he checked that all of the Formations were working and seeing that nothing was wrong, he walked towards a giant door that stood in the middle of the cavern. This door was an entrance point to his Spacial Mansion.


    Although he actually didn¡¯t need it and could enter the Mansion without needing but he left the door there in case something urgent happened and Zhao Long needed to see him. Zhao Long was the only person that had a special Token that let him bypass all of the Formations unharmed. After looking over the growth of his Medicinal Plants, he went into the closed door cultivation chamber in the Mansion. After calming his mind, he started adjusting his body to peak condition before he started the attempt to form his Core.


    Forming a Core couldn¡¯t be done in a day or two, even with the purity and richness of Curo¡¯s Qi, it would still take him over half a year to form his Core. After clearing his mind and adjusting his body, he took a deep breath as he sat down in meditation. When he closed his eyes, silence engulfed the hall. Not a sound could be heard outside but inside Curo¡¯s Dantian a storm was raging. There were several different methods to form a Core and each of those methods resulted in different degrees of strength. What Curo was going for was the hardest method but at the same time, what gave the best result.


    The easiest method was to take a piece of the pure Liquid Qi in the Qi Sea and add drop after drop to it. It took the longest and resulted in the lowest strength as well. They would need to take a long time to strengthen their ore enough for it to be able to withstand being inscribed the Cultivation Art.


    The method Curo was going for resulted in the firmest of Cores, that let him bypass the Early Core Formation Stage. This method was to take an enormous amount of Qi from his Qi Sea and compress it into a Core. This was the most dangerous method because even the slightest bit of disturbance or a single false move could result in failure.


    The best result then would be a slight internal damages and damages to his Qi Palace but at worst he could die from a Qi implosion. Curo however was extremely familiar with the process as he had done it nine times already. To him, it wasn¡¯t dangerous at all since there was nothing that could disturb him here. As Curo controlled the gigantic mass of Qi that was floating in the shape of a ball in the air, he slowly made it rotate. Time slowly ticked by, a day, a week, a month as the gigantic mass of Qi kept shrinking, compressing.


    Slowly, three more months trickled by and the gigantic mass of Qi had shrunk to the size of a fist. As Curo¡¯s Soul stood on the highest peak of the Qi palace, the pitch black Core gently hovered in front of him. The Core took the colour of the type of Qi one trained in. Some Arts that had a person transform their Qi into Frigid Qi had light blue Cores, some that trained in Fire Type Arts, hard scorching orange Cores. So following the same logic, the Qi that Curo used was the Asura Qi. This is what made his Core turn pitch black.


    Seeing that the Core had formed, Curo released a heavy breath. There had been some times when the Qi wanted to run out of control but he had always managed to get it under control before it made any damages. As Curo started at the pitch black Core in front of him, he couldn¡¯t help but crack a wide smile. His consciousness was still connected to his body and he could feel how many times stronger he had grown now. Although he hadn¡¯t tested it out yet, he felt like his strength was on par with an Early Stage Nascent Soul Expert from this World.


    This was the benefit of being thorough: Cultivation and Battle Strength were two things that were completely unrelated to one another. There have been Core Formation Cultivators that have killed Nascent Soul Experts and there have been Core Formation Experts that are weaker than general Mid Foundation Establishment Cultivators. The World of Cultivation was a ruthless place where ones own strength defined the person.


    Just as Curo was thinking about sitting down and starting to inscribe the Core with the Cultivation Art, his face changed. He exited his Dantian and rose up with a grave face. With a flicker he disappeared from the Mansion and the Great Vault Cave altogether.

 Chapter 9: Unexpected incident

    When Curo reappeared he was on top the City Lords Mansion. With a grim gaze he looked towards the sky. The outside sky was shrouded by a rainbow coloured protective screen. Outside the light screen, the sky was completely blocked out by something. When one looked closer, they would realize that outside the City, there were millions upon millions of people hovering there. ¡°Stand down! If you head out now, you will only be heading towards your own deaths!¡±


    Curo¡¯s voice boomed all over the city. With an extremely grim face Curo levitated upwards and all of the citizens, soldiers or families, all of them looked at the single small dot rising higher and praying. Curo rose upwards until he exited the Formation and then asked with a booming voice, ¡°Who are you and what is your purpose here?!¡± T


    his question was answered by a voice extremely familiar to Curo, a voice that made his face turn from grim to ugly. ¡°We are here because you have seized something that doesn¡¯t belong to you.¡± As a charming voice echoed out in the silent skies, a beautiful young lady walked forwards. She had waist high jet black hair and blood red eyes.


    She wore a long blood red coloured robe that complemented the petite curves she had. Curo then looked at her and snorted, ¡°Do you think I am afraid of you Xie Min? You may have reached the Peak Mortal Saint cultivation but here in, in the Minor Worlds, your cultivation can¡¯t exceed Quasi Mortal Saint. That is unless you wish to be expelled from the world.¡± As he said that, a sly smile crept onto his face.


    The highest Realm cultivation one could achieve was the Peak Nascent Soul. Once one took the final step and stepped into the Realm of Saints, one could no longer stay in Minor Worlds. If they wished to enter a Minor World, they had to suppress their cultivation to a Nascent Soul stage. Xie Min covered her mouth with her delicate hand as she said with a slight smirk, ¡°However, those restrictions do not apply to Artefacts and Arts. For the 8000 years you have been resetting your cultivation here, I have kept upgrading my strength in the Mid and Upper Worlds. Do you think that you will be an opponent for me?¡±


    She then dropped her hand and her face turned cold as she said, ¡°To me, killing you is nothing short of squashing and ant.¡± After Curo heard that, he let out a hearty laugh as his eyes were engulfed by madness. Incredible amounts of bloodlust started excluding from his body, drowning the surroundings. Even Xie Ming¡¯s face changed to shock as she felt the raw, savage bloodlust emitting from Curo. Curo¡¯s robes caught ablaze and revealed black jeans like trousers and a black leather jacket with a cloth hood.


    The pants and the jacket had the blood red vein like tribal patterns inscribed on them and on the back of the black jacket, there was a picture of a pair of red glass wings. Seeing this clothing, Xie Ming¡¯s face turned serious as she said, ¡°Your fashion sense is still weird. Those Defensive Artefacts can take any shape you wish, yet you still keep using those commoner style clothes.¡±


    Curo¡¯s eyes turned from azure blue to blood red as his skin started turning pitch black. Red tribal patterns started appearing on his skin. Seeing Curo turn into an Asura like this, startled Xie Min and she hastily jumped backwards to create some distance between them. However, before she could get far, Curo disappeared. Just as she was about to stop, she felt immense crisis from up above.


    She barely managed to fish out a talisman that produced a blood red barrier before she plummeted to the ground. When she shot down from the sky, the bubble she was enveloped in broke the sound barrier and when it hit the ground, it created a crater. Blood leaked out from the corners of her mouth, as she looked up in horror. In the sky, where she had been, now stood a jet black demon. It was a Curo. He now had black fractal wings on his back and on his hands, there were black fingerless gloves.


    On the back of the gloves, there were the picture of a pair of wings, the same that he had on his back. Dread took over Xie Ming as she hastily fished out a talisman. After spitting some blood on it, the talisman glowed red and she disappeared. Seeing this, Curo¡¯s cold eyes turned towards the rest of the people in the sky. He swept his leg out once and a black blade made of Qi shot out.


    The black blade made of Qi blotted out the sky as it sped towards the people in the sky. Those that were quicker managed to get out of the way of black blade of light but those that didn¡¯t¡­. Well, not even a speck of dust remained from those people. This one move had taken out nearly a tenth of the people they had brought here! One of the old men in the lead looked at Curo as if he were a monster. To them, he was the living incarnation of Death. The trump card they brought, Xie Ming, was taken out in one attack that took place in less than a second. Then in another second, nearly a tenth of the total amount of people they had brought along had been annihilated.


    Without needing another second, to decide, he yelled out, ¡°Scatter to the Winds!!!¡± Before he had even finished saying that, he had already disappeared. Following that, everyone in the skies flew in their own direction, scattering to the winds. Curo only coldly looked at these people, as if killing them was beneath him. His gaze was distant, as if he wasn¡¯t even himself. Suddenly, his eyes trembled and a bit of clarity appeared in them as he suddenly disappeared from the skies.


    The people from the city, who had witnessed the battle were looking up with blank faces as their mouths hung open. In only two moves, the person that came from the city had made the entire grand army run with tails between their legs. They had a hard time understanding what had just happened. All of the soldiers were the same as the ordinary mortals were, Zhao Long included.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    As Zhao Long looked at the spot Curo had disappeared from, he suddenly was awoken form his daze when Curo¡¯s voice sounded out in his head, ¡°Come to the Prison.¡± Zhao Long looked around for a second before promptly moving towards the restricted area. He was thinking back to the battle he had just witnessed. Curo had taken down that entire grand army in less than ten seconds since the fight began.


    No matter who, if they hadn¡¯t witnessed it with their own eyes, they would not believe it. Even those that did, they did not dare to believe what they had just witnessed. When Zhao Long reached down into the restricted zone, he felt that something was off. The purpose of the Formations had seemed to change. Their purpose was no longer to keep others out but keep people form getting out. When he reached into the deepest parts of the cave, his eyes opened wide and his mouth flung open as he looked in front of him. A half pitch black demon and a part human was sitting in the middle of the room cross legged. He was completely pinned down by blood red chains and from the occasional arcs of electricity that were running along the chain, it seemed to securely hold him.


    As Zhao Long looked on in shock, Curo¡¯s voice sounded out, ¡°Once this Token breaks, take everyone in the City and run. These Formations will be able to hold me back for at most a day, no longer. Within this day, you will have to take who you can and run as far away as possible!¡± As these words echoed out, a black bade with a blood red symbol appeared before Zhao Long. He instinctively grabbed the Token and the moment he did, he was shoved out of the formations.


    When he stood there, completely dumbfounded by what had happened, an aged voice sounded out next to him, ¡°That is his Bloodline. However, his Bloodline is extremely savage and bloodthirsty. Unless he can get it under control again, he might lose himself to it.¡±


    ***


    A bright flash of red suddenly appeared in the middle of a palace. Just as the flash of red disappeared, a young woman with a bloody body appeared. It was Xie Ming! After coughing a mouthful of blood, a few green pellets appeared on her hand as she hurriedly shoved them in her mouth. She then sat down cross legged and began to mediate. She was brought out of her meditation by an aged voice, ¡°What happened?¡±


    She quickly put on a respectful expression as she knelt and said, ¡°The person guarding the Heavenly Seas Vault was far more powerful than we ever imagined. He only had the cultivation of an Early Core Formation Cultivator but his strength¡­. It surpassed mine by realms. If I hadn¡¯t used the Greater Blood Talisman that Master gifted me, I would have died.¡±


    Hearing this, the aged voice seemed startled as he quickly asked, ¡°What happened there? Explain in detail!¡± ¡°Yes Master!¡± After saying so, she started narrating what had happened. After she had finished, the voice grew silent. Xie Ming didn¡¯t dare to make a sound as she waited.


    Suddenly the voice said, ¡°Stay away from that person and I will inform the Council of what had happened there. Whatever you do, do not go back there! That person is someone we can¡¯t afford to offend.¡± Hearing this, her face showed alarm as she involuntarily cried out, ¡°Just who is he?! That kind of transformation is something no human should be capable of!¡±


    After saying so, she seemed to realize that she had spoken out of line and quickly lowered her head. As she sweated profusely, wondering if she had made her Master angry, a sigh sounded out, ¡°In this vast Realm, more specifically in the Upper Worlds, there exist certain Clans. These Clans roots can be traced back to the beginning of Time.¡± Xie Ming showed a puzzled expression as she asked, ¡°Beginning of Time?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the Beginning of Time.¡± As the voice said that, it continued, ¡°These Clans were founded when our Realm first came to be and any one of these Ancient Clans is far stronger than any Major Power or Alliance. If my guess is correct, then that boy belong to the Ancient Asura Clan, one of the Original Three Clans.¡± Xie Ming again asked, ¡°The Original Three Clans?¡± She had never heard any of this. Her Master also seemed to be in a talkative mood, so it was the most optimal time to get any information out of him.


    ¡°The Original Three Clans¡­. They were the first Heavenly Emperor, King of Hell and Overseer of Tribulations. The Heavenly Emperor governs the Heavens, The Overseer of Tribulations oversees the Tribulations and the King of Hell punishes wicked people.¡± As the voice sounded out, there was a tinge of fear in his voice.


    He then continued, ¡°Above the Upper Realms, there are the Three Divine Realms. All the true experts that hold up the Heavens are located there. Each one of those people could destroy a Medium World with only a snort. That boy you fought¡­. If your Master isn¡¯t mistaken, he belongs to one of the Original Three Clans, the Ancient Asura Clan, a force we can not afford to offend. They only need to send a squad of their experts to uproot and annihilate every single one of our branches and main quarters.¡±


    When Xie Ming heard that, she felt cold shivers run down her spine.


    ***


    In a luxuriously decorated hall, a middle aged man wearing a black suit of armour stood in front of a black throne. On the throne, another middle aged man sat. This man however had snow white hair.


    The man said in a low voice, ¡°Take a Battalion and lock down the Heavenly Seas Minor World. Not a single person gets in or out. Anyone that tries to force their way through, kill them!¡±


    The man that was standing then simply said, ¡°Yes, My Lord!¡± and left the room. When man left the hall, another voice sounded out, ¡°That fluctuation in our Bloodline, is it Thirteenth?¡±


    The man didn¡¯t flinch at the sudden voice but simply nodded his head. After the nod, the voice sounded out again, ¡°Me, Third and Sixth will head out to act as Dharma Protectors. Let us hope that he manages to succeed this time.¡± After saying so, the hall grew quiet once again.

 Chapter 10: Truth behind the Bloodline

    As the outside world was in turmoil over what had happened, the main culprit was sitting cross legged, chained down. Although, on the outside there weren¡¯t any changes any more, inside his mind, an intense fight over dominance was currently under way. There were two orbs of light inside Curo¡¯s, blank white mind space. One of the light orbs was black while the other was white. As the two continuously clashed with one another, at times, the white one grew bigger while the black one shrank, at times it was the other way around.


    An unknown amount of time passed during this incredible tug of war between the two orbs but suddenly, the black orb seemed to grow twice the previous size as it tried to swallow the white orb in one gulp. However, just as the white orb shrank to the size of a grain of sand, seven other orbs of light appeared next to it and pushed the black orb back.


    After a brief scuffle, the black orb was pushed back and a cold harrumph sounded out in the now quiet mind space and the black orb disappeared from the mind space. Then suddenly, all seven of those white orbs took a human shape. They all wore different coloured robes and looked almost transparent but still visible. They all looked different but at the same time, they all looked the same.


    They all looked liked Curo. Suddenly, in unison, the seven surrounded the grain of sand sized white orb and raised their hand towards it. As they grew more and more transparent, the grain sized orb grew to the size it was before. The human like figures however turned even more transparent and now, only their hand and head was still somewhat visible but the rest of their bodies were completely transparent. Then, when the hands and head also turned completely transparent, the orb of light grew in size until it was about as big as the black orb had been.


    The orb then took on a human shape as the last one of the faces disappeared with a smile. This shape was completely solid, unlike the other seven orbs had been. The shape looked like a one on one copy of Curo. Curo stood in the blank white space with a dazed expression. Inside his head, countless new memories appeared, with the memories, came all the emotions. Rage, happiness, guilt, grief, peace, tranquility¡­.


    As Curo went through all of these emotions, time slowly passed and what seemed like an eternity later, Curo opened his eyes. In his eyes, there was anger, then sadness and finally helplessness. He then let out a deep sigh as he had a sorrowful look on his face, ¡°First paves the path, Second to Seventh fortify the path and Eight reinforces Ninth.¡±


    His head then dropped down as he looked at his solid form. ¡°Ninth is the end. By thwarting the Bloodline from consuming our Soul eight times, Ninth will be able to consume the Bloodline, finally completely subduing it and ending the Curse of the Thirteenth Asura.¡± Even though he said that to himself, he was still filled with unwillingness, just as those before him.


    From the memories, he had learned a lot about the world, the Ancient Bloodlines and of the circumstances of the Bloodline. The Three Ancient Bloodlines were extremely special, they didn¡¯t only belong to ones blood but also the Soul.


    Each of the Three Ancient Bloodlines had Thirteen Bloodline Souls that had the pure Bloodline. All of the offspring of these people only held the Blood but not the Soul. Due to that, they could not fully bring out the potential of their Bloodlines. They were stronger than most other Bloodline Experts and those that did not own a Bloodline but they would never be able to reach the same heights or strength the Thirteen Ancestors could.


    Besides that information, Curo also learned of ¡°The Curse of the Thirteenth Asura¡± from those memories. ¡°The Curse of the Thirteenth Asura¡± was something that wasn¡¯t unique to their Realm but rather, all of the Realms in the vast Endless Plane were struggling or had struggled with this Curse. Each Realm gave birth to Three Ancient Bloodlines that were to govern and protect the Realm.


    They were the favoured children of the Realm and due to that, they held the most power in the Realm but at the same time, the most responsibilities. If other native born experts could migrate to other Realms and train and live there with no problems, the holders of the Three Ancient Bloodlines could not. They could only train in their native Realm and so, it was their obligation to keep it safe from invaders.


    Not every Realm was peaceful, some were more powerful than others and since they were more powerful, they used that power to try and take over other Realms to gain slaves, more resources and so on. Once all of the Three Mandates of the Realm fell into outsiders hands, the Realm could be completely subjugated.


    The Three Mandates were held by the First of the Three Ancient Bloodlines of a Realm. When Curo learned of all this, he had been dumbfounded by this. But, when he learned of ¡°The Curse¡±, he had been devastated.


    All of the Realms had or are struggling with their Thirteenth Asura to awaken their Bloodline. Each Bloodline was different and there was no set way to subjugate the Bloodline, so each Realms Experts had to experiment on their own. His Realms Thirteenth Asura, that was him, had once met an extremely mysterious prophet that told him, ¡°First lays down the path, Second to Seventh fortify it, Eight reinforces the Ninth.¡± This had stumped all the Experts of the Realm when they tried to decipher the meaning behind this.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Once the Thirteenth Asura manages to subjugate their Bloodline, their entire Realm will be considered as an Upper Realm. The higher a Realm was, the more benefits the Realm gave to it¡¯s inhabitants. So it was obvious that the Thirteen of the Ancient Bloodlines did all in their power to upgrade their Realm to a higher Realm. Currently, due to their own strength and due to the Stability of their Realm, they were considered as an upper Mid Tier Realm.


    The Purity of Qi in the air, the various natural oddities that formed, they were several times better than lover Mid Tier Realms. Although the Realm didn¡¯t have a consciousness, it had a Will. The strength of this Will was what gave the benefits to the Realm but also, it was what made the Rules of the Realm. Although the Heavenly Emperor had created a set of Heavenly Laws that everyone under the Heavens had to follow, they could not conflict the Rules of the Realm.


    For example, this Realm banned all Buddhist Cultivation so, everybody could either train in the Dao, Body or Soul. In accordance to this Rule, the Heavenly Emperor created a Law that banned Cultivators from harming Mortals. If a Cultivator harmed Mortals, they would accumulate Sin Karma. The more Sin Karma one had, the harder it was for one to train and the more ferocious ones Tribulations to Ascend were. This was how the Righteous Dao and Devilish Dao factions were born.


    This was to keep people that had wicked hearts from growing strong enough to cause problems for the Realm. If someone with a wicked heart and a strong cultivation base were to collude with some other Realms Experts to harm the Realm, it would cause endless problems. Thinking of this Curo sighed as he thought to his own fate.


    He was the Eight of the Thirteenth Asura¡¯s Lives. The First to Seventh Life had all sealed a portion of their Personas into the Soul. This was to pour all of the strength into the Eight Life. Now that they had poured all of the strength into him, Curo was also sealed into this space, like the Seven Lives before him. He had a bit over a month before his Life Flame was extinguished by the Realm and his Soul would enter the Cycle of Reincarnation to begin again. This time, he will not have any memories.


    All of the memories are held by a Soul¡¯s Persona, once a Persona dissipated, it could never be regained. The Soul could hold only one Persona and for a person to be reborn, they will have their Persona wiped out as their Soul enters a new body. By growing, the Soul will nurture another Persona. How this Persona will be, it will completely depend on the environment the person grew up in.


    There have been times when one was a Saint in one life but a Demon in another. Souls were extremely mysterious things as they could not be seen, felt or touched. Each person had one but they could not make any contact with it. There were some special people that could see and distinguish a persons Soul even after Reincarnation but those experts counted on a single hand. Currently, this Realm held only one such person: The First Asura.


    It took some time for Curo to accept the fact that his life was now over. He had at most a month to live before the Realm forcefully extinguished his Life Flame and wiped out the remainder of his Persona that wasn¡¯t sealed inside his Soul. Curo let out a deep sigh as he closed his eyes in the white blank space and opened them again in the outside world. With a thought all of the chains that had been binding him disappeared.


    When he lowered the Formations around him, he looked at a certain corner and said, ¡°Bring me to First. I have failed to subjugate the Bloodline.¡± The seemingly empty corner then warped as an old man with long grey hair walked towards Curo. He didn¡¯t seem surprised at all by Curo finding him. Instead, he raised a bony hand in front of him and without another word slashed down.


    A crack in space appeared and without wasting any time, Curo collected his Spatial Mansion and walked into the crack. Before entering, he stopped for a moment and then turned to the old man and said, ¡°It is nice seeing you again Second. However, my life will not last long, so I am afraid that this will be the last time we will see each other.¡± The old man just sighed and gestured with his hand for Curo to go through the crack. Curo didn¡¯t say anything more and walked in the space crack. He felt a bit nauseous as he arrived on the other side.


    When he looked up, he saw a both familiar and stranger figure in front of him sitting on a throne. The man gave one glance to Curo before sighing, ¡°You failed as well¡­.¡± Curo then crossed his hands on his chest as he said, ¡°First paves the path, Second to Seventh fortify the path, Eight reinforces Ninth.¡± Hearing those words, the man raised his head and looked at the young man in front of him, waiting for an explanation.


    Although countless years have passed since the prophet said those words, they still hadn¡¯t figured out the true meaning behind those words. They had tried all sorts of methods that had anything to with those words. First Asura created a cultivation Art, Second to Seventh had improved it and Eigth had helped Ninth with reinforcing this Art to help Thirteenth when the time came for the Bloodline to Awaken but every method had failed.


    Curo then said, ¡°These words not to you but for me. The Thirteenth Asura has to complete the Cycle of birth and rebirth 9 times to be able to subjugate the bloodline. As you know, I am the Eight Life.¡± He then continued, ¡°First created a method to seal a portion of a Persona deep into the Soul to bypass the Reincarnation. Second to Seventh all left a portion of their Personas that helped reinforce the portion of my Persona that was sealed.¡±


    The man¡¯s eyes turned big as he wanted to ask something but before he could, Curo said coldly, ¡°In a month, I will die, one way or another. Then, my Persona will be wiped and only the Sealed portion will remain. When the time comes for the Ninth Life to subjugate the Bloodline, I will be there to wear down the Bloodline enough for Ninth to be able to do it.¡±

 Chapter 11: End of a Life (Ending to the Prolouge)

    NThe man looked at Curo with an odd gaze after hearing that. His gaze looked over Curo several times before he sighed deeply. Accepting ones death wasn¡¯t hard, although some people would keep fighting against it, they would make peace in the end. However, to make peace with knowing that the only purpose in your life was to grow your Persona strong enough for someone else to succeed¡­. Something like this left a big impact on someone psyche.


    He may seem calm now but First couldn¡¯t help but dread when the time came for the awakening for the Thirteenth Asura. ¡°Would he really do as he said and help or would he deliberately interfere out of spite?¡± Sensing the odd gaze that the man had, Curo said coldly, ¡°I will do as I have said and help him. If that fucker however still fails in the end, then I don¡¯t care that I don¡¯t exist any more, I will beat the crap out of him in the other world.¡±


    Hearing this, The man on the throne let out a deep sigh and then sheepishly smiled. ¡°How are you so at peace with this?¡± The man asked the question that was bothering him the most. Curo pondered for a moment before saying, ¡°I have always followed my own heart in cultivation. When First to Seventh infused their power into me, I also inherited their memories¡­.¡±


    He took a moment before continuing, ¡°No matter what I do and no matter who intervenes with the Realms Rules, I have no way of escaping death one month from now. Why waste time cursing the Heavens when I can just spend time doing something else?¡± First was stumped as he said with a weird face, ¡°You truly are odd¡­. To be honest, I don¡¯t know how the Ninth Life will play out but I hope that he would have a similar mindset to yours.¡±


    Curo let out a small laugh and then threw all of his possessions to First. He then said, ¡°Once he reaches Foundation Establishment, give all of those items to him. My suggestion is letting him go through life like I did: Relying on oneself, not ones backing.¡± First nodded his head as he caught all of the possessions. He then asked, ¡°What do you plan to do with your remaining lifespan?¡± Curo thought for a moment before saying, ¡°I might as well help that bugger out a bit more and go collect Karmic Luck for him.¡± First raised a brow as he asked, ¡°How?¡±


    Curo¡¯s smile turned evil as he said, ¡°There is this Seven Devils Sect that I have a few grievances with. They all have quite a bit of Karmic Sin on them. Killing them will give me quite a bit of Karmic Luck.¡± First let out a deep sigh as he stood up and said, ¡°Now that you don¡¯t have to worry about death, the rampage you will go on is something that will shake the Heavens. Come on, I will accompany you.¡± Curo frowned hearing this but before he could say anything, the man said, ¡°I won¡¯t interfere at all but will only collect your corpse at the end. You will become a hero for the Realm and no such person deserves a sullied corpse.¡± Hearing this, Curo gave a genuine smile as he said, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    First then created a Spatial Rift and the two walked in. From that day onwards, for the next month, blood flowed like rivers and Devilish Cultivators that had accumulated Karmic sin were wiped out from the Minor and Mid World.


    Since all caution was now thrown to the wind, Curo successively broke through to the Mortal Saint Realm, Earth Saint Realm and then Heavenly Saint Realm. His strength was unparalleled amongst the Minor and Mid Tier Worlds.


    ***


    In a distant Realm, countless miles away from Curo¡¯s Realm, three men were standing in front of a large mirror. On the mirror, there was a figure slaughtering without a care in the world. This person was Curo.


    One of the men opened his mouth and sighed, ¡°This boy is the perfect candidate for the Thirteenth Heavenly Dragon. However, that Realm¡¯s Will asks too much for his Persona.¡± There was a hint of anger evident in his tone as he said that. The other two men¡¯s faces turned grim as well as one of them said, ¡°To be under our Protection for the next ten million years¡­. Several rare and valuable natural oddities¡­.¡±


    The third man sighed as he said, ¡°Those two are no problem as all those natural oddities are what we can grow again in a bit of time and the protection just means that we have to station some of our Experts to help them out when someone attacks their Realm. However, the third condition is the most troublesome: To create a Heavenly Law that would prevent us from ever harming their Realm.¡± The three men then turned quiet as they kept watching the scenes on the mirror.


    Suddenly, their faces changed as their eyes opened wide. They all looked at each other with an astonished gaze as suddenly two of the men left. The third kept watching the mirror as he muttered to himself, ¡°For our own Will to interfere and even to move by himself¡­. How much does he value this boy?¡±


    As he muttered that, his gaze was fixed on the mirror that hung in the large hall.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ***


    In the distant part of Curo¡¯s Realm two figures arrived. They were the same people that were in front of the mirror and had abruptly left. One of the men then snorted and threw out a Spatial Ring. The Spatial Ring then disappeared and the man then said in a cold voice, ¡°We have upheld our end of the bargain, if you back down when the time comes, I promise you, I will personally enslave your Inhabitants and refine you into a Treasure Spirit.¡±


    After saying so, the man snorted coldly before turning around and leaving. Soon after the two men left, a young man appeared in the spot. The young man looked down at his palm, where there was a Spatial Ring. He sighed as he looked down at the Spatial Ring, his mind in turmoil. He was the Will of the Realm. When the two men had first approached him about wanting Curo¡¯s Persona, he was surprised and gave some ridiculous demands to them.


    After a bit of talking, it was obvious that these two didn¡¯t want him on a whim but rather for some other reason. So although he made a lot of concessions, he did his best to milk out a lout of benefits from it. However, now he had no choice but to give the Persona to them. His gaze moved from the spot the two had disappeared from to down to the Realm.


    He was looking at Curo who was currently on a rampage. He didn¡¯t see anything special about him. Nothing that one of the Four Celestial Realms would want. When he thought back to the words the man had left behind before leaving, his back was soaked in sweat. He had no doubt that the person who said that would be able to do it but rather he was scared of what would happen after the man refined him into a Treasure Spirit.


    He understood why they had agreed to his demands instead of forcing him to hand Curo¡¯s Persona over. If they forced him, then as a last act of defiance he would wipe out the Persona. Now that they had held up their end of the bargain, it was obvious that this Persona was very important to them, if he still created problems¡­.


    He shook his head as dread came over him. With but a deep sigh, he also disappeared from his location.


    ***


    Following the rise in Curo¡¯s cultivation, he swept through the Worlds one by one, simply killing any person with Karmic Sin attached to them. The amount of Karmic Luck he had accumulated this way made even the First Asura narrow his eyes. Karmic Luck was intangible and unmeasurable.


    It had no direct shape or purpose but it was well known that those that had a lot of Karmic Luck found it easier to break through bottlenecks and were generally more ¡°lucky¡±.


    For example, there are times where an inch to the right or left would mean all the difference between life and death. Those blessed with Karmic Luck were more likely to get the non fatal wound than a fatal wound. Also, those blessed with Karmic Luck had better chances of finding rare treasures or otherwise lucky encounters by either finding some ruins of an Ancient Expert or something similar.


    Although a month seemed like a long time to a mortal, to someone of Curo¡¯s cultivation, it was like a blink of an eye. And like a blink of an eye, his time in this Realm was reaching it¡¯s end. His body was now riddled in scars and there were some sings of poison on his skin as well. However, he didn¡¯t seem to care at all as he sat quietly in the Main Hall of the Asura Palace.


    Surrounding him were all the other twelve Asuras. They all looked at him with mixed gazes as they quietly witnessed his final moments. His life force was getting weaker and weaker as his Life Flame threatened to be extinguished at any given time. As Curo sat there, cross legged, he felt his mind at peace for the first time in 9000 years. This was also the reason he had been so accepting of his fate.


    He had finally reached the moment of peace, where he didn¡¯t have to worry. For these nine thousand years he had cultivated, his mind had always been on the edge. With every single step he did, he always had to consider the consequences. If he offended one person, would he be able to deal with the pursuit? If he followed his orders, would he still live in the end? Training in an Art would make his Qi more Devilish, would it be worth it to deal with the Righteous Dao followers or not?


    These kinds of questions always troubled and burdened his mind. However, at the moment, he did not have to think about all of these questions as his fate was set in stone no matter what he did. At the latest, one month from that fateful day, he would die. His Persona would dissipate and his Soul would enter reincarnation and enter it¡¯s Ninth Life.


    As he sat there silently in mediation, his mind flashed back to his own nine thousand years of life. Although he had had some good times with his friends and brothers, he had been through much bloodshed and slaughter. As his memories filled his mind, his Life Flame suddenly went out. Sensing this, the twelve people present lowered their heads and cupped their hands in salute towards Curo. First then said, ¡°May you find peace in the afterlife.¡±


    After sensing that the Soul had already left the body, the Twelve Asuras arranged for a grand funeral, befitting a person of Curo¡¯s status. After the burial process was done, the Asuras scattered to distant parts of the Realm to take up their positions again.


    ***


    As Curo felt his Life Flame go out, he sighed deeply and waited for his Persona to be wiped out. However, time passed, one minute, ten minutes, an hour, a day. After a day of waiting, Curo turned curious and opened his eyes for the first time. He was in a pitch black space and in front of him stood a young man dressed in all black.


    The young man smiled as he said, ¡°It seems like all the Karmic Luck you accumulated paid off. This isn¡¯t the end for you yet, my little friend.¡± After the young man said that, Curo felt his consciousness dim as he was transported somewhere.


    After several days, he came back to his senses but he couldn¡¯t open his eyes. When he finally forced them open, he discovered he was inside an egg.

 Chapter 12: Escaping the egg

    ¡°What in the Seven Hells?¡± Curo was startled as he looked around himself. He was inside a giant egg and although it was an egg, it was extremely big. As he scanned his surroundings, he felt weird. His body felt extremely strong but there were some weird sensations he had never felt before. Then, for the first time, he looked down at himself and was immediately dumbfounded.


    His mind blanked from what he was seeing, he was covered in scales and instead of hands and feet, he now had extremely sharp claws. In terror, he tried to move the unusual sensations from before and discovered that he now had a long tail and a pair of wings. As he was there dumbstruck, he felt as though he had forgotten something.


    He could remember everything he had done in his nine thousand years of life, how it had ended, how he had met the man when his Persona was supposed to disappear. However, when he tried to think back to the memories he had inherited from the First to Seventh Life, he couldn¡¯t remember anything. As he went through his memories, he felt a sudden change in the environment.


    The Qi inside the egg had increased by several times. As it was extremely comfortable to be bathed in this Qi, he slowly closed his eyes as his body slowly absorbed and gathered the Qi on his own. Curo spent several days worth of time slowly observing the way his body absorbed his Qi and using his naturally high comprehension talents alongside his nine thousand years of accumulated expertise, he slowly started modifying the way the body absorbed the Qi.


    It didn¡¯t take long for him to be able to absorb ten times more Qi while making it four times more pure and refining it in half the time. This route of Qi circulation was what benefited his body the most but at the same time, nurturing and purifying the Soul.


    Even though at the moment this was the best way to circulate his Qi, he didn¡¯t stop researching this way of Qi circulation. He closed his eyes as he immersed himself in familiarizing himself with the Qi circulation, the benefits it brought and at times, testing out some other routes for circulation. Although not all of the paths increased the benefits, he could take the failures and learn from them. Since he had no idea how long he would be stuck in this egg, or rather, what the hell he was even doing inside this egg, he focused on refining his body as he remembered the young man¡¯s words.


    Since at the moment he couldn¡¯t leave this egg and until now, nothing had appeared to tell him what was going on, he had no other choice but to wait. However, to just wait for an undefined amount of time was something that would drive a person insane. So to keep his mind from going insane, he did the only thing he found peace in: Train. As he trained, he also familiarized himself with the way cultivating worked wherever he was. It wasn¡¯t the same as it was in his previous Realm.


    Here, there wasn¡¯t Foundation Building and such. Here, the process of building foundation was expelling impurities from their bodies and strengthen their bodies. After ones body reaches peak potential, they create a Core. This Core was similar to Core Formation from his memories but it was also a bit different.


    This Core was more like a Qi Kindling that was condensed from the accumulated Qi. The purer the Core, the more power one could exhibit. The number of these Cores wasn¡¯t limited to one but to ninety nine, the same as Qi Kindling¡¯s! Curo had no idea how he knew all of this but somehow, this information seemed to come from his Soul. The more Curo learned, the more thoughtful he became. This situation was extremely weird. He was supposed to disappear and his Soul was supposed to enter the Cycle of Reincarnation but instead, he woke up in a dragons body with a Soul that was several times stronger than he had had at his peak.


    No matter how one looked at it, it was all extremely weird. As Curo slowly pondered on what was going on, he couldn¡¯t help but think that it had something to do with the young man he had seen. However, he had no way of exiting this egg or even sending his divine sense out of this egg. He had tried several times to break the shell however no matter how much clawed, bombarded or cursed at the shell, he had no way of getting out of here.


    He had not even managed to put a scratch on the shell. To escape form here, Curo needed to train strong enough to escape this Egg. He had a feeling that after he escaped from the egg, he would get answers to all of his questions. Now that he had determined to break out, he poured his whole heart into training. Since there was no day or night in the egg, he had no idea how much time had actually passed. As he kept cultivating, he kept improving his Art, upgrading his body and expelling more impurities as he kept creating more and more of these Cores.


    In the beginning, these Cores were murky black with almost half of it being greyish. However ,as more and more impurities were expelled from his body and the more he kept perfecting his Art, the Core turned more and more black. As Curo stood inside his mind, he was surrounded by ninety eight pitch black Cores. These Cores were of varying sizes but each of them was pitch black without any sign of impurities what so ever.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Curo took a deep breath and the air in front of him started cracking as huge amounts of Qi started gathering there. Curo stared intently at the little ball of pitch black energy that was gathering in front of him. Soon, the pitch black ball took shape and after a bit of time passed, it slowly stopped absorbing Qi from the surroundings as it turned into a fist sized Core. Curo let out a deep breath as he stared the Core with a serious gaze.


    When the Core had finished forming, Curo¡¯s eyes opened wide as he suddenly felt a change in his surroundings. When Curo opened his eyes, his mind had returned to his body and quickly flew towards a certain spot in the egg. When Curo arrived, he was astonished but his eyes narrowed as he looked at the crack on the egg wall. Curo then gathered all of his Qi into his tail as he started ruthlessly slamming his tail at the crack, making it bigger with each hit. Seeing this, Curo¡¯s eyes started releasing a hint of happiness. At last! He would be able to escape from this prison of an egg.


    As he smacked the egg wall, the cracks alongside it spread further and further until one hit finally managed to create an opening out of it. Curo immediately gathered all of the Qi towards his head as he rushed out through the opening. When he finally exited the egg, he let out a deep roar from his Soul. This was genuine happiness of being able to escape that solitary prison. After seeing the blue sky, he jubilantly floated around, taking in the fresh air.


    After calming down from being able to escape the egg, did Curo finally look at his surroundings and it was only then that he discovered that he was inside an enormous courtyard. When he looked down, he saw a boulder sized broken egg that was covered in pitch black scales and standing there in the courtyard, were twelve people. They all had smiled on their faces and Curo¡¯s eyes narrowed as he looked at them.


    When he saw one middle aged man in white robes, he felt that he was extremely familiar but he couldn¡¯t remember from where. If Curo still had First Life¡¯s memories, he would recognize this man as the prophet that gave him the prediction: First paves the Path, Second to Seventh fortify the path and Eight Reinforces Ninth. As Curo cautiously looked at the twelve people next to the egg, the white robed man let out a small laugh as he waved his hand and said, ¡°Come down, I believe you have a lot of questions little friend. I will answer all of them now.¡±


    Hearing this, Curo¡¯s eyes turned cold as he slowly descended. He had not wasted any time trapped inside the egg, he was more familiar with this body than with the one he previously had. The amount of control he had over this body was several times higher as he could practically move each scale individually if he wished. As he descended he floated a bit farther away from them. When everyone saw it, they just smiled wrily as they had expected it.


    No one said anything about it and the man coughed once to clear his throat before he started, ¡°First of all, I apologize for the late introductions. My name is Long Shao.¡± Curo nodded his head and stayed silent. The man let out a small hollow laugh as he continued, ¡°Well, let me address question you want to ask the most first: No, you are not dead. We made a trade with the Heavenly Seas Realm Will for your Persona. Then to keep your Persona from collapsing, we didn¡¯t have time to explain anything to you as we had to quickly fuse your Persona with the Dragon Soul inside the egg.¡±


    He then shook his shoulder lightly as he helplessly said, ¡°Once your Persona fused with the Soul, we had no way of reaching inside the egg to communicate with you.¡± Hearing this, Curo nodded his head and looked calm. However, his mind was in turmoil as he thought back to what the man had said: They had traded with a Realm Will for his Persona¡­. There was only one question inside his head right now and he involuntarily asked, ¡°Why would you do that?¡± The man waved his hand and a small table appeared on the grass, as he gestured for Curo to sit down, he himself, with the eleven other people sat down and took out wine cups.


    Curo¡¯s eyes flickered as he also floated down to the table. The man poured everyone some wine and also put a wine cup in front of Curo as he continued, ¡°This story will take a long time to explain. To explain it all perfectly, so that there would be no confusion, I need to start from countless years ago¡­. From the time when this Plane was one huge Plane instead of countless fragmented Realms.¡±


    He then had a distant look as he looked a his cup and said, ¡°How about you turn into your human form?¡± Curo¡¯s eyes flickered as he pondered on what the man had said. His mind was in complete turmoil as he felt like this was all a dream. He had known that there were countless Realms out there but that they all used to be a part of one single Realm¡­. How big was that Realm?


    More importantly, what in the Seven Hells had to happen for such a big Realm to be fragmented into such tiny little Realms?


    Curo then said with a sheepish voice, ¡°Then I will have to ask for senior to lend me a set of robes.¡± The man¡¯s hand paused as he smiled and conjured a set of robes similar to his own and the eleven other people. However, these robes were black instead of white. Curo then turned into his human form and to no ones surprise, he looked like he had before he had died. Curo quickly donned his robes and sat down at the table.


    The man then took a big mouthful of wine before he said, ¡°Once upon a time, countless years ago, this vast Plane was one big mass and was governed by the Heavenly Emperor. However, after a long and bloody war, our Plane was fractured into the Four Celestial Realms and countless Normal Realms.¡±


    He then took a sip from his cup again before he continued, ¡°During the Fall of the Plane, the Heavenly Emperor used that last of his power to created a protective shield that sealed the fractured Plane. The four entrances and exits to the Plane are the Four Celestial Realms. It is our duty to protect these Four Celestial Realms: The Celestial Phoenix Realm, The Celestial Tortoise Realm, The Celestial Tiger Realm and our own, Celestial Dragon Realm.¡±