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Volume 3 - Sect War

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\'All right, it\'s time to break through to the next stage.\'

Despite using pills and formations to improve his speed of training, he couldn\'t afford more than 4-5 hours of cultivation every day. Having a deep foundation also meant his core needed more Qi to break through.

He was also using his own original cultivation manual as always, perfecting the process to the minute detail; the manuals he read before advancing to the fourth stage already included the method to get to the peak of the fourth stage, so he didn\'t need to visit the treasury again yet.

·ƈθm Unfortunately, he wasn\'t part of the Formations Division, so his knowledge of creating formations advanced much slower than his knowledge of Alchemy. However, he didn\'t give up on the subject and self-taught himself by experimenting in his study room.

He was still a fourth-rank formation master, but he did improve in the past year. He arranged his improved Qi Gathering Formation in the training room he used before to break through the third stage before.

\'Improving the core shouldn\'t cost as much as forming the core, but let\'s just use the same amount of Qi Stones.\'

He used 100,000 medium Qi Stones again and sat down cross-legged to begin his breakthrough. His core was already at the maximum size, and he couldn\'t make it grow any further.

He took out a smooth orange pill and played it between his fingers before putting it in his mouth and swallowing. It was the Core Expanding Inducer Pill he had developed to make the core grow beyond its limits.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on maximizing the medical effects of the pill. He could feel his core expanding further, stretching beyond its former limit. Overdoing something was always painful, and this process wasn\'t any different.

He clenched his teeth and dealt with the pain that tore him from inside. He did his best to ignore it and focus on the pill\'s energy as it influenced his core slowly. The process took around one hour until he finished ingesting the pill.

Before starting, his core was 4 times bigger than what it was when just formed it. According to the best manual he found in the sect, cores had the potential to stretch to only twice their size, and not many could achieve it.

To put it simply, his boost from advancing to the Intermediate Core Formation Stage was equal to the boost the best geniuses got from advancing from the low fourth stage to the high one.

After consuming the pill, his core grew by a third of its original size, giving him another boost. Normally, pills affected humans in sets of three, meaning that after three pills, the effect would start diminishing significantly.

Ken spent 2 more hours ingesting two more Core Expanding Inducer Pills, achieving identical results, and expanding his core by another two-thirds. Now, his core was 5 times bigger than originally.

He didn\'t stop yet; although each pill cost him around 15,000 Qi Stones to produce because of the rare materials he used in them, he wasn\'t short on money. He took another pill, and this one only increased the core\'s size by a ninth of its original size.

Overall, he consumed 12 of the orange pills, and his core was now 5.5 times bigger than it was when he first formed it. 

\'Good, now I only need to condense it to officially be in the Intermediate Core Formation Stage.\'

His ultimate goal was condensing the core to its original size. If he could only condense it halfway through, he would lose a large chunk of the benefits of regrowing it again in the next stage.

He popped out 6 emerald color pills and placed them on the ground one next to the other in front of him. Those were the third type of pill he invented for his breakthrough process – the Core Condensing Pill.

Because of the sheer size of his core, it would be much harder to condense it to the maximum all the way to its original size. He also didn\'t forget to renew the supply of Qi Stones in the formation.

He took the first pill and began the process of condensing his core. He closed his eyes again as he concentrated on his core and started compressing it.

The energy that came from the pill helped him in the process, alleviating the pain and the hardships.

This process went on for 5 hours, and he had to take another pill once an hour to help him. Toward the end, the process became near impossible, but he endured without giving up. 

The moment he stopped condensing his core would be the moment his breakthrough would be complete and there would be no going back.

With a final push, he managed to get it to the original size, and he let his body slump back on the floor in a laying position.

\'Thank God I invented this Core Condensing Pill and didn\'t try to condense it naturally. Wait, actually, thank me, not God.\'

He got irritated when he thought about the messed-up situation the so-called God sent him into. He\'d much rather be born as the son of elders in a top-tier sect.

He checked the remaining stones and saw he spent 40,000 medium Qi Stones. Coupled with his expenditure on enlarging his core earlier, the costs were close to 52,000 Qi Stones.

\'My money spending skills are top tier even among girls.\'

He thought to himself when he realized he spent over 300,000 Qi Stones when counting the cost of the pills he just took. 

300,000 Qi Stones were enough to take an average disciple from the Low Core Formation Stage to the peak of the intermediate sub-stage, yet he spent that all just on the last push. He didn\'t even want to calculate all the money he spent since he formed his core.

\'I can\'t be stingy when it comes to my foundation. If I spare efforts now, my future will be limited.\'

With that note, he got up and prepared to go out. He used his Qi to push the sweat away from his body and dressed up before leaving for his house to take a bath.

\'At least I don\'t discharge black goo-like filth from my body like in cultivation stories. Those impurities sound disgusting.\'

As soon as he got home, he saw a guard waiting outside his house\'s door. The guard cupped his fist and bowed to Ken.

"Young Master, the patriarch wants to see you."

"Did he seem angry?"

"No, Young Master."

Ken pondered for a while and decided it\'d be better to take a bath first. He disliked remaining dirty for a long time.

"I will be there in 20 minutes."

"He said to bring you to him as soon as I find you."

"How about I blind you and then hold your hand 30 minutes later? This way you can follow the order precisely. Guards."

Ken turned around to his bodyguards, pretending to gesture to them to do what he just described. The guard who came to fetch him laughed nervously and hurriedly denied.

"Young Master must be joking, why does it matter if you come now or in half an hour? I will wait here until you\'re ready."

The guard forced a smile as he bowed while cursing Ken\'s methods in his heart.

"Good point. I will come in half an hour then."

He entered the house and found Soleil cultivating in the training room. To his surprise, she already prepared water in the bath for him; she was normally quite forgetful. It was still cold and needed heating. Since he could heat it by himself with his Alchemical Qi, he didn\'t interrupt her training.

20 minutes later, he went out dressed in new robes and found the guard still waiting for him outside.

"Let\'s go. You guys can remain here."

He instructed his two bodyguards to remain behind. Now that their real employers were dead, he knew they would most likely resign next month. However, now that they knew about his poisoning methods, their only way out was to die.

Ken followed the guard to the main mansion of the clan where his grandfather lived. The guard opened the door and took him to the same room where he met Dominic for the first time.

"Ken, good to see you again. I trust your stay in the clan has been pleasant?"

Dominic said with a wide smile and gestured to the guard to leave them alone. The guard bowed one last time and left the room.

"Yes, Grandfather. The clan has been treating me well since I arrived."

"That\'s good. As you must have heard, my son and my daughter died lately. It\'s a tragic loss to our clan in general, and especially to our group in the clan."

His smile faded and he spoke in a serious manner. He looked into Ken\'s eyes, trying to see any hint of nervousness.

"It is indeed tragic; I\'ve been saddened to hear of my uncle and aunt\'s deaths."

Ken answered with a straight face without flinching. He didn\'t know what the patriarch knew or thought, so he didn\'t plan on saying anything before it was made clear.

"Their killer is Krone\'s daughter, Annie. You can imagine my surprise when I heard that the daughter Krone loved so much and invested in was the one who did it."

"So I\'ve heard."

Ken waited patiently for Dominic to get to the point. Both knew Ken didn\'t care about their deaths.