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"The first task I have you 5 do, is to temper your body with these blood essence." said Duan Li as he whipped out 5 small bottles containing a single drop of his blood each.
But of course, they do not know that these was actually his blood.
"Don"t underestimate the potency behind this single drop of blood, you would soon find yourself to be screaming in agony otherwise. Thus, I advise everyone to make some ample preparation beforehand." warned Duan Li.
"Shen Lu, you supervise the entire procedure and make adjustments accordingly. But since they"re all at the Foundation establishment realm, it shouldn"t pose them any real trouble during the tempering process." he added as he cupped at his chin.
Shen Lu took the 5 small bottles with a gleeful smile.
"These blood essence will make everyone here a few times more stronger. Furthermore, so far there are no known side effects to it, don"t worry. But, prepare to feel the pain that the likes of you have never felt before!" he chuckled wickedly.
The 5 new recruits then followed behind Shen Lu closely as they headed to the back of the residence court to undergo the tempering process of their physical body.
Some of them appeared to be quite indifferent towards it. After all, they were already used to the pain of body tempering as a cultivator.
...
Turning his head to Xiahou Yu, Duan Li thought for a moment as he decided to gift her something.
Huala!
"Here, take this monster core and cultivate with it everyday. Your cultivation will then soon enter the Foundation establishment realm." Duan Li said as he handed out the monster core that Liu Sheng Juan "sold" to him.
To be honest, he didn"t plan to give such an item to anyone, but currently, Xiahou Yu was the weakest among them in terms of her cultivation states.
Since the monster stampede was approaching soon, it would be better if she could get stronger faster.
"Hmm.. that monster core.. the spiritual Qi within it are absolutely dense.. this is unlike anything I"ve ever seen before. What rank was it from?" Shen Murong asked.
"It"s from a 5 Star Monster." Duan Li answered casually.
Pu!
A 5 Star monster core you say?
That was something that was absolutely, incredibly rare and hard to find! Even if someone were to comb the entire Jiu Empire right now, one would still be hard pressed to find even a single whiff of it.
Yet, here it was, appearing on the hands of the rich scion Duan Li!
And to think that a treasure as such, he just handed it down to someone so casually?!
"I don"t know if you are being generous or just ignorant here.." Shen Murong said inwardly as he sighed.
Receiving Duan Li"s kind gesture, Xiahou Yu happily accepted the monster core gift, before she was sent into a daze when she felt that immense and dense amount of spiritual Qi contained within it.
This was a priceless item!
Seeing that expression on her, a look of worry appeared on Duan Li"s face as he coughed dryly.
"That monster core is my gift for you so that you can quickly rise in your cultivation states. As you know, the monster stampede is just around the corner.. so I hope that you would not sell it just for some fried chickens.."
Xiahou Yu"s body jerked for a bit when she heard this, before her entire face turned red as she blushed.
"... I won"t..."
she then immediately headed somewhere within the residence court to cultivate. As she was already in the late stage of the Qi condensation realm, it won"t take her long to reach the pinnacle stage with the help of the 5 Star monster core that Duan Li gave her.
"I"m going to cultivate too, I"ll strive to reach the pinnacle stage of the Foundation establishment realm before the monster stampede at least." Shen Murong said as he flew off into the distance, leaving only Duan Li with w.a.n.g Xiolun now.
Turning his head to w.a.n.g Xiolun at the side, Duan Li asked, "Are you going to cultivate too?"
At which w.a.n.g Xiolun shook his head.
"No.. I have already reached the middle stage of the Core formation realm. At this point, I should instead aim to consolidate my base strength by reinforcing my skill arts. This way, I would make better use of my current strength to match the maximum output I could bring out at the moment."
Hearing his replies, Duan Li couldn"t help but to nod in agreement.
Once one had reached the Core formation realm, cultivating too fast would leave their foundation to be weak and inefficient.
This was because of the purity of the spiritual Qi within the Qi b.a.l.l.s inside of one"s dantian, that has merged together to form Qi Core, and hence why the realm was called the Core formation realm.
The main point of reaching the Core formation realm besides becoming more powerful was so that a cultivator could have a boundless amount of spiritual Qi within them that they could use for an extended period of time.
Therefore, if someone at such a realm were to continue to cultivate without solidifying their skill arts, they would just be wasting their spiritual Qi with each usage as they lack the amount of proper output control.
"En, you should do that." said Duan Li with a nod as a sign of his approval.
With that, Duan Li was the only one left in the courtyard. As he walked around, his mind started to wander.
"Hmm.."
Recalling the numerous events that was happening in the past, he couldn"t help but to feel that there was something amiss.
Only that, he didn"t know what that is.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Duan Li calmed his state of mind as he tried to piece together the little details of the events that had transpired during the past few days.
"My whole life changed the moment I encountered the golden mysterious pearl. After that, Ancestor Zong told me that my life was not connected to the strings of fate.. then during the second trial, I witnessed for myself of what the original timeline would be in 8 years from now on.."
Was encountering the golden mysterious pearl a coincidence?
He closed his eyes as he pondered even more deeply.
"My memories then merged together with myself of the original timeline and I seemed to inherit quite a bit of information from it as well. But why was it that, some certain event, even when I tried to recall it, I just can"t seemed to remember?"
This started to bug him when he felt that he had met the Emperor before somewhere in the future few years later, but he can"t even remember when and why he met the Emperor.
Also, a big figure such as Liu Sheng Juan, it cannot be that it was also my first time seeing or even knowing about him?
This all seemed too strange!
"Furthermore, since that encounter itself with the golden mysterious pearl, I had become a lot more stronger than from that timeline. This has already deviate significantly from the original event that was supposed to happen.."
The thing that had him really concerned about was that the monster stampede this time was far more dangerous than what he remembered.
Usually, only about a few thousand would arrive at most per wave. But according to the information from Shen Lu, that number has now suddenly increased to a staggering 30,000!
Unable to drive away this uneasy feeling that was nudging at him constantly, Duan Li decided to meet with a figure that should know the most regarding the world, the millennium Yidara tree - Ancestor Zong!
...
Arriving at the vast hall, the millennium Yidara tree stood grandly at the middle of it all as the spiritual Qi around it hums gently.
"Ahh.. Child.. come forward.. it seems that.. you have.. quite a number.. of questions.. to ask.." Ancestor Zong said as soon as he noticed the presence of Duan Li entering the hall.
Hearing the manner of which the latter was speaking with, Duan Li couldn"t help but to wonder of why Ancestor Zong was speaking so slowly all the time.
Was it due to the latter"s age?
Coming forward, Duan Li explained the gist of his concerns to Ancestor Zong.
"I see.. so you have begun.. to feel.. the artifacts.. of time.." said Ancestor Zong.
Hearing this, Duan Li creased his brows together.
"Artifacts of time? Please, enlighten me Ancestor Zong!"
Ancestor Zong fell silent for a while before speaking.
"In the annals.. of legends.. before everything began.. there was only.. a single and linear.. "Timeline".. as with all creation.. everything.. has an eventual end.."
"This.. was supposed.. to repeat.. to loop.. for all eternity.. and was called.. the Ring of Eternal Time.."
"But, an existence.. an anomaly.. appeared.. that forces.. this single "Timeline".. to branch out.. from the loop.. creating a.. second "Timeline".."
"This anomaly.. exists in the.. second "Timeline".. and gained.. a power.. that none.. should have.. and through it.. created the.. third "Timeline".. that intervenes.. in the first "Timeline".."
"When the.. Ring of.. Eternal Time.. senses that the.. Second "Timeline".. intervening in the.. first "Timeline".. through the.. third "Timeline".. "Time" began to produce.. the.. "Artifacts of Time".."
"This.. is a natural.. balance mechanism.. to counter.. the change.. to prevent the.. Ring of.. Eternal Time.. from being.. unravelled.."
"And you Child.. is also a product.. of this change.. with your life.. cut off from.. the strings of fate.. that I have.. already.. told you before.. Time.. will began to.. make a move.. on you.. everytime you make.. a change.."
Becoming a silent again, Ancestor Zong sighed out.
"This.. is the only.. thing.. that I could tell.. you.. for my ability.. is limited to tell.. what change.. will affect what.. and you.. would have to.. depend on yourselves.. for this one.."
After Duan Li listened to everything that the Ancestor Zong had just said to him, he found out that he had become even more confused!
The scale of that explanation regarding "Time" seems to be too humongous on him at the moment, and he could not make any deep correlation to it.
"I need to investigate further if I wanted to know what Ancestor Zong meant.."
However now, there was one thing that was clear to him.
It was that "Time" seems to try and prevent him from changing the future, and the weird changes to the nature of the oncoming monster stampede should be the result to balance out the changes that he made!
A deviation of history and "Time" trying to correct itself..
This was the "Artifacts of Time!"
...