"Now, what's your name, young fairy?"
"I'm Vivienne Ashford."
"Is the Ashford clan big?"
"It is, but I'm not truly part of it. I was adopted."
Ken pondered on the meaning of her words. Large clans usually didn't adopt outsiders since the clash for resources was already fierce without adding people to it.
"Well, it doesn't matter. My question is, how many sixth-stage cultivators did your sect send here? How many such cultivators do you have under the age of 75?"
This was what he needed to know the most. Anything else could wait until after he confirmed how dangerous the situation truly was.
"Ah… Well, I guess it's not really a secret. There are four of us in the sect right now, and other than me, one more person came here."
"It's not a secret? It sounds like very important information to me."
Ken was surprised to hear her claim, but her face told him she was just as surprised that he didn't know about her and the other three.
"I'm Vivienne, the Platinum Flame Maiden, have you never heard of me?"
She asked him with a drop of hesitation in her words. Everyone knew her in the top five sects, and probably even beyond that.
"No, I haven't. Are you that special?"
"Of course I am! I'm a top disciple on top of being a sect seed!"
It seemed that being not recognized hurt her ego more than being drugged and treated like a prisoner.
"What is a sect seed?"
"Are you pretending not to know?"
"No, just answer my questions, woman. Can't you see my age? I obviously can't know everything about the world yet."
Ken got irritated by the woman's insecurity and constant questions and removed his mask to show his face.
"Oh, I assumed you were just a short man. But since you are at the fourth stage at such a young age, you must be a sect seed as well, aren't you?"
"I'm telling you I'm unfamiliar with the term, so how can I know whether I am a seed or whatever?"
"Right. A sect seed is someone who was cultivated by an immortal before the latter ascended."
The woman said embarrassedly and provided him with a short explanation. However, Ken still didn't understand what she meant by that.
"I don't get it, explain everything from the beginning as if you were explaining the concept to a mortal from a faraway village."
Ken was impatient and asked for a detailed answer, and the woman complied. Stalling for time would work in her favor anyway. If Ken still tried to hold her captive after the poison wears off, he'd be in deep trouble.
"Sure. In the world of cultivation, there are 9 known stages. However, the journey never ends, and there's still another higher realm, the realm of the immortals. When a person breaks through the ninth stage, they turn immortal, and according to the legends they will live forever."
"Did nobody ever reach that stage?"
Ken asked when he heard her phrasing.
"No, many reached it. Every sect produces such a genius every 300-400 years."
"I see. So why did you say, 'according to the legend' when they exist?"
"Because once someone hits this stage, they can't remain among the mortals, as they transcended mortality. The heavens give them 24 hours to complete their unclosed business here before forcibly pulling them to the immortal realm."
Ken found the story interesting, but he didn't have time for interesting stories right now.
"How is this related to you and sect seeds?"
"As I was saying, they have 24 hours to remain in our realm before ascending. They use most of this time to repay the sect that has raised them. They do it by taking 4 babies and attempting to forcibly strengthen their bodies, dantians, meridians, and souls with their Immortal Qi."
Ken raised an eyebrow when he heard this. He could guess where this was going because of his own past.
"Basically they raise infants to the peak of the third stage directly?"
"Exactly. When someone gets there while being young enough, their whole body and constitution change. They gain what we call a 'Cultivation Body', which allows them to be much more tuned to Qi."
Ken's suspicions were confirmed now. They achieved the same thing he did. He raised his stages at extreme speed compared to the rest of the cultivators he had met. He only reached the Core Formation Stage when he was only six years old, and now, 2 years and a half later, he was already at the peak of it.
Of course, his extremely potent pills and powerful formations helped to shorten the time, but it couldn't be attributed only to that. After all, others also had access to many other resources.
In contrast, Alaric was one of the youngest peak Core Formation cultivators he had ever met, and the man took much longer than Ken to reach his stage despite working with a weaker foundation which allowed faster progress.
"But it takes years to get to the peak of the third stage, how do they do it in 24 hours?"
There was one more doubt in his heart. He took much longer than 24 hours to get where he was today.
"By doing it forcibly. The sect always raises four orphans who are potential seeds. A few ninth-stage healers research the babies' bodies every day and can provide a detailed description of them at any given time. If someone becomes immortal, those healers provide them with this information and the immortal tries their best to achieve what I described earlier."
"What do you mean by 'tries their best'?"
Ken noticed her weird phrasing again.
"Well, normally all four babies die, and the procedure fails. They normally invest 5 hours in each baby, and they spend the last four hours with their families."
"But you didn't die?"
"Exactly, I'm one of the rare babies that survive and win a Cultivation Body. I'm not even 52 yet!"
"So you are 51. Nobody says '52' if they're under 50."
"You'll die single."
"You're getting too lively, here's some more poison."
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