Chapter 281 Chapter 281 – Martial Arts Summit
After dining with his parents and talking to them, Ken returned to his house in the sect. While his parents were important to him, they were not part of his cultivation journey anymore. He knew he would have to leave them behind at some point, he just hoped to provide them with safety before that. They were too old and weak to walk on his path.
In the next few months, Ken settled in the Serene Lotus Sect. His life was peaceful there; he had no enemies within the sect as he knew nobody, and the only time he left the sect's base was to visit his parents in the city nearby. Although he had to complete missions, he simply used his skills as an alchemist to complete a few within the confines of his house.
He joined the three divisions he needed, revealing some of his talents by passing the exams for fifth-rank alchemists and formation masters.
He read every book he did not recognize in the library to assess the knowledge of the Serene Lotus Sect and found out they did not know much more than his previous sect. The Infinite Wisdom Sect enjoyed a monopoly in the field and kept a tight lid on the knowledge they held.
Using that to his advantage, he submitted some theories to the sect to earn favor with the different elders. One theory was Qi Harmonization, which suggested a way to balance powerful elements with their counterparts.
For example, if an alchemist wanted to add a fire from a dragon's breath, it was normally too strong for anything under that dragon's rank. However, if the alchemist compromised and used another fire, he'd lose the special effects he wanted to achieve with the properties of dragon fire.
Using the Qi Harmonization theory, the alchemist could now use a weaker water source to balance the strength of the dragon fire, achieving harmony between the ingredients so the pill does not fall apart without giving up on the benefits of dragon fire.
Ken won various rewards for his theory, including more free access to the library and a higher stream of income. He was also given an honorary core disciple status, meaning he enjoyed the status of a core disciple without having an elder as a direct master. It was a title that was not used in thousands of years; nobody could be that influential without a master backing them.
He did the same in the Formation Mastery division, offering some new formations and ways to create triple formations, earning him even more admiration from the elders. His rewards and income rose with every theory he subjected, and he always made sure to wait at least three months before submitting the next theory.
Henry, Tiara, and Alaric also finished reconstructing their bodies, each achieving what Ken called a Demonic Body, allowing them to enjoy physical strength above average and higher healing properties. It was different from a Cultivation Body which allowed higher attunement to Qi, but each had its own merits.
Ken hypothesized that one could create different special constitutions by enhancing a mortal's body with higher forms of Qi depending on the method applied, but he had neither the resources nor the reason to explore this possibility.
The three also agreed on a rotation; since Ken did not want to rely on subordinates he'd have to eventually kill like Tom and Maria, he preferred to just send his companions to pick up the resources from Darma and provide him with the new theories Ken promised.
The agreement was that they could take 20% of the money they bring and give the rest to Ken, but they tacitly agreed to take a much lower cut since they knew that their most important resources originated from Ken, and he needed this money to provide them with those resources.
Emrys also had new developments, and he indeed broke through to the next rank as Ken predicted. Thankfully, he had done so without eating the maid, and Soul was still serving Ken happily and alive.
No longer a mere pup, the wolf had entered its juvenile stage. It now stood at a height of one and a half meters, almost as tall as Ken. Its body's length was even more striking, spanning an impressive three meters.
While it was good news that Emrys could finally be somewhat useful, his food consumption had also risen significantly. He could not live on pills alone anymore and had to consume many kilograms of expensive fourth-rank meat every day. Ken also did not give up on creating a perfect bloodline, providing him with five fourth-rank pills every day after the meals.
Ken had also experienced progress with his nascent soul, and it was as large as 90% of his body now, not far away from breaking through to the next stage. His Runology knowledge improved as well, and he was already a fifth-rank runologist.
His position in the Serene Lotus Sect stabilized, and most of the sect at least knew him by name thanks to noise from the Four Seasons Sect and the Phoenix Feather Sect that demanded him to be turned in. Obviously, neither of them dared act beyond saying that the Serene Lotus Sect was taking in evil cultivators.
However, Ken learned that he had acquired one more enemy, one that might be considered even more troublesome than the third-rank sect of the continent.
"Hello, Ken. How do you find our Serene Lotus Sect?"
Ken sat in Elmer's living room. Although the two did not interact much, trouble just happened, and Ken was responsible for it. Thus, as the elder who brought in Ken, the others chose to throw the responsibility to Elmer.
"Ken Sue greets Elder Elmer. It has been nice and peaceful, I did not have to waste my time on bothersome matters and petty politics."
"Probably because you aren't competing for the sect's resources."
It was a true statement. Ken received everything directly for his merits without taking over the ranks in order to get someone else's income. While the other option was also legitimate and everyone raced for the higher ranks, it always caused some infighting.
He even lost his rank in the inner disciples ranking because he was a core disciple now, leaving the top three spots to Alaric, Henry, and Tiara respectively.
"Perhaps, but I already have enough resources as it is."
Ken's expenditure was anything but normal, but so was his income. He spent thousands of Qi stones for experimenting and refilling his Qi every day even while using Immortal Qi stones for his training.
"All right, back to our business, I have something to tell you. You've angered one more top-five sect, congratulations."
Ken thought for a moment. He did not think of a reason why the Divine Sword Sect and Peaceful Demon Sect would be angry with him. They might chase Alaric and Henry, but the two were not that famous yet and besides, Elmer called him, not them.
"Is it the Infinite Wisdom Sect?" Ken knew that spreading the knowledge they kept for themselves would irk them. Furthermore, they should know by now that he was the masked teen who killed their cultivators and infiltrated the Library of Eternal Wisdom in the secret realm.
"Indeed, Phoenix Feather Sect has let the cultivation world know that you are a genius who would give our sect the knowledge to soar also in Formation Mastery and Alchemy, even showing some of your works as proof. Infinite Wisdom Sect does not want to lose its monopoly, and if we do improve as much as your previous sect claims, we won't need them anymore. Worse yet, the gap between us and the other sects would increase."
"I can understand why they wouldn't like it. What is our sect's response?" Ken knew that they did not sell him out since he was there instead of being bound in the hands of his many chasers. He just wanted to know the sect's expectations.
"We are not ranked first because we let others dictate our future. We see a bright future for our supportive divisions if you continue to come up with new ideas. We were told that your work has opened many new leads and approaches, giving the various elders from those divisions enough research materials for many years."
Elmer stated the first part of his words with pride. Elmer himself could be considered a good representation of the sect's stance. He never listened to anybody from outside, and often caused trouble.
"I'm sure my future research will prove just as valuable. I'm still young and have not discovered everything I was fated to discover. Should this information change anything in my conduct?"
"Not right now. However, you'd need to be careful in the major inter-sect event soon. Do you know about the Martial Arts Summit?" Elmer asked.
"I do know basic information about it. I know that it's held every fifty years and that it includes the top 20 sects, even allowing smaller sects to issue a challenge and try to get a spot among the top 20."
"Indeed, but it's mainly meant for the sects to show their improvement in the different generations. No sect had lost its spot among the top twenty or the top five in the past millennia and I doubt they will now."
"What does it have to do with me?"
"Ranked disciples and core disciples all must participate. Since you also are going to fight, you should be careful not to get killed there. Everyone is going to fight more fiercely this time to harm our sect and lower our strength since they don't want us to go ahead."
Although the benefits of Ken's research would only show in a thousand years or two, the present was the best time to counter it. After all, the sect cannot complain if their disciples died because they were too weak, and killing the ranked disciples now would be prominent in the future.
"Does it mean our sect is in trouble?"
"No, it means the other 19 sects are in trouble. They will pay dearly for every disciple our sect loses," Elmer smiled, but his face was anything but friendly. It was a smile of a bloodthirsty man about to butcher an enemy.
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