When Curo woke up, it was already past sunrise. He lightly flexed his joints and took a deep breath as he felt the invigorating energy course through his body. He smiled a bit when he realized that the energy in his body was several times more abundant than before.
“Seems like I had break through in my sleep.” When he thought that to himself, he closed his eyes and arrived inside a spacious Palace. This was his Qi Palace and currently, instead of sitting inside his vast Qi Sea, it was floating above it. At the top floor of the extravagant Palace, were two figures. One was his Nascent Soul and the other was a huge pitch black dragon. When he arrived in front of the two, the Nascent soul opened his eyes. Curo’s eyes turned serious as he looked at the Nascent Soul.
It was no longer half transparent but looked like a flesh and blood human now. This was the minimum requirement needed for the Nascent Soul to occupy the Dragon’s Body. Curo stabilized his breath as he commanded his Nascent Soul to merge with the Dragon Body. When the Nascent Soul arrived in front of the dragons gigantic head, it lightly touched it with his hand before slowly being absorbed by it.
The next step of the process may take up to several years to accomplish as it needed to slowly merge with the body before it would become in full control and be able to leave his body independently.
What puzzled Curo was that before, he could switch between the two bodies but when it left the body, Curo wondered where the body came from. However, Jing Fang had explained to him that The Dragon Form Awakening Formation had created this body as well but since there wasn’t a soul in charge of it, it would b nothing but a lifeless corpse. So, it was stored in his Dantian. Hearing this explanation, Curo could only nod his head as it made sense.
The Dantian was a separate space inside a cultivators body, so it made sense that it could hold a body as big as the Dragon. Seeing that the merging process had begun smoothly, Curo let out a sigh of relief and appeared at the bottom of the Palace.
At the lowest floor of the Palace, there were 99 Qi Spheres. Although, nearly all of them were empty, there were some that had a few items inside. The GuanDao Halberd, The Asura Fiend Armour and a few other things were stored inside these spheres. When Curo withdrew the GuanDao Halberd from it’s sphere, he had a look of delight. The Halberd had absorbed a lot of the Saint Qi inside the Sphere and it’s grade had risen to Quasi Saint Artefact. When the Artefact managed to birth a Spirit, then it would become a true genuine Saint Artefact.
Curo played around with it a bit before storing it back inside to be nurtured by the Saint Qi. After checking up on the various other items stored inside the spheres as well, Curo left his QI Palace. When he opened his eyes, he took a deep breath before walking towards the door. When he exited his courtyard, he was greeted by a servant. The female servant had long black hair, fair skin, curves where it mattered and a beautiful face.
Curo took a second glance before asking her, “Can you lead me to the Roaming Dragon Division?” The female servant hurriedly replied and started leading the way. Seeing her act with such fear and dread, Curo sighed. It was obvious that she was afraid of him and when he considered his feats in the past two years, he had didn’t have to wonder much. He had accomplished one monstrous feat after another and his latest was to flip the Han Clan upside down. That in itself was worth more fear than the rest of his feats combined. Curo followed the servant through the City and as he was taking in the sights all around him, he noticed people taking stealthy looks of him.
Always whispering and their eyes full of dread, question and doubt. Curo could only bitterly smile at all of the attention as he decided to ignore it and move onwards. The two soon arrived in front of a big black pagoda. On top of the door, there was a sign that said “Roaming Dragon Division”. After taking a look at the building, Curo decided to send the servant back and go inside. However, the girl bit her lips and said, “Master Long has instructed me to follow you all the time and cater to your needs.” Hearing this, Curo raised a brow as he sized up the young lady in front of him seriously.
She seemed no older than he himself was but her cultivation was quite shocking for her age. She had already reached the Peak of Palace Building. Although, Curo was a Mid Stage Saint, he was an anomaly that couldn’t be compared through normal standards as too much luck and fate was involved with his advancements.
However, this young lady in front of him did not have the same luck or fate as him and had managed to reach such a level with age no older than Curo. Curo then could only nod his head as it was his Father’s arrangements and lead the girl inside. When Curo arrived inside the building, he saw that it was bustling with activity.
Not knowing where to go or who to talk to, he set his sights on the counter with the least people and queued up. The servant by Curo’s side looked at it oddly but Curo didn’t mind as he just waited in line with the rest. It didn’t take long for the people in front of him to have finished their business and for it to be Curo’s turn. When Curo arrived at the counter, the old mna behind it was visibly exhausted. When he raised his eyes and looked at Curo, he was first shocked, then jumped to his feet and cupped his hands, “Greetings, Lord Deputy.”
Curo gave the man a smile and said, “Now then, where do I have to go?” The man was stumped as he pointed towards the stairs that lead upwards. He then said, “If you follow the stairs to the highest floor, you will find your office. The man guarding it will explain the rest.” Curo nodded his head and thanked the man before heading upstairs. This entire exchanged had been heard by everyone on the floor. The people that had been queued behind Curo were shocked as they didn’t understand why he had been in the queue in the first place. He could have just walked up and asked and no one would have been able to say anything.
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When Curo arrived at the highest floor, there were two men in full armour standing outside the office door. When the two saw Curo, their eyes were first filled with vigilance and when they recognized him, they put their fists onto their heart and said, “Greetings Lord Deputy.” Curo walked in front of them and said with a sheepish smile, “This is my first day here. Can one of you bring someone that can explain to me how this building works and what my obligations are?” Hearing this, the two men exchanged a look before one opened the door to let Curo inside while the other went to summon someone.
After Curo arrived in the office, he was quite stunned to see walls filled with all sorts of books on the Worlds history, various organizations and so on. After giving a brief glance, Curo noticed that there was a side room with a small kitchen to prepare tea and some snacks. Curo sat behind the giant desk and said to his servant, “Can I bother you to make a cup of tea?” The servant girl quickly hurried to make the cup of tea and Curo turned his chair around to look out of the giant window that was behind him. This view allowed him to overlook half the city. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and a young man, with an exhausted expression walked in. This young man was no stranger to Curo as it had been the same person that had delivered and taken the documents when he worked in the Foreign Affairs Department.
Seeing the familiar figure, Curo gave a smile and gestured for the man to sit down at the opposite side of the table. It had been then that the young servant girl had finished making a pot of tea and brought two ups to the table. After filling the cups, she stood behind Curo. The young man started, “Things have been hectic. The formation of the branch had been done very haphazardly and we are severely understaffed.” Hearing this Curo frowned as he asked, “Have you told Instructor Sheng about it? We need more people as we can’t keep up with the workload. It is before noon and every face I have seen work here is filled with exhaustion.” Hearing this, the young man gave a bitter smile and said, “The situation at the Head Quarters is no better than here. It is even worse now that 500 people were transferred here from there.”
Hearing this, Curo sighed and said, “So we are severely understaffed. What is the general status of the Branch and have there been any problems?” The young man then gave a detailed account on how the branch was faring and the problems that had occurred. It didn’t take long to bring Curo up to speed with everything that had happened here. Curo then fell into thought and said, “I may be able to assign some Ji Clan members to help lighten the workload. They can deal with the mundane matters of accepting missions and giving out rewards.”
The young man nodded his head and gave a weak smile, “It would help out a lot. Currently, there is quite a lot of people that wish to trade information for the trade routes and reinforcement routes of the Nine Clans.” Hearing this Curo gave a nod and said, “The key to a successful mission is information. The more precise information you possess on your enemy, the higher chance of success with minimal casualties.”
The man nodded his head and slumped backwards to his chair. He then sighed, “However, a lot of people try to throw their weight around here. They are all Saints while the highest of us are Origin Realm Cultivators. They try to squeeze out more Merit points from missions and information trades….”
Curo furrowed his brow and then fell into a momentary thought before saying, “Instruct everyone that the next time they try to do so, send them to me. I will deal with those people myself.” Hearing this, the man gave a thankful smile to Curo. He was the only Saint Realm cultivator they had in this branch. While in the Main Branch no one dared to raise a fuss because there was Instructor Sheng there, here they only had Curo. After talking over a few more things, the young man said, “I will send someone over to you that will bring you the documents that need to be signed by you. Mostly they consist of our expenditure and losses. Also, there will be several documents that contain information about the Nine Clans movements that you need to look over.”
Curo nodded his head and after exchanging a few more words with the fellow, he left. When the young man had left, the young servant girl by his side had already refilled Curo’s cup. Curo then momentarily paused and asked, “What is your name?” The young girl lowered her head and said weakly, “Xie Li.” Hearing this, Curo raised a brow as he looked towards the girl. She then explained, “The Xie Clan Ancestor decided to pledge allegiance to the Ji Clan and became the unofficial branch of the Ji Clan.” Hearing this, Curo was not surprised. After the malicious roots had been pulled up, the relationship between the two Clans was quite harmonious. Now that his Father had managed to reach the Earth Saint Realm, the Xie Clan had no choice but to lower their heads and come under their Ji Clan. They were of the same origin, so it wasn’t anything weird. Times change and if one wants to survive, they need to adapt to the changes.
Currently, although the Ji Clan did not have any Sovereigns, they had three Saints with a Heavenly Sovereign guardian. Jing Fang wasn’t a part of the Clan but he looked over it. When Curo’s thoughts reached this far, there was a knock on the door again and a disheveled young man walked in with a stack of papers.
After placing them on the table, he separated the piles and pointed to one of them, “This is the pile that needs your signature and this is the pile that contains the information that needs your attention.” After pointing to the other pile, the young man cupped his fists and left. Curo picked up the first document and after reading through it, he signed it. It took him only an hour or two to look through all of those documents and signing them before he turned his attention to the other pile.
After reading though nearly half of it, he frowned, “Seems like the Meng Clan is planning something.” Xie Li tilted her head and asked, “How so?” As the words escaped her mouth, her eyes widened and she hurriedly lowered her head to apologize but Curo hadn’t minded it at all and explained, “Over half of these documents are in relation to the Meng Clan making unusual moves. Saints have been spotted in regions that they had never been to before, lower levelled armies have been taming more and more Heavenly Beasts and they seem to be collecting raw materials for something. Profound Sky Amber, Heavenly Ginger Root and so on.”
He took a breath and continued, “These are all Top Grade materials and really hard to come by. Every auction that had put up one had been bought by the Meng Clan for an exorbitant price.” Speaking this far, Curo fell into thought as he tried to piece it together. These materials were extremely versatile as they could be used in Pill Refinement, Artefact Forging, Puppet Crafting and so on. They were even essential to refining Formation Flags to put up some high or top grade formations.
Xie Li was silent and didn’t interrupt Curo’s train of thought. As Curo sat there, a million different scenarios flying through his mind, something suddenly clicked into place as his eyes opened wide and his face turned grim. He looked towards Xie Li and barked, “Immediately, summon Ji Long and Jing Fang and Qing Zhao here!”
Hearing the words, Xie Li was stunned but quickly recovered as she exited the room and flew towards the Ji Manor.