Chapter 21: The Great Harvest
As the pressure from the faction heads of Eastern Continent increase General Yohmu did the unthinkable and betrayed their own allies the Lavant Kingdom. It has been almost 3 months since their momentum in this war halted to a standstill and with little progress on the blood harvest for the blood ritual he was finally pressured to do an alternative solution to solve the current problem.
General Yohmu knew full well that his reputation would go down the drain even if this war is to become a resounding victory which is currently going sideways at the moment, but he still went on with this insidious plan to teach each and everyone of the Lavant citizens cultivation young and old.
Cultivator’s blood would be more rich in essence. even if they did not reach foundation establishment in 50 years there is still a lot of potential to reach the 9th layer of QI refining for all several hundred million citizens of Lavant Kingdom.
The reason General Yohmu was confident in this plan was because they were already planning to betray the Kingdom of Lavant from the very beginning after 100 years, they thought that this invasion would be easy enough as the mortal Kingdoms are not united and not prepared. But now contrary to their former beliefs they could not be any more mistaken by the current situation.
Teaching cultivation to several hundred million people would normally be a taboo and the whole Eastern Continent would have been against it, after all mana despite being ever present in the world have been theorized to be limited in supply and could only go around for so long.
But the Dragon Veins crisis overshadowed that taboo and has been unanimously approved by the Eastern Continent alliance. This 50 years would be quite a grueling task of rearing mortals for the blood harvest that would be required for the blood sacrifice that is needed to fix the Dragon Veins.
The the Eastern Cultivators plotted against the Lavant Kingdom, the citizens on the other hand were accepting their teachings with excitement and welcomed them in open arms not knowing the ramifications of their actions.
“On the first year already half of the Lavant Kingdom Population already have reached 2nd layer of QI refining stage. Although it is considered pathetically slow having over a hundred million civilians become cultivators is already quite an accomplishment, but the the surrounding energies already lessened by a huge margin after we are done with the blood sacrifice this place will likely become a barren wasteland devoid of any kind of magical energies”
After seeing the progress of their strength the people rejoiced and celebrated at their new found powers.
“a-are we going to be like Immortals too” said one of the children
“i want to be able to fly!!”
“hah! Soon I would be able to hunt in the mountains with my bare hands alone!”
“look look my old bones are suddenly strong!” one old man shouted as he threw his walking cane away
Everybody was so happy that not even a single one of them suspected the insidious plot of the Eastern Cultivators. While on the sideline General Yohmu and the rest of the Eastern Cultivators could only watch at the atrocious act though they knew they would benefit in the end some of them are still feeling guilty of what is to eventually happen to these poor ignorant people.
After 5 years of cultivation the around 500,000 common citizens of finally managed to become 5th to 7th layer of QI refining stage most of them children which is quite surprising considering they were not descended from any cultivation families.
Some cultivators at this point in time started adapting to the situation by secretly adopting the orphaned children who managed to reach 5th layer of QI refining, even back at the Eastern Continent these type of people could be already considered as young talents.
General Yohmu and the upper echelons of the invasion allowed this to happen to ease the frustration of the Faction Heads back at the Eastern Continent. Even if several tens of thousands become adopted children to the sects there are still several hundred million people in the Lavant Kingdom thinking that this cultivation teachings that they have been receiving in the recent years are a blessing and a new dawn of prosperity for their Kingdom.
There are still 45 years to go before the deadline for the blood sacrifice but General Yohmu and the rest of the sect representatives worked day and night to impart cultivation to the common citizens.
On the other hand King Draken Lavant IV and General Draconis Rex of Lavant Kingdom are also ignorant of the dangerous situation they have. A grand majority of the Kingdom are in festive mood in just 5 years they managed to increase their national strength, although some Magic Knights and Wizards were skeptical it was waved out as nothing more than indignation as they see the people around them gaining strength faster that they could have during that age.
Except for the old Duke Arman of Lavant he has always been suspicious of these so called Eastern Immortals but due not only to his age but his limited influence in the recent years he dare not bring this topic outside of his trusted people.
On the first year the cultivation method did indeed increase their strength both at physical and magical which blew their minds of. After making sure that the cultivation methods did not have any traps or intentional flaws Duke Arman and his forces also started cultivating the method.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
But for some reason his instincts are screaming at him to get out of the Kingdom and based on his decades of experience as a former General and in politics in the Kings court he understood that something is very very wrong he did not know what it was but his instincts have never failed him before from ambushes.
In secret Duke Arman slowly but surely moved all of his wealth outside the Kingdom of Lavant to a deep underground secret location. the former City State of Kaladia had a huge amount of mineral deposit underground in which he volunteered to oversee the mining operations, most of the officials at the moment are either busy cultivating or found it not worth their time to mine these minerals now that the rest of Continental Isle are not too keen in doing business with them.
But Duke Arman still found some use in mining these minerals though not betrayal in a sense since he is not delivering the Lavant Kingdom to the enemies he is also not willing to go down with a Kingdom who lost all of its senses.
The Eastern Immortals have been known to be extremely arrogant to the mortals and yet suspiciously they are now spending a lot of effort teaching cultivation to even the commoners. something that have been a taboo for them, since time immemorial they have been always secretive about their cultivation methods and yet suddenly they have no qualms in teaching everyone.
There are less than 5,000 people considered to be loyal to Duke Arman and these people are those who he can trust with his life. They have been working hard day and night with the mining operations and getting supplies for their secret underground hideout this little bit of accumulated wealth would be used to rebuild the Kingdom of Lavant should what he fears the most comes true.
One of Duke Arman’s subordinates asked “is this really alright?if we are mistaken and if we are to be found out…. I’m afraid”
But Duke Arman replied “we are only doing this as a precaution if nothing really happened then that would be it nothing more nothing less. HOWEVER! Should the Eastern Immortals do something fishy at the very least we would be prepared by then, I would rather be prepared and nothing happening rather than something happening and we are caught unprepared do you understand me?”
“y-yes Duke”
“The only good news in these past 5 years is that because of the cultivation techniques being passed around is that food consumption has dramatically decreased because of the cultivation now most people only eat for the taste of it and have been too focused on cultivation, and the King is only all too happy that his citizens are getting more powerful as the day goes by”
Untamed Forested Mountains
Monster corpses, magical plants, enchanted trees and mineral veins in these past five years Sera Hawke had the time of her life living in relatively blissful peace and comfort with the only problem being the monster tide every 6 months. But that did not become a detriment but rather an excitement of sorts since she cant teleport her supplies and forces back at the Flying Fortress at anytime the monster tides only became practice for her micro managing skills and entertainment. this place is lonely after all with no new faces.
Sera Hawke earned quite a considerable amount of fortune in this part of the Untamed Forested Mountains despite being only near the outskirts, she never ventured any deeper due to the fear of attracting unnecessary troubles.
The Stone City changed over the years and became more reminiscent of modern day buildings and sky scrapers back on Earth. Although she is currently happy at her current condition in health and in status in life in general she still missed Earth especially the technology and internet.
Every time Sera remembers Earth she just shake her head with a sigh as it had bitter sweet memories.
In 5 years she managed to create one million Golems although the spell models used are just for Stone Golems it was already quite enough to deal with the occasional beast tide. On the other hand she has been quite frustrated at the bottleneck she has been experiencing in the past 5 years since she is still at the 9th layer of QI refining.
“what could possibly be wrong? Even if it is modified cultivation techniques I used my own body parameters in the computer to run theoretical tests and there have been no problems detected even now. Could it be that I lack advanced manual?”
“no! That should not be the case since it was consistent among the other sects manuals I only need one to enter foundation establishment stage”
Sera created a modified cultivation method based on the various cultivation techniques of different sects taken from her fallen enemies. The computer with her body parameters theoretically ran simulations upon simulations on her digital body to ensure that no flaws would be created and theoretically there should be none.
And it only became more frustrating when some of her employees started breaking through the foundation establishment stage like her maids that cultivated the Shadow Sect techniques they can now become shadows at will and even use them in combat, or Bellato who used the Bidy Forging Sect techniques his body could now be considered as a weapon and can fight against Magic Knight on equal ground.
These techniques ran through the same simulations with their respective cultivators body parameters and no problem also came about.
And then at that moment Sera had some sort of enlightenment and said “I have not been using cultivators medicine this entire time!!!” as she slapped down at the table
She immediately perused the books and cultivation manuals taken from the dead invaders as she eagerly await on what type of medicine to take so that she could finally make this damnable breakthrough.
After several hours of intense reading she finally found out that only geniuses could truly make the breakthrough on their own without outside assistance. but she already knew she was no genius when it comes to cultivation being able to wield the cultivators power is already enough for her.
She took Gemini Doc towards the laboratory and stated gathering the materials harvested from the forest mountains along with other more exotic material like monster blood essence, ground bones and other types of medicinal paste.
The process to create a so called foundation pill is surprisingly complicated not only the steps but also the preparation methods before even starting the refining. Sera used the computer to run simulations with Gemini Doc to avoid wasting materials. Even there are plentiful here it was still wise not to be so wasteful.
It took 3 hours to finish the simulation alone and the simulation log was staggering as it contained a lot of the simulated mistakes such as a single degree of heat could mess up the entire refinement process.
Thankfully the laboratory itself is a complete clean room with a regulated environment. Gemini Doc started the refinement process to create the foundation pill according to the manual, although excited Sera knew that her presence might only add to the variables that could make the refinement process go wrong or something.
Unlike the simulations the whole refinement process took 12 whole hours to complete, the materials that she used was enough for one person to refine the foundation pill should they succeed but to her surprise inside Gemini Doc was 5 bright golden pills.
Sera was suspicious if she made the wrong pill and consulted the manual again to see what had happened and it turns out that the 5 golden pills were indeed foundation pills but from the highest quality of foundation pills its bright gold lustre made it look like a decorative marble rather than a medicine.
She was so tempted to swallow the pill right then and there to make a breakthrough but decided against it as she alerted Lydia to not disturb her while she is isolated inside the laboratory.
Sera locked the doors securely behind her with the Sentinels guarding outside of it. And now finally she put the pill inside her mouth and swallowed it.
“doesn’t taste that much”
And before Sera noticed she was thrown in a stupor of hallucination and become lightheaded but strangely her body did not sway even by a single bit as she slowly made her breakthrough.
Several hours later of painful breakthrough Sera released a painful gasp as she woke back to reality with her bones cracking with every movement.
“i can feel my body becoming extremely stronger that before along with magic manipulation”
Sera’s cultivation method was Derived from Magic Knights, Wizards, Body CUltivators, and other several branches of cultivation techniques that project magic in certain ways that even Grand Wizards could not do.
Before rushing out to test her body she had to remember to make a log or record everything to make sure that there would be no problems down the line, she laid down and had her entire body fully scanned from top to bottom.
After another set of hours of full body scan she shouted in liberation “AAAHHHH!!! Freedom!!! whooooooH!!!”
She took a quick shower and then went out the garden at the borders of her flying fortress to look down at the entire valley.
She took a deep breath of fresh air “ahhh! I can feel the power rushing through my veins”
She performed a basic fire ball and the result was …. explosive
The fireball created a huge crater as if a mortar round just exploded. The successful escape from Kaladia City and now the proceeds from the Untamed Forested Mountains yielded great harvests this time around for Sera Hawke.