Master Immortal Buttons broke through the core formation stage when he was four years old and reached the nascent soul stage three months ago when he was 14 years old. Even among the Icefall Sect members, who have access to much better cultivation resources, this speed was unusual.
Generally speaking, cultivation up to the nascent soul stage is not really difficult; as long as one gathers enough energy, one can form a core, and as long as one forms a perfect core, one has a nearly guaranteed chance of breaking through to the nascent soul.
Of course, for loose immortals and those with few resources, forming a perfect core is difficult, but for big sects such as the Icefall Sect, it is really easy. Virtually every disciple of the Icefall Sect would eventually reach the nascent soul stage; in the first place, the sect would not accept a disciple with insufficient talent to even reach the nascent soul.
That said, even the Icefall Sect has lower-level servants; they accept less talented outer disciples, handyman disciples, or contracted disciples who may die before reaching the nascent soul stage, but they are not really disciples of the sect in a true sense.
Reaching the nascent soul stage would take at least 50 years, even with the resources available to a sect disciple, unless one uses very precious pills bought with personal wealth, which only the richest could do.
In this continent, the Nacant Soul stage is a respectable cultivation base that goes a long way in rural areas and smaller cities, but in big cities, only soul substance realm cultivators can even be noticed.
...
Master Immortal Buttons looked at the system interface before his eyes.
"Sect Master System"
"Current position: Leader of the branch sect in Red Roof City"
"Mission: Protect the city for 2 years. Reward: 40 years of cultivation practice"
"Side mission: Follow the suspicious core formation cultivator and discover her origins. Reward: 5 years of cultivation practice."
"Available cultivation reserves: 187 years"
He was a normal guy from a certain blue planet who was struck by an asteroid and died. When he opened his eyes, being unable to move seeing giants walking around him, he thought he was dead and was sent to hell. But after observing around for a few days, he realized that he had actually transmigrated to a magical world as a newborn.
As a transmigrator, he expected to have a system; after all, nearly all transmigrators get a powerful golden finger that helps them reach the top; fortunately, he also got one.
His system was activated when he was 3 years old; the system issued long-term tasks and short-term missions. As long as he completed them, he could gain years of cultivation.
His mother was an immortal from a branch of the Owens family, and his father was a soul substance realm cultivator in the western side of the North Apple Continent; with two cultivators as parents, his talent was not bad to begin with. But still, it was not to the point of being able to cultivate the realm above the nascent soul at 14 years old. That's why even though he had over 100 years of cultivation in reserves, he didn’t use them, and instead intentionally remained in the nascent soul stage. After all, if he suddenly reached the divine soul realm before the age of 15, that would be too outrageous and may raise suspicion among the sect's higher-ups.
With his father being the leader of the regional headquarters of the western branch of Icefall Sect, his future was guaranteed; there was no need to take risks; just accept tasks and wait for the right time and opportunity.
The system's latest long-term task was to protect Red Roof City. To do so, he decided to become the branch leader. With his father as the leader of the branch headquarters, it was very easy for him to take this position; he convinced his father with the excuse of earning experience.
When the suspicious female cultivator first arrived, he quickly disguised himself as a simple mortal boy to gather information. The reason for his suspicion was simple; the female cultivator didn’t have the aura of the breakthrough token.
Breakthrough tokens are an invention of the Brown Dynasty; they were developed as a way of controlling the cultivator population. When breaking through a big realm, one must use a breakthrough token; if they don’t, their breakthrough will fail without a doubt. Also, the aura that breakthrough tokens produce is very unique; there are many devices to detect it; it can be used both as a way to prevent infiltration of outside spies and to prevent just undesired people from breaking through and causing trouble.
The Brown Dynasty, as the controller of this whole continent, with 5 soul transformation realm cultivators, has already set up a big defensive formation that covers the entire continent; setting up a token is easy compared to that.
The tokens were invented by the Brown Dynasty, but their control was not entirely in their hands. The four sects can also issue tokens; the number of tokens each year is discussed and agreed upon by the Browns and the sects. In addition, the Browns gave the exclusive right to sell the tokens in the West to the Icefall Sect; all cultivators in the West must buy them from the Icefall Sect if they want to break through to their next realm.
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Originally, the breakthrough tokens were precious and not for sale, but over the years, they started making a business out of it; nowadays, all breakthrough tokens below the soul substance realm can be bought and sold in the markets.
Low-level breakthrough tokens, such as nascent soul and core formation, can be found in mortal markets. These tokens cost only a few energy stones, and even many magical beasts with intelligence would take tokens when breaking through.
Magical beasts can break through even without tokens, but if they choose to do so without them, they will end up like the captured sea dragon; magical beasts who use tokens will be respected as much as cultivators of the same realm.
So, how can someone suddenly reach core formation yet not even know what a token is? There is only one explanation, which is they are from the outside. But how can someone from outside come in? The defensive formation prevents anyone from the outside from entering. For this reason, his suspicions increased as he spoke with the female cultivator; it was only after he followed her in the air that the system issued the side mission, which sweetened the deal for him.
In addition to the system's reward. If there is a defect in the continental defensive formation, and he reports it, he can get a lot of rewards from the Brown Dynasty. With this thought, he followed the suspicious female cultivator.
...
Faith felt strange as if someone was looking at her back.
"Too dangerous!" She thought of what she observed so far and started flying faster, trying to escape from whatever was following her.
...
Master Immortal Buttons was surprised; the core formation cultivator was actually able to detect him. He didn’t expect a mere core formation cultivator to be able to feel his existence.
To hide better, he took out a magical mask. It was red and had two small holes for the eyes and a big hole for the nose. As soon as he put it on, his aura completely disappeared.
...
Faith finally relaxed; she felt the aura was finally gone.
At this moment, however, she didn’t intend to turn back and go to another city; she always trusted her feelings, and her feelings were screaming at her that there would be severe consequences if she went to another city.
So, she turned back, flying in the direction of the Heaven's Way headquarters.
She must report what she saw to her master and warn him of the dangers lurking in the land.
On her way back, she captured a few beasts, also to display them for her master, which would probably make him happy.
Redy, the horse she found many years ago, has already reached the core formation stage. He is already 4 meters high and consumes an unimaginable quantity of food. It’s a pity they don't have any magic beast female horses; all attempts to impregnate ordinary female horses with Redy failed.
Now that magical beasts are everywhere, Faith looks forward to finding a mate for Redy, but that is for later; at the moment, she must report to her master.
...
Master Buttons sighed as he looked forward with sullen eyes; he thought, "Core formation cultivators are so slow."
He had been following the suspicious female cultivator for close to a month. He decided that he would just capture her and force her to speak if it went on for longer.
One reason that so far, he only followed her instead of capturing and forcing her to talk was that there are many ways to commit suicide, and even he, a nascent soul, couldn’t 100% prevent a core formation peak from doing it. If he suddenly trapped her and wanted to force her, she might self-explode.
Aside from that reason, he is still not ruthless enough; after all, he was still an ordinary guy on the blue planet 14 years ago, so he is still not evil enough to start torturing beautiful girls; if she was an ugly man, he might have considered it. But she’s a beautiful girl; how can he torture her or cause her explosion? It would be a waste.
He is really unwilling to capture her. He still considers himself a gentleman, so hurting women doesn't sit well with him. After all, protagonists usually save beautiful girls and then add them to their harem. Killing a beautiful girl is in direct conflict with what he read in novels in his previous life; that would place him closer to villains, not main characters.
"Why should it be a beautiful girl?" He complained in his heart.
Actually, Faith wasn't originally beautiful, but after practicing immortality for many years, she is now considered beautiful; the energy would turn one's body to look very fit, once skin flawless, and one's frame attractive; among immortals, it's virtually unseen for one to be considered anything but beautiful by the overwhelming majority of the observers.
He has been out of the city for a month now, and even though it's very unlikely that anything will happen to it, he is still risking mission failure. Fortunately, once the mission starts, two years pass regardless of whether he is personally in the city or not; as long as 'he' protects the city, the mission will succeed.
'He' includes forces under him. He is the leader of the Branch sect in a red-roof city, so even though he is not personally there, his force, the branch sect, is still there and protecting the city.
...
Jack looked at Mike and asked, "Is the formation ready?"
Mike, who was recalled back to the headquarters weeks ago, said, "Yes master, we built it exactly according to your instructions!"
"Good!" Jack smiled; if everything went well, this time, he would make a big profit.
A while ago, he threw the hook; if everything goes right, he might fish a priceless treasure.
This time, he took a big risk; after all, if he used outside knowledge to his advantage, the Dao collection would be severely damaged.
Creating a cultivation technique directly using outside knowledge is very obviously using outside knowledge for an advantage. But sending Faith to go out and act as a hook to catch a fish is a gray area; after all, the fish came willingly, so what does it have to do with him?
If everything goes right, he can catch a massive fish without harming the Dao collection; this fish would make his path to world domination much easier and quicker.