As Curo sat there cross legged, the image behind him mimicked his actions. With slow and steady breaths, Curo kept sitting there, carefully taking in the Qi all around. Like that, another week slowly trickled by and the bigger commotion of the young boy had died down. One day, Curo slowly opened his eyes as he let out a deep breath.

He then looked thoughtful as he mumbled to himself, “Seems like skipping the Qi Gathering Stage has not brought me any problems. Currently, I have excavated 13 Qi Springs with Fully Saturated Qi Crystals.” As he mumbled that, his thoughts drifted back to when he first started cultivating the Art. He entirely skipped the thirteen stages of Qi Gathering due to his body already being at the level of a Nascent Soul Expert.

He just sat down and when he started refining Qi, he had reached the thirteenth stage with only three days. Not to mention anyone else, even he was dumbstruck by this. With nothing else to do, he looked at his body inside out several dozen times to see whether this rushing had left behind some hidden problems or something but much to his surprise, there was nothing.

With that, he started condensing his Qi Crystals and fully saturating them with Qi to excavate the Qi Springs. Most people excavated a Qi Spring as soon as they managed to condense a Qi Crystal, however this approach was wrong in Curo’s eyes.

By fully saturating the Qi Crystals, the size of the Qi Spring would grow multiple times. Also, the persons Qi would be several times more pure than those that don’t do that. Although his progress in cultivation wouldn’t be as fast as some other people due to it but overall, he could kill several of those “higher levelled experts” easily.

Different Arts had different conditions to condense Qi Crystals. Generally, the higher levelled the Art, the more Qi it needed to condense a Qi Crystal but at the same time it would also be able to store more Qi inside.

The Art Curo was cultivating could be considered a Top Grade technique. Due to that, he needed ten times more Qi to condense a Qi Crystal. By also fully saturating a Qi Crystal, the purity and amount of Qi he had already vastly surpassed other Early Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

He reckoned that in a straight up one on one fight, he could possibly fight on par with Middle Foundation Establishment Cultivators. This was the result of doing things thoroughly. Very few people saturated their crystals because it would take ten times more Qi to saturate it than it did to condense it.

Unless you have a Top Grade Cultivation Area, unlimited supply of Heavenly Pills, a Top Grade technique then most people find it not worth it. They can condense ten Qi Crystals with the amount of Qi it took to saturate one. However, Curo didn’t think like them.

Even if he didn’t have this Cultivation Area, he would still follow the same plan. The reason was simple, Foundation Establishment was the most important period during Cultivation. It wasn’t wrong to say that how thorough and meticulous you were during Foundation Establishment directly affected how far you can traverse on the path of Cultivation.

After his First Rebirth, Curo had meticulously started planning and preparing for this. He had collected countless Ancient Pills, Pill Recipes, Heavenly Materials solely for these nine Foundation Establishments. With each Rebirth, he would need more and more resources but the gains would also rise according to it.

After a few more thoughts, Curo decided to stroll around the Sect a bit. The mission he had seen before was still on his mind so he decided to ask around a bit for information on it. He had a nagging feeling that this situation was far too familiar to him and soon he realized why. After asking a few questions from the Disciple in charge of distributing missions, his face turned sour.

The young disciple was frightened when he saw Curo make that face that he didn’t even dare to move a muscle. From his eyes, he could see boundless rage and hatred. Although he was on only in Qi Gathering Stages, he knew, if he said anything wrong, then he could easily end up dead. Without saying anything, Curo turned around and headed towards the Main Hall.

When he arrived he was stopped by two Mid Foundation Establishment Disciples. One of them coldly said, “What business do you have in the Main Hall?” Curo stopped and said, “I need to speak with the Sect Leader.” The young man then snorted, “Do you think that you can just waltz in when you please? I don’t care that you are form the Main Sect, when you are here, you follow our rules a-”

He didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence before he was smacked off the mountain peak. The other Disciple looked at Curo with an open mouth as he had a hard time registering what just happened. Curo then turned his head towards the other Disciple and coldly asked, “Do you plan on opening the path or do you want to end up like him?” The Disciple gulped hard as he looked into Curo’s eyes.

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In front of him stood a boy that looked about ten and radiated the aura of an Early Foundation Establishment Cultivator but he had smacked a Mid Foundation Establishment Cultivator off the mountain before either of them could even react. The young man felt his back become drenched in sweat as he was at a loss of what to do.

Just as he grit his teeth to stand his ground, Shi Fang’s voice came from behind him, “What happened here?” He had felt the Qi fluctuations form inside and was startled. He had immediately come out and heard Curo’s question. It didn’t take a genius to piece together what had happened with Curo looking like he was about to go on a killing spree and one of the gate keepers missing.

Curo turned his gaze towards Shi Fang and when he looked at him in the eyes, Shi fang felt a shiver run down his spine. He had never seen eyes so cold. Suddenly he shook his head lightly as he looked at Curo again and thought to himself, “Was I just intimidated by his eyes?” As the thought passed his head, he felt a cold sweat run down his spine. He was a Peak Core Formation Cultivator that had been through countless slaughters and massacres. To be intimidated by a Foundation Establishment Cultivators gaze was something he never believed would happen.

Curo opened his mouth and said, “Unless you want your Branch to be exterminated, you need to follow my instructions.” Shi Fang was startled but immediately his eyes turned sharp as he straightened his back and asked intimidatingly, “Hoo, by yourself?” Curo then shook his head and said with a deadpan expression, “Not by me but by the Aboriginals and the Seven Devils Sect.” Shi Fang’s face turned from intimidating to extremely cold as rage simmered inside him.

He then asked furiously, “What is that supposed to mean?!” The disciple in charge of guarding the gate was so startled that he fell on his butt but Curo kept looking at Shi Fang dead in the eyes as he explained, “The Laying Dragon Valley’s fortress. What happens when they decide to over run it? With only Qi Gathering Disciples there, someone that is on par with a Core Formation cultivator would need to only snap his fingers and all of them would die.”

Shi Fang made an ugly face as he said, “Do you think I don’t know that? However what else can we do? Every Foundation Establishment or up Cultivator we send there ends up getting killed within a month. We have already lost over 300 Hundred Foundation Establishment Cultivators, 80 Core Formation Cultivators and 3 Nascent Soul Experts to that Fortress.” He then took a deep breath and said loudly, “I can’t just send my Sect Disciples and Elders to their deaths!”

Curo didn’t even flinch as he said, “Do you think I would come to your audience if I didn’t have a plan to combat that?” Shi Fang was startled and immediately calmed down. Earlier he had been enraged so he hadn’t exactly thought through what Curo had said but now when he thought back he found the key information they didn’t know: The Seven Devils Sect.

His eyes narrowed as he asked, “What do you mean?” Curo then asked, “Can we talk inside, the walls have ears here.” Shi Fang nodded his head and led the way inside. After a couple of minutes of walking in deathly silence, Curo arrived in a luxurious hall. It was adorned with Jade carvings of dragons, Qilins and other Ancient Beasts. When they reached the Hall, Shi Fang turned around and the door behind them closed with a loud “Bang!”.

He then asked, “Tell me what you discovered and what you know.” Curo then started explaining, “For some reason, the mission you talked about was still on my mind so I asked around a bit. When I heard that they all had their Foundations, Cores and Nascent Souls stolen, reverting them back to ordinary mortals, I realized why I had a familiar feeling about that place.”

He took a breath and said, “It is the work of the Seven Devils Sect. By stealing someone else’s Foundation Core or Nascent Soul they can raise their own Disciples to become Foundation Establishment, Core Formation or Nascent Soul Cultivators in a short period of time with a secret technique.” Shi Fang’s eyes turned round in astonishment as he had never heard of this kind of miraculous technique.

As he opened his mouth to say something Curo coldly added, “However, they cultivation won’t be stable. Those Disciples would only be able to live for a few years at most, over drafting their vitality. When they die, they will die a slow excruciating death.” Shi Fang closed his mouth as he looked at the cold demeanour of Curo. “If they decide to invade through the Laying Dragon Valley with full force, they would need at best three days to surround the Sect and tear down our defences.”

Shi fang’s face turned ugly as he asked, “I understand the situation and that it isn’t good. If we leave Laying Dragon Fortress undefended like that, we will not be able to respond if something happens. However, let’s hear your plan now.” Curo smiled coldly as he said, “Let me go and set down a defensive formation that would keep even a Nascent Soul Expert out.”

Shi Fangs eyes turned wide as he asked, “What miraculous formation is that?” Curo answered honestly, “The Formations name is: The Divine Protection of the Seven Dragons. If the Sect is willing to compensate the resources needed for the Formation I can also set down a symbiotic attack Formation: The Divine Wrath of the Seven Dragons.” Shi Fang fell into thought as he had never heard of the Formation before.

He felt extremely suspicious about all of this and seeing this Curo smiled as he said, “If you don’t believe me then you can have one of those prying ears go and try to break into my cultivation cave. Unless they decide to burn their Life Flame, they will have no way of ever breaking inside.” After saying that, his mouth turned into a wide grin as Shi Fang’s eyes turned round from astonishment again.

He knew that the Nascent Soul Elders of the Sect were listening to their talk but for Curo to know this…. “It was just pure luck, nothing more than a guess.” As he thought that to himself, something that turned his world upside down happened. Curo turned towards a corner and said with a smile, “Would this fair lady with the black and gold robes go and try to enter the cave?” Shi Fang turned his head towards the corner and he saw a middle aged lady with fair skin, long jet black hair walk out form that very same spot.

Her eyes were narrowed as she asked, “How did you discover me?”