He put the natural treasure away in his storage device, and turned to face the Overlord. The man seemed furious, but he knew that he was beaten. To be honest, he had always been more of an adversary than an enemy, and Sam obviously had no wish to kill him. However, he was not an idiot.

“How can I trust that you mean what you say?” He asked.

“My Dao would shatter if I ever had to resort to treachery to win against my opponent. I would never stoop so low. Besides, you know my stance on planet Earth. I wish to protect it more than anything else. Now that you have claimed the Seals, you are worthy as well.”

Sam sent out a pulse of his own Dao, and verified the Overlord’s claims. His Dao did seem to be on the verge of collapse, but as time went on, it stabilized. As far as he could tell, the man was telling the truth.

“Are you sure about this, Sam?” Lao asked.

“I am. With my Dao Seed, I can tell when he is about to betray me by the vibrations in his Dao.”

Sam couldn’t actually do that, but what he could do was close enough. It was better for him to make the Overlord think that he had more information on hand than he actually did.

As the man got to his feet, he unconsciously clenched his fists, as if seeking a weapon that was suddenly missing. Of course, Sam now held that weapon in his hand.

“I do not expect to be welcomed into your faction. But I will stand beside it as an ally. I must make it clear now, I will not be beholden to you, or your allies. Our priorities align for now, which is all that matters.”

“Fair enough. I’m not sure if many in my faction would even accept you,” Sam replied. The Overlord simply shrugged.

Sam pulled out his portable ship, and expanded it to its full size. He would let his faction’s harvesting teams come later to strip the corpse of its parts. They had done so for all of the other Titans thus far. The faction was now sitting on tens of billions of credits, and although Sam hadn’t seen the city in weeks, he was sure that it had expanded greatly. With the Titans defeated, a new age was dawning for Earth. All that was left was to clear out the last of the invaders, and prevent more from coming. Then the safety of the planet would be guaranteed, and they could focus on expansion.

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Some time later, the ship was gliding through the clouds, and Sam finally found the time to ask Jeffrey the question that he had been waiting for.

“So, what exactly do I need to do to ascend to E Rank? I’m on the cusp, but from what I’ve heard, it’s a lot more complicated than F Rank was.”

“Yes. Ascending a Tier, and the later Ranks, are where cultivators begin to run into bottlenecks. To reach E Rank, you need at least a Dao Seed, as well as a concrete path of progression. You have to prove to yourself, and the world, that you are resolute in your purpose. How you do that is up to you. After that, you must integrate your body, mind and soul into one.”

“Gordanus said something about the nodes preparing the body for ascension. What exactly does that mean?”

“At E Rank, you leave behind your flesh and blood body, and become a creature of pure mana infused flesh. The level of fusion that you achieve determines how much power you gain from it. Your organs no longer exist, and you no longer require sustenance of any kind. You can even survive in the vacuum of space. However, you are not immortal, no matter what some peons might profess. True immortality comes far later.”

“I assume that it might take me a bit longer than F Rank did,” Sam replied.

“Yes. Many never make it past the trial. Surprisingly few people have a perfect understanding of themselves and their path. Most people take years to break through. However, in your case, perhaps a few months might be more reasonable.”

Sam was a bit annoyed at this, as he had better things to do with his time than simply consolidating his power. However, he knew for certain that everyone else would take just as long, if not longer. He was still far ahead of the curve. There was a reason that the position of planetary governance had a decade long timer.

“Well, I might as well get started then.”

Sam began to meditate upon his Dao, and how exactly it fit into his path. Although he had the capability to hold all Daos, he still defined himself by the way he used them. There was a reason that his first Daos were the ones that they were. He wasn’t as limited by their mental effects as before, but they still resonated with him. Justice and Anger were a potent combination of concepts, and they could lead to a lot of things down the line. If not for his Dao heritage, he likely would have ended up as some sort of paladin or inquisitor later on in his life.

The thing was, he already had a pretty good idea of what his path was, given his Dao Heritage. Actually putting that into a coherent line of thought was another story though. He knew that there could be no half measures with a process that would define the rest of his life.