Enveloped by a white cocoon, one could hear a faint crackling sound within Jason, as his mana core broke through into the next level, finally reaching the 6th Adept rank.

Slowly dissipating, the white cocoon revealed Jason, whose hair fluttered lightly, as he opened his golden eyes that gleamed vibrantly.

One month passed and there were only a few days left before the new year, but this didn't bother him much because it was nothing special for him as he inspected his strength.

Not only did he decided to actively cultivate for one to two hours daily, but he also broke into the 5th and now finally even the 6th Adept rank, which was mainly thanks to his cleansed mana core, mana veins ambition, and aptitude towards mana.

However, this couldn't make him excited anymore, because he was still an infant in the eyes of foreign races, thanks to him being at the Mid-Mortal stage, which they most likely called his current rank.

This was frustrating, but also motivating because he wanted to increase his strength faster than ever before, which caused him to sleep even less than before.

During the last month, Jason refined his body every day for several hours in the morning, which caused his physique to reach an unthinkable degree, shocking him greatly.

To think that he might ever be able to fight peak awakened beasts head-on without using a tiny bit of mana was already shocking enough and Jason was sure that he could already fight evolved ranked beasts by using mana, without the need to rely on his affinities.

He couldn't even imagine how strong he might already be, considering that each of his soulbonds became much stronger, with the black origin flame overrunning the others.

Because he practiced the Heaven's Hell technique three times a day, Jason's soul energy increased by several times, reaching the shocking number of 1900 units, while Artemis required 250, which was the lowest among his three soulbonds. 

Scorpio however, required only 350 soul energy units, and the Black origin flame was allowed to annex a total of 499 soul energy units.

In the end, Jason couldn't allow his origin flame to annex more, because he was quite sure that his black fire affinity would reach the unblemished rank, which might create suspicion amongst the higher-ups in the Big-Three tournament.

He still had to remain rather low profile, and even if the tournament started, Jason was unsure if he could show every single trump card he had, without creating trouble for himself, which wouldn't be possible in his opinion.

However, in the end, Jason decided to think about this later on, once he figured out if Old Drake had a plan to forcefully drag him away from Shane and Dalia, and if he had a plan, what exactly it was.

After refining his body in the morning, Jason continued to read books about Alchemy, the concoction process, Beast creation, Dalia's diary, and much more until he felt that it was enough for the day.

This was extremely important because Jason noticed after the first day practicing Alchemy seriously, by experimenting with all kinds of different more or less difficult potions, that it was not as easy as it initially seemed.

Meanwhile, his unique eyes were extremely helpful, while the same could be said for his superior mana mastery and memory for every single step he had to take care of.

However, in the end, it was not something Jason could learn in a few days, which brought him back to the ground because his confidence and pride seemed to soar way too high, as he thought that he had to be better than everybody due to the possibility of him being a Celestia-halfling.

As such Jason began to subconsciously compare himself to foreign races, which pressured him a lot, and he was unable to prevent it anymore.

On one side it was extremely beneficial for his cultivation and even body refining process, while it hindered his concoction process, where he required as much focus as possible.

Jason already lost count in how often he failed to concoct potions, because he wanted to produce perfect purified potions, without impurities left behind, which increased the difficulty by a large margin.

In the end, he could only strive forward, trying to learn out of his mistakes in order to prevent repeating the same mistakes one after another, which was his final goal.

After slightly less than one month, Jason was finally able to create his first perfect peak grade-1 potion, even if it was only a fluke.

Thinking that concocting the Lesser Minotaur bloodline unsealing evolution solution was easier, Jason couldn't help but sigh in relief.

'Give me one...maybe two weeks and I'm confident in concocting the evolution solution!!' Jason thought, not without being proud about his current achievements.

He was unsure how many explosions he caused or how often the Fler's rushed towards him because they thought something might have happened to him, causing Jason to feel slightly embarrassed, as he thought about it.

However, rather than thinking about his failed products, Jason decided to focus on his achievements over the last month.

His physique improved greatly, while he was even able to do something Rank-1 Alchemists can barely do after several years.

Even though he was lucky, his mana eyes, high mana sensitivity control, and even more the black origin flame he owned were the major reasons for his great achievement.

But more than that, his soul energy shocked Jason the most, because he would have never thought that he might reach such a high soul energy merely seven months, after his soul-awakening.

With 900 vacant soul energy units, he wondered what he could do with it because it was already enough to contract a peak-unblemished beast.

However, contracting a new soulbond now would be counterproductive, because it would amplify his physique and mana core size by a large margin, creating too much suspicion about his soul-awakening star rating, which was barely at two stars and as such below average.

Rather than focusing on contracting another soulbond, Jason was rather curious about something completely different, which he wanted to do sooner rather than later!

'I need my second sub-area!' Jason thought, because the idea of creating an endless cycle in order to increase his soul energy, was something he long since thought about.

Even more so, because the needed time to practice the Heaven's hell technique increased the more soul energy units he had.

One could say that Jason's complaint was luxury, which was the case, but he didn't have enough time to do everything he wanted to and was even forced to neglect his martial art skills and both ice and poison affinity practice in order to reach such high soul energy, without hindering his alchemy and body refining.

It was a luxurious hassle, but still, something he could take care of, if he were to create his second sub-area with the help of the splitting mind technique he also continued to read.

In the end, Jason couldn't continue with his negligence towards his martial art techniques, even if he were to practice the Heaven's hell technique fewer as he felt uncomfortable by continuing with his current path.

'If I can't take everything at once I'll just take one step after another!!' Even if he were to practice the Heaven's Hell technique only one or two times a day, while exchanging the other practices with him honing his martial art skills and affinity proficiency practice, it would benefit him extremely.

Determined about his decision, Jason felt that he should sell a few potions, in order to increase his funds once again, because he only had 280 star-notes left from his initial 330, after deducting the funds he loaned Greg. 

This meant, he paid 50 star notes in the month he started to refine his body, which was way too high, considering that he would have to continue refining his body, even if the extent would be significantly lower than the month before, where he established his first tiny foundation.

After establishing a marginal foundation, he could slowly continue to refine his body, without the fear of a possible deteriorating process, which was a possible outcome, if one were to disregard a small starting foundation in the Initial phase, that would still take a long time to complete.

Pondering for some time, Jason was unsure if he should walk straight into the Artisan tower in order to sell the potions, by telling that his master made them and that it was his task to sell them, as it was unlikely that a 14-year-old child was capable of concocting purified grade-1 potions, even if they were not perfectly purified.

Alone the fact that he was already able to concoct grade-1 potions at his tender age, without neglecting his mana gathering or combat prowess was extremely uncommon and could be said to be a genius talent.

However, Jason didn't dare to think like this, because he still continued to compare himself to other foreign races, even if he was not sure, what stage they could reach if one were to compare their age with each other.

Thinking about this, he was always reminded about the Shadow walker who was said to be a prodigy from the younger generation, which was an unclear term.

Without knowing, to what extent the Shadow walker was considered a prodigy, how old he was, and how old the  "younger-" generation was.

In the end, Jason could only estimate and assume things, which was not helpful and only caused him to be frustrated.