Zhang Dong was looking at a group of bowing cultivators. One of them was handing him a spatial bag filled with high grade spirit stones along with an orb that came from a divine beast.

Traveling through these lands at his current strength level didn’t pose a problem. Even when he got in trouble and alerted Saint Emperors to his presence before they arrived he was long gone. The disguising skills that he leveled up proved their handiness on these occasions as his trail was unfollowable.

With time he arrived at this city where he heard of an auction house that would be selling a divine item. This he could use for furthering his holy core to get stronger along the way. The only real problem was the lack of spirit stones to buy it.

He absorbed them all into his system to also get stronger almost instantly as he received them. The only items that he could barter with were cultivation manuals.

Without wanting to spend days or weeks trying to sell them in the auction houses he decided to try an instant trade. When the maximum bid was raised he finally acted and now found himself with the prize in hand.

“Everything is accounted for, senior…”

Just as he had figured the cultivators valued the cultivation manual that he corrected a lot more than crafting materials. The auction house would probably make the spirit stones back quite fast after word spread of the manual they had acquired.

It would probably be quite lucrative for him to just sell manuals like these. The only problem was the lack of time. It would take time for the word to spread and to get the powerhouses to gather before he got his money's worth.

If he was just out adventuring without anything binding him in this world then he could very well do that. He could even visit various beast kings and battle them for their cores that he could then use to propel his cultivation forward.

There was a problem though, he had a strange feeling tugging him elsewhere. He had a very bad feeling that if he didn’t return in time something bad would happen. It was a bad premonition that made him quickly leave this auction house and bolt into the skies at full speed ahead.

The people there were left astonished by the speed that he was leaving which prompted them to believe that he was really a Saint Emperor. Knowing well that this was the limit of this empire’s cultivators they thought themselves fortunate to have survived this day.

While leaving he could hear them bickering over the cultivation manual that he had left behind. He hoped that they would be able to work it out between themselves without bloodshed but that was probably just wishful thinking.

Yet he didn’t have time to have a bad conscience. He has abandoned the thought of being able to take care of everyone here. He could not take responsibility for others people's actions even though he might have been the catalyst for them.

‘I need to find a safe spot and move on…’

After leaving the city he found himself a secluded mountain range that was protected by deadly wind and ice elementals. He quickly burrowed himself into the land to form a makeshift cultivation cave.

For one reason or another cultivation in his crafting abode was impossible. It would be the safest area for a breakthrough but alas he had to contend with a quick protective formation that would mask his aura.

The divine beast core was placed on the ground along with all the spirit stones he was able to gather. Zhang Dong was actually surprised at how fast he was progressing. After he was done here he would already enter the late stage of core formation.

There was no lack of shadowy places with evil phantoms floating about. Lightning storms that spread devastation through the lands were also promptly absorbed into his lightning core. It was a lot easier to progress than when he first came to this world.

He did not need to stop and slowly purify the lightning energies as he used to. This lightning core was quite efficient at doing this by itself. He just needed to find the correct power source and his cores would just take in the energies as if they were black holes consuming light.

Even now as he held the divine beast core in his hand his holy core was pulsating with joy. Soon the football ball-sized beast core crumbled into dust. With his holy core being enriched he followed it up with the high grade spirit stones that were used to equalize all of the other cores and bring them to the edge.

Soon he felt the cores bursting with unimaginable power. They were ready to go through their next enhancement and soon he would reach the late stage of core formation. This would still put him below his old middle stage nascent soul level but he would be quite close.

‘This will have to do, I’m not far away from the border.’

After reaching the late stage the plan was to make a last sprint for the edge of the empire. He knew that he needed to make it into the teleportation range of his sect. Only then could he finally reach his home, he also needed to save some of the spirit points for the jump.

Besides the high grade spirit stones that he received from the auction house, he had many more treasures here. Some were taken as gratitude from people that he saved while others were snatched from the less stellar cultivators.

He knew that remaining in this empire like this would also pose a large threat to his well-being. The news of a renegade cultivator flying around the empire unhinged from any responsibilities was slowly spreading through the lands. Even though he was able to hide his appearance it didn’t mean that he would remain unnoticed forever.

With a lot of pressure on his shoulders, he got to work. The cores started resonating with each other and circling around each other once more. Instead of creating more cores like with foundation pillars, he needed to refine them.

The process of refinement would actually compress the cores into smaller ones. The original ones were like large sponges that absorbed all kinds of energies. What he needed to do was to purify these energies and compact the cores.

This process required a lot of concentration and also a lot of energy. After it was all done the energy in the cores would become purer than before. It was as if he was reforging a blade from a lesser one to the highest graded one possible.

This process was quite volatile just as with the blades, one mistake, and the cores could shatter into tiny pieces. It was possible to lose one of the cores if something went wrong.

For someone with three cores, this was three times as difficult but would save him from losing all of his built-up power. The cores were like bonus lives which even if they faded he could probably push forward with only one. This would probably revert him to his old core formation stage which would be much weaker than what he had now.

‘It’s all or nothing now…’

The earth rumbled and the stormy weather outside was halted. It seemed as if time had stopped for this land as a massive burst of energy was produced. A pillar of light shot out from within the ground causing destruction in its wake.

This pillar intensified with time and continued to cast a glaring light throughout the land. It reached up into the sky and caused the storm above it to be absorbed into it.

Zhang Dong could not do anything about this, he knew that he had limited time. The longer he took to break through the more danger could come his way.

The beasts and animals that were here looked up into the sky. They did not flee or scatter, their senses told them that there was no enemy nearby. Once the storm was gone the soothing energies that came from within that pillar invigorated the land.

Long unmended injuries that any of these creatures possessed were healed while any demonic phantoms were eradicated in the process. Some of the more intelligent beasts that possessed a cultivation level lowered their heads in worship as they knew that a master was there.

With a thunderous boom, the pillar exploded and its energies rained down onto the ground. These rays of light did not bring death and destruction, instead where they landed the soil became invigorated with strange energies.

‘There we go…’

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh as he looked up. The cave that he burrowed into was long gone. Above his head was a fifty-meter-wide circular hole that he created after breaking through. He could see the clear blue sky and the sun shone its bright rays on his face.

‘Damn… there is someone there…’

He did not have much time to reinforce his cultivation as he felt someone approaching him from afar. There were multiple people and all of them seemed quite formidable.

“There you are, Renegade Cultivator, your days of terrorizing the lands will end here!”

After floating up into the air he found himself surrounded. There were six people around him and he could tell that they were all Saint Emperors.

‘Five early stage and one middle stage…’

He had a theory about his true power level but he didn’t really have an opportunity to test out his newfound cultivation. All of the enemies that he had faced were one or more steps behind him. They didn’t even make for good sparring partners.

“Renegade cultivator? I think you might have found the wrong person. I’m just ‘a cultivator’ I think that renegade flew that way, he had a really menacing look on his face.”

Zhang Dong pointed in the opposite direction where he was going while smiling.

“Well, I will excuse myself then while you go to apprehend that menace!”

He clasped his hands while slowly floating away but before he could leave two old men blocked his escape route. When he looked behind him there were two old women instead while below him was another old master.

“Do you think we were born yesterday?”

Above him was the most powerful member of them all. He looked quite imposing and didn’t actually look that old compared to the others. The salt and pepper hairstyle went well with his rough looks but the dark demonic-looking robes told Zhang Dong a tale.

“Can’t fault me for trying…”

He shrugged while smiling but soon his expression became stern and his cultivation was unleashed.

“Guess I’ll have to do this the hard way.”