Author’s note: Chapter sponsored by Jean-Robert L and Evan H! Thank you! ^_^

Host’s note: I’m not the author. I’m just rehosting here for the author.

Observing the hundreds of children from a treetop, Jin Xia found that practically all of them were commoners with an innate quality of either 1 or 2. But he was not surprised as the people who live out in these small villagers were mainly mortals of common origins, after all.

Without a word, Jin Xia immediately went down and began to scribble on the surrounding trees and soil once again. Overwriting and altering many of the symbols, Jin Xia quickly transformed the concealment formation into a completely new construction.

Once this was done, Jin Xia turned and arrived in front of the large crowd of children.

The moment the children noticed Jin Xia’s arrival, all of them quickly quiet down.

Although they were still young, the children understood that the person before them was likely to be their great benefactor in the future.

Some of the younger ones even thought that Jin Xia might be their father, who had finally came back to pick them up after years — despite Jin Xia already telling them of his identity…

Sweeping his eyes across the cluster of small bodies, Jin Xia said, in a booming voice: “Children, as of now you all do not need to worry about anything. But a moment from now, I will proceed to unlock all of your potential as cultivators.

It may be a little painful at the start, but try to endure it. If you are able to endure, then you can eat all the food you want and will be able to stay with me. If you are unable, then I will have to send you back to your village later.”

Some of the kids began to panic when they heard that they might be taken back to their village. To go back to their village meant they would have to continue on their miserable life again. None of them wanted that.

While some of the kids began to murmur amongst themselves, Jin Xia slightly leaped back as he performed a series of complex hand movements. When his hands formed a triangular shape, Jin Xia softly shouted:

“Blood Marrow Alignment Formation, activate!”

Suddenly, several symbols that were inscribed on the nearby trees began to glow a hue of light green as blinding lights from the trees shot towards the group children.

Cleansing the body of purities and heightening the physique!

Jin Xia’s hands began to once again twist and form new gestures as he focused on the children in the middle.

“Soul Cleansing Formation, activate!”

Red glows appeared on some of the surrounding trees as they shot towards the children as well.

Purifying the soul, strengthening it, and possessing the power to even improve innate quality!

Without slowing down, Jin Xia continuously formed several hand symbols. Sweats were beginning drip down the side of his forehead.

“Meridians Purging Formation, activate!” Blue lights shot up from the symbols on the ground and flew at the children.

Opening sixteen meridians in one’s body and hardening the stability of inner structure!

“Nine Blood Bones Formation, activate!” White lights beamed at the children.

Forcefully crushing the bones and reforming them; strengthens the strength and durability of one’s bone by a large margin!

“Heavenly Healing Lotus Formation, activate!” Suddenly, a bright green form burst from under the children’s feet before the children could scream from the sudden discomfort. The shape was similar to that of a giant, blooming lotus.

Dramatically de-sensitizes extreme pains, suppresses and calms the mind, and speeds up the body’s recovery rate by thirty folds!

Each time a bone was broken, it healed at such a rate that it looked as if the bones were “shaking.” The painful sensation was extinguished before the children could even feel it!

Jin Xia’s eyes had become bloodshot by now.

But without stopping, he continued to form the last series of hand signatures.

This time, there were much more hand movements compared to the last few gestures. Sweat continued to pour heavily from the side of Jin Xia’s head at this time.

Gritting his teeth, Jin said growled in a low voice:

“Lost Arts: Mental Harmonization Formation….release!”

The surrounding trees and ground seem to suddenly all glow up with a blazing golden light. The area in which the children and Jin Xia resided were instantly covered in a blinding gold blanket.

*Shiiing!*

From the brilliant area, a majestic golden light suddenly shot up into the evening sky, parting the few clouds that were still floating by.

Once the light slowly dimmed down, a group of children was revealed to be sprawled all over the ground while a young man stood breathing heavily on the side, with a pale face and a line of blood dripping down from the side of his mouth.

*cough!* *cough!*

Jin Xia spat out another mouthful of blood as he clutched his chest.

This was the price he had to pay for activating so many high level formations all at once consecutively.

In fact, the constructions that Jin Xia had used were practically all at the Forbidden level.

Besides forming Symbol Artifacts, Rune Inscriptionists are also capable of forming formations for various mystical effects. The power of the formations can be categorized into Levels as follow:

Inferior-level, Advanced-level, Primo-level, Saint-Level, Forbidden-level

Although there exists formations that are even higher than Forbidden-level, in this plane, Jin Xia estimates that the highest construction may only be at best Saint-level.

He did not think a 2nd rate world would possess something formations of the Forbidden-level, but of course, this was merely his early conjecture.

Him performing a Forbidden-level formation, and several ones at that, had already long went past his current limit. His body was unable to take the severe backlash.

But in the end, Jin Xia was still successful in completing the entire process!

There was no need to say how powerful and effective the formations that a monster, who had lived for aeons, laid for the children.

Not only had he thoroughly purified the physical bodies of the children, Jin Xia had expanded their soul strength by forcefully imparting bits of his soul energy to them in his formation.

This way, the children’s innate quality should go through a drastic transformation, with Jin Xia already being able to sense that some of them now possessing an innate quality of at least 6 or even 7!

In order to help the children grow stronger, Jin Xia had sacrificed a few bits of his already broken soul. But it was a sacrifice he was willing to pay, if it meant allowing his clan to progress further and the people around him to stay alive longer!

Furthermore, Jin Xia had even passed on a tiny portion of his memories on certain martial art techniques and battle experiences, tailored specifically, to each of the juveniles.

While they may not immediately understand those bits of memories, the knowledge would slowly spread throughout their mind as they age.

This was to prevent them from going insane from the overflow of information, albeit those were only a very tiny portion of Jin Xia’s ancient memories…

In the end, to accomplish all of this, Jin Xia had not only overdrafted Qi reserves, he had forcefully consumed a terrifying amount of spirit and energy, causing his cultivation to drop by more than whole realm!

At this moment, Jin Xia’s cultivation had went from being at the 7th stage of Xing Profound to the 3rd stage of Spiritual Dan realm.

Unlike weakened states, where one’s Qi would restore back to its original level, returning the person’s original cultivation, Jin Xia had directly used his cultivation as price. In other words, he had given up his cultivation in order to temporarily to those forbidden formations, with him using his soul energy to cover any additional consumption.

From now on, Jin Xia would have to once again re-cultivate upwards again starting from the 3rd stage of Spiritual Dan.

“Damn, to think just a few Forbidden-level formations and I’m already beat up like this.” Jin Xia softly cursed as he struggled to support his weakened body.

“If I did not cleanse this body and allow it to reach its peak potential, perhaps even with my soul aiding the process, this body would have long exploded…”

Looking at the fallen children, Jin Xia’s lips curled up into a faint smile. “But at least everything went well accordingly. Ah, thank god I have a powerful soul…oh wait, I assume I am a god as well, or at least was, huh….”

Lightly chuckling to himself, Jin Xia stood upward as he silently guarded the unconscious children. He was quite contented with tonight’s result…

Host’s note: About the comment about things not matching up on chapter 3, I’ll look into that tomorrow. I’m sick and hot without AC. Tomorrow I’ll have access to AC and will be able to concentrate enough to look into it.