She asked him: “How did it go?”

He answered: “I’m still here”

She nodded and tenderly kissed him.

…

The next day, Jin was in the garden, practicing his stances alongside two dozen teenagers. He was teaching his art to the orphans. Or rather, they joined his training routine by themselves after they saw him practice continuously every day. In the end, he could not stand seeing their clumsy states and taught them. And then others joined in.

It became a daily occurrence in the morning in the estate.

Once done, the kids dispersed to go play and such while Jin returned to the mansion. He took a shower and had breakfast. Then, he went to Nangua’s place.

Nangua welcomed him in and stated: “Nothing of importance happened while you were in seclusion, young master”

Jin nodded and asked: “And will something happen?”

Nangua answered: “In a week, yes, somewhat. There will be a great assembly of the kingdom’s sects”

Jin pondered for a moment.

Sure, there were sects in the kingdom and all over the continent of course. However, those did not matter. Power wise, they were nothing compared to the Royalty and the Church. Those that mattered were the ones from overseas that created a branch here. Depending on the situation, dispatching some experts to deal with the Royalty here was easy. Even if people were restrained to the 30th stage in this place, it did not matter. The sects from the higher continents could send hundreds and thousands of such people over.

They could not compare.

And that made this assembly slightly tricky.

It happened every ten years so this was the first for Jin. He obviously heard about it since a while back though. After all, as it was scheduled for this year, he had to be informed. Ame being in charge of the division that took care of external affairs and all.

They were going to be the main hosts this time.

Even though Ame was only at the 28th stage and he was at the 20th.

That did not really matter that much since, anyways, it depended on the organization’s power.

He was not fond of such political things though. But he learnt to take it in strides. He would likely just let Ame and the others handle it.

Nangua began to tell him about some more details he learnt in the past weeks and Jin listened attentively.

Once they were done with that, they talked about their own project.

Nangua taught Jin about how to extract the energy from the gigantic tree they lived on at the moment. But Nangua had higher ambitions. His goal was to steal all of it.

After researching for so long, Nangua discovered the reason for the existence of this tree. After all, in this kind of continent whose energy was scarce and low-value, it was a true wonder how such a tree could grow.

Nangua deduced that this tree was a formation node.

What the formation was and did, he was not certain. It was beyond him. He was certain that it was related to something big. And Jin agreed. It did not take a genius to figure that one out.

As for what it was… Their best guess was that it was related to the lack of spiritual energy in the continent. But if that was true…Well, anyways, they agreed that it was beyond them and moved on.

Instead, they focused on figuring out ways to extract that energy for themselves. Extract it with higher efficiency that is.

Nangua, through the use of his element’s properties, alchemy and formations managed to create something that extracted the energy from within the tree and turned it into pills automatically.

Thanks to Jin’s idea that he stole from the manufacturing process from his life on Earth, they created a formation system. It popped out pills continuously by draining the very energy of the tree.

It did not even affect the tree though. That thing was so old and filled with so much of it…It was also constantly absorbing more.

Much like photosynthesis though this one did not seem to give anything back. Or it did but in a different way due to it being part of a formation…

In any case, they managed to get themselves a supply of pills filled with spiritual energy. For now, only Jin could use them as Nangua was forcefully suppressed by the continent’s rules. However, both of them did not plan to remain on this continent.

They were looking ahead and preparing.

It was still too early.

Jin had to wait for the two reincarnators first in any case. And he hoped to reach the 30th stage first too. Not that it would matter if he encountered a true hegemon or just about any decently strong cultivator from the higher continents. However, it was better to grow while he could and was in a kind-of-safe position.

One had to grasp every opportunity.

He grabbed a bunch of pills and left. He planned to keep on cultivating. As he should.

…

The day of the sect’s conference arrived.

Within the Wind Slash Sect’s delegation, a young woman with heroic spirit and incredible beauty chatted happily with another.

There were twenty people in their delegation this time. It was the first time for them to go to the capital as they were used to work in the countryside, where their branch was located.

She learnt many years ago as she moved from places to places and continents that her sect was a bottom-feeder. But it did not dampen her efforts or happiness.

Every day was a good day to her for she was a cultivator and saw herself grow as she practiced continuously.

But today was even better as she would be able to enjoy herself. Who did not like holidays?