It can be said that after splitting up for years, the two have finally found back the same companionship they had, and they couldn’t help making jibs at each other at every turn. This has always been their way of showing their friendship.

Although Kairos have not stopped treating Jones as his brother all these while, it had been difficult for the latter to accept his feelings.

Jones loved his father, and it was this love drove him to give the cold shoulder to Kairos when he heard how Kairos’ dad was the one that got his own dad killed.

Yet the very same importance he placed on relationships and morals that had split him apart from his brother was what brought him back.

After checking his bone structure and meridian channels, Kairos gained an idea on a suitable method. Jones’ way of thinking is not foreign to him, and using that, he could create the best path which will bring out his potential. In fact, it could be said that a lot of Kairos’ qualities were picked up because of his influence.

He tweaked the cultivation methods to suit Jones and gave him a method to bring out his Origin Energy.

Jones excitedly took a sit at the corner of the room, ignoring the mess and rushed into practice.

At the same time, Kairos went to another corner. While they wait for the disciplinary head instructor’s return, he could try to raise his own abilities.

The ten days of siege have once again brought about many new insights, and the battle with the Orc King had given him a sense of direction.

Right now he couldn’t wait to cultivate and try to push a level up, especially when he is already at Peak E rank for a while and have long felt the borders to enter Entry D.

For now, the only D rankers in the first years are Jones and Calculus, and Jones has already pushed past Entry D to Mid D ranking. With this new cultivation method, there is hope for his buddy to reach even Peak D ranking, and he couldn’t let himself lag behind by too much.

Kairos could feel a fear of being left behind, especially, even right now his four friends are in their rooms pushing their cultivation upwards.

He quickly pulled out two G ranking crystal essences and threw one to Jones.

In his mind, the crystal essences belonged to all the Snowdrifts who fought with their lives on the line, so he did not treat it as his own. As the leader of a group, he only kept two G ranked essences for himself.

Now he shared one. Jones did not decline the offer, it would have been too cold of him to turn Kairos down.

The two of them started drawing the power out of the crystalised essences and refining it into condensed internal energy. Unlike spirit stones that contain concentrated Heavenly Energies, these crystals had the remaining life force of the magical beasts they had slain and were extremely suitable for Origin Energy users to assimilate.

The life energy rushed into their bodies, coursing through their meridian channels and pushing their limits upwards, but the two boys found themselves at their limits to retain the excessive amounts.

They had fought in the face of death, and as much as they risked, they also gained a great deal. Within them, power is waiting to be uncovered, and the infusion of life energy excited it and started strengthening them beyond their imaginations.

They could feel how their muscles and blood are craving for the energy to become stronger and faster so that they could also survive the next time, and their flesh were the first things to be tempered.

“Jones, listen to me. There is a method written in The Origin for rebuilding the bones, tempering the flesh, and refining the blood,” Kairos instructed during his meditation, “I’ll tell you a chant now that is altered to your specifications, try this enhancement method.”

Jones who is concentrating on controlling the energies within him could not reply. Just by handling the many kinds of energies pouring into him and preventing them from clashing required careful manipulation and foresight.

For Kairos who doesn’t seem to be restrained, and can talk, think, and even explain a chant while cultivation, Jones couldn’t help but feel astonished.

If a person’s confusion can become a question mark that could be seen, then a gigantic ‘?’ would be hovering on top of his head right now.

As Kairos chanted an intricate and extremely profound incantation, Jones could picture that that imaginary question mark above him was growing bigger and bigger, and then by the time he realized what a divine technique was imparted onto him, it felt as though the question mark had landed on his head and he nearly died from the surprise.

“Impossible! … and he called me a monster?”

It was no wonder the prodigy was overwhelmed with shock. While telling Jones the best way to cultivate the energy, Kairos had been refining his own Ki. Not to mention that it was done on the spot.

And unlike Jones, he has taken in not just a few energies from the surrounding but all sixteen elements, along with what he drew from the crystal; an unthinkable ability, like using all of one’s strength to run forward and backwards at the same time.

However, it was possible for him, because every time the energies within him threatened to rampage, a powerful flaming Ki in the form of a fire dragon will rear its head out of his Dantian.

When the fire dragon Ki appears, the other energies bowed down submissively. Any that refused to submit would be swallowed by fire.

This dragon-shaped Ki gave Kairos the leeway to talk, surprising even the talented Jones.

“This guy! Saying that I had a beast’s constitution when he didn’t even realise what kind of monster brain he has? It’s scary that he can nonchalantly reveal that he assisted in the creation of the secret arts, then made up a cultivation method for me that is even stronger than my clan’s, and now he suddenly can talk while cultivating!”

A small trail of blood trickled down his mouth because his thoughts derailed and the energies within his body ran rampant. He quickly refocused himself and carefully followed Kairos’ tempering method.

Meanwhile, Kairos continued diverting the energies within himself towards his tendons, muscles, bones, and blood.

His body rapidly increased in strength via the method from The Origin.

The grades of physical strength for the body is ranked from the weakest to the strongest by:

Man

Beast

Titan

Immortal

Silver Immortal

Gold Immortal

Demonic

Divine

Asura

And in each tier, there also consist of different grades: Huang, Xuan, Earth, Heaven (天地玄黃), just like how equipment and pills are graded.

In Saint Empire, the maximum tier recorded for the physical strength of a person is at Titan rank, Heaven Grade, and those people who reach it are usually triple S practitioners that focused on raw physical power. Almost everyone guessed that the physical ranks above Titan are meant for immortals.

For weapons and armours, the strongest known tier that the Empire could create was at Beast rank, Heaven Grade. This proves that while the Empire’s talents are many, they lack focus on crafting and trade, and it is no wonder this is the case because craftsmen are people who are looked down upon in the Empire.

Before this training, Jones’ physical strength is already at Beast rank, Huang Grade and half a step to Xuan Grade.

Kairos and his team are a lot weaker at Man rank, though their grade varies: Tommy being the toughest of them at Heaven Grade, Kairos and Alan both at Earth Grade, and Jim and Edward were the weakest at Xuan Grade.

But on the whole, considering how weak they are, there really isn’t much difference between them.

…..

While they are training behind closed doors, a lot of things are happening without them noticing.

At the school, the three head instructors have been kept on trial throughout the entire night. To ordinary people, perhaps this might sound odd to hold court overnight, but martial practitioners do not have as much need for sleep unless they overexert themselves. Therefore, many businesses within the Empire actually operate round the clock.

One may go out anytime during the night and find most of the places in the city lit up by crystallised lights and still in operation!

The average martial artist could go three to seven days without needing to sleep, and should they require energy or rest to sustain their bodies they could quickly pull in some from the environment.

Of course this is only a kind of a temporary fix, and in the end, they still need to rest up to rejuvenate their strength.

The trial finally concluded judging the three head instructors as innocent to most of the charges. They are not ruled to payback for disrupting the academy exams, but at the same time, their legal argument for the inaction of the school during the Orc raids have also been rejected.

It was as if the Third Prince stopped their charges in return for the three head instructors to take a step back too. The face of the Third Prince looked as if he swallowed a fly when he realised the three of them have more influence than he previously expected.

He finally knows that he had stirred up the hornet’s nest after receiving numerous petitions against him from placing the three of them on trial.

Not just petitions, but also requests from many people in high places, businessmen who control the common market and ancient members of royalty asking for his withdrawal.

While the Prince’s status is higher than all of them, he dared not step on so many people’s toes. If he offended them, just by them cutting off a trade here or there would have him bankrupted within a decade. Therefore, he begrudgingly told the Devilheart family to place more importance on peace and harmony in this matter.

…..

At the same time, in a secret place far from the city, a group of men stood in front of their arrogant superior.

They have retrieved this old and smelly leather tome which their superior studied with great interest.

While he turned the pages, carefully checking if any marks are left upon it, the others did not dare to even breathe loudly.

“Hmmm, doesn’t look like it was ever used before. Could it really be just an old book?

Well, throw it in the fire. We won’t want to take the risk of the kids becoming even stronger and outshining our young lord.

I wager that the source of the boy’s martial arts was a fortunate meeting with some powerful hermit or retired grand adventurer. I will send this report back to the house.”

The young lord that he mentioned was obviously Calculus, while this group of men were the orphans that had been picked up since young and trained as slaves to do the bidding of the Devilheart family.

They obediently carried out the instruction of their superior and threw the tome into a pile of burning wood then returned to their resting area.