Max froze when he felt the hand on his shoulder, and his heart skipped a beat.
Fortunately…
"How long are you going to make me wait, kid? I have a lot of other things to do." Alton's voice sounded, causing him to let out a sigh and relax, but he couldn't help but say as he turned around, "You scared the shit out of me."
Alton's lips curled up in a small, teasing smile.
"Don't be so uptight. There are countless people out there who can sneak up on you without you realizing it. That kid over here, he can also do it if he tries really hard." He said, pointing at Kriss, who just came out of the hall.
Max glanced at Kriss, not too surprised. But he knew if he actively used his bloodline sense, let alone Kriss, even he would have a hard time sneaking up on him.
However, his heart skipped a beat when he saw the knowing smile in his eyes.
"It's good to be confident. But we should never become overconfident." He said, before turning around, "Now follow me."
"Young master…" Lily looked at him with a questioning look.
Max quickly told her and others that he had hired Alton for two hours and rushed after him.After he left, Martha glanced at everyone and said, "We should also use the resources we bought and improve ourselves."
"What about our people?" Pauline asked,
"Leave them a message." Martha said before looking at Emily, Lily, and Sera, "I have bought a housing formation. You can join me and cultivate in it if you would like."
Lily and Sera glanced at Emily, knowing she didn't feel comfortable with Martha, but to their surprise and relief, she nodded, "Very well."
…
Following Alton, Max arrived in a spacious hall that had many formations marked on the ground. Alton led him over to one of them and stood inside it. After Max also stepped in, he waved his hand, sending his mind into the formation nodes, causing them to light up.
Weng!
Immediately, Max felt the space around them shift, and when he refocused, he found himself standing in a large but empty room.
"This is one of the temple's training rooms. In here, even peak king mages could go all out without damaging it, and the addition of the temple's pure mana and the fact that no one can disturb you without your permission makes it suitable for training and secluded cultivation." Alton explained.
He then walked to the center of the room and turned around to face him, his hands behind his back. "So, what did you hire me for? To improve your mana control, learn about magic spells, bloodlines, and laws, or improve your understanding of magic cultivation?"
"Well, I'm interested in all of them, Lord Alton." Max said after thinking for a moment, "But I think it would be best if you helped me improve my understanding of magic cultivation first. After that you can—"
He stopped speaking when he saw Alton looking at him with a strange look in his eyes.
"What?" He asked,
"Do you think I can tell you everything about the cultivation in less than two hours and then continue on another topic? If you do, I have to say you are delusional, which is surprising given how strong you are. But as they say, we can't always expect a strong person to be mentally sane too, right?"
The corner of Max's lips twitched at his words, and he began to say, "I don't want to learn everything about cultivation. Just about Four and Five Star—"
"I can do that." Alton nodded before adding, "But the half-complete knowledge you would get would do you more harm than good."
Max stared at him before saying, "Then please guide me as you deem fit, Lord Alton."
"Alright." Alton nodded, seemingly in satisfaction. But he didn't immediately start telling him about cultivation; instead, he said, "You surprised me a little by choosing to improve your knowledge of magic cultivation. I had thought you would choose to have me help you improve your mana control or choose to learn about bloodlines to use yours more efficiently."
"As I said earlier, I'm interested in all the topics you specialize in, but I believe I first need to know whatever I can about the most fundamental thing, the cultivation." Max calmly responded.
"That's a good decision, but saying cultivation is the most fundamental thing is wrong because the most fundamental thing is our body." Alton praised his decision but refuted his words.
Seeing Max nod in realization, he smiled lightly and continued, "But from what I can see, you are doing quite well on this part, so there is no immediate need to talk about it."
As he said this, he revealed a slightly curious look. When he touched his shoulder earlier, he had scanned his body. Though it was unseemly for someone of his stature, he couldn't hold back his curiosity about his secrets. But to his disappointment and shock, he was unable to scan his dantian.
Still, even though he wasn't able to check that destructive energy, the other things he found out—be it his almost perfect physique, a sign of him cultivating a peak body-forging technique, the tame devil blood in his heart, or his bloodline—sent him reeling in shock.
At that moment, just one word came to his mind. 'Incredible!'
Everything about him was incredible to the point that he knew soon it wouldn't just be the demons who would be after him, but humans and other races too.
This was also why he became happy when he found out Max hired him as his instructor. He planned to teach him a few things to help him survive a little longer, but seeing how he didn't even seem to have enough knowledge about cultivation—though it didn't surprise him much since he was from this small kingdom that lacked proper magic heritage—he decided to delay his plan for a bit.
After thinking for a moment, he started speaking.
"Let's start from the beginning. To become a mage, one needs to be able to sense mana, which only those with dantians can do; as for why, there is no need to go into detail right now. After that, people gradually absorb mana and nourish their body with it. When the body is prepared…"
Max listened intently even though he knew most of the things he said in the beginning, but when he started talking about the three star realm, he realized how little he knew. If not for the system, he would have faced many difficulties on his way.
"The Four Star stage is the last of mortal realms. In this stage, a mage focuses on eliminating the imperfections from our body and magic foundation as much as he can to make it easier to break into the Spirit Realm. However, this just isn't enough to pass the mana tribulation. You need to…"
Max's eyes turned brighter and brighter as he heard him speak, and before he knew it, two hours had passed, which he only realized when Alton stopped speaking.
"Well, our time is up." He said and took him out of the training room. "Go, earn more merits. If you hire me again, I'll give you a whopping ten percent discount." He said with a toothy grin before disappearing.
Max stood there, in the transit hall, for a few minutes, with his eyes closed, trying to digest everything he heard.
'Thanks to the system, my foundation isn't flawed, but… It's not the best it can be either.' He thought, recalling Alton's words.
The most elite, who aim to reach the Supreme realm, temper their foundation until they no longer can. They temper their mana so much that despite it being the four star mana, it is comparable to Five Star mana.
'I should go into secluded cultivation and start tempering my foundation, but I need to earn war merits too.' He thought, his brows knitting together.
Alton had advised him against waiting until he reached the peak of the Four Star realm before starting to temper his foundation and told him to start doing it from the beginning of the realm as it would be easier and would take less time in comparison.
After a while, he sighed, 'Let's just earn more war merits first so I can rent the cultivation chamber for Lily and others too.'
Deciding this, he left the war temple, and when he went in the direction he felt Lily and Sera's presence, he couldn't help but become a little surprised to see thousands of small stone houses that had turned the desolate battlefield into a city.
'Everyone is cultivating.' He thought when he didn't see as many people walking or sitting around.
Then he frowned, 'Will the demons let—'
The thought had just crossed his mind when a loud explosion occurred.
BOOM!
"Enemy attack!" A shout tore through the silent battlefield.
Max raised his head and glanced in the direction of the explosion, his eyes flashing.
"What good timing!"
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