Democracy In A Cultivation World

Majid slammed the door open ready to explode, but his steam didn't find a way to escape, he got an unexpected guest yet again, is today a holiday or something why is everybody is free to bother me today.

"Greetings Junior Maoji, did I come at an inappropriate time," Lanru said as she saw his spectacular entry.

Hell, you did, how can I say it though, "what do I owe your visit, Senior Lanru, Senior Liando," giving the seriousness of their acquaintance, he was able to ignore his annoyance.

Liando stepped up smiling, "junior Maoji, Lanru came today to apologize for the misunderstanding back th-"

Majid was ticked off hearing that, "I don't believe it was a misund-"

"Come on junior Maoji, don't be stiff alright, we were in the wrong and here we came personally to apologize."

"It was indeed my fault since I knew you offended Elder Fanli, I took you as an enemy without further consideration," she bowed her head a bit, surprising Majid.

Though he has an unbiased policy toward his enemies, it was indeed uncomfortable to have a girl as his enemy, it was even sour that most of his enemies were young, he can't help it though when they are that wicked. But it doesn't matter if they were sincere or not since these two reached their hand first, he has no reason to refuse. He didn't need unnecessary enemies anyway and considering Lanru's background, the other two can't be that simple either. By the way that Suhan wasn't here, it looks like he wasn't for peace.

"Well it was my mistake as well, I got ahead of myself since you didn't clear your intentions," Majid rubbed his head smiling.

"It was indeed right for you to do so, I apologize again."

"So junior Maoji, since things are cleared, we can be friends now can't we."

Liando tried to put his hand around his neck but Majid stopped him and said, "friends, it's still early for that."

"Hey, come on Junior Maoji!"

"I don't think you came to me to be friends, right," he looked at Lanru, "we aren't enemies anymore, we can do business."

"Junior is right, I won't turn around the bush either, what do you want in exchange," Lanru smiled brightly.

Majid really couldn't read what behind this girl for a girl of her age she looked about 14 with this world's standards witch mean she should be about 16-18, the age aspect gave him a headache the young grew faster, and old age slower, whatever, "senior Lanru, you know the aura hiding technique worth, it's between high earth and a low sky technique," It wasn't hard for him to find an answer he already has something in mind, "if you can afford me a defensive set of similar worth, something light." Defense was his only lacking aspect, considering he skipped the toughness levels and his original agility path.

He smiled and added, "and of course you need to make a heavenly oath," It was a contracting system followed by most sects to protect their precious techniques. But unlike what he was used to in novels, the oath must be made in a sacred place.

"This junior is not easy to deal with, hah, ok, what about me," Liando crossed his hands.

"Senior, I'm sorry I can't think of anything right now."

"Noo, come on junior, don't leave me behind, that's not cool, just think of something for me, how about I pay you in spirit stones, I can pay you right now."

Hearing that Majid's eye squinted but they soon widened, " that's it, how about a spacial ring... of at least 100 gallons volume.'' These rings weren't a commodity he could afford even if he had the money, the space element was rare, so there were even rarer spacial craftsmen, it was hard to put your hand on it without pulling some strings.

"Ok, Junior you're one lucky one I just changed my ring, I was wondering what to do with my old one, its 150 gallons."

Majid couldn't help but shudder, this was one of the wonders of this word he was yet to fulfill, that's a f**king mobile hidden space, a f**king hidden space, smugglers would die for it, it took him a long time to calm down.

"Great, so seniors let's make the exchange tomorrow," if it wasn't for his breakthrough that he didn't want to delay anymore, he would have pulled the guy to exchange right now. He set an appointment near the school gate after his other one with Jido. After all, they need to leave the school to take the oath, and it was a good opportunity to test the waters.

"Good, then I will excuse myself," Lanru nodded and looked at Liando.

"Go ahead Lanru, I have something to discuss with Junior."

Lanru looked skeptically at him, she couldn't guess what's this about, seeing as Liando has no intention to say anything she left eventually.

Liando followed her with his eyes before he turned his eyes to Majid rubbing his hands against each other, "brother Maoji, I heard you have something good you kept from your senior."

Majid understood what Liando was talking about, sure enough, news indeed has wings, it can't be stopped. That wasn't a good thing for him though, "and where did you hear that from senior."

"I heard some of my fellow clan disciples talking about you, so I joined them and they mentioned this."

Majid frowned at this, he shouldn't be that popular to be to talk of clan disciples, "by the way Senior, which clan are you from," Majid has a bad premonition.

"Ah, I didn't mention this before, I'm a descendant of the Blazing Sword Sect," Liando evaded his eyes.

Majid almost gasped, no wonder the red hair had something to do with their family or something. He kept looking at the boy before it struck him. Yeah, I don't have to be an enemy with the clan, maybe I could find a way out through this Liando. The same thing with the Divine Hammer, they wanted to be friends, why the hell did I play hard to get, he wished to slap his mouth. Judging by his reaction Majid could tell Liando knew something, but what exactly.

Liando interrupted his reflection, "don't worry brother, I don't get along with Jido either."

"Do you know what he's up to Senior, he sent someone saying he wants to see me."

"No, they didn't divulge much, all I knew is that they were watching you for a while."

Majid felt cold, just what was this Jido up to... "thank you, Senior, wait for a moment," Majid went in and out in jiffy, he brought 2 scrolls with him, "brother I don't normally deal with sect disciples, you're a bit of trouble, but since you showed me goodwill, I won't hold back either." He unfolded one of the scrolls, his skills increased a lot from when he started, and he brought his best Masterpiece out, so the reaction was as he expected, it looks like I chose my business wisely.

After being dazed for a while, "brother this..." he looked at Majid up and down, "brother is indeed skilled, wherein the heavens and earth did you learn this." it's not that he has never seen paintings, but they were in a symbolic style with thick strokes, fit for drawing beasts but nothing like this.

After chatting with Liando for a while, Majid was able to send him off without being impolite. And finally, he was free again, the sun already set, just a dim orange hue remained in the sky, surely no one would disturb me at night.

After adjusting his yang energy, he finally was ready to breakthrough. Should I just dig a hole or something, no wonder, that's why they have caves to enter closed-door cultivation. I can't have anyone disturb me in the middle, wait, I don't know what the other floors look like in the cultivation pagoda, now that I think about there's no way a cultivation school doesn't have a special place for critical cultivation.

Without delay, he made a beeline for the pagoda, it wasn't unusual for some core expert disciples to spend the night in the pagoda, but upon seeing it was Maoji the guard only shook his head before he lost interest and closed his eyes, but he felt Majid presence in front of him so he opened one eye.

"Greetings, Guard Banji," Majid cupped his hands.

"What do you want, kid," the guard closed his eyes again.

"Excuse me, Is there a place for private cultivation."

The guard eyes flashed open, here goes, this crazy kid is finally intending a breakthrough. Majid was a hot topic for a while in the cultivation pagoda, so the guard, of course, knew the details. "Kid, I don't want to collect a bloody miss, go go, come back after tempering your body."

Majid calmed himself down, he didn't want to offend every bastard he met. And in a sense the guard was looking after him, "who said anything about breakthrough Guard Banji, I just want to cultivate calmly since I became the headmaster disciple, is there anything wrong with that."

Getting the meaning behind Majid's words, the guard smirked letting out a chuckle, "up to you kid, starting the second floor there are a few rooms, but all of them are occupied except for one of the 4th floor."

He gathered about 150 points again this past month, though it pained him it wasn't a problem, for 16cp/hr it would allow him about 9 hours, more than enough. He wasn't about to let his thrifty nature take over him when it came to something as important as his breakthrough.

"Kid, you know the rooms' cost is double the normal price, it's 32 contribution points per hour."

Majid felt like his soul left him, these capitalist bastards, it wasn't as sweet when he wasn't on the receiving end. "There's no way for a reduction, is it?" seeing the look on the guard, "I will excuse myself," he could only pull his limping legs inside.

Majid followed the receptionist to the 4th floor with heavy steps, a few disciples were cultivating in a circular array, most likely Seniors from the 3rd year. The array was smaller but the Qi here was far cry from the first floor, even richer than the spirit source in his cave. A few doors circled the array, the receptionist left once he led him to the door of the vacant room. A few disciples started to whisper as they recognized Maoji, his reputation precedes him.

"Look, isn't that the guy the new disciples kept talking about."

"Yup, it's him,"

"Does he lost his mind, I heard he never left the school where the hell does he have the contribution to spending here."

"Don't tell me he will use a room, does intend to breakthrough..."

"What the heck is this a joke..."

A commotion broke once they realized his intention, but Majid cares less, he was in his own world fighting his tears. He put his token with shaking hands on the runes of a stand before getting inside. It was a small room, kind of square with an array connected to the main one. Majid's eyes tore as the Qi density wasn't any different from outside. he went grudgingly to the array and sat in the middle, the array lit and the Qi started to gather more and more, only then his heart eased, at least it wasn't a scam.

Majid set up an alarm in 4 hours and without hesitation, he swallowed a Qi gathering and a condensation pill and started meditating until he felt they started taking effects creating a suction power in his Dantian, his soul power s.u.c.k.e.d the Qi around him seeping in his skin in a visible lines it, flowing through his meridians until they collided in his Dantian, creating a small whirlwind. Qi kept gathering and it didn't take long before he started feeling the pressure on his soul as a stream of Qi escaped like a needle stabbing in his organs. After an hour or so he was forced to stop absorbing any more and focused on compressing the Qi on his dantian with the help of the medicines. As the time went his skin redness and sweat, his temperature rose to an unbearable level.

After 2 hours stress started to exhaust him, and the strain on his soul, put more pressure on his mind, but he wasn't able to find the right equilibrium yet, with the huge amount of Qi he was able to gather he wasn't able to compress it to the right degree to form the core, he kept attempting, streams of QI kept escaping from time to time, and hot blood escaped from the edge of his mouth.

As he neared the third hour he was forced to stop, he can't keep this going like this. He took a calming pill and started meditating slowly, he allowed some of the Qi to escape to lower the pressure on his soul and let his mind recover, he only needed one attempt he has to do it right. He kept adjusting his state of mind contemplating over his experience, he knew he could form a core by decreasing the amount of Qi, but didn't want to compromise, he trained his soul and his meridians to this level to make a superior core, he can let his efforts be for nothing. Is there nothing he can do, he already followed all the steps he read from the books, and Guoro and the system tips. Unfortunately, the system can't track his progress, can his knowledge from earth help, is there anything similar... Since this Qi turns into a solid form it shouldn't be wrong to compare it to an element, can it be a state change, does that mean I have to dissipate the heat to ease the compression... no wait, it would be reversible once the pressure decrease or the heat increase if that was the case, neither spirit stones nor beast core did. It should be compared to crystals formation, but there are many ways crystals form, it can't be a simple deposit like in salt, that might be the case for spirit stones but not the cores since the pressure was involved. Could it be compared to diamond, rather I would need more heat, wait, I read before the fire cultivators and the royals easily breakthrough to core formation... it might be really the case, damn if I knew I would have prepared something.

But his excitement halted as he found a flaw, the element injection was done once the core started forming. Ahh, It sucks that I don't have any other way than myself to experiment… wait why not.

Majid immediately jumped into action, his hands made a sphere together and Qi gathered from the surroundings and his hands until it became visible small sphere, his soul compressed it more and more, not long a small cristal barely visible formed.

Holy sh*t, did I just make money!

He stopped his excitement, and repeated the same thing this time lowering the pressure, he conjured fire between his hands and again a small crystal noticeably bigger shined from inside the fire.

It really worked, well, it's obvious they won't share their techniques with others.

A smile couldn't help wriggling in his mouth, but he restrained it and got back to work, he had no time to waste, only an hour was left. He swallowed 4 pills, and started gathering Qi like no tomorrow, he gathered even more than before. Though he knew lightning was hotter than fire, it's frequency wasn't as constant as the latter so he went all out and conjured both not accounting for the consequence anymore, lighting pittered and fire whooshed in his Dantian his temperature rose crazily, he almost gave up but an even crazy idea came along, water conjured inside and around him absorbing the heat. His soul pressured his Qi relentlessly and finally, he felt it, it was like a fuse was ignited, from the middle a reaction was taking place continuously, he reached his limits but he couldn't stop now, he grounded his teeth, his eyes bulged with crazy determination. Steam swelled his limbs as it tried to escape his body adding to his pain, gushing out through his skin. The array turned off as the time was up, but that has nothing to do with him anymore.

Not long after, Knock knock!

"Disciple, time is up!" Knock knock!

Majid let out a deep breath.

"The heck don't tell me he went ahead and did it, what a mess, how a-"

A ticking sound interrupted him as the door opened, from inside came a boy with a red disfigured body with his head down.

"Holy shit."

"Hahahaha, this guy is hilarious,"

"Who told you to be a smartass, do you think we wouldn't do it if it was that easy."

"At least you escaped with your life."

But hidden beneath his lowered head, were shining eyes.