Chapter 40: Reaching The Third Stage

Chapter 40: Reaching The Third Stage Brother, my sister greeted me. I was 45 years old now and still looking like a child. While it was aggravating, I had come to terms with it. My cultivation in the third stage was just about complete. I had been spending quite a bit of time over the last couple of years focused on my cultivation. I was glad the number of motes I had to align with the mind path of cultivation were not that great. While I had been hard at work, I could only do four at once. Any more than that, and I risked screwing up. As I got closer and closer to completing the second stage of cultivation, my entire body felt like it was a condensed ball of energy and very solid. It was hard to put into words, but I felt like every part of me was becoming more muscular, even though I wasnt getting more muscles. Sister, I greeted her back with a smile. She was clearly middle aged. There were slight creases around her eyes. I felt a sense of heaviness in my heart at this. Her daughter Yao Lan was sitting off to the side. I had just come back from seeing our mother. She was doing well, living out her best life in retirement. With me being her son, and the allowance I gave her, she was living in luxury. I will be taking my leave. Please take of my child, brother, my sister asked me. I nodded at this. I have made arrangements within the sect, I replied. Elder Li Fu would take her on as a core disciple, after paying him a fee. Thank you brother, she has been working hard. Will you be staying the night? she asked me and I shook my head. My affairs within the Half Moon City are done, we leave immediately, I replied. My sister turned to her daughter and beckoned with her hands. Yao Lan, really was quite beautiful and appeared to be quite young, appearing to be around the age of 14 or 15. She should have appeared to be 18 instead of so young. I could imagine it would be both a blessing and a curse to appear as she was. She gave her mother a hug. There were some whispered words from mother to daughter. Take care my child. I love you. Never forget that. And if there are issues, speak to your uncle. While he can be difficult, he does care, she said. Thanks mom. I would have never gotten this chance if it wasnt for you, my niece said. I carefully pretended I wasnt listening in.Visit for the best novel reading experience Also dont compare yourself to your uncle. He gets troublesome ideas occasionally, my sister whispered back. Like your legendary painting? my niece asked. Hush, you. Now make sure to come back and visit occasionally, my sister said. I will mother, I love you. I love you too my little flower. They broke their hug and my niece looked at me with a hungry yet determined expression on her face. I am ready Senior Yuan Zhou, she said to me. Then let us be off, I replied. We immediately left the estate got into a carriage and set off for a short distance. I took the time to talk with her while we traveled. I was glad we were able to leave without too much fanfare. That would have been annoying. Uncle, um, what arrangements have you made? Yao Lan asked me with a bit of hesitation in her voice. You will be taken as a disciple by Elder Li Fu. He has a steady temperament and often handles the day to day operations of the sect. Present this case to him, I told her and pulled out a wooden case from my spatial ring and handed it to her. Can I open it? she asked me, and I nodded. Her eyes went wide at what was inside. She quickly closed it. Thats a rank 4 spirit stone, right? she asked hesitantly. Indeed, it is. I have already paid him quite a bit to take you on as a disciple. But this will show your personal sincerity. Taking on a disciple is a serious matter, I told my niece and she quickly nodded at this. Thank you, uncle, she said with a bowed head. It is no issue. Your mothers smile has been a bright spot in my life. I am not the best with family. She hadnt followed me on the path of cultivation. It was disappointing, but I had pressed for it. I could have done so decades ago. But there was no medicine for regrets. Instead, I passed on the goodwill to her daughter. This would be the second rank 4 spirit stone Elder Li Fu was getting. We had only agreed to one, but I wanted my niece well taken care of and for him to invest into her. That much wealth being handed over, would ensure a lot would trickle down to my Yao Lan. It helped that I could afford this, since my business had just paid out its first dividend to all shareholders by making rank 6 spirit steel. I only got 250 rank 3 spirit coins from the first sale of spirit steel. That was my fifty percent of the business. My initial guess had been around 1,800 rank 3 spirit coins of profit, or 180,000 rank 1 spirit coins. I had been basing the sale price off finished products, thinking the raw material would be most of the cost. It was a large portion, but not 300,000 rank 1 spirit coins of revenue. I would have gotten double, but Zhang Ting and I had agreed beforehand to have half the dividends go back into the business in order to expand. It was to expand until it could expand no more. I would have preferred to reinvest it all to get larger returns later, but the shareholders needed to paid and the business needed cashflow to keep operating. There just wasnt a huge market for spirit steel. It was there, but it wasnt large enough, I could push up the price based on demand. It still galled me I had lost fifty percent of my business to others, but there was no choice. I had to give up portions of the business in order to do business. It helped insulate me from the powers that be, trying to take advantage of things. So even after everything I had done, my cultivation was imperfect in a way. But if I had taken the time to work out these details, then I would have spent another two decades trying to adjust things, or going slowly. Even then, how would I know? I only had so many motes to work with, and that was why cultivators were told to keep cultivating at the early stages before the first bottleneck. If you stopped and took to long, you wouldnt get anywhere. There would always be more optimal ways of doing things. But the real issue was time. Time to get enough drops to fill up ones cultivation. While two decades might not seem like a lot, all cultivation was a race against time. Even for the Sect Leader who was nearing the end of his life. My channels were impressive, each a similar length to within fifty percent of each other. That was a major accomplishment. The ones closer to the edge of my body, took longer routes to get there, while the ones farthest away in my hands, feet, and head took more direct routes. That was a huge accomplishment with how many channels I had. It was immensely complex, making sure they didnt intersect or have issues around my cores, where every possible space was used up. The channels themselves also had valves. Three six fold valves at the start and then Liu Chens valve design closer to the cores. It was a masterpiece of design, even if it created a massive headache in needing to create a Displacement Channel Carver. Then there were the wave cone meridians, which used up too many motes. Far too many in my mind, but they had unprecedented energy draw. There was no innovation there. The meridian designs had been researched extensively over the millennia. All of this was supported by my internal triangular framework and external hexagonal structure tied to soul cultivation. Liu Chen had lamented that I would be able to make a support structure consisting of all three types of cultivation. The Sect Leader looked like he wanted to strangle the elder when he suggested I should have gathered up another million more motes just for this purpose. Thankfully the Pill of Peace, the Refined Beast Essence, and the Astral Soul stabilizer all came togeather to make sure my mind, body, and soul didnt rip themselves apart. The sheer scale of my cultivation was both breath taking and immense. Where before, it was like a sea of stars at the end of the first stage, now it felt like I had a stellar map inside of me. Each mote was linked by beams and planes to the surrounding motes. A latticework of immense complexity. It was a masterpiece of cultivation. With all of that came issues. I needed to kill the rank 6 beast, whose blood had been used. Water Running Over The Rocks, child of Whirling Flames From The Heavens. I had not forgotten their immense name and title. I needed to go out there and kill them. Even now I could feel rage threatening to burst forth from inside of me, contained by the Pill of Peace. Rage that wasnt entirely under my control. For the channels and meridians I now had to carve out, a Displacement Channel Carver needed to be made for my use. There was no possibility of renting one. I had inquired from the information brokers and even reached out to Elder Xu Xiaoli of the Imperial Sect. It was considered at the level of a sect treasure for a reason. Its value was immense, in speeding up progression through the third stage. Only the most favored of individuals in the Imperial Sect who also made large contributions would be allowed on the waiting list to use one of the two they had. Even the Imperial Sect only had two of them. The null metal was the real sticking point. A focusing gem was doable, but insanely expensive. I also needed 6 rank 6 treasures that were opposite of Aoyins shard before the end of the third stage, so I could attempt cultivating using polarity to draw in more energy and negate the shards influence. It wasnt absolutely necessary at the moment, but this was another one of those problems that I could put off for when Aoyin came to harvest me or try and solve now. At least this could be held off until the end of the third stage, which was preferable in case Aoyin decided to pay me a visit or could keep an eye on me. The real time limit was the Sect Leaders age. If he perished, then I would have to find someone else skilled in astral souls to make the changes necessary. The list was incredibly small, and he had no suggestions that wouldnt come with conditions, or a huge price tag attached. Then there was the immense number of resources I needed to perfectly attune my channels and meridians to force. I needed around 5,216 level 4 spirit stones or 57,376 level 3 spirit stones. That was four level 4 spirit stones per channel and meridian pair. Already one cultivator had gotten some support to use the constructed chamber inside the sect and it worked. The issue with my cultivation, was that I needed perfect attunement on top of the amount. That meant I needed level 4 spirit stones and couldnt substitute lesser ones. That meant I needed over 5,000 sentient beasts to be killed for my cultivation to progress. What was even worse, the Sect Leader had given me the optimal exchange rate. Realistically, I needed closer to 65,200 level 3 spirit stones and maybe even more than that as my activities put pressure on the market. My business would return about 10 level 4 spirit stones per year, and that would go up to around 30 level 4 spirit stones per year. Without any issues, which meant I could reach the fourth stage in about 174 to 200 years. I was already 45 years old, despite how I looked. A cultivator in the third stage could live until they were 180 to 300 years old. I would be on the upper range of that or a bit beyond. It wasnt a precise science since everyones cultivation and physical body were different. Still, it was a reasonable time frame. The biggest bottleneck was getting the null metal and the focusing gem. I needed those to start cultivating. All remaining portions of my wealth would be kept in Imperial City with their Coinage Guild. I had enough spending money after the first payment. And shipping large amounts of wealth was a huge risk. I had no doubt that word would get out and people would be tempted to rob a caravan, or even a cultivator traveling. Aoyin had learned quite a bit about me, and I didnt want to take any more unnecessary risks. While Imperial City was stupidly expensive for everything, even breathing, it was the best place for high level exchanges to occur. I had already passed instructions to Zheng Ting to have all future payouts be used to purchase level 4 spirit stones and save them in the Coinage Guild. Once I had the needed materials, I would head back to Imperial City to collect the spirit stones. The biggest issue was that I couldnt travel and cultivate any more. Well, I could, but it was risky. Once I started carving out a channel and meridian, I couldnt stop. Once I stopped, the portions exposed to the hole I had dug through my soul would harden immensely, and it would be far more difficult to restart. Carving out a channel and meridian, would take a month or so, only if I had a Displacement Channel Carver. Heck, I could even sell it at the end for the rank 6 materials, since any sect would be more than happy to buy such a thing, even the Imperial Sect. Looking at the information I had received about null metal, I wanted to sigh. This was the good information as well, with how much I had paid. There was no higher level of information I could purchase, this was the end all be all of finding null metal. The answer was luck. Null metal by its very nature hid from the energy of the heavens and the earth. While people thought they could work out a way to find it, by sensing for repulsion, it wasnt so simple. Null metal let energy pass right through it, like it wasnt even there. A cultivator could look at it, but not tell it was null metal. In addition, its formation was incredibly rare. So, you needed a cultivator who could recognize it, and one lucky enough to come across some. That was a rare combination. Finding it was the hardest part. The known locations only had a miniscule amount, which had quickly been extracted, and other locations were unknown. However, there were two clues pointing to the same location. Two people had returned from a special location. The Floating Island of Death. It was a pleasant name to be sure, but it was a massive floating island that floated around the edge of the continent. It had the death moniker, because cultivators died in droves going to this place. Even rank 8 cultivators had died. Everyone wanted to claim the island for their sect. However, only 4 known cultivators had come back in the Third Age, the last 200,000 years. The place had dangerous plants, mechanical traps, and high-level zombies. Some people said it was a tomb. Others claimed that a high level demonic cultivator had cursed the place. Others say it was a remnant of a past civilization from an earlier age. Finally, there was the rumor, it was the burial ground of an immortal who perished in battle and his will carried on, battling all those who challenged it. I wasnt sure what one was correct, but I knew it was my destination. I started the second stage of cultivation to the Astral Plane. Now I was going to start my third stage by journeying to the Floating Island of Death. One of the reasons it was named that, was for the simple reason cultivators would ignore warnings otherwise. When people got desperate, they went into these special locations, almost all never to return. Their soul lanterns, not showing anything useful. That was one of the requirements for a place to be labeled special by cultivators. If you went in, you were taking your life into your hands. No one would be coming to avenge you. It was my only chance to get through the third stage, or I wouldnt have even considered it.