Becoming Independent

The best cultivation techniques have one thing in common and that is that they try to make use of every meridian in the body and this also makes the technique more complex and difficult to comprehend since the cultivators need to remember and understand as to where the flow of the Qi those meridians needs to be fast or slow, the amount and also the millions of pathways. This also makes cultivation more dangerous as realm increases.

Alex persisted on as he knew that Rome wasn't built in a single day. If it was that simple to become strong, the world would've already been filled with countless experts!

Not every person who has top class Cultivation technique can become powerhouse. They need to have talent, discipline, and high comprehension and strong will to make use of the technique.

Alex continues to persevere and continued attempting to form the cycle over and over again. Each time he failed it merely motivated him to try harder and harder.

Gradually, Alex began to feel numb. He had attempted this for what seemed like an eternity, but he was still unable to form that first cycle!

After another hour passed, Alex opened his eyes and realized that it was almost noon. He knew that he would have to go and join his brothers to go the forest. He had already told them that he going to consolidate his breakthrough to the 3rd grade of body tempering realm and will join them at noon.

Upon arriving at the entrance of the village, he saw Tom and Hank standing their together with equipment in hand waiting for him. The adults will not be going with us because they have help Donald in training the militia to defend the village as per the previous order given by City Lord.

Toward the end of September, it grew as hot as usual.

The heat refused to dissipate, instead growing more and more intense.

Alex, tom and Hank were lying in ambush in the path of a 3rd grade Demon Beast. Since the adults were not with them, they didn't go deep into the forest and hunted for low grade demon beast and herbs if they could find any.

Alex was thinking of a plan on how to present the cultivation technique to the family. Suddenly an idea comes to his mind which doesn't seem far fetched. He will do it when every one goes hunting together.

By that time the demon beast had also entered into their sight. It was a goat like creature with razor sharp horns. With the help of Alex; Tom and Hank quickly slayed the beast and rushed off with every precious part of the Demon beast.

After running to a safe place, they stashed the beast materials to a hidden place so that they can still hunt some more beasts. After hunting all day, they returned to the village with their loot.

By the time they reached home, the sun had already set. And since they didn't hunt anything precious, they sold everything to the merchant shop.

They had dinner together with everyone. The adults were busy discussing about what was happening in the war at the table whereas Alex, Tom and Hank were listening.

The war was not going well for the Doran's. They have already lost 3 of the villages in the north. This was the news from 5 days ago.

It would not do them well if the Lord loses the war. Anyway, Donald could only strengthen the defenses of his village.

After they finished talking, someone knocked on their door. Anna went to open it, behind the door was a man standing. That man was the officer under City Lord; he was a messenger who passed Lord's order to the village head in times of war. There was a badge on his chest showing his identity.

"Village Head, take this letter, it has the order written by the lord." He looked like he was in a rush.

Donald then opened it to read, but by looking at his face they knew it was nothing good.

Donald handed the letter to Jack, that officer was still standing there waiting for his reply.

Jack also read it and his reaction was quite the same as Donald.

"Do they seriously want to do this" Jack seemed surprised.

"They already did it, so there's nothing we can do about it." Donald sighed.

City Lord had sold some of his villages to the other Noble families in his city. Pearl village is one of those villages and it had been sold to the Jordan Family.

He does not seem to have enough money. And as the situations looks, he clearly doesn't have enough authority now to order other families.

Donald asked the officer standing by the door "Do you know why Lord has made this decision"

The officer knew and it was not any secret so he said "City Lord lost his elite squad in an ambush to the Frey soldiers. It started as a rumor that City Lord was poisoned, though he didn't lose his life, he clearly looked a little weak. And this news about giving in to the families has strengthened those rumors. Everyone in the city was surprised."

Till then everyone had already read it once.

City Lord had ordered the village heads whose villages have been sold to handover their authority to the ones that would sent over by other families. After that they would have a choice to go the city and become resident of the city under city lord only if someone in their family is 5th grade of Body tempering realm and above. Every other villager would become the personal property of the Noble families that bought the village.

Merchant and mercenaries are not included as they are free and are considered as men under the city lord. Mercenaries don't take orders directly from the City Lord but they give their service in return of money. The other choice was that they can stay in the village and have the same faith as every other villager.

"Alright, thank you officer for the trouble." Donald gave the letter back to him with his thumbprint to show that he has received the letter. The officer went away.

"This might not be good for us. If it was any other family who had taken over this village we could have lived under them happily but Jordan Family is not any good egg and that Jon works in that family. It would be better to go and live in the city." Meg said.

"But the other way is not any better. City Lords choice clearly shows that he is in need of strong cultivators and that is why he is even taking 5th grade and above cultivators in the city under him. We will have to join his army. Right now is not the good time to join his side." Alex didn't agree.

"Alex is right. Maybe we don't have to go the city or stay in this village, why don't we go to another village instead, we can go to the village which Yandell family purchased. He seems to be a good man." Theo suggested.

Alex turned to Donald and said "Whoever we join will not let us escape from the fate of fighting in the war. Think about it, if we go to another village we will become property of that family and since the City Lord is not powerful enough to win the war or defend, he will ask help from other families who now have their own territory. Before they might not have fought with all their strength but now to protect their new territory, they will have us fight the war. We are nothing but expendables for them."

Alex personally did not want to be ruled by anyone and definitely not fight war for someone else. So he made a plan right now to make him and his family into becoming independent.