Conspiracy?

After a night not so good sleep, Collin got up to begin his daily routine. His mind wouldn't shut up about what happened yesterday, repeatedly going over it. The only thing he learned from all that was what he already knew, he was weak. His cultivation was weak, and his background was even weaker.

Other than the obvious things he could have done with a far stronger cultivation level, if he was still the young lord of his clan or was a member of the Alchemist Guild he could have walked away without a problem. The only thing he could do was continue cultivating, training his techniques, and practicing alchemy till he was stronger and could try to join the alchemist guild.

After a few rounds of pill making Collin succeeded in making a true low-grade scab pill. It was perfectly round blueish green pill without a hint of brown to be seen. As a low-grade pill it should have a purity of 60%, so his next goal was to refine a pill with a purity of 75% for mid-grade, before trying to get to 90% for high-grade. It would take a while to make a perfect-grade pill at 100% purity, but he had the time.

He was using the advice that Valeria had given him about controlling the heat output of the alchemy table's array. She had also given him a hint about the order of pills he should train. In a few days along with making scab pills he would begin trying to refine minor Qi gathering pills.

Later that night after his inscription practice, it was time to start reading through the massive number of books that now filled his library. Some of these books would be useful to him, but most would only be useful in expanding his knowledge of cultivation.

Most cultivators had five spiritual roots: fire, water, wind, earth, and wood. But for most cultivators one of the five spiritual roots would be stronger than the rest and using a matching cultivation method would help them to grow stronger faster. And since the Tyler family had no way of knowing which cultivation method their young master would need, they purchased a large selection.

After picking one of the cultivation methods to study, Collin had a nagging feeling he was missing something about these books. After a few minutes of thinking about it he understood the problem. It was the books on alternative cultivation methods that were bugging him. If the Tyler family was so focused on having cultivators to become a cultivator clan, why didn't they use these methods and make a cultivator?

Of all the alternative cultivation methods Collin now owned, the beast taming method was the safest, and the most expensive to cultivate. With the spirit stones he took from Alex's villa should be enough to allow a dozen people to use the beast tamer method to become cultivators and cultivate till at least Core Formation. Instead, they banished the first two young masters of their family, leading one to commit suicide and the other to become a mass murdering devil worshiper.

Why was it that only the three brothers that were the hope of the Tyler family becoming a cultivator clan? Unlike Collins clan that can only pass down the title of territorial lord from father to son, the Tyler family could have used any member of the family to produce a cultivator and have been promoted to a cultivator clan.

Books they shouldn't have been able to have and an obsession with becoming a cultivator clan with only the family head's children. Collin knew he wasn't missing something, some key piece of this puzzle that would allow everything make sense, and it was bugging him.

By the time he was ready to head to bed, the book he was supposed to read had been placed on a table so he could read it tomorrow. He hoped that tomorrow, he would be able to read more than the first four pages several times over.

Lying in bed, Collin wondered if he should just blame the Demars clan and be done with it. As a rival clan of the Monten clan, Collin and his clan had blamed the Demars clan for everything bad or unexplained that happened in Camis city for centuries. As soon as the thought appeared in his head, he remembered he wasn't a Monten anymore, and blaming the Demars clan now seemed childish.

The next day after breakfast and gardening, Collin began to practice alchemy. After making several low-grade scab pills, he made his first low-grade Qi gathering pill. It was a round teal colored pill that smelled like plants. Holding the pill in his hand he was considering whether he should take it or not. Since he reached the 2nd layer of Qi Condensation, he had been truly cultivating with the intention of getting stronger without holding back. If what he felt was right, he would reach the 3rd layer of Qi Condensation within the next two or three weeks.

Taking the pill and the ones he made after it would greatly increase his cultivation speed until he hit the 7th layer bottleneck. Then he would find out if the theories of the second era were correct or the fourth era are correct. The cultivators of the second era believed that one needed to reach out to the heavens and receive their blessings to progress. The modern fourth era belief is that between the 7th and 8th layers of Qi Condensation is the boundary between human and more than human and that the body needs to be prepared to evolve to the next state.

Preparing for the next state can be broken down into three parts: mind, body, and soul. The mind is already enhanced by cultivating, memory and thinking speed increase with each small and large cultivation improvements. The body is enhanced by constant fighting or with body refinement arts like the one Collin purchased from the market. The soul is enhanced by training a soul art or through constantly using one's soul. This is why most rogue cultivators struggle at this point, since soul arts are essential for the creation of any faction such as cultivator clans and sects they usually weren't sold or traded.

Other than a soul art, using one's soul for things like alchemy, inscription, and treasure refining slowly but steadily increases a soul's strength. But to use this method requires large amounts of time and recourses that most rogue cultivators can afford, with the cost of spells and technique manuals, weapons, armor, pills for healing, pills for cultivating, and a safe place to cultivate. Not every rogue cultivator has access to a luxurious villa and a bag full of money, normal rogue cultivators would have to have to hunt demon beasts or work as guards to earn what little they can.

With his continuous alchemy practice, Collin wasn't expecting to be stuck long at the 7th layer of Qi Condensation. If he was worried about it the book collection he got from the Tylers had three soul art books. He was trying not to continue to think about how and where the Tyler family got these books, solving a puzzle without all the pieces was more annoying than he cared for. He was also getting the feeling that if these books were as suspicious as he believed, then trying to look into it would be far more dangerous than he could handle.

With a shake of his head Collin tried to let go of all distractions, as the pill that hand been in his hand disappeared into his mouth and down his throat.