When one jumps another follows.

After entering the energy gathering array, Valter sat down and began to arrange the items Collin left for him to use. After a few seconds, Valter brought the knife up to his left forearm and dragged the sharp blade against skin on the top of his forearm.

Bright red blood began to flow from the gash towards his hand only to dribble into the bowl of medicinal solution at the wrist. A minute later the bowl was fill almost to the top and Valter began to use the stir stick till the solution was thoroughly mixed.

As Valter lifted the spirit ore with his left hand, the blood began to flow down it, dripping onto his clothes and staining them red. The clothes he was wearing were the same ones he was wearing when he arrived at the villa. Collin didn't know if Valter wore them because they were the cheapest and most expendable clothes he had, or if it was some kind of statement of being reborn.

The more Collin thought about it the more he liked the idea, from birth they were wrapped in silky smooth clothes and bedding, but after being cast out they were forced to wear clothing that felt like sandpaper and forced to sleep on the cold ground. If Valter succeeded in becoming a cultivator, then he would have every right to wear the nicest silk clothes, and sleep in the softest of beds. But truth was Collin had known Valter his whole life and knew he wore those clothes for a practical reason and not as a symbol of anything.

As Collin was thinking this, Valter had finished drawing the simple array on the spirit ore and held it to his stomach as he began to manipulate the energy gathering array. The energy entered into the spirit ore then was guided inside Valter's body and flowed around in a calm and steady manner. After a few cycles Valter had to reapply the arrays with the bloody medicinal solution, till after having to reapply the array for the fourth time, Valter had succeeded in making the spirit ore into his treasure dantian.

The spirit ore lightly glowed as it disappeared into Valter's stomach, truly becoming one with Valter. There was no great flash of light or heavenly sound that signaled that Valter had succeeded in becoming a cultivator, it was just a simple feeling of a cold lump of metal in his hand becoming one with him.

A smile was plastered on Valter's face, this was only a hand full of times that Collin had seen Valter show emotions. And to be honest it creeped Collin out, since Valter wasn't used to happily smiling the smile on his face seemed to have an inhuman feel to it, like a monster trying to pretend that it was a human smiling.

Trying to get past the creepy sight in front of him, Collin walked to Valter and removed two items from his space ring. One was a small bluish pill, and the other was a small square of paper with a dollop cream like substance on it.

"Rub the cream on your wound, it will stop the bleeding and prevent a scar from forming. Then take the pill and refine it with your new cultivation base to heal your arm.

Feel free to spend some time in the array to cultivate, just remember to not overdo it. I know from personal experience that it is easy to be overconfident when starting something new and harming yourself."

"Understood." A look of seriousness replaced the smile on Valter's face, soon his face returned to its normal look, almost like he had never experienced the joy and excitement he had just a minute ago.

"Congratulations on becoming a cultivator but you need to remember that this is only the first step of cultivation. There have been those who had nothing but grew so powerful that this world no longer offered them anything of value, but there have been those who had been given everything and still amounted to nothing. How far you walk on this path is entirely up to you.

When your done here and have cleaned yourself up, go to the library and choose a soul art and a body refining art, I want you to start training them after you get the hang of cultivating."

After saying what he should have said and what he needed to say, Collin turned to leave but was stopped in his tracks and compelled to look at Valter again.

"As you wish... Patriarch."

For a moment, being called Patriarch gave Collin a shock, then it turned to amusement. Since he was planning to start a cultivation clan with his cousins, and he was planning to be the head of this clan he did have the right to the title. But since he was making the clan to mostly benefit himself and then benefit the other clan members, he hadn't put much thought into his title.

Collin left the building with a little smirk on his face, and it lasted till he began to practice alchemy. He needed to be calm and collected to preform alchemy or else his success rate would fall, and he would waste his time and ingredients. The ingredients he was using for these pills weren't rare or that expensive, but he didn't like wasting them if he could help it. What he would find most annoying would be the waste of time, he was so close to his goal. Of the four pills he needed to learn to make he had already got two of them to the point where they could be classified as the lowest of low-grade pills about 60% of the time.

His desire to take the Alchemist's Guild test fueled his pill making till the sound of birds chirping signaled that it was dinner time. Walking into the dining room it wasn't hard to notice a difference. Valter had a dignified regal air about him, and Julie kept sneaking glances at him and looked like she wanted to ask him something. Viktor on the other hand was stuffing his face with food till the end of dinner.

Julie had volunteered to clean up the table and place the dishes in the delivery chute. Viktor left without giving it a second thought, while Valter gave her an understanding glance before leaving. Julie kept looking towards Collin obviously wanting to ask him something but failed to every time.

"He said he wanted to try and become a cultivator after breakfast, so I set everything up for him. After letting an energy gathering array charge up for a couple of hours, Valter started, and a little less than an hour later, he was a cultivator. "

Julie was shocked by what Collin had just said. Since she and the twins had come to this villa, they had dedicated themselves to becoming cultivators. They had spent almost all their waking hours reading and studying their chosen paths over and over again all in hope that when the day comes when they try to become cultivators they would have a better chance to succeed, only to have Collin describe it so casually.

Julie didn't know how long she stood there in her stunned state, but Collin was still sitting there looking at her, waiting for her to respond.

"Can you help me become a cultivator as well?" She asked.

"The array is active now and will remain active till tomorrow afternoon, if you wish to try between now and then. If you think you need more time, the array can be set up at any time, if I'm available. It will need around two hours to charge up, during that time you'll need to pick the nine flood dragons you will be using."

"Can we do it now?" Collin noted a tone of fear in Julie's voice as she asked.

"If that is your wish, we can do it tonight. After you are done with cleaning up here, change into some clothes you don't mind getting blood and other bodily fluids on, and meet me at the flood dragon pond."

"Ok."

It was a simple response, and one Collin had expected after he add the phrase 'if I'm available'. It was just a simple nudge, but it was effective. Now there were two down and one to go, the only problem is Viktor isn't one to volunteer or be notice simple nudges, he will need a more direct shove to the desired outcome. While Collin was heading to the flood dragon pond, he thought about the best way to give that shove without it turning into a fist to Viktor's face. But he wasn't ruling it out.