Open secrets.

After returning to the villa Collin summoned the trio and told them about the devil hunters and that they should stay in the villa. The trio agreed that they shouldn't go out, it wasn't hard for them to understand that being born in the Monten clan made them targets and without the clan backing them up, it would be dangerous for them to meet the devil hunters.

The four of them ate the snack Collin brought back in silence till Valter asked a question.

"Why do all the cultivation manuals stop at the Soul Transformation stage?"

Julie and Viktor stopped their snacking and a look of confusion appeared on their faces. Collin could read the look on their faces as they began to remember everything they had read within their cultivation manuals.

"You can stop thinking about it, it's an open secret. If you're not strong enough to know then you don't need to know. It's the same thing as what the advanced form of the wind spirit root."

Now all three of them looked at Collin confused.

"Guess you're not there yet with your studies. All three of you have taken the cultivator test, didn't you look at the board?"

It looked like Viktor was going to speak but Collin cut him off and started to explain.

"In the center of the board there are three dots for light, darkness, and death. Surrounding that are the dots for earth, fire, water, wood, and wind. Surrounding them is the dots for Metal which is the advanced version of the earth spiritual root, life for wood, and lightning for fire and so on. All of them are labeled with what they are, except for the advanced version of wind, it's blank.

The reason it's blank and why no one mentions what's beyond Soul Transformation is because it's a test. If you are strong enough or resourceful enough, you'll learn the answer on your own. But if you don't, then you don't deserve to know the answer."

"Wait, do you know what they are? Asked Viktor.

"No. I have only heard and read rumors. Like the advance form of the wind spiritual root has to do with the soul or space, and if anyone tests positive for it their family has to report it to the empire and the person has to marry into the royal family. Or you can only get past the Soul Transformation stage by leaving the planet and you can't come back." Collin said before grabbing another fried pancake like treat.

"Is any of the true?" This time it was Julie asking the question, but the tone of her voice sounded like she had already decided the answer was no.

"The stuff about the advanced form of the wind spiritual root should be pure crap, but the stuff about Soul Transformation rank cultivators should be true. I mean the world tree is at the northern pole and there is a planetary teleportation array there, and every Soul Transformation rank expert I have heard of leaves where they are and heads to the northern pole region shortly after breaking through to Soul Transformation."

Unfortunately, Collin had eaten the last of the snacks he had brought back as he was explaining. That was the problem with delicious snacks from the market, no matter how many you buy they disappear far too fast. Collin's lamenting over the end of snack time was cut short by Valter asking about the other worlds cultivators could go to.

"Yeah, there are whole bunch of worlds other than this one. There are even great empires in the stars and many different civilizations out there. I mean, the world tree is proof of that if you think about it, our ancestors of the cultivation civilization stole that from the elven civilization to enrich this world's energy level. It's also the reason one of the western continents has elves on it.

If you want to read more about some of the other worlds or civilizations, you can look in the library. Those books are on the bottom shelf of the third bookcase. Except for the book on the wizard civilization, it's in my bathroom, I read it whenever I take a shit. It's a fascinating read and would make a good alternative path of cultivation if the starting requirements were cheaper and easier to start. But since you need to make something called a wizard's tower and inscribe it with a lot of energy transformation runes to change this world's energy into mana, and then use that mana till you get strong enough to use the treasure cultivation method to make a mana furnace to automatically make mana from the world's energy. It doesn't seem to be worth it cost wise."

By the end of his explanation of how to become a wizard in this world, Collin was having a hard time not laughing due to the dumbfounded looks the trio was giving him. It's not like Collin could blame them, he just told them that not only were there other worlds with people in space and that there were great civilizations with vastly different cultivation methods, but that they had access to some of them in the library, except for the one Collin was reading in the toilet.

"Well, I'm going to go practice alchemy, you three should go back to studying." The three of them watched as Collin left the room and after a few minutes they headed straight to the library to look at those books and the knowledge they held.

Walking into the alchemy room, Collin began to sort his new materials into where they should go. When that was done, he moved his normal alchemy cauldron to the side and place his new black caldron in its place and began making poison pills to feed the flood dragons sleeping in his beast orb. He had ten more chances to succeed, or to fail and watch the little creature die a miserable death.

Making the pill didn't take as long as last time, and he was soon feeding his unwilling pets their snack. He even wondered if they would prefer to have some of the fried pancakes he had earlier, rather than the disturbingly green glowing pills. Within an hour, all ten flood dragons had been feed a pill. Only the fourth and tenth flood dragons survived and cocooned themselves, while all the other died screeching in agony. It would still take a few days to know if the two flood dragons would evolve into an amphiptere or need to be destroyed as failures like the last one.

After cleaning up the failures, it was time to use what he learned from Valeria and start making pills in large amounts. His first attempt at making the healing pill still ended in failure but it only had a slight tan color to it. With what he now knew it wouldn't take long before he got to the low-grade rank stage, then it would only be a matter of time till he got them to mid-grade.

After making several sets of pills he did successfully make a low-grade healing pill. After that he tried making the other three pills and failed. But instead of being black pill shaped charcoal or dark brown, they were a mildly tan color. This made him think he might be able to take the test in a month or so. He was certain that he would easily pass the written portion of the test, and the practical part of the test would require him to make four pills from the so-called top ten pills, but since he had no choice or knowledge of what pills he would need to make, he would need to be able to make each pill to a degree that he was comfortable in his ability to pass the test.

He was so close to achieving his goal, the only thing he needed was to avoid being interrupted while he practiced.