Humiliation

Ten years later.

The East Gabe Branch expanded rapidly; now, it controls nearly half of the eastern continent. As the sect expanded, more and more talented disciples joined; now, even the branches each have at least their formation masters.

The East Gabe Branch was fortunate with its students; it now has puppeteering, crafting, formation, and pill masters.

Mike was sitting in meditation posture in a newly crafted formation built by the branch's local formation master. They spent a lot of time perfecting it, which can increase magic concentration by 1,000 times.

A 1,000-times concentration is just below the pressure required to form energy crystals. Moreover, the formation is very efficient; it takes energy from the air, so there is no need to waste so many energy stones.

Of course, not all meditation rooms increase concentration to this degree; only the main room, which can only be used by elders and the branch master, can increase it by this much. Ordinary meditation rooms can, at most, increase energy concentration by a few hundred times.

The room was calm, isolated from the outside, and no noise could infiltrate in or out. Mike was sitting in the middle of it.

Suddenly, the energy in the room began spinning, moving toward the center, where Mike was deep in concentration. All the energy started pouring into his body.

The Energy concentration in the meditation room started to fall rapidly, but just as it was about to fall to below 800 times normal pressure, the formation was activated and began injecting more energy into the room, recovering the energy back to about 1,000 times the pressure of outside.

After a few minutes, Mike stopped devouring so much energy and just sat in meditation posture, not moving.

Finally, after 5 hours, he opened his eyes. "Finally, 8th stage of Core Formation!" he sighed with relief.

After cultivating in such an energy-rich environment for years, he finally reached this step.

Mike was the branch master here but was not busy running around to do official work as one may expect; he only decided on important matters. As for the many official duties a chief executive of a sect branch with such numbers might have, he delegated them all to other disciples.

After all, he is not dumb; the most important thing is one's cultivation. The sect and these outside powers are only tools. If Jack-sama asks him to do something, he can only do it if he is personally powerful.

He was originally not good at human relations and hasn't improved over the years. It can be said that by delegating so much Of the sect's affairs to disciples, he is doing everyone a favor; no one wants Mike to take on tasks that require too much talking.

Talent can be thought of as a multiplier; for example, someone with painting talent can do 10 times as much with normal effort. Mike has a multiplier in cultivation, bow and arrow, swordsmanship, military planning, strategy, etc., but he has a severe issue when it comes to talking to others. His multiplier on human relations is 0.1; he has to spend ten times the effort compared to ordinary humans to assemble a sentence.

It can be said that he is truly unsuitable for leadership roles; leaders are judges of character. One cannot be a good leader and not good at humanities. Still, Jack needed a strong and loyal branch leader, so he appointed Mike as the leader regardless of his shortcomings.

Before starting his next cultivation round to the 9th stage, he checked his Mailbox.

Once in closed-door cultivation, nobody is allowed to disturb him; for this reason, he has a Mailbox. He checks it whenever he is free.

Opening the box, he saw a few letters.

First, he read the one written on red paper; according to the rules, red letters are emergencies and must be read first.

"Branch master-sama, the Easterners have sent emissaries; they are waiting for you in the conference room!" The letter was short, conveying only the core of the matter without much nonsense. Mike's subordinates know how he is; every time they talk to him, they say only the heart of the matter without talking too much. They even adhere to that principle in letters.

Mike looked at the date of the letter; it was from nine days ago.

"It seems my next round of cultivation will have to be delayed," he sighed. He was just enjoying his loneliness and isolation, but the Easterners ruined it. For most, loneliness and isolation are depressing, but for Mike, they are delightful. He is a lone wolf who likes to be alone, except for Jack-sama; he always loves to accompany Jack-sama.

As for his sister Lucy, he hates to be near her; she is annoying and messes with him every time. Fortunately, she is on a long-term task far away.

Slowly standing up, Mike turned the formation off. After the pressure returned to its ordinary state, he opened the door and left.

…

Ivan was the leader of the SilverGold DragonTiger Empire.

The SilverGold DragonTiger Empire was the sole ruler of the entire eastern continent. It ruled unimaginably vast lands and governed over billions of people. It wasn't always like this; the continent used to be governed by many empires and kingdoms.

However, 50 years ago, after the birth of the Silver Dragon Emperor, everything changed.

The Silver Dragon Emperor, originally the son of a minor noble on the continent's eastern side, was a genius in every regard. He gathered massive armies, conquered one country after the next, and united the entire eastern side of the continent under one emperor.

Then, he married the princess of the ruler of the West, the Golden Tiger Empire.

Their child, the current emperor, became the emperor of the entire western and eastern lands, the true ruler of the world. After assuming the throne, he conquered a few remaining small kingdoms in the north and south, bringing every inch under his rule.

That was until they discovered the wild lands in the far west. The emperor ordered his subordinates to build large ships; only one sun could be under the sky. Now that they knew of the existence of other kingdoms in the far west, they were duty-bound to conquer them.

The ships were built with lightning speed and sailed. Just as the SilverGold DragonTiger Empire prepared for a major invasion, mysterious people with strange abilities invaded and changed everything.

They came and started stealing land, conquering city after city with their amazing power. The SilverGold DragonTiger Empire gradually learned about the energy and even managed to cultivate a few core formation cultivators, but it was no match for the enemies; it continued to lose ground.

Now, it has lost all of the western lands it once controlled, and as time goes on, it will soon be entirely destroyed. What do you do when there is no chance of winning? Of course, you must surrender.

That's why the emperor sent Ivan here to negotiate the terms of a surrender.

He was brought to a luxurious conference room. At first, he thought that the enemy's leader would attend to them soon, but he was wrong. He was forced to remain, eat, and sleep in the conference room for nine days! It was disrespect and humiliation beyond anything he had seen in his life; the enemy was strong, so he remained silent.

He was not a cultivator; the empire has cultivators, but all are precious. If the enemy doesn't agree with the terms of surrender, the lives of emissaries might be endangered. Simply put, they sent Ivan because he was replaceable.

A while ago, the enemies informed him that their leader was finally coming to visit. They sent a few servants to clean the conference room, which was messy because Ivan and his three companions had lived there for days.

After a few hours of frustrating wait, finally, the door opened, and a man in messy clothes entered. His face was white, nearly shining.

Ivan bowed and greeted, "Your honor. Thank you for agreeing to meet us!" He didn't complain at all about his days of miserable living conditions in the conference room.

Mike nodded. Of course, because Ivan bowed his head, he didn't see his nod and only thought that Mike was in a bad mood for not responding.

Taking a peek, he realized Mike had come alone. It was strange for a leader to come without any assistance, but it was none of Ivan's business, so he didn't dare say anything.

After sitting on the top chair, Mike thought and ordered, "Sit!"

Ivan and his companions respectfully took their seats.

"What now?" Mike asked.

Ivan said, "Your honor, we are here to negotiate the terms of the surrender! His Majesty, the emperor has concluded that your honors are chivalrous and noble; as long as you recognize our self-governance rights, we will start paying tribute to you and become your protectorate," said Ivan.

Mike thought for a moment and said, "No need! Leave, go back." Jack had specifically directed him not to accept any surrender, to stimulate the empire's drive to make a breakthrough in their cultivation technique research and to delay the completion of the world domination task. If they accept the SilverGold DragonTiger Empire's surrender, Jack would become the world's ruler, which would unlock the larger map.

Jack didn't want to unlock the larger map without reaching the nascent soul stage.

"But, your honor? We are surrendering in good faith! We can negotiate on the terms of the deal! For a show of goodwill, we brought a hundred thousand mid-size energy stones," Ivan panicked; he was sure now that the shining man in front of him was in a bad mood for some reason.

Mike thought with a headache, "I should have just sent a subordinate!" He regretted.

After racking his brain, he said, "I accept your gift but refuse your request to surrender. Also, if you have any extra energy stones and immortal items, you are always free to send them to us."

Ivan was confused and dumbfounded. "Does that mean your honor agrees not to attack us anymore?"

Mike said, "No."

Ivan waited; Mike said nothing more.

Ivan said said, "Your honor, I am speechless."

Mike said, "It's okay; you can leave now."

Ivan, unwilling to leave like this, said, "Your honor, may I know the reason you are refusing our sincere proposal?"

Thinking it was too much of a hassle to explain, Mike said, "No."

Not satisfied, Ivan said desperately, "Your honor, we seek peace! Why are you treating us like this?"

Rolling his eyes, Mike stood up and left the room without an explanation.

…

Outside the room.

"Branch master!" A woman in the core formation stage bowed once she saw Mike.

Mike nodded and said, "Throw them out! I am going to closed-door cultivation again!" With that, he left.

The woman was familiar with Mike; he probably ruined negotiations because of his rude behavior. It couldn't be helped; Mike was the duly appointed leader and the only great elder in the East Gabe Branch; his words were absolute. Nobody attended the emissaries for nine days because of standing orders from Mike himself, which said that only he was allowed to talk and negotiate with emissaries. He went in there alone was again because of his own orders.

Perhaps if anyone else had gone with Mike, they could have smoothed things out and even gotten the empire to surrender completely.

"Such pity!" the core formation female cultivator thought. She believed she was more qualified to be the leader; unfortunately, the headquarters and Jack-sama didn't see her talents.

Thinking about it, she got angry; she was not very talented in cultivation. There was little chance of her reaching the nascent soul stage. But, her talent in leadership, at least in her own opinion, was amazing. But, she was stuck here in the branch and couldn't come in contact with the supreme elder; her successive requests for transfer back to the headquarters were rejected.

As someone less talented in cultivation, she became an elder five years ago; she is the leader of security forces in the East Gabe Branch. She has many official and handyman disciples under her hand; occasionally, the ordinary disciples take security tasks and come under her hand. Her road to progress is not advancing at the cultivation level but becoming the branch leader; her current position, though powerful, is not enough for her.

She called a few handyman disciples and ordered, "Throw them out!"

Soon, the disciples, all cultivators, dragged Ivan and his company out, even beating them.

Ivan was confused even as he was punched in the nose; he was completely astonished at how they treated him. He decided to share all that happened here; if the emperor heard it, he would surely be outraged and would take revenge.