Closed doors

Klaus entered the main room in the castle and asked the black spirit for a cultivation technique that he can use to improve his power.

'I would recommend that you engrave runes on every cell, skin and bone in your body using your spiritual energy'

Replied the black spirit as he sent the cultivation method it had devised for Klaus. It took a while for Klaus to digest the cultivation method.

At the first level he would have to engrave runes the represent strength, resilience, vitality, endurance, speed, and toughness. These runes will constantly improve in base stats without him ever needing to do anything.

At the second level he would engrave runes that will give his body resistance and control to the elements that build up the universe including light, darkness, spirit, time and space.

At the third level he would first need to understand laws that govern the world, the more laws he understands, the more powerful and stable the worlds he would later create will be.

At the fourth level he would engrave runes using his understanding of laws that will make use of the power of the runes that he had already engraved to make each cell within his body into a world on its own, basically making his body into a universe.

'Black, you outdid yourself this time'

Thought Klaus when he understood the techniques. The cultivation technique is completely different from the system in the world, making his own path unique. Though it might take him a long time to finish implementing the method, the challenge of such a technique enticed him.

'I can shorten the time at the third stage by using the Dao tree god spirit to understand the laws' thought Klaus as he was already thinking of ways to achieve his goals more efficiently.

'At the end of it, even a single cell in my body would be a treasure without equal' he mused.

After going through what he was to do, klaus began his own cultivation.

…

The others after done with their repose, waited for Klaus to come but without seeing him for more than a week they went to his room only to find a sign on the door that read

'Do not disturb me, I am cultivating'

When xiaxue and fangbo saw the message, they couldn't believe it.

Fangbo:" big bro ling, that must be a lie right, lord Klaus cultivating"

Xiaxue:" Yes brother ling, is there even a need for someone as powerful as lord Klaus to cultivate"

They have witnessed Klaus create monsters more powerful than them, seen him reverse death, seen him make something out of nothing, and even summon the castle which they now lived in. They couldn't rap their heads around someone like that still cultivating.

Chen ling:" that is why you should always focus on cultivating, so if a need ever arise, you won't be useless to him"

Chen left to go practice after he said that. He wanted to be useful to Klaus in someway but what else can he do apart from cultivating.

The siblings took their leave to go train as well.

Two months passed and, in that time, Klaus would enter his mental scape and face off against Yasuo every time. They had the same skills and every time he succeeded in winning a fight, the mental image of Yasuo would improve and he would need to defeat a new version of him. Klaus used this method to improve his fighting style, being a swordsman fanatic, taking time to do this for him was a necessity rather than a want.

He also started engraving the runes for speed but in two months, he only succeeded in engraving his right arm, by his estimation it would take him a year before he will finish engraving the runes for speed alone. Tired of cultivating he left his room and came down only to notice that Chen ling and xiaxue were cultivating in their quarters, fangbo being the only one outside that was practicing his moves on the 'way of the grandmaster'. Looking at his movements Klaus felt like he was looking at the grandmaster character from the game he loved playing.

"how's it going fangbo" asked Klaus in a carefree way that didn't resemble someone that was constantly being called lord.

"Lord Klaus you are out?"

"Yes, I wanted to cook dinner for everyone so we can eat together but Chen and xiaxue are busy so that will have to wait"

"I'm sure they will get unbusy if they are told you are cooking" laughed fangbo in a polite way. Whenever Klaus cooked a big meal, he would use ingredients from his storage space which are rich in spiritual energy, plus with his skills in cooking his food not only tasted good, it helped increased their qi. Chen ling and xiaxue would definitely come out of cultivation for such a meal.

"there's no rush, we can call them out later today. I can see that your skill has improved again, care to spar for while" asked Klaus

Fangbo grew excited immediately. To spar with the likes of lord Klaus would be an opportunity that he couldn't pass up simply because of feelings like fear of pain.

"Yes, lord Klaus, it would be an honor"

When fangbo took a battle stance, klaus took the same battle stance. Surprised only for a moment fangbo immediately came to a realization

'it wouldn't be a surprise if lord Klaus knows every technique that he has given to us'

He could feel a pressure that was not there. A pressure that stemmed from his own excitement and expectation. Controlling his emotions, he made the first move.

…

After getting beaten black and blue, fangbo was tasked with calling Chen ling and xiaxue to the dinner hall. Before they came down Klaus had already prepared the food.

Xiaxue:" greetings lord klaus"

"Hello Klaus, you really did it this time, what's the occasion?" asked Chen ling salivating while looking at the amazing spread.

Klaus laugh it off. After the dinner, everyone felt full and refreshed.

"Everyone, I have decided that from now on, you will do less cultivation and focus more on studying other aspect such as alchemy, blacksmithing, cooking, and the likes"

The news come as a surprise to everyone.

"But Klaus, learning that would take us a lot of time, it will significantly slow down our progress in cultivation" said Chen ling

"This will just be another form of cultivation, also I am not trying to have goons for subordinates, I also need you to be intellectually capable. You all have progressed significantly faster than anyone else. Use the extra time you have gained to learn a different field"

Chen ling could not refute his order. He felt that he needed to be greater than everyone else to be useful to Klaus. But if Klaus says that is what he needed to do, all he could do was try his best. A beam of light flew from Klaus's finger and hit Chen lings head giving him information about his occupation

"Chen, you will have to learn black smithing, when I feel that you have progressed accordingly, I will provide you the different step which will be engraving runes to enhance weapons" said Klaus as he proceeded to send information to fangbo and xiaxue

" xiaxue, you shall learn music, and become a demonic tunist. You are a natural beauty and I want to improve on that, being my follower, you should be the envy of the so-called gods of this world, both in beauty and strength" said Klaus making xuexia blush.

"fangbo you shall learn about formations, I want you to be able to perform various unique feats using the power of formations"

Fangbo nodded in acknowledgment. Seeing that they understood their objective Klaus decided to break the news he intended to say in the first place

"I will now go into closed door cultivation for three years"

He wanted to finish at least the half of the first level in his cultivation. Xiaxue and fangbo were a little down because he will no be around. As for Chen ling, he instead felt apprehensive. Since he knew Klaus this will be the first time Klaus has taken cultivation so seriously, he couldn't help but think that it foreshadowed something.

"You will basically be teaching yourselves which will make it harder, your success will depend on your level of comprehension, so try your best. You will find the tools that you need in your quarters. Chen yours are in the east conner of the castle. I will check on your respective progress in three years… One more thing, make sure there are three hundred high quality horses here when I come out in three years"

"Three hundred, but what about the money and how will we get horses this deep in the forest" asked fangbo

"I don't know, you think of something, as for money, use only skills of the occupation that you learn to earn money to buy the horses, or you go and catch wild horses, the choice is yours to make"

Done with his explanation Klaus returned to his room, easily putting a noise cancellation formation, he began earnestly cultivating for the first time.

…

Back in their rooms they delve in to the tasked that they were given. Each of their respective occupation had nine levels with one star being the lowest and nine stars being the highest. After understanding the importance and difficulty of the task that they were given, they knew that it learning those occupations would greatly improve their power, but to make any substantial progress will require a lot of time which will slow down their speed in cultivation.

So, they committed immediately to their task

Four months passed

Qianqian finally succeeded in convincing her father to allow her to go with him for his investigation. After investigating the whereabouts of Chen ling, they found out that he was still in the forest. So, the patriarch for fear of what he might do should he come face to face with his son's killer, sent an elder with Qianqian to the forest bearing gifts.

While coming close to the location where they met Chen ling, xiaxue and fangbo, instead of a forest they saw a magnificent castle as was reported by the scout sent to investigate.

"He didn't lie, there really is a castle here" said Qianqian still not believing her own eyes. When the scout sent to investigate came back talking about a castle, they didn't believe it.

"You said this place was a forest before?" asked elder ming fai

"Yes elder" replied Qianqian

"hmm, for a castle like this to be made in just six months in such an area, it would seem that elder maylin was right, those that you encountered are to ordinary at all" spoke ming fai as they walked to the front gate of the castle. When they got close enough, they could only hear the sound of someone cursing.

"Shit, shit, what am I missing, how do I get the synchronization rate up to forty percent" cursed fangbo. After two months of practice he has succeeded to enter the initiate level as a formation master, he could now make formations that could do whatever he wanted to do with a synchronization rate of twenty percent, which showed that he had a high level of comprehension, but the next level, the intermediate tier, where he would need to make a formation that can synchronize up to forty percent with the environment, borrowing a potion of the energy of the surroundings to improve its might proved challenging to the point that he felt frustrated. Just as he was about to continue cursing, he heard a call

"Hello, we would like an audience with your elder brother, chen ling" said Qianqian

Fangbo stopped what he was doing and looked at the person who spoke . His eyes drifting from the elder before landing on Qianqian

"You again, what are you doing here?" asked fangbo