An unexpected welcome

An unexpected welcome

At about noon of the second day,there was a surge of spirit qi in the region Zach was in,an indication that he had successfully broken through into the low stage of core condensation realm,the same realm as the Mamba Bandits chief.

The spirit qi rushed into his meridians, strengthening and expanding them before doing the same for his dantian. The process was painless and fast.

Inside Zach's dantian, was a transparent sphere,this was his newly formed core. He had to fill it with spirit qi until it expanded to atleast twice its original size as to break into the mid stage of foundation establishment realm. Most cultivators were satisfied of a double sized core,as expanding it beyond that did not only take up time and resources that could have been used to grow ones cultivation,but also slowed down ones cultivation speed as it meant that they needed to go extra miles to fulfill the requirements for their next breakthrough.

And for him to reach the high stage of foundation establishment realm,he had to harden his core's shell. As for the peak stage,he had to liquidify all the spirit qi in his core.

Zach estimated that without the help of pills and other resources,it would take him atmost an year to breakthrough into the mid stage,but since he wanted to expand his core beyond the required minimum size,it would take him more than that.

Thankfully, with his new breakthrough,he could now attempt the refinement of mid ranked spirit pills, provided he had the mid ranked spirit herbs and materials. As for formations, setting up mid ranked ones would be a piece of cake,as most of the materials came from core condensation realm spirit beast.

All he needed was to travel deeper into the forest to hunt them. And with his knew breakthrough,and the formation strengthened armor, going against a peak stage core condensation realm spirit beast and emerging as the victor was nothing but a little challenge.

"Time to meet up with the guards..."

Zach left the boulder two ours after his breakthrough,as he had to stabilize his foundation and retreived the formation flags.

He avoided the spirit beast on his way to the rendezvous point.

Seated on opposite sides of a wooden table,were Zach and Mamba. Each of them was busy digging into their meal. As for the twelve high stage spirit qi gathering realm guards,they stood guard outside the hall,while the three peak stage spirit qi gathering realm guards,stood guard inside the hall.

The meal consisted of bread,wine, vegetables,soup, fruits and roasted meat. It may have seem simple but it was not. The bread was baked from low ranked spirit grain,the wine was distilled from low ranked spirit purple grapes,the vegetables were all low ranked spirit vegetables as were the fruits. As for the roasted meat,it was something that even Zach had not tasted,it was from a low stage core condensation realm Black Wolf. Mamba had hunted it down for this specific meal a day ago.

"So,Chief Mamba..."

Zach addressed the bandit chief after the meal.

"It was quite a surprise,and I do believe you had your reasons for avoiding a fight..."

"Yes I had lord Zach..."

A couple of hours back,Zach had met his guards and matched towards the Mamba Bandits Lair,only to be cordially welcomed. A bandit guard had been sent to meet them and offer them the chief's invitation to a meal.

All this came as a surprise to Zach and his men,but sensing no I'll intentions from the bandit and also knowing that he had an advantage in terms of strength due to his guards cultivation,Zach accepted the invite. He only had one thought in mind,

"Why fight when you can settle everything amicably..."

And as he enjoyed the meal,he felt happy of himself for accepting the bandits chief invite. This was a meal that even he did not have the luxury to afford.

What Zach did not know,was that he was not the only one surprised or happy for this sit down. Mamba was quite surprised after he realized that Zach,the person he had spied on with the tiny low ranked surveillance silver mirror,had successfully broken through into the core condensation realm,and the aura he released was twice as strong as his.

"Did he increase his core beyond the minimum size...?"

Mamba had wondered after he felt Zach's aura for the first time.

The bandit chief was also greatful 9f Zach accepting his invite,if he had not,he would have been forced to fight. And though his side had numbers,the individual strength of his men was way to low.

"I hoped that we could come to an agreement,but before that, I have a little story for you..."

For the next three hours,Zach spent them listening to Mamba's little story. He was intrigued by the fact that he was seated with a former sovereign, someone who died two thousand years ago.

"I wonder how strong your enemies were as to wipe out your whole city?"

"Very strong would be an underestimation..."

Mamba said as he motioned for one of the bandit's,who was acting as their waiter to refill their wine. The bandit had a shocked face on,his hands trembled and fear was written all over him.

"A sovereign,six realms above the core condensation realm..."

That was the only thought in his mind. Who would have believed that their chief died two years ago and his body was taken over by such a strong being.

"You want a place to comfortably settle down and cultivate..."

"Yes Lord Zach..."

"And what's wrong with this place..."

"Simple..."

Mamba paused as to sip his wine.

"I want to grow my strength and power past my previous realm,and for this to happen,I need tonnes of resources and the only way to accomplish this is by establishing a sect. The disciples would gather the resources for sects points at the same time growing their power and having a backing of the sect."

"But I have to first establishe a strong foundation for the sect,I need to reach the nascent soul realm,and help the twenty-four men who remained neutral reach at least the foundation establishment realm..."

"With such power, at least my sect will have a chance against the spirit beasts at the core of the forest."