Chapter 14

Within the Pan clan, there was only one Body refinement method that was given to the most elite of disciples of the clan. That cultivation method was said to allow the cultivator to reach the peak of the Grand Master stage of cultivation. With the difference of overall potential, it could be said that Pan Chao's future would be much more fruitful compared to those who used a lesser cultivation method to train.

He was unsure why his mother would wait so long to hand over two powerful scrolls to him, but Pan Chao did not want to question her about this. Either way, Pan Chao wanted to keep the fact that he was training outside of learning about formations a secret for the time being. However, if someone wanted to bully him for whatever reason, he would not falter but instead rise to the challenge.

Out of all the clans within Crimson Circle, the Pan clan was the most civil with the majority of them. The only two clans that would usually try to make the Pan clan look bad due to a rivalry that lasted many years were the Shi and the Long clans. He learned from his master that long ago when the Pan clan arrived within the city, members of the Shi and Long clans were very forceful to keep the Pan clan from growing and overtaking their influence.

If it was not for the fact that killing was not allowed in Crimson Circle, the Pan clan would not have been able to stay for long and instead would have been split up and absorbed by both clans. As history showed, the Pan clan was steadily able to grow over the many years while both the Shi and Long clans did not dwindle but remained about the same in both reputation and influence.

It was to the point where the Shi and Long clan were ranked a respectful fourth and fifth concerning the ten strongest clans within Crimson Circle. Similar to the Pan clan, the Sword Sanctuary and the Red Raven schools that were located within Crimson Circle overpowered all three on their own. This was because both schools had Ancestor stage cultivators as deans watching over the students.

This was a rather common occurrence when it came to schools being formed within different cities regardless of the Commandery. Many of the school's students were from the top ten clans and others outside of the city that showed promise. The independent cultivators were usually brought into the clans, who offered benefits depending on how high their cultivation was.

If the students were not picked up by an influential clan and was not strong enough to build their own clans, would usually join one of the many branches of the military in order to continue learning more techniques, building their reputation, and even earning many benefits for their loved ones.

Such a path was not ideal for Pan Chao at the moment, because if a cultivator was too weak, they would have to sign a long and gruesome contract with the military. For commoners, this was a decent situation since the military would make sure that they could reach their overall potential as cultivators, but if he were to join in name down the line as his cultivation was higher, he could receive benefits without signing such horrid contracts.

The contracts offered were one thousand years at a time and if a cultivator wanted to obtain better benefits, the contract would increase five hundred years at a time or more depending on the type of benefits. Fortunately, the military boasted the best cultivation methods and techniques available in the world so a commoner could become an immortal by serving long enough if they were born with the potential to become one.

Pan Chao's personality made him not want to serve others, so the idea of joining the military was out of the question for him. Plus, if he joined down the road, he would be able to have a bounty hunter type role where he could hunt down criminals on behalf of the military and earn similar benefits for each criminal captured or killed by him.

SItting down cross legged, Pan Chao withdrew the sphere-like object and tried to examine it once more. There was no telling what would happen if he was able to tap into it a second time, and for the past three weeks before training, he would do this for at least twenty minutes. However, just like the other times he tried, nothing had happened like before.

"Wait, now that I am thinking more about it, the moment that I threw it at the wall is when I was transported to that mysterious place!" Pan Chao thought to himself as he took a deep breath. "I guess that it is worth a shot!" instead of throwing the sphere-like object hard against the wall next to him, he just gently tossed it.

"If I knew that you would throw me when you got bored, I would have already spoken to you more three weeks ago. How dare you treat me like this!"

Suddenly Pan Chao's body froze as a voice appeared within his mind. "Oh, now that I am recognizing you and talking to you like a person, that is when your body becomes tense. Pity, that woman seemed to have a sinister personality but at least she seemed like a person I could work with. What are you waiting for, pick me up!"

Looking at the sphere-like object, Pan Chao realized that it had a faint glow which it did not have when he examined it earlier and so the voice had to be coming from it. "Can I ask what the hell are you?"

"Oh so that weak Intermediate stage cultivator receives your utmost respect but when it comes to a figure that was once unrivaled through the heavens, I am considered to be spoken to so casually? Do me a favor and just sell me to a random merchant or cultivator because maybe they will know how to properly address me!" the more the voice spoke, the more it sounded like a woman.