Chapter 218: Finding Some Privacy

I finally knew how to read the time here in the Sky Kingdom. If the sun is on the east side, then it's daytime, and if the sun is on the west side, then it's nighttime. It's all pointless information but at least I already know when I should get some sleep. Right now, the sun is tipped to the East, so I could tell that it was still early morning. I just woke up, but the surroundings welcomed me with the same brightness as before. I guess I can't really get used to this.

One might think that cultivators don't really need some sleep because they have enough Qi Energy to compensate for it, but that's quite wrong.  Cultivators need some sleep from time to time to detach themselves from all the things that life throws at them. Right now, I have a lot of things in my mind that I needed more sleep than usual. And not only that, I need some alone time as well to figure out what my next step would be from now on. It's not every day one would wake up as a a king with a huge kingdom and subjects below him. To me, I still feel like everything about the Tang Clan and the Sky Kingdom were a dream.

It had been three days since we had the meeting with Sir Conrad and our group was given time to assimilate with our new environment. The Fourth Battalion was given special quarters near the Sky Knights training area so they could join training whenever they want, and as for Zenith and Natalia, both of them spend most of their time going around the Sky Kingdom and telling me everything about it before we hit the sack at night.

As for me, I found a good spot by the edge of the Sky Kingdom, a shallow cave that I started frequenting. In simple terms, I turned the cave into my mini-base since I didn't want to do anything unusual in the castle where I reside. As the new, yet unofficial, king or supreme leader of the Tang Clan, everyone in the kingdom watched my every move so I resort to going to this place for some privacy.

Here, I started studying how to efficiently use the Essence Pot with the materials I have in my Storage Rings. Although I already gave a considerable amount of resources to the Tang Sect back at the Lower Plane, I kept a few of them for myself so I could use them in situations like these. That way, I could gather more information about the Essence Pot by using it with low-grade ingredients. And once I'm ready I could use higher-grade ingredients to create better Essences and, hopefully, Pills. I'm still a long way away from it though since I just started out.

And also, I can't really disappear for a long time so I could only stay in the cave for one to three hours per day, at most.

I'm also mastering how to use the Boundless Calligraphy in hopes that I could print more powerful cultivation techniques and distribute them to those who wanted to learn it. I asked Hui-ying and the System if it were possible to use the Boundless Calligraphy to print out Elements and they said it might be possible if I was powerful enough as a cultivator. That's why I didn't rule out the fact that I could eventually use the Boundless Calligraphy for that purpose.  If there's a slight chance then I'll take it. Because, well, this could basically change everyone's perspective on how elements work. If Element Orbs could contain an element within, then why can't a small parchment of paper contain one?

After fiddling with the Boundless Calligraphy and trying to write my Thousand Hand Technique on it (only to fail miserably), I then created a few mid-grade Essences for my Fire and Lightning Element. I knew that it wouldn't really help with my cultivation that much but it's worth a try. Besides, I have a lot of free time at the moment. There was no need to run from rabid humans or participate in subjugations. The Sky Knights do all those works for me.

Now that I think about it, they usually undergo subjugation missions at this time of day. Their goal is to protect the whole Middle Plane by stopping potential horde attacks on a Settlement. They're doing a good deed, but I wonder if they'll ever get tired of doing it one day?

After my warm-up using the Essence Pot, I started activating my Fiery Qi Core which contained both my Fire and Lightning Element. Since my Fiery Qi Core is my third strongest Qi Core, and probably my most-used Qi Core along with my Dark Qi Core, I decided to cultivate it today so it could eventually even out with my other Qi Cores. That sounded a bit wordy but oh well, I'm just talking to myself and explaining pointless stuff, which I tend to do a lot.

With that, I pulled out a few High-Grade Fire Dust Essences from my Silverwing Storage Ring and laid five of them out in a circle. After sitting inside that circle, I opened each of the Essences one by one, releasing its contents in the air. Some sort of orange haze came out of the bottles and started surrounding me. With how potent it was, I was afraid that maybe I would lose control of myself, which would make my other Qi Cores go out of control. But to my surprise, my Holy Qi Core activated as soon as the Fire Dust Essence surrounded me with its orange haze. I don't know how to explain it but an Essence is more or less in liquid form, but when you open their bottles, they turn into some sort of mist that contained Pure Qi Energy.

In any case, back to the topic, my Holy Qi Core activated, assisting me in my cultivation and making it easier. It's been so long since I felt this comfortable cultivating that I almost fell asleep.

And then a familiar notification rang in my head.

<Would you like your Fiery Qi Core to breakthrough to the First Stage of the Transendence Realm?>

<Yes/No>

<Congratulations you've achieved a breakthrough!>