Chapter 148 The Deadline

For the upcoming week, Leonardo's schedule was quite steady...

From the inn to the cultivation chamber to a chat with Ingrid, then he would talk with Jeffery to remind the man to keep put in place. As expected, the church didn't dare release information to the public about the constant acts of banditry. Very soon, they would have to exhaust their personal wealth to appease the public by burning gold and silver.

During the rituals of burning gold and silver, the church must have planned to burn half and maintain half of the overall donations. Even if they kept half, that would be a great income when combining the Human and Elven Domains into one entity. However, if they start burning their own money, things would get very problematic on Pandora's end.

Whenever there were secret carriages on specific trade routes, Leonardo would openly visit everyone remotely connected to Lexus by aimlessly roaming around Valdmor's streets. Whenever there weren't any transactions, Pandora would simply go on a solo mission to ransack the treasury of the church, which would oftentimes hold the collective wealth of the various investors involved with House Erudite.

​ Pandora would even go out of her way to steal from Great Cathedrals in the seven vassal kingdoms, infuriating House Erudite.

Everyone knows that under this heaven and above this earth, only one person is capable of accomplishing such a thing.

Leonardo's subordinate; White Specter.

However, knowing is only halfway through dealing with the problem. Without conclusive proof and witnesses, this is all but pointless. This stress began to pile up so greatly that some agents in Valdmor began to experience assassinations under the accusations of selling information to Leonardo.

No one could trust nobody, to the point where these businesses wouldn't even leave their homes. However, that only made it more convenient for Leonardo to pay them 'personal' visits at home, act as though some secret messages were exchanged, then leave. Gradually, he began to narrow down his targets of visit, which would translate to marking them as targets for the assassination.

Ultimately, Leonardo gave them each a choice. Of course, he merely hinted towards his intentions; if you sell your shares to me, openly join my camp, no one would dare to target you. Then, he gave them all a time limit by stating that he would focus on cultivation for the upcoming three days.

Everyone had the misconception that Leonardo can't cultivate or display his power. Hence, even though he was speaking honestly about his secluded cultivation, everyone understood it as a three days deadline, or they might be assassinated for leaking secrets they had no idea they even existed.

…

Inside the isolated cultivation chamber, Leonardo was patiently juggling a custom-made soccer ball on his feet, heels, knees, chest, shoulders, and head.

Yes, he was practicing his soccer skills from his days as a normal teenager, and he was quite enthralled by the process.

This soccer ball was heavy, elastic, and most importantly, durable.

If one paid close attention to the soccer ball, one would realize that it had been enveloped by Leonardo's domain the entire time. Yes, he wasn't positioning his body as the focal point of the domain, but rather the soccer ball.

Leonardo was in the process of creating his own martial technique as the forms of the moon, sun, stars, and void were already ineffective with his new cultivation technique, the new balance between the four domains wouldn't allow it to work.

Although Leonardo makes for a great swordsman, he knows that the level of sword techniques in this corner of the universe is a waste of his current output potential, especially since this planet has no immediate danger threatening his life. After sharing all his cultivation techniques with Aria, at least the ones that weren't exclusive to the Eternal Night Bloodline, he began to consider creating his own unique martial technique just like how he established a foundation for his current cultivation technique with the soul pearl.

While the ball was in contact with Leonardo's body, maintaining the domain was rather simple. However, the moment it broke contact with his skin, the domain would immediately dissipate.

"Daily attempt 3,280; failure. Still, no need to be disheartened, my lord." To the side, Ingrid stood respectfully with a pleasant smile on her face, watching as the sweat-soaked Leonardo breathed heavily, his sweat pouring down that chiseled body, well-defined muscles and bear upper body, eventually puddling on the solid floor.

The excuse was that she was guiding Leonardo with his cultivation, while the truth was much simpler; she was performing a light massage to Leonardo's muscles after every session to relieve the stress accumulated throughout his body due to the excessive channeling of his ever-alternating martial intents and their respective domains.

Leonardo sighed, "The day I complete this technique is the day I leave this planet. At a minimum, it could be a few months. At most, it could take a year or two."

Leonardo knew that what he was trying to do was a very difficult task to accomplish. However, that was precisely what made the experience thrilling.

He approached a violet mat on the floor in the corner of the room, his worldly energy surging to rid his body of the sweat before resting on the mat, his stomach facing down as his arms folded beneath his chin.

Ingrid chuckled as she approached Leonardo with a towel and a bottle of herbal lotion in her hands, dutifully applying the lotion along his spine before applying some to her hands. Then, after excusing herself, she began to massage this dreary body.

"Do you have any advice?" Leonardo asked quietly while suppressing a groan of pleasure.

Ingrid thought deeply and hard, but this was a conundrum she never considered in the past.

"Could cultivators even manifest their domain beyond their natural body?" She muttered both to Leonardo and herself, while Leonardo also began to question this principle.

If cultivators could extend their area of influence by the use of their domain, why can't they conjure a domain that wasn't directly connected to their bodies?

While thinking like this, Leonardo felt like the answer was within his grasp yet at the same time it wasn't, this was truly an annoying feeling.

"My lord, just relax and let things come naturally. You've been occupied with this proxy war with Lexus this entire week, perhaps if you stop thinking about those irrelevant matters and focus solely on cultivation…"

"That's easy for you to say…" Leonardo muttered, his voice suddenly going silent— too silent in fact. Then, he quickly sat up, muttering the word proxy to himself like a fool for a very, very long time.

"My lord?…" Ingrid felt a bit worried that Leonardo might have taxed himself a bit too much.

Did she say something inappropriate?

"Ingrid…" Leonardo suddenly whispered, his eyes gleaming with a light unknown.

"Yes, my lord?…" Ingrid responded with a not-so-confident tone, her expression odd.

"You're a genius!" Leonardo exclaimed, directly holding Ingrid by her cold cheeks and kissing her forehead. Then, he jumped to his feet, feeling refreshed.

"You overpraise me, my lord. I have no idea what I said that could help you."

Ingrid didn't feel embarrassed as she understood this was simply a young man feeling too enthusiastic after failing about 4,000 times every day for almost an entire week. Of course, he would overreact.