One Wish to Own the World

Ken, Henry, Tiara, and Alaric sat in Ken's courtyard together and cultivated together. Now that they all finished forming their physiques with the aid of the Godly Qi, they were all cultivating their stage and practicing their techniques.

"Team Leader, I'm close to breaking through to the fifth stage, what about you?"

"Same for me, probably around a month more."

The two looked at Tiara, waiting for her update despite not asking directly.

"It might take me another month or two because of the changes in my manual," she sighed. She was not used to having men give their attention to someone else before approaching her, especially not when that someone else was another man. Alaric was too obsessed with his precious team leader for her taste.

"It's your fault for hiding things from us instead of coming out clean and letting Team Leader help you," Alaric said, irritating the girl.

"Do not dwell in the past; do not dream of the future. Concentrate the mind on the present moment," Henry offered some of his wisdom.

"True, let's just have our breakthrough before the next competition."

He had already updated them about the Martial Arts Summit and had sent Soul to collect information about it. Although she was not part of a bigger staff like Soleil who exchanged information with all the servants and guards from the Sue clan, she was still hanging around and wasting time, so Ken figured she might as well do something useful instead.

"Did Soul return with more information about it?"

"Just some basics, apparently there are many brackets since there are thousands of disciples in every sect. First, it's divided into brackets by age – every ten years starting from twenty is a different bracket until 120. Beyond that is not considered part of the young generation anymore."

"Does it mean that there are people who can participate three times in their lives?" Alaric thought out loud. Theoretically, those who were 20 in this competition would have another competition when they turned 70 and the third right when they were 120.

"No, use your head a little. Other than Ken, nobody can compete with 30-year-olds when they're in their twenties," Tiara pointed out.

"Indeed, some of those brackets are a bit of a problem because they include the age in which most people break through to the next stage, for example, most break through to the Formation Core stage when they're 22-23, so it pre-eliminates everyone who couldn't do it 'on time' or wanted to be more thorough with their foundation."

"I see, it makes sense. But what about the other things you've mentioned?"

"It is divided into different brackets of 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5. Unfortunately, we don't have a fifth yet, but we will just take someone from the sect and let him do whatever he wants while we fight the bracket for those between 30-39."

The three contemplated for a while about Ken's decision and did not necessarily like it. For example, Tiara was only 29 now so she could still fight in the lower bracket with an optimum stage and age, but she knew she had to join the group.

"Can we fight more than one bracket?"

"I don't know yet, we will find out later."

"All right, I can't wait for our fight together, it will be a great debut for my new weapon," Alaric remarked with enthusiasm. He knew that Ken was looking forward to seeing his performance with the new inheritance, and he had practiced hard to control it.

"Patience is the foundation of wisdom," Henry said, probably scolding Alaric for his impatient questions.

With that, the four returned to their training, developing their nascent souls. While Ken used only the Godly Qi to nurture his, he did not provide the same service to his companions. 

He only used a strand of it at the end of every cultivation session to allow it to enhance their progress for that day, but he did not have a steady supply of Immortal Qi stones to afford more than that.

"Is there a way not to participate in the competition?" Tiara asked when they finished their cultivation session.

"Why, do you think we might lose?" Alaric asked curiously, not believing in that option.

"No, but once we are out, we both will be wanted. You by your previous sect and I by mine. It will put the whole sect in a worse mess if the Divine Sword Sect joins their enemies," Tiara explained her concern.

"The Peaceful Demon Sect might also join in if they recognize my inheritances," Henry added, offering one of the rare times he spoke without a wise quote.

Ken smiled mirthlessly, remembering how he preferred not to bring this issue up to Elmer after the elder complained that so many sects turned against them because of him. 

"It's fine, they were coming after Serene Lotus Sect to weaken them anyway, now they will just do it with more passion," Ken dismissed their worries. He was hiding his strength all the time, even suppressing himself. It was a good chance to let some steam off and go almost all put.

"Tiara, you will be in charge of recruiting someone who won't be a burden on the team," Ken instructed, knowing that with her personality she probably already collected a few admirers she deemed useful. With that, the fourth concluded their training and went back to their residences. 

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Out of the whole group, Alaric's breakthrough arrived first. A month after Ken gave them the details he knew about the Martial Arts Summit, Alaric took a few of Ken's Nascent Soul Forming pills and pushed it toward expansion as always.

'I can't expand it anymore!' Alaric said with excitement, knowing it meant the soul had reached the size of a hundred percent of his body.

'Time to follow Team Leader's extra manual,' Alaric thought to himself and looked at the man-shaped wooden box on the floor by his side.

A creation of Ken as a fifth-rank runologist, a box that could contain a nascent soul for a while. Recalling Ken's instructions, Alaric entered the box and pulled the lid, making it close on him. Surrounded by darkness, he felt the wood around him maintaining a consistent distance of 20 centimeters away from his skin at every point.

He took a deep breath and began expanding his nascent soul again, letting it go beyond the limits of his mortal body into the space of the box. Normally it would dissipate right away, causing some pain and mainly a waste of Qi for the practitioner, however, not this time.

Alaric had a weird sensation as if he was full but he still kept eating forcibly and needed to throw it up, but he endured the sickening sensation. He continued to push his new nascent soul outside his limits, persisting for a whole five hours.

'Time's over, now I condense,' Alaric made sure to count the minutes while he was inside the box, and thankfully, cultivators were much better at that than mortals. Ken had warned them not to expand their nascent souls anymore after five hours even if they didn't reach the extra 20 centimeters mark, and Alaric followed the advice.

He swallowed a pill he kept under his tongue, the Nascent Soul Condensing pill, also Ken's craft. Without it to allow him to condense it faster, the time limit within the box would be much shorter, and the result would be worse. 

The nascent soul that went 18.3 centimeters out of his body was absorbed back inside, turning denser and stronger within the confines of his frame. When it finally reached the desired size, Alaric began to integrate it into himself, making it another part of him just like the normal soul.

The procedure required precision and fineness, and he did everything carefully without rushing it. When he finally finished, he felt amazing strength coursing through his body, nourishing his physique naturally with every moment. Thanks to his special Demonic Body, he would turn stronger than anybody else at the same stage.

'Lightning Feet,' he moved at high speed around the room after stepping out of the wooden box.

'Thrust of Lightning and Thunder,' he thrust the spear forward, savoring the ability to use two techniques at the same time with his new stage. It was still somewhat clumsy as he was not used to his nascent soul, but it would be fluid and adaptive soon enough once he was used to this new 'limb'.

Ken followed his companion's footsteps a few days later, also breaking through the fourth stage and entering the fifth. He went through the exact same process as Alaric, with a few changes.

He did manage to get his soul to the twenty-centimeter mark before his time was up, and he noticed that the golden Qi in his nascent soul was not monotone as he thought at first. 

After condensing it, the differences were clearer, and he could see that there were two hues. Half of his Qi was golden with an ominous red hue, while the other half had a calming white hue.

'What are those hues? Why are there only two instead of four?' Ken wondered to himself. Not only there were only two colors instead of four, but they were also unfamiliar. The red was shinier than the bloody red that belonged to his Bloodlust attribute while he did not have any attribute of the white color.

'I can tell that the energy with the red hue is connected to my Sword Qi and my Bloodlust Qi, while the one with the white hue is related to my Runic and Alchemy attributes.'

Ken could sense it instinctively since they were still part of him, but he could only blindly guess the meaning of it.