After finishing all the collections he could get, Sam left along with this team. He directly took them all to the tempest valley where they were given an introduction to the Old Beast, which made all of them gulp in nervousness.

The Old Beast looked at them with intense coldness and looked dead in their eyes.

"I would like to leave a small soul fragment in your consciousness so that you would stay loyal to him and I could worry less. What do you say?"

He asked all of them which made them nervous.

Sam just stayed silent and when they looked for him for help, he said.

"He wouldn't listen to me. If I hadn't brought you here now, he would have kicked my ass directly."

"So, you figured it would be better to get our asses kicked instead of yours?"

"Of course, is that even a question?"

"You either create soul contracts with him or I forcefully use my soul fragment in your souls and as soon as you get a single thought about betraying him, your soul would explode. You decide."

After some thought, they simply agreed to create a soul contract with Sam. This is similar to the soul contract Sam forcefully made between the Saber Monarch and the Third family head back in the crimson reed realm.

He knew this would come and all he has to do is to be careful while travelling around before he took them to any of his core areas. He cannot possibly roam around with people stronger than him and he doesn't want to be the bad guy and come out as one with no trust. Even if not having trust is most rational thing one could do. So, he just took them to the Old beast and let him be the bad guy.

Now the contracts were created and after they left the tempest valley and arrived at the feathered planet, Sam explained.

"I am sorry. He is old, powerful and stubborn and bit too protective, he will not let me roam around with someone who had no restrictions whatsoever and have a chance to betray me anytime. My father died just like that and he was devastated that he couldn't save him.

So, he became a bit pain in the ass."

"We understand." Sia is the first one to reply and the rest looked at her in surprise. If anything, she should be the one who is pissed than the rest. At least that is what Gran thought. After all, while the rest came to honor a contract, Sia came solely because of her interest in Sam, she should be most offended.

But it seems like she is the most forgiving and as for Five elemental king, he is not mad at all. In fact, there was an instance that he offered a contract himself.

"Anyway, let me to show you my base."

Sam then gave them a tour and showed the whole area while explaining everything and after he was done, he spoke.

"Sark, you and your wife will be staying here. You are going to guard the whole planet with your life on line. After your kid grew up, you can take them to one of the schools in the planet. You can live the rest of your life here. Unless and of course if a war happens which is not completely out of possibilities.

You will also be enforcer here. I am hearing complaints about some youngsters getting out of hand, you take care of them. But if by any chance I hear something about you misusing the power, you would be in trouble.

I might not be able to do anything, but I guess the rest of the team will be enough to nail you down. So, take care."

With that, they left and went back to desolate.

"Take a vacation for a few days and roam around the planet. I will be sending you guys out to scout for the next few months. I want all the information on the next set of our targets. The ones in the Peak stage of Pre-transcendence of Astral Plane.

Get all the information on them. What they are doing? If they are in any trouble. What are the possible ways to recruit them? What can we offer? What do they need? Their needs and their wants. I want everything that could be useful to us in recruiting them to the team.

Now, go and enjoy. If you want you can go to different places connected to our organization and take a look. You guys will be the strongest there, so there wouldn't be any trouble for you.

Sia, you can stay in the feathered planet. The liquor research department was moved there and I am going to send Ape there."

After sending them away, he went into isolation.

He decided to take a week off and formulate a plan for a faster breakthrough.

If he reached the Peak stage of Initiation, then he would have some standing. With his tricks and techniques along with the shadow sword, he would be able to hold himself against some of the opponents in worst case scenario.

Even if the battle prowess might not be directly helpful, he would at least be able to gain some extra access to his other abilities like observation, the energy vision and gain more access into the formations and inscriptions which are essentially the major aspects within his arsenal.

So, for one week he conducted all kinds of tests on raiju and the demon blood and heart to find the most suitable and the fastest way to digest it.

And after some plans he formulated inside the divine dimension, the most he could speed up is four months.

He started setting up the plan and for that he has to use the tempest valley and Raiju has to go through some struggle.

He ordered his subordinates to start some construction in the tempest valley and Old Beast prevented lightning from striking the subordinates while they are working on the construction.

After that, he sent the team to different realms and went on with the plan.

He finished the formation after the construction is completed.

The formation has only one function. It focuses the lightning that was striking in a single area and focuses it in a single point and mellows it down a little.

Raiju will sit in the centre of the formation and consumes the potions of blood and heart slowly.

And he channels the lightning energy to breakdown the whole blood and heart so that he could consume it faster.

He is diluting the blood with lightning to absorb it faster and dissolve it in his own body.

And Sam would sit with him in the middle of the formation taking the lightning strikes along with him and also channeling the energy so that Raiju wouldn't feel too burdened by it.

The remaining beasts will be kept in a ring around the construction where the lightning wouldn't reach. But the energy from both of them could be channeled.

This process will go on for four months until they reached the Peak stage of Initiation.

The Old beast looked at Sam and then at the sky.

He could understand Sam's desperation, particularly when he thought of the team members Sam brought here. They are strong and full of potential. If Sam wants to catch up with them, It would take more than just resources.

He has to go through many more rituals like he is going through now.

But what worried him even more are the circumstances the people are in. Except for Sia and Gran who followed him voluntarily, the remaining people had to join because of Sam's help in the desperate situations.

As much as it looked like a mere coincidence, it would be hard for even him to digest that someone across the world is going through something that Sam could take care of at the exact time that Sam is looking for the strong subordinates.

This way too fortunate.

And unlike many people and even Sam, the Old Beast believes in fortune and fate.

But it is not exactly an absolute. In fact, it is an ever changing stream that changes its direction and flow because of the spontaneous obstacles that might come at any time.

From the looks of it though, it seems like there are no obstacles for Sam in quite a while which is making him a bit anxious.

But in his current situation, he cannot do anything even if he suspicious. He just has to wait. Wait until the time for him to get out of here comes and once it comes he would be able to see what the reason behind this actual game is.

As he looked towards the sky in hopes of looking past the realms, the Gambler is also looking down in a screen which is displaying the ritual Sam is going through with a smile on his face which couldn't be seen.

"If only I can make you grow even faster. If only I can make the time run faster. Come up Sam. I am waiting for you."

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