Alex took a deep breath and felt the Qi flow up out of his dantian, through a specific pathway that he had predetermined.

He held the Intent of what he wanted to do as he pulled it out and let it flow into the 45 swords that flew above him.

When they landed on the swords, the 45 swords suddenly started spinning with a great power added to them that was never there in the 2 months he had been practicing.

Alex’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t let the surprise ruin the moment. He let the sword fly and hit the large stone pillar in front of him.

The swords struck the pillar and the pillar flashed with bright light from the formation that was on it.

Saint Core 4th realm. Those words were written on the pillar after they took the attack from the swords.

The swords all clanged onto the floor as Alex realized that he had finally done it.

“Yes!” he shouted out loud in excitement. His shout made a girl turn towards him in surprise. She had been with Whisker, helping him tend the garden which he had just started to grow.

Alex let himself fall to the floor with a wide smile on his face. “I finally took my first step into improving a skill on my own,” he thought.

He lay there recalling exactly what he had done and then spent a few more minutes trying to understand exactly why the swords had formed an array like the 21 Swords Array technique.

The specific understanding of what exactly had happened was too much for the current him, but he did feel like he glimpsed some knowledge that would be helpful later.

‘I should go for another technique where I Control something, so I have something from the same beginning pathway to compare,’ Alex thought.

Alex decided to learn a new sword skill that was of the absolute worst grade.

“Linlin!” Alex called out.

“Yes, your Majesty?” the girl who was in the garden answered.

She wore bright red and purple servant robes for the Royal family and had her hair tied in a bun. She wore no jewelry or ornaments and looked very simple and plain. However, that only made her beauty stand out even more.

The girl was named Lin Yunlin. She was a Saint from a small family that was the lord of a small city to the south of the Capital. She had been the prized possession of the Lin family, and after some small tests, was allowed to become Alex’s personal maid.

Her work involved managing Alex’s schedule and work and listening to his demands. She stayed with him from day to night and only left when there was nothing more for him to do.

She was, by the nature of her work, a replacement for the Elders who couldn’t be around Alex all the time due to having works of their own.

“Request a skill where I have to control a sword or more at the same time,” Alex said. “The worse the skill the better.”

Linlin looked confused for a second. “I beg your pardon, your Majesty. Did you say you wanted a bad skill?” she asked.

Despite being way older than him, Linlin somehow still looked youthful and still in her late 20s.

“You heard me right,” he said. “The worst skill. I will start practicing Alchemy now, so prepare it by the end of the day.”

“Yes, your Majesty,” the girl bowed and left.

Alex left for his Alchemy training. There wasn’t much work to do these days as the elders did most of the low-level stuff, and reported back to him at the end of the day. As such, he had a lot of free time during the day.

After entering his Alchemy room, Alex started his 6-hour-long alchemy training where he tried to figure out the recipe that could be used to make the pill that could help with learning a Dao.

He had already figured out what he needed to do to achieve the result. He would have to make the Soul Elucidating Tulip’s scent become more potent and help make it instantly put someone in a trance.

Now, he needed to learn how he could do it.

The Alchemy training involved him figuring out that very thing. He learned about more ingredients he had, simulated possible recipes using the ingredients, and tried making the pill itself.

He didn’t even know where to start, so even after a month of trials, he was nowhere at all in terms of improvements.

Given how long the spiritual roots improvement pills had taken him, he doubted he could make the pill in just a year or two without some sort of miracle.

‘I’m just going to have to continue working hard at it,’ he thought.

After 6 hours, he walked out of the room and found Linlin standing by. “Here’s the skill book you requested, your majesty,” she said and handed over a small book.

Alex flipped through the book and closed his eyes for a second. “Wow, that’s bad,” he thought.

The girl looked at him weirdly for a second. “Did you learn it already?” she asked.

“Of course,” Alex said. “There’s not much in it to learn after all.”

“But still…”

Alex walked away to test the skill and Linlin quickly followed him. “The elders have gathered in the throne room with their reports,” she said.

The elders stood to greet Alex as he walked through the hall and sat on the throne on the other side.

Then, they started reporting what was happening all around the continent.

“The army is in the final phase of their training,” one of the elders said. “After a while, we should be able to start deploying them all around the continent.”

“How soon do you think we can do that?” Alex asked.

“If no problem occurs, we can do it in less than a month. We should be able to do it within two months for sure,” he said.

“Distribute them all equally,” Alex said.

The elder nodded, but another elder stood up. “Your Majesty, I believe we need to put more on the eastern side.”

“Hmm? Why the East?” Alex asked.

“For some reason, activities in the east have increased a lot. We’re seeing more people from the Eastern continent come in. With the barrier no longer there to stop them from entering however they pleased, we now need to put our forces on the entire eastern front,” the elder said.

Alex thought for a bit. “How much would you say the activities have increased?” he asked.

“If we used to get 20 people going in and out every year, we’re now getting over 100  people doing so,” the elder said. “And that is just the recorded number. Who knows how many more are there.”

Alex frowned a bit. “I know the Eastern Continent is close but isn’t there still enough distance for it to be a dangerous travel path? How are people coming in so easily?”

“With a high enough cultivation base and a strong enough Dao, travel isn’t impossible,” the elder said.

“So everyone coming have a strong cultivation base then,” Alex said.

“That or they bring many artifacts with them to aid in their travels,” the elder replied.

“Hmm, some of these people might end up having some malicious intentions. We should do as you say and put more on the eastern side,” Alex said. “Put 15 of the 40 groups in the east. You may do with the rest as you see fit.”

“Yes, your Majesty,” the elder said.

Alex wondered if it were simply on his own, could he go to the Eastern continent? He most likely could with the concealment capabilities he had.

However, a King going to another Continent without their invitation or a prior arrangement wouldn’t be taken lightly at all. After all, his actions now were the continent’s actions.

As such, his going anywhere could be taken as an invasion if he weren’t careful.

‘Why is the only continent that I can go to the only one that is controlled by an emperor?’ he wondered. If it were someplace like the Northern Continent, then he could have freely gone there without worrying about what his presence would mean.

‘Sigh, I don’t have time for these visits,’ he thought. ‘I need to focus on finding a way back to Pearl or back to the Western Continent.’

He sat around listening to a few more reports and after he heard it all, the meeting ended.

Alex left with Linlin to go back out into the backyard to practice a bit. It was evening time with the sun finally set in the sky.

He took out two swords and controlled them in the sky. He couldn’t help but show an incredulous look at exactly how bad the technique he had learned previously was.

“How is my output worse than what I’m putting into the attack?” he thought as he looked at the result. He was actually happy at how bad it really was.

Because of this, when he finally did improve, the result would be obvious.

“Linlin, you may return now. I will be training for a while and will go to my chambers afterward,” he said.

“Please do not leave the palace without letting me know, your Majesty,” the girl said before bowing. “Good night.”

Alex chuckled a bit after hearing her and shook his head. Then, he started focusing on the technique and practicing to improve it.

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