“It’s time for a vacation. Nubbins, Snuffles, lets go to the beach.” Ben told his two pets.

His people were in place and were ready to move at any time. The boy was safe and on the proper path of cultivation. Beacons were placed all over the country. Even if he wasn’t there he could still keep a close eye on things.

He hadn’t had a chance to relax ever since he left Earth, it was all discovery, cultivation and creation. Sometimes it was fine to unwind, as long as you had made sure you were getting something done at the same time.

Two Stone Town wasn't too far from a stretch of coastline. While there wasn’t much ambient Qi there, it was still too dangerous for the cultivators of the area and considered a forbidden ground along with the desert on one side and forest on the other.

There were beastial overlords of the area, they made a nice seafood lunch.

Nubbins had his fill of the finest cuts of fierce beast. It was a strange sight seeing a rabbit chewing on a beast core half the size of itself.

Snuffles gorged himself on the flesh of creatures much stronger than itself. If he wasn’t a pig and had a natural affinity for gluttony, he would have only managed a few mouthfuls. Fortunately, the ability to eat enormous amounts of food was a common trait among fierce wild boar. The meat was an elixir for the beast and it grew stronger at a rapid rate.

Ben dipped Rainbow Moon Clam meat in butter and enjoyed the lapping of the waves in front of him. He let his mind wander over his plans for the future.

He needed to cultivate his body, cores and improve his technology. His secondary tasks were gathering capable and loyal assistants, gathering resources and general research. This would help him come to Alice's assistance as quickly as possible.

According to his A.I. chip, there were more possibilities for cores. He could imagine there being a core in the soul and a few other places, but they would be exceedingly difficult to condense.

Refining his blood was part of his heart core, so he still had only three cores. Adding another two would be difficult.

Perhaps he was too short sighted. Perhaps there were other ways of condensing cores? Could multiple cores exist in the same location? Could they move or even exist outside the body? What was a Core, essentially?

Could a Core be a fusion reactor?

A sun?

A black hole?

A random thought ran through his brain. He decided to try an experiment.

He sent a command to all the nanites inside his body. He sent them an instruction to gather around the A.I. chip.

He hadn’t paid his nanite swarm too much mind, they hadn’t been able to do anything outside their usual perview so there was little reason to study their ability. They were able to have a large effect with mortals, but had little effect in areas with dense Qi and couldn’t effect stronger entities.

Now he had a reason to utilize them. Could he make a machine core? Could he organize his nanobots and the A.I. chip into a energy center? He programmed his nanobot swarm to condense together with the chip in his brain.

This would take time and research. He directed the A.I. chip to attempt this upgrade. While it was processing this, he would relax on the beach.

He was on a beach, what about volleyball?

-Lilith, can you send eight cultivators from the area over to me? I need a little distraction. All they need to do is play a simple game. They’ll leave unharmed.

-Yes, they’ll be there in the next few hours. Any other directions?

-Here’s the basic data for the game. I don’t need anything fancy. It’s just for some mild entertainment. It’s unrelated to work.

-Understood.

Flying kites?

That reminded him, there was something he had forgotten to do.

He pulled two objects of his interspatial ring. One was a small drone with wings and jet propulsion, the other was a weather balloon. Both of these objects had strong beacons built into them.

He released them one at a time and promptly forgot about them.

Bonfire?

He pulled a few trees out of a nearby forest and set them on fire just for the novelty of the thing.

Swimming?

*Splash*

If the coastline followed the same pattern as Earth, he should have plenty of space to swim around in before the drop off to the abyssal plain. Swimming around this area should have little to no risk for Ben.

Boats sail up and down the coast and had only moderate trouble making their money. Experienced captains stayed close to the coast and avoided the dens of sea monsters, they could sail safely for decades.

Paddling aimlessly around the area, Ben looked up at the sun and pondered it’s existence.

The sun back on Earth was named Sol. It was thousands of times the size of Earth, but was still among the smallest of stars. This planet was much larger than Earth. It was almost the size of Sol.

Was the sun above him a unknown type of sun? Was it a giant or a supergiant star? Did he need to rethink astrophysics?

Would anything delicious attack him for lunch?

He idly flipped over while paddling around. Something caught his eye underwater.

Before him the continental shelf plunged into darkness. Here was where the real ocean began. The seafloor was only several hundred meters deep where he had been swimming, now it plunged miles down to the cold abyssal plain.

There in the near infinite darkness something was watching him. It seemed kind of cute, in a eldritch way.

---

It was a rather strange request, but not impossible. If a lecherous old man had posted a mission that could only be fulfilled by beautiful girls it would never make it past the missions elder. When it was posted by the most beautiful and powerful woman the sect had ever had the chance to invite in as a guest elder, allowances were made.

There was low risk and high reward. This was temptation enough for the core disciples to take interest. It was agreed that if the guest of the sect accompanied the group, there would be no major concern.

---

A royal decree went out that day. There would be an impromptu contest held that the Queen herself would oversee.

There were two conditions. Only women below the age of 30 could apply and they had to be in capital that day.

Criers ran through the city announcing the regulations and rewards. Not only would the top four girls be guests of a grandmaster, they would even get their choice of medicinal treasures for their cultivation.

Most people saw this as a talent grab, everyone scouted for talent to draw into their own camp. What confused most people was the sudden timing. Most thought it was just another gimmick.

---

On the surface, the king and the sect lived peacefully side by side. If either side gained an upper hand it would be the Free Craftsmen who would benefit from their struggle. This being the state of affairs, there was no overt war, but the two sides struggled bitterly in the shadows.

It made sense that the young prodigies from each power would have hateful rivalries among themselves.

When the two groups showed up at the same beach, it was almost inevitable that blood would be shed.

When each group saw the other, everyone reached for their weapons and a tense standoff took place.

“Butterfly Princess Meng, we should have known only you would try something as audacious as this!” A beauty with bronzed skin and dark hair led the group from the sect.

“Moon Witch Miu. Organizing a city wide competition just to lure women out to this desolate border. You're just as foul as the rumors claim.” A porcelain skinned goddess with blonde hair led the group from the royals.

Each side was wary of the other, but there was enough uncertainty that no one would make the first move. Who knows what kind of traps had been set in place beforehand?

The two organizers of these groups looked around for their patron, but he was nowhere to be found.

-Your entertainment is here, sir

-Just a moment

Several seconds passed.

Both groups sensed something wrong at the same time. They felt uneasy, like prey that instinctively knows it's being watched by a superior predator. Everyone prepared magic tools and circulated their Qi to respond to the others ambush.

*BOOM*

A massive waterspout broke the placid surface of the ocean a mile away from shore. Both sides pulled back to the high sandy dunes and watched the sea.

A massive, eldritch, writhing shape slowly rose above the ocean waves. Dozens of writhing tentacles lashed out as the abomination showed itself. Appendages branched off from each other like branches of a tree, mouths and eyes peeked out from the mass eyeing the beach hungrily.

A dense, foreign aura flooded the land like a tidal wave.

The two organizers of this event, Lilith’s sisters, projected their Qi to resist the pressure that would otherwise turn the younger girls to ground meat. It was clear that the continuous assault was more than they could bear, they could only last a few seconds.

The Qi that came from the sea carried with it a crushing heaviness. Under this pressure the two groups felt like they had been plunged deep underwater and were being squeezed by miles of water above them.

“Shut it, miserable shellfish!” A booming voice called out from the sea.

The mass of tentacles froze, then slowly retreated back into the sea. The abyssal aura lightened as the creature submerged.

“Just a minute girls. I’m planning on taking Rupert along with me.” The voice said, more gently. “It will take some time to put him away.”

The waves lapping at the shore retreated back into the sea, like something was absorbing millions of tons of water.

This tide lasted a full minute before coming back in. Just behind the first waves was a dark shape in the water. When the waves receded there was a older man standing there. He didn’t leave behind any general impression, but everyone was wary of him.

“You girls know the game, no fighting. Each member of the winning team will get a Sky Fairy Glamour Pill. These pills make you lose weight, reverse aging and develop a natural charm. You’re free to leave at any time, but need to stay to earn the pills.” The man then sat down a short distance away and began tinkering with ring on his finger.

There was a moment of silence. Many thoughts were running through the minds of the women there, but the temptation to grow more young and beautiful was irresistible. They hadn’t ever heard of a medicine that had that many heaven defying effects.

The game was simple enough and both teams pushed themselves to the limit finding new methods of playing it.

There was immediate use of movement techniques to chase the ball, but the challenge then was how to keep the ball in one piece. Compared to the weapons and training materials they commonly used, the ball was as fragile as an egg. Fine control of Qi was needed to make sure it didn't break.

The game went underway.

Ben enjoyed being surrounded by young people, it invigorated his old bones.

“Die bitch! Everyone knows you had to fuck your way to inner disciple!”

Their playful cries had always helped him think

“You whore! You enjoy being a concubine for your uncle, the king?”

Ah, young people sure know how to have fun.

It reminded him of the time he would spend wandering around campus, taking in the society of the younger generation of scholars. He got yelled at for this sometimes, but they were never able to prove sexual harassment.

Nearby, Ben continued to let his mind wander.

'Earth is neither yin nor yang. It has a neutral affinity. What about sand then? There are few cultivation methods utilizing sand. Most of them would be withering types.’

‘There are special types of sand considered natural treasures. Umbral Star Sand is of the yin type, great for concealing type magic tools. Red Shade Sand is full of fire Qi, useful for forging.’

Ben felt a disturbance from a ring on his finger. Looking down at a ring similar to a Celtic knot, there was eye poking out with a cross shaped pupil.

The girls playing the volleyball game looked over warily when they sensed they were being watched. They saw Ben arguing with his hand.

“What do you mean you don’t want to watch from inside? We had an agreement.” He yelled.

“You can’t have one, they’re not pets. I’ll get you some slaves later.” There was a pause.

“Come on, Rupert. You only just left the sea. Anyone else would have killed you and refined you into a cursed weapon.” There was a another pause.

“I don’t care how delicious they look, they’re only for decoration.”

The girls continued playing the game. Ben looked at his information analyzing the upcoming event.

It seemed like he would have to shorten his timetable. It was a pity, he would have liked for Terra and Lin Feng to cultivate more before they faced difficulties by his side.

Ben turned back to the game.

“What’s the score?” He asked.

“Nil on both sides. This must be a game for mortals.” One of the sisters answered.

“It is. Alright, just give all eight of them the prize. There’s nothing more to do here. I'm going to go tutor that Lin fellow.” Ben got up and began walking away.

---

Eight pills from Horned Rabbit Sect were handed out to the players. Even back in the sect they would be quite a prize, it would be interesting to see what kind of effect they would have when released here.

The moment those girls returned to their homes the intelligence organization of the country of Vorchin went into action. Their stories of the abomination, the man and the prizes were all too fantastic to be believed at first, but each report coincided with the others.

It pained their elders, but most of the girls ate the pills right away. They knew that when they returned the pills would be confiscated.

Ben's team kept people from going to war or doing anything too rash, but social order had taken a hit with the revelation of a expert watching from the shadows. What would happen if this man disliked the king and favored the sect? Businessmen were unwilling to take risks like financing a caravan or building a new shop without certainty.

These were things that Ben wanted to avoid, but didn't care that much about.

He stopped trying to be subtle because, according to his calculations, the event would happen any day now. If he upset the situation a little beforehand, it wouldn't matter.

What mattered was Lin Feng and this convergence of energies.

-Drone 0027 destroyed. Altitude 1,350 meters. Drone assaulted by Nascent Soul realm giant crane.

'Hmmmmmm. Flying kites.’

Ben hummed to himself.