After returning to the tower, Michael's life again went back to training and cultivation. As his growth phase started, Michael resumed body cultivation. His studies in illusion were also coming to an end. It was not that he could not continue studying but that his level was already close to Demitrus'. His disguise technique was much better and he was confident he could trick Astang if he got a chance. His illusion combat arts took proper form and all that was left was to practise to make it habitual.

As Demitrus was also very busy organizing his race's migration to the forbidden forest, Michael ended his study of illusion techniques. Michael's martial arts did not progress much and despite training quite extensively, he did not manage to reach major completion of the Flowing River Art. While he knew the method and concepts, he had reached a bottleneck that could not be easily breached.

His body cultivation progressed smoothly and at the end of the year, he was already preparing for a breakthrough to the mid-emperor-realm. His soul cultivation was progressing slowly even with the aid of death energy but through constant effort, he was preparing for his breakthrough to mid-solid-soul-realm. While his cultivation progress was stable, his laws were progressing with much harder difficulty. He was still far from completely understanding the first chapter of the life-and-death scripture. While his progress through the year in terms of cultivation and battle power was not much, his personal life did undergo many serious changes.

Michael's friendship with Kandrif developed to a great extent. Through their regular battles, both made good progress. Their friendship was already pretty good and while Michael would not truly risk his life or sacrifice himself for Kandrif, he would still help the guy if he could.

Kandrif too thought of Michael as a close friend and ally. He had won Michael through his sincerity. Michael's power was increasing slowly but steadily and Kandrif was happy to find a competent friend and ally.

Michael's relationship with Remeus also improved and they became quite hospitable to each other. Remeus no longer tried to argue with Michael on every matter. While he still had his tsundere characteristics, he had gotten much softer and mature since before. Ramsus was also very satisfied with his current job and treated Michael very respectfully. The respect came naturally when he looked at how hard Michael worked on his cultivation. While the world knew of him as king of geniuses, crown prince of humanity and the greatest genius in Aterna, only those close to him knew how much blood, sweat and tears went into making that name.

Michael's willpower was very solid and that gave him a special aura of reliability. Thus, Ramsus had accepted Michael as his lord and was loyal as well. While his feelings took time to develop, he was already considering himself a part of Michael's cortege.

Under Omar's guidance, he reached the emperor realm in the year. Remeus had also reached the mid-king-realm during the year. Omar too had already approved of Michael. While he was from a different race, he was also in awe of Michael's efforts. As Michael was also on good terms with the Beast Prince, Omar felt even more favourable of him. All in all, Michael's group grew more and more closely knit with Ramsus, Remeus, Kandrif and Omar as part of his regular interactions.

What was even more important was that Ashley continued to visit Michael from time to time and their relationship also grew smoother. Michael had had a crush on her even in his previous life. Adding to that, he was at the stage of puberty with hormones raging through his body. Ashley had naturally grown to be an extremely beautiful woman. Thus, Michael did not push her away and even gave up all his intentions to do so. While he would not truly chase after her, why would he reject a beauty coming at him?

Ashley, on the other hand, was not actually interested in Michael as a man. Michael was just a kid in her eyes and while she could see from Michael's eyes that he liked her, she was not interested in truly seducing him. First of all, while Michael did show favourability towards her, he had never actually found Ashley on his own. This had already made his stance pretty clear. Also, as Michael was simply too famous right now if they were to grow closer, the entire plane would know of it. As Michael was not suitable for a potential partner, Ashley too did not try to be aggressive. This led to a unique balance in their relationship where they could neither be called friends nor lovers or acquaintances.

By the end of the year, Kandrif too made a breakthrough and reached the mid-emperor-realm. As he had turned 19, his coming of age ceremony was held with great splendour. Michael too was invited and he visited as well. It was the first international event that he visited but his presence and friendship pretty much made his stance clear. The people plotting in the kingdom of werebeasts and humans naturally took note of this as did the dark empire forces.

After the event, Michael also talked with the beast emperor regarding his preparation for the upcoming war. This was a meeting that finalized his alliance with the beast prince in the hundred-year war.

In the next vacation, Michael again returned home. But this time, it was for the sake of formally establishing his spy organization - the shadow eyes.

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Ambrose had constantly trained in the base after the day of the sealing. Once the sealing process was complete, the members were formally accepted as shadow eyes spies and were given several important information that had been earlier inaccessible to them. He came to find out that the huge base which was still under construction was actually in the forbidden forest. He also found that the illusion array in the forest was actually under control of Commander Mubal Kafka which made sure that the base was hidden from everyone else. In fact, the entire forbidden forest was pretty much their territory!

Through the use of illusion array, most of the other groups were deceived into believing that the resources in the forest including energy crystals and beasts and herbs were getting exhausted. This led to a decline in the number of adventurers entering the forest.

He was given permission to leave and meet his mother every once in a while. And while he could not spend time together with her, his impressive salary allowed him to get a caretaker for her. He had used the pain relieving medicines on a large scale and now his mother could walk again and had an easier time sleeping. While the injury was not gone and there was still some discomfort, she was already much better. Adding to the fact that she thought that her son was an officer in the Rageberg family army, she felt even happier and thus her health had improved a lot.

Ambrose had always cultivated in poverty and thus when he was given so many abundant resources, his cultivation received a massive boost. This was due to a simple reason - the lack of medicinal energy in his body.

Ambrose had cultivated with his own effort by simulating the energy in his body through normal food and martial arts. Unlike Michael, he had never used expensive spirit medicines. Thus, all the medicines had a great impact on his body. While this boost in speed was only temporary and would be lost after some time, it still made him reach the peak-king-realm by the end of the year. His soul cultivation also reached the mid-viscous-soul-realm. This caught the attention of the instructors in the base and even Mubal gave him extra lessons on the disguise art.

Ambrose devoted himself entirely to cultivation and training in this period of time. His disguise art was among the best and by the end of the year, he was the best in the batch of spies. He could even fool immortal experts if they did not focus on him.

Through the year, many spies tried to get the seal undone by various means but they all ended up dying badly. They were all considered as traitors and treated as such. Not even their families spared. This was the cruel truth of the world where strength reigned supreme. The noble families were not a charity house and anything that was a threat was brutally destroyed.

This caused the other spies to get even more scared and no one dared to try anything funny. Ambrose was again quite impressed by the teenage kid. As he grew in strength, he found that Michael was indeed an extremely fearsome expert. He did not want to offend the noble families as his mother was pretty much a hostage.

At almost the year's end, the trained spies gathered together again. Of what had once been more than 100, only 77 were left. As they stood in the hall, Mubal took the stage and said:

Mubal : Your training has been finished. While you guys are not very strong and your individual strength is nothing impressive, what is impressive is the skills that you have gained and your courage. You have a chance to contribute to the family much more than other army officers. Today, I will reveal the structure of the organization - shadow eyes.

Shadow eyes is a spy organization where your main work would be collecting information. You have to infiltrate different races and regions and transmit all reliable information that you find. You don't have to execute any assassinations or anything so the danger in the job is not as high as you think.

As you send any information, the information would be verified later. If the information is found to be true and is helpful, the information will be given a grade from grade 1 to grade 4, with higher number implying higher value. The list of rewards has been posted in the main hall and you can look at them yourselves. For any valid information you send, you get a reward extra from your salary. But before you get excited, you have to know that you are not yet accepted in the organization. We will be sending you all to different locations for a month and you have to get information from there. If you fail to get sufficient information within a month or die in the process, that will be a fail. In case you return with a failure, you would be let go but your employment by the family alliance would be cancelled. The test will begin tomorrow, so you guys should begin your preparations.

After Mubal's address, the members excitedly went to check the rewards. The rewards were indeed quite attractive. For grade-1 information, they would be given a portion (lasting a week) of normal cultivation resources. For grade-2, a portion of high-grade cultivation resources. For grade-3, there were truly valuable pills such as breakthrough pills! The reward for grade-4 was basically personalized. It was something similar to asking for a wish and if it was possible, the family alliance would fulfil it.

Ambrose too got excited by the rewards. His combat power was truly negligible but now, he had the way to grow strong! Also, with greater strength, he would have more options. If he could increase his cultivation to a high level, then at the end of 5 years, he would not have to continue this dangerous job.

Ambrose and the other members were all sent to different locations in the light empire's territory to obtain information. The groups indeed sent quite valuable information such as the political plans of different races in the upcoming war, the terrain of their territory and etc. The entire test concluded in a month with tons of information collected by the allied families. Several logistic experts were placed in position at the base to sort the information out and validate the information.

All in all, the base that Michael had once envisioned was slowly but surely taking shape. After the test, Ambrose's results again made clear to everyone that he was indeed the best of the batch. In the test, another 6 people ended up dying - 3 due to their cover being blown and the other 3 due to tempering the seal. As their matters were handled appropriately, the remaining 71 candidates were posted to different locations in the light empire.

Michael believed in the saying of "know your enemies but know your allies better". Thus, the first batch was sent specifically to different positions in the light empire. The next batch would begin their training after the year and in a similar way. It was only a matter of time until his organization had eyes in all shadows.

Ambrose too went to get his assigned position only to find that he had not been allotted any. He was initially scared of what it might mean but after enquiring Mubal, this is what he heard:

Mubal : Ah! Yes, you are the first rank candidate. That's why Michael asked for your services. Take my advice, Michael is someone with great authority in the allied families. Do not think of him as a teenager. Also, he is kind towards his subordinates and rewards them pretty highly. What you have here is a chance. If you can use it, you might even have a completely different future than what you can imagine.

Ambrose was quite scared of the kid. He had seen the power of the seal that he had placed. For him, killing someone of his status and power was child's play. But the same was true for many others. Thus, Ambrose did not mind serving the king of geniuses even if the later was only a teenager.

Ambrose met with Michael at the base the next day:

Micahel : Ambrose, yes. Come in. Okay, so I have called you for a special assignment. It might be quite troublesome. But, if you can manage to do it well and show good results, I will ask the alchemist at the light tower to make a supreme healing pill for your mother. That pill is so expensive that even my family would not be able to easily buy it. The price of the ingredients itself is greater than your entire income of 5 years. So are you willing to take this assignment?

After hearing what Michael had to say, Ambrose was naturally stunned. But he was greatly excited as well. Supreme healing pills were incredibly expensive and was used by perfect realm experts when they were injured. Saints could hardly afford it. If the Rageberg family did not have the required connections and great wealth, it would have been impossible.

Ambrose : Yes lord. I shall happily accept!

Micahel : Okay. So you have to go to the capital city of elves. But you don't just have to infiltrate the city but the royal palace. You need to watch the movements of elven troops and ministers and if possible of the immortals. Report everything that you can find there including any rumors that you are unable to validate. It is of utmost importance. Focus on Ragnar Leslechis. What his mood is like and what he is doing. Try to monitor his movements if possible. Also, look out for Ashley as well and report all matters regarding her to me.

When Ambrose saw Micahel speaking the last sentence, he was again shocked. Michael's face flushed as he mentioned Ashley's name but he covered it pretty well. Ambrose had never thought that this guy that gave him shivers could form an expression like that. It was then he remembered:

Ambrose(thinking): Wait a minute, isn't that the elven princess that is said to be quite the beauty? Is Michael interested in her? Look at that expression - that is pretty much the same a boy makes when he sees his first love! So this genius is still a kid after all. But I better not say anything unnecessary or who knows how he might react. I am too weak to take the risk to tease him!

As such, Ambrose forcefully stopped himself from smiling and said with an extremely serious tone and face:

Ambrose : Don't worry my lord. I shall not disappoint you.

Michael : Okay. You can leave now. Get everything that you need from the head office. I will look forward to your performance.

Micahel had indeed felt very embarrassed about using the family resources to spy on Ashley but he could not help himself. Since he knew about her predicament, he did not have any negative feelings towards her. Thus, he decided to know more about the situation to get a solution. Thus, he decided to send Ambrose to the elven royal palace.

After the first batch of spies was released, the spy organization of shadow-eyes was born. No one knew that the most terrifying spy organization had just appeared in Aterna.