“The harder one works, the more luck he would have.”

Incidentally, Qai found what were left from the remains of the 2 Ant Workers which he sent before.

He could intuitively recognize them due to the blood contract.

He also found a decaying set of bones lying on the ground—and when his Spiritual Sense swept over them, he could tell that they were apparently remains of an early Core Formation stage cultivator.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of said cultivator's treasures or storage pouch anywhere near.

Qai speculated that the elite cultivator must have run out of a way to defend himself from the soul attack—or worse, he must have been backstabbed by a companion who survived the Hundred Graves and freely left with the former’s treasures.

Qai took a deep a deep breath before he made his way to the source of the obnoxious mist—the boulder-sized stone Artefact which happened to be just a few meters ahead.

Apart from the large one, there were 6 other fist-sized stones surrounding the stone Artefact. And he could tell that they were parts of a whole—only that the smaller stones seemed to serve as amplifiers to the hallucinating mist.

Qai carefully inspected the surroundings with his Spiritual Sense whether anything amiss.

He was surprised.

‘Why do I feel like everything has been so easy!?’

After ascertaining several times, he could not believe that there really was nothing wrong. However, when he tried to pull one of the smaller stones, he could not actually do it even after mustering his Grandmaster rank physical strength.

Qai tried every method he knew possible to get a single stone but to no avail.

And then he thought that maybe the reason why it was probable that the dead elite cultivator was plotted by his companion was that they realized they could not take the stones out.

‘Is my trip here really in vain!?’

Qai did not want to accept.

So many cultivators died just to try their luck to get a treasure inside the Hundred Graves. Had they known that the so-called treasure could not be taken out, they wouldn't have braved the dangers of the hallucinating mist.

Qai could only sigh.

Once again he extended his Spiritual Sense—but this time to see whether there were more storage pouches left by dead cultivators since he had decided to go back.

But then, just as he was about to leave, he thought of something.

So he immediately hopped and sat down on top of the boulder to try out his speculation. Then he tried to place his spiritual mark on the stone Artefact and see if he could refine it.

Dang!

It was possible.

However, he could feel that perhaps it may take him an entire year just to refine it.

Qai stood up and finally decided to leave the place and head back to his Saints Hall.

A week later, a cultivator wearing purplish-brown Cloak over a distinctive Robe Armor came to sit atop the boulder-sized stone Artefact in a lotus position while contemplatively murmuring an incantation with his eyes closed.

He appeared to be in a trance but, in actuality, he was simply refining the stones.

Just below the boulder, and still, within the space around the 6 smaller stones, there laid beside each other a pair of eggs the size of a human head.

The eggs looked vibrant as the mist gradually converged in them and appeared to be breaking anytime soon.

Of course, it was Qai.

Earlier, he decided to drop by the Saints Hall for 3 reasons.

First, he could not let his people think that something happened to him had he gone missing for a long time. If he began the refinement process a week earlier, he wouldn't have a way to warn them that he was just trying to refine a stone that might take a year. So he had to inform them that he would be in seclusion.

Secondly, he left Ji Wuheng some instructions about the succeeding training routine for his Blood Knights and squire-servants. He obviously wouldn't allow his plans with them to be impeded because of his personal agenda.

And lastly, he asked Teng Gui to send to him all the protective talismans they had in stock and to refine some more for him. Apparently, he wanted to make sure that nothing could go wrong while he was refining the stone Artefact.

In addition, he left for the Crag Brothers and Ji Wuheng to sort out all the items and the contents of storage pouches he found inside the Hundred Graves.

And so, after accomplishing everything for a week, he went back to the Hundred Graves and immediately went to work.

Qai wasn't worried about the safety of the Saints Hall since the Queen Ant was just sitting idly within the main hall.

As for the security of the Hundred Graves, apart from the Ape corpse puppet that stood a few meters behind the boulder, he also arranged several Array formations at the dimension’s entrance.

With everything prepared, the only thing left for him to do was to complete the refining process.

Qai had no idea what would happen after refining the stone Artefact. In fact, he didn't even consider the thought that he might still not be able to bring the stone out of the pocket dimension upon completion.

He just felt a hunch that what he was trying to accomplish right then and there was the correct method to claim the treasure.

A year quickly passed by.

Just a couple of miles down from the Stonecrest region, a thunderous rumbling reverberated in the air.

Many villagers thought that a storm was brewing—little did they know that a completely different scenery suddenly emerged near their village.

In the midst of that place, Qai appeared standing together with level 2 Spirit Beasts—they were the pair of One-eyed Spiders that hatched from the eggs which surprisingly came out a level higher than expected.

The Spirit Beasts had a 1-meter-sized body with 8 long legs just like the appearance of their mothers. For some reason and from the way the One-eyed Spiders looked, Qai discerned that spider eggs must have come in pairs in order to proliferate their existence.

Qai placed the One-eyed Spiders in his beast pouched and immediately rode off his Guandao home.

And since it was he who completed the mission, he didn't need to report to the Teahouse to claim for the reward. He would just notify the Fang clan cultivator managing the mission board about the incident.

In 2 days, Qai appeared in the mountain peak and was surprised to find out that more than half of the children training to become knights were already in the Silver rank while the rest were in Bronze rank.

‘This was faster than expected.’

Of course, Qai had been feeding them Spirit Beast meat from the beginning on top of a much rigorous training that he went through.

In his mind, once anyone from the batch with Spirit Roots attained the Gold rank, he would immediately impart the incantation provided in the Purple Blood Cultivation technique.

But before that, since all of them had already made a lot of progress, he thought of teaching them the basic army formations that he knew of.

However, even before he reached his manor, Ji Wuheng came to him with some reports and news.

Apparently, the Devil Dao cultivators that backed the Broken Moon Sect withdrew from the war that forced the latter to enter into a truce with Scarlet Feather Sect.

But the Scarlet Feather Sect did not let them off that easily and demanded to compensate the damages it incurred.

In the end, the Broken Moon Clan had to give up a third of its territory and pay a huge sum of Spirit Stones as part of the agreement.

As a result, the Scarlet Feather Sect became the second largest power in the continent after the Heavenly Sword Sect.

On the other hand, Broken Moon Sect was reduced to a measly second rate sect. But many believed that such appearance was only on the surface since no one knew how really deep was the Broken Moon Sect.

In fact, some still believed that the Broken Moon Sect was just licking its wounds and would stage another war sometime soon.