‘Agreed, he agreed just like that? Wasn’t he threatening to kill me just a moment ago?’

Seren was thoroughly confused. She felt as if Lute had many personalities forced into one body. His mood kept changing at too rapid of a pace for her to comprehend. The thought that he had a Master telling him what to do was nonexistent so it was reasonable that Lute appeared that way as originally he would’ve kept refusing had Isla not interjected.

Regaining her composure, Seren calmed down and became as tranquil as possible. Ready to hear what additional demands Lute had, and if they were within reason she would unhesitatingly accept.

“I’m sure I will be able to accommodate whatever demands you have aside from knowledge. As long as they aren’t too outrageous I will immediately accept.” Seren said unhesitatingly.

“My request is extremely simple, but if you ever disobey without my consent, there will be hell to pay.”

Lute once again released his Slaughter Aura to emphasize the point. He wanted Seren to realize how serious he was and that this was not a joking matter.

Seren shivered underneath the pressure as she replied, “Understood.”

Lute nodded his head, glad that Seren finally was beginning to have some common sense, it was much easier talking to her when she threw off that snobbish arrogant attitude of being a noble.

“You are not to tell anyone that I can jump cultivation levels to fight. I don’t like others knowing the depths of my strength, you knowing some of my strength were simply because you had been lucky enough not to die under my hand.”

Seren didn’t miss out on hearing when Lute said “Some of my strength.” From her point of view, she could guess that he certainly was stronger than he showed.

She had no idea how accurate she was. Lute’s actual combat prowesses were closer to a fourth level Nascent Qi Cultivator. That was in the intermediate stages of the Nascent Qi Realm. While this was the limit of his fighting capabilities and he’d need to expend a vast amount of Qi to fight someone at the fourth level, he was still confident that he could at the least run away if he didn’t win. Of course this wasn’t factoring in the First Path of New Beginnings, but if Lute had to use that, he would sustain heavy injuries. It was a last resort where he could guarantee mutually assured destruction between his opponent and himself.

“When I heal, that is when we set out; we won’t leave the Crimson Tide Mountain Range any earlier.” Lute said authoritatively.

Lute wasn’t willing to head into the world of man again until he was at peak strength. There were an infinite number of ways that he could be killed by a human, even if they were weaker than him. That was how dangerous humans were; they were conniving, shameless and cunning. Especially if they were full of greed, that was when the danger reached its peak, this was why Lute didn’t let his inheritances and the power they gave go to his head no matter how strong he was.

He would instead take a note from Isla’s story of how the Spiritual God’s powers were unknown and he only displayed it once in known history because of an entity he was having a private war with so he needed to hid his strength. It was to always hide the power he was capable of and never let anyone know what his limits were, at least not in front of others that could then exploit that knowledge.

With the deal struck, Lute felt slightly nervous, he didn’t feel like entering into another soul contract, so he was trusting Seren at her word. Hopefully she kept it, especially when he asked her to under the effects of the Slaughter Aura. Intimidation was the only thing that was hopefully keeping her from telling everything that happened to her father.

After making a deal with Seren, Lute cultivated through the night, making sure to stabilize his Qi as he had just broken through to the peak of the Foundational Qi realm at the tenth level. Since he was now at the peak, it would definitely take a while to break into the Nascent Qi Realm as this was a bottleneck between two Great Realms.

The days passed in silence, Lute focused on recovering. His meridians and dantian were in perfect conditions, none of his muscles and tendons was injured, and all of his bones were healed. Even the left wrist which he had shattered was no longer a problem, it still had a slight fracture, but in one day it should be fully healed.

Seren had also spent the days cultivating in silence, she still had slight cuts on her arms, but those were inconsequential, she could be considered to have returned to her peak strength, nothing was ailing her anymore. But she still felt disgusted with herself, comparing how she was to Lute there was absolutely no chance that she would win a duel.

As the sun was situated on the horizon like normal, Lute took his cask down to the lake and filled it with water. In preparation to leave the Crimson Tide Mountain Range he had finished carving the cups and cask. All the remaining pelts were tied together using vines, creating a bag in which Lute was able to hold beast cores and left over preserved meat. Today was the day, he was finally ready to leave, and from now on the relatively peaceful life he’d been living at this lake would end.

With everything packed, Lute left the shelter that’d been his home for more than a month. With his physical strength, he punched and kicked until it collapsed, successfully eliminating any evidence that he’d ever lived there.

“Let’s go” Said Lute without a shred of emotion towards Seren. Despite all the memories he’d have of this place, there were no emotional attachments he felt.

They began walking east, as that was the direction Seren indicated was the path to Fallen Tide City. It would take at least a week if they were fast and two weeks if they were slow.

They truly were an odd duo. Seren while she was covered in dirt, much to her disgust, still had the tunic, ripped cloak and breeches she always wore plus boots that reached her knees; however they were made special by her family who were nobles in the end. Her clothes were more expensive then multiple years of salary that Lute’s original family would make.

Lute on the other hand wore nothing but a fur vest and loincloth that barely covered his lower regions which were all handmade. The rest of his body was covered in a bloodstained cloak he pilfered from one of the twins he slaughtered nearly a month ago.

Seren was the ice cold beauty who despite appearing in a haggard state retained her noble aura and stature. Her body language didn’t show any sign of tiredness or strain from living in the wild for a few days. She was used to living in the dorms of the Fallen Tide Hall, and was meticulous about hygiene, yet just a day with Lute and she had learned that sometimes filth and dirt were unavoidable.

Meanwhile Lute was the opposite of her in aura, his crimson hair and piercing eyes made him stand out without even taking into account the scars on his chest, shoulders, and back. The aura he had, while suppressed most of the time was the opposite of Seren’s. If hers was gentle but had the capabilities of lashing out viciously, then Lute’s was like a raging inferno that couldn’t be controlled no matter how much he contained it.

An aura would change based on a cultivators personality, fighting style, arts and techniques. It was a testament to how polar opposite the two were. Seren was most likely rational and calm when in combat, not letting anything influence her, making sure not to rush her decisions.

Lute’s violent aura was based on how he clashed head on with anything. He was always calm in combat; but he was much more violent and usually in a battle frenzied state where he did nothing but lust for battle. The closer to death, the more alive he felt.

The Slaughter Aura he had and the ruthlessness of Shifting Time Collapsing Void were a testament to this, as they promoted this way of fighting even more with how well they synergized to Lute’s personality and fighting style.

While walking towards Fallen Tide City, Lute began his studies with Seren. She started from the complete basics as she was smart enough to realize that Lute knew nothing about the world at all, or even society in general.

First, there was the currency system. While in the mundane mortal world, copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins were used. But this held no use for cultivators; instead, they traded in spirit gems. They were any gem that had soaked in the world’s essence and absorbed its power. Spirit Gems were divided into three quality tiers of low, middle and high. Then, they were split into two categories, Mortal and Divine, the former was mined from the planet and the latter fell from the Divine Realm every few hundred years.

Diving Spirit Gems were so rare, that it could be hundreds of years before any fell from the Divine Realm. Anyone that found some was considered to have heavenly luck and would be set for life if they successfully sold it. But if they were weak and happened upon it, they would be murdered within a day.

Next, Lute learned that Vicious Beast weren’t classified based on the same cultivation as humans as it wasn’t exactly the same, despite Lute doing this for months now. They were ranked according to the danger levels. A rank one beast was not a problem for the current him, but a rank nine was equivalent to a Heavenly Emperor even if it hadn’t reached the level of Heavenly Emperor in strength.

If it was rank nine, it meant the beast had the potential to reach that level or it was already at that level. Flood Dragons, descendants of true dragons were an example of this, even if it was just born, it was classified as a rank nine because they were known to always reach rank nine if they lived long enough.

The ranks were decided on the beast’s inherent abilities, how old they were, and where they stood on the hierarchy of beasts. One example was the Fanged Worg which he had encountered many times. The ones that he slaughtered were only rank one. But the Acidic Forest Bear was considered rank two because it had the special ability of its acid, it was equivalent to the Nascent Realm and it was stronger than Fanged Worgs on an individual level, meaning it didn’t rely on fighting in packs.

Aside from money, and beasts, Seren then got into all the serious information that Lute needed to know. This was the balance of power on the continent.

Currently he resided in the New Dawn Kingdom. The absolute weakest kingdom, a sect in the New Dawn Kingdom hadn’t once given birth to a Heavenly Emperor. There were many empires and kingdoms, too many to name. But the kingdoms and empires weren’t the rulers of the continents so they were relatively unimportant.

They were formed to rule mortals, so for people like Lute who were cultivators, they didn’t have to abide by the countries laws. Instead the true powers that ruled the continent and its cultivators were the sects, all cultivators were punished according to the rules of their sect and the laws that all sects on the continent came to a consensus upon and abided to. There were hundreds, and Fallen Tide Hall was just one amongst many. They weren’t even in the top one hundred strongest sects.

Of the many powers on the continent, there were eleven sects that were truly the top powers that ruled the continent. They were the Five Elemental Sects, the Three Grand Craftsmen Sects, and the Three Primordial Sects.

The Elemental Sects were easy enough to understand, they were filled with cultivators talented in the elements. They strived to use the power of the elements to their limits. Each element had its own respective sect with one or more Heavenly Emperors presiding over it. The five sects then came together and worked as a whole, with all five of them in an alliance to be one of the rulers of the continent. The Heavenly Emperors of each element was a part of a council that made decisions for the five sects as a whole.

Then there was the Grand Craftsmen Sects, made up of three sects. One for Formation Masters, one for Alchemists, and the other for Craftsmen, they, like the elemental sects were part of a council with their respective Heavenly Emperors making all the decisions. While they didn’t have much combat strength, they controlled the wealth of the cultivation world on the Crimson Tide Continent, and their formations, pills and elixirs, as well as high tiered equipment were what prevented others from brashly attempting to plunder them.

Lastly was the three Primordial Sects. In order to qualify to even hold the name, a sect must have over twenty thousand years of history. The sect must also have no less than ten Heavenly Emperors of at least the intermediate stages, and the most important of all, they had Arts and Techniques that were recognized as the strongest on the continent.

All five of the elemental sects would have to work together to even attempt to fight with one Primordial Sect. That was how great the strength of one Primordial Sect was. If they worked together, then there might be no one that could stop them. But each of the Primordial Sects were insufferably arrogant, none of them believed that they weren’t stronger than the other two combined. This was the only reason that the Crimson Tide Continent wasn’t under their iron clad rule as they were constantly fighting with each other.

Much bad blood had been built up over the years between the three. The Grand Craftsmen sect made over twenty percent profit from the Three Primordial Sects fighting on its own, not to mention the business dealings it head with all the rest of the sects and kingdoms on the continent.

The Five Elemental Sects sold themselves off as mercenaries to protect smaller sects and the Grand Craftsmen Sects for when they got caught in the crossfire between the three Primordial Sects three-way war.

The three Primordial Sects were comprised of the Eternal Sword Sect, Mountain Kings Palace and the Ancient Emperors Crypt. Each one had their own unique power that directly countered the other Primordial Sects, causing a delicate triangle of power to be formed.

The Eternal Sword Sect, although it had Sword in the name, focused on mastering any bladed weapon to the limits of its capabilities. The Mountain Kings Palace were one of the few who thought the same as Lute and put equal focus upon tempering the bodies as they did cultivating, thus they had an innumerable amount of body tempering arts and the techniques that went with them.

Lastly was the Ancient Emperors Crypt, they were collectors of any and all techniques as it wasn’t their main focus, what they truly mastered was strategy, mastering the use of anything they had to win. They had the largest wealth of knowledge, arts and techniques on the continent. From books on history or strategy, to taboo arts or even the weakest most useless technique, the Ancient Emperors Crypt had unimaginable records they could derive inspiration, strength and knowledge from.

If they were forced to be put in order of strength, and then based purely on raw strength alone, the Eternal Sword Sect was the strongest as they had the most Heavenly Emperors, and those Heavenly Emperors were mostly late stage. But, it was a delicate balance of power.

The Eternal Sword Sect was the strongest on the surface, but in reality each of the three Primordial Sects had an overwhelming advantage and disadvantage over the other two.

The Eternal Sword Sect had the highest offensive power among the three, but they lacked defensive strength. Whereas the Mountain Kings Palace had the strongest defense, speed and could hold more Qi in their bodies because of the body tempering. But because of focusing on this, they lacked the overwhelming attack power of the Eternal Sword Sect.

Most body tempering arts came with techniques that only a person who cultivated the specific physique could use -Lute was unique in this regard as he didn’t have any combat techniques that came from his body tempering art- but these body tempering combat techniques weren’t anywhere near as strong as the Eternal Sword Sect who focused completely on offensive power.

Then, considered the weakest was Ancient Emperors Crypt. They didn’t have the most Heavenly Emperors and even fewer were at the Late Stage of the realm. Nor did they have powerful bodies or arts. What made them dangerous is the knowledge and strategy they had at their disposal. The Eternal Sword Sect and Mountain Kings Palace had to be wary of them because there was no predicting what the Ancient Emperors Crypt had at its disposal.

The Ancient Emperors Crypt wasn’t afraid to use five versus one tactics, no matter how much others might call them shameless. They weren’t afraid to use taboo arts, and with their knowledge of history and strategy, their foresight in conflicts was remarkable. Although considered the weakest, in reality they were the most dangerous, as their actions were always held in secret and they moved in the shadows. Any information on them, no matter how inconsequential was payed for with many Spirt Gems of the highest grade.

All of this, Lute learned upon his travels with Seren. Only now did Lute truly grasp the soul contract he made. These Heavenly Emperors who ruled the continent, he would have to be stronger than all of them by himself with his power alone. That was what this soul contract meant.

But… that was just the starting point as from what he understood, even the weakest of the Divine Realm cultivators thought that Heavenly Emperors were no more than ants in their eyes. Until the day where he could subdue the entire continent by himself with but a mere thought, he would not be ready to travel to the Divine Realm.

The length of the road ahead entered into clarity for Lute. The amount of time…. It was infinite. He couldn’t see the end of his path of cultivation after learning all of this, who knew how many years it would be before he could trample upon the pride of every sect combined on the Crimson Tide Continent. But instead of being deterred, Lute was confident as he had at least what he thought was a gift from the Heavens.

It wasn’t the Spiritual God or Primordial God Inheritance; it wasn’t the Origin Soul Needle, or even having his Master, Isla. No, what Lute treasured more than all that was the things that allowed him to obtain it all despite the pain he had to go through. And that was his willpower.

Lute truly felt he had the most unshakeable and ironclad will in even the Divine Realm. He was willing to bring himself to the very brink of death or being crippled in order to accomplish whatever he set his mind to accomplish. Not many cultivators had such extreme thoughts that he did, especially when it came to crippling themselves. But this was precisely what made Lute so special, he didn’t fear crippling himself even before he gained the Primordial First Physique.