Celeste might've left to take care of the Dwelling, but Herman remained rooted on the spot. No matter which perspective he looked at it from, her suggestion wasn't bad. Actually, it might've been better than anything else he could come up with.

Rushing into things was always a bad call, no matter how much information he had. Celeste's idea of waiting until the Soul Wandering realm would imply patiently cultivating and fortifying the foundation he's building on. Not only cultivation-wise but relationship-wise as well. There were still a big number of servants he could gain by creating good relations with the Junior-rank sects.

Then, there were the five girls from the Valley of the Fallen Blossoms sect, as well as the companions he chose from the Basic-rank sects. He couldn't just up and leave for a 10-20 years exploration in the trials set up by the System and hope that by the time he returns, they would still hold a decent opinion of him.

"Luckily, Celeste pointed it out before I did something stupid. I need to plan this carefully..."

He first started with cultivation. He currently had exactly 147 days since he came to this world and he could passively gain cultivation by meditating for long periods of time (also known as secluded cultivation). Furthermore, there were still covenants that he could attempt with the companions he handpicked. The main issue with this 'active' form of cultivation, was its efficiency.

Right now, Herman was already at the Golden Core realm, therefore, his gain upon undergoing such an act wouldn't be as much as it was while at the Qi Gathering stage. Actually, if quantified in Cultivation Base, it was likely that he could gain somewhere between 100.000 points at minimum and 250.000 in the best-case scenario. That wasn't bad at all given that his partners would all be at the Nascent Soul realm or above, but as he climbed higher, such an amount would become ridiculously low since a single Beast Core Pill would give him that maximum amount in one go.

As for dual cultivation, he only had three shots at it per year, with another year of 'cool down' in between. To make matters more cumbersome, when two people dual cultivate, they draw large amounts of Qi from the world outside and create a circuit with their own meridian pathways for it to run through. In doing so, small amounts of Primordial Qi are being deposited in their bodies, depending on how large the 'containers' that could hold Primordial Qi are.

"Since at the Golden Core realm the core is the 'container' in-cause, it's better to wait until I reach the tenth step before attempting to dual cultivate. That way, I can maximize the amount I could gain, as well as facilitate an easier breakthrough."

After reaching the Soul Wandering stage, the core would connect with his soul, therefore making it material through Primordial Qi reinforcement. Bringing his soul into the material plane would be immensely helpful as it would allow him to further explore and collect materials from the 20 realms he is supposed to visit. Not to mention that he would get even more Cultivation Base after dual cultivating at this realm than before, given that his soul would also become part of the 'container' for Primordial Qi.

Next, there was the Fortune Land. This 'sub-realm' nurtured by the System would allow those participating in the race for Heavens to cultivate there three times per year. It works by having the cultivator pick a spirit and receive its guidance. These 'spirits' were always assumed to be soul shards of powerful seniors that could offer tips and tricks on how to improve at a faster rate, based on their own experiences.

"Obviously though, since the System is managing such a 'resource', there are tiers to how much 'guidance' you can get... depending on how much are you willing to pay up."

The Fortune Land soul shards worked in a pretty straightforward manner. The stronger the cultivator that left it here, the higher the spirit tier. The weakest tier 1 was the Pure Spirit. You were given access to three such pure spirits per year and three chances to upgrade it for free to a higher tier. Unfortunately, the upgrade chances were pure RNG (random number generator) and it was left up to the Heavens if you were able to successfully upgrade them or not.

A tier 1 Pure Spirit would give a cultivator 20 pills for each one of the four main attributes, as well as a specific amount of Cultivation Base. This time around though, it was different than a cultivation covenant and you would receive it in a physical form: pills!
The main reason behind this 'feature' was to encourage the participants to fight each other over these pills and attempt stealing. The stronger ones would get stronger, while the weaker ones would be trashed. Fortunately, there was a no-kill rule, so even if one would get his ass kicked, at least they would keep their lives.

A tier 1 Pure Spirit would provide quite a bit of cultivation to a newbie, but it all depended on how much Perception the said newbie had. As for the reason, the soul shards guidance consisted of a three days lecture from the seniors, and how much one could understand from it, ultimately depended on themselves. The Perception attribute was the one that helped the cultivators understand the will and laws of Heavens, therefore how much cultivation base they could gain from these 'seniors' was directly proportional with it.

"Hmm... from what I remember, Pure Spirit would reward the cultivator with 2.000 times his/her total Perception over the course of three days."

In laymen's terms, a person with 100 Perception points would gain 200.000 Cultivation Base after three days... in pill-form. All he/she needed to do is defend themselves from robbers and prepare to rob others instead.
Moving forward, the second tier would be the Binary Spirit which gives 30 pills for each main attribute and 3.000 times one's Perception over the course of the same three days. The third tier is the Dense Spirit. It gives 40 pills for each main attribute and 4.000 times one's Perception in the same three days.

Finally, the strongest tier and Celeste's suggestion, the Chaos Spirit would give out 50 pills and 5.000 times one's Perception in cultivation base.

"It all sounded good in theory as you had three free upgrades and 'theoretically' you could get one Chaos Spirit per year for free. If you were lucky enough, you could get one tier 4 Chaos Spirit, as well as two other pure spirits per year, gaining a total of 9.000 times one's Perception in a year. Of course, the System is generous and merciful, so if you are willing to spend Spirit Jades, you could get only tier four Chaos Spirits every time."

The System applied a 'casino'-type rule for the Fortune Land, allowing the participants to spend 2 Spirit Jades each time they wanted to upgrade the tier of their Spirit. Still, it was RNG-based, so it depended on one's luck.
If you were willing to try and upgrade it by spending 2SJ each time, you might get the chaos spirit in 5-10 tries. If you are unlucky... well, let's say that you would become a very angry and poor cultivator.

But fear not, for the System's mercy knows no bounds! If you are willing to, you can directly spend 20SJ in the beginning and get the highest tier available each time. This was also what Celeste had teased him about: slap the System on the face using money, in order to gain its favor.

Glancing at the ridiculous amount of Spirit Jades he had left, Herman smirked contentedly.

"Next there should be companions, new and old."

Since they were of major importance after ascension, he couldn't neglect them at all. He needed to both spar with them, converse with them, and maybe even take them while adventuring in the twenty realms the System gave him access to. He couldn't get their direct help in completing the missions set for solo clearance, but he could take them afterward and just babysit them into fighting stronger opponents while giving them advice from the sidelines.
That way, they could improve much faster and the help Herman would get from them after ascension would be much more substantial. For the lower realm ones, he could even host small gatherings where they could discuss the Tao and improve their perception of cultivation.

"I would probably need Celeste's help with that again. I'm beginning to owe her one too many favors for my mental sanity to remain intact..."

Finally, to complete his trial the time needed would usually be around 20 years, with one year's worth of exploration per world. However, Herman planned to give himself more time and temper this newbie body of his. By taking his time and tempering both his body and mind further, he would become much stronger when faced with enemy cultivators later down the road.

For the time being, the higher-ups of the Immortal World wouldn't allow for casualties to ensue among their precious recruits, so they would ban infighting to the death in the near future. Even the arenas would only allow for injuries to be caused but stop there on an HP/damage system.
Similar to the Contest of Tao Herman went through, once a good chunk of the fighter's HP disappeared, the winner of the match would be decided.

"Well... all in all, for now, I need to cultivate through meditation and socialize as much as possible. The friendlier I get with them, the better the chances of them signing the contract."

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Soon, half a year already passed since he came to the Immortal World. He didn't bother breaking through just yet and instead rested at the Golden Core I level, focusing on improving his physique and fighting techniques.

His Cultivation Base increased by quite a bit as well.

The gain was slower than he liked it to be, but there wasn't anything to worry about. He still hasn't gone through any other cultivation covenants and only focused on passive gain and beast pills. Even so, he barely gained around 160.000 Cultivation Base passively in over four weeks, so his patience was running thin.

On the plus side, the 'stay-at-home' mentality helped him greatly in cementing his relationships with his current companions, as well as making new ones from the Junior-rank sects.
Furthermore, he even picked up a Junior-rank sect to join after consulting with Fang Qian.

She obviously didn't have anything against it since she knew that Herman needed to learn more skills in order to further advance on his path. The stronger he got, the better chances they had after following him in the Heavenly Realms.

All five girls from the Fallen Blossoms sect had 'signed' the master-servant contract, but none did in the same way Tianxia Xue and Xu Wen'an had, much to his disappointment. After he accumulated enough Cultivation Base to reach Golden Core V he would attempt a covenant with Fang Qian and help her breakthrough that way.
Surprisingly to everyone, the Junior-rank sect that Herman chose was the Raging Flame Sect. Their dismay was easy to understand as it was a malevolent sect, but he couldn't care less about that. Their fifth skill was a Perception-increasing Heavenly Book, not to mention that he could get their notes on Blacksmithing and help his apprentice grow at a faster pace.

Seeing Herman knocking on their doors and saying that he wants to join, the sect master was quite befuddled. Li Suxing has been in his position as leader of the sect for over a thousand years now and this was his first time seeing someone saying with utmost honesty that they are joining for the sect's Heavenly Book. The Junior Sister of the sect, Hong Yu, was so amused that she started laughing in a very unladylike manner, but was stopped by the glare of her sect master.
The boy even had the nerve to mention that he is looking for companions to sign the master-servant agreement with him and that he would visit the other sects often in search of such people.

Not only the sect master of the Raging Flame Sect was left speechless by such behavior, but the other Junior-rank sects as well. Digging a bit into this youth's past, they were able to see where this arrogance was stemming from: achievements!
He was the one that the System mentioned as being the first to undertake the Trials of Courage imposed by their ancestors, and even before that, his rep sheet was quite impressive. Fighting multiple opponents at a higher realm than he was, destroying a heretic sect's plan before they could further sacrifice more than 50 geniuses, and not to mention... reaching the Gold Core realm in half a year!

Herman was well aware of his advantages and he used them all shamelessly by waving them in front of the others. He didn't have time to spend bickering with others or negotiating positions. That's why he used the most brutish of methods to get shit done.
Now, he found another six possible companions from the Junior-rank sects after much investigation. Not surprisingly, he took Hong Yu from the Raging Flame sect, and even if her talents were quite average, she was well balanced in terms of cultivation, fighting strength, and understanding of the Tao. The second person came from the Afterglow Palace and was called Cheng Yisha. This person's talents were even worse than Hong Yu's, however, he needed friendly ties with this sect in order to, later on, be able to buy their ultimate skill 'Force Factor'. The x4 Strength increase was one of the treasures he set his eyes on. In the Deployment Sect, he met with an orphan girl called Qing and just that. Apparently, her master was the one that gave her that name and she didn't have another. This woman's talents were quite incredible and were on the same level as the girls from the Fallen Blossoms sect, making Herman incredibly content with finding her, not to mention that their Sect Mantra was very tempting as well. The Divine Core Sect was the place where he found the most talented cultivator among all Junior-rank sects: Ji Yunyun. He quickly made friends with these three people and then was able to meet through them Hu Chengxi of the Mystical Sorcery Palace, as well as Zhang Yuanfan of the Beast Mastery Sect. Since these two came with a buy-one-get-one package, even if their talents were poor and their sects had nothing to offer him, he had to acquiesce and take them as well.

As for the reason why they came as a package, Zhang Yuanfan was in a courting relationship with Qing, while Hu Chengxi was already engaged with Ji Yunyun. Those two poor bastards... their futures were filled with horrifying amounts of hard work if they wanted to keep a semblance of manly pride given their level of talent and the girls'.
Finally, after enough socializing to make him want to become a hermit, Herman could finally rest and recuperate in his Dwelling, by Tianxia Xue and Xu Wen'an's side. Unfortunately for him, such peaceful days didn't last for long, and only three days after he returned home, Fang Qian brought a piece of bad news: two countries were taken over and now were being led by recruits brought over here at the same time as him!

"So, it's finally here..."

We moved the conversation to the main room of the pavilion and had everyone sit at a table while listening to Fang Qian's report. The maids brought over pastries and tea to enjoy, yet nobody was in the mood for that.
Tianxia Xue, Xu Wen'an, and Celeste were sat next to Fang Qian and Yi Xuan who also joined for some reason. The debriefing session began.

[This news spread like wildfire and currently is being discussed in every corner of our continent since it's basically unheard of. To start, there is a group in the North-East side of the continent that silently took over all the Basic-rank sects through a leading disciple test.](Fang Qian)

[Sorry miss Qian, but can you tell us what that is? The leading disciple test?](Xu Wen'an)

[Oh, right, my bad! Forgot that Wanderers aren't usually interested in sects and their practices. Simply put, it's a test of potential and leadership. If the one invoking this test passes it, he/she gains more authority in the said sect than the actual sect master. It's almost impossible to pass such a test, yet all 12 Basic-rank sects of the Worldly Desires territory suddenly underwent this major event at the same time. Even scarier, all 12 were recruits that started cultivating six months ago after Profound Immortal Clear Lake brought them over. They have all passed!](Fang Qian)

[That sounds impressive.](Tianxia Xue)

[Indeed! How interesting!](Xu Wen'an)

[You two... that's not the main issue! Don't you find it weird that all 12 of them decided to tackle this test at the same time? Also, targeting that territory, even if it's small...](Celeste)

"They can use it as a springboard. Let me guess, they didn't stop at the Basic-rank sects, did they?"

[Indeed they didn't! Currently, they underwent the same trial in five Junior-rank sects. Two of them failed, but three passed. Furthermore, using the Basic-rank sects' power and influence, they connected the territories of these 12 sects to put pressure on the royal families. At the moment, everyone believes that the royalty of this territory has become nothing more than a puppet for them to manipulate.](Yi Xuan)

[That's quite audacious! Did the administration intervene?](Celeste)

"They wouldn't since they didn't break any rules. If you're to go further down this reasoning, they earned such a privilege through their own power and potential. What did they do after?"

[They set up a council and started expanding to near territories. Given that they are participating in the race for Heavens and have such incredible talents, nobody is inclined to stop them and instead, are willing to offer help. After all, if they are successful in their endeavors, this territory that would be under their tutelage should receive a bounty of benefits.](Fang Qian)

"Makes sense I guess."

Quite obvious, the people pushing such undercurrents were none other than the Peak alliance. He wasn't there to witness their hostile takeover, but he did hear about it once he entered the Immortal World later on since it was quite the accomplishment. Now it seems that they planned to do this from the very beginning.
Once they reach the Soul Wandering realm and build up their alliance, having a territory to operate in would give them plenty of advantages. Sure enough, the Peaks were quite the frightening opponent.

[But that's not even the most surprising news of the week! You wouldn't believe it in normal circumstances, but given that these people already did it themselves, would make sense for others to make a move as well.](Fang Qian)

[Oh!? Did other territories also experienced the 'genius' of these newbies?](Celeste)

Seeing the sneer on her face while looking at him, Herman felt like punching that pretty but smug face of hers. Nevertheless, he held himself back since he still wanted to live for another couple of centuries still.

[Well... not exactly.](Fang Qian)

[Hoh? Seeing from your expression, there is quite the accomplishment that they managed. What is it?](Celeste)

[One of the recruits was chosen as the Saintly Maiden of the Holy Elven Empire.](Fang Qian)

[WHAT!?](Celeste)

The shock in the room was evident, but only Herman flinched slightly with a wry smile on his face.

"Sure enough, be it in this life or the past, you wouldn't stay hidden, would you? *Sigh* Laura, Laura... if this time around you stay out of my way, I would let you be. If you don't... then don't blame me for being ruthless and getting rid of you myself. After all, there's still hatred between us for you killing UX for no reason whatsoever..."