Sect Leader's Rise to the top!

When Kai and his disciples reached Huang City, it was already the next morning. His disciples went back to their rooms to consolidate their cultivation while Kai went down to the basement.

He opened up the chest where the ten [Grade-2] beast hearts had been stored and gobbled them all up. When he ate the last one, Kai felt a burning sensation within his heart that quickly spread throughout his entire body. Kai did not fight it and simply observed the process while regulating his breathing.

His muscles would tear themselves apart before quickly healing themselves, then repeating the process again. The pain was excruciating, however, Kai endured it with gritted teeth. After a few hours of this, the process slowed down then suddenly stopped. Kai exhaled a sigh of relief as he opened his eyes to see the results. He flexed his arms, but there was no obvious change.

"Not much has changed on the outside, but..." Kai picked up a small knife and let it fall onto his exposed arm. The knife tip landed on his arm but simply bounced off his skin as if having landed on a stone plate.

"My natural defenses have increased drastically by the looks of it. I wonder if the later stage of this manual focuses more on defense?". Kai still did not fully understand his manuals and would only learn such things as he used them.

The system's descriptions were only useful for a high-level understanding of the manuals. It would be up to him to discover the more nuanced details of each manual.

Kai had now reached a body cultivation level of [Mortal-Grade-5]. His body cultivation manual was be capped at [Mortal-Grade-6], so he would soon need to look at upgrading his body cultivation manual again.

"Let's see, I'll need a C-Rank manual next, but to get that, I'll have to use an item with 10,000 Qi or more..."

Kai wanted to vomit at the mere thought of it. He could barely find items with 1000 Qi, so just how disgustingly rare and expensive would items with 10,000 Qi be?.

Kai shook his head and shifted his mind away from that topic. He would cross that bridge when he got there. For now, he stored his valuables inside of his new spacial bag. He also decided to put a few useful talismans and a set of clothes into it. Lastly, Kai placed the alchemy furnace along with a bunch of ingredients and already made pills into the bag.

"I leave some space open in case I find anything valuable on my trips". Kai stood up and stretched his body which was recovering from the recent breakthrough.

The sun was coming up so Kai took a shower and then changed into a fresh set of clothes. He went to the backyard where Qiulong was curled up beneath a shady tree.

Qiulong noticed her master and stuck her large head into his chest affectionately. Kai smiled and rubbed her head lovingly. He then sat down with Qiulong as his backrest and pulled out the mysterious journal that he had found inside of the cave.

"Let's see what this madman was trying to make down there", Kai said as he started reading the diary.

Time quickly passed as the sun rose high up into the sky. Old Lao had noticed Kai sitting outside which was rare, so he had brought him some refreshments which Kai was thankful for.

The sun was just starting to set when Kai finally finished reading the diary. He closed the book and seemed to be in serious thought over the contents.

"This is really not what I expected..." Kai thought. The diary detailed the life's work of a highly-skilled talisman crafter. One day, the man had received a sudden realization that prompted him to try creating intelligent life using the principles of talismans, but his attempt is noted to have been a dismal failure. The creatures he created were all mindless with some bordering on being insanely dangerous.

"Not everything he came up with was a failure though..." Kai thought as he opened the diary to a certain page. There he found an important principle detailing how the man transferred Qi from one object to another using the core principles of talisman crafting. This gave birth to a technique that allowed him to imbue objects with Qi permanently. Kai thought that this one page alone was worth more than his entire haul for the day.

"How to efficiently transfer Qi into an object with the least amount of resistance. This can definitely be a game-changer for me, provided I can master it of course". Kai imagined himself imbuing large amounts of Qi into objects and turning them into materials ripe for manual creation. The man was obviously too wrapped up in creating creatures that he missed this gem of knowledge that he had unknowingly created.

Just as Kai was getting excited, Old Lao walked towards him and gave a small bow. "Master, a messenger from the Lee family has arrived. He says it is quite urgent..."

"Oh? it's only been a few days since we came to an agreement with them. I wonder if they're trying to change the details of the agreement already", Kai said with a look of curiosity on his face. He put the journal back into his bag and followed Old Lao back into the house.

Kai took a seat on the couch while Old Lao let the Lee messenger in.

"Greetings lord Kai!", the messenger said immediately while bowing his head. He was a mortal, so he wouldn't dare be disrespectful in front of an internal cultivator.

Kai gestured for the man to have a seat and they began their discussion.

"Our Patriarch has fallen ill...he does not have much time. Many of the families have already started to move and have slowly been taking over our businesses..."

Kai nodded his head in understanding. There is no way that they would have waited for the Craftsmaster Lee to die before they made their move. As long as they were confident in defeating him, then this was bound to happen sooner or later.

"The reason I am here is is because that Chen Dou has ignored those other businesses and is specifically targeting our small clothing store!"

Kai was surprised. "Compared to the other Lee family businesses, that clothing store isn't worth the effort...why would the Chen family want it?", Kai asked as he tried to figure out their motives. The Chen family was in the top ten of Huang City, so they should easily be able to compete for the larger businesses.

The messenger shook his head when he heard Kai's question. "Not the Chen family, it seems Chen Dou is attacking us by himself using his personal resources. The attack is not under the name of the Chen Family".

"I see...", Kai was now able to piece things together. This Chen Dou obviously has a grudge against the Lee family and is using this situation to try and get rid of them.

The messenger saw Kai's silence and decided to give the last part of the message seeing as time was of the essence.

"He has brought over two powerful internal cultivators as well as a Twin-Lions sect representative. They are currently agreeing to the terms with the Patriarch, however, we cannot make decisions on your behalf..."

the messenger said nervously.

His family's entire future relied on Kai at this point, so he did not want to do or say anything that would offend him.

"I see, well I don't mind. Tell them that I will be there soon", Kai said as he lead the messenger out. The man ran back to his carriage and rode back to his family to give them the news.

Kai closed the door and fell into deep thought before he made his decision.

"Old Lao, call the others.. It's time for us to make our long-awaited public", Kai said with a casual smile.