Treasure-hunting: Into the Unknown

With Zachary's current strength, he couldn't cultivate with Anne more intimately, so his cultivation was currently focused more on his personal development. On the other hand, she simply guided him using her martial energy and protected any mishaps from happening when he used the Sage Access Meridian to cultivate. To some extent, he had sped up his cultivation.

Six hours later, Zachary and Anne finished their cultivation. Although they practiced only the most basic, he felt that with her guidance, his cultivation's outcome was much better than that of himself. Moreover, the speed of fusing with Celestial Energy Crystal's spiritual energy in his body also increased a lot.

When Zachary opened his eyes, he instantly saw something that astonished him. He became restless.

Anne opened her eyes as well. Seeing that he was staring at her meaningfully, she instantly felt sheepish, but she didn't hide her sentiments. She just asked, "Are you done gawking at me with your hungry eyes?"

"Yeah, sure. Besides, if I continue, I might make a mistake." Zachary laughed and shifted his gaze away.

Anne then stood up and retrieved her clothes to cover herself up. When she turned around, Zachary saw that the wound on her back had practically healed, leaving only a mild scar in its place that resembled a small snake.

"Tania's ointment works wonders. Anne, your wound healed so fast!" Zachary exclaimed in surprise.

"Certainly. Aside from the alchemy skill she inherited from the strongest one among the Five Gods, she has an innate talent since her early years. The talk going around is she has started practicing alchemy when she was just five years old," Anne answered. Tiana's medical skills no longer surprised her.

"Since she was only five? Is she that powerful?" Zachary asked in surprise.

"Even though the Long Tribe aren't her ancestors, I have observed that she possesses the same great potential as the Long Tribe's descendants. Otherwise, at her age, she can't have the strength equal to mine," Anne confirmed.

"How did she do it?" Zachary asked out of curiosity.

"I don't know the full details, but she has made use of alchemy to transform her body since childhood," Anne replied after a moment's hesitation.

"Body transformation with alchemy? Does it even work? I've only heard of genetic modification." After learning this, Zachary became more interested in Tania's dependence on this world's alchemy to alter her body. Judging from her current strength, he assumed that her result was awe-inspiring. If given a chance, he would ask her to teach him the process of magically transforming one's body. By nature, Tania could not teach him anything because he was now an official disciple of hers.

"We still have a few months left before the Imperial Level

up their work under the supervision of none other than Ryder.

It stunned Ryder to see Zachary suddenly show up. Then he walked up to him and bowed, saying, "Congratulations, Manager Harley. No, I should call you Guardian Harley now. I heard you had done an incredible performance. What a glorious feeling you must have felt! You earned a reputation by defeating so many opponents. You've brought honor to the Xiao Clan and the beast barn."

"When will the expansion end?" Zachary asked without delay.

"The project will be completed in three days," Ryder replied.

"Cool, it seems that Steward Shaw is very efficient in his job," Zachary commented, nodding in satisfaction.

"Yes, I agree. But I'm also overseeing their work day and night and making sure they do not slack off at work," Ryder said proudly.

"I know. That's why I will give you fifty thousand gold coins as a reward for your hard work," Zachary said. He didn't want to talk nonsense with him anymore. He shortly took out gold notes equivalent to fifty thousand gold coins and handed them over to Ryder's hand.

Not believing what he just heard, Ryder widened his eyes as he stared at the gold notes in his hands. Although they were paper notes, they worth a lot of money, and it was something he had never expected to happen.

"Also, please give these five hundred thousand cold coins to Steward Shaw for me," Zachary added as he took out another stack of gold notes and gave them to Ryder.

Seeing the pile of gold notes in his hands, Ryder almost lost his balance. He thought, 'No wonder Steward Shaw has been urging us to work hard for the past month. It turns out there would be compensation, and the amount of benefits is substantial!'

"Send someone to inform me once you're done with the expansion. I want to check it myself later," Zachary said, and then he took off.