Tower dismissed his gang when the sun was directly above his head. Though the Purification Bead wasn't completely filled, their job was to be as discrete as possible to avoid the church's attention. 3-5 missing child beggars might not induce doubt in others, but 20 missing beggars surely would.
Thus Tower did not rush things. He planned to fill the Purification Bead slowly in the upcoming days. Moreover he still needed to absorb the energy from the Round Table and cultivate his Body.
So he dismissed the gang and walked towards Helsin's usual hideout. This hideout was completely hidden in the popular west section of the Willow Town.
'Like who would guess a Devil Cultivator staying in a relatively decent place?' Was Helsin's approach towards hiding. According to most people, Devil Cultivators usually hid down in the sewers.
Once inside the hideout, Tower closed his eyes and willed the Round Table to absorb the child. But this time he concentrated and willed the Round Table to absorb just the 'hand' of the child, instead of his whole body. Tower was experimenting his control over the Round Table by doing this, but to his dismay his efforts seemed to be useless as the Round Table ignored his actions completely. The child was completely absorbed and turned into energy.
Tower hurriedly hid his disappointment and practiced the technique mentioned in the Body Strengthening Manual from Helsin's memories and controlled the muscles in his body to absorb 50% of this pure energy. He instantly felt an increase in his body's strength and sturdiness but before Tower could enjoy his success, unbearable pain attacked him.
The remaining unabsorbed 50% of the energy went chaotic without anyone controlling it and tried to rip him to pieces, but Tower managed to hold on by clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. The Round Table increased Tower's body endurance through Helsin's and the Hunter's sealed bodies, and thus it saved him from exploding.
Basically Tower survived the ordeal by pitting four human bodies against the excessive energy. One was his own body, while another was Helsin's body, while the hunter's body was comparable to two human bodies.
"Sigh! Fortunately I was prepared for this!" Tower's body still ached, but a smile creeped up silently on his face.
"Hehe! 5 more children and my original body strength shall reach two humans!"
Tower immediately shook his mind and mocked himself. It wasn't a good thing to imagine harming others for his own benefits. After all Devil Cultivation emphasized acting on primal desires of the humans. And human's primal desires included benefiting oneself at all costs.
Because of this, most Devil Cultivators were sly. They would always seek profit and their loyalty depended on how much profit you can bring them. They would not hesitate to cheat their masters for some extra wealth.
That's why absolute strength was required to control the Devil Cultivators. After all 'Survival' was the most important primal desire in humans.
Tower did not want to become a Devil Cultivator. Not only were the Devil Cultivators hunted by the church, their subsequent cultivation required the help from pure Devils. And pure Devils were even more sly than the human Devil Cultivators. Unless there comes a time when Tower was forced to turn into a pure Devil, he did not plan on becoming a Devil Cultivator. Thus he abstained from things that were emphasized in Devil Cultivation.
Tower took Helsin's lifelong savings that had been stacked away in the hideout without blinking his eyelids. He did not feel any shame in this daylight robbery.
He brought decent amount of meat from a decent market and reached the hunter's home. He had long since transformed into the hunter before he reached home.
Cynthia who had been waiting for him at the entrance jumped into his arms and acted spoiled by rubbing her head on his chest. She noticed the meat in his hands and smiled. She did not question the source of meat, neither did she show her interest in it which made Tower sigh in admiration. Heart Cultivators could really hold back their feelings.
Once he reached home Tower basically let Cynthia have her way with his body. He was given a spoiled bath and was carefully cleaned and dressed. A stack of newspapers were left on the dining table for him to pass his time as Cynthia took the meat to prepare their dinner.
Tower smiled at the stack of newspapers. Cynthia seemed to have noticed his recent interest in newspapers as she had collected quite a few of them. Moreover the stack was arranged according to the ascending order of the dates, making the news even more easier to comprehend.
Tower felt quite relaxed to be taken care by Cynthia. He felt it wasn't bad to have someone be considerate towards your needs.
37th day, Month Of Sun, Year 289 of the Spirit Calendar
"Huston Family Auction"
Tower was immediately caught by the title in the oldest newspaper of the stack.
"Huston Family Auction"
"Day Of Auction: 1st day, Month Of Land, year 289 of the Spirit Calendar"
"Auctioned Items: 1st Grade Heavenly Sword, 1st Grade Beast Pills, Intact Bodies of 3 Devil Cultivators, 1st Level Beast Core, Basic Alchemy Manual, Purification Bead, Miller City's Land in the south district.
Star Auction Item: Spirit Manual"
Tower stroked the hunter's beard lightly. It was already 12th day of the Month Of Sun of Year 290. Which meant that the auction had long been held, but Tower still benefited from this news.
"Since Devil Cultivator's bodies are openly sold in an auction they must be quite useful to others."
"I don't know how strong a 1st grade Heavenly Sword is, but since it was being sold at an auction it must be sufficiently strong. Moreover it must be sufficiently rare."
"Alchemy must be quite popular as mentioned in the Xianxia novels of my past life."
"That Spirit cultivation Manual should be incomplete, right?" Tower knew how attractive a complete Spirit Manual was to cultivators. After all Spirit Cultivation was at its peak state in this era. This could be easily inferred from the fact that the current dating system used the Spirit Calendar.
Tower lightly thought about the information the auction provided him, but he soon flipped the newspaper to a new page while throwing the information at the back of his mind.
He went through numerous newspapers but none of the other titles interested him. He had already gone through Helsin's memories and knew most things that were mentioned in the newspapers. After all outlaws depended completely on information for their survival in this society that discriminated and hunted them.
The meat was soon cooked and served. The art of Cooking was very advanced in this world and even Cynthia who did not undergo any professional training in cooking could make the dishes quite tasty.
As he began his harmonious meal with Cynthia, Tower suddenly had a thought. As the thought passed through his mind Tower immediately implemented it.
He used the method mentioned in Great Wood Physique Scripture to digest his food quickly and turn it into energy. Tower usually skipped this step as his Round Table directly injected pure energy into his body.
Tower then used the method mentioned in the Great Wood Physique Scripture to make his muscles concentrate on absorbing this energy.
His muscles seemed to squirm a little before they lazily absorbed 30% of this energy. Though 30% of this small amount of energy did not increase even a slight fraction of his body strength, Tower still became excited.
This was because he had used the hunter's body to absorb this energy! The hunter's body could still cultivate and advance! The hunter's body still contained cultivation potential. This, Tower felt as if he had found a loop hole in the Round Table!
The Round Table took everything from it's sealed targets and gave it to Tower but it did not seem to touch their cultivation potential. This could be easily explained. For example, Tower currently transformed into the hunter, but his total strength was still 4 humans. Even when he had transformed into Helsin, his strength still stayed at 4 humans. What does this say? The strength of Helsin and the Hunter had already been transferred to the Round Table which transferred it to Tower. No matter whom he transformed into, his total strength would not change.
But the hunter's body could still cultivate meaning that the Round Table did not touch their potential.
A smile crept upon Tower's face upon this discovery. Basically, The Round Table was giving Tower two more bodies that he could use to increase his whole strength from, by leaving their cultivation potential intact. While others can increase their strength by one time through cultivation, Tower could increase his strength by 3 times, though this meant he would need to cultivate for much longer time than others.
But Tower also knew that the strength the Round Table provided him was only an external strength. The strength it provided was only temporary. For example if Tower willed the Round Table to absorb the hunter at this moment, though Tower would still get pure energy in return, the strength he got from the hunter would completely vanish.
The Round Table increased Tower's strength in an illusionary manner. It was as if he was wearing an armor. You take the armor out, you lose the advantage of the armor.
Thus cultivating his original body still took priority. He could only cultivate the other two on the side for some spare extra strength.