When the matter of the demon's cultivation eventually ended the man was under the impression that the succubus behind him could best be described as strange.
How big was the change that occurred during her evolution for a cultivation method to become invalid? And technically speaking, evolution from juvenile to adult is a pseudo-evolution, the change shouldn't be that big.
At the speed they were going it should have taken a week or so to reach where his wife was at, but last night she told him that they're going to slowly travel south so it should take longer now.
He didn't train the succubus that night which allowed her to get the needed sleep. The succubus spent the next few days digging up all that she remembered about the cultivation methods she got from other succubi, after she had broke up her previous cultivation method into key sections she added what she thought was the most important parts from the other cultivation methods. That mostly included the most common or similar sections among all the cultivation methods and other sections she found interesting or certain sections that she thought would synergize with her bloodline. Granted, she didn't actually know what her bloodline wanted but she could guess a few things from its incitements.
At the end of the second day she had what could be described as a working prototype but not exactly usable. The cultivation method could draw in ether, but there were problems with fusing the ether with her body to reinforce it. The ether flow was erratic, which was to be expected since she mixed in that many parts into the method some of which opposed each other, when the ether acted by that method it would try to complish too many things as once. That would cause internal injuries whenever the cultivation method was used.
This didn't worry the succubus, instead she was happy with the progress she had made in just two days. The next step would be to stabilize the cultivation method, which for the most part meant fusing certain sections that could synergize together. That took a few days since she had to personally come up with sections that were to support the combination, she also had to figure out the perfect ratio for the individual sections and then figure out the perfect ratio for the combinations after which she had to go back and make some adjustments.
It also didn't help that she would also be suddenly inspired to add certain components that would improve the overall quality of the method but forced her readjust whatever came before. Most of the added components could be blamed on the Abyssal Library and a certain disembodied voice. Due to the Library she knew something about a lot of things and she knew a lot about some things. She would be thinking about a constituent circulation or formation in the method when she suddenly remembers something similar she read more than a decade ago, when she first started making alterations and later tested it out the voice seemed to approve. That meant some of the alterations she had made were beneficial for her bloodline so she decided to make more alterations, but that took time since she had to figure out what worked and what didn't. The voice was pretty vague when it wasn't telling her to try to burn down the town they were about to enter so it didn't help much so in the end she decided to make only small alterations and focus on stabilizing the end result, which for the most part was going extremely well.
After making the proper adjustments to accommodate the alterations, it didn't take long to figure out the proper ratios of the new combinations. The resulting method worked well, in fact the cultivation speed was greater than that of her previous method, which was saying a lot since she had evolved and her cultivation now needed a lot more ether than before to progress. Problem was, the cultivation method was way too complex. It took too much concentration and spiritual energy to form and maintain the needed formations and guide the numerous circulations which themselves were made of smaller circulations. She had more than enough spiritual energy but her cultivation level didn't allow her to use that much of it without having to face drawbacks.
It was expected that taking everything that works and throwing it in there would end up in a good mess. She couldn't exactly figure out how to declutter everything without removing anything, but she won't be removing anything. In fact, once they leave town she plans to go ahead to add whatever she can from the human cultivation methods she got.
The town itself was called Okra and just like Siniy it was also in the middle of expansion. She wasn't short on gold so her visit to the black market for today was for information. In the past several days she hadn't been able to get any more information about what exactly is happening in the Plains aside from the man.
The succubus found the gate after asking around, on the other side of the gate was a reception area similar to the one in Siniy. The oath also acted up when she arrived in the room, it was blatantly obvious that the black markets in the two towns were controlled by the same power. The receptionist also seemed to have figured it out since after she greeted her she didn't bother to explain anything and just asked where she wanted to go.
"To socialize, drink and eat," the succubus said after thinking about it.
"May I have your card?" the succubus took out the card from her void ring and gave it to the woman who passed it through a an enchanted crystal before giving it back to the succubus and signaling that she could go on her way.
The succubus took her card and walked over to the guard who was seemingly guarding a wall and gave it to him. Checking it for a bit he gave it back after which a gate opened up and the succubus promptly walked through. She found herself in front of the consoles and after she picked a location and tapped her card on the console a gate opened up.
On the other side of the console was a relatively busy cavern, she followed the instructions she had received and eventually found herself in front of a diner.
Diners in the black market usually places to exchange information, have meet-ups of questionable content and to get your hands on interesting 'probably-edibles'. She was here for the first two. The diner she chose was pretty good for the area it was in. That was because it generally served Knights and in a small town such as this, Knights would have been royalty if not for recent events. But most of the Knights here aren't native to the town but came with their masters or seniors. And probably more than a few of them actually knew what they were here to do.
From what she could understand from the information she got from the console, the Knights that gathered here are above average among the Knights that arrived in town in terms of ability and a veritable amount of alcohol is downed every day.
The diner was basically filled with knowledgeable people who have nothing to do and enough alcohol to loosen up their mouths, if that didn't get them talking she would bring out the pretty face.
The diner had a L-shaped bar table on that ran the walls opposite and to the left of the door. The right was just three pillars and past those pillars was a larger and noisier space. Waiters and waitresses shuffled around serving the patrons.
The succubus looked around for a table that had lots of alcohol but wasn't too rowdy but she didn't get far before she caught someone's attention.
"Hey kid, you're from around here?" she was the only Commoner in here, there weren't even any Squires. No one brought anyone weaker than Knight to the town so the only Commoners in town were locals. There were things that were to be said that they didn't need the locals hearing so he wanted to get her to leave.
As for the succubus, she was quite happy to have someone's attention so soon.
"No. I was dragged to this place."
"That so, what for?"
"That's what I'm hoping to find out. Senior just suddenly dragged a bunch of us out of nowhere a few days ago. All we managed to get out of him is that there's some sort of event happening out in the Plains. I'm the sort that likes to know how they died," she spoke in a loud enough voice as she walked over to the man who spoke and took a free chair from a nearby table, "Can I sit here?"
The man looked at his three friends and after they all nodded he signaled for the succubus to go ahead. Placing the chair by the side of the table she sat down with her hands rested on her thighs.
"How sure are you that your Senior doesn't want you dead? A Commoner where we're going is going to be killed by a random gust of wind," one of the man's friends, a brunette with green eyes, was the first to talk.
"That's pretty likely as long as I'm concerned, what ability would a Commoner at her age have? The girl's Senior probably decided to get rid of the trash," said a rather buff man with short black hair.
"Seems as if you guys know stuff. Mind sharing?" she decided to ignore the rude comments. They were obviously trying to get her angry so that she'll accidentally reveal her background when she tried to defend herself. They just weren't skilled enough to play a succubus.
The brunette clicked her tongue when she saw the succubus taking it with grace, "Let's just tell her." She looked at her friends and after they all nodded she continued to say, "According to what we know, the location of a Mausoleum had been revealed. We don't know much about it but many powerhouses should be buried there judging from the number of gathered forces."