Most of what the four knew was what they had heard from other Knights. Each Knight knew a little about the subject and a good majority of those that came to the black market were there to exchange information.
Over the past few days they had gathered that supposedly a resource gathering expedition to the Plains uncovered the Mausoleum about a months ago, with some sources saying that the expedition didn't discover the Mausoleum by accident but its actual purpose was to verify the location.
The Mausoleum had stage limits. Sovereigns would drop dead once they got within a certain distance of the Mausoleum which meant peak Nobles would be the strongest to enter the Mausoleum. They didn't know if it had a lower limit but they thought it was unlikely it did.
The Nobles that had entered either disappeared or returned with tremendous gains. They weren't sure about this part but supposedly when they entered the Mausoleum they all had to go through a varying number of tests each. All of them were alone during the tests which could possibly mean that the assessed factor is individual prowess.
That was all they had managed to understand for now and after they managed to get the succubus to promise she'll come share any extra information she got from a certain senior of questionable existence they allowed her to leave.
The information she got was interesting but it had nothing to do with her. She had satisfied her curiosity and now she had to satisfy her need for good food and an actual bed.
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After a day of rest and relaxation the succubus was eager to continue with her travels and finish up her cultivation method. She probably wasn't going to use the cultivation method as it is until it becomes invalid. She was allowed to change her method as many times as she wants before Core Formation as long as the different between the two methods isn't too big, it'd be a waste to not improve it.
When her travel partner eventually left the town, he found her already buried in a Data Token, presumably the one that carried all the cultivation methods she got in Siniy. He didn't bother himself to say much but just walked south and the succubus gracefully followed from behind with most of her attention on whatever task she was doing. She looked as if she was having fun.
An enraptured beauty.
Charm was one of the most important aspects of a succubus' existence. At the moment she was memorizing and breaking down all the cultivation methods that improved one's charisma. When she was dealing with the succubi cultivation methods she had already came across many such things but she actually found it quite interesting to draw comparisons between human and demonic cultivation method that are supposed to achieve the exact same effect. Demons couldn't use human methods but she was hoping to glean something from the method so that she could use it to improve the one she'll be using.
In particular she was hoping to understand the part about humanity's neutrality. Demon's tend to innately inspire dislike in some races, which made things difficult for demon's like succubi whose number one skill lay in charm. The Holy races were in the same boat since some races also disliked them.
The human race was the only known race that was somewhere close to the middle, a newborn was typically neutral but would gravitate towards one side as they grow up. Most human cultivation methods Knight and below took this neutrality into consideration.
If she could somehow find a way to include this sort of neutrality in her cultivation method but not make it a key part as it is in human methods, it could open up opportunities she otherwise wouldn't get a shot at. Starting from zero was much better than starting from negative and sometimes zero affinity with someone was preferable to positive affinity.
She had three methods that focused on charisma, that allowed her to draw comparisons and possibly glean more.
Working with the human cultivation methods took a lot more effort since she couldn't understand them as intimately. She had to rely on her knowledge in formations for the most part and eventually she had to ask the man for help.
She had to establish a telepathic link between the two of them since she had sworn an oath that no one aside from her would read the Data Token and that she wouldn't transcribe the information anywhere but it didn't cover transmitting the information to someone else's mind.
Aside from adding an extra digit to the succubus' weirdness score the man took the reveal of a telepathic link quite gracefully.
It got easier with the man's help but it still took a lot of discussion for her to come up with something that she could work with. They talked more during those discussions than they did for the past few days they've been traveling together. The lengthy discussions brought up the issue that she still didn't know his name, she hadn't brought it up previously since she wasn't interesting in sharing her own. She couldn't effectively lie to the man so she just avoided it.
But now they were having a lengthy conversation and constantly saying 'you' was getting awkward. She couldn't ask for his name now but she had to figure out how to refer to him, she eventually settled for 'old man' since he referred to her as 'kid'.
He froze for a moment when he first heard the term of reference, glancing at the succubus behind him he shook his head slightly before continuing to explain about how time would make human neutrality invalid. Human could be considered as blank canvas with time and experiences being the paint, even if someone spent their entire life in a cave, certain preconceptions would form and cause them to gravitate towards a certain direction.
He raised the point of how she shouldn't aim for human neutrality in the long run but if possible try 'nothingness'. Experiences had long-lasting effects on humans. For humans it wasn't too big an issue but for demons who naturally lean too much to one side it could be disruptive.
She had to start from zero every time if she wanted this to work for a long time. Thinking this way the succubus tried to figure out how to change the effects from blank canvas to blank projection. She had a few ideas how to do it but it would take a while to properly figure everything out so she decided to put it aside for now and focus on the cultivation methods that deal with magic.
This part was much easier since all she had to figure out was to make them suitable for succubi and append them to her cultivation method.
On the third day after leaving Okra she was finally done with her method for now and could actually start cultivating.
Due to the complexity of the method she could barely manage to cultivate for ten minutes at a time but she didn't care too much.
She was progressing much faster than she had initially anticipated and should breakthrough to high Commoner in a few weeks. After her breakthrough her body would be able to bear the stress for a bit longer as long as she didn't add anything to her method.
The man had checked to see if there aren't any adverse effects due to her fast progress at the beginning but didn't find any so he let the succubus continue as she wished.
They continued on their travel and after 5 days out in the middle of nowhere since they were now moving away from most towns they approached a horse-drawn carriage parked by the road.
The man walked over to the carriage and knocked on the door after which he backed of a bit. It did not take long for a woman to open the door.
"Greetings to the wife," the succubus was the first to speak.