Maxwell woke up early the next day and changed into black trousers and a white shirt and then ate a quick breakfast before he left with his mother in a carriage drawn by two Level 2 Cypress Horses that could form needles all over their bodies if they felt endangered.
"My son, you are looking very handsome today."
His mother said while pulling his cheeks.
"Ouch stop it."
It did not take them long to reach the Chevalier residence that was a grand residence that spanned across 40500 square meters. The family was reputed for their specially bred horses and their sword techniques. It was said that a legion of 100 elite Chevaliers on their horses could wipe out 5000 ordinary soldiers at their level. Their battle formations and horse speeds were extremely hard to counter, and they would only lose after being overwhelmed massively.
Once Maxwell and his mother entered the gate they saw a lot of servants who seemed to be whispering something. Maxwell could not hear them but his mother who had reached a higher cultivation rank could easily do so.
'How impudent of them to talk about my son in front of me.'
She released her suffocating aura silencing all the servants before they reached the main residence.
It was in the center of the residence and it was a 5 storied pagoda with all the important resources stored here and the patriarch's residence on top. In front of the pagoda was a wide courtyard where there were many family members and acquaintances gathered who congratulated Orphelia and bid her goodbye. Orphelia was sad to be separated from everyone but her face brightened a bit when she saw Maxwell. They waved to each other before Maxwell was blocked by a boy his age.
"Isn't this Maxwell, the genius. What are you doing here? I thought you were going to hide yourself forever."
"Richard, you think I can't beat you when you're only at Qi condensation stage 2?"
Richard was the heir of another family in the town, the
"You can't even use qi, you're just an ordinary person now. There's no way you can defeat me using qi."
"You want to have a duel?"
"I don't want to be seen as bullying you, but if you insist I'll have to accept."
'Richard will see who's going to be bullied.'
Maxwell brought out a wooden training spear and Richard got out a wooden long sword.
'I'll let him attack first. His emotions should make him easier to fend off.'
Richard rushed towards Maxwell with his sword infused with qi. This method drained his body since he didn't have unblocked meridians, but it was still powerful. Maxwell dodged his attack and moved his hand to the middle of the spear to use it at a closer range. He hit Richard with the butt of his spear on his chest, causing Richard to stumble back. He then took this opportunity to attack and went straight for Richards face and stopped his attack right before it made contact. Richard stood shocked while everyone else was amazed at Maxwell's spear maneuvering.
"He has perfect control over his spear. He could stop it right before it hit and even changed his grip for better close ranged use."
"Wow he managed to overwhelm Richard who had qi infused in his legs for speed."
"There's a reason he was a genius."
Orphelia's mother, Sophia exclaimed, "Linda, your son is excellent with the spear at 5 years old, his future achievements will surpass your husband's."
Maxwell's mother smiled proudly before congratulating Sophia on having her daughter enter the Immortal Sword Sect.
Maxwell then ran to Orphelia and gave her the bracelet.
"Here, you had wanted this bracelet, so I turned it into a spatial storage. It's high grade so you can put any kind of lock you want."
Orphelia's master who stood there slightly amazed at his spear skills was shocked on seeing the bracelet.
"30 square meters of storage! Even I only have 15 square meters of space in my storage ring."
"Sigh…What a pity. If he could still cultivate he would make great achievements with his space element."
Orphelia was admiring Maxwell's work after thanking him.
'Even with such a crude crafting method it's so good. Even in my past life memories I haven't seen such a good mystic rank spatial storage.'
'I have to help him cultivate so I can get such precious treasures out of him.'
"Max, I have to go the sect now."
Orphelia's master brought down an airship from the sky and they got in. Before leaving Orphelia's master sent a message using her divine sense to Maxwell.
"Brat, if you want to stay close to her you have to work hard to find a way to cultivate. She begged me to help you, but even I don't know how to help. You are talented enough to stay by her side. Maybe your only option is to chance upon a fortuitous encounter. Once you manage to cultivate once more, you will have a lot of enemies, especially sword cultivators from my sect since you're a spear cultivator."
'I'm not going to give up.'
Maxwell's eyes were filled with determination, but he knew it would not be easy.
"Maxwell, if you're bored you can go take a look around in the shops. I'll be here talking to Sophia."
"Okay, mom."
He left the residence and walked in the streets aimlessly till he was grabbed by an old man.
"Old man, what are you doing. Let me go!"
"You should be able to help me."
"What are you saying?"
Maxwell was dragged by the old man to a cave that was covered in formations. Maxwell noticed that they were all very complex formations. The man finally explained what he dragged him here for.
"These formations are trapping my wife and I need your space element to shatter the space here and destroy all the formations instantly."
"Why do I need to destroy them all instantly?"
"There is a spirit stone that is on a Qi gathering formation that is holding everything together, even if I break one formation it will be remade."
Maxwell looked at the old man blankly.
"I have no qi; how do you expect me to shatter that much space?"
"I will steadily transfer qi to you to shatter the space, your body seems durable enough."
'He must be pretty strong to transfer enough qi for that, maybe I can make him my subordinate for my plans.'
"I have a condition. You and your wife must swear to the heavens that you will be loyal to me if I free her."
"I accept but on the condition that you will not make us go against our beliefs."
"Fine."
The old man placed his rough palms on Maxwell's back and started sending qi into his dantian. Maxwell then changed it into space qi and refined it into pure space qi before exhausting it all in one move to shatter the space in the cave.
He was then saved from all the shards of the shattered space by a shield made of Qi. From inside came an equally old woman who started crying after seeing the man. They both embraced each other for 10 seconds before Maxwell cleared his throat to bring back their attention.
"You won't go back on your promise, now will you?"
"I can kill you right now and nobody would know better."
"You don't even know my identity, it would be stupid to murder me. What if I have a jade talisman with a Martial Kings attack?"
"You're a smart child. I was only testing you."
They both swore to the heavens that they would be loyal. Maxwell then introduced himself.
"Windsor? Oh, that family."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You will get to know later, when the time is right."
They then introduced themselves as the retired general, Leonidas and his wife Hannah. They were both commoners from a small village who rose through the ranks in the army and Leonidas became a general after valiantly leading a group of 500 to defend against a beast stampede and they were given the surname Ursa for bravely fighting off hordes of magical beasts.
Maxwell started to laugh after he heard the surname. After a few seconds of laughing he finally calmed down and explained his plan to the couple.
He was going to set up a treasure pavilion in the capital, Azure Dragon City and planned to sell everything a cultivator would need, techniques, talismans, ore, herbs, weapons and armors. They would not sell pills except rare ones that were hard to come across since he did not want to be enemies with the alchemy pavilion. He then told them that they would be a neutral force who would not take part in any conflicts until unless they were attacked or endangered.
"Old man, for my plan you need to approach the leaders of the 3 sects and the 4 families and make an agreement to give them discounts and take lower percentage of their sales in exchange for their support."
He then added, "For the family that plotted against your wife. They will probably try to fight us early on before we gain strength in fear of revenge. So first you have to get a lot of experts to join us and swear loyalty."
"The imperial family won't let us wipe out a top family."
"They will if we offer enough benefits. We also need to choose a family almost at their level to take their place."
Maxwell then took out all the spatial rings that he had made while practicing.
"These spatial rings are all filled with various treasures that should get a good amount of sales and fame. I even have a lot of spirit stones that can be used."
"Don't worry, I have my spoils of war and rewards that I can use. I will also set up an information collecting subdivision, so we can get treasures directly."
"I can make talismans that allow them to blend in with the space, we can also sell information for the right price."
Leonidas then gave Maxwell a jade tablet to contact him. Maxwell then returned to Azure Forest Town and was blocked by Richard and a group of boys.
"Show Maxwell a lesson." Richard commanded them, and they attacked Maxwell. They were all at stage 1 and 2 of Qi Condensation and they were all older than Maxwell by a few years. He was overwhelmed by their numbers and was beaten badly. He still managed to hurt some of them.
"Even if you can defeat me, you can't ever defeat us all." Richard then kicked Maxwell a bit before deciding.
"I will cripple you, then you can never cultivate even if you solve your problem."
'Shit, he's serious.'
Unknown to any of the assailants, Maxwell had collected some qi and now he used it to forcefully teleport himself into the next alley.
He then removed a salve and applied it to his bruises to remove them, so his mother would not worry. The salve only removed the wounds superficially, he still felt the pain and walked back to the Chevalier residence, so he could return home. His mother notice he was injured but chose not to say anything since she knew Maxwell wanted to deal with it by himself.