When the empire learned about the incident with Master Dimitri, it was outraged. But what's the use of outrage without power? The empire was weak, so it could only tolerate it.
…
10 years later.
The forces of the East Gabe branch expanded, now boasting over 50 core formation cultivators.
Following Jack's instructions from headquarters, they started incorporating outside forces into the sect. Many small immortal factions were scattered around.
Joining the sect didn't mean they lost all their freedom; Jack specifically directed everyone to allow them to remain as independent as possible. There are countless examples of big corporations taking over smaller companies and running them into the ground; Jack was experienced and didn't want to repeat those mistakes.
Every time they took over a small sect, they acquired a wealth of immortal knowledge. Individually, these small sects didn't have much, but collectively, added to the sect's database, it was a huge trove of knowledge. Using that wealth of knowledge, many cultivators in the sect began making breakthroughs in their long-stagnant research and incomplete spells.
The Empire, which had been trying to calculate the next realm of its cultivation technique, finally succeeded. They renamed the resulting technique as the Golden Tiger technique.
The Golden Tiger became the second-ever cultivation technique, leading to the core formation level. It was developed through the sacrifices of thousands of people, step by step, until it finally reached core formation.
The big hurdle was developing the first stage of core formation. After the first stage was developed, the next stages would be much easier, as failures would not result in death. Breaking through major realms is obviously much more risky than small realms.
The Heaven's Way Sect was interested in the technique, so they sent Lucy to kidnap one of the core formation cultivators who knew it to steal it.
Lucy had reached the pinnacle of the 8th stage, so she easily completed the task and obtained the complete technique, which she then sent to Jack.
Jack read the technique and was surprised at how good it was. As a core formation technique, it was at least twice as strong as Heaven's Way! Of course, overall, Heaven's Way was much better.
At first glance, those not in the know might think that the Golden Tiger technique can be favorably compared to Heaven's Way, but they would be dead wrong. A cultivation technique strengthens and sharpens one's mana while not affecting the future cultivation path. The Golden Tiger technique sharpened mana to an astonishing degree, but in doing so, it made breaking through the nascent soul stage much harder. No one who wants to break through the nascent soul would cultivate it.
The two techniques have a critical difference; Jack's Heaven's Way was developed to help him reach the pinnacle, while the Golden Tiger was developed to help the Empire fend off the Heaven's Way Sect. The Empire's technique didn't care about future cultivation; they only cared about temporary power.
Of course, in the future, once they realize the flaws, they will surely revise it to reduce its sharpness.
If Heaven's Way is an A+ grade, the Golden Tiger is a D-. Still, it was a genuine core formation technique, and using it, Jack made a little progress on his road to developing the nascent soul 1st stage of Heaven's Way.
It was an extremely difficult thing to do. He had already reached the peak of the 10th stage of core formation but was having trouble developing Heaven's Way.
Lately, he has been consumed by a sea of books in the library, trying to find anything that could help him. However, nascent soul knowledge is too advanced, and the sect's database is not advanced enough to really help in any major way. Fortunately, Jack has many years; he is still young.
…
Ten years later.
After developing their cultivation technique, the Empire's cultivators used it to break through to core formation. After over a decade, the Empire had over 100 core formation cultivators, most of whom cultivated the Golden Tiger technique.
Unfortunately for the Empire, they were not the only ones who made progress.
The east Gabe branch also strengthened its rule over the land conquered from the Empire. They finally control all major cities and directly or indirectly control all immortal forces in their territory.
The East Gabe has over 200 core formation cultivators, countless well-developed mines, huge treasuries, and many immortal spells; they kept their advantage over the Empire.
The East Gabe branch also has the upper hand in higher-level core formation cultivators. Mike already reached the peak of the 10th stage of core formation; in addition to him, there are 5 cultivators in the 8th stage, 12 in the 7th stage, and 9 in the 6th.
The Empire has only 3 people in the 7th stage, 12 in the 6th, 14 in the 5th, and the rest are in the 4th or below.
Still, having a cultivation technique, they stopped pouring so much effort into research and started invading to take back land from the sect. That was a stupid move; Jack only allowed them to remain because they were bringing research results.
Now they no longer cared about research, he greenlit a counterattack against the Empire.
Faith, who has taken over as the sect master, ordered Mike to attack the Empire.
The East Gabe branch is strong, there is no need to send them any reinforcement.
…
Mike read the letter and smiled; fighting was his favorite part. After cultivating in seclusion for many years, Even he, who likes being alone, was a bit bored; he wanted a good fight.
"I will wipe them out by myself!" he wrote in response to Faith.
As a cultivator with a perfect core in the 10th stage of core formation, he was confident he could wipe out the Empire by his own strength alone.
…
But the Empire didn't wait for Heaven's way to attack.
Boris, the emperor, persuaded by his loyal minister and a certain woman, ordered a full invasion to liberate the western capital, which was captured by the Heaven's Way Sect.
They didn't even bother forming mortal armies; they only recruited cultivators: over 50 core formation and 10,000 energy-gathering cultivators, assisted with many battle formations and immortal weapons.
Sending mortal armies would take a long time, but immortal armies could just fly to their destination. They reached their destination extremely quickly.
...
Above the gate of the west capital stood a man with an astonishing aura.
"10th stage!" one of the Empire's core formation cultivators, who wore a red gown, said.
He was Maxim, the strongest cultivator of the Empire and the closest to reaching the 8th stage.
For these more senior cultivators, transforming their mana to use the Golden Tiger technique was not easy; for example, Maxim was technically in the 7th stage of core formation, but only 5% of his mana was transformed by the Golden Tiger technique.
"Ready the special formation!" Maxim ordered. Seeing the enemy so strong, he decided to use their trump card.
Master Dimitri created the special formation. After his kidnapping, the Empire worked on it over the years and improved it to its current stage. The formation was the Empire's most powerful trump card, which they decided to reveal in this battle.
All ten thousand energy-gathering cultivators and 50 core formation ones stood in groups, dancing weirdly and holding strange materials.
Mike just smiled and watched, not intending to interfere; he was curious about what they were doing.
Maxim started to shine, and his aura began to soar.
8th stage!
9th stage!
Peak of the 10th stage!
Even after the 10th stage, it continued climbing!
False 11th stage!
12th!
13th!
14th!
15th!
16th!
17th!
Finally, his aura stabilized after breaking through the 18th stage of core formation. Technically, core formation only has 10 stages, but using the formation, they forcefully boosted Maxim to the level of an 18th-stage core formation cultivator.
If they had knowledge of the nascent soul, they could have boosted him to the strength of a disabled and sickly nascent soul cultivator. Unfortunately, they didn't know anything about the nascent soul, so they could only elevate his power to some imaginary 18th stage of core formation.
Feeling boundless power, Maxim smiled, pointed at Mike, and shouted, "Die!"
Mike felt horrifying Mana coming toward him; his expression finally changed at this moment from calm to caution.
Mike's energy was countless times purer than Maxim's. Maxim originally had impure mana, and combining it with so many foreign and incompatible manas only made it worse.
But the volume was still too terrifying; even a bulk of unpolished iron can destroy a well-sharpened sword.
Mike jumped back to the city's defensive formation.
The huge bulk of mana hit the formation. With a massive explosion, the whole radius of 100 kilometers shook; it was like a terrifying bomb. Many city buildings fell, and people screamed and hid as best they could.
Still, the formation managed to resist Maxim's attack.
Dissatisfied, Maxim aimed again and shot; at this state, his mana was too impure to cast a spell, so his only attack was using raw mana.
But even raw mana, in high enough quantity, can overcome any defense.
The city's defensive formation was like a red wall covering the whole city, top to bottom. Maxim's mana chunk was like a black ball moving at a fast speed; the two collided, and another much stronger explosion appeared.
Boom!
The defensive formation broke, and the massive fire caused by the impact reached the city. Hundreds of houses fell, and thousands of people died.
"Die!" Maxim targeted Mike again.
Mike shook his head and used one of his stronger spells, though not a trump card.
"Immortal arrow!"
An incomparably sharp arrow appeared out of thin air and started moving toward Maxim.
"Mana wall!" Maxim used his huge mana to form an extremely thick wall.
Mike's arrow was sharp beyond anyone's expectation. It penetrated the wall and emerged from the other side.
Seeing the situation was bad, Maxim drew a lot of mana from the formation and shot toward the arrow. The arrow was too sharp; it penetrated everything in front of it but was still slowed down. When it reached Maxim, he easily dodged it.
Mike, on the other hand, was busy. Maxim's mana bulk, being pure energy, was hard to defend against. One could not use technical movements to dispel and crack it.
Mike was forced to use one of his trump card defensive spells to defend: "Deceive Heavens."
The sect created the Deceive Heavens spell, partially relying on Master Dimitri's manmade disaster spell.
As soon as the spell was cast, the world became foggy; even immortal techniques couldn't penetrate the fog. Maxim drew more mana and tried clearing the fog using overwhelming energy. The fog resisted momentarily but was cleared with overwhelming force.
He saw Mike, on the other side, mockingly smiling.
Maxim watched as the mana bulk he had sent slowly dissipated on its own as if something invisible was draining it.
What does the Deceive Heavens spell do? Heaven is fair, emotionless, ruthless, and willless. Deceive Heavens would trick the heavens into protecting the caster. Heaven is impartial; how could it help one side? That's why it sends fog: to prevent others from observing as it helps.
The Deceive Heavens spell is both defensive and offensive. It protects the caster as its primary job, but if the enemy dares to clear the fog and see the heavens help, that would provoke the rage of the heavens.
Horrifying red clouds appeared in the sky; their aura was far stronger than Maxim's.
Knowledge is important; if Maxim had known and left the fog untouched, the heavens would only have dissipated the mana bulk he sent, and that would be it. Deceive Heavens could at most be used once each year; otherwise, the heavens might notice it is being deceived and instead send tribulation for the caster. Maxim didn't know about the spell, so he fell into Mike's fatal trap.
The strength of the tribulations was so terrifying that Maxim was petrified, even losing control of his body and wetting his pants.
A pure blue lightning strike, with strength far surpassing the nascent soul stage, struck directly on Maxim.
The resulting explosion was, without doubt, the strongest explosion in the history of this world.
Not to mention Maxim, everything within a 100-kilometer radius was directly reduced to ashes! The heavens would leave no witnesses—except, of course, for Mike, whom they had just saved.
Besides Mike, everything else within a radius of 100 miles was disintegrated.
…
Mike, who returned to the East Gabe branch, was actually a bit afraid.
The spell was not supposed to produce such a terrifying tribulation. The previous time he tested it, it was barely stronger than the peak of core formation. He had no idea it would kill the enemy in one shot.
Many of the sect's cultivators also died along with the enemy; it was a bitter victory.
"Does this mean the heavens are getting stronger?" He noticed this and sent this information to Jack.
Jack would certainly not be surprised; the heavens is indeed getting more powerful. Jack is already close to becoming the world's ruler; the world is only a hair's breadth away from breaking into the 11th rank.