Half a year later, I successfully broke through into the River Consolidation realm and stabilised my cultivation.
Alice and I met again after three months during the ranking exam.
The last time we met was when we had passed the last exam mediocrely with little fanfare. That time, she happily talked about how her days passed after entering the sect.
This time, I also expected to see Alice happily chatting with me. Instead, she was sad and irritated.
Seeing her despondent, I asked about the cause.
"Sis, what happened? Did anyone cause any trouble for you?"
"No. It's nothing…"
Alice tried to remain mum, but her actions were in vain as Elfie explained the situation to me with a bit of jealousy in her voice.
"It's not nothing. Many male disciples are coming to her courtyard to woo Alice every other day. Due to her being one of the top beauties in the whole sect, they are calling her Goddess Alice.
But among the many suitors, there is this senior disciple trying to court Alice. Even after clearly saying she is uninterested in him, he keeps pestering her daily."
"So why don't you ask him to a duel and make him stop pestering when he loses the match?"
I asked Alice. As the cat was already out of the bag, she explained everything without hiding anything.
"You don't know, but that senior's name is Callum Regin. His father is an elder, and his grandfather is a grand elder of the sect. Also, his cultivation is in the 4th stage of River Consolidation.
So, it would be difficult to win against him even if he limits his cultivation to the Body Tempering realm."
My sister was at the peak of 2nd stage of the River Consolidation realm. Thus, winning against that 'moth' was indeed tricky because of the larger energy reserve.
But I had tricks up my sleeves. Mother had taught both of us about array formations, but Alice wasn't very interested in it.
Also, mother was very proficient in array formations; thus, I also gained her insights and could say that I had left the array formation experts on this planet in dust.
I caressed Alice's cheek and said.
"Don't worry, big sis. Whoever dares to covet my sister would have to face my wrath. I will challenge him to a duel and make him lose with either my strength or some trick.
And with that stage, I would declare you are my woman. If anyone wants to court you, they must first defeat me.
This way, nobody will try to pester you, and the Regins would not think that I am attacking them personally, so they would not find trouble with us."
Alice didn't bat an eyelid at my words and nuzzled into the palm with a happy smile, but the Luna sisters standing nearby were surprised with mouths agape.
Well, my words were like a confession of love, but I didn't think so.
I had already promised myself long ago that I would protect the smiles on my mother and sister's faces. So, whatever means I had to use, I would use them without any hesitation.
So, this time, instead of being low profile, I fought the 8th stage cultivation bracket and secured the first spot. Not only that, I also asked for a duel with the 9th stage bracket winner without any rest.
The opponent was a battle maniac and was happy to duel with me. I staged the fight and made it look like I won the duel with great difficulty.
Still, my opponent, unaware of my actual strength, was pleased to have found a good rival. And thus, pestered me to be his sparring partner, which I agreed to, albeit reluctantly.
Now, after two consecutive wins, the stage was set with the onlookers' eyes focused on me. I coughed a bit and spoke to the audience with a loud voice.
"As all heroes die for beauties. I, Lucas, have also found my beauty. She is my first love, Goddess Alice!"
Hearing my words, the audience started an uproar. There was shock and bewilderment, but also some eyes were glowing with excitement to watch the unfolding of a new drama.
I let them be for a few seconds, and then, as expected, some dissidents raised their voices.
"How dare you covet our Goddess Alice! I will gauge your eyes out!"
"Do you think with your measly strength you have a chance of wooing our Goddess! How laughable!"
After a few minutes, I silenced the protestors with my aura and spoke.
"Good. That's good. I know that my strength is weak right now, but within a few years, I will become the strongest disciple in our sect.
But to get the love of our Goddess Alice, one must show determination and resoluteness.
Thus, I challenge anyone who wants to court her to have a duel with me. Our strength would be limited to the cultivation level of the weaker one.
If anyone wins against me, then I will wholeheartedly support him as a worthy partner for our Goddess. But if one loses, he will promise never to go near her ever again unless he beats me in his next challenge.
Only the victor will be a hero worthy of getting the beauty of our Goddess."
I also added the condition of betting 100 low-grade origin stones as a wager, with the winner taking them all. This would prevent the unneeded harassment from disturbing me from my cultivation.
After starting cultivation, the general currency of gold and silver loses its worth, and the origin stone takes its place.
The origin stones are the agglomeration of energy and contain both mortal energy and stellar energy. The higher the grade, the more concentration of stellar energy.
100 low-grade origin stones can help a River Consolidation practitioner to absorb both the energy and increase his cultivation by day.
But it will take 10,000 of these low-grade stones to increase the cultivation by only absorbing stellar energy.
With the challenge presented to all, I glanced at Alice to find her gazing at me with a blushing face. Seeing her like this, my heart unknowingly started to beat faster.
Even I felt the temperature of my cheeks increasing. I averted my eyes away from her and walked to my courtyard without looking back at my sister.
After reaching the courtyard, I calmed myself down, thinking that the earlier incident was just the aftereffects of my duels.
Then, I focused on increasing my cultivation to the next stages of the River Consolidation realm.
There are many acupuncture points in the human body, but 9 important ones. They are situated on the forehead, the navel, the chest, the back, one in each arm, one in each leg, and the end of the tailbone.
In the River Consolidation realm, these acupuncture points and the meridians connected to them are filled with energy and expanded to increase their storage capacity.
So, for each completion of the acupuncture point and its corresponding meridians, there is an increase in the stage of the River Consolidation realm.
According to mother, there is no definite order of progress, but the preferred order is from the limbs to the chest, as it increases the total storage capacity.
It should be a slow and detailed process as a slight increase in energy input than the capacity threshold could result in damage.
But as I had already tempered my body with pure stellar energy, it was many times more durable than the others at the same cultivation. Thus, scaling up this realm would be easier and faster than any other realm.
So, in three more months, I had reached the 2nd stage of the River Consolidation realm and the 9th stage of Body Tempering on the surface.
My days were spent cultivating and, every few days, having a duel. I had already collected about 1,000 low-grade origin stones. I was never short on money, but having more was always good.
With another quarter of the year over, the next ranking exam was fast approaching.