Adrian woke up early the next day. Even if he was completely exhausted, it was a habit that was hard to break. He didn't even bother opening up his cave. He simply sat up and started cultivating as usual.
After cultivating for a few hours, he brought out his cauldron again. This time, he was going to refine the herbal essence of the earth flower.
The earth flower contained much more herbal essence than the silvereye grass so, this refinement was going to be much more difficult. However, the previous nights' experience has made him somewhat familiar with the process.
He began the refinement again by plucking the individual petals of the earth flower. This process lasted for close to four hours. By the time he was done, it was almost mid-day.
Adrian wa drenched in sweat as he collected the few drops of the dark yellow liquid into another vial.
As usual, the process has left him drained mentally so he needed to recover his spirit energy. He didn't feel like sleeping again, so he just sat quietly and meditated. All the recent events passed through his mind as he started to make plans for the future.
Sure, rebuilding his family was obvious but, to do that he needed power. He couldn't request for help from the other great families because he had nothing to offer them, and joining a sect was our of the question.
It wasn't that he didn't believe he could get in. That would be a funny joke. If he, Adrian Thorne couldn't pass the entrance exam to a sect, then there would virtually be no one who could pass it.
It wasn't arrogance. Adrian knew he was talented. Very few people could reach his current prowess at his age. Sure, some of this was due to the influence of his family, but theajor reason was his talent and dedication. His training schedule was a very strict one which he didn't deviate from without reason.
The problem with joining a sect would be his identity. Usually, those who join sects are the children of noble families. Even if he didn't know them, someone was bound to recognize him. Even if the disciples didn't recognize him, his father was a powerhouse that was widely known and Adrian inherited some of his features.
Most of his handsome looks came from his mother. After all, she was one of the most beautiful women of her generation. As a former disciple of the blooming lotus sect, his mother had both power and beauty. Many men were infatuated with her and tried to court her but she turned all of them down.
However, there were some features that were indistinguishable from his father. His chiseled jaw and his straight eyebrows were both features that would remind anyone who had ever met his father of him if they were to see Adrian.
Adrian couldn't risk the possibility of getting found. He still didn't know if his enemies were still looking for any remnants of the Thorne family but he definitely wasn't going to put himself in harms way to find out.
The only option left would be to remain a lone cultivator. This was the only suitable path left for him.
An ordinary person would rather not be a lone cultivator. Lone cultivators have two main problems, techniques and resources.
For others, this would pose a major problem as any good technique would be in the hand of the sects.
However, this wasn't a problem for Adrian. The amount of techniques he had probably surpasses those of even large-sized sects. Only the five 'super sects' could probably match him and maybe supass him in the amount of techniques he had access to.
The only problem left was the resources needed for his cultivation. However, he didn't have a choice about that.
He would have to acquire everything he needed by himself from now on. As he kept contemplating, he realized another problem with his plans, Jayson and Olivia.
Most of his time would be spent searching for precious resources. Those adventures would be dangerous and he didn't know if he would be able to take care of them properly during his journey. He kept racking his brain but he couldn't come up with a solution to that problem.
"Oh well, we'll see what happens" Adrian thought as he stopped thinking about the matter. There was no point in thinking about a matter that he could not currently provide a solution to.