"Don't look too startled, it's normal, almost all the people in the Heavenly Academy know of what happened in the Barren Lands, it's no wonder that your name would come up, at first I thought that you just had the same name. But, once I've seen your ability, I realized that the two of you were one and the same," he said.
"So, you came here to warn me?" I asked.
I was still trying to figure out a way to escape this clusterfuck before the man in purple said, "Don't be too alarmed, I'm not your enemy, and also I don't like that bastard. Neither he nor the Black Tower can touch you as long as you're a competitor of the Heavenly Academy or a member of it."
"Is that so," I said, doubt clear in my eyes.
"Yes, it is, anyway, I could tell from the way you operated the pod, and some hearsay that you're unable to use regular Qi," he said.
"How can you be sure of that?" I said.
"The garden, anyone at your level would have greedily begun absorbing the Qi in it, but you didn't also the fact that you used Top Grade Spirit Stones instead of your own Qi throughout the race was another convicting factor, nevertheless, how about I help you out a bit?" he said.
"For what reason?" I asked, there is no way someone will help you in a cultivation world without something in return.
"Let's say, internal Heavenly Academy dispute, I have an issue with a few colleagues, and I could use you to solve them," he said.
"Use me, so blunt," I mumbled.
"Yes, use you, because the 'you' right now, is weak, you're a Nascent Soul cultivator, not much of a threat or someone to worry about, if I were to 'cooperate' with you, then I'll need you to be stronger. However, in order to 'use' you, I'll need to make you stronger," he said.
His words weren't something to be said and scoff at, his words were dangerous. First off he knew my cultivation stage even through my strange cultivation, and the second was the content of his words. I was but a tool at his disposal.
"I have something for you," he said, "Take this." And he handed me a ring.
Looking through the contents of the ring, my eyes almost bulged out from shock.
"Use it well, and become stronger, so I'll be able to use you to your best of abilities," he said and disappeared as if he was never here in the first place.
How the hell does he do that.
Back to the ring.
It contained an ungodly amount of Top Grade Spirit stones, and a matched amount of metals, pure hard to obtain metals where the lowest grade one was actually Neutron Steel, the same steel I needed to make the Pile Bunker Bullets for X.
With this amount of metals, I could create more puppets, improved upon and far stronger ones.
Then, the herbs, so many of them that the garden outside paled in comparison.
a lot of treasures, weapons, and armors, protective pieces. These I couldn't use since they relied on internal Qi, but there were a few pieces that I could use if I were to 'reconfigure'.
And the most important thing of all, a small lamp, in the middle of the ring, that had a raging heat to it.
It was actually A Heart Flame Soul.
If I were to consume this, I can improve my own Veridian Heart Flame to the next level. Which was something I desperately needed. The man in purple must have seen me use the Viridian Heart Flame to save Huang Yu and her sect members.
Then finally, something I didn't expect to see.
The contents of the next test.
Isn't this…cheating? I wondered but then, I'm sure to take every advantage I could get.
I went upstairs and locked my room, then entered the Lord of Lords token.
I went first to the guys stuck in the white room and made sure that they were well and told them that they'll be here for a little while.
Then once I was done, I went to the smithy and began working on my next project.
With the number of materials I have, I could easily make X far stronger than he actually is, which would come in as a good boon to my next trials, however, from reading the contents of the next test, I cannot use X, nor any of the stuff I have on me. Which was a damn shame.
Nor could I use the Soul Flame, since I'll die, the moment I consume it.
I'll need to at least be at the Soul Formation level to use that. And even with the materials, I got from the ring, it'll be a tall task to get to the Soul formation level, especially since the next test is in two days.
Making the materials needed to raise my cultivation level isn't a problem, the problem is that it'll take a lot of time even with the time dilation of the Lord of Lords pagoda to make them.
Basically what the man in Purple wanted me to do is to clear the second test with my own ability.
Which shouldn't be a problem with the current page in front of me.
After reading through it, I scratched my head, this one is going to be even more problematic than the race test.
I couldn't rely on a lot of my 'tricks' to go past it, but I had a tool in hand that could help greatly in this test and I was going to use it.
The next test was a group test, in which thirty people will join.
And it was going to be a test about the ability to judge a person's character and ability. A group test where greed could solve all the issues while working together would make things far more difficult.
Greedy selfish people will have the ability to clear it fast, but at the same time, they'll be facing a huge penalty.
It was a strange test, but once we're there, we'll see how it goes.
I hid the piece of paper once I memorized everything and then began working on restocking some of my pill reserves. I've used a lot of them and I'm in desperate need of Soul Revitalizing pills now.
It took me a long while before I was able to finish up with the pills, then began working on X.
I resupplied him with more ammo and began working on improving his overall combat power.
I began by first melting a huge portion of metals that I obtained from the man in purple. And created armor, that will be placed on X's frame. This armor is protective and is heavy, which would have been a cumbersome thing for X.
However, the metal I chose for X was Star Carved metal. It's a precious metal that is very hard to work with due to how brittle it was. However, with the addition of Celestial Dew which was something easily obtainable and I had a lot of from Master Rain's workshop. I could remove the brittleness of the Star Carved Metal and make it more resilient and flexible.
Not only that, it was a great conductor to Qi, and Saint Qi, so I won't need to upgrade on it once I'm able to fully transform X to a Saint Qi operational Puppet.
I began by making shoulder pads and leg protectors for X from the Star Carved metal then made a full body armor that fits perfectly to his chest. Finally, a full helm to hide his head.
And once I was done, X looked like a knight from the middle ages fully adorned in white Star Carved armor.
The armor's function was simple. It could reduce the impact of blows and convert them to Qi, with a few inscriptions added to the armor.
I could use the converted Qi to fuel X.
This would work perfectly in a scenario where X's reactor is damaged. So he would continue fighting even without a reactor, the more blows X would receive the more Qi he will generate allowing him to fight longer.
I also thought about making the same armor for myself, however, it'll be useless to me since I couldn't use the converted Qi anyway, so I thought against it.
Then began working on Z, the small spire-like creature.
I couldn't upgrade his function as of yet, since he was serving as a spy and assassin at the same time, and the best I could do was improve his overall speed and agility by replacing some of his parts with Star Carved steel, and another lighter metals that would allow him to move even faster and stealthier.
The upgrade session took a long time, but I made sure to make it in time for the 'banquet'.
Once the time was up, I left my room and released all of the cultivators of the Holy Water Palace outside.
"Thank you for your benevolence," one of them said.
"I'm sorry, you got caught up in my mess," I apologized to them since if it wasn't for me, they wouldn't have been in such trouble.
"We're actually thankful, we only needed to help escort Huang Yu to the next stage, you did that on our behalf. Please, if you need anything just tell us," he said.
"Hmm, I have a few mortals with me, I wish to find a good place for them, a place where they could live, but… I'll require an oath from you," I said to the leader via sound transmission.
"Oh, yes, that should be simple. The Holy Water Palace has a lot of Mortal Lands. I'm more than capable of placing a few mortals within our protection, and you won't need to worry about an oath, the laws of this planet forbids the killing or harm of mortals by cultivators. But I'll swear an oath of safety to you, and secrecy of such act, I do not wish to see our benefactor troubled if his 'mortals' were to be considered as hostages," he said.
His words cleared out all my doubt, "Good, once I'm done with the next test, I'll make sure to visit the Holy Water Palace, I'll need to see the location where my…where the mortals will be staying first," I said.
"Good, I'll make sure to prepare a good land for them, I'll be asking lady Huang Yu for this, she has a lot of lands," he said.
"Good to know, then, please, I'll have to leave now for the banquet," I said.
"Godspeed, Shen Bao, and thank you for everything," he said as he bowed.
I clasped my hands back at him and headed out to the center of the city.