Once the palace was secured, cleaned up from the dead bodies, and everyone who worked there was fired, I had it all for myself. From Cao Ling's memories, I tried to find anyone fit to work here for the palace, but I was sorely disappointed, almost everyone avoided him if they were not straight-up hostile to him. He didn't have any friends or any people he bonded with, and the only one he ever cared for turned out to be a venomous little bitch.
Not that I care, in fact, its much better this way, having the whole palace to myself with no one to disturb me was by far the best thing that happened here.
Especially with everyone being called back in. The sect's dwindling cultivator numbers rapidly inflated as more disciples that were working shops or were on missions were called back.
A good portion of them had their heads chopped off the moment they walked into the sect since they too were of the Devil Cultivator faction. The sect's members however still seemed to be becoming more and more and one could actually now see that this was actually an okay sect, unlike the barren look it gave when I was here first.
It seems that the ancient sect has sent a lot of its main force out to gain real experience but now that it's been called back in, they look like a bulwark against any force that may threaten them.
And thankfully, none of these new people tried to even bother me or come check out the newbie that overtook the palace and reclaimed his seat. Good, more peaceful days I hope.
I began working on the large garden that I secured and started planting many of the herbs I got from the surrounding mountain, this would be a good opportunity to grow more poisonous herbs, however, the herbs I have were okay, but not great, I needed more, rarer and stronger poisons to build this body.
And the best way to get those is from the newcomers that just arrived.
The elder I promised to treat arrived soon, and I had to come to greet him personally.
"Where are the servants, don't tell me the Sect Master gave you an entire palace without a single person to take care of your personal needs," he said.
"Not that he didn't give me, I fired everyone, I like working alone, anyway, give me your hand," I said.
The elder then handed me his arm, and from the look of it the mark didn't seem to have spread a lot so this should be easy.
I pulled a few acupuncture needles and began stabbing them carefully around the mark, then handed the old man a pill.
"Eat this," I said.
The elder didn't seem to know what the pill was but he didn't argue and so he took the pill and bit on it.
"Bloody hell this is sour," he said as his whole mouth scrunched up from how sour the pill was.
"We're done," I said back.
This took the elder by surprise and when he looked at his hand he realized that the black mark was no more, and the other side of the needles was expelling black matter outside of his body, then soon it became red normal blood.
By then I removed the needles and was looked at like some sort of weird creature by the elder.
"What?"
"How did you do that? I mean, I expected a bit of pain, but… there was nothing," he said.
"Do you want the painful method, I can do that," I said.
"Oh no god forbid, but I'm really curious," he said.
"It's like giving a baby a shot, you have to distract them so they don't feel it, the sour candy did its job," I said.
"Wait, that wasn't a medicinal pill?" he asked.
"Of course not, anyway, that is that, but I wanted to ask for a favor if you could," I told the old man.
"Yes, of course," he said as he rubbed his hand.
"I need to get some materials, poisonous herbs and plants, as many and as deadly as possible, how can I get those?" I asked.
"Well, we do have a few in our own alchemy pavilion, and they should be easy to access and obtain," he said.
"That's a given, but what I need is something that isn't in there, I want the herbs and poisons that the new kids have brought along with them. How about this, I want you to recommend me to your peers, you've been treated right?" I asked.
"Yes?" he said as his brow rose up.
"Then, you can go and gloat to your friends and pals on how you got rid of your Grizzly Spider Poison, this way I'll get more clients, and at the same time I'll be able to get a good deal out of treating the other elders, I'll give you a cut of course," I said.
"But if you're only after poisonous herbs, I don't want a cut from that…" he said.
"I won't just be taking poisonous herbs, many of the people won't even have any on them, and they'll have to pay in spirit stones or in treasures, so what do you say?" I said.
"Right, I'll see what I can do, it's always good to make some extra dough, I'll go right now," he said.
He turned then took a step leaving the area.
I went back inside and began working on the garden slowly and carefully digging through the garden, planting the herbs I obtained, and at the same time making sure to carefully separate the plants from each other as they could harm each other by simply existing.
Once I was done with the batch of poison plants I had on me, I dug even more in preparation for other herbs that should come soon.
The day passed by and soon was nighttime. I headed back inside and went into the library inside the palace. It was a small area with a few regular cultivation books. Nothing too fancy.
Or perhaps I was spoiled with all the high-tier cultivation books I obtained from the treasury.
I then pulled up a pen and paper and began remembering the contents of the Ancient Step.
I wrote everything I remembered and that was basically the entire content of the book down to the comma and period. Nothing escaped my memory now and I utilized it to the fullest extent.
With the Ancient Step Manual copied in front of me, I began by writing the second one, the Ancient Palm manual. It didn't take much time to finish it, but once it was done, I then decided it was time to start actually reading them.
For the Ancient Step, it was interestingly funny how close it was to my own Momentum Step.
The only difference between my own step and the Ancient Step is the application of Gravitational and Spatial law to take a step forward. Here however it utilizes a type of martial arts. To apply the ancient Step one must actually, and this isn't a joke not skip leg day.
Training one's leg is the basis of this manual, it's only when one is capable of training their feet to the extent that a mere step will have enough impact that one could actually hear the joint crack like a thunderbolt upon taking a step.
I debated how awkward that would be when someone was simply walking and every step sounded like a gunshot, however, this wasn't something that will appear whenever someone takes a step but only when someone achieves mastery over the Ancient Step.
With enough physical practice and training, one could actually replicate this sound and will then be able to apply the same pressure I'm able to release on my seventh step in only one step without even using gravitational law.
Anyone else would have thought that my hard work in applying law to my own Momentum step would have been a waste of time since there is this martial art that can do the same without adding so much hassle. However, I thought differently, what would actually happen if I'm able to achieve the Ancient Step and at the same time add the effects of gravitational law to it?
That should be something interesting to look at and figure out.
I moved the book to the side and pulled the second one I wrote.
This one is the Ancient Palm.
Surprisingly this thing pairs well with the ancient step, and it basically never skip forearms and shoulder day.
This thing requires the user to carry an absurd around their arms and then train in weight lifting to build up muscles. Once the user is able to once again release sound capable of mimicking the loudness of thunder as they flex their arm could they apply this to their combat abilities, releasing powerful force with every palm capable of tearing down mountains and bending steel with a single palm.
The two arts can be combined together in one move which I already seemed to have accidentally discovered.
One Step One Palm.
However, if I were to learn this, I could use the Momentum step and the Ancient Step, then my own Palm Momentum release coupled with the Ancient Palm. I could only imagine the kind of kinetic force that could be released from such a combo.
My palm was already capable of tearing a hole with ease through the chest of a high-level nascent soul cultivator that was empowered with Devil Arts, but now it should be far more powerful with this addition.
After finishing the manuals and memorizing their contents once again I had a visitor.
Someone was knocking on my door.
For a moment I thought it could be that girl who Ling Cao was in love with, after all, her nature is like a snake, going along with whoever is stronger and betraying the people that trusted her, and I had a few choice words prepared, especially since it was late at night.
However, disappointingly and unlike the cliché I thought would happen, it was none other than the elder I sent this morning.
He had an awkward look on his face.
"Let me guess, no one wanted anything to do with me," I said.
The elder opened and closed his mouth trying to find an answer.
"Don't worry, I expected as much, in fact, this is even better, this will give me a bit more leeway into getting whatever I want once come morning," I said.
"Why do you have a plan?" he asked.
"Plan? My plan had been active the moment I realized this sect was infected, don't worry just wait until tomorrow, you'll be filthy rich," I said grinning.
