After making the customised Cultivation Techniques for his Honour Guards, Marcus decided to make some Magic and Martial Skills. These would become the core skills of his army; something that everyone would be proficient in. He wanted everyone to have their foundations be shaped of the same mould. However, how strong and what the foundation is made of would be up to the practitioner. This way Marcus would be able to create a Cultivation Technique that plenty of people could use no matter their physique or affinities. This was his biggest problem in creating a universal Cultivation Technique. By creating Cultivation Techniques for his Honour Guards first he was able to observe the similarities between the different Cultivation Techniques. Despite the techniques having different elemental affinities and following a different Path, they all had a similarity. All the Cultivation Techniques, be they the offensive type or the defensive type, would always have their mana circulating through three points - the brain, heart and the belly button. This allowed Marcus to realise that there was a connection between all the Cultivation Techniques in the world! As the mana passed through the belly button it was split up into many different threads. The threads keep multiplying in number indefinitely and they share the same properties. These threads are very thin and weak. If a Martial Skill or Magic was executed using these threads it would be absolutely harmless. It is so weak that the person wouldn't even feel it; it's incomparable to even an ant's bite. However, once these threads pass through the heart they grow thicker and the mana grows more vigorous and unruly. The mana becomes very difficult to control and it starts causing chaos. If it isn't controlled properly then one's mana channels could possibly burst! If an attack was launched using this mana it would be extremely powerful and would cause devastating damage. However, the power of the attack would be too strong and the user would get caught up in the explosion that follows. This kind of attack would be very suicidal and pointless. Fortunately, once the mana passes through the brain it becomes more disciplined and is easier to control. The mana is also tempered and it becomes rigid but flexible and soft but hard. If a cycle was completed in this order then the resulting attack would be extremely powerful and the practitioner would be able to control their mana to do a variety of things and they would have a large mana reserve as the mana is split up. Furthermore, the more cycles a practitioner does the vigorous his mana and they would have a greater mana pool and greater mana control. This is because the mana gets tempered with every cycle. This principle can be found in any Cultivation Technique but no one has ever noticed it until Marcus. This is a great achievement that would be recorded in history!

Thanks to this discovery Marcus was able to achieve his goal. He had taken the first steps to organise an orderly army that moved like a single unit no, that moved and seemed like a single person! Since the soldiers all have the same foundations it is possible to implement standardised training that could cover the needs of all. He also wouldn't have to worry about ruining great talents since if they show the talent then they would be promoted. The higher their position in the army the greater the clearance they had which means they had access to stronger and more specialised Cultivation Techniques. Due to Marcus' discovery, they wouldn't have to worry about not being able to integrate their new Cultivation Techniques into their old ones. Moreover, these Cultivation Techniques wouldn't need to be made by Marcus as his discovery is universal and could be applied to all Cultivation Techniques in the universe and perhaps even the...

While Marcus had been creating custom Cultivation Techniques for them, the Honour Guards had been trying their hardest to break out of the encirclement that they had found themselves in. They fought with barely any rest, they had tens of minutes at most between every fight. Although this was enough time to get out of the valley, they would be dead if they encountered another team. Therefore they had two ways to break out of the encirclement, close the dungeon and stop the influx of adventurers or be strong enough to blast a path out of the encirclement. Perhaps carve would be a better word. The adventurers were like waves in the sea, the moment you make a path through them they quickly collapse in on the path after a brief period of time. Therefore the only way to make a path would be to advance slowly and carve out a path. They would have to continually advance as the waves crash down behind them. They had slowly inched their way out of the valley but they had barely made any progress. Three months had quickly passed and they had barely been able to move a hundred metres from their old position. They had also put themselves into a more precarious situation since the adventurers could now attack them from all sides as they no longer had the benefit of having their backs against a wall.

Meanwhile, Gaia had been organising a three-month-long competition between all the inhabitants of the dungeon. It had first set up a preliminary round on each of the floors and the winner would be able to partake in the competition. The top ten in the competition would be given Cultivation Techniques and some weapons and armour. Furthermore, the human, elven and dwarven civil wars have gotten more chaotic. A winner wouldn't be decided any time soon.