Time went by like water flows down a river. While Xue Wei was busy cultivating within the Soul Tower, the Gu and Yuan families were strengthening their Qi. None of them were making a fuss about it and made sure to keep everything about their deal under wraps, so that news never spread.

Many still tried to socialize with Lin Xiao and Hei Gou for the sake of getting information or maybe some pills or formations—they would do everything within their power to start a relationship with them.

Gu Bing’er and Yuan Bailong often came to visit them, bringing with them news about their families’ strength and the differences they had experienced since they began their Qi cultivation.

Both Gu Bing’er and Yuan Bailong were filled with excitement as they saw the family elders grow in strength, their fathers and mothers as well.

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It has to be said that, although they were advancing in strength, the majority of them were only first or second layer of the Ordinary Knight rank—a rank similar to the people from the academy who had gotten a pill from Lin Xiao and Hei Gou earlier. But if one were to look at their combat strength, the academy students would be completely eclipsed by the ones from the Gu and Yuan families because of their purified Q.

There was a major difference between Qi that one had purified and refined attentively and Qi that had been purified naturally while one was busy doing other things.

Although the people of Yan Dalu looked down upon Qi cultivation, they were now starting to find it interesting and novel. They had long since known about the strength of the Primordial Beasts who cultivated Qi seriously, and that they were not in any way inferior to those that cultivated spiritual energy.

And therefore they also understood that if they could wield both this overwhelmingly strong Qi and at the same time the spiritual energy of the mind, then they would be able to increase their strength tremendously.

And even better was that if this advancement was reserved solely for a few families, then although the Gu and Yuan families would not be able to shake the other royal families, they would be second only to the Royals themselves.

Currently, they were ranked the second and third strongest of the three major families within the capital and the continent—not counting the royal family— but it was impossible for them to defeat the Baili family without more strength.

The Baili family has been the strongest family within the capital for thousands of years; no one has had the chance to challenge them. It was not that the Gu and the Yuan families had not wanted to do so, they simply did not have the power, even if they ganged up together.

Now things were changing. The Baili family were still as proud and arrogant as before, but there was now a light at the end of the tunnel for the Gu and the Yuan families. They saw a way to reverse their situation.

Xue Wei knew nothing about this power struggle, neither did he care about the fact that the two figures he had picked out of all the people present might cause a storm to appear within the capital. All that mattered to him was that he was getting everything he requested and that the people he worked with were smart.

This time, Xue Wei stayed within the Soul Tower for a full month and a half, during which he had managed to reach the stairs leading to the eighth floor.

Unfortunately, he had never been alone on the seventh floor, so he had been incapable of summoning out the golden dragon spirit to advance under its protection.

In the time Xue Wei had spent cultivating his spiritual energy on the seventh floor, he had successfully broken through to the third layer of the Earth Knight rank, maintaining his rather rapid rate of advancement.

Xue Wei was feeling quite satisfied with his performance when he saw Bai Tianyi come down from the eighth floor staircase and revealed a wry smile on his face as he shook his head. Bai Tianyi had already advanced to the seventh layer of the Earth Knight rank, a speed so rapid that no one could compare.

It was not only Xue Wei who was reacting upon seeing Bai Tianyi; the other two experts within the seventh floor looked at him too, unable to withdraw the astonishment in their faces.

The experts had started to pay quite a bit of attention towards Bai Tianyi ever since they witnessed his feat of entering the ninth floor, and they had also started taking notice of his cultivation base too.

Seeing the lights that showed Bai Tianyi had mainly spent his time on the eighth floor, everyone had expected that it was because the pressure on the ninth floor was simply too dreadful for him to manage consistently, but his speed of advancing in rank was just as horrifying as the fact that he had entered the ninth floor.

They had already been stunned silly by Xue Wei’s speed of advance, yet comparing the two of them was like comparing the heavens to the earth.

The experts within the seventh floor felt floored, in fact, they even felt incredibly embarrassed. They were seen as the peerless geniuses of the Garden of Shadows, but the truth was that they could not even compare to a ten-year-old child who had joined the academy for less than half a year.

Even Xue Wei was considered a genius amongst geniuses with his advancement speed, but compared to Bai Tianyi, he was still barely worth mentioning.

Xue Wei did not mind though. He understood that Bai Tianyi was using a shortcut. His entire body was made from soul power and spiritual energy. He had no such thing as ‘bottlenecks’ in his cultivation, nor did he have any problems storing energy within his body.

Bai Tianyi was also quite eager to absorb as much energy as possible. He wanted to age, he was simply tired of being a ten-year-old child, no one would take him seriously with this body—or they just thought he was some kind of freaky ancient expert.

They were, of course, not completely wrong— he was a freaky ancient expert—but he had taken the shape of a child out of necessity to escape his sword form as soon as possible. Now he wanted to be a suave young man with a handsome appearance and elegant bearing. He wanted to be who he truly was, not some child.

Xue Wei smiled as he saw Bai Tianyi’s annoyance expressed on his face but said nothing about it, instead he stood up, and the two exited the tower together.

Returning to the courtyard, they found Mo Yi and Mo Er chatting with one another in a corner of the front courtyard, next to the lake.

Their heads were close together, with their brows furrowed as they seemed to be discussing something very serious, but when they saw Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi arrive, their eyes widened in surprise before they quickly grew a smile on their faces and walked towards the returning pair.

Once again, Xue Wei felt as if there was something wrong with the Mo brothers so he could not help but ask, “what made you look so worried just before?”

“Oh we just wondered if we should put some carps into the pond,” Mo Yi said with a smile, but while Mo Yi seemed completely calm, Xue Wei noticed that Mo Er’s eyes flickered from side to side.

Seeing this suspicious movement, one of Xue Wei’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but he said nothing. He just gave Mo Yi and Mo Er a long glance once more, before he returned to the house.

“Why are you so distrusting of those two?” Bai Tianyi could not help but ask. It was not Xue Wei’s natural personality to be distrusting towards others, so there had to be some reason behind it.

“A feeling,” Xue Wei frowned. “I am not sure as to what exactly is the problem,” he admitted. “I just feel as if there is an issue with the two of them, something is telling me that they have a hidden agenda here.”

“I see.” Bai Tianyi had not paid much attention to them because they were both rather weak so even if they had planned something, it was limited in what they could actually do to them. But when listening to Xue Wei’s words, he also glanced at the two children that were in the distance, once again bowing their heads together and muttering words that no one could hear.

This in itself was quite strange as a spiritual energy cultivator should be capable of hearing what they were saying from this distance, but Bai Tianyi could not hear a word. Within his heart, he started to understand what Xue Wei meant when he said that something was not as simple as it seemed.

When Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi reached the house, they found that both Gu Bing’er and Yuan Bailong were also there. All four waiting were pleasantly surprised the moment they saw Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi walk in through the door.

“We just came to announce the current progress of our families,” Yuan Bailong said with a smile towards Xue Wei, “Who would have thought we would run into you at the same time.”

“To be honest, we really have to thank you for your help,” Gu Bing’er said with a flush on her face, “not only have you helped us and our families find a way to get stronger:You have also worked as a matchmaker between the two of us.”

It seemed that Gu Bing’er and Yuan Bailong had gotten rather close to one another in the time they had been working together, whenever one of them came to talk with them, the other would always follow.

Even on the academy grounds, the two were often seen together, and it seemed as if the two families had even started talking with one another about a marriage proposal.

Many were following this curiously. They never expected that the Yuan and the Gu family would truly stand side-by-side as they were now, they hadn’t even expected that they would dare to do so.

“We have to request that you start the next batch of pills,” Yuan Bailong said slightly awkwardly. “We have already purified the Qi of all members of our families who we are completely sure of their loyalty, but we are still not strong enough to take on the Baili family.

“Although I expect you do not wish to join the battle between the Baili family and our families, I am afraid the Baili family will already have assumed that you have sided with us. They are rather arrogant, and they refuse to let any threat live.

“Before we were safe because our two families did not interact much, but after Bing’er and I have gotten together, they have started moving against us. They will not let us unite.”

Xue Wei pondered for some time, but then he nodded his head. “It is no problem for me to begin the next couple of pills,” he admitted.

“I can also make some new pills you might want. They are called the ‘Sky Knight Pill.’ It will instantly raise a user’s Qi levels to the ninth layer of the Sky Knight rank. It is not an unstable foundation either, however, after consuming it, you will never again be able to advance your Qi levels.

“In case you have some members of your family who have a poor aptitude for Qi cultivation, they might want these pills. Just make sure that everyone is aware of what it entails to consume a Sky Knight Pill. No one is to be forced.”

Both Gu Bing’er and Yuan Bailong’s numerous eyes shone with excitement. It was indeed true that, amongst the people they had, some of them were incapable of ever reaching the Sky Knight rank in Qi levels without this pill because they simply did not have the talent. Thus, being offered some Sky Knight Pills filled them both with excitement.

“How many people do you have with a subpar talent for Qi cultivation?” Xue Wei asked to measure how many pills he needed to create. Before they had time to think about an answer, he shook his head, “go back and count. In the meanwhile, I will make some Qi Gathering Pills to distribute to those who do not wish to use the Sky Knight Pill.”