Chapter 66

"Oh? And here I thought you would be asking something much more pressing." Michael replied as he wiped his forehead. "As you could tell at the time, Cardinal Paul is also currently one stage of cultivation higher than where I currently am. My cultivation is actually at the Heavenly Core stage of cultivation which is why you might have noticed that compared to the two Master stage cultivators, I was able to move much quicker as if the flow of time was not enough to slow me down."

"As for Cardinal Paul, the minimum requirement to become a Cardinal level figure of the Relic Church, one must have reached the Heavenly Rebirth stage of cultivation. You will notice if you reach the Master stage of cultivation, that you will be able to wield the natural energy both in your body and around you."

"However, the difference between the Master stage and the Heavenly Core stage of cultivation, is that to reach the Heavenly Core stage, is to build a core of nature energy if you are an Energy Refinement expert. If you are a Body Refinement expert, a similar core is formed within your body but of your Qi. And the moment you reach the Heavenly Rebirth stage of cultivation, the core expands and creates a new body for you."

"For us humans, every additional level and stage comes with an increase in lifespan. An ordinary could live until they are around one hundred and twenty years old, but if you were to reach the Heavenly Core stage, your lifespan would be increased to a total of around five thousand years. This is also why some of the students in my Holy Sword Institute refer to me as their great ancestor."

"I have lived for over two thousand years and have experienced almost everything that the world could offer. I am still working diligently because I wish to reach the next stage of cultivation because it would double my lifespan to ten thousand years. With that much extra time, I could begin having children and building a very influential clan within Bark Kingdom after only a handful of generations." Michael told Timothy while Jacob also listened but to the side.

Hearing that a human could reach such heights was already shocking, but if you were to add on the increase in lifespan, Timothy was very much lost for words. Seeing both Timothy's and Jacob's reactions, Michael just remained quiet as the chariot began to finally land on the ground right outside of the Monster's Wasteland.

"Well, here we are boys. Just remember that you should cook a piece of demon beast meat for a minimum of one hour before consuming, otherwise you might find yourselves in a very bad situation in the future. Besides that, I suppose the rest is up to you. The last bit of advice, would be just to outright survive this ordeal so that in the future, you could even feel free to come back and conquer an entire region."

After saying his own farewells to the two, Michael quickly jumped back onto his chariot and began making his way back to Mist City. According to his calculations, his students and teachers could hold the other experts back, but they would be unable to disperse them without him stepping in to do the dirty work.

Many of the Master stage cultivators who had arrived in Mist City to find Timothy, actually knew Michael personally because he was their senior official in their military days. After getting out of the military, Michael asked the Relic Church to aid him in building a school that he could spend his retirement in. Very few actually knew that Michael was the dean of the Holy Sword Institute and its founder. Therefore, he could more than likely shoo them away just with his words.

"Alright Jacob, you heard him, from this point forward, we are to no longer be associated with Bark Kingdom. If you are up for it, I want to spend a year with you in this area because I think we can both use this as a good learning experience. What are your thoughts?" Taking their first step into the Monster's Wasteland, Timothy began to ask Jacob some questions since they were now equal partners in this journey.

"Even if you wanted to spend five years in this area, who am I to complain?" Jacob responded as he finished deciding on what ax he wanted to use as he put on some lighter equipment. It would not protect him too well against a critical killing blow, but it was enough to add to his defenses while the two continued to casually walk.

It was about three hours away from getting dark as clouds began to fill the sky as the sun slowly shifted to allow the moon to show. Timothy and Jacob were still not far enough into the area that they wanted to set up camp in, so they could only quicken their pace as much as they could without losing energy.

Neither one knew what exactly to expect concerning how many demon beasts that they would be seeing, but according to the map George gave to him in the storage ring, Timothy realized that as one got closer to the center, the more mountains that they would see. As long as they could reach the mountain area and dig deep into one enough, the two could at least safely plan during the night.

However, the first sign would actually be a talisman which would show that they were close enough to almost visibly see a mountain range. Unfortunately, two hours later they still could not see one which began to annoy Timothy quite a bit because he did not tell Jacob what they were looking for other than a mountain range.