Dragon Gate City

Luckily for the bandits Eric didn't encounter anymore on his way to the city, else they would've ended up like the lone bandit barely alive on the side of the road. What you thought he was dead? Nah he just decided to hold off on killing people. I'm not gonna switch up my good little MC that quickly. While on the way there Eric decided to start cultivating. After all he must Foo- no recruit new disciples into thinking he was extremely powerful and a master. Who would think that someone at the peak of Body Tempering was powerful enough to be super powerful. Yeah he was good enough to beat up some roadside bandits but people don't know your fighting prowess unless you release your bloodlust, killing intent, aura, etc. or you fight them. And again part of Eric's training to hold that all in. After all he had the [Thousand Islan- no [Thousand Waves Concealment Technique] to conceal all of that so that none leaked out. He also definitely was not eating salad when he came up with the name for the dressin- Technique.

Back to cultivating, Eric decided that before entering Entering the city, he'd try to breakthrough to the qi core realm. (Btw I'll make a list of all the cultivation levels when more are introduced for the ones who are interested)

Casually stepping off the road Eric found a little clearing. It wasn't large, only about 1.5 meters all around in an odd shaped triangle. Luckily he was a little ways off from the trail and it was daytime because he knew that his cultivation was quite flashy. His one technique that wasn't self made and instead created by the system was the [Cosmic Emperor's Divine Gaze].

The main idea of this technique was to create a loop in one's body between one's dantian and their eyes. The user must constantly use this loop to create galaxies in ones eyes at the peak, but this is extremely hard but can be very beneficial, allowing one to kill ones enemies with a single gaze, or create a god with a single thought. When one looks into the eyes of one who uses this technique it's as if one is looking at a galaxy, with a gold ringed center. (Instead of having eye whites they instead have a galaxy). Eric knew that once he starts cultivating this technique Lights will begin to circle him as if he's the center of a galaxy and this can be quite eye catching, so he doesn't want to cultivate while other people around, plus it can be quite dangerous if one is attacked while cultivating, as that is when one is in a meditative state and they shouldn't be disturbed, lest something goes wrong.

As Eric started cultivating he quickly found the barrier between body tempering and the qi core realm and quickly pushed through. Immediately it appeared as if Eric was the center of a galaxy, a multitude of stars spinning around him. Eric obviously didn't notice this as he was in the midst of breaking through and making sure his cultivation was solid and stable. If one breaks through too quickly it can make it more difficult down the road to achieve higher realms. Eric wanted to make sure that he was going to have a bright future and to do so he must make sure that his cultivation is unparalleled.

After breaking through and stabilizing his cultivation Eric quickly got up and walked back to the road, on his first stop to dragon gate city.

...

After several more hours of walking (too lazy to run there) Eric finally came upon Dragon Gate City, where apparently a dragon city, (hence going through the heavenly gates), though that was a long time ago.

Upon reaching the gates Eric quickly identified the cultivation of the guards standing there and noticed that they were all in the low-mid grade body tempering realm (1-6 grades from 1-9). They were too weak for Eric to even care about fighting but he didn't know if there was a random old monster that decided to mess with him so he decided to just pay the fee and walk on into the city.

...

Resting on the bed inside the inn Eric decided to think about how he wants to go about recruiting disciples. He can't just recruit anyone, after all he's going to be building a supreme power.

Shrugging his shoulders Eric decided to just walk around using the [Discerning of a Thousand Blessings] and try to find someone suitable. It wasn't a flashy technique after all, the user will see a bright light above someone if they've got a large amount of fortune and/or talent.

Casually walking around Eric saw small amounts of fortune and talent but nothing above average or noticeable, which was quite disappointing to him. He wanted a hidden jewel not an average person.

Suddenly someone bumped into him while he was deep in thought, thinking about how no-one was good enough.

Looking down he saw a young girl, no older than 10 years old, wearing rags and covered in dirt, sitting on the ground with a daze. 'Who did I bump into?' the little girl was confused. Just a minute ago she was sneaking down a run down alley and now she was sitting down on the ground.

"Oh?" Eric was quite surprised with this little girls talent, she has quite a good rating, and the ability to be a top cultivator if raised properly.

He had naturally sensed the girl before she ran into him and could have avoided her but he was quite content with her talent and decided to make her his first disciple.

Given the chance she could likely be a future powerhouse, but he was quite confused why the little girl was in the slums, usually people with good talent have good bloodlines or are better sheltered, however this girl did not appear to be either of those.

"Mister?" The girl looked at Eric warily, after all he was staring at her quite intensely.

'cough' clearing his throat of his embarrassment he quickly got into his 'expert pose'.

"Hello little girl would you like to be my disciple? I noticed you have quite good talent and could be a grand cultivator, instead of being here on the streets, this could be your chance you know."

The little girl looked at Eric even more suspiciously now, after all he looked like some sort of scammer luring little kids in with false promises to kidnap them.

"Uhm mister I can't go with you I have to take care of my brothers and sisters sorry." and she quickly scampered off, quite afraid of the weirdo trying to recruit her. It was not uncommon for people to be kidnapped in similar ways, after all it was the slums and no-one would notice if a kid or two went missing.

Eric however, was not discouraged. He knew he was unlikely to succeed but now at least he had found someone promising, so he started to follow her.