Expanding strength

Ki paused for a moment after hearing her remark then nodded her head as she was leaving the two of them to continue on with their training.

She had the theory in her mind that there could be a secret stash somewhere that the Unorthodox Alliance had not been able to get their hands on without catching the grand elder but she did not have enough greed to cover it but now that it had been mentioned and the possibility of rare materials being stored there, she changed her mind a little..

If the Divine Ice Sect was to rise again then they needed the pill recipes ingredients to help them nurture their new recruits, especially the talented ones.

As for the fortress at the border.. the Northern Warlord Sect had already claimed it and they may stay there for some time but that did not stop the Divine Ice Sect from reviving in a new location.

The border wasn't even the coldest part of the north and the icy cavern which was their coldest location to train in was not used by anyone but the grand elder and the sect leader so the ordinary disciples never really had the best training environment suited for their martial arts as they should.

If they truly wished to become a top sect then they needed to make use of their icy qi art to its maximum potential and find a place that would be said to be an extreme cold area.

Although the pills helped with a breakthrough, the disciples were not fully experiencing the characteristics of extreme ice, snow and icy wind which could help them refine their qi to a purer form and gain many inspirations for their martial path.

The difference between a breakthrough using pills and through training and understanding and mastery were not that big but when it came to the later stages or confronted with a genius of the same realm who had achieved a natural breakthrough many martial artists who had broken through using pills would lose unless they are able to make up for what they are lacking after breaking through.

In Lumi and Rayleigh's case they were both progressing at a fast rate and were ready to progress further but her mother would fall under the category of a fake transcendent once she broke through.

She had the strength but her body may have not been in the best condition to clash against another person in her realm and her use of qi would not be as refined and precise as the other party.

Lumi and Rayleigh had Ki guiding them every day too which helped push their talents further.

Even Marilyn who had been walking the path of the Evil Flame qi art had progressed very quickly after building a steady foundation for herself since a child before moving onto that path.

Rashida who had the support of a strong vitality and body tempering art to break through and make progress but she also integrated her own experiences into the martial arts that she was learning so even if she was progressing at a fast pace she was able to make up for some of her weaknesses in combat with her tough body and water sword dance like swordsmanship.

Although she was not considered a genius or monster like Ki, Marilyn, Lumi and Rayleigh, she still had her own ways of not falling behind and worked extra hard to not be left behind by them.

Many of them were making progress in their own way but their efforts and fast speed of growth were still not yet enough to stand up to the various powers that held their position at the top so they had no choice but to follow Ki's advice to lay low and not attract any unwanted attention.

Even Nox who had many subordinates under them and controlled many behind the scenes could only use some of their power to move in secret and collect or manipulate information so that certain things could be covered up or something similar to what had happened with the Wraith family could happen.

Ki's private forces were also growing quickly but they were not so important as they were just guards within the mansion for now but many other forces like the frost wolf group were continuing to grow at a steady pace along with several new recruits and others that were beginning to pick up martial arts in the village over the years.

Finally there was the Reapers who had a kind of cult like following but even their activities had been somewhat restricted lately so that they can continue to train so that they do not become useless and discarded even if Ki did not think of such a thing.

As she was walking back towards the mansion to meet her mother, she spoke quietly to herself. "Hmm.. I need to investigate who has made progress over the years with their cold qi arts that have been hiding and training over the years. The cold qi pills that I had previously made would be beneficial for them but it is best to investigate who has made the most progress but also who has displayed their loyalty best over the years. Perhaps I can give them it as a reward."

Even if she gave them it as a reward, she had nothing to lose and more to gain since they were tied to her for life.

The more they grew the more useful they would become to her and the chances of the Divine Ice Sect being revived would be sooner but for now they still needed to avoid the eyes of many otherwise they would have a target on their backs again.

If she found enough people who could make the best use of the pills then she would be able to gain many peak martial artists to add to her continuously expanding forces but of course the more that she wanted to raise the more costly it would become to acquire more ingredients so she had to choose wisely who to give them to.

Even her own individual strength was beginning to show signs of progressing further after she had begun to make use of her body tempering art to further refine her skin, muscles, tendons and bones even further but it would not be long before her bloody qi was reaching its limits after being refined with the unrestrained realm blood.

If she kept doing so then she would risk overpowering her main qi which was her noxious qi which would result in the collapse of her main dantains qi and would be replaced by the bloody qi that had flooded in after overpowering and drowning it like a wood based qi being drowned by too much water qi that it can no longer absorb or control beyond its limits and then collapses.

To stop this from happening she steadily nurtured the growth of her noxious qi at the same time and did not rush to use all of the Unrestrained blood right away and kept it within her storage space until she was confident in progressing further.

Slowly as she was progressing and making further insights, she found that her noxious qi had been slowly changing its nature towards a new direction and the colour was no longer a pure white but instead was getting closer to a pinkish white similar to her skin colour.

The more she noticed these changes, the more she knew that she was taking the right direction in her martial path and her noxious qi was becoming even more deadly.