Ch-17:300 Years Pass
It had been more than a century since he last visited his territory so he took some missions to last him a few years outside to prevent him from going back and forth.
He wasn't the least bit bothered with the missions as there was no chance he would fail them with his true strength.
He could have easily broken through the next realm but he was holding back as much as possible to not arouse any suspicion.
Raon was very meticulous about the attention he garnered because he didn't want to become a disciple of someone from the Daiyu Sacred Land as it would be too much for him to bear at the moment with his ongoing plans.
While it can be said that it doesn't matter much, in the cultivation world, the relationship between a master and their disciple is sacred and anyone who stains it becomes a public enemy as everyone would be out for their blood.
It took him 4 months to reach Altair who had grown a little over 1 year in age due to the hundredfold time dilation.
He had seen Altair only every five years for him; but for her unconscious baby self, it was a measly 3 weeks yet it was not like she would still remember it when she grew up.
After spending so much time studying all the side occupations as well as delving deep into formations, he was able to understand the natural formation a little more.
It was not of much use though as he could still not edit it in the slightest and could just repair it to decrease the energy being wasted to make his stones last longer.
He spent some time playing with his little daughter and kissed her forehead as he let her float back to the center of the room where she could no longer be seen.
He kept the clothes back in his storage as he realized he could not even drape his daughter in clothes due to some unknown restriction of the formation.
He then left the place to return to his primary base in the 6 kingdoms which had now become a 14 Kingdom alliance.
As he appeared inside the hidden teleportation chamber, all 6 kings felt their breath stuck in their throats as they reached it as fast as possible.
The 6 immediately went on their knees as they realized they could still not sense his cultivation even though he was right there in front of them.
They even felt like the gap was widening the closer they went to him but they didn't have time to think about it any longer as 8 more people entered the room.
The eight were intrigued by the scene as they saw the ones above them kneel but the smart ones immediately understood and kneeled down.
Only three didn't kneel even after an entire minute but Raon wasn't going to waste his precious time in disciplining them so he used his strength to press them on the ground.
As the three seemed to be kissing the ground, the five who had kneeled thought in unison 'We made the right decision' with a small smile on their countenances.
After making sure the 14 understood who they were under and erasing any thoughts about future rebellion from their minds by beating the shit out of them.
Raon finally went to the main topic as he asked for reports about the kingdoms to devise his next steps as he called for all their advisors.
He wasn't going to give them a detailed plan as that would stall their advancements as individuals as no one person could truly control everything, so he let them deal with the minute details.
His plan was broadly simple; to take over more kingdoms by attacking them for the next century if they declined the alliance invitation drafted by him.
The demon beasts had already increased in quality and quantity so he was going to direct them to other kingdoms to force them into alliances.
He himself was going to take action as he would teach about all the side occupations as well as give better cultivation techniques to a few people from every kingdom.
The only condition was that they would sign a soul contract with him of being his subordinates and not the kingdoms' to be certain of their loyalty forever.
His knowledge of such subjects was leagues above others in his territory to his learning them in Arcane Academy as well as Daiyu Sacred Land.
He had also asked them to bring all their cultivation manuals as he would read and improve them with his knowledge to increase the average level of cultivators across the alliance.
He wasn't the least bit partial about latecomers or those who were forced to join as he only wanted those who'd be of help to him in the long term and not become burdens.
He left after an entire decade but it would take more than 5 decades for them to consolidate everything he gave them and show proper results as he also gave them a lot of rank-1 stones that were of not much use to him anymore.
Raon spent the next decade for his breakthrough and to enter the Core Sect as he would get access to more and better cultivation manuals as well as resources to help him.
His progress wasn't the fastest but also not the slowest as he didn't want to attract any attention but the fact he entered the core sect with just the initial stage of his cultivation realm did bring unwanted attention to him.
It only calmed down as he took more than 2 decades for the next breakthrough as he was busy reading and understanding the new materials made available to him.
His speed had slowed down quite a bit in the start but he didn't cultivate for the next decade as he wanted to bring everything to practice as well as improve his sword art.
It had been 30 years since he last went out for new missions as he had entered the core sect and was busy with all the new information that he gathered.
As it had been two centuries since he entered Daiyu, two selections had already happened in the meanwhile but they weren't any of his concern as he left for some missions again.
On his missions, he heard rumors regarding his alliance that their power was skyrocketing as they won against various kingdoms after finally repelling the demon beasts.
Yes, Raon decided to stop using the demon beasts as it had been almost two centuries since he had been using that technique and he needed to let both sides rest before restarting it.
After returning to the same primary base, he met the new seven kings who had willingly joined the alliance and the new four who were forced to.
His alliance now had 25 kingdoms but the 14 had developed far ahead of the 11 due to the better quality resources provided by him and the time they had to absorb it all.
The only issue with his next steps was a Queendom, as it had connections to their closest unranked Empire which had noticed their alliance and became wary of them becoming a new Empire.
It was the only kingdom around them that was ruled by females, hence the Queendom, but one of their members had been married off to one of the Unranked Empire's royal family.
What no one knew was that they had already become one of his allies as he knew that convincing them would be easier with his newfound strength.
He had directly made a deal with the ancestors, that is, the previous Queen and her elder sister, that no one would force them to marry their members to other powers if they joined his alliance.
They had agreed on the basis that he could somehow help them take over their allied Empire as their youngest sister had been married and died off there.
She had a child who was the current royal advisor who was helping them in hidden ways and as long as he could guarantee that no harm would befall him or them during the process, they'd agree with the previous conditions.
Due to his deal, he had given the two of them a personalized cultivation manual and weapon technique to increase their strength before merging them.
On the surface, they were still enemies but in actuality, they were his allies unbeknownst to everyone else, and he had no plans to tell others till he could grow strong enough to deal with the Empire.
Raon then focused on his cultivation for the next 50 years and his sword skills as he broke through the next realm of both, easily making his strength equivalent to the Empire's Ancestors.
He then went to the Empire to make a deal with them to help him, as he was already aware of the insider information leaked by the royal advisor.
He only wanted them as his allies and guarantors to prevent prying eyes from entering his territory before he completely stabilized them as an Empire.
He had already decided to make the Queendom's Ancestors as his sister Empresses as it would help him in many ways to promote growth.
That was the reason he gave the cultivation manuals to increase their strength but this time, he also gave a few other people pills that would help purify and cleanse their meridians to boost cultivation speed.
These pills were what he got after making connections with an alchemist whose missions he had been completing to get him to concoct the pills he required to develop the top powers in his territory.
This time, he spent another decade giving his teachings to the limited members of the Empire, 25 kingdoms, and the queendom, as he won't be returning anytime soon.
He told the 25 kings to listen to the sisters as they were his proxies from now and they should be an Empire before he returned to check on them.
However, he left them as it is for the four decades as he was entirely focused on becoming better at formations to be able to change Altair's formation as she would be turning three soon allowing her to have proper consciousness and memories.
He wanted to use the formation to implant memories inside her brain, of her mother and him of being a common happy family.
He knew it was easier said than done because it was a proper new concept but he couldn't care less as it was simply an illusion for a 3-year-old without any side effects in his eyes.
He successfully created such a formation as he used the natural formation to do that making him feel a bit iffy about doing it to his own daughter, but what other choice did he have?