Dual Cultivation God Returns

Chapter 624 Must be tiresome

The day has come when a small delegation of government officials approached the ship on a small boat from the Main Island.

Wu Long chuckled, after reading the letter that was given to him by Butler Bang, who was the one greeting the delegation.

"What is it?", Feng Yi asked as she looked at the letter in his hands.

"Nothing unexpected, I am summoned to the Royal Palace", Wu Long turned to his ladies.

"Because of that Sect?", Shen Min raised her eyebrow to which he nodded.

"It is, after all a Sect on their territory and they have to maintain a bare minimum of reputation. Although all that is just an excuse", he made a light laugh.

A big procession formed from the ship toward the capital of the Kingdom.

Wu Long waited for the official invitation because this meant that the Kingdom of Lihai has officially acknowledged the ship's presence at the Main Island, and thus it was safe to leave it with bare minimum of crew.

After all, he was planning to soon advance through the Core Reformation Realm in one go much like the Foundation Building Realm, so he took all of the Frozen Garden Palace members with him.

Core Reformation Realm required only a bit more resources than the Core Formation Realm.

Despite that it was one of the biggest hurdles on one's way to Mortal Transcendence Realm, because it was full of danger for the cultivator.

The practitioner would saturate their Core with energy until its absolute limits, and then it would start to form cracks under pressure.

The cracks would reveal inherent flaws in the core, that formed mostly not because of the bad structure or flaws in methods of its creation, although in some cases it was that, but because of the nature of Spiritual Qi that had inconsistencies and imperfections within its tiniest particles.

Then one would completely crush their core along the cracks, and reform it from the shards into a new, more perfected version.

However, the practitioner had to be very careful with the process as crushing the core was normally akin to suicide. It was only possible due to the mysterious state one entered when doing so in the Core Reformation Realm.

And even despite that, many lives were lost in this Realm.

This was where the disparity of legacy was in vivid display between those with rich heritage and resources and those rising from the bottom in hopes of attaining everything.

Since there were various techniques and methods of Core Reformation, that allowed a near perfect survival rate, as well as alchemy pills that pushed that 'near perfect' to true perfect.

This was also a peculiar Realm where practitioners did not have to go through all nine Minor Realms in order to advance to the Mortal Transcendence Realm.

As soon as the core could withstand enough pressure to advance, be it only after only two reformations, or five, which varied randomly for every individual, it was possible to skip to the next Major Realm.

But it was a general consensus among those of influence and power, to not consider those who did not go through all nine reformations in the Core Reformation Realm an apt force beyond Mortal Realms.

There was also no immediate giant leap in strength between a Core Formation and Core Reformation Realm expert, and almost no difference between those who reformed their core more times, although there were differences.

Thus many less fortunate people of limited means often only risked to attempt the exact number of reformations required for them to attempt a breakthrough to the Mortal Transcendence Realm.

Wu Long, however, had the means to allow all of his ladies and associates to undergo the perfect nine core reformations, and was ready to do so himself.

With his knowledge, Yu Huan supplied the alchemy pills that made it safe to attempt reforming the core even if it failed, though thanks to his guidance and the other pills she made that assisted the process, that measure was ultimately not necessary.

The ship was anchored a day of common mortal travel away from the capital, which was the largest city-port on the island.

They did not enter the bay that the capital was in with the ship as doing so with a war ship of this magnitude could have been taken as aggression, even if there was clearly expressed peaceful intent.

Thus, even with a large procession that included former victims of the Lust Cultivators, they reached the capital the very next day after departing.

After the lodgings were arranged, as they fully occupied inns in an entire area, Wu Long went toward the Royal Palace that was located on a high cliff at one corner of the bay, overseeing the entire city and the bay from one side, and a giant forest called the Royal Forbidden Ancestral Grounds on the other.

He was escorted to the throne room where a small number of only highest members of the Royal Court have gathered.

"Let's skip the formalities, we know you are not someone to be reasoned with, your reputation precedes you, Daoist Wu", the King of the Island Kingdom sighed, not willing to go through the routine, given the accounts of his attitude in the Imperial Courts of the Azure Eagle and Wood Spirit Empires, much to Wu Long's delight.

"Much appreciated, Your Royal Majesty", Wu Long nodded with a sincere gratitude.

"We can't accuse you because you have brought witnesses, or rather victims, of the Dawn Concealing Sect's atrocities. And thus however unpleasant it is that you have acted with no permission or even notice to the Royal House, there will be no repercussions for you from that. However, we strongly advise you to not test your luck any further", one of the Royal Family members to the side announced what Wu Long more or less expected.

"I appreciate the advise, Your Highness", Wu Long shrugged his shoulders which did not sit well with the people around, but they were all held in tight grasp of the King, who exercised caution and simply nodded, concluding the matter.

'Heh, must be tiresome to be a ruler', Wu Long thought as he turned to leave he Royal Palace.

All in all, this meeting was a simple formality, to show that the Crown has acknowledged the matter and dealt with it, and thus the outcome or contents of this meeting were not really that important.

The only thing that did matter was that it happened.

Though it worked in Wu Long's favor, so he was not complaining.

He stopped to look at the scenery on his way out of the palace, noting that the public side of the Palace through which he was led was only facing the city and the bay.

No one disturbed him as the ones escorting him simply waited for him to finish his sight-seeing and then continued when he was done.

The whole experience was a stark contrast to the other countries he visited, where individual members of ruling dynasties, and even government officials had their own schemes and agendas.

Here, everything was tightly held in one sturdy hands, with no deviation.

Later that day, all of the victims of the Dawn Concealing Sect that were brough into the capital were released into the custody of the Royal Family, which would help them adjust to normal life and with their rehabilitation.

This was a tacit agreement in turn for not raising the issue of the Sect.

Although, this group of survivors was notably smaller than what the Eternal Duality Valley that Wu Long led had recovered from the Dawn Concealing Sect, as those that disembarked the ship were only those who either were not approached or refused recruitment while onboard.

After all, most of the Wu Family servants and some of Cao Xiang's crew, as well as part of Cao Mei's mercenaries, were former victims of the Supreme Master Pavilion, and thus were effective in recruiting those who went through similar experiences.

Not to mention that Shen Min did not miss that chance to expand the numbers of her Veiled Sentinels.

Even if the cultivation levels of the majority of these people may not be that impressive, it did not bother Wu Long as that could be mitigated.

What mattered was the loyalty that could be nurtured in them. Even talent and potential was not as important of an aspect as this.