Villain : I reincarnated as a Prince! Shouldn't I have a Harem?

Ashen's room, Phoenix Feather Sect,

Ashen pondered on what to spend his Villain Points on.

Advancing to the next realm?

No, He couldn't do that.

Why?!

Because the next realm was the Core Formation. In this realm, one had to form a core with the qi they had stored in their dantian.

It was also seen as choosing a path in cultivation.

There were multiple types of qi in the surrounding and one could only choose some to use to form his core.

The type of qi he used to form his core would determine the strength of the skills he would be able to use in the future.

For example, If someone had formed his core with sword qi and another had formed their core with blade qi.

Then, the same sword skill would be ten times more powerful when used by the cultivator with sword qi core than when used by the Blade cultivator.

And the opposite would also be true for a blade skill.

However, this didn't mean that a cultivator wouldn't be able to use other qi skills from the path he had chosen.

It was just the power of the skill of the path he had chosen would be increased multiple folds with the qi present in his core.

This just meant that an origin realm cultivator could use every qi skill with the same proficiency, but, upon advancing by forming a qi core, he would become more powerful when using the qi skill of the path he had chosen.

Due to this reasoning, a core formation cultivator could easily take on multiple origin realm cultivators with the powerful skills encompassed by his chosen path.

This realm also had nine stages where one would enter the first stage upon forming his qi core and would advance to different stages by increasing the density of the core and nourishing the qi present in it.

However, there was a catch in advancing to this realm. One had to gather enough qi of his choice to form a strengthened core.

Due to this long qi gathering process, it would take decades for cultivators to advance to this realm.

Even the old sect master of the Vine Bull Sect was at the first stage of this realm, indicating that he had advanced recently.

Even in this realm, the spirit of a cultivator played a big role.

The spirit would be the backbone and spiritual root of a cultivator, defining his potential and the height he could reach.

When a cultivator advanced to a higher realm, his lifespan also increased as well.

But, How fast and easily, a cultivator could advance, all depended on his spirit.

If he had a high-level spirit, he could easily advance and raise his lifespan, but, if he had a low-level one, then his lifespan would just be finished before he could advance any further.

One could take the sect master of the Vine Bull Sect as an example, he looked old due to the low lifespan he had. If he was a king realm cultivator, he would look like a man in his middle thirties or maybe even less.

The King Realm was also a mystery but let's talk about that some other time.

For now, Ashen had to decide what path he would like to take and which qi he would use to form a core.

After that, he would need to gather that type of qi before attempting to advance.

So for now, Advancing to the next realm would take some time and would have to be postponed.

Ashen only wanted to increase his strength to protect himself and do whatever he desired.

And there were many ways to increase his strength other than just simply advancing his cultivation.

He had already contemplated ways to increase his power and the skills he would need to execute whatever plans he had.

"Hmm... I have to learn something special to increase my choices in future plans" Ashen thought before asking the system:

"System, Can I learn alchemy, formations, and talisman arts with the Villain points?"

[Ding! Host, You can learn any skill with Villain Points, though the amount will be high]

"Alright..." Ashen muttered before contemplating further with a serious expression.

He already knew that he didn't have a high amount of Villain Points to learn all three arts, therefore, he needed to prioritize one of them.

Also, he was going to use the knowledge of the Phoenix Feather Sect to learn the basics before becoming a master in the art with the help of the system and Villain Points.

"The question is, Which art should I learn first?"

Ashen rubbed his chin, continuing to ponder:

"Alchemy shouldn't be of much use to me right now and I don't need it immediately, so I can leave it for later"

He didn't need to consume pills to advance to the next realm like other cultivators.

Though alchemy could help him in the future, however, it couldn't help him right now.

To form a core, Pills were of less use and he hadn't even decided on the path he would take.

"Formations and talismans are both useful... Ah, this is a hard choice"

Formations could help a cultivator to trap multiple cultivators and lay traps. Though laying formations was hectic and a time-consuming process, however, it could make a cultivator defeat multiple opponents of similar strength at once.

There have even been cases where cultivators had defeated a higher realm cultivator with the help of formations.

Formations have been used by sects to protect their territories from enemies from ancient times.

They could make a huge difference if used well.

Meanwhile, Talismans were opposite to Formations.

While Formations were used to trap opponents, talismans were used to escape and attack with a higher force.

The most common were teleportation talismans and attack talismans.

The talismans were something that was highly useful and could prove life-saving at critical moments.

However, there was just one thing that made Ashen favor Formations over talismans.

"Though talismans are great, I should learn formations first!"

The reason was simple.

Formations could be used to lay traps and capture enemies, leaving them unable to defend themselves. This made formations perfect for Ashen.

Ashen was a predator and always needed to kill his enemies and lay traps.

Although, talismans could also help him in the fight they couldn't make a huge difference in his strength.

But the main reason why Ashen decided to go with formations over talismans was the fact that no one could know who made a formation.

That means that Ashen could make a formation and control it from behind the scenes and nobody would be able to know that he was the one who laid it and was in control.

Meanwhile, talismans were used directly in fights and one couldn't make use of them secretly except for some talismans.

Deciding to learn formations first, Ashen directly left his mansion before heading towards the Formation pavilion of the sect.

The formation pavilion was renowned for having multiple formation masters.

However, Ashen wasn't going there to learn from these masters, instead, he was heading there for the various formation books that contained basic and advanced knowledge regarding Formations.

There was also a formation peak in the sect that was dedicated to formation research and comprised formation masters and disciples who were eager to dive deeper into the art of formations.

The Formation Pavilion, Phoenix Feather Sect,

"Please give me the books containing basics of Formation arts!" Ashen instructed the receptionist who was incharge of the books in the pavilion, giving him his token.

The receptionist took his token with both hands before looking at it to identify this handsome disciple he hadn't seen before.

As soon as his gaze fell on Ashen's token, his eyes widened as he looked at Ashen again with his big eyes.

"Y-Young Master? Forgive me for not recognizing you!" He yelled, returning the token.

As the direct disciple of the sect Leader of Phoenix Feather Sect, Ashen was treated as the young master of the sect, having all facilities open to him.

"Just give me the books!" Ashen said while shaking his hand as if saying that it wasn't a big deal.

The receptionist nodded before hurrying to gather all the books that Ashen demanded.

In less than a minute, he was back with at least forty books in his hands.

Even Ashen was surprised to see these many books for just the basics of formations, however, the shock came after hearing the receptionist's words:

"Young Master, Here are some books that have the basics of formations. Please read them first and take the others later. I think these many books will take some time for you to understand."

"Huh? Doesn't these books cover all the basics regarding formations?" Ashen asked with a calm voice, hiding his surprise internally.

The receptionist, shaking his head, replied: "No, Young Master. Formations are a vast concept and these books aren't enough to contain even the basics about them. You can consider these as merely introduction books."

Ashen remained calm while hearing him inform, but internally he was baffled.

He thought that he would just read the basics himself without wasting any Villain Points and only using these he was unable to understand something advanced regarding Formations.

It was the most efficient method of learning formation with him only using Villain Points when actually needed, but now it seemed a waste of time.

If reading forty books would only get him introduced to Formations, then why not just save time and learn them quickly with the help of the system?

Therefore, he decided to take all the books.

"Give me all the books and don't assume that I won't be able to finish these books."

The receptionist was taken aback but soon retorted:

"Y-Young Master, please understand, You can only take books for a day and have to return them by tomorrow. Are you saying that you will be able to read all the books in just a day?"

Ashen just nodded with a calm expression in response, of course, he could.

He had the system after all!

The receptionist couldn't say anything anymore as he just went and brought more than 120 books.

Everyone in the pavilion stared at this uncommon view where so many books were kept by a disciple in his space ring before taking his leave.

Ashen came back to his room to read the books.

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(A/N - Thanks for reading. ^..^)