Chapter 121: Breakthrough

The Treasury Hall had become a sea of flowing energy.

Lucian sat cross-legged among the Tier 1 cultivation materials, eyes shut, breathing perfectly steady. The massive vortex around him still spun, pulling on the cultivation materials strewn across the hall.

The force of the absorption had increased significantly since he’d first awakened his talent.

Streams of energy poured from the medicinal herbs, the monster cores, and all the other materials. They flowed toward Lucian and were sucked into his body, where his talent immediately began converting them into cultivation.

The process showed absolutely no sign of slowing down.

Several of the materials had lost all their energy - their surfaces were now dull and lifeless, nothing more than empty shells.

Yet the shelves all around were still full of resources.

Lucian continued absorbing.

He could feel the energy surging through his body. Normally you’d have to go through a whole process of refining the energy to ensure it was compatible with your body and that your meridians could handle the pressure.

But Lucian’s talent was such that he managed to get around those restrictions.

The energy entered his body, went through the process governed by his talent and steadily enhanced his cultivation.

There was no need to stop and work through each batch to perfect it.

There was absolutely no need to worry about impurities damaging his foundation.

He only needed to keep absorbing.

’This is far more efficient than I anticipated.’

The thought occurred to him as the vortex carried on sucking energy from the surrounding matter.

His cultivation had already started to go up.

---

Ten minutes passed.

The energy around Lucian suddenly spiked.

The vortex contracted, pulling the remaining streams of energy towards his body. For a moment the whole of Treasury Hall seemed to be shaking under the strain.

Then the energy settled.

Lucian’s cultivation crossed another threshold.

Martial Master Tier 3.

He slowly opened his eyes.

A very faint look of surprise on his face.

’Already?’

He’d reckoned his talent would be a massive advantage, but the pace of his progress was still more than he’d expected.

The resources in the Treasury were making a huge difference. The Tier 1 materials in particular were of value even though each individual material had very little energy content.

And that was only the start.

Lucian looked at the empty materials all around him.

The first batch had been fully drained.

He turned his attention to the remainder of the resources and carried on with the absorption.

There was absolutely no reason to be celebrating a breakthrough that was still very much away from his objective.

Martial Master Tier 3 was absolutely no match for the Tiger Monster.

He needed to go further.

Much further.

The vortex started to rotate once more.

---

The process carried on uninterrupted.

Lucian just sat in the middle of the treasury, letting his talent suck up the energy from the stuff around him.

His Shadow Soldiers were also working.

Those assigned to consume the resources went through the various sections of the hall, picking up the cultivation materials and eating them, drawing their energy and channelling it into Lucian’s cultivation.

The lower tier resources went away very quickly.

Some of the troops were moving in towards the higher tier stuff where the energy content of the individual items was obviously much greater. They were all still moving in the direction that Lucian had indicated, making sure the resources were being used as efficiently as possible.

The Treasury gradually went quiet.

The very faint fluctuations that had previously filled the hall were starting to die down as more of the materials were being drained of their energy.

Lucian’s cultivation continued to soar.

He could feel the changes happening in his body. Each breakthrough was making him stronger, enabling him to take in even more energy without any problem.

His foundation remained stable.

There was absolutely no sign of the strain you’d normally expect to see with such rapid progression.

’It’s working exactly as I hoped.’

He was worried that even his talent would be unable to cope with the sheer amount of energy required. His cultivation would need nearly a hundred times the resources of a normal cultivator.

That limitation has always been the problem.

But now with the whole treasury at his disposal the situation was quite different.

He didn’t need to conserve every material.

He didn’t need to spend hours perfecting each one.

He could just absorb the energy and keep going.

Lucian focused once more.

The vortex grew stronger.

---

Almost an hour had gone by since Lucian had started cultivating.

The energy around him suddenly spiked.

The materials closest to him were essentially drained at the same time and the remaining streams of energy all converged on his body.

His cultivation passed another threshold.

Then another.

The pressure around him spiked for a moment before settling into a steady stream.

Martial Master Tier 8.

Lucian opened his eyes.

He could quite plainly feel the difference.

His cultivation had gone up several levels in the space of an hour and his base was just as solid as ever. No sense of imbalance, no discomfort at all and he certainly wasn’t in any way weakened by the rapid advancement.

He looked at his own condition very carefully.

’My talent is absolutely handling everything.’

The realisation did bring a very slight degree of relief.

He was confident in his talk with Magnus, but confidence in itself wouldn’t see him through. If his base should give way at any stage of the process then all the resources in the treasury would be of no use whatsoever.

Fortunately, that wasn’t happening.

His talent was precisely what it was meant to be.

Lucian looked at the remainder of the materials.

The Treasury had already lost a significant proportion of its resources. The lower tier in a number of places was effectively empty and the higher tier was being used up by his Shadow Soldiers.

Still there was more energy to absorb.

He closed his eyes once more.

’Keep going.’

The vortex picked up and resumed its rotation.

Lucian kept on cultivating, resolved to get to the next level before the Tiger Monster made its move.