Soul of Searing Steel

Standing before the training field as he received the letter from the hand of Ling, Joshua opened up the envelope of the letter and roughly browsed through its contents.

Almost all was good news.

According to Alphonso, Joshua’s reputation had spread from the north all the way to the capital of the Imperial City. He was currently known to many noblemen now. As an Upper Gold tier that had not reached the age of thirty, those nobles and merchants believed that Joshua would definitely attain Supreme-tier soon in the future. Some of them even believe that Joshua could reach the realm of the Legendary tier. Because of that, those former nobles and forces who took advantage of the previous count’s death by attempting to seize some of the assets of the Radcliffe family were now showing Joshua some respect, by returning all the assets that they stole from the Radcliffe family. They even presented those assets back to Joshua along with their deepest apologies.

Some of the merchants who supported Joshua’s stingy uncle tried to seek protection from the other nobles. Yet now, they were all on their knees, begging for his forgiveness. Well, they did not dare to run, and no one would shelter them. Furthermore, a future Supreme-tier warrior would become the future commander of an army; a future general; or a person that leads a nation.

Well, even the two counts of the Empire, two leading noblemen families, might not be able to create a Supreme-tier being after using all available resources they could get in the world.

No one could afford to offend a man with such great future over such a small profit.

As Joshua’s representative in the Imperial City, Alphonso had absolute control over the industry and assets of the Radcliffe family. Initially, as a small businessman, he would need to rely on connections if he ever wanted to participate in the early spring auction. Now, he actually received an invitation from the organizer of the spring auction. Of course, he knew that all these he had now was because of the opportunity that Joshua had given him, as well as the reward of his own correct choice he did back then. Therefore, his words for Joshua would always be filled with respect.

“Not bad.”

After reading the letter, Joshua nodded with satisfaction and kept the letter back into the envelope before handing it back to Ling. “I hope everything will be smooth for him. I hope he can purchase that thing for me too.”

Standing behind the side of Joshua while holding the envelope in his hand, Ling asked curiously, “What exactly is it are you looking for, Master?”

“A certain kind of Mystical Item that can summon the monsters from the abyss. But it’s hidden so deep in the dark that most people can’t find out about it… Well, we can’t afford to let that item fall into the hands of the others in order to prevent a catastrophe.” Ignoring the doubtful expression of his Divine Armament, he continued to ask, “What about 03 now?”

“Everything is good, Miss 03 is very satisfied with the environment here. Well, she would occasionally complain that our buildings will not move. However, our servants have been pushing her around on a cart, allowing her to look around our place.”

Ling shrugged. He seemed to know what his master would ask afterward. So he continued, “As for Ying, she is currently taking care of your warhorse… However… the horse has fallen asleep again. There seems to have a strange change, something is different though…”

“Fell asleep… again…”

Upon hearing that, Joshua could not help but feel a bit troubled. As his warhorse, Black had proven itself to be very reliable. In the previous encounter with the Dark Tide, not only did it not show the slightest fear in it, it charged towards the daemons, trampling them to their deaths. Although Joshua had not been bringing it out into recent battles, the horse appeared to be growing stronger still, especially after the last time it was corrupted by the presence of Chaos. It seems that after Black was purified several times over, some sort of bloodline in Black had been stimulated. Ever since then, it had been abnormally tame.

After returning from the dwarven settlement, Black had become strangely quiet. Its situation had become similar to Ying’s previous situation. It would just fall asleep from time to time.

“Is it normal to go to sleep before advancing into a new tier?”

After grumbling slightly, Joshua went deep in thought.

To awaken the bloodline of a warhorse was a problem commonly discussed among knights in his previous life. There was no doubt that it would require special ingredients and potions for it. Even though Joshua did not know about potions and alchemy, however, as a warrior who always rode on the back of horses, he just happened to know about such potion and the method of making it.

Although some of the ingredients were extremely precious, there were many merchants who had recently contacted him in the territory. Hence, it became relatively simple to attempt gathering the required raw ingredients together.

Ling carried on briefing Joshua about the events around his own territory. As Joshua was listening, he would also occasionally give some instructions to Ling. Meanwhile, the young male Divine Armament wrote down the instructions in a small notebook. He was writing them down seriously.

Unconsciously, the number of people around him has increased. Meanwhile, the workload had become much easier to bear.

After watching Ling finished reporting to him and walking back into the mansion along with the small notebook in his hand, Joshua smiled while looking at Ling’s figure walking away. Then he nodded appreciatively. He could not help but sigh a little, “It feels good… Divine Armaments. Regardless of whether it is battles or handling chores, they are really great assistants.”

With the help of Ling and Ying, Joshua had currently rid himself of most of his official duties. For almost a month, Joshua basically kept on training himself intensely. He also focused on training his knights and the city guards.

With his current advancement into the pinnacle of Upper Golden tier, the most important thing now was no longer increasing the power of his Combat Aura, or strengthening his body. Instead, he should be focusing on understanding how to control those powers that he had in a much smoother manner.

If he could perfectly grasp every trace of the power in his current state, then he would not have to strain too much like he did last time when he unleashed his full power.

He was currently Level 48. He would require an enormous sum of Experience Points if he ever wanted to reach Level 50 and cross into the realm of Supreme Tier. So before he could find an Experience source that could provide him that much of Experience Points, he still had plenty of time to spare. Well, that amount of time should allow him to completely master the powerful strength he now obtained.

Glancing at the knights before him, Joshua noticed that some of them had potential. So he decided to bestow them the knowledge of using ‘Steel Armor Kokyu-ho’ and ‘Rock Drake Kokyu-ho’. One of these two skills was to enhance the toughness of one’s body and strength, while the other was to enhance one’s instant surge in power and endurance. Both of these skills could be obtained through extra trainings. However, Joshua believed that these knights’ Gift would not be so advanced for them to learn both at the same time.

Sometimes, the gains from these extra trainings would not necessarily compare to focusing on training one specialized skill. Once their strength could improve, their endurance would also improve. After their endurance and strength improved, their power levels would surely advance further. Hence, it seemed that it would be wiser to focus on training one specialized skill than having extra trainings to learn two skills within the same period of time. In other words, it would be much better to specialize in one skill to strengthen the power level instead of learning two skills to be used interchangeably.

The air in early spring was still very cold. However, there were more than thirty knights doing training exercises in the middle of the training field as they were soaking wet from their own sweat. They were not doing any high-intensity training. Instead, they were just standing on the ground, breathing in a strange pace. Along with every breath, air flowed into their lungs, vibrating across their bodies, muscles, blood, guiding the energy of their Combat Aura hidden deep within their bodies, directing that energy out to enhance their bones and internal organs.

“Men find the source of magic power and Combat Aura from the laws of nature, and use them as a source to grow stronger one step after another. Logic and wisdom support the strength of humans. Hence, the power is deep-rooted, not just some rootless duckweeds. In the meantime, the power will also create a new order and maintain it. Hence, if you want to break through the limits of your human body, getting another step ahead, you will need to read more, understand the world’s knowledge, and use the knowledge as a source to strengthen your beliefs. Having a foundation without beliefs, the Combat Aura in your bodies will only be as good as stones, as charcoal. They will not burn; they will not emit stronger power.”

As he was monitoring the knights training hard, Joshua would give his advice and guidance occasionally. Well, what he said were true. They were indeed the truths of this world. Without knowledge, one would not understand the meaning of the ‘Respiration’. Because of that, the person would not understand the origin and causes of the existence of Combat Aura. Without all that, the person would never even think of understanding Glorious Strength that originated from deep within a soul. Without the basics and the knowledge, these knights would not even correct themselves in their own battle methods. So they could only rely on studying and training.

Most of the knights that were present had never really read a book before. Other than their own names, they could not even recognize the simplest words—Well, becoming a knight did not require them to have literacy. However, to become a powerful warrior, one must understand the principles and Order of this world. In order to prevent his own people from becoming illiterate in the future, Joshua had also specially invited several scholars, teachers over to educate these knights and warriors of his territory.

“Of course, what I said just now are for the those who have already reached the pinnacle of the Silver tier—you guys are not even close to that yet! So focus on strengthening your body and the power of your bodies first! Today, the target of the final training will be running three rounds over the entire main city! Begin now! After you’re done with the training, you’re going to be attending cultural classes. No absentees!”

After looking at the time, thinking that it was almost time, Joshua decided to dismiss the knights from their ‘Kokyu-ho’ training after seeing the despairing eyes of the knights.

He quickly changed into a new set of clothes and prepared to get back to his mansion.

According to the craftsmen, on the day after tomorrow, the reconstruction of the new Lord’s Mansion in the middle of the city would finally be completed. The renovations for the interior of the mansion were complete. Currently, there were only some minor problems on the detailing of decorating the mansion, for instance, such as dusting and varnishing the wood.

Back at the temporary mansion, Joshua had received another new news from another servant.

The fruit of the Tree of Life had been delivered there.