Chapter 103: A Quiet Week, A Growing Power

Just like that, another week slipped by.

Victor didn’t step outside for the entire week.

During the day, he devoted himself to cultivation and martial arts. He trained until his body was drenched in sweat, then rested only long enough to recover before continuing again.

At night, he stayed with Lane and practiced dual cultivation.

His cultivation improved at an astonishing pace.

By the end of the week, he had successfully broken through to the first layer of the Spiritual Adept Realm.

But cultivation wasn’t the only thing he had been working on.

Victor had spent the past several days studying and practicing a wide variety of martial arts. Some were simple. Others were complicated enough to leave ordinary cultivators struggling for months.

For Victor, however, they were different.

His comprehension was simply abnormal.

Once he understood the basic principles behind a technique, the rest came naturally. He didn’t need to spend countless hours memorizing every movement. His body seemed to understand what his mind had already grasped.

No matter how difficult the martial art was, Victor could learn it in a surprisingly short amount of time.

He would practice it once.

Then again.

And before long, the technique would begin to feel familiar.

The days slowly blended into one another.

Morning came with cultivation.

Afternoons passed with martial arts practice.

Night fell, and Victor would spend it with Lane.

There were no major disturbances.

No unexpected enemies appeared.

No urgent matters forced him to leave.

For an entire week, his life settled into a simple and peaceful rhythm.

And strangely enough, Victor found that he enjoyed it.

Every morning, he would wake up in Lane’s arms, her soft body pressed against his.

Her E-cup breasts pressed against his chest.

Her black hair spread across the pillow.

Her warm breath on his neck.

They would bathe together, sometimes with Skyla joining them, and then head to breakfast.

Anna was usually in her study.

Most of the time, she could be found sitting behind a wooden table covered with herbs, bottles, pill furnaces, and various ingredients. She spent hours refining pills, carefully controlling the spiritual mana within each batch.

Clara was almost always there with her.

She helped sort the herbs and prepare the ingredients. Sometimes, she would quietly watch Anna work. Other times, the two of them would talk about the different properties of the herbs they were using.

The study often smelled of medicine.

It was a strange scent.

Bitter, earthy, and sometimes almost sweet.

But after spending so much time there, Clara had grown used to it.

Rias, meanwhile, spent most of her time cultivating.

She was perhaps the most serious person in the household when it came to cultivation.

Whenever she had free time, she would sit down and meditate.

Her eyes would close.

Her breathing would slow.

Spiritual energy would gradually gather around her body.

She had only one goal in mind.

Breaking through to the next star.

Nothing seemed capable of shaking her determination.

Even when everyone else was relaxing, Rias could often be found cultivating somewhere quiet.

Victor had occasionally tried to convince her to rest.

It rarely worked.

Skyla and Lane were completely different.

The two of them had somehow turned cooking into a competition.

Every day, one of them would come up with something new.

A different soup.

A different seasoning.

A new way of preparing meat.

Sometimes even something Victor had never seen before.

The kitchen was usually filled with the smell of food and the sound of laughter.

And, more often than not, an argument would break out.

Not a serious one.

Just the kind that happened when two stubborn people were determined to prove themselves right.

"Young Master, try my soup today!"

Skyla would proudly place a bowl in front of Victor.

Before Victor could even pick up the spoon, Lane would immediately step forward.

"No, try mine first!"

She would push her own bowl toward him.

Skyla would glare at her.

"You always do that."

"Because yours isn’t as good."

"You haven’t even tasted it!"

"I don’t need to."

"You—"

Victor would sigh quietly.

It happened almost every time.

In the end, he would taste both soups.

Then he would look at the two girls waiting for his judgment.

Their eyes would be fixed on him.

Both of them were clearly expecting him to choose.

Victor had learned his lesson long ago.

He smiled.

"They’re both delicious."

Skyla’s expression would brighten.

Lane would smile as well.

Then the two of them would immediately start arguing again about whose soup Victor had liked more.

Victor could only shake his head.

He never understood how something as simple as soup could become such a serious matter.

Still, he enjoyed it.

More than he wanted to admit.

His own afternoons were usually spent in the garden.

That was where he practiced his martial arts.

The previous Victor had already been talented with a spear.

That foundation remained in his body and muscle memory.

With his enhanced comprehension, Victor adapted surprisingly quickly.

The basic movements that would have taken an ordinary cultivator months to understand came naturally to him.

He began with the Earth Shattering Palm.

It was a Peak Profound Tier combat skill.

The principle behind it was simple.

Gather spiritual mana into the palm.

Condense it.

Then release everything in a single explosive burst.

Simple to understand.

Not so simple to master.

Victor spent several days practicing the technique.

He studied every movement.

Every change in his wrist.

Every shift in his shoulder.

Every adjustment in the flow of spiritual mana.

Eventually, he stood before a large boulder in the garden.

He slowly raised his hand.

His eyes narrowed.

Spiritual mana gathered in his palm.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then—

Boom!

The palm struck the boulder.

The enormous rock trembled.

A crack appeared across its surface.

Then another.

Within seconds, the entire boulder collapsed.

Not into pieces.

Into dust.

Victor stared at the empty space where the boulder had been.

A faint smile appeared on his face.