Not bothering with blindly searching the area for any signs of where the Beast Lord might have gone, Theodore brought Kiran to Qinglong City. It wasn't necessary for him to eliminate this enemy of his right now, as he could simply catch him and all of his associates later in one fell swoop.
Already used to the party growing, their newest addition was met with a warm welcome, as more shoulders to carry the burdens would make life easier for all of them. The revelation of Kiran's extremely useful ability also brought about a lot of interest.
"Hey, does that mean we'll be able to chat with each other anytime we want?"
Her eyes shimmering with excitement, Xie Mei asked with an innocent smile on her lips. There would inevitably be times when they all were separated, therefore not feeling so lonely during those hours would be a real relief. If something important cropped up, the news could also be spread almost instantly.
"You're correct, Miss. However, I would recommend that if you have any more... private matters to discuss, you should request a separate 'channel' for it. I can remove my own viewing permissions from it, so that I won't accidentally see anything that I shouldn't."
Scratching his cheek nervously, Kiran put on a brave front and breached a topic that would no doubt flood his network otherwise. It wasn't difficult for him to see what kind of person Xie Mei was, as she made no attempt to hide it. Having been introduced as his Master's lover caused him to realize that it was inevitable that some intimate words would get exchanged between the couple.
"Ah, good thinking, Kirry! Then come on, come on! Add us already! I want to try it out."
Beaming brightly at the exciting new toy she would get to play with, Xie Mei was generous enough to give the provider of this new kind of entertainment a nickname of his own.
"Kirry? Uh, yes. Sure. I've sent it to all of you."
Smirking at the awkward yet smooth way in which the newbie had integrated himself into the group, Theodore stood at the side silently, soon seeing a notification pop up in front of him.
[ Kiran Arya has invited you to join his Telepathic Communication Network.
Will you accept this invitation? ]
Even the Heavenly Dao had no warnings to give when it came to a simple matter such as this, so naturally, he wouldn't hesitate in agreeing either.
Moments later, he was notified that he could decide in which way to receive and display the information from the network. Whether it be in the form of voices being projected straight into his mind, or that of Heavenly Dao notification-style pop-ups, or something else entirely–it was all up to him to decide. Not one to be particularly picky, he chose the 'default' option.
A still very bare-bones chat platform appeared in his field of view, causing him to fall silent in disbelief. Why did everything look so reminiscent of a certain communications application from John's old world? Was it simply that when 'technologies' aiming for the same goal became advanced enough, they would develop into a similar direction?
'... no use thinking about it now. I just hope I won't get swamped with messages day in and day out.'
Sighing to himself, he soon recalled a certain somewhat lonely Armament Spirit and asked Kiran to add her as well. That way, she would have more people to interact with other than solely him. Being quite busy, he could not possibly give her all of the attention that she deserved.
No sooner had another invitation been sent out that the only sporadically updating screen in front of him was overwhelmed by a deluge of messages. Like a child which had finally found an outlet for all of her energy, Faavi happily interacted with everyone else, engaging in plenty of meaningless small talk to her heart's content!
'... have fun.'
Holding back his urge to tell her not to overdo it, he chose to remain silent instead. As the one responsible for her boredom–considering he was currently still unable to manipulate Energy, and very far from actually doing so–he let her have this ray of sunlight in her life. Quickly, a separate channel for Faavi's particular brand of fatuous yet jovial chit-chat was established, removing it from Theodore's sight. Should he ever want to know what she was babbling on about, he could just select to view that particular channel.
At this moment when his group was still usually together most of the time, Kiran's Talent couldn't yet display its true potential. Only once the scope of those under his command expanded and not everyone could be reached instantly would it begin to rise to true prominence. For now, it was nothing more than a convenient, additional way to interact.
It was a bit of a shame that the Anti-Winter Alliance's members had all immediately exited the network once Kiran's escape had become common knowledge. Else, continuing to use it to surveil them with it would have proven useful–at least to some extent.
Over the coming days, the alliance's movements became even larger and more inconvenient to hide. Eventually, they chose to throw caution to the wind and openly marched on Qinglong City, their encirclement tightening the noose around their goal. They made sure to stay exactly outside of the range of Theodore's Arrays, not daring to take a single step inside of them.
Naturally, should he have chosen to put in merely a minute ounce of effort, he could have expanded his Arrays right then and there, enveloping the army inside. Yet, he didn't do so, as that would result in startling them prematurely.
That aside, the more time that they gave him to develop, the better it was for him. Numbers were meaningless when facing him, which they would no doubt discover once their confrontation began. All he would do is to wait patiently until they could no longer sit still, then respond to their attack.
Well, it wasn't entirely true that he was doing nothing to especially target them. In secret, he had teleported far outside of the range of his already-laid-out Arrays, then set up the most stealthy Surveillance Arrays which he had in store. Unless someone had a Talent specializing in detecting them, there was practically no chance for anyone to notice them.
But why hadn't he prepared these measure earlier? He could have, but he chose to busy himself with his cleansings and daily cultivation instead of spending close to half a day on this. Now that it would soon be necessary to have these Arrays laid out, however, he got to work.
Surprisingly, from the moment when the surrounding army exposed its tracks until its eventual assault on Qinglong City, it wasn't mere days that passed. Rather, it took a whole month! Perhaps it was because they were gathering their strength and advancing their cultivation stages, or maybe there was another reason–in any case, the tension, which the secretly observing Heaven's Chosen felt, persisted for all this time.
During these more than four weeks, Xie Mei had long since reached the pinnacle of the Nascent Soul Realm, only a single step away from breaking through into the Initial Ascension Stage. Yet, she chose to continually refine her Golden Cores instead of doing so. Having advanced side by side with her sister up until this point, she intended for things to stay the same in this regard.
Han Junqiao was currently deeply immersed in the Final Forging Realm, but not too far away from making it to the Nascent Soul Realm as well. She was already looking forward to Theodore's explanation of the next cultivation stage, which she and Xie Mei would get to listen to not too long from now.
Somewhat surprisingly, Vigdis had managed to break through to the second realm of the Dawning Numen Stage during this month. For someone of her background, this pace could be considered to be extremely rapid, and it had come as a bit of a shock to her as well. But naturally, she wouldn't complain about this development.
The only downside was that the time which she could spend outside of the subterranean base was getting shorter, as her passive Energy consumption was higher than what Qinglong City's Energy concentration could provide her with. If she managed to make it through a few more realms, then she could begin to incorporate some Energy Veins into her body, significantly mollifying this issue, if not outright resolving it.
Cheong Suhyeon and Navya made it all the way to the peak of the Initial Ascension Stage, with no obstacles in their way whatsoever. They could have chosen to break through further as well, but because they didn't know how long their advancement would take, they chose to postpone it until after the matter with the alliance was settled.
Satoru had begun to figure out the most efficient method of dealing the greatest damage to himself which he could endure. As a result, during this past month, his overall strength had skyrocketed! From the Faux Core Formation Stage's earlier realms, he had rushed forward all the way to the Faux Soul Sculpting Stage's Faux Incubation Realm. In other words, he had become dozens of times more powerful!
Conrad and Corinna had no issues reaching the Soul Sculpting Stage, yet they were still quite far from making it to the later realms of it. As for Kiran he 'only' made it to the Golden Core Realm. This couldn't be helped, however, as the 'Cultivation Genius' Talent was of too low of a grade in comparison to all of the exceptional freaks he was surrounded by.
Last but certainly not least, the ever-diligent Li Shuying was inching closer towards the third realm of the Body Refinement Stage, the Bone Refinement Realm. Her progress was slow and tedious, yet steady. Fortunately, even with her almost non-existent cultivation aptitude, her hard work and effort–as well as the Technique which Theodore had taught her–didn't let her down.
The man who had gathered all of these under his banner had not been idle in the slightest. Nay, he had not even got a single wink of sleep! With diligent cultivation taking up the majority of his days, only meals and the regular cleansings gave him a bit of variety.
Currently, his Body Refinement Stage cultivation had advanced all the way to the 580,551st realm. This allowed his pure physical Attributes to surpass those of a Named Family member at the Essence Cocoon Realm... which wasn't very impressive. Fortunately, he had plenty of Talents to rely upon, and trusty Subordinates to clear his way.
While his cultivation progress was painfully 'slow', his cleansings were certainly another story. Two weeks ago, he had even increased the number of locations visited each day to six! As a whole, during this past month, a staggering 164 cities were freed of their oppressors!
This naturally came with enough Attribute Points to make his Endurance increase to even more ridiculous heights. Last time that it was mentioned, it was around 1.77 billion. But today, it had become 8,768,175,625–or to put it another way, approximately 8.768 billion. While that was still a fair chunk away from his goal of 400 billion, the resilience it provided him with would allow him to easily withstand attacks from peak Initial Ascension Stage Named Family descendants.
'But it's not like I'll really need to do that. With my Near Miss and Absolute Reflection Talents in play, even if I stand still, nobody should be able to scratch me.'
Utterly unbothered by the fact that he could sense the vast armies all around Qinglong City getting ready to set off, he smiled confidently. The coming confrontation was like a delightful banquet, one which had been organized solely for him.
"Vigi, Yeonnie, and Navya. The three of you will follow me to the city walls."
During this initial period of relative weakness, he would leave it to the capable Followers and Retainers at his side to subdue all those who could hope to escape his grasp. Suddenly recalling something, he turned to face a bloody figure busying himself with training in a corner of the palace.
"Satoru, you too. A beating's waiting for you. But remember–don't kill anyone."