It would still take quite a while until Theodore's plan could be put into practice, as he currently didn't have access to another state of a Han Empire to make use of. Naturally, all regular people would have to be evacuated from there, too, so that only the Imperial Han Family was left. If this opportunity had presented itself prior to Theodore's Soul Fusion with John, then the old him wouldn't have even considered letting off any singular living being–all of them merely existed to benefit himself.
Some time later, he and Kjartan had already put a preliminary plan together. For the foreseeable future, this newest Follower of them all would regain access to all of his Fly Slaves, using them to support Theodore's endeavours wherever he could. Any one of them could be utilized to interact with him, should the need arise. Of course, Satoru's training would be left to him as well, sure to rise in efficiency as a result of him now having the ability to properly control his minions again.
After Theodore had introduced him to the rest of his people rather quickly, he soon excused himself, because he still had an important matter to deal with at this time. It was something that he had been looking forward to ever since the Heavenly Succession had begun: To incorporate Energy Veins into his body!
Returning to his usual cultivation spot, he chose to begin very carefully, just to get a good feel for how to proceed. Retrieving one of the Energy Veins which he had been collecting, he held the less than a hair thin strand in his hands, pondering over where to start for a moment. Making his choice, he settled on a meridian in one of his fingers.
Some of the body's pores directly connected to the meridian network spread all throughout it, therefore he simply had to locate the closest one and squeeze the Energy Vein straight through. In his current state, controlling every single pore on his body wasn't too difficult, so this initial hurdle didn't pose an issue. Still, his pores weren't exactly deliberately designed to facilitate the passage of these thin strands, so it caused him to feel slight amounts of discomfort, which he naturally chose to ignore.
Right after the Energy Vein arrived inside of his meridians, though, the expected problems began. Due to the vast amount of Energy that even a singular Energy Vein was exuding at every single point in time, in its shrunken state, the concentration of Energy around it was extremely terrifying–far higher than what most physical vessels could bear.
Fortunately, due to his high Endurance Attribute, despite feeling the staggering volume of Energy flooding his meridians, he could easily resist the onslaught without any issue whatsoever. Because he didn't want to break through to the Energy Refinement Stage yet, he then expelled the surplus Energy into his surroundings, slightly increasing the ambient concentration of it as a result.
There were still many steps to take before he could confidently say that the first strand had been properly situated, though. Making use of a minuscule part of his Compound Array, he utilized it to manoeuvre the Energy Vein, bringing it close to a specific spot at his meridians' walls. He had long since planned out the exact placements and positioning for them all, as well as the weaving strategy which he would employ.
Pricking the selected meridian's wall with the thin strand in a manner akin to piercing it with a needle, he forcefully sewed it into it. The hardest part of it all was to consciously suppress his recovery abilities enough to not trigger too quickly and instantly heal this wound. But because he had already attempted to do so at an earlier point in time and had eventually figured out a good way to achieve the results he wanted, this didn't prove to be all too difficult.
Within a matter of minutes, a singular Energy Vein had been mixed into his meridians' walls. Taking a few moments to ponder over where and how to improve, he soon grabbed another one, weaving it together with the first one he had incorporated into himself.
Thus, a few hours flew by. To prepare for this day, he had learned how to weave in a few of his illusory lives, therefore this part at least was second nature to him. However, actively suppressing his self-healing capabilities managed to drain his mind a bit. He had done little more today than replace the walls of a single one of his meridians with intricately woven Energy Veins, yet that alone had significantly exhausted him.
'... not bad for around two hours of work. Would you mind adding the exact extent of my progress to my Status Panel, dear Heavenly Dao? Thanks.'
Of course, requests like this would normally be fulfilled without an issue–there was no need to go out of his way to be nice either. Still, why should he be rude to the Heavenly Dao? Not only would that be an incredibly stupid thing to do, but he also felt quite positively about it. Most likely, this was due to the John part of himself. Having endured a World's Will which was outright hostile to him, to experience the opposite left him feeling very much satisfied and comfortable.
[ Cultivation ]
[ Stage: Body Refinement ]
[ Realm: 580,551st Realm ]
[ Technique: Theodore Winter's Unique Technique (Unnamed) ]
[ Energy Vein Incorporation: • Meridian Wall Replacement: 0.01% ]
'If I continue at this speed, then it'll take me around 20,000 hours to achieve my goal.'
Calmly analysing the information that he had been shown, he nodded to himself. He was confident that he could reduce the amount of time taken by at least half via further improving his methods, as well as growing more used to what he was doing. There was also the possibility of incorporating multiple Energy Veins into himself at the same time, yet that would have to wait until he was far more proficient at this.
'In any case, I'll have to gather a lot more Energy Veins. The ones that I have on hand right now are barely enough to complete a third of my meridians' transformation. I guess that means I'll be considerably busy.'
For now, he would spend his days cleansing cities and gathering their Energy Veins. The faster he was and the less Hans there were at the places he chose, the more locations he could plunder from. Afterwards, he would spend six hours per day on weaving these thin strands into himself, then resume his cultivation. Occasionally, he would also relax with his lovers.
'Fortunately, cultivating can fully relieve me of my exhaustion. I can't afford to fall behind too much, so I'd better get more Body Refinement Stage realms under my belt. Let's aim for a very conservative five million before breaking through to the Energy Refinement Stage.'
Technically speaking, he could go orders of magnitude further than that, but eventually, he had to continue pushing onward. He also suspected that there might actually be a certain limit to how much one could benefit from one's Body Refinement Stage gains throughout the rest of one's cultivation journey. In all likelihood, he would already be overshooting that one by a large margin if he truly reached the five millionth realm.
Emptying his mind of any distracting thoughts, Theodore carefully felt the differences that a single meridian's worth of Energy Vein Incorporation had brought to him. For now, due to his terrifyingly high Endurance, the constantly surging Energy within his finger did not have any lasting impacts, yet it felt as if his flesh and bones still absorbed a part of it. Likely, this would make progressing in the Body Refinement Stage a lot easier.
After a while, he furrowed his brows, then heaved a helpless sigh. He simply couldn't tell how else he was being influenced just yet. Due to not technically having fully stepped on the path of cultivation since he had been reset to zero, despite his senses having returned to a state close to normal, when it came to manipulating and understanding the Energy within him, he was completely handicapped.
'Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it at the moment. I'll simply pay closer attention to my exact cultivation progress later on when it's time to kick it off properly. I'm certain I'll unearth quite a few unprecedented details by then.'
Having no choice but to be satisfied with this for now, he rose to his feet and stretched comfortably, then he left to join the others at dinner. A hearty meal later, he wrapped his arms around the waists of Xie Mei and Han Junqiao, then teleported the three of them to a bedroom they had prepared for themselves. Ever since some men had become his Subordinates, the proper Arrays had naturally been put in place, ensuring their privacy.
That night, they indulged in each other as much as they could, and made up for around three weeks of lost time.
Once the first rays of sunlight peeked through the windows and tenderly caressed their cheeks, the two girls had only just fallen into a deep, exhaustion-induced slumber again. If one ignored their dishevelled states and solely focused on the bright, happy smiles on their lips, then they painted a breathtakingly beautiful picture.
Gently planting a few kisses on their faces, Theodore carefully avoided waking them up, then took a quick bath before getting dressed properly again. With renewed vigor, he was ready to welcome the days to come.
This time, the number of cities he, Vigdis and Cheong Suhyeon visited amounted to twelve, because most of them were already pretty much empty, aside from the regular civilians. Both he and the fledgling goddess were all smiles while they picked up all that they needed for practically free, whilst his trusty right-hand woman packed everything of value or use to them into their Storage Rings.
An afternoon of Energy Vein Incorporation flew by before he knew it. Whilst his speed had ever so slightly increased, with his progress going from 0.01 to 0.021 percent, that could honestly not yet be considered to be too impressive. But eventually, he would get there. He had nothing if not time and patience, after all–there was no rush.
Just like he had anticipated, when he finally got around to cultivating again, due to the Energy Veins' influence, his rate of progress had increased from a little more than 500 realms per hour, to approximately 700 in the same time period! This number would only further increase in the future, as he slowly replaced the walls of his meridians.
'Maybe, I don't have to settle for a meagre five million? Although I will barely benefit from it the further I go beyond what I suspect to be the absolute limit, it would be a bit of a shame to not even attempt to go as far as I possibly can. Without using any more Attribute Points to raise my Endurance, that is.'
Feeling his heartbeat quicken at how much of a difference merely this slight incorporation of Energy Veins had made when it came to his Body Refinement Stage cultivation speed, he couldn't help but yearn for much greater heights.
'... I'm sorry, Faavi. It looks like it'll take a while longer until I'll be able to use you.'
His heartfelt apology was met with the impression of an understanding, warm and joyful smile.
'It's okay, Theo! Just being here with you is enough to make me happy. And now there are so many people that I can talk to, too!'
The last hints of guilt that he had felt for his arguably deranged decision dissipating, the corners of his mouth rose a little higher.
Seven hours later, his Body Refinement Stage cultivation had progressed to the 587,603rd realm. His coming days would soon begin to settle into a routine again, yet there was still one development which he was awaiting patiently: For Han Junqiao to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm.