Volume 1-Chapter 2- Engagement annulled

In the end Maxwell was forbidden from leaving their residence and meeting Orphelia for a month as a punishment.

Maxwell sat cross-legged with sweat dripping down his body while he absorbed qi from his vicinity to breakthrough to the first stage of Qi Condensation. He finally filled his dantian but suddenly all the qi dispersed into his body, seemingly disappearing.

'Huh, the qi was absorbed by my body instead of me breaking through?'

Maxwell examined his body carefully for any problems and changes only to find nothing. He then restarted his meditation and absorbed more qi, after 3 days of meditation he filled his dantian once again only for the qi to disappear once more. Confused and slightly annoyed now Maxwell went to his parents and told them what happened.

"What? Your qi disappeared into your body when you were about to breakthrough?"

His father and mother exchanged perplexed looks before his mother examined his body.

"Your body and dantian seems to be perfectly fine."

"I haven't heard of anything like this ever happening before."

Disappointed at the answer, Maxwell ran to the library and started reading through various books related to the Qi Condensation realm.

'Nothing in this book either. I should try to breakthrough again with the help of pills now.'

After another failed attempt Maxwell decided to train with his spear to clear his head. He then did various exercises to train his body. By the time he was done the sun had started to set so he ate a quick dinner before heading to his room to continue cultivation.

Like that days passed before it became weeks and he was finally allowed to go out. He had failed to breakthrough, but he had learnt a lot from the hundreds of books he had read.

'Sigh… no progress, I should go back to the pond and try to cultivate there.'

In that 1 month he had checked all he got from the ruins and found a seed that he learnt would grow into a spiritual fruit tree that would produce a lightning element fruit. The book was not detailed enough for him to learn the rank or type of fruit, but it informed that it grew in areas where there had been or still is a lot of lightning.

"Mom! I'm going into the forest to cultivate!" Maxwell yelled out to his mother before racing into the forest.

"Don't get hurt again Max." His mother shouted back as he entered the forest.

On reaching the pond Maxwell realized that the water had turned into diluted lightning qi in liquid form.

'WHAT! If I sold bottles of it, I would get a lot of money due to the rarity of lightning qi'

He then noticed Orphelia cultivating so he decided to join her. Surprisingly he took only 5 hours to fill his dantian this time but in the end, he failed to breakthrough once more.

He opened his eyes to see Orphelia staring at him.

"Hello Orphie."

"Hello Max. Why have you not broken through? You haven't been slacking off have you?"

Maxwell quickly explained what happened and Orphelia listened, her expressions filled with guilt. On seeing her face Maxwell quickly stated that he did not blame her, and she should not feel guilty.

"But-"

"It's not your fault, if you feel you need to make it up to me so much then treat me to a meal at The Golden Lotus."

"Okay I'll do that. Come let's go before it gets too late."

"Wait, first I'm going to plant this seed we got."

They planted the seed next to the pond and then Orphelia put a strong concealing formation around the area to prevent intruders.

"Woah that formation looks quite strong. What level is that?"

"It's a high-grade rank 3 Warding formation. It makes people and Magical beasts less likely to come here and inside it there's a rank 4 low grade Bronze Bell Protective formation."

"Cool! Where did you get those?"

"I used the formation plates I found in the spatial ring."

"Oh, right we had those."

They headed to the center of their town to The Golden Lotus. It was a 3 storied building that was in a prime location near all the stores only the wealthy could shop at. At the entrance there were two guards at the fourth stage of foundation establishment realm.

"Show your card." One of the guards said in a gruff voice.

Orphelia took out a silver card and showed it and the guards let them in. The silver card allowed them to go to the second floor of the beautifully decorated restaurant and it costed 50 silver just to get a bronze card that would get one access to the first floor. The second floor served higher grade magical beast dishes than the first floor and it costed 1 gold for a silver card to enter it.

Maxwell and Orphelia were greeted by a few people their age who were familiar with their reputation as geniuses. Maxwell and Orphelia chose a table in a quiet area before ordering extravagantly.

After 15 minutes numerous delightful smelling dishes arrived, most containing magical beast meat that increased the qi in a person's body slightly. Orphelia's and Maxwell's mouths watered at the site of the meal. As soon as the food was served they devoured everything, contrary to their small sizes they ate a lot.

"Delicious!" They were extremely satisfied with the meal and asked for the bill. Not so surprisingly it costed a lot.

"10 Gold! Wow you ate a lot Maxwell."

"Well you said you were paying."

Muttering under his breath Maxwell said, "I wonder how you are not fat with such an appetite."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

Sighing, Orphelia took out a mortal spirit stone to the amazement of the waiter. Once they left the restaurant they walked through the brightly lit streets and browsed the wares.

"Oooh, that's a beautiful jade bracelet." Orphelia picked up a purple jade bracelet that looked like a galaxy.

'That seems to contain a trace of profound natural space qi. It would be excellent to advance space element cultivation. Sadly, it's useless to me.' Orphelia's keen eyes noticed something that even someone in martial king realm wouldn't notice until unless they had space affinity.

"Alas, I'm out of money." She sighed sadly before putting it down.

Maxwell quickly bought it for 20 silver while Orphelia walked ahead.

'This will be a good gift for her birthday.'

Orphelia headed towards her house while Maxwell returned to the pond to practice his spear techniques.

'Oh, I comprehended spear essence beginner stage. That dream had more profound spear intent and once I comprehend what I saw fully I should reach at least spear heart level.'

After being hit by the tribulation Maxwell dreamt of a devastating war where even the weakest soldier possessed an incomprehensibly high cultivation realm. He saw himself use spear intent and managed to comprehend barely one billionth of what was shown in the one month of practice he had done.

He continued to train for 4 months, cultivating while taking breaks and then training with his spear to the point it fell apart. He even built a small cultivation hut. Orphelia would frequently come to cultivate there too and scolded him after seeing him strain his body so far. Even after he pushed his body to peak his body seemed to handle it way better than it should have.

One day in the middle of Maxwell's training Orphelia came with two sets of news and some food for Maxwell that was worlds better than whatever he tried to make. The first that he was going to have a sibling in 7 months and that Orphelia was invited to a sect, Immortal Sword Sect because of her sword constitution and had become a Core Elder's disciple. Finally, Orphelia said something that shocked Maxwell.

"Our engagement has been dissolved."

"Wha-"

'This is just like what happened to me in that dream.'

"My master made both of our parents dissolve it because he did not want me to be engaged to someone who could not cultivate."

"What how does she know?"

"Someone spread the news of that 2 weeks ago."

'Oh well it was going to happen one day or another.'

"I will be leaving for the sect tomorrow, I won't be able to return often."

Orphelia left while Maxwell had various conflicting feelings and thoughts.

'Will she bully me like in my dream? She isn't the type to do that. But what if she changes after staying in the sect, it's one of the top 3 sect in the Azure Dragon Empire.'

'There's no point in being stressed about the future, I should just continue cultivation.'

"I should complete Orphelia's gift quickly then."

Maxwell had realized he would not be able to breakthrough conventionally, so he would collect a lot of qi in his dantian and slowly improve his spatial storage creation skills. Making Spatial Storage required a lot of qi, so he could barely make a cubic meter space even after using a mortal spirit stone. He planned to make a mystic rank high grade spatial storage in the bracelet he had bought for Orphelia a while ago using five earth grade Spirit stones. A high-grade spatial storage was one that could have any kind of lock on it, unlike low and medium grade that were restricted to one type of lock.

He brought out five earth grade spirit stones and lay them in front of him and broke them with one hand then he slowly created a highly unstable formation in the air before wrapping it around the bracelet. It was a rather crude method, but he could only directly make the formation once he had divine sense. As soon as he lay the formation a black glow came from the bracelet and Maxwell suddenly entered a state of comprehension.

"That was not supposed to happen. Why did my space element cultivation increase? I'm now almost at rank 1."

'Could it be the bracelet is made of space element ore?'

When Maxwell checked the size of the storage he realized it was much larger than a normal mystic rank storage, it was 30 cubic meters in size three times the norm.

'That confirms my suspicions, it is a space element ore bracelet. What a great deal for me.'

He then went home after 4 months of training.

"Mom! I'm back!"

His mother hugged him, and he quickly asked.

"Is it true? I'm getting a sibling?"

"Yes, it is. You will become a big brother. You must take good care of your younger sister."

"Of course, I will. I won't let anybody touch her."

"Also, mom, where's dad?"

"He's out for work."

He then had a lavish meal with his mother while he talked about his progress. He then showed her the bracelet he had turned into a spatial storage.

"Wow, that's an excellent storage. I'm very proud of you. A rank 5 formation master at 5 years old."

She then brought out a contract that was the marriage agreement for him and Orphelia.

"Why do you still have that? I thought it was annulled."

"Orphelia's teacher came to a compromise since Orphelia was against it and made us put a condition that if you reached Core formation realm or could defeat a Core formation expert in a fair fight before you turn 16 years old you would remain her fiancé."

"Oh."

'This was not how I expected it to go. Does she need something from me that she insists on keeping the marriage contract?'

"Max, you got yourself a good wife, didn't you?"

Maxwell started blushing after his mother teased him.

"What if she wants something from our family?"

"There is a possibility but it's very low."

'There's no point in the Chevaliers trying to get that token from us and Orphelia wouldn't be knowing anything about it.'

His mother then said, "I'll take you to the Chevalier residence to bid goodbye to Orphelia tomorrow. You can give her the gift then."