The Empire (Gifting Cultivation Techniques)

(Orario, Room of Prayer)

"Fels," the god on the throne called out. "What have you discovered on the previous event?"

"Ouranos-sama, I have come to learn that the monster was similar to the Behemoth which the Zeus and Hera Familias defeated. It had a hole through its throat. If I were to guess, it was slain by some type of… magic."

Ouranos slightly frowned. "You sound unsure."

"Yes… because the magic was not refined like normal magic is, the residue was magic in its pure form — the elemental form. Therefore, I am not sure if we can call it… magic. It seemed several times more advanced and effective than any magic I've seen."

"…Interesting. I would like you to keep an eye out in case something similar is discovered."

"I understand, Ouranos-sama. There is one more thing. While it may be relevant to this monster's killer, there is no clear evidence that points towards it."

"Yes? What is it?"

"While I was investigating the probable cause of death for the monster, I came across some information about a shared ally between Rakia and Telskyura. The merchants have been passing his name around all over."

"And what would this name be?"

"Ambrose."

"Quite unique… and why do you believe he may be related to this event?"

"Because this person is an… abnormality. I have not met him myself, but he is said to have defeated the Level 6 Kalif sisters in a two vs one battle in hand-to-hand combat, as well as have the ability to forge magic weapons surpassing those of the Crozzo Ancestor."

Ouranos' eyes narrowed at the last part. "Are you sure?

"Unfortunately, yes. It was publicized all over Rakia. Moreover… this Ambrose does not allow the swords to be used for anything but killing monsters."

Ouranos scoffed. "It is impossible to control the Rakians from using those magic swords against the elves again. If what you've said about those swords being more powerful than their predecessor is true, than we must alert the elves."

"Excuse me, Ouranos-sama, but I must disagree. They revere and fear this person at the same time, they would not risk their alliance over such a matter. During my visit, I could clearly see that he most likely warned them to not use it against anything but monsters, and from what I've observed, they plan to obey his wishes."

"…" Ouranos went silent after Fels' disagreement. "Stay alert, Fels. Tell me when you have any new information on this self-proclaimed 'Immortal'."

Fels gave a short bow and disappeared back to the shadows.

"…Ambrose… let's see if you live up to your title."

...

(Gekai, the Empire)

The trio had finally arrived at the Empire after a month.

They had spent half a month during their travels in total and had stayed in the Far East for another half a month. Phoe had once again left them to fly around. She told him that they'd meet once again in Altena, but it almost felt like she was just giving the three of them some space and time so that Bell could get laid… That's what grandpa had told him in his mind at least. Bell had planned to spend more time in the Far East, but Ares had sent him news about a war with the Empire and had requested his help to stop it.

Yes. To stop a war. With the Empire.

The country only second to Orario when it comes to power.

The country with tens of high-level people and multiple Level 6 mercenaries, adventurers, and commanding officers in their ranks.

So, Bell's week had been full of headaches planning how to stop the Empire from going to war against Rakia. He had picked the simplest option.

Scare them off. And if that didn't work… beat some sense into them.

Of course, not everything was as boring as planning to fight the Empire; there was some excitement in Bell's life as well. For example, he had glimpsed into the Dao of Time and had reached the beginning realm at it. Moreover, he had been preparing a surprise for Argana and Bache.

The two sisters sparred with him for several hours every other day; whenever he wasn't cultivating, being cuddled in bed, or teaching Bache Koine, he had been working on creating cultivation techniques for the two.

He had considered what kind of strength cultivation would give to someone who already had Falna, and he had come up with a straightforward answer: The cultivation would not add a Level, but rather make it as if there were two people.

For example, someone who was a Level 6 and had the cultivation of a Level 3 would not equal a Level 9, but rather a Level 6 and a Level 3 together. Therefore, unless the cultivation was equal to or almost at the Falna Level, it wouldn't make too much difference.

However, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, even the slightest boost might change the outcome of a battle.

By the time they would leave the Empire, Bell was hoping to have perfected the unique techniques.

"So, remind me why we're about to break into the Empire's Royal Palace?" Bache had significantly improved her Koine in the past month and was able to speak much more fluently. She was still quite bad at writing but that was most likely because Bell had no education whatsoever and just relied on hero stories (and hero stories are usually made for kids…they don't really always have the highest standards when it comes to vocabulary and grammar).

"Yeah, why are we breaking in?" Argana repeated.

"…Because… umm… I don't really do plans?" Bell said shyly. The two gave him skeptic looks. "Hey! I'm not lying. Whenever I make a good battle plan, it falls apart into pieces! It's almost like my plans exist just to go wrong!"

"Really? Then did you not plan on allying yourself with Rakia and Telskyura?"

"No? My only plan was to find strong opponents. The rest just… happened. I guess."

"…" The two sisters shared a look of amusement at how lucky Bell was to get so many allies with zero effort.

"Okay then, let's catch ourselves an emperor!" Bell was way too excited about kidnapping royalty for the first time in his life.

"…We aren't going fishing, Bell," Bache muttered.

...

About an Hour and a Quarter Later

(The Empire, The Royal Palace)

Soldiers were running down the hallways, officers were shouting out orders, and the seven Level 6 commanders and adventurers who had gathered in the palace were as calm as fish on land. Exactly. They were not calm at all. Who could blame them? Their emperor had been kidnapped right in front of their noses. Literally! They had just looked away for a few seconds, and by the time they had turned around, the emperor had disappeared.

They were only a few steps away from the emperor when the ceiling had crashed in behind them, and they had immediately gotten into defensive positions in front of him. When they saw nothing but wreckage, they had turned back towards the emperor to check on his safety, and he was gone.

Now, the seven of them were frantically trying to come up with a solution. The only problem was that they had not even seen the person who kidnapped the emperor, so they couldn't even think of how to proceed. They had already ordered the soldiers to man their stations and barricade the palace. They went as far as blocking off all entrance and exit to the whole capital city, but there was still no sign of the emperor or his captor after almost an hour of searching.

They were in deep trouble.

Then right when the seven were in the middle of a heated argument on their next course of action, the emperor just… re-appeared.

...

At the Same Time

(The Empire, 37 Kilomeders Away from the Capital)

"Well, looks like that was enough to scare him off!" Bell would definitely be skipping from joy if he wasn't already flying.

The two women were still baffled by how the boy had persuaded the emperor to not attack Rakia.

Long story short, he went in, took the emperor, teleported out to a mountain range they had passed over somewhere in the Empire, requested the emperor to change his decision on attacking Rakia, received an unsatisfactory answer, deleted the mountain range from existence by inputting most of his stored Qi into swinging Null, requested the emperor to change his decision once again, received a satisfactory answer, and then finally teleported the emperor back to the palace. Perfect plan, right?

Well, not so much. Since it wasn't a plan in the first place. Bell had just improvised the whole thing as he did it.

That was what truly baffled the two women. There was no plan, but the way he did it almost made it look like he had been planning it for years! On top of all that, he was only 13 years old! He wasn't a scheming god *Cough* Hermes *Cough* or a strategic mastermind, but he had done it so easily!

Argana sighed. 'I really should stop underestimating him… He's not just good at making allies with zero effort, he's also good at making enemies. Though… I don't think the Empire will ever actually want to become his enemy after witnessing that…'

...

About Two Months Later

(Rakia, Bell's Mansion)

"Coming!" Bache and Argana yelled at the same time…

'Hmm… I should probably find a way to communicate without shouting, maybe create a new Dao or something? Dao of Language? Dao of Communication? Meh. I'll figure it out later, I got more important things to do.' Bell had just called the two to come upstairs because he wanted to give them something (get your heads out of the gutters please; that stuff is for the next chapter).

It had almost been two months since the Empire had revoked their declaration of war. During this time, they sparred and destroyed monster nests in the Empire without restrictions. They also teleported back to Rakia each night to stay in Bell's mansion.

Bell had reached the Qi cultivation of an advanced Level 6, and the body cultivation of a peak Level 6. Moreover, he had finally perfected the two unique cultivation arts he had created for the Kalif sisters. He was proud of his finished work, and luckily, it was also the twins' birthday.

He had decided to give them the cultivation techniques today so that they could start cultivating before they traveled to Altena to rejoin Phoe.

"Did something happen, Bell?" Argana was the first one to enter Bell's bedroom, and she was followed by Bache soon afterwards.

"Well…" Bell reached out and the two books he had created were pulled out from his storage space. "Happy Birthday to both of you!"

"…?" The sisters just stared at the books for a while, until Bache decided to break the silence. "Umm... what is this?"

"Oh. Right, I should explain. Hehe. I saw how amazed you two were when you first heard about immortal cultivation, so I've been working on this little project for a while. I made cultivation techniques that only the two of you can practice. So, if you choose to accept this gift, you can basically become immortal cultivators like me."

"…" They looked at Bell, then to the books, then to Bell again, and to the books again… "No joke?"

"Nope! It's real!"

They once again repeated the same pattern. However, rather than ask another question, this time they hugged him. He could almost feel his ribs cracking even though his body was so strong. He just took it as them being grateful.

"Would you two like to form your Dantians today?" Bell whimpered, still being bear hugged to death by the two Level 6 Amazoness.

They finally broke out of the hug and shared a look with each other. "Yes!"

...

Four Hours Later

"So, how does it feel to be an immortal cultivator?"

"Wow. Just wow. Never would I have though that this… Qi, was it?" Bell nodded. "Yeah, I never thought this Qi had been all around us like this. It feels like I can almost touch l it when cultivating… it feels nice." Argana stated.

Bache nodded in agreement. "Yes."

"Well, that's good to know. Also, you will be able to live much much longer than others now, and as I've already explained, the power gain isn't exactly an addition of Levels."

They nodded their acknowledgment.

"Alright then, it's quite late, so I'll just leave the two of you to cultivate. Cultivators don't really need to sleep, eat, or drink water as much since meditating and absorbing Qi is basically sleep and food for me." Bell turned around and started walking towards his bedroom since they had moved over to the living room earlier.

Bache and Argana shared one final look with each other, nodded, and their small grins quickly turned into full-blown smiles. "Wait!" They shouted at him at the same time.

"Yea-!? EEEPP!?" Bell didn't have time to finish his question before the two had each grabbed hold of one hand and started dragging him towards his bedroom.