9 Chapter 9 – Hiring an 'Assistant'

"Mom, what's Sol's cultivation rank?"

"I'm not sure, but I guess she is in the Meridian Awakening Stage. She probably awakened around 4-5 of her main meridians by now."

"How many meridians are there?"

"12 main ones, 8 minor ones, and 45 collateral ones."

'I guess this stage isn't a one-time thing but a long process.'

He thought to himself.

"I want Sol to be with me from now on."

His mom raised her eyebrows playfully.

"Does little Ken like to play around with girls?"

She said half-jokingly, not expecting her son to understand the joke. He rolled his eyes at his mother's nonsense and cleared the misunderstanding.

"I had fun playing with her and she did whatever I said. I like the way she reads the books too."

"Oh, so he just relates her with his new hobby. It almost felt possible that my joke was the reality with how fast he grows!"

She was having a monologue with herself, and Ken had to remind her of his request.

"So, is that ok?"

"I will ask for her opinion. If she agrees, then sure."

"Tell her to come at least once before she decides."

'She didn't even think to question if it meant I understood everything else when I asked her to tell me the meaning of the 'x' letter. She must be a bit dumb and doesn't overthink much. If I understand her character correctly, she'd be a great servant until I grow up and don't need a grown-up as my representative.'

"Mommy, can you give me a good pill for someone in the Meridian Awakening Stage? I want to give it as a gift for Sol to convince her to stay with me."

"Haha, who taught you to be cunning enough to bribe?"

She tweaked his nose and laughed.

"All right, you can trust Mommy!"

She was enjoying his attention those past few days and planned to tell her husband about it when he returns from his mission that evening. However, she needed Ken to still be on her side for that to happen, so she chose to grant him his wishes if they weren't overboard for now.

Two days later, Ken heard hesitant steps in the backyard. He jumped and looked outside the window, and saw it was Sol as expected. After his brain had been strengthened, he could easily hear her muttering to herself.

"Was I wrong in coming here? This baby is scary. Maybe I should decline? But the salary is better than running errands in the alchemy building."

She was pacing back and forth in front of the entrance and couldn't make up her mind.

"Well, since I'm here, I can try it out today and decide later."

She knocked on the door and his mom opened it. She obviously heard her too but chose to remain silent about it and let Sol make her choice. Although she was kind of upset with Sol calling her son 'scary'. He was the cutest in the world!

"Ken, your new friend arrived!"

Mei called him and he toddled out of the room toward Sol.

"Sol, I brought you a gift because I had so much fun with you!"

He said with a bright smile and gave her a jade bottle. Sol took it with a surprised expression and opened the bottle. An invigorating fragrance came out of it, and she saw inside 3 pills.

'He never smiled like that to me. Is he really that happy over some reading or he's actually a natural manipulator?'

Mei wondered to herself when she saw Ken's acting skills. She decided it just means her son is good at understanding people and left for work.

"Thank you, Young Master! I didn't realize you cared about me that much!"

Sol was ecstatic about the gifts; each one would cost her a whole month of CP in her usual work, and that's without considering her other expenses which made it impossible.

"Of course. If you stay by my side, I will keep giving you gifts. When I grow up, I will have even more gifts to give!"

He encouraged her to think about how her rewards would increase in the future despite not having any plan to keep her for that long. Of course, she didn't need to know that.

"I will think about it, Young Master. What would you like to do today?"

"Let's play hide and seek! I don't know the rules, can you teach me?"

That day, Ken only played games with her. He had patience and understood he first needed her to agree to stay before dumping all the real work on her. By the next day, Sol made her decision.

"I agree to your offer, Elder Mei."

"Are you aware that by taking a job as Ken's permanent… um… assistant, you can't leave for a year?"

She had to admit that it didn't sound too much of an honor for a cultivator to leave her job for becoming a babysitter, so she switched to 'assistant'.

"Yes, Elder Mei."

"All right then. You're starting today, have fun together."

"Young Master, what should we play today?"

She went to Ken with a smile.

"I want you to tell me a story."

"Aww, I have one I like about Emperor Gale, a great cultivator from thousands of years ago!"

"Oh, maybe another time. I want you to describe to me your cultivation journey."

"Hmm, it's not that interesting since most of my jobs were running errands for the pill division. I didn't fight much."

She said embarrassedly.

"That's not what I meant. I mean your actual training regime, how you broke through, the manuals, everything."

"I think you will find it boring, Young Master. When you grow up you will get better manuals and techniques."

"It's fine, just tell me. If it gets boring, I will stop you."

She told him how she joined the sect from a family of mortals when she was 11. She joined the outer sect and managed to get a job at the inner sect's pill division. At first, she was ecstatic and believed it would open a path for her into the inner sect, but soon she found out she was just running errands.

Even worse, she barely had time to cultivate, and she didn't get any special benefits compared to the ones who stayed in the outer sect. In fact, those who stayed behind had their elders to teach them, while no elder from the inner sect would teach an outer disciple.

Those difficulties were part of the reason she decided to accept Ken's offer despite the low status as a babysitter that came with it.

"I see. Just do what I say and keep it a secret for me, and you might have a chance to go beyond your limits one day. Remember, it's better to be on my good side than on my bad side. And if you reveal something you shouldn't, then nobody will have your back."

He gave her a warning and patted her thigh.

"What do you mean?"

"You will see, I have many missions for you. Don't worry, I will reward you generously as long as you don't fail me."

It was hard to take a baby seriously when he spoke such things, but for some reason, she could feel he was completely serious. She didn't know how he could be so smart for his age, but she understood he was right. If she could stick to this golden thigh, she might get resources she'd never get otherwise.

'It was a risk to tell her those things, but if she doesn't betray me it will allow me more freedom to move around her. I'm 99% sure she won't betray me; she will lose her only backer if she does, and she should understand it.'

Ken gave it one last thought and decided it was indeed the best route of action.

"Now tell me about the process of awakening your dantian and meridians."

"But I didn't tell you yet about the stage before that!"

"it's ok, I already know about it."

"Oh. Well, the process is quite simple. After you strengthen your body, it can survive the process of awakening your dantian and meridian. You should always awaken your dantian first since awakening the meridians require a lot of Qi, and you'll fail without a dantian to hold Qi."

"Hm, I see. How does it work?"

"It's quite straightforward conceptually. You just fill it to the brim with Qi, and when it starts hurting, you keep filling it. Of course, it's not that simple since doing it requires manipulating the Qi in a certain way."

'It means I will also need to use the godly energy for it. I underestimated its power previously; my strengthening process consumed less than 1% of the energy. It's probably because I used the power of Qi in my calculations, while this energy is something else, far more powerful.'

However, there was one problem.

'The downside is that around 3% of it just dissipated during the time that passed, so I should hurry and use it as much as I can before it's gone completely.'