Rivers of the Night

Theron’s mind took in several thoughts at once.

It was impossible for him to miss the mention of an adopted son. Was he speaking about Beifong? Theron was under the impression that Beifong was just the adopted son of a random elder, likely quite high up in the chain of command, but not this high up.

Had a father set a kill notice on his own son?

Theron had known from the beginning that the Patriarch couldn’t be trusted, but even he didn’t expect that it would be to this extent.

However, the rest was arguably just as intriguing. What could bind someone of the Patriarch’s caliber so greatly?

Honestly speaking, Theron had never heard of a cultivation level above Gold. None of the books or anything of the sort that he had come across ever mentioned it.

But what he did know was that there likely was one. After the Imbued Resonance debacle, he knew that there were certainly things about this world that he wasn’t privy to information about. If not for this, it wouldn’t have taken him so much effort to find the information about the Verdant Bloomstone he needed.

This secret, though… seemed to be on an entirely different level. What was going on, exactly, that someone so powerful could only sit on their hands?

And what did this have to do with Beifong? Why was he talking like his son had died tragically when he had ordered for the death in the first place?

He knew now that much of his information was limited and not nearly good enough. What better way to shore up those weaknesses than like this?

But how far had the Luminescent Moon Sect fallen that it could have such things all while still maintaining its spot at the bottom rung of the Nightingale Province?

And by the Patriarch’s words, it seemed like Theron would only be able to help him clear the tower once?

’Seven others?’

The booklet he had brought rounded out the total to eight, the other seven being unknowns.

’Could it be that the real reason Beifong was able to get his hands on that booklet was because he cleared the tower? How much control does the Patriarch have over that tower? Could he stop others from noticing that it had been activated? I can’t see why not

Some puzzle pieces were coming together, but it made it obvious that the overall picture was much larger than he expected. There was definitely something odd going on here, but Theron didn’t have the ability to pick up on exactly what it was because he simply lacked enough information.

Rather than replying to the Patriarch, then… Theron stood up.

The first booklet he touched was his own. He expected to have to stand there for hours like he had when he went through Beifong’s booklet—or rather, the past number one ranked Outer Disciple’s copy of one.

But no.

’I see… So this Vital Bloomstone is the secret, and this method is what could be used to repeatedly cast that cultivation method while avoiding the risks to the body.’

Theron already had a cheat code in the Immortal Jellyfish, and yet even he would need a month before he could use this technique again. Unless someone else was born with a similar bloodline that gave such a great healing factor, it would take them probably as much as three months before they could use this method again.

But if you could cast this Forbidden Spell, with the support of Vital Bloomstone, then it was possible to heal the body after a cycle of these techniques and use it again the next day.

While this would still limit you to just once per day, just how much faster would you be able to cultivate with such a thing by your side?

The bottleneck here, though… was obviously the Vital Bloomstone itself.

"How much Vital Bloomstone does your Sect have?" Theron asked.

"Probably a couple dozen pieces," the Patriarch replied with a light smile.

Theron shook his head. Even if the Patriarch was willing to give it to him, didn’t that mean that he would only have enough for a month, maybe two of cultivation if he was lucky?

With the current state of his Bronze Core, he wasn’t even sure if that would be enough.

He had still yet to investigate what was going on with his body, but this bottleneck—the first of its kind he was experiencing—was truly something else.

Theron slowly put the Vital Bloomstone Forbidden Method down and picked up the one that had triggered his curiosity in the first place, the Tribulation Bloomstone Forbidden Method.

’Indeed, he did take out quite a lot of it… he didn’t just change things around, he put many things in shorthand. No wonder it took me so long to go through it the first time.

’But this still seems so hard to decipher, as though it’s still written in some kind of code. That code is more obvious to me in the Vital Bloomstone Forbidden Method, but even I can’t see through it in a single sitting. It would probably take me… three days to decode?’

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Theron’s thoughts were his own. If the Patriarch knew what he was thinking, it would be hard to tell if he’d be shocked or appalled by the audacity.

’This Tribulation Bloomstone Forbidden Method, though… not only would it take me months, if not years… but it seems only the lowest threshold is nine pieces of the jade. If I want to trigger the method to the middle tier, I would need 99, and I only have 15 pieces right now after giving two away. If I wanted the perfect method, I would need 999 pieces

Theron frowned. "How many pieces of Tribulation Bloomstone do you have?"

The Patriarch’s grin grew wider. "Just one."

Theron was speechless.

"That said… there is a method of getting more Bloomstone of all eight kinds…"