Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

With its six floors and over 500 square meters, the Lotus Temple was one of the largest and most visited buildings in the city, with hundreds of disciples going in and out of its grounds every day.

Upon entering it, one would find an extremely beautified inner hall with flowers and trees. In particular, a tree over 20 meters tall stood in the center of the building, its colorful roots visible from the stairs built around it.

But in the middle of this area covered with special vegetation, beautiful but unique, with dense mana around it, there were also artificial artifacts.

In some corners, attendants around a counter attended to the disciples. In other, disciples could check the availability of rooms and their prices.

The Lotus Temple was a place where Demon Gate disciples could cultivate in special rooms and train new techniques with their Spirits without having to get involved in dangerous confrontations outside the city or in the Arena.

For an affordable price, anyone in the city, including Aspirants, could gain access to one of the temple's many special rooms, even for a short time.

For 10 merit points, one could train in a level 1 room for up to two hours. For 50 merit points, you could train for 10 hours in a level 1 room or two hours in a level 2 one. The highest level available in this unit of the Lotus Temple was level 3. At this level, one could pay 200 merit points to train for two hours.

These were affordable amounts-everyone in the sect could afford to train there for at least two hours. However, going to the temple once a week or even once a day was something that only the top ten ranked disciples could use.

The top 10 ranked disciples were entitled to two hours of daily training in the level 3 rooms of the Lotus Temple. If not used daily, they could accumulate their rights up to 10 hours.

As a result, the top floor of the building, where the level 3 was located, almost always had no movement at all. It was usually the level where only the strongest in the city, a small fraction of individuals, went.

But on the fourth floor, on the level 2 of the temple, in room number 43, Liam was just leaving his chamber after cultivating for four hours straight.

As he crossed the corridor overlooking the large tree in the middle of the building, Liam felt different, his cultivation at the beginning of the 6-Star!

'Initiate Phila Bradshaw's legacy really helped me. Without her merit points, I wouldn't have been able to spend 100 merit points in the temple.' Liam smiled as he looked out at the beautiful view from the front of room 43.

It had been four days since his trip to the arena with Azariah. In those days, he began his guard duties for the Leopard and continued to enjoy the guards stationed outside his room in his dormitory.

He didn't take too many risks during those days, fearing reprisals from rival factions and possible revenge from the Abyss Matriarchs.

Liam had focused most of his time in the Library, studying the history of Spirit Masters, techniques for commanding Spirits. He cultivated with Mary, studied in the Runes Hall, and trained on either level one or level two of this temple.

He had spent 190 merit points over the past few days to gain access to the rooms of the Lotus Temple and level two of the Library.

Fortunately, Initiate Phila Bradshaw's inheritance had given him 130 merit points, 98 gold coins, 325 silver coins. It also gave him other things that weren't so valuable to him. But she had left no pills or portions.

Cultivators wouldn't keep this kind of resource unless it was for emergencies, to heal wounds after a fight, or something like that. But for most of the Demon Gate's outer disciples, their resources were too limited for many of them to have this kind of artifice.

Regardless, thanks to Phila's inheritance, Liam could cover his living expenses in the city, as well as his study and personal development, without facing financial ruin.

Now, he still had 55 merit points, 160 gold coins, and 400 silver coins.

'I can still cultivate for two hours in the level two room, but I'll save that for the future. I'll focus on my dual cultivation with Mary and save for other activities in the city.' He headed for the stairs near to where room 43 was.

He had tried to get information from female disciples in difficult times, but even the negotiation rooms in the Missions Hall had not helped him.

Fortunately, the cultivation rooms, combined with the dual cultivation, seemed to be enough for him to explode by the hour.

The level 1 rooms of the temple were basically made for Aspirants, and were even useful for newly promoted Spirit Lords. However, someone at the middle and end of the second realm would have to cultivate in the level 2 rooms if they wanted to have a significant effect on their cultivation. As for the level 3 rooms, they were for Senior Initiates, newly promoted third realm cultivators.

Weaker cultivators could cultivate in them and achieve greater results, but those rooms were not so accessible.

Most of the cultivation rooms in the temple were individual rooms, and the collective rooms did not have price advantages to encourage large groups to pay for them. Otherwise, Liam would have already brought Mary for them to cultivate together in this place. Here, they would surely get better results given the density of elements and mana in the special rooms.

Upon reaching the entrance gallery of the Lotus Temple, Liam followed the flow of disciples, mingling with the noisy crowd. He soon arrived in front of the majestic temple surrounded by many pillars.

From there, he made his way to the Runes Hal, his second favorite place in the city, by an hour.

In just over a week in the sect, Liam had already learned 205 of the 400 most commonly used runic characters.

At his current pace, he believed that by the end of next week, he could begin attempting to form runes under Ann's tutelage.

Eager to further his knowledge in it, he made his way to the regular meeting classroom of the group led by Ann as soon as he arrived at the hall.

While he went about his business, putting aside a few vendettas that he knew he couldn't carry out now, his rivals or enemies were not so happy with the current situation.

A woman in black, a dark look on her face, stopped at the front of the hall, aware that she couldn't get any closer or she might cause adverse reactions.

'You will pay for what you did to Phila, Liam!'

She clenched her fists tightly, her eyes shining with rage at the audacity of his killing that member of the Abyss Matriarchs.

Spirit Masters were unreasonable, at least most of the time. The Abyss Matriarchs had tried to kill Liam, but it was one of their own who had died. Their interest now was not only to kill a target, but to avenge Phila's death!

'Leopards won't protect you everywhere. The moment you leave the city to go hunting for Arcane Crystals, let's lead with our differences!'

...

In a residential building on Street Eleven, in a dark room surrounded by mist, an 8-Star Spirit Lord entered what looked like a sauna, a special cultivation room.

Aside from the Lotus Temple, a place accessible to all city residents, private residences in Demon Gate cities always had their own cultivation rooms.

In this place, the newcomer waited in silence for five minutes until his leader, who was cultivating in the lotus posture amidst the mist, finished cultivating and noticed someone's presence.

When the newcomer noticed the master opening his eyes, he got right to the point. "Senior, I have news of a new genius in the city. A newcomer with 3-Star cultivation joined the sect a little over a week ago. Today, he was seen leaving the Lotus Temple with 6-Star cultivation."

"Oh? That's a remarkable cultivation speed." The eyes of the gray-haired man sitting in the lotus position widened as his Adam's apple moved. "This could be a succulent target for me," this 2-Star Spirit Earth Spirit Master said.

"Monitor him for me. When he reaches 8-Star, let me know. For now, let's let him 'fatten up' a bit more before slaughtering him."