Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

With his bedroom window shut tightly and the furniture behind the door, he lay sprawled on his bed; the sheets falling off the sides as he seemed to have passed out in his sleep.

Despite the first rays of daylight filling his room, he remained in a deep slumber, undisturbed.

His body remained almost motionless, with only the faint sound of his breath confirming his well-being.

After finishing his missions for this month and the next, Liam returned to his room and spent most of his time sleeping. He had been under a lot of stress, injured, and had barely gotten any proper rest during his hunt. However, his body desperately needed more proper rest in order to sleep well and eat properly.

For the past few hours, he had enjoyed a peaceful sleep, a rare occurrence in nearly a week.

As the first rays of daylight seeped into his room, his body stirred, showing that he was waking up.

In his underwear, he rolled over onto his stomach, his bed providing a comfortable resting spot. As time passed, his hands started to stir in his slumber, absently scratching various places on his body.

The noise from Street Thirty-Seven grew louder as the disciples moved through the city, filling his ears with a cacophony of sounds.

When he woke up, Liam looked up at the white ceiling of his room for a moment, felt an incredible lightness in his body, and couldn't help but smile.

For someone who slept in a comfortable bed and a safe room every day, it could be difficult to feel the effects of a good night's sleep. But for someone who could not usually sleep properly, a good night's rest was magic!

Liam could almost feel stronger just from resting!

But this was no surprise to him. He knew fully that one had to be careful with one's mortal biological activities until at least the fourth realm of cultivation.

Using one hand to bend over, Liam lifted part of his body and soon gathered the courage to wash himself. Amid his movement, the sound of his stomach begging for food alerted him and reminded him of his plan to eat somewhere other than in the Refectory this morning.

'Time for me to start preparing for the challenges after the hunt.'

He stepped out of the shower and stopped in front of his dresser to finish drying his body.

As soon as he was done dressing, Liam used his spatial ring to remove all the items he had with him at the moment.

As he spread everything out on the floor of his room, he inspected the crystals, weapons, and other items he had.

After going through the Records Hall and completing this month's and next month's crystal collection missions, he now had 16 King-grade and 8 Ancestor-grade Arcane Crystals with him.

He wanted to keep the 8 Ancestor-grade crystals for himself, while he wanted to give the 16 King-grade crystals to Mary.

He put the crystals back into his ring and looked at the weapons he had with him.

'I will give three of these weapons to Mary. They are Second Class weapons, superior to the ones she currently has.'

Picking up a spear and a sword he had got from the women of the Abyss Matriarchs, he muttered. "I'll keep these two with me."

In his hands were two Second Class weapons, but unlike all the other items he carried, these two were of high-quality.

Most of the weapons he had with him were of low or ordinary quality, the kind that would get damaged faster or have less attack power.

'I will keep these two and two more ordinary-quality daggers. Except for Mary's weapons, I'll sell all the others.' Liam decided to do this later today in order to collect coins and merit points.

He put the weapons back into his spatial ring, also the two bottles of pills that he would give to Mary. Then he looked at the medicinal plant, Shadowleaf, a special resource he wanted to negotiate with an Alchemist to make pills for him.

But he didn't want to do that right away. His body had recently absorbed various types of medicinal essences from potions, and he had also strengthened quickly.

'I will focus on tempering my body and soul with more traditional, slower methods of advancement for a while before I go back to absorb resources to strengthen myself.'

He put the plant away again, not wanting to waste its effects because of the possible resistance his body might show at the moment.

Along with the plant, he also kept the body parts of the beasts he had killed over the past few days, which he also intended to sell later this morning to raise funds.

Soon after, he stored the belongings of the women and men he had killed, keeping some to give to Mary, some for himself, but most to sell.

These were resources that could not be traced back to their owners, so selling them would be easy and shouldn't be dangerous.

He also put back into his ring the theoretical books on techniques and subjects relevant to Spirit Masters. They were things he intended to spend some time with between today and tomorrow to determine their value.

Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to sell copies of books within the sect, so the most he could do was share them with his trusted people and use them to learn new things. The space storage items of his victims fell into this category, and he intended to keep them to sell outside the headquarters in the future.

With all this stored in his spatial ring, he came to the last items he had with him: letters, messages, and several keys.

As he run his eyes over the letters, he tore most of them up, as they were messages about things that were not relevant to him.

Hardly anyone would exchange important information by letter or without using hard-to-understand codes.

When he had disposed of all these papers, Liam grabbed the keys that were there with him. They were not keys to rooms or safes, but keys given to new recruits.

While pondering the matter, he recalled the text he had received with his key while entering the sect weeks before. It appeared to allude to a potential treasure hunt or some sort of analogous adventure.

He doubtfully looked at the nine keys he had with him at the moment. He held out his hands and took two of them, feeling that he had noticed something compatible in both of them.

'Wait a minute... Do these keys match?'

He tried to fit one key into the other and then opened his eyes even wider when he saw that his theory was correct.

'They fit!'

Liam looked at the keys he had with him, searching for combinations.

He connected three keys, but the others didn't seem to be compatible with the three already connected. But he repeated the process and make two more combinations of two keys each, leaving only two others that didn't seem to fit with any other.

'These remaining keys are like some of the ones I used... By the looks of it, some of the disciples' keys are the same. My previous thought was incorrect. I should take another look at Mary's key to see where I am coming from.'

He smiled as he looked at the three connected keys.

They formed nothing particularly eye-catching, but Liam could tell that they would form something of value when completed. There were at least three more keys to go before the shape of the most complete one would be more obvious to him, something he immediately added to his plans to talk to Felicity, Electa, and Mary.

If he was lucky, perhaps the keys of these three women would help him better understand what this would lead to!

"Tsk! The Demon Gate is really hard to survive. They probably created it to pit the disciples against each other," Liam said in realization.

If his allies' keys didn't work, he could already imagine that the way forward for him would be to keep killing disciples and capturing their respective keys. Sooner or later, his path of killing would lead him to complete this hidden mission.

It was just a matter of realizing that the keys fit and then deciding to collect them from his fellow disciples!

Liam kept the keys with him and left his room, not encountering the Leopards' guards, as the faction didn't know he had already returned.

The same was true for some of Liam's enemies, but that was about to change. With daylight breaking and him moving around the city, it wouldn't be long before word of his return spread!

Liam knew he couldn't control it, so he didn't hide when he left his dorm. He went straight to the place where he planned to eat, starving himself as he walked at a brisk pace to the establishment.

After climbing 500 steps, he reached the street where the place where he wanted to eat this morning was located. By paying 100 silver coins, he would soon receive a feast for one before happily devouring his food.

He had been eating dried meat and fruit for days. Eating food prepared by good Magic Cooks was just what he needed to complete his recovery after the hunt!