Chapter 103 - Success & Breakthrough
The queen entered the courtyard with two palace maids in tow.
"Mother, why have you come?" Leon greeted his mother upon her arrival.
"You'll know in a bit." Elizabeth answered vaguely as she signaled for her palace maids to step forward.
With outstretched hands, they presented two items to Leon. Both were wooden cases but of differing sizes; one small and one long. Leon did not stand on ceremony and opened the first case. Inside the small case was a set of 36 acupuncture needles. It carried a similar silver sheen to his current needles, but he could tell that they were far from the same.
The past days of comprehending the [Myriad Metal Compendium] book, he already had some general understanding of the world's metals. Leon traced his fingers along the silver needs and understood where they differ.
Compare to ordinary steel, the ones in front of him was an alloy mixture of black iron and magisteel. The same ones he requested. Despite using black iron, the needles had retained a stainless silver surface. The forger was sensible enough to know only stainless needles could be used for acupuncture.
Due to the past days of busy training, he had totally forgotten about this weapon order. Leon removed his eyes from the needles and glanced at the long wooden case.
This one should be…
Sure enough, inside the case was a jet-black spear; shaft and spear head included. It reached a staggering 3 meters in length. It was a plain and simple design without any markings, but it instantly clicked well with Leon the moment he saw it.
"How is it? Do you like it?" Elizabeth asked.
"I do! Thank you very much, mother."
Leon picked up the black spear and tested its weight. Neither too light nor too heavy. It was just right. The balance and toughness of the shaft was great, and the sharpness of the spearhead was enough to slice ordinary steel with ease. It was a top-tier weapon among ordinary weapon. Leon nodded in satisfaction.
Elizabeth was happy that her son liked the weapon, but she shook her head at his words.
"If you want to thank someone, you should go thank the blacksmith that forged that weapon for you." She said. She wasn't going to steal credit from weapon's creator.
"Oh? Who is one to forge this black spear for me, mother?" Leon asked with curiosity.
He would also like to meet this blacksmith in person. The person was clearly a master blacksmith. It was just a pity that the person did not know any runic inscriptions, otherwise the black spear would have become a great spirit artifact.
"The Lancaster family is renown in the kingdom for their peerless blacksmithing skills. Although they have started dabbling in machineries, their skills have not faded. If my son wanted a weapon, it has be the best of the best. Who else could mother ask other than the Lancaster family themselves to forge the weapon?"
Elizabeth said with a regal air. She would do anything to keep her son happy. If her son wanted the stars, she would pluck it out of skies for him.
"That means the one who forged this weapon was…" Leon seem to have understood who forged the weapon.
"It was the Duke." Elizabeth finished off his sentence.
Hearing his mother's confirmation, he suddenly realized why his father-in-law was always in a bad mood and seemed expectant of something from him. He had previously gifted his mother-in-law a batch of Achromous Valerian Roots for herbal tea, but he had yet to gift his father-in-law anything.
After realized the weapon came from the Duke, Leon felt guilty but also confused at the same time. The Duke had made some subtle hints of wanting to drink some herbal tea, but Leon didn't pay much heed to it. He had gifted the spirits herbs to make the tea to the Duke's wife. If the Duke wanted some, couldn't he just ask his wife? Alas, Leon did not know that this mother-in-law of his was stingy and didn't want to share any with her husband.
…
Having delivered the items, Elizabeth stayed for a few idle chats with her son. She didn't want to take up too much of her son's time as he wanted to continue training. Before leaving, she gave Howard a sideward glance and made a mental note to reward him well next time.
She wasn't stupid and could easy tell that they had been sparring before she came. Although she knew her son would one day be a dragon among men, she didn't believe he would could best the palace guards in a spar at his current cultivation. It must be the palace guard going easy on her son.
It's rare for awakeners to be able to battle opponents above their levels; one level was possible, two levels were rare, but crossing three levels was simply unheard of.
…
"The new cauldron lid, your highness."
A palace guard arrived with the replacement lid sometime after his mother left.
"Mm." Leon nodded before turning to Howard. "We will continue sparring later."
"Yes, your highness."
Howard answered with newfound respect for the prince. Only he had experienced first-hand, how shocking the prince's strength was.
Leon briefly ruminated over their spar and considered it an unexpected success. He didn't succeed in using oscillating fist technique through throwing, but he had succeeded using his legs. If he could use Oscillating Fist at two echoes freely like he was breathing air and any of his limbs, it was equal to elevating his battle power to 1200-jin permanently. In other words, he would be stronger than 9th step Awakeners as a 6th layer Tempered Body practitioner.
After he finished ruminating, he fired up the pill cauldron straight away. He was confident he would succeed this time.
His energy wasn't the correct catalyst for merging the herbal essences. His body was what formed the balance of five energy and refined the pseudo-Grandmist energy. Thus, his body was the answer to the problem.
This didn't mean he had to throw himself into the pill cauldron… Forget about fitting in the small cauldron, even if he did, it would be the same as trying to cook himself.
Furthermore, ingesting the herbal essence mixture now would defeat the purpose of refining the pill in the first place.
The solution was using the blood essence of his Five-Element Body Physique.
With that said, Leon repeated the steps of pill concoction for fifth time and dripped his blood essence into the herbal essence mixture. The herbal essence did not turn chaotic and began to light up brightly.
Under its brilliance, the herbal essence finally started merging harmoniously.
"Condense!"
The shape of the Five-Element Enhancing Pill began to form under Leon's control before hardening.
Some time after the cauldron cooled, Leon lifted the lid and inside was a single Five-Element Enhancing Pill. This was due to him splitting the spirit herbs into ten portions, but one portion was all he needed.
…
Under Leon's request, a sumptuous meal of beast meat was prepared for him on the tea table.
"Don't let anyone disturb me."
Leon ordered the guards.
"Yes, your highness!"
With all preparations for his breakthrough ready, Leon took in a puff of cold air as he looked at all the beast meat laid on the table. A determined glint shimmered in his eyes. Do what he got to do!
Leon devoured the beast meat in a quick but barbaric manner like the beast meat was still alive. After cleaning all the plates an hour later, he immediately sat in meditation and run his energy circulation using the [Hegemony of Primal Chaos] to refine all the energy inside the beast meat.
The five-elemental energy within heaven and earth also began to gather towards him at the same time. He mustered the energy to impact the walls of the 7th layer, but it was as stable as a mountain and refused to budge.
Sure enough, the walls of the 7th layer was not easy without his 5-Element Enhancing Pill. He did not wait any further and ingested the pill. A torrential wave of energy gushed out of the pill and began flooding his body.
He increased his energy circulation and build up the momentum. When it hit the peak, he bombarded the walls of the 7th layer furiously. The previous mountain-like wall suddenly became as soft as tofu as it was blasted into nonentity by the ocean-like energy and cleared the path to 7th layer. The excess energy continued onwards and charged towards the 8th layer. It did not stop until Leon's cultivation sat stably at the 8th layer.
Leon exhaled a puff of impure air with a sigh as he stabilized his cultivation. Breaking through the 7th layer felt like breaking through a major bottleneck rather than a minor one. He did not remember it being this hard to break through the early stages of divine cultivation.
"Is it because my body had been reformed into the Five-Element Body?"
Leon did not know whether to laugh or cry. He might have screwed himself over by choosing to practice the [Hegemony of Primal Chaos]. However, since he already chosen it, he will see it through to the end. There was no quitting halfway nor crying over spilt milk.
If he gives up so easily when things get tough, he would not be able to form an indomitable will!?
Leon tested his newfound strength on a steel pillar and made a large dent with his fist. His physical strength reached 800-jin force without surprise. He spent the next few hours sparring with the palace guards.
"Congratulation of your breakthrough, your highness!"
Howard was shocked at the prince's big leap in strength and was the first to congratulate him.
Rumble…
"Mmm." He nodded with strained smile. His stomach felt unsettled...
Later that day, one of the palace guards on toilet break discovered one of the lavatory toilets was clogged beyond belief, but that is a story for another time.