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  “So how exactly do you know when it’s time to Rank Up our Cultivation, Katherine?” My mother wondered. “It often just happens out of nowhere."

  “Yeah? I was w the same thing.” Ruby nodded.

  “Well, it is simply the amount of maximum ki you possess. O reaches a certain point, you already advao the Rank. Usually, a single Rank is divided into Stages. There’s Initial Stage, Middle Stage, Upper Stage, and Peak Stage.” I expined. “At Initial Stage your maximum Ki has only increased by ten pert; at Middle Stage usually by thirty pert; at Upper Stage, by over fifty pert; and at Peak Stage, it has doubled or more. Once you’re at Peak Stage, you’ll have enough energy to surpass your former limits and tinue f your body. This is the step where you’ll use all the accumuted Ki and obtain a Physique, which will enhanortal body and make it surpass a mortal’s limitations.”

  “I see, and how did we even increase that?” My mother wondered. “It isn’t as if we sat down to meditate that much…”

  “Your Ki increase with two simple methods most often used by cultivators,” I expined. “The first one is through the cultivation of your Ki through meditation and simir teiques... The other is through exercise and the enha of your body’s strength, which then transtes into more Ki. Get it now?”

  “S-So, because we Level Up our cultivation, is that super-fast?” Ruby wondered.

  “Yeah, that’s right. Leveling up enhances your vitality, strength, and so on.” I expined. “Therefore, your body, as it gets stronger, will naturally produce more Ki.”

  “That’s an incredibly simple expnation." My mother nodded. “Well, I get it now, I guess.”

  “Now, let’s begin,” I said. “I’ve gotten some erials for the two of you, bining my inner realm’s resources with monsters we’ve hunted.”

  I had already pced all materials within nodes inside a formation I created inside my Inner Realm. My mother and my sister were now sitting at the ter of the formation, within two interected tral nodes, or the core of a formation.

  Formations were made by inscribing words from Murim and imbuing them with both Ki and other duaterials. All these Murim "Runes,” as I call them, follow the basic rules of Feng Shui, but you twist and transform them into many things, giving formations all kinds of usages and effects within a certain range of their own structures.

  Usually, you fe a new physique without any of these fancy things, but I wanted my mother and my sister to get strong quickly, so I decided to go all out.

  “So what do we do?” My sister asked.

  “Gather your Ki into your bodies a flow through everything as much as possible,” I expined. “The rest will be done by my formation.”

  “Really? That easy?” My mom asked.

  “That’s right. This is because I am a Great Venerable after all.” I giggled. “Now, now, enough chit-chat, mom, sister. Let’s begin.”

  The entire process was fwless. My mother and my sister accepted the energies from the materials into their bodies as they meditated aheir Ki flow through as much as possible across their internal bodies.

  Eventually, their core reacted, enpassing their entire bodies with elemental essence, which mixed with their Ki and the material's energies and pos. All of this was being done inside my Inner Realm, right inside my great golden pace.

  FLASH!

  And o was finally dohe materials and the formation were both gone, my mother and my sister having absorbed all they could. Their bodies have ged slightly. Because of their core’s abilities, their appearances had already ged enough, so ohey acquired their patible physique, their appearances didn’t ge more than that.

  However, I could tell that they gained muscle and some height. Both gained between three and five more timeters, being much taller. Also, their muscles became even more developed than before. Not like a hulking muscle mass type of muscle, but they were very noticeable.

  “Phew… Oh, is that it? I feel much- Woah, look at these abs!” My sister said this as she lifted her shirt, showing us her beautiful and perfectly defined abs.

  “I-I got some really well-toned ones myself as well…” My mother nodded, looking at her own stomach.

  “Wele to the club!” I said as I showed them mine.

  “Damn.” My mom said.

  “You really got those well-hidden!” My sister ughed.

  “My entire body is rather muscur; it's just that my robes cover most of my body, so it ’t be noticed at first gnce…” I said. “Perhaps I should wear more modern clothes; leave aside my robes pletely, maybe.”

  “Maybe, though you do you, honey.” My mother said, patting my shoulders. “Anyways, is this it? What other ability do we get anyway?”

  “Yeah?” My sister asked.

  “Well, let me see… Ah, perfect.”

  I was looking at their physiques. Their Meridians have been pletely refed, and they have gained Physique Runes across their bodies, or as some called them, Dao Marks. They’re marks of a specifiinuscule right now, but that will rapidly grow and amplify in number as they let their ows proliferate through their bodies.

  “Mother has acquired most likely the {Sunshihril Sentinel Physique} and Ruby got the {Dark Bze Demoness Physique}. The stro ones you could get without... Well, without risking your bodies from exploding.” I said. “Both have extremely good physiques. Once you start fighting and practig, you’ll notice you do hings. The Sentinel Physique will let you gre shields and scales of gold and silver metal over your body, mother. Once you perfect that, you’ll be able to cover your entire body in armor and even make your hair into metallic wires for attad defense.”

  “An armor, huh? That sounds rather iing, I have to admit. I’ll have to keep training then.” I’ve never seen my mother so pumped up as she is right now. Despite her ag with modesty, she loved the feeling of growing stronger.

  “And what about me?” Ruby asked.

  “You ow bee a pseudo-demoness. You might eventually be able to grow wings, long cws, horns, more eyes, and a tail.” I said.

  “Huh?! That sounds…” She looked slightly flicted, but then ged entirely. “Fug wicked! I love it!”

  “Maybe I should have asked you beforehand, though. Sorry." I apologized anyway.

  “Nah, nah, it’s fine. You know what I like, big sis.” Ruby ughed out loud. “Anyways, what should we do now?”

  “You two should go train your abilities; maybe spar with Merkite and Urbosa? They’re eager to train their abilities themselves. Both are getting closer to Rank 3 as well.” I said. “But thanks to their Spiritual Hearts, they should be even with the two of you.”

  “Sounds alright; I guess we do that, yeah.” Ruby nodded. “Hehe, I’m going to show Juan that his girlfriend’s pretty overpowered.”

  “Then we’ll go.” My mother nodded. “Are you staying behind?”

  “Yeah, I o do something first; I’ll catch you up for dinner,” I said.

  “Alright, take care.” My mother said this as the two of them stepped out of my Inner Realm.

  Now that I was alone, I sat dowhe throne of my Golden Pace, sighing in relief.

  “Poyoo!”

  A little pink slime with tiny arms greeted me, leaping over my head.

  Little Kirby had been hiding inside my robes for a while now, and he finally woke up.

  “You’re awake, little one? Are you hungry perhaps?” I wondered.

  “Puwooo!” He started boung.

  “Alright.” I nodded. “There’s a Martial Beast wave ining. It seems these beasts are proliferating a lot inside my Inner Realm. So you eat them all if you want- Oh, there they are.”

  In the distance, right in front of my pace, within the Endless Peaks, there was a giant wave of millions of Martial Beasts, most of them within the immortal ranks, which were fairly weak pared to primordial or venerable ras.

  Kirby leaped off my head and then floated like a balloon through the air, infting his body. He was really like that video game character, but slime-like.

  “Rooarr!”

  “Graarr!”

  “Awoo!”

  The beasts approached rapidly. I could easily end them all with a mere thought. But that would not be fun, and it would not feed my little pet.

  “Go on, it’s all yours.”

  I waved my hand as Kirby went all out.

  He started siphoning everything, opening his mouth, and increasing its size by at least ten times.

  “Puwaaaahhh!”

  FLUOSH!

  It was as if he had a bck hole inside. Okay, maybe not an actual bck hole, but something very simir—a void, an endlessly hungry stomach.

  The beasts were not even able to fight back; the siphoning force absorbed them all, lifting them off the ground and then f them to get towards Kirby.

  They were swallowed, falling into the bck void inside Kirby's stomach.

  He kept slurping everything until, after just a mihe two million Martial Beast were pletely gone.

  None were left!

  “Phew! Burp…”

  Kirby sat down on the floor and burped while patting his belly, whily looked an inch bigger than before. Wherever his food went, it wasn’t something within this physical pne.

  I think he probably had some sort of dimension inside, a pocket dimension with an incredibly vast size, where all food was stored and digested rapidly.

  I sensed something from him: an Aura of void. It was the color of dark purple, with small bits of gray and bck mixed iween.

  Although I have been uo study or prehend the Dao of the Void myself, I now have a pet that was born within it and naturally possessed it.

  I could see it, endlessly shining within him; that was defihe Dao of the Void, of the highest order and rarity.

  “Kirby, dear. Would you let your master el that power of yours?” I asked him, sitting by his side and giving him head pats.

  “Puoyo?” He wondered.

  “Ah, I don’t really uand what you’re trying to say…” I sighed.

  “Puwah!” He quickly walked towards me and sat down over my legs, rubbing his cute little fay stomach, and then touched my hand with its tiny little hands. “Puuwah!”

  And then, the Void Essence Aura he exuded, rushed towards my body, slowly.

  “Yiving it to me willingly! Such a precious little thing! Thank you so much.” I kissed his little head as he allowed me to el his powers.

  I felt the Void Essence rushing inside, just like the first time I tried eling.

  “Ugh…! Argh!”

  Pain!

  I felt immense pain.

  This was not something normal for a Venerable such as me.

  And the reason?

  Void was an all-ing and all-enpassing Dao.

  It was actually made of several incredibly rare Daos.

  However, the three Daos that posed this ic Dao were the Dao of Space, the Dao of Destru, and the Dao of Null.

  I had only barely prehehe Dao of Space, while I mastered the Dao of Destru, but the Dao of Null was something I could never find anywhere.

  Nobody ever cultivated it ba Murim.

  Therefore, perhaps due to my ck of knowledge or Dao prehension, the Void Essence bees unstable inside my body and soul.

  And therefore, it causes tremendous pain as I try to cultivate it.

  It is not, however, as hard as trying to absorb, assimite, and cultivate iergy.

  As long as I uand and decipher the Dao of the Void, the path towards achieving the Immemorial Primordial Void Realm should open!

  I have to do my best.

  “Ugh… L-Let’s do this! Argh…”

  While gritting my teeth and feeling my entire body destroying itself and regeing stantly, I decided to “cheat” this method and make things, perhaps, slightly easier.

  “I’ll need some assistance. Didn’t that god wield the Void Element a bit? Now it’s a good time to use that Skill, right, Kirby?” I giggled. “{Undead God Summon}: [Tod]: {Lord of Deep Darkness}!”

  FLASH!

  A mass of darkness, shadow, ah essence suddenly materialized in front of me after my and, slowly taking the form of the small skeleton of a child, wearing shadow robes, and with his empty eyes glowing bright red.

  “Huh? Where… Where am I?” He spoke with the voice of a child. “You… You’re the ohat killed me. Why… What’s happening?”

  “So you keep your memories, huh?” I wondered. “This is really iing... We might as well call your sister while we are at it, hm?”

  “Sister…?” He was still w what was happening.

  FLASH!

  A bright fsh of golden and white light appeared by his side, almost making the little Lord of Deep Darkness fall to his khough I protected him with a barrier.

  And then, from the densed light, a girl with pale white skin, bright yellow eyes, long blonde hair, and only wearing a white dress appeared.

  “Huh? What the- Eeek! Y-You! Uwaaagh! Noooo! Have you e to kill me again?!”

  I expected such a rea, quite holy.

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  Pach