A Cultivation Tale: The Godly Punisher

She sent a sliver of her awareness into it and an information appeared in her mind.

[Name: Godsfall Broad Sword]

[Usage stage requirement: Saint Emperor]

[Abilities:]

(1) Can produce Sage Lord-level constraining power.

(2) Can imbue energy-attacks with the power of sharpness. (for example: fiery energy attacks, icy energy attacks or lightning energy attacks etc. will possess terrific lacerating power. They would have the power to cut or pierce through attacks.

(3) Can infuse attacks with pressureforce energy. Energy-attacks will emit a pressure that would act directly on other energy-attacks and suppress or shatter/crush them before even collision.

(4) Can emit a strange light that can affect thinking speed and reaction speed of attackers.]

[Number of Sockets: 22]

[Primary Sockets: 4 (Permanent) {Status: Hidden}]

[Secondary Sockets: 18 (removable) {Status: Open}]

When she read through the information, she became confused.

'Primary and secondary sockets? Twenty-two, four and eighteen sockets?' she asked inwardly in a confused tone. This was her first time coming across information about treasure-weapons.

Then she went through it again. When she did, she then understood that the eighteen sockets she saw on the body of the sword were the ones whose voidstones could be removed and replaced with another. They made up the secondary sockets.

While the other four sockets which were the primary sockets had voidstones permanently embedded in them and were concealed within the sword. The voidstones were irremovable. They were the ones that would give the attacks those attributes that was mentioned the sword could do.

'So, a total of twenty-two sockets. What a gem!' she said inwardly. She became really pleased with the sword.

She looked at Alex and smiled. Alex smiled back too.

"So, you said 'and many more'. Where are they?" she asked with a laugh.

She didn't feel ashamed around Alex again. Besides, Alex was in possession of weapons that only gods should have. Even the lowest class of weapon in his hands would be a god-tier weapon.

Where would she get weapons that would beat that? All her life, she only knew of weapons with a maximum of two sockets. Alex had come and changed everything she knew about treasure-weapons. He had opened her eyes to many new possibilities.

'Imagine a saint emperor-stage weapon possessing so many voidstone sockets. Then what would the ones of higher stages have? Hundreds, thousands or millions? I am certain every treasure and treasure-weapon he would have with him would be of the peerless-grade.' She thought inwardly.

Alex smiled when Jennifer asked him about the other items he wanted to give her. He was glad their relationship had improved beyond ordinary teacher and student relationship.

But he was wrong about that. Jennifer had always seen him as someone close to her heart or she would never ever allow him to live with her in her residence and even let him take advantages with her, such as the embrace part or where he held her hands when they first knew each other. It would seem like disrespect to her if it was any other person and she would ruin or decimate such person.

With a thought, many more items appeared in the air and floated by their own power. They caused the air to seethe.

Jennifer looked and saw a grey armor, a silver crown, crimson claws, black boots, silver belts and a two-colored cape.

She became shocked by the items in front of her. She could feel the tyrannical power emitting from them. It felt like powerful, frightening hegemonic cultivators had appeared before her.

She put a hand out and a formless force emitted from it. It engulfed the treasures in the air, then they were pulled towards her.

Once they got to her hand, she sent slivers of her awareness into them and many information regarding the treasures appeared in her head.

[Name: Overlord X Black Armor]

[Usage stage requirement: Saint Emperor]

[Abilities:]

(1) Can produce Sage Lord-level energy shield.

(2) Can engulf wearer in a protective, powerful flame and produce a large field of fiery energy that can burn off energies composing an attack.

(3) Made from rare, highly durable metals and minerals, it can withstand full-power, close-range attacks from a sage lord-level cultivator.

[Number of Sockets: 5]

....

[Name: Blue Ocean Defense Crown]

[Usage stage requirement: Saint Emperor]

[Abilities:]

(1) Can produce an armor of energy around the wearer. This armor is formed from blue aquaforce energy.

(2) Can project beams of energy by a thought from the user. Energy beams discharged depends on the array in the voidstones plugged into the sockets

[Number of Sockets: 6]

She went through this and the rest and nodded. Her mind was reeling in awe from all the information transmitted to her mind. Then she did a re-evaluation of Alex's parent cultivation stages.

She surmised that they must have very high cultivation stages. If not, Alex would never have such kind of items on him. When she kept them into her spatial ring, she drove Alex away from her room.

Next day...

Alex dressed up for class. So did Jake. They left Jennifer's residence the same time and went to their respective lecture blocks. They left early so they wouldn't enter the class late.

The instant Alex entered the hall, the few students that had arrived looked at him with envious gazes. The scene where Alex pressed Jennifer's body tightly against his was still fresh in their heads and this made their minds spin.

That was the way the boys looked at him. While the girls wished they were the one who were being hugged like that. They wished they could feel the body of the hottest and prettiest boy in the school press against theirs in a tight embrace. They envied instructor Jennifer for that.

Alex nodded at them with a smile and sat down. Then he waited for their instructor to come in. After sitting relaxedly in his seat, he smiled and said inwardly, "It feels good to be back to school."

When it was a minute before class would kick off, the instructor came in. He scanned round and saw Alex. Then he smiled and said "Alex. Welcome"

Alex nodded politely with a smile and replied "Thank you sir."

The instructor gave him a thumb up and started his lecture. Then he began to teach about weapons.

After he was done, he said to Alex "Hope you still have interest in weaponmaking? Do come to the weapon forging hall"

Alex nodded with a smile.

Many hours later, the last class ended and Alex got out of the class. He went to the front of the building adjacent to the one he came out from. That was the block students in the condensation stage received lectures. He went there to wait for Jake.

As he waited, he saw Elena and her friends. She looked beautiful in the uniform she wore.

He gave her a smile and she winked at him. Alex then thought it was wise and right to hug someone or a friend one hadn't seen for a long while.

So he went forward with arms wide open to hug Elena. But she didn't respond to his actions. Instead, her pace picked up as she walked far away from him with her friends.

Alex quickly put down his arms and tried to hide the feeling of embarrassment that showed on his face. Then without waiting for Jake anymore, he turned around and left for Jennifer's residence.

He was still taking 'refuge' in there as the coast wasn't clear yet.

He was really angry at himself for trying to hug Elena. He thought he was doing the right thing but she just ignored him like air. She caused him public embarrassment. He swore in his life that no matter what happened, he wouldn't hug any female again. He was pissed off.

When he got to Jennifer's residence, he went to take his bath in the room she gave he and Jake to share.

When he was done, feeling refreshed and having washed away the feeling of embarrassment he felt earlier, he sat down on the bed in the cross-legged position to cultivate.

What was in his mind now was to break through to the condensation stage. He believed a surprise would be waiting for him at that cultivation realm.

But he couldn't cultivate here as when he caused the other energies to surface and swirl around him, he would draw attention to himself. This was something he didn't want at the moment or would he ever want.

Then he thought of a place he could go to cultivate and hide the phenomenon from people. Then he remembered the cultivation hall.

"That would be the best thing to do" He nodded his head and stood up. He left the room he was and went in the direction the cultivation hall was situated.

When he got there, he paid for a top-grade cultivation room, an A-class one. When he produced the amount of money to use the room which was fifty times the school fees of ten saint-stage students combined for five years, the people in charge were shocked beyond what any word could describe.

"Is this instructor Jennifer's money this bastard is lavishing like this?"

This puzzling thought flashed in the minds of everyone in this place.

Alex because of his experience with greediness of people whenever he brings out stuff from his dad's or mum's storage-treasures, wore a low-grade spatial ring on his pinky finger which he brought out the large amount of sapphirstones from to pay to use that room that can only be afforded by wealthy saint emperor-stage cultivators.

He chose to use that cultivation room because every strange cultivation activity coming from him would be hidden away from everyone. He didn't want to expose himself.

When he got into the room which was very large, he sat down at the center of a huge square platform. At the four corners of the platform were large, round pillars that had ancient symbols inscribed in them. This was an energy synthesis formation.

Although it was named so, it didn't create energies. Instead, it helped the cultivator draw the energy they want to cultivate from the realmverse.

Once the cultivator sends his comprehension of the energies into the formation, the formation would act with that information. It would draw the energies the cultivator wants from the realmverse.

When Alex activated the formation, the pillars began to glow. Few moments later, five energies appeared and began to swirl around him.

The energies then became overabundant that they became like a thick multicolored fog. One couldn't make out Alex's figure in this fog composed from energy.

Then Alex produced many earth-rank pills. Ten different peerless-quality cultivation pills to be precise and there were about sixty of each of them before him.

With a deep breath and eyes that shone with unyielding determination, he swallowed one of the pills. It was the windforce energy pill he swallowed first.

When this got to his stomach and melted, turning into a large amount of energy, Alex felt he was inflating as the energy was too great in quantity. They came out from his stomach and filled every space of his body within, causing him to look inflated like a balloon.

He was in great pain but he endured. He gritted his teeth as he sent the energy wisp by wisp to his energyhouse where they infused into the mass of windforce energy.

Very soon, his speed picked up and he was able to move large bundles of wisps of the energy to his energyhouse.

When he was done with that, he took another pill and his body became inflated again. He did the same thing he did earlier. He began to move large bundles of the threads of the energy to his energyhouse.

Many minutes later, after consuming more than fifty pills, the mass of windforce energy in his energyhouse in it gaseous form changed.

It became liquid. This is because the gaseous mass of windforce energy condensed, becoming a liquid.

It was following the way energy crystals formed in the world. When an energy becomes very abundant, it condenses to become a liquid. Then after many years, it would undergo crystallization. The energy liquid would solidify forming energy crystals.

Same with cultivators, the energy they cultivate would change it from it gaseous form to a liquid form and finally to a solid where it becomes a pillar in the energyhouse.

Since his windforce energy had changed in form, becoming a liquid. He could be said to have entered the condensation stage.

But because his other energies hadn't achieve that form, he couldn't be seen as a true condensation-stage cultivator but as a quasi-condensation stage cultivator. It's until all his energies compact to become liquid that he would become a true condensation stage cultivator.

When Alex noticed this, he smiled and readied himself for another long round of intense pain.

He took an ice cultivation pill and this turned into cold energy in his stomach. Because of the grade and rank of the pill, his body temperature radically lowered and his innards froze hard.

He felt great pain because of his blood, tissues and organs had frozen. But he endured it and moved the frostforce energy to his energyhouse.

.......

Alex took many hours to turn his energies into liquid. Then he focused on the energies around him. On the ones that constituted the multicolored fog that engulfed his figure.

Employing the energies' cultivation methods, the energies got pulled into his body through his pores.

He felt great pain as large bundles of strands of the myriad energies that constituted the energy fog entered his body through his pores. It was like thousands of huge needles were violently burrowing into his body.

He gritted his teeth, enduring the agonizing pain he felt as the energies forced their way into his body.

His energy channels swelled greatly as large amounts of energy moved through them but they couldn't ruin or snap and cut as they can adapt to any amount of energy moving through them. They were special energy meridians.

Hours later of cultivating the energies; absorbing them and infusing them into the masses of energies in his energyhouse, they turned to liquid.

Boom!

An explosion sound rang out in his body. This showed that he had broken through to the condensation stage.

But this boom was instantly followed by waves of energy that erupted from his body, causing the platform he was on to tremble intensely.

When he calmed and his eyes opened, they glowed brightly and beams of energy shot off causing the air in front of him to shake.

He gave a smile. "Finally"

He became glad that he had entered the condensation stage. He couldn't remember how long it took him to reach this stage.

All he knew was that he had used more than a year and the half to reach this stage. Then he thought of his father's cultivation stage and wondered when he would get there.

'That's unimportant. I don't need to rush. I know I would get there one day. All I hope for is enough time to grow powerful before the next invasion or my realmverse would be taken over by those filthy whatever they are called beings.' He muttered inwardly.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then he tried to see if he had gained any new ability because of his cultivation breakthrough.

After looking around for sometime within his body, he sensed nothing new. It was the same old. He became unhappy.

"Isn't a new ability supposed to be available to me?" he asked aggrievedly.

"Well, I shouldn't always expect something every time. I am fine with what I have already" he said. Then he smiled as he remembered he had a whole lot. Is it in terms of abilities and accumulations? Not a single kid his age would have what he has. He was thankful.

But he still strongly believed that a new ability would be open to him in the other cultivation stages. He thought in this direction because he felt that as he progresses in his cultivation, the abilities he had would also progress too. New stuffs could come up. They could change entirely to a new one or become more powerful.

Then he remembered the numerous god-eyes. He hadn't used them in a while. He was told by Houston that he had many god-eyes that fused with his without problems.

But he had only discovered two of them. The God eyes of destruction and the heavenly mystery revealment eye or star-gazing eye. But he didn't know about the star-gazing eyes.

When he was done, he left the room he was in and headed for Jennifer's residence.

While walking towards there, he saw Elena. She was dressed in a beautiful gown. When she saw him, she walked towards him with an adorable smile hung on her face.

"Hey" Alex said.

"Hi Alex. Am just coming from instructor Jennifer's place. I saw Jake who told me you could probably be at the cultivation hall. So I walked here to see if I could find you. Well, here you are pretty boy" Elena said with a smile.

"Okay. So what's it you want to tell me?" Alex asked.

Elena could perceive a sense of detachment in Alex' s voice but she didn't let this faze her.

"Well, I wanted to see you to say I am sorry for what I did to you today. I thought about it and felt really bad just thinking about it. I shouldn't have done that to you. It was very rude of me" Elena replied.

"Well, I don't know how to keep a grudge. So apologies accepted. What I want to know is why you did that to me? I was really ashamed of myself and vowed never to do hug any opposite sex that comes my way again." Alex said with determination in his voice.

"Aww. My action hit you that bad? Man, am sorry. Well, I did that because of the way you hugged instructor Jennifer yesterday. I don't think you know that it was really irritating to we ladies the way you embraced her yesterday. It has been the talk of the girls in the hostel block since yesterday. When I saw you coming with your arms wide open, I had to look away or if I saw your enchanting face, that willpower to ignore you would totally dissipate and then I would see myself in your arms. Besides, you could go hug me in a way I would make news. I don't want to be the talk of everyone and everyone looking at me weirdly the next day and forever. Am very sorry Alex" she said looking at Alex with a remorseful and solemn face.

"It's okay. You have apologized earlier. No need to apologize again." Alex said with a friendly smile.

Alex wasn't the type to keep grudges.

Elena smiled. Then she came close to Alex with her arms wide open.

Alex smirked and said "Hold it lady. What are you doing? Well, let me you something. One of my principles are, opportunity missed will never be regained. So don't think I am going to embrace you just because of an apology."

"Oh really? Trying to play hard to get cute guy?" Elena asked with a smile.

"Nope. It's just one of my principles." Alex replied with a smile plastered in his face.

"Hmm. The principled man. Good for you." Elena said seriously and applauded him.

Alex smiled again.

"So, is that why you came here? Just to apologize to me?" Alex asked.

"Sure. What else you want me to do?" Elena looked at him with an affable smile.

"Of course nothing. You would be going back to your hostel block right? Let me see you off" Alex said.

"Aww. What a lovable, principled, young gentleman. Thanks." Elena said with a smile. Then she came close to Alex and curled an arm around his neck.

Then they began to walk towards Elena's hostel block. While walking, the principal suddenly appeared in front of them.

"You guys should be couples. You match each other a hundred percent." He said with a smile.

Elena quickly removed her hand as she and Alex greeted.

"It's okay." He said with an affable smile. Then he turned his head to look at Alex.

"So sorry I couldn't get to you in time. I would have brought you to the academy instead of you going through a lot in coming back here. You do love the academy that you returned instead of going far away and never returning. Your life could have been endangered. You would have been attacked or killed by pillagers or robbers in the wilderness and in some places in the city. All that's in the past anyways. I am glad you are here now." He said with a friendly smile.

Alex smiled and nodded. But he could perceive another meaning in what the principal was saying. His mind then began to decrypt the words the principal said and he came up with something that seemed insidious and nefarious from all that Gerald said.

Then he looked at the principal again and his eyes turned white, then golden abstruse patterns appeared in them.

Suddenly, he appeared in a large room were a beautiful woman looking pale white could be seen. Despite looking so sick, her ravishing beauty couldn't be hidden.

She held a three-piece necklace in a hand that was trembling. Then in front of her could be seen a charming, seven-year old girl and an old man whose hair were completely white beside her.

He was shocked by where he was. He didn't know how he appeared here. Then when he looked around, he saw the man that attacked Nadja.

"What?!"

His eyes widened.