Death... and me

Roan didn't take that long to find out where the body cultivation techniques were. It's just that the building was quite inconspicuous compared to the one for Divine Energy techniques. Along the way, Roan also contacted Rean to tell him about what he found. 'With that said, we'll probably need a lot of Divine Energy Stones.'

Rean pondered over it for a bit before saying, 'I guess I have no other choice, then. If we want fast money, I'll have to show my Element Gathering equipment.'

Roan didn't mind. 'The other weapons can already gather Elements. It's just that they have to use the inscriptions to do that. Your weapons can do it on their own as long as Divine Energy is poured into them. Whether you think it's worth showing this card or not is up to you.'

'Alright, leave it to me.' Rean couldn't help but comment, though. 'Still, to think that body cultivation techniques exist. We never found anything like that in the Mortal Realm. Now that I think about it, others might think that we were using these techniques when I activated my Enhancement skill. I wonder how good it'll turn out if the two are put together.'

Roan was also interested in that outcome. 'In this Sacred Land, we're only on par or just slightly stronger than the top cultivators. The average ones we can fight up to two stages above. The real top ones aren't so easy, as you saw during the Capture the Flag test. Then again, they were very few in between.'

Rean understood what Roan meant. 'You mean those whose we could only fight at the same level already had body cultivation techniques, right?'

'Yes,' Roan said in response. 'Venali, Hedoi, and even that girl called Liana. There's a reason why they were considered the top cultivators and the leaders of the hundreds of cultivators from their own countries. A reason why they were stronger, and it wasn't just cultivation and soul power alone.'

Rean thought it made sense. 'Cultivating body techniques is hard, painful, and expensive. It makes sense that only the best between them were able to do it while the rest couldn't.' Rean nodded in the end. 'Very well, I'm the one responsible for our money, so leave it to me. Just make sure to grab a good body cultivation technique. As for pain, you know that it isn't a problem when my Light Element is added to the mix.'

Rean was right. As mentioned several times, Rean could use Light Element to protect the organs. It was to the point that even the pain caused by Roan's Dark Element while using Purification was bearable. Compared to Roan's Dark Element, there was simply nothing out there that could be more painful. That's why neither Rean nor Roan was worried about the fusion of other materials with the body.

'Don't worry. I'll check every single manual available for me. It's just that I don't know if I'll have access to the top floors of the body cultivation technique repository. In the Divine Energy technique repository, I could only access four of the five floors there,' Roan mentioned.

Rean shrugged his shoulders after hearing that. 'Just like you told me, that's up to you.'

Roan nodded and ended his conversation with Rean.

Eventually, Roan arrived at the repository. It wasn't even a tenth of the size of the Divine Energy technique repository. There were five counters, while only two were being used. There were over a hundred in the Divine Energy repository, and almost all were occupied by cultivators making requests. It goes to show the huge difference in popularity between both schools. After getting inside, Roan went straight to one of the free workers there, who seemed to be relaxing due to the lack of things there was to do. "I want to check the body cultivation techniques."

The worker finally noticed Roan's presence and attended to him. "Oh, hi!" He then looked around and couldn't help but say, "Oh, it's quite rare to have three of us working at the same time in this place." He then looked back at Roan and asked, "Which sector are you part of?"

"Inner Sector," Roan said in response.

The worker smiled at Roan. "Inner Sector of the Sacred Land? Seems like you were one of the top ten cultivators in the end, then." He continued, "Alright, give me your badge so that I can register your presence. You can go and take a look after that."

Roan nodded and asked back, "Which floors are available for me to peruse?"

"Floors?" The worker was puzzled for a second before understanding what Roan meant. "Oh, right! The Divine Energy techniques require levels of access. Hahaha! Don't worry, don't worry. There's no such thing here. All the body cultivation techniques here are available for cultivators in any sector. There's no such thing as restrictions."

"No restrictions?" Roan could not help but become confused. "Why?"

The worker shrugged his shoulders, telling him, "Because almost no one wants to cultivate these techniques due to how expensive and difficult they are. Those who do already have their own techniques they brought back from their countries. In the end, we end up with people like you, who wish to try their luck for the first time and will probably give up after a few days. I wonder how many days you'll last."

Well, Roan was more than satisfied with that. "I see..." He then passed his badge to the worker, and a few moments later, he was given access to the repository.

Although there were no restrictions to which technique one wished to try, they were still divided by levels of difficulty. Their difficulty was divided into five levels, with number five being the most expensive and difficult ones. Roan pondered in silence for a bit and decided to go for level one techniques first. Even though this was the Sacred Land, the number of body cultivation techniques available wasn't even a thousandth of the Divine Energy ones. He was confident he could read and memorize everything in a few days. 'Well, let's start.'

In the meantime, Rean arrived at the Blacksmith Hall.