Chapter 608 - Revival of Black Rain Manor

Katie began her fifth Covert Martial Arts training session inside the glass training room of the white villa.

She sat cross-legged, placing her left sole on her right knee and her right sole on her left knee, showing astonishing flexibility. Her palms pressed together before her chest, thumbs touching in a posture of devotion.

"Myriad Golem Sentiments, Golem Heart Codex. Myriad Golem Sentiments, Golem Heart Codex..."

The soft murmurs echoed over and over within the training room. After ten repetitions, Katie slipped fully into a meditative state. Every stray thought in her mind had been removed, leaving nothing but clarity.

The phrase she had just recited was the general preface of the Golem Heart Codex. Practitioners of the Golem Heart Codex who recited it frequently could calm their moods. At times, they could even receive subtle insights and gain unique comprehension. Before cultivating the Golem Heart Codex, beginners usually chanted the preface many times to reduce distracting thoughts. It was beneficial for a quick entry-level breakthrough.

Hoo... hiss... hoo... hiss... hoo... hiss...

A unique breathing method began to operate as Katie's chest rose and fell gently. Gradually, she felt warmth spread through her entire body, as if she were soaking in a hot spring.

A stream that felt half liquid, half mist rippled out from within her, circled once around her skin, and finally converged on her Dantian. Calming her mind, she sensed a whirlpool of heat in her lower abdomen. Something seemed ready to be born from within it.

Katie had heard Simone explain it as a Golem Sentiment, equivalent to a seed of cultivation. Only by condensing a Golem Sentiment and using it as a foundation could one step onto the Covert Martial Arts path of growing stronger. However, a Golem Sentiment was not a Golem Seed.

A Golem Sentiment was essentially a shrunken version of a Golem Seed, whose effects were merely fundamental. But a Golem Sentiment did not need to be bestowed by Cassius; practitioners of the Golem Heart Codex could condense it themselves.

Everyone, regardless of whether they were adult or child, man or woman, carried a faint hint of Qi within their bodies, scattered into every corner. Since it was too thin, ordinary people simply could not sense it. However, through a special breathing technique, blood-guiding training, and the manual's self-hypnosis, the Golem Heart Codex could create a faint magnetic field in the body, gradually pulling all the dispersed Qi toward the Dantian to condense into a Golem Sentiment.

One could say the Golem Heart Codex followed an alternate trail which was utterly different from ordinary Covert Martial Arts methods. By virtue of that approach, the Codex lowered the cultivation threshold, allowing more common people to begin.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Inside the training room, Katie's breathing grew louder. Her combat attire was soaked through with sweat, clinging to her body and tracing her graceful curves. Her once-fair skin flushed red, apparently from fully opened pores and engorged vessels. Wisps of white steam rose from Katie's shoulders, plainly visible in the sunlight.

Ding!

Her body jolted as a crisp shattering sound rang beside her ear. An unprecedented feeling of ease swept through her entire body. Katie opened her eyes, delight shining in her blue pupils.

Her lips curved into a smile. "It worked! The Golem Sentiment has condensed! Simone told me that if a beginner can condense the Golem Sentiment within ten attempts, they are considered a genius. I succeeded in five, so that surely counts as talented! I wonder how many tries he needed..."

Katie sprang to her feet. Moments ago, she had been sitting cross-legged, yet now she bounded around effortlessly.

Princess Katie quickly flexed her hands and feet. First came lightness; every movement had grown much faster. Next came clarity; it was as though some impurities in her body had evaporated and been removed. Her senses had also sharpened, as though the world had become clearer. Last was strength. There was a distinct sense that her power had increased.

Princess Katie chose to test it at once, taking a few steps to the row of hanging sandbags in the corner. She first glanced at the smallest sandbag, the only one she had managed to move before her training. Her gaze went from the second to the fifth sandbag.

Sandbag number three was twice the weight of number one, and number five was triple. They looked heavy and hard to budge. Katie hesitated, then chose sandbag number three. She gathered a bit of power and punched.

The sandbag swung high with a

bam

. Katie looked at her fair fist, a glimmer flashing in her eyes. "That's actually twice my former strength!"

She suddenly looked up at sandbags four and five to her left.

Bang! Bang!

Sandbag four moved as well, while sandbag five was just short of budging.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Katie panted heavily, yet her eyes could not hide their excitement.

She had just tried releasing her Golem Sentiment, and nearly sent sandbag five flying. That was triple her original strength. According to Simone, ordinary practitioners could at most double their power after an entry-level breakthrough. Yet she was a hair's breadth from tripling hers.

Katie's eyes sparkled; excitement lit her face and a trace of ambition and desire glinted in her pupils. "Could I really be a genius!?"

She seemed to have changed, utterly unlike her formerly elegant, demure princess image. Whether the Golem Heart Codex had changed her, or Katie had always been this way with her ambition merely suppressed, she did not know. Now, it had finally been released.

"

Hoo...

" She exhaled the heat from her chest. A wave of weakness rushed through her body, nearly making her faint. Her vision darkened, outlines blurred, and golden stars flickered. It felt much like completing an exhausting marathon.

Her stomach growled, her limbs weary and limp. "So tired, so hungry..."

Princess Katie rested for quite a while before quickly ordering the villa servants to prepare a tableful of dishes. At first, the cook thought some distinguished guests were coming and thus made several portions.

In the end, Princess Katie sat at the table, monopolising all the dishes herself. She wolfed them down like a starved ghost reincarnated. It was a complete contrast to her previous ladylike image of nibbling delicately.

The onlookers gaped, almost suspecting that something had possessed the princess. Later Katie explained she needed nutrition after training, which somewhat eased the servants. Even so, it was rather shocking that a petite girl finished an entire table of delicacies.

Afterwards, Princess Katie spent an entire day with diarrhea. Since a copious amount of food had gone in, it naturally had to come out. No matter how beautiful, elegant, cute, or sexy a woman may be, she still had to take a shit when nature called.

***

A day passed; it was September 16, and the weather was clear. After a day of stomach troubles, Princess Katie had finally recovered.

She planned to head to the Golem Sect Martial Hall in East Sea City to tell Simone of her entry-level breakthrough. Simone counted as half a teacher to Katie. With his guidance, her cultivation would surely yield twice the result with half the effort.

At about eight in the morning, a silver limousine drove slowly out of the International Embassy District toward the southern sector of East Sea City. Twenty minutes later, the car stopped in a designated parking area.

Dressed in a spry hunting outfit, Princess Katie strode energetically into the Golem Sect Martial Hall. Unexpectedly, the hall's usual scene of fiery training and vigorous sparring was nowhere to be seen.

Princess Katie hurried toward the rear courtyard of the hall. There, she finally saw members of the Golem Sect. Everyone was standing in solemn rows, as though something major was happening. At the front, Simone was issuing important orders.

"All right, everyone move out. Head for the southern outskirts."

Immediately, figures dashed out of the courtyard in an orderly manner. They were so swift that everyone was gone in the blink of an eye. Only Simone and Katie were left in the now-empty backyard.

"T-Teacher, what is this?" Katie felt a bit embarrassed using that title but she uttered it anyway, as it was an etiquette rule within the martial hall.

"

Oh?

Katie, you've broken through?" Simone's eyes swept over Katie and instantly sensed the aura of her Golem Sentiment. "Since you've broken through, you are formally a disciple of the Golem Sect. That works out. Join this operation with us."

"Let's go." Simone stepped forward directly and walked outside the courtyard.

"

Ah? Oh!

" Katie nodded somewhat blankly.

Half an hour later, a black car drove along grassy green slopes. In the lead vehicle, Simone sat in the front passenger seat while Katie sat in the back. This time, Katie had no one guarding her as she had persuaded her bodyguards. To Katie's surprise, she had thought the guards from the Black Ops Agency would never withdraw. When Katie had first arrived in the Hongli Federation, those guards had been icy and rigid, carrying out their agency's orders to the letter.

Yet this time when she discussed the matter with the guards, the moment she mentioned the Golem Sect, strong emotions appeared on their cold, stiff faces. They exchanged looks, and finally the guard leader nodded.

Princess Katie kept that fact in mind and pondered upon it along the way. She felt a thrill inside as she realized that the Golem Sect was no ordinary sect! Even the Black Ops Agency, the Hongli Federation's official supernatural force, had to back down before it. Could the Golem Sect also be a top-tier world power?! Her accidental entry into it was undeniably fortuitous.

Katie actually felt a bit grateful to the Ripple Order attackers from three days earlier. If they hadn't attacked her at the Golem Sect's tournament venue, she never would have joined the Golem Sect so easily, let alone studied under Simone the Demon Dog, apparently one of its upper echelon disciples, and received the Golem Heart Codex. Truly, misfortune and blessing were intertwined.

Katie calmed herself inside the slightly jostling car. She glanced at Simone ahead with his arms crossed and eyes closed, and asked cautiously. "Teacher, what exactly are we going to do?"

In the front seat, Simone slowly opened his eyes, paused for a moment, and said, "The Sect Master has returned... We are heading to God's Tears Lake..."

His voice was deep, filled with intense reverence and worship. Katie's pupils contracted slightly, and an inexplicable aura of dominance seemed to rush against her. The hairs on her arms stood on end.

"T-The Sect Master? The Golem Sect... Master!?"

"Yes," Simone glanced at the blue sky outside, turned to Katie and said, "In a moment, don't shout and don't run around. After I meet the Sect Master, I may call you over..."

His jet-black pupils reflected Katie's face. "Do you understand?"

"Y-Yes, understood!" Katie straightened and nodded firmly.

Simone slowly turned back to face the front. There were, in fact, other factors behind his taking Katie as a disciple. For instance, Katie's identity as a princess of the Yale Kingdom.

That was obviously helpful for expanding the Covert Martial Arts world among the eastern archipelago nations. Perhaps it was true that no petty villains could stop the great rise of the Golem Sect. Still, less resistance and higher efficiency were always welcome. Saving a little time in every aspect could add up to a significant amount, enabling the Golem Sect to grow even faster.

At around 9.30 a.m., the convoy arrived near God's Tears Lake and the group proceeded on foot across the grass.

About ten minutes later, the party finally reached the emerald lakeshore. The lake was smooth like a mirror, reflecting the sunlight. At a glance, there was not a soul in sight. The group exchanged looks in puzzlement. Someone was just about to speak when suddenly, the lake began to churn, and whirlpools formed one after another.

Thump, thump, thump.

The dull sound of footsteps drew nearer, as though some gigantic creature were trudging under the lakebed. They could even see vast shadows beneath the surface.

Splash!

A towering stone statue, more than six metres tall, burst from the water and strode onto the shore. Many such statues surrounded it, each like a small mountain. The sunlight cast overlapping shadows below it.

A figure sat cross-legged atop the largest statue. He opened his eyes, and his gaze exhaled boundless dominance. The moment that terrifying aura leaked out, clouds in the sky rapidly gathered as though to form a vast heavy raincloud.

The black-clad figure glanced up, and the clouds immediately shattered and dispersed into wisps. He lowered his head again, gazing at the reverently bowing Golem Sect members with no change of expression.

"Organize an expedition to Eternal Island in the southeastern seas. I visited there yesterday; the Ripple Order has been dealt with and need not be our concern for now. Our next focus must be on Black Rain Manor. It will certainly revive within five days... At that time, we shall encircle and exterminate the Gate Organization."