Arthur gave Blood Root the permission to come over. He had some free time in his hands, and he had some things he wanted to ask Blood Root, so he allowed Blood Rot to come over for a chat.
Blood Root came over with his two assistants. They explained some things about the Apex Alliance, such as the organizational structure. They also had him sign a document stating that he had joined the Apex Alliance.
The document was a short contract. He read the terms and conditions carefully before signing it.
After joining the Apex Alliance, he became a part of the group of beneficiaries. This part of the alliance has no hierarchy. It is just a loose mass of S-grade disciples.
He was given the contact information of everyone in the beneficiary group and the contact information of the directors of the support group. He can contact these people for help with anything he needs.
The other side of the Alliance is the support group. They are led by the directors.
There is no alliance leader in the Apex Alliance. Directors are in charge of the affairs of the support group, and below them are the officers.
The officers are the link between the directors and the individual members of the support group. They are the middle-level management.
A silent part of the Apex Alliance are the alumni and sponsors. They are old members that have ceased their activities with the alliance but still support the alliance and can be called upon for help once in a while. Many of them are at the fourth mortal coil.
After getting this information and signing the contract, he asked Blood Root to help him get information about the people who were admitted into the S grade in this round of admission. He was especially interested in those who will be cultivating any of the original cultivation techniques.
Blood Root promised to get the information ready in at most two months. He explained that it would take that long because not everyone has entered the sect yet.
Arthur knew about this, so he nodded in understanding. He also asked Blood Root to help him get information about the other members of the Dyson family that had been admitted into the Blood Skull sect.
He wanted to know if they were worth making contact with and what kind of people they were before making the effort. After all, it is not certain that they will help him, and it is not certain that they will be helpful to him even if they want to help him.
Besides, he doesn't have their contact information. He can't reach out to them now even if he wants to. He needs more recent information about them, which is why he gave Blood Root most of the information he has about them.
After doing this, he saw Blood Root and the two officers off. Then he returned to the cultivation room to continue cultivating.
As he was rushing to the cultivation room, he remembered the times in the past when he used to dread exercising. His mother had told him that he wouldn't need to do that in the future.
He chuckled deprecatingly and said, "It is because cultivation is no longer physically exerting that I will be in a hurry to cultivate."
Comprehending the Everlasting Wood Intent is strenuous. It has even taken a physical toll on his body worse than exercising. But it is not painful because he is unconscious when it happens.
Despite the extreme damage to his body, what he personally experiences is mental and physical tiredness. The whole experience feels like a dream to him. He wakes up tired and sweaty without recollection of any pain.
This is why he can be in a hurry to comprehend. He hopes that the rest of cultivation would be this easy, but he doubts it because if cultivation were this easy, then everyone would be good at it.
As he was thinking, he rushed into the cultivation room, closed the door, and took his seat. Then he took five blood piills and quickly focused on the force diagram even as his body began to simmer.
His body became hot. His blood rioted so much that his blood vessels and heart were about to explode.
Fortunately, he lost consciousness before that happened. Then he wandered in the dream of an Everlasting Tree.
As he was dreaming, he wondered to himself, "If I am the tree and the tree is only awake when I dream, does that mean that when the tree sleeps and dreams, I am awake in the world?"
He thought about this question for quite a while as his body absorbed energy from sunlight, mana from the environment, and nutrients from the ground. His body grew longer and thicker. Wind ruffled his leaves, and small animals lived in his branches.
Suddenly, a voice asked him, "What is wood? What is the foundation of a tree? What is the purpose of a tree? What kind of tree do you want to be?"
With each question, the voice became louder. Even after the voice was done asking its questions, its voice was still echoing in Arthur's ears and mind.
The voice was ringing in his mind again and again. It was getting quieter, but the rate at which it was quieting was too slow. It seemed that it would take forever for it to stop ringing in his mind.
Arthur wanted to answer the question. But he couldn't put together a coherent thought because of the ringing voice in his mind.
When he couldn't hold on anymore, he woke up from the dream. He woke up with a splitting headache, but everything else was fine.
Because he took five blood pills before comprehending the force diagram, he didn't feel hungry after waking up. But he was sure that Roar wouldn't be so lucky. So he left the cultivation to feed Roar, have a bath, and do other things like ordering for more food and pills.