Compared to the 10 years he spent cultivating the first mortal coil, it seems like he was slow in the second mortal coil, but he actually wasn't.
Other people spend an average of 50 years or a maximum of 100 years at the second mortal coil, but he spent 20 years. That's 40% of the average time or 20% of the maximum time. So his progress can't be considered slow.
His progress certainly can't be considered slow when it is compared to the progress of his mother. His mother is currently at the sixth transformation, working to tackle the hurdle of the seventh transformation.
She has been working on the second mortal coil for 40 years now. He reached the peak of the second mortal coil in half the time, so he can't be considered slow by any means.
He is not slow compared to Augustus, his father, either. But if Lady Vena is compared to Augustus, who has also been at the second mortal coil for 40 years and is at the eighth transformation, it is clear at a glance who will be able to reach the tenth transformation of the second mortal coil in 50 years, just in time to break through to the third mortal coil.
Anyway, it can be stated with certainty that his cultivation speed has never been slow. This was the case at the first mortal coil and is the same at the second mortal coil.
But while the speed of progress he experienced in the first mortal coil was entirely due to his hard work and the help of the Mountain Sitting Dao, the speed of progress he experienced in the second mortal coil was highly influenced by his environment.
By his environment, he means the influence of the Blood Skull sect. It was the Blood Skull sect that gave him a good place with high mana concentration to cultivate in and access to resources that sped up his progress.
So he has the Blood Skull sect to thank for its large contribution towards his fervent pursuit of power. Aside from that, he has himself, the Mountain Sitting Dao, and his dojo for what he has achieved.
Thanks to his dojo, he was able to level up in both Mountain Karma and Mountain Foundation. Now they are level 5 and level 4, respectively. This has granted him a big boost in his power.
He said to himself with a chuckle, "If I'm thanking my dojo that I established for doing what I established it to do, then I should thank myself for spending the money to establish the dojo in the first place."
He believes that the benefits that the Red Dojo brought to him were mainly due to the money he spent in establishing it. If there is another person he is willing to credit with the success of his dojo, then it will be his mother, Lady Vena.
He spent a lot of money to establish 1,500 dojos all over the Five Veins region. This is an increase from the 100 dojos that were established 20 years ago.
There are about 100 cities in each of the five countries of the five-vein region. He built at least 2 dojos for each city and another 1 for the towns around the cities.
Sometimes, if the city was accommodating, he could build 3 dojos there instead of diversifying into the surrounding area. This came up to 300 dojos for each country and a total of 1,500 for all five countries.
Each dojo has two teachers who he has to pay 1 gold per day for their work. So all of this work cost him 3,000 gold coins per day, or 1,095,000 gold coins in one year.
This is a lot of money. Because of this large expense, he spends 5,475,000 good coins just to manage his dojo.
The income from his book can barely pay for this. So there was no way the income from his book could have funded his cultivation needs or the carcasses and other materials that he needed for research and learning how to forge.
It was painful to pay so much money. It always felt as if he was cutting his flesh whenever he needed to pay the salary of the teachers. But he continued to maintain the cost because in exchange for spending all of this money on his dojo, he got a lot of karma from it.
Each of the 1,500 dojos teaches about 2,000 students, and each student gives him 7 merit points every day. So he earns 21 million karma every day.
Each dojo was supposed to teach just 1,000 students. This was the optimum size before decline in appreciation begins to occur, but he decided to increase the class size in order to maximize the utilization of the teachers and his money.
Of course, this decision made each class overcrowded and reduced the usual appreciation for the classes from 10 merits per day to 7.
The size of the class made it difficult for the students to get something out of the class. But he didn't mind the reduction in appreciation because he was still coming out on top in terms of efficiency.
The best part about letting more students stay in each class meant that he got the opportunity to help more people for less money. This not only helped increase the amount of merits he earned for Mountain Karma, but it also helped Mountain Foundation to grow faster.
In fact, it can be said that Mountain Foundation was the biggest beneficiary of this arrangement because the merit that fuels its growth comes more from the number and quality of people that he helped rather than how much he helped them.
Of course, how much help that he rendered to people also matters, as it determines how much merit he gains from them every day. But his help, no matter how small, will also be worth more if the person he helps achieves a lot in the future.