He grabbed the white disk from where it was floating around his head and caressed it as he said, "I know. I can always count on you to always strive for excellence."
It said, "Yessss. My thirst for knowledges isss endlesssss."
As it got excited, it tended to add s to everything it said and even drew the s longer than normal.
Arthur returned to his cultivation room with a light heart. He wanted to resume cultivating and learning as soon as possible. But Stella had sent some messages to him that he needed to review before he could focus on cultivation.
He spent a few seconds telling her about his mission. He didn't tell her anything critical to the mission or important. He mostly mentioned the banquet, the games, and the lottery that he held.
She also wanted to hear about the lottery and urged him to hold one in the Blood Skull sect, too. He agreed and promised to hold one.
After satiating her curiosity, he also went through the messages that Thor had sent. Thor was quickly reaching the peak of the third mortal coil and wanted to get some advice from him about advancing to the fourth mortal coil.
Since it was a critical matter, he chatted for a while with Thor. He spent five minutes chatting with Thor. Their conversation would have been longer than that if he knew more about Thor's foundation.
All he knew was that Thor's cultivation technique was related to the cultivation technique that Patriarch Sword Flash created. So it isn't part of the four main cultivation techniques of the sect.
In their chat, he managed to learn more about Thor's cultivation technique. He learned that, in essence, the cultivation technique's goal was to turn him into a machine that he could easily enhance with the power of formations.
This was opposed to the goal of the Everlasting Wood Art, which wanted to turn him into a tree, or that of the Divine Lightning Armament that aimed to turn its user into a bolt of heavenly lightning.
After hearing about the effects of the cultivation technique and remembering how Thor used to bully his mates at the second mortal coil with golems at the third mortal coil, he had no doubt believing that Sword Flash was the strongest cultivator in the Five Veins region.
Eventually, their conversation came to an end. Then he finally put away his sect ID card and focused on cultivating.
Thanks to the secrecy of his cultivation room, he could finally let loose with maximum cultivation speed. Mana from the environment rushed into his body and gushed out in alternating rhythms as his core stripped environmental mana of the element that he needed to grow stronger.
This process occurred at a speed that was out of the ordinary for an early-stage golden core cultivator. If he had displayed this kind of cultivation speed outside, it would have surely drawn attention.
He had learned to hide his cultivation speed after Stone Hawk became curious about his foundation the first time she saw him draw mana into it. He doesn't want a lot of people to know just how talented he is, especially after hearing about the patriarch of the Black Bones sect's love for talent.
Currently, the only people who might know how fast he cultivates are the patriarchs of the sect and Stella. Other people will also realize that he cultivates very quickly after witnessing his fast cultivation progress, but they will be confused and unable to figure out how he managed to achieve it.
In one sitting, he cultivated for five years straight. Unfortunately, this time wasn't enough to help him advance to the second transformation of the fourth mortal coil.
But in the time he was locked away in cultivation, a lot happened. The most important event that took place when he was locked away was the exchange program that happened a year after the last one.
This exchange program involved all the five sects. Even the avatars of the various patriarchs met to discuss.
Only the lone loose rank 5 cultivator didn't participate in the meeting. Other than that, the exchange program was a general success.
Another event that took place when he was busy was that after the exchange program, Thor managed to advance to the fourth mortal coil. This increased the number of golden core and elders of the sect to 29.
This happened a year into his cultivation. Two years later, the junior elders Battle Furnace and Blood Spider also advanced to the fourth mortal coil. This raised the number of golden core elders to 31.
Despite this high number of golden core elders, there was still no end in sight. There were still many people who were ready to make the attempt to advance to the fourth mortal coil.
The two new golden core elders threw a party. This meant that they terrorized the Five Veins region for a while.
Even Thor joined them. He didn't throw a party when he just advanced, but that was only because he didn't have many friends in the sect. But he decided to join the fun after the two new golden core elders invited him.
Arthur was also invited, but he decided not to attend. He remained in seclusion, cultivating. He would have continued cultivating for many more years if not for the fact that Lady Vena needed his help in advancing to the third mortal coil.
His mother didn't trust the people of the Dyson family. To be specific, she didn't trust Augustus's true wife not to do anything to sabotage her advancement. So she needed him to help protect her.
He considered the whole thing to be a nuisance, but he felt that he could take a few days off to help the manager of his dojo. There was also the fact that he hadn't seen his mother in 40 years. He thought it would be a good idea to see her again especially now that she could die.