I decided that three days would be sufficient for the Treasure House to gather enough spirit stones for the rest of my Divine Swords, so that meant I could spend 3000 days in the Tower to polish my techniques and enhance my cultivation.

  Grandpa also had some work, with the Saint puppets meant to guard the auction house offices from random looters.

  My own cultivation grew as well, with billions of spirit stones to waste on lavish cultivation arrays. Fourth level, then fifth level of Saint Essence rank, then the 4th level in Body cultivation as a surprise. I didn't focus much on body cultivation, but I suspect that ingesting pills and herbs by the fistful every day had something to do with it.

  Lastly, my Soul cultivation was still slow and lagging behind, despite training in the Soul Array and performing dual and quintuple cultivation with my harem of jade beauties. I was missing something, so after 2000 days of fruitless efforts I decided I ask Grandpa.

  "You are young and greedy, Young Master. You do realize you're younger than all your women, and none of them have more than first level in Soul realm?" the old ghost asked in a serious tone. He was right, but...

  I nodded, but kept my eyes on the ghost. "A textbook answer, I could say. But I didn't hear an answer. Only a question." I insisted in a level voice.

  The Artifact Spirit sighed. "Even questions are dangerous for cultivators. The right question can break someone's mind." the ghost answered in a deft manner of double speak.

  Well, I was quite certain that my mind wouldn't break. Ever. I had a perk for that.

  "No. I mean yes, for other people. I don't want to ruin the future of my Tower members. But I'm quite different. I lack knowledge, not willpower." I spoke in a confident tone.

  My old Grandpa frowned, then pressed his hands together to form a blue bubble around us. A separation array. "Knowledge then. The soul is a special existence, linked to Samsara, the plane of reincarnation. What you experience in life is recorded and stored on the Other Shore, to be used in your future incarnations when you die. And other purposes as well."

  I blinked, considering the revelation that was supposed to break my mind. Some kind of cloud storage for my character's file?

  "Only the soul? Not the body and essence cultivation?" I asked instead.

  Grandpa grinned a bit too wide. Then he pointed his thumb at himself. "Most often yes. There are some techniques that can preserve some essence into talismans or puppets, or even pinnacle Artifacts like this one. For the body...I know some races can create multiple bodies for themselves, and some Divine techniques to incarnate Avatars and clones."

  "Wait...you skipped the best part!" I realized at once.

  "You already know about demonic techniques to absorb other souls into your own. Although those are quite common at higher realms even among orthodox cultivators that reach soul degradation and need to recover. So practically everyone uses them from Divine Realm and upwards." the old ghost pointed out with a shrug.

  I already tried this with a certain poisonous snake when I cultivated the Asura Sutra. Even had an extra ghostly arm, that I could summon at will now.

  However, Lin Fei had three arms, and those could turn to flesh and blood somehow, but I never reached that far in experimenting with demonic methods.

  "But you're saying that absorbing more souls would be a practical way to grow my own soul faster?" I asked to make sure. Cultivation was so harsh.

  Grandpa just closed his eyes, letting me draw my own answer. Hmmm, it would be a way, but not the only one.

  I could also drain Pure Yin from more women, or just cultivate more.

  I thought for a minute, then took out a Saint realm violet toad from my spatial ring. The poor thing had been stored in temporal stasis since I've left the Heaven Basin, but now it tried to run away.

  A slice of my Crimson Sword bisected the beast, and I also circulated my Soul Consolidation Mantra, drawing the pool soul into my inner realm.

  The Vajra Tower proved itself quite useful now, slamming on top of the croaking toad soul and grinding it to soul dust, then slowly absorbing it into the fabric of my inner world. This tore at my mind and willpower like nothing I felt before, as alien instincts battled my mind for supremacy.

  Good thing I did have the Unbreakable Will perk.

  Much later, I rose to my feet and Grandpa Heavengaze opened his palms in greeting. "Level 3 in Saint Soul Realm. And not even soul-shaken. You truly are built different."

  "Hmmm. I had to fight the toad in my soul. This didn't happen with the Asura method." I noted with a concerned voice.

  Grandpa blinked. "About that. You were supposed to receive an inner demon, back then. There were two explanations for that. One, your soul was protected by something, like an Immortal Artifact of some kind. Or two..."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "My inner demon merged with me, since we had the same goals and objectives." I added with a thin smile. I did do anything I wanted in this new life, with no regrets.

  "The inner demon is supposed to represent the repressed desires and resentments. Only certain holy monks were known to merge with their inner demons without any backlash. Less than a dozen in an entire Starfield of a trillion galaxies." my Grandpa said with a raised eyebrow.

  "You mean actual demons also get inner demons?" I asked amused.

  "Yes. All of them. Although there is a myth about an Archdemon who merged with his inner demon to become something else, it's only a myth. Such a being could potentially be stronger than a Golden Celestial, which would be..." Grandpa said in a thoughtful tone.

  "Cultivation never ends, though. There should be innumerable ranks above that, given an infinite universe and infinite time." I argued with a casual voice.

  Grandpa ghost frowned. "Theory is easy. But in practice, there aren't enough resources. Even the Golden Fox...well. Maybe her. She is also built different." he commented in a warning voice.

  A pulse of energy drew my attention to the Tower's plaza, where a small red fox flew out from the Soul Array, and howled in outrage, as her soul began to ripple and grow, until it ascended into Soul Realm.

  "Built differently, like that?" I asked rhetorically.

  Grandpa just shook his head. "Don't play with the tails too long. You still have a million more pills to fail."

  Right! I did have a dead toad to feed to my fox now, and I could play with the tails too.

  I jumped from the top of my Tower and landed beside Meadows with a toad leg in hand. "Here, little fox. I caught a toad for you." I offered in kind voice, while wrapping the two fluffy tails around my arms.

  The red fox glared at me for a second, before turning away and eating her gift. I knew she finished eating instantly, as a soul beam struck me like a truck right in my soul. Luckily, I was now at the 3rd level of Soul Realm and thus more firmly linked into the Samsara cloud download mechanism.

  I let the beam splash me without care, then raised an eyebrow as a mountain-sized Fox appeared in my inner world. "Pef, you stinky human! Why are you so strong?"

  "Because I train everyday, instead of playing with the kids and wasting time." I answered in a serious voice.

  Cultivation was a serious business, and those that were not diligent were left behind. Of course, it helped to also have natural talent and being rich to get cultivation resources. But without diligence and hard work, you couldn't stay ahead.

  The soul image shrunk to its normal size and jumped in my lap to be petted in soul form as well. The luscious red fur felt a thousand times softer in the inner realm, and Meadows purred like a cat. "My humans aren't little kids anymore. And Chen Feng will soon Ascend to become a Saint."

  The fox had purple-eyed Feng and the red haired brothers as her pets, and now she also had the newest boy called Chen Feng, which I kidnapped from the New Moon City by accident. Also, it had been 3000 days since I got the fox and the kids, and thus 8 years had passed since then.

  Soon enough, they will all become Saints, just like the other recruits from New Moon. This should happen most likely in the remaining 1000 days before I planned to leave the Tower and return to the auction house.

  I did notice something special about the Tower, however. While time did pass faster, aging didn't produce the same results.

  Thinking about it, the Tower was a controlled environment, without radiation, neutrinos and air pollution, or even too much ultraviolet and infrared light from a sun. Not to mention various cultivation hazards like toxic elements, demonic influences and all that.

  Cultivators were quite durable, but not even Saints could ignore lightspeed particles like neutrinos damaging their genes constantly.

  Instead, the Tower being a dimensional pocket was sheltered from all that stress, while the cultivation arrays provided an increase in ambient qi, which was also fortifying the health of everyone.

  Perhaps this was why cultivators that chose to seclude in temples and caves lived longer. Less outside stress.

  I had a feeling the Tower was much safer than a random cave anyway.

  After an hour of petting, Meadows jumped from my arms and we returned to our real bodies.

  My harem of jade beauties was waiting beside us, all except Ming who was still inside the Combat Array. I kinda admired her dedication to become a Sword Saint, knowing she was so close. However, the last step was the hardest. Forming your Dao Heart wasn't easy, and the manager of the auction house even claimed that one in a thousand Saints managed to form their Dao Heart.

  Well, those 999 who failed also didn't have access to my nice Combat Array and pile of resources, but it was a grim statistic if true.

  Lin Fei was also training hard, reaching 48 ghost kills already, and was next in line for a Sword Saint rank. However, the difference between us was immense now. I could defeat him with a single finger, and with my eyes closed. Which I did, everyday.

  That probably contributed to his frantic training, so it was all good. People should have a goal in life.

  A new face among the beauties made me raise an eyebrow. Caihong, the Rainbow Princess. Apparently, she was the 27th daughter of some important king, and lauded as a genius and prodigy her entire life. Until she entered my Tower.

  "Caihong, is there something you want to say?" I asked to make sure. She could be here by accident.

  The woman glared at me for no reason, then blushed and lowered her head. "Please take me too." she muttered in a low voice.

  Not an accidental meeting then. I glanced at Bai, who nodded to confirm my suspicion. "She asked me first." Bai added in a superior tone.

  I looked at every other woman, looking for signs or gestures of rejection. Harem happiness was quite important, after all. Mei grinned at me, her eyes sparkling with hidden knowledge. That woman was probably an evil genius under her jade skin.

  "Husband, we all discussed this before bringing it before you. If you want to be a king, we only have to kill 27 people." Mei explained with a sincere voice.

  I sighed and flicked Mei's forehead. "Why would I want to be a vassal of the Blue Wind Empire?" I asked in a dismissing voice.

  "But after that, we would only need to kill 67 people for you to become Emperor!" Mei protested while rubbing her forehead.

  See? An evil genius, and proud of it.

  "Caihong, ignore her. Secular titles are not important." I advised my new wife, while offering her my hand.

  "..." Caihong took my hand, but didn't answer, possibly still indoctrinated by her familial upbringing.

  "But if you would feel better, I can be your prince." I allowed in a modest voice. If my wife was a princess, that made me a prince, right?

  Caihong beamed a blinding smile at me, and jumped in my arms. "Thank you, my prince." she whispered while hugging me tight.

  Then we flew into the sky, and into my chamber at the top of the Tower. I guess I could fail the pills later. I had a new wife to explore.