Attribute Farming System

With a slight grin, Knox descended the mountain's summit. Blending in with the crowd was his chosen course of action as he patiently awaited the opening of the Devilstar Secret Realm. The energy tendrils shooting out of it were becoming ever more volatile, ensuring that he wouldn't have to wait very long.

However, during this wait, he noticed the arrogant cultivators of the Skycloud Palace Sect pointing up at the sky, their mouths agape in shock. That was when it appeared—the most massive Spirit Ship yet—one that hoisted the Water Kingdom's flag and the Royal Family's insignia.

"The… Royal Family of the Water Kingdom has arrived!"

Curiosity flickered in Knox's eyes as he observed the Royal Family's Spirit Ship. It was large enough to be termed a flying cruise ship, but more than its size, it was the entities on board that truly caught his attention.

'Ten or so Soul Formation Realm Masters,' he noted. 'Furthermore, a couple of Nascent Soul Realm cultivators on board aren't any older than twenty-five years. Hmm…'

It quickly became apparent that these were likely the supreme geniuses of the Water Kingdom. After all, for most, even reaching the Nascent Soul Realm by four hundred years old was seen as a grand feat. For individuals in their twenties to have accomplished the same thing, they would either have to be top-level geniuses or young masters and misses stuffed like pigs with Natural Treasure Herbs and Pills.

And since this was the Royal Water Family, it was anyone's guess.

"Hum…?"

A young female figure on board the Royal Family's ship suddenly shot her gaze in Knox's direction. She was one of the Nascent Soul Realm geniuses he had observed, and from the looks of it, her cultivation was mostly natural.

"A sharp woman," he murmured as he weaved through the swathes of cultivators, effectively leaving her keen train of sight. "I wonder who she is…"

"Is something the matter, 13th Princess Maya?" a voice came from beside the watching woman. "Has someone down there offended you in some way? If so, then please tell me, and I'll go dispose of them right away."

Maya shook her head before elegantly turning away from the Spirit Ship's dock. "It's nothing, Elena," she said unempathetically. "Tell me, have the others arrived yet?"

"By others, do you mean those ranking the highest on the Ordinance List?" asked Elena as her long brown ponytail whipped around her tightly fitted suit. "If so, then yes, most of them have arrived. Would you like me to name the ones you should be most concerned about?"

Maya nodded.

Elena took that confirmation as her go-ahead to begin pointing out all the most powerful and renowned geniuses in the area.

"First," she said, looking at a young man with closed eyes and a high-rank sword kept close to his heart, "there is the most talented core disciple from Sword Sanctuary Sect—Lenon. Late Nascent Soul Realm, thirty-three years old, Level 3 Sword Intent, and a Sky-rank Treasured Sword passed down from his sect's Sect Leader. The Sword Sanctuary Sect has high hopes that he'll exceed past generations and become the true successor to the Heaven-rank Primeval Origin Sword."

"The sword that hasn't recognized an owner for five thousand years? Since the very inception of the sect?"

"Yes, my Lady," Elena answered. "The only other known wielder of the Primeval Origin Sword was the founder of the Sword Sanctuary Sect. And although it's not verified, it's hypothesized that you need a very rarely seen Sword Body Physique to get the Heaven-rank Sword to acknowledge you."

"Lenon has a Sword Body Physique?"

"Unknown…"

"I see," said Princess Maya. "Well, no matter. You may resume."

"Very well, my Lady," Elena said as she motioned to a stone-faced kid wearing a traveler's hat. "Ranked forty-one among the Children of the Water Deity—Star-Gazer Child. Late Nascent Soul Realm, user of Star Force, and forty-two years of age. He's accompanied by his elder sect sister—the strongest among the Children of the Water Deity below the Soul Formation Realm—Nala Maybringer. She's ranked fifteen among the Water Deity's Children, even outranking a few of the Soul Formation Children."

The cute little girl they were looking at looked right back at them. She sneered before putting up a Dimensional Barrier that covered her along with the rest of her sect's giant Spirit Ship.

"As you can see," said Elena, "at just seventy years of age, Nala not only managed to reach the Half-step Soul Formation Realm, she also obtained enough mastery in the Dimensional Law to have the Water Deity Sect's Founder mark her as a potential inheritor of his title."

"Oh?"

"Out of everyone, though, the competitor I'd be most cautious about is the second eldest son and disciple of the Blade King—Lucidador," Elena said with dramatic pauses. "He, too, is of the Half-step Soul Formation Realm but has been at that stage for the better part of three decades. Stranger yet is that, with his cultivation talent and the backing of the Blade King, he should've long since broken through to the Soul Formation Realm. Which means…"

"Which means that he had been purposefully holding himself back," Maya finished for her Soul Formation Realm attendant. "But why would he do something like that?"

Elena shook her head. "No one really knows. Rumor has it that he's trying to attain the Echo of the Blade before breaking through, but no one has been able to confirm that information."

"Echo of the Blade?" Princess Maya parroted. "Lucidador is actually trying to aim for something as esoteric as that? Does he not know that the last prodigy of Blade Intent required nearly half a millennium to acquire his Echo of the Blade?"

"He should be aware, my Lady," replied Elena. "But as with most geniuses, Lucidador believes himself to be superior to everyone else—even other geniuses. And though it's yet to be seen whether or not he attains the Echo of the Blade, if he does somehow get his own…"

Princess Maya's exquisitely carved eyebrows knitted together as she changed the way she looked at the long, blonde-haired man adorned in whitish-gold robes.