Immortal Kingdoms

While other saints can only scramble for ether fragments to bitterly increase their cultivation due to the severe lack of quintessential ether; the substance left behind after the destruction of a mature celestial body, achieving divinity in the Core Mainland is actually much more arduous than in a normal stellar world.

Leonardo thought that it was no wonder why major powers would protect the livelihood of planets that had achieved maturity, they probably harvested their quintessential ether in the dark. He couldn't help but worry about Arcadia's future, but then again he realized that it would take at least a few thousand years for the will to mature and by then, everyone he cared about would have already aged enough to die a natural death. Thus, he calmed down.

However, he also knew that Wendy's co-soul treated Arcadia as a daughter, and it was very possible that Wendy would go back to the stellar world in the event of someone targeting Arcadia.

Leonardo left his house with that headache in mind, not caring that the Maiden in black was quietly following behind him since there was at least one Maiden left in the house to receive Merlin and the menial servants.

As for the Maiden, she didn't ask anything, but puzzlement grew even denser in her eyes as she noticed Leonardo's destination based on the movement pattern…

The teleportation hall?

At first, she assumed that Leonardo wanted to handle some business in a different district, but when they went from the branch teleportation hall to the main teleportation hall, her expression went pale.

Since they were in public, she didn't refer to Leonardo by his true name. Instead, she spoke in a soft yet worried voice, "Master Shi, this…"

She was a divinity with ether in her system, she could withstand the violent ether fluctuations in the uncharted wilderness. However, Leonardo was still a saint.

A High Saint, but a saint regardless.

Going outside was nothing short of suicidal, but the restrictions prevented her from acting against her Master's instructions no matter how grave the orders were. Unless her senses determined that he was in a critical state of life and death, she wouldn't be able to act.

"Don't worry, I can handle things just fine. However, you'll have to keep whatever you're about to witness confidential." Leonardo could guess her worries, and although he didn't really care whether what he was about to do proved logical or not, he at least felt like saying this would allude her to having a bit more faith in him.

As expected, hearing that this was a matter related to some secret of Leonardo's, the Maiden instead calmed down and felt somewhat elated to be trusted with one of his secrets on the very first day.

"Understood!"

She took a deep breath and clutched at the hems of her long black skirt while following into the great teleportation circle behind Leonardo…

Only after going through the teleportation hall did Leonardo realize that these twelve Maidens didn't have names, and they were registered as slaves with a sequence code under his identity as Shopkeeper Shi.

Of course, although having twelve divinities as slaves would raise a few eyebrows, the Magistrate Manor didn't seem to care one bit about it. Perhaps to them, there was no difference between saints and divinities, all of them together were a group of smaller and bigger ants.

Moreover, there was nothing money couldn't buy nowadays in the black market, and it wasn't usual for rich households to groom their own slaves into divine tier cultivation, although most people thought of it as squandering resources.

The Maidens were named from 001 to 012 respectively, with the one following him being Maiden 001, or M1 for a nickname. Eventually, Leonardo didn't bother giving them names as he never attached importance to such meaningless trifles.

As for how to differentiate them? That was easy, as Leonardo found a black '001' tattoo on her nape under her flowing black hair.

The teleportation location into the uncharted wilderness was random, but the Lush Skirts Plains Province lived to its name with the endlessly stretching verdant plains encircled by towering mountains.

The two happened to drop from a crack in space that opened directly at the foot of one of these mountains, surrounded by a forest of thick and tall trees with deep green canopies.

The moment they landed, a thin film of energy surfaced on Maiden 001's body, but the ether in the environment shackled her from expanding a domain to help Leonardo resist.

She could only expand her spiritual sense as it didn't conflict with the attributes of the ether, but that power can't freely interact with matter, rendering it ineffective for forming a protective domain.

Just as she was in a panic, a loud bang sounded as Leonardo didn't only contend against the ether, but he actively began absorbing it into his cells and transferring over 99% of the overall energy directly into his soul pearl, allowing Rosaline's embryo to greedily suck this energy clean.

As for the remaining 1%, it began to gradually interact and convert the worldly energy within his cells, allowing the colorless energy circling from his cells into his body to gain a faint touch of pale blue.

Maiden 001 watched in disbelief as the violent torrents of ether surrounding Leonardo gradually stabilized into a calm tempo. However, although it could be considered calm, it was nonetheless a volume that threatened to blow someone up from excessive energy.

As for Leonardo, he noticed that whatever remnant ether he diverted towards his own cultivation wasn't sufficient to actually complete either major or minor cycles, but Rosaline's embryo was like a bottomless pit drawing in energy.

He assumed that this will keep up until her cultivation was restored and she achieved rebirth. Other than that, he could also temporarily stop his cultivation and focus on converting his energy, ultimately having sufficient resistance to split the ether between himself and Rosaline 50/50.

Thinking about that, Leonardo stopped cultivating and allowed the remnants of ether to sublimate his worldly energy instead. In a moment, he opened his eyes and let out a breath.

"Okay, let's go," Leonardo smiled faintly at the Maiden.

"Go where?" The Maiden asked in confusion.

Leonardo blinked, "Anywhere with monsters or something similar. I don't have any martial techniques on me, so I was planning to make do with the ones you know for now."

The Maiden hesitated for a bit and said, "My martial techniques are designed for archery, are you good with archery?"