'Time to explore the rest of the city, there's no way it's possible for everyone to be arrogant idiots after all; it's been a while since I had at least some semblance of an intelligent conversation.' I thought, not counting my conversation with that brat of a princess, intelligent would be the wrong way to describe it with her attitude.

I began walking the streets of the Capital; although it was a massive city the layout was more efficient than I had thought, the homes of commoners were located on the outer regions and the shops located near the inner city gates; it could be seen that a clear social divide existed however everyone seemed to live in relative comfort regardless, 'Tch, I was probably just unlucky to encounter an idiot brandishing their carriage like a weapon.' I sneered thinking back to that incident, although I didn't care about the lives or deaths of people around me meaninglessly slaughtering was something I looked down upon.

Even I had a limit to why I would kill and it was never for fun; I killed to grow stronger - if you're too weak for me to benefit from that's your luck if you aren't? I can only wish you better luck in the afterlife.

It took me about thirty minutes to reach the inner area of the outer city, the bustling stores and shops were located conveniently; there was a clear difference in quality of the guards in this area of the city, all of them were at the Pinnacle of the Mortal Gathering Stage, it was a pity that I couldn't risk incurring the wrath of a Core Gathering Expert at the moment; a cruel plan started to form in my mind at that moment.

'Hehehe, it's clear for anyone to see the city will be plunged into chaos in the future; maybe someone planning a rebellion? The Guards are all clearly on edge, their hands were instinctively rested on the hilts of their blades - either they'd been told to be prepared or this was something they'd learned from their training. Even if I'm wrong, who says I can't encourage a rebellion myself?' 

I scanned the guards indifferently with a face of ice - if a rebellion began who could blame me for reaping the lives of these ants? The Core Gathering Experts would be too busy trying to either take advantage of the new chaos themselves or helping suppress it; after all, aren't human hearts greedy? 

If I placed a clear opportunity for those who wanted to acquire the power to do so right in front of them, would they miss the chance to take it? Obviously not, they would be willing to lose an arm and leg to move up in this world - maybe even controlling the Kingdom from the shadows with a puppet king.

Many different ideas went through my head in that time; for the next ten minutes I just leaned against a wall and casually observed the people in passing; many of them were commoners with no cultivation, a few had broken-through the restraints of a Mortal and reached the second realm.

I was shocked however that several Core Gathering Experts passed me; a convoy of carriages went straight into the Inner City, five experts in total for five separate carriages - it seems I was right that something was going to happen or why else would so much power be gathered in one place?

I couldn't help but think that they could even be 'Knights' under King if James was his subordinate even at the Core Gathering Primary stage what was to say that they weren't too? This was his world after all, it was better to be safe than sorry - if I wanted to kill any of them I needed to be certain I could do it swiftly, my best chance would be after I had broken-through into the Core Gathering Realm myself or else I wouldn't be able to match the insane reaction speed that the monkey had shown previously.

I could only sigh in defeat, with my current rate of progression it would be a while until I broke-through - my only way to speed up the process would be to spend more time in the Shadow Realm to slowly increase but that would make me miss out on the bonus of Overflow XP, despite still not knowing its real purpose I had to hope that it would be a reason for me fighting above my realms in the future or elsewhere would I find so many at the same realm as me in the future as I rose through the ranks?

The only thing I could do if I reached such a stage would be mass slaughter of those much weaker than me until I achieved the required XP - by that time it could even be in the tens of thousands so the Shadow Realm XP alone wouldn't be enough to match the speed at which I needed to grow.

The only problem with that plan is that I would probably make an enemy of every cultivator in the future... 

'I should only think of those matters when I get to that level of strength, otherwise I'll be too preoccupied with the future to focus on my present; I'm still only a slightly stronger ant in front of Core Gathering Experts let alone King himself, if I want to fight on par with him I need to at least be able to pressure him.' My thoughts drifted back to my main goal, his death would be a turning point for me; it was a goal far from my current standing but a goal nonetheless.

"Techniques! Techniques for sale! Come to the Technique Pavillion, inside we have all the best techniques of the Kingdom; all at a reasonable price!" A man next to a relatively large multi-story building was advertising, my interest was instantly piqued but I could only scoff at the part of a reasonable price, who said I was paying?

"Meld." I entered the Shadow Realm and walked into the building, there was a reception desk with two sets of stairs behind the receptionist a price on a sign was clearly displayed.

"1 Gold for 1 Hour of Study."

What a high price, luckily I wouldn't be paying. Grinning I channeled my energy and leaped up the stairs, I could barely manage to get to the bottom step where there was still a small shadow for me to stand in - to pull this off I would have to leap up the stairs and re-enter the Shadow Realm without being caught; the Aura of a Core Gathering Realm Expert was clearly present inside, one mistake and I'd have to run.

On the second level of the building, there were many bookshelves labeled clearly for everyone to see; it seems that the Core Gathering Expert monitored the people who came in and timed them, when their hour was up he probably projected it into their mind before forcing them out if they didn't cooperate.

"Cultivation, Battle Skills, Movement Skills." Three clear categories were in front of me; I could probably manage to get a book from all three before disappearing with them but I couldn't be sure if the senses of the Core Gathering Expert would detect the disappearance of the book into the Shadow Realm, I was lucky that his sense hadn't monitored the stairs where the shadow I had entered was but instead as soon as you stepped onto the floor, if I removed a book I might have to escape in a hurry.

I was stuck in a dilemma; on one hand, I could grab and run but then I would have to make one choice, the other would be to grab it and move further away and hope the Expert doesn't have any techniques to detect people hidden in the Shadow Realm, with all these techniques here it was possible they had one that was focused on detection like the main gates were...