109: Sergin's self-awareness

Although the heavy rain had receded, the sky remained a dull gray, with only the faint light of the sun shining through the clouds.

After inspecting the entire territory in the afternoon and finding no issues, Lister returned to the castle early.

As he passed through Ironthorn Town, the fervent atmosphere of the Soldier selection process continued.

Due to the large number of applicants, the Soldier selection process could not be completed quickly.

According to Red's estimation, it would likely take until tomorrow evening to finish.

After eating a bit, Lister went to the training grounds to practice.

Although there were no official duties to handle in the afternoon and he could have taken a good rest,

Spartacus's leapfrog breakthrough this morning had put considerable pressure on him.

Therefore, he didn't dare to slack off too much; otherwise, his subordinates would pull further and further ahead of him in terms of cultivation realm and strength.

This world was, after all, dominated by Transcendent beings. The House of Augustine, rulers of the Pedan Kingdom... had ruled this land for nearly a thousand years without ever facing a significant challenge from opposing forces.

It was never because of their so-called noble bloodline blessed by the holy light god; all their status and identity were supported by their formidable strength.

Not a single person in the entire kingdom's noble class was unaware of this.

What Lister needed to do now was to increase his strength to a higher realm as quickly as possible while continuously developing and expanding his territory's power.

The essence of a noble lord was that of a knight. A truly powerful lord's own cultivation realm was almost always on par with or even superior to that of their strongest subordinate knight.

This was the case for Earl Elsie de Frander of the Tulip Territory; his strength was significantly greater than that of his Chief Knight Captain, Brood Coverdale.

However, because the kingdom had developed peacefully for so long, some lords who inherited their titles were only interested in sensual pleasures and neglected their cultivation.

Consequently, their own strength and cultivation realms gradually began to fall behind those of the knights under them.

In a vicious cycle over generations, the gap between these lords and their knights grew wider and wider.

Setting aside their hereditary noble status and speaking only of their cultivation as knights, they couldn't even touch the coattails of their subordinates.

If Lister hadn't inherited this body, there would have been a high probability of this happening in the future.

The reason it was "in the future" was that he had inherited his title at such a young age; even if he had practiced hard before, it would be difficult to match veteran knights who had been cultivating for many years.

For such pleasure-seeking noble scions, if their father was a powerful lord and loved them, they would usually be given a small territory to live out their lives in comfort.

Otherwise, if the father's power was weak, they would be sent directly to a Pioneer Territory to fend for themselves.

After all, few nobles were like Lister's "cheap" father, having only one child, which was practically a laughingstock.

It was precisely for this reason that he was able to inherit a territory in relatively good condition.

That said, his deceased "cheap" Viscount father was the exact opposite; his cultivation realm was even slightly stronger than that of the original Chief Knight Captain.

This pattern was the normal, healthy one; otherwise, it would create potential hidden dangers.

Of course, given the current stability of the kingdom, such dangers were almost negligible.

Because powerful lords would never find themselves in a situation where their own strength was weaker than their Chief Knight—at most, they might be just a tiny bit weaker.

So, looking at it now, Lister was actually doing quite well. Given his current age and strength, such dangers were unlikely to arise.

His inner conviction to grow stronger quickly drove him to circulate his Breathing Technique frantically.

While absorbing the Battle Qi energy from the air, he used the spear in his hand to continuously temper his body in the open space.

Due to the lack of manpower—as Red had taken almost all the knights and Soldiers for the recruitment work—there were only a few people in the open space at this time.

Not far away, Seguin couldn't help but click his tongue in admiration as he watched the oppressive and intimidating aura radiating from Lister.

When he was subdued by Lister and brought to the territory yesterday, he had thought that with his Bronze Rank 2 strength, he would be able to secure a place for himself.

After all, Lister was just a Baron; how many powerful knights could he possibly have under him?

But reality dealt him a heavy blow. While Bronze Rank 2 wasn't exactly everywhere in the Ironthorn Territory, after this period of rapid development—especially with the Monster Meat Lister generously bestowed—

There were already quite a few Bronze Rank 2 knights in the Ironthorn Territory now, not to mention Red and the others whose cultivation realms were far superior to his.

If his cultivation and strength weren't enough, then surely his talent would suffice?

He had broken through to Bronze Tier 3 right after arriving in the territory. Although it was thanks to the Monster Meat, it was a breakthrough nonetheless.

But who would have thought that compared to him, these people didn't seem slow at breaking through either.

And Spartacus's monstrous talent made him feel like a frog at the bottom of a well.

Not only was he much younger, but he also practiced with such ferocity; breaking through was as easy as drinking water, as perfectly demonstrated by his breakthrough this morning.

Thus, after the mental shock from last night until now, he had accepted the idea that his talent was just "trash."

And now Lister's diligence was dealing him another significant psychological blow.

This "old man" under thirty would have to work harder; otherwise, he would be unworthy of Lister's great kindness.

After admiring for a while, he also began to practice.

Because the Breathing Technique he had practiced before was too fragmented, there might not be any issues in the early stages, but there were no guarantees for the future, and there might even be potential damage already.

Noticing this, Lister had directly ordered Dewey to teach him the Breathing Technique he himself had learned.

Although it was only a shallow-quality Breathing Technique, Seguin was still very moved, as he knew very well how precious such techniques were.

Moreover, while practicing the fragmented technique before, he had indeed felt some problems; every time he circulated it, although the pressure was strong, his chest would throb with pain.

But since he had no other Breathing Technique and faced many dangers as a bandit, he could only grit his teeth and keep practicing.

Now, the new Breathing Technique might not be as high-quality as the fragmented one, but it had the advantage of having complete instructions for circulation.

"Whew~"

After trying to circulate it, he found that the pain in his chest had indeed disappeared, and his face immediately lit up with joy.

As the heavy breathing of both he and Lister echoed across the open training grounds,

The sound of the wind blowing nearby began to be gradually drowned out.

After an unknown amount of time, the roars of a wolf and a dog suddenly rang out between heaven and earth.