"W-What the hell is this!?" Everyone was suddenly blown back by wild gusts of wind, the magical restrictions placed inside the Pagoda seemingly ineffective against this power.
Ascending into the air like some sort of deity, Nylon's golden eyes shone brighter than ever. Faint illusions of gold-gilded wings and a crown of gold appeared above and behind him. His magnificence was quite literally blinding.
"Did that gigolo actually comprehend something!? How is this possible!??"
"I've never heard of something like this happening before! What exactly is he doing!?"
"I've no clue!!"
Those in the Violet Garden Pagoda may have been cultivators, but none were especially strong. The highest of their cultivations was merely at the 6th Plane of Awakening, Invincible. Only Kevin and his servants were at and above the 7th Plane, Mystery. But even he, as the Great Heir of a huge conglomerate, had never before witnessed something like this.
It was as if the very Heavens themselves were blessing the birth of something transcendental!
Proportionate to the grandiosity of Nylon's phenomenon, Young Master Kevin's anger increased. More than anything else, he hated being outclassed in something—and for the origin of that outclassment to be the same one trying to steal his girl, well…
'I'll kill him.'
Kevin's decision arrived at the same time the golden properties surrounding Nylon began to disperse. He descended to the ground floor like he had already detached himself from this world, but when an onlooker took out a cultivation measuring device and pointed it at him, a laugh was cracked.
"Everyone, look! Bahaha!!" That someone called everyone over, holding his stomach to stop himself from tipping over. "The gigolo, he's…"
"...Cultivationless!"
Even the sound of a pen dropping could be crisply heard in Violet Garden Pagoda.
Then came the incorrigible peals of laughter…
Even Kevin, who for a moment actually considered Nylon a threat, burst out laughing. He'd still have the brat murdered, but knowing that in the end he really was just classless trash would be a lot easier to swallow later down the road.
"All that wind and special effects earlier must've been caused by some sort of device, haha!"
"What a wastrel of a lad!"
"It's too bad he's like this… His handsomeness is wasted…"
The high-level staff of the Pagoda weren't laughing like the rest, but they were nonetheless interested in this matter. Nylon had, after all, done something he shouldn't have.
"Young man, come here," said a 9th Plane Unmaker Expert, the Manager of the Pagoda. "You'll need to come with us, as we decide the punishment you'll receive for stirring up so much chaos."
Blinking. It was something every living being needed to do and did so involuntarily. Those in Violet Garden Pagoda also had to blink, and when they did, Nylon had mysteriously… vanished.
"Huh?" The Pagoda Manager looked around, scratching his head. "Where did that young man go? Is this some sort of trick??"
Not even Kevin and his servants had seen how Nylon disappeared.
"Maybe it's the work of a top-tier hologram," someone speculated, urging many to nod in agreement. "They have those expensive physical hologram devices in the big city, don't they? If that gigolo actually is a gigolo of the North Sea Family, then it's not impossible for him to have access to technology like that."
Everyone felt that this made sense.
Then there was Kevin, who knew the truth of Nylon's status in the North Sea Family. No mere Steward would receive something at the level of a physical hologram device, even if just to borrow it.
However, if that Steward had more than a simple Master-Servant relationship with a high-level member of an influential Family, then being gifted an item like that was not entirely out of the cards…
Grinding his teeth, Kevin's baseless suspicions had all but been confirmed.
That damn ant was cucking him! That fucking brat!!
DEATH!
For putting a green hat on his head, Kevin swore to himself that Nylon would wish for death by the time he was done with him. As for Tessa…
'That cheating little whore is something I'll use, abuse, and throw away at the nearest convenience!!'
— Meanwhile, at an orchard some miles outside Stormrock Town —
FWIP!
Nylon suddenly appeared. A thin golden energy barrier surrounded his body, serving as the remnants left behind from the creation of something that resided deep within his soul.
Midas's Heavenly Chart.
That was what Nylon had decided to name the cultivation technique he created from the essence of more than a thousand Mortal-level techniques.
Midas's Heavenly Chart, a growth-type cultivation technique, embodied the fundamental principles of cultivation. Its rank would always be the absolute limit of what was possible for the current Realm, and could be considered the "Perfect" Cultivation Technique.
Looking to Mortal Manuals for insights into cultivation was a useless task, but for Nylon—who had |Actualization|—sifting through lower-rank Techniques actually ended up helping him. After all, the lower rank a technique was, the closer it was to the very basics of cultivation, and the simpler its individual elements were.
All factors considered, a truly logic-defying cultivation technique came to be.
As for how it was structured?
9 Initial Planes. Named the same as in the Awakening Realm. But instead of the normal system, each Plane represented a |Golden Petal|. Only after actualizing all Golden Petals through Spiritual Energy Refinement could one move from the Awakening Realm to the Realm above it.
As one might expect, cultivating the |Midas's Heavenly Chart| was no simple feat. It gifted unparalleled power to the user, but came at the cost of extremely difficult and expensive cultivation.
If it took 1 Spirit Stone to reach the next Realm with any normal cultivation technique, then with |Midas's Heavenly Chart|, you needed tens of Spirit Stones to break through. This was evidence of the difference in quality.
Testing out this cultivation technique right away, Nylon sat down in a lotus position beneath a great orchid tree. Red apples dangled above him, blowing in the breeze. Their dangling synchronized with his absorption of Atmospheric Spiritual Energy.
An hour flew by in the blink of an eye, and yet Nylon was still not even in the Collection Plane. However, with his first |Gold Petal| 40% of the way created, it was only a matter of time before a breakthrough was achieved.
But to speed things up, Nylon took out dozens of |Spiritual Condensation Pills|. This stock was what he originally planned to use in order to progress to the peak of the 6th Plane, Invincible. Now, however, the pills would be used to pull him back up from the very bottom of the Awakening Realm.