He was approached to cash in his bet now that he had nearly reached the peak of the third mortal coil. This offer was to protect the person that ran the bet from making losses.

As it were, the person running the bet was unlikely to lose anymore because a lot of people had lost their bets. But he still wanted to earn more by making Arthur give up now.

If Arthur gave up on his bet, he would only earn half of what he should have won. He didn't want to, so he rejected the offer and decided to wait until he reached the fourth mortal coil to earn his full price.

He had bet 500,000 low-grade energy stones with odds of 20, so he is to earn 10,000,000 low-grade energy stones. If he accepted the offer now, he would only earn half of that.

Aside from this, the other significant thing that happened that concerned Arthur was that Thor also transcended the second mortal coil and entered the inner sect.

Not only did Thor reach the third mortal coil eight years ago, but he also managed to reach the peak of the third mortal coil in just five years.

There was clearly something abnormal about Thor's cultivation path. Arthur was able to find out what was wrong because Thor didn't make it a secret.

Thor had told him that the foundation that he forged was based on the core of golems. Since the core of golems was built and recharged with energy stones, Thor's foundation was also able to pile up his cultivation with energy stones.

The foundation that Thor built wasn't unique or unknown. There are many people in the sect who have built the same kind of foundation as him. But none of them had managed to build a perfect core.

A perfect score is the equivalent of the top-grade foundation that Arthur built. The main difference between their foundations was their structure and the fact that Thor's foundation was built with rank 4 materials, not a rank 3 material like his. The most update n0vels are published on NovᴇlFirᴇ.ɴet

To be honest, Arthur wasn't surprised that Thor managed to build a perfect core. After all, he had already seen the energy shield projection artifact that Thor built during their last inter-sect competition together.

That energy shield projection core had been built with a rank 4 core. Thor had managed to do this while he was in the second mortal coil.

So Arthur wasn't surprised Thor managed to do something that others who attempted it exploded. But he still thought that Thor had cheated.

Thor had piled up his cultivation with energy stones. This was why he had spent just five years to reach the peak of the third mortal coil in just five years.

Arthur could also try to pile up his cultivation with energy stones. But the quality of energy stones he had in his possession was low-grade energy stones, which had an energy quality that was equivalent to that of a second-grade secret realm.

If he had cultivated with the low-grade energy stones, his speed of cultivation would only slow down, not speed up like it did for Thor's. Even middle-grade energy stones wouldn't do either.

He would require absorbing high-grade energy stones for him to match his normal speed of cultivation in the fourth-grade secret realm. So if he wanted to speed up his cultivation with energy stones, he would require top-grade energy stones.

Unfortunately for him, top-grade energy stones were too powerful for him. Even golden core seniors don't mess around with top-grade energy stones.

As for him, he couldn't absorb the energy of a high-grade energy stone without sustaining damage to his life seed. After all, the mellow mana of the secret realm is not like the pure and concentrated energy within energy stones.

The quantity of energy and speed of absorption that he can manage in the secret realm is entirely dependent on the power of his mind. But that is not so for an energy stone.

Once he absorbs the energy within an energy stone, he has to be able to withstand it, or he will explode or have his life seed crippled. This is why only golden core cultivators can safely absorb the energy contained within high-grade energy stones.

Besides the fact that absorbing the energy of top-grade energy stones was dangerous, even if he could absorb it, he wouldn't because it is too expensive.

To top it off, if he had the money and could absorb the energy of a top-grade energy stone, the best it could do for him was cut his cultivation time in half. Since he was already poised to reach the peak of the third mortal coil in ten years, that means that top-grade energy stones would only shave off five years of cultivation for him.

He didn't think it was worth it to spend that much money to save five years when he could get all of his energy needs for free from the secret realm. So he could only curse Thor for cheating and being shameless.

The one thing that made him happy was that Thor still had to toil in order to convert all of his potential into power. After all, his foundation is still flesh and blood. It is not entirely inorganic like that of a golem.

So Thor still had to work hard to master the host technique. This could take between 20 and 50 years to complete.

Arthur was glad to hear this. But knowing Thor, he suspected that the cheater would be able to master the host technique before 20 years or at most in 20 years.

He could only sigh and say, "Wherever I look, geniuses abound."

When he said that, Thor had cursed him for being shameless. After all, Arthur was the first and only person to construct a foundation with two elements. Arthur was also too strong for his level.

Arthur had snorted when he was called a shameless person. He decided not to argue with Thor and left to cultivate.