Within the Harem Space…

Hal was crosslegged and refining the essence of both Emily and Amelia but due to the nature of his relationship with Sassy, he could not refine or make use of the essence he received from her in any way.

Hal didn’t mind.

It was a funny feeling, to be honest.

Once he was done refining the essence, he looked back at all three ladies lying on the bed.

Emily, the oldest of the three was in the middle with Sassy and Amelia snuggling into their sides.

Hal allowed himself a smile before he entered the mind space to speak to Grimoire.

“You ready?” Grimoire asked and Hal shrugged,

“Sure”

Grimoire was referring to the {Upset Victory Package} which Hal had been entitled to by comprehending his Dao.

Hal tapped the screen and he was given an in-depth explanation of what this particular package was.

{Infinite Harem keys}

That was the package.

The explanation was simple enough.

The Infinite Harem keys allowed Hal to grant any one of his ladies the ability to enter the Harem space wherever they were without being near him.

With the key, they could enter the space whenever they wished to cultivate and take full advantage of the ten times increase in time flow.

Normally they would have to be close to him to enter the Harem space but now, that was no longer the case.

He was no longer the only Anchor for the Harem space.

It was now open for communal use between himself and his ladies.

The keys were more a mental ability as opposed to a physical key and even as he sat cross-legged in the Harem space, Hal distributed the keys to all of his ladies which whom he had signed a contract and who had business being in the Harem space.

Speaking of the ladies, Hal had used the telepathic connection he had with them through the contracts to know exactly where they were and received detailed reports in regards to what they had been up to in the last year.

After his disappearance, Rita, Marla, Karmen, Olivia, and Lillian had spent a month in the Doxon Duchy in hopes that he would return that soon.

Alas, when it became apparent that Hal would still take his time, they decided that they might as well get busy and the growing faith of the Sapphirine Cult was definitely in need of as much support as it could get.

At the time (a month after Hal’s disappearance) the Kirsten Barony had been completely conquered by the faith which women were especially more than happy to accept.

Many of the women could not really understand it but there was just something about the faith, something about worshipping the Sapphirine Prince that made them feel good from their very insides.

The men could not really feel that same level of connection but that did not turn them off of the faith and rather had them even more determined to serve the Sapphirine Prince with all they had.

Following the conquering of the Kirsten Barony at which point every city in the Barony was now serving the Sapphirine Prince, it was time to take over other baronies in the Cruz county from where the plan was to conquer the entirety of the county and then take it to the other counties.

Their ultimate goal, at least for now, was to conquer the entire Silva Duchy but as things were going, that could still take years.

Anyway, Sapphire city, which had by now become the religious center of the Faith of the Sapphirine Prince was becoming even more established as a super-power.

Hal let himself sink into the connection he had with his Priestess, and saw how things were progressing.

In a year, Sapphire city was now unrecognizable.

The territory of the city had stretched even to the point where it was almost at the border of Tretch forest which was void of all beasts now and hence, was safe.

In fact, as things were developing, it was almost sure that the city would soon be making use of the considerable sparse of land that was the forest and at least reduce its size so that it remained a garden of sorts that could provide sustenance and ingredients for Alchemy in form of plants rich in cosmic energy.

Anyway, right at the center of the city was a building that was immensely tall and immensely large.

That was the official building of the Cult and during the times of worship, it was where many would gather to worship the Sapphirine Prince.

There was an even larger space of land around the building to allow for them to worship as the cult building was usually filled to capacity.

Even then, there were still usually those who would not be able to worship inside or close to the building and would have to be content with worshipping in their hearts.

The only ones allowed to live in the cult building were women who had dedicated their lives and bodies to the Sapphirine Prince and had then been ordained by the Priestess of the cult.

For the past year, the structure of the cult had become more refined and their foundations were now solid to the point where they could guarantee the complete faith of the members of the cult.

All of whom were tied to Hal’s devil seed.

Some cities, in an attempt to reveal the cult as the sham it was, had sent spies to investigate but to be able to investigate deeper was to pledge to the Sapphirine prince.

Alas, to pledge to the Prince was to be tied to the Devil seed, and to be tied to the Devil seed was to be speedily corrupted into believing in the faith of the Prince.

Trying to attack the cult was also a plan doomed to fail.

In regards to powerhouses, as long as it was within a range that was not Duchy capital level, then the Cult would trump.

The more territory that the faith of the Sapphirine Prince conquered, the more powerful the cult became but they all knew they were to be prepared.

In a meeting between the top echelons of the city, which of course included Rita, Karmen, and the Priestess of the Cult, Selina Krast, this was a topic of discussion.

They had just talked and decided on the strategy with which to take over their next target city and once they had fine-tuned it all, the Mayor of Sapphire City, Ford Horst spoke,

“It is only a matter of time before the rising influence of the cult catches the attention of the Duchy capital.

The level of powerhouses they have is enough to pose a serious threat to our conquest.

Do we slow down?

Sure, it might be years before we reach a level that we will get noticed but it all might not take that long.

We are receiving news that Reken County has ties with the capital… They could reach out to their connections before we can actually amass enough strength to defend our plans”

“So what? We should stop? Table the plans for our next target?” Darryl Edgar asked.

“Not stop… Slow down. We need to pull back a tad…” Ford began but was quickly interrupted.

“No, we continue,” Rita said and all eyes turned to her.

It was no secret that this lady, who was one of those in Hal’s inner circle, outranked practically everyone at the meeting,

Rita continued,

“The fact that it will take us a few years to actually reach the level where we are considered a threat by the Duchy capital is already taking things slow enough.”