The previous chapter may have caused a bit of confusion, so I'm going to change the description of the position bonus for the Inner Elder of the Beast Pavilion from "created beast" to "raised beast."
The meaning doesn't change, but this makes it clear that it's not about creating a new beast, but rather nurturing and caring for an existing one.
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Sitting in his stone room, filled with runes on the walls and spiritual energy in the air, with only a simple stone platform in the center as furniture, Aotian sat cross-legged calmly on top.
At that moment, he was alone, having just said goodbye to Rihai. Taking advantage of the silence, he began mapping out his plans for the times ahead, a thoughtful look on his face.
There was much to work on, and much to learn.
'First, let's review the requirements for the sect to level up again,' he pondered, pulling up the list.
[Conditions to become a Nascent Soul Sect:
1 - Sect Leader at the peak of Golden Core
2 - One Ancestor at the early stage of Nascent Soul
3 - Twenty inner elders at the Golden Core stage
4 - Fifty outer elders at the Foundation Establishment stage
5 - Five core disciples with exceptional qualifications
6 - One hundred inner disciples with high qualifications
7 - One thousand outer disciples with good qualifications
8 - Train five core disciples to the Golden Core stage
9 - Train twenty inner disciples to the Foundation Establishment stage
10 - Train one hundred outer disciples to the peak of Qi Refinement
11 - Train the auxiliary abilities of five core disciples to Core-Tier
12 - Train the auxiliary abilities of twenty inner disciples to Founder-Tier]
'Conditions 1, 2, 3, 4 — the avatars' realm requirements — are complete. Let's remove them.'
[Conditions to become a Nascent Soul Sect:
5 - Five core disciples with exceptional qualifications
6 - One hundred inner disciples with high qualifications
7 - One thousand outer disciples with good qualifications
8 - Train five core disciples to the Golden Core stage
9 - Train twenty inner disciples to the Foundation Establishment stage
10 - Train one hundred outer disciples to the peak of Qi Refinement
11 - Train the auxiliary abilities of five core disciples to Core-Tier
12 - Train the auxiliary abilities of twenty inner disciples to Founder-Tier]
'For items 5, 6, and 7, I need a mass recruitment to reach the number of thousands of disciples. Currently, the sect has five inner disciples and 118 outer disciples, counting me and Rihai.'
'Condition 9 is easy to complete — I just need to promote fifteen disciples — and 10 is already done. Then comes 11 and 12, which will take time. This evolution won't be as quick or easy as the others,' he pondered, planning.
'I need to train disciples, create missions, distribute points, and build a better merit system that allows the sect to grow—not just give benefits to the disciples. I also have to train beasts, create techniques and spells, expand the sect's library, cultivate a medicinal herb garden, acquire more techniques and treasures, and craft equipment, formations, pills, and many other things... and on top of all that, I still need to cultivate—which is the most fundamental... Haah, I'm tired just thinking about it.'
Aotian sighed inwardly after reflecting on his long to-do list. But then he remembered something that made part of his exhaustion fade, and a small smile appeared on his face.
'It's been five months since I met Rihai. When we reach one year, we'll plan and hold the wedding, just as we decided.'
As he thought softly, he suddenly widened his eyes as he remembered something important, immediately rising from his cross-legged position.
'I promised, as Elder Zhao, to take Rihai to receive her technique tomorrow, but I don't know her exact roots or if she has a special physique — which I wouldn't doubt. The crystal library artifact isn't real, it's just me knowing the disciples' roots and creating techniques for them. But without knowing her roots, I can't give her the most suitable technique.'
Thinking about that, he didn't hesitate any longer and left his room toward Rihai's.
Although the cave had only one key, there were about five rooms and several other spaces for various purposes. It seemed the Bamboo Sword Sect foresaw the possibility of more than one person living in a cave, or simply had so much space they divided it just because they could.
Reaching her door — again a golden door covered in formations — Aotian tapped the runes, which lit up slightly in blue where he touched, before returning to their golden glow.
"Rihai!" he called, making the door flash blue again.
'It's a pretty interesting system,' Aotian thought, observing the runes.
To prevent accidents when calling someone who's cultivating, the formations on the door block sound and emit a gentle alert inside the room, only waking the cultivator if they're in a normal cultivation state — not during a critical breakthrough or an epiphany.
Cultivators with strong control over their spiritual energies can do this themselves, but the formations do it automatically, offering extra safety to whoever is inside.
Aotian waited less than a minute when the door's runes turned blue, and it opened in the middle, sliding aside and revealing a confused Rihai behind them.
"Didn't we just say goodbye?" she asked, puzzled.
"It's important!" Aotian, without the slightest ceremony, stepped right into her room and sat on the stone slab.
"Come on in…" Rihai rolled her eyes and teased.
Aotian just smiled and patted the space beside him.
Rihai, without thinking much, approached and turned to sit, but a pair of hands grabbed her waist and redirected where she was going to sit — right onto his lap.
"I thought you told me to sit next to you," she asked, amused, now on his lap.
"Changed my mind." He smiled.
"Okay, no mystery. I don't believe you came here just to flirt right after we parted." She joked with him, then paused, put a finger to her chin, and looked up. "No, wait, I do believe it," she teased, smiling mischievously.
"I wouldn't doubt it either if I were you, but not this time," he replied in the same tone, narrowing his eyes playfully, but soon shook his head.
Rihai just blinked, looking at him, confused, waiting for him to explain.
"Rihai, I wanted to ask if you'd allow Ancestor Bao to examine your roots, so we can find a proper solution for them," Aotian asked with a serious face.
There was no need to go into details about techniques and everything else — it all came down to checking her roots, and helping her as best as he could.
Rihai, who hadn't been too worried, suddenly became serious and looked at Aotian with hesitation.
"That, Tian'er…" She looked at him, concerned.
"What's wrong, Hai'er? Talk to me." Aotian, caught off guard by her hesitation, looked at her with worry, holding her hand.
Anxious, she glanced around, leaned close to his ear, and whispered.
"Aotian, I can't reveal my physique, it's a secret and no one can know, it's far too dangerous for me. I only trust you, but right now you wouldn't be able to examine it. I can't control my energy well with my damaged roots, and your level is too low—your energy would be immediately repelled by them," she whispered softly into his ear.
Aotian looked at her in surprise and couldn't help but speculate.
'Maybe a special physique? But why is she being so cautious, it wouldn't be… that kind of physique, would it?!' thinking of a certain possibility, his eyes widened and he stared at her, stunned, his jaw dropping.
Rihai, seeing the exaggerated look on his face—as if he'd just heard something unimaginable—felt an uncontrollable urge to punch Aotian for some reason.
Her feminine instincts screamed that something stupid must have gone through his head.
"Y-you… you wouldn't happen to have…" Aotian stammered, incredulous at the conclusion he'd just reached.
That possibility had never, not even once, occurred to him before.
He leaned closer to her ear and spoke in a low voice, respecting the privacy she wanted.
"Do you have a dual cultivation physique?"
"…"
"…"
"AOTIAN, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!"
"AHHH!!"
…
With his head bowed as Rihai glared at him, fuming with rage, Aotian couldn't help but scratch the back of his head, embarrassed.
'Looks like I misunderstood…' he thought awkwardly.
Feeling Rihai's irritated gaze still burning into him, he tried to calm the beast.
"Hai'er, I'm sorry, I misunderstood," he apologized sincerely.
She rolled her eyes, clearly irritated. Assuming a woman had a dual cultivation physique was quite offensive. Physiques often had a strong impact on a person's personality, and women with such physiques weren't exactly seen as paragons of purity.
Of course, there were some physiques that provided benefits to a partner after their first time, such as those with Pure Extreme Yin physiques. But those weren't true dual cultivation physiques—they just happened to have beneficial side effects for the partner.
True dual cultivation physiques were ones where the cultivator used constant sex with one or more partners to improve their own cultivation—and sometimes the partners would improve a bit too. However, because a physique heavily influenced the personality of its bearer as they grew and developed, people with dual cultivation physiques often became extremely promiscuous by adulthood.
And seeing the confused look on Aotian's face—not even understanding why she was so angry—Rihai found herself forced to explain all of this to him.
After the crash course on common sense, Aotian finally understood the reason behind her fury.
"I see…" Aotian looked at her, dazed.
Rihai was left speechless when she realized he truly hadn't known. She couldn't help but feel confused about how someone could have so little common sense, but chose not to press, deciding to wait for him to explain it himself someday.
She figured maybe it had something to do with the way Aotian had been raised. She had once heard legends of certain cultivator families raising talented children as if they were mortals—only revealing their true heritage later and supporting them in cultivation, believing it would help them grow up with a more stable mindset, more committed to the path of cultivation after experiencing mortality.
Though she was almost certain those stories were mere fiction, told by her father when she was little, she couldn't say for sure that such things never existed.
Maybe Aotian was from such a peculiar family.