After finishing the procedures, Lu Xiuyuan went back, found the place with the richest spiritual qi, and poured out the Seven-Treasure Lotus Hearts.
“Sect Master! I’ll support you!” The paper fox let out a sharp howl. One second he had been grinning, and the next his tears gushed out immediately. “I’ll go steal, I’ll go rob, Sect Master, don’t do such a foolish thing, wuwuwu—”
On the incense Dao, attaining the Dao was suicide, and so, even though the incense Dao’s cultivation speed was swift, almost no one was willing to cultivate it.
But with the crisis of Blue Star becoming a breeding farm ahead of them, in ten years even the most talented disciple could not comprehend the Dao from Qi Refining all the way to Mahayana. Even a favorite of heaven one in a hundred million, one in ten billion, one in a hundred billion, had no chance.
According to the information in the Celestial Fox’s memories, the heavenly demons from beyond the realm had clearly been able to organize their forces to wipe out Blue Star ten thousand years ago, but hadn’t gone that far.
It wasn’t that they had run out of strength, but that it was premeditated.
A world riddled with holes no longer had much value.
They clearly meant to fatten up Blue Star and then come back to harvest it.
Lu Xiuyuan pinched the paper fox’s ear: “Celestial Fox, do you like stealing?”
The Celestial Fox immediately shook his head like a rattle drum. How could he like stealing?! He stole for the sake of—
The Celestial Fox suddenly understood: just as he was willing to put down morality and give up his bottom line to steal and rob for Wenxin Sect and Blue Star, Lu Xiuyuan was willing to give up his own—
“It’s not that dramatic.” Lu Xiuyuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “It hasn’t gotten that serious yet.”
“A mere demon seed, what does it know about sustainable development?” The consequence of underestimating humans was being wiped out by them. Lu Xiuyuan felt the advantage was on his side.
The paper fox stopped crying and stared at Lu Xiuyuan, dazed and uneasy, afraid that he would martyr himself the next second.
Lu Xiuyuan played with the lotus seeds, pinching the paper fox’s ear: “Just trust me.”
Although Lu Xiuyuan coveted the cultivation speed of the incense Dao, he could not possibly merge with the Dao and lose his consciousness and personality.
Was there a way to kill two birds with one stone? Lu Xiuyuan had been thinking these past few days about the possibility of having it both ways.
Finally, he had found it!
“Does the Sect Master Token have a tool spirit?”
The paper fox: “???”
How could the Sect Master Token have a tool spirit? Although all things have spirits, the Sect Master Token was only a key.
Ten thousand years ago the spirit veins had dried up and Blue Star needed rest and recuperation. Everything containing spiritual qi would return to Blue Star over time, just like water and water vapor: if it was too dry and there was no way to replenish water, the water in a cup would evaporate.
To leave a thread of life for Blue Star, the previous Sect Master had deliberately sealed the remaining resources of Wenxin Sect to cut off the dissipation of spiritual qi.
The Sect Master Token itself was made of a supreme-grade material that could isolate rules, unable to absorb spiritual qi, unable to produce spiritual qi, unable to retain spiritual qi.
The premise of “all things have spirits” was, the thing had to have spiritual qi.
“The Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart binds to the Sect Master Token, and the Sect Master Token binds to me. Doesn’t that mean I can have full use of the Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart?” Lu Xiuyuan was very familiar with capital’s controlling-shares play.
Lu Xiuyuan’s sentence ended as a question, but from his firm tone one could tell he was very satisfied with this plan.
“Huh, but… but… in that case…” The paper fox scratched his ears and rubbed his nose, wanting to dissuade him once more from doing something so dangerous, but for the moment he couldn’t pick out any bug to nitpick.
The incense Dao was extremely dangerous, and one careless step would bring self-destruction, but that was the consensus of the cultivation world, the consensus of ten thousand years ago.
Ten thousand years had passed, and the times had long since changed!
The paper fox, having turned the corner, stopped crying too, and looked at Lu Xiuyuan with eyes full of admiration.
“Oh my! Sect Master, you must be a genius!” The paper fox rubbed Lu Xiuyuan’s cheek, smearing his whole face with ink. “So the Sect Master is Blue Star’s ‘thread of life’ the divination spoke of!”
Lu Xiuyuan smiled breezily: “Go guard the Dharma for me.”
The paper fox pricked up his ears with full drive and, eyes gleaming, kept scanning all around.
At present only Lu Xiuyuan and the paper fox were in the sect’s secret realm. Lu Xiuyuan was very confident about its safety, and having the paper fox guard the Dharma was only to give him something to do so he wouldn’t tearfully fret.
“Ten lotus seeds. First, let’s divide out ten independent spaces.”
Lu Xiuyuan operated the Sect Master Token’s interface, added a custom page, and added ten more subpages.
“Pop—”
Lu Xiuyuan closed his eyes and could feel that in a dark space, a chaotic state suddenly became bright, and then a vortex of spiritual qi surged up, billowing and gradually condensing into a human shape.
With a movement of his consciousness, the vague human shape moved with his will. Lu Xiuyuan carefully sculpted it like molding a clay figure, revising it over ten times before finally fixing Daoist Guanji’s appearance.
In the rectangular cell on the system page appeared a white-clothed sword cultivator holding a long sword, standing alone and apart from the world. Lu Xiuyuan lightly poked it, and the card flipped over, showing the detailed information on its back.
【Guanji
Class: Heartless Dao sword cultivator
Cultivation: Qi Refining Great Perfection (9332/10000)
Spiritual Qi Pool: 10000/10000
Techniques: “Swallow-Roaming Sword Art” (primary)
“Qianji Huashen Art”
“Basic Sword-Riding Technique”
Natal Sword: Jisha (Basic Sword Embryo)】
“Ugh—”
The instant the 【Guanji】 information page appeared, Lu Xiuyuan felt a churning in his dantian, pain surging, and his whole body was instantly soaked in cold sweat.
“Surely something hasn’t really gone wrong?”
Saying he wasn’t panicked would be a lie. Although Lu Xiuyuan had deduced it repeatedly, in essence all the knowledge he had received was an experience package left by the Wenxin Sect predecessors, not entirely correct truth.
“I’ve come this far already. I can’t turn back, let alone shrink away.”
Lu Xiuyuan adjusted his breathing and focused on guiding the spiritual qi running wild in his body. Who knew how much time passed, but the spiritual qi in his dantian became obedient and gentle again.
Lu Xiuyuan opened his eyes, somewhat amazed: “It got bigger, and there’s more.”
The capacity of his dantian had grown larger, and the spiritual qi inside had increased too, but he clearly hadn’t done anything.
Lu Xiuyuan couldn’t figure it out. He opened the Sect Master Token, wanting to check the Sect Master’s log, but saw that the entry on his cultivation in the Sect Master Token had all changed.
【Lu Xiuyuan
Class: ???
Cultivation: 18664/20000
Spiritual Qi Pool: 10000/10000
Techniques: “Qianji Huashen Art” (primary)
“Swallow-Roaming Sword Art”
Natal Treasure: Sect Master Token】
Lu Xiuyuan studied it carefully and, by repeatedly comparing the system page with the Sect Master’s log, finally figured out the reason for the change.
The spiritual qi cap for Qi Refining Great Perfection was 10000. Lu Xiuyuan’s present cultivation’s spiritual qi cap should have been 9332, but because he was cultivating both the “Qianji Huashen Art” and the “Swallow-Roaming Sword Art” at once, the cap and cultivation had both gone X2.
As for the spiritual qi pool, this was a change brought by the Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart. It was equivalent to giving a cultivator an extra portable power bank, and it was the greatest advantage that made incense Dao cultivators invincible at the same stage.
Whichever of Lu Xiuyuan and Guanji ran short of spiritual qi could draw on the spiritual qi pool. As for things like cap x2 and cultivation x2—
“Dantian expansion and cultivation increase are somewhat beyond the norm.” Lu Xiuyuan did not call over the paper fox to ask about the situation. He had gone through the whole inheritance and done keyword searches in the Library Pavilion for this matter, and found no result.
He didn’t know whether incense Dao cultivators in the past had simply never seen such a situation, or had kept a trick up their sleeve and not recorded it.
Lu Xiuyuan tried circulating his spiritual power and felt no pain or stagnation.
“Perhaps it’s a wondrous chemical reaction between the ‘Qianji Huashen Art,’ the Sect Master Token, and the Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart.”
The “Qianji Huashen Art” that Lu Xiuyuan cultivated was a highly inclusive technique. Lu Xiuyuan’s spiritual root was messy, and though his affinity to every element was low, he had a bit of everything. Among the many techniques, the “Qianji Huashen Art” had the highest compatibility with him.
Lu Xiuyuan’s current cultivation and experience were too little, and his understanding of the “Qianji Huashen Art” was only superficial. A technique was like the nuclear bomb formula: not knowing was just not knowing, and you understood as much as you could understand.
Lu Xiuyuan’s greatest strength was that he could hold his patience and did not suffer internal friction.
Although the situation he was encountering differed somewhat from what was written in the technique, past experience wasn’t necessarily right! Was he not allowed to improve, innovate, and change on that basis?! If everything stayed forever unchanged, how could there be progress!
More than worrying, he now looked forward to using the second Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart, would it be 10000X3 or 10000X2X2?
Lu Xiuyuan set his heart at ease and wanted to open up another avatar, but the seven-colored lotus heart did not react at all.
“With my cultivation now, I can only use one. It seems I can only try again after Foundation Establishment.” Although he couldn’t get the answer right away, Lu Xiuyuan wasn’t anxious and instead tried to condense Guanji’s appearance with spiritual power.
“Celestial Fox, come here.” A voice cold as a chilly pool sounded behind him, and the paper fox was so frightened that his hairs stood on end.
He instinctively thought an outside enemy had invaded and his paper fibers were about to burst, but he immediately realized the voice was a little familiar.
He looked back—
“Sect Master!”
The paper fox flew to Lu Xiuyuan’s shoulder at top speed and hugged Lu Xiuyuan’s neck tightly, and only then carefully poked his head out to look at that unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar person.
The white-clothed sword cultivator’s face had no trace of a smile. With black hair and white clothes setting off his sword brows and starry eyes, his presence was imposing, but his expression was cold and his gaze calm, as if nothing could disturb his mind.
The paper fox stared at him for a long time, observing, before looking up to confirm with Lu Xiuyuan: “Guanji?”
Lu Xiuyuan felt a warmth in his heart. Although Guanji was also him, being put first felt really nice.
“Mm.”
Lu Xiuyuan’s thought moved, and Guanji walked toward the paper fox, holding out a finger: “Come.”
The paper fox carefully climbed onto Guanji’s fingertip and sniffed him left and right. Seeing no sign that he meant to scold him, he boldly crawled all over him, as if rubbing his own scent onto him.
“From now on, call me Guanji in front of outsiders, understand?”
The paper fox felt that Guanji wasn’t suited to smiling, which clashed too much with his whole aura, but thinking that he smiled for his sake, the paper fox was so happy he rolled around in his palm.
Lu Xiuyuan felt it was marvelous. Guanji was him, and Lu Xiuyuan was him too, but he didn’t feel the awkwardness of the left and right hands doing different things at once while processing two lines. Instead he felt as effortlessly nimble as if he had been born with four hands and four feet.
“Let me think, what position would be best to assign Guanji.”
In terms of advantages, a sword cultivator should be the strongest combat power at the same stage, so having him take charge of discipline was the most fitting.
“Mm, you’ll be the Director of Academic Affairs, and also the instructor for Close-Range Sword Art Principles and Practice, Hands-On Introduction to Sword Flight, Application and Breakdown of Basic Sword Techniques, Sword Dao Fundamentals, and Heartless Dao Fundamentals.”
Guanji: “…” Although it was a job he had assigned himself, why was he a little angry?
To avoid blowing his cover, Lu Xiuyuan also arranged some background settings: “Remember, you are also the Peak Master of Taisu Peak and the Hall Master of the Law Enforcement Hall.”
Guanji’s information page changed accordingly.
【Guanji
Class: Heartless Dao sword cultivator
Positions: Taisu Peak Master, Law Enforcement Hall Master, Director of Academic Affairs and Lecturer of Wenxin Cultivation University
Cultivation: Qi Refining Great Perfection (9332/10000)
Spiritual Qi Pool: 10000/10000
Techniques: “Swallow-Roaming Sword Art” (primary)
“Qianji Huashen Art”
Natal Sword: Jisha (Basic Sword Embryo)】
Lu Xiuyuan looked at the page, which was getting fuller and fuller, and a sense of accomplishment welled up in his heart.
“Ding ding ding—”
The Sect Master Token suddenly let out a rapid prompt tone, and then the whole page was fine-tuned, and task pop-up after task pop-up jumped out.
【Ding, Found a Cultivation University (Completed). The task reward has been sent to your warehouse.】
【School Information Overview】
President: Lu Xiuyuan
Director of Admissions: Lu Xiuyuan
Director of Academic Affairs: Guanji
Teachers: 2
Students: 4 (not yet formally enrolled)
Campus: Wenxin Secret Realm (80 square kilometers)
School buildings: Sect-Suppressing Gate (school gate) ×4, Law Enforcement Hall (security room) x1, Library Pavilion X1, Internal Affairs Hall (office building), Cave Dwelling (dormitory) X10
School environment: Spirit Mountain X5
Lu Xiuyuan was stunned. This shocked him even more than cultivation x2 and cap x2.
All along, the Sect Master Token had been quiet and rigid, and the operating pages were basically added by Lu Xiuyuan manually, with no direction at all.
This reaction now, had it been upgraded?
The paper fox seemed to see Lu Xiuyuan’s doubt and explained: “A natal treasure advances in rank as its owner’s cultivation rises.”
Lu Xiuyuan nodded thoughtfully: “In that case, it should send me some tasks.”
After hesitating for two seconds, the Sect Master Token gave a “ding.”
【Main Quest One: Please enroll 100 students with a talent score of 30 or above.
Requirements: Student species unrestricted, age under 20, gender unrestricted.
Quest Reward: Immortal Fate X500, Ten-Pull X10, Random Building X1, Basic Teaching Resource Pack X100, Spirit Stone X10000, Spirit Field X100 mu】
【Main Quest Two: Train the first batch of outstanding students, getting at least 10 students to Qi Refining Great Perfection, with at least 3 of them breaking through to Foundation Establishment.
Quest Reward: Immortal Fate X600, Ten-Pull X10, Random Building X1, Advanced Teaching Resource Pack X50, Spirit Stone X10000, Spirit Vein X1】
【Main Quest Three: Hire at least 3 mentors, at least 2 of whom have reached Golden Core cultivation and the rest Foundation Establishment.
Quest Reward: Immortal Fate X1000, Ten-Pull X10, Random Building X1, Advanced Teaching Resource Pack X100, Spirit Stone X10000, Spirit Ore Vein X1, Random Spirit Beast X1】
Seeing those quest rewards, Lu Xiuyuan was greedy beyond measure, but after reading the quest requirements clearly, he got a bit of a headache.
Apart from Main Quest One, which was easy to complete, which of the other two didn’t depend on grinding time and luck?