Chapter 216 – Life 73, Age 32, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After Liang decided to join me, I didn’t hang around the new Disciple’s housing area anymore. I grabbed the boy, jumped to the top of the wall, and quickly made my way back to my guest house.

I led Liang past the ornately decorated sitting room and into an empty secondary bedroom. After taking a few pillows out of my storage bag and throwing them on the ground for us to sit on, I guided the boy to kneel across from me.

“This will be your new home for the next few weeks. You can contact the maid for any furnishings you need later. For now, we need to discuss your future.”

The whiplash of going from nearly dying to being dragged across the complex’s ramparts and tossed into a fancy house had left the boy more than a little stunned.

“Senior… Teacher… Master..?”

I held up a hand. “Patriarch.”

He ducked his head. “Patriarch… what… am I supposed to do?”

“That is your choice. I am not your Master, so I will not guide your studies. I will provide you with resources, and I will offer guidance when necessary, but I will not choose your path for you. You must do that on your own. However, I would suggest that you start by learning how to cultivate.”

“Yes… Patriarch. I… I have tried to learn, but I wasn’t successful. Please, teach me.”

I nodded. “First, which element do you wish to cultivate?”

“I… don’t know. I don’t have any affinities. The elder assigned me an earth qi cultivation technique.”

I wave a hand in a cutting motion.

“Don’t worry about that. Which element do you wish to cultivate?” Thinking about the essence techniques available to me, I added a slight stipulation. “You may choose any of the basic five elements: fire, earth, metal, water, or wood. You may also choose lightning, but that could be a more difficult path.”

None of the children in the Su Clan had shown a dominant affinity for lightning. Some of them might have had it as a hidden secondary affinity, but the lack of anyone with it as their dominant affinity showed that lightning essence was much rarer here than essence for the basic elements. I planned to create a Gathering Formation to raise Liang’s affinity with his chosen element, but the limited amount of environmental lightning essence would make that process much slower.

Liang, however, did not care about such musing. His eyes widened immediately when he heard that he might be about to cultivate lightning qi. He didn’t even seem to hear my warning about the difficulty of doing so.

“Patriarch, please, allow me to learn to control lightning.”

I took a deep breath. “Liang, your growth as a lightning cultivator will be much slower than if you were to cultivate one of the other elements. You should think this through carefully.”

He bowed his head. “I understand, Patriarch, but I have only ever heard legends of cultivators able to control lightning. I never thought that I could—”

“Liang. Lightning is not some mythical element. Outside of the Wastes, while it is less common than the basic elements, it is still considered ordinary. It is no more powerful than any other element.”

“I… understand Patriarch.” He seemed chastened but not dissuaded. “I still wish to learn to cultivate lightning.”

It seemed there was no point in discussing it any further with him. If the boy wanted to cultivate lightning qi, then he could cultivate lightning qi. 

I reached into my storage space, pulled out a simple Low-Yellow lightning cultivation technique, and placed it on the floor between us.

“You can start by learning this technique.”

Liang's happiness at getting a chance to cultivate lightning soured.

“Mast… Patriarch. I tried to learn from the scroll the elder gave me, but I couldn’t understand it at all. Please, teach me.”

I shook my head. “No, I want you to try to learn this on your own. Focus on the diagrams and replicate what they are showing you. You don’t need to cultivate ‘correctly.’ Just try your best and see what you can accomplish.”

This might have been the wrong way to go about teaching him, but I wanted to try it out. Liang had shown no talent with cultivation, and he seemed to lack any and all ability to understand cultivation techniques. If I pushed him to learn like this, could he develop such a talent over time?

In the past, I had talked with Meng LuYao about comprehension talents. Her blessing allowed her to see how ‘talented’ a person was in various areas, and she had told me that she had never seen a person’s talent increase. However, I had been able to purchase such talent increases from the System. If I could purchase such boosts with only credits, then there should be a way to increase a person’s talents naturally.

I couldn’t help but think back to when I had first been learning alchemy. I had spent centuries mastering Rank 1 alchemy. I had to have started with no talent for it at all, but I was able to slowly learn and improve over time. Had I really not increased my natural talent at all during that time? I found that hard to believe.

So, Liang was to be a test subject. 

His success was important to me because there was no way I was going to pay for the System to increase the talents of every member of my new clan. Either I found a way to increase a person’s talents naturally, or I would have to limit myself to only recruiting those with high innate talents.

After leaving the boy to study alone, I spent my time developing a basic Lightning Essence Gathering Formation. I wasn’t going to let Liang increase his affinity too early since I wanted to see if the struggle of learning to cultivate with zero affinity would help him increase his comprehension ability, but I would need to have the formation ready for him eventually.

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At the end of the second week, I returned to the residential area to watch the Disciples’ combat training. 

The instructor didn’t try to kill anyone this time, and none of the Disciples’ performances stood out to me, so I didn’t bother recruiting anyone else. I needed to find a training partner for Liang, but I wasn’t willing to rush this task.

At the end of the third week, the story was much the same. The only real difference was that several of the disciples showed signs of having begun cultivating in earnest. It would still take them a while to complete their first breakthrough, but it was evident that they were making steady progress.

Liang, on the other hand, had yet to even figure out the basics of forming a qi filter or vortex. He was frustrated with his lack of progress, and it looked like he had more or less given up on learning to cultivate. Thankfully, even if his progress with cultivation had stalled out, he was still improving in other areas.

He now had more than enough to eat, so he was putting on a bit of weight, and with nothing better to do, he spent a lot of time following the instructions in a basic exercise book that I had left him. His frame was filling out, and he no longer looked as emaciated as he once had. He now looked more like a normal, slightly underfed teenage boy.

At the end of the first month, Su Heng came to visit me.

“Prince Fang, the monthly competition between the Disciples will soon begin. Do you wish to attend?”

I nodded. I had scouted out the venue the previous day and had made a few preparations for the event.

“Yes, and we will bring Su Liang with us.”

When the young man in question entered the room, he was wearing the same ragged, torn-up robes that he had nearly died in. A questioning look appeared on Su Heng’s face when he saw this. YuanFei, in an attempt to earn my favor, had sent a few sets of simple silk robes for Liang shortly after I had brought him back with him. The maid had no doubt sent word that Liang had been wearing those robes, so seeing him back in his old clothing might have been a bit confusing to Su Heng.

“Right… Yes, he may follow you… but…”

I smiled and placed a hand on Su Heng’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I know what to do.”

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Like with the blessing ceremony, Su Heng and I arrived before anyone else.

In the center of the courtyard was a large arena used for the fights. To the south was the entrance used by the Disciples, and to the north was the entrance used by the Grandmasters. The east held the platform where the ten elite disciples would be sitting, and the west held the balcony from which the Grandmaster would observe the fights below.

After carefully observing everything, I pulled a large wooden platform out of my storage space and positioned it along the northern edge of the fighting platform.

Su Heng’s and Liang’s eyes widened in shock at the sight of a five-meter-long, one-meter-thick platform appearing as if from nowhere. Before Su Heng could respond, I took out two dilapidated chairs made from rotten wood and placed them down on my new platform.

I pointed to the chair on the left. “Liang, you will sit there during the competition. Don’t say anything.”

“Yes… Yes, Patri—” The sight of Su Heng made him cut off his words. “Yes.”

Then, I glanced at Su Heng. “Shall we?”

Without waiting for a response, I walked to the balcony meant for the Grandmasters.

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The elites slowly filed in one by one, and whenever a new person entered the courtyard, their eyes landed on Liang. They were each confused by the sight, but after seeing me and Su Heng standing on the balcony, they looked away and quietly walked to their seats. They knew enough to hold their tongues and not question a Grandmaster.

After all the elites were seated, the Grandmasters came in as a group. Upon seeing Liang, disdain flashed in their eyes, but they didn’t say anything and headed straight to the balcony. Either a servant or a guard had already informed them of what I had done, and they had chosen not to make an issue of it publicly.

Upon joining us on the balcony, it was the oldest Grandmaster who decided to confront me about what I had done.

“Is that your new disciple?”

I glanced at him dismissively. “No. Su Liang is my first recruit. I am not his master.”

The old man gritted his teeth. “You should not be interfering with our training like this.”

“I am not interfering. I simply thought that it would be educational for my recruit to witness this competition for himself.”

The old man seemed like he wanted to say more, but YuanFei put a hand on his shoulder and then looked at me.

“Prince Fang, we have no issue with you recruiting Disciples like Su Liang, and we can appreciate the way you did it. However, I cannot help but notice that you placed two chairs on your new platform. I hope that this does not indicate that you plan to intercede during the competition. A Grandmaster involving himself in fights between children would cause a loss of face for all of us.”

I studied his smiling face for a long moment and then glanced at YuanKong standing beside him.

“I agree. Any Grandmaster who feels the need to involve himself in these fights is quite… unseemly.”

As there was nothing else for us to say to each other, YuanFei led his group to the side where they discussed the upcoming competition in hushed tones, and after only a few minutes, the combat instructor led in the group of roughly four dozen new Disciples.

The clan’s Eighth Elder gave his normal speech, and when he asked if anyone would like to challenge for a position as an elite, a brutish-looking boy with thick arms and a nasty sneer on his face stepped forward.

After challenging the tenth-ranked elite, the boy was quickly slapped to the ground and started bleeding out. The Grandmasters looked at me to see if I would intervene, but I showed no reaction.

The tenth elite walked forward, delivered a killing blow, and then returned to his seat.

While I certainly didn’t agree with the clan’s position on having children kill each other like this, that boy had not been on my list of potential recruits. I wasn’t here to save everyone and change the Su Clan. Involving myself in every random killing that took place would only get in the way of my mission.

After the death of one of their number, none of the other Disciples had any desire to fight. 

The elder then allowed the elites to challenge each other. Those who had been designated as ‘fighters’ chose to take the elder up on this offer, but these five only fought amongst themselves. They didn’t challenge ShouLi or the others.

After these challenges, the elder returned to the center of the arena and looked at the normal Disciples.

“Train hard. After one month, you will return here and have another chance to challenge the elites and attempt to join their ranks.”

It seemed the elder was trying to wrap things up, but I wasn’t quite ready for that. Empowering my legs with qi, I jumped from the balcony and joined the elder in the arena.

The elder wasn’t sure how to respond, and with a quick glance, YuanFei signaled him to let things play out.

I looked at the group of children below me and gestured to the seat next to Liang.

“I am here to recruit new Disciples. If you join me, you will no longer receive any training or support from the Su Clan. They will cut ties with you, and from now on, all you will have will be what you earn through your own efforts. Is anyone interested?”

Nearly everyone in the courtyard wanted to laugh at this offer, and almost none of the Disciples showed any desire to make me up on it. However, as soon as I finished speaking, one young man rushed forward.

“Please, accept me as your disciple.”

I considered waiting to see if anyone else would try to fight the boy for the position but decided against it. I would reward the boy for his decisiveness.

I waved to the empty chair. “Go. Join Su Liang.”