Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 50
Zhang Liu and Zhang Xue soon arrived at the city, along with some other members that came out of hiding after seeing them and getting the good news. After arriving they saw the destroyed siege weapons and signs of battle, there weren't that many casualties on both sides due to most of the fighting being done by the top cultivators while the rest of the armies stayed out of it, but some people still died.
The kids could see bodies scattered around here and there, the gates were now open, clan members were out and about the area dressed in their battle gear. The kids noticed a woman running at them, tears in her eyes.
"Liu, Xue!"
The woman was their mother, she gave both of her children a hug but mostly their daughter the two just collapsing to the ground while crying in each other arms. She was named Zhang Jie and was in her 30's, she looked like a person in her 20's though this thanks to her being in the foundation establishment realm which most of the time doubled the lifespan of the cultivators.
"Waaaa, I was so scared."
Xue cried while cleaning to her mother that was sobbing as well and rubbing her daughter's head in response. Liu was looking at the daughter and mother duo, a smile appearing on his face as he was glad that everything worked out in the end. After some time the females stood up, their faces red but smiles on her faces.
"Mother, mother you won't believe it. We were fleeing from those Tsai Clan members, Liu even got shot by some arrows!"
The mother opened up her eyes wider and started examining her son's body, she could see that his robes were torn up and there was some dried blood but no wounds.
"Don't worry mother, his wounds have been healed thanks to The Senior Uncle!"
"Senior Uncle?"
The mother asked.
"Yes, he appeared out of nowhere and in a flash all the bastards from the Tsai Clan were down."
Replied the brother while smirking and clenching his fist while reminiscing about the encounter.
"The clan members also told us that he rescued the city as well, he met us on the way here and saved our lives."
The mother looked at the boy and girl, then back to the city zoning in on the middle clan structure where the senior in question was now in.
"Listen here you two, the man that saved you is called Zhang Dong he is the grandson of Grandfather Jin."
Zhang Dong in question would later find out that his old bastard grandpa was quite the womanizer back in the day. He was part of the core members of the clan, but he had sired many offsprings with mistresses and concubines alike. The only good thing about his character was that he always took responsibility for his actions and took in any children he produced. Zhang Dong's father was one of those as well, as he came from one of those mistresses. So he had quite the extended family now, all thanks to ol' gramps who couldn't keep it in his pants. Zhang Jie was from the core family, so were her children so they were his half-niece and nephew. The lady would be akin to his half-cousin.
"The problem is, that he is from a side family..."
Blood purity was a thing in these clans, Zhang Dong was from a side family and these people were from the mainline. There would be tension between the side families and the main one from time to time. Mostly due to the main families antagonizing the side ones for not having 'pure' enough blood. The woman feared that the man in question could have some hidden animosity against the main clan bloodline members. She could recall him a bit from her youth, but the boy never showed himself much he was always training and never spoke to anyone around him so he was a big unknown.
The man did save her children though, so she would be forever grateful for that, the woman never did like the way some members treated the side families. But there could be some trouble brewing as some of those purists were still in the clan, this cousin of hers was very strong. She was there during the fighting, there was no one besides her grandpa that could even hope to stand up to him. But the grandpa in question was more than likely to accept him into their midsts, he was just a big family man.
"Uncle Dong?"
The two looked at each other and thought back to the cultivator that saved them. They remembered his righteous appearance, how lightning crackled around him and how easily he took out those enemy cultivators. The two didn't care about the main family or side family stuff, so they just smiled as they knew that the man had a closer bond with them.
"D-do you think Uncle Dong is accepting disciples?"
Liu asked while licking his lips.
"Oh? I want to be Uncle Dong's disciple too!"
Xue chimed in while bouncing around in excitement.
Their mother gave out a sigh while shaking her head, then told her children to get back to the city. She knew that a change of leadership was probably about to happen, there was no one stronger than this cousin of hers now. The thing that bothered her was mostly if this family member would be a good fit for the clan. Would he even stay? Would he rule with an iron fist? There was uncertainty ahead, but the clan needed a new strong leader and this young man was their best bet now, she hoped that it wouldn't get violent though. She hoped that Zhang Dong didn't have a bad temper, the previous Patriarch tended to have mood swings and a one-track mind. He also took most of the best treasures with him to that godforsaken place, which made the clan weaker in the process. He was the type of person that put himself above everyone else, she sure hoped that this new person would do the opposite.
The family of three started going back home while Zhang Dong was lead around the main mansion grounds. There weren't many people around as everyone was still in damage control mode. He did run into a couple of members, that just bowed at him or whispered something to each other as he passed. He was shown a big hall, where the upper clan members made decisions. There was a throne-like seat at the end of it, stairs leading up to it. You could imagine the clan head sitting there with a lofty look in his eyes, just looking down at people who had to stand up as there were no other chairs or seats around.
In the end, he was guided to the old Patriarch's bedchamber. The door was quite large, but the room inside was even bigger. There was a red carpet leading to a large bed, but also on the sides of that carpet, there was a pool with water. You could see many white lotuses floating about. The room's deco was red, there were many lanterns lighting up the place that seemed to be activated with spiritual Qi. The bed had drapes hanging down from it, there were also a couple of those oriental folding screens where you were supposed to change your clothes behind.
In the back there was another room, it had a big pool in their water coming out of various statues. Zhang Dong could feel the spiritual energy coming from this warm water, the heat opening up his pores that just increased the intake of that condensed Qi. This place looked like a high-class hotel that millionaires or billionaires would stay in Dubai. There also was a balcony, he also wondered if he could have the ceiling open up as he didn't want the buildings to get struck by lightning if he cultivated here. To his surprise that was already covered, as the previous Patriarch had installed a mechanism that would open up the ceiling so that moonlight could fill the bathing area.
"I'll think I'll rest for a bit... thank's for guiding me here."
The scholarly looking man just bowed and left him inside, going back to report to the elders while Zhang Dong went straight to the bathing area. This place has something akin to a shower, it was in the form of water running out of one of the statues, looked more like a waterfall. The water was warm and it washed over his body, the stench of blood slowly fading away as he scrubbed his hands and arms thinking back to what transpired today. The emotions he felt during the battle started coming back after he was left alone. He looked at his hands that he was washing and remembered the moment he plunged his fist into the man's face.
He still didn't know how he should feel about what he had done, he was feeling shame and remorse. But he also knew that the man that he killed was quite the psycho. He remembered him shouting about wanting to kill everyone from the city, with a mad look in his eyes. This made him feel better, but still, he had slain a man and perhaps he would need to do that once more. The reality of this world started slowly creeping its way towards him, but he didn't want to be like cultivators from this world. He was already an adult by the time he was placed here, he had a set personality it would be hard to change his core beliefs.
He knew that what he had done was out of necessity, no one in this world would hold it against him. They would probably be more surprised if he spared the guy instead, which made him chuckle.
"Ahh... what did I get myself in to..."
He asked out loud while sinking into the warm water, the liquid somehow soothing his mind as he closed his eyes and slowly dozed off.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 51
Matt opened his eyes, a small boy was poking his thigh. He recognized this child as it was his nephew, he looked around noticing that he was in the back yard that belonged to his cousin. He didn't know how he got here but the youth was holding on to a ball and he wanted to play. He could see some other family members around as he stood up from his chair. The boy smiled and started kicking the ball towards him while he just kicked it back. The boy miskicked to the side that made the ball tumble away from him, so Matt decided to go after it as it was still closer to where he was.
He bent over to pick it up, but then when he turned around there was no one around anymore. The whole place looked devoid of life, his family members nowhere to be seen. He tried calling out but no one replied, then he noticed something. The ball that he was holding had a strange texture to it, he looked down to see that he was holding on to a man's head. The head belonged to the man that he had slain not so long ago, tears of blood were coming out of the dead looking eyes that gazed at him with disgust. He screamed out in shock waking up to find himself in the same pool that he had dozed off before.
He panted a bit while grasping his chest for air, not much time had passed since he had entered this room and no one came to bother him. He gathered his thoughts and stood up, the water running down his muscular body as he grasped a tower that was on the side. He gave out a sigh while gathering his thoughts trying to forget about what happened today.
*Uh, still not used to this shit."
He frowned while walking back to the main bedchambers, pulling up his status screen to focus his thoughts at something else.
Name :Zhang DongAffiliation :Zhang ClanSpirit Points : 192084Cultivation Base Qi :Core Formation [Middle Stage 5%] (Lightning Core)Cultivation Base Body :Foundation Establishment [Great Circle 0.5%] (Silver Body)Techniques :Lightning Qi cultivation art, Silver Body Arts, Thunderlight Sword, Thunder Movement Art...Dao : Dao of Heavenly Lightning, Dao of Smithing and CraftingOther : Senior Aura
*Guess none of those other core formation cultivators died, only got those points for the fire lord guy...*
He didn't manage to cripple any of the other elders in that fight, he didn't get any spirit points for most damage done to the enemy either as you tended to get in some games. Zhang Jin had finished off the defeated cultivators, but the one that he took out at the start had gotten away, not like he really cared that much for them. He took out the ring that he got from the big baddie and scanned it with his spiritual sense, discovering quite a bit of spiritual stones in there. There were even some middle-grade ones in there, but just a handful. If he absorbed those he could probably get the next level of the crafting abode, which would let him make earth grade weapons and clothes.
There were also some beast cores in there, some cultivation manuals and a couple of weapons. He pulled out a spear and tried to examine it.
Grand Fire Spear Earth Lower Grade
He wondered how much he would gain in his body tempering technique if he absorbed a weapon that was above the grade it was currently in. Previously it went up by 20% if he used high-grade weapons while being in the middle stage, so it should be at least that, might be more as this time around it was a weapon that was not just one small grade above but a whole realm above.
*Should I try it? But it takes a while to absorb what if someone walks in?*
He shook his head as he was still new to this place, he needed to figure out how he stood with this so-called Zhang Clan of his. He was supposed to become it's Patriarch apparently, so he tried to remember what a Patriarch is actually supposed to do. From what he knew, they were the leaders of the Clans, some were hidden in the background and didn't show themselves to the public while some took an active part in the Clan's business. His grandpa told him that he shouldn't worry too much and that he wouldn't really need to run things.
Matt went back to fiddling with the spear, but instead of absorbing he dumped some points to level up his apprisal skill. He wanted to know if anything would show up and it was just 100 SP for the first one. Nothing seemed to change at first, but after he kept looking at it another window popped up.
NameGrand Fire SpearGrade : LowerAttribute : Fire??????????????????????????????????????????????????
*Oh, it did work. There are more stats to see now... could have figured out the attribute through the name... The rest are just question marks guess I need to invest more points to see the rest...*
The next level cost 500 and the next one 1000, he also dumped in 2000 points to get another one in.
NameGrand Fire SpearGrade : Earth LowerAttribute : FireDurability :MediumCondition :FairAdvanced Grade : C-????????????????????
*C-? is this school or something... though that would mean that it's slightly below average if it goes from F to A ... should I dump 5000 SP to get the next level... uh... think I'll stop for now, I'll see how many points I have left after I clear out those spirit stones... also Zhang Jin said that he would give me more of the spoils later... He looked stingy though, hope he doesn't scrooge out on me. Unlocked Durability and condition as well, guess that will come in handy when buying things. Don't want a weapon that will break after one swing even if it has high attack power.*
Matt placed the weapon back into the storage ring and started examining some other items. His Crystalline Flying Sword came out with a pristine condition with an advanced grade of A+, guess it was on the top end of high grade flying swords. He also brought up one of his skills, wondering if it would show any other statics now.
Name :Lightning Qi Cultivation art (Upgradable)Grade :Immortal LowAttribute : Lightning Advanced-Grade : BQi LimitHigh????????
The statics were self-explanatory, the Qi Limit just meant that he had a big gas tank, guess the higher the more Qi related attacks he could do. The thing that was the most peculiar was the 'Upgradable' part in the brackets, he didn't remember it being there before. He hovered his finger over that and it took him to a new menu with some more options now. But it looked like a skill tree in a game this time around, with only two options for the first branch.
He didn't have many options, one only said Empowered Lightning Qi Cultivation art and the other said Gray Lightning Qi Cultivation art. It kind of made it seem like it was a choice between two major schools that he had to take. He hovered his fingers to see if there was another explanation and there was.
Empowered Lightning Qi CultivationA superior version of the Lightning Qi cultivation art, further upgrades unlock other options.Gray Lightning Qi CultivationA darker path unlocks for the cultivator that fallows this cultivation art.
*I guess the gray one is the dark side choice... Though shooting black lightning at people would be cool... hope I won't get pink lightning with the other choice...*
He didn't want to go with some kind of evil cultivation art, then end up looking like a wrinkled up raisin. He also wondered if this was actually a good thing. Should he upgrade his cultivation art, or get a new one later. The system said that this would last him up to the great circle of core formation, he would have to get a new one when he wanted to get to the next level. But the prices for nascent soul cultivation manuals were quite high, plus he had to reach the great circle stage first and level up his body tempering skill too.
He looked at the skill tree from the empowered lightning qi cultivation art, he could see a skill tree leading up to the Nascent Soul. He just needed to unlock two of them to get to the Nascent soul one. There were even color options for golden, violet and azure. The colors probably meant something as the Nascent Soul would be in that color later on.
*Hm, guess I'll decide on that later on... *
Also, he recalled the battle from today, then the dream he had and decided to look up something else in the cash shop.
Void Mind20000 Spirit PointsThe cultivator abandons his emotions for a sharper mind, nothing can faze a cultivator that studies this technique.Tranquil Mind30000 Spirit PointsThis mind technique helps keep the cultivator's demons at bay and helps to calm down his emotional state. It improves the state of mind to keep calm under pressure.Berserker's Mind15000 Spirit PointsExponential increases the cultivator's battle strength with the side effect of entering an enraged state.
He focused on the tranquil mind technique, he could really use that. He realized with the last battle that he wasn't getting accustomed to this world fast enough, the problem was his attitude. He didn't have that killer personality and a lot of times he froze, not knowing what to do. During this fight, he hesitated almost causing him to die in the process. He felt a bit disgruntled about killing the guy, but he knew that he was a typical murderous cultivator with a high body count. If he wanted to improve, he would have to change his mindset. He would probably have to take lives in the future, but he didn't want to end up as a senseless murderer.
The rest of his current skills just showed the advanced grade and instead of the Qi Limit it just showed had a marker for how much spiritual energy you needed to use the skill. Like his javelin skill was quite low, while his avatar transformation was at high. He would probably be buying some stuff after he got the rest of the things those enemy cultivators had, or at least what the Zhang Clan gramps didn't pocket himself.
So was thinking, do you guys (the readers) want to vote on the color of the lightning he'll get later one, guess those three choices can be expanded on. Though I'm leaning towards violet or gold, as azure is kind of plain.
Vote here.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 52
He wanted to start absorbing spirit stones and spending all of them on upgrading his cultivation, as well as getting that mind skill to ease his troubled mind. But at about that moment the doors to his new penthouse apartment opened up and his good old gramps walked out with two people that were closer to Zhang Dong's age group. The man looked a bit stern and calculative while the woman looked somewhat motherly with a smile on her face.
He almost did a business greeting in the form of a handshake while looking at the other male from the group, but then placed his hands behind his back and gave the people a nod. The two clasped their hands as they did a formal greeting and didn't talk, they let Zhang Jie do that instead.
"This is Zhang Ya and Zhang Kuo, they are my disciples and can be trusted, we need to talk about a couple of things."
The two looked up at Zhang Dong, trying to feel him out.
"Ah, I guess you want to talk about me becoming the next Patriarch, are you sure about that Gramps?"
The two people twitched a bit after they heard the man call their clan's only core formation elder gramps. The man in question just grasped his belly and laughed out loud in a jolly voice.
"No one ever called me gramps before, but yes it's about that. Some members are against you becoming the new Patriarch, they don't want someone from the side family to be in that position."
The man shrugged, kind of not caring about what those other clan members thought, he didn't put much weight in the purity of the blood, all Zhang Clan members were equal in his eyes. He was more interested in their character, drive and actual battle prowess.
"Well, not like they can do anything about it, they are mostly hot air. If they offend you in any way, be sure to give them a good thrashing!"
"Also Ya and Kuo will help you out with your Patriarch duties, if you need anything just give them a call, they'll be your guides around the clan grounds don't need to worry about making these two work hard!"
The man laughed some more before giving the two people behind him a pat on the shoulder. The female just smiled while the man rolled his eyes slightly.
"It's a pleasure to meet our Clan's savior, it's going to take some time to set up the ceremony and banquet."
Matt tipped his head to the side while looking at the woman, question marks appearing next to his head.
"Ceremony, banquet?"
This time the man stepped out and replied.
"Yes, the Patriarch candidate is adorned with the title during the ceremony, all the core clan members have to be present during it. After the title is bestowed we host a banquet, then it's customary for the Patriarch to visit the city so that everyone can witness his grand appearance."
While the man was talking the woman slowly went behind Matt and started patting him down. He noticed that she had a measuring tape in her hands.
"We need to prepare your robes for the ceremony, your white battle robes aren't suited for the festivities also the color isn't very eye-catching."
The woman said while chuckling to herself and doing her measurements, her eyes were sparkling as she did it making it seem that she was really into this task.
"We still have to make repairs to the grand formation, account for the loss of lives in the attack and prepare for any further intrusions."
"Do you think someone will attack us again?"
Matt asked.
"No Senior, we should have eliminated the core fighting strength of the clans that attacked us, the Tsai Clan will probably try to hold up in their domain, the Wu clan lost their Patriarch that was their strongest cultivator the Wong clan retained some of their cultivators but don't think we will see them again. Due to Senior showing his power, the other Clans will probably think twice before planing anything. We should be safe for now, unless one of the stronger clans or sects gets involved."
Matt just nodded while stretching his hands out so that the woman could measure his arms, she giggles when she managed to take the measurements of his biceps. He didn't really tense up like the last time a woman was touching him, guess the previous encounter did change him slightly.
"It will probably take about a month till the ceremony, you can just take your time and get used to living around here after it's official we'll talk about retaking our lost assets. I bet those bastards are shaking in their boots right now."
Zhang Jin said while clenching his hand. The clan had lost most of its assets and was chased out of cities that they were managing, one of them being Moonlight City that Matt previously visited. After a while, the measurements were done and the woman excused herself to prepare the ceremonial garb, the stern-looking man also excused himself leaving Zhang Dong and Jin in the room alone.
"I didn't want to say it next to the juniors, but you should prepare yourself for the future. This will be turbulent times for our Clan, we might have won the battle this time but we don't know what will happen next. The Dark Palm sect might be a problem later as well, they were the ones that forced our Patriarch to act in that failed expedition. But in their eyes we were just a tool that could be used, let's hope they order some other clans to finish the job instead."
The Zhang Clan was more or less a medium-sized clan, they had their territory but in reality, this belonged to the Dark Palm sect that was the real hegemon in the area. They used the clans to manage the cities and resources for them, taxing them for 'protection' and using that to grow their sect. There was no rule against clan members joining sects, it was common for them to do so as if they were deemed worthy they would inherit powerful cultivation skills. But the further you were on the ladder the more you were expected to put the sect on a higher pedestal than your clan or previous life. That was also the reason why most sects only recruited younger members as it was easier to indoctrinate the young.
"But you probably don't want me to prattle on all day, so I'll leave you be for now. Maybe if you look around your memory will return."
Zhang Jin said while heading out, but stopped after Matt asked him a question.
"Um, aren't you forgetting something?"
The man looked back at his grandson's face, he was squinting at him and looking at a certain place. He followed that gaze and noticed that he was eyeing his storage ring. This made him sweat a bit as he thought he could pull a fast one on his grandson that might be busy with getting to know the ropes around here.
"Oh, ho ho.... silly me... here..."
He tossed Zhang Dong a storage ring, just one as he did say that he would have some people sort through them. He scanned its content to see some more spirit stones and resources, it looked to have similar things to what the Tsai leader's ring had so he reckoned that was the stuff from those two other elders inside. He didn't spot the bow that one guy used that he choked out though, did he get away or was gramps holding out on him?
"Well, then my dear, loving grandson... grandpa will be leaving..."
"Wait... didn't one of them use a bow weapon..."
Old gramps twitched and caught a couple of times into his hand, before taking out another spatial ring and tossing it over.
"Oh, it was just such a nice bow, so I just couldn't resist... forgive your old grandpa."
The man laughed while looking at Zhang Dong that had a deadpan expression on his face as he pocketed the storage ring.
"You sure are a piece of work gramps... I'll make you something better than the bow, later on, just provide me some resources."
Matt knew that there were enough spirit stones in those rings to let him buy the next stage of the crafting abode, then he could make earth grade weapons next.
"Oh, you are also adept in the Dao of blacksmithing? What a talented grandson I have!"
The man just laughed while removing himself from the room as he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he would let Zhang Dong have some time to himself before seeing him again. The man in question just gave out a sigh while moving back to the room, he had to examine all the items and start absorbing the resources, it was time to level up!
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 53
A pile of dust could be seen on the ground, it was the remains of the spirit stone that Zhang Dong had absorbed. He noticed that not every lower grade spirit stone gave him exactly ten points, they mostly ranged from seven to ten while the middle graded one gave him a hundred times that amount a pop. He now had quite enough points to spend on the crafting abode upgrade along with the tranquil mind skill which he did. He felt a slight migraine as the knowledge got injected into his brain once more, the process getting less painful each time.
The first thing he did after that was going to the ground, spring water around. He started cultivating this skill, hoping that it would relieve the stress he was feeling. He took a long breath then exhaled, his breathing slowing down as his body relaxed. His bodily functions slowed along with his breathing, the noises beside him getting quieter with each passing moment. He felt his spiritual energy inside his body, moving through his meridians. His mind was getting clearer with each passing moment, he was becoming one with the surroundings if someone were to enter they would have a hard time spotting him even if they were looking directly at him.
There wasn't anything grand happening, not flashy effects taking place. Matt just sat there, his breathing was nonexistent at this point as his head was void of any thoughts. He didn't feel fearful, angry or spiteful, he managed to reach a state of tranquility. He opened his eye, the day had turned to night as he stood up and looked outside. The city was covered in yellow lights, the springs were giving off a greenish hue as the light bounced off them.
"Well, it did calm me down."
He felt the stress levels declining significantly after he was done with his cultivating, even after he recalled the death of the man he slew, he still felt relaxed.
"I don't feel any different..."
He placed his thumb to his chin while doing a test, he recalled the night that the had with the busty cultivator. His lower area reacted to the stimulation, showing him that he still felt emotions. Asking your little brother was the proper way to get a feel for your emotions, yes...
"Hm, maybe it works more on negative emotions."
He wondered if he would be harder to anger now, but he would need to face an opponent to see if this technique would affect his fighting potential. Keeping calm under pressure was quite the big deal, he felt a lot calmer than before.
There were some things that he wanted to do, first buy the crafting abode, then see how well he could craft the earth ranked weapons. He also wanted to get his body tempering up a notch and then try to enhance his cultivation skill to the advanced version. With those boosts, he should probably be able to fight people even stronger than at the late stage of core formation. He had a month's time till the Patriarch ceremony was supposed to happen, so he had enough time to test things out.
After buying the abode he entered it, it had increased in size and he noticed that there were some other things he could do now. He could edit the items now, he could also reforge old ones. For instance, if he created a high grade sword, he could reforge it with some materials like the beast cores that would improve the advanced grade and add special effects. He did some tests on the cheap common grade items, he could keep boosting the weapon past an A+ into an S grade after that it would jump a grade. So he could well just keep upgrading one weapon that he liked, instead of forging new ones in the hopes of getting the stats he wanted.
He also needed a real weapon, he saw the limitations that his sword skill had if he paired it against an earth graded weapon. Also, he needed to constantly use up spirit energy to keep it going.
"A shame though, it's super cool looking."
He lamented that he had to give up on one of his favorite skills, who didn't like playing around with laser swords?
"Wait there might be a way though..."
He thought about something, what if he could find a weapon that he could combine his thunderligh sword skill. He started scrolling through the many sword diagrams he could get and after a while found something that could work. It was a longsword, it had some dragon patterns in the hilt while the blade looked to be made from some semi-transparent metal or crystal. The thing about it was that in theory it was supposed to absorb external sword skills letting the blade have a second form. So if you pumped in fire Qi into it, it would start forming a flame sword.
He bought it, but even just the schematics cost him about 10 thousand points as it was an earth grade weapon. He wanted to try crafting right there and then, but then he looked at the costs of the resources that had increased by quite a bit. He needed to dump at least 60 thousand into making one weapon so if he failed he would be losing quite a lot. He recalled the prices for earth grade weapons on the low end and they sold for about two thousand spirit stones up to four thousand, he would need to make a middle graded one just to break even.
*I bet this rhythm game will just get harder, I had it easy with the previous ones because my cultivation was already high. I should upgrade my cultivation technique and my body tempering before doing this.*
He had decided on upgrading his cultivation instead of buying a new one later, he was already used to it so changing midway could be detrimental. He pulled out one of the weapons he got from fighting the enemy clan members, it was a lower graded earth weapon. He started absorbing it as he did previously with the other weapons, it took longer as this was a higher graded weapon but even with just one it pushed his cultivation of the great circle to 40%. His eyes gleamed as he took out another weapon moving his cultivation up to 80%, his silvery body started changing color slightly as it started looking somewhat golden.
He took out another lower graded earth weapon, it slowly started dissolving into liquid metal and getting fused with his body. This time around the change was different. Many cracks could be seen on his body, they looked like spiderwebs. The sound was akin to steel bending and breaking as chunks of the first layer of his silvery skin started peeling off and drooping to the ground. The process took a while but afterward, his skin started gleaming with a golden hue.
Cultivation Base Body :Core Formation [Early Stage 5%] (Golden Body)
He was drenched in sweat, the golden luster subsiding after a while. Matt started poking his body, trying to feel if anything was different but couldn't really tell. He should be sturdier now but he needed to test it out first. The bow that he had as a middle-grade weapon, plus he had the Tsai Patriarch's saber which was also a middle graded weapon. He had absorbed three lower-tier weapons that were the flying swords of the weaker cultivators he fought. He still had that fire spear though, so he took it out.
*Okay, hope this works...*
Matt grasped the spear closer to the pointed tip and pointed it at his hand. He then started pushing it into his palm, trying to check if it could pierce his now improved golden body. In theory, he should be able to tank the hits and to his surprise, the spear wasn't able to cut him. He tested it further, poking himself harder not getting more than a scratch. Then he took out the saber that was used against him previously and poked the tip with his finger. This weapon was a grade higher so after some poking he got cut, blood run onto the weapon while he pulled his hand away. The small cut healed itself rather quickly, showing that his body tempering technique wasn't just about defense there was some added regeneration involved.
He looked inside his storage ring, in it, he had three middle-grade weapons and 3 lower graded earth weapons, this wouldn't get him past to the middle stage but he didn't really want those weapons he wanted to craft one of his own for use.
*Man, this is one expensive technique... though the good thing about it is, that it's fast to level up if you have the resources.*
He absorbed the rest of the weapons and then left his crafting abode, for the time being, it was time to upgrade his cultivation technique. The bathing area looked like a good place to do this, the walls were enhanced to keep the spiritual energy inside and the water in there was rich in Qi. Plus he could open up the ceiling to take in any incoming lightning strikes, he sure hoped his new neighbors wouldn't mind some thunderous weather though.
In the middle of the pool, there was a platform to sit on, it was directly under the roof that could be opened and was probably used by the previous Patriarch to cultivate. Matt didn't know if the process would be painful or not, so he hesitated before clicking the Empowered Lightning Qi Cultivation upgrade and gulping afterward. The moment he did that, information started rushing into his brain again but this time around it was quite a bit more painful. Lightning energy started forming around him making rumbling sounds, the Qi inside of his body started getting switched out. The pale blue lightning that he used changed to a deeper blue color as you could see it getting discharged into the surroundings.
The upgrade cleansed his body from some impurities that were formed during the cultivation of a lesser graded method, making his sweat glands push out dark looking goo in the process. The usual vomiting of black blood soon followed, but it was a lot less than what happened when he first arrived in this world. The change was more or less contained and he managed to not pass out in the process.
Name :Empowered Lightning Qi Cultivation art (Upgradable)Grade :Immortal MiddleAttribute : Lightning Advanced-Grade : B+Qi LimitB+
Matt stood up and gathered some Qi into his fist, throwing a punch upwards into the opened ceiling and watching as his lightning attack got discharged. He sure felt a lot stronger now, he felt that he might be able to battle that volcano construct without needing to change into his avatar form and win. That monster battle power was in the upper echelons of the late stage, maybe on the cusp of getting into the great circle. In theory, he should be equal with core formation experts in the great circle realm, if he reached the late-stage himself he should be able to tussle with multiple of such opponents at once. He had the tropy cultivation art that broke the level boundaries, maybe if he upgraded it further he could go up against a weaker early-stage nascent soul cultivator.
About a day had passed since he got to this room, but he didn't really feel like leaving just yet as he started to get into the zone with his cultivation. He decided to sit down and gather up some energy, the process was more or less the same but the upgraded cultivation technique showed him a way to purify the energies in the surroundings even more. The purer the Qi he absorbed, the stronger he would be and this wasn't even the final form of this technique. Soon the sky turned black and lightning bolts rained into his cultivation/bathing chamber. The clan members thought they were getting attacked but after Zhang Jin went to check up, they noticed that it was their Patriarch to be. They could feel the terrifying energy fluctuations coming out of his chambers so there weren't willing to bother him to stop, the storm clouds only remained directly above the main building and thanks to the reinforced cultivation chamber the thunderous sounds were somewhat contained.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 54
After getting in the zone Zhang Dong breathed out, the area filled with lightning energy that crackled through the spring water. About a week had passed since he got here, he never left this room and didn't really feel like eating during his cultivation period. His cultivation had gone up to about 20 percent which was a lot slower than before but still was quite fast if he compared it to people around this world. He wondered if it was due to the level of his cultivation method which was in the immortal grade.
He decided to try crafting his weapon before heading outside as he was cooped up in this room for far too long, there were sights to see. So he entered his crafting abode, he had about a hundred thousand points left, this would allow him to have two goes at it at most. The things that he found in the spatial rings weren't really useful for crafting as for this sword he needed something called crystal alloy. After he got the position he needed to check if he could get some free crafting materials as he didn't want to spend all his points on those. He just wanted to boost his body refining skill further and maybe earn some dosh on the side.
He selected the weapon schematics and brought out the core of the Cthulhu look-alike monster to boost his chances of crafting, he even threw in some random foundation establishment monster cores hoping for the best. A new kind of music started playing and as he thought it was a lot more fast-paced than before. But thanks to his tranquil mind he wasn't tense, he started hitting the spots as he was directed to but even with his enhanced cultivation and body, he wasn't able to hit everything perfectly. Maybe due to luck or the number of cores that he dumped into this crafting, he managed to get a high grade one.
The weapon didn't look all that grand, but after he used his thunderlight sword technique the sword started to shine, literally. The weapon got coated in plasma-like light, electricity shooting from the blade. Matt swung it around and it made familiar wooshing noises, the blade was covered with bluish light and you could feel the spiritual energy emanating from it. He didn't really have anything he could test this weapon out on, be he felt that it would probably slice anything below a high graded earth weapon in half. He still had some points left, so he decided to dump five thousand into his apprisal skill again.
NameSpirit Infusion LongswordGrade : Earth HighAttribute : NoneDurability :HighCondition :PerfectAdvanced Grade : BSpecial traits : This weapon can fuse with the users Qi and increase its resistance and sharpness in the process. Works best if the user combines it with weapon constructs techniques.
He deadpanned at the added explanation window as it was more or less the same thing he got when he was buying the blueprint for it. He left his crafting dwelling afterward he had about 45 thousand points left but he would save those for later, he didn't really have anything he wanted to get. Maybe a technique that let him shoot beams out of his eyes? Or lightning breath? Those sounded a bit silly but probably would catch people off guard. Maybe he could come up with his own techniques if he tried, he had the Qi control down and he had that Dao of lightning knowledge. He also didn't have many healing pills left, so maybe it would be good to stock up on those for later use. He could regenerate somewhat, but that required him to use up his stamina. So maybe some Qi regeneration pills and stamina regeneration ones would be good too.
He also found out something after he examined his clothes after the special trait window got revealed he found out that was more to these clothes than just self mending. These white robes could actually change color and also blend into the environment if you didn't move for much. All of this could be done by inserting some spiritual energy and giving a special command to the robes. He could even upgrade them to add new functions, but it didn't come cheap.
Matt played around changing the color to black and red, then blue. Guess if he covered his head with the hood no one should recognize him as the cultivator in white if he ever needed to lay low. For the time being he changed it back to white as he walked out of the previous Patriarch's room, well now it was his. There were some people around so he just gave them a nod while passing, they seemed a bit tense as they saw him walking towards them but they just gave him the usual bow of respect.
He felt kind of strange walking around this place, everyone was showing him the utmost respect, no one talked to him. Was it rude to talk to someone of a higher status than you? Or were they just being shy, well not like he wanted to talk to the unknown people he was still an introvert that liked his peace and quiet. But now he had to take center stage on some kind of inauguration ceremony to his new position. It was already a big step for him that he didn't just refuse the position and leave this clan instead. But he would rather stay here, than wonder the lands as some rouge cultivator with no place to call home. Also, they had quite the nice springs around here, Matthew was quite fond of taking long relaxing baths.
After walking for a bit he noticed that someone was walking behind him when he turned around there was no one to be seen. He could feel the presence of two people behind the corner, they had been following him for some time now. Were they some bodyguards that were supposed to keep tabs on him or something? Were they assassins that were sent by some vengeful clan? Probably not as the two people were in the Qi Condensation level, he could probably snort them to death at this point.
"So, are you two going to come out. Or are you going to be following me for the rest of the day?"
He crossed his arms over one another while waiting, soon the stalkers were revealed. It was the brother and sister duo that showed a lot of courage while standing up to the Tsai clan pursuers. The two teenagers walked out while holding their heads down, probably not knowing what to say to the man in front of them.
"Oh, you're the two kids from last time, glad you are safe. Did you two want something from me?"
The two raised their heads, perking up a bit as they were glad that their uncle remembered them.
"Uncle Dong, we just wanted to thank you for what you did."
The girl said while bowing in a graceful fashion, Matt raised an eyebrow at the 'uncle' part. Most people would put Senior in there, or even in front of the uncle part, but those two made it seem like he was their real uncle. Did he have any siblings that he didn't know about?
"Uncle?"
He looked at the two children in front of him, trying to see the resemblance. They looked more or less like what your typical male lead and female lead in a cultivation world. They had dark hair, auburn eyes, the girl was a jade-like beauty, though to him she just looked pale. The boy had a serious-looking face, a bit too serious for his age.
"Ah yes, our father was your cousin..."
He noticed the change of tone when the girl's father was mentioned, she also slumped her shoulders a bit. The boy replied afterward instead.
"Our father went to the expedition with the previous Patriarch, they never returned..."
Zhang Dong placed his hand on the male's shoulder, not really knowing how to react so he kind of gave him an awkward pat on it.
"My condolences, I'm sure he was an honorable man. I'm sorry about not recognizing you two, I left the clan a while ago and my memories are a bit hazy from that time..."
He tried to change the uncomfortable subject, wondering what these two wanted from him.
"Great-grandpa Jin told us about that, no need to apologize uncle Dong!"
*Great-grandpa Jin? So that would mean that they are from his side of the family? That would mean...*
He figured out that him being from the side family, would mean that old gramps had a harem going for himself. He shuddered at the thought of having multiple family members that would start popping up from nowhere.
"Ah yes, Gramps... So, what do you two need?"
He rubbed his chin while looking at the kids that started fidgeting side to side a bit. It looked as if they were trying to ask about something but weren't sure how to do it. After a moment both of them looked at each other, nodded to themselves and dropped down to their knees to kowtow.
"Please Uncle Jin, take us in as your disciples!"
They both shouted in unison while their foreheads hit the marble floor. Matt started recalling that tribe he met in the forest, as they were fast to drop to their knees.
"Wait, what?"
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 55
The two were prostrating themselves in front of the man, he was a bit dumbfounded by the whole thing. He didn't know anything about teaching people or guiding them in any way shape or form.
"You want me to be your master? I just met you two. Why would I even take you in as disciples?"
The two kept their heads down, not looking into his eyes while trying to get his approval.
"Please honorable Uncle, we want to be strong to protect the Clan. We almost lost everything before you arrived, we can't let it happen again."
The girl from the group did most of the talking, while the boy mostly just said yes and nodded his head, which only caused him to hit the ground with his forehead. The whole scene was quite uncomfortable for Matt as he had no idea how to even train those two if he agreed, also this would be quite the long term binding contract. Masters in the cultivation world tended to be treated as your own parents, sometimes they were put on an even higher pedestal. He didn't really want to be responsible for teaching them some strange things, which would get them killed later on.
"Don't think that's a good idea... I need to go take care of a couple of things... so see you around..."
He just bolted out of there, trying not to think about it too much. The kids would probably forget about it, leaving him alone. Also due to the fact that he didn't eat much for the past week when he was cultivating and making items, he was famished. He wondered if he should just go to the city and find himself a restaurant, or ask someone about food, he could probably get some here if he wanted. Matt was curious about the city though, it looked nice from the top of his peak top apartment. Would it be a problem if people recognized him in the streets? Though not many people had actually seen his face.
He looked around, there were some people here and there doing their thing. No one was really keeping tabs on him, he didn't have any bodyguards as no one in their right mind would want to attack a cultivator that could take out four core formation cultivators. He figured ol' gramps probably gave the order to not interfere in his business too much unless asked directly. Matt thought that he would probably get the rundown of the place only after he officially got the Patriarch spot.
For not he just hopped onto his sword and flew around the city a couple of times before coming down into an empty alleyway. He swapped the color of his robe to a brown one, this being quite common. He finished his disguise by covering his head with his hood, he also debated on putting on some cool shades to hide his eyes but have up on the idea. A cultivator with dark shades would just look out of place around here. Also, he could use his cultivation to mask his appearance somehow. If people tried looking at his face they would see it blur slightly, but that only worked for people below his strength level.
He mingled with the crown, slipping from the empty alleyway. He Hit some stalls on the way, getting some noodles and slurping them as he continued to walk. There was quite a lot of things to see, from street performers playing on their zithers to various monuments and statues. He had spirit stones and regular money so he wasn't a scrooge as he tipped the street dancers while enjoying the day.
The day seemed quite peaceful, he walked into one of the larger restaurants that looked quite busy. By this time he knew how things worked in these types of places. The people with more money would get better treatment, in most restaurants the higher you were seated the greater your status was. So after flashing the serving lady some spirit stones he was guided upwards into a more peaceful booth where there weren't as many people around. He ordered something similar to kung pao chicken, though the paultry used for it had some spiritual Qi in it so the taste was somewhat better. Spirit Spring city also was quite famous for its spirit mineral water, so he ordered that with it instead of alcohol.
He thanked the cute serving girl that brought him his food and then started munching, the view outside the window reminded him a bit of the previous city he visited. He hoped that he wouldn't bump into some spoiled brats on his way out though, as this time around they would probably belong to the Zhang clan. It would be quite the sight to see if the future patriarch would get run down by his own clan members. The thought of brats made him recall the two kids that begged him to become their sensei, he wondered if that would even be possible. He brought up his system screen, by this time he was quite sure no one was able to see it beside him.
*Would this thing even help me with disciples and stuff like that, didn't it give me some prompt about clan building when I got here...*
This system was kind of wonky, it would sometimes hide things from him and only show them later. Was there some kind of trigger for it, maybe his power level counted or some steps needed to be taken to unlock things? He glanced at his system screen, it looked like a computer screen just hovering there. His eyes twitched as there was indeed a new icon there, it looked like a scroll with some Chinese symbols on it. He poked at it while wondering what was inside. As the window changed he could see that there wasn't much inside, but there were a couple of tabs. There was one for disciples when he clicked it the inside was just empty. There was also one for disciple candidates, that showed up with a red '!' mark. It looked like a friend invite, but there was more. He could see a window with some statics for both of them.
Name :Zhang LiuAge :16Cultivation :Qi Condensation 9th levelPotential :BTrust :70%Alignment :Chaotic GoodName :Zhang XueAge :15Cultivation :Qi Condensation 7th levelPotential :BTrust :75%Alignment :Neutral Good
He looked at the prompts and numbers, taken aback by the D&D styled alignment one. Also, the trust percentage was quite high, was me saving them enough to bring it up so high? The potentials were the same and quite high, B should probably be above average as you started off from F with the worst kind.
*I guess they have potential, but wait... if this is letting me see those stats... could it be possible to change their potential later?*
The system was quite overpowered it had really many functions, but it also needed a lot of points to run on he didn't think changing someone's actual inborn potential would come cheap.
*I do have all those manuals in my storage ring, they always appear after I buy skills and I have all the ones I got from the start too.*
He had all the materials he needed to teach people his skills, even the Dao of lightning passive skill had a big manual coming with it. The techniques had basic manuals for Qi condensation practitioners if it was feasible for them to learn a weaker version of it. Like his cultivation art went from the noobie stages up to the core formation stage. The stages you needed to take to go from Qi condensation to foundation establishment, forming your lightning Dao pillars were all explained. He also had the knowledge in his brain, so in theory, he should be able to teach plus if the system let him spend points on his disciples it would be even easier.
The two seemed like promising candidates, they were good kids and had high potential but he was still on the fence about the whole thing. He was never really good with people, to begin with, now someone wanted him to guide them while he himself didn't really have things figured out. But maybe this would also be a good way for him to come out of his shell. For now, he moved the thought to the back of his mind and went back to eating, he wasn't really in a hurry. He finished his meal but was still quite hungry so he wondered what he should order next while looking at the menu.
At the same time, he could hear a woman's scream followed by some plates breaking. When he turned around he could see some people sitting in a booth not far away from him, bothering the serving lady that was serving him before.
"Oh little missy, look what you did. You dropped all the food."
The man laughed while the girl was hiding her rear end behind the serving tray. Probably one of the men had touched her there.
"You perverts!"
The woman replied while fuming with anger.
Matt kind of facepalmed as these things kept happening around him, wherever he went there were some people in trouble. Some damsel or kids in distress. Did he really have to go over there, or could someone else handle this, weren't there any bodyguards around here?
One guy from there was in the foundation establishment level, probably the leader the rest were probably just his goons.
"Listen here girly, big bro here is a big shot in a big clan, you little Zhang clan can't hold a candle to it! Be glad that he showed interest in you!"
The big bro in question was a sleazy looking man, he just licked his lips and yanked on the girl's wrist making her fall into his lap.
Zhang Dong doubted that claim to fame, as the group was quite shady-looking and didn't conduct themselves as people from a prominent clan. Their clothes were quite shabby as well, so they clearly were low on cash.
*Aw shit, here we go again.*
He was slowly getting used to this, so he just stood up from his seat and slowly walked over to the booth the goons were sitting in. They quieted down after seeing the unknown cultivator. They tried to say something, but before they could do anything the man grasped their leader by the face, lifting him up while not letting him speak. The man thrashed about, kicking, punching and trying to move Zhang Dong's hand away, but to his horror, it wasn't budging at all. The whole group kind of figured that this man was strong from the way that their leader was just squirming around not being able to break free.
The female escaped and went behind Matt who turned his head to her and asked.
"Hey, could you open that window miss?"
While the girl was still getting ahold of herself he tested something out. He could only analyze people's names and cultivation levels from afar. But what if he had direct contact like when he identified items. It did work, the man did indeed lie about belonging to a clan he also had a fitting name for his attitude.
Name :Hoo Dung Age :65Cultivation :Foundation Establishment early stageAffiliation : Dung GangAlignment :Chaotic Neutral
*Dung Gang huh? Well, at least he isn't evil...*
The girl looked back nodding, she didn't say much and just followed the order. As soon as the window was open, the cultivator walked over to it, just holding the thug with one hand while his feet dangled around. The rowdy character was chucked out of the window, he made a nice arc before falling face-first into a pile of horse excrement.
"Hah, bullseye!"
He then turned back to the rest of the thug squad while shrugging.
"You guys still here?"
The group looked at each other and then started running to get to their 'captain' just leaving the place altogether while hanging their heads low.
"Hey miss, could you bring over some meat dumplings?"
He sat back in his booth while the female employee thanked him, the restaurant owner showed up later to as he was grateful as well. Security around here had dropped since the Zhang Clan was busy with other things like the siege and the Patriarch ceremony so they didn't blame them that much. Matt just ate his fill, probably staying there another hour as he got a good deal.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 56
Time moved on, his daily routine consisted of cultivating in the night, getting three hours of sleep as he didn't need more, going to the city to sightsee and eat delicious meals. Then go back to the Zhang Clan stronghold while trying to evade the two teenagers that pestered him about accepting them as his disciples. He started noticing a strange occurrence though, whenever he went out to town.
The man was just enjoying the sights while trying to tour the ten million large city, but whenever he did that trouble was always around the corner. Not for him though, but for other random people. Just like on the first-day things seemed to go astray as he kept running into people that got mugged, assaulted or were brawling.
On one occasion two fathers were duking it out, punching each other left and right while their kids watched. Apparently one of the father's sons had asked for the other dad's daughter's hand in marriage. But that one strongly disagreed so they got into a fight, one claiming that his daughter was too good for the likes of them, while the other got offended. He found himself pacifying the situation and forcing the family to talk it out like civilized people while he watched.
In the end, he ended up handing over one Qi enrichment pill to the people as a gift. They were in one of the rings he got earlier so he didn't care much about it, but the people sure did. The people even wanted him to be part of the family after they got all buddy-buddy with each other. But he was afraid that they would try to milk him dry if he ever accepted to do that.
At one point he wondered if he should change his robe to a black color and put a bat symbol on his chest. The amounts of robbers he beat up and sexual harassers was quite high, he didn't know if it was just how things were around here or if someone had put some kind of curse on him. Well, it would be a lie if he said that he didn't enjoy beating up the baddies the man having a bit of a hero complex, but when you did it all the time, every day, it started to weight on him. When he got that Patriarch position he would be sure to form some kind of police force. He couldn't be busting up criminal rings while being the king of the city himself.
Though, he was doing the exact thing at the moment. It was less than a week till the Patriarch ceremony, so the clan members were busy with that. He was eating a shish kebab while walking, he wasn't sure where he was but by the banners outside the buildings, it was probably a similar place to the pleasure district in Moonlight city. While he was walking past one of the alleys he heard some muffled screams, his senses were quite up there so he stopped. Two people were in front of that alleyway, probably some goons to scare off others as they were giving him the stink eye.
He just went over there nonchalantly and took a peek behind them while the two were shouting things like 'Do you want to die' and 'F**k off bastard'. Sure enough, there was a woman getting held down by some goons. He gave out sigh and then looked at the two shouting men in front. He did something he saw in cartoons or movies, he grabbed the two by the heads, bumping their heads together and then tossing the two to the side. The people inside pulled out their weapons, one of them swinging his scimitar right at him but he just caught it between his index and middle finger. After disabling that attacker with a little jolt of electricity via the metallic weapon he moved forward. The other two were soon down on the ground with some missing teeth and broken noses.
This wasn't the end though, the woman in question started begging him to help rescue her sister that was abducted by the baddies in question. Guess he stepped in on a human trafficking situation, he just shrugged and told the girl to lead the way. He was a bit surprised by the fact that there were things like this taking place in this city. He thought the Zhang Clan wouldn't allow such things to happen, but later it was revealed that yes they were a lot better than the other clans. But still, some people could still be bought out they just kept things more secrete. So there weren't things like what the young bratty masters did back in Moonlight city.
This made Zhang Dong mad, he didn't want to have people forced into a life of prostitution. While some Zhang clan official turned a blind eye while getting paid some spirit stones. He wanted to go back to the clan abode to get some people to check this stuff out, but the girl was just yanking on his robe and crying. So, after giving out another sigh he told the woman to show him the way, what happened next was people flying out of windows like in an old western saloon scuffle. He was just too strong for them, without needing to use any of his Qi cultivation he just walked in the building, weapons shattering and denting the moment they touched his reinforced body.
In the end, he brought the big crime boss to one of the Zhang Clan's establishments, they were scattered around the city and told one of the people there to go get Zhang Kuo. He was still covering his face, plus he wasn't that known so the clan member inside didn't really want to listen. That was until he released some of his cultivation on him. After Kuo got here, he told him about the whole thing and wanted the man to get apprehended. Zhang Kuo didn't argue, he just looked at the beat-up man and some girls that were standing behind him, the girls were the ones that he saved from the baddies.
The man was quite good at organizing things, so he had the man brought in while having the women questioned about their situation. The Patriarch to be wanted him to get them back to their families or if they didn't have any to organize a place they could work at instead. He thought this was a bit too excessive for the Zhang Clan to get involved this much, but it was a noble endeavor and his boss gave the order so he couldn't really refuse.
After acting as a vigilante, he returned home to find Liu and Xue sitting by the entrance to his room. They were kowtowing there for close to two weeks, not moving an inch even when their mother came over to pick them up. He was slowly feeling bad for them, did those two even pee?
*God damn you brats, I have no idea how to teach you anything...*
He hid inside his room and bit his lower lip.
*Will those two just sit there till they are skeletons? Their mother was giving me strange looks lately...*
When he looked at the Disciple tab, there was not much he could do. He couldn't even remove the disciple candidates in the system or accept them, he figured he needed to tell them that he accepted it. He had that senior aura, but most it did was just make people agree with him more.
Impartation of Knowledge (Upgradable)30000Teaching was never this easy, all your disciples will absorb your teachings like sponges with just a touch of your finger. Skills and techniques thought this way will transfer a faint amount of the mentor's knowledge into the student.Imposing Will35000This skill makes your disciples listen to you more, increasing their blind devotion towards you.Mentor's Eyes20000Having trouble with picking up the flaws of your students? With this skill, you'll be able to see any shortcomings that your pupil is experiencing.
*I guess if I want some devoted minions that 'Imposing Will' would be good. But don't really want some crazy zealots. The other two will help me teach them faster while picking up on the flaws in their cultivation...Should I try it...*
He gathered a bit more points during these weeks, getting some clan resources and making weapons without having to spend points of them. But the earnings were so-so. He had enough to get those to skills, also he had a hunch that he might be needing those skills in the future to make the Zhang Clan stronger.
After buying them he looked at his mirror, checking if he wasn't looking funny.He then opened the door and said in a stern sounding voice.
"Liu... Xue..., stop sitting around there and get in here."
The two youths moved their heads up after they heard the words, they looked slightly emaciated but were in high spirits after they heard their uncle's voice. They closed the door behind them and looked at Zhang Dong that had his hands behind his back while standing up straight.
"So, do you two want to become my disciples?"
The two looked at him nodded and replied excitedly in unison.
"Yes, Uncle!"
"My cultivation techniques are very volatile. If you fail in your cultivation, it will mean certain death."
He said with a frown on his face as the lightning Qi that he used was quite chaotic and hard to use. If the cultivator made a mistake the backlash could kill them. This was probably why the rank of his cultivation was up there. While asking he moved his hand out, electricity crackling through his fingers as he demonstrated.
The two kids gulped while looking at that lightning Qi, they were quite gifted so they knew that what the man in front of them was doing, wasn't that easy. But they made their decision long ago, they would risk it.
"Also, you must give up on your revenge, extinguish your rage. Pursuing power for revenge leads to many demons in your Dao Heart, this will delay your progress significantly and at worst, will cost you, your life!"
He wasn't lying as this was the truth in this world, the knowledge that he was implanted with told him that. Inner demons were created from negative emotions and unless you were planning on cultivation some demonic technique you were better of without them.
"If you agree then you may call me master."
He said while opening up his hands, the bottom side of his palms pointing at each individual in front as if he was beckoning them forward.
The two thought about for a second before, kowtowing one last time. Then replied, determination in their voice.
"Yes, Master!"
Accepted Zhang Liu as your disciple!Accepted Zhang Xue as your disciple!Gained 10000 Spirit points for accepting your first disciple, congratulations!
He perked up at the prompts, he thought that he might be able to earn points by training disciples as otherwise, he would be spending resources and not getting much in return while others got stronger. Guess he could become the greatest disciple trainer in the world!
*I can even feed them pills to get stronger and choose their move set...*
Matt wasn't a person of this world, so he didn't really get the whole Master - Disciple dynamic that well. He wasn't against teaching kids some things here and there but wasn't really thinking about the cult-like behavior disciples mostly had towards their masters. The more he would teach them, the more devoted they would get. This could be a double-edged sword, but the kids didn't look like the type to get into trouble, he sure hoped that his trouble attracting aura wouldn't rub off on them.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 57
After seeing the prompts, Matt noticed that Xue and Liu's faces were now in his disciple window. When he clicked on them he could see all their statics, how far they were into their cultivation what skills they had learned, and how well they knew those skills. They all had the usual low, mid, high and perfect grading, so it was easy to figure out.
Zhang clan being a Clan based in a city full of springs made them mostly have water techniques, maybe this was the reason why the Tsai clan that was fire types hated their guts so much. Now he would have to make a decision, to either buy new water-based techniques for the kids or just teach them what he had already. He didn't think there was a reason to do the earlier, as his cultivation method was superior to the other ones. He also had many resources dumped into his lightning Dao way, that it wouldn't really make sense unless the kids didn't have the aptitude for it.
First, he needed to change their main cultivation method, only after that could he start teaching them his techniques. Then, he might need to get them a better body tempering skill, he didn't want to give them his as it was far to resource-heavy. Maybe it would give them an initial boost as the first levels would be easy, but later on, when the resources get scarce it would become a problem. They had no system to help them craft weapons that they could absorb, this type of technique was only good for people that were loaded.
"Take a seat you two."
He beckoned them over, letting them sit down while he stood up, brows furrowed slightly before he began speaking.
"Qi Condensation, you take in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from the surroundings, to temper your body from the inside. You prepare your body for your foundation. You two have already started, but luckily it is not yet too late."
"The breathing techniques that you have learned allow you to extract Qi from the surroundings, filtering out the water elements and then storing them inside of your body. My cultivation method is a bit different."
Zhang Dong said as he stuck out his index finger and pointed it at his new disciples. After a moment the two could see a Qi bubble forming in front of it, but it was a bit odd. It was weaker than normal and didn't seem to have any elemental energy inside. But after a moment it started crackling, turning a deeper shade of blue as it appeared in the form of a small lightning bubble.
"You don't just gather the spiritual energy, you transform it, feel the heavens around you, bend them to your will!"
He kind of recited what the knowledge in his head was telling him, it sounded like hogwash but the two kids were eating it up. He also had to agree with it because he was actually pulling out heavenly lightning from thin air. But he didn't plan on making many speeches though, as he took that handy Impartation of Knowledge technique. He did have the books on him, but he didn't want to explain everything like a math teacher when he could just upload stuff directly into the brain. Also, the skill had a small bonus of already giving the one that was receiving it some proficiency in it. The first steps were always hard, so this was a big plus. He also could spend points to upgrade it later, so that the impartation would let the pupil learn more from the get-go.
"I'll impart my cultivation technique for the Qi condensation level to you, but also another technique. It's called the Tranquil Mind, I want you to study it first before you attempt cultivating my Lightning Qi Cultivation Art."
He thought that the bonus from the tranquil mind technique would aid the kids in keeping a calm mind, so they wouldn't make a blunder during the cultivation period. The two were giddy with anticipation as their Master walked over and placed his index finger on Liu's forehead. The two didn't know what Zhang Doong was doing as they have never seen a teaching technique like this.
"You might feel a tiny bit of pain... so endure."
Before Liu could nod he felt information rushing into his head, he could feel discomfort penetrating his mind and sweat going down his forehead. He never felt something like this before, the knowledge of the tranquil mind, the cultivation art and even the Dao of lightning was getting shoved into him. The whole thing didn't take long but the poor teenager almost passed out during it. The Dao of lightning was probably the hardest to comprehend, as it was the absolute principle of lightning.
*Uh, maybe it's too much information at once? I managed to survive that info dump... they should be okay, it's a lot less info than what I had to endure.*
He went over to the girl that was shivering slightly now but there still was determination in her eyes. She survived the headache but was rubbing her poor forehead while on the ground trying to process the information.
"I have imparted the basic teachings to you two, you can head back and start cultivating after you rest up. Also, take these and copy them down, don't show them to anyone else, then return them to me."
He handed them the cultivation manuals with the techniques as well, the impartation skill wasn't perfect they might need the techniques in written form for reference and the system didn't have a copy function. The two teenagers wobbled out of his chambers while grasping their heads, he might have overdone it but he smirked a bit as he wasn't the only one who had to endure migraines while learning new things.
*Haha, you two are young you can power through it.*
*I think that should take them a while to process before I have to teach them other things, but I sure would like to have a body refining technique for them... one that lets them get to the nascent soul at least...But those would be in the heavenly grade, those don't come cheap.*
He had spent most of his points now, he wondered if he could get Zhang Jin to fork up some spirit stones that he could absorb, or maybe he could get their mom to do it, but she was a widow now so he thought that would be inappropriate.
"Wait, there are those upgradable skills... maybe I can buy one that starts at the Qi Condensation stage but I can upgrade it all up to the Nascent soul stage... maybe even higher."
That was the good thing about those upgradeable skills, they might end up costing more in the end but you could use them at a lower level. A person at the Qi Condensation level couldn't use Core formation skills even though they were of a higher grade, they required just too much Qi to use. But not like someone with no body refining skill would be weak. Qi cultivators were more of a mage class, while body refiners were more akin to warriors. The strongest people cultivated both, but most of the time one path was the main one while the other was just a bonus.
Like Zhang Dong mostly used his Qi cultivation instead of his body, but that was mostly due to his body refining being behind his Qi cultivation but now it had finally caught up. So he would probably win against someone with a similar Qi cultivation if their body refining level was low, as he would take less damage and tire himself out less.
His Qi cultivation was of a high level, so the kids didn't need a super hard to learn body refining technique more or less something to add to their repertoire would suffice. But he still wanted it to be somewhat good. There were a lot of techniques that could be upgraded and had skill trees to them, but none of the attack ones he had. That kind of evolved as he upgraded his cultivation technique. He also had a skill tree for his body refining technique, but he couldn't up the grade but instead, he had attacks that he could unlock.
The copper body skill let him choose a grasping technique, his fingers would become metallic and his griping power would increase exponentially. He had already gotten that and tested it out, it also got a free buff when he rose his level of cultivation. The silver body let him deliver explosive strikes with his fists and legs, as they also changed to metal. He could also raise his defense past his cultivation realm for a brief moment. The golden body let him go into a special state he would perceive time slower while moving faster, so it was more or less a boost in speed and reaction time. All in all, it let him fight better at close range while using up his stamina instead of his spiritual energy.
*But wait, the upgraded skills work on me as I have the system, can I upgrade them if someone else learns it..."
He didn't take that into account, he was the person with the system. He could buy skills but he had to use them himself to get the required knowledge to pass on. So he checked out his cash shop and found another way. Some skills could be bought a tome at a time if needed. So he could buy the first tome of the skill and pass it on, then when they were done with it just get the second tome without having to pay the whole price for the skill or technique upfront.
So while his new disciples were bumbling with their cultivation efforts, Zhang Dong took his time in examining the body refining skills. He also was really close to becoming the Patriarch, he sure hoped that nothing wrong would happen during the ceremony.
Behemoth Body (Tome 1)2000Cultivator absorbs demon beast cores to enhance the body. Gains monstrous strength can transform body parts like nails into claws. Practitioners might experience violent tendencies.Profound Physique (Tome 1)2900Through rigorous training, tempering and absorption of heaven and earth energies the cultivator can transform their body into the perfect weapon. Mostly focus on defense and power.Devil's Frame (Tome 1)3500By performing specific rituals, the practitioner can gain the body of a devil, it boasts high regenerative abilities. Sylph Physique (Tome 1)2850Suited for female cultivators, it focuses on speed and evasion instead of resistance. While still giving a moderate increase in defense and regeneration.
He didn't find anything out of the ordinary, the Behemoth Body seamed good as it only needed beast cores but the violent tendency part was a bit iffy. The Devil one was out of the question, he didn't want his disciples slaughtering infants. The profound one looked like your regular body refining skill, with no downsides besides being hard to learn. It looked like it would boost the cultivator's skills without the mental or moral downsides. The Sylph one would probably suit his female disciple, while the profound one would be better for the male one. He would give those later to his disciples, maybe he could even give it to some other clan members as those looked to be good high grade all around refining techniques. Plus it was just for the Qi condensation level, so they was rather cheap.
There was also one other thing he learned while he was examining the cultivation manuals that he got from the core formation cultivators he defeated. When he examined it with his system out, he noticed that he could actually refine the cultivation techniques. Also, the costs were lower. He would pay less for upgrading a low earth graded skill to a high earth graded skill than to buy a new high graded skill. So maybe if he got his hands on those water cultivation tomes that the clan had, he could upgrade them. It would be probably better to learn a better version of a technique you were already familiar with than to start practicing a new one.
For now, he didn't have many points left so he just resumed his daily activities the day of the 'coronation' was coming.