In his cave, Aotian sat upon his meditation slab, tapping a finger against his leg, lost deep in thought.
Before him stood three unfamiliar figures, each equally absorbed in their own contemplation.
They were all women who, despite concealing their cultivation, possessed terrifying power and aura hidden within their bodies.
Aotian's eyes flickered.
'Which pavilion should I put them in?'
He wondered as he studied the three new ancestors he had purchased earlier that day—all female, since the sect's evolution would naturally produce only males.
'Before deciding, let's count the pavilions with ancestors…'
'Treasure Pavilion, Shadow Pavilion, Alchemy Pavilion, Beasts Pavilion, Body Refinement Pavilion, Heritage Pavilion.'
These pavilions corresponded to the current six ancestors of the sect.
'Although all are useful, I don't intend to allocate other ancestors to them for now. It's better for each pavilion to have at least one ancestor before additional allocations, so I can fully use and understand the sect's broad abilities.'
'So, for these three, what remains is…'
'Punishment Pavilion, Refinement Pavilion, Formation Pavilion, Talisman Pavilion, Sword Pavilion, Missions Pavilion, Music Pavilion, Spear Pavilion, Puppet Pavilion.'
Aotian began to ponder the abilities of the elders of these pavilions, trying to deduce which ones would be generated by allocating an ancestor to them.
Soon, he immediately disqualified the Punishment Pavilion, thinking its abilities would probably not be very useful at the moment. Likely involving things like hunting, battle, punishment, and distinguishing between lies and truth.
The Refinement Pavilion and the Talisman Pavilion also did not seem like good choices at the moment, since he was not lacking high-quality equipment.
The Sword and Spear Pavilions could wait, since he already had a combat ancestor. By the same reasoning, he also set aside the Music Pavilion—interesting as it was—because it, too, was combat-oriented.
'That leaves me with the Formation Pavilion, Missions Pavilion, and Puppet Pavilion…'
Aotian's expression turned a bit strange as he realized the remaining pavilions.
'Formation Pavilion… it will be useful when I master the Mahayana mansion, since it would take a long time for my outer elders to reach realms high enough to handle formations and spiritual energy at that level.'
'The Puppet Pavilion also has an interesting ability, which will be useful for that little girl when I gain 100% authority over that small world. Moreover, if I have good materials, I can strengthen the sect's high-level power with puppets.'
And then, finally, a trace of hesitation passed through his heart when he looked at the Missions Pavilion.
Although he used this pavilion's ability basically twenty-four hours a day, allocating an ancestor to it seemed a bit excessive.
'Should I take the risk? Or should I allocate another combat ancestor, considering I don't know when a confrontation might happen?'
He pondered with difficulty. Both options seemed good, but Aotian still did not want to allocate more ancestors to combat, since he rarely used them. For example, the ancestor Lei Xinyi, from the Body Refinement Pavilion, never had the chance to act, usually being used as his personal bodyguard.
Of course, she was still useful, as she could emit an aura that helped refine the physique, which was very beneficial for him, for the disciples, and for the sect's beasts, and this fact made the decision even more difficult.
Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, he decided.
'I don't know when the world might end, but there's a possibility this pavilion can at least give me an estimate of time… it's worth the gamble. That way I'll be more prepared!'
Opening his eyes with determination, he decided to try.
'System, allocate them randomly to the Formation Pavilion, Missions Pavilion, and Puppet Pavilion.'
With his firm mental command, a faint light enveloped the three ancestors, slightly altering their appearances and auras to better fit their new positions.
When the light faded, the three women appeared: one with a youthful appearance, another middle-aged, and the last elderly.
This had been a specific request from Aotian when summoning them.
Although he had not removed the requirement that they be beautiful—including the elderly woman, whose features still hinted at the striking beauty of her youth—he still requested diversity in age.
But his focus was not on the ancestor' appearances, but on their statuses.
The eldest ancestor:
[Name: Mo Qianyin (Meaning: One who guides a thousand threads in the dark)
Position: Sect Ancestor (Puppet Pavilion)
Cultivation: 1st Level of Tribulation Transcendence (3 Major Realms Above Host)
Body Cultivation: 1st Level of Tribulation Transcendence (3 Major Realms Above Host)
Position Ability: Hive Mind
Affiliation Skill: Puppet Realm
Position Bonus: Soul Growth (8 times per day)]
The middle-aged ancestor:
[Name: Shen Xinyue (Meaning: A mind as deep as the moon)
Position: Sect Ancestor (Missions Pavilion)
Cultivation: 1st Level of Tribulation Transcendence (3 Major Realms Above Host)
Body Cultivation: 1st Level of Tribulation Transcendence (3 Major Realms Above Host)
Position Ability: Karmic Target Detection
Affiliation Skill: Mission Realm
Position Bonus: Performance Evaluation (8 times per day)]
And finally, the youngest ancestor:
[Name: Ling Yuzhen (Meaning: Transcendent jade formations)
Position: Sect Ancestor (Formation Pavilion)
Cultivation: 1st Level of Tribulation Transcendence (3 Major Realms Above Host)
Body Cultivation: 1st Level of Tribulation Transcendence (3 Major Realms Above Host)
Position Ability: Spiritual Enlightenment
Affiliation Skill: Formation Realm
Position Bonus: Blueprint Generation (8 times per day)]
He analyzed the three panels carefully, deducing ways to use all the abilities, since the system did not come with an instruction manual.
'Hmm… I think I have an idea. Let's test it!'
…
A day passed, and Aotian quickly mastered all the new abilities and summarized them.
'Mo Qianyin, ancestor of the Puppet Pavilion, is the easiest to figure out. With hive mind, she can use the puppets' own minds as if they were hers and control multiple at the same time perfectly, without it being too exhausting.'
'Now, at Tribulation Transcendence, she can control 128 puppets of the same realm as her.'
'And, combined with the enlightened minds, this situation becomes even more terrifying. Simply put, the number of puppets controllable solely by her, who has her own mind, combined with the 7 enlightened minds, rises to a terrifying 1,024.'
At that point, he made a strange expression as he thought it over.
'…But what's the point of that?! I don't have materials to build even a single Transcendent-Tier puppet, let alone a thousand.'
With a bitter look, he forced himself to abandon that thought.
If it weren't for the Soul Challenge ability, which creates an illusory realm where he could test his abilities, he wouldn't even know the limit of the ancestor's puppet control.
After calming down, he continued to reflect.
'Then there's the Puppet Realm ability, which is basically a pocket realm to store puppets and summon them at any time. There's even an automatic repair function if the puppet remains in the realm long enough. It's quite useful and can catch the enemy off guard by summoning several at once around them.'
He thought, slightly regretful, feeling that these abilities wouldn't be very useful for now due to the lack of excellent puppets.
'There's also the Soul Growth ability, which the outer elders of the Puppet Pavilion already had, and which allows the soul of an item to strengthen at an accelerated rate.'
'Fortunately, having an ancestor with this ability will be useful to strengthen the little girl of the Mahayana mansion, since if it were only the outer elders using the ability, the difference in realm would drastically reduce the effect, making the gain almost irrelevant.'
With the characteristics of this avatar understood, Aotian quickly classified it.
'Good abilities and great potential, strong combat capability if there are high-quality materials in abundance… but, at the moment, useless with the resources I have. I at least need a synthesized Void-Tier puppet inheritance to try to change this situation.'
He sighed and moved on to analyze another avatar.
'Ling Yuzhen, ancestor of the Formation Pavilion. She has an ability extremely synergistic with Soul Growth from the Puppet Pavilion, called Spiritual Enlightenment.'
'This ability allows rapidly implanting common sense into a soul and awakening spiritual wisdom if it does not possess it. In other words, I can make the spirit of a formation, or another item, grow rapidly in strength with Soul Growth and then eliminate the second most time-consuming part of the process, which is mental development and common sense, using the Spiritual Enlightenment ability.'
'With these two abilities, I can awaken powerful spirits in bulk.'
This made him feel a bit more satisfied with the ancestor of the Puppet Pavilion.
'This ancestor also possesses the realm ability, Formation Realm. It is very interesting and useful.'
'With it, I can—or rather, ancestor Ling Yuzhen can—store multiple formations and summon them instantly in battle, already assembled, catching the enemy off guard. This is truly powerful. Unfortunately, this ability is currently limited to a 15-mile radius around the ancestor—not much, but not insignificant either.'
'Of course, this is only the size of the formation that can be externalized at once. The actual size of the realm is much larger and accommodates a wide variety of formations.'
'Again, this is very strong, but it runs into the problem of me not having enough inheritance and materials to fully utilize this ability at the moment.'
'As for this avatar's last ability, there's not much to say, since I constantly use it through the outer elders of this pavilion. Blueprint Generation simply takes the information I have and instantly organizes it into the best array I could create based on it.'
Aotian classified this avatar with a bit more satisfaction.
'Nothing very new or flashy, but still very useful and full of potential.'
He nodded, and finally turned his attention to the last ancestor, Shen Xinyue, from the Missions Pavilion. This time, a smile finally appeared on his lips.
'Good. This avatar is going to be very useful…'
Smiling, he analyzed the information he had gathered over the past few hours.
'Mission Realm… when I first saw it, I thought it might just be a space to store missions, which would be extremely useless. But in fact, it's much more than that.'
'This realm has restrictions, and fortunately I tested it with a simple mission before, otherwise it could have been problematic. But in return, it is very powerful.'
'In short, I can define a main mission in this realm, and I won't be able to change it until it is completed.'
'And I can add related side missions, which show their impact on the completion rate of the main mission…'
Aotian reflected, excited about this ability.
After the tests, he defined his main mission without hesitation.
[----Main Mission----]
[Mission: Save the World
Description: Heal the tree of life and prevent the destruction of the world.
Participants: Infinite Dao Sect and All Available Allies.
Current Danger Level: Fatal
Current Possibility Rate: 10%]
[------------------------]
Aotian's excitement did not come only from that, but from what happened when adding other missions to the realm.
[----Side Missions----]
[Mission: Recruit the Dragon King Long Zhentian
Description: Gain authority over the Mahayana Mansion and recruit the dragon king.
Participants: Infinite Dao Sect.
Current Danger Level: Slightly Dangerous
Main Mission Possibility Rate: +30%]
[Mission: Wait Five Years to Grow
Description: Grow for five years without dealing with the major powers of the central continent.
Participants: Infinite Dao Sect.
Current Danger Level: —
Main Mission Possibility Rate: Complete Failure]
[Mission: Wait Four Years to Grow
Description: Grow for four years without dealing with the powers of the central continent.
Participants: Infinite Dao Sect.
Current Danger Level: —
Main Mission Possibility Rate: +30%]
[----------------------]
Yes, Aotian felt satisfied seeing that the Mission Realm ability could, in a way, bypass one of the biggest limitations of the Danger Intuition ability, which was the inability to evaluate very long missions or those with many parameters.
In fact, it was still not possible to determine the danger level, which remained blank, but the possibility rate was already everything Aotian needed in this end-of-the-world situation to guide himself.
But at the same time that he felt relieved for no longer being in the dark, a heavier shadow of concern arose in his heart.
His fists involuntarily clenched.
'If nothing changes… the world will end in five years.'