Kael's path to the grand hall was interrupted by a familiar voice. A woman stepped from the shadows and pulled him into an embrace before he could react, pressing his face directly into her massive tits without any warning.
She held him there like he was a child, and to her age, he probably was one. Alexia Maether had just emerged from eleven years of seclusion, and apparently her sense of personal boundaries hadn't improved at all during that time.
"You… are suffocating me."
Her laugh was genuine and unrestrained just like the sound of someone who genuinely enjoyed tormenting him.
She treats me like a kid. Although to her age, I am a kid anyways.
Elder Ren rounded the corner just as Alexia was ruffling Kael's hair like he was some kind of pet. He let out a heavy cough deeply exhausted.
"Cough… cough. Senior Sister, you should see how you present yourself to others. Especially men."
Alexia didn't even glance at him completely unbothered by the implication.
"Huhu, I've changed this guy's diapers, Ren. What is there that I haven't seen of his body?"
Kael managed to extract himself from her grip, straightening his robes with as much dignity as he could muster.
"Oof, I feel harassed. Let's do this quick ,I have other things to do later."
"Hoo? Other things?"
Ren's frustration finally boiled over. He gestured at the scene like he was presenting evidence in a trial.
"Take a look at yourself. A grand elder rubbing the Fifth Elder on her tits, or a weakass Fifth Elder who gets bewitched and just lets her do it anyway. This sect is pathetic."
That was when another elder stumbled into the hallway, a wine jar clutched in his hand like it was the holy grail. The Liquor Monk- the Sixth Elder who looked perpetually intoxicated, his movements were loose and completely unbothered by anything.
"Hey, Fifth Brother! You need to work harder, you know. Look I'm already at the Foundation Stage myself. The gap between us is ridiculous."
Ren immediately slapped the back of his head hard enough to make him yelp.
"We are literally the 997th sect on the continent. Three more rankings down and we won't even be able to call ourselves a sect anymore."
The Liquor Monk didn't even seem to register the hit. He just grinned and took another sip from his jar.
Alexia waved a hand dismissively,
"Leave such worries for another day. Our sect's elders are friendly and good with newbies compared to the angry tyrants from the top sects. That's actually our strength."
Isn't that exactly what makes them top sects? Kael thought but he kept the comment to himself.
Ren's expression hardened.
"Anyway, we're here to discuss the recruitment period for this year. We need someone strong to manage it."
Is this like some school admission? Kael asked his system silently,he was completely unfamiliar with how recruitment worked in a cultivation sect.
[SYSTEM: Cannot display unknown information to host]
Tch. Useless.
Alexia's eyes suddenly fixed on Kael with an intensity that made him instinctively step back.
"We need someone strong enough to command respect."
Well, I'm the weakest one here. I'm definitely out of this.
"And they should have free time to dedicate to the position."
I just took on a disciple. I can't abandon her this quickly.
"Most importantly, they need eloquence. If we don't impress other sects, they'll steal our best prospects before we even get the chance."
Yeah, definitely not me.
Ren smiled,it was the predatory expression of a man who'd already decided his prey.
"So it all falls to me then, right? I don't think any of you chumps have the qualifications anyway. I'm already aiming for the Grand Elder position this recruitment period will help solidify my power base politically."
But Alexia moved faster than anyone expected. She stepped directly between Ren and Kael.
"Actually, I think Kael would be perfect for this position."
Every eye in the hallway turned toward him. Kael felt his stomach drop like a stone-
"What? No. Wait—how?"
His protest was immediate and desperate but no one seemed inclined to listen to him.
Later that evening, Kael stood in his quarters trying to process the disaster that had unfolded. He'd been assigned the recruitment period despite every objection, and now he had maybe afew days to prepare. That's when he noticed something was completely wrong with Vivian.
She was swaying slightly, her movements were getting uncoordinated and her eyes unfocused.
When she smiled at him, it was far too loose and uninhibited nothing like the terrified girl from earlier.
"Huh… what? No, wait—don't tell me you drank that."
She giggled, which was deeply wrong coming from someone who'd just experienced the worst day of her life.
"You…left…some bottle along with the book."
Kael's face went pale. The aphrodisiac wine. The one he'd been planning to give to the Sixth Elder as a gift. The one with an explicit warning label.
"Damn. When did I ever say to drink it? That was aphrodisiac mixed with wine—for the Sixth Elder."
Her legs gave out, and she collapsed backward onto his bed. The effects of the aphrodisiac were pulling her under fast.
She lost her family today and was about to be ra— Kael stopped the thought, unable to complete it.
He found himself sitting on the bed, gently stroking her hair.
"Don't worry. Now that you've got a super ultra powerful master, nothing will happen to you. Just please… don't retain any memories like in the game."
But fate had a sense of irony that rivaled the game's cruelty. Vivian's eyes flickered beneath closed lids, and she started speaking in her sleep, her words broken and haunting.
"Master… why are you still alive? Don't touch my body. Please don't—"
Is she dreaming or seeing her past?
That was when the Sixth Elder burst through the door without knocking. The Liquor Monk took in the scene instantly—Kael standing over a sleeping girl on the bed, her words of protest still hanging in the air, her clothes slightly disheveled.
"I'll come back in one minute. Do it quickly, brother."
He turned and walked away before Kael could even process what was happening.
"No wait… this is a misunderstanding! She's only sleeptalking after drinking your wine!"
But the elder was already gone, leaving him in a situation far worse than any actual transgression could have been. Kael ran after him, desperately trying to explain as this misunderstanding could lead to super bad rumors.
After what felt like an eternity of increasingly frantic explanations involving the wine bottle and various hand gestures that probably made the situation worse, the Sixth Elder finally seemed to accept that no actual misconduct had occurred.
He still looked disappointed though, which was its own kind of awkward.
"So you drank all my wine?"
"I didn't drink it.And honestly, shouldn't you be more concerned about what almost happened to my disciple rather than the wine?"
The Sixth Elder waved the concern away dismissively.
"She's fine, isn't she? And my wine is definitely not fine."
While they were still arguing in the hallway, Vivian woke to find herself in clean clothes - new ones, actually, tailored specifically for her with an elegance she'd never experienced before. Someone had even put stockings on her, which was an attention to detail that seemed almost absurd.
Did that evil man really do this?He's way too different from my memories.
The room around her was carefully organized. On the table beside the bed sat a small cage, and inside it was a chicken, clucking contentedly.
Vivian's stomach growled, and she made a decision that would have consequences neither she nor Kael anticipated. She cooked the chicken, putting care into the meal despite everything. When she emerged with the plate, she moved with deliberate grace, her body swaying in ways designed to catch the eye.
She was seducing him, Kael realized with alarm as she placed the bowl in front of him. When she bent forward, giving him an excellent view of her tits and the curve of her ass, he found himself completely unable to look away.
"Master, what's wrong?"
Kael coughed awkwardly.
"Nothing. Nothing is wrong."
Yep, the clothes are fucking awesome, he thought, then immediately felt guilty for the thought.
He looked down at the soup. The broth looked good, well-prepared actually, but there was something strange floating in it. A white, syrupy substance that didn't quite match any normal cooking ingredient.
Is this some new recipe? Did she use the wrong seasoning or something?
The Sixth Elder leaned forward with interest,
"I should drink this, shouldn't I? You drank all my wine, after all. Seems only fair."
Vivian hesitated, her hand moved slightly to block him from taking the bowl.
"No, it's… it's for Master. I found the chicken roaming around, so—"
"Found it roaming?" Kael felt something click into place in his mind, a terrible realization. "Vivian, where exactly did you find this chicken?"
The hesitation in her eyes was all the answer he needed. He looked around frantically, mentally cataloguing his possessions, and his eyes landed on an empty cage that had previously housed his tamed phoenix cub. A small one, barely more than a hatchling, but still an exotic creature.
"You idiot disciple, what did you—"
The Sixth Elder, unaware of the implications, had already taken a large spoonful of the soup.
What happened next was both immediate and catastrophic. The elder's face went pale, then green, and he made a sound that was something between a groan and a death rattle before bolting from the room at impossible speed.
Scary. She tried to poison me. With constipation, no less. She definitely recovered those game memories.
The sound of violent stomach distress echoed from down the corridor. Kael ran after him anyway, partly out of concern and partly to escape the chaos.
The punishment Kael eventually settled on was, in his mind, perfectly proportionate to the crime: he assigned Vivian to cleaning duty for the next week, outfitted her with a special outfit he called his "special servant uniform" which was basically a maid outfit, custom-tailored and far too revealing for any actual cleaning work, and provided her with cleaning supplies he'd personally crafted.
Vivian, meanwhile, was busy discovering his personal library while supposedly cleaning. Tucked under a cupboard, she found a book titled "10 Divine Grade Sword Techniques," and her heart began to race at the implications.
With this, she thought, if I train this in secret, I can kill him easily.
She didn't realize that "divine grade" meant nothing if the master who wrote them had barely understood cultivation himself. When Kael walked in and found her reading, he pulled the book away without hesitation.
"That's just something I wrote to pass the time. Don't worry about it."
"Master, couldn't you teach me some strong techniques? Please?"
Kael felt his resolve crumble like ancient stone. The combination of her proximity, her hopeful expression, and the simple fact that she was asking him to be her real master was too much to resist.
"Of course. Why wouldn't a master teach his disciple?"
I need to leave or this girl will suck me dry, he thought, and he didn't mean it in a innocent way.
He excused himself with as much dignity as he could muster and headed straight for the Sword Pavilion, the sect's library of weapons and combat techniques. The caretaker there was Melissa, a woman who had apparently harbored some kind of admiration for Kael even before his transmigration. She lit up when she saw him approach.
"Senior Brother! You've come. What can I assist you with today?"
"I need some good basic books for a newbie disciple."
Melissa jumped ahead of him with enthusiasm.
"You're such a strange one, Senior Brother. Even now, I still can't understand that technique you explained last time. What was it called again? 'Cut thousands, touch the grass'?"
The other cultivators in the pavilion perked up at the mention of the technique, their whispers were rippling through the room like poison through water.
"Cut thousands? Is the Fifth Elder gone mad?"
"Let's challenge him to a duel and see what this mysterious technique can do."
Melissa's eyes sparkled with interest and admiration.
"Actually, would you mind demonstrating it for me? I can't quite grasp the concept on my own."
She was already drawing her own sword, ready to engage.
What mess have I gotten into now? Kael thought, watching as she raised her blade toward him in a clear challenge.
The duel was about to begin, and Kael had absolutely no idea what "Cut thousands, touch the grass" actually meant, ofcourse it was just some random bullshit he spoke to look cool.