653 Lady Ling
653 Lady Ling
The sight was incredible, and the City Lord had clearly gone all out to make it an attractive landmark for visitors to the city.
The materials that were planted there meant less than nothing to the powerful cultivators in the city. They were only placed there as a form of secondary test for unskilled applicants, a test of character.
The plants could help them awaken and begin the earlier stages of improving their body so they could begin cultivation, but all theft was illegal in the city, and that included public resources. You couldn't take them without permission.
The signs were clearly marked at the entrance to the park already, as it had a number of other low-grade materials that were given out to children who were planning to apply for the local Sects, but now and then, someone with big dreams would try to sneak a treasure out, or some inattentive parent would let a toddler nom on a Mystic herb, which the Cultivators found hilarious.
The line to test themselves stretched all through the winding maze of the shrubbery and out of the park, causing a great spectacle in the city. It wasn't restricted to the young, either. Since the device was new, and many did not know their own fates and potential, despite training in various sects for decades, they all wanted a chance to see for themselves if their Cultivation Speed matched their potential.
A mismatch between potential and speed would often indicate that the technique or method that they were using wasn't well suited to themselves, but if it was the only one that a small Sect taught, it could lead the Disciples to a dead end.
Most would filter out such unsuited applicants in advance and either send them away or refer them to a better-suited Sect, but there were always the unscrupulous and desperate who would take any Disciple they could get, even if it would hinder the child's advancement.
The Statue caused so much chaos in the city that the outside world, where Cain was teaching his Disciples new combat techniques with the help of Vala, was incredibly peaceful. Not even the continued presence of the Training Arena was enough to distract the other Sects anymore.
The others weren't getting any new ideas for advancements, though, and they didn't want to just blindly take one of the basic offerings that they had seen already, so Cain decided that they had learned all they could from the valley.
If they wanted new inspiration for their Class Advancement, they would need to see new things. Otherwise, they would only be picking the Classes that Cain thought of since he was the only one among them that had great familiarity with all the options in his old world.
Luna had seen a lot of them, hanging around the Farm, but there was a lot she hadn't had time to see and even more that she hadn't had a chance to fully understand. She was just too young.
"Elder Ling, I think we will be heading out in the next few days. I want to take my Disciples to Dragon Mountain to seek the Elder and see if we can impress him with the new and unique things we have found along the way." Cain explained to the Lotus Blossom's local leader.
"I suppose that means that we are losing our Training Arena, doesn't it?" Elder Ling sighed, seeing the long lines of Disciples waiting their turn. Since they didn't need to spend resources on healing and wouldn't die, the site had become their sacred place for combat training over the last few days.
"How skilled are you with Light Element Skills? I can teach you the skill if you want, and then you can recreate it for your Disciples whenever they need it." Cain offered.
"You would leave the Sect with such an extreme gift after only a few weeks staying in our camp? Even after all you have done for us?" She asked in shock.
"I would leave YOU with such an extreme gift, even after all I have done. You are a Pillar of your Sect and an honorable person, so I will grant this gift to you before we go." Cain agreed, emphasizing that it was a personal gift to Elder Ling.
The blush she showed him when he said it was totally worth the effort he was going to have to put in to make that skill book. She could use arrays of Inscriptions to condense space and even alter time a little to give Disciples more cultivation time, but for the moment, nobody in the Lotus Blossom Sect had mastered all of the necessary skills to make a Training Arena of their own.
If they had, they would be a much more respected Sect, even high enough to be counted as among the influential Sects of the region. That was how much of a difference Training Resources meant to the development of Cultivators.
Cain returned to the tent and opened the side flaps to let a nice breeze through as he worked, spending most of the day creating the Mythic Tome necessary to create a Training Arena.
He had thought that it was just a Legendary skill, but the Seraphim Arena, as the Lotus Blossom Sect affectionately knew it thanks to the incorporeal referee, was much more intricate than Cain had realized.
"Elder, I am finished. Please, use this skill if you can, and if not, please study hard so that your Disciples don't miss out on too much time that they could be training."
Cain handed her the book, and it almost immediately vanished in her hands.
Cain smiled as she gasped in shock, and the System activated.
[Name] Ling Yue
[Species] Human
[Level] 650
[Class] Holy Cleric
[Elder of the Lotus Blossom Sect]
"I see you got an extra gift from it. Congratulations, the Gods favor you." Cain told her with a smile on his face.
"You know what this is? What did you do? It has to be you? Who else knows about this power?" She whispered back.
"All of my Disciples, Elder Dragon Fang, and now you. I think that's it in this world. This is the special technique that I teach. What do you think of the inheritance? Take some time to look over and memorize your new class skills. Don't forget to spend the points to learn them all. They will feel as natural as breathing once you learn them and memorize the activation." Cain explained.
A Holy Cleric could gain experience just by using their Holy Skills. They didn't need to kill anything to advance, though it would be faster if they did.
"What God am I supposed to be worshipping anyhow? It says I am a Holy Cleric." Ling asked hesitantly.
"I guess the Seraphim? It is their skill that I gave you. Or you could just pick one that uses Holy skills, maybe? The Seraphim would probably appreciate it more. They love when people worship and adulate them."
That didn't sound like the noble and mighty Seraphim that Elder Ling had heard of in Legends, but she wasn't going to question Cain on it right now. She had more important things to do, like selecting her skills.
Once she was finished, the Elder looked around the Sect camp with a worried look. "Won't they notice that I am not following the Sect Technique anymore?"
"Likely not. You can still use all the skills you knew before. You just won't gain much from meditation anymore. No, wait, I still have a thing. Give me a second. I just have to find it." Cain muttered.
Cain looked through the multitude of skills he had learned and finally found [Mana Transformation], the quest reward skill that would let the user convert mana from gems and monster cores into experience. That was perfect for a Cultivation Sect since they used mana stones to cultivate anyhow.
Cain sat down again and made a copy of the book for Elder Ling, then handed it over. Again it vanished in her hands and brought a shocked look to her face.
"This is incredible. If you taught this to a new Disciple, you could bring them up to the Awakened Realm in only a few seconds with an Immortal Beast Core."
Cain considered whether to warn her about the side effects of rapidly leveling rookies with Systems but decided against it. Chances are that it wouldn't be a concern unless Elder Ling made true Skill Books and gave them to Disciples, which would unwittingly spread the System through the Lotus Blossom Sect.
On second thought, he needed to warn her about both of those things.
"If you make true Skill Books and give them to Disciples, there is a chance that they will inherit the legacy from you and gain a Class and System Interface, as well as the Inventory. You should check that as well, it's like a storage ring, but nobody can take it from you or detect it. Very convenient.
But back on topic, if you activate a System for them, they will have to fight and kill beasts or other Cultivators to advance unless you teach them the Mana Transformation Skill as well.
You also get a set of notifications from the interface when you level up. At your level, they will be rare, but if you fed a beginner an Immortal Beast Core after activating the System, they would get so many all at once that they would pass out, and it would take them days to clear them enough that they could function or even see the outside world again."
Elder Ling gave Cain a suspicious look as he finished his speech, then asked: "You were seriously considering not telling me and just letting me find out the hard way, weren't you?"