Chapter 685 - Gold and Glitter (XIII) (Patreon)

Though one nuisance was gone, the other remained.

Long Tao stared persistently, and even followed me back into the pavilion as I made my way to the 'kitchen' of sorts, hoping that he'd just go away. But, seeing as he instead sat down on the cushion and pulled himself up against the low table, I realized this wasn't a conversation I could avoid. As such, I quickly brewed the two of us some tea, jasmine one at that whose leaves were sold by about half a mid-grade Spirit Stone per one leaf. Stupid expensive, but also stupid delicious.

I sat down opposite of him and stared back.

Naturally, I didn't grasp the full gravity of having blocked that seed or whatever--I mean, I kind of did since it certainly wasn't cheap in terms of points, but I've long since lost the grasp of reality when it comes to points. It kind of feels arbitrary even though I know it's not; that 'arbitrary' part simply comes from the blind spot of mine where I tend to value and undervalue certain things compared to the rest of the world. And, apparently, I've woefully undervalued this one.

"How did you know she had a Seed?" I didn't? Though I contemplated telling Long Tao everything just shy of a thousand times, I still had my reservations. Was it that I didn't trust him? Of course not. By now, I truly and well know this man will likely die before betraying me.

No, what I fear is what the knowledge of the system will unlock inside of him. While I've abused the system here and there, the truth is that I didn't use it with a 'grind' mindset, as it were. I didn't set out to utilize it to its utmost. If I wanted to do that, I'd have taken in a billion disciples regardless of everything.

And what I fear is Long Tao wanting me to do precisely that--to abuse the living shit out of the system and squeeze it dry. Maybe he's even right in that approach, especially because everyone and their old mother keeps telling me that 'I'm the last chance', whatever the fuck that means, but... I don't know. There's a good chunk of me that simply doesn't want to live that way.

"I didn't," I said. "The mountain," I made up my scapegoat. "Because of it, I noticed that there was strange energy trying to leave. I simply blocked it."

"You simply... blocked it?" his eyes turned into slits. "Seed isn't the sort of thing you simply block, Master."

"I can't fight very well, and I'm not all that wise, and if you need advice on how to talk to girls you should probably ask somebody else, but I do have my own talents, Tao'er."

"Quite a few."

"Quite a few," I nodded. "Besides, the Seed is still there. It's not like I removed it. It will likely still be triggered when she tries to break into the Spirit Manifestation Realm. And who knows if it will have changed in some way by then, evading even my detection."

"It won't have," he replied with certainty, but I wasn't that certain. The more I learn about the Court and the way they handle things, the more I'm noticing the pattern and trend of deep-seeded paranoia and constant contingencies. "The art."

"Hm?"

"The one you gave to her. Give me," he literally extended his arm toward me, and I could only roll my eyes before procuring it and handing it out.

"Why do you keep asking? You only use like five of the ones I've given out."

"The fact that I use even five speaks volumes to the quality of your coffers, Master," he said, smiling faintly. "I guarantee you that there is hardly another sect, let alone a person, who could put on the table five arts that could measure against my family's legacy. This is quite brilliant," he said. "But incomprehensibly difficult. I fear Shufen won't reach even Minor mastery in a decade."

"She will," I said, taking a sip of tea and relishing in the taste for a moment. I knew well enough just how stupendously difficult that thing was to learn, but as I've already attained minor mastery of it, I can just... teach them all.

"She will?" he frowned.

"Want to see your Master perform another miracle?"

"By all means."

"Read through it in full, once," I said and he listened, studiously going through each and every page as I finished the cup of tea. "Done?"

"Done."

"Hm," I closed my eyes for a moment and inwardly triggered the ability to pass on my understanding of the art to any of my disciples, provided they have 'acquired' the art, as it were--meaning they needed to have read through the book in full, at least once.

Before I knew it, a beam of ethereal Qi shot from the midpoint section of my brows, straight into Long Tao's, connecting us like a damn USB cable. The 'data transfer' didn't last long, perhaps two breaths of time, before the link broke and Long Tao's indifferent face scrounged up into a frown. By now, I'd kind of, sort of picked up on the fact that he has three kinds of frowns: the normal one, where he's genuinely frowning about something; the 'hiding my smiling face' one that he keeps up around the kids; and, the last one, the 'my master just did something stupid, but I can't let it show on my face' kind of a frown. And he's now doing the last one.

"... haah," he sighed after a moment, tapping away with his fingers. "You don't seem sapped of energy."

"I'm not."

"Strange. Ordinarily, Art Transference would require years of preparations, about a thousand Divine Stones worth of materials, and at least a month of continuous work for even a Minor Mastery. Not to mention that the teacher would have to lose some of their lifespan in the process."

"Do you still think she'll take a decade to reach Minor mastery?"

"Anything else I should be aware of?" he asked and I hesitated for a moment before sharing the 'other' part of the system's version of Art Transference.

"It goes both ways," I said. "Though I'm mildly ashamed to admit it, I've made progress in a good number of the arts by simply having the kids transfer their own understandings to me."

"... what are the conditions?" he asked, prompting me to frown.

"Conditions? Uh, there are no conditions? Usually, it's enough for the kids to just babble on about their understanding of the art."

"Hm," he mulled over for a moment, fingers tapping away. "Harmonized Heart Sutra--I've noticed that everyone is struggling to achieve much in the realm of mastery. It mostly comes down to their age--walls of heart are like mountain, they take eons to arise, and heartbreaks that require lifetimes to pile up..."

He yapped on for about two minutes, with me not really knowing where he was going with it until a notification popped up.

[Congratulations, Host]
[Mastery of Harmonized Heart Sutra has improved: Intermediate --> Perfected]
[At 'Perfected' mastery, you can temporarily put Heart-Poisons and Curses into stasis even if their grade is higher than what the art itself can cure; the length of stasis is dynamic, depending on the quality of the Poison or the Curse, as well as mastery of the one who inflicted them]

Huh.

"Stop, stop," I interrupted him, yapping back some of the knowledge that just trickled into my head.

"Interesting," his eyes suddenly sparked with light as his lips curled up into a smile. "Master."

"Y-yes?"

"You and I will be very busy for the next week before leaving," he said. "Very busy indeed."

Uh-oh.

Why did I suddenly feel a shiver run down my spine?