Elder Mo is a really strange person…

Ling Jun could practically hear his childhood tutors admonishing him for having such a disrespectful thought toward one of his Elders, but he couldn’t help it!

Unlike many of his peers, Ling Jun had been exposed to plenty of powerful cultivators throughout his life, so he had a good idea of how they tended to act. Elder Mo fit his understanding of a powerful cultivator in many ways… yet he completely contradicted that same understanding in many other ways.

His current situation was probably one that Ling Jun would never expect to find himself in if Elder Mo was a normal cultivator.

Currently, Ling Jun was standing in a long line of disciples who were waiting to enter Elder Mo’s home so that they could receive personalized cultivation advice. Not only that, but the Elder had made an announcement that his disciples would be welcome to freely come to him for advice whenever they wished!

In his experience, powerful cultivators rarely lowered themselves to accommodate those who were beneath them. Such favor was usually only given to either their own children or their direct disciples. He had known that things would be different once he joined a sect, but what Elder Mo was doing just seemed… excessive.

Not only was Elder Mo deigning to give personal guidance to even the least promising of disciples, but he had also delivered a series of lessons on basic cultivation concepts to the entire valley. Although Ling Jun hadn’t learned anything new from these lessons, the same couldn’t be said for his peers.

If all of that was the full extent of Elder Mo’s strange behavior, then Ling Jun would have just considered the man to be fairly eccentric, but that wasn’t the end of it.

There had been several moments in which one of the more ignorant disciples failed to speak to Elder Mo with the respect of formality that he deserved, but the Elder barely seemed to care at all! At most, he would simply inform the offending disciples of the correct behaviors before calmly moving on.

He still hadn’t even heard Elder Mo raise his voice a single time in the past few months.

Ling Jun could still remember the first time that his father had forced him to watch a man being whipped for the crime of offending a powerful cultivator, and that was considered by most to be merciful.

Unlike many of the more uncivilized nations, the Celestial Jade Empire actually had many enforced legal protections for their mortal citizens. Ling Jun had been raised on horror stories of cultivators from rival nations simply publicly killing mortals who happened to offend them.

Ling Jun knew that if his father was here, he would likely consider Elder Mo’s teaching to be ‘disgraceful coddling’ or something similar. If was being honest with himself, Ling Jun would have likely thought the same way… if not for the fact that Elder Mo’s way of teaching seemed to be effective. Just last month, Ling Jun had been surprised to learn that one of the orphan children who he shared a room with had actually managed to reach the first level of Qi Condensation!

Of course, their talent for cultivation was much lower than Ling Jun’s, but his body’s capacity for cultivation had been carefully refined through the use of precious herbs for his entire life. The fact that some random no-name brat managed to reach the first level of Qi Condensation within a month, without a unique constitution or special resources, was quite impressive. That wasn’t all that surprising for a disciple of a powerful sect, but Tranquil Garden Valley was where the sect sent their rejects.

Those kinds of results were beginning to show among many of the valley’s disciples despite their relative lack of resources.

If my peers continue to advance their cultivation more quickly than expected, then I may actually need to start remembering their names.

“L-Ling Jun, do you think that the Elder will be able to help me with my cultivation?”

As Ling Jun glanced at the nervous-looking boy next to him, he couldn’t help but wish that he could forget the names of all of his peers. Unfortunately, Jin Mao had begun making himself very difficult to ignore over the past month.

Ling Jun was accustomed to generally being alone and made efforts to interact with people his own age as little as possible. In his experience, people usually only wanted to be around him for his status, and Ling Jun had no interest in dealing with worthless sycophants. There were several disciples who had attempted to get closer to him after he reached the first level of Qi Condensation faster than any of his peers, but Ling Jun had easily sent them away with sneers and harsh words.

Jin Mao, however, continued to follow him around no matter how much Ling Jun ignored and sneered at him.

It started around the same time that the new batch of disciples was finally beginning to make progress with their cultivation and many of them began ridiculing Jin Mao once it became clear that he wasn’t making any progress at all. Ling Jun had simply ignored it all; what was the point in paying any attention to a group of talentless fools mocking the most talentless among them?

Jin Mao had apparently taken that as an invitation to follow Ling Jun around like a pitiful animal, as the other disciples didn’t dare to act foolishly in his presence. He had expected the nervous little disciple to wander away when it became clear that he couldn’t get anything from him, but Jin Mao seemed content to simply follow him around despite the fact that Ling Jun never really spoke to him.

It was strange.

Still, he hadn’t actually attempted to take advantage of Ling Jun in any way and Jin Mao never bothered his cultivation…

I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to answer his questions.

“Elder Mo has shown himself to be wise, and exceptionally capable of discerning the talents of his disciples,” said Ling Jun. After all, the Elder had picked him out of so many disciples to give one of his own cultivation methods, so Elder Mo obviously had exceptional judgment. “If there is anyone able to help you become a decent cultivator, it’s him. Given that you managed to succeed in joining the sect in the first place, I’m sure there’s… something about you that's worth developing.”

Ling Jun must have been better at offering reassurance than he had expected because Jin Mao seemed to light up at his words.

Or maybe Jin Mao just never expected to receive a response in the first place…

“R-Really? That would be great,” said Jin Mao, offering him a timid smile. “I’ve really been trying my hardest to cultivate, but I just can’t seem to sense Qi. I think I’m doing the meditation thing right, but nothing seems to change and I’m starting to worry that I just don’t have any talent…”

Jin Mao’s voice grew smaller and smaller as he spoke until he eventually just trailed off despondently.

“Don’t be an idiot,” said Ling Jun, rolling his eyes. “If you were completely incapable of cultivation then the sect wouldn’t have allowed you to join in the first place. Don’t waste your time listening to the opinions of talentless fools who only want to distract from their own mediocrity by tormenting those beneath them. Especially when they don’t even know anything about cultivation in the first place.”

Jin Mao smiled a little more genuinely than he did before, “Thanks, Ling Jun. That’s really nice of you to say.”

Ling Jun stared at Jin Mao for several moments with an incredulous expression on his face. Is your brain broken? What part of what I just said is ‘nice?’

He didn’t bother responding to the weird little disciple, but that didn’t seem to bother Jin Mao in the slightest,

“You’re right. If anyone can help me, it’s Elder Mo,” said Jin Mao, suddenly growing more optimistic. “Have you heard about how Senior Xiao managed to break through his bottleneck and reach the seventh stage of Qi Condensation after receiving the Elder’s advice? Everyone’s been talking about it. And his lessons are really easy to understand too! And he also seems really friendly…”

Although Ling Jun considered Elder Mo to be both incredibly wise and fair, he wouldn’t say that the Elder was particularly friendly. He was starting to get the feeling that Jin Mao might just have a strange way of seeing people.

“It would be difficult for me to have not heard about it when Senior Xiao’s spent the past month telling anyone who would listen,” said Ling Jun, his voice filled with exasperation. Apparently, Xiao Li had been stuck in the sixth stage of Qi Condensation for nearly a year, so he was more than a little grateful to the Elder for his help.

Ling Jun remained quiet as Jin Mao somehow lost all of his nervousness and continued to babble at him about anything that came to mind, seeming to take the lack of hostility as an encouragement to continue.

“And while I was over in that other valley to listen to the writing lessons, I heard a few other disciples talking about their Elders. Did you know most of them haven’t even seen their Elders since they joined the sect? I think Elder Mo must be really nice to teach us all personally like this. He even said we’re allowed to visit his house and ask him questions! Oh, Ling Jun. Did you hear ab—”

“I’m glad to hear that you approve of me, Disciple Jin.”

Jin Mao let out a squeak of surprise before looking up at the faintly amused expression of Elder Mo, having been so distracted that he failed to notice that he was next in line. Ling Jun had seen the Elder coming and could have done something to warn him, but this was much funnier.

“Come along, Disciple Jin,” said Elder Mo, interrupting whatever words were about to spew from the skittish disciple's mouth. “As much as I enjoy listening to your compliments, there are many disciples who I need to see today and not enough time to do so.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“O-Of course, Elder Mo. But can I bring Ling Jun with me? He’s really nice and I kinda want to ask for his advice later.”

Ling Jun wasn’t sure whether it was he or Elder Mo who was more surprised by Jin Mao’s request. What advice can I give you that the Elder can’t? I think your brain must really be broken.

“I see no reason why not,” Elder Mo said after a moment of silence before turning to look questioningly at Ling Jun with a raised eyebrow. “Assuming that you are both comfortable with the other hearing details about your cultivation.”

Ling Jun didn’t have anything to hide and Jin Mao had nobody aside from him to tell anyway, so he simply hid his confusion at the situation and nodded to express his assent. Jin Mao quickly gave his approval as well and began making his way into the Elder’s home with Ling Jun following behind him after a moment of hesitation.

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Mo Duan carefully held back a chuckle as he watched Ling Jun stare at Jin Mao as if his fellow disciple was some kind of strange insect that he had never seen before. He knew that it was probably unwise to waste time when he had so many more disciples to see, but Mo Duan couldn’t hold back the urge to tease Ling Jun a bit.

“I’m glad to see that you’ve made a friend, Disciple Ling. I was beginning to worry that you had no intention of socializing with any of your martial siblings.”

Jin Mao smiled at Mo Duan brightly but Ling Jun merely mouthed the word ‘friend’ with a confused expression on his face. Mo Duan really wasn’t interested in thinking too much about whatever sad childhoods the people of this world probably experienced, so he decided to just ignore it and continue with his examination.

Spreading his spiritual sense to both disciples, Mo Duan saw that Ling Jun had recently succeeded in reaching the second stage of Qi Condensation while Jin Mao hadn’t made any progress at all. He was glad to see that Ling Jun was making steady progress, Mo Duan would probably be in a rather difficult situation otherwise, but Jin Mao’s lack of progress was disappointing.

After Mo Duan had made the effort to carefully and thoroughly explain the basics of cultivation to every disciple in the valley, almost all of them had at least managed to begin gathering Qi. Jin Mao seemed to be the only one left who was still having difficulty understanding the basics.

It’s a good thing I’m examining each of them individually…

It had taken Mo Duan a lot of time studying before he felt like he wouldn’t make a fool of himself in front of his disciples, but he was confident that he could solve the vast majority of problems in the Qi Condensation stage.

“Disciple Jin, please begin cultivating so that I can verify that you’re doing so properly,” Mo Duan said before taking a sip of his tea. He wasn’t a big fan of the stuff, but he’d probably need to start getting used to it given his new circumstances. “Disciple Lin, please wait until I finish assisting your martial brother.”

“Yes, Elder Mo!” Jin Mao responded enthusiastically before quickly shifting his posture and falling into meditation.

Hmm… strange.

Mo Duan’s spiritual sense allowed him to closely observe even the most subtle of changes in Jin Mao’s breathing, yet he couldn’t detect any irregularities in the kid’s cultivation. Jin Mao shouldn’t be having any problems sensing Qi.

Mo Duan continued to watch for several more minutes to make sure he wasn’t missing anything before he told the kid to stop, “Thank you, Disciple Jin. That’s enough.”

Ignoring Jin Mao’s excited and expectant gaze, Mo Duan took a moment to think over his options. Given that the kid didn’t actually have any cultivation for him to examine, there was a limit to how much he could learn with just his spiritual sense.

I think this warrants a more comprehensive examination…

With a wave of his hand, Mo Duan summoned a knife and a water-filled bowl before placing them both down in front of Jin Mao. It was a good thing that he had purchased an artifact from Elder Yuanlei for exactly situations like this one, even if he hadn’t really expected to need them so soon.

“Disciple Jin, please place a drop of your blood inside of the bowl,” said Mo Duan, pointing to the knife. “This will help me learn more about your body’s constitution so that I can better guide you in your cultivation.”

Showing a foolishly large amount of trust, Jin Mao didn’t hesitate to prick his finger with the knife and drip his blood into the bowl.

Come on kid, don’t you know that cultivators can do some really bad stuff with your blood? Do I need to start teaching common sense too?

The water in the bowl immediately began bubbling and changing into a series of strange colors the moment Jin Mao’s blood made contact with it. It wasn’t long before those bubbles started to release Qi-dense gasses that Mo Duan immediately began studying with his spiritual sense.

For the two disciples, this was probably nothing more than a strange display, but these gasses carried a sample of Qi from nearly every single meridian in Jin Mao’s body. It was more than enough for Mo Duan to learn everything that he needed to know about the boy.

Only the most obscure of issues would fail to be found through such a method.

Now let's see here… an earth-water-wood root, but earth is probably his most predominant element. His talent for physical cultivation is actually not as bad as I expected given how small and harmless he looks… Oh? What’s this? Does he have some Spiritual Beast ancestry?

While such ancestry wasn’t the most common thing in the world, it wasn’t exactly rare either. All Spiritual Beasts were able to take on a human form after reaching a certain level of cultivation, and they weren’t shy about… broadening their bloodline after doing so.

Trace amounts of non-human blood could be found in a large portion of the population, but it was rarely enough to actually be significant. Jin Mao seemed to be one of those who actually had their cultivation affected by it, however.

But that doesn’t really explain why he can’t cultivate.

Jin Mao should really only have problems cultivating through human methods if he happened to be a fully blooded Spiritual Beast, but Mo Duan could tell that the kid was mostly human. It was only after closely studying the kid’s non-human Qi to determine what kind of Spiritual Beast his ancestor was that Mo Duan was able to get an idea of what was going on.

How unexpected…

“Disciple Jin, I have an idea about why you seem unable to cultivate, but I would like to test my theory first before I explain it to you,” Mo Duan explained.

Without giving any further warning Mo Duan cast a cultivation technique that would cause sleep-inducing pollen to emit from his skin. He made certain to keep the pollen weak enough that the kids wouldn’t immediately be knocked out, but strong enough that it would have an effect.

While Ling Jun failed to react to the technique at all, Jin Mao instantly stiffened and started to look around nervously.

That just about confirms it then.

“Disciple Jin, have you ever noticed yourself being more energetic at night compared to your peers? Especially during times when the moon is at its brightest?” asked Mo Duan, ending the technique.

Jin Mao seemed to inexplicably relax before answering, “Uh, sometimes. I’ve never really noticed, but that sounds familiar.”

“Then it's as I thought,” said Mo Duan, feeling more confident in his conclusion. “I noticed during my examination that you possess more Spiritual Beast in your ancestry than average. I was able to sense that your non-human ancestor was some manner of hare, but I wasn’t certain which species. But given your answer to my question and the results of my test, I feel confident that your ancestor was a Moonlight Hopping Hare.”

Mo Duan could tell from Jin Mao’s expression that the kid had no idea how to react, and even Ling Jun seemed to be caught off guard.

After several moments, Jin Mao seemed to settle on a response. “I’m not human?

Mo Duan forgot that the kid probably barely knew anything about Spiritual Beasts. After spending the next five minutes teaching the kid about Spiritual Beasts and their ability to take on human forms, Mo Duan finally began explaining the root of the issue.

“Moonlight Hopping Hares are well known for being notoriously difficult to capture,” Mo Duan explained. His predecessor had actually attempted to capture one of them before, which was why Jin Mao’s non-human Qi was recognizable to him. “They do this by being extremely sensitive to changes to the Qi in their surrounding area. This effectively grants them the ability to instinctually sense danger before it comes close to them. I suspect that you have a similar ability. You’re probably also better than normal at judging people’s intentions.”

Mo Duan noticed as Ling Jun turned to look at Jin Mao as if he was suddenly seeing him in a new light. Mo Duan couldn’t really blame him; such an ability would be extremely valuable to any cultivator and meant that Jin Mao was likely to become much more successful than most people would have expected.

“But… that doesn’t explain why I can’t cultivate, Elder Mo,” said Jin Mao, failing to notice the expression of his peer.

“You can cultivate, but you’re most likely having difficulty perceiving Qi because you have been able to sense it for your entire life,” Mo Duan patiently explained before immediately projecting a large amount of concentrated wood Qi in the kid’s direction.

Jin Mao immediately perked up before speaking. “Oh, that fuzzy stuff is Qi? Why didn’t anybody just say so?!”

After the kid actually understood the source of the problem, it wasn’t hard for Mo Duan to guide him in how to actually begin absorbing Qi. The kid wasn’t exactly some kind of once-in-a-generation talent, but it probably wouldn’t take him too long to reach the first level of Qi Condensation.

While Jin Mao was still cultivating, Mo Duan turned his attention to Lin Jung and began helping him with his cultivation. There was much less advice for Mo Duan to give due to the fact that Ling Jun was pretty much doing everything by the book so far, but he still gave the boy some pointers for the next few stages of cultivation.

Once Ling Jun actually reached the fourth level of Qi Condensation, then Mo Duan would probably have the kid start learning how to purify demonic plants using the Woodland Dominion Method.

Everything seems to be going according to plan for now. All I need to do now is wait patiently for Ling Jun’s cultivation to grow to a high enough level.

Just as Mo Duan was about to send the two kids off and move on to his next disciples, he was suddenly interrupted by a tiny paper crane flying into his home and landing on his tea table. The crane let out a loud warbling call and pecked at Mo Duan’s hand a few times to make certain it had his attention before it began unfolding into a piece of paper that carried Elder Yuanlei’s personal seal at the end.

Oh, that’s probably not good.

Paper cranes usually remained unobtrusive unless they were carrying some kind of important message. Mo Duan immediately began reading through the letter and quickly found that his fears were warranted.

“Disciples, please inform your martial siblings that examinations are done for the day and will be rescheduled for another time.”

Ling Jun and Jin Mao both seemed incredibly curious, but neither one of them dared to ask about the letter. Once the two of them were gone, Mo Duan took a moment to calm himself down and consider the situation.

The letter didn’t actually contain much information. All it said was that Elder Yuanlei had succeeded in figuring out the species of the multi-colored flower that Mo Duan had brought her from the Vanishing Mist Woods. Not only that, but she was calling for an immediate emergency meeting of the sect’s leadership as a response to that information…

How can a bunch of flowers be considered an emergency?!

Given that the Elders had already been scheduled to meet with the Patriarch in a few weeks, those flowers must be important enough to affect the fate of the entire sect. Mo Duan couldn’t even begin to guess what it was that justified this kind of response, but he had a distinct feeling that his life was about to suddenly get even more complicated.

Damn it…

Mo Duan had been hoping to use the next few weeks to prepare himself for this meeting, but it seemed like that wasn’t going to be possible.