When Mo Duan had first returned to his valley after finishing all his chores in the Vanishing Mist Woods, he had been fairly excited to finally get to work building up his valley.

Elder Yuanlei had fulfilled her side of the agreement and handed him a scroll filled with helpful advice for doing so, as well as an agreement that he could seek her counsel for related matters not included in the scroll. Mo Duan had wondered at first why she didn’t just place the information in a jade slip, but he quickly learned that there were some strange cultural ideas about what should and shouldn’t be written down by hand.

However, Mo Duan wasn’t particularly interested in learning about cultural intricacies, so he had immediately returned to his home to begin reading the scroll.

Elder Yuanlei was a very accomplished scholar, and the scroll she had written accurately reflected her long history as an educator in how thorough and easy it was to understand.

Unfortunately, that just made it easier for Mo Duan to understand how disadvantaged his valley was, and how difficult it would be to even bring it to parity with the rest of the sect.

Elder Yuanlei clearly detailed to him many of the issues that he was already aware of, such as the valley’s lack of income, development, and its relatively low number of disciples. Not only that, but the fact that Mo Duan didn’t even have any disciples who had managed to reach the Foundation Establishment realm was also a significant problem in and of itself.

At the end of the day, cultivation was obviously the lifeblood of any cultivation organization.

There were many missions that the Hall of Administration would not offer to disciples who hadn’t achieved Foundation Establishment. These missions paid much better than Qi Condensation missions, which meant they contributed more to the valley as well.

Mo Duan considered this to be rather obvious as it didn’t exactly take a genius to understand that powerful disciples would produce more money than weak disciples. What hadn’t been immediately obvious to him, however, was how having a few powerful disciples would affect his societal image, and how integral his prestige would be in building up his valley.

To be more specific, the word that Elder Yuanlei used was ‘miàn zi,’ which roughly translated to either face or prestige.

Mo Duan had sort of assumed that being a powerful cultivator meant that he wouldn’t really need to care all that much about what people thought of him, and his predecessor's experiences in his homeland had affirmed that. Unfortunately, reading through Elder Yuanlei’s scroll made it apparent to him that the society of the Celestial Jade Empire had a complex reputation system that Mo Duan couldn’t afford to ignore.

This was because if he didn’t have enough ‘face,’ it would be nearly impossible for Mo Duan to form any meaningful business relationships or attract talented disciples. After all, it wasn’t like he could afford to bargain for every decent disciple as he did Ling Jun.

I guess it makes sense once you think about it, Mo Duan mused to himself. If I don’t have any powerful disciples, then why would the Clans allow their children to study under me? Even the poorer kids would probably end up hearing something about it.

Fortunately, Elder Yuanlei made sure to point how that there was one resource that Tranquil Garden Valley had that might allow it to overcome all these difficulties.

Specifically, the most valuable resource that Mo Duan had was himself.

There was a very strange phenomenon in regard to cultivation, in which it was nearly impossible for a person to truly understand the more… metaphysical aspects without personal experience.

The act of cultivation involved gathering Qi and using that Qi to physically strengthen the body, and eventually create metaphysical Qi structures within the body.

It was sort of like creating magical organs that didn’t usually actually exist physically.

During the Qi Condensation realm, they would work to create their Spiritual Sea so that they could reach the Foundation Establishment realm. Then they would create a Golden Core in order to reach the Core Formation realm, and then they would need to form a Nascent Soul if they wanted to reach the Nascent Soul realm.

The act of altering and improving these spiritual organs in a variety of different ways was generally how new cultivation methods were created.

Mo Duan had a bit of trouble fully conceptualizing all of this, even with his predecessor’s memories.

The closest analogy that he could come up with was that cultivation was kind of like trying to build a spaceship, except you have no tools and you can barely see anything. Cultivation methods were like instructions that other people had once used to successfully build their spaceships, but every cultivator was different and would need to eventually pave their own way.

The highly variable nature of cultivation was the primary reason why it was impossible to simply write a step-by-step guide on how to build their spaceships and fly off to immortality.

As a fairly powerful cultivator, Mo Duan had a few advantages when it came to teaching and guiding his disciples. One of those advantages was that he had already constructed a Spiritual Sea and a Golden Core, so Mo Duan had an intuitive advantage in understanding them. However, his most important advantage was his ability to thoroughly examine the cultivation of his disciples using his spiritual sense.

If his disciples were trying to build a spaceship in the dark, then Mo Duan was someone who could actually see their spaceship with his own eyes and give advice based on what he saw. When Mo Duan first came upon that little tidbit of information, he felt like almost everyone would have to be using their spiritual sense in such a way, and he was correct… theoretically.

Continuing the spaceship analogy, it was extremely time-consuming for a powerful cultivator to study large numbers of spaceships that were each designed in wildly different ways and attempt to improve them all. They would need to spend time and effort learning a bunch of knowledge that would offer them no direct personal benefit.

That time could almost always be better spent in more cost-effective ways.

It was for this reason that powerful cultivators generally only did things like that for direct disciples who had similar cultivation methods to their own.

However, Elder Yuanlei had correctly pointed out to Mo Duan that he would need to do something outside of the norm if he wanted his valley to ever catch up with the others. Oh, she had phrased her language to be as inoffensive as possible, but her advice essentially boiled down to ‘you don’t have anything and your disciples are all talentless, so you’re going to have to focus completely on nurturing them if you ever want to get anywhere.’

Mo Duan glanced over at the stack of scrolls laying on his desk; while the act of using spiritual sense to guide a large number of disciples wasn’t exactly a popular practice, it wasn’t completely unheard of. Elder Yuanlei had compiled information for him about the spiritual structures of a wide variety of cultivation methods so that Mo Duan could actually guide his disciples

Who knew that being a magical teacher would involve so much studying?

After a few of his disciples actually managed to reach the Foundation Establishment realm, he’d be able to delegate some of this work to them, but his future days were looking like they would be rather busy until then.

Aside from the problem of increasing his disciples’ cultivation, Elder Yuanlei also included a lot of information about his proposed plan to grow Spirit Plants in his valleys.

After Mo Duan explained the functions of the Woodland Dominion Method to her, Elder Yuanlei had admitted that his plan had some potential. The scroll was filled with information about the industry, including the prices for a variety of Spirit Plants native to the local area. It wouldn’t be an easy business to get into, but there was a chance that he would succeed.

I’m really glad that I chose to make Elder Yuanlei’s assistance my payment for that venom gland…

Mo Duan continued reading through Elder Yuanlei’s advice while musing on his plans for the valley, until his thoughts were suddenly interrupted once he sensed Xiao Li and Xue Chenying approaching his home. Mo Duan took a moment to tidy up his study before he began making his way to the living room in order to greet them.

“The Formation has been lowered,” Mo Duan called out as soon as he could sense that they were close enough. “Feel free to enter, Disciples.”

Xiao Li and Xue Chenying hesitated for a moment before they both entered Mo Duan’s home and bowed to him respectfully.

“You wished to see us, Elder Mo?” asked Xiao Li, speaking for the both of them.

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“Correct. There are a few matters that I wish to discuss with you both,” Mo Duan confirmed before gesturing to a few mats placed next to a tea table. “Please sit.”

Once the disciples were properly seated and all of the formalities had been done with, Mo Duan decided to get straight to the point, “The two of you are among my oldest disciples, and I have decided to give you both the responsibility of guiding the younger disciples in exchange for Mid-Grade Spirit Stones. Do either one of you have any complaints about your current duties?”

“No! Of course not, Elder Mo,” Xiao Li immediately denied.

“This one is content with her duties as well, Elder,” said Xue Chenying.

Mo Duan watched them both closely for a moment before deciding that they were being genuine.

“I’m glad to hear that because I’m pleased with your performances so far and wish to grant you both more responsibility,” said Mo Duan, drinking a sip of tea so that he could study their reactions.

Xiao Li continued to grow increasingly nervous while Xue Chenying stayed mostly stoic, but Mo Duan could see a hint of eagerness and anticipation in them both.

Ambitious… good. It seems like I’ve chosen well then.

“As I’ve already made clear on previous occasions, I intend to do more to develop this valley in the future,” Mo Duan continued. “In order for this valley to grow, it will need to cultivate powerful disciples who can entice others to join us. To be more specific about what I am asking, I would like you both to succeed in reaching the Foundation Establishment realm before the next disciple selection ceremony.”

Xiao Li and Xue Chenying immediately gaped at him in astonishment and Mo Duan didn’t blame them.

“Elder Mo, this one is incredibly grateful for the opportunity… but such an accomplishment seems to be beyond our capabilities,” said Xue Chenying, her tone as polite as possible. “Please forgive these disciples for their lack of talent.”

“Uh… yeah,” said Xiao Li after shaking himself from his stupor. “This one has only managed to reach the sixth stage of Qi Condensation. Managing to reach Foundation Establishment in three years from the sixth stage sounds like something that geniuses do, not us.”

“I believe that you both would find yourself surprised by what you might accomplish once given proper support,” Mo Duan said honestly. Unlike many of their peers, Xiao Li and Xue Chenying had both persevered and refused to give up hope despite being assigned to a negligent teacher. That kind of determination would serve them well as cultivators. “I thought that it went without saying that I would be supporting you both in this endeavor with resources and guidance.”

The two disciples glanced at each other nervously. Mo Duan could tell that neither of them was convinced they’d be able to succeed even with his help. It made sense, they had been told from the moment that they entered the cultivation world that they lacked talent.

After giving it a moment of thought, Mo Duan decided that a demonstration would be the best way to convince them, “You both practice the Verdant Breathing Method, correct?”

The Verdant Breathing Method was the name of the generic cultivation method given to all members of the sect. It had been designed to be as general as possible, allowing any disciple to practice it while also allowing them to switch to a different method later.

Once he received confirmation, Mo Duan turned his attention to Xiao Li and ordered him to begin cultivating. The kid looked at him strangely but did as he was told, which allowed Mo Duan to properly examine Xiao Li’s cultivation with his spiritual sense.

… This might be a little harder than I thought.

The first thing that Mo Duan felt once he started examining Xiao Li’s cultivation, was that it was rather difficult to understand what he was looking at. The boy was channeling Qi through completely different meridians than the ones Mo Duan used, and the nascent form of his Spiritual Sea looked extremely unstable.

It was immediately obvious to him that Xiao Li was unlikely to ever succeed in reaching the Foundation Establishment realm without outside assistance.

The kid’s fire-earth root added an extra layer of difficulty for Mo Duan, but he eventually managed to discover what Xiao Li was doing wrong. It was fortunate that the mistake was rather obvious and easy to fix, or Mo Duan would have had a lot more trouble figuring it out.

“You may stop, Disciple Xiao Li,” said Mo Duan, causing the kid to immediately pull himself out of his meditation. “I can see that you are breathing in Qi through the governing meridian and channeling through the kidney, lung, and heart meridians, which is all completely appropriate for your cultivation method. But why are you continuing on to the conception meridian before transferring the Qi to your Spiritual Sea? You are aware that you’re not a physical cultivator, correct?”

Xiao Li simply stared at Mo Duan with a wild look of bewilderment, as if he had suddenly started speaking English instead of Chinese, “Elder Mo… I have no idea what any of that means. I’ve just been moving my Qi like the pictures in the manual they gave us.”

… I guess that makes sense. Nobodies ever taught him what each meridian was called, or what they were used for.

“The conception meridian is the primary meridian for physical cultivators, as it is the meridian responsible for directly supplying the body with Qi,” Mo Duan patiently explained. “Unless you’re planning to cultivate a method that involves directly altering your body, there’s no reason for you to be using that meridian to fill your Spiritual Sea. In fact, doing so would be extremely inefficient. To you, it would feel as if you were constantly starved of Qi while cultivating.”

Xiao Li nervously rubbed the back of his neck as he responded, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I tried to get some more Qi from the Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, but it didn’t feel like they’d be good enough. I just thought that was just me being untalented…”

Mo Duan hummed noncommittally, “Give me your wrist, Disciple, and I will channel Qi through your meridians in the proper order. I can tell that your Spiritual Sea is decently well constructed so far, so you shouldn’t have much difficulty in reaching the seventh stage of Qi Condensation as long as you’re channeling Qi from the heart meridian.”

Xiao Li eagerly presented his wrist, and Mo Duan quickly began channeling Qi through his meridians, listing the names of each as he did. Once the kid entered meditation and started cultivating while following the correct order of meridians, Mo Duan could immediately tell that it was already making a big difference.

I’m glad that the first one was so easy. I hope the other one’s just as simple to understand.

Mo Duan turned his attention to Xue Chenying, deciding to allow Xiao Li time to get a feel for the new meridians, “Disciple, please follow your martial brother's example so that I can properly examine your cultivation.”

Xue Chenying nodded and moved to a meditation pose without any hesitation. After seeing Mo Duan help Xiao Li fix the problems with his cultivation so quickly, it wasn’t a surprise that she would be eager.

Unfortunately, it only took a few minutes for Mo Duan to become completely baffled.

What in the actual hell am I looking at right now?

Xue Chenying happened to have a root that was attuned to all five elements, which came with both benefits and drawbacks. It did mean that she would theoretically be able to use any element that she wanted, but she would very much be a ‘jack of all trades and master of none,’ practically speaking.

Most people with roots like her generally chose to build their Spiritual Sea using pure Qi, which was Qi that hadn’t been converted into any of the elemental Qis. However, it seemed like somebody forgot to give Xue Chenying the memo because she was meticulously converting pure Qi into each of the five elements and using them to construct her Spiritual Sea. Not only that, but she was using a confusing series of meridians that made little sense to Mo Duan.

I have no idea where to even start with this…

Xue Chenying’s way of cultivation was so unique that Mo Duan doubted he would find anything helpful in Elder Yuanlei’s scrolls. He would need to consult with her about this issue and seek her advice once he had the chance.

“You can stop now, Disciple Xue,” said Mo Duan.

Once he had her attention, he quickly explained the issue and was completely unsurprised when Xue Chenying seemed to have no idea that her way of cultivating was unorthodox.

Mo Duan silently cursed his predecessor for giving him so much extra work with his negligence.

“I believe the best way for you to proceed is to wait for the valley’s Hall of Meditation to finish being constructed,” Mo Duan said after giving it some thought. “The Hall of Meditation will contain rooms that have Qi-Gathering Formations of each element. According to what I’ve been told, the building should finish construction in a few months. Your greatest bottleneck in advancing is gathering metal Qi, which is rather sparse in our sect, so you’ll need to compensate until the hall is done.”

And I’m probably going to need to find a cultivation method that would actually be suitable for you… what a headache, Mo Duan thought to himself. Getting these two to the Foundation Establishment realm better be worth it.

Xue Chenying seemed disappointed to hear that he wouldn’t be able to help her as easily as he had Xiao Li, but there wasn’t anything else to be done about it, “Thank you, Elder Mo. This one is honored to receive your guidance.”

Mo Duan simply nodded at her and turned his attention back to Xiao Li. He could tell that the kid was making good progress, but it wasn’t like Mo Duan could just allow him to cultivate in his house all day.

“I will supply as many cultivation resources as necessary for you both to reach the Foundation Establishment realm,” Mo Duan said after pulling Xiao Li from his meditation. “I am confident that you will do everything in your power to meet my expectations. But for now, go gather the disciples and prepare them for the lesson in cultivation that I promised to deliver.”

Xiao Li and Xue Chenying seemed both eager for the opportunity and nervous about the responsibility that came with it. After sending them away, Mo Duan let out a sigh of relief and decided to spend his time organizing his thoughts while his disciples were being gathered.

Mo Duan didn’t actually have anything urgent to take care of until the meeting between the Patriarch and the other Elders.

Ling Jun was already making good progress with his cultivation and had taken up the mission that Mo Duan had made for him about documenting the valley’s plant life. Until the kid actually needed help in progressing, Mo Duan didn’t see any need to involve himself directly.

Progress with the Vanishing Mist Woods couldn’t be made until Elder Yuanlei finished researching the multi-colored flower that he’d brought her. She hadn’t given him a concrete timeline of when that would actually happen, but she’d claimed that it would probably be done around the same time as their meeting.

The valley’s facilities were already being constructed and he couldn’t really do much to further his own cultivation. Therefore, it seemed like the next few months would be best spent teaching his disciples and trying to start growing his Spiritual Plants.

Well that, and studying…

He very pointedly refused to think about the stack of scrolls sitting in his study. Mo Duan lost himself in thought until he suddenly sensed that his disciples were all gathered and waiting for him. Unlike his previously flashy way of travel, Mo Duan decided this time that he would walk over to his disciples so that he could have some more time to think about what he was going to teach them.

I really hope these lessons are enough to stop my disciples from doing ridiculous things with their cultivation.