After assuring his master that he would most definitely not turn out like his seniors, Zeng Fei went and selected an empty room in the mansion.

He was told to wait outside as Butler-bot and Maid-bot (a puppet wearing a white half-apron with ruffles) went in. The sounds of construction played out: wood being sawed, nails being hammered, screeching metal… wait, what were they doing in there?

Bard-bot (identified by its floppy Renaissance Tudor cap with feathers) came over at the commotion. It tried to regale Zeng Fei with its hand-held harp, performing a poem about a legendary breakup fight between two star-crossed dao companions.

When Zeng Fei told it he wasn’t in the mood for music but that he’d totally listen later, Bard-bot walked away moping, strumming the harp dolefully.

When the puppets were done with his room and allowed him in, he found that his possessions from the mud hut had already been brought over (though this wasn’t saying much given how poor the original had been).

More importantly, the room was now fitted with a bed that had a mattress and two juicy and voluptuously plump pillows. The sight almost brought him to tears on the spot: comfy sleep was amongst the luxuries he most missed from Earth.

After he’d settled in, his master gave him a run-down on what being an Inner Sect disciple involved, gave some pointers on what he should focus on next, then went off somewhere far away into seclusion. She was at a pivotal part of her cultivation and had only come out of seclusion to attend the mandatory monthly meeting for Grand Cultivators.

Given that he’d been lying unconscious for much of the day, Zeng Fei thought he’d struggle to fall asleep that night; but it turned out he was as susceptible to the siren calls of his alluring pillow as the next man.

It was morning before he knew it, and he was wincing and groaning at the light piercing through his eyelids. Blinking crust away, he questioned which bloody fool had pulled the curtains open.

When it turned out to be Butler-bot, he swallowed the rest of what he had to say back down; in his master’s absence, Butler-bot was the chamberlain of the house, the go-to puppet for any problems he had.

Zeng Fei was then stripped of his blanket by the equally tactless Maid-bot (who folded it up neatly). “Breakfast,” it said in its electronic-like voice, before heading off.

It was in this manner that Zeng Fei’s next few days started (he did think it was a bit lopsided that they forcibly woke him, yet never tucked him in, but alas).

Although it was odd at first to live in a mansion with a court of puppets, he got used to them quick enough. They were not nearly as robotic as first impressions had led him to believe; instead of following, say, a uniform set of behavioural code, they seemed to have distinct personalities that became apparent once he got to know them.

Evidently his second senior brother had serious skill in puppetry to be able to create autonomous machines.

Out of them, Zeng Fei’s favourite puppet was without a doubt Chef-bot. Until his arrival, the unfortunate puppet had been in the slump of a deep depression, questioning the very purpose it had been made for.

Chef-bot had access to top-quality ingredients, such as demon beast meat, and could use them as liberally and experimentally as it wanted - substituting ordinary herbs with spirit herbs to take one example. But what use was any of this when Grand Elder Mi Mi didn’t eat in the first place?

Cultivators could go without eating for longer periods the higher their cultivation, and from Nascent Soul onwards they didn’t need to eat at all.

Because of this, Chef-bot had been at the bottom of the list of useful puppets along with the likes of Bard-bot and Massage-bot (who did not have sufficient strength to be able to massage the Grand Elder).

With the coming of Zeng Fei, however, the Useless Trio’s fortunes were transformed: not only was Massage-bot great for improving muscular circulation - a godsend for resolving meridian pains before they progressed into ruptures - but Bard-bot could also do more than just recite poetry, possessing the ability to play motivating or calming soundtracks by itself - very handy for getting in the cultivation mindset.

Then there was Chef-bot’s scrumptious qi-infused food and drink that Zeng Fei was guzzling down, having the effect of improving both his general constitution and cultivation gains.

As well as the fact he was in a location with dense qi in the first place; the only areas more beneficial for cultivation practice would be incredibly rare locations such as qi streams and the like, which was probably where his master had gone into seclusion.

Not to forget the Energy Gathering Pills his master had given, which when swallowed released a large amount of qi over many hours and, crucially, made it easier to refine spiritual qi into one’s cultivation base too.

When you combined these advantages altogether, you ended up with something that looked like the ultimate pay-to-win cultivation strategy.

No wonder, then, for the insurmountable chasm that existed between ordinary cultivators and young masters; Zeng Fei, meanwhile, felt like a stray dog that had been adopted by a wealthy owner, and he couldn’t have been happier about it.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Hell, now that he’d experienced the high life, he was willing to run around on all fours and bark if that’s what it took to keep these crazy privileges.

But just like any other lottery winner, he couldn’t help himself from going wild with his newfound wealth, and within a mere two weeks had exhausted all twenty Energy Gathering Pills.

For the longest time, Zeng Fei had been worried about how he’d get around the minor bottleneck at the fifth layer and the major one at the seventh - unlike his rapid rise up to the fifth layer, he didn’t have the original’s experience to sponge off this time.

When he’d asked his master about this before she’d left, she’d given him a strange look before cheerfully saying that she believed he could do it, and that consistent effort would eventually pay off.

No matter your cultivation technique, there simply wasn’t much more to the Qi Refining stage than absorbing spiritual qi and refining it; that said, he had been hoping for a little more from her given her stature, something like a hidden cheat or hack way of breaking through.

Because of this, at the time he’d believed her reaction to be her discreet way of questioning whether he really had the right to be a Grand Elder’s personal disciple if he couldn’t even clear such minor hurdles.

So it had been out of fear of losing his newly attained privileged lifestyle that he’d begun popping pills like a Soundcl***d rapper, praying they’d see him through.

But now having finished them off, he finally understood why she’d looked at him strangely: bottlenecks simply didn’t exist in the face of overwhelming wealth, as shown by the fact that within those mere two weeks, he’d also reached the peak of ninth layer!

And moreover this had been achieved despite Pingu dissolving his cultivation base all the while! Which was to say he’d added to his cultivation base quicker than the Divine Art had been able to remove, even at maximum dissolution speed.

When they’d begun, Zeng Fei had been at the start of fifth layer and Pingu near the peak (true cultivation wise), but now the situation had reversed to have Zeng Fei at the peak of ninth while Pingu was still stuck on the seventh.

Though it went without saying that Pingu’s strength went far beyond just the cultivation rank, especially since Zeng Fei had spent this period not solely cultivating but also trying to buff Pingu.

After pondering long and hard about how he could take advantage of this heaven-sent environment for Pingu’s benefit, he’d realised he could use all this wealth at his fingertips to just buy demon cores for the penguin instead of having to slaughter the beasts themselves.

Yet, just when things looked too good to be true, a blockade to this genius strategy popped up in the form of a certain Butler-bot.

The puppet was not receptive to the idea, relaying to him that the Grand Elder had explicitly ordered it to not let him make any unauthorised purchases using the master’s funds. Apparently there was immense value in the experience of gathering resources that she wanted him to learn from, and also she didn’t want him to become like his senior sister…

Despite Zeng Fei’s assurances, it seemed his master didn’t have much faith for him to not turn out like his seniors, which honestly felt a bit offensive given how morally dubious his eldest senior brother sounded.

Nevertheless, since Butler-bot had already rejected his ask, Zeng Fei had no choice but to give up on his plan… nope, of course not!

He instead just went up to Chef-bot and summoned Pingu, stating that his ol’ penguin buddy was absolutely starving because he was on a demon-core-only diet but hadn’t found any to eat over the last few days.

Even though the chef was disappointed that it wouldn’t get an opportunity to display its culinary skills, its purpose was ultimately to feed, so…

The next day, Pingu speed-waddled towards the package that had come for him and without hesitation gobbled down the ninth layer demon core.

Zeng Fei grinned at the sight, simultaneously patting Chef-bot on the shoulders to reassure the puppet that was experiencing buyer’s remorse that it’d done the right thing.

No, you didn’t need to cook it - look, see how much he likes it raw.

Don’t worry, he’ll be fine, he’s just freaky like that. Besides, you know what they say: the customer is always right.

Just get your mind off it and you’ll be fine. Hey, how about you cook up a storm for dinner tonight? I’ll eat whatever you make today, no matter how experimental it is. Ah, that cheered you right up - go on then.

Yes, yes, I promise. Come on, Chef-bot, you’re doing me dirty even asking me that. Don’t you have any faith in your old buddy?

…

That was something entirely different, okay? Don’t speak a word about this to anyone or we’ll both end up in trouble.

No, I’m not disobeying her - she’s my esteemed master for crying out loud. As a matter of fact, I’m insulted you would even suggest such a wicked and baseless charge against me, Chef-bot! Any more of this tomfoolery from you and my standing offer to eat whatever you make today also goes.

Hmph, good. And I’m being serious, not a word about this to anyone, you hear me.

…Why did you already tell those two?! Fuck’s sake - I’m going to go and have a small chat with them. You get back to your cooking, and for the love of all things divine, please do not tell another living soul!

Yes, that includes animatronics! I was obviously including you guys in that - I’m naturally inclusive like that.

Although Zeng Fei had been earnest when promising his master that he wouldn’t turn out like his seniors, the truth was it that it was also a big pain in the arse to have to personally gather resources; he could fully understand why his senior sister preferred to have her ingredients express delivered.

Besides, having others do it for him had been one of his primary motivations for showing off in the tournament in the first place, so this was just him following Elder Ma’s advice to stay true to his heart and not let anyone around corrupt him with their wicked ways.

And anyway, this was just a practice run. It’s not like he was going to abuse this method to cheese his way to the best and strongest demon cores or anything whilst not lifting finger. No chance, not even if someone put a gun up against his head and forced him to.

…Though he may make a few more test runs, just to understand the Heavenly Demon Divine Art better. Honestly, it’s no different from scholarly research. It’s not like it was his fault he’d not received the user manual to this cultivation technique; he was just improvising to the best of his ability with what he had. Pulling himself up by his bootstraps and all that.