“Master? What is that?”

I stopped focusing on controlling my expressions and suppressed my pain as Yan Ling spoke up.

Turning around, I saw her stare curiously at the treasure in my hand that I was using to restructure my spirit roots.

“This is a Bodhi fruit. A Heavenly treasure that is highly sought after by every cultivator on the continent due to its properties that allow a cultivator to directly skip an entire major realm of cultivation if it is used in the right way.”

Instantly, the girl’s eyes sparkled as she looked between me and the fruit.

“Then, are you going to become a Nascent Soul cultivator?? Wouldn’t that mean you would be someone very respected in the empire??”

Despite the lingering pain within my body, I laughed at her words and ruffled her hair as she pouted at my actions.

“Not really. While it is true that a Nascent Soul realm cultivator is considered the top in this region, in the entirety of the Empire, there are still many forces that have cultivators of higher cultivation. For example, the ancestor of the Royal Family who is in secluded cultivation within the capital. That guy was said to be a Soul Transformation realm while he was still the emperor. Who knows what realm he has achieved in the past five centuries he spent in isolation?”

Yan Ling attentively listened to my words and nodded in understanding.

Seriously, she is such a good student that I can’t help but go above and beyond to teach her everything I know.

“Besides that, I am not using the Bodhi fruit to advance my body cultivation but using it to restructure and heal my spirit roots.”

“Oh! Then, are you going to use a cool water element cultivation technique?? If so, it would be really awesome if it is linked to the oceans or the moon. Then, we pair of master and disciple can claim complete control over the sun and the moon!!”

I lightly knocked her on the head at those words.

“Don’t let your cultivation technique’s power get to your head. What have I said about arrogance and pride?”

She looked down like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

“….That it is fine to have those feelings in moderation but fatal if I indulge too much in them.”

“Correct. Never let your power rob you of your empathy and the value of your fellow human’s life. We are orthodox cultivators, not those that belong to the demonic path.”

Looking at her sad expression, I sighed and continued speaking.

“Putting that aside, to answer your question, no. I am not going to use the water elemental technique or the wood elemental technique. What I am doing now is restructuring my spirit roots to not have any elemental affinity at all so that it can directly assimilate with my core when I start cultivating with the new roots. Once they assimilate and manifest an affinity, I’ll start cultivating an appropriate technique.”

She nodded at my words and turned to look at the clouds around us with a blank look.

‘….Was I too harsh on her?’

‘Not really. I think you did a good job of educating her and ironing out her flaws from the very beginning. I have seen countless prodigies with infinite potential fall due to their hubris. I was personally responsible for the majority of the deaths by exploiting their arrogance and pride.’

‘Maybe I could have said it in a better way instead of ruining the mood like this.’

‘It may be harsh but it is a lesson she must learn sooner rather than later. All you did was fulfill your duty as a teacher. Besides, I don’t think she will remain upset for much longer since we are nearing the capital. Didn’t you want to take her to explore the city? She should be feeling excited soon enough for that.’

‘I hope you are right. I don’t want to hurt her, but I don’t want her to die because she became too arrogant and overconfident in her power either.’

‘True. On that note, you think He will be here this time around?’

‘I doubt it. In your time, the war had already begun at the southern border and the so-called barbarian clans had a distinct advantage. It was the reason why He arrived here to find that artifact from the Auction. However, with the Heavenly Sword Sect destroyed and the possibility of internal strife within the empire and the Barbarian Clans becoming apparent by the day for some reason, the chances of a full-scale war are very low, making it unnecessary for that bastard to come here and cause trouble like in your timeline.’

‘Hmm, I hope you are right. The Phoenix Clan is not known for its restraint or its level-headedness. Who knows what he will do if he finds out that you have a complete version of the Heavenly Flame Technique and he sees that Yan Ling practices the main cultivation technique of the Golden Crow Clan?’

‘I don’t really care about what he will do. No matter how arrogant, he is still one of the three candidates to become the patriarch of the Phoenix Clan with his cultivation still in the Core Formation realm. What worries me is his clan itself since I am still not strong enough to protect Yan Ling from them should they mobilize their full might.’

‘Worst comes to worst, you can find shelter with the Royal Family with your fame as the Enigma.’

‘…..Please don’t remind me of that title. I still don’t understand why the Auction house came up with that embarrassing name for me.’

‘They needed to hype up your products in some way for the initial sales. When your products grew in popularity and turned you into the most sought-after Formations Master, the name stuck and became something that simply cannot be changed anymore.’

‘still doesn’t mean it is any less embarrassing.’

‘Be thankful that no one aside from the Auction house and Old Feng knows your real identity. Imagine what the kids at the village would do if they caught wind of your glorious title?’

‘……Hell no! I’ll never live it down.’

‘Indeed. But still, as I said, this title could come in handy to protect your disciple and the village as a whole should the worst come to pass. Isn’t that the whole reason you created that persona in the first place? As a backup for the worst-case scenario where you failed to bring the children back from the sect in time for the war to start?’

‘True. I guess I’ll just have to do that if the worst does happen.’

I acknowledged the truth in the old demon’s words and stared out at the clouds around us.

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Originally, I never planned to have the children join any sect and live out their lives quietly cultivating in the village. However, the plan changed when Old Li and the old demon convinced me to let them go and choose their own future. Something that I still think to be a mistake.

Lo and behold, they ended up choosing my former sect as the place to gain their experience much to my worry.

Thankfully, they still listened to my advice and maintained a low-key approach in the sect until I had them leave since the time for the war in the south was quickly approaching and I knew that outer disciples like the majority of their group would be used as cannon fodder by the sect to gain ‘compensation’ from the royal family for their efforts in the war.

I was never so thankful for my cautious nature since it was only a few days after the kids returned that we received the news of the sect being wiped out by an unknown party down to the last disciple.

When the children had just joined the sect more than five months ago, I had created my persona as ‘The Enigma’ with the Royal Auction Hall in the capital of the empire and sold some low-level artifacts that I crafted in my leisure time.

My hope was to gain a little bit of fame as a fairly decent formation master so that should the worst happen, I would have come leverage to gain the support of the Auction house to protect the village and Yan Ling.

Who knew that my products would blow up in popularity with even a Mortal-grade artifact from my brand becoming something highly sought after?

After asking around with the Auction house’s staff, I learned that one of the biggest reasons for this was the quality of my inscriptions and their unique approach that allowed them to be extremely efficient compared to similar artifacts in their category for nearly the same price.

It made sense to me. Most of the time, any inscription I make uses my knowledge of science from my world as the basis of their operation. While this approach made it so that my artifacts could not produce the same kind of raw performance as a similar artifact from other formation masters, the trade-off was that my artifacts became extremely efficient in terms of Qi usage and much more durable due to the reduced load on the artifact from the inscriptions.

Most of the time, my artifacts are four to five times more efficient in terms of Qi usage and nearly ten times more durable compared to the competition.

With these facts in mind, it did not take long for my persona to become a highly sought-after formation master across the capital. Many people tried to find my true identity to either hire me or force me to work for their faction through hook or crook.

Fortunately, my cultivation of Pure Qi made me invisible to a cultivator’s senses, allowing me to easily pass by the people that these forces used to try and find me after every auction of my artifacts.

With such an identity, it should be relatively easy to have the support of the Auction house and the Royal family should the worst come to pass and my village and Yan Ling end up in danger.

Soon, I felt a faint pulse of Qi pass through us and a voice resounds in the sky.

” Respected Guests, you have crossed into the territory of the Imperial Capital. The usage of Airships is prohibited within the city. Please land your airship and register with the city guards so that we can escort you in.”

“Whoa! What was that?? Master.”

“That was a voice transmission technique. It is a fairly ordinary technique that has no demand for an elemental affinity and can be used by any cultivator. It is primarily used to transmit the user’s voice into the unshielded minds of the recipient.”

“Oh!! Can you teach me that technique??”

Looks like she has finally come out of her depressed state.

I smiled and patted her head.

“Of course. But first, wear this.”

I took out a mask that I made to obscure her face and features from anyone who looked at her and put on a similar mast as well. The mask itself only conceals the top half of our face but the inscriptions themselves put in the brunt of the work by distorting the light around our faces to obscure our looks completely.

“Why are we wearing masks?”

“Your master’s identity in this place is a little special. It would not do for anyone for those people who seek my abilities to know of our true identities.”

Yan Ling nodded her head and followed me quietly as I stood up on the ship and controlled it to float down to the massive gates of the city that had a line of mortals waiting to enter.

While the descent of the airship was extremely smooth, it was in appearance only. When I designed the flight system of the ship I underestimated the complexity of controlling the buoyancy of the ship.

During its test flight, Yan Ling and I pushed the flight system to its limits by making its buoyancy lighter than the atmosphere around us. The result surprised me as we quickly ascended to the very edge of the atmosphere and arrived at the boundary of the planet and outer space. Even then, I could only slightly see the curvature of the planet, showing just how massive this world was.

It was only when I started to control the buoyancy to decrease our altitude that I realized the concentration I needed to provide a smooth descent from such heights.

Soon, we landed on the ground and jumped out of the ship.

Storing away the ship in my space ring, we were greeted by a group of soldiers who were at the peak of the Qi condensation realm who cupped their fists and bowed with respect and awe.

“Greeting, Lord Enigma. I am Zhao Yu, the leader of this group. We were informed that you would be arriving soon by the Auction house and were informed to escort you inside.”

I felt surprised at their words.

“They did? How did you know it was me that just arrived? It could have been anyone on that airship. And how did you know it was me anyway? Aren’t there many people in the world who like to wear masks?”

The captain gave a wry look at me.

“While that is true, there are no people with such unique masks like yourself in this empire. And neither are there any powerful cultivators like you who still heed the rule of not using their airship within the borders of the city.”

…Yeah, that tracks. Looks like the word about my way of doing things has already spread around the city.

Shaking my head, I showed Yan Ling to the group.

“This is my disciple. You can call her Lianhua (Lotus). She will be joining me for my business today in the city and I expect you to treat her the same way you treat me.”

The soldiers once again bowed, this time towards Yan Ling.

“We greet Fairy Lianhua.”

“H-hello!”

The girl squeaked at the sudden attention and directly ran behind me to hide, much to the amusement of the soldiers who barely suppressed their smiles at her actions.

As Zhao Yu escorted us in, I watched the bickering at the entrance and watched the long line slowly move forward.

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why is there such a long line of people seeking to enter the city? Aren’t there way less people than this seeking entry into the city.”

“Indeed, lord Enigma. However, there has been a surge of refugees from the south in the past month. Especially the Crimson Mountains region where the Demonic Beast activity is increasing by the day. Worse yet, the number of people coming to the imperial capital to escape their troubles has become so high that the guards have been forced to bar entry for any new people seeking to enter due to the shortage of space within.”

“…I see. Has there been any response from the Royal Family or the noble families?”

“None so far. Besides, there are not many people in this city that care about the lives of ordinary mortals.”

“..You are quite open with your words, Captain Zhou. Aren’t you afraid that the higher-ups of your forces or one of the cultivators will hear your words and make your life difficult?”

“All of the soldiers around us are my brothers who share the same opinion as me so the chances of anyone knowing what we are talking about are extremely small. As for you, Lord Enigma.”

He turned to look at me before speaking.

“If you were that kind of a man, there would never have been rumors of an unrecognizable cultivator in the slums providing massive amounts of provisions for the unfortunate people of this city and taking care of the unruly scum of the society every time you visit the Auction hall.”

‘He’s got you there.’

‘Shut it.”

I just nodded at his words and continued walking through the streets lined with stalls and shops.

Suddenly, Yan Ling pulled at my sleeve.

“Master? Can we go there first?”

I looked in the direction she was pointing at and felt amused since the shop was a fairly high-class restaurant.

‘This glutton, why is her mind always on food?’

‘Probably 'cause she likes to eat new things.’

‘Hmm. Makes sense. Oh well, might as well indulge her a little bit.’

I nodded as she started dragging me towards the restaurant while I called back at the group of soldiers.

“Join us for the meal, Captain Zhou. Since you and your people will be escorting us throughout the day you might as well stock up on energy for all the running around we will be doing.”

For a split second, I saw shock on the Captain’s face before he gave a nod and had his soldiers join us.

Since I don’t plan to come out of the village until at least another year, I might as well let Yan Ling enjoy herself and get whatever she wants from here.

The moment we sat down, Yan Ling immediately put in a massive order of food that left the soldiers around us dumbfounded.

‘Why does this feel so familiar?”

‘At this point, we should be completely desensitized to her way of doing things.’

I just smiled as Yan Ling eagerly waited for the food to come and happily answered the questions being posed by the nervous soldiers who slowly started to relax after understanding that Yan Ling was not going to treat them like trash like most of the young scions of this city would do.

At this moment, I can’t help but feel proud that I have managed to steer her clear from the path of arrogance and self-destruction.

Now, if only I could have her learn the value of patience, I couldn’t ask for anything more.