"Eh? Where's Sister Anda?" Senior Sister June asked after noticing that Anda wasn't there.
"Madam entered seclusion. She wanted to break through to the Core Formation realm as soon as possible," Layla replied.
"Is that so? Oh my, what a pity. I wanted to see her again. Oh right, this graceful lady here is my master and the current Sect Mistress of the Multi-Element Sect, Bulan Rameela," Senior Sister June introduced.
"Welcome to Bara City, Sect Mistress Bulan." Layla bowed slightly to show respect.
Although Sect Mistress Bulan was a Soul Formation expert, she, as the city lord, held a higher status here.
"Good girl. Although your realm is somewhat low, your mental fortitude is quite impressive," Sect Mistress Bulan praised Layla with a graceful smile.
Suddenly, the handsome middle-aged husband of Bulan Rameela stepped forward.
"Are you that Leyvi kid? I heard that you have the same dream as me. I'm Dahni. How about you become my disciple? Hahaha!" Dahni's laughter boomed across the room, startling Leyvi slightly.
Huh? What is he talking about? What dream? Leyvi was confused. His thoughts raced as he tried to piece together what Dahni could mean by "the same dream."
"I'm sorry. I don't have any plans to join any sect because I already established a cultivation family," Leyvi politely declined.
"Hahaha, who said you can't join a sect even if you have established a family? Become my disciple, and I will teach you the art of living off your wife." The handsome middle-aged Dahni said.
What the heck! I thought you wanted a disciple for cultivation. But you actually wanted to have me as a disciple for that reason. Also, why do I need your lessons for that? I'm doing quite well on my own.
"Handsome Elder, I really don't want to join any organization. I don't like responsibilities," Leyvi replied truthfully.
"Elder Dahni, stop pressuring him. We already made a deal with the city lord," Senior Sister June reminded him. What if Leyvi avoided the Multi-Element Sect if he kept pestering him like this?
"Ugh, fine. I just like this youngster. I'm not trying to force him or anything," Dahni gave up. "Leyvi, if you want to learn more about how to live off your wife, you can come to me. I even wrote a few books about this, and they sold well. Hahaha!"
Leyvi was speechless. Aren't you supposed to research multi-element stuff?
He secretly glanced at the Sect Mistress. Is she someone who is fine with her husband living off her too? She might get along with Anda. Unfortunately, she's in seclusion.
Afterward, they requested to see Leyvi's five-element ability, which he demonstrated the exact same way he did last time.
And just like Senior Sister June, the older generations of the Multi-Element Sect started to look at him like a Heavenly Treasure. Leyvi could see the stars in their eyes, a mix of hope and admiration that made him feel uneasy.
Uhh...Can you please not look at me like that?
Later, Layla, Senior Sister June, and Sect Mistress Bulan discussed some more things before she gave them the city lord's mansion key token.
Just as agreed upon, it would be where the Multi-Element Sect would operate from now on. They only had a total of 23 members in the sect, so the mansion was big enough for them.
Before they left the Leyan Family mansion, Sect Mistress Bulan gave Leyvi a jade slip containing the martial skill manual of their sect's progenitor.
Although somewhat reluctant, Leyvi accepted it since it was the agreement after all. He couldn't let Layla's reputation be tarnished because of him. If he couldn't even do this small thing for his wife, how could he become the Bara City model husband?
The Multi-Element Sect wanted their progenitor's legacy to be passed down, and he was the only one who could do it right now. This was the reason why they agreed to cooperate with Layla in the first place.
At the end of the day, it was just learning a martial skill. It shouldn't be that hard, right?
In the basement training room.
"What the heck! Why is this so hard to do?" Leyvi complained.
He already hit a snag as soon as he tried to learn the martial skill. It turned out that he had great difficulty using multiple elements at the same time. When he showed off his five-element ability previously, he did it one by one, which was quite simple.
But when he tried to produce three elements at the same time, they became totally unstable and were dominated by the fire element, the one he used the most.
"Weird, the manual didn't mention anything about the difficulty in producing three-element Qi at the same time. Don't they have any problem with this at all?" Leyvi scratched his head, his brows furrowed.
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What Leyvi didn't know was that although he could use five different elemental Qi due to the benefits from the talent bead, he fundamentally had never used more than one element at once and had zero experience in balancing them.
The way a multi-element cultivator cultivates is slightly different from the average single-element cultivator. A multi-element cultivator could just use the same cultivation manual that a single-element cultivator uses without any problem.
If they have a dual-element spirit root, for example, fire and water, they could either focus on any one of the elements or both.
Even if they chose to focus on just one element, that is absolutely fine. There would be no downside at all. It just meant that they would become a single-element cultivator like many others.
On the other hand, if they chose to cultivate both elements, they would have to use two cultivation manuals suitable for converting the absorbed spiritual energy to fire and water elemental Qi. Then, these two Qi would have to be balanced in their dantian, most of the time, with the same amount of Qi for both elements.
The advantage for multi-element cultivators was that they got to use more types of Qi or a combination of them, making them more versatile.
However, the downside was that they had a smaller Qi pool since they had to balance them equally in their dantian. If the user only used a fire-type martial skill, only the fire-element Qi would be used up, and vice versa. So, they had to learn martial skills for both elements, forcing them to use both martial skills in a fight. In many situations, this could be troublesome for them.
To mitigate this downside, they came up with the idea to create martial skills that combine the elements they use, like how Senior Sister June demonstrated with her coral martial skill, combining earth and water elemental Qi. It solved the half Qi pool problem entirely.
This was the reason why the Multi-Element Sect existed and why they valued Leyvi so much.
With Leyvi, they might be able to create martial skills that combine any combination of those five elements, paving an easier path for future multi-element cultivators.
The reason why there were so few cultivators in the Multi-Element Sect was that in addition to the already rare nature of multi-element spirit roots, most cultivators they found were unwilling to go through the hardship of creating a new martial skill, delaying their cultivation. The path was seen as too slow and arduous, even for those with the natural talent for it.
In the future, when more martial skills for combined elements became available, more cultivators with multi-element spirit roots would choose to join the sect.
But unbeknownst to them, their valued treasure was having great difficulty balancing the different-element Qi he produced, and couldn't even enter the first step of learning their progenitor's martial skill.
Balancing different-element Qi was the most basic skill for them, already like breathing air, but to Leyvi, it was an entirely new experience.
His dantian was filled with only attributeless Qi, which meant he never had to balance them. His elemental affinity benefit allowed him to transform his attributeless Qi to any of the five elements with ease.
Leyvi felt like crying. It seemed that he had to learn to balance the five-element Qi first before anything else. He lamented the fact that he had to add another routine to his training and cultivation regime. Ugh, now he has less time to learn about pressure, something that he has come to be passionate about recently. Leyvi complained endlessly in his mind.
After a while, Leyvi calmed himself down and stopped complaining. By helping his wives now, it would only help him to live leisurely in the future. Yup. He repeated this thought like a mantra, determined to push through his current struggles.
Six months later, after a few more successful operations crushing criminal groups in the city, Layla announced to the citizens of Bara City that, as the city lord, she had reached a cooperation agreement with the Multi-Element Sect, who would be her backers from now on.
The announcement came during a grand public gathering in the city square, where Layla addressed the citizens from a raised platform. Her steady and commanding voice echoed across the bustling crowd. The Multi-Element Sect's top-echelon members stood behind her, showcasing their aura, and showing the people the level of strength backing their city lord.
Most people didn't know what the Multi-Element Sect was, but a few who were knowledgeable quickly spread the information about them to the public. Whispers rippled through the crowd as rumors of the sect's strength and prestige while only having small numbers began to circulate.
A sect with three Soul Formation experts!