Inside the pagoda at the top of the highest peak that the Divine Relic Sect rest on, were a group of old, unsatisfied men and woman, who were impatiently awaiting for the Sect Leader that had called the meeting, to appear before them.
One of these old folk was Dong Ki, who was silently sitting in a corner, meditation with his eyes closed, what he was thinking of, was unknown to the rest of them.
"Sigh, just when things was going to get feisty, we were all called by the Sect Leader, I wonder what is going on in his mind, does he want to hoard Luo Ren all to himself? Last time I heard, not only were those two were on bad terms, even the Luo clan themselves, distance themselves from Luo Ren" An elder said without a hint of fear, as if he wasn't afraid of Luo Han hearing his disrespectful words.
"Jing Dai, just because you and the Luo Family is connected by marriage, don't think you can say whatever you want about us, in fact, I never seen your Jing family act on good terms with Luo Ren, didn't your grandson, Jing Bai threaten his life just the other day?" An ordinary Luo Clan elder said, blatantly slapping Jing Dai face, who just spoke ill of them a minute ago.
"Huuumpft, at least we didn't pretend he didn't exist, for the first half of Luo Ren life, no one even knew he existed because Luo Han personally covered up his birth" Jing Dai retorted.
"Sigh, can you all calm down, we are all members of the same sect, so why can't we all just get along, how about this, I'll be first to suggest that we should all have a share in the knowledge that Luo Ren have, instead of fighting over it like greedy bandits" An old lady said in a calm soothing voice.
Everyone couldn't refute that claim, but in their eyes, they disagreed, though they couldn't disagree in public since that will paint a target on their back.
"Good suggesting, Lady Kuzou Fen Fei, I support this, but I will personally volunteer to have my Dong Family collect him for this purpose" Dong Ki said in a commanding tone as he had withdrawn from his meditation trance.
"Hummpft, Dong Ki, we're all not as gullible as your son, Dong Bai, and will fall for your tricks, why don't we have my Kuzou Family bring him in" Lady Kuzoi Fen Fei refuted.
"Enough, we were all called here by the Sect Command Token, and Luo Han wouldn't do this for nothing, perhaps he already has a plan" An old man said, he had dark black eyes, sharp thick eyebrows, chiseled jaw, who exuded a masculine lumberjack vibe, this was the patriarch of the Xei Clan.
"Xei Sen is right, I did call you all for a reason, as you all heard, my son has deciphered the second level of the Twelve Heavenly Ghost Star Streaking Mantis Steps of the Immortal Gods, my solution is for him to hand over the secret knowledge. This knowledge will then be open to sect disciples, but they must pay official sect points to access and learn it, and before they get their hand onto the technique, they must undergo a life and death heavenly vow as to not spread the technique to other people. I will have my son complete the same vow after he handed it in, but this is not why I called you all here" Luo Han voice echoed in everyone's ears, though he still wasn't present in sight, which caused many to frown unsatisfactorily as many of them have high statuses, such as clan leaders or sect elders whose strength were not one to scoff at.
"Are you not going to greet us in person? Old friend?" Dong Ki said in a cold harsh tone.
"Fine..."
Everyone saw a man on the brink of dying of old age, if any normal person saw this man, they would think that he was the oldest of the bunch.
But that's not the case, Luo Han was in fact only a little after 100 years old, while the rest of the monster are at least older than 400 years old.
The life spans of mortals is around 100 years old.
When mortals cultivate, it isn't until they reach the realm of Mortal Tiger/Crane that they find a boost in life force energy, which meant that they could live up to 150 years old.
But to reach this realm, isn't easy, to go beyond level 9 of the Mortal Human/Qi stage is what separates those with talent, and those without.
But this doesn't mean that talent-less people couldn't overcome this hurdle, they just need resources. The geniuses of the world can naturally advance from the the 1st tier cultivation realm, to the 2nd. They say that this is the best possible way to advance, but who knows.
For talent-less people, they need to initiate a spiritual ritual, a baptism of some sort. Praying to the gods while gifting some offerings.
The main focus of this ritual is the offerings, to advance from 1st tier cultivation, to 2nd tier, you would need offerings at the level of 2nd Grade.
You need to offer a dead creatures corpse, a spiritual plant, and a relic piece, all must be placed inside the official ritual circle, which is a circle made of spiritual stones.
The reason why Luo Ren hasn't advance from Mortal Human level 9, and Mortal Qi level 9, is because of this ritual. All three of these offerings, must be at the 2nd Grade, whether it is low, middle, top, peak grade, it all must be withing these scopes.
If the offerings are less than what is needed, the ritual will fail, and any higher, the ritual will backfire and harm the initiator to the point where his life is on the line.
Some say that having a offering consisting of a Peak 2nd Grade creature corpse, plant and relic, can go tow to tow in strength with geniuses who had naturally advance, some say that they are stronger then those geniuses.
But this theory couldn't be tested, as no one had seen someone advance with this type of offerings. It has been tested, that initiators must gather these three offerings alone, if they had any help from tools or other cultivators , then their ritual would fail.
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Some say that this is because god is unsatisfied with cheating, and only awards those worthy. That means talent-less people would need to go out and kill their own creature, find their own spiritual plant, and relic piece.
This is why the Divine Relic Sect is so popular, and so strong, is because they teach their students the knowledge, and grant them the power, to acquire these offerings.
But it is extremely impossible, for a Level 9 Mortal Human/Qi Cultivator, to jump realms and kill a creature in the peak of the 2nd Grade, but their are sometimes exceptions, there was a legend that one woman, thousands of years ago had all her three sacrifices in the peak of 2nd Grade, but that is a story for another time.
Ordinary Geniuses usually advance with middle 2nd grade sacrifices, and monsters using top grade sacrifices, whereas the majority advances with the bare minimum requirement.
So these initiators would by far, be unable to have a perfect godly ritual, which meant that they advance without the perfect condition.
Advancing with Low 2nd Grade materials, would cause you to be one of the weaker than others of the same grade. The higher the materials, the stronger you will be, and for the ritual circle, you must have 100 low grade spiritual stone, if any less, or any more, the ritual would fail.
For ritual initiators, they must have both of their cultivation pathways already up to the peak of their realm before they can do the ritual, or else it will fail again, this is why talent-less people are gritting their teeth and biding their time, just to cultivator both their body, and their Qi.
This is a problem for Luo Ren, as he dislike violence, so he could never kill spiritual creature of the 2nd Grade, and forever be stuck as a 1st tiered cultivator.
The ritual is the same for people who wants to advance from Mortal Tiger/Crane to the realm above.
They must have materials of those three types, creature corpse, spiritual plant and relic, of the 3rd Grade. They would also need 1000 low grade spiritual stone.
The life span of cultivators in the Mortal Dragon/Phoenix Realm is at 200.
Though 200 years seem like a long time, to cultivators, 200 years is actually really short and it is nearly impossible for cultivators to get to the peak of this realm by the time they are 200 years old.
For Warlords and Warlocks, like these clan leaders or sect elders, they have a lifespan of 500 years, which is what most people envy, and would do anything to get to that stage, including stealing the movement technique that Luo Ren had deciphered.
With a godly movement technique, they would be able to monopolise the entire region, and it would be fairly simple to jump a level, for instance, cultivators who would advance to the next realm with low grade sacrifices, could have a chance at advancing with middle grade sacrifices.
Cultivators would be faster than those of the same realm, and also, everyone had heard of the legends of the first sect leader, and want to become the next god-like immortal who had the entire continent on their knees.
Too bad the Divine Relic Sect had decayed over time, and other sects had surpassed it.
Luo Han, who was on the brink of dying of old age, even in the 4th tier cultivation realm, was extremely weird, but the knowledge of him being cursed is only known to these few upper echelon old monsters that had attended the 'forced' meeting.
The general folks, unimportant cultivators, even those core disciples, with the exception on Luo Ru, Tao Min, and Rock, had no idea that their great powerful sect leader has been cursed.
A curse so powerful that even the most famous medical practitioners, or voodoo masters, have no idea how to cure something like this.
Perhaps only people from a continent much stronger than their own, would know how to cure and dispel the curse. Some of these leaders would choose to be loyal to Luo Han, and the sect, which meant that the technique knowledge would be shared inside the sect.
But there are some who still harbour greed, and would want nothing but to have that knowledge to themselves, even if it means cutting ties from the sect, and running away to a distant land to avoid danger.
Back to the higher ups meeting...
"I called you all here because I have an announcement. I am going to resign in a few weeks, so you all must prepare for the next sect leader ascension ceremony, you are all considered candidates, since you are all strong enough to hold onto the next seat, which means that the responsibility of looking after both the Sect, and the City will be handed to someone else. My only wish is that you all pull back your forces, including your secret ones, from apprehending Luo Ren. Or else my last act of Sect Leader, would be to annihilate the enemy to the ground"
Some were happy, given the news was that the great Luo Han was stepping down from the position of Sect Leader, which meant that they now had a chance to sit up on the throne.
But some were still not content, and refuse to budge a small step, to call off their forces.
"I wasn't asking" Luo Hans low voice was filled with killing intent that even the heavens couldn't contain, it made the rooms temperature drop to the extreme, which cause every man and lady in the room, to freeze chillingly down to the bones.
They were afraid, they had forgotten how powerful Luo Han was, which reminds them of when he was when he was young.
He was a passionate and unrestrained boy, who was able to fight those of higher levels than him, sometimes up to a 5 level difference. He was a genius in every field, and his talent threatened even them, who at the time were still old monsters.
But now that Luo Han had growned, he who was only 100 years old, surpassed these monster who were over 400 years old!
Even Dong Ki, who was extremely arrogant, who was confident in his own abilities, was afraid! That's how strong Luo Han was right now!
"The ceremony to choose the next sect leader is in a month, you are all dismissed"
Everyone sighed in a breath of relief, as Luo Han lifted his pressure off of them. They each bowed towards Luo Han respectively, while rushing out to their own forces, to pull out from whatever delusional dream that they had plotted under the nose of Luo Han.
........
If possible, David would had been crying collective tears that would somehow eventually form a small lake. He couldn't move at all and was covered in pig saliva and mud.
There was somehow light inside of the beast pouch, but it never became night.
'Damn, how long are they taking? Are they still alive? Or are they dead? I hope they are alive, but I've been inside this filthy pigsty for god knows how long, a day? a week? a month? if I have to stay inside any longer, I think I will go insane' David groaned inwardly before he started to mutter to himself, once again.
For some reason, the pigs were being fed continuously as they were thrown inside of the beast pouch, but lately, there hasn't been any food delivery for hours, which meant that the pig feed would soon need to be refilled, if not, who knows what they would do to satiate their hunger?
'Little Pork, stop licking me, I am not a tasty snack!' David was petrified as the pig named Little Pork kept licking him.
In fact, David had been here so long that he had memorised every pig inside the beast pouch, and named them all. He thought of them as his only friends, since the bicycle system was very cold. It's voice was robotic and neutral, with no emotions, and it never talked about casual things, only topics related to the Bicycle System.
'Oh, god, I hope they don't eat me alive...' David panicked as more piggies began to lick him, but before it could come to that, he felt a pulsing force surrounding his whole body, he was now pulsing like a vibrating metal tool as he was sucked out of the nightmarish beast pouch, and into the outside world.
'Yes! Can we go back to doing that trip that we were suppose to do? Wait, who are you?' David assumed that it was either Luo Rei, or Luo Ren who pulled him out.
David saw a small boy, who did not even look over 16 years old, staring at him in curiosity.
'Who the f*ck are you? And what happened to Luo Ren and Luo Rei when I was stuck inside that shitty pig hell?'