Eon had carefully balled up his blood qi under the quiet watch of Zerle. He sat in a deep meditative pose as his brow furrowed and sweat dripped down his face. 11 weeks had passed since the ritual had altered bodily revelation, and Eon had progressed quickly. Since becoming Zerle’s disciple, Eon no longer had to do labor to make his keep, so he would spend most of his days training under Zerle’s guidance, or spending some time with Hela. Occasionally, Sophia would also drop by to see Eon’s progress and have a meal with Zerle, she had taken an interest in Eon as she had hit a bottleneck partway through mid-stage body tempering and was hoping to gain some insight through seeing a new perspective on cultivation, she would also train Eon when Zerle would leave the home, as since he had taken Eon on as a disciple he had started to take action within the sect again. Thanks to this guidance from both teachers and the experience gained from the intimate familiarity with bodily revelation, he had rapidly advanced his usage of his new art and had been slowly gathering up the impurities in his head which would correspond to unsealing his first acupoint. It was a tedious process, and any lapse in focus would cause whatever impurity he was slowly moving to rush out of his grasp and hide away in his body where he would need to search to find them again, and it seemed that the more impurities he collected the slippier they became. He was storing them in a container made of his blood qi on the crown of his head just past the hairline. Sophia had asked him to do this to see if it created any reaction as compensation for her help, and Eon obliged.

Currently, Eon had built up about 65% of the impurities that he needed in order to break through. At the rate he was going, it would be very difficult to break into the entry-stage body tempering in the next 5 months of the trial due to the increasing difficulty of collecting the impurities. Zerle had told him that breaking through to entry stage body tempering would likely be the most challenging part of his cultivation until he attempted to break into the peak stage, so this was already quite a good result, but it still wasn’t enough. If he didn’t manage to reach the entry stage in time, it would nearly doubtlessly spell death or banishment from the sect.

At the peak of the sect, Zerle was speaking with the sect leader about Eon’s predicament over tea. “... So that is why I am worried. Even with his good progress, you know as well as I do that nothing in cultivation is ever as simple as it seems. Nafyr, do you have any ideas? You are the only person in the sect whose knowledge and experience rival my own, and we have known each other for a long time. I respect your opinion more than anyone else's in the sect.” Zerle said, finishing his explanation on recent events.

Nafyr, the sect leader, placed his teacup on his platter. While this tea was similar tasting to the teas common on Earth, they were made from the products of a species of plant-like demon beasts, making it rare and expensive to obtain. Drinking it would stabilize one’s true qi, making it excellent for building the qi required to break through into the next stage. Zerle had considered getting a little for Eon, but it was only effective on true qi and so would be useless for Eon.

Nafyr was a little older than Zerle, but because his cultivation base was intact he aged more slowly. He had only a few wrinkles and looked like he was in his mid-fifties. His age and personality gave him a powerful and dependable air. Looking at his friend from a bygone age, Nafyr could only feel regret that Zerle had been crippled so long ago on his behalf, if anyone were to be able to make it to the third realm of cultivation it likely would have been Zerle. Nafyr himself might have been able to make it had he spent much of his time on it but, he was much too busy leading the sect so he had been stuck in peak foundation for many years now. He was also reaching an age where attempting to break through again would become significantly more dangerous, so he had more or less resigned himself to remaining in the foundation realm for the rest of his life. Seeing Zerle again sent Nafyr wistfully thinking of the past when they were considered the ‘Twin Talents’ of the Fort Scale sect.

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Thinking for a moment Nafyr spoke: “It seems you have picked up quite the unusual disciple. Then again, you always did have strange tastes in this regard. Nonetheless, if anything comes of his cultivation I would be interested in hearing about it. I might have some useful information, and I have a proposition. As you know, I lack the time and youth to further advance my cultivation. If I die, there are few people in the sect who would be capable of taking over, and that is without considering the skirmishes we have with the nearby sects and the occasional demon-beast attacks. I lack any direct heirs to leave the sect to, as none of my remaining children are particularly talented or good leaders, though this is my failing as a father more than anything else. I am to blame for this predicament. But something happened recently, which caused Sophia to catch my eye. I am considering leaving the sect to her after my death, as other than her stubborn and slightly distant personality, she has many of the qualities I am looking for in an heir. The problem is that the other foundation realm cultivators would be unwilling to work under a sect leader weaker than them. I want you to help me convince her to become my official heir by marrying one of my sons and taking my family name. If she were to be under my name she would likely face little resistance from the sect, even those ambitious foundation realms who thirst for my position would likely remain quiet. She is the best candidate for my inheritance of any of the current generation, and I think she could provide a bright future for our sect.”

“... You are asking me to make my granddaughter marry a man she barely knows. She is the only family I have left, and if I use my influence to arrange this marriage, she would be unhappy, which is not something that I can accept. If Sophia is to marry, it will be someone of her choosing. I have already sacrificed my cultivation and my time to the sect, I have more than paid my dues. Do you really know me so poorly, ‘friend’, to think I would agree to this, much less for some paltry information?” Zerle spoke, his aura swirling darkly, there was even a hint of killing intent as he sipped his tea.

Nafyr sighed, he had expected this reaction. If Zerle hadn’t come to find him today, Nafyr likely would have gone looking for him sometime in the coming weeks, and he knew better than to think this conversation would go smoothly. “You don’t understand, do you? Our sect has long fallen from its peak. We are already on the path of collapse, and if we don’t do something soon we will have to take drastic measures in order to protect the sect. What would you have me do, watch as everything our forefathers established collapses into the wind? We are in deep trouble. We have only a dozen foundation experts left and are of the lowest of the high-tier sects. Our techniques are enough for the other high-tier sects to begin provoking us already. In truth, I have been approached by several emissaries from the other high-tier sects trying to coax us into becoming a tributary branch sect. If this continues for too long I am afraid that we will end up delving into total warfare if the sects other sects think that we are weak enough for their losses to be acceptable. I have even been having the foundation experts train those who aren’t their disciples in public lectures to hopefully bring up the few talents we have left in the sect. What would you do in my position? We lack cultivators since the war from 20 years ago, the same war in which you lost your son and I lost several of my own children, whom I loved deeply. You must understand, I hate even asking this of you, but the situation has become very bad. I am not asking you to force Sophia into marriage, but I am asking for you to support me in trying to get her to take an interest in one of my sons. As a show of my good will, I will give you the information you asked for, and all I ask in return is that you think about what I said today.”