Her voice was loud and booming, silencing all the chitter chatter taking place in the hall.

From just the title Grand Elder, Spencer thought it would be some old lady but he was extremely incorrect. It was a beautiful middle aged lady who looked like she was in her prime age.

But that was it, Grand Elder didn't dress well nor was her hair done well. Heck even her face had no get up, it looked like she hadn't even washed her face as black soot stuck to certain parts of it.

She was considerably tall, wearing a suit which Spencer had seen firefighters wear back on Earth. With thick boots and gloves, Grand Elder Lyra looked like she had just finished her shift on some part time work she did to earn more resources.

Contrary to her beautiful face despite the soot sticking to it and ruffled hair, her voice was rather loud. Or maybe it was amplified through a cultivation art.

Spencer watched her ascend up to the stage and instructed everyone to sit in proper organized form. Noella ended up sitting beside him.

Suddenly, the lights in the hall dimmed as Grand Elder Lyra waved her right hand. With a wave of her left hand, a detailed picture of a human body lit up behind her on the big wall.

It was a picture familiar to everyone, a diagram of a body criss-crossed with several blood red meridians. The picture suddenly changed, magnifying on certain parts of the body. The magnified part occupied the entire wall, and a few meridians dimmed, with the remaining one shining more brightly.

Gradually, all the parts of the body were magnified, with bundles of meridians dimming, giving way to a select few. When the image returned to its original size, Spencer could get a clear image of the human body with a circuit.

Judging by the size, it should be a cultivation scripture right?

And he was correct. Grand Elder Lyra turned to them after she was done marking out the circuit.

“This is a cultivation scripture which I’ve made after decades of my hard work. It is based on the stars. You must’ve heard of cultivation scripture based on fire, water, earth, ice, lava, air, and so on. These types of cultivation scriptures are all high leveled and powerful ones made by high ranking members of the cultivation world after several years of research.

“Qi is a type of energy in the environment, similarly there are other things in nature too. So the cultivators thought, why not absorb energy from them to cultivate?

“The results weren’t good. Any energy apart from qi can’t be used to cultivate. At least, it can’t be used directly to increase the realms. After centuries of research, the first cultivation scripture which was based on external an entity, or energy, which was fire in this case, was made.

“The method used was such that the energy of fire won’t assist in cultivation, but it would be instead used to influence the qi. If a person used this fire based cultivation scripture, they would constantly have to search for fire since the one they’ll use will be consumed, and overtime, the person’s qi will take on qualities of fire.

“It also influences a certain aspect at higher cultivation realms, nothing disadvantageous if you’ve already gotten the hang of using qi with the properties of your element.”

She heaved a big sigh, and pointed to the diagram behind her. “So I designed this. The energy of stars should be a lot, enough for cultivators to cultivate for a long time before worrying about the stars running out of energy. It was difficult due to the distance but I finally made it work.

“If you’re wondering why I called all of you here, it was to circulate this diagram. I want to iron out the mistakes and deviations in route if there happens to be some.”

There was a clamor down among the disciples as they realized what they were being paid for. To become lab rats! The majority of the disciples’ expressions paled. They already knew there were chances of injuries since it was given in the mission description. They thought it would be physical injuries, but didn’t know it would be an injury caused by deviation in cultivation scripture, the latter was far more painful and was also difficult to heal.

Grand Elder Lyra knew what was going on in their minds. She immediately spoke to dispel their worries. “If you’re worried about injuries, don’t be. I can immediately heal all the injuries which you might incur. You just need to endure greater pain than you thought. I know the circuit is incorrect because I can't feel the effects.

“If you’re thinking why I can't do this, it’s because at my level it wouldn't even matter if my qi goes through a deviation in the part of smallest of meridians outside of the 120 meridians. I would sense nothing at all.

“As for why I didn't call foundation building stage or golden core stage cultivators, it was because they have developed a habit of their cultivation scripture. They are at a point where they’ve gotten a hang of their most used cultivation scripture and would instinctively follow that path. They would actually suffer more injuries or even death if they were to try out a new cultivation scripture recklessly.

“Cultivators at the Qi gathering stage are the most ideal because they’ve just embarked on their path of cultivation and don't have any particular habit yet. They’re also the most sensitive to cultivation deviation caused by incorrect meridians due to their low realm.”

A lot of them had calmed down gradually after hearing Grand Elder Lyra explaining. Some of them were simply afraid of pain, while some were indignant and felt unfair because she chose the weakest of realms to experiment on. It was a foolish reason to base your emotions on.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“If any of you choose to leave then they can leave now, no penalties. But if you leave later, I’ll be following the rules employed in the mission description.”

As soon as she said that, a couple dozen people stood up and left. Spencer was surprised to see that Noella hadn't left, adding on to his previous surprise of Noella joining despite knowing of injuries.

She isn't afraid of physical pain, nor the increased pain of cultivation deviation. It means she has a strong purpose and will to cultivate. Her nervousness and shyness must only be when she was dealing with people, her attitude seems to be steadfast when it came to cultivating. Is this why she rejected Ralph? Or maybe it was because she really wasn't looking to date? Or maybe a bit of both?

Spencer didn't think too much about her. Everyone had their own purpose to join the world of cultivation. People often thought that talents scouted from Earth were mentally weak, but those who had a sense of purpose in seeking power were often far above the average folks of the cultivation world.

Grand Elder Lyra didn't seem to be disappointed when she saw people leaving. A melon forced off its vine is not sweet.

In the end, there were only about 300 people left out of the 400 that took up the mission.

Without wasting any time, she immediately began explaining the location of the particular meridian, giving extra information about their surrounding meridians to make finding them easier.

Spencer didn't have much difficulties following her guidance. He didn't get it on the first try, but he wasn't lagging behind either. Grand Elder Lyra was patient in teaching everyone the location of meridians. She suggested visualizing a star in their minds if it didn’t take away too much of their focus.

I can feel something different.

Spencer thought as he imagined the positions of the meridians. He was focusing on a visual of a star he had conjured up in his mind while simultaneously trying to locate the meridian and imagine it in the route he was building in his mind.

At some point of time, a faint feeling appeared, it was like an instinct. Guiding him towards a certain small meridian. It wasn't one which had to be included in the route, but one beside it.

Spencer hesitated as he was faced with the situation.

Is it related to my affinity? It allows me to gain a faint instinct of a correct path for its cultivation scripture?

Spencer didn't get lost into his fantasies of creating a powerful cultivation scripture based on time. First, he had already used a basic cultivation scripture. If his affinity worked by using his instinct to nudge cultivation scriptures towards the route of cultivation scripture based on that respective affinity then it would’ve worked by now. It was clearly working only because he had a thorough foundation of Grand Elder Lyra’s cultivation scripture which was also attuned to the attribute of star.

After hesitating, he ultimately decided on going along with his instinct and imagined the new meridian into the overall route he had visualized in his mind instead of one pointed out by the Grand Elder.

While he continued proceeding, he felt the instinct several times. But most of the time he couldn't point out the correct meridian like before, instead only getting the feeling that the current meridian was the incorrect one.

Is my affinity insufficient?

Spencer knew he only had 11 points in star affinity. It was clearly falling short right now.

After about four hours, everyone was successful in imagining the cultivation scripture.

Hearing the stomach of a few people protesting, the middle aged lady smiled, allowing everyone to have a break to fill their stomach and freshen up their mind.

“There is a restaurant not too far away from here, it’s equally as pricey as the ones on the base of the main mountain, and the coupons will work here too.”

Saying so, she stepped down from the podium and entered the room behind the door she had previously entered from.

Everyone began standing up to stretch, and left through the way they had entered. Noella gave him a weird look as she stood up, wondering why he wasn't standing up. Wasn't he hungry?

Eva hadn't returned to Noella’s side even now, nor was Ralph anywhere to be seen. This time with no pressure from the surroundings, she softly asked him.

“Don't you want to eat?”

Spencer raised his head to match her gaze and replied after a second.

“You go ahead, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Noella nodded, taking his word for it. Maybe he wanted to go through whatever Grand Elder Lyra had taught?

Spencer sat there till the hall was devoid of any disciple, then stood up and stretched his legs. A lot of his body had become numb, especially his legs.

Maybe I’ll get over it as I continue cultivating.

The past few days, whenever he sat in one place for long periods of time, his legs would always become numb by the end of the session, with his arms joining the count at times.

When cultivating, he liked to rest both his hands on his knees while sitting cross legged with back straight and eyes closed. It was used for meditation and it greatly helped him with focusing on what was necessary.

After a few seconds of stretching and kicking, he felt his legs coming back to life, reinstating the connection with his body.

His sight fell on the door Grand Elder Lyra had entered, deliberating over the matter he thought of, and also why he was staying back.

Should I tell her about my affinity?

Spencer was unsure how to approach this. He had read enough cultivation novels to know about sects, and the Boundless Sky was clearly on a much more positive scale in his opinion than the ones he had read about.

He had read some rules when he used to get bored of refining his meridian. It was hardly a page or two but it was enough to show that the Boundless Sky was a righteous sect thorough and thorough.

Killing, possessing bodies and any such things were strictly prohibited and were met with intense penalties if found out.

It was enough to warrant him a sense of safety despite rejecting a large group like a protection squad. At most they would do what? Bring him on the streets by defeating him in the battle to possess his cave. Not even Drith talked about him being killed as a possibility when he was educating them on their working.

Spencer considered every little detail he had found over his days of staying in the sect and finally deemed it safe to inform Grand Elder Lyra about his talent.

And what if I get some benefits if I tell her about my affinity? If she doesn't already know what affinity does, she’ll be delighted once she knows her decades of work can be polished quicker and more efficiently with his help.

After taking a deep breath, Spencer approached the door and knocked.