When I woke again, it was to getting dumped in cold spiritual spring water. I spluttered, then unconsciously started looping my cultivation technique as I absorbed the water into my body as fast as I could.

Gulping it down like a maniac in every way possible, I purified every pore and muscle. Eventually, I became full and woke up from my, frankly, lifesaving trance. I had greatly underestimated the rank of those cultivation techniques. In this particular story, most everything had a rank and a quality within that rank. The rank of these two particular techniques differed greatly. One was Golden rank with a High quality; the other was Black rank with a Low quality.

I went over the techniques in my mind. And I nearly passed out again. My mouth filled with blood.

Fuuuuck, this wasn’t good.

After using my divine sense in a way that far surpassed what my mortal body could handle, I had aggravated the difference between my soul and cultivation levels so much that it was causing me to slowly die. I needed to quickly increase my cultivation to at least the pinnacle of Qi Condensation or the dichotomy would absolutely murder my ass.

After some quick and depressing calculations, I only had half a year to live.

I crawled out of the water, looking a lot like a half-drowned cat.

“Are you alright?” Little Spring stared at me with a worried frown.

I nodded as I stormed like a turtle back into the building. When I reached the necklace that held our Nascent Soul interloper, I poked it, hard.

“So, one of these techniques that you’re trying to con Little Spring into practicing is a dark path that requires a lot of heavenly treasures, killing, and other unsightly things. It is a strong technique but it would leave him weak to mental attacks and takeovers from souls. It also has the possibility of distorting his personality.” And, frankly, I could tell that this was what Bloodsword cultivated in the past. It was also the higher-ranked technique but had worse flaws.

I turned to my little martial brother who pulled out a stool for me to rest on.

Once I took my seat I continued. “The next technique is a lighter path that requires a lot of introspection. It’s weaker, and a bit slower to cultivate, but it has minor flaws. Both were made for your bloodline. And both require a large amount of expensive and hard to find materials.”

“And which one do you think I should cultivate?”

“Neither. They’re both horrible!”

I could practically hear them drop with shock.

“What do you mean horrible?” The interloper asshat said. “These are both techniques above Transcendence rank!”

“They’re pieces of shit.”

“Then what kind of technique isn’t a piece of shit to you?”

“Mine. It’s kickass. I made it. It only has one major flaw, which is that it’s personalized so much that only I can use it.” I shrugged. Well, that and a few other minor flaws, but I wouldn’t mention those.

He snorted. “As if I’d believe you created a—“

I began to cultivate in front of him, letting go of the restriction I had to use due to the mortal world’s thin spiritual energy, and started pulling in a vast amount of this space’s gloriously thick spiritual energy, looping it around my body. Within a few minutes, I created the third layer and was on the brink of creating a fourth. The beginnings of Qi fractals began to show themselves. Then I stopped. The massive headache I’d been ignoring all this time eased a bit. I would have kept going but this little space didn’t have that much energy. It might be enough to get me fairly far, but that would just be a waste when it could be used for better things like raising rare medicinal herbs.

“What rank cultivation technique is that?!”

“What I did or did not create is none of your concern.” I tilted my nose up haughtily. “And why are you staying in that ball? Why don’t you come out?”

I poked him. A very translucent ghost of a middle-aged man flew out. He had black hair with hints of gray at the temples and a pair of downturned eyes. He wore his hair half up, with a white jade crown.

He looked like the typical evil mentor ghost who planned to take over the main character’s body. He would either fail in the end or start to befriend him to have him gather materials to make a new shell. Since I never read the book I had no idea which type he was. Maybe the author decided to subvert the trope somehow, and I was way off. Well, whatever. He’d been trapped in that soul gem for so long that he could barely project an illusory image of himself.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

What a terribly weak Nascent Soul.

A tug at my sleeve had me look to Little Spring.

“You’re getting the floor wet.”

“It’s just spiritual spring water. It won’t harm anything.”

He nodded, took off his jacket, and wrapped it around my shoulders. Aww. What a cute kid! He was raised so well. What the hell happened in his past life to make him such a dark gross asshole? I highly doubted that it was just his choice in cultivation technique that changed him.

“So, if I can’t use those then could you create one for me?” His adorably hopeful eyes pleaded at me.

I grimaced and pinched his cheek. “Do you think creating a cultivation technique unique to a person is that easy?”

“Please?”

“Once you start down this path, you won’t be able to choose again.”

Well, technically, he could pick apart his own cultivation and start over again if he needed to but, I wouldn’t let him waste my precious time, brainpower, and effort by switching his cultivation technique on me like that. Not if I decided to put in the energy to make one for him.

“I understand.”

“And you’ll have to trust me completely.”

He hesitated.

“Ah! See, you’re not ready!”

“No! I’m ready! I trust you when it comes to everything cultivation related.”

I stared him down. He squirmed.

“You still think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

He shook his head far too quickly. As if I couldn’t tell when a kid was lying. “Whatever. This should be enough. Because trusting me with your cultivation technique is like trusting me with your future. It means I’ll decide your path until it’s time for you to create your own.”

His eyes widened. “I’ll need to create my own cultivation technique?”

I nodded looking like the beautiful child sage I was... though I may have still been a little wet. “When a cultivator reaches Immortal Ascension, they must decide on their path to immortality on their own.”

I wasn’t going to tell them because one's own path was their secret to keep, but, for me, my path was Unlimited. It was based on my unique Phoenix constitution. I am the Phoenix. I am the Undying. If I cannot die, then I can do everything I wish unfettered by mortality. If I can do everything I wish, then my future is unlimited. My past path, my present path, my future path. It was my path, is my path, and will be my path again.

Irritation ran through me, and I had the urge to throw something at Bloodsword. But he wasn’t here. And would never exist from this point onward.

I stared at Little Spring. “Then I will create for you a cultivation technique unique to you at the Unparalleled Perfection rank.”

The necklace dropped to the floor, and the ghost clung to the desk. “What did you say?”

I glared at him. “Unparalleled Perfection rank cultivation technique. Stop being so dramatic.”

“You can’t just make an Unparalleled Perfection rank cultivation technique! Are you insane?”

“Some people think I am.” I stared at Little Spring who conveniently decided to look out the window as if I wasn’t talking about him. I turned back to our interloper and began my evil plot. “What’s your name, anyway?”

He straightened his spine and clasped his hands behind his back. “Old Master Violet Seal.”

“That’s a crazy stupid name. You’re now, Ghosty McGhostface.”

“I don’t understand a word you just said.”

“It’s a very well-liked name style from my past life.”

“But I have my own name. It’s a good name.”

“I don’t trust its future history.”

He looked so confused that it made me feel all giddy inside.

“Tell you what, you take this new name temporarily, help me help Little Spring become the pinnacle of this world, and I’ll make sure you survive as well as endeavor to create a new body for you.”

He froze, and his eyes narrowed. I think he realized that if he didn’t agree I would absolutely finish the job of whoever attempted to kill him off the first time.

“How are you going to help me create a new body?”

“What? You think I’m going to snatch a random one and shove your soul in it?”

He didn’t say anything and floated there skeptically.

“I mean, I did consider it for a hot second but that’s just too mean. No, if you’re good, I’ll teach you how to nourish your soul so you can create a new body. No hurting anyone or stealing anyone else’s.”

“Can you really give me those things?”

“You realize I was about to ascend before some dumbass interrupted me and caused my tribulation to become ten times more difficult, right?”

“If you’re so powerful, then why steal a child’s body?”

The urge to throw something grew. “This is my actual body. I didn’t steal it!”

I mean, I did transmigrate but it was directly into this body, not as a soul that happened to possess this body, so I always considered it my own. The whatever original owner could shove it.

He sighed. “Do I have to take that horrendous grouping of sounds as my name?”

“Absolutely.”

He ground his teeth.

“Just keep reminding yourself that it’s only temporary.”

He huffed. “Fine! I accept.”

And with that, the hidden enchantment I connected to that name attached to him. If he betrayed us, his soul would straight-up perish.

Frankly, it wouldn’t have worked except that he was weaker than a kitten from being stuffed in that gem and then trapped in this space. This binding I attached to his soul would only get stronger the more powerful he grew. If he knew about it and wanted to remove it, these next few days were his only chance to do so.

“So, how exactly are you going to create a cultivation technique for him?”

“You realize that cultivation techniques don’t just appear out of thin air, right? Someone has to come along and create them?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Well, to start with I only need to create the Qi Condensation manual first. And I already have two examples of high-end techniques to work with...” I began explaining the process and the testing, but it flew over both of their heads. Little Spring even looked like he would pass out any second.

With a sigh, I said, “Do you want to know what the difference is between Black rank and Unparalleled Perfection?”

----------------------------------------

Naming Notes for Old Master Violet Seal:

Lao Zifeng directly translates to Old/Master Violet Seal which sounds similar to Lao Fengzi which translates to Old Codger/crazy person.