After Liang decided to join me, I didn’t hang around the new Disciple’s housing area anymore. I grabbed the boy, jumped to the top of the wall, and quickly made my way back to my guest house.
I led Liang past the ornately decorated sitting room and into an empty secondary bedroom. After taking a few pillows out of my storage bag and throwing them on the ground for us to sit on, I guided the boy to kneel across from me.
“This will be your new home for the next few weeks. You can contact the maid for any furnishings you may need after I leave. For now, we need to discuss your future.”
The whiplash of going from nearly dying to being dragged across the complex’s ramparts and tossed into a fancy house had left the boy more than a little stunned.
“Senior... Teacher... Master..?”
I held up a hand. “Patriarch.”
He ducked his head. “Patriarch... what... am I supposed to do?”
“That is your choice. I am not your Master, so I will not guide your studies. I will provide you with resources, and I will offer guidance when necessary, but I will not choose your path for you. You must do that on your own. However, I would suggest that you start by learning how to cultivate.”
“Yes... Patriarch. I... I’ve tried to learn, but I wasn’t successful. Please, teach me.”
I nodded. “First, which element do you wish to cultivate?”
“I... don’t know. I don’t have any affinities. The elder assigned me an earth qi cultivation technique.”
I wave a hand in a cutting motion.
“Don’t worry about that. Which element do you wish to cultivate?” Thinking about the essence techniques available to me, I added a slight stipulation. “You may choose any of the basic five elements: fire, earth, metal, water, or wood. You may also choose lightning, but that could be a more difficult and time-consuming path. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
None of the children in the Su Clan had shown a dominant affinity for lightning. Some of them might have had it as a hidden secondary affinity, but the lack of anyone with it as their primary affinity showed that lightning essence was much rarer here than essence of the basic elements. I planned to create an Essence Gathering Formation to raise Liang’s affinity with whatever element he chose, but the limited amount of environmental lightning essence would make that process much slower.
Liang, however, didn’t care about such things. The moment he heard that it was possible for him to cultivate lightning qi, his eyes widened in shock. He didn’t even seem to hear my warning about the difficulty of doing so.
“Patriarch, please, allow me to learn to control lightning.”
I took a deep breath. “Liang, your growth as a lightning cultivator will be much slower than if you were to cultivate one of the other elements. You should think this through carefully.”
He bowed his head. “I understand, Patriarch, but I have only ever heard legends of cultivators able to control lightning. I never thought that I could—”
“Liang. Lightning is not some mythical element. Outside of the Wastes, while it is less common than the basic elements, it is still considered ordinary. It is no more powerful than any other element.”
“I... understand Patriarch.” He seemed chastened but not dissuaded. “I still wish to learn to cultivate lightning.”
It seemed there was no point in discussing it any further with him. If the boy wanted to cultivate lightning qi, then he could cultivate lightning qi.
I reached into my storage space, pulled out a simple Low-Yellow lightning cultivation technique, and placed it on the floor between us.
“You can start by learning this technique.”
Liang's happiness at getting a chance to cultivate lightning soured.
“Mast... Patriarch. I tried to learn from the scroll the elder gave me, but I couldn’t understand it at all. Please, teach me.”
I shook my head. “No, I want you to try to learn this on your own. Focus on the diagrams and replicate what they show you. You don’t need to cultivate ‘correctly.’ Just try your best and see what you can accomplish on your own.”
This might have been the wrong way to go about teaching him, but I wanted to try it out. Liang had shown no talent with cultivation, and he seemed to lack any and all ability to understand cultivation techniques. If I pushed him to learn like this, could he develop such a talent over time?
In the past, I had talked with Meng LuYao about people’s ability to comprehend skills and knowledge. Her blessing allowed her to see how ‘talented’ a person was in various areas, and she had told me that she had never seen a person’s talent increase. However, I had been able to purchase such talent increases from the System. If I could purchase such boosts with mere credits, then there should also be a way to increase a person’s talents naturally.
After all the elites were seated, the Grandmasters came in as a group. Upon seeing Liang, disdain flashed in their eyes, but they didn’t say anything and headed straight to the balcony. Either a servant or a guard had already informed them of what I had done, and they had chosen not to make an issue of it, at least not publicly.
Upon joining us on the balcony, it was the oldest Grandmaster who decided to confront me about what I had done.
“Is that your new disciple?”
I glanced at him dismissively. “No. Su Liang is my first recruit. I am not his master.”
The old man gritted his teeth. “You should not be interfering with our training like this.”
“I am not interfering. I simply thought that it would be educational for my recruit to witness this competition for himself.”
The old man seemed like he wanted to say more, but YuanFei put a hand on his shoulder and looked at me.
“Prince Fang, we have no issue with you recruiting Disciples like Su Liang, and we can appreciate the way you did it. However, I cannot help but notice that you placed two chairs on your new platform. I hope that this does not indicate that you plan to intercede during the competition. A Grandmaster involving himself in fights between children would cause a loss of face for all of us.”
I studied his smiling face for a long moment and then glanced at YuanKong standing beside him.
“I agree. Any Grandmaster who feels the need to involve himself in these fights is quite... unseemly.”
As there was nothing else for us to say to each other, YuanFei led his group to the side where they discussed the upcoming competition in hushed tones. After only a few more minutes, the combat instructor led in the group of roughly four dozen normal Disciples.
The clan’s Eighth Elder gave his normal speech, and when he asked if anyone would like to challenge for a position as an elite, a brutish-looking boy with thick arms and a nasty sneer on his face stepped forward.
After challenging the tenth-ranked elite, the boy was quickly slapped to the ground and started bleeding out. The Grandmasters looked at me to see if I would intervene, but I showed no reaction.
The tenth elite walked forward, delivered a killing blow, and then returned to his seat.
While I certainly didn’t agree with the clan’s position on having children kill each other like this, that boy had not been on my list of potential recruits. During the first training session where Liang had nearly died, this boy had enjoyed watching him suffer. There was no way I would consider recruiting him into my clan, so I would allow nature to take its course. Involving myself in every random killing that took place would only get in the way of my mission.
After this death, none of the other normal Disciples had any desire to fight.
The elder then allowed the elites to challenge each other. Those who had been designated as ‘fighters’ chose to take the elder up on this offer, but these five only fought amongst themselves. They didn’t challenge ShouLi or the others.
After these challenges, the elder returned to the center of the arena and looked at the normal Disciples.
“Train hard. After one month, you will return here and have another chance to challenge for a spot among the elites. If you can defeat one of them, you will truly understand that the Su Clan values talent above all else.”
It seemed the elder was trying to wrap things up, but I wasn’t quite ready for that. Empowering my legs with qi, I jumped from the balcony and joined him in the arena.
The elder wasn’t sure how to respond, and with a quick glance, YuanFei signaled him to let things play out.
I looked at the group of children below me and gestured to the seat next to Liang.
“I am here to recruit a new Disciple. If you join me, you will no longer receive any training or support from the Su Clan. They will cut ties with you, and all you will have from then on will be what you earn through your own efforts. Is anyone interested?”
Nearly everyone in the courtyard wanted to laugh at this pathetic offer, and few of the Disciples showed any desire to take me up on it. However, as soon as I finished speaking, one young man rushed forward.
“Please, accept me as your disciple.”
I considered waiting to see if anyone else would try to fight the boy for a position in my clan, but I decided against it. I would reward him for his decisiveness.
I waved to the empty chair. “Go. Join Su Liang.”