I Can Do That Too

Although Liu Yunan had long since learned through various channels about how other sects handled master-disciple relationships, after discussing it with Sun Yigao, Qin Jianghe, and the others, he still decided not to adopt the system in which each master was responsible only for cultivating the disciples under them.

Instead, they chose to hold large group classes.

They all agreed that this would create a more harmonious atmosphere.

Cultivation was a subject shared by all cultivators.

If the disciples were taught separately for something everyone needed to learn, they felt that, over time, the relationships between them would grow increasingly distant. It could also easily foster a habit of comparison.

That would be detrimental to harmony within the sect.

However, Liao Pantu had repeatedly emphasized the importance of passing down knowledge through the master-disciple tradition.

So although Liu Yunan and the others did not fully understand it for the time being, they still decided to use a system in which one master could take multiple disciples for the Four Arts of Cultivation—including spirit cooking and other technical subjects.

Lin Xiao looked over the list and class schedule handed to him.

Sun Yigao, Mo Yuanjiao, Liao Pantu, and Jiang Youfu—all those who needed to take disciples individually—were clearly listed.

With this arrangement, Sun Yigao, who also had to teach at the Lingxian Academy at the foot of the mountain, seemed rather overburdened.

However, Sun Yigao already had a plan for that as well, after discussing it with Liu Yunan.

Over the past three years, Master Pei and Wen Yuejun had both achieved excellent results teaching at the Lingxian Academy. Today, they had also successfully passed the Heart-Questioning Path examination and officially joined the Lingxian Sect.

Sun Yigao had witnessed their character and teaching abilities firsthand. Now that they had become members of the Lingxian Sect, and considering how many responsibilities he had on his plate, he intended to hand the Lingxian Academy over to the two of them to manage.

From then on, he would simply make time to visit the academy as a guest lecturer.

Everyone unanimously approved of the idea.

Besides them, there were also Yang Jinshu, Yuan Qing, Lin Yun, Qin Jianghe, and Gu Yuxiao.

All of them were at least at the Foundation Establishment stage, and they had a thorough understanding of the sect’s various cultivation methods.

As for the depth of their understanding, that had been assessed by Senior Liao, the sect’s most avid researcher of cultivation methods. He had personally examined and approved each of them.

After learning about the arrangements for accepting disciples, Lin Xiao nodded with great satisfaction.

“You’ve arranged things well. This will allow the new disciples to interact with more senior members and hear different perspectives, instead of burying their heads and blindly following a single master’s path.”

Seeing that he approved, Liu Yunan was delighted. He pulled a pen from his storage pouch and handed it to Lin Xiao.

“Brother Xiao, you’re so busy that we won’t trouble you with taking disciples for the technical subjects. But you have to take one of the cultivation-method classes. Come on, come on, come on—I saved you a spot right at the top. On the first day of classes, our sect master has to teach in person, doesn’t he?”

Lin Xiao had only just come out of seclusion. He had not yet remembered which tasks he had left unfinished before entering seclusion, though he vaguely recalled having quite a lot on his plate.

…

Still, it was only one morning every nine days spent explaining cultivation to the new disciples. When he thought about it, it did not seem too bad.

So Lin Xiao took the pen and, under Liu Yunan’s expectant gaze, wrote his name at the very top of the schedule.

Everyone else was chatting and discussing serious business, while Little Luan stood to one side, listening and watching with a blank stare.

It clucked at Liu Yunan twice, then patted its feathery chest.

“Cluck! I can take disciples too, cluck-cluck! I can be a teacher too!”

At that, everyone around the table turned to look at it.

Little Luan proudly puffed out its chest.

“I know all those cultivation methods up through the Golden Core stage, cluck!”

The others stared at it in astonishment. The only one who was not particularly surprised was Senior Liao.

Ever since Little Luan reached the Core Transformation stage and learned to read, it had spent its free time managing the beast park either poring over all kinds of miscellaneous books in the Scripture Repository or secretly studying the cultivation methods in the cultivation room and pestering him with all sorts of questions.

Speaking of that, it was impossible not to mention something Lin Xiao had been thinking about for three years: obtaining cultivation methods for Little Luan and the other demon beasts.

Since Lin Xiao did not know much about demon-beast cultivation, and Fang Tuantuan and Da Tao—both self-taught wildlings—could not provide any useful answers, he had consulted Liao Pantu.

From Liao Pantu’s explanation, he learned that demon-beast cultivation was actually divided into two paths.

First, no cultivation method was needed for a demon beast to enter the Awakening stage. As long as it received nourishment from spiritual energy and encountered certain opportunities and blessings—like Fang Tuantuan and Da Tao—or possessed an excellent bloodline—like Little Luan—it could successfully enter the Awakening stage.

After the Awakening stage, however—that is, once they advanced to the Core Transformation stage, which was equivalent to the human Foundation Establishment stage—there were two paths available if they wished to break through further.

One was to remain in a place rich in spiritual energy and continuously absorb and refine it through the instincts of their bloodline. In time, they would gradually develop cultivation.

Of course, the prerequisite was that the demon beasts lived long enough to survive until they advanced.

This process was extremely, extremely slow.

It required no special techniques; they simply acted according to their natural instincts.

The second path was to cultivate a proper method.

The methods they cultivated could either be demon-beast techniques tailored to a particular species or the general-purpose cultivation methods used by humans.

Compared with human cultivation methods, techniques designed specifically for demon beasts would make their bodies more powerful.

However, specialized demon-beast techniques were rarely available on the open market.

For one thing, the number of demon beasts that successfully cultivated was far lower than the number of humans, and among those beasts, even more cultivated their own species-specific methods.

For another, many demon-beast cultivation methods were tightly guarded by the major sects, just like human cultivation methods.

The truly excellent ones were rarely circulated on the market. Most of what could be found were ordinary low-grade methods—or even methods that did not qualify as cultivation techniques at all.

Thus, after entering the Core Transformation stage, Little Luan happened to take an interest in the cultivation methods in the cultivation room. From then on, it began its journey of studying the cultivation methods of human sects.

That was also why it spent its days both chewing on the demon cores of Silverfrost Python demons and cultivating various methods. As a result, its cultivation rose at an astonishing pace, and it reached the Solid Core stage long ago.

One had to understand that demon beasts advanced much more slowly than humans.

Under normal circumstances, an ordinary demon beast would take several times longer to advance than a human of the same level.

However, Little Luan usually studied cultivation methods only when the cultivation room was empty. It also went to Liao Pantu with its questions in secret, behind everyone’s backs. Aside from Liao Pantu, no one knew that this Little Demon Chicken had actually been studying the very same cultivation methods as them.

Now, seeing the astonishment on everyone’s faces, Liao Pantu spoke up in confirmation for Little Luan.

“That’s right. It really is quite familiar with those cultivation methods. It often comes to me with questions.”

Since Liao Pantu himself often stayed at the Garden Retreat, Little Luan would always sneak over to see him. He had never made a point of mentioning it to anyone else.

Who would have thought that because he had not deliberately brought it up, no one would discover the truth for all these years?

Actually, it was not that no one had noticed.

It was simply that, perhaps because they instinctively assumed that Little Luan carrying around a cultivation manual was merely satisfying its curiosity or passing the time by reading it.