'A draw is good, it means you're very strong.' Rihai looked at him, admiringly.
She was just confused about when he had taken part in the soul challenge. Since they arrived at the sect, they had hardly been apart, and before that, he was just a mortal — which left her intrigued. But Aotian and his sect were full of secrets, and although she felt curiosity and confusion, none of it seemed completely unbelievable considering all the mystery surrounding the Infinite Dao Sect.
Aotian smiled at her, knowing exactly what she must be thinking, but chose not to explain.
And she was right. Aotian was indeed very strong at his current level.
He never stopped training with his avatars, constantly seeking greater mastery over his own body, spiritual energy, spells, and techniques. With over 70 avatars in high cultivation realms, powerful systematic abilities, and constant feedback from the disciples' experiences, his progress in many areas advanced rapidly.
Not that he was invincible against anyone at the same level.
If some old cultivator with thousands of years of experience lowered their level to match Aotian's main body, he knew he'd be defeated. Even with his absurd rate of progress, closing the gap in experience of someone who had spent millennia in a powerful realm wasn't simple.
'By the way, you never answered earlier… Why was I able to use Founder-Tier spells in the soul challenge when the elder said I wouldn't? Also, I was rewarded with a Founder-Tier spell with advanced proficiency, instead of a Refiner-Tier one. That has something to do with you, doesn't it?' she asked playfully.
Despite the question, she already knew the answer.
'Guilty,' he replied, teasingly, winking mischievously at her while holding her hand.
"You're unbelievable, Tian'er," she said aloud, her eyes shining with amusement.
"I do my best. My woman deserves the best," he replied confidently, nose raised.
His words earned him a kiss on the cheek.
"You don't have to do these things… But still, thank you for caring about me," she said softly, looking at him with fondness and amusement.
"Always, Hai'er." Aotian smiled gently, squeezing her delicate little hand more firmly as they continued walking, exchanging loving words.
As they were about to reach their room, Rihai remembered something else.
'You said the soul challenge has two modes, combat and teaching, and Elder He Ziren mentioned that too. What's the combat mode? Uh… only answer if you can. If it's a sect secret, you don't have to reveal it,' she asked curiously, but immediately regretted it, fearing she had touched on something confidential, considering how special the soul challenge she had seen was.
Aotian raised an eyebrow and grew more serious.
'Well, it's not exactly a secret, but it is something important. Better not talk about it openly, because besides alerting potential enemies, it might scare off more cowardly disciples like Cang Song. But it's fine to tell just you,' he replied, piquing her curiosity even more.
Aotian's eyes became serious as he explained:
'First of all, the teaching mode can be resisted if the target's body energy reacts quickly enough to expel the invading energy before the challenge begins. But the combat mode isn't so easily resisted. This mode is basically a double-edged sword — dangerous not only to the enemy and the user, but also to the sect itself. It's essentially an all-in gamble. When used on someone, if that person wins the challenge, they steal all the spells and techniques the user knows. If they lose, all of their spells and techniques are stolen by the user. In other words, the loser forgets everything they know and becomes defenseless, while the winner takes everything.'
Aotian explained with a grave expression, deeply frightening Rihai. She had never imagined such a crazy technique could exist.
But despite being an incredibly powerful and useful technique, Aotian intended never to use it in his life. Winning was great, but losing would be an absolute disaster.
Especially against powerful enemies. Even if the opponent fought a replica identical to themselves, the clone was still controlled by Aotian. And his mastery over higher realms was still weak. That would give the enemy an advantage.
As for using it on weaker enemies, it wasn't worth the risk. Who's to say someone wasn't just pretending to be weak, waiting for the right moment to strike?
If he lost everything, he could rebuild… but he would've created an enemy stronger than himself, possessing all his techniques and spells. That's why this ability was, in practice, forbidden for him.
Thinking about the ability, he couldn't help but get lost in thought.
'The ability is great, but I hope I never have to use it. And changing the subject completely, my control over systematic abilities is improving quite a bit. When I use an ability by lowering the tier to a lower realm, I can now control it for three uses. Just like the soul challenge, which I can use four times a day per avatar at full Founder-Tier power. But by reducing the power, I can now use it twelve times at Refiner-Tier.'
He reflected, satisfied with himself.
Although he still thought he was wasting energy in the process, he believed that with more control, he could reach even more uses.
In the beginning, even limiting the soul challenge to Refiner-Tier cost a full charge. But after insisting on training, he managed to move to two, and now three uses per charge when reducing the power to a lower realm.
And that wasn't the only ability he had been training. Other limited-use daily abilities were also being mastered and improved, and he had obtained a certain degree of success.
The only one still resisting his efforts was Bao Wuji's treasure radar ability. So far, he hadn't managed to control anything about it.
Even so, he kept testing ideas — like limiting the search radius or restricting detection to certain treasure grades while redirecting the power of other grades to boost it. But so far, all he'd been able to do was limit it the same way he did from the start… with no real gain in range.
'The abilities of an ancestor must be more complex…' Aotian concluded, recalling what he had deduced before.
Shaking his head and snapping out of his thoughts, he saw that they had arrived at their room.
Then he entered the room with Rihai, ending the day.
…
The days passed peacefully aboard the Infinite Dao Sect's flying ship as they continued traveling toward their objectives.
Six days later, they landed once again in a magnificent cultivation city atop a mountain wrapped in spiritual energy mist. With their arrival, a new wave of recruitment began.
Aotian and Rihai didn't stay long at the recruitment site and soon wandered off to explore the city, observing the surroundings and enjoying their time together.
Although they didn't find anything particularly interesting, Aotian eventually came across a peculiar section of the city — a well-known destination in many xianxias he had read in his past life.
"A junk market… err… I mean, an artifact market."
Aotian commented with an odd look, eyeing the hundreds of stalls lining the street, filled with all sorts of things that stretched out for a long distance ahead.
Rihai gave him a light pat on the chest and stared at him reproachfully.
'Don't be so rude, these people are just trying to make a living.' She rolled her eyes at him.
'But it's true. There's nothing good here. And it's full of scammers.' Aotian shrugged, though he knew Rihai was right — there was no need to say such things out loud.
Of course, there were many scammers there, he knew that, but there were surely honest people too, so it wasn't appropriate to sneer like that aloud.
'Besides, I know you laughed at my little joke.' He teased, winking at her.
'No, it was awful!' She refused to admit it and turned her face away.
"Hehe!" Aotian chuckled mischievously and led her to keep walking around.
He knew, thanks to Bao Wuji's radar, that there was nothing truly interesting in that place — only Refiner-Tier items, and not even a single fragment of anything Founder-Tier. So he wandered just for fun, listening to the vendors' chatter.
During their walk, nothing particularly interesting had happened, and they simply enjoyed each other's presence, strolling… until a voice caught their attention and made them glance over.
"What's this?" A young man at one of the stalls picked up a piece of bronze with dark stains, curiosity in his eyes.
"That's a piece of stellar bronze. They say adding a palm-sized fragment of it can create a powerful Founder-Tier artifact. This one is smaller, but it can still help craft a top-grade weapon in the right hands. Haah… it's an heirloom from my family, which has been blacksmiths for millennia, but now we've fallen into ruin, and this is all I have left to sell," the vendor spoke with a melancholic tone, looking at the piece of metal with a bitter gaze.
Apparently, that was the only item on his entire stall.
Rihai and Aotian watched from a distance, strange expressions on their faces, as the old man sold a fingernail-sized piece of dirty spiritual bronze for 450 low-grade spirit stones.
The young buyer quickly tucked the metal away with care and left with his "treasure," glancing around cautiously.
The old man didn't waste time: he ripped off his beard, changed clothes, dismantled the stall, and ran off.
Aotian and Rihai followed him with amused and surprised eyes, watching him change clothes as he ran, zigzagging until he disappeared into the crowd.
Although he vanished from their sight, in the sky, Bao Wuji watched the old man with amusement as he altered his appearance even more at every step in the crowd. In the end, he transformed into a young man, who continued changing clothes, applying makeup, and using attachments discreetly. No one noticed, as he made small changes every few minutes.
By the time he exited the crowd, he now appeared as a dignified middle-aged man.
Passing by a junk stall, he discreetly stole a piece of trash with faint spiritual fluctuations and returned to where he had started, setting up his stall again a little farther away and placing the stolen item in the center. Then, he crossed his arms and waited with a serious look.
Rihai was still looking into the crowd, searching for the old man with a curious gaze.
Aotian gave her a light tap on the shoulder and gestured with his eyes toward the middle-aged man, who now stood behind the stall with an imposing expression.
'He's right there,' he sent to her.
Rihai, surprised, followed his gaze and was startled to see a completely different middle-aged man.
Upon analyzing more closely, she realized there truly was a similarity in the man's aura to that of the old man. If Aotian hadn't said anything, she never would've realized they were the same person.
'He's good,' Aotian said to her, amused.
Rihai nodded as well, impressed.
As they observed, they noticed the flow of people in the market beginning to thin out. From time to time, someone would arrive and call for others, who would then leave.
'They're probably heading to the recruitment,' Aotian commented, smiling.
'Most likely. Looks like the fun's over.' Rihai nodded, noting the dwindling crowd in the market and the many stalls closing up.
'Yeah, there wasn't anything interesting anyway.' Aotian shrugged.
The only noteworthy thing had been the man in disguise. Shaking his head, he and Rihai also began walking away.
But as they passed in front of the stall of the young man now disguised as a middle-aged man, they were caught by surprise.
"Young master! Young miss! Please wait a moment."
The one calling out to them was undoubtedly the disguised youth. His voice was no longer old but deep and firm.
The two stopped, looking at him with amused expressions.
They knew. The man had chosen a target — and was about to try a scam.
And the target... was them.