In the sect's spiritual garden, several elders of the Alchemy Pavilion were gathered around a herb in the field.

It was a dark blue lotus, almost black, with white specks scattered across its body, as if a piece of the sky had been torn away and transformed into a flower. Around it, several elemental and spiritual stones were scattered and even slightly buried in the soil, as if they were fertilizer for the plant.

It was the Nascent-Tier Transcendent Sky-Lotus that Aotian had acquired to enhance the quality of his roots. Since a plant of this level could not survive and grow in the sect's environment, which only had Third-Level energy, Aotian had to "fertilize" it with the stones he possessed.

He did not rush to consume the plant as soon as he obtained it; after all, that would have been an extremely destructive act. First, he would follow a few steps.

With the outer elders of the Alchemy Pavilion around, they wasted no time and began applying their rapid growth abilities to the plant, which matured even more in a short time.

Currently, there were four outer elders from this pavilion. Each had four daily uses of the ability, which together represented 1,600 years of growth. However, since they were applying it to a Nascent-Tier plant, one realm above them, the effect was reduced tenfold, normally resulting in only 160 years of aging.

But Yang Shi, who was also present, had already reached the 6th level of the Golden Core, and each of his uses matured the plant by 60 years.

In total, with all uses combined, the plant matured 360 years.

The plant was already mature and fit for consumption, but Aotian's true target was the robust seeds growing in its Core as it matured.

'Fortunately it is a lotus, which is usually self-pollinating. If it were a plant that depended on the pollination of another, I would have a bit of a headache, though I would probably still manage in the end,' Aotian thought with relief.

Spiritual plants, although generally born from mutations, were still plants in the end. They could produce seeds, and these could germinate. However, the environment required for this was extremely restricted. Before growing, spiritual plants could be even more fragile than common ones, and many times it was impossible to cultivate them properly.

Another problem was that certain special plants, like the Transcendent Sky-Lotus, even after maturing for long periods, might never produce seeds without the right environment and opportunity.

Fortunately, Aotian did not need to fear this thanks to his accelerated growth ability, which corrected any problems or imperfections in the plant.

The elders then began carefully removing the lotus seeds, storing them with utmost seriousness.

Since their daily uses of the ability had been exhausted, the new seeds could only be matured the next day.

'A Nascent-Tier plant usually takes about two thousand years to reach full maturity. With the elders' current use of their ability, it would take about six days for each seed. That is already very good, but if I want all 71 avatars to update their talent before the main body, it would take more than a year, which is not ideal. Well, fortunately I have a plan.'

Aotian made his calculations, but he did not seem worried.

Time was a critical factor, since he had 72 elders, and excluding Elder Snake, who no longer had roots, there were 71, and Aotian did not want to wait that long.

If he updated his own talent, the avatars' would follow. However, he wanted to take full advantage of the lotus, understand its effects, and extract all its potential, so he did not plan to update his talent directly, choosing instead to leave the main body for last.

In his cave, a smile appeared on his lips as he remained seated with eyes closed, cultivating.

'I will control Bao Wuji to refine more dew and pass it to Elder Snake, who is the other one in the sect capable of handling this turbulent energy with his strong spiritual power. From now on, in another cave, I will have all the elders cultivate using the dew's energy, and the next lotuses planted will first be used by the outer elders of the Alchemy Pavilion.'

'As their realms soar, the new lotuses will mature much faster, solving several problems at once, especially that of time.'

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

'Jian Huiyin must also be invited to cultivate with the dew. Her realm cannot fall too far behind. I do not want to demote her to outer elder, so her cultivation must stay well ahead of the disciples.'

With his plans set, Aotian wasted no time and immediately began to act.

…

The following days in the sect were hectic for Aotian, who had countless tasks to accomplish using his avatars, and also needed to cultivate as much as possible with them.

Unfortunately, to shorten this time even further, the disciples, once informed about the sect's upcoming competition, went into a frenzy.

The pavilions became overcrowded with disciples eager to learn, which took up much of Aotian's time and greatly reduced the cultivation time of his avatars.

Lei Yun and Mu Luyin, who had just arrived in the sect, were left speechless and shocked at the red, frenzied eyes of those disciples who previously seemed so normal and decent, but now studied non-stop, as if possessed.

Some even seemed to be letting out smoke from their heads as they forced their peanut-sized brains to work at the limit.

All this happened because, among the countless wonderful rewards, there were two simple words — words that made the disciples not even care about the other prizes, their eyes fixed, almost drooling, on those two words: Contribution Points.

And if that alone was enough to drive them insane, among the prizes for the top five in each pavilion competition was something the disciples sincerely thought they were dreaming when they saw it… a Core-Tier cultivation technique.

The sect was distributing a total of 50 techniques across the 10 competitions. Whoever won them would be saving no less than 500,000 contribution points.

Although, with the sect's growth, ways to earn contribution points were increasing and many disciples had already accumulated over 200,000 points — getting relatively close to the goal — if there was a chance to save, why would they spend?

On the other hand, even though he was constantly being pestered by the disciples, Aotian wasn't the least bit worried or irritated. On the contrary, he knew that with their growth, as soon as the event ended, the sect would advance to another level.

The remaining missions were only three:

[Conditions to become a Nascent Soul Sect: 8 - Train five core disciples to the Golden Core stage 11 - Train the auxiliary abilities of five core disciples to Core-Tier 12 - Train the auxiliary abilities of twenty inner disciples to Founder-Tier]

In fact, mission 12 had already been completed over a month ago, leaving only two.

The direct disciples he had chosen were incredibly talented, and although it was a bit more difficult to advance auxiliary arts without first having experienced the next realm, Cang Song was a living example that it was possible. The others were not far behind either and would likely succeed within that time.

Thus, when they won the competition and obtained the cultivation techniques as rewards, it would take only a single day to advance in realm, since their cultivations were extremely stable and already at the limit of Foundation Establishment.

And it would be at that moment that the sect would officially become a Nascent Soul Sect according to the system.

'Hehe… I can't wait. The number of avatars should increase quite a bit, after all, between the Golden Core realm and the Nascent Soul realm there is a natural gulf. At least one more ancestor should appear.'

Aotian thought excitedly, while controlling Yang Shi, the outer elder of the Alchemy Pavilion, to sit cross-legged on the ground.

On the avatar's lap rested a beautiful dark-blue lotus, which made Aotian's smile widen.

Four days had already passed, and with the avatars' cultivation constantly rising, one seed had matured, turning into that beautiful lotus in his lap.

He was finally about to realize the dream he had nurtured since the creation of his roots… to improve them.

Even if, for now, it was only through an avatar, soon it would be the main body.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he began the process without hesitation.

Yang Shi's energy enveloped the lotus, which began to decompose into particles of light, slowly being absorbed by his body.

Aotian didn't need to do anything else, for once begun, the process continued automatically, impossible to interrupt.

His heart raced as he realized this, as if the plant itself knew what to do.

'Is this the effect of a plant beginning to develop spirituality, for being a Nascent-Tier plant?'

Although surprised, he wasted no time reflecting and simply closed his eyes, focusing all his free minds on Yang Shi's body, observing every detail of the process.

But it was far more complex than he imagined.

The dark-blue energy quickly circulated toward his roots, as if irresistibly drawn to them.

The points of light began to merge into the roots, and Aotian took a deep breath as he felt them thicken, becoming much firmer than before.

Inside them, the channels seemed to be under the effect of some kind of spatial law, slowly expanding until they reached double their original capacity, yet without any change to their external size.

The roots, which existed both in body and soul, were strengthening in a way that left Aotian speechless. It wasn't the same strengthening obtained by nurturing root affinity; it was an existential growth.

Before, they were merely rudimentary conduits for energy passage, but now they seemed like something entirely different.

To compare, it was as if the roots had once been a wooden tunnel before the change, and when their elemental affinity was nurtured, those walls would thicken. But now, what the Lotus was doing was replacing the wood with concrete, making everything much stronger and more efficient.

Aotian could feel the energy flowing through his roots with twice the power and speed, and he realized that in battle, his strength would increase even more from now on.

The process slowly ended, and Yang Shi was seen clenching his fist, his body trembling slightly with excitement.

In Aotian's main body, his eyes shone with extreme joy.

'Mid-grade Five Elements Root, I reached it!!'

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