Celestial boat trembled once more, and the System indicator changed.

[Current Realm: Cleansing Spring Realms]
[Fame: Calculating]
[Status: Eligible]

‘Cleansing Spring Realms… Sounds soothing. Yeah.’

With every jump, Han De felt his Reality Sense adjust to the current cultivation levels. His range for the lower levels was still low, perhaps a notch or two above his normal spiritual sense. But anyone above the Spirit Origin (5th) realm, he could sense no matter where they were on the celestial ship.

‘… Who would’ve thought the universe would be so crowded. Huh…’

As they traveled across the galaxies, he could also detect faraway energy signatures deep in space. Even the random path they took to the (presumably) weakest region in this universe had hidden experts all over the place!

‘… Truly… A Xianxia universe… Yep.’

None of them were higher than Dao Sovereign (10th) realm, therefore Han De ended up forgetting about their existence as soon as he noticed them.

‘… This area’s cultivators… Seem like cultivators…’

After interacting with higher beings for some time, his worldview had irreversibly changed. But Han De did not notice this perspective shift. Because he was trying his best not to think anything related to the System’s connection to the Li family!

The single chrysanthemum had already become three in just a few breaths. Beads of sweat started trickle-down Han De’s sword-like eyebrows.

‘…. This isn’t going to work. I need some distraction! F#$%!!’

Rather than call for Yao Qing, Han De tried to manage on his own first, and sent a voice transmission to Xin Meili. The gangster onee-san’s spiritual sense was just around the edges of his own. He gave her a mental +1 for this thoughtful gesture.

<Did the scouts come back?> Han De asked.

The response was immediate. <We are waiting for the last one, young master.>

Han De simply nodded and cut off the transmission. She was a Transcendent (12th) Realm expert, she could probably see his reaction even if she didn’t try.

‘It’s fine, I’ll just make a hidden sect, it’ll be easy. Then I can slowly…’ For some reason, something rubbed Han De the wrong way. ‘… Yeah, a hidden sect… What could possibly… go wrong?...’

Of course… Of course a hidden sect was the best! Hidden sects didn’t interact with the normal sects. They were reclusive by design! The hidden aspect reduced the surface area to interact with the regular Xianxia elements! Clearly a win-win scenario for Han De!

‘…’

But what about his disciples?

‘…’

He even had to rank their common-sense and death-seeking tendencies! The System could be used for teaching them techniques, but not the rules of Xianxias!

‘…’

Han De fell into deep thought, and completely forgot about the looming tribulation threat!

‘Ning Bi is naive and clearly over-enthusiastic. I can’t teach her common sense inside a vacuum. Even if I use the Twilight Phantasm Scripture and construct the most perfect mental illusions, there’s no way that can replace real Xianxia interactions…’

Yao Qing, Jin Shu, and even Liang Cuifen to some degree could act as a safety cushion for Ning Bi, at least for a while… But in the end, Ning Bi wouldn’t be able to develop her own insight. At best, she would become the stereotypical naive MC, and experience an untimely tragedy!

Even if the tragedy was a leveling-up precursor for an MC, Ning Bi was Han De’s disciple first! To hell with trauma-induced power-ups!

‘If not a hidden sect, then what?’ Han De’s calamity plans were made for his own safety and comfort. Some of them had quite a few branches, but none of them had a satisfactory and comprehensive answer to his dilemma:

How to raise Xianxia-aware disciples?

This was such an obvious idea, Han De was surprised that he didn’t make any preparations for it before. Though to be fair, most of his current series of plans were made in the first three months of his transmigration/reincarnation/awakening. Plans made inside the comfort of his own abode could only predict so much!

‘First three are already at the Core Formation realm, maybe a place where they can act like disciples instead of elders would be better. Then they can interact with good/trash side characters and slowly cultivate their own common sense. The more they see the better.

‘Then… I’ll need to go with something run of the mill. Something average. Not too grand, not too humble. Not too violent, but not too peaceful either…’

From Han De’s understanding, as long as he was inside the realm/galaxy(?) designated by the Long family, he was free to choose whatever planet he desired. The system didn’t seem to have any objections either.

[Current Realm: Cleansing Spring Realms]
[Fame: Calculating]
[Status: Eligible]

Yet another black chrysanthemum bloomed just a few inches away.

* * *

While sipping the tea with a mildly grassy aftertaste, Long Ai heard a faint whimper that she thought wouldn’t be possible. A moment later, she understood why, as the restrictions of the Long family homeworld undid themselves at a rapid rate.

With a sigh, she exerted her Void Qi to surround the planet so that her lower-being descendants wouldn’t perish from the spiritual waves of the Whispering Realms.

Of course, her Void Qi wouldn’t be able to stop “her.” Not that she would ever try to stop “her” in the first place. In fact, at that moment, Long Ai was rather thrilled!

She stepped away and started waiting with a smile. In the blink of an eye, a white-haired maiden with glowing pink pupils appeared on her seat.

Long Ai bowed without delay and did not even try to hide the joy in her eyes. |Teacher.|

The white-haired maiden did not even deign to look. She stared at the distance as if that was the natural thing for her to do.

Long Ai’s lips slowly started to curl up. The behavior of her teacher… was good news! She had regained a large portion of her memories this time!

|This Ai is stupid, and doesn’t understand her wrong doings.| Long Ai spoke at once.

The art of admitting her faults before getting accused! Long Ai hadn’t used this technique since her days without shape or form!

The temperature of the surroundings started to drop, which deepened Long Ai’s smile. It seems her teacher even regained some control over the primordial laws! What an unexpected development!

Thinking back to the long past and seeing her teacher recover, gave Long Ai indescribable feelings.

{Hmph. And what is it that you hoped to accomplish?} The white-haired maiden asked.

Long Ai’s eyes turned into crescent moons. |To open the Yin-Yang Gate of course. A gift to teacher, from this useless student.|

{…}

Long Ai waited for a response for a long time.

{… You tried what? With your luck?!}

Space and primordial laws around them started to shatter. The Long Palace that could survive the cycle of existence was already destroyed. Only Long Ai and her teacher remained inside the void where countless dimensions intersected and collapsed.

Long Ai did not mind that at all. She smiled instead, for this was the original temperament of her teacher!

|This worthless student was slow, and only managed to get within 2 generations of the key. If this one’s great-great-grandson wasn’t an anomaly… The gate would’ve opened in this cycle!|

{…}

It seemed as if her teacher was reconsidering something, right after Long Ai mentioned her cute great-great-grandson…

Long Ai couldn’t take it anymore, she dropped the formal speech and directly asked with a delighted tone. |What should I call you this time?|

The white-haired maiden struggled to give an answer, as too many things had happened at once. But in the end, she sighed. Refusing to answer now would only make her student, Long Ai, become more excited. Therefore she had no choice but to spit out a name. {Meng Xue.}

Long Ai knew the name of course, but a long time ago she learned that it was polite to ask anyway.

Of course, it was a previous incarnation of "Meng Xue" that taught Ai everything. Including human concepts such as manners. "Meng Xue’s" desire to teach came as a whim, not out of some grand design. Over the countless cycles, “the teacher” sometimes regretted that decision. This occasion was one of them.

|I noticed teacher longed to open that gate, so I created this Long family for that purpose. It may take an additional cycle or two, but the opportunity is close.|

Meng Xue felt speechless. The last time she visited the gate was just before Ai manifested itself from the void. Did Ai really create this family just to help open the gate?

Meng Xue closed her pink eyes and shook her head. {You’ve done something truly useless…}

Long Ai smiled because she had already expected this response before she even took the name Long.

{Tsk. Did you think I needed help? I can open it anytime I want, because I was the one that made it!}

Long Ai narrowed her eyes. Even in this limited form, she could deduce many things. Why her teacher was involved with her great-great-grandson, why the incarnation known as Meng Xue hesitated when he was mentioned just now.

It was obvious that Long Ai had gone ahead and inserted herself into a delicate equation. But deducing that changed nothing, since Long Ai already knew something unpredictable would happen the moment she took the name “Long” for herself.

But all of this was worth it. Because, due to some freak chance -thanks to her blessed nature, no doubt- she could lovingly stare at her teacher, and utter the magic words.

Meng Xue seemed to sense what was coming, her head snapped at an unnatural angle and glared at Long Ai. {Don’t.}

|Daughter-in-law!|

* * *

[Current Realm: Myriad Plume Reflection Realms]
[Fame: Calculating]
[Status: Eligible]

Cold sweat trickled down Han De’s back as he desperately tried to ignore the 6th illusory black chrysanthemum.

‘No, no, underground sect is a bad idea. Too un-Xianxia like. Yeah...’

7th bloomed just arm’s length away. He didn’t know if he was imagining it, but it looked like flowers were getting closer each time!

‘… Then again, a backup underground sect doesn’t sound so bad. You know, just to be safe…’

8th flower bloomed just a few centimeters away from his feet.

‘F#$%!’

Why did the situation become so complicated all of a sudden?!

Naturally, he knew it had something to do with the origins of the Syst-

9th, 10th, and 11th flowers bloomed behind at the same time. Only a few more and the flowers would completely encircle Han De!

The simplest solution was to ask Yao Qing to slap whatever heavenly intent that was currently watching him. A straightforward and safe solution without a doubt!

But, now that the floodgates had seemingly opened, how could he ask Yao Qing to become his personal heavenly flower/tribulation swatter?!

12th bloomed.

No, Yao Qing was only a temporary solution. The sooner he had a more permanent one the better.

‘F#$%, if only I could use Twilight Phantasm on myself! I could simply make myself forget! Easy peasy!’

Just to be safe Han De tried just that. He condensed the most heavy-duty amnesia technique he could muster.

13th and 14th bloomed at the same time.

Han De stood inside the Primordial Light Qi of the Twilight Phantasm. Unfortunately, the white cloud of forgetfulness couldn’t even touch him. It was as if it wasn’t even there!

‘If only I could enter the matrix, I could’ve distracted myself with plot-based illusions without a problem…’

The grandmaster illusionist within him could only sigh at his inability to experience the grandeur of his own illusions. But at least he still had his craft!

‘Hmm. That’s right, now that I remember, I only made one training illusion. I wonder how Yu Xian scored on the Ning Bi - Final Form difficulty… Probably a hundred at most?’

Unfortunately, the illusion he cast on the Harem S#$% was incomplete. There were no functions to save the participant’s name or score. Nothing was recorded!

Han De the Array Master narrowed his eyes. Now that he thought about it, he could save the trial in its entirety with a simple array. Long-term video and sound storage required a little bit more setup, but it was completely doable.

‘Could I… fit all of that inside a stele?’

Since he recently comprehended the first standard forging volume, Han De intuitively understood the basics of spiritual conductivity. For a setup like this, either the stele had to be made from multiple exotic materials and be built inside out, or it needed an extremely arduous process to manifest and nest the necessary arrays.

Either way, everything was too time-consuming!

Of course, if the whole thing didn’t need to fit inside a stele, everything was easier. But Han De couldn’t accept that. It had to be a stele! As far as Han De was concerned, a training stele was fundamental to a Xianxia sect!

‘What if I made it from an illusion?’ Han De’s eyes suddenly became focused. ‘If it’s just a visual shell, I won’t need to worry about spiritual conductivity at all. It’s just making the dumbest array and then coating the result with a shield spell.’

Han De ran the idea through the council made of the Array Master, the Grandmaster Illusionist, and the Grandmaster Immortal Bastion spiritual spell user. After a brief but intense round of discussion, all of them concurred. The plan definitely seemed feasible!

Stele also reminded Han De of another idea. What if he made the sect’s structures from illusions?

The Wandering Mirage Scripture had large sections dedicated to increasing the duration of the illusions. But ultimately, the regular Qi version wasn’t made for long-term illusions! Persistence came as a side effect from the Primordial Light Qi.

According to Han De the Grandmaster’s intuition, a run-of-the-mill illusion made from Primordial Light Qi would last years, depending on the structure of the illusion. The duration could be stretched to a decade if he really made an effort. Perhaps more if he gave it his all.

But there was one fatal flaw with the idea of making a sect out of illusions. Han De could see through all illusions, even the one’s made by himself! Wasn’t this just asking for trouble?

What if a random delegate from a random place stayed in the sect?
What if Han De accidentally caught a glimpse of something he shouldn’t have?
What if the random delegate was female?
What if the random delegate had a higher cultivation base and could detect the structures were illusions?
What if the hypothetical random female delegate could also see through illusions?
What if she spotted Han De accidentally seeing her?
What if she thought it wasn’t an accident?
What if she was from the upper realms?
What if she was associated with an MC?
Or.. what if… she was an MC!

Clearly, this was a can of worms that should never be opened!

‘… Still, not a bad idea. Maybe not suitable for a normal, long-term sect. But for a temporary sect, or a decoy sect, it’s acceptable.’

Han De was yet to increase the quality of his scriptures as well. If his hunch of increased efficiency was right, then he could create a fully featured decoy sect in a matter of hours!

Just the thought of it made his cautious side smile!

Speaking of caution, Han De took another look at his most important resource.

[Profound Points: 524267]

‘There’s no use keeping the points if I end up dying.’