There’s This Thing Called “Subtlety”

The Demon Ideal is thought to be the greatest of the three Ideals. Being able to align with any and every type of Element, it had a rather obvious advantage over the God and Devil Ideals. Unfortunately, when paired with a Triple System Cultivation Method, when followed to the standard of perfection, a Cultivator was more or less forced to follow their Ideal almost religiously.

A Godlike Cultivator would be inclined to forgive and forget, grant mercy to their enemies and commit acts of virtue even if they failed to benefit directly from it. A Devilish Cultivator would behave in the almost completely inverse way; killing, stealing, and stomping on everyone and everything in their path to power.

Demonic Cultivators, however, would favor neither extreme and instead follow their own intermediate branch of insanity. Commonly they would follow the pattern of, "returning gratitude tenfold," and, "repaying a debt a hundredfold."

'I just had to get involved with someone in the Spirit Realm… Fuck!' Mateus internally cursed as he glared at the Spatial Ring on his right hand.

Slowly, his frown shifted into a shaky smile as he realized, "Welp, I least now I have a serious reason for picking up that cursed Immortal Yang Dual Cultivation Method."

"You have Affinity for Yang?" Aiden asked, sharing a knowing glance with the other adults. Despite their cultivation, they had no way of knowing what affinity Mateus had unless they had him specifically tested; that, or… he told them like he inadvertently did.

"Yeah..." Matues said as he began inching his way over to the door and said, "But, I really should get going now. I'm kind of being rushed—"

"We know," Lunabelle's mother said as she teleported between Mateus and the door. Now grinning, she said, "However, it'd be a really bad idea for you to leave now and sell those pills."

"How did you figure I'd be doing that first?"

"You need to raise your cultivation to the Core Formation Stage, right?" Lunabelle's mother rhetorically asked. "Obviously, you're going to need a mountain of resources if you plan on cultivating as efficiently as possible." A mountain of resources that she could deduce he didn't have at the moment if he was out here accepting Lunabelle's old gear so carelessly.

"Unfortunately for you," she continued, "as of right now, you're just a Beginner Mortal. If you just waltzed on over to the Alchemy Department and started selling hundreds of high quality pills, people would definitely start to notice you."

"So what?" Mateus narrowed his eyes slightly. "Only an idiot would try to make an enemy out of me when I show so much promise."

"Only an idiot would believe a Beginner Mortal could refine Consummate Quality Saint Supremacy Pills," Lunabelle's mother retorted. "If I hadn't seen you concoct your pills first hand, I'd believe you were just being an errand boy for a much higher ranking Alchemist. Others might think of you as the son of a wealthy Cultivator. Both misunderstandings would make you a target to Cultivators with less than orthodox methodologies."

"Oh well," Mateus shrugged as he said, "I guess I'll just have to deal with the bullshit when it comes my way." Eyes shining with resolution, he firmly said, "Nothing you say will stop me from trading away my pills for Spirit Stones and other materials."

Rather smugly, she countered by asking, "What if I offered to sell the pills on your behalf? I won't ask for a single Spirit Stone in return."

"Bruh," Mateus slipped. He continued regardless, "I just got smacked with a non-negotiable contract for carelessly accepting an offer that was obviously too good to be true. Do you really expect me to try and go two for two?"

"That's not how karma works..." Lunabelle's mother looked at Mateus like he was an imbecile. "By being bound to my daughter through a Writ of Karma, you are also tied to people related to her — not necessarily by blood — that understand your relationship. In a very basic explanation, just knowing that you are being pressed to help her resolve her Inborn Sanctified Yin Body will compel me to help you back."

"Besides," she grinned in a way that disturbed Mateus, "just because I won't ask for Spirit Stones in return doesn't mean I'm not benefiting in a different way."

"Would you tell me how you benefited if I asked?"

"Heh," Lunabelle's mother chuckled, "let's just say that keeping you out of the public eye for any length of time will give my precious baby an advantage over all the other women in this Yin Dominant world we live in."

"Are you implying that you want me to get together with your daughter?" Mateus could not believe the words coming out of his mouth.

'Fuck, the people of this world are wild,' he thought as a drop of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

Glaring at him, Lunabelle's mother said, "You know, there's this thing called 'subtlety.' You should learn what it is."

'Speak for yourself, lady...' was what Mateus wanted to say, but he would settle for just thinking it.

"Anyways," he changed the subject, "At this point, even if you were tricking me or whatever, I'm already being forced to sprint through to the Core Stages of the Spirit Realm." He began withdrawing pill bottles from his spatial ring as he concluded, "It honestly can't get worse than this, so… Let's do this."

…

An hour later, Mateus was well on his way back home.

As he walked, he had the goofiest look on his face as he thought about the tens of thousands of Spirit Stones in his Spatial Ring. Despite everything that had gone wrong today with his Writ of Karma, he couldn't help but feel satisfied; especially, after being treated to the Spiritual Cooking of the Sinking Moon Clan's top chef.

Mateus might have been forced into having to rush through the Stages of Cultivation as quickly as possible if he wanted to have a chance at paying back his debt to Lunabelle. However…

'It's not like I wasn't planning on maxing out my Stats efficiently in the first place,' Mateus shrugged. He then grinned as he thought, 'Besides, I exactly claim to have gotten nothing out of this deal.'

With his Soul Land opened and an Affinity Representation for his Understanding of Water formed, Mateus had earned himself yet another degree of "overpowered bullshit," as he would call it.

That aspect of cultivation wasn't normally made to entities below the Spirit Realm. Yet, by the time Mateus could see his home on his returning walk back, he was already thinking of ways to exploit it to get the maximum amount of benefits.