The Nine Towers and Orthodox Cultivation

After Joe had agreed to join the Nine Towers of Purity, the middle-aged man took Joe into the back room and sat him down at a table.

"I feel you have questions to ask me?"

Joe did indeed have questions for the old man, so he didn't hold back.

"Are there other types of cultivation? If so, what makes us different from the others? What are the Nine Towers, and who are you?"

The middle-aged man patiently answered Joe's questions.

"Well, there are other types of cultivation. The wizard way is just another special method. The conventional way of cultivating is called Qi Gathering. They gather Qi like in those online web novels or something like it. Us Wizards are differentiated as the Wizard system is very fixed. There's little to no way to fight above your Wizard level, and even if you do, it'll be very difficult. The Nine Towers are something similar sect, or whatever you may call it now. And, my name is Rhad. The 'h' is silent, so my name is pronounced as 'rad'."

Rhad paused to catch his breath after the long speech, and he continued.

"The levels of cultivation go from Qi-Gathering, with nine stages, and then Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, and Immortal Ascension. The others all have four stages each. Past Immortal Ascension comes the separate immortals, however, I won't speak of them just yet."

Rhad stared at Joe, who's eyes seemed to be sparkling from the information. He then asked Joe a question of his own.

"What's your name? Why did you believe I was a Wizard?"

"My name is Joe Smith. I believed you were a Wizard because of the look in your eyes."

Rhad narrowed his eyes.

"Alright, question time is over. We need to get going over to the towers."

Joe followed behind Rhad as he led the way to the Nine Towers.

Rhad reached out his hand, seemingly grabbing something. He then pulled his arm back strongly, and space seemed to have distorted in front of his hand. He held the space open, and gestured for Joe to come inside.

Joe blankly walked inside, in disbelief of what was happening. Although the Scriptures had said he could do such things upon reaching a higher level, he always took those words with a grain of salt.

Once Joe was the distorted curtain, he felt as though he couldn't see anything, and once he opened his eyes, he was in a whole new world. He was in the middle of a small square, and he was right in front of a massive tower. He could see two others in the distance of his left and right, so he assumed that this was one of the Nine Towers of Purity.

Despite being excited, Joe waited for Rhad since he didn't know his way around. But, when he looked back, Rhad didn't follow him, and it seemed the space curtain had closed.

Joe still decided to wait, as without a guide, he was left all on his own, without anyone to show him where to go. He waited and waited, for what seemed to be minutes on end, and soon, he couldn't take it anymore.

He deliberated for a few more minutes before making a decision. He decided to walk around what seemed to be a plaza, and tried to find out what to do next.

After walking about in the crowd for a while, Joe soon realized that he likely didn't have whatever currency was used in transactions, so he had nothing to eat.

He didn't think that anyone in this new place would be generous enough to give a random stranger food and water, or money, so he opted to walk around and search for Rhad. He walked all over the plaza, from cheap looking buildings to alleyways.

Searching one of the alleyways, he suddenly felt the alley eerily empty, unlike the others, in which he could hear some sound. He looked around, and instead of seeing the plaza on the other side of the alleyway, he could only see darkness.

He turned around and saw Rhad on the other side of the alleyway. Joe wasn't stupid enough to think that after all that searching, he would finally find Rhad coincidentally in the alleyway that was also covered in darkness.

When Rhad saw Joe, he decided to at least try to convince him.

"Hello Joe, it seems we meet again in this coincidentally dark alleyway where we're both alone."

He paused. "Not buying it?"

Joe only remained silent. Rhad sighed as he started talking again.

"Well, since you already seem to have guessed my hostility, I'll make my intentions clear so you needn't think too much of it. I want your virgin age, as there is an exceptional amount in you, for your age that is."

Rhad paused, as though contemplating the reason for why that may be. He continued.

"There are many types of wizards, such as me. We are officially classified as 'Immoral Wizards' by the Nine Towers. We're labeled that way because, we don't replicate memories to give back to the people we take from. This results in our quicker growth. I can give you a chance. Become one of us, and you can live."

Joe remained silent. If he joined the 'Immoral Wizards', he could live, but at the cost of compromising his morals and probably hurting a lot more people. Rhad watched Joe deliberate under his sharp eyes.

[Host needn't make a decision. The System has already detected an entity of similar strength to Target: 'Rhad' coming this way. Even if said entity is an enemy of the Host, it won't change the Host's death to 'Rhad']