Taking a Master

"But our Ancestral Founder was different. He truly climbed to that height step by step with his own strength. Unfortunately, without a divine position inheritance, it's impossible to break through that final barrier. The Ancestral Founder exhausted his entire life, yet still failed to break through that last layer. But he didn't leave empty-handed—before passing, he condensed all his cultivation into a single spiritual seed."

"This spiritual seed was born with a rudimentary form of sentience. The Ancestral Founder said that once it grows to a certain point, it could be used to break through the shackles of level 100 and step into the divine realm."

"Isn't... isn't this basically creating your own divine position?" Huo Yuhao muttered to himself, clearly shaken.

"Correct, that's exactly it. But by the time the Ancestral Founder thought of this method, it was already too late. He didn't have time to fully complete the spiritual seed before passing away. Since then, our sect has passed it down through generations. Even though we can't complete the seed, having it within us greatly boosts our cultivation speed. Every sect leader, upon their death, also contributes their lifelong cultivation and insights to it." Du Busi looked at Huo Yuhao with approval, surprised by the boy's insight.

"Right now, the spiritual seed is within me. I can feel it wants to get close to you. That's why I value you, little one. So, do you want to join our sect?" Du Busi asked with a smile. He believed no one could resist such a chance to become a god.

"It's truly unbelievable..." But Huo Yuhao wasn't the only one shocked. In his spiritual sea, both Snow Empress and Ice Empress were silent for a long time. Snow Empress recalled how Huo Yuhao had once claimed he was a "child of fate"—and now, it didn't seem like a joke at all. With such a heaven-defying opportunity, how could he not become a god?

The only calm one was the Skydream Iceworm, sleeping like a dead pig.

The room quieted. Seeing Huo Yuhao fall silent, Du Busi didn't urge him. Such matters required careful thought.

After a full half-hour, just as Du Busi was growing a little impatient, Huo Yuhao finally spoke."Senior, your offer is extremely tempting. I have no reason to refuse. I can join your Body Sect—but there are two conditions I must state first."

"Let's hear them." A hint of delight crept onto Du Busi's face.

Huo Yuhao said slowly,"First, as I mentioned before, the sect must not restrict my freedom. Of course, I'm not ungrateful—if the sect needs my help, I won't stand by and do nothing."

"That's fine. I agree. Next condition." Du Busi waved his hand.

After a moment of silence, Huo Yuhao continued,"Since you found me here, I assume you've investigated my past. I won't ask the sect to help me with revenge. But in the future, my actions may implicate the sect. Senior, are you prepared for that?"

"Hahahaha!" Du Busi burst into laughter."Kid, since when has our Body Sect ever worried about that kind of thing? Those two conditions are no problem. I agree to both."

Huo Yuhao nodded and said,"Then, I am willing to join the Body Sect."

"Hahahaha! Good, good, good!" Du Busi laughed heartily, saying "good" three times. Then he stared straight at Huo Yuhao without speaking—for nearly the time it took to burn half a stick of incense.

Huo Yuhao started to feel uneasy under the stare and couldn't help but ask,"Senior—no, Sect Master, what's this about?"

"Hmph. Kid, do I really need to remind you how to take a master?"

Only then did Huo Yuhao realize—right, the old man had said he wanted to take him as a disciple. Without hesitation, he bent at a 90-degree angle and said solemnly,"Master above, please accept your disciple's bow!"And so, the disciple ceremony was complete.

[No kneeling, no calling him 'daddy'—surely no one's gonna flame me for that, right? ...Right?]

"Good, get up. Now, show me your martial soul." Du Busi said.

Wait—wasn't there supposed to be some kind of disciple gift?

But since the old man didn't offer, Huo Yuhao couldn't exactly reach out and ask. Without hesitation, he released his martial soul—yellow, purple, black soul rings rose one after another. He figured Du Busi was probably planning to tailor a training regimen for him.

Huo Yuhao also wanted to know what changes had occurred after his martial soul's second awakening.

Since Huo Yuhao didn't conceal anything, Du Busi could even roughly guess the age of his soul rings."An eye-type martial soul, is it..." Du Busi mused aloud.

"Train well. I'll come back tomorrow."With that, Du Busi vanished from the room like a puff of smoke.

Huo Yuhao: "..."

The next morning, as the bell rang and Old Lady Zhou stepped out the door, the students bolted out like wild horses off their leash.

Inside the classroom, after the others had left, Huo Yuhao smiled at Wang Qiu'er, who was acting like nothing had happened, as if she had completely forgotten the events of yesterday.

"I thought you'd ignore me forever. As expected—you girls always say one thing and mean another."As he spoke, Huo Yuhao reached an arm around Wang Qiu'er's waist.

"Scram."

Wang Qiu'er coldly spat the word and sidestepped nimbly, not even looking at him as she walked away.

"You're the woman I've set my eyes on—I will have you."

Hearing the unwillingness in his voice behind her, Wang Qiu'er's footsteps sped up.

Bastard, bastard, bastard! She cursed inwardly.I thought you were different, but you're just as filthy as the rest.A total beast—no, worse than a beast.

Sigh.Huo Yuhao slumped in the classroom."Acting is f*ing exhausting."**

Here I am—a clean, pure, untouched young man—forced to act like some sleazy womanizer with countless conquests. It's just too much.

And the worst part? He was still a normal man.Yesterday, when he had Wang Qiu'er pinned down, he really had been tempted for a second to just go through with it.

Of course, it was only for a second—his rational mind wouldn't allow it.

In the days that followed, Huo Yuhao continued putting on his act, pestering her shamelessly until one day, after Wang Qiu'er insisted again and again that it was all one-sided, Huo Yuhao finally "regained" his pride as a genius and gave up. From that point, the two became little more than strangers—still desk mates, but speaking to each other far less.

But that's a story for later.

That evening, Du Busi arrived again as promised.

[The inheritance mark is basically a small "cheat" I gave the protagonist. The original work barely described the Body Sect or mentioned any spiritual seed. In this version, the inheritance mark can be seen as a semi-completed divine position. Don't think it's too absurd—after all, during the Douluo 3 timeline, even Shrek's Yun Ming created a divine position before dying.]

[Of course, the protagonist won't use this to become a god. It's mainly to speed up his early cultivation and serve as a spark for his later innovations. Just a small piece of my own originality. Please go easy on me—I don't think I changed that much.]

[Some other fanfic authors created ridiculous mega-factions like the Holy Spirit Church or Demon Soul Sect—each one stronger than the Spirit Hall. Totally absurd. Probably to make their protagonists seem more important.]

[I'm not into that. This is fan fiction—it's fine to add a few new characters, but pulling powerful super-factions out of thin air just breaks immersion.]

[We read fanfics because we feel certain characters got the short end of the stick, right? That's how I got into it too. Eventually ran out of decent ones to read—so many are brain-dead harem power fantasies—it pissed me off enough to start writing myself.]

[Then I started wondering if I was out of my damn mind. I mean, how much can a fanfic author even earn? And my writing sucks too. But in the end, I decided to stick with it. If I don't like their stories, I'll make my own. Money doesn't matter. That's not why I started this.]

(End of Chapter)