Sensing an approaching disciple enter his room, Pef opened his real eyes.

"Master! Are you recovered?" Wong asked with cautious worry.

Pef measured his disciple with a frown. While Wong was following his own steps at a formidable pace compared to the rest of the universe, a Tier 6 was barely frontline fodder in the wars to come. And pretty much a mortal.

"Sit here. You have grown, Wong." he said in a friendlier voice, while placing a low table in front of him.

The disciple nodded and sat eagerly at the table, while Pef placed a couple of pills and cups on the table, then took out a bottle of precious Divine Wine.

Another Pef's self flashed into being and served the wine, then patted Wong encouragingly on his shoulder before fading away.

Wong stared after the apparition, while his eyebrows deepened into a frown. "Multiplicity..." he whispered, mostly to himself.

"Pretty much. One splits in many, and the many later gather into one, but each brings a different perspective. And just like the Formation Realm splits into multiple channels to Practice, they later converge into a singular but stronger being." Pef explained softly and took a sip from his wine.

Wong stood still for a minute, then nodded calmly. "Just like the Core Realm. It never ends, does it?" the disciple asked rhetorically.

Pef hesitated for a second. "Probably not. Cultivators are not perfect, and even gods and immortals have lots of flaws. And from my own interactions with a few Tier 9 entities, they aren't much better. Stronger for sure, but not complete."

"So it's true, after all. You fought the Taotie?" the disciple asked as he picked up his own wine cup.

"Just drink." Pef demanded with a smile.

By the steam coming out of his eyes and ears, the Divine Wine was possibly a bit too strong for normal Elder Gods.

"Whoa!" the man managed to gasp after a minute of intense enlightenment.

"I thought about your next steps, Wong. Pills like these will artificially raise your cultivation realm, but you will be weak. And that will be bad, because it would reflect poorly on my own ability to raise a worthy disciple. You understand?" he asked his disciple in a calm voice, while tapping the table and making the Ascension Pills jingle slightly.

Wong nodded, although he didn't really understand yet.

So Pef just extended a finger and poked the man between the eyebrows, and imparted a special cultivation package. Everything the man would need to reach Tier 7, in a single mental transmission, plus everything Pef had experienced inside the Mausoleum and the Skills to repeat the same feat.

Wong swayed under the huge influx of information, then slowly regained control. "Isn't this cheating, Master?" the disciple asked carefully.

"Is it? You are my disciple, after all. It makes sense I would teach you how to fight the Taotie, and if you survive, nobody could dispute your achievement." Pef mused gently, then took another sip of precious wine.

Wong took one pill, then washed it down with more wine. His cultivation increased in a single jump, gaining a Star in less than a minute. Still, at Tier 6 even one Star could mean millions of saved years.

"Are these your failed pills, Master?" Wong asked with a sad smile.

Pef just shrugged. Making even a single Tier 6 pill was his maximum limit for now, and he couldn't even hope for a three-line pill for many years. "I'm not Rejin. His failures may look like this, but this is my best creation so far."

"But the wine..." Wong countered as he glanced at the glowing cloud around the wine bottle.

"Yes, I completed the Dao of Wine with this batch of Divine Wine, and I was rewarded with my Ascension. Far less difficult to learn, than the whole Dao of Alchemy." Pef explained with a wry voice. Then again, he might never obtain another cloud-wine for as long as he ever lived.

If the chance was the same as for pills, he would need to drain the Taotie of blood a hundred million times, to duplicate this result with another batch of cloud-wine. Fat chance.

Of course, skill and practice and quality materials could increase the chance, just like the Ancient Cauldron did for Rejin, but it would still be a low chance.

Wong just poured himself more wine and gulped another Tier 6 pill. Pef couldn't begrudge his disciple anyways, especially knowing what expected him in the Mausoleum.

"Say old badger, are you willing to spar with my disciple?" Pef asked at nobody, but obviously expecting an answer.

A few seconds later, Lady Yue appeared from a violet portal, with her own spirit beast in tow.

The spirit Taotie just glared at Pef for a minute, before turning to examine the almost-willing next victim. "Elder Realm? You think some pills and wine will make him strong enough to face ME?" the monster growled as he poked Wong with a ghostly claw and nearly eviscerated the weaker disciple.

Pef just turned his hand, to show a handful of pills and precious jades and gems. "Not for free, old badger. When Wong comes back from the Mausoleum, he needs to have reached Tier 7. I won't impose on your time and generosity for free."

As expected, the gambit proposed by the glove was enticing to the beast, starved as it was inside the prison. A hungry beast made for a more pliant subject.

"Those weak pills will not even fill my stomach for a day. Your disciple will need to bring millions of them." the Taotie grumbled as his spirit claw picked one such pills and ate it with disgust.

Pef then turned to his wife and patted the pillow beside himself. "Sit Yue. I need your help with something."

"Lord Wong, it's nice to meet you in person. As a disciple of my husband, you're practically family." Yue said politely and nodded towards Wong, then sat down and hugged Pef with one arm.

"My lady. Have you also reached Tier 8? I can't tell..." Wong asked with a feeble voice, probably still bewildered by the floating Taotie emerging from her ring.

Yue just flashed a smile. "It depends. In this timeline I have not, because I waited for Pef to Ascend again after he died." she disclosed with a melodious voice.

"I don't..." The man muttered in confusion.

"Time is a difficult discipline to learn, Wong. Even experts have problems explaining what they do. Making time flow faster or slower is one thing, but rewinding time or crossing timelines is far more difficult. As for borrowing and eating time, I am too stupid to explain that." Pef said with a faint smile, than poured some wine for his wife.

The Taotie grinned with his shark-like teeth towards Pef, then smiled a bit more gently towards his own disciple. "Intellect is not enough for some abilities, little Wong. As your Master was saying, using time-based abilities is more a matter of bloodlines and affinity than brains, at least for the more advanced feats. Surely, you can already bend Time using Gravity or stop Time by alternating Yin and Yang pulses."

Wong grimaced for a second, then just grabbed the wine bottle and took a big gulp. "Alright. I am ready to get beaten to a pulp." he declared as he raised to his feet and stored the wine in his inner world.

"Feel free to chop his legs if you can. Tier 9 materials are quite valuable." Pef added as he flicked a storage ring towards his disciple.

"Hah! Not everyone is a monster like you..." the Taotie laughed as he grabbed Wong and pushed the man into a Violet Portal.

Pef just kissed his wife and ignored the beast. "Turn him off. My bed skills must remain secret." he demanded as a pulse of qi activated a Formation around his room, sealing it off from outside stalkers.

Yue giggled and kissed him back as the ring lost its glow. A Time bubble covered the room and they could enjoy lovemaking for years before a minute passed outside.