“That glow… it’s entering elder’s Zhi’s dantian… his power is rising!”

“I can feel it too, he… he is reaching the middle stage before our eyes!”

The group of nascent soul masters that were all in the early stages of the nascent soul level gasped in awe. Before them a strange transformation was taking place, their sect brother Zhang Zhi had been chosen by the Patriarch and was moving past them in the spawn of a few moments. To people that took centuries to push their levels by a tiny fraction, this was a truly astonishing sight.

From their perspective, it looked like Zhang Dong gave a poke to Zhang Zhi’s forehead before utilizing a strange technique. His finger was tracing a strange path in the air that probably had some deeper meaning. Not soon after the aura of the cultivator exploded and started pushing towards the middle stage of the nascent soul level.

However this was no simple nascent soul level, its quality overshadowed anything that came before it. It was more similar to the radiance of the Patriarch himself or the great two other elders Huo Qiang and Zhang Liena. The three were a notch above the rest and it seemed that other people could actually reach this pinnacle realm.

Zhang Zhi’s body, which was filled with water energy, started releasing blue light. This light somehow started moving up into the sky to form the water dragon soul beast that he was known for. No one knew what this meant but soon enough they witnessed a slither of golden light jumping from Zhang Dong’s finger and being absorbed into the blue energy.

This is when it all actually started, the blue water dragon started changing. Its size increased twofold and the blue scales turned into a more radiant hue, not quite blue and also not quite golden but something in between. Some people here realized that what was happening was that the holy Dao that the Patriarch was famous for was somehow mixing with the soul beast and making it stronger.

It wasn’t only the soul beast that was getting stronger, Zhang Zhi’s whole presence changed. A cultivator usually possessed a unique spirit energy signature. The elders that were gathered here were already used to it. Thus when this pattern was switched to something entirely new they knew that Zhang Dong made it so. It was as if the Dao of Holy light was being injected into Zhang Zhi and upgrading his whole being.

“How is this possible…”

“Can the Patriarch share his knowledge with others just like that?”

“Be quiet, the ceremony isn’t over yet!”

The people were abuzz with speculation but after one of the elders shouted they went silent. Zhang Dong on the other hand wasn’t even really paying attention to them. The strange finger movements that he was performing were just his scrolling through the system window. There were several options that he could click that would affect Zhang Zhi’s cultivation.

This was the main reason why the favorability rating had to be over ninety for this to work. The person was opening up their cultivation to his system and this could be only achieved with almost blind trust. The subject would have his core cultivation method altered by spending spirit points gained from the faction system or spirit stones.

Everything also depended on Zhang Dong’s own knowledge and power level. He could not boost anyone past his own level of cultivation. At most the skills could be at the same rank as his but even that would use up a boatload of points. Yet Zhi here was a trusted retainer who would even offer his life to protect the sect or Zhang Dong if the need arose.

Thus he would not skimp out on any upgrades that he could give to his number one elder. First of all, he needed to decide on what he could add to Zhang Zhi’s repertoire. His body refining skill wasn’t quite up to par so it was quickly upgraded to allow him to take a beating. This was also augmented by adding a smidge of the recovering abilities from his holy dao. With that combination, Zhi’s vitality and stamina would be comparable to great circle nascent soul masters.

Zhang Dong’s own knowledge of the Dao of water wasn’t that great but he added whatever he could to Zhi’s to boost it a bit further. Knowledge of his sword skills would be far more useful and with the increase in body refinement, Zhi would be a force to be reckoned with. Adding a third Dao like the lightning one and gravity one wasn’t really an option and would muddle the current balance between water and holy.

The biggest change that everyone was witnessing was the soul beast. With the combination of gold and blue, it looked quite shiny and green. The Emerald coloring was quite breathtaking and was also something he could customize on his side. There was an extensive beast modification screen on which he could input some changes. It even showed him a warning signal if he made the soul beast too strong. It would then weigh on the user’s nascent soul and diminish the fighting capability which needed to be avoided.

‘That should do it…’

“Calm down and let the power flow through you, I will help you circulate your spiritual energy, for now, you will need to get used to it as fast as you can.”

“Yes, Patriarch.”

Zhi went down to his knees and assumed the lotus position. The transformation had taken place but even now one mistake would cause cultivation deviation. Elders that were watching knew this and quickly surrounded the two masters to protect them. Luckily Zhang Dong was sure to scan the whole region for potential threats and even some defensive formations had been prepared. Soon the soul beast started fading away and returned into Zhang Zhi’s body, the process was over.

“Congratulations on reaching the middle stage, how do you feel?”

“Is this really only the middle stage?”

Zhi was stunned by the amount of progress that he made. He knew that he wasn’t that far from maxing out on his early stage but reaching a hundred percent in it didn’t actually guarantee progress. It only opened up the possibility of reaching the next stage. That would always depend on the practitioner's luck and skill, it was never this easy but thanks to Zhang Dong it had happened without even one misstep. During the whole process, he could not feel even a single problem, it was as if something was guiding him through everything.

“I feel… sensational… it’s as if I have become a young man again!”

“Well… you do look a bit younger.”

Zhang Dong smiled as some wrinkles disappeared from Zhi’s face after the middle stage had been reached. His hair had also started to turn blond after the transformation took place. This was a stark contrast to his disciples that had pure white hair. It seemed that the Dao of Heavenly Lightning that they had practiced beforehand was responsible. If the holy dao was inserted without the other one it would transform people's hair golden instead.

‘Hm, would adding the gravitational Dao make someone’s hair dark purple?’

That Dao’s energies were of the dark purple coloring and sometimes close to black. He had not heard of people's hair color changing due to the Dao a person followed. Perhaps it had to be one of the greater ones and it needed to be understood to a high degree. His disciple's hair needed some time to reach the white coloring similar to his.

“I hope your wife doesn’t mind the change in hair color but I’m sure she could find some tinctures to get your old one back.”

“My hair color Patriarch?”

Zhang Dong just smiled and with a wave of his hand produced a mirror. Through it, Zhang Zhi could see the long golden locks that sprung free from his head during the transformation. It looked like the samurai was going through a rebellious phase and didn’t really fit his kimono and katana look. Nevertheless, the transformation was done and while Zhang Zhi was panicking over the new looks he decided to take a peek at the status screen.

Zhang Zhi

Nascent Soul [ Middle Stage 0% ]

Main Dao:

Water [ 65 % ] Holy [ 50% ]

Main Weapon:

Katana [ S - Grade ]

Favorability:

Worship [ 100 ]

‘Worship huh?... the kids have adoration at a hundred points which is a bit different…’

He was not sure what to make of it but Zhang Zhi would probably be a lot less troubled in carrying any type of orders. If he worshiped him as a higher being or something like that then what came out of Zhang Dong’s mouth would be the truth. He would need to watch to not have his number one elder take his words literally.

It seemed that the favorability was different depending on the relation. His wife that was also at a hundred points instead of worship or adoration had devotion there. The words were all somewhat similar and described strong emotions. He had not yet seen the number drop after going over a hundred so he was not sure if it was possible. Some other favorability ratings did drop during the five-year break when he vanished and were only restored when he returned.

“This Zhang Zhi will be loyal to the Patriarch and the bloodline that it carries, this I swear on me and all the descendants that I bring to this world!”

“You don’t need to bring your kids into this, they can make their own decisions…”

“Nonsense, they will follow your line for all eternity!”

“Ah yes…”

Zhi recovered from getting his hair bleached quite fast and was back to his old self. He kind of promised that every offspring that he produced would be under Zhang Dong’s line. It wasn’t strange for this to happen so for now he just waved it off. Most of the time such a promise would be forgotten within a few generations but it did somewhat guarantee help to his children if he vanished yet again.

‘For them, it is an equal exchange but it still doesn’t make the whole thing any better.’

This was something that he was aiming for. The overseer that might be looking at him from the shadows was constantly on his mind. If something happened to him then his children and wife would be in danger. Perhaps not now but after many years when new experts arose, it could become beneficial to them to have allies. This was one of the reasons that he wanted to produce more people like Zhi that would feel grateful to him for giving them power.

Everyone was looking at him with pleading eyes already. They clearly wanted to be the next one to advance further and they would work tirelessly to show that they were trustworthy retainers worthy of praise. With this the seed had been planted, now what came next was the assessment of the enemy army and how his new improved general would handle it.