That afternoon, Sulan called Sumin over.
Time to officially launch the waste material cultivation plan.
He'd already decided on his no-real-cultivation policy. After all, his junior sister had trash spiritual roots, she'd never make it onto the immortal path in this lifetime. Giving her unrealistic hope only to watch reality crush her dreams over and over would be downright cruel.
Sulan wasn't planning to break his moral limits and abandon his humanity, so he'd teach her things that ordinary people could actually use. At least their senior-junior relationship wouldn't be completely meaningless.
Sumin sat ramrod straight, staring intently at him.
Though she'd only just joined the sect, she already had a basic understanding of her senior brother's incredible power and unfathomable depths. She didn't doubt for a second that whatever he planned to teach her would be perfect for her situation.
He was putting so much thought and effort into helping her, how could she not listen seriously?
Meeting those eager dark green eyes, even Sulan, who'd done plenty of mental preparation, felt a flash of guilt.
But whatever. I already chose this path, so no point in second-guessing now.
"Junior, now that you've officially completed the paperwork, you're truly a disciple of Heavenly Jade Peak at Celestial Gate. So from here on out, I'm bringing out the real techniques."
First, set the atmosphere.
Then he dropped his smile and put on a serious expression. "I have to say, your foundation is still weak, so I'm planning to have you solidify your basics first. This process might take quite a while, if you hit bottlenecks, being stuck for years isn't impossible. I hope you can settle your mind, endure the loneliness, and don't aim too high or get ahead of yourself."
For someone with trash spiritual roots, real cultivation was pure fantasy. Sulan's core strategy here was one word: "stall." The ultimate goal was to gradually shift her mindset so she'd accept being a waste and become a carefree slacker who believed "happiness is all that matters."
Better to give her the warning now, before she figured out something was off and started pestering him every few days to learn proper cultivation.
Sulan couldn't teach that stuff, and she couldn't learn it anyway. Pure waste of time and resources.
"I understand!" Thinking back on her senior brother's words and actions over the past two days, Sumin no longer doubted whether he was trying to gently convince her to give up.
Whatever difficulties she encountered, she'd reflect on herself first, figure out what she'd done wrong.
If it wasn't her problem, could it possibly be Senior Brother's fault?
Seeing that his groundwork was paying off, Sulan felt secretly pleased and nodded with satisfaction.
"Let's start by improving your constitution. What I'm going to teach you is a body-refining technique that focuses on fundamentals. Practice it regularly and it'll also train your character. But this method is somewhat special, remember, never perform it in front of others."
He was just planning to teach tai chi, but Sulan kept a straight face, his eyes gleaming with intensity, looking absolutely serious about the whole thing.
Any outsider seeing this scene might think Sulan was passing down some supreme secret technique.
He had two reasons for this act. First, raising the mystique would make it easier for his junior to accept. Just imagine if he'd been honest, that this was a "technique" so common in his original world that countless grandpas and grandmas used it for morning exercises, completely mundane. She'd probably think he was half-assing it, which would damage their relationship. More importantly, he'd tried it himself, tai chi couldn't channel spiritual energy to refine the body. Anyone who knew their stuff might see right through it at a glance. Having her practice in secret would minimize the risk of exposure.
Incidentally, he'd also considered teaching radio calisthenics, but that stuff was way too bizarre and completely clashed with the cultivation world's aesthetic. It was like opening the door to eye-searing with eye-searing itself, absolutely eye-searing to the max. Had to scrap that idea.
After hearing this, Sumin nodded eagerly, her heart racing with excitement.
Any technique that made his senior go to such lengths to warn her about, you'd have to be an idiot not to realize it was definitely extraordinary!
Sulan took out an elegant white porcelain bottle and poured a small dark brown pill into her palm, then explained: "This is a Foundation Stabilizing Pill. It'll restore your vitality and heal some minor internal injuries. After you take it, the medicine will dissolve naturally in your body."
"Okay." Sumin followed his instructions and put the pill in her mouth. Immediately, a faint medicinal fragrance spread through her senses.
The pill was expertly refined, it dissolved instantly upon contact, the liquid flowing down her throat into her stomach with a warm, gentle sensation, much like soaking in a spiritual spring.
"I'll demonstrate once. Watch carefully, and if there's anything you don't understand, you can ask questions afterward."
With that, Sulan began moving his left hand and right hand in slow, flowing motions.
He really did look the part, his white robes fluttering, movements like flowing clouds and water, graceful and elegant. Definitely had style.
At least it didn't look out of place.
Plus, being handsome greatly enhanced the visual appeal.
Sumin watched with rapt attention.
Until he finished the form and exhaled.
"How was that?"
Sumin was quite clever, and with his perfect pacing, she felt like she'd memorized about seventy or eighty percent of the postures and movements.
"Senior Brother, what about the mental cultivation method and incantations?" Coming from a martial family, Sumin knew that many techniques required matching mental methods, some you just had to recite silently, others you had to speak aloud, and some even worked better the louder you shouted, which led to sayings like "put some backbone into it!"
Sulan nearly blurted out: "Head, shoulders, knees and toes"
Cough cough, accidentally let some weird stuff slip into his DNA again.
At least in his previous life, he'd never seen any grandpa or grandma muttering while doing tai chi.
"This technique doesn't have mental cultivation methods or incantations. When you practice, just empty your mind and focus on understanding the movements."
This sounded reasonable enough at first, but thinking about it more carefully revealed the absurdity, it was basically saying the technique's power depended on your imagination. The better you were at making stuff up, the stronger the technique became.
Starting to notice something fishy?
However, Sumin had an epiphany: This must be a test Senior Brother is giving me, having me comprehend based on just a set of movements, so I can find my own path.
I need to rise to the challenge and show Senior my perseverance and insight.
She clenched her right fist with sparkling eyes.
Sulan had no clue about his junior's thought process.
Right now he was thinking that tai chi had health benefits, so having her practice it would at least do no harm, even if it didn't help.
After all, while he planned to use his junior as a foil to make himself look better, he harbored no ill will toward her.
Even from a purely practical standpoint, only a safe and healthy junior could properly serve as a lightning rod to draw their master's attention.
Both morally and practically, he'd treat this battle-scarred junior as well as he possibly could.
He figured that cutthroat competition was for those prodigies to exhaust themselves with. For losers like them, supporting each other was the way to survive longer.
If everyone in the world could be a bit more laid-back, nobody would have to live such a hard life.
Too bad, beautiful ideals, harsh reality!
Sulan let his thoughts run wild like an unrestrained horse, his mind wandering far away, while Sumin beside him began practicing repeatedly after grasping the basics.
At first she just mechanically repeated the movements without much feeling, but gradually, as her punches and kicks became more fluid and connected, some invisible, intangible energy seemed mysteriously drawn to her, flowing into her body.