"It's so crowded."
At the Bloodshed God Palace, the main entrance to Xue Ying's cavern dwelling was wide-open. The many Xia Clan Deities were looking outside at the bustling world.
"Brother Dong Bo, I'll be leaving with my teacher soon, so I can't stick around any longer. Let's bid our farewells now." Seventh Mei Yu was using her female appearance as she smiled. "If there's any matter we wish to discuss, we can simply contact each other through our communication wristbands."
"Alright. I'll be here, at the Bloodshed God Palace, for a while longer. I trust that the next time we meet in person, we'll both be World Deities," Xue Ying said.
"That's natural."
Seventh Mei Yu gave a slight nod and left, followed closely behind by a female attendant.
Xue Ying stared into the distance. Now that the Myriad Flower Feast ended, the powerful existences would soon be leaving, and their disciples would naturally follow! The people ranked lower in the final battle would, for the most part, become disciples of stage four or three World Deities. In the rare case that absolutely nobody wanted them, the Deities could choose to enter the Bloodshed Tavern or the army legion.
Due to this, the cavern dwellings of the many Deities were bustling with activity.
Xue Ying, on the other hand, was now the disciple of His Majesty, so there was no need for him to depart from the Bloodshed God Palace.
"Disciple Brother Dong Bo."
On the last day of the Myriad Flower Feast, after Xue Ying bade his farewell to Seventh Mei Yu, the bald-headed young man in white robes, Eldest Disciple Brother Hui Ming, came over to visit.
"Disciple Brother Hui Ming," Xue Ying happily greeted him. Alongside Jing Qiu who was beside him, the three all took their seats.
"Disciple Brother, you should have this." Hui Ming waved his hand, and a bright-red fruit appeared on the stone table, its fragrance immediately spreading out.
"Myriad Flower True Fruit?" Xue Ying was startled. "I can't take it. It's still important to you, Disciple Brother!"
"I've participated in the Myriad Flower Feast too many times and have eaten them on plenty occasions. I've also eaten other precious treasures on the side." Hui Ming lightly shook his head. "For the moment, I'm stuck at this final stage and unable to truly rid myself of these bindings. The Myriad Flower Feast is of no use to me. In fact, it's not just me doing this; many of the powerful existences and stage four World Deities who come to the Myriad Flower Feast usually pass their Myriad Flower True Fruits to their juniors. In the case of you Deities in your early days of cultivation, the Myriad Flower True Fruits will bring out more obvious effects."
"Then you should just pass this fruit to your disciples, Disciple Brother. I've already eaten one," Xue Ying said.
"My disciples? Their talent is limited." Hui Ming shook his head. "As for you having already eaten one? You can eat simply eat this one after those ten thousand years pass, or leave it behind for your true body in the material world. Now that I gave it to you, I've no mind to take it back. In fact, there's an even more important matter for which I've come over today."
Xue Ying saw he could not decline this gift, so he decided to just keep it and etch this act of benevolence into his mind.
"A more important matter?" Xue Ying was puzzled.
"You've become His Majesty's disciple, which is a great opportunity," Eldest Disciple Brother Hui Ming said. "The Bloodshed God Emperor is extremely strict when it comes to teaching his disciples, as you likely know already."
"Mn." Xue Ying nodded. "I'm aware. Teacher is ruthless indeed about teaching his disciples. The competition between inner disciples is fierce, and those with more potential and more formidable combat power will reap the greater rewards! As for those who perform worse, they'll naturally receive fewer benefits."
The Bloodshed God Emperor wasn't the kind to treat everyone equally.
And this extended to his inner disciples! To whomever His Majesty liked and considered worthy of grooming, he would certainly hand out benefits which could leave even stage three or four World Deities jealous! As for those who fell out of the Bloodshed God Emperor's good grace, or those he felt to not have any potential, he might just ignore them and not give them a single treasure!
Hui Ming nodded. "As for the method His Majesty uses to decide which disciples are worthy of grooming…do you know of it?"
"Er…" Xue Ying shook his head.
How did he decide?
The people he liked? Or was it their speed of cultivation?
"This is what I've come to tell you." Hui Ming laughed. "This matter is considered rather secret. His Majesty will definitely make a judgement in his heart regarding all of his subordinates and disciples. Whatever he orders of you, you must definitely put in all your effort to achieve perfectly! If you fail to complete the task properly, your status will drop in his heart.
"If, for instance, he lets you study a secret technique, he would naturally be disappointed if you were to be slow in comprehending it. Should you disappoint him twice or thrice, he would practically no longer care about you as a disciple anymore," Hui Ming explained.
"I understand." Xue Ying nodded. "If my teacher ever orders me to do something, I have to try my best and complete it perfectly."
"Also, in regards to those powerful absolute arts, His Majesty is the one who owns the largest amount." Hui Ming lowered his voice. "He owns even more than the Bamboo Mountain Prefecture Master!"
Xue Ying's eyes brightened.
"If His Majesty sends you to the Sealed World Pagoda to learn a secret technique from a certain level, you must make sure to learn it properly." Eldest Disciple Brother Hui Ming's eyes were filled with longing. "The better your performance, the more secret techniques His Majesty will then let you learn from the Sealed World Pagoda. Finally, there'll be a day when you discover that the many secret techniques can be fused together into a very formidable absolute art. Even if you were his personal disciple, the Bloodshed God Emperor would only ever impart a single absolute art to you, and that is only after you pass a chain of trials. Inner disciples, for instance, would usually only learn some scattered parts of the complete absolute art and would find it extremely difficult to ever learn a complete one. But you must not give up, and you must do your best. The more you please His Majesty, the better your chances to learn more secret techniques, and you might even come across the opportunity to learn the complete set! That would be truly formidable."
"Is it really that formidable?" Xue Ying asked.
"Of course!" Hui Ming said with a grin. "The power of an absolute art is boundless! I would give up all of my treasures as well as Cultivation Edens to exchange for a single absolute art! Forget me, even powerful existences hope for a chance to learn complete absolute arts."
Xue Ying was dumbfounded.
Even powerful existences desired to learn one?
"What do you think makes the Bamboo Mountain Prefecture Master so formidable? And what do you think gave him the capability to live for so long despite being a stage four World Deity, as well as giving him the status as one of the three ancestors?" Hui Ming continued in a hushed voice. "I've heard that he could achieve all of this precisely because of a very formidable absolute art which he cultivated to an unfathomable realm. In the past, he even spread his religion rampantly just for the sake of learning this absolute art, which is what led to these shackles from which he now can't escape. Even then, he's outlived even the majority of powerful existences! Even powerful existences sometimes die in battle, but he's still alive. His combat power is also so formidable that ordinary powerful existences have to act with respect toward him."
Xue Ying was shocked.
"Which is why, whatever hardship you have to face, or the price you have to pay, you must persevere and take step after step until you get the chance to learn a complete absolute art set! Only then can you truly become a formidable existence," Hui Ming said. "His Majesty has many disciples, such as the White Sand City Lord and the others, but they all have only ever learned scattered parts of a complete absolute art!
"Oh, right!
"Other than the Sealed World Pagoda, the Library House under His Majesty's control is also very famous," Eldest Disciple Brother Hui Ming said. "It contains countless scriptures, which I've heard that His Majesty himself collected over a long period of time. It might seem vast and complex, but it apparently contains an absolute art. Of those two powerful existence disciples His Majesty has, the second one, Monarch Green, do you know of him?"
Xue Ying nodded.
The Bloodshed God Emperor only ever had two powerful existence disciples. The first, Monarch Gu Zang, always cultivated in his territory, only going out on very rare occasions. The other one was called Monarch Green, and was of a more tyrannical nature. Because of certain grudges, he decided to rebel against the Bloodshed God Palace. His exact combat power was unknown, but he was seen as extremely powerful—very long ago, he was already as powerful as the three ancestors. By now, most powerful existences agreed that Monarch Green was likely on a similar power level to the Bloodshed God Emperor, the Temporal Island Lord, and the Myriad God Palace Head.
"Monarch Green had read countless scriptures within the Library Room, where he discovered an absolute art, the "Mountain World". A long time ago, he relied on that art to heavily injure Pang Yi with a single fist attack. By that point, Pang Yi was already one of the three ancestors and was naturally greatly irritated by this event. He was, after all, an existence who created his own cultivation technique and even accepted a huge amount of disciples," Eldest Disciple Brother Hui Ming elaborated. As he spoke, he isolated all senses from this space. With his combat power being so close to that of a powerful existence, isolating the senses was a simple task for him.
"His Majesty himself acknowledged that the Library House indeed contains the absolute art "Mountain World". All of his disciples, even the honorary ones could come read the scriptures in the Library House, but a very long period of time has already passed with his disciples having still only ever comprehended bits and pieces of that art. There was not one who could comprehend the entire absolute art "Mountain World" like Monarch Green did," Hui Ming said. "For the moment, you can disregard that "Mountain World" art. Since you've only just been accepted by His Majesty, you should just cultivate properly according to his instructions. Once you feel that your combat power can no longer improve, you can go take a good look at the Library House."
"Mn." Xue Ying nodded.
"In other words, it's your opportunity to have become His Majesty's disciple, but it ultimately depends on you to hold onto the chance you've been given," Hui Ming concluded in an expectant tone.