“… But tell me, why did you suddenly decide to join?”

Faced with Bao Wuji’s question, Mu Luyin hesitated for a moment before steadying her gaze and thoughts.

“Senior, I will not lie. I fear the repercussions that may follow due to the fall of the twelve powers, and if I appear alive and well at home, my family will become a target of those central continent powers. Even if they only imagine a 10% chance that I am related to the one who destroyed them — in this case, you, senior — they will not let it go. To those people, my family is nothing more than a slightly larger ant, and even a 10% possibility would already make us excellent scapegoats when they fail to find the real culprit.”

She spoke sincerely, clenching her fists.

Bao Wuji raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed.

Aotian had already considered this as well, which was why he made sure no one saw them alive when they left. The less the enemy knew, the safer he felt, and taking Mu Luyin along did indeed eliminate some risks. Even so, he could not agree so easily, for it did not suit a powerful ancestor like Bao Wuji to make such a decision without reservations.

“So you only want a refuge?” Ancestor Bao asked casually.

Mu Luyin quickly shook her head at that.

“Senior, that is indeed one of the reasons, but the other reasons are that my brother Yun will be there, and if my brother Yun is there, it means that place is extraordinary, and I want to be by his side. I also want to become strong; I don’t want to feel as powerless as before, when Feng Tianfei and hundreds of others attacked, and I could do nothing. Please, allow me to join the sect. I am willing to make a soul oath. I beg you!”

She explained firmly, before dropping to her knees, knocking her head against the ground… err, the sky, begging humbly.

Aotian was a little startled. After all, she was a proud young lady from a great power, and seeing her kneel to others, no matter how humble she wanted to be, was almost unbelievable. But this also showed her determination to enter the sect. This text is hosted at novel※fire.net

Even Lei Yun, at her side, did not stop her. He only looked at her gently before bowing deeply to the elders and ancestors, showing his support for her.

Bao Wuji’s mouth twitched, and he raised his hand, making a gust of wind set them back on their feet.

“Girl, you could have just said the final part about wanting to grow stronger, without mentioning that you wanted us to be your shield or about your intentions of going after a boy to flirt with inside the sect,” he spoke helplessly.

“No, that, no, I…” Mu Luyin froze, then began blushing fiercely, stumbling over her words, before murmuring with a stutter: “… T-That’s not what I meant…”

Even Lei Yun looked helpless and slightly embarrassed upon hearing that from Ancestor Bao.

“Ancestor, Luyin does not wish to be disrespectful, nor a burden to the sect. She only wanted to be sincere, but did not know how to express herself. I know her, and I know that the part about the soul oath was not said lightly. If she is allowed to enter, even if she faces death, she will not betray. That is the kind of person she is. Please, elder, give her a chance to prove her sincerity.”

Lei Yun spoke softly, respectfully, reassuring the girl, who nodded frantically at his words.

Bao Wuji seemed to think for a moment and then nodded.

“Very well, then make the soul oath, and you shall be a disciple of our sect.” He approved.

“Yes, ancestor!” Mu Luyin smiled happily, nodded, and released her nascent soul from her body.

A miniature version of herself floated out of her forehead, ethereal and bluish.

The nascent soul resides in the dantian, but it can exit from any part of the body. However, it is customary to make it exit from the forehead when outside of combat, since it would be somewhat rude and strange to force everyone to stare at one’s belly or elsewhere when it emerges. Thus, the forehead became the social convention.

Since she only externalized the soul without fully disconnecting from the body, she could still control it, preventing it from falling limp to the ground — or in this case, in the air.

The little ghost Mu Luyin then raised her palm solemnly and swore:

“I, Mu Luyin, swear by my soul that, as long as the Infinite Dao Sect does not betray me, I shall remain eternally loyal. Even in the face of death, I shall not retreat, and I will always safeguard the sect’s well-being.”

In that instant, the energy within her soul churned violently for a moment before calming down and returning to normal.

Bao Wuji nodded at her with a smile.

“Good. Welcome to the Infinite Dao Sect,” he declared, and everyone congratulated her together, making her sigh in relief and give sincere thanks.

While receiving the new disciple, Aotian recalled the information about the soul oath.

In this world, there is no such thing as swearing by the Heavenly Dao for low-level cultivators.

If a cultivator cannot even communicate with the Dao, how could they swear by it? And why would the Heavenly Dao oversee whether a Qi Refiner fulfills or breaks a promise?

No, that was only for cultivators of extremely high levels.

But even without being able to swear by the Heavenly Dao, there exist bastardized versions, such as the soul oath.

Upon reaching the Nascent Soul realm, a cultivator’s energy undergoes a tremendous qualitative change and begins to become almost alive. If a cultivator makes an oath upon their soul in this realm, the energy preserves those words along with the soul.

If the cultivator breaks the oath, their own spiritual energy and soul will rebel against them, potentially crippling or even killing them.

Of course, since it is a bastardized version, there are still ways to circumvent it, such as erasing the memory of the soul oath Spiritual energy is almost alive, but not literally alive or endowed with memory; everything depends on the recollections stored in the cultivator’s soul.

Without that memory, neither the soul nor the energy will react, even if the oath is broken.

Fortunately, tampering with souls is extremely difficult and dangerous, and not everyone can be like Aotian, capable of synthesizing a soul-searching technique to erase and manipulate memories.

If one wishes to erase the memories of powerful cultivators, great natural treasures are required; otherwise, the risk of the soul dispersing when attempting to erase an oath is terribly high.

‘I could technically abuse this, making oaths to deceive others and then erasing them… but not with myself. After all, even if I erase the memory of one avatar or my main body, the other avatars would still remember, and soon I would remember as well. So, this would only work on disciples.’

Back at the sect, Aotian reflected, rubbing his smooth chin, but soon shrugged. It was just a possibility, and he saw no real need to do such a thing.

He also thought that he could manipulate memories to make someone believe they had sworn, and maybe that would work. In that case, it could be useful someday.

There was yet another problem with this bastardized version of the heavenly oath, which was that it relied heavily on the interpretation of the one who swore, which could cause certain issues.

But aside from these, it was still very useful, even becoming a convention to have a Nascent Soul cultivator swear loyalty to the sect. So it wasn’t seen as excessive by the others when Bao Wuji let her swear.

Aotian shook his head and set it aside. There was still another matter they needed to resolve.

Bao Wuji looked at the lively Mu Luyin and spoke, drawing everyone’s attention:

“Our sect intends to remain in obscurity, and you should have a soul lantern in your clan, correct? If they use your soul fragment there, they may discover where you are. Furthermore, if they find out your lamp is still lit, it could endanger your family. We will stop by your clan and extinguish it. In the meantime, you may inform your parents of your well-being and instruct them on how they should act. Just avoid revealing too much to others, so as not to bring trouble to your clan.”

The ancestral Bao spoke seriously.

He wasn’t lying. Even if they found out, his sect wouldn’t be in danger as long as the girl’s soul lantern was extinguished. Her family, on the other hand, would be in serious peril.

Mu Luyin put away her gentle smile, and her face grew heavy. With a nod, she pointed toward her clan’s direction.

With the destination in mind, their speed increased greatly, and soon they disappeared over the horizon.

…

Aotian rose from his cultivation chamber and walked toward the stairs, heading for the cave’s exit.

Opening the stone door, he stepped out and breathed in the pure, cold air of the grass that swayed gently ahead, on the lush green meadow.

His thoughtful eyes wandered as he gazed at the sky and the white clouds lazily drifting above.

‘This journey was very profitable. Much of my common sense has been compensated, and now I know about soul oaths, various spiritual herbs, treasures, things like soul lamps and their function, among many other things… all from the memories of those men.’

Various pieces of information surfaced in his mind as he thought.

‘On the other hand, I discovered how to better use my cultivation and that of my avatars with Lei Yun’s feedback. I would have had to explore for a long time to find out that Void Refiners can create their own pocket spaces which, though small, are useful, being able to store storage rings. I also learned to sense compatibility with new bodies using the Nascent Soul, and to seal the souls of cultivators weaker than me with the Soul Formation. Along with many other applications.’

He sighed, satisfied that he had managed to fill in many of these gaps.

‘That’s the downside of skipping entire realms with the avatars. While many have centuries, or even millennia, to adapt to new realms, I have only months. They walk a long progressive journey, but I leap through realms like a fish changing ponds. But my real cultivation has only just entered the Golden Core.’

‘Not that I’m complaining. It’s not bad to have so much power, but… it’s a bit pressuring to have to adapt so quickly to everything, guide a growing sect, pretend to be different elders who are supposed to be wise ancients, when I didn’t even make it to 40 in my past life. Even with so many minds, I have to do so much at once that it feels like I’m always at the limit. And the worst part… I still feel incompetent in everything I do. Whenever I look back, I feel like I could have done better.’

Aotian rubbed his neck, slightly discouraged.

‘I don’t even have a great reason or goal that makes me grit my teeth and challenge the impossible, like those protagonists I used to read about, do I? I just…’

“Are you okay?”

A soft and gentle voice rose from behind him, interrupting his musing, as arms wrapped around his torso in a warm embrace.

Feeling that warmth, he couldn’t help but smile and placed his hand over her delicate hands, as she hugged him from behind.

‘Well… I guess I just want the power to return home and reunite with my family. I also want to live happily with Rihai, have children, help the people of this world, cultivate in peace and tranquility, and finally, achieve immortality together with all my disciples, while appreciating all the beautiful things in the world. Just those little goals, right?’

He thought in amusement and turned his head, kissing the cheek of his beautiful wife, who stood on tiptoe to rest her chin on his shoulder.

‘Man, it seems I really do have many reasons to get stronger, huh.’

Smiling lightly, he turned his eyes back to the sky.

“It’s nothing, just a little bad mood that you just chased away.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep