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Chapter 120 - The Art of Laziness
🕑 Added 2025-06-02 06:33:12 +0000 UTCIn the Infinite Dao Sect — or more precisely, the Bamboo Sword Sect — time flew by.
In the blink of an eye, a month had already passed.
The disciples gradually grew accustomed to life in the new sect and continued to grow in power and skill. At the same time, in the 16 cities, messages were sent out announcing the upcoming recruitment that would take place at the end of the two-month period, along with its bizarre requirements for new disciples… or the lack thereof, to be more precise.
Any age, any elemental affinity. The only requirement that actually aligned with a Golden Core sect — and even far surpassed expectations — was the demand for high-quality or superior spiritual roots. While other sects of the same level worried about age and elemental affinity, accepting low or medium quality single-element roots, the Infinite Dao Sect stood out for completely flipping those priorities.
Of course, there was chaos and commotion throughout the region, as such requirements had never been seen before, nor were they expected to appear in the future. This shocking fact ensured the news didn't remain limited to the 16 cities. Through word of mouth, it spread until it reached most of the surrounding small cultivation towns.
Overnight, the previously unknown Infinite Dao Sect — later identified as the force behind the surrender of the 16 cities — gained credibility and was soon the talk of every cultivation town in the region.
There was also another major piece of news circulating, second only to the Infinite Dao Sect's recruitment for the number one gossip spot. This news concerned the mysterious identity of the Great Emperor of Perversion… as he was called by men. The women, on the other hand, simply referred to him as the Super Pervert.
Aotian began to sweat cold upon discovering that, somehow, he had become a legendary and perverted figure, after issuing a generous reward for detailed information about sexual positions between men and women, as well as personal experiences in dual cultivation. He had used an avatar to outsource this task, sending it to major intelligence centers he had discovered, such as the black market, information pavilions, and others — though he was still waiting for results.
Still, it seemed promising, as many people were debating the true secret identity of the Emperor of Perversion.
Aside from external changes, internal changes within the sect were also far from negligible.
Starting with the disciples, who, surprisingly to others but expected by Aotian, had all reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
Aotian also granted them a synthesized Refiner-Tier Qi concealment technique when they received their cultivation techniques, asking that they be more discreet. Of course, these concealment techniques required contribution points and were not distributed for free. They were mandatorily acquired along with the cultivation techniques.
Aotian's goal wasn't to completely hide the sect's strength, but simply to avoid attracting too much attention. The sect was still in its growth phase and didn't need unnecessary trouble.
Proof that he didn't intend to hide entirely? Refiner-Tier Qi concealment techniques couldn't hide cultivation from a Core Formation cultivator's sight. And when Jian Huiyin discovered the disciples' true cultivation levels, let's just say she panicked and called an emergency meeting with her sect.
Aotian had a blast watching, through Tian Zhu's eyes, the elders of the Bamboo Sword Sect scrambling in desperation to a secret meeting room, only to emerge pale as ghosts.
Beyond the disciples' growth, the sect's system was becoming increasingly complete and structured. Disciples could contribute more and more and receive rewards in return to support their cultivation paths.
For now, the best way for them to earn contribution was by carrying out missions to explore even more tombs of Foundation Establishment cultivators.
This way, while the disciples worked to acquire techniques, materials, and inheritances for him, Aotian and his avatars could focus on cultivation and other tasks.
To encourage the disciples and prevent delays in their cultivation — making them more useful — Aotian released a quota of low-grade elemental stones for those on missions, making cultivation easier even during long journeys. He only regretted not having more disciples to further accelerate this collection.
The public classes taught by the outer elders were also going well. Most disciples avoided taking distant missions so they could be present at least one day a week and not miss the lessons in their chosen field. But this wasn't always possible.
Thus, many chose to stay within the sect, cultivating and studying. Once they advanced in cultivation, they'd go on a mission to stabilize their new level while accumulating contribution points.
Others preferred to focus solely on cultivation and skip auxiliary arts altogether, instead taking on missions continuously while cultivating and earning contribution points to exchange for spells, pills, resources, or simply saving for future needs.
These weren't the only improvements in the Infinite Dao Sect. Several other aspects also evolved, and the sect was growing and strengthening rapidly in every sense.
On that particular day, one month after the announcement of the classes and the creation of the formations in the Heritage Pavilion, it was formation class day.
During the past month, four formation classes had been held. Now, the fifth was underway.
Seated on meditation mats in a courtyard belonging to the current Formation Pavilion building, the disciples listened to the tired and lazy voice of Zhen Mo, an outer elder.
"… remember this clearly, formations are just a way to be lazy. If you want to be good at formations, always be lazy. Yaaawn…"
Zhen Mo, seated in front of everyone, spoke lazily and, at the end of his sentence, yawned — causing some disciples to yawn along with him involuntarily.
Meanwhile, others could only watch with twitching eyes at the sight of that slothful elder.
A girl, though slightly frustrated and confused by the elder's strange motivation, raised her hand, wanting to ask a question. Zhen Mo looked at her, and the girl understood she had permission to speak.
"Elder, why would laziness—" she began, but was suddenly interrupted.
"My formations have detected that one of you raised your hand to ask a question. Sorry, please save your questions for Elder Tong in the next class. What you're currently seeing is just a recording of the past, pre-recorded and displayed to you through illusion formations, and it cannot answer questions," Elder Zhen Mo replied, and his figure flickered like static, disappearing for a second before returning, proving he wasn't really there, leaving all the disciples slack-jawed.
This was the first class by this outer elder from the Formation Pavilion, and the previous ones had been taught by the second outer elder. It was the first time they encountered a situation like this.
Rihai, seated beside Aotian, looked at him in shock. It wasn't that creating an illusion formation was impressive — but going through all that effort just out of laziness was surprising.
"Back to the topic."
He spoke and paused, as if switching tapes to rewind to the previous song.
"If you want to be a master of formations, you must become a master of laziness. Just like me, who, as you may not have noticed, am just an illusion right now," he said, and his body flickered again, proving once more his illusory nature.
All the disciples looked strangely at the elder and at the girl who had asked the question.
'Looks like the girl interrupted the elder's flow by asking a question at the wrong time,' Rihai thought, trying to hide her amusement at the odd situation that had formed.
Aotian was thoroughly amused internally by the disciples' reactions to the elder's peculiar behavior. He then subtly glanced to the side, where a hooded figure was also attending the class.
He knew that was Jian Huiyin, the leader of the Bamboo Sword Sect, who was also there to learn about formations. She had permission to attend but kept herself hooded to avoid strange looks from the disciples.
"So you might ask: doesn't setting up a formation, recording the class, and then displaying it take much more effort than just giving the class live? And that's where we get to the heart of the matter — what separates a formation master from an amateur," Zhen Mo explained with conviction in his lazy voice and certainty in his narrow, dark-circled eyes.
"Work hard now, so you can be lazy later. It's like preparing for retirement! Why not perfect your formation craft, train hard, and leave excellent combat formations ready for future battles, instead of almost dying to an enemy, running around like crazy, and going through countless near-death crises? With a good formation, the enemy dies without you lifting a finger — and you can even nap peacefully in the forest to the sound of your enemies' demise."
"Why not create a spiritual energy condensation formation and cultivate more easily, instead of settling for the scarce energy scattered around? Why show up to teach class every time, when you can give a lesson from the comfort of your bed, ignore the students' questions, and dump the responsibility on another elder to answer them? Cof Cof! Ahem! Please ignore that last part — I get excited when I talk about formations..." his voice, though lazy, flowed without stopping, but at the end of the sentence, he coughed into his palm, slightly embarrassed.
The disciples, though they found the logic strange and suspicious, couldn't help but listen attentively to the class.
"Formations can do everything that you, as a cultivator, can do, of course. But they can do it continuously without rest — and you can't. So work hard, so the formations can do things for you, while you enjoy a good and well-deserved rest." He ended his motivational speech with a small, satisfied smile on his lips.
The disciples listened, enchanted by the crazy words of a personality Aotian had invented, but who said things that made a lot of sense. Even though, without realizing it, those ideas would eventually lead them to exhaust themselves more with study and planning than to actually become lazy.
Zhen Mo then lazily moved on to the theoretical part, under the excited and attentive gazes of the disciples.
"Well then, formation is the art of using existing materials, in different configurations, that when interacting with spiritual energy..."
