Chương 89: 88. A Sect Leader’s Guide to Introducing RPG Terminology to Cultivators

The library is expanded soon after the workshop. It is not yet the grand archive I imagine whenever I think too far into the sect's future. The building has only two floors, and the shelves are made from the same mountain timber used in the other repairs. The first floor holds basic texts, records, and practical manuals. Literacy, arithmetic, bookkeeping, medicinal herbs, tool maintenance, farming, mining, and formation fundamentals are arranged by subject.

Servants, laborers, and miners are permitted to use them freely as long as they return the books to the proper shelves. Some show no interest. Others begin appearing in the evenings after their work is finished. Old Chen attends often enough to learn the characters used in Frostheart's recipe, usually accompanied by one of the younger servants who helps him with unfamiliar passages. The second floor holds cultivation manuals and formation records. Thirty Qi Condensation techniques occupy the secured shelves.

The Foundation Establishment ones are stored safely within my storage ring. The number still feels unreal whenever I see them arranged together. Most minor sects in the region build their entire inheritance around a handful of usable methods, often forcing generations of disciples to adapt themselves to whatever survived their founders. We now have enough techniques to consider temperament, spirit root, constitution, combat role, and individual weakness before deciding what someone should learn.

More importantly, these are not ordinary manuals purchased from a market stall. Ling'er reconstructed them from the techniques displayed by the strongest Qi Condensation cultivators at Celestial Jade City, preserving the principles that made those contenders exceptional while adapting them for proper instruction. Any one of the better manuals could have become the guarded inheritance of a minor sect. We have thirty. Access there is more controlled.

Manuals can be assigned by Ling'er or me, borrowed temporarily through contribution points, or made available to disciples who meet the stated requirements. The restrictions produce excitement and complaints in roughly equal measure. Several disciples spend their points as soon as they qualify, only to discover that borrowing a manual does not make it easy to understand. Others begin saving toward techniques they have studied from the catalogue or based on Ling'er's recommendation.

Shen Qiao manages the borrowing records because the Finance Hall occupies the side room beside the library. He objects when Jun first calls him the head librarian. He does not approve the title, but he does create borrowing slips, copying rules, penalties for damaged texts, and a system for tracking which manuals are being used. He recruits two literate servants to help with receipts, inventory records, and the growing number of copied documents passing through the Finance Hall.

Neither is formally part of the hall yet, but both spend enough time behind the cracked desk that the room no longer belongs to one person alone. Soon, we will need to recruit more laborers and servants. After that will come disciples, once the sect has enough resources and instructors to support them properly. Before adding new people, however, I want to know what the ones already here can become. Several weeks with the new manuals have changed the disciples more than their cultivation levels suggest.

Their realms have not advanced significantly. Most remain where they were when we left for Celestial Jade City. Their movement, judgment, and control have improved enough that the old rankings no longer describe them properly. Ling'er continues mentoring them through their assigned techniques. The weekly tournaments give them regular chances to test what they have learned, while the contribution system rewards teaching, training assistance, and participation.

The fights still contain mistakes, but they no longer resemble children throwing techniques at one another. Jun's match against Wei Chen makes that clear. He begins by refusing a direct exchange. He uses three marked stones around the training platform, forcing Wei Chen to consider which contain traps and which exist only to draw his attention. A loose patch of earth disrupts Wei Chen's first advance. A hidden line catches his ankle during the second, while a burst of dust conceals Jun's retreat toward the edge.

To his credit, Wei Chen resets his footing, keeps his breathing even, and begins clearing space one measured step at a time. Stable Ground keeps him balanced when another trap shifts beneath him. Iron Body Breathing lets him absorb a glancing strike without losing the center of the platform. Jun changes direction twice and attempts to lead him into another prepared lane, but Wei Chen refuses to follow the obvious opening. Within ten exchanges, Jun has no safe route left.

Wei Chen stops the practice blade near his shoulder.

"I concede," Jun says. Wei Chen lowers the weapon and raises both arms in celebration. Mei Lin looks at him from the side of the platform. He immediately remembers that Jun is still sitting in the dirt. He then pulls him up and claps him on the back hard enough to make Jun stagger forward. The weekly rankings have settled into a pattern. Mei Lin and Wei Chen have separated themselves from the rest of the disciples, taking first and second place often enough that the others now compete to see who can be third.

Wei Chen has yet to defeat her. His improved discipline allows him to remain in the fight longer, but Mei Lin has better talent, greater control of her element, and a technique suited to punishing his direct style.

"HA!" Wei Chen drives forward with a burst of flame wrapped around his practice blade. Mei Lin raises one arm, drawing water over her body in a thin shifting layer. The fire strikes, hisses against the moving current, and breaks apart before it can force her back. Flowing Ripple Counter Art lets Mei Lin receive his strongest advances without surrendering her ground. Each time Wei Chen commits too much force, she guides it aside and turns his momentum against him.

When he begins shortening his strikes and slowing his approach to deny her those openings, she spreads water across the platform, narrowing his footing and forcing him to move where she wants. Their latest match becomes a steady contest of adjustment. Wei Chen resists two attempts to throw him beyond the boundary and forces Mei Lin farther back than before, but every exchange leaves him with fewer safe options. Near the edge of the platform, he braces with both feet planted and his breathing still controlled.

A ribbon of water coils around his ankle. He shifts his weight before it can pull him off balance, but Mei Lin moves with him. She catches the change in his stance and sends him onto his back inside the boundary. He lies there for a moment, staring upward. Mei Lin offers him a hand.

"I'll win next time."

"That's what you said last week."

"And I'll keep saying it until it happens!" He accepts her hand anyway. The watching disciples applaud, and Xiao Zei rises on its hind legs near the edge of the yard, waving both front paws in a gesture it has learned produces reactions from people. Mei Lin picks up a loose stone and throws it. Xiao Zei slips aside before the stone reaches it and disappears behind Ling'er.

"Mei Lin." She turns toward me, then lowers her head.

"My apologies, Sect Leader." I step onto the platform once Wei Chen has moved aside. The disciples quiet down. The tournament has shown me enough. Their individual skill has improved, but the raccoon raids revealed something ordinary sparring never managed to teach them. They had learned more about coordination while protecting meat from animals than they had during months of training beside one another.

"We are changing the training schedule," I say.

"Body refinement will continue, but every second session will be replaced by team exercises." Several disciples glance at one another.

"You will not remain in fixed groups. The teams will change between drills. You will learn how to fight beside people with different techniques, elements, and levels of experience. The goal is not to create one formation that succeeds as long as the correct people are present. Every disciple should understand what they can contribute to a group and what they require from the people around them." Wei Chen looks interested immediately. Jun has already begun thinking through combinations.

Lian glances toward the formation flags around the training yard. I remember the fighters from Celestial Jade City. The Purple Crane pair had moved with enough familiarity that each attack prepared the other's next step. The Crimson Dragon Alliance trained combat principles across its entire institution rather than relying on individual talent. Great sects did not simply gather strong cultivators. They taught those cultivators how to make one another more effective.

Ling'er joins me on the platform while the disciples divide into a half-circle.

"We begin with roles," I say.

"In any group, someone must withstand pressure and control the enemy's attention. Someone must apply decisive force. Others restrict movement, disrupt techniques, protect injured allies, or create openings. One person may fill more than one role, and the role may change during a fight." Wei Chen raises his hand.

"The person withstanding pressure should be the strongest."

"Sometimes. Other times it will be the person with the best defense, the most suitable element, or the technique that makes attacking them inconvenient. Strength matters, but forcing every situation through the strongest disciple wastes everyone else." Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I arrange several wooden markers on the ground to represent positions. One holds the front while two apply pressure from different angles.

Another remains behind them, controlling movement and watching for changes. The arrangement resembles concepts I once understood through games, stripped of their old names and rebuilt around cultivator combat. The explanation becomes clearer once Ling'er begins demonstrating. She produces a narrow stream of water across the stone. I add heat through a small controlled flame. The water flashes into steam, expanding outward with enough force to make the nearest disciples step back.

I replace the flame with ice, forming a thin layer over an old piece of damaged armor. Ling'er heats the metal immediately afterward. The rapid change twists the plate and sends a fracture across its surface. For the next demonstration, I send water into a wooden staff Ling'er grows from the ground. The wood drinks deeply, thickening and hardening until the staff becomes heavier than before. When Ling'er strikes the training post, the reinforced wood leaves a deep indentation without splintering.

"Elements do not only oppose one another," I explain.

"They can prepare conditions, strengthen allied techniques, or force an enemy to respond in predictable ways. You need to understand what happens when your qi meets someone else's, whether that person is beside you or trying to kill you." The disciples begin looking at one another differently. The first drills will be simple. Holding positions. Changing leaders. Protecting a designated person. Creating openings without striking the target directly. Responding when one team member is removed.

Later, they will learn to combine elements and techniques under pressure. No disciple will be allowed to depend on one permanent partner. Each must learn how to read unfamiliar allies, communicate quickly, and adjust when the original plan fails. This is one part of sect training I understand well enough to shape rather than imitate. My memories of games once reduced combat into roles; damage dealers, crowd control, and support.

Cultivator battles are more fluid and far more dangerous, but the underlying questions remain useful. Who holds pressure? Who controls space? Who creates the opening? Who is prepared to exploit it? With Ling'er beside me and the tournament platform still wet from Mei Lin's final technique, I begin assigning the first teams. The first drill goes badly. There are traces of what the disciples learned during the raccoon raids. They understand signals. They know how to hold a lane when someone else is moving.

Most of them have learned that chasing the first target they see usually creates an opening somewhere worse. Those instincts do not immediately translate into fighting beside one another. Wei Chen moves too far ahead and blocks Mei Lin's line of sight. Song Li retreats directly into Lian's attack. Two younger disciples attempt to surround Ling'er from opposite sides and nearly collide when she steps between them.

Jun calls for the left group to rotate, only for half the team to turn left from their own perspective and the other half to follow his. Ling'er stands in the middle of the confusion without striking anyone. By the time I stop the drill, three disciples are arguing over whose position was wrong.

"You are all trying to win your own fight," I tell them.

"There is only one fight." That improves the next attempt, though not by much. Jun takes to command more naturally than anyone else. His individual cultivation remains among the weakest, but he sees the field well enough to recognize when one person's movement creates pressure elsewhere. He does not need to overpower Ling'er. He only needs to direct the others toward the moments when she has fewer convenient choices.

"Mei Lin, hold the center. Lian, close the right side after she moves. Wei Chen, wait." Wei Chen does not wait. He advances the moment Ling'er shifts her weight. She turns his strike aside, steps past him, and reaches Jun before the others can adjust. The next time Jun tells him to wait, every muscle in Wei Chen's body appears to object. He stays in place anyway. Ling'er presses Mei Lin backward, then changes direction toward the weaker side of their formation.

Wei Chen moves only after Jun calls him, arriving in time to cut off the route without abandoning the center. Ling'er still escapes, but she has to use a second step to do it. After that, he begins taking the drills more seriously than the tournaments. Jun is better at timing, restraint, and reading what the others need. If Wei Chen develops even half of that awareness without losing his physical advantages, defeating Mei Lin may eventually become less impossible than it currently appears.

Ling'er handles the details I miss. She corrects the angle of Mei Lin's technique so her water reaches both sides of the formation without forcing her to pivot. She moves Lian half a step away from the formation marker and shows her how much more space that gives Wei Chen to retreat. Sometimes she corrects everyone before I have finished explaining the original problem. The division suits us. I design the scenario and determine what the team is supposed to learn. Ling'er makes them capable of carrying it out.

That does not prevent misunderstandings. During one protection drill, Jun is assigned as the person the team must keep safe. Ling'er approaches from the front while Mei Lin and Lian control the sides. Wei Chen is supposed to remain near Jun and intercept anything that passes through them. Ling'er slips between two water strikes and sends a wooden practice blade spinning toward Jun. Wei Chen reacts immediately and throws his own sword at Jun.

The two wooden weapons strike each other in front of Jun's face and fall to the ground. Everyone pauses. Wei Chen looks pleased with himself.

"Protected." Jun slowly turns toward him.

"You threw a sword at my head."

"I threw it at the other sword."

"You missed my head by less than a hair."

"Well it worked, didn't it? I didn't know people had a choice in how they were protected." Jun picks up the fallen weapon and throws it back at him. The drill becomes a scuffle before either of them remembers that I am still standing there. Mei Lin separates them with a sheet of water while Ling'er retrieves both swords. The mistakes become less dramatic as the days continue. Teams rotate constantly. Disciples learn which signals remain clear under noise and which disappear the moment everyone begins shouting.

Those accustomed to leading are forced to follow. Stronger disciples practice protecting weaker ones without treating them as baggage, while weaker disciples learn to create useful openings rather than simply hiding behind the front line. The progress is uneven, but it is progress all the same.' One day at a time,' I remind myself. Ling'er's role in that progress soon creates another problem for the contribution system. She begins offering ten-minute mentoring sessions as a redeemable reward.

The response is immediate. Disciples who had been saving toward manuals begin recalculating their balances. Patrols fill faster. Volunteers appear for kitchen work, snow clearing, copying, and formation maintenance. Shen Qiao notices the sudden surge in activity before he understands what caused it. The first sessions expose a different difficulty. Some disciples arrive with questions so broad that Ling'er cannot give them anything useful.

"How do I become stronger?" Song Li asks. Ling'er considers him for several breaths.

"Train better." Others prepare carefully. Mei Lin asks about the transition between receiving force and redirecting it through Flowing Ripple Counter Art. Ling'er watches her perform the movement once, then tells her that she is releasing the tension in her rear hip too early. The correction takes one sentence. Mei Lin spends the rest of the afternoon repeating the motion and improves more than she had during the previous week. Demand quickly exceeds anything Shen Qiao considers reasonable.

Disciples begin hoarding points, trading duties, and asking whether multiple sessions can be purchased in advance. One younger disciple tries to reserve every available slot for the next month. Shen Qiao places a weekly limit on appointments and requires each disciple to submit a specific question beforehand. He also blocks out time for Ling'er's own cultivation, hunting, rest, and instruction with me. Without those restrictions, she would have agreed to all of them.

I have somehow turned my divine disciple into a sect resource that can be booked through the Finance Hall. The arrangement feels morally strange whenever I think about it too directly, though Ling'er does not appear bothered. I ask her about it during one of the arts-and-crafts sessions she purchased with contribution points. We sit in my quarters with two unfinished blocks of jade between us. I am trying to carve a bird without making its wings resemble flattened spoons.

Ling'er is already halfway through a sculpture of an ancient dragon coiled around a pillar, its head raised toward something beyond the top of the stone.

"Do you actually enjoy the mentoring sessions?" I ask.

"Yes." She turns the jade in her hands and removes a thin curl from the dragon's neck.

"You do not have to accept every request because the disciples want help."

"I know."

"Shen Qiao can remove them from the contribution system." Ling'er looks at me, then back at the carving.

"I like helping them." Her answer is simple enough that I wait.

"They improve," she continues.

"Sometimes I tell them something small, and the next day they move differently. Mei Lin understands her water better now. Wei Chen listens more than before. Lian asks better questions." She smooths one claw against the pillar.

"I… like being part of the sect when it is not about how strong I am." I look down at my bird and carefully remove a piece of jade that was probably meant to remain attached. Her value has always been obvious, immense, and inseparable from the power she carries. Here, she can teach, carve, eat with everyone, help repair roofs, or sit beside a raccoon until it behaves. None of those things require her to advance as quickly as she is capable of advancing. That is what worries me. She is not neglecting cultivation.

She still trains more effectively in an hour than most disciples manage in days. Yet I can see the choice beneath her pace. She wants to remain close enough that the people around her do not vanish behind her. Part of her believes she can control the distance simply by refusing to widen it too quickly. For now, that desire is gentle. It gives her friendships, responsibilities, and reasons to care about the sect beyond my presence. Later, the same confidence may become dangerous.

Talent does not make time obedient, and slowing herself down cannot prevent everyone else from changing. I do not tell her that. She has earned the right to enjoy what she is building here, and warning her too early would only make that joy feel like another mistake she must correct. The greater responsibility belongs to me. The sect needs to become strong enough that her desire to remain part of it does not require her to diminish herself. Ling'er turns her carving toward me.

The dragon's scales run in fine overlapping lines, and its body coils naturally around the pillar as though the jade had formed that way.

"What do you think, Master?"

"It is beautiful. We'll place it near the front as a landmark." She smiles and looks toward the object in my hands. I lower the 'bird' slightly, feeling self-conscious.

"It is not finished." Ling'er nods with great seriousness and returns to her dragon, allowing me to preserve what remains of my dignity while I try to repair the wings.