Molting the Mortal Coil

Sage reviewed them seriously before immediately counting a few of them out. Roots of the Resolute Heart seemed quite powerful and would make an excellent swordsman, but the problem was Sage was neither a swordsman nor did he strive to be virtuous and upright. Especially after his transformation, he wasn’t naive enough to think that being a hero was the best path. Certainly if he could overcome the challenges and defeat evildoers it would mean he was quite strong, but Sage felt that he could be far more powerful if he made use of every advantage. Expending more effort and putting himself in more danger… just to be called a hero? Why bother!

The next to be removed was ‘Blossom of the Underworld’. Sage was quite attracted to the concepts behind this art, but after looking at the other moves in the set he realized it was very well suited to females. It was a dark and yin oriented style of the wood element and while he felt it was powerful, the other supporting arts were far too ephemeral and illusionary. Peony blossoms that drained life force and swirling flower petals that obscured vision and boosted movement speed. It was all quite beautiful, but Sage preferred not to be so eye catching and feminine in battle. Of course, he could use the techniques from other sets to assist, but the moves that were paired with Blossom of the Underworld were undoubtedly the best matches with it. He’d much rather just use some of the moves in the set to pair with another Cultivation Art as a supplement.

That left Mantle of Four Gentleman, Greensea Soul, and Connecting Heaven and Earth. Of course, these were also the three arts that were more generalized and powerful. Roots of the Resolute Heart and Blossom of the Underworld were both more specialized and tailored to certain sorts of people. It was now down to matter of whether he preferred the infinite variation of the four seasons, explosive growth of the grasslands, or the enduring might of trees. Sage thought very carefully here, imagining the path of his future growth and also studying the techniques that were paired with each set. The matching techniques would surely exhibit the strengths of each cultivation art. Eventually, he came to a point of decision. Should he improve his strengths or shore up his weaknesses?

He had already worked hard on building up a bag of tricks to catch opponents unaware. The Mantle of Four Gentleman would increase the number of options by an even greater number. The moves harnessed different challenges of weather and climate for each season as well as channeling aspects of the four plants. Greensea Soul would also improve his strength. Instead of adding endless variations, it would give him explosive power. He could set things up in his favor and then use a few moments of immense strength to strike a killing blow. Both of these two options would improve his offense ability in a different manner.

Connecting Heaven and Earth on the other hand would enhance the things he considered his weakness. The majority of the moves in the set were defensive, quite different from the other sets that seemed to have one body art, one movement art, one defensive art, and three to five offensive moves. Some of them even combined the movements or defenses into offensive maneuvers. Connecting Heaven and Earth had a body art, a movement art, three defensive arts, and only two attacking moves.

After deliberating for a while, Sage chose to go with ‘Connecting Heaven and Earth’. Sage valued his life. While defeating enemies was important, if he couldn’t survive then nothing else would matter. Many say the best defense is a good offense, but what about when the enemy was unknown and unexpected? As someone who specialized in sneak attacks and surprises, Sage was very wary of receiving them himself. Connecting Heaven and Earth would take advantage of his already strong body and push it to another level. As long as he could survive he could plot for revenge another day. If he focused on attacking, he might be dead before he even knew what happened to him. Sage didn’t trust his spiritual sense, since he had a way to hide from it, couldn’t others?

After picking out a new Cultivation Technique, Sage looked through the rest of the Stone Tablets. He planned on turning in a few of them to the Sect to gain contribution points. Unfortunately, he couldn’t turn them all in as that would certainly give away the value of the inheritance he had obtained. Showing up with more than a hundred matching sets of techniques would be far too eye-catching and attention grabbing. At best he could turn in a few sets and then pick out a few dozen moves from random sets. Contributing techniques to the Sect wasn’t really an issue, but matching sets were quite powerful and it would draw attention. He also didn’t want to slowly contribute them as over time it would give away what he had gained. Sage chose to just turn in a bunch all at once to signify that he had a sort of fortuitous encounter without giving away how great it really was.

He picked out a few of the weakest sets he could find along with a few dozen of the less powerful Techniques from among the collection. He also added in the twenty or so techniques he had looted from dead cultivators and treasure hordes along the way to the Timeless Master’s home. Most of the looted techniques and some of the ones from the Stone Tablets were already in the Holy Flame Sect Library, but the others netted him quite a number of contribution points. The three sets he turned in were the most profitable and after it was tabulated, Sage had doubled his points.Before leaving he had around ten thousand contribution points and now, Sage had just shy of twenty one thousand. It’s still far from enough.

Sage finally felt like he could get somewhere. In the past he had to work so hard just to get access to scraps in the Sect, but now he had a full matching set of techniques. In addition, he still had the few moves that he had to rely on in the past and that wasn’t even counting the Timeless Eyes. If he could master all of these new techniques he was sure he would become quite powerful. The problem was that he just didn’t have enough resources. Just like before he had gone on the expedition, if he just started training again it would take him decades. There was a reason people strived to join the Inner Sect or become a Core Disciple, and it was access to resources. Those in the Outer Sect like him had to work for everything, spending points on food, lodging, pills, techniques, and anything else they might want. The Inner Sect had a sort of ‘allowance’ every month of free pills and training resources along with not having to pay for basic necessities like food and lodging. The Core Disciples had it even better. Even if they weren’t a personal disciple to an Elder or Peak Master they would have access to get training tips or guidance from them.

If Sage had enough points he could multiply his training speed many times over using the Sunfire Pagoda. He could also purchase pills or pay for classes with contribution points. It all came down to resources. While he had a lot of contribution points right now, the twenty thousand points could be completely consumed in less than a year if he started training intensively full time.

Maybe I should invest the points into some of my money making schemes?

Plans started to form in his head as he kept looking through the rest of the Stone Tablets and picking out the ones he would focus on in the future.