Chapter 355: Human Nature

Shi Lin made her way through layer after layer of array formations and arrived at the place where the Penglai Dao Lord was in seclusion.

Before she could even send out her psychic thought to announce herself, the Penglai Dao Lord's psychic thought reached her first. "Lin'er? What is it?"

The mist that had been concealing and sealing off the space from any probing dispersed, and a rather elegant courtyard came into view before Shi Lin.

Deep within the courtyard, amid countless arrays, a figure drifted in and out of sight, as though occupying a separate stretch of space and time, yet somehow feeling close enough to touch.

Yet in the moments she appeared, she radiated an aura of destruction that sent a shiver through the bones.

It seemed as though with the mere descent of her true form, the simple overflow of the power contained within her would be enough to reduce the entire Penglai Immortal Sect to dust.

"Master, have you come out of seclusion?" Shi Lin asked, a note of delight in her voice.

"Just taking a brief rest. What happened? Has a demon sovereign appeared? Where?"

"No demon sovereign..." Shi Lin quickly said. "Master, have you recently taken on a new disciple?"

"I have not," the Penglai Dao Lord replied. "What makes you ask?"

Shi Lin hurried to recount everything that had happened, with particular focus on the rumors surrounding Yaoguang.

Listening to Shi Lin's account, the Penglai Dao Lord sounded genuinely surprised. "Yaoguang has reached the Void-Refining Realm? In such a short time?"

Shi Lin froze, and then the realization hit her all at once. Her eyes went wide. "Master, were you not guiding him in secret?"

Yet even as she asked, she found it hard to believe. "B-But how is that possible? Without your guidance, how could he have advanced from the Void-Piercing Realm to the Void-Refining Realm in just ten years? Could it be... that it was the Central Heaven Dao Lord who has been nurturing him from behind the scenes?"

The Penglai Dao Lord let out a soft laugh. "Do not assume that because you have accomplished little, the rest of the world must be the same. The world of a true genius is beyond what ordinary people can imagine."

She herself was the best example of that.

"Void-Refining Realm in ten years... I have to say, that's surprising even for me," she commented with a smile.

Interesting had become surprising. That was clearly no small step forward.

"Then, Master... Our sect and him..."

"I am at a critical stage of practicing the Doomsday Wheel. Once my Dao technique has matured, I will go see this genius in person... or perhaps I should say... a future fellow Daoist?"

A faint sense of anticipation stirred within her.

Though it lasted only a moment before she shook her head.

The Void-Piercing Realm, Void-Refining Realm, even Void-Shattering Realm, all fell within the same tier in her eyes.

In her eyes, they did not pose any real danger.

But from the Void-Shattering Realm to Dao Integration, that single step was enough to drive countless Void-Shattering cultivators to despair.

Even now, when she looked back on the perils of Dao Integration, it sent a chill through her.

What was a Void-Shattering cultivator in the face of the true power of a Great Dao? Merely an ant daring to contend with heaven!

A Dao Lord could live for 129,600 years!

In other words, even at an advancement rate of less than ten percent, the number of Dao Lords should at least approach the number of Void-Shattering cultivators. And yet in reality, there was only one Dao Lord for every hundred Void-Shattering cultivators, perhaps even less.

The North Sea Star may have seemed to host a considerable number of Dao Lord orthodoxies, but that was only because the lure of the Gate of the Immortal Realm had drawn Dao Lords in from every corner of the universe.

If one were to rely solely on a sect's own cultivation methods and produce them one by one...

Forget a hundred Void-Shattering cultivators. Whether even one in two hundred or three hundred could successfully achieve Dao Integration was anyone's guess.

That thought cooled her curiosity a little.

Yaoguang, like Tai Qingzi, Tian Qin, Qin Xianhuang and the others, was simply one of the candidates she had chosen as a future guardian to whom she might entrust her legacy. Her only expectation was for them to reach the Void-Shattering Realm before the Gate of the Immortal Realm opened.

Dao Lord?

"In all of the North Sea Star's history, there has only ever been one like me." The Penglai Dao Lord glanced at Shi Lin. "That will be all. I will continue to focus on my Dao technique cultivation. Until it reaches perfection, do not disturb me unless a demon sovereign appears or the Jade Scale Demon Paragon moves against us."

"Understood," Shi Lin replied respectfully.

The Penglai Dao Lord gave a nod, and mist began to gather before her.

The Great Dao of destruction was among the most ferocious of the offensive Daos.

And the Doomsday Wheel Dao Technique ranked at the very pinnacle even among offensive Dao Techniques within the Great Dao of destruction. Should she succeed in mastering it, she would possess the power to destroy fellow Dao Lords.

Once she could pose a lethal threat to other Dao Lords, many of the issues she currently faced would dissolve on their own, and the threat of the Dao Contest would vanish like smoke.

Seeing that her master seemed about to re-enter seclusion, Shi Lin quickly said, "Master, the other disciples have not seen you in quite some time and miss you dearly. Since you are resting at the moment, perhaps you might spare a moment to see them..."

The Penglai Dao Lord thought briefly, and something seemed to come to mind.

Her attention lingered on Shi Lin for a moment, and a quiet sense of regret passed through her.

But in the end she said, "With the talent of those three, if they still cannot understand themselves, the path to Dao Lord will forever be beyond them. Without becoming Dao Lords, ascending through the Gate of the Immortal Realm will be impossible. There will be no second chance after the one in a thousand years."

She waved a hand, and her figure vanished into the mist.

Shi Lin stared at the place where her master had disappeared into the array, and the look of quiet regret she had glimpsed in those eyes sent a deep ache through her.

She knew it was her own inadequacy, her failure to hold up the Penglai Immortal Sect, that had forced her master to step in personally time and again to handle situations in the Deep-Blue Sea that should never have required her involvement.

She also knew that her juniors could be unreasonable at times. Just as Leng Qingqiu had been moments ago, twisting her words and arguing in bad faith.

But there was nothing she could do about it.

If things ever come to the point where the sect's disciples are turning on one another, drifting apart in bitterness and resentment, would that not disappoint Master even more? Wouldn't she grieve over it? And when Master is eventually forced to step in and sort out the mess, would that not be an even greater waste of her precious time?

Being a sect master is so hard. She thought.

Shi Lin let out a quiet sigh, took to her travel light, and soon touched down again at the Penglai Pavilion, where she handled the sect's daily affairs.

Leng Qingqiu, Zhan Xiao, and Shui Yunhan were all waiting there.

The moment Shi Lin returned, the others rushed over to her with eager expressions. "Eldest Senior Sister, how did it go? What exactly is Master's stance on Yaoguang?"

"Eldest Senior Sister, is Master willing to guide my cultivation? With her personal guidance, I would never need as long as Yaoguang. Given my talent, I could probably reach the Void-Refining Realm in just three or four years!"

Shi Lin waved a hand. "You have all got it wrong. The reason Yaoguang was able to reach the Void-Refining Realm within ten years of breaking through to the Void-Piercing Realm had nothing to do with Master's personal guidance. It was his own exceptional talent. Through sheer genius, he went from the early stage of the Void-Piercing Realm all the way to the Void-Refining Realm in ten years."

The moment those words landed, all three of them nearly exploded.

"Master did not guide him?"

"That is impossible!"

"Without Master's personal guidance, how could anyone go from being a newly advanced Void-Piercing cultivator to a Void-Refining cultivator in such a short time?!"

Leng Qingqiu, Zhan Xiao, and Shui Yunhan refused to believe it in their hearts.

Leng Qingqiu in particular began to question it outright. "Eldest Senior Sister, you did not actually go see Master, did you? You are just saying this to brush us off."

"My talent is high enough to rank in the top ten among all Void-Piercing cultivators on the North Sea Star, and I have already been stuck at this realm for over forty years. Reaching the Void-Refining Realm will likely take me several decades more, perhaps even a century. Even if Yaoguang had the greatest talent on the North Sea Star, double my own, going from the Void-Piercing Realm to the Void-Refining Realm should still take at least fifty years." Shui Yunhan chimed in to agree, and by the end let out a cold laugh. "Advancing to the Void-Refining Realm on his own in ten years? Nobody can do that!"

"Those were Master's own words. Are you questioning her?" Shi Lin's voice sharpened, and she turned her gaze to Shui Yunhan. "Master said not to assume that because you have accomplished little, the rest of the world must be the same. The world of a true genius is beyond what ordinary people can imagine. Just because you cannot do something does not mean others cannot."

Shui Yunhan's face went pale at the rebuke, but she still refused to accept it. "Impossible... It can't be..."

"And the two of you as well." Shi Lin looked at Leng Qingqiu and Zhan Xiao. "Master said that if the three of you cannot change your ways and come to understand yourselves, you will never become Dao Lords in this lifetime."

Leng Qingqiu and Zhan Xiao fell silent. Leng Qingqiu in particular.

She knew her eldest senior sister's character well enough. She would not lie to them.

In other words, Yaoguang has really reached the Void-Refining Realm on his own, and in such a short time...

What kind of staggering talent is that?! If that's true, and he is allowed to keep growing at that rate, won't he reach the Void-Shattering Realm within a century? And beyond that... Can he become a Dao Lord?!

She pressed her lips together, unwilling to accept how fast the gap between them was.

"Qingqiu, the misunderstanding between you and Perfected Lord Yaoguang is not beyond repair. Since he is heading to the southern domain to take up his new position, go there on behalf of our sect, bring a generous gift, offer him our congratulations, and transfer to him the contribution points from his role in slaying the Heaven-Swallowing Demon King as a gesture of our gratitude," Shi Lin said.

Leng Qingqiu understood. Her eldest senior sister was using the congratulatory visit as a pretext to offer Yaoguang an apology, even going so far as to have the sect produce a formal gift as an apology. That way, the cost would not fall on Leng Qingqiu personally, and some measure of her dignity as deputy sect master would be preserved.

But making her bow her head as a direct disciple of a Dao Lord?

"I am not going!" Leng Qingqiu said coldly. "When it comes down to it, was Yaoguang entirely without fault in all of this? Why should I be the one to apologize?"

She glanced at Shi Lin. "If it comes to it, we simply have nothing more to do with each other. I have no need of anything from him. And I do not believe that even if he reaches the Void-Shattering Realm someday, he would dare come to our Penglai Immortal Sect to cause trouble."

"Junior Sister—"

"I am not going." With that, Leng Qingqiu paid no further attention to Shi Lin's calls and shot off on her travel light, leaving the Penglai Pavilion behind.

Shi Lin was at a loss.

Zhan Xiao and Shui Yunhan were quick to follow. "Eldest Senior Sister, we will take our leave as well."

And with that, they hurriedly left.

Shi Lin watched them go and let out a quiet sigh.

In that moment, her heart was full of envy.

If only she had talent like Yaoguang's. She could pour everything into her cultivation and not have to spend her energy managing the Penglai Immortal Sect's endless affairs.

Even talent at the level of her junior brothers and sisters...

Surely she would not have been placed in the acting sect master's position, grinding herself down day after day.

She shook her head, and in the end could only ask one of the palace masters to make the trip to the southern domain on the sect's behalf.