Seeing the differences drawn out like that, Nalser couldn’t help but wonder, “Why is is the Modern Path so much simpler and weaker. Cultivation should be about defying the Heavens not bowing to it.” He just shook his head and decided to follow the Ancient Path. It wasn’t that he had no choice but rather he felt that the Modern Path was too reliant on resources and less on hard work. The Ancient Path was the other way around, unless you whole heartedly dedicated yourself to it, you would not advance at all. Nalser also didn’t want to be some kind of a sub par Immortal, so he decided that he would try and train in the Ancient Path.

If he couldn’t advance at all in that, then he would reluctantly give up and try the Modern Path. Since Shaon hadn’t mentioned it to Nalser, he had no idea, that he had already started training in the Phantom Demon Art. Even if he wanted to learn other cultivation arts, it would now be impossible, as his Nether Flame would devour other Qi-s and his progress would stalemate. The Nether Flame Baptism changed his Qi into Nether Flame type, so his only road left is to practise Cultivation methods that involve Nether Flame Qi. Having read up on the cultivation stages and familiarized himself with the various tips and tricks, he decided that it would currently be a good idea to look for suitable Cultivation method.

When he asked Librarian to lead him to the Qi Cultivating methods so he could pick one to practise, the wooden puppets head twitched again, “But you can not train in other Qi Cultivation methods other than the Phantom Demon one. The old master had said that anyone who has passed the Nether Flame Baptism can not train in other Qi Cultivation arts because the Nether Flame would devour the Qi formed and if the Nether Flame grows out of control it will result in a Qi Self-Destruction.” Nalser stared blankly at the puppet. However, in his head he was extremely happy that the previous master had left such a knowledgeable puppet behind. He would have literally killed himself if he didn’t have this guy here.

He asked where he can find the Cultivation method for the Phantom Demon and followed Librarian there. When they reached in the middle of the giant library, the puppet suddenly stopped in front of the light screen protecting the bookshelf and said, “Only the Master of the Island can go inside these formation barriers. All information related to the Phantom Demon Cultivation Art is on that bookshelf.” As he pointed at the bookshelf floating in mid air, Nalser nodded.

It wasn’t anything surprising. If every average Joe could enter the formations, then there would be no point in having them. As he stepped into the light screen, his feet landed on a floor made of the same light screen. On the bookshelf were around 20 books and they were all about the Phantom Demon Cultivation Art. In the middle of the bookshelf was a jade slip that held the Cultivation art itself. The books were there to speak how to train in the stages easily or when to learn which skills or what to look out for when training and etc. From all the books, Nalser could tell that Shaon had done through research on the cultivation art, so as to take the most optimal path with the least reroutes. He was actually very thankful for Shaon.

If he hadn’t been so through, his progress would have stagnated for a lot of reasons but by consulting the books already present, he could clear out over 90% of the problems. It could be seen that Shaon put a lot of thought into how to nurture his successor. Without much pondering, Nalser reached out for the jade slip. He had decided to first read the jade slip and then read the book on Qi Gathering. He felt that there would currently be no point in reading all the books, if anything else, they would confuse his path a bit more.

Although it wasn’t a bad idea to look at them for future references, it would impact him a bit too much and he may take the wrong path due to it. When he infused some Qi into the jade slip, the cultivation art entered was imprinted into his very soul. He sat down cross legged, closed his eyes and started sorting out the information inside his head. He subconsciously divided the cultivation art by the stages and focused more on the Qi Gathering stages.

Mainly the Qi Gathering were about nourishing the body and tempering it with the Nether Flame. The third stage allowed him to use the Qi to infuse with things on bodily contact, the seventh stage allowed him to project Qi outside of his body and from the tenth stage onwards it was only about accumulating the Qi and making preparations to condense a Qi Kindling. Having sorted out the information inside his head, Nalser turned his attention to the book on Qi Gathering. The first sentence of the book was this: “Before reaching the Foundation Establishment, it is not useful to study Techniques.” It also explained it in detail.

The Techniques you could learn from Foundation Establishment onwards scaled. The ones learned in Qi Gathering didn’t have much of an increase in power or speed or anything so learning them would practically be a waste of time. Seeing the explanation as well, Nalser agreed to the notion and decided not to leave the Starry Island before reaching at least Foundation Establishment and learning a few escape techniques and fighting techniques. He had learned that there were various Spirit Fruits and Spirit Nectars here so he had no quarrels holing up inside. “Maybe just training until I reach a bottleneck that requires combat would not be a bad idea. I am not in a hurry to go anywhere any ways.” Having decided on his plan of action, he read the notes on different Qi Gathering stages written by Shaon.

Shaon had also constructed a special room, where by raising the difficulty it would give the best environment for training different stages. When he had familiarized himself with the cultivation method and what to watch out for when training or how to make the training most beneficial, he decided to eat a bit and rest. From tomorrow onwards begins his road of Cultivation.

***

As Nalser went to sleep, The Elders, following the Ancestor order, went to imprison the Grand Elder and demote her disciple. The Grand Elder was first furious about the blasphemy but when she heard the true circumstances and also that it was the Ancestors order, she paled. She hurriedly sent out her Qi to probe the courtyard only to discover that it was completely empty and also, it was turned upside down. She felt her scalp go numb when she heard that the boy she thought nothing of might actually have connections with an Ancient Clan.

However, her arrogance kicked in seconds after. “That little twerp, just because he wasn’t up to standards he had to scr*w me over like this. Hmph, when I get my hands on him, he will wish he was dead.” As she grit her teeth and thought that to herself, the young lady raged out with a loud voice, “Why should I, a princess, be demoted to some lowly Servant just because of some crippled bastard? An Ancient Clan, what a joke, the School is the strongest in this world, why should it be afraid of some-”

Before she could even finish the sentence, one of the two remaining Grand Elders slapped her and bellowed at her in a loud voice, “You little fallen princess should get off your high horse. This isn’t your palace or your dynasty where you can act so high and mighty!” The princess held a hand at her slapped face and looked on in shock.

She had never been yelled at, much less slapped. Before she could even say anything the Grand Elder in white robes continued, “When we are talking about the Ancient Clan, we do not mean a clan of this world. Outside of this world exist a myriad of other worlds and realms. The powerhouses there are strong enough to crush our entire world with a single snort. Since the Ancient Clans have been in existence from times immemorial, their resources are far deeper than our school and a Celestial Immortal level people are simply guards. Now then do you really think that we can afford to offend a power like that?” The princess was shocked, she had never known there were other worlds and realms out there as well.

But now hearing how bad the situation was exactly, she started to become a little frighten. Seeing that, the Grand Elder in white robes just snorted and added in a cold tone, “Those Ancient Clans care about face above all else. You two summoned one of their clansmen and then imprisoned him like that without explaining anything to him. Should that clan come and demand an explanation and reparations, do you honestly think that your two pathetic little lives are going to be enough to pay the price?” Hearing until now even Grand Elder Azure Flame started having second thoughts about seeking revenge from Nalser. To them, his background was too frightening and when they thought about it, they were the ones at fault no matter how you looked at it.

You could even say that their impudence had solely cause this calamity. Since they had no way of refuting anything, they could only agree to their punishments. The Azure Flame Elder headed into imprisonment and the princess became a servant. However, this matter was far from over, soon the word of the situation spread over the whole school and life got very hard for the little princess but she could do nothing else than grit her teeth and accept everything. She was no longer a princess and neither was she a Conclave Disciple. If she was thrown out of the school, she would be found quickly and then she would be just a sex slave.

***

Even thought the Elders and Princess’s lives had been turned upside down, the main culprit was now preparing to start his training. As he stood in the Training Hall, before a giant iron door, he was checking whether he had all the things listed in the book.

He had a few elixirs to take before starting, those helped with gathering of Qi and tempering of the body. He also had a few elixirs to take after training to help get his body to peak condition sooner and to make sure that the training didn’t leave any hidden injuries. There were also a few elixirs in case something unexpected happened and he injured himself during training. Having double checked everything, he ingested the elixirs he had to take before starting training and immediately felt their effect.

He slowly adjusted his mindset and then walked in through the giant iron door. He entered a similar room to the baptism altar but this one was a bit different. On the giant pentagram altar there were always black flames floating around. He adjusted the difficulty to 3 rd Qi Gathering stage and went to sit in the middle of the pentagram. The number of flames flickering on the altar decreased. When he had sat down and regulated his breathing he just said, “Tempering formation start!”

As soon as his sentence ended all the black flames that were left on the altar, immediately gathered over his head. He started revolving his Qi according to the Phantom Demon Art and he was slowly raised from the ground to the middle of the flames. The book said that this special training would allow him to get the best body for practising. The flame would burn away the impurities of his body and slowly temper it while at the same time, exhausting his Qi.

When the tempering ended and he would gather Qi again, it would nourish his body making it stronger, more flexible. As he started feeling the pain from the flames, he immediately covered his body with Qi and grit his teeth as he continued his training.