210 No Homo

(MC POV)

The sound of someone groaning behind me broke me out of my meditation.

I turned around to see Brendan slowly getting up from the bed, a hand held against his temple and rubbing it with his palm.

"How… How long was I out?"

"Two hours, give or take. Never knew you were that clumsy."

He chuckled nervously, "Sorry, it isn't everyday the best Practitioner in the world gets to teach me how to create potions personally…"

"Hahaha, I guess I can understand that. How are you feeling?"

"Weird… Like I was soaked in the bath for too long."

I handed him a glass of water, "Most likely the remnants of the Ice Quarks I had used to dispel the potion inside of you. Here, drink this."

He took the glass of water with both hands gratefully, downing the glass with a single gulp and muttering a word of thanks. After he was done, he placed the cup reverently by the bedside, not sure why he did that to such a normal cup.

I sat down opposite him, steepling my fingers in front of me while I considered my next words.

"Brendan… Do you know that you have a rather abnormal body?"

His face flushed a little, "Ab… Abnormal? I… I hope it's er… Not too serious? Is it… Bad?"

I shook my head, "No, it's not bad but… What do you know about the growth of Cultivation Points?"

His face turned serious, "A Cultivation Point is formed at birth in every newborn child. It will grow with the child, the speed of its growth differing from person to person. The earliest it will mature enough for the child to become a Practitioner has been recorded at fourteen, while most might only mature at sixteen or eighteen. For others, it would grow too slowly for it to ever mature, making them non-Practitioners."

I nodded, "Correct so far, go on."

"When it matures, the speed of its growth slows down considerably, though this can be sped up through constant cultivation and training but even then, it advances at an extremely slow and tedious pace. To expand one's Cultivation point might take decades or years even with the aid of cultivation pills and there isn't any shortcut known to expedite this process."

I nodded again, "Impressive. You sure know your stuff."

He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, "Ahahaha, I learnt it all from you, Master."

"Also a sneaky one, too. You think just by calling me 'Master' will endorse yourself as my disciple already?"

He panicked and shook his head quickly, "No, no! That's… That's not what I was trying to do! It's just I… I always looked up to you and it just felt natural for me to… To… I…"

I laughed and patted him on the shoulder, "Hahaha! Relax, I was just kidding!"

He breathed a sigh of relief, "Please don't scare me like that Master Lin… Anyway, you were saying something about my body being abnormal?"

"Yes. When you use your innate Elemental Quarks to craft potions, every time your Cultivation Point is emptied, it will expand. A rather slight increase in size but still quite significant as compared to a normal Cultivation Point's rate of growth."

His eyes widened, "Is such a thing even possible?"

I shrugged, "The research on Cultivation Points is still in its infancy stages. In fact, I could even say that there is almost nothing known about how Practitioners work right now. Most of us are focused more on finding ways to get stronger than actually finding out the truth of how things work in the first place. Take this storage ring for example."

I slipped my storage ring from my index finger, holding it in the palm of my hand, "You ever think about how these things came about?"

"Oh… Well… I believe the method of making storage rings was a closely guarded secret by the Merchant's Guild?"

"Pffft… What? No wait, you're serious?"

Brendan gave me a weird look, "Er… Yeah. It's even a law that storage rings can only be bought through the Merchant's Guild and all of them are quite expensive so having one was already a symbol of wealth. I'm not surprised that Master… Err… Master Lin has one of such exquisite quality."

I stared at the ring in my hand, before looking back up at Brendan, giving him a neutral expression, "Theoretically… Just for example… If someone were to… Make their own storage ring, what would happen?"

He tilted his head, "Aside from the fact that it is almost impossible to do so since no one else knows how to make one? I believe the Merchant's Guild would blacklist that person and call a hit on them. I come from a merchant family after all, such a thing is common sense, Master Lin."

I inhaled deeply before exhaling, "I made this one myself…"

Brendan's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"You… You made this… Yourself?"

"Yes."

"That's… That's… That's AMAZING! As expected of Master Lin! For such a secret to be cracked so easily by Master Lin, the title of the strongest really does belong to you!"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Aren't I… Breaking the law? You know? Merchant Guild? Bad? Blacklist? Hitman?"

Brendan waved his hand in the air, "Please Master Lin. It is you. Do you know how big of a weight your name carries? No mercenary would take up a hit against you no matter how much money was involved. The only people who might take up such a contract are people associated with the Dark Sect and if the Merchant Guild was found colluding with them, even the Royal Bei Family would cut them off!"

"Well… That's true? And the blacklisting?"

Brendan chuckled, "Master Lin... The Merchant's Guild governs the merchants, not control them. They can issue a memo that the other merchants should not do business with you but once again, who will enforce such a rule? Which merchant would not want the favour of Master Lin? In fact, if the Merchant's Guild finds out Master Lin has crafted a storage ring of your own, they might even approach you to buy your silence or even learn from you!"

Huh… I know I was quite respected in the Earthen Plane, but I don't remember being that important to other people, especially non-Practitioners.

Most likely it's still my mentality of being a trash still being the dominant one and also the fact that I didn't go out much before my ascension to another Plane.

I wriggled my eyebrows at him, "In that case, want to learn? How to make one, I mean."

Brendan's eyes shined, "I would be lying if I said I didn't want to, Master Lin! Ah, but… I think I shouldn't, at least I don't think I should learn it at my current level…"

I smiled, "Hmmm… Very well then. Anyway, back to my point. Most Practitioners are more focused on the pursuit of personal strength rather than seeking the truth of the world. I used to be like that once, until I realised the universe was much, much bigger than ourselves with so many possibilities waiting for us to discover."

My features hardened and my gaze turned serious , "You have the potential to discover such things. My lessons with you have shown that you have an especially sharp mind and your constitution of an ever expanding Cultivation Point destroys any possible limits imposed on ordinary researchers. So I ask you, Brendan, would you like to learn under me and acknowledge me as your Master?"

The young man breathed in sharply before quickly dropping to a knee on the ground, his head bowed low.

"Disciple Brendan greets Master!"

Well, it's official now. Hopefully my other disciples get along well with him.