Just like the Blossoming Rose sect was drastically different from the Northpeak sect, walking through Rose city was a very different experience from Northpeak city. With how sexual Blossoming Rose was, it naturally had an effect on its city. Rose city was an entertainment hotspot and one of the most tourist-rich cities on the subcontinent. There were countless clubs and bars around, and no other city had as many brothels.
Even the sense of fashion was influenced, with the women wearing clothes that showed off their figures. The Kingdom of Raine was right by the equator, making it quite warm, especially during the summer. Hence, residents of the kingdom usually wore less clothing instead of more. Visible belly buttons or exposed thighs were not a rare thing anywhere in the kingdom, but Rose city was more provocative about it, like exposed cleavage.
While Aurora was walking home to the sect with her roomies, they were approached by a man. The man was well-dressed and wearing business attire, and it was difficult to judge his strength. Usually, the only time someone's level of cultivation would be obvious was when they were fighting, as that was the only time their aura would leak out. It would be just as clear when one cultivated, but people rarely cultivated in public.
"Excuse me, but you're Aurora, aren't you?" The man asked, smiling.
"Yes, that's right. Do I know you?" Aurora said. She didn't think she'd ever met this guy, so she was confused.
"No, you don't. I'm a bit of a fan. I've bought all of your videos, and I couldn't help myself," the man laughed.
"My videos? You mean the porn stuff? My, I never expected I'd be recognized while walking down the street. Have my videos really done that well?" Aurora said, a bit flattered.
"You don't know? Your videos have all sold quite well, and your first video, which was put on the site for free, was the most watched one of the month. It got millions of hits," the man said.
"Seriously? I had no idea," Aurora said.
"You never checked? You were the most popular newcomer in quite a while," Koren remarked.
"Indeed, I knew I had to buy all your premium videos since I saw your debut. It's a bit of a shame how slow their releases are," the man said.
"Well, thank you for your patronage. The Blossoming Rose sect appreciates it. And I'm sure you'll be happy to know that since Monday, I've started doing porn full-time and will continue doing so for about a month. You can look forward to at least thirty more videos over the next few months," Aurora said and bowed slightly.
"That does sound great. But while I'm here, I'd actually like to extend you an offer, Aurora. You see, I'm actually a producer myself, although I only make the kind of movies you'd see in the cinema. If you're interested, I'd love to have you play a supporting role in an upcoming movie," the man said.
"A movie? I did not expect that, but it sounds like it could be fun. Regrettably, I'm very strapped for time right now. I'm only an outer disciple, so I have to work every day and take my classes. We only get a single weekend off every month. And even more important, the disciple's tournament is coming up in a few months, and I need to prepare. I have full confidence in becoming an inner disciple, which will clear up my schedule a bit, but after the tournament, we'll probably go on a mission. Most likely, I won't have any time for personal projects until around August or September. And in October, I plan to visit my family for the winter," Aurora explained.
"Yes, I've worked with some of your fellow disciples before, so I'm well aware of your scheduling troubles. However, lucky for you, we haven't even begun preproduction. Filming won't start until late this year and will leak well into the next year," the man said.
"In that case, I suppose I'll do it. Who'll I be playing, then, and what will be expected of me?" Aurora asked.
"Not much has been decided yet, so I can't really give any story details. But your character will be the protagonist's lover, I figure. It's not romance, though, so you won't have quite as many appearances as the main character. You will need to have unsimulated sex, though, but that shouldn't be a problem for you," the man said.
"Sure, no problem. It's still better than doing porn," Aurora said.
"Good. Well then, for now, you can take my card. You can call me when you've returned from your mission so we can set up an audition. I still need to see your acting skills, but I can promise you the role as long as you aren't terrible. Having a disciple from a top-tier sect in a movie is always good for publicity," the man said before handing Aurora a card. Then he left.
"Did that really just happen?" Aurora asked no one in particular.
"Seems like doing porn might actually have done you some good. Acting is pretty good money. You won't even be an extra; this is an actual role," Rila said.
"It's something to look forward to, for sure. It'll probably be a good while until we can see it, though," Koren said.
"How long does it take to make a movie anyway?" Aurora asked.
"Who knows. I imagine editing will probably take at least a few months, so it's probably more than a year away at this point," Koren replied.
More time passed. Eventually, it was April, meaning the tournament was only a month away. Aurora's power mainly had stayed the same during the past two months since she reached the seventh level. She was still some ways off from the eighth rank, despite using sexual cultivation. She'd reached the seventh rank relatively quickly because her virgin energy had boosted her quite a bit.
Aurora estimated that with the aid of sex, she would make it in one or two months. Reaching the ninth level would take longer as it was a bottleneck. Getting to the tenth level after it would be just as tricky, but then she'd only have the final hurdle left to reach the Condensing stage.
Before reaching the next one, the last three breakthroughs of a stage would always be the most difficult as it would require more than just energy to break through. For the Condensing stage, you would have to understand your innate energy veins. It was more complex than just reading a biology textbook, as it would be pretty different for each cultivator.
You had to truly understand your body before pushing it beyond its mortal limits. After all, reaching the Condensing stage represented a two-hundred-year-long average lifespan, more than twice that of an ordinary Body Tempering cultivator.
Similarly, going from Condensing to the Core Building stage required an even more intricate knowledge of yourself.
Indeed, a month had passed since Aurora made her last major breakthrough in strength, but what she had significantly improved was her knowledge of the sword. Just like a cultivator had to increase their understanding of their own body to grow stronger, becoming a master of the sword required knowing the blade just as well as you knew yourself.
While Aurora was no sword sage, her skill in pure swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds under elder Vara's tutelage. And more importantly, after close to three months of working and after filming around forty or fifty porn videos, Aurora had earned enough contribution points to finally get a decent sword technique.
The technique library was a massive building with rows upon rows of shelves, several stories high. Right in the center of the building, in a straight line from the entrance, was where the librarian sat. The librarian was an old woman who looked like she could have been a peerless beauty in her youth but had fallen to the ravages of time. She had been around for centuries, but despite her old age, she was incredibly powerful. She was great elder Genna, and her sole duty was to guard the library. She was always in the library, always with a book in her hand.
The great library of the Blossoming Rose sect was so huge that a hundred lifetimes would not be enough to read every book. There were thousands upon thousands of techniques, but that was only a tiny part of what the library held. There were so many books inside that no one even knew the number, many predating the sect in age. History books from thousands of years ago, fiction written by dead civilizations, or modern books. Every book published by registered publishers had a copy sent to the library. As far as libraries go, the Blossoming Rose sect had the biggest in the nation. Some might consider that a ridiculous expense, considering the tiny number of people that could access it, but the bookworms in the sect certainly appreciated it. It was also possible for outsiders to get a visitor's pass to the library, but it wasn't easy.
If you needed to know something, the library could guarantee that they had that information. The only question was whether you were allowed to read it or not. Only the most powerful sects could boast a library comparable to this one, having spent centuries, if not millennia collecting literary works and martial techniques.
As an outer disciple, there was a limit to how far up into the library she could go, but there were still plenty of decent techniques she could choose from. Suppose she waited until she was an inner disciple. Aurora could get a better technique in that case, but it was a good idea to begin with more straightforward techniques to build her foundation. First of all, Aurora's understanding of the sword still needed to reach a point where it was easy to practice a complicated technique.
If she tried practicing several simpler sword techniques, it would better her understanding of the sword and how it could be used through various techniques. Second, knowing many simple techniques would give her greater flexibility. Most sword techniques focused on one aspect. Some techniques were excellent in several areas, but none were great at everything. For example, Aurora's Ten Limbed Warrior technique was great at straight-up killing, close combat, and stealth attacks. The energy blades it made were very sharp and invisible, making it a menace to fight against, but its range could have been better. It wasn't the worst, but some techniques could allow you to send a palm against someone standing a dozen meters away.
Say Aurora found a perfect sword technique in the future that was really good at fighting at range, for example. She could then supplement it with several weaker techniques meant for close range. Although, in Aurora's case, her Ten Limbed Warrior technique would serve that purpose. Or she could learn a sword technique that was great at a short distance and become even deadlier in close quarters, then use weaker techniques to fight foes too far away.
Aurora started looking through several techniques that were in her price range, and many of them interested her, but in the end, she decided on two low-rank techniques. The two were relatively cheap and not that great. Still, both of them would cost Aurora almost all her contribution points.
But the important thing was that, despite being weak individually, they would increase Aurora's current combat strength by a good deal. The first technique was called the Streamline Blade. Technically speaking, it was elementary. It had good range, great power, and low energy consumption, but it was very straightforward. It could be powerful and have good range because it wasn't even remotely intricate. If you saw it coming, dodging it would be easy unless the opponent was way stronger.
However, Aurora had no intention of using it for its strength. It would just be a diversion, making the enemy underestimate Aurora. She would use it to draw her opponent in, then surprise them with her invisible energy blades. And should an opportunity arise, like the opponent being stunned or caught off guard, she could use the technique to devastating effect.
The second technique was the more expensive of the two and much more versatile. It was all about close-quarters combat and was focused on the sword itself. It would allow the blade to reach a similar level of deadliness as Aurora's Ten Limb blades. It made the sword both sharper and put more power behind its strikes. It was still far inferior to the Ten Limb blades, of course, since there were ten of them, and they were invisible. This type of technique was widespread and popular, as its power would be directly influenced by how skilled the user was with the sword.
The name of the technique was Severing Rose, and was something an elder of the Blossoming Rose sect had created a long time ago. Naturally, it was prevalent among outer disciples. It alone would cost two-thirds of the total price Aurora had to pay.
"This will do," Aurora mumbled before walking towards the librarian in the center. The old woman quickly glanced at the two techniques and typed something into her computer. She typed much like Aurora had seen her grandmother do in the past, but much faster. Even faster than Aurora could, and she spent quite a bit of her free time on the computer.
"Mmh, good first choice. Streamline Blade is cheap and pretty easy to practice. I assume you intend to use it as a diversion to draw opponents closer, then finish them with Severing Rose. Yes, a fine choice until you save up for some good techniques," the elder said.
"You're wise, elder. That was exactly my intention," Aurora replied. Only now did the old woman raise her head to look at Aurora.
"Oh, you're that brat Vara Kiera took in. Then you probably have some techniques from your old sect, too. Yes, you should do just fine until you can go on a few missions and save up enough for a real technique," the old woman repeated herself.
"You know elder Vara? I'm surprised you would recognize me," Aurora said.
"Yes, that girl Vara just became an elder a few months ago, and she's engaged to elder Mura, so I paid a bit of attention to her. Tell you what, I'll be rooting for you in the tournament. I'm sure you'll be able to become an inner disciple. Then we'll meet again in the fall when you come back for a better technique," the elder said, giving the younger girl a small smile.
"Thank you, elder. I'll be sure to do my best," Aurora bowed.