#SerialKiller
The spirit behind the counter resembled a little light bulb, 'A common ethereal spirit. Even the steward palace wouldn't let a rare spirit become a receptionist… although any spirit is rare, so them existing in this space clearly shows their might.'
"Greetings, lord steward. How may I help you?" The spirit didn't know Ludwig's identity, but anyone that would visit the steward palace would be a steward, and someone who was able to visit in ethereal form would be of high rank, so calling Ludwig 'Lord Steward' is the correct way to address him.
Ludwig smiled, waved his hand and a hologram appeared atop his hand. It was his identification token, 'Envoy of the Steward Palace'. This was the second ability, creating projections of physical objects in the ethereal world. One might think that it isn't something special, but that in itself is a wrong statement. No matter what object, below the fifth stage of cultivation, it wouldn't be able to be present in the ethereal world, no matter the form.
One might think 'this doesn't seem that important' – but again, that is a wrong thought. It is because insentient items are like a dantian. They have a very weak connection to the ethereal world, but they can barely use it. What if someone strengthened the connection and even created their very own projection there? Ludwig himself is only a projection from his physical self, yet he was able to benefit so much from it and advance so quickly.
The same is for these items. Like cultivators, below the fifth stage of cultivation, only cultivation talent mattered, items who aren't sentient will most definitely have no chance to cultivate on their own, their cultivation boundary is also gapped to the quality of their raw material. If they were able to directly absorb spiritual power through such a projection, it would mean a change of insentience to sentience, although not fully, it is indeed so.
How much benefit it brings, that is a different question. The cultivation art is already special enough for having such a spell so early, Ludwig was thankful for that and didn't care about the fact that the first two spells were rather useless to him.
On the other side of the counter, when the spirit saw the special token, they naturally understood the importance behind that, but they were used to seeing such things, so they weren't too surprised because of that. No, what surprised them was something else – an Envoy!
It was able to somewhat feel the strength of Ludwig, yet for him to have a rank so high while being this weak, it understood the importance of the matter and asked once again "Please tell me how I can serve the Lord!"
"Send a message for me. To the third young master. Can you do that?"
The spirit bowed, although the stature looked weird since they were just a light bulb. Some spiritual power around it moved until it stopped. It bowed once again and Ludwig nodded before ordering "Tell him these exact words: Little Ye, meet me at the Steward Palace, in front of the general affairs hall in a month."
Then Ludwig didn't spare any thought and quietly removed the projection of the token before his body dissipated. At least this function of Ethereal Walk was good, it would let his body dissipate into mist that was pulled this way through the link, looking much better than having his body being pulled by a string around the landscape.
In the residence of the third young master, a few seconds after Ludwig's message.
"Big brother Ludwig invited me to his residence, will you come with me, Wei'er?" Ye asked his fiancé.
When she heard what Ye said, she was surprised then happy "I wonder how much big brother progressed? Do you think he would play us something with his violin? All his plays are being spread nowadays, talented people came up with new songs, but everyone still says that the plays of big brother Ludwig are supreme and won't be overtaken by anyone else."
This was the difference between power and comprehension. A creative mind is something that everyone wishes to have, most successful cultivators do have this, but only for their respective direction. Ludwig might not have the creative mind of the ones he paginates, but he has a dedication and passion to the Violin like many of the lesser violin geniuses.
…
While Ye and the others talked, Ludwig looked into his whip art. He had neglected it somewhat because he wasn't interested just yet. Now that he has managed his soul art and the planting, it was time for him to properly look into his whip art.
Properly is subjective, since just after a few seconds, Ludwig seemed to be amused. The foundation establishment chapter only included one line: "For the fluid whip, there is no path. A river flows through where it wishes, when it is moody, it will cause a flood, when it is depressed, it will leave, any other additions will go against the idea of the art, so the cultivator will have to use his whip like an extension of not themselves but the nature controlled by their consciousness."
Ludwig laughed 'No wonderthe elder gave this to me although I have already gotten so many things from him. It seems that this art is a perfect fit to me, no wonder no wonder.'
But Ludwig agreed, a real fluid whip is supposed to move the way it wishes, with only three goals: Attack, Defend, Control. Any other more detailed directioning is superfluous.
Once he understood this principle, everything else was very simple. The rest month, he spent simply using his whip as he wished and he flowed through the air as he was part of the wind itself.
…
On this deciding day, Ludwig arrived at the entrance of the general affairs hall. He sat at a nearby bench and enjoyed the view he didn't care to look at before. He felt as if a part of his soul relaxed a lot more, but another part also told him to do more.