A few seconds of silence followed before the old man ended the discussion "Alright, tell me what you wish to learn. You can choose a cultivation art, weapon art and creation art."
It didn't take long for Ludwig to decide "A soul cultivation art, a whip fighting art and a music art." The first was simple, it was his greatest asset and even if it wasn't obvious at first, the higher ups very likely have already seen that his soul had some kind of awakening or mutation. It's a rare but not unknown occurrence to happen in life and death situations.
The whip was a multi-usage weapon strong in low and middle range, rolled up it's capable of acting like a dagger, at least he has seen someone fight with a whip like that in the numerous memories, while fully stretched it's got a higher range than a spear. The only reason it isn't used as much as neither the dagger nor the spear is because it takes up a lot of space on full length, making it harder for a whole troop to equip the weapon, while daggers are often used as hidden weapons and a whip isn't exactly hidden, it can be, but it is less hidden than a dagger.
As for the music art, well, he likes playing his violin and creation arts are usually something profit off or create things. All artistic arts are included in the more uncommon creation arts, calligraphy can barely be counted as more common since many talisman masters learn it. The four major creation arts, based on their popularity are alchemy, weapon smithing, talismans and formations.
Based on difficulty of learning it's formations, weapon smithing, alchemy and talismans. In both cases, weapon smithing and alchemy are relatively similar and are only minorly behind the other. Contrary to many people's expectations, alchemy is easier because in the end it's a one-time consumable and has much fewer restrictions than weapon smithing.
Music is a creation art in that it creates a product, a consumable one that can be listened to, grandmaster musicians are able to directly put someone in the state of enlightenment, but the lower hurdle is quite high, and it is even more unrewarding than alchemy initially.
Middle ranked is somewhat misleading. Ranked clans start at lower, climb to middle, grow to higher and become supreme. Every clan whose top power is at or below the core formation realm isn't even ranked and is called lesser, so naturally although middle ranked doesn't sound so much, the Stardust Clan has been in existence for several thousands of years, their accumulation of knowledge in all fields brought them a foundation stronger than some new higher ranked clans, so naturally they aren't lacking in the field of cultivation arts.
"We have many soul arts, as an elite trainee you are given the opportunity to learn the highest three arts in our possession, the Soul Devouring art, a semi-demonic art which helps the cultivator grow by consuming the souls of monsters and cultivators alike." The Stardust Clan has never been part of the righteous faction, they are part of the unrighteous faction because of their structure.
The neutral faction is the faction of most rogue cultivators, and the Stardust Clan can be called to be one of the three giants of the Neutral Faction, only because of their sheer size, but in power they are the weakest of the three.
The first is the Rogue Cultivator Alliance roaming the land and the second is the Marine Rogue Cultivator Union, a union between several independent marine rogue cultivators who occupy some of the large islands on the boundless ocean. Marine Rogue Cultivator is just a nicer term for Pirate. All the other neutral factionists may have higher top power than the Stardust Clan, but they lack in every aspect of foundation and often regress after their top power dies. Which is the reason why those people fear the retribution of the longstanding Stardust Clan.
"There are also the Divine Soul Art which purifies the soul and strengthens it in all aspects as well s the Wandering Soul Art, it is the most unique art which enables the soul of the cultivator to leave the body and change many aspects of itself while only the core remains."
'The first two are essentially helping the growth for the soul and are auxiliary arts for most, they might have useful things but can't be cultivated as a main art. Only the Wandering Soul Art has true characteristics of soul cultivators and makes the soul the core of the self, not the body like it is for most arts. For the Stardust Clan to possess it but have no stable soul cultivator branch… it seems it's a difficult art to learn.'
Only a few seconds passed till Ludwig answered "I wish to cultivate the Wandering Soul Art."
A glimpse of satisfaction spread across the old man's eyes, he had intentionally put the art last, partly in hopes to put emphasis on it, but it would also come across his least favourite art since he didn't say it first. Then he waved his hand, and a light came from the library behind him, the light disappeared, and an object landed on the table, it was a jade slip, a conservation method used to convey the teachings much more direct, but the old man didn't hand it over just yet.
"We have many whip arts, is there any you look for in particular?"
"It is best if it's and all-rounder in offense, defense and control, flexibility should be the main key." He wasn't planning to be an assassin with he whips, no, that would be his secondary weapon at best, he would learn it for the physical world.
The old man nodded satisfied once again and directly waved his hand. A book with the cover 'Fluid Whip Art' fell on the table "It is a water-attribute whip art, I heard you were tested to have the Water, Wood and Metal spiritual roots.
Metal gives birth to water and water gives birth to wood, it is a good circulation where metal is the weakest and wood the strongest, water in the middle is good. In the future, it would be good for you to have a metal-attribute vine as your whip.
The metal attribute is weak but existent and equally strong in defense and offensive, the wood attribute is inherently the major attribute of all plants while water flows freely through vines."
Ludwig bowed and cupped his hands "I thank the predecessor for teaching me!" He naturally had some initial knowledge of Daoism and such, but with barely any time he didn't think of his weapon any deeper, so he was truly thankful for the advice.
"It's nothing. I heard you invented a new instrument… the Violin?"
"Yes!" Ludwig was somewhat excited and took the Violin from his storage bag, a gift he received for achieving the first stage of qi refining. In essence barely anything changed except that he could use his qi more freely and had more of it. It is common knowledge that the Qi Refining realm might be the first stage of cultivation, but real cultivation starts only with foundation building. It is the realm where a child learns the way of cultivation. Well, for some truly lesser clans, this would also be their end.
The elder looked at the violin and was a bit interested, but in the end, it wasn't too different from other weapons besides some quirks. He didn't think much of it. After all, the mortals under the clan would invent something new every now and then. The reward they would receive might be something major for them, but for cultivators, it was at most a month of their expenses.
"Unlike the common creation arts, artistic arts such a painting, dancing or music have a different kind of inheritance.
They don't have recipes you can follow to learn, at most there is inspiration, but in most cases, they only teach the techniques. Your instrument is new, we can either give you the music inheritance for the predecessor or a general inheritance for the creation art which includes several techniques. The former includes parts of the latter."
Ludwig shook his head "The inheritance of an inferior product won't be of as much help as the general inheritance. I would like to choose that."
The old man laughed out loud "Inferior? HAHAHA! Alright, how about you show me something with your instrument?" Ludwig might not know, but that instrument was actually cultivated by quite a lot of cultivators in the clan. It wasn't on the level of proper cultivation and was mostly used for socialising purposes, but it was still used.
Ludwig nodded, he took his violin and put in on his shoulder, leaning slightly with his head for stability but not weight, his fingers took out the bow and he moved a bit to warm them up, before he decided to instantly surprise the elder man with a very popular piece, naturally only a part of it, the elder didn't have that much time.
[Vivaldi: Winter, 1. Movement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwzk2hTLOYI]
The beginning didn't impress the old man, but with each second it became greater and greater. In the end he stroked his beard and said "This is indeed a superior instrument to it's predecessor. You have done great work.
An instrument such as yours can shine in many different ways. The general inheritance is truly better, it includes auxiliary techniques to enhance the sound as well as the techniques to attack and defend with the instrument. Combined with your soul cultivation… if you do well, it will become a much greater asset than your whip art. It seems I worried for nothing!"
In the end he waved his hand once again and another jade slip flew to him, he handed the three things to Ludwig before sending him away.