Arc arrived at his home after his long travels, and before he could even sit down he heard knocking on his door.
'What could that be?'
Arc thought to himself, before turning around to open the door
As he opened the door he saw Aurora, she stood there towering before him
"G-Greating elder Aurora"
Arc spoke nervously, not knowing why she was here
"Archean, you have quite the nerve"
Aurora spoke agitated
"W-what"
'W-w-what did i do?'
"Give me the notebook, i know of the drawings you've made of me "
Aurora spoke, teasing him
"Ha, you should've seen the look on your face, you probably thought you were gonna die"
Aurora laughed, then spoke
"well if I find any unflattering drawings, then you might"
A forced laugh escaped Arc's mouth as he felt embarrassed, both that she scared him, and that she knew of the drawings,
His hand began to shake as he handed her the notebook worried that his drawings would offend her,
'Good now this brat will think twice before doing something that will make me blush'
Aurora thought to herself as he opened the book,
she began to look at the pictures and most were simple pictures of her, standing next to him towering over him,
and one of her siting and still being slightly taller than him while he stood.
Then the last photo, the beautiful sunset that nearly brought a tear to arc's heart, at one point he felt the drawing wasn't complete and added her.
She stood in a towering white dress, with the beautiful sunset behind her she seemingly eclipsed the sun.
'T-this brat'
Her face flushed red before she spoke
"I have been lenient but it seems you wish to test my patience"
She walked into his house dragging him in then the door seemingly closed itself as it was closed by her spiritual power.
Several hours later she walked out with a smile on her face and her checks slightly red, before flying away.
Arc face was bright red, with a plaster smile, and his clothes a mess, furniture in the house was broken, and he could hardly stand.
It took awhile before Arc could calm down, but after finally calming down he changed clothes then headed towards the library.
"Brat you finally remembered that i exist"
The old librarian spoke
"Old man i was busy, i broke through and became a qi cultivator"
Arc spoke apologetically
"Hm, congrats brat"
"Can you let me onto the second floor?"
Arc asked hopefully
The old man threw him the keys
"Lock up when your done"
He spoke before turning his attention to a book that was before him.
"Thanks "
Arc headed up to the second floor and immediately began looking for earth elements techniques and spells.
He would first focus on the techniques he had talent in, then secondary master basic skills of of all elements.
Even if he lacks talent in the other elements, he can still use the spells at a lower efficiency, meaning he can use them as a way to train his energy control.
But regardless they won't be strong compared to his earth elements abilities.
He first found the qi manuals and began searching for the most suitable one for him,
"Dimond qi art, it increases the density of qi significantly such a technique would help in both foundation establishments and golden core , Ah you need to rub dragon blood unto yourself to use it, lame"
"Magma rock, a fire earth qi technique that not suitable for me my best elements are wind and earth, earth being my best wind being the minimum , while in the other elements in no better than a mortal "
This process continued as he analyzed each technique's strengths and weaknesses looking for the one most compatible with him
"Lighting tempering stone? Lame technique name, lets see, it condenses the wind element into lighting that can be used in attacks and acts as a fuel to temper the earth elements in your body, it can also be used to increase body strength but it requires a powerful physique, ha, i doubt there are many who at qi cultivation compares to my own"
After memorizing the technique The next part was simpler, spells were a lot less complicated to deal with, so he just directly copied every spell he found, before leaving and heading home for the day.
'Should i leave the sect?, or should i stay?
Im having second thoughts, i don't want to leave anymore'
"I don't know what to do"
Arc spoke conflicted, he had confidently set a plan, that now bursted into flames because he can't stop thinking about her , He had fallen head over heels.
Now that he was back at the sect he had to resume his forge work, he would take that as a moment to breath snd think
After arriving to the forge he began to prepare everything and did a thorough cleaning of his work station someone else was filling in for him when he was out and they weren't as thorough as Arc
Almost an hour later a young kid arrived the "MC material" Arc brought to the sect
"Welcome to the forge, what you do want? Do you want to rent a room or commission something ?"
" i want to commission something"
The kid spoke while looking around seemingly very interested
"Ok what is it?"
Arc spoke casually
The kid reached into his pocket and pulled it out, a cracked ring
"Can you fix it, its all i have left of my mom,"
' wow this kid is a bad liar, he couldn't even look me in the eye as he said that'
Arc didn't respond he just lifted his hand over and grabbed the ring
' I don't have a single clue of materials was used in this, I can tell it has a powerful earth element, maybe i can use silver infused with my qi to act as glue'
Arc proceeded to heat up some silver then he grabbed a handful of liquid silver absolutely terrifying the kid, he then used his qi to guide the silver into the cracks and his qi which was composed of the purest earth element, was used to nurture the silver,helping it to bond with the original material used in crafting the ring
"Here you go"
Arc handed him the ring
"How much do i owe you"
The boy asked
"due to it being repair in the material I was using being mortal metal, its cheaper, only 10 spirit stones"
Arc seemingly reasoned with him to explain how it's a cheap price, but to be honest, he could just see that the exact amount of spirit stones the kid had on him
"Okaay"
He handed over his spirit stones with a tear running down his face
The kid left the room after that and as he was walking away a voice appeared in his mind
'Brat, i told you the ring was unrepairable and you didn't listen,
Thank-you, because it actually did fix it for the most part'
"Really? It worked?"
'Yes he basically stopped the energy leaking by using silver loaded with pure earth element the purity was inhuman, he probably has a natural earth spirit physique'
Arc stayed in the forge for the rest of day and when no one else came during that time, he went home and began researching spells
"Mud to stone, and stone to mud, these seem like versatile spells in guess i can start with these"
By using earth elements qi in changing the density of dirt, he can make it into mud than harder than bricks
And continued to to practice, attempting to decrease the cast time of the spell, as it took nearly 4 seconds to activate, something that would be completely useless in combate
This practice continued onto the next morning Aurora returned
"Archean, pack your bags"
She spoke assertively
Arc directly complied, nothing good would come from angering her
After taking all his stuff and placing it within a storage ring, she placed her hand upon his shoulder, and took to the sky
Before Arc could even process she grabbed him-they had arrived, after looking around he realized he that they were on the first peak of the mountain
This was were the grand elders and sect leader lived, the 3 Golden core cultivator's, and a nascent soul cultivator
"Th-this is the mountain peak"
Arc look around completely shocked
"Finally realize just who exactly you have been flirting with"
Aurora giggled watching his reaction
"Your a Grand elder of the sect?"
Arc felt he was fear, he knows that she seems to have a positive opinion of him, but if she finds out about his physique things may not end well for him
"Don't chicken out now"
She spoke as she pointed towards a house
"Go pick a room, oh and if anyone ask, don't tell the the truth, tell them your one of my students"
"Y-yes okay"
Arc spoke nervously this may be the most dangerous place to be right now
After entering the house, he found that there was several empty rooms, and he found one towards the back of the house before unloading all of his stuff
When he turned around he found that there was a uniform used by core disciples, waiting for him and he changed into it remembering what she had said
'I never thought i would become a core disciple like this, it feels embarrassing'
Arc was now feeling embarrassed realizing he had flirted his way to a position thats meant for the strongest or most talented members of the sect
Arc left his new room in search of Aurora, to talk to her about these new arrangements
"Grand elder Aurora, may i ask you"
Arc was the cutoff by her
"Did you think everything wouldn't change after what happened?
And don't call talk to me like that, we are passed it, call me Aurora"
Before Arc could interject she continued to speak,
"Now listen here, you have 2 options be complacent with yourself, and the fact that i like you very much and use that to slack off,
Or use this as a driving force to grow stronger"
" don't forget i only talked to you the first time because of the talent you showed in forging,
if you want to be complacent than i will grow bored of you, i don't enjoy weakness"
"So here is your challenge, reach the Golden core stage before the age of 100, and I'll accept you as my dao companion,
Fail to do so, and i'll play with you until i get bored"
As she spoke she got closer and by the time she utter the last one she was leaning over him,completely towering over Arc, his face was beet red, and his heart raced in both fear and joy
"I will become a gold core cultivator, i can do it, i will do it! "
Arc voice was no louder than a whisper, than grew louder more confident
His previous fears of his physique was gone, this is a world of cultivation, there is no easy ascension, if he wants to reach the top he has to rid his fears and challenge himself beyond what is possible, and if he couldn't that, then he would die without anyone to mourn him
This brought a smile to Aurora's face she didn't want the person she fell for to be a weak fool who relied on her
She has given him the position of core disciple, and that will be the extent of the help she will grant, he must do this on his own, if he couldn't, than they were never meant to be