Theo entered the main hall only to freeze in shock when he saw the full attendance.
'Why do the girls seem so… passionate? And aren't their robes a bit loose?'
The disciples all looked at him with burning eyes like a bunch of fierce tigresses watching a cute lamb bouncing in their direction. The sight sent a chill down Theo's spine. Even the usually-shy girls were no exception this time, some of them wore cleavage so deep their tits might as well be outside entirely!
*Gulp*
Theodor gulped down his saliva as he forced himself not to stare at anyone specific. He soon made it to his seat, and the two leaders of the sect stood there, one with a knowing smile, and the other with a displeased frown. The smiling one was Maria. She found the whole ordeal amusing.
The frowning woman was Veronica, who did not like the flushed faces of her disciples. She knew very well what was going on in the girls' minds. After all, she was a woman too, and she needs of her own. All this time she forced them to behave by making them train within the sect and follow strict rules whenever going outside.
As for Theodore, to prevent the sect from turning him into a lustful good-for-nothing playboy, she especially made a law banning sex under the age of sixteen. Veronica didn't outlaw Theo directly simply because she wished for him to marry one of the best geniuses of the sect eventually.
But those girls… they were overdoing it! They were practically ready to pin him down and go for a ride!
'Forget it, I will just bring up Theo's future to ruin the mood,' Veronica decided on a strategy to save her beloved child from being reversed gangbanged on his birthday.
"Theo, come here, I have prepared a one-meter-long noodle for tonight. I have been working on it for three days and three nights, crafting the dough over and over again every time it broke. Even the pot was specially made for the occasion!"
The young man was left speechless. They had a custom to eat a long noodle on one's birthday to symbolize long life and prosperity, but why did this woman expect him to stuff his mouth with a meter-long noodle?
He could only shake his head mentally while wearing a big smile, "Thank you, Sect Leader," he said. They couldn't get too touchy in public, so he only clasped his fist in a traditional salute. They had no qualms about cuddling intimately when they were in private, though.
"Quickly, come eat your noodle!"
Theo slurped the noodle, his mouth slowly getting filled beyond his capabilities. The more he took, the bigger his doubts became on whether he could even swallow that noodle eventually.
'What am I supposed to do…' He thought dejectedly under the watchful eyes of the noodle master.
The rest of the celebration passed happily. Veronica brought out some wine for the older disciples, and Theo raised the first toast of his current life. However, the boy didn't dare get too drunk when he recalled how his previous life ended.
'And there's no truck-kun in this life to take me to a better world…' he pondered. It was just a passing thought. Even if truck-kun was there, Theo wouldn't want to be transmigrated again, even if it included a better aptitude pack.
He was attached to the two ladies and their disciples, they were his family for sixteen years. The way the girls called him 'Senior Brother' only added to the kinship felt.
"You are an adult now, Theo," Veronica smiled at him as she stroked his hair gently. That was a minimal physical touch she could not compromise on even in public. As for the reason she had brought it up; the girls were getting dangerously close in their encirclement.
"Senior Brother, how about I escort you to your room to rest?"
"Senior Brother, I couldn't buy you gifts for your birthday, but I can give you a massage tonight..."
"Senior Brother, forget those noisy girls, let's do everything quietly and peacefully."
Those shameless girls turned more and more aggressive, each trying to stand out among her peers. A female-only sect might be a safe haven for the disciples who did not have to worry about cruel young masters forcing them into action, but there were other hardships!
"I am," Theo nodded. He was not an idiot. The girls were very direct with their thirst, and his 'mommy' was also quite obvious in her attempts to deprive him of debauchery.
"Did you think about what you want to do in the future?" she asked, executing her master plan to stop the impatient disciples of her.
Indeed, the girls immediately felt their chests tighten at the question. They all looked at the young man in worry. Unlike cultivators in stories, there was no culture of looking down on mortals in the sect, and none of them thought of him as unworthy.
The reason was simple, they were the only cultivators in the area, they were new cultivators, and their families were all mortals. There were no male cultivators beyond the first stage in proximity at all, so wanting to marry only cultivators made no sense…
A Qi Gathering cultivator might be stronger than other humans, but not enough to oppress them with his strength into submission, so there wasn't any practical meaning to that stage in the big scheme of things.
"Senior Brother can just stay here, I will take good care of him…" Cecilia, a cute redhead, interjected weakly.
"Right, there should be some space for family members within the sect…" Another added, claiming the young man as hers without the permission of the others, not even his.
"It's alright," Theo chuckled and raised his hand. He wasn't shy with those girls, he had grown up with them after all. They played together in their free time and spent time talking to each other. Each one of them, even the younger ones, were as close as family to him.
He could only be thankful for retaining his memories from his previous life, otherwise, he would surely turn out sissy from his way of life here. Just the thought sent shivers down his spine. No boy would grow up to be manly after growing up in a female-only community.
"Sect Leader, I decided to be a cultivator. Please check my aptitude once more!" He declared confidently.
"Oh? Did your meditation produce results?" Veronica sent one soft hand in keen interest, her finger touching his glabella. She sent a wisp of Qi into his consciousness and the time his consciousness needed to eliminate the foreign energy attested to his potential.
"Twelve seconds, that's unranked talent," the sect leader nodded in satisfaction. "You did well for persisting that long," she complimented the boy.
At first, Theodor thought he wouldn't need more than two or three years to finish his meditation, but he looked down on the hardships of cultivation too much. A year of meditation took him six years to complete, and it wasn't because he was lazy.
Every day he would put in effort to sit down and empty his mind, letting his physique adjust to the Qi and build an affinity with it. Unfortunately, emptying his mind took time, and every slight stimulus would make his thoughts wander to uncharted areas.
Overall, he only managed to secure four pure hours of meditation every day on average. It might not sound like much, but it's a lot. Veronica was not one to be impressed by casual achievements.
"Does it mean I can stay?" he asked his foster mother.
The woman looked at him, conflicted. She wouldn't deny him of his hard work, she always appreciated those who did their best. And yet, he would be forever mediocre in the cultivation world. She wished him to achieve greatness in the mortal world, to live a life with a purpose.
"You can stay for as long as you like. If you feel like you want to go outside and explore the mortal world, you can always go. It wouldn't be parting with us, you can always visit and even marry one of the girls here," she eventually decided.
Veronica herself was unwilling to let him descend the mountain. Once he was busy with his life down there, she wouldn't see him more than once a year, and maybe even less as the years passed. She could barely leave the sect now with so many disciples she needed to teach and look after.
Since she promised him to let him stay if he developed a talent before adulthood, the sect leader opted to keep her word. That was a good excuse for both her heart and brain.
"Great!" Everyone sighed in relief.
"I'm leaving, do you want to come with me?" Veronica gave him a meaningful glance. It was a lifeline she threw at him, letting him decide whether he wanted to be devoured by the horde of horny girls or spend some quality time with his overly attached stepmom.
"I will come with you," he quickly jumped off his chair, ignoring the female wolves' disappointed sighs around him.
There was one thing he was eager to do even more than losing his virginity. He needed to check what was going on with his system!
"I guess you girls still shouldn't eat the cucumbers here…" One girl muttered with a tinge of redness on her cheeks.