I took a few hours to manage myself since I was apparently slightly uncomfortable with my body at the time. Three years without using your body can be a little bit difficult to recover from since I had been used to a smaller body.
And since Ling Cao was an adolescent when I first hosted his body, he now had a growth spurt and his proportions changed. Making it slightly strange to move comfortably until I managed to fully adjust to my new self.
I walked out of the palace I was in and found my garden in pretty damn good shape.
Since I had not been keeping it proper someone had managed on my behalf.
"Death Defying Hands, you're up," spoke a friendly female voice.
I cringed as I heard that title once again, turning it was the same brunette of that day that helped me when I was treating her friend. Luan if I remember was the name of the sick girl, but I never got the name of the brunette.
"Call me Ling Cao, it sounds less edgy," I said.
"But…"
"Just call me by my name, also I never got yours," I said.
"It's Yan Ryong,"
"Okay Yan, were you the one taking care of the garden?" I asked.
"Yes, me and sister Luan, she is over there hiding behind the Grazer Pale Leif," she said.
I was surprised at first because, how did she know what's the name of that plant? That's not something common, and secondly, how the heck did these girls manage a garden full of poisonous plants, anything here can kill a man ten times over upon contact.
My surprise was clearly apparent.
"Let me guess, you're wondering why we're not dead yet," she said.
"Of course," I replied to Yan then turned my head to the other girl and spoke up, "Also come over and stop hiding."
"Y-yes I'm coming," she said as she slowly and carefully made her way through the plants.
"How did you guys manage this garden?" I asked.
"I'm sorry I knew we should have asked for permission first!" the bashful and slightly embarrassed Luan said.
"How can you ask for permission when I was comatose for years. Anyway, you did good but how did you learn about these?" I asked as I pointed at the plants.
"We asked Elder Wei to give us permission to study Toxicology, and he gave us plenty of materials to study, after having learned all of the properties of the plants in your garden by heart, we started tending to them. We did have a few close calls but with preparation, we managed to subvert any… inconveniences," Luan said.
"You're a lousy liar," I said.
My words came as a surprise to both of them, "Subvert my ass, the two of you are stocked up on poisonous remains you're not even noticing it. Just wearing protection from these poisons doesn't mean that you'll be immune to them," I sighed.
I then approached the two of them and placed my palm on each of their foreheads.
I sent in a divine sense and called upon all the poisonous remains within their bodies, they were small in quantity but if not dealt with, they'll cause them to slowly start dying.
Waves of Poison Qi shot up through them and then began beckoning the poisons towards where I wanted them to go.
Soon, the two girls' faces turned pale and they both each turned to a different location and began barfing their last week's meals.
"That should do the trick, wash your mouths well and you'll be good to go, thank you for taking care of the garden, but I'll be doing that from now on," I said then before they could talk I took a step forward and began stepping through the skies using the Ancient Step.
My footwork was sloppy but wasn't bad enough to embarrass me in front of the people watching. My destination was the Sect Master's Main palace where he said he'll be meeting a friend.
Arriving there, I knew exactly where to go, after all, the Sect Master's balls were so big that he actually had signs indicating the direction and location of the treasury.
It's more like a taunt to anyone who'd dare come to his sect. The treasures are there, take them if you can.
Not a single elder stopped me from making my way, thankfully, they knew who I was and didn't seem like people who would want to cause a scene for nothing. Some sort of meeting had already been going on when I got there.
"Ah speak of the devil!" spoke the sect Master as if he had been expecting me to come at this exact moment.
"This? This is your honorary elder? Are you mad, Golden Titan? Or did you grow senile that you're now making elders out of kids who have not a single hair on their balls?!"
Of all the people in the room, only the person who had spoken was someone I'd never seen in the sect before.
He wore a set of dark robes, and his face was covered in what seemed to be an expressionless mask.
The only defining characteristic of his whole person was the strange symbol on his chest. And I knew that symbol and what it meant.
"Ingrained Wisdom, The Creedless," I muttered.
Immediately the man who seemed to disregard my presence snapped his head towards me surprise clear on his face even if his face was an expressionless porcelain mask.
"How? No, Golden Titan must have told you," he said.
"Tell me what?" I questioned.
"I don't wish to play these games…" the man in the mask said.
"I didn't tell him anything, to be honest, I'm surprised he could even read that…after all, I only know your title, not your Position…" the sect master said.
"Then you're telling me that this brat managed to decipher the Imperial Codex?" the man in the mask said.
"I would not know, what if you ask him yourself?" asked the sect master.
The man in the mask looked at me and then waved his hand drawing with Qi several dozen symbols in the air then he complied them into one single symbol.
I didn't even need to wait for him to speak, as I channeled my own Poison Qi in my finger and began drawing similar symbols to him then compacted them on top of his own symbol causing the two to collide then collapse disappearing from the air.
"When did you nurture such a monster…" the man in the mask said.
"Would you believe me if I told you I never did?" the Sect Master grinned.
"This is extremely strange, how come someone who isn't of Imperial Blood able to write Imperial Letters, understand them and then compose nullifiers to them? were you taught by an imperial? No, teaching Imperial Letters without having Imperial Blood is impossible, the connotations and calculations of Imperial Codex are too complex for none imperial blood are too complex to calculate…what kind of monster are you, kid?" asked the man in a mask.
"I'm just a person who enjoys arithmetic," I shrugged.
"Well, now that the introductions are over, do you think him unfit to join us?" asked the Sect Master.
"His cultivation level is far too low," the man in mask replied.
"Where we'll be going doesn't really care about a person's cultivation level, and you know that best," the Sect Master said.
"Yes, but the path there is far too dangerous…" the masked man said.
"I'll personally protect him if the need comes," the sect Master smiled.
"Hmm… then so be it, I needed another brain to help me contain that monstrosity anyway. All help is appreciated, however!" the man in the mask said as he turned to me, "You will have to do exactly as I say, follow my orders to the letter, I don't really care if you even have to perish for it, your and my life are of no value to what our goal is, I expect complete obedience!" the man in mask said.
This caused me slight annoyance but seeing the Sect Master's pleading look to just go along had me calm down on the flurry of insults I was gracefully picking through my head.
After all the Sect Master promised to teach me the true Fist of Roaring Ki, so I had to bear with this masked person.