Lily rubbed her hands together like a fly and looked at Zhang Ze as she spoke.

"If we're talking about my biggest inspiration, that has to be you, Boss. If you hadn't come up with that Acquired Tao Embryo spell, and then gone for a stroll in the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm, I wouldn't have pulled this off."

As she spoke, Lily started patting herself down, and finally pulled out a proposal.

The proposal was written in cipher; only Lily herself could read the words on it.

Flipping to the back, Lily conjured up a small blackboard, then clapped her hands to signal everyone to look over.

"First of all, we have to start with Boss…"

The trial assembly had turned into Lily's little classroom.

And Lily really lived up to being the Divine who could tutor Hei Qu; under her clear and simple explanation, everyone gradually understood everything.

According to Lily, when her evil plan had hit a bottleneck, it was precisely her beloved Boss who delivered warmth to her doorstep.

As her research into the Acquired Dao Body and the Earth Sea went deeper and deeper, Lily came up with new ideas and completely overturned all her previous plans.

The so‑called "flesh is weak and pitiful, the Earth Sea ascends."

Lily decided to create twin‑tails that existed in both reality and the Earth Sea at the same time.

"Back then I thought, if the tides of the Earth Sea are the beginning and end of all worlds, then maybe the road after Mahayana is there too." Lily tapped on the blackboard as she spoke.

"I've already gone through the data from the previous season's civilization. Right now, a single Mahayana Cultivator is stronger than their most powerful weapon at their peak. Their resistance to the Earth Sea also far surpasses…"

But Lily trailed off at this point, because among those present there was still a random Little Monk mixed in, and she wasn't sure if he ought to be hearing this stuff.

The Little Monk also had a face that clearly said: crap, did I just hear something I shouldn't? Are they going to silence me?

The Little Monk immediately tried to stand up to take his leave, but Old Tang pushed him back down with one hand.

"It's fine, you should hear it. You're going to find out sooner or later anyway."

Old Tang often went over to Thousand Mechanism Temple to scrounge around in his spare time; he was very familiar with this Little Monk and his master, and knew the kid's character was kind and his temperament good, and his talent was excellent too.

The Little Monk said, "But my identity…"

Old Tang waved his hand. "Identity my ass…"

He only got halfway through before swallowing the rest of it. After all, the only reason he could swagger around wherever he pleased right now was largely thanks to the perks that came with being Sect Leader.

Eating the dividends while bragging, that would be a bit too double‑standard.

Old Tang corrected himself. "Fine, identity is still useful. Mm, we can do this instead…"

As he spoke, Old Tang fished an iron token out of his robe. He read the names on it while gesturing with his hand, as if thinking about where to put down the brush.

Zhang Ze looked at the iron scroll and felt it looked familiar somehow, but he couldn't remember where he'd seen it before.

Old Tang didn't care about the others' gazes. After thinking seriously for a while, he picked an empty spot between the names of Tang's grand‑nephew Zhuge Ye and Wang Qing.

Old Tang breathed a warm puff onto his fingertip, then added the Little Monk's name onto it.

Only to see a flash of green light on the iron scroll. When the name was written, something in the dark linked the Little Monk and Old Tang together.

After he finished, Old Tang patted the Little Monk's shoulder.

"Alright, your identity's good enough now.

"No need to go back to the temple in a bit, just come straight back to Dragon Tiger Mountain with me. I'll talk to Monk Ma about your situation. Our Buddhist Sect and Dragon Tiger Mountain cultivate both sides; you still call him 'Master' like before.

"In a couple of days I'll have Tang take you for a foot‑washing, so you can properly experience the culture of our lineage."

The Little Monk: "╭(°A°`)╮"

Hearing Old Tang's weird remarks, Zhang Ze finally remembered what that thing was.

That iron scroll was the Dragon Tiger Mountain roster; the names of anyone who received the inner‑chamber true teachings would be recorded on it.

Zhang Ze's name was also on it. The first time he met Old Tang, he'd been unilaterally accepted by Old Tang as his good junior brother.

Although Zhang Ze didn't care and never brought it up normally, getting your name on there was a colossal stroke of fortune for most people.

And while Old Tang might be scatter‑brained a lot of the time, he wouldn't actually mess around with something like this.

That Little Monk might really have something special. Zhang Ze stretched his neck to peek at the scroll, planning to see what this one's name was.

"Hm?"

Zhang Ze stared at the three new characters that had appeared on the iron scroll.

[Jiang Liu'Er]

At the sight of this name, two BGM tracks instantly popped into Zhang Ze's head. When he looked at the Little Monk again, he felt this kid was definitely destined for greatness.

Either he'd go all the way west, or he'd bring about peace under heaven.

...

Once this little interlude passed, Lily glanced at Jiang Liu'Er, whose face had gone red like a braised egg the moment he heard the words "foot‑washing." She gave a light cough and pulled everyone's attention back.

Lily drew a few pictures on the blackboard.

Two little stick figures with a ball between them.

The first stick figure was probably Zhang Ze, because the character "Zhang" was written on its face.

The second little ball had the characters for Dao Body written in the middle.

The third little stick figure had the character "Immortal" written on its face.

"Personally, I feel like, Immortal Cultivation should follow this flowchart.

"First you have intelligence, then you grasp an innate or Acquired Dao Body, and finally you adapt to or control the Earth Sea and become a true immortal.

"I don't know what immortals look like, but if you can't manage undying and indestructible, you don't deserve to be called a True Immortal.

"And if you want to be undying and indestructible, you have to get past the Earth Sea stage."

"My little cuties are the result of this. They're more adapted to the Earth Sea than all life on the Four Continents."

Lily slapped her notebook with a pap‑pap; it recorded the detailed process of this evil biological experiment. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"You all saw just now, even Master Cheng couldn't do anything to them, because…" Lily thought for a moment, and finally came up with a fitting term. "Because they're not even on the same layer."