Chapter 67

The night had passed. Jiang Mang ended his cultivation session and headed towards his masters' cabin. While he was walking, his mind was going through all the rules of the Zither palace.

Inner hall members couldn't leave the palace without their master's permission. They were privileged with two outer hall members and weren't required to fulfill mission.

Techniques, artifacts, and pills could be bought with merits that were distributed every month. Inner hall members have one hundred merits distributed to them a month and could earn more through fulfilling missions.

There were also three trials, which awarded merits based on the performances of the disciples. These were trials that targeted the three professions and a person's achievement in those. These trials were governed by three halls, which were respectively the alchemy, refinement, and formation hall.

The Zither palace was overseen by the palace master and vice-palace master. There were also elders responsible for every hall and office, which were administered by deacons. There were also grand elders and an ancestor, who guarded the palace.

Disciples were not allowed to fight inside the misty mountain except for inside the arena, but not life and death fights were allowed. The Zither palace had the lowest disciple count of all the nine powers. It had one hundred thousand outer hall disciples, ten thousand inner hall disciples, eight hundred core disciples, and no holy son or daughter at the sage realm. There were only three powers, who had a holy son or daughter currently who were know as the holy sword, fearsome beast, and the ice goddess. There were also five girls known as the five goddesses, and one came from the Zither palace. She was the current lead disciple of the core disciples at the peak of the king realm.

When he had finished going over the rules, circumstances, and rumors about the palace, he arrived outside his masters' cabin. Master Zhu was already waiting outside the cabin together with two girls. These two were outer hall members who were at the peak of the manifestation realm and were twenty-one years old. Elder Zhu went looking for two outer hall members to look after her new disciple and found these two girls suitable. She had instructed the two girls, that Jiang Mang was blind but capable of sensing many things in his surroundings, and they would have to follow all his arrangements at his dwelling.

Jiang Mang greeted his master and the two girls. Master Zhu explained to him, who they were and he accepted her arrangement. He asked the two girls politely that he would like for them to keep his cave clean and orderly, and if possible arrange it to become hospitable to accept guests. The two girls were shocked by his simple request as it was commonplace for inner palace disciples to give outer palace disciples a hard time and they are certainly never polite. Many girls are also treated as toys for pleasure if they are assigned to lustful men.

Elder Zhu was pleased with her disciple's conduct as it showed his humble personality. The two girls then went out of the way and headed towards Jiang Mang's cave-dwelling. When they were alone, he told her about his bloodline that he had inherited and his meeting with grandpa Fang. She told him that she would discuss it with Jiu Chen and would try to help him make the best choice on the matter. She was also excited as this meant that he as fox man was inherently charming, which made him innately suited for charm techniques.

She then started his first lesson. She started by giving an evaluation of his charm techniques:

"Xiao Mang, yesterday when I observed your charm techniques, that you use most of their ability to interfere and hinder your opponents while you have put less attention on the ability to control others. This execution is not wrong, as your thirteen movements technique combined with your charm dance suits your combat style, but the approach in itself is as charm techniques inherently focus on control." She then sighed before continuing: " You will have to remaster all of your basic charm skills and focus on the control part. This will allow your charm techniques to reach a new height and thus directly increase the ability to interfere and hinder. To summarize: by focusing on the core you will achieve the wanted side effect."

These words turned Jiang Mang's understanding upside down while enlightening him of his mistakes. He thanked his teacher before letting her continue. She then continued: " You already possess a good set of techniques with Charm eyes, Charm voice, and Charm dance enhanced by your body tempering technique Charm body. I will present you with only one other skill called Maiden steps. This technique can also be used until the emperor realm is a technique invented by me. This technique requires a fair maiden to execute it, but your looks can rival that of many pretty girls, which makes you suitable for this technique."

She then laughed by seeing Jiang Mang's face as it had become contorted because of her remark. The only point that can make his calm facade fade is a remark that is about his looks being comparable to girls. Elder Zhu then continued: "Xiao Mang, you don't have to be ashamed. Many girls like refined men nowadays, and you should be happy as these looks are your assets and the basis for your charm techniques. Now, to return to my explanation. Maiden steps is a technique that uses simple movements to charm someone, which is the opposite of Charm dance. It can also be combined with your thirteen movements of emotions and desires. To train this technique, you will have to train your posture and steps to have a certain charm to them. You will also have to train your skills at dance and singing to maximize Charm dance's and Charm voice's potential. The last thing you will train will be to use your eyes and face to exhibit certain emotions and desires. This will probably be the hardest part as you aren't used to using your face or looking at other people's expressions due to your blindness."

Jiang Mang, who had calmed down after hearing her placate him started feeling unwell. He remembered that his little sister had learned many similar things during her youth and had also heard stories from Chu Lingxin about the way a princess had to behave, move, and express herself. This training regime reminded him of these things and he was wondering if he was being turned into a noble lady instead of cultivating techniques.

He summoned up his courage and asked his master about it. She laughed at his question but answered the following: "You can certainly view it as something similar, but instead of training someone to be a princess, you are being trained to become a charming incubus, that can charm both males and females feel lust. This is done because true charm abilities aren't about manipulating the heart like you comprehended but using the desire of lust against someone."

This was the moment when he regretted cultivating charm techniques, but he couldn't escape his destiny as his master forcibly started his training. She threatened him to try his best, or she would have him partially transform and experience the training that fox demi-humans went through after becoming slaves. He knew that she meant what he said and he didn't want to experience those things at any cost.