The Shen family was a family that mostly used water techniques as Alex had expected. However, they also had a secret healing technique that they had apparently found in the meteor shower.
From what Zhou Ji said, Alex understood that one needed to have a very good Water spiritual root to make the most of that technique.
'So, the little sister must have worse spiritual roots than the sister that died,' Alex thought. He couldn't help but wonder how his own senior sister would do if he took that technique to her.
Thinking about it, he started missing Luo Mei and the others again.
Zhou Ji reached the guest elder's mountain and started explaining about the Fu family.
"Fu family is a family full of mental attack users. I believe it started off as a family of fire users, but slowly, over the course of millennia, they shifted to using mental attacks, especially their spiritual sense," Zhou Ji said.
"They also have some terrifying knowledge of formations that most others don't know of. That makes fighting against them hard since you don't know what they will bring out," he said.
Alex nodded when he heard that. He had fought with that girl that could in fact use both strong mental attacks and formations.
Alex didn't know why they had strong mental attacks, but that certainly lined up with what the Royal Fu family could use as well.
After all, it was Zexi who used the memory scouring skill to enter his mind. That was certainly something his grandfather brought from the Fu family of this empire.
As for formations, Fu Tao had told him that their grandfather had found a great book about formations from the meteor shower and had become a great formation maker.
Alex wanted to know what informations he had, but he didn't know how he could possibly approach that.
'So their crimson robe has nothing to do to reflect their skill or abilities, but rather something historic that they just didn't bother to change huh?' Alex thought.
"Next up, perhaps the weirdest family out there. The Song Family," Zhou Ji said.
"Yes, I saw one of them use blood. What's that about?" Alex asked.
"The Song family is known to use blood Qi," Zhou Ji said.
"Blood Qi? I've never heard of such a thing before," Alex said.
"And I wouldn't doubt that. Unless you see or hear about the Song family, you likely wouldn't hear about Blood Qi at all," Zhou Ji said.
"Is Blood Qi something born of a mutant spiritual root?" Alex asked. He wondered if it was something like people being only able to use wind or ice because that was the spiritual root they were born with.
"No, it's not Qi specifically but is more of an aura. But since it acts just like Qi, as in you can absorb it to enhance your cultivation and such, so people just call it Blood Qi for convenience's sake," Zhou Ji said.
"That's quite complicated then. I'm assuming they can't just cultivate blood Qi then like the rest of us cultivate daily," Alex asked.
"I don't think they do. They simply use blood for techniques and such that they themselves developed. Usually, it's their own blood that they can freely manipulate, but sometimes they end up using others' blood as well," Zhou Ji said.
Alex nodded to himself as he heard that.
"Honestly, I'm really not sure how this all works. Just that they have the ability to use blood," Zhou Ji said.
"If they use blood, is there a reason why they don't have the red color, and instead Fu family does?" Alex asked.
"It's just a first come first thing. Since the Fu family wore red first, the Song family that came afterward were forced to choose a different color."
"In the end, they chose black," Zhou Ji said. "Not that it matters, since they still wear red."
Zhou Ji took Alex finally to the elders' hall where he got an elders badge that gave him the authority a guest elder did.
Not that he would ever use that authority. After all, Alex was perhaps the youngest of them all here, not counting those that had yet to enter the True realms.
So, he would better just steer clear of using his authority over those that were older than him by quite a lot.
The tour was over when Alex was returned back to the sect master's mountain with a new house being built right next to Helen's house.
"Your abode should be completed by evening time. Please bear with us for now," Zhou Ji said. "I will take my leave then."
"Thank you for the tour and those explanations," Alex said as Zhou Ji left. Alex returned back to his mother at around noon.
"You took quite some time to return," she said. "Did you go around the whole sect?"
"Yes," Alex said.
"Come, sit. I have so many more questions now that I had time to think about it all," Helen said.
Alex nodded with a smile and sat next to his mother as he answered her question.
They talked until the sunset and someone came to inform him of the house was ready. Alex thanked them and returned back to the room.
"I'll go to my room for now mother," Alex said.
"Eh? But I was planning to teach you about talismans tonight. Don't you want to learn about them?" she asked.
"I do," Alex said. "But not today. I have something important to attend to tomorrow, but after that is done, you can start teaching me."
"Oh, what are you doing tomorrow?" Helen asked.
"Uh, why don't I make it a surprise?" Alex said.
"Oh, you're keeping secrets from your mother now just because you've become a few years older?" Helen asked with a slight pout on her face.
"Uh… do you really want to know?" Alex asked.
"Haha, I'm joking, obviously," Helen said with a light chuckle.
"Oh," Alex said. "Alright, come on Pearl."
"Eh? You're taking Pearl? He can stay with me," Helen said.
"No, you have some things to do, so I can't really let him stay here and disturb you," Alex said.
"No, I won't disturb mother," Pearl said.
"I have nothing to do really. I just need to make some talisman for practice is all," Helen said.
"Well, then here. I give you more tasks," Alex said as he dropped two flowers of red and yellow color in her hand.
Helen looked confused for a second, "What's this?" she asked.
"It's a Spirit Cleansing Lily," Alex explained. "If you cultivate while holding that, it will open up your spiritual sea and allow you to use your spiritual sense."
"What? Spiritual sense?" Helen gave a surprised look. "Ah right, I have heard about these things. I remember now."
She looked down at the flowers in her hand. The 5 petal lily looked quite ordinary to her eyes. She couldn't believe that it was actually something that could help open her spiritual sense.
"Sh-should I tell master about this?" she asked.
Alex thought for a bit and said, "Sure, but after you've used it. Just in case he doesn't take one of it away."
"Eh? Isn't using just one enough for me though?" she asked. "I hear getting just one is very difficult. I have to say I'm surprised to see 2 of them at the same time."
"It's hard for others, but not for me," Alex said. "I have that alchemy knowledge about ingredients which subtly helps when picking ingredients."
"It's like I have someone else's instinct inside of me."
"As for using two, you can actually use up to 3 of them, each giving you an equal amount of spiritual sense. It's quite unnoticeable when compared to saint rank, but for a True realm cultivator, it's plenty," Alex said.
"Honestly, I would give you three, but I only have those two with me at the moment. If in the future I ever do find some more, I will bring you back some," she said.
Helen stared at the flower and asked, "have you used it?"
"Yes, all 3," He said. "It is more helpful the lower your cultivation base is. Especially if you haven't improved past Meridian tempering realm since the Mind Tempering realm has a lot of benefits if your spiritual sea is already open."
"I will get some pills for you to improve on that aspect, but for now just cultivate," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow."
