Weddings in the cultivation world were far simpler than Aotian would have imagined in the past.
After the trial of love, all that remained were the normal feasts and celebrations, which usually involved some spiritual alcohol and perhaps one or two well-prepared pieces of beast meat with few impurities. Cultivators didn't eat much to avoid accumulating impurities in the body, which could hinder their cultivation until expelled.
Fortunately, the members of the Infinite Dao Sect didn't worry much about that problem, as they had their superior cultivation techniques that helped them quickly deal with those impurities, and the entire celebration was very lively.
In the main area of the celebration, where the elders and core disciples were gathered, Aotian and Rihai toasted and accepted gifts and congratulations with smiles, while remaining arm in arm the whole time.
During a quieter moment, after greeting nearly everyone and having to dissipate some of the alcohol from his system to avoid getting completely drunk, Aotian recalled a question that had popped into his mind and sent it via voice transmission to Rihai, who stood beside him.
'Wife, if the staircase's difficulty was that high even for the two of us—madly in love, talented, and determined—how does it work for other couples? Not everyone is like us, and there must be many political marriages that wouldn't survive the test,' he asked, raising an eyebrow in doubt, not forgetting to call her "wife," which made a pleasant tickle on his tongue.
Rihai looked at him stunned and smiled in great amusement once she processed what he had said.
'Husband…'
She said slowly, teasing him, and had to hold back her laughter when she saw the heated look Aotian gave her just because of that word. Truthfully, she also liked being called "wife."
'...well, it's simple. Remember when I said the staircase is meant to push the couple to the edge of what they can endure? That's the purpose. But if people actually follow the original intent, the answer is clear…'
Aotian blinked, processing.
'So… there should've been some pressure relief in the staircase to make it easier?' he asked, speechless.
Rihai smiled and nodded without denying it.
'That's the norm. That's what practically everyone does. But personally, I liked that it was so hard. It felt more sincere. Maybe that's why the sect elders didn't adjust the pressure as they normally do—to see if I was truly sincere in my intentions toward your young master.'
She smiled at him, winking mischievously, unconcerned that her sincerity had been tested. After all, the original purpose of the Staircase of Sincerity was literally that: to test sincerity. And the result had been good for both of them.
Aotian's mouth twitched. Rihai thought it had been the elders who didn't lower the pressure, but the truth was Aotian was the elders—and he didn't even know there was such a backstage adjustment to be made.
'Ugh… at least the result was good,' he thought, with a slight headache.
He wasn't truly regretful, since he appreciated that the test had been sincere, so he soon let it go and went to greet a few more important guests before withdrawing.
He had a wedding night ahead of him, and he wouldn't miss it for anything.
While Aotian and Rihai greeted their guests, one in particular wore a confused expression.
Cang Song scratched his head, dazed.
'Was I overthinking? Well… that's good, right? No bloody fights, no wars starting during the wedding. Just a bit more, and then I can leave and return to cultivating with peace of mind…'
Cang Song began to relax slightly with a sigh of relief.
But then his eyes widened, and he stood up straight again, sharp-eyed and cautious.
'Crap, crap, crap! I'm an idiot—how could I relax and be careless enough to plant such a massive red flag?! No, the peace in the sect is making me lose my vigilance, and that's deadly! Focus, Cang Song, focus!'
His eyes darted back and forth, alert to the slightest sign of danger, as he tried to suppress his presence as much as possible.
But until the end of the wedding, and even as he arrived at his own cave, nothing happened.
It seemed his red flag hadn't truly been raised.
'I… was wrong?'
…
No, Cang Song wasn't wrong.
But if he, a native, knew that Aotian's wedding was raising a massive red flag, how much more so Aotian himself—a natural-born Xianxia reader and certified reincarnator?
From the start, he had left Bao Wuji monitoring for any intruders that might appear near the sect. And as an ancestor, it was normal that he didn't attend the wedding ceremony of a disciple. In fact, few in the sect even knew he existed, or what his true identity was.
Aotian was merely being cautious, never imagining he would actually have the "protagonist's bad luck" of having something go wrong precisely during his wedding.
Unfortunately, he truly did have it.
Flying arrogantly at full speed, two men appeared at the sect's entrance, not even using swords to fly.
Both were mid-Golden Core stage cultivators, the same level as the deceased leader of the Eternal Sovereign Sect, Wu Juntian.
But just as they were about to shout arrogantly and cause trouble, an enormous pressure locked them in place. Their eyes widened in horror at a force they had never felt before.
The two screamed in terror, but the pressure surrounding them didn't even allow their voices to be heard. However, through the vibrations their words caused as they touched the surrounding spiritual energy, Bao Wuji heard them clearly.
"Senior, have mercy!" they screamed, terrified.
Bao Wuji appeared before them with an indifferent look, stroking his beard.
"Who are you?" he asked calmly, narrowing his eyes slightly.
The two men, facing a power so terrifying they couldn't even comprehend it, trembled and responded stammeringly.
"S-Senior… w-we heard about the new sect that arrived, and we came to offer our greetings," one of them, with blue hair, replied fearfully.
"And who are you to deserve to greet this old man's sect?" Bao Wuji asked, not even bothering to call out the obvious lie.
"W-We are not anyone important before the senior's majestic sect. But we are the leaders of neighboring domains. We came to congratulate our new neighbors and bring gifts, but had we known it was the Senior's esteemed sect, we certainly wouldn't have skimped on the gifts. I hope senior is not displeased and allows this junior to return and bring more offerings," the other man quickly stepped forward, speaking flatteringly and humbly, though the fear in his eyes was evident.
Bao Wuji didn't respond for a few seconds. He simply looked at them with indifference.
"No need. I'll collect the things in your sect myself," he said calmly, and with a subtle wave of energy, he pulled them into his hands.
The men screamed in horror, but Bao Wuji hadn't allowed a single sound to escape from their mouths since the beginning of the conversation, so as not to disturb the festivities in the sect.
The heads of the two men fell into his palms, and Bao Wuji's powerful and dominating spiritual energy invaded their minds and souls without mercy, rummaging through the essence of their beings and extracting every memory and piece of information from their lives.
When he finished, the two men closed their eyes and seemed to fall into a deep sleep. But the truth was that their minds had collapsed, and they had suffered brain death.
He then remained there in the sky, holding the two corpses for a moment, until two silhouettes flashed from within the sect and stopped at his side.
They were two inner elders of the sect, who didn't have many responsibilities and didn't need to remain within it.
Tossing the two corpses to them, Bao Wuji shot into the clouds and hid, continuing his surveillance for intruders.
The two elders looked at the bodies in their hands, and slowly, their own faces and bodies began to change, becoming exactly like the corpses, even down to their auras, which now resembled those of the two men when alive.
Only cultivators at the Nascent Soul realm and above would notice that something was wrong with their aura and appearance.
They then removed the clothes and equipment from the corpses, dressing in them, while storing their own belongings in the enemy's storage ring.
As for the bodies, they were destroyed with little effort.
With that done, the two shot away from the sect… in the same direction the two men had come from.
…
Aotian was finishing the banquet, and it was almost time to take Rihai away for adult things when all of that happened.
What Bao Wuji did to them was the classic Soul Search.
In truth, Aotian had always wanted to learn it but had never come across any related technique. On the day of Wu Juntian's interrogation, he found it so troublesome to keep questioning and torturing for information that he ended up complaining to Rihai about not finding a Soul Search technique.
And well, she looked at him strangely.
"Tian'er, Soul Search is something only for Nascent Soul cultivators and above. Searching a cultivator's soul isn't just about rummaging through the mind, it's searching the soul too, as the name of the technique suggests. As a cultivator's cultivation grows, their body, soul, and spiritual energy begin to merge into one. In that fusion, information is not only stored in the brain, but also in the soul. That's why cultivators have such excellent memory. And that's also why there's no Soul Search for Golden Core and below, because they can't handle the soul. At most, they can read a mortal's mind, or part of a low-level Qi refiner's mind, which isn't much different from a mortal."
Upon hearing those words back then, Aotian was about to tell himself that he'd only be able to find techniques like that in the mid-con… but before he could finish that ominous word, Rihai continued.
"Just like dual cultivation, the Soul Search technique doesn't require a specific method. All you need is a high enough cultivation level. Then, you use your spiritual energy to invade the soul and body of someone from a realm lower than yours and search their memories. Spiritual energy is basically controlled by intent, so you guide it with your will to sift through the memories. As long as your energy is strong enough, you can do it once you get the hang of it. Of course, there are techniques to enhance Soul Search, making it even more powerful."
When she revealed that, Aotian was stunned and regretted having killed Wu Juntian and the elders of the Eternal Sovereign Sect, losing the treasure trove of information they carried.
Then his eyes turned to the evil disciples who were about to be killed back then, and he used them as test subjects for his avatars: Bao Wuji and the sect leader, to train.
Before long, he got the hang of it.
And now, by reading the memory of two leaders on the same level as Wu Juntian, the regret from back then vanished—after all, the information they knew wasn't much different.
Unfortunately, to this day, he still couldn't extract memories without killing the target, which was a bit of a shame. He didn't always know if the person was truly an enemy, and whether he should kill them mercilessly.
As for why he had been ruthless with those two sect leaders, it was simple. They were clearly enemies, lied, and were full of malice and arrogance before encountering the mighty Bao Wuji.
And upon reading their memories, he didn't regret what he had done one bit.