It wasn't the first time children had asked similar questions. So, the female cultivator answered immediately.
"Not in cultivation! Having too many things means too many paths to walk. Even for cultivators, lifespan matters."
"Having a five-element spiritual root means having to refine the spiritual energy through five different elements."
"Since the ability of the spiritual root is to refine the spiritual energy, it refines the spiritual energy into your mana."
"The capacity of the spiritual root is already fixed, which means you can only refine a limited amount of spiritual energy into a certain quality of mana."
"The quality decreases due to the presence of multiple elements, so you have to refine it again and again until it reaches the required quality."
"But that's not the main problem. Take your spiritual root as an example. It needs to refine 5 parts of mana."
"Each part has to be made of one of the elements. That means that part alone needs to be refined five times just to reach the required quality."
"And you need to refine all five parts at the same time, creating a balance between the five elemental mana in your spiritual root."
"This not only takes more time but also more spiritual energy. Not to mention, there is also a precedent of spiritual roots having ranks."
"Although it's not specifically stated, the one with fewer elements will be of a higher rank. This would make their absorption speed faster as well."
"Of course, the absorption speed is highly dependent on one's mastery of cultivation technique rather than just the spiritual root."
At this moment, one of the male cultivators chimed in.
"Senior Sister, why are you explaining these basic things to him? Boy, if you have any questions, wait until you reach the sect."
"You can find most of the basic information from the library."
Shanks, who was absorbing all of this knowledge, felt irritated, but he didn't show any dissatisfaction on his face.
Since these cultivators were more volatile, he needed to be extra careful. He immediately lowered his head and apologized.
"I'm truly sorry for wasting your time, Immortal Master!"
The female cultivator shook her head and said.
"It's okay. I just got caught in the moment, trying to explain everything. But my Junior Brother is right."
"You can find this information in the library of the sect. By the way, don't call me immortal master anymore."
"Cultivators often rely on their strength rather than age to show their seniority."
"Since I am only at the Qi Refining Realm, you can call me Senior Sister. If you manage to meet someone at Foundation Establishment Realm, call them senior."
"Unless you are close friends with a cultivator, do not call them by their names."
"Yes, Senior Sister!"
Shanks immediately nodded his head.
At this moment, he felt something different in his mind. He immediately opened the panel to check if there was any difference.
[Host: Shanks Storm
Age: 12
Realm: None
Cultivation Technique: None
Spells: None
Martial Arts: None
Spiritual Root: Fire (18%), Water (18%), Earth (18%), Metal (18%), Wood (20%), Lightning (2%), Wind (2%), Ice (2%), and Space (2%),
Luck: -15 (+10)]
When he saw this, his expression froze.
He realized that his luck had fluctuated a lot, but that dread hadn't disappeared at all.
It wasn't like heat that would slowly cool down, nor was it like pain that would slowly disappear.
Either that or his actual luck hadn't changed. It was only influenced by his senior sister's luck.
At this moment, he immediately made up something in his mind and turned towards two male cultivators.
"Greetings, Senior Brothers!"
He did this to show his respect while also hoping to find more changes in his panel.
Two male cultivators simply nodded with a blank expression. In their eyes, there was no point in making friends with a guy like him.
Shanks checked his panel and found no changes. This darkened his face, but he simply lowered his head and looked away.
He realized that not everyone could accept him. So, he stayed there silently until all the other children arrived.
Then, the female cultivator took out a small boat that fit in her palm and threw it in front of her.
In an instant, that small boat turned into a gigantic boat that was bigger than most houses.
Seeing the power of the immortal, his parents and others watched in awe. The children also looked very surprised, including Shanks.
After all, this was the first time he had seen something like this.
"Let's go!"
The female cultivator jumped, and with a single leap, she appeared on top of the boat. Then, she threw the ladder down.
"Alright, climb up!"
She said.
The six teenagers immediately got in line and started climbing the ladder.
When all of them reached the deck of the boat, Shanks realized that this boat was quite different from the usual boats he had seen in books.
The deck was quite large. It had no sails, no rooms, only an altar on the front.
The senior sister placed her hand on the altar, and the boat slowly started floating into the air.
Because they were just children, the female cultivator kept the speed of the boat slow.
Soon, it flew to a certain height before it moved forward.
At this moment, he realized that the female cultivator's hand hadn't left the altar.
The boat also started picking up speed. The wind blew against their face which made them very nervous. Some even tried to hold on to the railings.
After nearly six hours, the female cultivator turned around and said.
"Junior Brother, it's your turn."
The male cultivator nodded and walked to the altar. Then, he placed his hand on the altar; only then did the female cultivator remove her hand.
As they flew for hours, the female cultivator took out a black, round pill and tossed it to the teenagers.
"Take this! It will relieve you of your hunger. It can last for a whole day. It will take us two days to reach the sect."
Hearing that, the teenager immediately ate it.
Shanks felt a bitter taste, but he swallowed it nonetheless. Surprisingly, his hunger truly went away in just a few minutes.
'Cultivators are truly amazing.'
Shanks thought to himself as the boat kept flying towards their destination.
Shanks and other teenagers fell asleep pretty quickly, but the boat kept flying the whole night.
When Shanks woke up the next morning, he saw another male cultivator on the altar and thought to himself.
'They have been driving this for an entire night, but they didn't even look exhausted.'
'More importantly, the distance between our village and the sect seemed quite far. Even though we are flying in a straight line, it is taking too long.'
After thinking about it, he opened the panel.
[Host: Shanks Storm
Age: 12
Realm: None
Cultivation Technique: None
Spells: None
Martial Arts: None
Spiritual Root: Fire (18), Water (18), Earth (18), Metal (18), Wood (20), Lightning (2), Wind (2), Ice (2), and Space (2),
Luck: -14 (+10)]
His eyes widened in surprise when he saw his negative luck decrease.
'This means my bad luck will totally disappear in just fourteen days. This is huge news for me.'
'I can upgrade my spiritual root using this panel. So, I just need to find the consequences of having negative luck.'
'Then, I can plan my improvements.'
Just as he thought about it, he heard a loud noise and the boat started shaking violently.
"Ahhhh!"
Two of the children started screaming in fear as the boat lost control. But the male cultivator immediately got it under control.
With his power, he managed to land the boat safely on the ground.
"Who dares to attack us?"
The other male cultivator roared and jumped down from the boat.
"Hehehe! We just heard that Azure Sword Sect is taking in new disciples. Why don't you give them to us?"
A tall male with a muscular body, riding a large rhino, grinned.
His words turned everyone's face ugly. The teenagers started cowering in fear as they held on to the railings.
'Is this the consequence of having bad luck?'
Just from the fact that this person attacked them meant he wasn't a good person.
'Probably a human trafficker!'
Shanks thought to himself when he calmly observed the situation. His eyes widened in shock.
He saw the male cultivator on the altar walking behind the female cultivator. Although he didn't know what he was trying to do.
But Shanks believed that expression wasn't right, and he was just behind the female cultivator.
Suddenly, a knife appeared in his hand, and Shanks, instinctively putting all of his hope on the female cultivator, jumped towards her.
"Senior Sister!"
As the male cultivator thrust his knife towards the female, Shanks managed to push her away.
Maybe it was because he was touching her shoulder that her luck passed into him; the knife pierced through his left shoulder.
Thud! Thud!