Ling Zheng was warm and helpful, but he never mentioned the matter at hand. Instead, he chatted with Tang Changsheng. Naturally, the conversation turned to Ling Xiaoyu...
That was how relationships between people were built. Many things rested on mutual benefit, but a relationship based too heavily on it would not last long.
It still needed a wrapping of warmth and tenderness, with a little affection to smooth the way...
For the two of them, with Ling Xiaoyu as a link between them, that was all the easier.
They talked about how Ling Xiaoyu had been lately, and the gifts she had asked Tang Changsheng to bring back for Ling Zheng... At least on the surface, the two men seemed much closer.
Sorting out all these mundane affairs took more than another day. Only then did Tang Changsheng return to the General's Temple and announce that he was entering seclusion.
Though he called it seclusion, he was in no hurry to return to the "Immortal Realm." Sure enough, he found cultivation methods from Golden Tiger True Person's lineage in the archives. They lacked its deepest secrets, but they were enough for him to refine the Golden Tiger Soul-Chasing Seal.
The Dao Arts of Golden Tiger True Person's lineage were closer to the Southern School Dao Arts, emphasizing Visualization and Divine Transformation. They had much in common with the methods of the General's Temple lineage.
The Golden Tiger Soul-Chasing Seal, in particular, had grown out of the Divine Tiger Soul-Pursuit Technique, an art of inner cultivation from the Daoist Tradition. In Golden Tiger True Person's hands, it had been developed further, giving rise to many new divine powers and variations.
But Golden Tiger True Person's lineage had not survived, and its complete teachings had never been passed down. All Tang Changsheng