Over the following year, Dai Youheng followed Xu Jiujiu's plan, making advancement through diligent cultivation his foremost priority.
He took full advantage of the abundant resources Xu Jiujiu provided, far beyond anything a concubine's son at the Duke's Mansion could expect, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivating his soul power.
In his spare time, he stayed by Xu Jiujiu's side, helping her handle some of the empire's affairs.
Xu Jiujiu fulfilled her promise, even opening her private Simulated Cultivation Ground for him to use whenever he wished.
Such treatment inevitably reminded Dai Youheng of his predecessor's days at the White Tiger Duke's Mansion. Back then, Zhu Man had specially built Simulated Cultivation Grounds perfectly suited to the white tiger martial soul for Dai Yueheng and Dai Huabin, while he and his younger brother, Dai Luoli, could only occasionally borrow them. Moreover, that environment, steeped in masculine vigor and murderous aggression, did not entirely suit the attributes of the evil shadow demon tiger, leaving them to expend twice the effort for half the results.
It was not that the Duke's Mansion lacked the means to build separate grounds for him. His father's principal wife had simply chosen to neglect and suppress him. Dai Hao spent year after year away on military campaigns and never concerned himself with such "trivial matters" within the household, leaving the original Dai Youheng to struggle forward amid this scarcity of resources.
By comparison, what Xu Jiujiu gave him truly deserved to be called resources.
More coincidentally still, the mimicry cultivation environments their martial souls required were remarkably compatible. Xu Jiujiu's star crown martial soul needed to draw on starlight beneath the vast starry sky, while Dai Youheng's evil shadow demon tiger also needed to cultivate in the dark of night. Their Simulated Cultivation Grounds shared the