Immortal Grace Art!

[Ding! Congratulations, host, on obtaining the cultivation technique "Immortal Bearing Art"!]

[The reward has been delivered to the System Space. The host may inspect it at any time.]

An image of a translucent jade book appeared alongside the system notification.

"Immortal Bearing Art?"

Lu Changsheng frowned slightly as he looked at the reward.

Why did that name sound so strange?

With a slight stir of his mind, he inspected the Immortal Bearing Art in the System Space.

A stream of information immediately appeared.

"All things in this world possess beauty or ugliness. A person's appearance, outward bearing, and voice are all innate, but everyone has the right to pursue beauty."

"This technique is named the 'Immortal Bearing Art,' and its purpose is to allow everyone to pursue peerless immortal bearing!"

[Technique: Immortal Bearing Art]

[Grade: Unorthodox Grade]

[Description: In ancient times, an astonishingly gifted individual known as the "Heaven-Crying Old Man" suffered endless scorn and hardship on his cultivation journey because he was born hideously ugly. Through painstaking dedication, great wisdom, and immense perseverance, he created the "Immortal Bearing Art." Cultivating this technique can improve one's appearance, underlying bone structure, outward bearing, and voice, enhancing charm and preserving youth forever.]

"This..."

After reading the introduction to the technique, Lu Changsheng was rather speechless.

He had never expected his second lottery draw to yield such a chicken-rib technique-too meager to savor, yet too wasteful to throw away.

Aside from making someone better-looking, giving them a pleasant voice, enhancing their bearing and charm, and preserving their youth forever, the Immortal Bearing Art had no other effects.

Lu Changsheng did think those benefits were nice.

But given his current circumstances, surely any proper cultivation technique would have been better than this?

"How bored would someone have to be to create such a chicken-rib technique?"

"What a waste of an Unorthodox Grade technique."

Lu Changsheng shook his head and sighed, deeply regretting it.

As far as he knew, cultivation techniques in the cultivation world were divided into Beginner, Advanced, Refined Grade, Unorthodox Grade, and Orthodox Grade.

The Returning Origin Technique he cultivated was a Beginner cultivation technique.

Meanwhile, the Lu Lineage's core technique was reportedly an Advanced technique.

Now he had obtained an Unorthodox Grade technique.

It stood two grades above the Lu Lineage's core technique, yet turned out to be a support technique that offered no help whatsoever with cultivation or combat.

Lu Changsheng felt so miserable that he almost wanted to throw up.

"Although it's pretty lackluster, I suppose I can't call it completely useless."

"At least it preserves youth forever. Besides, being handsome and charming certainly makes it easier to win women's affection. That has plenty of advantages."

"I remember a cultivation game I played in my previous life. There was even a playstyle called the 'kept-man build,' where you relied on good looks to latch onto wealthy, powerful women."

"If I could find an immortal maiden a few thousand years older than me someday, my future path to immortality would be smooth sailing."

Lu Changsheng took a deep breath and began consoling himself.

Then, with a slight stir of his mind, he used the technique directly, receiving its inheritance.

Detailed information about the Immortal Bearing Art and its cultivation methods immediately poured into Lu Changsheng's mind.

"Tsk, tsk. So being ugly really is that hard. No wonder the Heaven-Crying Old Man created a technique like this."

After fully comprehending and understanding the technique, Lu Changsheng voiced a sigh of amazement.

According to the records within the technique, human appearance was divided into seven levels: repulsive, ugly, strange, ordinary, outstanding, transcendent, and immortal grace.

Its creator, the Heaven-Crying Old Man, had fallen into the ugly and repulsive categories.

That had caused him to suffer endless scorn and hardship throughout his cultivation journey.

After all, one look at a face like that made people think he was no good.

Not only were people unwilling to interact with him in everyday life, but whenever something bad happened, suspicion easily fell on him.

Some people obsessed with looks had even thought him so ugly that he sullied their eyes and tried to kill him outright.

His life was practically misery writ large.

Neither in his previous life nor in this one could Lu Changsheng claim to be exceptionally handsome, but he had never been anywhere close to ugly.

As such, he found it difficult to truly grasp the Heaven-Crying Old Man's determination to create this technique.

Still, after comprehending the technique and learning about its creator's inner journey, he understood a little.

"Fortunately, cultivating this technique doesn't require much attention, so it won't interfere with my cultivation."

"Otherwise, given my current situation, spending time and energy cultivating something like this would really be unwise."

Lu Changsheng exhaled softly, preparing to cultivate the Immortal Bearing Art.

Although he had no particular obsession with his looks, if he could become more handsome and stay young forever, why not?

Once he became handsome, perhaps some "immortal maiden" might even throw herself at him someday.

Besides, there had been an old saying in his previous life: since you were already here, you might as well.

Since he had already drawn the technique, wouldn't leaving it uncultivated feel like a waste?

More importantly, the technique was extremely simple to cultivate, with two available methods.

One involved meditating to absorb spiritual energy and allowing it to circulate through the body, slowly refining and improving flaws and imperfections in one's physique and appearance.

The other cultivation method involved establishing a foundation with the essences of five-element materials: spiritual metal, spiritual wood, spiritual water, spiritual fire, and spiritual earth.

That way, he would not even need to cultivate it himself. The five-element essences within his body would automatically circulate the technique, cleansing his flesh and improving his condition.

Put simply, he would keep growing more handsome as time passed.

Moreover, there were no particular requirements for these five-element material essences. Ordinary first- or second-tier spiritual materials would do; no Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures or rare spiritual objects were necessary.

Higher-quality materials would simply produce better results.

For now, however, Lu Changsheng could only use the first method.

He could not afford even first-tier spiritual materials.

He promptly began cultivating the Immortal Grace Art.

A night passed. The next morning, Lu Changsheng looked at himself in the mirror.

Although he looked exactly the same as before, he somehow felt that he had become considerably more handsome.

After looking for half a quarter of an hour, Lu Changsheng stopped.

Possessing the precious virtue of self-awareness, he knew this was an illusion.

It was just like feeling slimmer every time he finished a run.

Besides, although the Immortal Bearing Art was an Unorthodox Grade technique, it was not that miraculous.

Cultivating it would not instantly transform someone hideously ugly into a peerless immortal beauty.

Rather, as someone cultivated this technique, their appearance, bone structure, skin, and so forth would quietly improve, like rain nourishing all things without a sound.

Once those refinements and improvements reached a certain point-their own limits-the technique would cease to have an effect.

It was not a matter of having a set number of levels, with immortal grace attained upon reaching a particular one.

If peerless immortal grace had a fixed standard, and everyone cultivating this technique grew toward that standard, wouldn't they end up

being molded from the same template?

How awkward would it be if a whole group of people cultivated the technique and ended up looking exactly alike?

That would hardly deserve to be called immortal grace.

Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, another month or so had passed.

Since his talent for Talisman Making had come to light, Lu Changsheng's circumstances had become much more comfortable, leaving him in good shape both physically and mentally.

Thus, with a little effort over the past month, he had successfully gotten one of the two maids he had yet to take as concubines pregnant.

Knowing that Uncle Fu would send more girls once both became pregnant, Lu Changsheng did not wait for him to take the initiative. Instead, he went to Uncle Fu himself and expressed his wish to take more concubines.

After all, doing a reasonable amount of Talisman Making was enough.

Marrying wives, taking concubines, and making babies was the true path.

After two system lottery draws, Lu Changsheng had already tasted the benefits.

When Uncle Fu learned why Lu Changsheng had come and heard what he had to say, he fell silent.

Even after a year and a half, the other immortal seedlings still felt somewhat resistant to marrying and having children.

Yet Lu Changsheng not only had no objections, he actively asked to take more concubines, leaving Uncle Fu at a loss.

Still, after a brief silence, he agreed.

He asked what sort of women Lu Changsheng liked and said he would send two over later.

However, he made it clear that these two would bring the total to nine, so there would be no more after this. Lu Changsheng could not marry any more.

And because of Lu Changsheng's talent for Talisman Making, Uncle Fu offered a few words of advice.

He urged Lu Changsheng not to become too engrossed in women and to focus more on the Talisman Way.

Given Lu Changsheng's demonstrated talent for Talisman Making, his farming background, and his excellent conduct over the past year and a half, the Lu Lineage already intended to bring him into their fold as one of their own.

Whether he fathered fifty children had become less important.

If Lu Changsheng neglected his proper work and ruined himself through an obsession with women at this point, Uncle Fu, as the steward, would have some difficulty explaining it.

Naturally, Lu Changsheng readily agreed to everything.

He felt that nine was about enough anyway.

If each had one child a year, that would mean nine children every year.

Ten days later, Uncle Fu sent two young women from the Lu Lineage to Lu Changsheng-the concubines he had previously promised.

He also sent four older serving women to look after Lu Changsheng's household, washing clothes, cooking, and caring for the children.

Looking at the four serving women, already in their forties or fifties, Lu Changsheng let out a deep sigh.

He felt rather offended.

The maids previously sent to serve him had all been young girls. Now they had become older serving women.

It seemed these really were the last two.