Chapter 225 - Psychological Barrier

Analyzing the avatar shop intently, Aotian began to ponder.

'Outer elders are cheap, costing only 1 EP. They share my cultivation and aren't that strong, but their skills are very useful, and since they're cheap, they're excellent for buying in bulk, which would help manage the large number of disciples.'

He reflected, looking at the cheaper avatars, and then lowered his gaze to the second purchase option on the panel.

'Inner elders, on the other hand, cost 10 points. They have a higher realm than me, and their skills, needless to say, are incredibly useful. Hmm… let me confirm something.'

'System, are the avatars bought from the shop tied to random pavilions, or do I decide?'

Ding!

[All avatars purchased from the avatar shop, with the exception of the sect leader, have no set affiliation, leaving it to the host to decide which pavilion they will belong to. Reminder: avatars can only be assigned to pavilions already available. To unlock new pavilions, the sect rank must be upgraded.]

The system responded in his mind, with its mechanical and emotionless voice.

'Humm… as expected. But that's already very good. At least I can recover my avatars once they're lost. System, can the appearances of avatars be specified to match those who died?' he thought of something and asked.

Although his dead avatars were lost, he could replace them with new ones. In the end, it wouldn't make a difference, since they weren't real and were merely personalities created by himself.

Thus, if one of them died, he could recreate it without issue, as long as he had enough EP, thereby avoiding the problem of discarding a carefully cultivated personality. And while he could change the new avatars' appearance to that of the old ones with his abilities, it was still better to have an appearance directly set by the system.

Ding!

[Affirmative. The forms of new avatars purchased from the avatar shop can be customized or randomized. This includes gender, voice, aura, and appearance.]

Aotian felt relieved at the news, but froze upon hearing the part about gender.

'I can set the gender too?!' he mulled, feeling internally conflicted.

Ding!

[Affirmative.]

[Reminder 1: Only avatars purchased from the system shop via EP can be customized.]

[Reminder 2: All avatars obtained through sect missions are male and have fixed appearances.]

The system replied, making things clear.

Aotian took a deep breath, feeling his heart race.

He had been reflecting on the problem of the enormous disparity between men and women in the sect's leadership. That was why he even created some techniques, like the Sunflower Manual, but even having done that, he really didn't think he would have the courage to use it.

Call him a coward, but Aotian simply couldn't overcome that psychological barrier.

'Haah… it's insane to even consider cutting off my junior brother and becoming a woman, even if it was only done in an avatar. After all, the avatar is still me, and I can't get past that psychological barrier. And if I don't cut and only let the avatar pretend to be a woman with a junior brother, forget the psychological barrier, it would be easy for someone powerful to notice the avatar's Yang tendency and realize it has something extra between the legs.'

He reasoned, feeling deeply conflicted.

'The sect really needs more women in leadership. Right now, there are seventy male elders against only one female elder. On top of that, both the ancestor and the sect leader are men as well. With the sect's advancement so close, the discrepancy will only increase further. Among the disciples, however, the number of men and women is quite balanced.'

Feeling a headache thinking about it, he immediately shifted these thoughts to an avatar, since Rihai, in his arms, was beginning to feel confused upon noticing his mood turning strange all of a sudden.

'This cultivation world doesn't have the sexist tendencies of the mortal world, since here men don't have superiority in strength or influence over women.'

'The lack of women in leadership is a problem that needs to be resolved, either through recruitment or by buying female avatars directly. The first is difficult, since the women recruited would need to be very talented to at least keep up somewhat with the cultivation of the other avatars.'

'As for the second, buying female avatars directly, the psychological impact would be much smaller than manipulating a male avatar to become a woman. Still, I hesitate to have female avatars, after all, I'd basically be becoming a woman in another body.'

The whole idea left Aotian very uncomfortable. As much as he had already imagined himself as a woman—after all, everyone has thought about it at some point—when faced with the actual ability to do so, he couldn't accept it well.

'Haah… I'll leave this for later. When the sect upgrades and I have more EPs, I'll decide.'

He decided to set it aside and quickly headed, with his main body, toward the Beast Pavilion, taking Rihai along.

'Back to the initial matter, inner and outer elders aren't expensive, but the sect leader and ancestor are extremely costly. The ancestor, costing 1000 points—that is, enough EPs to buy 100 inner elders—actually isn't that absurd.'

'An ancestor has 3 cultivation levels above me, while an inner elder only has 1. Even 100 inner elders aren't enough to challenge an ancestor, so the price is quite fair.'

'But the sect leader is simply a rip-off. 5000 EPs is terrifying. That's 500 inner elders, or 5 ancestors! No, Tian Zhu must not die under any circumstances, I can't be without his ability, but I don't even dare to imagine spending so much to revive him.'

He thought, determined, sweating slightly just from imagining such a thing.

Fortunately, the Beast Pavilion was now in sight, and he could shift his attention elsewhere.

When they arrived, Aotian and Rihai descended from the flying sword they shared.

Although he could fly alone with his current cultivation, it was better to disguise it for now, since no one in the sect had yet accumulated enough contribution points to buy a Golden Core cultivation technique.

Not that he cared about being discovered, but it was best to avoid making disciples jealous and confused about his apparent "preferential treatment."

As soon as they landed, they heard loud voices and saw the scene of a dragon in reduced size flying in front of a huge red tiger, whose ears were drooping, tail tucked between its legs, and body trembling fiercely.

"Hahaha! Stinky tiger, did you miss me?" the dragon shouted, freezing the tiger in place.

The big red cat looked in shock at the powerful dragon before him and immediately recognized the voice.

"Leopard?!" the tiger cried out, his eyes wide in astonishment.

"Haha! Yes, it's me. But now call me Snake, I've changed my codename," Elder Snake spoke proudly, twirling his serpentine body in the air in a circle, showing off.

"How did you become a beast of such a powerful bloodline?!" The tiger looked at him in disbelief, tail still tucked.

The bloodline suppression he felt was too strong, and even though mentally he was no longer afraid of the great snake before him, since he knew who it was and that he wouldn't be harmed, his body still couldn't stop screaming to submit before the king of beasts.

"That's no big deal, I'll explain later. This adventure brought many gains, and among them are the final ingredients for your bloodline advancement pill," the elder revealed, making the tiger tremble even more, this time with excitement.

"Really?!" he asked, extremely thrilled. If his tail wasn't tucked between his legs, he would probably be wagging it like a happy puppy.

"But of course! I wouldn't lie to you. Now we're beast companions, aren't you happy? Just don't you dare try to sniff my butt, or I'll smack you."

"You bastard, I'm a tiger, not a dog! You wanna die?!"

"Bah! Talk about killing me when you manage to raise your ears and get your tail out from between your legs."

"I-I-I just couldn't stand your annoying voice, that's why my ears are down. As for my tail, it's there b-because… I was cold in the balls, that's it!"

Hearing the quarrel between the two, the other elders began arriving and joining the ruckus.

"Hahaha! Tiger, you're so shameless."

"Tiger, are you tired of standing? Why are your legs shaking?"

The elders started teasing, and the tiger grew furious, his fur bristling like an angry cat's.

"You bastards, you're annoying papa tiger here. My bloodline is about to advance, and I'll beat you all up when that happens!" The tiger roared angrily, but his cowering posture didn't change at all.

Everyone laughed at the contrast between his words and his appearance, including Rihai and Aotian by the side.

It had been over a year since the tiger joined the sect, and as a powerful spiritual beast, his brain was highly developed. Over time, he ended up learning a great deal of human language through interaction with people.

Now, he basically communicated in human speech instead of spiritual intent, unless he needed a word he hadn't learned yet.

Elder Snake, floating in the air, after having had his fun, slowly shrank and assumed human form.

He had already recovered his outer elder red robes and put them on, so when leaving his dragon form he wasn't naked.

There weren't many changes in his appearance compared to when he was a normal human, except for his slit golden eyes. Perhaps more traits would become evident once he was no longer just a hornless dragon and his bloodline improved.

Aotian then controlled him to conceal his dragon aura and presence, and the Red Tiger finally let out a sigh of relief and was able to move again.

At that moment, another person entered the cave.

It was none other than Dan Hong, the inner elder of the Alchemy Pavilion.

The tiger, as soon as he saw him, immediately rushed over with shining eyes.

"Elder Dan, Snake said he now has the ingredients. Can you make the pill for me?" the tiger asked eagerly, even lowering his head in a fawning manner.

He had been craving his evolution for a long time, ever since he saw the sect's cranes evolve twice in a row and become so powerful compared to the weak bloodline they had before.

For a long time, he wanted to see what he would become when the same happened to him, who was already strong. Unfortunately, he couldn't do the same when he reached the limit of his bloodline, as he was still missing some ingredients for the advancement pill.

But now, it seemed his moment had finally arrived.

Dan Hong waved his hand indifferently, shooing away the shameless tiger.

"I know, I know. I came for that. Finally, you big cat, you'll stop pestering me." Elder Hong rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed with the tiger.

It wasn't the first, nor the 50th time they had met, and for months the tiger had been almost daily harassing him, begging for pills.

If it had been before, the tiger wouldn't have been so impatient, since advancement took a long time and waiting a bit didn't matter. But since he joined the sect and tasted the sweetness of cultivating at the speed of light, he could no longer endure waiting.

Dan Hong, seeing the anxious and fawning tiger, curled his lips and ordered impatiently and grumpily, as he always did.

"Come on, Leopard, or Snake, or Cricket—whatever your codename is now. Bring me the ingredients. I want to get rid of this annoying cat already."

..

..

..

..

..

..

===============

Hello, everyone!

Well, I wanted to ask for your help. I'll try to do a poll later to ask about having female avatars.

Honestly, from a practical standpoint, having female avatars would be better. It would probably also lead to some funny scenes.

But there's also the side of it being a bit disturbing for a straight man to turn into a woman and pretend to be one for multiple people, which I saw one or two comments about on other sites when Aotian brought up the idea of creating female avatars a few chapters ago.

So, feel free to share your opinions, if you’d like, as it will help me a lot in making my decision. I also ask that you vote in the poll later.

That's it, thank you!