177: Chapter 177 Red Entry, Sect Binding

Chu Sheng stared at those two words, the corners of his mouth slowly curling up.

[Sect Binding (Red): Bind to a Sect and become that Sect's "parasite." The host's cultivation, Luck, and Cultivate speed are linked to the overall strength of the bound Sect.]

[If the Sect is strong, the host is strong; if the Sect is weak, the host is weak. The host can accelerate their own growth by consuming the Sect's resources, Luck, Talent pool, etc., but must not exhaust the source.]

[If the Sect declines to the point of extinction, the host will suffer a massive backlash, including but not limited to cultivation regression, a plummet in Luck, and the invalidation of traits. The cost of unbinding is extremely high and requires specific conditions to be met.]

Chu Sheng read this description three times, his eyes brightening more with each read.

To put it bluntly, this trait was...

Find a large Sect to act as the host, while he acted as the parasite.

The Sect was his blood bag, but he couldn't suck it dry; if the blood bag ran dry, he would die too.

He had to suck carefully—suck a little to let the Sect grow a bit, let it grow a bit then suck a little more. It was like raising cattle; you have to feed them grass before milking them.

"Isn't this just getting a free meal while lying down?"

Chu Sheng muttered to himself.

Old Grandfather leaned over, his phantom form swaying in the moonlight. "What is it?"

Chu Sheng thought for a moment and temporarily exited the System space, wanting Old Grandfather to give him some advice.

The old man wouldn't understand things like the simulator and traits, so he had to phrase it differently; he didn't plan on revealing those secrets to him anyway.

"Old man, I have a secret technique."

Chu Sheng lowered his voice, acting mysterious. "It's passed down from ancient times, called... called the Great Parasite Method."

Old Grandfather frowned. "What kind of messy name is that?"

"Don't worry about whether the name sounds good or not, just listen to the effect."

Chu Sheng cleared his throat.

"This secret technique allows me to bind to a Sect. Once bound, my cultivation is linked to the Sect's strength. If the Sect is strong, I am strong; if the Sect is weak, I am weak. I can obtain resources, Luck, and Talent from the Sect to accelerate my Cultivate, but I can't let the Sect collapse. If the Sect is finished, I'm finished too."

Old Grandfather's hand stroking his beard stopped, and a sharp glint flashed in his cloudy eyes.

"You mean..."

Old Grandfather said slowly, "You want to find a Sect to parasitize, suck its blood, but not suck it to death?"

"Exactly, that's what I mean."

Old Grandfather was silent for a while, his brow furrowed deeply. "This secret technique... doesn't sound like the Righteous Path."

"I'm not part of the Righteous Path anyway," Chu Sheng said righteously.

Old Grandfather was stunned for a moment, then laughed, a somewhat helpless laugh.

"True. You brat have the Heavenly Demon Body and are doing Dual Cultivation of demonic and true essence; what Righteous Path would you follow?"

He stroked his beard and began to think seriously.

"The key to this secret technique lies in which Sect you bind to. A Sect that's too weak won't have much to suck, and you won't get very strong yourself. A Sect that's too strong, you won't be able to suck from, and once you're discovered, you'll be dead without a grave."

Chu Sheng nodded. This was exactly what he was pondering.

Small Sects were immediately ruled out.

At the level of the Qinglan Sect, binding to it would be the same as not binding at all; the entire Sect's foundation wasn't even as much as his own.

There were plenty of large Sects, though.

Hall of Ten Thousand Demons, Nine Nether Palace, Blood God Sect, Wendao Palace.

The Tianfeng Kingdom imperial family was a bit lacking compared to the others; these were all behemoths.

But the problem was, he couldn't just bind to these large Sects whenever he wanted.

There was no threshold for binding; he could bind to any Sect he knew of, but what about after binding?

He had to actually be able to suck the blood.

The Hall of Ten Thousand Demons had the Earth Fiend Devil King and the Soul Devouring Devil King, the Nine Nether Palace had Palace Master Su Yousi and Old Man Styx, and the Wendao Palace had Ye Gucheng.

Any one of these old monsters could crush him to death effortlessly.

If he bound to these Sects, forget about sucking blood—it would be lucky if he wasn't sucked dry in reverse.

"The best way," Old Grandfather spoke up.

"is to first join a Sect, become tied to it, and then use your secret technique. That way, when you suck, it won't be easy for others to notice. Moreover, since you've become a member of the Sect, obtaining resources becomes legitimate."

Chu Sheng thought about it and felt it made sense.

Sneak in first, become one of them, and then slowly suck their blood.

By the time the Sect noticed something was wrong, he would already be dripping with fat.

At that point, no one could possibly say, 'Why has the Sect Master/Elder rebelled?'

"Which one should I join?" Chu Sheng asked.

Old Grandfather stroked his beard, musing.

"Isn't Wendao Palace attractive? A major Sect of the Central Region with a deep foundation and Disciples all over the world. If you can sneak in and bind to Wendao Palace, those resources would be enough for you to live on for several lifetimes."

Chu Sheng shook his head.

"Wendao Palace is too far, and that old fellow Ye Gucheng isn't easy to fool. If he discovers me, he'll split me in half with one sword strike."

"Then what about Nine Nether Palace?"

"Palace Master Su Yousi is no better than Ye Gucheng."

Chu Sheng remembered that woman's eyes, which seemed able to see through everything. "Besides, my background in the Demon Realm isn't clean; if it gets dug up, the trouble will be even bigger."

Old Grandfather sighed. "Then which one do you plan to bind to?"

Chu Sheng was silent for a while, a thought flashing through his mind.

It was a pity the Taixu Divine Sect had already fallen; otherwise, how great would it be to bind directly to the Taixu Divine Sect?

Since it was the old man's own Sect, he would have no psychological burden while sucking it dry.

He said casually, "It's a pity the Taixu Divine Sect fell; otherwise, how great would it be to bind directly to that one."

Old Grandfather's expression changed instantly.

"The Taixu Divine Sect... has been fallen for hundreds of years. The mountain gates were burned, the Disciples were killed, and the Cultivation Techniques were stolen. Everything this seat built with his own hands turned to ashes."

Chu Sheng realized he had misspoken and quickly waved his hands. "Old man, I didn't mean it like that..."

Old Grandfather waved his hand, interrupting him. "This seat knows. You're right; if the Taixu Divine Sect were still around, it would indeed be the best choice. Pity..."

He didn't continue, his phantom form fading slightly as he retracted back into the ring.

Chu Sheng sat on the roof, staring at the ring on his finger, silent for a while.

What he said just now was indeed ill-considered; he had intended to make a joke, but Old Grandfather's reaction made him realize something.

The old man's obsession with the Taixu Divine Sect was much deeper than he had imagined.

Forget it, don't think about it. Just handle the matters at hand first.

Chu Sheng brought up the interface again and looked at his trait configuration.

The six main slots were now completely full: [Mediocrity (White)], [Many Children, Many Blessings (Prismatic)], [Duobao Heavenly Venerable (Red)], [Sect Binding (Red)], [mysterious ring (Gold)], and [Heavenly Demon Body (Gold)].

In the reserve slot was [Heavenly Secret Calculation (Gold)], which he would swap in once the simulation started.

Chu Sheng looked at this row of traits, the corners of his mouth curling up.

Six slots: one prismatic, two red, two gold, and just one eyesore of a white trait.

"Only this Mediocrity is a bit unsightly."

Chu Sheng muttered and opened the trait upgrade interface.

[Mediocrity (White) → Talent (Green): Consumes 1,000 simulation points.]

[After upgrading, there is a chance to trigger a critical hit, jumping directly to a higher quality.]

1,000 points.

Chu Sheng glanced at his balance; he had over 1,800 points left.

Spending 1,000 points to upgrade a white trait was painful, but this Mediocrity thing was truly an eyesore, and its effect indeed had a significant impact.

"Upgrade." He gritted his teeth.

A flash of light. 1,000 points evaporated, and the balance jumped to over 800 points.

[Upgrade successful. Mediocrity (White) → Talent (Green). Critical hit triggered—Talent (Green) → Prodigy (Blue).]

Chu Sheng was stunned for a moment, then laughed.

A critical hit.

It jumped directly from white to blue, skipping green in the middle.

Although a blue trait didn't have much practical use for someone with his Sea Opening cultivation, at least it looked much more pleasing to the eye.

From Mediocrity to Talent to Prodigy, the Cultivate speed went from half the result with twice the effort to twice the result with half the effort, which was already much better.

Even though he wouldn't actually Cultivate properly.

Besides, the prefix 'Prodigy' sounded ten thousand times better than 'Mediocrity.'

"Not bad, not bad," Chu Sheng comforted himself, "for peace of mind."

Chu Sheng looked at the balance; there were over 800 points left.

Keeping these points was useless; once the next simulation started, he wouldn't be able to draw traits, and the prize pool wouldn't be able to level up either. The remaining points would just be there for him to stare at.

Better to spend them.

He opened the interface to draw a companion Magic Treasure for the Duobao Heavenly Venerable.

He hadn't used this function much because the quality of the Magic Treasures drawn each time was unstable. The time before last, he drew the demon refining pot, a low-grade earth artifact, which was okay.

Last time he drew the immortal slaying gourd, a Low Grade Heaven Rank item, which was awesome.

What could he draw this time? He felt a bit of anticipation in his heart.

800 points, exactly his entire net worth.

Chu Sheng hesitated for a fraction of a second, then clicked confirm.

All in.

The light flared intensely, even brighter than when he had drawn the red trait earlier.

Chu Sheng squinted his eyes, his heart racing.

He didn't know what he would draw this time, but he had a premonition.

This time, the item wouldn't be inferior to the immortal slaying gourd.

The light gradually dissipated, and an object surfaced in front of him.

Chu Sheng saw the object clearly, and his pupils constricted violently.

"This..." His voice trembled slightly, "This is..."