"Everyone, gather round!" I shouted with a qi-enhanced voice, just enough to reach the entire Tower building.

  In a minute, the six girls and Lin Fei joined my round table, where I had placed some Spirit Feast bowls and a few bottles of cultivation pills from my treasure vault.

  Bai was feeling at home already, and she leaned on my shoulder casually.

  "Guys, you all have a big decision to make. I hope you all choose to stay in my Tower and grow strong, but if not, you will lose a big slice of your memories." I warned them as Grandpa manifested beside me, silently but also threatening. I wasn't certain of the extent of his powers, but mere Saints would be like ants, that was a given.

  My white haired girlfriend ignored the drama in favor of food, which was quite reasonable in her context. She had nothing to worry about.

  Xia and Linhua were a bit doubtful, as they entered my Tower by chance, unlike Caihong and Mei. Ming Yue and Lin Fei were kinda trapped by their own choices, but I hoped they would choose to stay. Ming Yue especially, since she was already close to her Divinity.

  Lin Fei glanced at my Grandpa ghost for a second, then grabbed a bowl of food and started eating as well. I guess that meant he wanted to stay.

  "Young Master...to be fair, I mostly wanted to escape from being turned into a sacrifice. What do you mean, grow strong?" Linhua asked in a wary voice.

  Hmmm. Fair question. "My Tower can increase time speed by 1000 times. Beside that, we have cultivation techniques and various arrays that can increase your skills. But perhaps more importantly, we have Grandpa Heavengaze. He comes from a distant starfield, called the Pearl Sea." I pointed out with my thumb pointing at the floating ghost.

  "My Artisan skills are mostly useless for low realm cultivators like you. Same for the cultivation methods and techniques I know. The lowest junk method I have is barely usable by Divine Manifestation cultivators, and the rest are Immortal techniques meant for True Gods and higher realms." Grandpa spoke in an apologetic voice.

  Everyone at the table froze in awe and surprise, including me. Grandpa was too badass, even his apology was flexing on everyone like a boss.

  "Take that with a grain of salt, guys! Grandpa made a pair of Divine Swords for me and Bai, plus that Combat Simulator Array. And we'll get a thousand more artifacts in a few years." I interjected before everyone got too dejected.

  Bai held out her white sword and made it float above the table as proof. "This is my Ice Sword. There are many swords in the world, but this one is mine. And it can kill ghosts or spirits!" she proclaimed in a proud voice, making Lin Fei frown for a second.

  I also frowned, thinking for a moment, then realized the problem. Bai already had the sword intent, covering the sword, while Lin Fai lacked one.

  "That Combat Array is indeed great. Much better than the Illusion Tower from the Oracle Mountain." Ming Yue confirmed in a calm voice, sounding quite satisfied with my training aid. Then she also grabbed a bowl of food, to signal her willingness to stay.

  "Do we need sect points to use the array?" Xia asked a bit suspicious.

  I didn't have a point system yet, but perhaps I could.

  "You won't need points to train. I can make a dozen more arrays in a few days. These things are quite simple, if meant to be used by Saints." Grandpa ghost spoke before I could. Well, in that case, he was right.

  "We'll use points for Divine Arrays, when we get there. I suspect they will cost a bit more to operate." I answered a bit differently.

  Caihong and Mei exchanged a glance, then picked up a bowl of food each and started eating, leaving the random newcomers to mule over their choice.

  I just picked up my own bowl and ate, leaving the last two girls to decide for themselves.

  "Do I get a sword like that?" Xia demanded in a slightly greedy voice.

  I smiled inward, since a single weapon was a rather low bar for a life-changing decision. Even a nice Divine Sword.

  "Come with me, Miss Xia. I'll craft a sword for you, right now." Grandpa offered by himself, and flew away with Xia on a glowing platform of sigils and air.

  Grandpa was acting more mysterious and showing off a bit, but then he must have been quite lonely until I arrived for my adventure.

  This left only Linhua as the lone outsider, who looked around a bit scared, now that she felt the pressure of being alone. I examined her outer aspect, noting the long black hair and the white robes of an Outer Disciple stretched forward by her massive breasts beneath.

  "You must have had a reason for taking my hand and leaving your old sect, Miss Linhua. Did you get harassed?" I asked in a gentle voice.

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  Linhua looked down and nodded in silence.

  "Nobody can do that here, Miss Linhua. The Tower is a self-contained pocket dimension, so the only people who can ever enter, are those I want to. And if you train seriously in the arrays, nobody could harass you anyway, once you become a Sword Saint. Miss Ming is almost there, and I bet there wasn't anyone harassing her." I pointed out with a nod at the strongest Saint around.

  The woman I mentioned glared at me, then eyed Lin Fei a bit suspicious. Well, persons present should be excluded, of course. It was the basic of gossip, after all.

  "Senior Sister..." Linhua grabbed the chance, looking hopeful at the level 10 Saint.

  "This is your life, Linhua. Don't ask me to make the choice for you." Ming Yue answered a bit too sharply.

  Linhua fell silent, looking down with a distressed face.

  "Don't rush your decision, Miss Linhua. We are in time compression now, so by the time it's morning outside, we would have spent about 300 days in here. You girls can use the waterfall in the back to wash." I said in a relaxed voice, then picked up Bai and flew away, back to my room.

  We had a lot of soul cultivation to do, so best use our time wisely. I wasn't worried about the other paths of cultivation, but the soul was rather difficult to grow.

  "Pef...are we doing your Tower room again?" Bai asked as I fell on my back in my bed.

  "Soul cultivation is a delicate thing, my love. I will guide you some more, at least until you reach Saint Realm with your soul." I said patiently, and waited for Bai to climb in my arms and make herself comfortable.

  Once more, we fell into my inner world and entered the Vajra Tower, now a bit taller and looking more sturdy. Maybe by a single percent, but this was still good progress.

  Our souls mingled and melded as we cultivated, and by the time we have awoken, Bai had already advanced her soul into Xiantian Realm.

  She truly was a genius, and benefited from my own cultivation as well.

  A thin jade card awaited on my table as I rose, and I read the contents with a wide grin. Grandpa ghost had managed to dumb down the Vajra techniques to Xiantian Realm! I quickly memorized them all, then passed the jade card to Bai.

  "Learn and practice these techniques now. One hour each." I told her and flew down to my alchemy lab.

  Time to grind more pills, especially more Xiantian pills for the girls. And for Lin Fei too. His soul was rather weak and easily influenced by that Asura demon.

  Today was a good day, as I only failed 90% of my cauldrons and obtained 6 soul forging pills! They weren't good pills, but I wasn't a good Artisan yet.

  Grandpa appeared beside me and snorted, amused. "Are you trying to poison your new Tower members? And also pollute their souls with spirit ash?" he asked while holding a pill in his hand.

  'Soul Forging Pill, low quality, Xiantian Realm. Used to grow the soul. Worth 3000 spirit stones.' I discerned with my special eye skill.

  I picked up the damn pill and ate it myself. I won't get poisoned, at least. "It works fine for me..." I grumbled in a low voice.

  "You're not like them, Young Master. Humans should only eat perfect quality pills. And even those are bad for them, after a few times." Grandpa warned me with a poke to my forehead.

  "It will take me a long time to make such pills." I muttered in defeat.

  A metal cauldron landed loudly on the stone floor. "Try again." he demanded with an eager tone.

  I replaced my old Houtian cauldron with the new one, and began refining more soul pills. 'White Gold Cauldron, high-grade artifact, increases quality for pills, up to Saint Realm. Worth 40 billion spirit stones'

  While the eye skill didn't mark anything about failure rate, I managed to obtain 6 soul pills in only 10 tries, and one of them was already at high quality! No wonder a good cauldron was worth so much.

  "Still no perfect pills..." I groaned tiredly, but Grandpa had left sometime ago, not even staying to record my failures.

  Instead, I ate the failed pills, since my Reaction God body could manage the toxic backlash. It was at this moment I realized that eating my failures was the correct path forward. By eating and sensing how each pill reacted with my body, I could deduce why the refining failed.

  With my soul filled to the brim with soul energy from the pills, I flew out of the Tower and into the plaza, where everyone else was training with combat arrays and losing to the Saint ghosts.

  Grandpa just pointed at a new Formation Array, lined with a metal chain on the outside. "Is that the Soul Array?" I asked curious.

  "Jump inside and try it. It won't be very hard at first." the old ghost urged me with a grin.

  I kinda doubted that, thinking about how harsh the combat array had been for 5 years. But I did want to get strong, and I knew the old ghost was a master of his craft. So I jumped inside, and fell into another world, a red desert on some airless planet.

  Stars exploded in the distance, while a winged demon yelled in my face and shook my soul. My Vajra Tower crumbled before I could fight back, and I was thrown out. My nose was bleeding, and my head pounded with pain, like I was stomped by a mammoth.

  "Demon corporal, promoted for his soul strength. Leads a squad of 6 regular demon soldiers. Nice, right?" Grandpa said in a proud voice.

  "Only a corporal? Do they have sergeants, or lieutenants?" I asked a bit groggy.

  "Of course they do. They are called Asura." the old ghost answered with a smirk.

  Maybe I didn't want to meet one of those yet. A single corporal could kick my ass.

  I sat down to meditate and heal my soul back to full, then jumped into the Demon Soul Simulator once more. Then got blown away right back.

  "I must be doing something wrong." I whispered to myself, but it was hard to think straight with my soul in shambles.

  "You haven't failed enough times to deduce the reason. Try a thousand times." Grandpa advised me in a wise voice, then flew away.

  Bai landed beside me, and wiped my nose with a gentle hand. "Got your ass kicked?" she asked in a playful tone.

  "Demons are hard. Go get your Sword Saint rank before you try this." I said in a sad voice, and struggled to stand up and enter the array again.

  Another shout to the face, and my Vajra Tower crumbled like made of sticks. Damn head was killing me with pain, and my heart hurt as well. I sat down to heal and think, but just like Grandpa said, I didn't fail enough times. I felt like those poor girls in my spatial ring, falling dead at the first soul attack.

  But I wasn't defenseless like them! I had my Saint Realm soul cultivation, and even a defense technique. I tried the array a few more times, with the same result. Instant defeat.

  Then I was too tired to try, and just meditated. It took a while, until I reviewed my memories and remembered what Grandpa had said sometime ago. In the starfields, the basic soldiers were at Divine Realm. And they died by the trillions. That corporal was also a Divine Realm demon.

  Even in the Combat Array, all enemies were Saints, and I began to train there at Xiantian Realm. Damn Grandpa had a cruel way to make me strong.