Chapter 153: The Lower Senior Sister

“Fairy Luyue is a national-level idol with many admirers, and her attainments in the Music Path are extremely deep.”

“For our master to cultivate using her influence is actually a rather good choice.” Wei Ling giggled. “Oh, so Master, you are a fan too, this is…”

“Oh? But I seem to recall you saying earlier that you were ashamed to associate with those who follow idols? I thought you looked down on the Incense Path?” The straightforward Lei Mulan interrupted from the side.

“I was talking about the dead-end Otaku who rely entirely on idols to lie flat and cultivate! Using idols as a tool to aid one’s cultivation is perfectly acceptable.”

“Our master has proven that she is definitely not a dead-end Otaku who just lies flat and doesn’t understand combat.” Wei Ling hurriedly explained. “As a soldier-style cultivator, of course, one listens to whoever has the biggest fist.”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind.” Mu Yanxi said. She didn’t feel there was anything wrong with focusing on home cultivation, nor did she look down on the Incense Path.

In her previous life, there were indeed some cultivators who looked down on the Incense Path, feeling it was a shortcut or not true immortality cultivation, relying on the offerings of mortals instead of one’s own hard work, leading to an impure Dao Foundation and disrupting the unspoken rule that cultivators should not interfere in mortal affairs.

However, the Magnificent Truth Sect held the view that most cultivators of the Incense Path would protect the mortals who believed in them, and since the Incense Path was not an evil path and generally did not harm others, it was considered a member of the righteous path, and they did not discriminate against it. Mu Yanxi held this view as well.

Furthermore, the original host had no spiritual roots, so any cultivation method that could be utilized should be used.

In such a situation, why shouldn’t she worship an idol and rely on her music to cultivate? One only has combat effectiveness with cultivation; without it, even being skilled in combat is useless.

However, in this world, the Incense Path was no longer in the form of mortal believers offering incense to gods, but in this form of idols and fans.

Since the fans were also cultivators, the power of vows they could provide was naturally much stronger than that of mortals.

The dead-end Otaku who only lie flat to cultivate that Wei Ling spoke of were actually hard to find, as the sect entrance exam was a comprehensive assessment ranging from spirit sense to physical strength, and from theoretical knowledge to real-time combat.

Mu Yanxi did not believe these senior sisters from the Idol Enthusiast Club were truly like that. If they were unqualified, it would be impossible to enter the Spiritual Moon Sect; they could only go to a mortal grade high sect.

Being able to get into an Earth-grade High Sect proved that the foundations of these idol-loving disciples were perfectly fine; at most, their combat effectiveness was inferior to a soldier-style cultivator like Wei Ling. Wei Ling’s statement was likely somewhat biased.

Just then, Fairy Luyue’s musical piece came to an end. She smiled faintly and said, “Thank you all for your appreciation, and thank you to all my fans for the rewards. I hope we meet again next time.”

“Ohhh! Fairy Luyue smiled!” “I wonder if she received the elixir I sent! Will she be happy because of my gift?”

“I really want to engage in double cultivation with Fairy Luyue!” The senior sisters of the Idol Enthusiast Club shouted one after another.

Mu Yanxi covered her forehead and retracted her previous statement. Wei Ling was right; these hopeless senior sisters were beyond saving, and it was certain that most of them had been male previously.

Even though they were quiet while listening to the music, their level of fanaticism was actually much higher than it had been when they were in front of the seniors of the Spiritual Moon Palace.

As Fairy Luyue’s video ended, the fanatical atmosphere on the stage gradually cooled. Only then did they restart their recruitment activities; in fact, watching the idol video was just a part of the recruitment experience.

The senior sister of the Idol Enthusiast Club said to the new disciples who had come to experience the idol activities, “How was it? In our Idol Enthusiast Club, you only need to listen to music and watch dances to see your cultivation improve significantly—it’s easy and happy immortality cultivation.”

Her statement was indeed attractive.

Compared to those other clubs that either taught female cultivators how to sacrifice their dignity to serve others or required learning various complex techniques, being able to cultivate just by listening to music and watching dances was a huge draw. All 9 new disciples showed expressions of interest.

At this moment, a girl who was short on funds asked, “But, I heard that if you want to get better cultivation results, you need to tip and become a higher-level fan? I might not have enough spirit stones to tip and send gifts.”

“Junior sister, rest assured. Our Idol Enthusiast Club has a public account. We use club funds to tip and raise our fan rank, and we hold regular screening meetings for collective cultivation.”

“Furthermore, many senior sisters who graduated from the Spiritual Moon Sect have become idols; they will take care of us, let us watch for free, and return to their alma mater from time to time to hold concerts. These are all opportunities for us.”

Hearing the senior sister of the Idol Enthusiast Club say this, Mu Yanxi remembered that the senior sister from the dance club had also said that if one couldn’t find a place to go after graduation, they could become streamers—which, in fact, must mean becoming idols.

Mu Yanxi stated this to Wei Ling to confirm, and she nodded in agreement. “That’s right, there are indeed many senior sisters who become idols after graduation. But this profession has too many competitors and too much pressure.”

“Not only do you have to compete with your fellow sect members, but you even have to compete with idols from the Qingxu Palace and overseas.”

“Little idols without any special skills cannot build a fan base, and after a year or 2, they will just marry some wealthy top-ranked backer. It’s not so much the Incense Path as it is just a stepping stone.”

Mu Yanxi knew this as well. The essence of the Incense Path was gathering the masses for immortality cultivation; the more believers one had, the faster the cultivation speed.

But unlike her previous life, the Incense cultivators of the past would fool mortal believers.

Mortals were easy to deceive; one only needed to display some cultivator methods to gain a large number of mortal followers, and then give them some benefits to make them follow and offer incense devotedly.

However, this world was different. Almost everyone was a cultivator, even those who had completely given up on cultivation and were lying at home, and the Incense Path had been publicized; all idols could be seen on the Dao web.

Mu Yanxi imagined it and felt there were both pros and cons. The benefit was that the superiority of most idols could be seen at a glance when compared.

Fairy Luyue could become a national-level idol not because of how beautiful she was, but because her attainments in the Music Path were profound, and she could stimulate her fans’ cultivation to the maximum extent, so everyone was willing to follow her.

As for those idols whose cultivation effects were not as good, they could only attract fans in other ways, such as teaching some unique skills, or having different effects with their celestial dances and music.

Naturally, their fan counts could not compare to Fairy Luyue’s. If there were too few fans, they could not specialize in the Incense Path and could only cultivate it as a secondary path.

Additionally, according to Wei Ling, there was also a Star-Chasing society consisting mainly of female cultivators, whose main activity was following male idols.

This was only natural; if female cultivators could walk the Incense Path, male cultivators could do the same.

Believers and tips were equivalent to offerings, gifts were equivalent to sacrificial items, and listening to music and watching dances were equivalent to a deity manifesting; the idol was equivalent to the great immortals who cultivated the Incense Path in her past life, and the fans were equivalent to the believers.

Mu Yanxi roughly organized the situation based on what she had seen and heard. Converted in this way, the idol system was indeed identical to the Incense Path.