"Sect Master!" Little An looked at Xiao Shou in a daze.

He thought that the Sect Master actually had the same habit as his mother.

He wrapped his arms around his neck and said in a soft childish voice, "It’s okay. Mother also forgets about me when she cultivates. After I woke up, I counted many sets of a hundred and I wasn’t scared. When I got hungry, I ate the food Mother left in the storage bag. I wasn’t scared at all."

"Little An is so well-behaved and brave! Come here, let me give you a kiss as a reward!"

Xiao Shou lovingly kissed the child’s soft chubby little cheek and carried him toward the mountain interior hall.

He could not help but regret his earlier decision to stop Fu Young from buying servants.

Such a young child, surrounded only by cultivators who were focused on cultivation, had no one to accompany him as he grew up or played with him.

He was always alone.

Even a Tier 3 puppet, no matter how sophisticated, was still just a puppet.

It could only act according to its master’s commands and could not truly interact with the child.

And yet he had actually considered letting a puppet accompany this child for half a year or even a full year.

At his age, when his personality, worldview, and understanding of the world were still being formed, he had made such an oversight.

He silently regretted his lack of consideration and firmly decided he must correct this mistake.

Little An had no idea how many thoughts were flashing through the mind of the person holding him.

He was very happy with Xiao Shou’s actions.

His mother always did the same.

After finishing cultivation each day, when she spent time with him teaching him how to speak, read, and write, she would always praise him and kiss him as a reward when he did well. And when he kissed her back, she would become very happy.

So he immediately wrapped his arms around Xiao Shou and gave a loud kiss on his cheek, leaving half his face wet with saliva.

He said proudly, "I also want to kiss Sect Master!"

"Haha, Little An is so cute. What do you usually do every day?" Xiao Shou asked in a teasing tone.

Little An tilted his head and counted on his fingers seriously. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Every day I accompany my Mother in cultivation, accompany Martial Uncle in guiding Mother’s cultivation, practice writing, wait for Mother to finish cultivating so I can learn writing and reading, listen to Mother tell stories, go hunting with Mother... and many, many other things! I am very busy!"

"You really are busy. Little An is amazing."

Hearing his childish voice, Xiao Shou could not help but imagine the small 3,5 year old child wobbling as he wrote or nodding his head seriously while reading.

He almost laughed out loud when he thinking of that.

At the same time, a thought surfaced in his mind.

This could not continue like this.

His own cultivation, Fu Young’s cultivation, and An Yu’s cultivation could not be delayed.

But he also could not let a child remain alone like this.

Thinking of him sitting quietly in the stone chamber at such a young age, not crying even when lonely or afraid, only softly muttering to himself to comfort his own heart after waiting too long, he felt even more tenderness toward him.

He had to find a solution for this child and bring back some companions and teachers for him.

Xiao Shou continued teasing Little An while quietly thinking about this.

He did not have many advantages.

The only thing he could rely on was having read the original novel.

Aside from some nauseating romantic plotlines he had skipped over, he had read most of the story and many of the emotional or "fluff" scenes.

Perhaps he could find a suitable method from them.

He then began to summarize the current situation.

First, they needed someone who could teach a child to read and write and also help him learn most of the common knowledge in the cultivation world before the age of six.

Then, the newly established Eternal Prosperity Sect needed disciples.

Recruiting disciples taken in halfway were not ideal.

Their loyalty would be questionable and if their origins were unclear, they might bring disaster.

If they had poor character, it would be even worse.

Just the Concealment Stone, the spiritual vein, and the spirit spring alone were enough to provoke greedy people to come.

Adding the cultivation techniques and demonic beast essences would make even powerful cultivators unable to resist taking action.

So, to prevent information from leaking, adults and older youths could not be recruited.

Only children with spiritual roots could be brought in.

Little An also needed childhood playmates, so that arrangement would be more suitable.

In that case, a loyal teacher should not be considered for now.

That would be too troublesome.

As for children with spiritual roots, in the Heaven Origin Realm, apart from the southern continent where mortals live, cultivators rarely ventured elsewhere.

In most villages, towns, and regions outside the southern mortal lands, children underwent spiritual root testing at the age of six.

Most cultivation families gathered all 6 year old children of their clan every year for testing.

The families without cultivator lineage would also test their children at set intervals, some every six years, some every ten years.

In short, those with good spiritual roots were usually taken in by nearby sects or powers.

A small number of them would followed elders as independent cultivators, while others joined factions or cultivation families as guards, servants, or concubines.

In such an environment, recruiting a group of unaffiliated children with spiritual roots would require going to the mortal world.

However, he seemed to recall a plotline in the novel involving Xiao Ran after she reached the late Golden Core Formation stage.

During an intimate moment with the Holy Sword Sect expert Jian Li, she was accidentally seen by Ying Ying, the daughter of the Holy Sword Sect Grand Elder.