The more that the sect janitor couldn't act, the more anxious he felt, to the point that he thought he might actually end up developing a heart demon thinking about Tang Ze's heart demon!
Who knew when that heart demon might erupt? Who knows how powerful it would be if it were to take physical form?
Yet, again, the sect janitor had no direct method to use against the heart demon.
A lack of information was what really hamstrung the sect janitor in his efforts though. How was he going to figure out what was going on with Tang Ze? It was doubtful that he would tell the sect janitor if he simply walked up to him and asked - that might even end up causing him more pain and triggering the heart demon to action.
His information-gathering network had failed him in digging up anything useful regarding Tang Ze.
Unless...
A flash of inspiration came to him.
One day, Zhang Long was sitting in a courtyard, while the sect janitor thought it was a good time to start tidying up the benches.
"Ah, I'll get up," Zhang Long said, noticing the sect janitor. He was a person who knew of the sect janitor's strength, and did not want to get in his way, not knowing that there was no actual cleaning going on, and that it was to speak to him that the sect janitor had even bothered to come there.
"Ah, no, relax," the sect janitor said. As it was, he had a high evaluation of Zhang Long from all that he had seen of him - and knowing that Zhang Long was Tang Ze's squad leader, it gave him a new possible route of inquiry. It wasn't just the sect janitor who thought highly of Zhang Long though - nearly everyone had a good opinion of him. Much like Guo Jia had been, he was also thought of as one of this division's rising stars. Even the sect janitor was a bit surprised to notice that Zhang Long's cultivation had risen by a minor realm since the last time he had seen him - not knowing of Zhang Long's breakthrough.
The sect janitor began dusting off the statues next. "You know - when you start dusting things off, people often wonder- where does the dust go? After all, dust off the statues, and it goes onto the plants, or the floor, no? But don't dust them off, and it will start building up in some places." He went to a corner which was usually neglected due to how hard it was to reach. "And grime accumulates in these corners the longer you leave it."
The sect janitor had been saying these words with a deeper intention behind them, but it seemed that they were lost on Zhang Long.
Ah well, he had somewhat expected this.
"What had gotten Junior Brother's mood so low today?" the sect janitor then asked, choosing a more direct route. He couldn't with a complete stranger, but Zhang Long was at least somewhat aware of him and his status. Also, it looked like Zhang Long's worries were rather superficial, unlike whatever it was that plagued Tang Ze's mind - as such, it would be much easier for Zhang Long to say what was on his mind.
"Ah, it's nothing," Zhang Long said dismissively.
This was the most common comment that the sect janitor heard when asking people what was bothering them, so he had naturally developed his own ways to counteract such things.
"Even if it is small, going to sleep with a mosquito in your room will keep you awake at night, won't it?" the sect janitor asked.
"Right well..." Zhang Long said, wringing his hands somewhat. It looked like there was something on his mind he wanted to unload, but he wasn't sure how to express. "I'm a bit concerned about one of my squad members."
The sect janitor guessed that most likely, Zhang Long was talking about Tang Ze.
After all, with the size of his heart demon, it was only to be expected that other people could tell that there was something going wrong with him as well.
They may not have been able to see the heart demon like the sect janitor could, but they could 'see' the inner turmoil within the heart of that person.
No matter how much someone tried to hide it, their inner problems would manifest themselves in either their expressions or actions. With a heart demon of that size, it was no surprise that the feelings that had caused it to develop could not be hidden.
Still, some people were just too good at hiding their worries. His friend from so long ago who had succumbed to his heart demon's attack always had one of the brightest smiles on his face whenever the sect janitor had seen him - who could've thought that he was battling with such demons inside of himself?
As it was said - the brightest smiles often hid the darkest of shadows. One could not just judge people from how they appeared - he had learned that in his decades of helping others battle their heart demons.
"So, what could be bothering this person?" the sect janitor asked.
He wanted to know the name of this person so he could be sure, but realized that he couldn't ask for such a thing directly. Instead, he directed his line of questioning elsewhere.
"It has to do with our newest member," Zhang Long said. "His name is Tang Ze." The sect janitor smiled internally, so it looked like Zhang Long had offered this information openly. Good! There was no need to beat around the bush for the same.
"And what's going on with him?"
"Well, he's stuck at the Zeroth Realm of cultivation," Zhang Long said. "And it's been a while, but he hasn't even been able to move up to the initial minor realm of Qi Condensation yet - and there's not much I can do to help him. He can't take pills because he hasn't cleared his meridians yet, and there's really not much else any of us can do to help him."
The sect janitor had noticed that he couldn't feel any Qi around Tang Ze - but he hadn't thought that was the reason. He instead thought it might've been some kind of technique. "If that is the case, how did he join our sect in the first place?" They would usually not take people who were not at least in the second initial realm of Qi Condensation unless their parents were also members.
So he couldn't understand why they would make an Initiate of someone who had not even taken the first steps when it came to cultivating and was also an outsider.
Zhang Long then described Tang Ze's strengthening method to the sect janitor.
"Tang Ze might be strong," Zhang Long continued, "but, he still seems weighed down by the fact that he can't even start cultivating like a normal person properly."
The sect janitor chuckled. "Have you ever heard the story of Lady Ling Shui, Zhang Long?"
Zhang Long frowned. The name was somewhat familiar - though given how long the Raswatian's Empire history went, and how big it was - there were so many names and people to learn about that it was hard for someone his age to cram them all inside of his head. "Did... she defeat a large army at one point?"
The sect janitor nodded. "But that's not what she was most famous for. You see, she was the daughter of a very influential cultivator, though she displayed very little talent for the same. After spending nearly twenty years trying to teach her, her family had basically given up on ever trying to get her to advance as a cultivator and eventually resigned her off as someone to be married off for political gain. However, she had a peculiar fondness for painting. That was part of why she couldn't truly advance in her cultivation. She would spend hours practicing brush strokes instead of cultivating, and she continued to do so even after her family had nearly given up on her."
"One day, while she was finishing one of her paintings, she was struck with profound insight into the mechanisms of the world through her art, and in a single leap, jumped from the Qi Condensation realm to the Nascent Soul realm," the sect janitor continued. "Her paintings were how she grew closer to the Dao, and after she achieved that level of enlightenment, she once defeated an army by painting a landscape into which the enemy soldiers were led into - before then wiping them out by erasing them with a few strokes of her brush. That was a special technique she had developed entirely from her understanding of painting, something that no one else since has been able to replicate."
"Ah, yes, I remember that last part now," Zhang Long said, having heard that story. "So, you're trying to say that you think that Tang Ze might also have that kind of talent?"
"Such things are rare, occurring maybe once every thousand years or so - but remember, everyone is different. Not even twins are the same when it comes to comprehending the Dao, and so, while most people cultivate in the same way, some cultivate entirely differently. Who knows - perhaps Tang Ze is one of those people and this work he does in making costumes is just his expression of his understanding," the sect janitor said.
"So you think he might actually be building up to something like a breakthrough?" Zhang Long asked.
"Who knows? He might end up working for ten or twenty years, and then suddenly leap to the Golden Core realm in a single step," the sect janitor said. Such cases, again, were extraordinarily rare - but there were such people who had immense talent and genius in things like artwork and poetry, and would one day suddenly make huge leaps in their cultivation.
Zhang Long's face fell a bit though. "Ten or twenty years... that's such a long time."
"If one wants to cultivate, one has to be willing to wait for so long," the sect janitor said. "And in cultivation terms, ten or twenty terms is not long at all." Cultivators could be stuck at a minor realm for centuries when it came to the higher major realms. He himself had been at the fourth minor realm of Golden Core for a good three decades now.
"Right," Zhang Long said, cheering up slightly.
However, the sect janitor did not feel like his work was done yet.
This could at most, only partially explain what was going on with Tang Ze. He could understand how such a problem might trouble a young man, but it couldn't possibly be the root cause of such a powerful and vicious heart demon. It looked like it might even rival the heart demon that had consumed one of his friends so many years ago!
Likely, there was a deeper problem afoot. One that Zhang Long had not realized as of yet.
Given the lack of information that the sect janitor could find on Tang Ze, he had a good hunch it involved them somehow. But, he had no real way of getting to the bottom of things.
He made a mental note to follow Tang Ze closely for now, and hoped that what little he had done right now would at least help Tang Ze somewhat.