Seeing Yun Lie emerge, the other disciples swallowed their conversations and resumed talking among themselves, withdrawing their gazes. Yet although they no longer looked openly, they secretly watched with their spiritual senses, careful not to probe the white-robed man himself. They discovered that Yun Lie had not left. Instead, he was standing beneath a tree, seemingly waiting for someone.
This made the disciples even more certain of their suspicions.
That young man in green must be the one who had helped Yun Lie form his Golden Core. But what sort of bond existed between them?
Acquaintances exchanged messages through spiritual sense, wondering whether they were close friends or perhaps blood relatives. In the end, no one reached a firm conclusion.
One person thought privately, Now that Yun Lie is a Golden Core Perfected One, his monthly allowance ought to be delivered by an attendant. Yet he’s come in person. He must be accompanying the young man in green. I wonder how talented the boy is, and whether he’ll amount to anything.
Whatever they thought, however, no one dared approach and strike up a conversation.
As soon as Yun Lie emerged, Xu Ziqing hurried inside. Though he wore a smile, there was a hint of awkward haste in his steps. All those fellow disciples had been watching him. Even without ill intent, they were at least Foundation Establishment cultivators, and their scrutiny had unsettled him.
He let out a quiet breath, grateful that Senior Martial Brother Yun had returned in time to relieve the discomfort of being stared at from every direction.
Beyond the entrance lay an inner hall furnished with an ancient-looking long table. Upon it sat a thick pile of registers and an inkstone holding ink as black as charcoal, yet flowing like mercury and sparkling faintly. Beside the inkstone was a brush rack lined with brushes made from an unknown material. Their tips were supple and their appearance ordinary, but a faintly mysterious aura surrounded them.
Behind the table sat a lean elderly man who looked to be in his sixties. On the broad wall behind him flickered countless jade slips like stars, each only a finger long and three fen wide. The sheer number was dizzying.
Xu Ziqing composed himself, approached, and smiled politely. “Xu Ziqing of Little Bamboo Peak pays his respects to Elder.”
An elder charged with administering part of the Pavilion of Ten Directions must hold considerable status. This one oversaw the monthly allowances of personal disciples belonging to the smaller peaks, making him someone whom they particularly could not afford to offend. Even if such disciples eventually surpassed him in cultivation, they still treated him with respect.
Seeing the young man in green behave so modestly and courteously, the managing elder’s expression softened. “I received a message from Perfected Qiu He the day before yesterday. You are his personal disciple, and so you are entitled to collect your allowance here.”
Xu Ziqing smiled slightly. “Yes. Thank you for troubling yourself, Elder.”
The managing elder smiled as well. He opened a register, flicked his right arm to clear his long sleeve, took up a brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote several lines in flowing strokes as he recited, “Xu Ziqing of Little Bamboo Peak, second personal disciple. Monthly allowance: one hundred lower-grade spiritual stones, three bottles of middle-grade Essence-Replenishing Pills, and one lower-grade One-Origin Pill.”
When he finished, he tossed the brush back onto its rack and beckoned with his right hand. A jade slip flew from the wall. With a curl of his left fingers, he pulled the freshly written black ink bodily off the register and pushed it into the jade slip. Then he tossed the slip back to its original place on the wall.
The series of movements was so fluid that Xu Ziqing stared in amazement.
The elder had clearly done this countless times, yet what an elaborate way to keep records! Xu Ziqing wondered what sort of brush and ink could produce writing that moved like a living thing and could be stored within a jade slip.
It was truly beyond anything he had imagined.
Yet this was evidently a special technique of the Hall of Merit. Although the elder noticed Xu Ziqing’s astonishment, he had no intention of explaining it. He merely pushed a palm-sized wooden box across the table. “Here is your monthly allowance. Count it.”
Xu Ziqing steadied himself and opened the box.
Inside was a pouch the size of a fist, three small bottles, and a pellet that resembled a wax pill. These must be the spiritual stones, Essence-Replenishing Pills, and One-Origin Pill.
Spiritual stones served as a medium of exchange. Essence-Replenishing Pills swiftly restored depleted true essence. One-Origin Pills served a similar purpose and, like Essence-Replenishing Pills, belonged to the Human rank. But the former were high-grade Human-rank pills, while the latter were low-grade. A single lower-grade One-Origin Pill could restore a hundred times as much true essence as an Essence-Replenishing Pill, an advantage that could prove decisive in a life-or-death crisis. Such pills must be difficult to refine and could not be provided in large quantities. Only personal disciples received one lower-grade pill each month.
Registered disciples received merely ten lower-grade spiritual stones and three bottles of low-grade Human-rank Qi-Gathering Pills. If they were fortunate enough to reach Foundation Establishment, they could exchange their Qi-Gathering Pills for Essence-Replenishing Pills, but three bottles bought only one. Their treatment was comparable to that of ordinary inner disciples, far inferior to what personal disciples received. Outer disciples fared even worse. A menial disciple could count themselves fortunate to receive one or two Qi-Gathering Pills per month, while an ordinary outer disciple’s allowance was only one-tenth of an ordinary inner disciple’s. Even within the same sect, the resources available to different ranks were worlds apart!
Xu Ziqing placed the allowance in his storage ring, took his leave of the elder, and walked outside.
Numerous cultivators still gathered near the entrance, some in groups, some in line, and others scattered here and there. But no matter who looked up, the first figure their eyes were drawn to was the white-robed man standing beneath the tree.
Xu Ziqing was no exception.
Senior Martial Brother is waiting for me.
The thought brought a smile to his face. “Senior Martial Brother Yun.”
Yun Lie turned slightly. “To the library.”
They were going to select cultivation methods, then. Xu Ziqing nodded. “Yes, Senior Martial Brother Yun.”
With that brief exchange, Yun Lie set off first, and Xu Ziqing hurried after him, following barely a step behind.
Those disciples watching had never seen Yun Lie allow another person so close. They were astonished. After a long silence, someone sighed, “It seems that young man really was the opportunity that allowed Perfected Yun to form his core…”
The most extraordinary structure in the Wuling Immortal Sect was the tall pagoda surrounded by numerous halls and pavilions. From a distance it resembled a pillar supporting heaven. Up close, its enormous height was only part of what made it remarkable. Innumerable restrictions and formations glimmered faintly across its surface, giving it a solemn majesty that no one dared treat lightly.
It was called the Heart-Tempering Tower. Inner disciples used it to temper their mental states and overcome inner demons. It could even benefit immensely powerful cultivators at the Out-of-Body and Mahayana stages.
The sect library stood directly before this tower.
It was a modest five-story building. According to rumor, cultivation manuals were arranged by rank on the different floors: unranked methods on the first, Human-rank methods on the second, Yellow-rank on the third, Profound-rank on the fourth, and Earth-rank on the fifth.
A sect as great as the Wuling Immortal Sect naturally also possessed Heaven-rank techniques. Those, however, were concealed in a hidden building within the building itself, impossible to find without the guidance of a guardian.
Xu Ziqing and Yun Lie came to the library but did not enter immediately. Instead, they walked to one side.
There stood an enormous stone stele, tall, broad, and extraordinarily solid.
A vast pressure dwelled within the stele, but it was concealed deep inside. Unless one forcibly probed it with spiritual sense, it would not affect anyone nearby.
But those who did probe it… Xu Ziqing glanced at a tall, broad-shouldered man nearby who clutched his head as cold sweat streamed down his face, and frowned. He would probably suffer just like that man, with piercing pain and a violently shaken soul!
At the top of the stele was the image of a golden dragon with five claws. Its head was held high, a pearl rested in its open mouth, its scales glittered, and its claws spread slightly, as though it were about to take flight.
The Heavenly Dragon Ranking!
Each of those three characters blazed with golden light like a sun.
A disciple whose cultivation was insufficient could be injured by looking at them even once.
The Heavenly Dragon Ranking contained one hundred places. Descending from the first, every name shone just as fiercely with dazzling gold and radiated a domineering presence. Each character seemed to contain unfathomably profound principles and possessed an astonishing, overwhelming power.
Only cultivators who had reached Golden Core had any hope of entering the ranking, and even then, not every Golden Core Perfected One would qualify.
The Heavenly Dragon Ranking took its meaning from the image of a dragon soaring into the nine heavens. Everyone listed upon it shared certain traits.
All had broken through to Golden Core before their hundredth birthdays, all possessed extraordinary potential, and all were exceptional geniuses whose sects expected great things of them and devoted considerable resources to their development.
Furthermore, the ranking made no distinction among immortals, demons, ghosts, or devils. Anyone with sufficient cultivation, potential, fortune, and reputation could qualify.
Every important sect possessed its own Heavenly Dragon Ranking stele, and outside the sects, such steles could be found wherever vast numbers of cultivators gathered.
Whenever a Golden Core cultivator passed one of the steles, it recorded their aura and assigned them a ranking.
Once a name appeared there, that cultivator instantly became known throughout the world.
Now Yun Lie was standing before the Heavenly Dragon Ranking.
The moment he appeared, an intense golden light erupted from the stele.
A loud dragon’s roar shook the sky. In the blink of an eye, the ranking underwent a dramatic change.
Wuling Immortal Sect, Slaughter Sword Yun Lie: fifth place on the Heavenly Dragon Ranking!
The Qingyun Great World was immense, and its cultivators were countless as the sands of the Ganges. Even the relatively rare sword cultivators numbered beyond calculation.
And yet Yun Lie had secured one of the highest places among those hundred unparalleled geniuses. No one else in his sect occupied a position within the top five!
Xu Ziqing stared at the changes in shock, unable to recover for a long time.
Seeing Yun Lie’s name and origins suddenly appear among the top five made his heart tremble all the more.
Senior Martial Brother Yun… He truly is someone worth admiring and aspiring to equal!
Drawing a deep breath, Xu Ziqing stared fixedly at that ranking and that name. Enormous envy and surging emotion suddenly rose within him.
If… if I could stand upon that list too…
He closed his eyes, feeling his blood boil.
Senior Martial Brother Yun was already advancing along his immortal path at an extraordinary pace. He was no longer a wandering soul within a ring that would always accompany Xu Ziqing, but a brilliant genius who would continue climbing higher and higher. If Xu Ziqing was not careful, he would lose sight of him altogether.
He had already fallen far behind. He did not want to spend his life looking only at Senior Martial Brother Yun’s back, nor forever remain sheltered by his guidance and generosity. He wanted to walk shoulder to shoulder with him, traverse the immortal path together, and attain immortality together.
From this moment onward, he would have to cultivate more diligently than ever.