NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Style of the Demon Sect
When Lü Yang walked out of the meditation room, he discovered that someone was already waiting outside.
Lü Yang was startled and saw that the visitor was wearing a black Daoist robe, his expression sinister—it was precisely the black-robed Daoist who had previously assigned him to the Pleasure Hall!
"Greetings, Senior Brother." Lü Yang quickly saluted.
"You are quite good, a real talent."
The black-robed Daoist said with a smile, "I originally heard that Yu Suzhen had lured a very capable young lad into her room, and a breakthrough in Qi Refining was just around the corner."
"Unexpectedly, that venomous woman actually failed."
As he spoke, the black-robed Daoist looked at Lü Yang with a peculiar gaze.
Three days, a full three days!
Yu Suzhen’s cries could even be heard outside the meditation room, and even though the black-robed Daoist considered himself experienced and knowledgeable, he could not help but feel a bit of admiration at this moment.
If this boy did not die, he would surely become a pillar of the Primordial Saint Sect in the future!
"Come with me."
The black-robed Daoist’s name was Liu Xin, an official disciple of the Mending Heaven Peak, one of the Four Inner Peaks, responsible for guiding newly promoted registered disciples and conveying sect affairs.
"The Four Outer Halls and the Four Inner Peaks correspond to each other."
On the way, Liu Xin introduced with interest, "Apart from the Sacred Fire Cliff where the Sect Master resides, our sect mainly revolves around the Four Inner Peaks."
"You came out of the Pleasure Hall, so naturally, you must join my Mending Heaven Peak. I will first take you to update the roster."
Having someone to guide him was exactly what Lü Yang needed, so he quickly said, "Thank you, Senior Brother Liu."
"It is merely part of my duty."
Liu Xin said indifferently, "After updating the roster, I will take you to the other three halls. There are quite a few benefits for official disciples—think of it as welfare from the sect."
"According to the rules, each official disciple can only receive it once." Speaking of this, Liu Xin showed a hint of regret, "After entering the Inner Sect, if you want similar items again, you must complete missions issued by the sect and earn contribution points to exchange for them."
Lü Yang frowned and asked, "Contribution points?"
"They are the currency issued by the sect." Liu Xin explained, "After you update the roster, you should be able to view them through your disciple token as well."
Curious, Lü Yang immediately followed Liu Xin to update the roster.
The process was very simple—basically moving the Life Lamp he lit when he joined the sect from the Outer Sect area to the Inner Sect area.
Then Lü Yang injected a strand of Qi into the token at his waist, and immediately a line of text floated up:
"Official Disciple, Lü Yang."
"As an official disciple, the sect gifts you 50 contribution points free of charge, which can be used to exchange for spirit stones, techniques, magical tools, cultivation caves, etc."
"After entering the Inner Sect, you must pay contribution points to rent a cultivation cave, with rent at 30 contribution points per month. Of course, you can also choose to purchase a cave. As a newly promoted Inner Sect disciple, if you buy within ten years, you enjoy a 20% discount on the down payment."
—Introductions like these filled over a dozen pages.
After carefully reading through them, Lü Yang came to a conclusion: "This Inner Sect runs entirely on money!"
With contribution points, one could traverse the world, gaining access to techniques, pills, and treasures.
Without contribution points, one could not even afford a cave, let alone anything else.
At the same time, Lü Yang learned what kind of welfare Liu Xin had mentioned.
Every registered disciple, upon promotion to an official disciple, could use their disciple token to choose one magical tool, one pill, one companion spirit beast, and one dual cultivation furnace from the Treasure Refinement Hall, Pill Refinement Hall, Beast Taming Hall, and Pleasure Hall respectively—without spending any contribution points.
"Looking at it this way, it truly is welfare."
Lü Yang, with a thought, opened the list of redeemable items through his disciple token, and immediately rows of corresponding text appeared.
The cheapest techniques, magical tools, pills, spirit beasts, and dual cultivation furnaces all cost at least 100 contribution points.
In comparison, the rewards for sect tasks were miserably low, most only single-digit contribution points, and very few even reached double digits.
It could be seen that the four-piece free set given after promotion to official disciple was worth at least 400 contribution points—a considerable sum for any official disciple.
While contemplating, Lü Yang had already followed Liu Xin to the Treasure Refinement Hall.
The one responsible for receiving them was named Chen Hao, a steward of the Treasure Refinement Hall, who was also said to be an official disciple himself—the role of steward was one of his sect-assigned tasks.
According to Liu Xin, tasks with fixed positions like this in the Inner Sect were the most profitable.
Not only did they offer a lot of contribution points—one task alone could support an official disciple—but they also provided stability, making them a veritable iron rice bowl.
Unfortunately, there were too many monks and too little meat—without connections, one could not get such a task at all.
"Senior Brother Liu? It has been a while."
Upon entering the Treasure Refinement Hall, Lü Yang noticed that Chen Hao first gave him a once-over, then turned to Liu Xin with enthusiasm and said, "Bringing in a new disciple again?"
"Indeed."
Liu Xin grinned meaningfully, and said with a hint of implication, "Since you know, hurry up and bring out the finest magical tools from the Treasure Refinement Hall for Junior Brother Lü to have a look."
"Got it!"
Chen Hao nodded eagerly, then led them into the inner courtyard of the Treasure Refinement Hall.
However, as they walked, Lü Yang frowned in surprise:
"Isn’t this... a disciple's cultivation chamber?"
Shouldn’t the place for collecting magical tools be some kind of storage warehouse?
Upon hearing this, Chen Hao first looked puzzled, then suddenly realized, and laughed heartily: "Junior Brother Lü, you might not know this, but the finest magical tools are kept here."
Before his words even fell, the three of them stopped in front of a cultivation room.
"The disciple inside this room has been a registered disciple in the Outer Sect for three years. Unfortunately, he is a bit stubborn and went astray in his cultivation technique."
With that, Chen Hao directly pushed open the door.
Then Lü Yang saw that, right in the center of the room, a Daoist was sitting cross-legged on a meditation mat, eyes tightly shut, muttering to himself as if in a dream.
"Success... I'm about to succeed..."
Right after that, Chen Hao pinched a hand seal, and the Daoist inside the room suddenly opened his eyes.
The previously dull face instantly lit up with ecstatic joy:
"Hahaha! I've succeeded!"
Boom!
Before his voice had even faded, his entire body exploded with a loud bang, blood and flesh scattering everywhere before being sucked back in, completely merging into the skeleton left in place.
In no time, the living man disappeared completely.
In his place was a "Bone Sword", crystalline and jade-like, segment after segment perfectly orderly, gently falling onto the meditation mat, still radiating dazzling magical light.
Chen Hao stepped forward, picked up the "Bone Sword," and handed it to Lü Yang, then said with satisfaction: "The magical tool 'Bone Jade Sword' is considered top-grade even in the 『Book of a Hundred Treasures of True Grotto』. This Junior Brother was truly a talent—years of bitter cultivation have refined his power; otherwise, the magical light would not be so pure."
Lü Yang: "..."
Staring at the Bone Jade Sword in Chen Hao’s hand, and thinking of the tragedies of his past life, Lü Yang felt a chilling cold spread through his bones, gaining a deeper understanding of the Primordial Saint Sect’s style.
Summed up in eight words: survival of the fittest, everything put to use!
The sect expended resources to nurture registered disciples; therefore, they had to create value for the sect.
If they could not create value, then the sect would help them create it!
If they broke through and became official disciples, everyone would be happy.
If they failed, the sect would not keep them alive for nothing—they would recover every bit of resource spent to ensure no losses.
Thus, in the eyes of the Primordial Saint Sect, disciples were either clouds or water—different forms, but all still useful; there were no wastes.
"This really is... a sect true to its name."
Lü Yang closed his eyes and exhaled a deep breath of foul air.
Thinking of the『Book of a Hundred Lifetimes』he had as backup, he reopened his eyes, already regaining his composure.
"Junior Brother has good temperament, truly a fine talent!"
On the other side, seeing Lü Yang recover his emotions so quickly, Liu Xin’s eyes flashed with a hint of surprise, then his smile grew even more radiant.
After that, Lü Yang followed Liu Xin to the Pill Refinement Hall and the Beast Taming Hall.
There, he respectively collected a "Qi Supplementing Pill" and a "Human-Faced Owl."
The former could nourish true Qi when consumed, while the latter was like a carrier pigeon—official disciples usually used it to send messages among themselves.
It was not until they came to the last item, the dual cultivation furnace, that Liu Xin ran into trouble.
"Junior Brother, you broke through too quickly."
Liu Xin shook his head and said, "You just joined the Outer Sect and spent merely one day in Qi Refining—it was too fast. The dual cultivation furnaces the Pleasure Hall reserved haven't even arrived yet."
"Why don’t you wait a few more days, Junior Brother?"
As for the dual cultivation furnace, Lü Yang naturally did not care in the slightest.
He immediately cupped his hands and said, "I’ll leave it all to Senior Brother’s arrangement."
Liu Xin laughed heartily, then took out a jade slip and handed it to Lü Yang: "This is a secret transmission manual from our Mending Heaven Peak. Take it and cultivate well."
Lü Yang received the jade slip and immediately activated his spiritual sense to examine it.
The next second, an extremely complex cultivation method appeared in his mind.
『Innate Dao Book』