the multi

Chapter 3

Elder Shu led Su Yuchen to register a personal courtyard for him and then left after giving him some instructions. 

Su Yuchen felt some relief after he left. Although the elder comforted him when they left the main hall, he still felt troubled. Meeting with the sect master felt way more worse than attending a job interview. He might not have felt the same pressure even if he had attended a job interview without preparation. Those few minutes made him feel like standing in an ice cellar.

Next, a inner sect disciple guided Su Yuchen through numerous courtyards to his courtyard. His thoughts diverted and he became excited looking at all the courtyards wondering if he would receive a similar one.

"Thank You, Senior brother for leading me to the courtyard."

"No worries."

The inner disciple left after showing Su Yuchen his courtyard.

Su Yuchen was surprised by the elegant courtyard allocated to him. Many beautiful trees and plants decorated the courtyard. The space inside the courtyard was more than enough for a family. There was also a small personal training ground with a formation. 

The courtyard had a tranquil atmosphere with a spacious garden and a small pond filled with colourful fishes in the courtyard.

After exploring his courtyard he decide to go to the assessment ground. He changed into inner disciple robes and walked towards the inner sects mount stable where he could rent a horse. A mortal horse is supposedly free to rent for inner disciples.

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Su Yuchen reached the assessment ground in 20 minutes, after renting the horse. The mortal horse he rode was a lot faster than the horses he rid in the village. 

The assessment ground was filled with a lot of noise. For spectators seats they were seated in a tiered arrangement. It was in a slightly curved structure to only one side of the ground. As Su Yuchen walked towards the inner disciples seats he was filled with excitement and nervousness. Many disciples stared at him while those in the way respectfully made way to him.

As he entered and sat on a seat in an empty place, Su Yuchen felt some curious glances on him which only lasted for a moment. 

The assessment ground was too big to see anything in the distance. He would need a super power to observe anything. Fortunately a Senior brother at the mount stable lent him spectacles that could let him to look into the distance, after he learned his purpose for the mount.

The spectacles surprised him, they looked like antique spectacles he might have found in his previous world. He doesn't have enough knowledge about science and technology or history of his previous world to guess if there is a possibility for other transmigrators in this world. The cultivators might have also invented these similar spectacles as they are useful in many places.

On the ground, the assessment of combat ability was finished and he quickly found his friends. Most of them were in a bad situation. There were many injuries and bruises on their faces. And still he found that their faces were extremely excited, it looked like they passed the assessment. 

He sat there and followed the assessments.

The purpose of the next assessment was gauging the willpower of the candidates. A small hill was raised in the middle of the assessment ground, it felt unbelievable. There were steps surrounding the small hill that reaches to the top of it. All the candidates regardless of their results in the first assessment participated in this. 

The candidates looked as if they faced extreme pressure with every step they took. There were even illusions that tested them. The battered and bruised candidates were tortured and their willpower was tested to the extreme.

Su Yuchen came to a conclusion that he would have failed in both assessments after looking at the candidates.

Most candidates were disqualified from the recruitment after this assessment. Some of them were given the choice to become menial disciples, though. 

The qualified candidates were now eligible to become outer sect disciples. 

The next assessments tested the intelligence, loyalty and dedication of the candidates of through questions. The results for this assessment were obtained before the start of the next assessment as the candidates were given a lot of to rest. 

The last assessment was to look at the mastery of their weapons. Every candidate displayed their mastery in weapons. His fellow villagers had no eye catching skills and techniques to display, but they still showed what they trained in swords, spears and archery. It was better than showing nothing. This assessment quickly became boring except for some city children who could use astral energy in their techniques. That was a good show from them.

Every candidate was given a ranking at the end of the recruitment. Unfortunately none of his fellow villagers were in the top one thousand. Fortunately all his friends were now outer sect disciples.

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"Senior Brother Su, this junior disciple greets you."

"Senior Brother Su, we are graced with your presence."

The bruised face Liang Yu, and the purpled eye Wang Daming noticed Su Yuchen walking towards them and immediately gave a playful greeting to him.

Others noticed him and mimicked Liang Yu and Wang Daming and bowed to him.

Su Yuchen gave a soft laugh when they teased him.

He tried to act elegant and calm, with his left hand behind his back and raising his right hand he spoke, "Rise, junior brothers, you may drop your formalities. I congratulate you on qualifying to join the sect."

"Thank you, Senior Brother Su." They all shouted in cheerful voices. "We will be under your guidance from now on."

"Haha, so how was the recruitment assessments?"

"Terrific."

"Dreadful."

"Many candidates tried to kill their opponents in the combat test. A candidate died."

"My opponent was only hitting my head. He fucked up my head."

"My jaw was nearly destroyed by a punch."

"Yuchen, how much time has it been since you have arrived? Have you seen our assessment?"

"Did someone really die? You guys were too lucky then, I should say." Su Yuchen said with shock. "I arrived after the combat assessment and then watched you guys blanking out in the willpower assessment. I seriously didn't think you guys would reach the top. And also a lot more guys did reach the top."

"Under the pressure from the small hill, refining the astral energy kept us energetic."

"It's terribly painful, never try that I say."

"Some of the children from our village fainted as they couldn't handle the pressure, illusions and from fatigue."

"Where are they?"

"Zhang Mei is taking care of them. She also hurt her meridians while refining the astral energy."

"I think we might have some hidden damages to our meridians."

"That's for sure."

"Only few people dared to refine astral energy."

"We are used to refining astral energy even in afternoons. That's why we are not injured."

"The city kids are weak and cowards. Many of them didn't even try to refine astral energy and gave up the assessment in the middle."

"They are not as tough as us."

'Did you guys even concentrate on the assessment?' Su Yuchen thought.

"If we had instructors we could have even performed better with our weapons and get better rankings."

"It's just as Zhao Feng said, they only have better resources and guides than us."

Su Yuchen listened to them and said, "I think if we can increase our combat experience, we can have a better life in the sect."

"Do we have to fight more? I don't want to. Those guys are madmen."

"Listen to me, I can't even fight as well as you guys. If I was taking the assessment, I might have even died." Su Yuchen spoke in a heavy tone. "Elder Shu instructed me to spend my free time sparring with puppets and to learn strategies and experiences of other warriors from the library. This is the instruction of an inner elder. I think you guys can also listen to it."

"Really?" Liang Yu asked.

"Zhao Feng said something similar." Wang Daming remarked.

"Okay we will try to see."

"What did you do after you left us?" 

"Elder Shu registered my identity and then he led me to meet the sect master." Su Yuchen answered.

"You met the sect master?"

"Su Yuchen are you speaking the truth?"

"Really?" Liang Yu asked.

"Well, I really met the sect master but it was a short meeting. He listened to my qualifications, asked me a question and announced my acceptance to the inner sect." Su Yuchen replied.

"What did he ask you?" Wang Daming asked.

"Why did I want to join this sect and why do I wish to cultivate." Su Yuchen replied.

"How did you answer?"

"I fumbled on my answer. The sect master realised that for sure." Su Yuchen said.

"What was your answer?"

"I don't remember, I might have said, I want to cultivate." Su Yuchen said with some embarrassment. 

"Are you for real? That's your answer?"

"You could have at least said that you want to become the strongest person in the world and he might have taken that answer lightly." Wang Daming laughed. 

"I thought about it but felt that it was a common answer." Su Yuchen said in a low voice.

"Because it is a common answer?"

"There is a reason on why it is the most common answer."

"Is your answer even an answer?"

"Becoming the strongest is the only true answer."

"Leave that, I don't know have a reason for cultivation even now." Su Yuchen urged embarrassedly.

"You should have participated in the combat assessment." Liang Yu said.

"Yes, then he would have found his reason in front of the shadow of death." Wang Daming said.

"Stop that and let's go to celebrate our achievements. I have seen a lot of restaurants on the way here." Su Yuchen said.

"It's your treat, you are gonna pay the bill."

"Yeah, Senior Brother Su must take care of us."

"It's my treat. As your Senior Brother, I am inviting you to the dinner." Su Yuchen said.

"Lets register our identities and then go to eat."

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Su Yuchen spent all his savings for the dinner and then went to his courtyard. He was already ready to splurge his savings after learning about the value of the stellar rocks and astral refinement pills he had with him.

With a filled tummy he went to sleep.

The next morning.

The bronze frog statue near his bed made noise to wake up Su Yuchen before dawn. 

The sound was too irritating and successfully woke him. Su Yuchen sat up on the bed. He slapped the frog to make it stop. It was painful.

Immediately he said in his mind, "Sign in!"

[Ding! Daily sign in completed. Rewarded "Cultivation Notes Volume 01".]

Chapter 4

A book appeared in the system storage space. Su Yuchen took it out, it was a thin book with a brown cover. He opened it and looked at the first paragraph.

[Energy Condensation Realm is the first step an ordinary life form must take in its cultivation path.]

The very first line confused him. Meridian Refinement Realm is the first realm in cultivation. This was the basic knowledge he learned. There was a different name in this book.

Maybe they use different names in different places.

With increased curiosity he continued to read the book.

[In every life form, astral energy is condensed into a gaseous form inside the meridians in the body when stayed near to a source. Stars are the biggest source of the astral energy. The gaseous astral energy flows freely inside the meridians and slowly nourishes the body.

To enter the first realm, a life form must first sense the meridians in its body. The meridians needs to be visualised and detected. When visualisation is successful, the life form can control its life essence.

The life form should use the life essence present in the Dantian, attach it to the condensed astral energy and then circulate the astral energy throughout the whole meridian system before storing it in the Dantian. Through this circulation, the gaseous form of the astral energy around the life essence becomes even more condensed and gets imbued with the lifeforms aura. Then the body starts condensing more astral energy from a source into gaseous form to fill the empty space in the meridians.

The astral energy needs to be circulated through every meridian, the shortest circulation route to the the Dantian is not recommended as astral energy should be condensed as much as possible before it is stored in the Dantian.]

He knows this information, it is similar to Meridian Refinement Realm, but the second paragraph was never specially implied by his friends. 

[The astral energy does not remain attached to the life essence, it slowly dissipates as time flows, hence, it cannot be stored inside the Dantian for a long time. The astral energy escapes through meridians and then nourishes the organs.

Let the astral energy escape, don't contain it artificially, the astral energy in the meridian system will become more condensed. The astral energy nourishing the organs will also be more condensed.]

[To enter the Energy Condensation Realm, a life form needs to completely fill the Dantian with astral energy. When filled, the meridians and Dantian will undergo the first refinement.]

Everything said till that paragraph was what he had known about Meridian Refinement Realm. 

Su Yuchen closed the book.

He decided to read the book later and understand the differences in his knowledge.

Now he had to get ready for morning training.

While getting ready he pondered on why the system rewarded him with this book on this day.

It has been more than two months since the system was activated. He should have received this book early.

Every reward he received before this day could only be categorised into supplements for the body. He received potions, pills and herbs to nourish his body. Every 30 days he received a special jade that improved his talents. 

The first jade, Nine Cycles Star Jade, improved his talent in cultivation to top grade.

The second jade, Black Pearl, improved his affinities to elements by two tiers.

But now, the moment he entered the sect a new type of item was rewarded, one that is where much helpful at the moment.

Su Yuchen has many doubts about this system. 

The only known function of the system is signing in every day. There was no other function to this system.

The day he activated the system was when he successfully visualised and detected the meridians in his body.

On that day the system had limited communication with him. It introduced itself as a sign in system, instructed him on how to sign in, informed him where the rewards are stored and that's it.

There were no more responses from the system after that day other than the daily reward notifications.

This was troubling him.

There is no free meal without a reason.

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The dawn was approaching, the rays of sun might illuminate the horizon at any moment.

Su Yuchen rushed to the training square. 

As soon as he entered the square he saw a small number of inner disciples getting ready to start the training, they are younger than him in age. The inner disciples all removed their upper body clothes and revealed their toned bodies. Their bodies are covered in colourful tattoos.

If he didn't knew the importance of the tattoos, he would have assumed them as gang members from mafia.

He met the sect deacon and showed his disciple token and introduced himself.

The inner disciples were curious about the new face and looked at him.

Soon Su Yuchen was naked from the waist up. His body lacked muscles, with a slightly fat stomach that wouldn't be noticed when he was dressed.

The horizon was lighting up with a soft glow and the darkness was receding. The inner disciples started their training.

The sect deacon made him stand in the middle of the first row. He stared at Su Yuchen and started speaking, "Follow my stances."

"Every day early morning, the purple astral energy descends on us, it is the most precious energy. So this is the best time to train your body."

"You haven't started practising. Learn that your first step is to lay a solid foundation and prepare your body for the future."

"You must not slack off in your early morning training and never miss on the purple astral energy. You must maintain discipline and train your body every day to build the perfect foundation."

"Do you understand?" The sect deacon asked loudly.

"I understand." Su Yuchen said loudly.

The deacon then proceeded to correct his posture.

"Don't relax your spine!"

"Your elbow is too low!"

Su Yuchen tried to remember the stances and follow them perfectly. 

But within 30 minutes his body could not hold on anymore, he still tried to follow the stances.

When he repeatedly tried to relax, the sect deacon became enraged and manipulated the astral energy to form a stick and cracked the ground with a smack. 

Every disciple became alert and perfected their stances.

Su Yuchen, then persevered throughout the next training. He even received a strike from the stick, when he repeatedly failed to correct some stances.

After two hours of training, the deacon shouted to stop. 

Su Yuchen collapsed on the ground. He was over the limits of his body. He was covered in sweat and started panting.

He was paralysed on the ground for a few minutes.

"Junior, how do you feel?" The sect deacon asked him.

"I am okay. Senior" Su Yuchen answered in a faint voice and tried to stand.

"I expected you to faint, but you persisted, well done." The sect deacon flipped his hand a small bottle appeared in his hand. "Take a medicinal bath with this elixir, it will nourish your body."

"Thank you for your care, Senior." Su Yuchen took the bottle and bowed towards the deacon.

"Take a good rest and practice more." The deacon advised him. "Try to perfect your stances as soon as possible. When you perfect your stances you can also choose independent cultivation at your courtyard to avoid any distractions."

"Okay, senior." Su Yuchen nodded.

"Well you can go now." The deacon said.

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Su Yuchen met the maid allocated to him in front of his door. He let her in. She should be a woman in her mid twenties, good looking and mature. She is also a menial disciple of the sect.

Su Yuchen took a medicinal bath with the elixir, which made him instantly feel relief from the pain. He also felt the meridians in his body being more active than the before.

He cultivated for half an hour.

After that he ate the breakfast cooked by the maid, which was actually the most delicious food he had ever eaten. The requirements of the inner sect should be too high. A chef might need to have the qualifications of a royal chef. He didn't know if he was exaggerating.

Then, he sat down in the study room to continue reading the cultivation notes.

[When the Dantian and meridians are filled with astral energy, they start refining the astral energy and undergo the first transformation to grow. This transformation will last for 6-8 hours. The Dantian and meridians are strengthened, they will be tougher and hold bigger space. The astral energy can also flow freely within the widened meridians. The life form has now entered this first realm of the cultivation.]

[To achieve the next breakthroughs the cultivator must strengthen the eight extraordinary meridians. The astral energy in these extraordinary meridians needs to be controlled by the mind of the cultivator. The astral energy shall not flow freely and shall be stored inside the meridian. The extraordinary meridian needs to be filled with astral energy to initiate the refinement to strengthen it. 

Refinement of each extraordinary meridian leads to a small breakthrough in the first realm. The refinement of every extraordinary meridian leads to the completion of the Energy Condensation Realm.]

[To reach the perfection in the Energy Condensation Realm; the primary meridians, the Dantian and the extraordinary meridians must undergo repeated refinements until the cultivators Dantian and meridians are covered in the aura of his affinity element.

108 refinements is the desired number of refinements to achieve perfection in the Energy Condensation Realm.]

Su Yuchen was dumbfounded after reading the paragraph about perfecting the realm.

108 refinements?

Cultivators might become ancestors if they need to repeatedly condense and fill their meridians and Dantian that many times to reach the perfection of the realm.

It would be an extremely laborious path that might take ages to complete.

Now he understood why it is called Energy Condensation Realm, that's what the book is expecting the cultivator to do in this realm, spend his whole life condensing the astral energy.

You will become a slave to the astral energy, carrying it with your life and finish cultivation laps on the meridian tracks.

It would take a person nearly one year or more than that to completely fill the Dantian and the meridians for the first time before he enters the first realm.

Also, the space in the Dantian and the meridians become bigger with each refinement. More space to fill the astral energy, couldn't ask for more.

Even if the dissipation of the astral energy slows down with the completion of the first realm, every refinement must take more than an year to achieve.

The cultivator would only achieve 108 refinements while laying in his coffin in the graveyard. Oh, how wonderful.

Chapter 5

Su Yuchen couldn't think straight anymore.

If he decides to follow the cultivation practice mentioned in the book, then he might take a lot of time to progress in cultivation.

The sign in system could give him a lot of rewards, that will help him progress faster, but his body would then need to bear the impact of a lot of astral energy circulation. It would also require a lot of mind activity to cultivate.

Astral energy is both beneficial and harmful to an ordinary person, even for Meridian Refine Realm cultivators astral energy can pose a threat to their life if they make mistakes in their cultivation. Astral energy is attached to the life essence when circulating, any distraction with his mind can hurt the life essence. That means death or decrease in life span, horrible consequences in either cases. 

The system might need to reward him with stellar rocks daily to have a better source of astral energy than the sun. If not, his cultivation will become more taxing when he has to rely on Solar Astral Energy for cultivation.

Solar Astral Energy is the energy, produced and released, from every stars. The Solar Astral Energy is a fusion of Yang Energy and Astral Energy. The star light from the stars carry these energies with it into the void. The starlight might be obstructed by the celestial bodies and the Solar Astral energy is absorbed by these celestial bodies.

Lifeforms absorb the Yang energy along with the astral energy.

Exposing himself to Yang energy for a prolonged period of time will disorder the balance between Yang and Yin and cause extreme damages to his body.

There is also Lunar Astral Energy, which is released from certain celestial bodies, like the three moons in the sky in this world. These celestial bodies have the star as their source of energy, and when they absorb the Solar Astral energy from them, the Yang energy is transformed into Yin energy and stored in the core of the celestial body. When a tiny fraction of the the star light is reflected by the celestial body, a tiny fraction of the surface Yin energy is fused with the disintegrated astral energy and reach celestial realms like his world. This small fraction of the Yin energy also makes it less harmful to the body.

However!

Exposing himself to Yin energy for a prolonged period of time will disorder the balance between Yang and Yin and cause extreme damages to his mind.

He doesn't want to get his mind corrupted from evil thoughts.

Well, there is still another energy.

The Stellar Astral Energy is harmless to a person, its just minuscule amount of Star essence travelling in the void. The Yang energy with it is in negligent amounts and can be ignored. 

However, its nearly impossible to gather sufficient amount of Stellar Astral energy for an individual cultivators use, without large formation arrays that are bigger than his Star Falcon Sect.

Relying on lunar astral energy and stellar astral energy will make it hard for him to progress in the Meridian Refinement Realm.

The system might give him rewards that can heal the damages from solar astral energy, but can his body bear the burden of those rewards? 

If he could communicate with the system then he could be reassured to walk on this path. But the system never communicates with him.

He kept the book back in the system storage space.

He was not interested in practising cultivation anymore at the moment.

Su Yuchen decided to go the rune hall. Learning about runes is an essential part of the cultivation system. He also decided to become a rune master in the future.

It will be his profession. 

Rune master is the most sought after profession in this world. Runes are related to everything in this cultivation world.

At the rune hall, he can receive a book on basics of runes, and instruments required to draw them, brush, ink and scrolls. Inner disciples have free access to these unlike outer disciples. They have to use contribution points to be able to get them.

He is not going to give up free things.

Su Yuchen walked for 40 minutes before reaching the rune hall. It was a big, magnificent hall. As he got near to the entrance of the rune hall, the two inner disciple guarding there stopped him. 

"Do you have a rune apprentice token?" asked the tall, muscular disciple.

"No, I am a new inner disciple." Answered Su Yuchen.

"Pay a stellar rock to enter." Said the tall disciple.

"Why?" Su Yuchen asked confusedly.

"To enter." Replied the tall disciple.

"I didn't hear of any payment to enter the rune hall." Said Su Yuchen while making an ignorant expression. If he wasn't weak he would have questioned them about bribery. He didn't hear about any payments from the elder.

"Ask an informed disciple next time. Now that you have heard, pay the stellar rock to enter." Said the tall disciple with annoyance.

The elder should obviously be not an uninformed person.

"I am still not decided about entering the rune hall. Sorry for wasting your time, senior brother." Su Yuchen bowed and apologised to them. He decided to leave here and not give the stellar rock.

"Get lost, trash. Thu!" The tall disciple was irritated and spat on Su Yuchen.

Su Yuchen walked away faster and nothing spilled on him. 'Bastard!' he cursed that disciple in his mind and increased his speed while walking back.

The tall disciple was angered and a wisp of astral energy left his body.

Something caught Su Yuchen's leg when he was walking faster.

Thud!

Su Yuchen slammed onto the floor. His chin hit the ground hard. A sharp pain pierced his mind from the chin and teeth. As he tried to stand up, he felt pain from his shoulders, knee and hip.

Seeing him trying to stand, the tall disciple shouted, "Junior brother, let me help you." and released another wisp of energy that pushed Su Yuchen's buttocks upward. Su Yuchen crashed into the ground again. The pain intensified and tears welled in his eyes, but he controlled himself from crying, he quickly stood up and walked away without looking back, bearing the pain from his hips and knee.

"Ha-ha-ha, Junior brother, you are so silly. As a your senior I should advise you, make a decision first to learn how to walk properly before trying to learn drawing runes."

The tall disciple mocked arrogantly while shouting at Su Yuchen.

Some of the disciples on the path also started laughing loudly.

Su Yuchen nearly failed to controlled the tears from falling down hearing the laughter around him. He felt many eyes fixed on him and nearly ran away, but still just walked to avoid further humiliation.

Listening to the sneers and laughter behind him, he was confused about whether walking away would make him more embarrassed than running away. 

'What am I thinking?'

Realising his cowardly thoughts he was enraged. He clenched his fingers and gritted his teeth.

That tall disciples face became more and more clear in his mind. He repeatedly imagined his face and tried to imprint it in his mind.

Thoughts and imaginations of killing him grew in Su Yuchen's mind. A desire for revenge started to burn his mind and wanted him to turn back.

His body started to tremble while walking and he raised his tightly clenched fist in front of his chest, but the strength in it reminded him of his helplessness. He lowered his elbow.

Lowering his head and continuing to bend his spine, he walked forward with resentment.

Chapter 6

His stomach was burning as he walked aimlessly, he wanted to snap the neck of that bastard and drink his warm blood to calm down.

Su Yuchen lost his mind and walked towards the contribution hall. He wanted to spend the stellar rocks and buy a short sword.

He needs to learn it quickly and stab him.

Those mocking eyes need to be burned.

His wanton tongue needs to be urinated on.

He must hold his head in both of his hands and crush it, the red and pink of his brain should splatter all over, that's a masterpiece to look at.

'I am going crazy.'

'I should stop these dangerous thoughts.'

'I might as well cry and relieve the pain I am in.'

Su Yuchen wanted to stop all the mental thoughts that he couldn't control.

He walked forward with reddened watery eyes. His knees wanted to give up from the pain.

Su Yuchen doesn't want to cry like a child, but he couldn't help feel ashamed. Never in his both lives, was he embarrassed like that. He didn't even do anything wrong!

The very few Xianxia series he has seen in his past life flashed through his mind. He never managed to watch any of them beyond the first few episodes. The way they showed the righteous world never appealed to him.

He found a grove, entered it and sat under a tree. His mind was disturbed.

Never in his life did he liked the righteous sects being portrayed as hypocrites and shown as shrewd people without compassion. It irked him.

At that time he thought, "Couldn't the writers at least give this faction a different name?"

When he realised that he was born in an cultivation world, he began to panic about the righteous sects.

Then these past few years of ordinary life never let him have thoughts about the dangers present in the cultivation world.

Now, the second day in the righteous sect reminded him of the possible cruel cultivation world described in the shows. The possibility became his reality.

That inner sect disciple, he frightened him before he even did anything. It is his fear of cultivators. Just the thought of retaliating after he dodged the spit, was crushed by his fear of him. It was fear that made him involuntarily react and decide to crush any thoughts about killing.

Before he even realised what happened, fear saved him.

He began to overthink and remembered the malicious and bloodthirsty cultivators who doesn't bat an eye to kill in the xianxia settings.

The scheming and cunning elders from the sects sprouted more doubts into Su Yuchen's mind. Are the elders from his sect similar to what he had seen in the shows?

Are there arrogant sect disciples in this world who would kill someone if they doesn't like the glance from them?

Fear began to well up in Su Yuchen's mind. Now he has no cultivation and he will have to face many disciples for a year as an ordinary person. Fear clouded his mind.

He tried to distract himself from overthinking. He made a decision and quickly got up, he brushed off the dust on his clothes and walked towards the mount stable.

At the Mount Stable.

Su Yuchen saw the same Senior brother from the day before. He greeted him, "Senior Brother Li, good afternoon."

Li Jun looked at the pale junior disciple in front of him, "It's good to see you again, Junior brother. I hope you are well?"

"I appreciate your concern, Senior Brother. I am doing well." Su Yuchen replied in a low voice.

"Do you want to rent the horse again? I must remind you, there are only two more free chances to rent for you in this month." The Senior Brother Li said to Su Yuchen.

"I want to buy an horse." Su Yuchen replied.

"You want to buy an horse? Okay, that would be 50 gold shells." Senior Brother Li told the cost.

"I only have stellar rocks with me. Do you take that?" Su Yuchen asked.

"Of course! Why not? Come with me, you can choose a horse." After agreeing, Senior Brother Li took Su Yuchen to the horse stable.

Su Yuchen looked at all the horses in the stable, there were a lot of horses of different sizes and colours in the stable. He walked towards the horses and checked them.

When Su Yuchen was checking the third horse, Senior Brother Li called him, "What do you think about this horse, Junior Brother?"

Su Yuchen looked at the horse Senior Brother Li stood beside. That muscular horse had a shiny white coat with a very smooth looking mane. Its clear eyes were looking at him.

"If you pay 40 more gold shells, you can have this horse, Junior Brother. Do you want to buy this one?" Senior Brother Li asked Su Yuchen with a charming smile.

"Is it a better breed?" Su Yuchen asked.

"Yes, Junior Brother. While other mortal horses have a 5 percent chance of becoming a first-order beast, this horse breed has a 10 percent chance." Senior Brother Li maintained the charming smile as he informed Su Yuchen. "Of course this 10 percent might feel like not much of an improvement, but that's not what we need in a horse worth 90 gold shells. With better bloodline than most ordinary horse breeds, this horse is also faster than others, and with better stamina for long distances. How? Do you want to buy it?"

"How much faster?" Su Yuchen asked.

"A lot faster for 90 gold shells, you can cover twice the distance compared to other mortal horses. You need to shell out 120 gold shells minimum to buy a horse of this breed in the outside world. I am giving you a massive discount." Senior Brother Li stressed the last sentence. "Do you want to buy this horse?"

"Yes, thanks for the discount, Senior Brother Li." Su Yuchen clasped his hands towards Senior Brother Li. He had a good first impression of him and felt his words were genuine. He just needs to check about the price.

"Can I ride it?"

"You can."

After riding the horse on the field behind the stable, Su Yuchen paid for the horse, Senior Brother Li gave him 910 gold shells as change. He didn't count them and just put them in the storage bag. He was trusting the senior disciple to not cheat him.

"Now, tell me, Junior Brother Su, what happened to you?" Senior Brother Li asked Su Yuchen with a friendly smile in a gentle voice. "You don't look good even though there's nothing wrong with your health and cultivation. Did you encounter some other problem?"

"Nothing, no problem, Senior Brother." Su Yuchen was troubled by the question of Senior Brother Li.

"I am trying to help you here, Junior Disciple. You are new to this sect and might not know anything about how things are here and how they work. Learning from a senior disciple is not something you should be embarrassed about." Senior Brother Li continued to ask Su Yuchen in a gentle tone.

Su Yuchen felt awkward when Senior Brother Li continued to ask him. He was not willing to speak about the embarrassment he faced.

"I am indeed troubled with something. The inner sect disciples guarding the Rune Hall, are demanding me to pay one stellar rock to enter the hall and I am not willing to pay the stellar rock. Though I still want to learn more about runes in the future. Senior Brother Li, you also know the importance of the stellar rocks to us disciples. What should I do, Senior Brother?" Su Yuchen decided to hide about what happened to him and inquired about another problem.

Senior Brother Li's expression changed when he listened to the problem. He stared at Su Yuchen and asked, "You didn't pay to enter the hall, so the inner sect disciples did something embarrassing to you. Is that what happened?"

Su Yuchen face became ugly when he was asked by the Senior Brother Li. He said awkwardly, "You are too straight forward, Senior Brother. You didn't even hesitate to ask me that."

Senior Brother Li shook his head as he said to Su Yuchen, "This isn't something hard to guess. When there are dark clouds in the monsoon season, it might rain, when there are inner sect disciples guarding the hall, you might get humiliated. These are common possibilities, easy to guess."

Senior Brother Li looked into Su Yuchen's eyes and asked him, "Do you want to make them pay back?"

"No. I am too weak. I don't want to offend that inner disciple again." Su Yuchen responded instantly. He doesn't want to slip his tongue in front of this senior brother.

"Are you too weak to be a man?" Senior Brother Li laughed sarcastically. "Well, I can understand the thoughts running in your mind. I also refused to pay and was kicked out by the inner disciple guards. Couldn't eat any food for days."

Su Yuchen looked at him in surprise.

"Don't be surprised, a lot of disciples stand up against these inner disciples. Many complained to the deacons and elder. However, only a few guards got punished and that too because of offending a deacon's disciple or an elder's disciple. They generally turn a blind eye to these actions of the guards." Senior Brother Li informed Su Yuchen.

Su Yuchen frowned listening to Senior Brother Li, he asked him, "Can't these inner disciples just ignore the people who refuse to pay and leave. I didn't speak back to them when they asked me to pay, I apologised to them and then left. Still, they embarrassed me."

"You need to know, every inner sect disciple will look down on the mission of guarding. The guards you meet are just unlucky and in an urgent need to complete their quota of missions. They feel they are forced into taking that mission and feel humiliated to guard. These inner sect disciples came up with the idea to exploit the weak disciples. This became part of that mission for them, this mission now gives them power. And when you refuse to pay to them it only means one thing in their eyes. You are looking down on them and that power. They then take out their anger on you." Senior Brother Li explained to Su Yuchen. "You might feel this is unreasonable, it is, but for them this makes sense."

Senior Brother Li looked straight into Su Yuchen's eyes and said sternly, "I advice you, don't think about revenge and beating sense into them. You are very obviously poor and have no background from the way you behave, but you, an ordinary person without cultivation managed to be recruited as an inner sect disciple. It means your talents must be very high. After three years you will be breaking through the Meridian Refinement Realm and reach the next realm, you can then enter tutelage under a very high ranking elder. This will be your path. Anyone can guess it. Most people will try to show their favour to you, like me. Those guards should also have left you alone, but they didn't, because either they must have connections with high level persons or they don't care about you. Both cases are very bad. You don't want to continue offending them. So don't have ideas like, cultivating for the next decade, reaching a realm higher than them and exacting revenge. Take my advice, live a happy life, cultivate to your full potential. You will forget this day in at most a year."

Su Yuchen felt slightly better after listening to Senior Brother Li, "Thank you for your advice Senior Brother. I will try to practice what you said."

"Good, I hope you do. If you still can't forget this day, then learn the background of that guard, and then learn the background of that guard's background. Practice till you are no longer afraid of them and then exact the heavenly retribution on the guard. Even if he becomes old you can torture him and his family. If he dies before you can exact your revenge just play with his bloodline. What are your thoughts on this, Junior Brother?" After saying this Senior Brother Li laughed loudly, "Ha-ha-ha!" 

Su Yuchen was flabbergasted by the idea and then forced himself to give a very awkward laugh.

Chapter 7

"Don't try to force a laugh, its ugly." Senior Brother Li shook his head while smiling.

Su Yuchen stopped laughing and had an awkward look on his face.

"I need to remind you Junior Brother, guards at every other halls demand stellar rock. You should think about this carefully." Senior Brother Li said as he stopped his laugh.

He continued, "Otherwise, if you are unwilling to pay them, you can dedicate all your time to cultivation and improving your battle prowess in the next few years. You can think about learning runes when you made a breakthrough to the next realm. Now you need learn how fight, that is more useful for your growth than anything else. Moreover, there won't be any inner sect disciple guarding the Battle Hall, it is in an open place with three sect deacons in charge of it at any given time, you can go there. However, there might be hundreds of inner disciples practising there. You don't want to offend any one there, they are unforgiving."

Su Yuchen thought about the advice from Senior Brother Li and decided to consider it. He clasped his hands towards him and said, "Thank you for this advice Senior Brother, I will carefully consider your advice."

"It is the duty of the Senior Disciples to help Junior Disciples, I am just doing my duty." Senior Brother Li said in a very reserved tone. "Next time if you have any questions or if you are in any need of help, don't hesitate to ask me. If you are embarrassed or remain hesitant you might lose some chances in your cultivation life. Stop doing that."

Su Yuchen nodded to him.

"I don't have anything more to say. If you have, speak up." Senior Brother Li said to Su Yuchen.

"I don't have anything more to say to Senior Brother." Su Yuchen shook his head. He bowed to Senior Brother Li, "I have to go to another place, I will take my leave, Senior Brother."

"Take care, Junior Brother Su." Senior Brother Li said to Su Yuchen.

…

…

In the Outer sect dorms.

"Good afternoon, Senior Brother Su." A friend of Su Yuchen saw him appearing near their dorm and greeted him.

"Hey, Ma Tian. Is everyone in the dorms?"

"Yes, everyone is gathered at a place. You can meet them if you go straight. I am going out."

"Where are you going?"

"I am going to the Scripture Hall. Let's continue talking if you are still here."

Ma Tian left after informing the way to Su Yuchen.

Su Yuchen walked some distance and then he heard some sounds, as he walked forward the sounds became loud and clear.

"That was bad, really bad."

"No fire technique of such method should be placed inside the Scripture Hall."

"With that method you might not even light up a candle."

"Hey, Yuchen is here."

Then eight people turned towards Su Yuchen.

Su Yuchen saw his friends sitting on benches under a large, wide tree and chatting.

His friends gave him a pretentious greetings with no sense of respect for his seniority.

Su Yuchen just gave a nod and asked, "Where should I tie the horse?"

"My dorm is near, follow me and tie it to the post there." Liao Fang said to him.

Su Yuchen tied the horse and came back. He sat on an empty place.

He became relaxed and calm.

"Hey, Yuchen what did you do today? How is the inner sect?" Li Wei asked him curiously.

"Nothing interesting has happened. I just did morning exercises. Oh! The stances I practised are much harder than what we practised everyday." Su Yuchen answered him.

"We also practised a new set of stances today. Xiaoyu demonstrate to Yuchen." Zhao Xiaofan said in a commanding tone.

"You do the demonstration! Why should I demonstrate?" Liang Yu replied to him with dissatisfaction.

"You did better than anyone here today, Xiaoyu. Don't you think you are more suitable?" Zhao Xiaofan answered him.

"I think you are the suitable one. In the morning, you danced like a monkey and gave a hilarious presentation to us all. Now let our Senior Brother Su also enjoy your performance." Liang Yu quipped at Zhao Xiaofan.

"Shut up, idiot! Do you want to see my fighting performance? Dare to volunteer?" Zhao Xiaofan cursed angrily at Liang Yu.

"Is that all, did anything else happened in the morning?" Liang Yu quickly turned his head and asked Su Yuchen. The bruises on his face hadn't healed yet, he wouldn't fight again!

"Coward!" Cursed Zhao Xiaofan.

Su Yuchen stopped laughing and replied to Liang Yu, "I went to the Rune Hall, but did not enter it, because a inner sect disciple who was guarding the entrance asked one stellar rock to allow entry. Then I came here. Nothing exciting happened."

"They asked you one stellar rock?" Liang Yu raised his voice in a shocked tone.

Zhao Xiaofan said, "That's too much. It is much higher than the 100 gold shells we were asked to pay at the Scripture Hall. It's even ten times more."

"With one stellar rock we can have more than enough contribution points to ask for basic rune books and instruments. They are robbing you." Shen Ying calculated and told Su Yuchen.

"You guys were also asked to pay? What did you guys do? Did you guys paid?" Su Yuchen asked them curiously.

"We hesitated but still paid to them." Shen Ying answered.

"Xiaofan talked back to them, but in the end still gave the shells." Wang Daming poked fun at Zhao Xiaofan.

"You didn't even dared to speak a word of refusal to them and now you dare to make fun of me, wimp?" Zhao Xiaofan shouted angrily at Wang Daming.

"I was cautious and didn't have a fight with a senior disciple on my first day in the sect. Unlike a fool who irritated a senior disciple who is in a higher realm on his first day." Wang Daming shot back at Zhao Xiaofan.

"Don't give fancy reasons like being cautious when you are just sucking up to a person who is robbing you in daylight. You even tried to make friends with them." Zhao Xiaofan angrily rebutted.

"Dumb ass, be quiet or I will sew your mouth with gu worms." Wang Daming angrily threatened Zhao Xiaofan.

Zhao Xiaofan leaned back on the bench and cursed in a low voice, "I dare you to try."

Wang Daming stopped caring about him.

Su Yuchen made a decision. He wants to follow Senior Brother Li's advice and work hard on cultivation. He doesn't want to lose his stellar rocks to those thieves.

Su Yuchen said to everyone, "If what I heard is true, when you want to enter other halls, you might still need to pay them. If I may guess, maybe you have to pay every time you go to one of the halls."

"Are you really sure about that, Xiaochen?" Shen Ying asked him with annoyance.

"Yes. The Senior Brother from the Mount Stable gave me this information. Apparently, those disciples are just doing guarding missions, but they are unwilling to become guards, and then they started trying to show their power through demanding payment from weak disciples." Su Yuchen shared the information. "What I said about paying every time is just my guess. The disciples guarding those halls change when their mission is completed, and the disciple in the morning only asked me whether I have a rune apprentice token. My guess might be true."

Everyone became silent after listening to Su Yuchen.

"Wonderful! Now we must suck more dicks whenever we need to go to those halls. You must be jumping with joy, huh, Wang Daming." Zhao Xiaofan teased Wang Daming sarcastically.

"Zhao Xiaofan, just shut up. There are girls here." Wang Daming said in a loud voice. "Can't you see how we are all feeling about this?"

"You guys are also not accepting this, are you? Listen to me, let us all just cultivate hard and practice our fighting skills. Let us just take missions and earn more contribution points and get resources to improve our cultivation." Zhao Xiaofan ignored

Wang Daming and spoke to everyone. "We shouldn't dabble into these things like runes, alchemy, formations. We don't have resources and background to gain useful progress in them."

"We all understand this Xiaofan. All this time we are just fantasising about learning alchemy and formations." Shen Ying said to Zhao Xiaofan.

"My first day in the sect is super bad, huh." Liang Yu exclaimed as he leaned back on the bench.

"You brought nothing good from the inner sect, Yuchen." Wang Daming said.

"That's not my fault. We even had the same experience." Su Yuchen rebutted Wang Daming.

"Did the inner sect disciples do anything to you when you refused to pay, Xiaochen?" Shen Ying asked him with concern. "I heard that the high ranking disciples are very arrogant. Did they trouble you?"

Su Yuchen was troubled by Shen Ying's question, he just said half-truthfully, "They did nothing Sister Ying. They only cursed me as a trash and then spat on the ground."

"I will take what you said. Just don't talk back to the inner disciples." Shen Ying said to Su Yuchen as if she didn't believed in him. "From now on try to stay away from them as much as possible. Only try to get close to people who are easy to get along with."

"Yeah! Yuchen, just listen to what Sister Ying said. Don't talk back like me. How about this! We will take you with us whenever you need to do a mission, so that you can get real life fighting experience. Is it okay with you, everyone?" Zhao Xiaofan said to Su Yuchen.

"I am okay with that. Yuchen seriously needs fighting experience." Liang Yu agreed with Zhao Xiaofan.

Everyone also agreed to Zhao Xiaofan's idea.

Chapter 8

"Thanks. However, I don't want to burden you." Su Yuchen refused them. "I will just look for some simple missions to complete. I want to fight after a few more years."

Su Yuchen decided, he won't be taking any missions that needs to fight others. He would train to master multiple skills before venturing out to fight.

"Then I would organise some training sessions where everyone will improve their combat abilities in the future. You must join us, Yuchen." Zhao Xiaofan suggested an idea and invited Su Yuchen to join.

"I will for sure. Don't forget to call me when you do a training session." Su Yuchen accepted Zhao Xiaofan's suggestion.

"I will do it in a week, just wait for my call." Zhao Xiaofan declared.

Su Yuchen nodded.

"Yuchen stays in the inner sect courtyard, how are you going to invite him?" Wang Daming asked Zhao Xiaofan with a sarcastic smile.

"Oh! Sorry I forgot about that." Su Yuchen said to Zhao Xiaofan.

"No need for a sorry. I will invite you when you come here. Isn't it okay?" Zhao Xiaofan said.

"Okay." Su Yuchen replied.

"Inner sect is far from here. How do want Xiaochen to come here regularly? He can't keep on renting a horse." Shen Ying raised a question.

"I bought a horse, Sister Ying. I can come here at any time." Su Yuchen answered before Zhao Xiaofan can gave his answer.

"So that white horse is yours Brother Yuchen. That horse looked so strong and powerful. How much did it cost?" Liao Fang who was just listening from the side instantly asked Su Yuchen when he said that he bought the white horse he was fascinated about.

"It's 90 gold shells. The senior brother gave me big discount, it costs around 120 gold shells outside." Su Yuchen answered to him.

"It should be a good breed. Can I ride on it?" Liao Fang asked Su Yuchen expectantly.

"Well, you can." Su Yuchen agreed to Liao Fang.

"Thank you. Let's go out now." Liao Fang stood up with joy.

"Sit down, you are not going anywhere at this time. Xiaochen, why did you buy a horse? You can just rent one whenever you need, can't you?" asked Shen Ying.

"I can only rent the horse thrice a month, so I decided to buy one, Sister Ying." Su Yuchen answered to Shen Ying.

"You don't have 90 gold shells with you. Did you convert a stellar rock into gold shells?" Shen Ying inquired Su Yuchen in a stern tone

"I just converted one stellar rock, Sister Ying. I will be in need of gold shells in the future so you can think of it as an early preparation." Su Yuchen answered to her in a gentle voice.

Shen Ying thought about it and then shook her head resignedly, she said to Su Yuchen, "It's okay for you to do it this time, but don't convert stellar rocks again. It's hard to earn stellar rocks, don't take it slightly just because we receive some stellar rocks every month. These are not enough for our cultivation and will never be enough to progress. You shouldn't squander them thinking you are converting them for equal value of gold shells, they never have a value as good as stellar rocks. You only need to use them to buy pills or weapons, that's all you exchange it for. Did you get it?" Shen Ying tried to educate Su Yuchen and said this to him.

"I won't convert the stellar rocks once again, Sister Ying." Su Yuchen listened to what Shen Ying said and nodded to her.

"Also, use the gold shells you have with you sparingly, don't spend them carelessly. Try to be frugal, we have no background that provides us with endless resources." Shen Ying added.

Su Yuchen nodded, showing that he agreed.

Su Yuchen stayed there till dusk and then rode his horse to return to his courtyard.

The pain and shame that ate his mind from morning slowly receded after staying and spending the time with his friends all afternoon.

He also observed that they were more attentive to him than in the past. They did took a lot of care and stayed with him after his father died, but their words today had more than care. He can't point it out.

It was not showing favour or goodwill. They viewed him as a friend throughout the time he spent with them, and not as some big shot or a high ranking person.

Expectations?

That's what he could think of.

…

..

.

At night, in Su Yuchen's courtyard.

Su Yuchen decided to cultivate inside the cultivation room instead of practising under the moon. That lunar astral energy won't be enough for him and the yin essence, he was not going to go near to it, no matter how much smaller its mental effects were described as. He just managed to calm down his mental state.

Su Yuchen held the stellar rock in his hand and began cultivation.

He was not taking the words of Shen Ying about using stellar rocks and resources sparingly and seriously, this time. He had some confidence in this regard, the system can provide him with resources.

Su Yuchen sat down cross legged on a futon and began to meditate. He slowed down his breathing and then slowly regulated his breathing. Once his breathing was controlled, he started to visualise his meridian system, instantly he connected his mind to his life essence inside his dantian.

The life essence became active and started to attract the astral energy around, once everything inside the dantian was attracted by it, Su Yuchen slowly guided the life energy inside the meridians with it attracting the astral energy. The gaseous astral energy around the life energy began to condense as it pushed closer to the life essence due to the latter's attraction.

Su Yuchen felt as if he was driving slowly in a car on a road, he now needs to try not lose control of the steering and crash the life essence with the astral energy, or the accident will lead to his death.

He felt an increase in weight on him when controlling the life essence to guide it through the meridians. The more astral energy was condensed around the life essence the more pressure he felt. He only guided the life essence through three meridians and he was already feeling his mind getting tired.

He slowed down the life essence, concentrated to make his mind more sharp and then proceeded to continue guiding the life essence.

When Su Yuchen's body sensed the lack of astral energy in his meridians, it started its work and slowly drew astral energy from the stellar rock. Although only few acupoints in his hands could draw the astral energy, it is in a more condensed energy form than what his body absorbs from the sun. This condensed astral energy from stellar rock slowly filled his meridians.

His body soon filled the empty meridians and the astral energy from the stellar rock reached and crossed his life essence. The condensed astral energy was filling up the meridians.

This would now make the task more difficult. A disadvantage of using stellar rocks in the beginning realms.

As time went by, sweat dripped from his forehead, veins bulged on his head and arms. His face flushed from the intensity of the cultivation. He was in a heightened state of cultivation, dedicated to guiding the life essence to circulate along the meridian paths. He needs to go through one last meridian.

He could only describe this last circulation as lifting a elephant and crossing a bridge, silly to think of even in his wildest imaginations, but the weight was as such, the life essence was becoming more and more immovable. He was dragging it while bearing a lot pain in his mind. He shouldn't stop at this movement, he was already in the twelfth meridian, by stopping he would be hurting his meridians. Only by crossing the meridian and reaching the dantian could he put down this weight and relax.

Slowly with every minute passing by, he was pushing the life essence to the dantian.

The life essence was also imbuing the condensed astral energy around it with its aura. The condensed astral energy imbued with its aura, would become his own astral energy. His own astral energy will not release a pressure on him. This imbuing process would be slower than his efforts in circulating the life essence through the meridians, but this process decreases the pressure on his mind, no matter how slow it was.

Now he needs to persist in circulating the life essence, more and more condensed astral was becoming his own astral energy, if he doesn't give up now, he could reach the dantian.

The movement of the life essence was slowly increasing in the twelfth meridian, with each passing moment he guided the life essence towards the dantian.

On the outside, his body was drenched in sweat, the veins turned blue and protruded all over his body. He gritted his teeth and continued to maintain his concentration while bearing all this physical pain.

The life essence entered the dantian and settled in the centre of it. He slowly detached his mind from the life essence. The life essence became sluggish, but still continued to imbue the aura into the condensed astral energy, which also settled in the dantian. The life essence would be in a passive state till his mind controls it again.

Su Yuchen opened his mouth slowly to relieve his numb teeth. His body tilted backwards and he laid down on the floor. His muscles and limbs slowly relaxed, veins returned to a normal state.

Chapter 9

The toll on Su Yuchen's mind began to act on him, the intense concentration during cultivation drained all his mental energy. He began to feel throbbing pain in his head, the very next moment, he felt as if a vise was tightly holding onto his head and crushing it.

He held the sides of his head with both of his hands and then tried to survive the unbearable pain.

As he closed and opened his eyes while gritting through the pain, his vision blurred, he was starting to lose his consciousness.

He tried to resist and focus his eyes, and this made them start burning.

He closed his eyes, gave up on bearing all the pain and then let his mind recover from the exhaustion.

..

.

Su Yuchen's maid woke him up before dawn by knocking on the door, when he woke up he was sleeping on the floor in the cultivation room. He had no headache, his head felt light compared to the night before.

He picked up the stellar rock laying beside him and checked it. There was no visible changes in it, he couldn't even tell that it was used for cultivation.

The dense astral energy from the stellar energy made him understand why it was not recommended to use them for cultivation at the Meridian Refinement Realm.

He didn't know if the reason he could be safe, was because he has top grade talent or it was because he has more pain tolerance. He remembered the mental strain that he persevered through during the cultivation and after it.

He also remembered that on the day he first tried to start cultivation, he was careless and circulated the astral energy through every meridian when he felt no exhaustion during the first three meridians. He then went on to endure tremendous pressure and nearly lost control of the life essence.

Then he was more reckless and continued to practise in the same way. He couldn't understand why he gets stubborn and reckless on certain things. He has low motivation to cultivate and still he behaves recklessly.

Or he might be behaving recklessly during cultivation because he has low motivation to cultivate.

However, the reckless behaviour from the night before made him slightly frightened. He shouldn't be using a stellar rock to cultivate, but he still used it. He was basically gambling on his life with that reckless behaviour of his.

Glad, he didn't remembered that loser's face while circulating the astral energy, he might have lost control of the life essence and hurt himself.

Su Yuchen decided to check the results of his cultivation. He controlled his mind, breathing and soon entered a meditation state.

The dantian was just filled to seventeen percent of its total capacity, a four percent increase with using the stellar rock. The astral energy that became his could now be controlled and circulated through the meridian system without the life essence.

It's just that he still has to put more efforts to fill the dantian and then continue to fill the entire twelve meridians with his astral energy. Then he would enter the Meridian Refinement Realm 1st stage.

'Sign in' he said in his mind.

[Ding! Daily sign in completed. Rewarded "Top grade Stellar Rocks x 10".]

"Wow!" Su Yuchen gasped after seeing the notification. He never heard about that thing, but he knew that's something beyond he could get his hands on in the next hundred years if he cultivated without the system.

With a thought he looked into the system storage, he tried to look at a top grade stellar rock and instantly, the dense energy from the rock nearly tore apart his mind, the system protected him.

It was a blue colour rock, which looked like a glass rock, radiating sharp blue rays. He was under pressure just by looking at the rock.

Looking at it he wondered if he could even use the top grade stellar rock for his cultivation at the moment.

On second thought, he realised that a normal stellar rock was already too heavy of a burden for him to cultivate with. He doesn't need to think about a top grade astral rock.

Su Yuchen put his thoughts aside about the top grade stellar rock and got up to get ready for the morning exercise.

While absorbing the purple astral energy, he worked on improving his stances. He still received a smack with the stick for once when he failed to do a stance as his left hand was not in the right position.

After eating his breakfast, he thought about the lecture from an Inner Sect Elder which was mentioned by the sect deacon after morning exercise.

Su Yuchen contemplated on skipping the lecture and staying indoors to avoid any unexpected troubles, but decided against it, he didn't want to hold himself back because of the negative thoughts in his mind. The lecture is good for him and he should go there if he wants to improve himself or there would be more setbacks for him in the future when he follows on with his negative thoughts.

His increasing negative thoughts after the humiliation was concerning him. He never had a moment in both of his lives when he was filled with thoughts like these. He never seriously thought of killing a person and he never skipped a day in his job after making a mistake during his work.

He didn't even make a mistake and now he his thinking about skipping an important lecture that would help him in his cultivation.

This was concerning and he needs to stay in control of his emotions.

..

.

There were thousands of Inner Sect Disciples at the lecture. Some of them looked like kids and some others were like old men.

The lecture went smoothly. The Inner Sect Elder started with lecturing about Meridian Refinement Realm and proceeded with the next realms. Su Yuchen kept his focus during the lecture and understood all the things the Inner Sect Elder taught to the Inner Sect Disciples.

He contemplated on what the Inner Sect Elder taught, during the whole time the Inner Sect Elder lectured on advanced cultivation realms.

He was glad he didn't skip the lecture because of what happened the day before.

In the courtyard.

Su Yuchen decided to read the book on cultivation knowledge he received from the sect. The book was much thicker than the cultivation notes book he got from the system.

He read the book the whole afternoon. The first half of the book explained the rules of the sect, about the authority and powers the elders hold and the importance of the disciples to the sect. It explained the various halls and their functions in the sect. The importance of contribution points and the various ways they could be obtained was seriously emphasised in the book.

The second part explained about the Meridian Refinement Realm. There were many similarities with the cultivation notes, but this book was less comprehensive. This book also mentioned about refining the meridians multiple times.

However, it only mentioned nine refinements, and cultivators were given a rank according to the number of times they refined their meridians. Nine being the lowest rank which is achieved when a cultivator enters the Meridian Refinement Realm 1st stage. First rank Meridian Refinement Realm 9th stage is the strongest in the Meridian Refinement Realm. The way the ranks were labelled made them look unnecessarily long, and they missed ninety nine more ranks. 

The book mentioned the best way to achieve the first rank, which was to complete the refinement of the meridian system during every stage. This wasn't mentioned in the cultivation notes, though, he only read a few paragraphs in it.

He decide to try this method, and he his going to use the stellar rock's astral energy to achieve the refinement. A thick buff for the meridians and the dantian during transformation.

The serious motivation for cultivation he was having, he desires this everyday without having to go through other humiliating quests.

That night, Su Yuchen, once again cultivated with the stellar rock, and lost consciousness in the cultivation room.

Chapter 10

'Sign in' Su Yuchen completed his sign in of the day, after waking up from losing his consciousness.

[Ding! Daily sign in completed. Rewarded "Cosmic Whisper Earrings".]

He immediately looked at the earrings placed in the system storage, it was a pair of ear studs made of a pale blue gem, the ear studs gave off a cool and soothing sensation. He wore the cosmic whisper earrings and then slowly sensed a peaceful aura enveloping him.

The grade of these earrings was unknown to him, and he was troubled about whether he should wear them when he walked out of his courtyard. The pale blue gem looks lavish and costly, certainly he couldn't own them.

He decided not to wear them when he goes outside and only to wear them while cultivating as he felt they might be useful for cultivation because of the cool sensation they covered his mind with after wearing them.

He kept them back in the system storage.

Next, it was an uneventful day. At night, he took out the cosmic whisper earrings from the system storage and wore them. Still, he used the stellar rock for cultivation. His mind however was not as strained as compared to the previous days. The cosmic whisper earrings restored his mental energy and let him stay fully focused on circulating the life essence and condensing the astral energy.

Su Yuchen slept in his bedroom on that day.

..

.

'Sign in' Su Yuchen completed his sign in of the day.

[Ding! Daily sign in completed. Rewarded "Raging Water Elixir".]

He missed the elixirs from the sign in system.

During the first week when he activated the system, all he received as rewards from the sign in system were elixirs of different types. There was even a caution notification under the reward notification to use the elixir before he went to sleep. 

Those elixirs transformed his body. When he woke up the next day, he was always healthier and stronger than the previous days.

There was no notification under the elixir he received just now, so he doesn't know if it's okay to drink it at any time.

He drank it before going to do his morning exercise.

Nothing happened the whole time he was exercising, but by afternoon he noticed light changes in his body, his body was giving off a light blue light from its skin. He decided not to leave his room before he looks normal. He decided not to drink elixirs when he had plans to go outside.

Radiating blue light when he was outside would be impossible to explain to others.

..

.

Waking up before dawn, signing in into the system, exercising under the purple astral energy, reading a book or attending lectures and then cultivating at night with the stellar rock, this became the schedule of Su Yuchen.

He was undisturbed during his cultivation for nearly two months, no one came in front of him to trouble him.

He received a green metal bar for completing another 30 days of signing in, and after 30 more days he received another piece of the same green metal bar. There was no special reward for the hundredth sign in, which he highly expected.

Su Yuchen is filthy rich, but he couldn't spend them outside. He had received 100 top grade stellar rocks in the two months.

There were also more elixirs he got to drink through the rewards.

They all had a great taste and also completely transformed his body remarkably, his mind was also affected with this transformation, his thoughts were more clearer than before. Within a month he perfected all the stances for his morning exercise and got the permission to exercise independently at his courtyard every morning.

There was a particular reason for him to put more effort into perfecting his stances. It was because of the book he received. "Cultivation notes volume 01" book had 30 pages illustrated with stances to practise under the morning sun. These stances lets him efficiently absorb the purple astral energy, better than from the exercises he was doing before.

So, he needs to perfect the stances and get permission to exercise independently in his courtyard.

Although these stances put a lot of burden on him even after his body underwent an elixir boosted transformation, the purple astral energy absorbed with these stances enriched his astral energy. His astral energy that had his aura was adorned with light purple colour.

Nine Meridians and a dantian were filled with his purple powered astral energy.

He would be entering the Meridian Refinement Realm within the next two weeks.

During the same period his name was also spread in the inner sect and to some extent in the outer sect. He was the most talented recruit among the disciples accepted by the sect this year. Soon, the inner sect was aware of the humiliation he suffered on the day he went to the rune hall.

Su Yuchen became a coward turtle.

He couldn't accept the looks from everyone around him and hid in his shell. He never left the courtyard except for exercises, lectures and buying feed for the horse. After receiving his monthly resources and perfecting the stances, he stopped going outside except for the lectures. The maid bought the feed for the horse.

Also she kept him up to date about the discussions happening about him.

During this time, his relationship with his friends stagnated. He had a thought, the outer sect disciples who might recognise him could trouble his friends if he was seen hanging out with them. They might look at him as incompetent and also look at his friends as easy targets.

Logically they should not be doing that, he was the most talented disciple recruited this year, but the unreasonable behaviours of the cultivators that he heard from Senior Brother Li made him question about the possibilities of his thought happening.

His cowardly actions stressed his mind more than the pain from the cultivation during this period. It hurt his heart. He never wanted to stay passive during this period, but he didn't know what to do.

This just continued to motivate him to practice hard and be diligent in his cultivation.

Unexpectedly, news about the discovery of a new secret realm quietened the discussions about him.

Without hearing the discussions about him, Su Yuchen's heart calmed down.

Another thought struck his now cool mind, which cultivation fool would discuss about the humiliation of an ordinary person for more than a month even if the said person was the most talented disciple recruited that year? And according to Senior Brother Li, shouldn't people try to show their favour to him?

He questioned his maid once again and then went outside to check about the situation by himself.

Damn! He was still a topic of discussion among the disciples, although it decreased compared to a few weeks before.

He rushed to Senior Brother Li and asked him about his thoughts.

"You are targeted", that was the answer from Senior Brother Li.

He was baffled by the situation. 'Was that loser a brain dead?' he cursed, but still felt some doubts about the whole situation. 

'Or was it the background behind the loser targeting him?' he thought and then asked Senior Brother Li same.

"You are from the Third Elder's faction. The cultivators from other factions might be targeting you because of that. They want to disrupt your mental state." Senior Brother Li said his guess. Disrupting the mental state of Su Yuchen could lead to him getting injured during cultivation.

"No, I don't belong to the third elder's faction." Su Yuchen said.

"The elder who brought you to the sect belong's to the Third Elder's faction. You will be considered as a member from that faction. If you want to offend all of the Third Elder's faction, you can announce publicly that you don't belong to that faction." Senior Brother Li sneered at Su Yuchen.

"What's with this nonsense? I want to be an honest cultivator, I don't want to join factions and pick fights." Su Yuchen bellowed to the heavens.

Senior Brother Li started laughing looking at the look on Su Yuchen.

"Take the mission we recently issued and join our Mount Stable. For the next four months you can be free from any troubles. We are supported by a powerful elder, you don't have to worry about anything." Senior Brother Li suggested to Su Yuchen after controlling his laughter.

"What is the work?", Su Yuchen asked him. He didn't mind working at the Mount Stable, he took care of his horse for three years in the mountain village.

"Feeding the beasts. I will teach you about all types of beasts we have here and what they feed on. You need to remember it and feed them according to a schedule. You can receive 12 contribution points by completing this mission. This task should complete your quota and also keep you away from any unexpected troubles." Senior Brother Li explained to Su Yuchen.

"What if something happens to the beasts in here when I feed them?" Su Yuchen had this thought while listening to Senior Brother Li and immediately questioned him.

"I am in charge of managing the stock and distributing it to you, don't worry." Senior Brother Li answered Su Yuchen.

"What if somebody buys a beast and then the beast gets into a problem and then this leads to questioning me?" Su Yuchen continued to ask his thoughts.

Senior Brother Li looked at Su Yuchen as if he was looking at a dumb buffalo, "Junior Disciple Su, you don't need to be so paranoid. No one should be having a grudge on you. That guard would just proudly boast that he humiliated a highly talented recruit and should not be thinking about harming you. No one will be making plans to kill you.'

"Okay, Senior Brother Li. Then I will accept the mission at the contribution hall." Su Yuchen just agreed to do the mission and dismissed the look Senior Brother Li had on his face. Disrupting his mental state might lead to his death, someone was trying to kill him. He remembered something and asked, "Senior Brother Li, will there be any guards asking for stellar rock at the contribution hall?"

Senior Brother Li stared at Su Yuchen and said, "No, there won't be. That's the only place those guards will not dare to ask for stellar rocks. Su Yuchen, you don't need to be so stressed all the time."

"Thanks for your concern, Senior Brother. I will try to relax." Su Yuchen replied to Senior Brother Li.