Chapter 76: He Will Be Honest If You Pay Him Less Monthly
Within two days, Ruan Xing received a message from the sect.
As expected, no sect elder recognized her talent; she was just an ordinary inner sect disciple.
She went to find the nun in the treasure house, and asked her to take her to the Stone of Conscience.
The two flew to the main peak together, and landed on the ground when they were about halfway up the mountain. The female monk said, "You are not allowed to fly in front of the main hall. All inner disciples without a master are registered disciples of the main peak. You will live on the main peak for a period of time in the future, so you must remember this."
"Senior sister, are you also the master's registered disciple?" Ruan Xing asked.
"Yes." The female monk smiled, "My name is Lu Jin. On the cliff at the top of the main peak, there is a sword stele left by our Xuanbing Sect's founder. In front of the sword stele is the Heart-Searching Stone. Walk past the Heart-Searching Stone and pay your respects to the sword stele."
"Ancestor? He lived thousands of years ago. It's amazing that the sword monument he left behind can be passed down for so long." Ruan Xing's eyes showed longing.
"Unfortunately, this is just a replica. The original is in Zhongzhou. Legend has it that it was the sword intent left by the founder before he ascended to the spirit world. Anyone who can comprehend 20% to 30% of it may also be able to ascend to the spirit world." Lu Jin pointed to a curved knife-shaped stone wall several dozen feet high in the distance. "That's it. Go over there by yourself."
There is a cylindrical platform in front of the stone wall, surrounded by a circular pool. The water in the pool rotates slowly but continuously like a gyroscope, and the splashing water falls on the gray-white stone platform. The stepped bridge extending downward from the stone platform is right in front of Ruan Xing.
She walked along the small bridge to the stone platform and looked up at the tall stone wall. She felt that the air in front of her was full of asbestos fibers, which irritated her eye membranes and nasal cavity and made her feel a fine and dense needle-like pain. A sharp wind blew over, and Ruan Xing could not help but close her eyes and lower her head, kneeling on her knees to salute the stone wall.
Suddenly, Ruan Xing heard a sneer in his ears.
"Who dares to come to my Xuanbing Sect and act wildly?"
The voice was old, deep, and calm, yet it was intimidating without being angry, which made Ruan Xing's heart tremble. She endured the pain and opened her eyes to look. There stood a Taoist in white clothes in front of her. She couldn't see his face clearly, but the aura of the sword in his hand was exactly the same as the piercing sword intent on the stone wall.
She was a little confused, and quickly thought about what she had done in the past few days since she came to Xuanbing Sect.
It's okay in the simulation, but in reality she was very honest. She went to the treasure pavilion of the Zongwu Hall with Qin Yi and Zhao Fengchun, met with Xie Huai twice, and spent the rest of the time practicing in the house. She did nothing else!
Why do you say that to her? She feels a little wronged.
"Are you sure you're talking about me?" Ruan Xing couldn't help but ask, "I'm such a well-behaved little girl!"
The Taoist in white ignored her and suddenly burst out with a murderous aura that was so strong that it seemed tangible. The huge impact force hit Ruan Xing and knocked her over several times. Her back hit the pillar supporting the bridge heavily. She felt a tearing pain in her internal organs and a sweetness in her throat. Ruan Xing couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood.
The Taoist priest came over with a sword in his hand, and Ruan Xing felt a sense of crisis all over her body. If she didn't think of a solution, she might be beheaded in the next second!
But it's not right... According to Ruan Xing's many years of experience in reading novels, this is not right.
The leather armor with the word "御" on it that she was wearing next to her skin did not react at all when it was attacked, and it did not even break. When she turned her head to look across the bridge, Lu Jin who was originally standing there was nowhere to be seen.
Ruan Xing recalled the feeling she had when she fell into hallucination in the underground river of Blackwater Lake. At that time, the hallucinations of those evil spirits affected her consciousness and soul, making her subconsciously and illogically believe that everything in front of her was real.
But now she felt as if she had entered Truman's world, the entire space being isolated from the outside world. That seemingly normal but abnormal feeling of separation deceived her eyes, mind and five senses of her body.
The method of judgment is also very simple, that is to open the simulator...
If this was an illusion given to her by the Heart-Searching Stone, then the purpose was easy to guess. Regardless of whether this person had ill intentions or not, in a life-and-death crisis, a person trapped in an illusion would certainly do everything he could to survive. Any trace of evil magic power on his body would be revealed, which made it easy to identify.
If her guess was correct, this illusion would not really cause harm to people, after all, her talisman was not broken.
Although she was not an evil cultivator, she was practicing the Tong Xuan Sutra. She knew clearly that when exchanging the Tong Xuan Sutra in the Treasure Pavilion, she needed to swear an oath not to tell anyone else. So how could she explain this when she had no contribution points to exchange and had never entered the Treasure Pavilion?
She could only choose... not to resist.
Although so many thoughts flashed through his mind, in reality only one second had passed. Ruan Xing quickly opened the real-life simulation and looked at the Taoist in white who was getting closer and closer. He stretched his neck, closed his eyes, and said tragically, "Since the master has misunderstood me, I have nothing to say. I can only die to prove my innocence!"
The sword pierced her chest. Ruan Xing sat on the ground covered in blood, holding the sharp sword with both hands, looking up with a face full of stubborn accusations and unwillingness.
"Junior Sister Ruan? Junior Sister Ruan, wake up, it's time to go!"
Lu Jin's voice seemed to come from far away.
Ruan Xing opened her eyes blankly, blinked a few times and successfully focused on Lu Jin's smiling face, "Senior Sister Lu... Am I not, dead?"
"Well, it's just a self-reflection stone. How can you really die?" Lu Jin rubbed her head. "You must be scared, right? I was also very scared at that time. My legs were weak for a long time and I almost fell into the pool."
"Yeah...it was so scary, I thought I was dead." Ruan Xing patted his chest in fear and was led down the bridge by Lu Jin.
"Don't be afraid, come on, I'll take you to your place."
Ruan Xing nodded obediently, "Okay, Senior Sister."
……
In a small courtyard surrounded by green bamboo.
The middle-aged monk casually put away the water mirror technique, turned around and asked the white-bearded monk who was lying on the rocking chair next to him, squinting his eyes and looking contented, "How do you feel?"
"Hey, Master, why are you paying so much attention to this little girl? If you really don't like her, just find a reason to expel her from the sect. Why do you keep staring at her?" The white-bearded monk said lazily.
The head of the sect sighed, "I just find it strange. A few days ago, I accidentally saw a six-year-old foundation-building practitioner among the inner sect applications, so I paid some attention to her. According to her, she was born in a low-level cultivator family in the town. Her family thought she had mediocre aptitude, so they let her enter the Tao early. She practiced at the age of three and reached the ninth level of Qi training at the age of six. If she hadn't practiced in advance, I dare not imagine how amazing her cultivation aptitude would be when she grew up. It's just a pity." "The more I watched, the more I felt something was wrong. She broke through to the foundation-building level from the ninth level of Qi training within seven days of entering the sect. Tell me, why does a low-level cultivator family have a foundation-building technique? Since she has a foundation-building technique, why did she come to the Xuanbing Sect? I asked you to take her in as your personal disciple and observe her, but you were not happy. What if she has other intentions?"
"Master." The white-bearded monk changed his posture and lay down with his head propped up. "Aren't you already observing? Don't give me work to do. You don't have to worry about the possibility. She must have other intentions. You just saw what she said. How can she feel a sense of belonging to the sect after only seven days of joining? And one death and one proof of innocence... I think she would run away if you paid her two months less salary. So I say, don't think too much. Why think so much? Just expel her from the sect and that's it."
The head of the sect glared at him. "She didn't resist. The Heart-Searching Stone didn't reveal her true colors. If she's fine, I must send her to Zhongzhou. If she's fine, I can't let her go. There's still no clue about Mo Sui's whereabouts. Maybe it's related to her."
"Then just observe slowly... and tell me after you're done..." Whitebeard yawned, "I came to Nanzhou to retire, don't keep assigning me tasks... it's annoying!"
Although Whitebeard looks old, he is actually only over 400 years old. He is a sect elder in the late Jindan stage. He came to the Xuanbing Sect in Nanzhou to retire because he once suffered a serious injury that damaged his spirit bones and made it impossible for him to improve his cultivation. He had no hope of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.
The head of the sect is his senior brother of the same period, who is nearly 500 years old and in the early Nascent Soul stage.
Seeing that his junior brother closed his eyes and pretended to sleep and stopped talking, the head of the sect shook his head secretly and left the Green Bamboo Courtyard.
After confirming that she would not get hurt if she did not resist, Ruan Xing turned off the real-life simulation. She was just being cautious. If there was real danger, she would still have to resist to save her life. She had the spiritual power of the Tongxuan Sutra in her body, so the Taoist in white would most likely not kill her, but how to explain it later would be another difficult problem.
Fortunately, her guess was correct, and the matter of the Tongxuan Sutra could be put aside for the time being.
Presumably, Xie Huai would be able to figure out the key to the Heart-Searching Stone by then, and he would most likely not resist. Two people who crossed the Heart-Searching Stone without resistance appeared in a short period of time, which made it hard not to think too much... She had to keep a distance from Xie Huai, lest he fall into trouble one day and implicate her.
Ruan Xing followed Lu Jin to the area where the inner sect disciples lived. Maybe because there were fewer people on the main peak, the buildings in the inner sect were not so regular. After walking for a while, the first cave they saw was a stand-alone two-story building, but there was a protective formation outside, proving that someone already lived there.
As the two walked, through Lu Jin's introduction, Ruan Xing had a more intuitive understanding of the inner gate.
The treatment of inner disciples is indeed very different from that of outer disciples. Each person has a separate cave to live in, and there is also a special quiet room for cultivation. Inside the quiet room is a separate small spirit gathering formation.
Ruan Xing has already received her monthly salary as an inner disciple, which includes one hundred lower-grade spirit stones and a bottle of Qi-absorbing pills.
The Qi Gathering Pill is an upgraded version of the Qi Nailing Pill. It is a second-grade pill and one bottle costs about twenty lower-grade spirit stones. For the Foundation Establishment Period, both the Qi Gathering Pill and the Qi Nailing Pill can be used, but the Qi Nailing Pill is obviously more efficient. Of course, cultivators who are not short of money will choose the latter.
The grade of the independent small spirit gathering array is also higher than that of the outer sect. Lu Jin is teaching her how to use it. "This kind of spirit gathering array consumes six low-grade spirit stones every two hours it is open, so it cannot be built into a large array like the outer sect and opened for twelve hours. That would consume too many spirit stones. So, Junior Sister, you can practice whenever you want by putting spirit stones in the array."
The one hundred low-grade spirit stones distributed by the sect were only enough for thirty-three hours of cultivation.
There are twenty such quiet rooms on the entire main peak.
"After you activate the spirit gathering array, the protective array outside will also be activated at the same time. This way, other fellow disciples will know that there is someone inside and will not disturb them." Lu Jin continued.
Ruan Xing looked around and found that the main peak was actually larger than the outer peak, but the various cave dwellings in the residential area were sparsely populated, and each one was more than a hundred meters apart.
Seeing Ruan Xing's doubts, Lu Jin smiled and said, "This is because everyone is seeking their own breakthroughs in the foundation-building stage, and being farther away will not affect each other. Have you chosen? The caves I showed you just now are all uninhabited."
Ruan Xing shook her head, "Senior Sister, are there very few inner disciples?"
“Originally there were quite a few, but with so many comings and goings, it seems less.” Lu Jin said calmly: “Before the foundation-building period, as long as the resources are sufficient and the aptitude is not too bad, one can always reach the foundation-building stage. But after the foundation-building period, it is different. There is a bottleneck in cultivation. Everyone will encounter various difficulties in cultivation. Everyone will go out to practice. If they can overcome them, they will achieve the golden elixir and go to Zhongzhou. If they cannot overcome them…”
Lu Jin paused for a moment and said with a self-deprecating smile: "Only those of us who are content with mediocrity will stay in the sect forever."
"I'm sorry, senior sister, that's not what I meant." Ruan Xing said in a low voice.
Unexpectedly, this senior sister became sad as she spoke.
"Nothing. Since I chose to stay, it means I know who I am. There is nothing wrong with staying in the sect. The sect always needs people like me. Otherwise, if everyone is devoted to cultivation, how can the Treasure Pavilion and the Sect Affairs Hall operate?" Lu Jin's tone became cheerful. "What about you? Junior sister, you are still young, so you can think about the future carefully."
Ruan Xing pondered for a moment and brought up his old excuse, "Senior Sister, I have only been practicing for a short time, and I have been focusing on improving my cultivation without practicing any spells properly. I want to stay in the sect for a while, earn some contribution points, learn some self-defense spells, and then consider whether to go out for training."
"Okay, I've been in the sect for a long time, and I know almost all of the fellow disciples who are here. How about I help you find some vacancies that are suitable for you?"
This suggestion was exactly what she wanted, so Ruan Xing agreed, "Okay, then I'll trouble you, Senior Sister."
Lu Jin's eyebrows were curved, and the corners of his lips slightly raised on his fair oval face were filled with a friendly smile, "No trouble, by the way, you don't like any of these caves, which one do you want to live in?"
Ruan Xing thought about it and said seriously: "I like the hustle and bustle."
The more crowded the place is, the more wary the demon cultivators will be. If you live in a remote and desolate corner, the demon cultivators might suddenly assassinate you one day.
She has few points now, and can't use simulation to avoid danger all the time, so it's better for her to live where there are more people.
"Busy?" Lu Jin was surprised. This was a rare request among inner disciples. She thought for a moment and said, "There is one near the main hall. Since flying swords is not allowed above the halfway point of the mountain, there is a road over there where people pass by from time to time. Other disciples don't like it, so it has been empty."
Close to the master's hall? Then wouldn't the master be able to hear her if she shouted for help?
Ruan Xing was extremely satisfied and said, "I chose this place!"
Thanks to book friend 20220513195534050 for the monthly ticket~
Thanks to Ji Shenzhu Yi Lei Jixukun for the monthly ticket~
Thanks to book friend 20200530093008398 for the monthly ticket~
Thanks for the monthly ticket from Mizhi~
(End of this chapter)
