Chapter 76: Being Less Generous with the Monthly Stipend Makes Them Honest

Not two days later, Ruan Xing received a message from the Sect.

As expected, no Sect Elder had eyes like pearls to recognize her talent; she was merely an ordinary Inner Sect Disciple.

She went to find the female Cultivator at the Treasure Pavilion, who then led her to the Questioning Heart Stone.

The two flew on their Swords together to Palm Peak, landing on the ground when they were nearly halfway up the mountainside. The female Cultivator said, "You must not fly your Sword before the Palm Hall. All Inner Sect Disciples without a master are Registered Disciples of the Sect Leader. You will be living on the Main Peak for some time to come, so you must remember this well."

"Senior Sister, are you also a Registered Disciple of the Sect Leader?" Ruan Xing asked.

"I am," the female Cultivator smiled. "My name is Lu Jin. On the cliff at the summit of the Main Peak, there is a Sword Stele left behind by the founder of our Xuanbing Sect. The Questioning Heart Stone is right in front of the Sword Stele. Walk past the Questioning Heart Stone and pay your respects to the Sword Stele."

"The founder? A figure from thousands of years ago—that the Sword Stele he left behind can be passed down for so long is truly amazing." A look of yearning appeared in Ruan Xing's eyes.

"It's a pity this is only a replica; the original is in the Central Province. Legend has it that it contains the Sword intent left by the founder before he ascended to the Spirit Realm. Whoever can comprehend even two or three tenths of it might also be able to ascend to the Spirit Realm." Lu Jin pointed to a stone wall shaped like a curved blade, several dozen zhang high, in the distance. "That is it. Walk over there yourself."

In front of the stone wall was a cylindrical platform surrounded by a circular pool. The pool water swirled like a spinning top, slow yet constant. The spray from the splashing water landed on the gray-white stone platform, and the stepped bridge extending downward from the stone platform was right in front of Ruan Xing.

She walked onto the stone platform along the small bridge and looked up at the towering stone wall. She felt as if the air in front of her was filled with asbestos fibers, causing a fine, dense, stinging pain in her eye membranes and nasal cavity. As the biting wind blew, Ruan Xing couldn't help but close her eyes and lower her head, kneeling on both knees to pay her respects to the stone wall.

Suddenly, a cold laugh reached Ruan Xing's ears.

"To think that just anyone dares to come and run wild in my Xuanbing Sect!"

The voice was aged, deep, and calm, yet carried an unforced authority that made Ruan Xing's heart tremble. She endured the pain and forced her eyes open to look. Standing before her was a Daoist in white. She could not see his face clearly, but the aura of the Sword in his hand was exactly the same as the stinging Sword intent on the stone wall.

She was a bit dazed and hurriedly began to think about what she had done in the few days since arriving at the Xuanbing Sect.

The Simulation didn't count, but in reality, she had been very well-behaved! She had gone to the Sect Affairs Hall and the Treasure Pavilion with Qin Yi and Zhao Fengchun, met with Xie Huai twice, and spent the rest of the time in her room diligently cultivating—she hadn't done anything else! Why say such things about her? She felt a bit aggrieved.

"Are you sure you are talking about me?" Ruan Xing couldn't help but ask. "I am such an obedient little girl!"

The white-clad Daoist ignored her and suddenly erupted with a murderous aura so intense it was almost tangible. The massive impact hit Ruan Xing, sending her tumbling several times. Her back slammed heavily into the pillar supporting the small bridge, and she felt a tearing pain in her internal organs. A sweetness rose in her throat, and Ruan Xing could not stop herself from spitting out a mouthful of blood.

The Daoist walked over, Sword in hand. A sense of crisis filled Ruan Xing's entire body; if she didn't find a way, she might be decapitated in the next second! But no... according to Ruan Xing's years of experience reading novels, this wasn't right.

The 【Yu】 Leather Armor she wore underneath had shown no reaction when she was attacked; it hadn't even been damaged. And when she turned her head to look across the small bridge, Lu Jin, who had been standing there, was nowhere to be seen.

Ruan Xing recalled the feeling of falling into a hallucination in the underground river of Black Water Lake. At that time, the hallucinations of those Yin Ghosts had affected her Divine Sense and soul, making her subconsciously and illogically believe that everything before her was real.

But now, it felt as if she had entered The Truman Show; the entire space was isolated from the outside world. That sense of disconnection—seemingly normal yet abnormal—was deceiving her eyes, her thoughts, and her five senses.

The method to determine this was also very simple: open the Simulator...

If this was a hallucination given to her by the Questioning Heart Stone, then the purpose was easy to guess. Regardless of whether this person had malicious intent, under the crisis of life and death, a person trapped in a hallucination would certainly use all their strength to seek a path of survival. Any trace of Evil Cultivator spiritual power would inevitably be revealed, making it easy to identify.

If her guess was correct, this hallucination wouldn't actually cause real harm to people; after all, her Talisman hadn't even broken.

Although she was not an Evil Cultivator, she practiced the Tongxuan Scripture. She knew clearly that when exchanging for the Tongxuan Scripture at the Treasure Pavilion, one had to swear a Heart Demon Oath not to spread it. So, in a situation where she had no Contribution Points to exchange for it and had never entered the Treasure Pavilion, how could she explain it?

She could only choose... not to resist.

Although so many thoughts flashed through her mind, in reality, only one second had passed. Ruan Xing quickly opened the Real-scene Simulation. Watching the white-clad Daoist getting closer and closer, she stretched her neck, closed her eyes, and said tragically, "Since the founder misunderstands this disciple, then this disciple has nothing more to say. I can only die to prove my innocence!"

The Sword tip pierced through her chest. Ruan Xing sat on the ground, covered in blood, her hands gripping the sharp blade, her head tilted back with a face full of stubborn accusation and unwillingness.

"Junior Sister Ruan? Junior Sister Ruan, wake up, it's time to go!"

Lu Jin's voice seemed to come from very far away.

Ruan Xing opened her eyes blankly, blinking a few times before successfully focusing on Lu Jin's smiling face. "Senior Sister Lu... didn't I... die?"

"Oh, it's just the Questioning Heart Stone, how could you really die?" Lu Jin rubbed her head. "Were you scared? I was terrified at the time too; my legs went weak for a long time and I almost fell into the pool."

"Yes... it was too scary, I thought I was already dead." Ruan Xing patted her chest in lingering fear and was led off the small bridge by Lu Jin.

"Don't be afraid. Come, I'll take you to your residence."

Ruan Xing nodded obediently. "Alright, Senior Sister."

Inside a small green bamboo courtyard.

A middle-aged Cultivator waved his hand to put away the Water Mirror Technique, then turned his head to ask the white-bearded Cultivator lying on a rocking chair, squinting his eyes with a look of contentment, "What do you think?"

"Oh, Sect Leader, why pay so much attention to a little girl? If you really don't like her, just find an excuse to expel her from the Sect. Why keep staring at her?" the white-bearded Cultivator said lazily.

The Sect Leader sighed. "I just find it strange. A few days ago, I inadvertently noticed a six-year-old at the Foundation Establishment stage in the Inner Sect applications, so I paid some attention to her. According to her own account, she comes from a family of low-level Cultivators in a town. Her family thought she had mediocre aptitude, so they let her enter the Dao early—cultivating at three and reaching Qi Refining Layer Nine at six. If she hadn't cultivated in advance, I wouldn't dare imagine what kind of heaven-defying cultivation aptitude she would have when she grew up. It's just a pity." "The more I looked, the more I felt something was wrong. She broke through to Foundation Establishment less than seven days after entering the Sect. Tell me, why would a low-level Cultivator family have a Foundation Establishment Technique? Since she has a Foundation Establishment Technique, why come to the Xuanbing Sect? I asked you to take her as a personal disciple to observe her, but you weren't willing. What if she has ulterior motives?"

"Sect Leader," the white-bearded Cultivator changed his posture, lying there while propping up his head. "Aren't you already observing her? Don't find work for me. You don't need to worry about 'what if'—she definitely has ulterior motives. You saw it just now, what was that she said? Seven days after entering the Sect, what kind of sense of belonging could she have? And 'die to prove my innocence'... I think if you give her two months less of her monthly stipend, she'll run away on her own. So I say, don't think too much. Why think so much? Just expel her from the Sect and be done with it."

The Sect Leader glared at him. "She didn't resist, and the Questioning Heart Stone didn't test her background. If she has no problems, I must send such a good seedling to the Central Province. If she does have problems, then I can't let her go even more. There hasn't been a single clue about the whereabouts of the Ink Marrow yet; it might just be related to her."

"Then just observe her slowly... and tell me about it after you're done observing..." The white-bearded man yawned. "I came to Nanzhou to retire, don't keep assigning me tasks... it's so annoying!"

The white-bearded man looked old, but he was actually only over four hundred years old, a Golden Core Late Stage Sect Elder. It was only because he had suffered a serious injury in the past that damaged his Spirit Bone, making it impossible to improve his cultivation further and leaving him with no hope of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage, that he had become disheartened and come to the Xuanbing Sect in Nanzhou to retire.

And the Sect Leader was his senior brother from the same period, an Early Nascent Soul Stage cultivator nearly five hundred years old.

Seeing his junior brother close his eyes to feign sleep and stop talking, the Sect Leader shook his head secretly and left the small green bamboo courtyard.

After confirming that she wouldn't be harmed if she didn't resist, Ruan Xing turned off the Real-scene Simulation. Just now, she had only been taking precautions. If there had been real danger, she would still have had to resist to save her life. She had the spiritual power fluctuations of the Tongxuan Scripture on her; the white-clad Daoist likely wouldn't have killed her, but explaining it afterward would have been another difficult problem.

Fortunately, her guess was correct, and the matter of the Tongxuan Scripture could be put aside for now.

Presumably, Xie Huai would also be able to figure out the key to the Questioning Heart Stone and would likely also choose not to resist. It would be hard not to make people suspicious if two people appeared who didn't resist while passing the Questioning Heart Stone in a short period... She had to keep her distance from Xie Huai, lest he mess up one day and implicate her.

Ruan Xing followed Lu Jin to the area where the Inner Sect Disciples lived. Perhaps because there were few people on the Main Peak, the architecture of the Inner Sect was not so orderly. After walking for a long time, the first Cave Abode she saw was a detached two-story building, but there was a protective Formation outside, proving that someone was already living there.

As they walked, through Lu Jin's introduction, Ruan Xing's understanding of the Inner Sect became more intuitive.

The treatment of Inner Sect Disciples was indeed vastly different from that of Outer Sect Disciples. Everyone had their own individual Cave Abode, and there were dedicated quiet rooms for cultivation, each equipped with a small, individual Gathering Spirit Array.

Ruan Xing had already received her monthly stipend as an Inner Sect Disciple: one hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones and a bottle of Naqi Pills.

The Naqi Pill was an upgraded version of the Gathering Qi Pill, a second-grade Pill. A bottle cost about twenty Low-grade Spirit Stones. For those at the Foundation Establishment stage, both Gathering Qi Pills and Naqi Pills could be used, but the Naqi Pill was clearly more efficient. Cultivators who were not short on money would naturally choose the latter.

The individual small Gathering Spirit Array was also of a higher grade than the one in the Outer Sect. Lu Jin was teaching her how to use it. "This type of Gathering Spirit Array consumes six Low-grade Spirit Stones for every two hours it is activated, so it cannot be built into a large-scale array like in the Outer Sect that stays on for twelve hours; that would burn through too many Spirit Stones. So, Junior Sister, whenever you want to cultivate, you can just put Spirit Stones into the array."

The one hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones issued by the Sect were only enough for thirty-three hours of cultivation.

And there were twenty such quiet rooms on the entire Main Peak.

"After you activate the Gathering Spirit Array, the protective Formation outside will also activate at the same time, so other fellow disciples will know that someone is inside and won't disturb you," Lu Jin continued.

Ruan Xing looked around. The Main Peak was actually larger than the Outer Peak, but the various Cave Abodes in the residential area were sparse, each separated by more than a hundred meters.

Seeing Ruan Xing's confusion, Lu Jin smiled. "This is because once they reach the Foundation Establishment stage, everyone seeks their own breakthroughs, and being further apart prevents them from affecting each other. Have you chosen? The few Cave Abodes I showed you just now are all unoccupied."

Ruan Xing shook her head, "Senior Sister, are there very few Inner Sect Disciples?"

"There were quite a few originally, but with people coming and going, they seem few now," Lu Jin said calmly. "Before Foundation Establishment, as long as resources keep up and one's aptitude isn't too poor, one can always reach Foundation Establishment. But after Foundation Establishment, it's different. Cultivation has bottlenecks, and everyone encounters all sorts of difficulties. Everyone goes out to gain experience; those who pass achieve Golden Core and head to the Central Province, but if they don't..."

Lu Jin paused for a moment, then smiled self-deprecatingly, "Only those of us who are content with mediocrity will stay in the Sect forever."

"I'm very sorry, Senior Sister, I didn't mean it that way," Ruan Xing said in a low voice.

She hadn't expected this Senior Sister to become sentimental while talking.

"It's nothing. Since I chose to stay, I have recognized my own limits. Staying in the Sect isn't bad either; the Sect always needs people like me. Otherwise, if everyone were solely focused on cultivation, how would the Treasure Pavilion and Sect Affairs Hall operate?" Lu Jin's tone turned cheerful, "What about you? Junior Sister, you are still young, so you can certainly consider your future carefully."

Ruan Xing pondered for a moment and brought up her old excuse again, "Senior Sister, I haven't been cultivating for long. I've been focused on raising my cultivation level and haven't properly practiced any Magic Art. I want to stay in the Sect for a while, earn some Contribution Points to learn some self-defense Magic Art, and then consider whether to go out for experience."

"That's good. I've been in the Sect for a long time and know basically all the fellow disciples who are often here. How about I go help you see which vacant positions 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 eyes curved, and a kind smile played on the slightly upturned corners of her fair, oval face, "It's no trouble. By the way, you don't like any of these Cave Abodes; what kind would you like to live in?"

Ruan Xing thought for a moment and said earnestly, "I like it lively."

In places with many people, Demon Cultivators have more to fear. If she lived in a remote and desolate corner, perhaps one day a Demon Cultivator might get a whim and stage an assassination or something.

She currently has few points and cannot use Simulation to avoid danger at all times, so it is best to live in a place with many people.

"Lively?" Lu Jin was surprised; this was a rare request among Inner Sect Disciples. She thought for a moment, "There is a place near the Sect Master's main hall. Because flying by Sword is not allowed above the mountainside, people pass by a path there from time to time. Other fellow disciples don't like it, so it has been empty."

Near the Sect Master's main hall? If she shouted for help, wouldn't the Sect Master be able to hear her?

Ruan Xing was extremely satisfied, "I'll choose this one!"

Thanks to Book Friend 20220513195534050 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Chicken God Pillar One Regi Xu Kun for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Book Friend 20200530093008398 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Mi Zhi for the monthly ticket~ (End of chapter)