It had been three years, but the name “Fang Xing” was once again spread throughout the Qing-Yun Sect.

　　Information regarding Fang Xing had been conspicuously absent ever since he had entered the inner court. When Lin Qinxue was released half a year after he left, she had looked for him like a woman possessed. It had turned into rather big news within the inner court, but it was to no avail. Quite a number of disciples had heard of his name as a result, but they had never personally seen the existence of such a person; it was as though the troublemaker had just up and vanished.

　　After Fang Xing suddenly returned, everyone learned that he had been taken under the wings of Elder Bai Qianzhang for the past three years. Despite the elder wanting to pass everything he knew onto Fang Xing, the latter was too mischievous and unruly and all those years had been deemed wasted. Not only had Fang Xing not learned anything from Elder Bai Qianzhang by the end, but Fang Xing had also been dismissed.

　　Fang Xing was the sect’s laughingstock for quite some time. Those who were unable to make the best out of an opportunity presented right to their face were more pitiful than those who were never given the chance.

　　“Did you hear? Apparently that kid’s talent is very mediocre and D-Ranked. It was only because he had accidentally helped beat Elder Bai in a game of Weiqi that he was promised a chance. Who would have thought that he wouldn’t make anything from it? Three years; Elder Bai must have done his best to teach, yet the kid had something else on his mind. Elder Bai was finally so upset that he dismissed the kid….”

　　“That’s right. Even after three years under the wings of Elder Bai Qianzhang, I heard that kid is still in tier four!”

　　“That boy was the first person of the new disciples to enter the inner court. He was so young and with so much potential, yet now….”

　　“Being considered a genius at a young age doesn’t mean it will always be the same when they grow older!”

　　Such gossip had begun to fill the entire Qing-Yun Sect. Fang Xing, on the other hand, had already found himself a new cave to call home at the Cliff of Hundred Thoughts, and all he did nowadays was eat meat and drink wine. For three years he had killed numerous times without a single break. This was finally a chance to rest, and it was a given that he would not let it go.

　　“Look at that kid drinking all day long on the hill without a thought of improving his cultivation. No wonder he was dismissed by Elder Bai….”

　　“Hmph, he must have already given up on himself. After he missed such a great chance, the road ahead of him will only grow more difficult!”

　　People muttered amongst themselves not far away. To these people, Fang Xing was nothing more than the perfect example of what to avoid doing as a cultivator.

　　“What are you all looking at? I’ll dig out your eyeballs if you keep on looking!” Fang Xing sat up and yelled at those who had been muttering such things to themselves.

　　“What a vile person. Why don’t we teach him a lesson?”

　　“Don’t get involved. This kid may be young, but he did enter the inner court three years before us. He probably has some sort of method that would be difficult to deal with.”

　　“Yes, yes, he had gotten himself into trouble even before he joined the inner court. Shijie Lin Qinxue already said three years ago that no matter who killed this boy, she would send them gifts for their help. Who knows how long he’ll even live, so why should we get involved?”

　　In response, all of the disciples turned away their glances. A few clearly looked unconvinced, but they were soon pulled away by the others. The Cliff of Hundred Thoughts only housed new inner court disciples who had recently joined; no one had very high levels of cultivation above the minimum requirements.

　　The Cliff of Hundred Thoughts was the place disciples lived at first upon entering the inner court, and it was here that they would study one of the five disciplines they had chosen at the Grand Hall of Promotions. Once they had built a solid foundation in their individual techniques, they would then be moved to either one of the four valleys or a hall to continue their studies. There was the Danxia Valley which specialized in alchemy, the Duanzhen Valley which specialized in forging spirit weapons and tools, Shuwen Valley for talismans, and Shanhe Valley for formations and divinations. As for the hall, it was called the Hall of Heaven’s Tribute.

　　The words “heaven” and “tribute” came from one of the saying of their ancestors: “The path to heaven is paved only with tribute”, where obeying heaven’s will required demons to be offered as tribute. Of course, the “demons” of this saying didn’t only reference true demons, but also any power that opposed the Qing-Yun Sect; to cultivators, anyone who opposed them was considered in the same vein as demons.

　　It could also be understood that those who studied inside the Hall of Heaven’s Tribute made up the central battle power of the Qing-Yun Sect. It was here that the sect nurtured their Battle Cultivators, and those who wished to focus on increasing their brute strength and power would usually end up in this hall instead of in one of the four valleys. The number of pupils in this hall was extremely scarce, however. Each of the four main valleys would house over a hundred pupils, whereas there were only between ten to twenty studying at the Hall of Heaven’s Tribute.

　　Of these ten or so pupils, all of them were extremely talented individuals chosen from the four valleys. Very few Qing-Yun Sect disciples chose to practice [Qing-Yun Nine Swords] right from the very beginning. Even if they already had their heart set on being a Battle Cultivator, they would still choose one of the other four disciplines and only make the switch once they had mastered the foundation of their specialization. Fang Xing had decided that he would also join the hall and continue down his path as a pure Battle Cultivator.

　　“Well, I still have to take it a step at a time. Maybe I should go check out the available foundational spells, first.” Holding on to his wine gourd while tottering after every step and staggering after every third, Fang Xing slowly made his way towards the Grand Hall of Scriptures atop the Peak of the Flying Stone.

　　During the three years of travel with Bai Qianzhang, Fang Xing had only been told to kill demons and slay beasts in order to temper himself; when it came to spells and skills, he was practically a clean slate. But such basic things could be borrowed from the sect, and he would slowly learn and understand them just as he had learned [Gravitational Force] in the past.

　　As he passed the Flying Tiger Cliff, Fang Xing saw a giant solemn hall between a few pine trees. The hall itself was extremely tall at over three hundred feet and was made using solely black stones to give off a frigid aura. In front of the entrance was a square over a thousand square yards paved with white jade, and atop the center of its grand door was a large board inscribed with the words “Grand Hall of Scriptures”. Disciples in cyan-colored robes could occasionally be seen entering and leaving the hall chattering excitedly amongst themselves.

　　A sense of hope rose inside Fang Xing as he took a lengthy step inside the hall. After walking past a long hallway, he saw walls artistically carved with the major historical events between men and demons. Though all of them were simple, they were also vivid and lifelike.

　　At the end of the hallway was a long antique-looking desk with an elder in Spirit Stage tier nine sitting behind it to guard the entrance into the main hall. Once Fang Xing showed his jade plate, he was given the all-clear before he entered into a side hall where all of the low-level spell and skill manuals were located.

　　A sweep of his eyes revealed numerous jade scrolls, all of which were low-grade spirit tools used to record skills and spells. The amount of it all was really rather astonishing.

　　Fang Xing picked up one titled “Gravitational Force” beside him and—after he filled it with some Qi—words began to form upon the scroll’s cover: “Foundation skill Gravitational Force, also known as Dragon Catching. In order to practice this, one must make nine cycles of Qi….” This was practically an exact copy of the one he had obtained from Hou Qing. After not finding anything interesting about the skill, Fang Xing placed it back to the side.

　　As he continued to scan the stacks of jade scrolls, Fang Xing was left dazzled by the sheer number of them within this side hall alone. Aside from [Gravitational Force], there were also spells like [Fireball], [Mystic Eye], [Ghost Strike], [Sealed Breath], [Splitting Shadow], [Closed Aegis], and so on….

　　Excited, Fang Xing looked from left to right and then back again. He felt that all of them were important and wanted to learn them all, and he quickly formed the most prominent stack of jade scrolls his arms would allow before heading eagerly towards the guardian elder for it to be recorded.

　　The guardian elder was shocked at such a sight and quickly yelled out, “This much? You do know that it’s not free to make a copy of these scrolls, right?”

　　Fang Xing placed the stack atop the desk with a loud thud. “Go for it! I have plenty of money!” In the three years he had been slaying beasts, the resources he used had mostly been the beast cores obtained for free from those he had slain, and a few medicinal herbs that were found by Bai Qianzhang. All of his savings from before had remained untouched, and there was at least a good two to three hundred Stones left. Fang Xing had speculated that this would be more than enough to make a few copies.

　　The elder did not immediately reply. He took a glance towards Fang Xing before sluggishly beginning to count the jade scrolls. Once he was finished, he looked back to Fang Xing and spoke, “To copy one jade scroll costs one hundred Spirit Stones. You have a total of thirteen jade scrolls here, so that will be a total of one thousand, three hundred Stones.”

　　Fang Xing jumped at such a sum. “Are you serious? That much?”

　　The elder slowly replied, “Putting aside the actual value of the skills themselves, the act of making a copy of these jade scrolls requires quite a bit of money. It’s already a very inexpensive and reasonable price at a hundred Stones per copy.”

　　Dumbfounded, Fang Xing bitterly muttered, “I don’t have that much….”

　　The elder tried to comfort him, “Then pick the most important ones. You know, kid, you can’t become plump overnight by stuffing yourself with everything you see. The jade scroll copies only last for seven days before they disappear. How many of these spells can you actually learn within those seven days? When the time is up, all of the copies will become blank, and the ones you’ve yet to read would have simply wasted your Spirit Stones.”

　　Fang Xing nodded while scratching his head. “Fine, I’ll pick a few.”

　　After looking through the scrolls over and over again, Fang Xing finally settled on three. They were the foundational skills of [Mystic Eye], [Closed Aegis], and [Oversense]. The elder took out three empty jade scrolls and made a hand seal so that an exact duplicate of the original information transferred over to the copies. Then he threw them in front of Fang Xing and held out his palm. “Three hundred Spirit Stones.”

　　“Still so expensive….” While Fang Xing muttered to himself, he poured out all of the Spirit Stones he had from his storage ring and began to count one by one. Once he was finished however, he suddenly froze in shock.

　　He was actually nine Stones short?

　　—

　　NOTES

　　The four inner court branches and the one hall of Qing-Yun Sect explained:

　　Danxia Valley: This means “pill” or “pellet” and “red clouds” (with reference to fire), hence their specialization in alchemy.

　　Duanzhen Valley: This means to “forge” and “pure”, hence their specialization in forgery.

　　Shanhe Valley: This means “mountain” and “river”. They specialize in formations and divination.

　　Shuwen Valley: This means “book” and “article”. They specialize in the art of making talismans.

　　Hall of Heaven’s Tribute: The nurturing ground for Battle Cultivators at the Qing-Yun Sect. Each pupil is chosen from one of the four valleys after they’ve mastered a solid foundation of their individual specialization.