Everyone’s jaws would have hit the floor if they could extend that far. Even Rin’s mouth formed an o-shape that no one would have seen before if they weren’t staring at the number counter.
While Vice Elder Shirou was noting something down on the stack of papers in front of him, everyone had grasped the true number of credits that Hanabi possessed.
The vice elder’s gaze looked up and met the wide eyes of the crowd. They were all staring at the counter, so he looked at it once more. He read the entire number and blinked his eyes several times in realization of the correct number.
“A...a million credits? How did you get so many credits?” he sputtered out, disbelief filling his eyes.
A million credits was not an impossible number to have, but usually only the elders, vice elders or popular merchants could amass this much over a large period of time. How the hell could someone who had joined the sect less than a week ago gather so many credits.
Princess Hanabi was beaming with pride. She enjoyed impressing others because she liked to receive praise. Her excellent progress in cultivation benefited from her desire to be praised by the people she cared about and looked up to. Seeing their surprise, she put on an of-course-I-am-this-amazing face.
Vice Elder Shirou looked at her once more, repeating his question, “How did you get so many credits?”
Hanabi blinked at him as if the question was strange. She didn’t understand the true value of credits, so the answer to his question felt obvious to her.
“How else? Luck! Big Sister Rin had told me that the amount of credits you get per day was based on your luck!”
Luck was a crucial trait for cultivators. Talent would get you far on the path to Immortality, but everyone, without exception, eventually hit a wall. One’s good fortune and affinity with the heavens would determine whether they overcame that wall or stagnate till their death.
Her answer was one an innocent child would have thought up. Nearly everyone in the room spewed out blood, especially Rin whose received several questionable glances from the others in the room.
‘Luck determined whether you get three to five credits a day. Not a million, you crazy princess!!!’ everyone screamed in their heads.
“Ah, I almost forgot. Junior brother had given me some credits as well,” she said, turning to face Hizumi.
Everyone turned to look at Hizumi with a confused stare. ‘Did she just address one of the Five Tributaries as her junior?’
The Five Tributaries were the most powerful and gifted disciples of the Flowing River Sect that had not reached the status of a vice elder or elder. They were looked at as the next governing generation and given the best resources and lucrative missions in the sect. Rather than senior brothers and sisters, they were closer to being the new disciples’ uncles and aunts, yet she addressed him as a junior brother. Their fame and fortune went to the extent that they could bully juniors and bend the rules without receiving any severe consequences or a slap on the wrist at most.
Hizumi wanted to dive into a hole from the attention she had just thrust on him.
‘When did I have a million credits to give you, senior sister?!’ he cried out in silence.
Hizumi was about to refute Hanabi when his soul oath triggered the pain once more. Deep inside, he believed it would be improper to refute or argue against a senior sister, especially if she hadn’t explicitly lied.
Vice Elder Shirou looked to Hizumi who hadn’t denied anything and back to the proud Hanabi. He took out a large stack of papers and motioned for it to fly towards Hanabi.
“Take this. With so many credits, you don’t need to participate in the pronouncement. The lectures are listed there, so decide what you wish to learn and return at your leisure,” he said with a near-indiscernible smile.
After placing the papers in her storage bag, Hanabi clasped her hands in gratitude and walked over to Rin to wait with her for her two junior sisters.
“Send the next one over.”
Hizumi let go of his chest and told Yoshie to go next. Because of her stage fright, she hadn’t paid any attention to the events that had just transpired in front of her. She gulped and did the same as Hanabi had done earlier.
The number counter’s digits changed once more to reflect Yoshie’s wealth. Vice Elder Shirou peeked at the number expecting no more peculiarities.
“1024 credits,” he announced to the room.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Vice Elder Shirou had a personal soft spot for these twins, so he had thoroughly prepared several suggestions for both of them. Since they were only at the Body Tempering stage, the amount of credits they could have amassed in a few days would be miniscule compared to the starting amount on an inner-sect disciple.
He looked up from his paper, having decided on which option to suggest first, and met the same sight he saw before. The crowd’s jaws were even wider than before, staring at the number counter. His eyes zipped to look at the counter again.
001001024.
“You-you have a million credits as well? Why!?”
He was baffled.
The vice elder knew it wasn’t completely impossible for the princess of Ryuga to have obtained a million credits through selling valuable items or as a gift from the Elder. Her qualifications and prestige potentially warranted that preferential treatment, but Kobayashi Yoshie had no background and had barely stepped onto the path of a cultivator.
This made no sense.
Yoshie made the same pose her senior sister but with the toothy grin of a child.
“I am lucky, too!”
The room doubled over, nearly passing out from her words. Rin rubbed her glabella, regretting not being more explicit with the number of credits one accrued per day.
After enough time and experimentation, one would normally learn the accrual rate of the credits as well as what the credits were worth, but the twins had gone from locked in their room sulking to locked in their room cultivating. The princess wasn’t any better; she would continue cultivating, expecting sustenance and opportunities to present themselves to her.
It was just yesterday that she used her seniority to order them out of the rooms and explore the sect, hoping they would learn such a lesson. At that time, Rin was grateful to find that at least one sister had preemptively left her cave without her command.
Silence permeated the auditorium for several breaths until Yoshie spoke out again.
“Oh, sorry. I forgot as well. Junior brother had given me some credits as well,” she announced, turning to bow to Hizumi with gratitude.
Whispers burst out from the crowd between the teachers and disciples.
Most of the new initiates had already learned of the Five Tributaries’ exploits and prowess, so very few in the room were unaffected by Yoshie’s words.
“Since when had senior brother obtained so many credits to throw away?” one disciple who had been at the sect for several years said to another.
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His companion shook his head. “The real question is when did he become such a lecher?”
The first disciple nodded in agreement. “To prey on the younger and weaker disciples...and to make them address him as ‘junior brother’...”
Before today, Matsushita Hizumi had been a shining hero and celebrity in the sect, but now, his heart stung from the ridiculing and jeers amongst the crowd. He regretted taking this job as cold eyes of disbelief and disappointment landed on him.
Vice Elder Shirou’s lips formed a slightly more obvious smile than before. He chuckled under his breath and took another two stacks of papers out of his storage bag before motioning them to fly to Yoshie.
“Here, take this for you and your sister. If you two both have this number of credits, you two do not need to take part in the pronouncement either.”
Vice Elder Shirou knew better.
Hizumi couldn’t produce that many credits, and even if he could, he would not have given them away so easily. Perhaps he might have given credits to the princess as a gift, but definitely not to the others.
The most likely explanation was that the Fifth Elder who had accepted these disciples had gifted them one million credits apiece. To see a master be so generous, Vice Elder couldn’t help but envy the girls.
Yoshie bowed to the vice elder and walked over to Shizuka. She held out the second stack to her sister when Shizuka stepped past her and spoke out to Vice Elder Shirou.
“Vice Elder, disciple wishes to speak.”
Looking at Shizuka who stepped forward, Vice Elder Shirou gave permission with a nod.
“I do not have as many credits as my sisters. May I still participate in the pronouncement?”
The room let out a sigh of relief.
Everyone had begun to feel small and ashamed with the amount that they had gathered. Several inner-sect disciples had already left the line and opted out of the pronouncement. Including those who had found exceptional teachers or vice elders to gift them with credits, they would rather miss out on this opportunity than shame themselves and their masters in front of the audience.
The amount Shizuka had on her could give others a chance to participate by overwriting the two previous anomalies from everyone’s memories.
“Very well, approach.”
Shizuka walked up and placed her keystone in the TD. The number counter changed once more.
Shizuka had spent a sizable amount of credits before arriving here, and she hadn’t had the opportunity to see the full amount of credits she had on her keystone. Even though it was quite probable she had enough credits to skip the pronouncement, she wasn’t certain.
Moreover, the purpose of the pronouncement was to advise the student on which lessons they should seek at this time, so she wished to hear more from the vice elder and other teachers about her options.
Vice Elder Shirou looked at the whole counter, deciding to read the entire number this time. His eyes blinked several times before closing shut, and he rubbed his glabella, letting out a loud laugh.
000970483.
Everyone in the room doubled over again, clutching at their heart. The rollercoaster they had been placed on was incredibly nauseating. Twice they had been slapped already, and this sister had come to ease the pain, only to give them a slap when they weren’t expecting it.
If that wasn’t enough, many of the teachers and old disciples were stunned to see Vice Elder Shirou laughing. The man known for making only three facial expressions, all of which involved a closed frown, was now laughing so loud that it filled the whole room.
“Hahahaha, nine hundred and seventy thousand credits. Hahahaha...indeed, you do not have as many as your other sisters.” He finally stopped laughing and gave Shizuka a kind smile, as if he were looking at a granddaughter.
“You should learn a thing or two from your elder sister,” he joked, motioning to Yoshie.
Shizuka held her tongue and gave the vice elder an awkward smile, nodding her head in agreement. She was the elder sister, and she would have corrected him had he not been her superior. Yoshie gave Shizuka a blissful smile, happy from hearing the error in judgment. It was a rare and joyous occurrence for her to be considered the elder sister.
“Very well, do you wish to hear the suitable options for you?”
Shizuka nodded her head.
All the teachers around the auditorium began shuffling about in order to advertise their lessons and abilities to the rich junior, but before they could say anything…
“HMPH!”
Vice Elder Shirou unleashed a thunderous harrumph that reverberated through the auditorium. They all stopped what they were doing to look at him.
“Under the Fifth Elder’s guidance, you and your sister should be cultivating the Lunar Reflection cultivation technique. With this technique alone, your cultivation will advance by leaps and bounds compared to the different cultivation techniques we offer here. My suggestion for you is to focus on her lessons and enhance your general knowledge of the world through lectures such as ‘History of the Five Continents’ or ‘Relations Between Mortals and Immortals’. We also offer lessons on battle techniques, but I assure you, disciple, the documents I have given you are quite thorough in explaining all your options. So take your time and decide at your leisure. If you have any questions, I am sure your seniors will assist you at any time.”
He paused to look at the various teachers strewn about the hall, and they all nodded vigorously in agreement with him. No teacher would turn away a student, especially when that student held so many credits.
“Go now. Let us continue with the pronouncement,” he kindly shooed her away with a smile. Shizuka smiled back at the kind vice elder and bowed before heading over to Rin.
“Send the next one over,” he commanded Hizumi.
Hizumi turned to look at the line that was now deserted. All the other inner-sect disciples slipped back into the crowd, refusing to go next.
Vice Elder Shirou saw this and furrowed his brows. “Very well, we will do the outer-sect now.”
No one came forward to form a line. Several disciples hesitated but reluctantly stayed in place. Kitamura Bolo, who stood off to the side, was eager to display his capabilities by showing his accumulated eight hundred credits, but now he hid behind several disciples.
Vice Elder Shirou rubbed his glabella once more.
“Well, if no one wishes to approach for the pronouncement, then we will end things here for—”
“Vice Elder, disciple wishes to speak.”
All eyes gathered on Princess Hanabi.
“Yes, disciple?” Vice Elder Shirou didn’t expect the girls to speak with him again, so he was genuinely curious with what she needed.
“My big sister joined the sect with me, but she felt too unwell to come today. Can I have another one more of those documents you had given me earlier? I wish to present it to her.”
Vice Elder Shirou was momentarily stunned. Those documents weren’t meant for the students but for the lecture hall administration. He only had a few more left on him, so he was not in a position to hand them out freely to anyone that asked for them. He made an exception for the girls because they literally had all the options open to them with their wealth.
“Do you know how many credits she has? I cannot give away these documents to every disciple that asks for them.”
Understanding why the Vice Elder was reluctant, she hurriedly responded with clear eyes, “Big sister definitely has more credits than me. She is my big sister after all!”
After hearing the confident declaration, the entire room felt another slap on their face for the fourth time this evening. Many of them wished to return to their caves to cultivate and forget today had ever happened.
Shizuka and Yoshie nodded in agreement with her. The three had witnessed Kenja’s skills and prowess firsthand and knew he had an extra eight keystones after splitting the credits with them, so logically, he would definitely have more credits than they did.
Seeing the three sisters in agreement over the matter, Vice Elder Shirou laughed again and looked to Rin.
“Fifth Elder truly is the most generous and impartial in the sect,” he complimented the elder to Rin. For the elder to give a million sect credits to each new disciple without prejudice, who else in the sect would dare to say they were more fair and generous?
Many of the new disciples were green with envy and began cursing their luck for not catching Elder Kazane’s eyes. The older disciples and designated teachers were also regretting having accepted another master without trying to receive Elder Kazane’s favor.
Rin smiled calmly at the Vice Elder and bowed to him in agreement, but the gears in her head were overworked as they looked for a reason why all her sisters had obtained such wealth in a short amount of time. She was the one who placed one thousand credits on each keystone, so there was no way Elder Kazane had given them a million credits each. Perhaps she could have gifted Yoshie and Shizuka behind her back, but there was no opportunity for the elder to gift Hanabi or Kenja.
The vice elder took out another stack of documents and flew it over to Hanabi who placed it in her storage ring.
“Ok, let’s end the pronouncement for today.” Vice Elder Shirou was in a good mood despite this year’s failed pronouncement. He got up from his chair and left through the same door he entered, his robe wafting peacefully as he walked.
After he left, the disciples, new and old, slowly trickled out of the auditorium with heavy feet, giving Elder Kazane’s disciples a wide berth.
“Excuse me, senior sisters. Junior wishes to trouble you with a question?” Rin’s group heard a woman’s voice from behind them as they were about to walk towards the auditorium’s exit.
The girls turned to face a plump outer-sect disciple who carried the fresh aroma of tea leaves.
…
…
Deep inside a deserted forest near Ryuga’s city walls, a quiet glade was filled with cracked rocks. One of the rocks had some type of black substance on one side of it. In the center of the glade, a transparent blue ball with a transparent white core floated ethereally in the air.
The ball slowly seeped out a stream of energy causing it to shrink and dissipate at a snail’s pace.