Fang Hao chatted with the Manager of Inner Disciples for quite a while while drinking the clear spirit wine. The wine tasted like watered down piss and was not potent at all. As expected, his master's wine was the best. Still, he supposed that after drinking several cups of the wine, he would maybe feel a mild pleasant buzz. Even though it was a low quality Grade 3 spirit wine, it was still a Grade 3 wine.
What restrained fatty was not etiquette or his disfavor, but paranoid thoughts urging him to restrain from strangers offering drinks. It might be overdoing it in this specific case, but he waned to practice resisting possible sugar coated knives in the future. Any average early Foundation Establishment disciple who drank several cups of that wine in an hour would be sloshed.
The manager was pained and thankful at fatty's drinking. He was pained at the possibility that the fatty disdained him and hence restrained from drinking freely; and thankful that the fatty didn't finish it too quickly. It was the only jug of wine he had for the moment, and didn't want to get embarrassed running out in the middle of their chat.
They chatted about a variety of topics, mainly pertaining to Core Disciples. From what Fang Hao understood, each disciple had a “star” rating with every Palace. The more stars you earned with a specific palace, the more access you had to its mysterious and resources. Of course, they weren't free and had to be paid in contribution points. Stars were earned through meritorious deeds and/or contribution to the sect /palace.
If someone broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage before 50, he earned 1 star with every palace. If someone broke through Foundation Establishment before 25, he earned 2 stars with every palace. Selecting and qualifying for a Palace as one's main palace granted a disciple 2 stars with that specific palace. Selecting and qualifying for a Palace as one's secondary palace granted a disciple 1 star with that palace. Being taken in as a personal disciple of the Great Elder of a Palace granted a disciple 2 stars with that palace and 1 star with every other palace. Being taken in as a personal disciple of an Elder granted 1 star with the Elder's Palace. Of course being the disciple of a Great Elder / Elder had other privileges including but not limited to certain free spells and manuals, reduced cost of certain resources, priority access to various opportunities etc.; but the manager wasn't very familiar wit those.
Completing difficult missions, contributing spells and cultivation methods, exterminating enemy cultivators on the wanted lists of the sect, winning in inter sect competitions etc. were some other ways of earning stars. But they amount earned from these acts weren't fixed and depended on the situation. For example, killing enough cultivators who were enemies of the sect granted stars with all the palaces, but more stars with the Palace of Swords and the Palace of Exalted Physique. But the stars earned this way would factor the cultivation base of the disciple and target and how highly the sect wanted the criminal cultivator dead.
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It was very difficult to initially earn stars to have access to the better mysteries in the various Palaces of the Sect. Having a certain amount of stars in reserve was required to access most of the mysteries of each palace. However, the most valuable mysteries and resources required spending stars in addition to contribution points! So a disciple couldn't just rely on early cultivation base breakthroughs, joining a palace and having a powerful master to access the better mysteries for long. Sooner or later, a disciple would have to contribute directly to the sect to keep obtaining better spells, cultivation techniques and resources.
Fang Hao was more-or-less satisfied with the system. Although it pushed one to specialize in a single palace; A disciple could theoretically pick up and mix-n-match spells, methods and magic items from various palaces. And even though it favored talent and one's master for a sizable initial boost; if a disciple was non-performing he was bound to be left behind. It also provided opportunities to those whose talent hadn't yet matured and were willing to risk themselves to compete for progress.
Fang Hao had earned one star in every palace by having a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment before 50 years of age. He had just missed earning another additional stars in every palace by breaking through to Foundation Establishment at the age of 26. If he had broken through just a year or so earlier, he would have qualified for an additional star in every palace. That one year left star shaped holes in his heart; But there was no medicine for regret. Who had told him to intentionally suppress his cultivation speed in order to not catch attention. Although being prudent and cautious might have its advantages, sometimes it also meant lost opportunities.
He had earned two stars in the Palace of Formations and Restrictions for selecting it as his main Palace. Well he didn't really have a choice for his main palace as Master Zhu was the Palace Head of Formations and Restrictions. But being a disciple of the Great Elder Zhu had granted him an additional two stars in the palace of Restrictions and Formations along with one star in every other palace. This resulted in Fang Hao having a total of 5 stars in Palace of Formations and Restrictions along with 2 stars in every other Palace.
Fang Hao had confirmed this when he had immersed his spiritual sense into his identity amulet. He was also surprised to learn that his contribution points had increased by Fifty Thousand! Apparently, a Junior Core Disciple earned 10,000 contribution points per year, for every star he held in his Main Palace. While it seemed a lot, it wasn't much as spells and treasures of the Foundation Establishment stage (Grade 3) were much more expensive than their counterparts in Qi Gathering Stage. A Junior Core disciple would stop his annual income of contribution points based on stars if he couldn't manage to breakthrough to the Core Formation Stage before the age of 100.