"Lucky for you, John, I also need a lot of contribution points."

"Can't you just buy some contribution points with spirit stones? Fatty Wang implied that you did."

"Yes I can buy contribution points but it gets a lot less efficient in the Inner Sect--that's beside the point. I want to have a nice house in the Inner Sect."

"That's uh... a nice goal?"

"Don't give me that look, not everyone is as much of a cultivation maniac as you are!"

"I really don't believe you." Kai was like this sometimes, joking around. He usually had a real plan though. "What's the real reason?"

"Okay fine, I need a lot of points to use the Ice qi aggregation building. Saul, Jim, Vic, and Wang aren't that far behind though, how will it look if I don't have a nice place to host them by the time they advance?"

"Uh-huh, what's the plan then?" They were walking into the mission building now.

"This is the plan, John."

"Good morning, Young Master Kai!" It was the Elder sitting at the desk--someone new and not Elder Song. John was slack jawed, talk about a difference in treatment!

"Elder Pale! How good to see you, my friend John and I need to complete a large number of missions quickly, you can help us arrange it right?"

"Yes of course! Tell me, any preferences? How is that brat Jim doing?"

"He's fine Elder, he will be joining us in a few weeks at the longest. Anything Ice related would be best, and any combat missions without too much armor. No gathering missions--"

John interrupted Kai, "Actually I'm quite suited for gathering missions, I can support Kai in combat, and I can do Esoteric missions."

"A broad range then, Elder Pale," Kai turned to John and said: "We've never talked about your abilities in depth, if you can do the gathering we will make great time. What are esoteric missions though?"

Elder Pale was the one who clarified, "Ahh the Esoteric missions, usually unusual requests is the gist of it. Lately its been full of missions to handle strange instantiations of qi out in the world."

"That's pretty much it, I call it Weird qi." John confirmed.

Elder Pale got busy working over a smaller formation plate while John and Kai had a further discussion.

"So who is this Elder anyway?"

"This is Jim's father, him and my dad work together but they knew each other when they were just disciples too."

"How strong is your dad anyway?"

"He's at the Nascent Soul stage. So is the sect leader by the way."

"Are all the elders Nascent Soul? What does that even mean?"

"No most of them are simply in the Golden Core stage. Nascent Soul is after that but I don't know the details...."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Rainy Cloud Sect organized its levels by cultivation strength primarily. Qi condensation cultivators lived in the Outer sect, Foundation Establishment cultivators lived in the Inner sect, and Golden Core cultivators lived in the Core sect as Core disciples. At the Golden Core stage, and with sufficient competency, one could also become and Elder, helping manage the sect. Being an Elder was like many other tasks within the sect and gave contribution points that Golden Core disciples could use to exchange for resources.

The distinction between Elder and Disciple was ambiguous. Some Core Disciples treated it as any other job, some were more serious about it. Some Core disciples had little chance to advance any further and thus settled down to work for the sect full time. Either saving up points for some critical item or perhaps just leaving a legacy. Others who had no way forward would rather risk their lives out in the world to either advance or die, entering the cycle of reincarnation. Incidentally, it was not that different from the old Qi Condensation disciples who had no way forward and managed different halls and duties in the Outer sect. They weren't called Elders though.

The Rainy Cloud Sect didn't have a culture of Masters and Disciples, everything was organized in a more free-market style where resources and cultivation methods were up for the taking to anyone who could contribute sufficiently. Mostly this is due to the fact the Rainy Cloud Sect is basically a collection of unified interests between water cultivators rather than a lineage of a cultivation technique. The second reason is because the Rainy Cloud Sect is the local snake of this region. The foreign dragons of much more powerful sects out in the world had more traditional set-ups.

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John and Kai wrapped up their discussion as Elder Pale was slowing down his work.

"How is this, Young Master?" Elder Pale turned his slate around and a long list of missions with varying rewards, and a map which placed them around the sect.

"This will do great, thanks Elder Pale!"

As they were leaving, John turned to Kai and said, "I can't believe you right now."

He simply grinned, "Being born rich and powerful is a skill too, lets get ready, these missions will take a while."

They planned to leave the sect for a couple of weeks, which meant packing tents, sleeping rolls, mess kits, and a huge amount of preserved food. Luckily, Kai was able to lend John a storage ring to make this a lot easier. Low level storage rings could carry a hundred pounds or so of supplies, as long as it didn't exceed certain volume limits. Even so, it was still economical to carry a lot of gear on their backs in large rucksacks. Especially lighter items like sleep rolls. They also packed a number of pills, also supplied by Kai, that served to rejuvenate the body, but John wasn't clear why that was important quite yet.

John himself made arrangements in the Weird compound, giving some last minute advice to the new cultivators there and saying some words to the original cohort as well. Mark would keep on moving at his own pace, but John advised him to speak with Elder Catherine about opening up the Inner Sect once more of them were in Foundation Establishment. To Benjamin, he advised exploring the library for more details about alchemy. He couldn't access most of the important details until he advanced but any foundational knowledge would help him advance quicker. To Chloe, he had one last session with her and advised she explore some more paths for cultivating on her own.

Eventually John and Kai were walking out the main entrance. It was the middle of winter now, and it was quite snowy in the mountains. Kai pulled out the map which was carefully marked with an optimal path for them to take. Pretty quickly it was obvious why they would need such extensive supplies, despite everything being in close proximity to the sect, the world was simply too massive. They would be running almost non-stop from here on out. Sleeping only once every two or three days would save them a lot of time, hence the potions and simple food.

They quickly got into a rhythm, running at high speeds like this took most of their concentration, but they were able to chat in easier sections and they would develop a finer control of their enhancements using them so aggressively too. Qi took up most of the energy usage but there was still a drain on their bodies after days of running. Sleep was the best and cheapest method of recovery, but the pills worked when they needed to push.

Kai's map was marked with ideal travel times in addition to locations and distances. Kai was more relaxed about his cultivation pace than John, but that didn't mean he was happy to take a long time out here either. Neither of them could cultivate very fast out here in such thin qi conditions. Luckily, the rewards would more than make up for it.

It was some time later when they arrived at the first mission site, an aggressive force was occupying a small valley, disrupting the environment and more importantly, disrupting an important fauna resource for the sect.