After confirming that Roger Ren had left, Alaric Ye let out a slight sigh of relief.
Facing such a powerful being who could kill him with a flick of a finger, he was terrified that he might have angered a big shot and ended his cultivation journey just as it was beginning.
But he would rather die than become someone's dog or servant again; that would be a fate worse than death!
He felt like a bird that had flown out of its cage, enjoying the vast, unrestrained freedom of the sky. No matter how dangerous the outside world was, he didn't want to go back.
Moreover, Alaric firmly believed that with the Insect Emperor's body, the Ancient Ring of the Insect Emperor, and the inheritance of the Ye Family, his future achievements would not be much less than Roger Ren's.
His gaze shifted back to the two miscellaneous disciples who had just quit the Black Shark Society, and he flashed a harmless, friendly smile.
"Senior brothers, have you thought it over? Although you've left the Black Shark Society, our grudge isn't settled yet!"
No matter the time, never forget to make money.
No matter the time, always remind yourself how broke you are!
Alaric had never had money growing up, and now that he finally had the chance to have some, he was quite obsessed and fascinated by it.
The two miscellaneous disciples exchanged glances and smiled bitterly.
One of them said, "Brother Ye, you must be joking. With your strength, you are our senior brother. I have twenty spirit stones here, willing to make peace with Brother Ye and settle our grudge."
The other disciple quickly followed, "I also have twenty spirit stones."
As they spoke, they handed over a small pouch.
Alaric took the pouch and quickly opened it. Seeing the glittering spirit stones, his eyes lit up.
After confirming that there were indeed forty spirit stones, Alaric's smile became even brighter and friendlier.
"Well said, well said. I, Alaric Ye, am not one to hold grudges. In the future, you can always come to challenge me. If you win, the spirit stones will be yours..."
"Brother Ye, you must be joking. Who would dare challenge you..."
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The two miscellaneous disciples, relieved, scrambled away and quickly disappeared without a trace.
Alaric was in a good mood. He hadn't expected to gain a Blue Rainbow Sword and a total of sixty spirit stones from this trip to the Skill Transference Pavilion, which was several times his entire net worth.
Experiencing the feeling of making money for the first time was truly addictive!
"The members of the Black Shark Society aren't wrong to rob people; it's the quickest way to make money," Alaric thought.
However, he still found it hard to accept such bullying of the weak.
After all, he used to be the "weak" one. Even though he now had some strength, he didn't want to become the kind of person he once despised so quickly.
Seeing that the matter was settled, the onlookers dispersed, and Alaric joined the long queue to enter the Skill Transference Pavilion of the Top Xuan Sect.
The Skill Transference Pavilion of the Top Xuan Sect had five floors.
Each floor catered to different levels of disciples: miscellaneous disciples, outer disciples, inner disciples, Foundation Establishment cultivators, and Golden Elixir cultivators. Each level of cultivator could exchange or receive different types of techniques and spells.
After entering the pavilion, Alaric handed over his identity jade token. An elderly man with white hair, who worked in the pavilion, said kindly, "Since you've just become a miscellaneous disciple, you can choose one basic technique or spell, or a sword technique from the first floor and bring it to me for copying."
Alaric bowed respectfully.
He couldn't sense any mana fluctuations from the old man, which made him even more terrifying. He was likely a master above the Foundation Establishment stage.
In any sect, the Skill Transference Pavilion was a crucial place, so it wasn't surprising that many strong individuals guarded it.
Alaric stepped into the first floor of the Skill Transference Pavilion and saw rows upon rows of bookshelves filled with various jade slips.
The bookshelves were divided into four main areas: the technique area, the spell area, the sword technique area, and the miscellaneous area.
The miscellaneous area included categories like fist techniques, palm techniques, leg techniques, body techniques, hidden weapons, Body Forging Techniques, and more.
Each category was further divided into two sub-categories: lower-grade and middle-grade of the Yellow rank.
Alaric knew that in the Cultivation World, all techniques were classified into four major ranks: Heaven, Earth, Xuan, and Yellow, with each major rank further divided into four sub-ranks: extreme, upper, middle, and lower.
As a miscellaneous disciple, he could only access lower and middle-grade Yellow rank techniques. The difference in power between lower and middle grades wasn't huge, but the gap between lower and upper grades was significant.
Many high-rank techniques required mastery of related low-rank techniques as a prerequisite; otherwise, one couldn't comprehend or practice them.
Thus, cultivating techniques was a process of accumulating strength, and there was no shortcut to instantly mastering a Heaven rank technique.
For example, Zachary Song, who had successfully advanced to an inner disciple, could access the highest-grade Yellow rank techniques, but he still started with lower or middle-grade Yellow rank techniques.
Alaric could only choose two techniques from the thousands of jade slips, one of which had to be a technique.
So, he headed to the technique area first.
Techniques were divided into five categories: Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.
Generally, techniques were used to increase mana strength. Take Alan Li, whom Alaric had just defeated, for example. His technique was poorly cultivated, providing him with very limited mana strength, and he was easily overpowered by Alaric's 2.4 horsepower mana.
Besides increasing mana strength, each type of technique had its own basic characteristics.
Gold techniques enhanced mana's explosiveness, allowing for faster and more powerful spellcasting.
Wood techniques promoted continuous growth, speeding up mana recovery and making long-term combat more sustainable.
Water techniques provided a steady flow, accelerating cultivation progress and making it easier to break through bottlenecks.
Fire techniques enhanced the power of offensive spells.
Earth techniques greatly enhanced the power of defensive spells.
Alaric possessed a Spiritual Root of the five elements, meaning he could cultivate all types of techniques.
Generally, cultivators would choose one main technique to focus on. If their progress was ideal, they might choose a secondary technique for support, preferably with complementary attributes. If the attributes clashed, it could lead to mana chaos, making it impossible to condense mana, or worse, causing the body to explode.
Alaric wandered around the bookshelves holding the five categories of techniques for a long time, looking very conflicted.
He wanted the characteristics of all five types of techniques and didn't want to give up any of them.
If other cultivators knew about Alaric's naive thoughts, they would undoubtedly ridicule him for his insatiable greed. Cultivating more techniques would slow down his progress. With his middle-grade Spiritual Root, mastering one technique would already be a blessing, yet he wanted to cultivate all five. Truly, ignorance is fearless!