Jing and the rest of the new disciples were lined up together once they made it inside the sect. It felt like they were a local attraction because everyone in the sect was staring at them. The numerous elders of the Golden Serpent Sect were standing in front of them to see if any of them were talented enough to become their personal disciples. The elders who watched over the recruitment test had first pick to choose anyone they had their eye on.
Jing hoped none of the elders chose her. It would completely ruin her future goals and plans right now if she was to gain anymore attention. She doubted than anyone would find something special about her but there was always a chance of something going wrong. All she can do right now is just wait and see.
It was clear to Jing that the elders already made their choices on who they wanted for their personal disciples. They were just doing the courteous thing of making it seem like everyone had the possibility of being their disciple by walking up and down the line while looking at everyone. In the end, the examiners chose their disciples. Elder Mo, the martial elder, picked Tang Wuying and Gong Jun as his students. Elder Ru, the pill elder, chose Xiao Hong and Liu Lan as her disciples. Elder Chang, the array elder, chose Shang Zhai as his sole disciple. After choosing who they wanted, they quickly exited the scene with their new students.
Then the rest of the elders had their pick of the rest of the litter. If it didn't seem so ridiculous to her, Jing was pretty sure she would burst out laughing. It doesn't even seem like they're being treated as people and more like animals to adopt! This method of choosing disciples is laughable at best. If it was up to her, she would definitely think of a more efficient way of situating the new disciples.
'Did that old bastard just scoff in my face? I'll remember your face in the future. The others at least had the decency to ignore me completely but then you—Another elder just mocked me! Is this how they run things here?!' Jing inwardly blew up at the disrespect and mockery that was made of her and a few other disciples.
Jing wasn't chosen by any of the remaining elders and was one of the unlucky few to be ignored by all of the elders in the sect. She and a few others were just left there on their own with no further instruction on what to do. So, she waited. She was still in character right now and couldn't just take the first step and leave and do whatever she wanted. Since everyone else was just as confused. It wasn't until a few disciples walked over and started to explain things to them.
"It looks like this is the trash pile of our new martial brothers and sisters." An outer disciple said with a smug look on his face.
A few of the newly arrived disciples took offense to this statement.
"What do you mean trash?! I'm part of the famous Zhuo clan!"
"If you weren't picked by any of the elders, your talent for the future is trash or you offended the wrong people." He said with a shrug.
"Im...Impossible! You are only messing with us! Let's go everyone. We'll prove we're not trash!"
"Go where? Do you even know how things work around here? You just got here. I'll be willing to show you around for a price..." He said while holding up a single finger.
"You're charging us for something like this!?"
"That's too much!"
"Now now... No one said you had to take me up on my offer. You are free to leave and do whatever you please. No one is going to force you to accept."
The lack of support and guidance from the sect really surprised them. It feels as if they were abandoned and treated as wastes, a completely new experience for most of these youths who were treated as geniuses and prodigies by their clans. Those who were used to being treated as untalented and nothing special quickly forked out a single spirit stone. Jing used this time to look very indecisive and ashamed at her lack of talent. It wasn't until a good half of the remaining youth here forked out a spirit stone that Jing also gave a spirit stone to the outer disciple she's going to call guide boy.
"Ahaha alright! Let's get this going then everyone. If anyone who hasn't paid tries to follow us." He turned his eyes to the few that refused to pay.
He sent a wave of killing intent towards them, knocking a large group of them to the floor in a fright. This show of strength surprised nearly all of the new disciples. He didn't even use qi, but he could still show off his powerful strength without it! Making all the new disciples know that this guy is not just any random outer disciple. Those who were planning to follow without paying quickly reconsidered and scampered off.
Jing and Bing were not a part of that group and were dutifully experiencing the tour of the Golden Serpent Sect. The guide showed their group around and told them everything they needed to know. Guide boy was even polite enough to answer questions without charging for them. Jing's view on him slightly changed a bit. She expected him to be a greedy bastard but he turned out to be a pretty decent guide.
She learned of her current responsibilities as a newly outer disciple, her new place of residence, the places she's allowed to go to, places she's not allowed to go to, and the rules of the sect. It was quite an eye-opening experience to Jing at all the sights she saw during her tour around the sect. Once she arrived in her home that can only be described as a lowly shack, she began to consolidate all her findings today. But before she did that, she would have to fix this place up a bit.
Her pride will not allow her to live in such a disgusting hovel. So, she got to work on fixing up the place. Once you walked in the door of the hut, you would see a small uncomfortable looking bed, a dirty dusty wooden floor, a small broken wooden table that was low to the floor, and no windows. Jing reached into her robes and pulled out the leaf fan she made when she first woke up. The small amount of wind this thing could control wasn't nearly enough to clear this place full of dust. To fix that, Jing refined it on very fine and made it so that the wind it controls erases all traces of dust, dirt, and anything else that wouldn't please Jing.
Jing lightly swung the leaf fan and a large gust of wind erupted inside her room. Her clothes and hair were blown in all sorts of directions as the wind crazily danced all around the room, erasing all traces of dirtiness. Jing watched with a content smile as the place was fixed up almost instantly. Unfortunately, the things the wind counted as trash wasn't exactly the same as her idea of trash. The table got erased by the wind as well. No future tea time for her or any guests anymore.
But it wasn't all bad, this place looked completely spotless now and Jing had no trouble with touching anything inside here anymore. Who knows how many people lived in this hovel before her? And what kind of things they've done inside here. Jing refused to believe that someone cleaned these places for them. That would be far too optimistic.
Jing sat on the newly cleaned bed with no further reservations and got to thinking about her current responsibilities as an outer disciple of the Golden Serpent Sect. The first thing she should do is go claim her monthly spirit stones. All disciples are given a monthly amount of spirit stones. Certain disciples can get more spirit stones depending on their ranking or status within the sect. Outer disciples get 5 low-ranked spirit stones each month. Inner disciples get 5 middle-ranked spirit stones each month. Core disciples get 5 high-ranked spirit stones each month.
Rankings is a system where each disciple can prove their worth to the sect and receive benefits based on that worth. Each court has its own ranking system. Outer court is the most numerous, Inner court is the fiercest, and the Core court is the most popular. To enter the rankings all you have to do is challenge someone already ranked, it doesn't matter if you win or lose.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Jing doesn't plan on entering the rankings anytime soon. She has no reason to! Even if she did enter, she would have to reveal that she's stronger than 9 thousand other outer disciples before she could receive a reward anyway. Entirely counter intuitive to her goals as of right now.
Anyway, as an outer disciple Jing will have to complete 5 tasks set by the sect each month or she will not be able to receive her monthly spirit stones and if she continues to not accomplish any tasks set by the set, she could get kicked out of the sect if she's lucky. There are rumors that something terrible could happen to disciples that refuse to do the tasks set by the sect and that they will never be seen again. Some of the rumors range from being used as an ingredient in a cauldron to being a training dummy for certain personal disciples to use.
There were a good number of requests given by the sect that no matter what kind of talent you had as long as you had functioning limbs and could follow instructions, it wouldn't be hard to find tasks to complete. Guide boy told them that most disciples choose easy non-time-consuming tasks so that they can get back to cultivating to try and improve their rankings to get more resources. But those who want to push themselves further will choose challenging tasks to gain more contribution points. Contribution points can be used to exchange for items within the sect. Items like pills, talismans, weapons, and the like.
Guide boy said that earning contribution points is one of the vital ways of advancing inside the sect. Especially for talentless cultivators like them who were abandoned by the elders. Since they had no talent for pill making, talisman designing, or martial arts then they would have to rely on resources to gain advantages. He also added that since they have no important backgrounds to not get on the bad side of anyone who does. That's how most disciples end up dead or suppressed.
'What a terrible way of running a place...' Jing thought at the time.
Contribution points cannot be traded amongst disciples. This helps makes sure that those with a lot of contribution points can't help someone else just starting out by gifting them a lot of contribution points to quickly advance within the sect. However, contribution points can be betted with and on through duels, challenges, tournaments, and ranking matches. Most people won't accept a challenge for a ranking match without the person sending the challenge offering a good number of contribution points or something else of value. This is only for the top 1000 though. If you are ranked below 1000 then you are forced to accept all ranking matches.
Most disciples who tend to cause trouble with the wrong people quickly find themselves fighting till their deaths and they won't be able to refuse the challenges unless they get into the 1000s. There are countless number of untalented disciples that would do nearly anything to get on the good side of those that have a solid background within the sect and killing someone isn't much. Of course, not everyone can challenge just anyone. You must be in the same cultivation realm or 1 step below it if you wish to challenge someone.
So, all in all the information she gained for the price of a single spirit stone wasn't bad at all. She still had 5 left over. Jing decided to finally begin her path into cultivation. She pulled out the Book of Qi cultivation technique, refined whip, multiple martial arts within her storage ring, a spirit stone, and a steel sword. She had quite a few things to do with all the knowledge she's acquired so far. And the first on her list was to update her arsenal.
Jing absorbed the cultivation technique within her body and refined it on very fine. She left it up to her subconscious to refine the book since she didn't have the greatest understanding of cultivation techniques. Typically, her subconscious seems to have greater knowledge than her about most things she refines. Jing doesn't know if it's because of who she was before she woke up here or if it's something else but it doesn't matter too much. It hasn't done her wrong yet.
The book exited from her chest and landed on her lap with a completely new appearance and title. Originally, the title of the book was drawn across the top of the book and had a plain brown look and was quite small in size but now it was thick enough to need both of her hands to carry. The cover was now purple and the title has changed to "Empress of Pain's Tome". Jing smiled at the name and flipped open the book.
She quickly flipped through the large number of pages within the book. It took her around an hour before she completely finished flipping through the entire book and once she was done, she closed her eyes to take in everything she read. Li Li took it upon himself to peacefully rest in Jing's lap as she was doing whatever she was doing and wouldn't wake up until 3 hours later when Jing finally opened her eyes bursting with an entirely new feeling around her.
The aura around her figure would prompt those with weak wills and minds to immediately bow down on the ground and praise her lest they want to suffer the wrath of the endless suffering. Jing felt the qi running through her body as she broke into the first stage of cultivation. She was now a Qi Gatherer at the 1st level. The feeling of qi felt intoxicating to her. She felt like going wild and testing her new strength immediately but quickly reigned herself in. It would not do to lose control over herself. What is she, a child who just got a new toy and can't wait to show it to everyone?
No, she has more self-control than that. She took a deep breath as she explored this new found power within her. According to the tome, this cultivation technique is built on the principal of causing suffering to others and gaining from their pain. To enter the initial realm, she must master torture techniques to the point where she can cause someone to beg for death just by the feeling of her aura and once she can do that she will be able to drain the physical attributes from her opponents and become even stronger. The book gave plenty of interesting new ways of torturing which made Jing quite happy and excited for the future. She was surprised it even showed ways to torture creatures other than humans. In the tome, it's said that if she could reach the completion realm with this technique, just by making eye contact she could even torture the soul and bend it to her will.
Excitement was an understatement for what the current Jing felt right now, but she wasn't finished just yet. That was just first item on the list of things she needed to refine tonight. She reabsorbed the Empress of Pain's Tome and refined it on rough, causing ash to exit from her palm.
'Keeping that around wouldn't be helpful anyway. I've already stored every single page to memory.' Jing thought.
After taking care of that, Jing refined her rock whip on 1:1 to switch it with a regular whip to use around the sect. She couldn't carry a whip that could slice through nearly everything without attracting some attention. Next was the many palm, fist, body, and sword martial arts she got from the bodies during the first test. Guide boy took them to the martial pavilion during their tour and when she went inside, she couldn't find any martial technique for whips! The only fighting martial arts inside were hand, sword, spear, and bow martial arts. She scoffed in ridicule. These cultivators were much too lacking and traditional for her taste.
So, to fix that she decided to make her own martial arts. She just proved she could do it with 914, so there was nothing left to stop her. She grabbed one of the palm martial arts and refined it on 1:1, changing it into a leg martial skill. She figured that cultivators also didn't fight with their legs because she didn't see any leg martial arts that weren't movement arts. Jing reabsorbed the unnamed leg martial art and refined it on very fine, once again leaving it to her subconscious to deal with the vital stuff. The reason why she didn't choose a fist or palm technique was because she wouldn't be able to use those while she was wielding her whip.
While her legs would be completely free to use while she's using her whip to fight. A content smile appeared on her face as the leg martial arts finished its refinement on very fine. She quickly flipped through it and gained the necessary knowledge on how to utilize it and how to practice it before turning it into dust on the rough setting. Jing pulled out her stone pillow and placed it on the bed so that Li Li could rest while she does all this.
Li Li gladly sunk into the unbelievably soft pillow and soon fell into a blissful slumber. Jing got up from the bed and stood up before stretching her body. Jing turned her body to the side, slightly bent her knees, shifted most of her body mass to her back leg, and relaxed her arms and shoulders. After getting into the correct martial stance, she strengthened her core and attacked! Jing let loose a flurry of high-speed kicks with only one leg. The whooshing wind from her kicks was enough to rustle the sleeping Li Li's feathers. It's unknown if those kicks were to land on a person would they shatter the bones on contact or momentarily stun them because of how light and thin her legs look.
Jing sadistically grinned before imagining a human body in front of her and doing the rapid kicks once more but this time focusing on the most fragile parts of the body that wouldn't fatally injure them but would surely cause them to scream out in pain. This technique is called Léijí or lightning kick. It was only the first move out of many within the unnamed leg martial art. Jing would love to practice some more but she still has more things to refine before the morning comes.