Chapter 44 - Visiting the Inner Sect

The following morning, an unexpected guest arrived in the spiderweb house but was already a familiar figure in the eyes of the strange family - it was the sect leader who was stunned at the sight of so many bees near Hei's house.

Meanwhile, Bao Bei had warned Hei, who, in turn, had warned the queen bee not to issue an attack order. This order served more for the worker bees outside than for the sect leader. After all, there was an abyss of strength between the two.

The queen bee passed her order to her bees and then returned to instructing Mi about the life of the hive. Since she had decided to take care of this new newborn queen bee, she would teach her everything that one had to learn to command a hive.

"Sect leader, good morning. Can I help you?” Hei greeted cheerfully.

In the absence of other witnesses nearby, he could take on a less formal tone when speaking with the sect leader. It wasn’t only for a psychological effect to remind the woman that they were in a relationship of peers rather than between sect leader and a sect member. But it was also because the only adults he treated with reverence and respect were his adoptive parents, Bao Bei and her partner Hei An, along with Lei Bai, who had been his teacher for several years.

"Yes, I came to get you and show you around the sect and your new home. Can I know what all these bees are doing here?” Asked the sect leader with curiosity.

Whenever she interacted with Hei, he became stranger in her eyes; or perhaps it was better to say he became more interesting. Although she had a crazy fear of the being that was protecting the young boy and accepted being considered as an equal, she couldn’t help but be intrigued by Hei with all his quirks.

"Ah, these are new companions who have recently joined. For the tour, give me a moment to get ready. But I wanted to ask you if I could give up the house in the inner sect. "

"Can I ask you why?"

"When I entered the inner sect yesterday, I noticed that it is a place containing houses and other buildings. However, there is no room for buffaloes or bees. I don't want to leave them alone. Besides, I'm fine here, and thanks to the spirit vein, I can grow what I need."

It was true, he had an interest in the inner sect’s activities, but it didn’t mean that he was going to live there. It was like when he had been going to the village from Lei Bai to learn how to cut and prepare meat. But at the end of the day, he would have returned to his home with his mother and his family.

Seeing Hei's determined gaze, the sect leader didn’t add anything else to that matter and agreed to his request. Then she waited for him to get ready before accompanying him while also taking Lian with them who was transporting Ye and Xing.

Indeed, his refusal wasn’t such a bad thing, since it meant that he would be less exposed to the attempts of other elders to recruit him in some way.

"Just so you know it, because of what you said yesterday, I had to reveal the presence of the being that protects you from the shadows. If I hadn't, they would have asked you the reason for that tone. Furthermore, with this, I think the other elders will be a little more restrained in their actions."

Hidden in her son's hair, Bao Bei, who was mentioned by the sect leader, said nothing but left the task of replying to Hei.

"Thank you, sect leader, for informing the other elders. As for the being you are talking about, you don’t have to worry. It will only act if I am in danger of life."

The trip to the inner sect was silent and brief. In a short time, they reached the inner sect’ entrances and passed without further checks. After all, not even an idiot wouldn’t have recognized the sect leader and would have tried to inspect her.

Once inside, the sect leader brought Hei to the center of the city that constituted the inner sect. There, were placed impressive buildings made of white marble that shone brightly under the rays of the sun. Around these buildings, there was another protective perimeter protected by guards.

The members of the younger generation would come here to train and concentrate on their cultivation, and also learn new skills. However, at the end of the day, they would return to their homes. The only exceptions were the personal disciples who didn’t have such restrictions.

Those no longer belonging to the younger generation and had finished their potential, had to work in one of the work structures designated by the sect that were in another supervised area. After all, if they couldn’t advance, it made no sense to give them resources. But they were given free time from time to time in case they wanted to continue improving on their own.

"This is where the buildings dedicated to the younger generation are. There are various training grounds designed for training, although some of them are special. However, that will be explained to you in due course. The fields are open to all, but it is possible to reserve a whole one by paying contribution points. In this regard, it is also possible to borrow weapons for training and other similar items, but any damage to borrowed equipment is subtracted from your contribution points. In addition to the training grounds, there is the library. However, for now, it is forbidden for you to go there. When the time comes, I will explain the details of it."

The sect leader continued to guide Hei, pointing out the various buildings one by one. Since early morning you could see inner members of the younger generation entering the buildings to start their daily training.

When they passed close to the sect leader, they would greet her with respect while taking fleeting glances at Hei, who they quickly recognized after yesterday's performance. By now, he had joined the list of those who had to be kept an eye on. So, all inner members were eager to see if he would continue to amaze.

"In addition to combat training, there is also the possibility of taking lessons on secondary activity. You can choose between three courses - blacksmithing, alchemy, and formations.

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Each has its own particularities, and through their learning, it is possible to train at the same time, your control over your spirit power. Although it takes time away from cultivation and techniques' practice, it is a profitable activity for those who want to be independent. However, I advise you to follow only one of them because they are complex subjects that require the utmost dedication to achieve a satisfactory result.

There is also the exchange building where you can exchange your contribution points for various types of objects. You can find a bit of everything, and you can also request a specific type of item if it isn’t present. But, the cost will increase in that case."

Upon hearing about the sect's secondary activities, Hei became interested. Even Bao Bei moved slightly - she knew a little about formations, but she couldn't be called an expert. That was why she wanted her children to learn such secondary activities - the spirit beasts, blessed by birth with a strong body, relied more on that rather than committing themselves to conceive methods of production like humans and demons did. And their arrogance eventually turned out to be expensive to pay.

But in addition to these secondary activities, what caught his attention was the exchange building. Hei then remembered that he still had the contribution points from the previous month's harvest. Engaged in training for the test, he had forgotten about them and hadn't used them yet.

"Finally, the last building is the mission building. There, are placed the various missions established by the sect, the kingdom, or other applicants. Inner members can accept any of the missions. Depending on the difficulty, they will be rewarded with an appropriate number of contribution points once the task is completed.

But for the moment, it's not something you need to worry about. I advise you to concentrate on becoming stronger instead. The missions are carried outside the sect’s jurisdiction. Even the easiest ones hide deadly dangers. Many inner members end up dying out there, away from their family and friends. The requests to find corpses of sect’s inner members aren’t rare. It isn’t something a second stage can hope to complete on its own."

The sect leader's warning was clear - at the level, he was in now, it was better not to even think about undertaking such assignments. Although the sect leader knew that Hei was far from being in danger, at the same time, she didn’t want him to end up becoming addicted to external aid, which would block his growth.

Of course, Hei and Bao Bei had no plans to do something like this. If Hei had accepted one of those missions, it would have been only after reaching a proper level of strength so as to complete the mission without his mother’s aid.

Only if the situation got complicated, Bao Bei would come out into the open to protect Hei. But before that happened, the enemy would have to defeat Hei along with his two little sisters. They also had Lian with them now.

After the illustrative tour of the buildings, the sect leader handed over a sheet of paper where various times and other explanations were annotated.

"Here are written the places and times for secondary activity courses I have explained to you before. They aren’t a compulsory task, but since you have renounced your privileges as a personal disciple, I strongly advise you to give them a thought." The sect leader said goodbye to Hei and Lian and returned to take care of her commitments.

Hei thanked the sect leader and thought about where to start. Hei wasn't so interested in training grounds as he could train at home; he also didn't want others to see his techniques, and it made no sense to book a training ground when he already had a suitable space. He would still have a look to see what kind of tools were available before totally excluding the idea.

As for the schedules of secondary activities, these started in the afternoon, and therefore, he still had the whole morning to do something else. He was interested in the library but was forbidden to go there. At that point, he decided to go to the exchange point first and see what his contribution points could buy.

The exchange point was a large white marble building, and all around it had guards positioned. To enter, you had to go up a stairway, which was also quite tall. Once up and opened the main door, waiting for Hei and the others was a familiar sight - the structure was similar to the Green City shop where he had bought the pills and the seeds.

There were indeed shelves with all kinds of objects useful for cultivation or combat. The objects were all enclosed in glass cases. Some of them were stored with a formation that would the object’s freshness and properties.

At the end of the large room on the ground floor, some stairs led to the upper floor. The ground floor was used for ordinary inner members while the upper floor housed more rare objects. But that floor was accessible only to those who had reached at least the sixth stage of spirit apprentice and started the elemental conversion.

Imagining that there were special rules for going upstairs, Hei decided instead to focus on the goods displayed on the ground floor divided into various sections depending on what they were.

The section that he visited first was the pills’ one. There were pills of various kinds aimed at a specific stage of spirit apprentice or with supporting effects such as the restoration of spirit power or increasing the speed of self-healing. Of course, their effect was limited, but since it was immediate, they were useful to have in a fight. They could reverse the situation if used at the right time.

Next, he visited the plants' section that sold plants that were already mature and their seeds. These were mostly used for alchemy and, to a lesser extent, to create formations. There, he saw several things that interested him, especially the seeds of rare plants. Because they were seeds, they cost much less, but it wasn’t sure that he would be able to make them mature.

After that, there was the section of artifacts and material for blacksmithing. Artifacts were nothing but objects in which formations had been carved and ranged from objects of a common type to weapons. By inserting spirit power inside, it was possible to generate a particular effect even without knowing formations.

One could, for example, adjust the environment's temperature in a specific range, create light sources, place traps, and other various effects. Since they didn’t have a direct related source, they were mainly single-use objects since the etched formation would fade after being used. Moreover, since these objects usually had to be light, they were generally built with materials that weren’t so resistant and therefore were destroyed simultaneously with the formation. But if one provided a spirit stone as a source, those artifacts would be able to operate without being damaged.

The weapons, on the other hand, were more resistant, and therefore it would be enough simply to apply the formation again to use the desired effect. This process would wear down the metal, and after multiple uses, it would compromise the integrity of the weapon.

In addition to ready-made objects, various types of wood and metals and other construction objects were also exhibited. Even though they were materials mainly addressed to the aspiring blacksmiths of the inner sect, there were also a good number of inner members who weren’t experts in blacksmithing, that bought them. It was because they would usually ask a blacksmith of their trust to create a personal weapon, purchasing the necessary materials themselves.

After he had scoured the sections on the ground floor, Hei stopped to ponder what he needed most. Even if he had made a good harvest, in the end, it was merely spirit wheat. It wasn’t a rare resource that the sect was lacking, so the number of contribution points received was enough to buy a few things there. Moreover, it wasn’t only he who had to think about; but he also had to purchase resources for Lian.

In the end, she was helping him a lot with the field and implementing his other projects, thus reducing his burden. Furthermore, having accepted her in his family, it was more than natural to buy something for her too.