"What are you doing?" Yue asked.

Yue saw Tristan picking up a broom, a bucket, some cloths, and other cleaning supplies.

"I have to clean the main hall of the Second Flying Dao," he replied.

"Why?"

"Master Feng wasn't very happy with what I did to the seniors. He said something about me not respecting the hierarchy, the sect's traditions, blah blah blah, so he punished me by making me clean this place for two months."

"Shouldn't the punishment have ended by now?"

"I got punished again for leaving the sect without permission," Tristan said with a shrug.

"Well, bye; see you later."

"Bye, Dusk," she said with a hint of amusement.

Tristan walked across the dark wooden floor of the sect towards the main hall of that area. The sect's buildings were mostly made of wood, just like most houses in Zaguhan, since transporting stone in this hilly region was complicated.

When he opened the doors to the main hall, someone approached him. He was a young man, around fourteen years old, with brown hair and eyes, and a common appearance.

"Dusk? Um... you were late today," the young man said with a submissive posture.

"Sorry, Jin."

Tristan handed some of the cleaning supplies he had brought to the boy.

The two began cleaning the large hall in silence. The place was about 20 meters wide and 60 meters long, with five large tables and a high chair in a prominent position in the middle of the hall, where the sect leader could be seen by all the guests.

After cleaning the entire place, Tristan went to his room to sleep.

image [https://i.imgur.com/CJALaUN.png]

The next day, as soon as the sun started to rise, the sect bells began to ring.

‘Damn it, just 10 more minutes, please.’

But the bells outside didn’t heed his thoughts and kept ringing. Lazily, he threw off the blankets, yawned, and started putting on the sect's clothes. He was the first to leave the room and walked toward the dining hall.

His meal was rice with mushroom soup. The Flying Sword Sect was an important sect but not a large one, so its resources were limited. Because of this, Tristan only ate meat on special occasions, but fortunately, he could eat as much rice as he wanted.

When he finished his second bowl of rice, he went to get another.

At that moment, Yue met up with him and placed her tray beside his.

"Good morning, Dusk."

"Ah... good morning, Yue."

"Um, you know that people here don't like me very much. Don't you think being around me might bring you trouble?"

"Why do you think that?" Yue asked naively.

"Forget it," Tristan sighed.

She shrugged and asked, "How’s the training in the Second Flying Dao?"

Tristan thought for a moment and said, "It's more practical."

"You've already learned all the fundamentals you needed to know."

"Now that you’ve shown you’re capable of learning a technique, you should work hard to learn new ones and perfect what you already know."

"Looks like I'll have to work harder," she said.

Tristan looked at Yue and sighed inwardly, wondering if he should say something to her. ‘She's very talented but also naive, and that’s dangerous. Things here in the Second Dao are different from the First. She should have other concerns in this place, but the problem is she's just a 13-year-old girl. I don't know if she'll listen to me.’

"You also need to be more careful now."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Oh? What are you talking about?"

"In the First Dao, there was a big difference between disciples who came from common families and those who came from cultivator families. But here in the Second, that difference is even greater. And after they learn their first technique, they start becoming more arrogant, thinking they’re something beyond mere humans."

"Besides, many people here place a lot of importance on which family you belong to. In their twisted minds, they might think it's unfair for someone without an important family like you to have your kind of talent."

"So, it's better if you try not to draw too much attention... well, try not to draw even more attention."

"What?" she said indignantly.

"But I want to be known. I decided to come here to make my grandparents and my family proud and to improve our lives. Are you telling me I have to hide?"

Tristan looked at her seriously.

"It’s safer that way. Besides, I didn't say you have to hide forever. One day, you'll be strong enough not to worry about that."

"If you don't believe me, then you can look into the stories of young people from common families who mysteriously disappeared."

She pouted and said, "But what about you? Everyone here hates you because you're... well, different from us. And you're not from an important family either. From the stories I've heard about you, you don't seem very worried about it."

"What do I have to fear? I have nothing left, remember? My parents disappeared, you know that, but you still have your grandparents and others who care about you."

Tristan said this because he thought appealing to emotional matters might make his words sink into her stubborn mind. Judging by her expression, he was probably successful.

‘But what she said is true. I ended up drawing more attention than I wanted.’

‘Damn it, I should have controlled my emotions better months ago.’

‘At least I'm in the Second Dao. No one knows I have an orange core. As long as I stay away from the people in the Third Dao, I shouldn't have much to worry about.’

He finished his meal feeling satisfied, not leaving a single grain of rice behind.

After the meal, he and Yue went to Master Feng's training section.

The first part of the training consisted of climbing and descending the stairs that led to the sect, which was situated on top of a hill, so there were thousands of steps.

Then they had to repeat the movements that the master taught in an attempt to learn a new technique. In Tristan’s case, he just tried to learn the principles of it to figure out how it could be applied to his type of cultivation.

His orange core was more powerful than most students', and with the speed and agility that Light and Darkness cultivation gave his body, he could replicate some of the Air cultivators' movements.

What Tristan struggled with the most was the third stage of training. The members of this sect were very skilled at throwing projectiles, but unfortunately, his aim wasn't very good.

image [https://i.imgur.com/CJALaUN.png]

Yue wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, "What's the next training?"

Tristan replied, "It's almost noon, so it'll probably be a duel." He let out a small sigh of annoyance.

He was proven correct when Master Feng Ling said, "Let's start another round of duels."

"Ahhh," many disciples sighed.

"Dusk, since you've won the last few times, you'll be the first now," he said with a hint of irritation in his voice.