Entrance, Golden Pheasant Pavillion
Looking at Mu Chen suspiciously, Yu Ming asks, "Do you own it or something ?"
"No! I do like the food here, though."
Following the pair inside, Yu Ming notices that most of the decorations are gold in color and tables are packed full of people, as the pair requests a table and move to the second floor.
Mu Chen walks over to a table with a window and occupies it before waving them over, "Over here!"
As Yu Ming and Mo Yao sit, Mo Yao takes the seat beside Mu Chen, and Yu Ming takes a seat opposite them, someone comes over to ask them for their order.
"Yu Ming, since this is your first time here, let me order something special for us three. 3 sets of Golden Pheasant meals with some juice, please!"
Once they are alone, Yu Ming finally feels comfortable speaking his mind, "I introduced myself, now it's your turn. I know nothing about both of you, after all."
"Right. As you know, I am Mu Chen. I am just a small character from a Minor Clan under our Sect. I am at the 3rd Layer. I am 12 years old. Now that's how you do an introduction."
Ignoring the jab from Mu Chen, Yu Ming moves on to Mo Yao, as she fidgets uncomfortably for a moment before introducing herself, "I am Mo Yao. I am 13 and my father is a Mountain Elder in our Sect!"
'A Mountain Elder....? Like the Elder at Treasury? '
Deciding to ignore the Mountain Elder part, Yu Ming moves on to what bothers him most.
"Why is it bad to talk about Qi Roots?"
Looking uncomfortable, Mu Chen explains, "I am not too sure... however, our senior brothers and sisters always tell us not to mention anything about our Qi Roots, Qi Arts, Secret Techniques with anyone, even family and friends. Of course, advice for Qi Arts is usually accepted but it's frowned upon if you go around telling your personal details to others."
"Oh.Okay...Thanks."
Mu Chen interrupts Yu Ming's musings, "So why did you take wood chopping task? Are you saving up for something?"
"No... I just wanted some spirit stones for cultivation. They're amazing. I don't understand why nobody wanted to take part...I thought they would be rushing for some extra resources."
"You are using those stones for cultivation? What will you do about daily necessities? I thought you were doing missions and extra chores to save up..."
Looking at Mu Chen, Yu Ming calmly replies, "I bought enough for some time using tokens."
Finally, Mo Yao looks at him and says, "Do you have a lot of tokens? Don't you know that any Qi Art or Training Grounds need tokens?"
"I have bought my main Qi Art, I have nearly 3000 tokens left. I thought it was much cheaper to buy them using tokens... Should I have saved them?"
"3000! You little... Are you bragging?"
Compared to Mu Chen's outburst, Mo Yao was much calmer, "Even though you have a lot, you shouldn't waste them. I suggest you take some of the more unique Qi Arts or even a Secret Technique and build up your advantage. You have much more tokens than average, if you don't use it well, others will catch up to you."
Giving a side-eye to Mo Yao, Mu Chen adds, "She is right. How about going on a mission twice a week for necessities? You could join us. We are all new disciples, so how about we make a team? We also need to use our remaining tokens so we can even go to the Treasury together. What do you say?"
"Why not? It will be much safer as a team."
The food comes soon after, with 3 huge sets of meals with juices. Salivating, Yu Ming digs in with gusto as Mu Chen and Mo Yao eat elegantly yet quickly.
Mo Yao looks at Yu Ming," Yu Ming. Why don't you try some Etiquette Lessons as well?"
Yu Ming continues to eat as he replies, "I don't have time for that. This is delicious, I have never eaten anything like it!"
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"I told you. This is their top set and they use a spiritual bird, Golden Pheasant for this and hence their name. It's really good. When I came with Yao-"
Mu Chen is quickly interrupted with a swift elbow from Mo Yao's side, grumbling as he goes back to eating.
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Outside, Golden Pheasant Pavillion
Mo Yao paid for the three of them as they finished eating and went out.
"Thank you, Sister Mo Yao."
"It's no big deal." Mu Chen replies with a grin as Mo Yao just nods back.
"We can discuss the mission we are taking after we visit Treasury tomorrow. How about it, Yu Ming?"
"Alright. Where should we meet?"
"We will go after the lesson so no problems there."
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Yu Ming's House
'Keep my advantage by using my tokens... I never really thought about that. I should search for something which will help me gain an advantage and if anything is left, I will look for a combat-oriented Qi Art... Right. I should check the book and talisman which Sister Wang gave.'
Opening and searching through his bag, he found the book and talisman.
Channeling his Qi into the talisman, a blurry brown bell flickered into existence above his head before winking out.
No matter how much Qi he channeled, the talisman never produced anything more than an illusory bell. 'Looks like Sister Wang was an impressive cultivator... I can't even activate the talisman. Wait a second. Will the book also accept Qi?'
Looking at the book explaining details of [Qi Gathering], Yu Ming channeled his Qi into the book.
The book cover immediately started peeling away and the words started fading slowly as more Qi channeled into the book. Once Yu Ming is completely drained, the book now looks brand new with the character 'YUN' written grandly on it.
Flipping to the first page, Yu Mings reads through the books only to find them filled with formations regarding something. After reading it over and over again, Yu Ming finally understands what the explanations are for.
'It's a Secret Technique! or maybe a Qi Art...I need to read more in a library to understand...There should be some explanation, must have missed it in my excitement.'
Turning back to the first pages, Yu Ming finds a proper description of the Technique:
Three Calamity Seals;
First Seal of Man; Bring Death to Men!
Second Seal of Earth; Bring Desolation to Earth!
Third Seal of Heaven; Bring Calamity to Heaven!
'That sounds quite ominous... I hope this is not evil or something.. It doesn't mention anything about sacrificing or harvesting people, so I should be good... This could be my secret trump card! '
And so, eyes shining, Yu Ming went through the book multiple times to ensure he understood everything before he started cultivating it.
After calming down and reading it twice, Yu Ming found that the Technique was hardly evil. While cultivating it was hard, it did not require any sort of evil deeds. Although it did say that resentment from getting killed with the seals was strong, it didn't matter to Yu Ming as he was not going to collect any sort of resentment by killing people; he wasn't cultivating any Evil Qi Arts after all.
Cultivation Room, Yu Ming's House
Once he finished practicing the technique for 3 hours, Yu Ming stopped and focused on increasing his cultivation layer.
Sitting down with his spirit stone clutched in his hands, Yu Ming gently added the QI to his Cultivation Base, slowly pushing it into his single meridian till it felt bloated. Once the bloated sensation was gone, Yu Ming repeated this till his spirit stone cracked, ending the session for today.
'The first meridian feels full... I have been filling it for nearly a week... when will my second meridian open...'
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General Lesson, Lesson Hall
Teacher Luo Ping explained more about the world, "Most of the Human Sects are established in the southern half of the Zhenwu Continent which takes up nearly 60% of the entire continent by area. While most Sects maintain amicable relationships, if a resource like a spirit vein or spirit stone mine is found near their borders, they definitely won't hesitate to fight tooth and nail for it."
"The Sects which have the best relationship with us are Sword Burial Mountain and Myriad Ghost Gate. Both regularly send their disciples over to participate in our events as we do for them. Some of our Lineages are tightly bound to them, as they have been with us for over a thousand years. "
Someone from the first few rows asked as Teacher Luo Ping is concluding his lesson, "Teacher, What are Lineages?"
Surprised and happy that someone is being interactive during his lesson, Luo Ping replies, "Lineages are the Lineages you will follow once you get a Master. I do not know how or where our Lineages started, but most of these masters already belong to a Lineage. All the Mountains and their Masters belong to one of these Lineages. The Three Incense Mountain belongs to the Heart-Sealing Lineage. But you don't need to worry about these till much later."
Once the Lesson was over, Yu Ming departs with Mu Chen and Mo Yao for the Treasury.