Chapter 1172 – The Burden of an Outer Court Disciple
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Old Man Good Fortune was a disciple of Good Fortune World’s Unbroken Cult. The reason that his nickname was Old Man Good Fortune was because of the world that he had come from.
As someone who led people to the Divine Realm, those he led naturally went to the Unbroken Cult and became their outer court disciples.
After Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan ascended to the Divine Realm, they had a faint feeling that it wouldn’t be easy finding Lin Ming in such a vast world. But when they truly reached the Unbroken Cult, they discovered that they had far underestimated the difficulty of their mission!
Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan had seen Fairy Feng, thus they were naturally aware that Lin Ming had been received into the Ancient Phoenix Clan as a disciple. This was the only clue they had to look for Lin Ming in the Divine Realm.
They had thought that as long as they found the Ancient Phoenix Clan, they would be able to find Lin Ming. But after entering the Unbroken Cult, they asked around and looked through a great deal of material, finally finding out that the Ancient Phoenix Clan was divided into 72 palaces, scattered all over the Divine Realm. And they didn’t even know which palace Lin Ming was located at.
Not just that, but to travel between great worlds – once the expenses and consumption of spirit ship energy were accounted for – required at least a million violet sun stones. As for Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan, the monthly expenses they received from the Unbroken Cult was only 10 violet sun stones. If they gathered them in this way, they would die before they could save the necessary amount.
Moreover, to travel between great worlds required one to be at least a Divine Transformation realm powerhouse. This was because the spaces between the great worlds and within the great worlds were filled with robbers and killers. Murdering someone and stealing all of their possessions was a frequent occurrence. And if one were a beautiful woman, their fate would be extremely miserable. It was likely they would either be sold as a slave whore or used to cultivate and have all of their life essence sucked up.
In this sort of situation, it was simply far too difficult for Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan to find Lin Ming.
“Big Sister Mu, we’ve already been in the Divine Realm for half a year, but… if this continues, how will we still look for Brother Lin?” Qin Xingxuan asked. She was standing in a field that the Unbroken Cult used to raise valuable treasure beasts. She wore a simple blue gown without any frills, and her face was fresh with an untouched beauty. Her supple black hair was tied back with a blue scarf and her sleeves were pulled up. Beads of fresh water dripped down her forehead, making her look like a simple yet utterly beautiful mortal village girl.
At this time, Qin Xingxuan was holding a stack of spirit grass in her hand, feeding a spirit beast that looked like a white horse. This spirit beast had a beautiful white horn coming from its head and its body was as white as snow.
In the Divine Realm, a Divine Sea realm martial artist would only be raised with effort if they were a genius. For instance, within the Unbroken Cult, Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan were both only outer court disciples. It was impossible to wholeheartedly raise outer court disciples like direct disciples and for all of them to enjoy amazing resources. Outer court disciples thus had to engage in burdensome chores.
The Unbroken Cult was a relatively poor sect. They weren’t like Carefree Island that had the extremely resource rich Red Desolate Mystic Realm. Because of this, the disciples of the Unbroken Cult needed to perform different labors. For instance, tending to medicinal fields, feeding spirit beasts, and so on. All of these tasks were to create more income for the sect in order to provide more resources for the sect Elders and many direct disciples.
“There’s nothing we can do for now. With our cultivation, if we tried to travel by ourselves, I fear we’d be eaten up without even our bones remaining. We can only diligently cultivate until… we reach the Divine Transformation realm. Then, once we have enough wealth saved up we can go find Lin Ming.”
Mu Qianyu said as she spoke. She weighed various spirit grasses and then mixed them with some different kinds of vicious beast meats, creating feed.
Feeding spirit beasts was not an easy nor relaxed task. One had to wake up five hours before dawn, boil the spirit grass soup, mix the feed, clean the beast pens, and feed the spirit beasts before the sun rose.
Following this, the two women also had to tend to the medicinal field. This medicinal field was filled with extremely precious medicinal herbs. One had to use special spirit techniques to feed and also deworm the plants. To tend to a small medicinal field would take the entire morning.
In the afternoon, the two women would return to the beast pens and feed the spirit beasts a second time. Finally, only in the evening were the two allowed to freely cultivate.
And in the Unbroken Cult, if one wished to borrow various cultivation method jade slips or listen to the teaching of Elders, one required sect contribution points. The Unbroken Cult had tens of thousands of outer court disciples but only 20 some Elder professors. Naturally, not every outer court disciple could attend the teachings whenever they wished.
With Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan’s strength, it was impossible for them to participate in the combat missions of the sect. The only way they could earn contribution points was to engage in the more menial labor tasks. Thus, the two women did much more work than the common female disciple.
For the two of them, every 10 days they were able to listen to one of the teachings and browse through the mortal-step cultivation methods once. As for learning the core inheritances of the Unbroken Cult, that was impossible for them.
Even so, the two of them studied and trained late into the day, discussing and sparring with each other. If they had questions they would ask their senior-apprentice brothers and sisters. Of course, this sort of help wasn’t free and also required a small number of contribution points.
Such a way of training seemed extremely troublesome and arduous, but it was actually a much faster cultivation speed than in the lower realms. This was because the heaven and earth origin energy within the Divine Realm was incomparable with that of the lower realms. Moreover, the Sky Spill Continent’s planet had been blocked off by Empyrean Primordius so wanting to break into the Divine Transformation realm there was nearly impossible. But in the Divine Realm, although Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan’s martial talents weren’t particularly good, they still had high chances of breaking into the Divine Transformation realm. Once they did, they would be able to stand out and at least become sect deacons. Their monthly expenses would increase by a tremendous amount and they could also participate in combat missions. For them, this was the only way to find Lin Ming in the future.
“I wonder how Lin Ming is doing in the Ancient Phoenix Clan… with his talent, he should be able to become a core disciple…”
Every time Mu Qianyu remembered Lin Ming, she would worry in her heart. If she hadn’t come to the Divine Realm then she would never have imagined just how vast it truly was. Now, she was able to experience its size for herself. Just the Unbroken Cult had over 30 Divine Lord powerhouses, several thousand Divine Transformation masters, and 70,000-80,000 Divine Sea disciples.
And placed within the Good Fortune World, the Unbroken Cult was nothing more than a tiny sect. Even Good Fortune World itself was just one of the Divine Realm’s 3000 great worlds.
Once one looked at the entire Divine Realm, there were truly more Ninefall masters than there were dogs, with Divine Lord masters everywhere.
Thus even though when Lin Ming was at the Sky Spill Continent and his talent there had defied the will of the heavens, Mu Qianyu was still worried for him now. There were far too many geniuses in the Divine Realm. Lin Ming wouldn’t necessarily be able to become an overlord of his own domain as he did in the past. Moreover, Lin Ming entered a much a larger sect so the competition he faced would also be much more brutal and wild. How did Lin Ming’s days pass in the Ancient Phoenix Clan? Was he pushed aside by others because of his status as someone who came from the lower realms?
If she and Qin Xingxuan found him, would that give him trouble instead?
This last point was what Mu Qianyu worried about the most.
“Xingxuan, let’s not think of anything but training diligently for now. When we truly go to the Ancient Phoenix Clan, we cannot become a burden for Lin Ming.”
“Mm.” Qin Xingxuan vigorously nodded.
At this time, Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan heard the sound of a bell ringing out from the palace behind the medicinal field. This was the convening sign for all outer court disciples who tended the medicinal fields.
“That’s the medicinal field we’re responsible for!” Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan quickly put down their work and ran over. The Unbroken Cult had extremely strict rules. If they were late, they would lose contribution points if their penalty was light. If their penalty was heavy then they would even be confined. No matter what the punishment was, it wasn’t something that Mu Qianyu or Qin Xingxuan could afford.
“Did something happen to the medicinal materials?”
Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan were both disturbed. If there was a problem with the medicinal field then that would be a great responsibility they couldn’t shoulder!
As they rushed to the medicinal field, Mu Qianyu could see that seven or eight female disciples were already standing in the open. They were all outer court disciples. Normally, handling the medicinal field was a chore that mostly female disciples did.
And standing in front of these seven or eight female disciples was a red-clothed woman with phoenix eyes. She was an inner court disciple with a very prominent status and was also the manager of this medicinal field.
As the red-clothed woman saw Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan hastily arrive, her eyebrows twisted together. She rudely said, “Slow hands and slow feet. No wonder the medicinal field is in such a mess!”
“A mess?” Mu Qianyu’s breath caught in her throat and her heart raced. She had thought that there had been some accident with the medicinal field, but as she looked over to the one she was in charge of, she glanced over every strand of spirit grass and didn’t see any major problems with them…
She felt slightly better, but as she glanced at the other female disciples she found that they were all gloomy and silent. It was apparent that they had just been berated.
In order to obtain contribution points, Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan were meticulous in their handling of the medicinal field. Otherwise, if they made some mistake and killed or wounded some medicinal plants, their entire month of work would have been in vain.
“There is no need for you to look!” The red-clothed woman coldly coughed, her thin eyebrows rising up in anger, “Do you think that it’s fine just because the medicinal plants haven’t died? I want the medicinal plants to vibrantly blossom! But looking at the medicinal herbs that all of you have raised, they appear diseased and sick. How could anyone possibly use them!? Today, the Great Elder of Spirit Pill Pavilion along with three other great inner court Elders have to gather 36,000 spirit herbs to help refine a pill. They are attempting to use nine flavor divine grass to refine a Nine Flavor Recoil Pill, a medium-grade heaven-step pill! This is all for Senior-apprentice Brother Yu Youming to wash his marrow so that he can take another step forwards!
“Do you know how important this is? Do you know what a medium-grade heaven-step pill is? Any pill or spirit herb with the ‘heaven’ in its name must be extraordinary! If you delayed the refining of this pill, then even killing you 100 times over wouldn’t be enough to make up for it! I don’t care how any of you worked in the past. From this day forth, all of you no longer have free time. All of you have to place your energy into tending the medicinal fields every day! Every medicinal herb must be treated with absolute care!”
“No free time…” Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan glanced at each other, able to see a faint bitter light in the other’s eyes. The truth was that a Divine Sea martial artist would be energized enough for the day after meditating for an hour, so they didn’t need much time to rest. However, if they didn’t have any free time, how would they continue training?
As for the other outer court disciples, they weren’t any happier upon hearing this news. To them, a medium-grade heaven-step pill was an extremely distant matter. As for Senior-apprentice Brother Yu Youming’s name, that was something that struck them like a bolt of thunder. He was the top direct disciple and the chosen pride of heaven that the sect had spent a great deal of effort to raise. To ordinary outer court disciples, he was simply the same as a divine god.
“The Great Elder of Spirit Pill Pavilion along with three inner court Elders are actually spending such a great price to refine a pill to help Senior-apprentice Brother Yu Youming wash his marrow…” A young female disciple muttered to herself, feeling envy in her heart. Both of them were Divine Sea disciples, so how could the difference in their fates be so great?
“Humph, there is no need for you to be surprised. I might as well tell you that a grand event that only occurs every four or five thousand years in the Divine Realm is occurring soon, and that is the First Martial Meeting! It will encompass all geniuses of the Divine Realm’s 3000 great worlds! Senior-apprentice Brother Yu Youming is the most talented disciple of our Unbroken Cult and the only chance we have of gaining glory! If any hitches occur, I absolutely won’t forgive the culprit!”
“Divine Realm First Martial Meeting?” Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan said at the same time.
Qin Xingxuan’s thoughts stirred. She said to Mu Qianyu, “Big Sister Mu, do you think that Lin Ming might participate also?”