Sects

  Most people become cultivators after they join a sect; it’s where you learn the essentials of how to absorb Qi energy, and how to circulate it around your body, and how to break through each stage of cultivation.

  It’s also where you have access to cultivation pills, which help you reach the bottleneck of each cultivation stage, and break through it.

  Did I convince you yet of how important sects are? No? Then, let me tell you a few more advantages.

  You can also learn to become an alchemist who could make those very pills by apprenticing under the sect’s alchemist. Not as great an alchemist as me, of course, but you will could make a nice living just making pills.

  You can learn martial arts in the sect’s square each morning at dawn.

  You can make use of the sect’s library and learn the secrets and history of the cultivation world, where you can find inspiration and break through your bottleneck.

  There is also the house of treasures in every sect, where you can buy magic items that could literally be the difference between life and death in a mortal combat, and help you throughout most of your cultivation journey, if not all of it.

  I see that glint in your eyes even though I can’t see you since I am just writing this exceptional book on cultivation with my impressive and unlimited knowledge on the subject.

  Let me now bring you down a notch or two or a thousand. I am sorry to break your fantasy of how outstanding sects are, but I have to, since I am the most honest, brilliant writer in the empire.

  The ugly truth is sects are by far the most ruthless and deadly environment you can be a part of. They are an extremely unhealthy environment for growth, but somehow, they work.

  Something about that ruthlessness makes some cultivators improve at significant paces.

  Something about being in that dishonest and devious environment makes some cultivators reach the peak. Is it because they are always careful, anticipating where the next blow will come from?

  Untrusting of friends, family, and strangers alike, so nobody can get to them?

  The elders, the core disciples, and the senior disciples, none of them care to monitor the outer sect disciples of their own sect.

  This causes bloodlust, bullying, and greed to run rampant in the outer sects.

  The single pill each disciple gets monthly is the most coveted treasure of the outer sect disciples.

  There are always those who are so far advanced than everyone else, and those who come from rich and popular families who have their own gang, from the moment they step foot inside the sect.

  Those cultivators become predators, attacking the weak fellow outer sect cultivators, only stealing from them when it goes peacefully.

  Beating them within an inch of their lives when they struggle.

  Killing them if they had the potential to one day surpass the bully and get revenge.

  If you have either cultivation pills or magic items, and you are weak, then you will not be safe in the outer sect, and those bullies get no punishment whatsoever.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The cultivation world itself is ruthless. You can’t baby your disciples if you want them to become strong and learn to survive on their own.

  Sorry to dismantle the heaven I painted for you with my chapter opening, but it’s the truth.

  I learned about the cultivation world and its inner workings from the strongest cultivators that serve under the empire’s banner.

  They confide in me; they seek my help with certain pills and concoctions.

  To get something back out of these relationships, I started writing this book, which I think will enrich the public’s imagination for millennia to come.

  The fascinating world of cultivation

  Zhi Zixin

  ***

  Somewhere else, the group of disciples that took on the challenge of the legacy trials had finally made it to the sect’s entrance.

  The sect was in an enormous cave underneath a mountain.

  An immense ornate door blocked their passage, a door that many of them, including Gabalawi, knew so well.

  This time, they didn’t have to knock on it though, as the door opened and a group came out to meet them.

  At the head of the group was the elder, a pale man, tall with white hair slicked back. He had cold, piercing blue eyes that looked much smaller than normal eyes. He was tall at about 5 feet 11 inches tall; he had a slim but strong body; and looked to be around 40 years old.

  He came floating over to the group and welcomed them with a clear and loud voice, which he used his Yin energy to bolster and project as if it was coming from everywhere.

  “Welcome everyone. We are so glad that many of you survived the trials.” He paused and looked at the huge number of cultivators in front of him; around 50 had survived the trials. He wasn’t sure if they could accommodate this many cultivators, but there was nothing he could do about it for now.

  “Hm, I hope all of you gained significant advantages from undertaking the trials.” His eyes lingered again over cultivators like Brother Huang and Brother Liu, and he felt disgusted by how ordinary they looked after taking the trials. He immediately made a mental note to make them take manual labor only and deprive them of the monthly pills.

  “So, which of you beat the trials? Who was the final winner?” He scanned them with his eyes as he said that.

  The disciples all looked at each other trying to figure out who won, and some just looked down in embarrassment.

  Gabalawi looked a little sad. He had reached the last trial but failed to win.

  After a lot of heads turning side to side to find out who the winner was, everyone concluded that none of them had won.

  “How come none of you came forward as the winner?” The elder was surprised and annoyed at this revelation. He turned to the senior brothers he had sent to wait for the disciples and asked them, “Are you sure you got all of them?”

  “Umm, about that, there were two cultivators who ran away and became rogue cultivators, and they ran off. They used very unusual skills. We couldn’t stop them.” One of the senior brothers said sheepishly.

  “Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves? Two Death establishment cultivators, and none of these disciples in front of me is at your level, and you couldn’t stop them from leaving?”

  The senior brothers said nothing and just looked at the ground, embarrassed.

  “I think both of you need a reminder of how the outer sect disciples live; both of you are to relinquish your lodgings and live in the outer sect until I say otherwise.” He pointed at one of them and said, “You will take the duty of water fetching.” Then he looked derisively at the other and said, “While you will take the duties of woodcutting.”

  “Yes, Elder, we are sorry, Elder.” Both said in unison.

  “Dismissed.” The elder said while looking away in disgust from their faces.

  “Oh, one more thing, Elder, before we leave.” One of the senior brothers said.

  “What is it now?” the elder said, his tone of voice showing that he was clearly out of patience.

  “The youth that we found by the tree, who wanted a cure for his mother. He is also absent, as he went to deliver the cure to her, and he had another girl with him. Maybe the winner is one of them.”

  “Let’s hope for your sakes that the winner is one of them, or you will sweep the dirt ground for the rest of your lives, dismissed.”

  The senior brothers both bowed down and immediately left.

  The elder turned his attention back to the new disciples and said, “Don’t be disheartened that none of you won, or that my priority was to the winner of the trial. It’s mainly because a lot of our hopes depend on him or her. We must put our hands on the Annals of Scorn to give our sect purpose. I can tell that many of you gained significant advantages in the trials, and many of you became very strong because of them.”

  He made his eyes linger on Gabalawi, Esme, Huan Chun, and Glenda.

  They all noticed his gaze linger on them and felt that he was talking about them.

  They were indeed the ones who benefited the most from the trials, but that doesn’t mean that the others didn’t become strong enough to compete within the sect too.

  “I’ll now leave you to one of the core disciples to show you around the sect, but we will see each other again, in the inner sect disciples matches ceremony, which I’ll explain when you get to it. Enjoy your stay, and work hard, because my sect doesn’t accept weaklings.”