Chapter 4

Translator: Lordbluefire

Wen Ping, who was lying back on his chair, naturally heard footsteps ringing out beside him. But he expected the other party to leave after seeing the sign. If there were idiots, they would have appeared long ago. There was no need for them to wait until now.

“Mission issued!”

An ear-piercing sound suddenly rang as though it sprang from the depths of his ear.

Wen Ping directly sat up, not even having time to take the registration forms off his face. After he pondered over the system’s words, he breathed in deeply a few times to calm his nerves. He then stared ahead and looked at the blue pop-up window in front.

[Beginning to take shape – A sect must have the two most basic things: elders who can act as instructors, as well as disciples. The more disciples you have, the higher the probability experts will appear among them. The better the instructors, the higher the probability stronger disciples will be produced. The two elements aid and support each other, and only then will a sect in its embryonic state be formed.]

[Recruit an instructor elder that’s at the thirteenth level of Body Refinement and two disciples. The lowest standard for disciples is that they have to be at the fifth level of Body Refinement while not exceeding 15 years old.]

[Reward: Have the special authority to remodel any building you want freely, and the building would be incorporated with a special ability to help the host gain more disciples.]

“Why is there a mission suddenly?”

Wen Ping mumbled in his heart. His eyes then glanced at the person who was walking past his table, clearly intending on leaving.

…

Yun Liao

Gender: Male

Age: 30

Cultivation Base: Thirteenth level of Body Refinement

…

[He comes from Xingyue City to look for a cultivator that has opened the Earth Destruction Arterial Gate.]

“Handsome guy, please wait!”

Wen Ping hurriedly shouted, deeply afraid that his words were spoken too late.

Now, he understood why the system suddenly gave him this mission. A not-so-minor character had come to his Immortal Sect, and he was a cultivator at the thirteenth level of the Body Refinement Realm that was looking for an opportunity.

Even back when the Immortal Sect hadn’t declined and was a 2-stars sect, such an expert would be considered a top-tier one. Other than a few supreme elders and the sect leader, the second elder that wielded great authority would at most have this cultivation level.

In addition, given the current Cangwu City, only the Cangwu City Lord who protected the lives of tens of thousands of people had such strength.

Only someone like this could protect Cangwu City and secure several decades of peace and stability.

The system did this because it definitely wanted Wen Ping to recruit Yun Liao. Maybe, its pride also couldn’t accept the agony that came from failing to recruit even a single person after quite a few days had passed.

When Yun Liao heard the person from the Immortal Sect suddenly calling him, he slowly turned his head back and explained, “I’m just passing by.”

“Friend, since you are already here, why don’t you come into my Immortal Sect and take a seat so we can have a good chat?” Wen Ping hurriedly thought of some excuses that could sway and persuade this man.

“It’s fine, I still have something on.”

“Since brother is unwilling to sit, let’s forget about it. I, Wen Ping, also won’t force you. In any case, the one missing out on an opportunity would be you, my dear expert at the thirteenth level of Body Refinement.”

After speaking, Wen Ping smiled and looked at him.

At this moment, Yun Liao quietly looked at Wen Ping, but an additional portion of doubt had appeared in his heart. He didn’t expect that the other party would be able to see through his cultivation realm.

Other than an expert at the Mystic Realm that had opened up the first Earth Destruction Arterial Gate, ordinary people would never be able to discern his cultivation base if he wasn’t fighting.

Could it be that there was something strange with this young man before his eyes?

When he stared closely at Wen Ping, he finally realized that he wasn’t able to see through Wen Ping’s cultivation base. There weren’t even the slightest bit of qi fluctuations.

Very strange.

For such a situation, there were usually only two possibilities.

The first was that the other party was an ordinary human. Qi fluctuations wouldn’t exist within their body. However, Wen Ping was the young sect leader of the Immortal Sect, in addition to the fact that the girl earlier had told him that the Immortal Sect had only begun declining one year plus ago, how could Wen Ping be an ordinary person given that he had inexhaustible resources the years before?

The second possibility was a little comical and even he didn’t believe it. However, he had no choice but to consider it. It was that Wen Ping might have the same cultivation realm as him or even higher.

“If you have nowhere else to go…” Wen Ping tapped the wooden sign, “You can come to our Immortal Sect. There aren’t many people here for now, and it’s pretty clean and suitable for cultivation. Also, it’s very cheap to join my Immortal Sect, you only need 1,000 gold coins.”

Although Yun Liao didn’t want to join the Immortal Sect, he still couldn’t help but blurt out, “This is the first time I see a sect charging gold coins when they recruit disciples.”

Wen Ping answered, “It’s just 1,000 gold. If you are unwilling to join the Immortal Sect, you can choose not to give. But given your situation, if you want to find a sect to help you open up the Earth Destruction Arterial Gate, you have to be prepared to sacrifice your freedom.”

Even if Wen Ping didn’t mention this, he felt that Yun Liao would have thought of this as well.

Once the Earth Destruction Arterial Gate was open, one would become a Mystic Realm expert and could become a sect leader in 2-stars sects. Hence, how would an expert be willing to give up such a valuable method of breaking through to outsiders?

Just like a carpenter, even when facing their own disciples, the carpenter would hold a trick back or two, let alone strangers in a cultivation world. The cultivation world was a palace where no one dared to say that they totally believed the people around them.

Yun Liao asked dubiously, “Do you have a way to help me open the Earth Destruction Gate?” After a long journey of several hundred miles, if he had to return without any gains, he would truly feel reluctant. Besides, the purpose of his trip was for the sake of joining the Immortal Sect. He truly could think of no other places where he could go.

After seeing Wen Ping nodding, Yun Liao decided.

(1,000 gold so be it. Although it is a little expensive, I am ultimately someone at the thirteenth level of the Body Refinement Realm. It isn’t going to be easy for this guy to con me.)

“I’ll join!”

“Straightforward! Fill up the form and pay the money. From now onward, you are someone from the Immortal Sect.”

Yun Liao took the form that was passed over by Wen Ping. As he didn’t understand it, he could only fill the form up according to Wen Ping’s explanations.

After settling this, Wen Ping was no longer in the mood to continue sitting down. He decisively packed up and led Yun Liao toward the Cloudmist Mountain.

He brought Yun Liao to the gravity field and said, “This is the opportunity for you to open up your Earth Destruction Arterial Gate. You can enter.”

“This place?” Yun Liao glanced at the surroundings. Other than the nine dragon pillars, he couldn’t sense anything extraordinary about this place.

Ordinary bluestone slabs with ordinary moss growing on them.

An ordinary mountain and an ordinary forest.

Also, the rule of paying 1,000 gold coins to join the sect was not normal, and he couldn’t sense that the Immortal Sect could help him in any way.

Hence, although Wen Ping said that this was the place.

“You will know once you enter and try things out.”

“If you lie to me, not only will I take back the 1,000 gold, but I will also kill you.” Yun Liao left a ruthless statement behind and stepped into the gravity field.

However, the moment he stepped into it, his plan of continuing to step forward immediately failed. Instead, he stumbled and directly fell onto the ground.

He wanted to jump, but Yun Liao discovered that it was like a mountain was pressing down on his body. He felt like he was being stepped upon by another person.

No matter how much he exerted force, he basically couldn’t do the motion of how he would jump normally.

“What’s going on?”

After exclaiming in shock, he could only use his palms to push himself up, trying to stand up. But the situation was the same as before. It was like his body had grown much heavier.

Hence, he hurriedly circulated the qi in his dantian*.

This circulation of qi caused him to lower his head and look at himself in a dumbfounded manner. After that, he glanced at the surroundings.

“The qi circulation is actually so quick!”

“Try to cycle a cultivation circle once more.” Wen Ping’s voice suddenly rang out.

Hearing this, Yun Liao stared at Wen Ping like he had never seen the world before. After that, he hurriedly cycled his qi to complete a cultivation circle.

Ten breaths a cycle!

“How is this possible?”

“There’s nothing impossible about this. Cultivating here will hasten your cultivation speed by 9x compared to the outside world. As long as you are not an idiot, you will definitely be able to open up your first arterial gate.”

When Yun Liao heard this, the emotions in his heart could no longer be described by the word ‘shock’.

In any case, there was just a single sentence. The 9x cultivation speed had frightened him. He had never heard of any place that could allow one’s cultivation speed to increase by so much.

Unprecedented!

[1] located two inches below the navel where one’s qi supposedly resides