354 The Prefectural Thousand Sun Sect 1

Zhang Shilong walked up, and asked quietly, "Is Master in today?"

"Yes, yes. Senior Apprentice Brother Zhang, you haven't been here in a while. What a rare visit." The lad looked up, and seeing it was Zhang Shilong, he smiled and threw down his cleaning rag to lead the two inside.

In an inner room, a man so elderly that all he had left were skin and bones was lying on the bed. He had a pipe in his hand and was smoking lazily.

When the elderly man saw it was Zhang Shilong, he settled back into his bed.

"It's Little Long. I thought it was…" he muttered something under his breath.

"Master thought those debt chasers were here again," the employee explained resignedly.

Zhang Shilong didn't know what to say.

"Disciple Zhang Shilong greets Master." He formally greeted the elder by kneeling down and kowtowing.

"It's okay. Little Long, I've been kind of tight on money these days… if it doesn't bother you…" The old man stuttered, not finishing his sentence.

As expected, Zhang Shilong hurriedly offered, "Your disciple still has some Devil Gold bills on him, but not a lot." He quickly took out a stash of Devil Gold bills and handed it to the old man.

"Hm… it's a little lacking." The old man wasn't very happy when he accepted the bills. "Tell me, what's the matter?"

Only now did he look at Lu Sheng as if he'd just noticed him.

"It's like this." Zhang Shilong organized his thoughts. "This young man accidentally got into trouble with the Yuan Family in the prefecture by killing the vice-chief of the Fierce Tiger Tribe, Yuan Yingxiao…"

"Yuan Yingxiao? Fierce Tiger Tribe?" The old man fell into thought. "Usually, you wouldn't come to me for help. How about this, I'll ask around for you. The Yuan Family is a little troublesome. A guy called Yuan Chengdao has become the elder of the Spirit Bind Sect in the prefecture. What's the relationship between this Yuan Yingxiao you've killed and Yuan Chengdao?"

"He's his younger brother."

"..." The old man stopped smoking. He set down his pipe and looked deeply at the two.

"This…"

"Master… please help!" Zhang Shilong bowed to the floor. "My student is the disciple of That One. He has a bright future and cannot die here."

"You guys go first. I'll think about it… this is a very tricky matter. I've seen Yuan Chengdao from far away once when drinking, but I couldn't see through him." The old man shook his head. "Little Long, stop worrying about this. Stay with me for a bit and let your student go register. See how they react."

Hearing this, Zhang Shilong was shocked. His master made it very clear. There was nothing he could do to help, and it might even be a problem protecting just him.

Also, he could tell from his master's words that once Yuan Chengdao sought revenge, even he might be in danger.

"That's okay." Lu Sheng smiled, knowing the elderly man had indicated for them to leave. Without any hesitation, he cupped his fists. "Elder Zhang, thanks."

He was impatient with Zhang Shilong already. He only restrained himself as a form of politeness. Otherwise, would he need to be afraid of this and that?

"It's good you understand." The old man nodded. His gaze resting on Lu Sheng changed slightly.

"Then, Elder Zhang, Senior, I'll be taking my leave." Lu Sheng cupped his fists again and left the store with True Qi before Zhang Shilong could even react.

Lu Sheng could tell now that the person he'd killed had a really strong background. Even Zhang Shilong's master was unwilling to offer help. Well, since he had no intention of helping, Lu Sheng didn't want to keep begging him, either.

Leaving the store, Lu Sheng increased his pace and walked along the street. Soon, he returned to the small town's entrance, and asked a few Thousand Sun Sect disciples where the registration was. He headed directly there.

The registration was in the center of the Thousands Sun City, in a U-shaped house. When Lu Sheng arrived, there were already a lot of people there. From their clothing, he could tell that there was some of everything from everywhere. Most were probably from outside branches like he was.

Glancing around, Lu Sheng quickly noticed a small group of people dressed in similar outfits to those at Autumn Moon City, so he walked toward them.

"You just got here?" A skinny young man smiled and greeted Lu Sheng.

"Just arrived today." Lu Sheng nodded. "What about you guys? Why are you all outside?"

"We're waiting to be tested and hand in our tasks. You go in by groups of five. Are you from Leaf Branch city?" the young man guessed.

"No, I'm from Autumn Moon City." Lu Sheng shook his head.

"Autumn Moon City's group hasn't arrived yet?" The man chuckled. "Nice to meet you. I'm Chen Jintian, courtesy name Jiu, a new guy. Since you just got here, does everything seem confusing? I can show you around. There's nothing in Thousand Sun City that I don't know about." Laughing, he pulled out a map from his sleeve.

"This is a map of all the important places. Everywhere you need to take notice of is labeled, and places where we'll be safe or spots that are dangerous are also marked. What do you think? Do you want one? It's only one Devil Gold."

Lu Sheng finally understood. He was curious as to why this person came and talked to him for no reason, but now he saw that he was trying to do business.

"I would like one, but right now I'm tight on money." Lu Sheng smiled.

"That's okay." Chen Jintian waved his hand. "Us prefectural disciples are all very talented. Everyone was the top at their branch. It's not hard to earn a few coins."

"That's true." Lu Sheng nodded.

"Speaking of which, not a lot of disciples made it here this year. Only a few were able to shine bright enough to be recognized. Last year's was much better." Chen Jintian sighed.

Lu Sheng looked to his front. A few people had gotten in, so he moved forward a bit. "Brother Chen, you seem pretty strong. Why are you willing to do such trades?" He was a little confused.

Hearing this, Chen Jintian smiled bitterly. "Brother, you don't know how much money being in the Thousand Sun Sect in the prefecture costs. The True Spirit Tower is a huge cost, and there are still the Spirit Training Arena, Secret Arts Library, Starry Nine Dragon Attic, etc. Everything costs money. Here, you can never have enough Devil Gold."

"I thought all you needed to do was cultivate." Lu Sheng was taken aback. These prefectural disciples seemed so pitiful.

"It's good to cultivate, but what about the newest weapons? As such, you have to go the Starry Nine Dragon Attic. Life-protecting secret arts keep being renewed, so you have to keep an eye on every new secret art that comes out in case it's specially made against you. Then you have to find ways to break it."

As he talked about this, Chen Jintian seemed very dejected.

"And there's the Spirit Training Arena. If you don't go and get used to all the simulated new monsters and devils, if you run into some new weapon the devils created and die due to ignorance, then you can only blame yourself.

"For instance, Devil Shadow Knives ignore all physical protection and can only be blocked by True Qi. If you run into one without knowing how to defend yourself and waste all your True Qi equipment in defense, when the knife actually comes hurling toward you, you won't have any True Qi left to defend against it. Then you'll just die a very silly death…"

Chen Jintian was just bi*ching at this point.

"In this world, pure cultivation is not enough. Honestly, our Thousand Sun Sect is a lot better than the others. We have enough money, good equipment, and weapons. The Youyin Sect can only fight to the death every day. Fifty percent of all disciples end up dying!

"But we have a ninety-nine percent survival rate. In a fight, you first throw down a few Time talismans, then the Flag Matrix, then talismans for defense and offense, then summon a few slaves and use a few spells to increase the damage of your attacks. If you still manage to die under such circumstances, then that means you just got super unlucky and ran into someone at a much higher level than you."

Lu Sheng was completely taken aback. This Thousand Sun Sect in the prefecture was so different from the branch.

From the laziness he saw in the streets, to the careless attitude of Zhang Shilong's master, and even to the scenes described by Chen Jintian, Lu Sheng realized that the Thousand Sun Sect was just a money-burning sect that only admitted rich, tall, and handsome guys.

As Lu Sheng and Chen Jintian talked, their turn finally arrived.

Lu Sheng walked in with them through the gate, which led to a relatively spacious hall.

A young man dressed in a yellow robe and wearing a golden crown was sitting behind a white jade desk, drumming his fingers on the table impatiently.

"Lu Xiang, Chen Jintian, Yue Qingpeng, Yue Qingying, Lu Sheng." He registered the five.

"Fill out your place of origin, cultivation level, the extent to which you've completed your outer world task, age, and talents." The man gave each a piece of paper and a pen, indicating for them to fill it out.

"Also, everyone pay a thousand pieces of Devil Gold as subsidy to the sect."

"What!?"

All of them were stunned.

"Didn't we just pay the basic fee a few days ago?!" Chen Jintian yelled.

"You said it yourself, that was a few days ago. Today is today. Do you still want to be tested or not? Hurry up," the yellow-robed man said impatiently.

Lu Sheng frowned. He hadn't even formally entered the sect, but he could already tell the Thousand Sun Sect here was very corrupt. It wasn't as clean as the one in Autumn Moon City.

"Okay…" Chen Jintian had no other choice. They were under their roof, so they had to pay the money and follow their rules. After much going through pockets and bags, he finally found enough for one thousand pieces.

From his painful expression, this was obviously a very large sum for him.

Lu Sheng handed over a thousand pieces of Devil Gold obediently. If he hadn't borrowed some from Elder Zhang earlier, even he wouldn't have been able to pay this fee.

The other three also handed over money unwillingly.

A thousand was a lot. It was enough to buy the cheapest Divine Weapon fragments. Although everyone who was able to come here was the top from their area, they still didn't have enough money for this type of waste.

After they all paid, the man's attitude softened a lot.

"Don't blame the sect for keeping to ask for money. We have no choice, either. How else do you think we got our ninety-nine percent survival rate in devil battles? It's from the Thousand Sun Black Sun Matrix. But how much money does this matrix cost every day? How much money you pay today means how safe you'll be in the future."

But the five were not so easily persuaded. They filled out the form, handed over the fee, and were sent inside.