After Elder Sandra left, Mira and the others decided that there was no point staying in this courtyard anymore and also left.
However, right after they left, they were greeted by the sight of hundreds of disciples waving and yelling as if they were trying to catch their attention.
"We're selling information on everything you need to know about the Outer Court here! Just 10,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones per person!"
"If you join my group, we'll provide you with weapons and resources! We'll be sure to nurture you into a powerhouse that can take this Outer Court by storm!"
"Do you wish to join the Alchemy branch of the Battle Maiden Sect? Well, come sign up now! Currently, we're giving away one Spirit Gathering Pill for anyone who joins today!"
All kinds of people from all kinds of groups were yelling, trying to either sell something or bribe them into joining their group or organization.
Mira and the others felt a bit weirded out and overwhelmed by it all as they had just joined the Sect and know next to nothing about its inner workings.
Furthermore, they aren't even sure if they can trust these people! What kind of idiot would join a group they've never even heard of before right after entering the Sect?
'Ah, never mind. It seems I spoke too soon.' Mira thought to herself as she saw several disciples who passed the Entrance Exam walk over and talk to some of these people.
However, Mira would be lying if she said she wasn't interested in a few of them other disciples shouting here. For example, the one who was selling information about the Outer Court piqued her interest.
Mira naturally didn't want to waste her time trying to learn the various nuances of the Battle Maiden Sect's Outer Court. Plus, right now, she's pretty rich. Thus, tens of thousands of Low-Grade Spirit Stones isn't much to the current her.
Maria could easily guess what Mira was thinking and led them over to the one who was selling information.
Soon after, they appeared in front of a scholarly-looking young woman. The woman's expression brightened when she noticed four people approaching her, so she quickly took out four jade slips and said with a smile, "Welcome, customers! If the four of you would like to know more about the Outer Court, you've come to the right place!"
"What kind of information is in there?" Maria was the first one to ask but regretted it immediately afterward as the people around her looked at her like she was an idiot.
"You'll have to pay for it first if you'd like to know!" The woman said, not losing her smile.
Mira didn't say anything and just handed over 40,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones. The woman took them with a smile on her face before handing over four jade slips.
"Just press the jade slips to your forehead, and the information will enter your mind. It was a pleasure doing business with you!"
Although Mira felt like she was definitely scammed as 10,000 Spirit Stones for this kind of information is pretty outrageous, she didn't care. Now, if the information inside the jade slips were useless, then she might be a bit angry, but her intuition told her that although that lady was definitely a scammer, the information should be real.
Mira and the others pressed the jade slips to their head and received the information inside. The process didn't take long, and about 30 seconds later, they removed the jade slip.
"I see. What a unique Sect… But I'm not complaining. This is how things should be!" Mira muttered.
She was truly surprised by the information inside the jade slip. It revealed quite a bit about the Outer Court and its inner workings, which Mira was both surprised and pleased about.
Her expectations when she resolved herself to join the Battle Maiden Sect's Main Branch were pretty low.
While the Branch Sect outside of Lunar Fox City was decent, and the disciples were all relatively friendly and united, it was mostly filled with low ambition wastes. Even the Elders and Sect Master of the Branch Sect didn't have any ambition.
They didn't want to be the best Sect in the area, nor did they have much desire to become stronger. They were just content with guiding the younger generation. This in and of itself wasn't a bad thing. In fact, Mira felt like this mindset was quite admirable in its own right, but it's not right for her.
Mira has lofty ambitions that even go beyond the Mortal Realm. Being in that kind of place caused Mira's opinion of the Battle Maiden Sect to take a slight hit. The only reason she still considered joining the Main Branch is for the simple fact that they only accept female disciples.
If it weren't for that, she probably wouldn't have joined the Sect, but after reading through the information in the Jade Slip, her opinion of the Battle Maiden Sect changed, and now she was genuinely happy she joined.
From the information she received, the Battle Maiden Sect, especially the Outer Court, is highly competitive. More competitive than what Elder Sandra implied. It's not just in strength either, which made Mira quite happy.
It's competitive in literally everything! Whether that be in strength, duels, the number of missions one completes, techniques one wants to learn, side occupations, and more! Everything is a competition, and the better one does, or the more one improves, the higher the benefits.
Whether it be access to certain locations, private tutoring from an Elder to better understand a technique, more resources, or even benefits to one's residence. The higher ranked one is among the Outer Court disciples, the more they can receive.
However, the same goes for those who don't try as hard. They will receive little to no resources and will be limited to the places they can go and the techniques they can learn. Their residence will be forcefully downgraded to something worse than trash, and even if you try to create a new residence, then you'll get kicked out of the Sect.
Then, by the end of the year, if you're still considered trash, you'll be thrown out of the Sect. There's a chance you'll be able to join again during the next Entrance Exam, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can start over like you are a brand new disciple.
Mira smirked underneath her mask when she recalled everything she learned from the Jade Slip.
'It seems things won't be as boring as I thought they'd be.'
***
A/N: I know this is a bit late, but here's one of the two bonus chapters for us reaching the Top 100 in the Power Stone Rankings. Thank you for all the support!