Chapter 1989: Farming For Three Years
Hundreds of beasts were parked on the square in front of the Miscellaneous Hall. Because of this, Zhao Hai’s winged horses didn’t attract any attention. On the other hand, people couldn’t help but turn their heads when they saw Zhao Hai. This was because they knew that there were only two situations where someone would have a child as a servant. It was either they just became an inner disciple, or their old servant died. Looking at Zhao Hai’s appearance, it didn’t seem like his original servant died. In other words, he was a new inner disciple. This was enough to grab people’s attention.
Zhao Hai didn’t care about the gazes directed at him. He continued to lead Qiu Tie towards the huge building in front of him. Before long, the two entered the building. Surprisingly, the first floor was the mission hall. It was no different to the Tyrant Blade Sect’s branch hall in the Soaring Dragon Realm, just a bit bigger.
But after thinking it through, Zhao Hai understood. The Soaring Dragon Realm’s purpose was to familiarize the cultivators of the lower realm to the customs of the True Spirit Realm. Therefore, it wouldn’t be strange if some buildings have the same layout.
There was a staircase leading upstairs on the side of the hall. After Qiu Tie followed Zhao Hai into the hall, he immediately said, “Young Master, let’s use the stairs to go up. Your equipment and your residence will be given to you on the second floor.” Zhao Hai nodded, then he went to the second floor with Qiu Tie.
Before long, the two arrived at the second floor. The layout of the second floor was similar to the first floor. However, it was quieter and had significantly less people. There were several counters on the floor with people inside.
Seeing Zhao Hai, the female on one counter stood up and gave a bow before saying, “Senior Brother, welcome. What can I do for you?”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Hello, I am Zhao Hai. I came here to ask for my inner disciple equipment and my residence.” After he said that, Zhao Hai took out a blade-shaped token and handed it over.
Hearing Zhao Hai, the female cultivator couldn’t help but stare. Then she immediately received Zhao Hai’s blade token and looked at it. After inspecting the token, the female cultivator handed it back to Zhao Hai and said, “Senior Brother, please wait for a moment.” The female cultivator sat down and then took out a jade slip as though she was checking something.
After some time, the female cultivator looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Zhao Hai. Joined the Tyrant Blade Sect a year ago but stayed in the Soaring Dragon Realm for a year to practice. And you just arrived in the Tyrant Blade Sect.”
“Senior Brother, you have been assigned to resident complex 52 in Lower Earth Mountain. Since you just joined the Tyrant Blade Sect, you need to farm for three years. A field will also be assigned to you. This field is just on the foot of Lower Earth Mountain. The area is ten acres. The sect doesn’t care what you plant there. If you plant grain, you need to give 10 thousand kilograms of grain every day. If you grow vegetables, the amount you need to hand over depends on what vegetable you grow. You can undertake missions in these three years, but you cannot skip on your daily requirements. Failure in submitting the required yields will cause you to be punished. This is your equipment. Please receive it.” As she said that, the female cultivator took out a spatial bag and gave it to Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai received the spatial bag. Then he looked at the female cultivator and said, “Can I go to the Blade Pavilion to get secret books to study?”
The female cultivator nodded and said, “Yes. Senior Brother, with your strength, you can receive five secret books every year for free as long as they’re on the bottom three floors of the blade pavilion. Senior Brother only needs to show his identity token to the person in charge. Right, since Senior Brother is going to farm, you can buy seeds on the third floor. You can also hire servants to take care of your farm. Everything you need is on the third floor.”
Zhao Hai expressed his thanks to the female cultivator. Then as they walked out of the counter, Zhao Hai looked at Qiu Tie and said, “Qiu Tie, do all cultivators from the Soaring Dragon Realm need to farm for three years upon arriving?”
Qiu Tie nodded, “Yes. This is the sect’s rule. Grandfather said that this would allow disciples from the Soaring Dragon Realm to quickly adapt to the True Spirit Realm. But this should be the first time an inner disciple went farming. Past disciples who came from the Soaring Dragon Realm were Serving Disciples or Outer Disciples. Nobody was directly admitted to the Inner Sect.”
Zhao Hai nodded. Then he searched the spatial bag using his spiritual force. Inside he saw four things, a long blade, two jade slips, and 100 jade essences.
Zhao Hai took the blade out and gave it a look. The blade was an ordinary blade with a sheath. It was three feet long and an inch wide. The sheath was made of animal skin. It was very simple. Zhao Hai held the blade and pulled it out.
The blade was as bright as snow with blood grooves along its body. Engraved near the handle was the character for ‘tyrant’. The character let out an aura of madness and aggression.
Zhao Hai returned the blade to its sheath and then sent it to the Space. After that he took one of the two jade slips and probed it with his spiritual force. Inside was a set of the Tyrant Blade Sect’s rules. The rules were very detailed. The very first rule indicated that those who kill a fellow disciple would be killed!
The Tyrant Blade Sect didn’t have a lot of rules. Besides the sect’s rules, the jade slip also described the allowance of inner disciples. The Tyrant Blade Sect’s inner disciples would receive 100 jade essences every month. At the same time, they can receive five books from the lowest three floors of the Blade Pavilion. The sect would also not force inner disciples to take missions. From this point of view, one could see that the sect treats its inner disciples neither good nor bad.
However, Zhao Hai wasn’t complacent. He knew that the sect did this to have inner disciples take missions on their own. Although the sect didn’t force them to take tasks, inner disciples would have to take missions if they want to live a better life. Missions would award contribution points in addition to jade essence. Contribution points can be used to get servants, beasts, books, and pills. With enough contribution points, one could get anything they want from the sect.
The sect did this to make its disciple desire to do better. Disciples would have a sense of urgency, pushing them to progress.
Besides these things, a map was also included in the jade slip. The map was an overall view of the territory the Tyrant Blade Sect controlled. With this map, Zhao Hai wouldn’t be lost in the sect.
Zhao Hai stored the jade slip and took out the other one. Inside was actually a blade technique. The name of the technique was the Eight Gates Golden Lock Blade.
The Eight Gates Golden Lock Blade was a medium-level blade technique. It was a blade technique that was heavily focused on defense. Its offense wasn’t very powerful. It seems like the technique was one of the benefits that inner disciples receive.
Zhao Hai didn’t dwell too much on comprehending the blade technique. It wasn’t the time and place for him to practice. After receiving the jade slip, he looked at Qiu Tie and said, “Let’s go to the third floor and take a look.” Qiu Tie complied and then walked to the third floor with Zhao Hai.
While walking towards the third floor, Zhao Hai asked, “Qiu Tie, what’s on the third floor?”
Qiu Tie replied, “The third floor is the trading floor. You can purchase things with your own money there. You can also sell materials. You can even employ people.”
Zhao Hai nodded and then proceeded to walk towards the third floor. The third floor was quite big. But unlike the first floor, the third floor was divided into several sections. One section was dedicated to shopping. There were jade slips, weapons, pills, and various materials placed on shelves. Marked below the items are their prices.
Another section was dedicated to purchasing. There were counters designed for cultivators to sell items to. Another section was also for employment. Naturally, it was used for hiring people.
Outside each section was a sign explicitly showing which section was which. Seeing this, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but nod. Then he led Qiu Tie towards the section selling items. Outside this section were the words ‘Shopping Section’. The first thing Zhao Hai saw when he entered were five shelves of weapons. The first shelf had blades sitting upright. Zhao Hai just swept the weapons with his eyes.
Next to the weapons were pill shelves. All pills were placed inside jade bottles. Below each bottle was the price of the pills. Zhao Hai looked and saw that the pills required contribution points to buy. He didn’t have any contribution points right now, so he couldn’t afford any of these things.
Finally, Zhao Hai arrived at the section with jade slips. There were also five shelves for jade slips. Above each jade slip was a simple introduction of what was inside. After scanning the shelves, Zhao Hai found that the contents of the jade slips were mixed. There were jade slips describing beasts, jade slips with introduction to medicine, and so on. There were no jade slips with cultivation methods inside. Moreover, these jade slips don’t need contribution points to purchase. They only need jade essences. Each jade slip wasn’t cheap. A jade slip costs 1000 jade essences at minimum.
Seeing Zhao Hai scanning the shelves, a female cultivator walked over. She first saw Qiu Tie beside Zhao Hai. Upon seeing Qiu Tie, the eyes of the female disciple lit up. She gave Zhao Hai a salute and said, “Senior Brother, is there something I can do to help?”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Hello. I want these jade slips.” Then he referred to four jade slips on the shelves.
The female disciple turned her head towards the jade slips that Zhao Hai referred to and became more certain about Zhao Hai’s status. She immediately took the jade slips and handed them over to Zhao Hai. These jade slips include a brief history of the True Spirit Realm and travel notes of a Tyrant Blade Sect Elder. This elder enjoyed the beauty of nature and would sometimes write notes about his travels. Inside the jade slip was the record of his journey around the True Spirit Realm.
The other two jade slips that Zhao Hai chose were about beasts and medicinal plants. Each were titled the Comprehensive Beast Guide and the Comprehensive Medicinal Herbs Guide, respectively.
The female disciple had been working here for a long time. Seeing the jade slips that Zhao Hai bought, she knew that Zhao Hai must be a new disciple. And seeing Qiu Tie, she was more certain about her suspicions.