Chương 38: Chapter 37 – Hidden Depths of the Inner Sect

Zhao Ren's uncle was only 10 years older than him. Zhao Tao was the youngest of his generation and a good 11 years younger than his sister, Ren's mother. He had never really known him well because he had already joined the sect since before Ren could remember but it was always fun whenever he visited. He had guided Ren through lots of stories and tips to survive in the world of cultivators. Even initiated him to the Heavenly Sword Sect and saved him from possible conflict. So it was a shock to learn of his passing.

It felt like a pillar that had been holding him up had been severed. Even though uncle Tao had only recently broken through to the foundation establishment realm, with Ren catching up at a blistering pace, and even though they barely interacted, it had given him some measure of peace to know he had family here. It reminded Ren once more of just how dangerous the world of cultivation truly was. But as sad as he was, at the same time Ren found he felt a deep pride.

Zhao Tao had lived life on his own terms and chosen to delve into strife on his own accord. Rewards or dangers, friends or enemies, luck or misfortune, every cultivator gambled with his life constantly to fish in troubled waters. So while he would mourn his passing, Ren didn't feel lost. Hua and Ling kept him company through the night. Hua even brought out some of his extra strong wine and got them properly drunk.

They celebrated the lives of everyone who had fallen in this trial and wished them well on their journey to their next lives. When Ren finally fell asleep that night, he did so looking up at the stars he had missed these past months. The first thing Ren did after his morning cultivation was to head to the sect. There was a lot to do and very little time to do it in. He couldn't lay about moping, afraid to take the first step on a thousand mile journey.

He headed to the Hall of Learning and to its rudimentary library. He had already outgrown it but he wanted to make sure he didn't miss anything. Even the mosquito leg was meat. The library had helped him greatly in his time here but it was limited to the qi gathering realm. Books and scriptures of a higher realm were restricted to the Hall of Scripture under the watchful eye of an elder. This was done mostly for security, to prevent valuable manuals and records from being stolen or misused.

"Well when that watchful eye isn't busy with pervy books." Ren sighed to himself. After ruling out the Hall of Learning, where even this early younger disciples were moving about, Ren headed over to greet elder Yun Peng. The elder was drinking a cup of tea and unexpectedly alert. He looked up at Ren and responded to his greetings by saying, "So you made it then brat? I thought you might, a cautious lad like you." So surprised was Ren that he failed to respond, his mouth hung open like a fish.

The elder had been keeping an eye on him? But he had rarely shown interest in him before except for the one time he recommended a book. What did this mean? Before his racing thoughts could get very far, Elder Yun Peng interrupted.

"Everyone who did well in the trial is worthy of the sect's attention lad. Don't overthink it. I heard that you helped save lives by fixing formations? Not bad."

"Th… Thank you Senior! I just did what anyone would." The elder just grunted and sipped his tea.

"So, you must be here to access the upper floors?" Ren was still completely off balance with how the elder was actively engaging in conversation that he just answered simply.

"I need to find information on the things I found within the inheritance trial."

"You and every other disciple. Use your identification token to go upstairs. You'll find some jade slips with a lot of the common information." Ren bowed in gratitude and moved towards the stairs that had thus far been beyond his reach. He had been intensely curious to know what was kept in the upper floors in the days he spent sorting the first floor but didn't dare push his luck with the security formations. Now, they resonated with his inner sect token and smoothly opened to allow him entry.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. When he first saw the room beyond, he was dazed. The room was three times as tall as the lower floor and had shelves towering to the ceiling. It would take him decades to read even a small portion! There was just so much to learn. Even more amazing was how it was a hive of movement. Books, scrolls, jade slips and all kinds of storage devices were soaring back and forth in a intricate dance all by themselves!

Ren came to the realization that it was the handiwork of the elder sipping tea downstairs. And he knew at that moment that this ever-present elder guarding the Hall of Scripture was solidly in the core formation realm. To control this many objects and with such smooth control, one had to have spiritual sense of that level at the least. It chilled him a little to know that the elder who seemingly lazed around all day, could clearly sense everything that happened in the pagoda at all times.

He thanked his past self for remaining polite and respectful even when not under obvious observation. This was clearly how someone could annoy powerful cultivators and bring the heavens down on their heads without even knowing why! Spiritual sense or divine sense was the ability to sense and manipulate qi in one's surroundings. It would naturally grow stronger with cultivation and until one could eventually project it outside their bodies.

Ren didn't yet know much about spiritual sense but it provided many mysterious benefits such as the display of efficiency before his eyes. But to what end he didn't yet know. It wasn't simple sorting, that much he could tell. Clearly something was going on. But if the elder's spiritual sense could extend till here, then he didn't want to stand around prying. He found the jade slips and began examining the vast number of entries listed within. The information covered plants, animals, insects, metals and more.

With each entry he could pick up a slight hint of each item's qi which could be used to compare. The common thing amongst the entries was they shared similar attributes of blood, water, life and death found all over the subspace. Over the hours he found matches to the treasures he had found. The easiest to find had been the plants. He matched 14 of them and found clues on the other 5 to study more. They were a good mix of attributes and nothing except the lotus really stood out.

The lotuses found in the pool of blood were called 'Purifying Life Lotus'. They were spiritual plants that were best grown in places with foul qi. Usually they just refined the miasma in such places until they eventually mutated to whichever qi was dominant in the area. In the pool of blood, it had mutated into the life attribute which made it extremely valuable. Ren had already decided to sell most of the spirit plants he had found.

He needed a lot of spirit stones urgently and since a lot of these plants were from a unique subspace, he most likely would fail to nurture them. The lotus was an exception because he had managed to steal away an entire pool and the red crystal at it's bottom. The crystal was a little harder to find information on. He could only find similar materials that he could compare it to. Those materials were all nourished by a particular substance following which they released attributed qi.

It would be a fair guess to say the crystal fed on blood and emanated life attribute qi, the perfect pair to the lotus. He also took a moment to grieve for all the treasures he had inadvertently left behind because of his inexperience. There surely was another such crystal in all those pools!

"I'll just have to do better next time. But this is good. As expected, I can use this. The flesh eating moss too is worth keeping. The beast corpses and core won't sell for much as almost everybody is bound to be selling them too. In fact, for my plan to work, I would instead need to buy beast corpses. The other spirit plants should earn me about 200 spirit stones if I sell them well. That should be enough for now." With that settled, he began to hunt for information on the last two items he had found.

The information slips failed to help him identify the insect cocoons but that in turn actually made Ren more excited. Because that meant they weren't ordinary. And naturally there was no mention of the yin flame as it was absolutely not ordinary! He had had a hard time navigating the new library because it was a mix of information, historical records, records of neighboring forces, guidelines and protocols and that was just half.

The other half was all the cultivation manuals and techniques that were not up to the standard of the Heavenly Sword Sect. Either they were low quality and generic or they didn't suit the sword focused and disciplined styles of the sect.

"The best things are probably kept in the inner sect," he mused to himself.

"I wonder how profound the sects' true dao reserves are if things like the Causality of Karma are left for the outer sect." Seeing that the hour was late, Ren decided to stop for the day. He returned the next day only to face further failure in identifying the final two treasures. He did get a much better feel for how the hall was organized but it would still take a long time to fully grasp it.

Out of time for studies at the moment, he went to sleep, excited for his introduction into life in the inner sect that awaited him the next morning.