Chương 27: Martial Aunt

"Seriously? Even though that kid got to enter our sect due to senior Sylvia, he now wants half the monster core his father killed for?"

"If Elder Zyran had really given him the other half before passing, it would only show his good faith if he handed that part over to senior sister Sylvia."

"What can you expect from him, huh? I heard he hails from those disgusting slums." The whispering around Nero intensified. He'd expected such reactions. Give half the money as a show of good faith? Dawg, you know how much half of that core is worth? Keep your good faith and just hand over the money! It was common knowledge among the populace what cultivation actually cost. Calming incense, spirit stones, aptitude potions, and the better techniques. Everything cost money!

If he was gonna be a disciple for real, he wasn't about to half-ass his way through this. Since coming here, his goal had been to make the most of what this sect gave him access to; shows of good faith and such frivolous stuff could wait until he got stronger. Thus, although the words of strangers still stung, he tried to ignore them and focus on the task at hand instead. The inner disciple behind the desk eyed him for a moment before heaving a sigh.

"Well, wait here then. First let me go confirm this with the owner of the other half, sister Sylvia." Nero kept his polite, respectful smile as he said, "Sure, go ahead." The man went into a small separate room at the far back of the reception area, marked with a plaque that read "Communication Room." After a minute, he re-emerged.

"Okay, the sister has given the go-ahead." He then took the core, weighed it on a scale, and placed it on a disc-shaped device carved with mystical letters. The letters turned green once the core was set down. He tapped several keys on what seemed like a calculator, then slid it forward.

"It's priced at roughly 5 gold crowns. Since half of it was going to be transferred to sister Sylvia, you'd get 2 gold crowns and five silver marks." He added, "You can also choose to exchange your payment for contribution points. In that case, you'd get approximately twenty-five contribution points, since a silver mark is worth one contribution point." Nero nodded at the senior and cupped his fists.

"This junior would be more than happy to exchange them for contribution points. But not the full payment. I want two silver marks; you can convert the rest into contribution points." The senior nodded, placed his ID over another array, and after fiddling with the runes, handed it back to him, along with a silver mark set beside the card.

"The rest of the money will be transferred to sister Sylvia shortly, and yours has already been deposited to your ID." Nero pocketed the coins and card, bowed to the senior, and quickly left the desk. People there were still yapping about good conduct and how shameless he was. His next destination after leaving the hall was, naturally, his daytime chore assignment, which meant heading back to the elder who assigned daily duties at the sect.

So he made his way to the elder's office on the right side of the Grand Hall. He found the elder sitting at his desk, scribbling in a notebook. As Nero entered with a bow, the elder retrieved another notebook from the lower section of the desk—a hefty, thick, leather-bound book.

"Nero, your daily duties from now on shall be tending the garden. There are approximately fifty varieties of herbs that need care. Senior outer disciple Chang, who's responsible for both gardens, will show you how best to take care of them." He took out a pen and scribbled Nero's name and details onto the roster.

"Your monthly stipend will be 2 spirit stones. Work hard. You may go outside to do other work for exactly five hours a day, but only after completing your duties and getting approval from your supervisor, Disciple Chang. You may also borrow half your salary in advance from the transaction desk on the left side of the Grand Hall." He set down the pen and closed the book.

"Now you may leave." If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Nero cupped his fists again and politely left the room. He then went back to the transaction desk and withdrew his advance payment of one spirit stone immediately. The stone was cold to the touch, oval-shaped, and nearly milky white in color, its length reaching the span of his palm. Pocketing the stone, he headed for the garden.

There, he met disciple Chang, who showed him how to water the plants, where to apply fertilizer, and how to prune branches and pull weeds, step by step. The entire first day was spent under senior disciple Chang's guidance. By the time the sun went down and his duties ended, he returned to his cottage. He could hear laughter coming from the room to his left, likely the other outer disciples chatting after work. He mostly ignored the urge to go introduce himself and instead went straight to the bathroom to wash up.

Afterward, he went inside his room with the loaf of bread and bananas he'd picked up from the sect kitchen. They'd cost him a single copper.

"Good thing it's subsidized, otherwise they'd cost two whole pieces of copper." Also, it had cost less with actual money. If he was using contribution points for it. He'd have to buy a whole month's food subscription at once, that wasn't the kind of upfront cost he was willing to pay. He sat cross-legged on the bed and ate his fill of bread and banana until he could eat no more. Then he lay down to rest his muscles. The work hadn't been physically taxing at all, nothing compared to what he was used to.

"But man, am I mentally exhausted," he breathed.

"Listening to instructions is hard." Pour this much water on that ginseng. Bury the fertilizer around the roots of that rose bush. Sprinkle fertilizer over that other one instead. Pull this kind of weed from around specific jasmine plants. And so on. Even though the number of plants he had to tend was limited, the process of caring for them felt nearly endless.

On day one, Nero felt like his brain was jam-packed with information, and he was certain he'd forget a good chunk of it by tomorrow—which meant asking senior Chang for help again, which meant sitting through the same tough lesson on plant care once more. Still, he had to admit it was good to have a thorough instructor like senior Chang.

If he'd instead gotten some lazy bum who barely bothered to teach him properly, and he ended up killing off a few plants by mistake, he'd surely get kicked, chided, and fined by the elder—though he doubted he'd actually get expelled. From what he'd heard, Sylvia had already ascended the ranks, now a direct disciple in training under the Great Daoist Master. Not quite a full-fledged direct disciple with all the authority that entailed, but close enough.

Once she completed her training and reached the Silver Core stage, she'd be promoted to an official direct disciple and sent to the City of Silver.

"Ascending to heaven in one step, huh," Nero murmured to himself, closing his eyes to rest.

"Hey, did you hear? Senior Martial Aunt Sylvia is already being taught by Great Daoist Master Asura!" The voice of his roommates carried from the room to his left.

"Yeah, I heard she's getting instruction through the long-distance communication array."

"Damn, doesn't running one of those for even an hour cost a whole spirit stone? Talented people really do get treated differently by the sect."

"As if that's a secret."

"Yo, what do you think of her supposed savior? That guy in the room next to ours."

"Bunch of horseshit. He's probably just some bum relative of hers who used her rise in status to wiggle his way in. A damned parasite."

"No wonder—heard he's only got yellow-grade talent, not even profound-grade like ours."

"There's a reason I don't talk to him. Don't want that misfortune rubbing off on me." Nero heaved a sigh at those wonderful remarks and chose to take a nap until they quieted down. It was only during the night that he woke up, washed his face, and got back to cultivating his meditation technique alongside the other one. He kept the spirit stone by the bed, with no plans to use it anytime soon. After spending nearly twenty minutes getting into the right mindset, he began the breathing exercises.

The night stretched on, and the other disciples had already gone to sleep—they seemed to prefer cultivating in the early morning. The sound of crickets and the fragrance of jasmine drifted through the wind and filled his room. He'd left the back windows open for ventilation, and the sweet, rich, almost intoxicating scent spread thick through the air. The atmosphere here was a dozen times better than what he'd had back at his house in the alley. No foul smell of cigarettes or trash.

Time passed with the wind, and before Nero realized it, five hours had gone by. He finally ended his longest session yet and opened the panel of [The Endless Path] to check his progress.