Chapter 50
The main path led to two different paths in the deepest region after the layer of fog . One passage would lead to the door of outer mountain of the sect and the other would lead to the door of inner mountain of the sect .
The discipleship ceremony was held in the outer mountain . All the disciples that had just joined were considered outer disciples . The requirement for entering the inner mountain was to have a certain achievement and contribution towards the sect, and the disciple must be at least a level five Vein Opening cultivator . And if an inner disciple had accumulated sufficient contributions and reached level eight Vein Opening, he would be promoted as a deacon who would help with the affairs related to the sect .
When a deacon had reached the quota for contributions and had made a breakthrough to Harmonious Spirit realm, he would then be promoted as an elder of the sect .
There was a higher status than the elders and it was called the Four Devils of Sinister Sparrow Sect .
Most of the sects consisted of this fundamental hierarchy . The only difference between a righteous sect and evil sect was the way they counted the contribution .
For example in the righteous sect, in a month’s time, if the disciples weren’t late for his class and didn’t cause trouble in the sect, he would be able to gain one point for contribution .
As for the evil sect, the disciples would be able to gain one contribution point if he had defeated at least three seniors or juniors given a month’s time .
The righteous sect emphasized on modest and morality whereas the evil sect emphasized on competition .
The door to Outer Mountain wasn’t open yet but the people who came for the ceremony had already gathered outside . For those experts who had come to enjoy the ceremony had entered Inner Mountain to rest . They were given a warm reception by the inner disciples in person .
Ning Fan lacked the interest towards the positions of Sinister Sparrow Sect . The Dark Yin Qi was the only thing that interested him the most and as for Lan Mei, he was only partially interested in her .
The door to Outer Mountain wasn’t open for a long time and the elders who would supervise them had yet to appear, as if they were testing their patience . In the path of cultivation, there is bound to be boredom and loneliness . If they lacked the patience, they wouldn't be able to succeed in the path of cultivation .
It was a long wait . Ning Fan sat down crossing his legs . He wouldn’t just stand there and waste his time . Even without dans, he could circulate his own magical powers to raise the soul of immortal vein . The speed of soul advancement was near to zero depending on his own magical power, but it was still better than doing nothing .
Unexpectedly, the first round of the test was the examination of patience . Initially, he thought that he just needed to move a few rounds in the sect to complete the procedure of being a disciple and it wouldn’t take long . Judging from the current scenario, the ceremony would take a lot longer than he expected to finish .
He was supposed to help Lan Mei treat her illness tonight but it seemed this had to be postponed for another day . To Ning Fan, this deed was very essential . So, he had to cure her illness no matter what but not tonight .
Some of them also followed Ning Fan and sat crossing their legs on the ground and circulated their magical power to unlock their immortal vein . They were the people who appreciated and valued cultivation . But majority of them were still waiting while their faces started to look impatient .
After three days of waiting outside the door . The other Vein Opening cultivators felt very hungry for they hadn’t eaten anything during their stay here and they didn’t fast before like Ning Fan .
There were some who couldn’t take it and just left . The earliest that left were mostly the younger generations of some ordinary but wealthy families . They couldn’t take the suffering because they thought cultivation should be relaxing, enjoying and happy . They wouldn’t have thought that it would be this torturous . Naturally, they felt disappointed and left .
Another three days passed . In these six days, none of them had taken any water or rice . Their bodies had grown weaker until it was unbearable . And then some of them left .
Another three days were gone . The remaining ones outside the door was just the third of the total participants . There were roughly two hundred of them .
Except Ning Fan, most of their faces did not look pleasant .
A few elders silently observed the people outside the door via spirit sense, they then nodded .
“There is actually approximately two hundred people who pass the first examination this year, which is good as compared to last year that only had a hundred of them . The elimination of Heaven Separation Sect has given us quite a huge advantage . ” An elder in yellow robe smiled .
“En, it seems we will receive many elite new disciples this time . Especially that one who sat at the corner, the one who is in white clothes and black cloak, he has sat there for nine days without moving . He had a very steady and firm focus which is most suitable in the cultivation of evil because hastiness in evil cultivation will only lead to being possessed or enchanted . Thus, the most important thing was the firmness of the mind . ”
An elder in black robe gently stroke his beard and praised Ning Fan .
These elders were merely Harmonious Spirit cultivators thus they couldn’t discern Ning Fan’s cultivation grade, or else they would be shocked .
Among the elders was a youth in black robe . He looked at Ning Fan with unnatural gaze .
“Young master of Seven Apricot – Ning Fan . You have come…”
This youth in black robe was the disciple of Yan Bai, otherwise known as one of the Four Devils ‘Black Tribute’ . He was the youth named Yan Zhuiyun who was chased out of Mo Clan .
Currently, he had become an elder after finishing his quest . However, Ning Fan was still a frightening person that had been imprinted in his heart .
What the elders would normally do was ‘snatching talent,’ which meant they would pick the qualified and talented new disciple as their subordinate . Clearly, these few Harmonious Spirit elders had fixed their eyes on Ning Fan . The most possible scenario was these old men would really start snatching him once the examinations were over .
Yan Zhuiyun chuckled silently . He never thought of wanting Ning Fan to become his subordinate because that youth’s too scary . He was afraid that there were no elders here that was on par with him .
“This group of old men are dreaming irrationally . I assume their eyes will drop out after the examinations . ”
After the filtering process of nine days, a few deacons of level eight Vein Opening opened the door when the sun went down .
There were certain grumble in their hearts for being left here to suffer the hunger and cold for nine days straight . However, after realizing the scary cultivation grade of the deacons, they decided to keep their mouths shut . They stood up respectfully and patted their buttocks to dust off the dirt . They shook their heads while they found out about the condition of their immortal veins .
One of them only raised one in tenth of an immortal vein in these nine days . In other words, his cultivation speed only allowed him to raise the spirit of one immortal vein .
To Ning Fan who had raised thirty immortal veins, it was really as slow as a tortoise .
“After entering the sect, I will use the herbs given by them to concoct some dans . But I can only concoct ‘Burning Spirit Dan,’ which is far more inferior compared to Raising Spirit Dan . But, it is not possible to concoct Raising Spirit Dan due to lacking of necessary herbs . I will also suffer some kind of pain after consuming Burning Spirit Dan but it seems I don’t have other choices . ”
While Ning Fan was muttering to himself, the rest of them had entered the Outer Mountain led by the few deacons . Ning Fan quickly joined in the group with an emotionless face .
The first examination was over . But, there would be a second examination tomorrow . All of them only had one night to rest .
Every thatched cottage was occupied with ten people . Ning Fan was alone sitting on the ground, continuing to raise the spirit of the immortal veins . The other nine in the same cottage with him had left for dinner in the dining area .
When all of them had left, Ning Fan suddenly stood up . The hair tie that was a gold ranked Spirit Equipment glittered with green light as he casted body concealing art .
Ning Fan didn’t feel tired after nine days of meditating . So he would take the opportunity when the others were not around to find out about the whereabouts of the Dark Yin Qi .
The name of Dark Yin Qi itself indicated its function . It could only be formed from the coldest place . Ning Fan cautiously casted his spirit sense to find a place which is the coldest but no place of such was found .
Though there were some cold area except the chilling fog that didn’t dissipate throughout the year, it was still far away from the extent of extreme cold .
If it wasn’t in Outer Mountain, could it be in the Inner Mountain?
Ning Fan passed through many buildings and headed to the direction of Inner Mountain . He ignored the guards that were patrolling in the night .
With the gold ranked Spirit Equipment, not even Gold Core experts could detect him . No one could see him outside in the Outer Mountain . He continued until he saw a yellow jade door as large as three hundred meters .
The area inside the yellow jade door was the Inner Mountain . As he was standing outside the door, some kind of movement was stirred up from the Yin Yang Locket in his dantian .
“What is the thing here has attracted the Yin Yang Locket?”
Ning Fan’s gaze was solemn . He then stepped into the doorway . Suddenly, a layer of grey light glittered, and at the same time, produced a piercing sparrow sound that resounded throughout the entire Sinister Sparrow Sect . Ning Fan’s body concealing art couldn’t get past the formation .
His facial expression changed . He didn’t expect that there was such strange formation in the Inner Mountain . He couldn’t see such formation by his current cultivation grade .
It wasn’t because of the rank of this spirit equipment was too high . The formation was too natural in the aspect that it had completely integrated with heaven and earth, which also told him why he couldn’t see such formation existed before him . The eye of the formation wouldn’t be extremely difficult to find . So the only way for him to destroy this formation was to attack it forcefully .
He tried to think about the reason for destroying this formation and found none because he didn’t nurse any vengeance or feud against Sinister Sparrow Sect .
“It seems like I can’t enter the Inner Mountain for the time being . I still don’t know whether Dark Yin Qi is in there . Never mind, I will find out about it next time . ”
Not far away from the door, the experts of the sect rushed over to see who had trespassed into Inner Mountain . Ning Fan knew he couldn’t stay long, so he had stepped into icy rainbow and was gone .
…
In the middle of the night outside the cottage, sound of some insects chirping could be heard . Ning Fan was sitting crossed legs in the cottage while a few youths were attracted in their gossip .
“Did you hear about it? Someone tried to trespass into Inner Mountain in the evening . It has alerted many experts and elders, including a Harmonious Spirit elder . But the trespasser wasn’t caught . ”
“I have no idea who is this super audacious man . He actually dared to trespass the Inner Mountain . I heard that that person fled towards our accommodation area . Hey, Ning Fan, have you seen the face of the Harmonious Spirit elder?”
“No . ” Ning Fan replied in a plain tone .
“Humph! What kind of tone is that?” The youth who asked obviously wasn’t pleased with Ning Fan’s unapproachable tone . He knitted his eyebrows and decided not to care about him anymore .
“As a matter of fact, we are going into ‘Demon Sinister Forest’ for our second examination tomorrow . I heard that we are required to stay in the forest for up to a month . ”
“What, Demons Sinister Forest? The place where Sinister Sparrow Sect dump the corpse of their enemies? Some say there are a lot of powerful dark and sinister ghosts there . Even a level ten Vein Opening expert will die going into that forest . ”
“Don’t worry about it . The highest cultivation grade among us is level four Vein Opening and the lowest is zero . I don’t think Sinister Sparrow Sect will ask us to go so deep into that forest . ”
“At the time, the sect will give us a contribution task that requires us to either kill the ghosts or harvest some herbs but I’m not sure what’s the point behind all this is . ”
They were engaged in their discussion . Ning Fan’s eyes twitched as the words fell into his ears .
‘Demon Sinister Forest… a place where ghosts linger . It must be a very dark and cold place but I still can’t confirm that Dark Yin Qi will be there . I have to search it whether it is there or not . ”
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