Congratulations, You Got the Job

Little C, what are you doing!!!

Lu Ping wondered if the great system had gone mad!

What was going on with Little C?

Or was Little C actually the right answer...

Pah, pah, pah...

Lu Ping hurriedly shook off the terrifying thought and chose B.

[You chose B.]

[You took another Spirit-Urging Pill, and its medicinal power dissolved.]

[Heavy Tomato User activated.]

[You guided the medicinal power around three fragile meridians. It struck the Spirit Aperture in your Dantian, opening a crack.]

[Liu Cheng waited ten breaths, then let you leave again.]

[After that, Liu Cheng did not offer any more defective Spirit-Urging Pills for sale.]

[The remaining people were no longer worth as much as a defective Spirit-Urging Pill.]

[The fourth month of secluded cultivation.]

[Of the 372 prospective disciples originally in the Ascension Hall, only 57 remained.]

[Only 26 had successfully broken through and left.]

[Among them was the Body Tempering Realm Completion disciple who had been the first to break through in the first ten days.]

[They also included three ordinary people with outstanding Spirit Roots.]

[All three had advanced straight to the Qi Refining Stage within the first three months.]

[As soon as the three disciples broke through, they were taken away.]

[Number 98, who had been beside you, also turned into a mist of blood at the end of the third month.]

[The fifth month of secluded cultivation.]

[Only eleven people remained in the Ascension Hall.]

[Over those five months, you used the high-pressure Spiritual Qi in the Ascension Hall to scour and widen your meridians inch by inch, smoothing away every hidden injury and blockage from the Body Tempering Realm.]

[Others burned Spiritual Qi like fuel, fiercely pursuing speed. You used it like sandpaper, grinding slowly in pursuit of stability.]

[Only when your meridians were as tough as steel and your Dantian as steady as a boulder did you finally begin your attempt to break through to Qi Refining.]

[You slowly circulated the Greenwood Qi Guiding Instruction.]

[Qi and Blood sank into your Dantian as Spiritual Qi pressed down along your meridians. The Spirit Aperture in your Dantian was pried open bit by bit, becoming a Qi cavity as wide as the mouth of a bowl.]

[Spiritual Qi poured in, Qi and Blood transformed, and the first wisp of spiritual power formed, sinking into the Qi cavity for storage.]

[Breakthrough successful: first level of the Qi Refining Stage.]

[Host realm advancement detected.]

[Trait equipment slots: 4/6.]

[Currently equipped: Flattery/Heavy Tomato User/Salty Fish/Bully at Home]

[Current Trait slots are not full. You must select two more.]

[Please select:...]

Lu Ping was a little surprised by the number of additional Trait slots.

Sure enough, advancing in realm could increase his Trait equipment slots.

But he had not expected the leap from the Body Tempering Realm to the Qi Refining Stage to add two at once.

Without hesitation, Lu Ping equipped Friend of Women again.

Then he hesitated for a moment between the three Traits: Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement, Artisan Spirit, and Flattery.

Flattery was very useful.

Along the road Lu Ping had traveled, Flattery had rendered tremendous service.

But now that he had Bully at Home, a divine skill for infighting, keeping Flattery would actually duplicate its function.

Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement and Artisan Spirit, on the other hand, were clearly important safeguards for survival in a place like the Greenwood Sect, which would squeeze every last coin out of him.

Well, when all was said and done, he still didn't have enough Trait slots.

Where there were people, there was a jianghu. For now, he could only fight his way through it with his fists.

Lu Ping felt his sense of security drop several levels.

Only by continuing to advance in realm could he equip more Traits.

Flattery, you'll be back!

Lu Ping unequipped Flattery and equipped Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement and Artisan Spirit.

His current equipment became:

Heavy Tomato User (S-rank)/Salty Fish (S-rank)/Bully at Home (Grade A)/Friend of Women (Grade A)/Artisan Spirit (Grade A)/Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement (Grade A)

[You officially became a cultivator.]

[For the first time, you truly felt the gap between the Qi Refining Stage and the Body Tempering Realm.]

[Your five senses had been washed by spiritual power.]

[The Spiritual Qi in the Ascension Hall, once dense enough to burst a Body Tempering martial artist, now seemed thin.]

[It could only sustain your current realm.]

[It could do almost nothing to advance your cultivation.]

[At this moment, the divide between immortals and mortals made itself felt in your meridians.]

[Mortals considered the Ascension Hall a treasure land.]

[Qi Refining cultivators felt it was merely a low-spec workstation.]

[The doors of the Ascension Hall opened, and Deacon Liu Cheng stood outside.]

[He held a new identity token.]

[Two characters were engraved on the back: Outer Sect.]

["Congratulations."]

["From today onward, you are a formal Outer Sect Disciple of the Greenwood Sect."]

[Liu Cheng stared at you for a few breaths, then tossed you the token.]

[He took out a Low-Grade Spirit Stone and handed it to you.]

["This is the reward for becoming a formal disciple."]

[You accepted the Spirit Stone and glanced at it.]

[You paused slightly. The Spirit Stone Liu Cheng had given you seemed somewhat different from the one you had obtained from the Black Tiger Gang.]

[You simply couldn't tell what the difference was.]

[Liu Cheng did not notice anything amiss. Instead, he raised a hand and tapped the Spirit Stone.]

["Now that you've reached Qi Refining, stop using those stupid Body Tempering methods."]

["Hold the Spirit Stone close to your Dantian, draw it in with your own spiritual power, and then absorb it."]

[You followed Liu Cheng's instructions and began. Spiritual Qi surged out of the Spirit Stone, entered your meridians, and flowed into your Dantian.]

[In an instant, you once again experienced the feeling you had had upon entering the Ascension Hall at the Body Tempering Realm.]

[Your Dantian was like parched earth meeting sweet rain after a long drought, conveying an almost instinctive thirst.]

[In just a few breaths, a small ring around the Low-Grade Spirit Stone had dimmed.]

[Yet your urge to absorb Spiritual Qi did not stop.]

[Half a shichen later.]

[The Spirit Stone went completely dark, its last wisp of Spiritual Qi squeezed dry by you.]

[Having lost the Spiritual Qi that sustained it, the Spirit Stone actually began to crumble, dissipating between heaven and earth.]

[You paused slightly, but Liu Cheng smiled.]

["Feel it?"]

["After reaching Qi Refining, with this little bit of Spiritual Qi in the Ascension Hall, you wouldn't make much progress in ten years."]

["Spirit Stones, pills, and cave abodes on Spirit Veins. Without any one of them, you won't get far."]

[You came back to your senses and bowed your head in salute.]

["Thank you for the guidance, Deacon."]

[Liu Cheng tossed you a thin booklet bearing the title Greenwood Art · Qi Refining Chapter.]

[You opened it to the first page.]

[The Cultivation Method did not begin by teaching you how to break through.]

[Instead, it taught you how to breathe in Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, guide it into a Spirit Blank, and condense it into a Low-Grade Spirit Stone.]

[Your movements paused slightly.]

[Spirit Stones were actually made by artificially infusing them with Spiritual Qi, not natural spirit ore!]

Lu Ping stared at those lines, and a sudden sense of absurdity welled up in him.

So the first lesson of a so-called Qi Refining Stage Cultivation Method was actually how to produce Spirit Stones.

And how could someone who had experienced Spirit Stones give up that pleasure!

Need was the real chain.

The moment you became a cultivator, you were installed at a workstation producing Spirit Stones.

[Liu Cheng saw your expression and gave a chuckle.]

["Outer Sect Disciples can exchange one Low-Grade Spirit Stone with the sect for ten Spirit Blanks."]

["Fill the Spirit Blanks with Spiritual Qi, and they become Spirit Stones."]

["Ten Spirit Blanks can theoretically become ten Low-Grade Spirit Stones."]

["One of them covers the sect's cost for the Spirit Blanks."]

["The remaining nine are yours."]

[You understood.]

[After working hard to condense ten Spirit Stones, you first had to give one to the sect.]

[And if you wanted to cultivate, you would have to spend more Spirit Stones on pills, renting a cave abode, and buying the next batch of Spirit Blanks.]

[The loop was complete.]

[On your first day as a cultivator, you received a Cultivation Method and a job.]

[You asked a question: "Deacon, could you tell this disciple how many Spirit Stones it takes to advance from the first level of Qi Refining to the second?"]

[Liu Cheng glanced at you, a faint, inscrutable smile appearing on his face.]

["For an ordinary cultivator, thirty Spirit Stones will suffice."]

[Liu Cheng led you out of the Ascension Hall.]

[Outside the hall stood another twenty-three newly promoted Outer Sect Disciples.]