A Pennyless Man Couldn't Take a Step! (Please Give Me a Favorite and a Recommendation Ticket, Thanks!)

A Pennyless Man Couldn't Take a Step! (Please Give Me a Favorite + Recommendation Ticket, Thanks!)

At that moment, the system stopped cultivating. "Ding-dong! This cultivation session is complete. Thank you for using the Intelligent Cultivation System. One-Click Automation—ascension without a worry! We look forward to hearing your feedback on your cultivation experience. If you're satisfied, please give us a five-star review!"

Pei Ling had no time to leave a review. He moved his arms and legs, gave Aversion to Life Saber a flourish, and danced through the entire saber technique from beginning to end. He couldn't help being astonished: his body was now incredibly familiar with Aversion to Life Saber, as if it were part of him. Once his hand closed around the hilt, every reaction came naturally, without him needing to think about it.

"Good job, system!" Pei Ling let out a breath and gripped Aversion to Life Saber. At last, he felt a little more secure. Then he promptly gave the system a two-star bad review. Looking over the wreckage around him, he began to consider how to clean up the mess.

Thirty thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones... No, that wasn't how he should calculate it.

All three of them had backers in the sect. The fine would probably be calculated at the maximum of ninety thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones.

They might even simply kill him and pay the sect a fine afterward.

So the most urgent thing was to leave Chongming Sect as soon as possible!

Otherwise, who knew if some wealthy relative might show up and send him on his way?

The problem was that Pei Ling had only just arrived at Chongming Sect, and he'd come aboard the Xuan Gu Ling Yin Boat, which had docked directly at Zhan Chen Platform. He didn't even know which way to go to get out of the sect.

At that thought, Pei Ling took the Outer Sect disciple robes he hadn't had a chance to change into from his Storage Pouch. He changed out of his bloodstained robe, then tore his inner garment into strips and wrapped Aversion to Life Saber from end to end, to avoid stirring up any more trouble.

He tidied the room roughly, making sure nothing looked amiss from outside the courtyard. Then he took the three men's Storage Pouches and Nameplates and left. After activating the courtyard's ward, he went to the dense woods behind the mountain and found a spot thick with lush grass and trees. He buried the items beneath a clump of bushes, covered them up, and memorized the location. Only then did he orient himself and go find Pei Hong Nian.

As Pei Hong Nian had said the day before, Pei Ling found his residence without any trouble.

But his cousin clearly did everything Sun Yinglan told him to. He wouldn't even open the door and let Pei Ling in. "Didn't you hear what Junior Sister Yinglan said yesterday? Don't come looking for me anymore! Junior Sister Yinglan won't be happy if she sees you."

What a lovesick fool... Pei Ling was speechless, but he had no other choice for the moment. "Cousin, I acted impulsively yesterday. I thought it over afterward, and Senior Sister Sun might become my cousin-in-law someday. It really wasn't right of me to treat her that way. But I've only just arrived at the Sacred Sect, and I don't have a single Spirit Stone to my name. It's not easy to make amends to Senior Sister Sun. How about you tell me how to leave the sect? I'll go outside and find something a girl like her would enjoy."

"Leave the sect?" Hearing that this was for Sun Yinglan's sake, Pei Hong Nian's expression softened. But after thinking it over, he shook his head. "You can't leave."

Pei Ling's heart sank. "Why not? I didn't see anything in the Sect Rules saying Outer Sect disciples weren't allowed to leave."

"The sect doesn't restrict Outer Sect disciples from leaving. Otherwise, how did I get back before?" Pei Hong Nian said. "The problem is, the sect is enormous. It's a full thousand li from Huaiyin Peak to the mountain gate. When you arrived, the Xuan Gu Ling Yin Boat got you here in no time. Now, the cheapest option is an Yin Corpse Cloud, and renting one for a single trip costs ten Low-grade Spirit Stones. You don't have a single Spirit Stone, so how are you supposed to go?"

Pei Ling nearly spat blood. "Then what am I supposed to do? Stay on Huaiyin Peak for the rest of my life?"

They said a penniless man couldn't take a step, and damn if it wasn't true!

"Why are you so determined to leave the sect?" Pei Hong Nian shot back. "There are plenty of Outer Sect disciples who are flat broke. Do you think the sect hasn't made arrangements for that? The Miscellaneous Affairs Department behind the Affairs Hall posts all kinds of tasks every day. Go see if there's anything suitable and take it on."

Pei Ling ventured, "Then could you lend me ten Low-grade Spirit Stones, cousin? I'll pay you back in a little while."

Pei Hong Nian shook his head without a moment's hesitation. "I gave all my Spirit Stones to Junior Sister Yinglan. Where would I get any extra to lend you?"

"..." Pei Ling didn't want to say another word to this lovesick fool. He turned and left.

He hurried to the Miscellaneous Affairs Department. It was a sprawling hall, packed with people and buzzing with activity. Before he even went inside, he heard a constant stream of shouts: teams recruiting members, people offering their skills and asking for work, people looking for cultivators to handle troublesome jobs, and haggling... It was as noisy as a market.

After a great deal of effort, Pei Ling squeezed his way inside. The place was extremely bare. There was nothing in sight but four walls covered in the veins of magic arrays, with a ring of densely packed holes at about waist height.

Pei Ling watched for a while, then copied the others and inserted his Nameplate into one of the empty holes.

A cloud of Black Mist immediately appeared on the wall in front of him, slowly transforming into lines of text:

The first task was to cultivate a kind of spirit plant called Ghost Face Grass. It would take three months and paid five Low-grade Spirit Stones... Pei Ling gave up before he'd even finished reading.

The second was to deliver a letter. Applicants needed their own mount. It would take a month and paid three Low-grade Spirit Stones... He gave up on that one, too.

The third was to care for Spirit Beasts, mainly by handling their waste and other such things. It would take a month. The "payment"? The waste and slime he'd have to deal with... Get lost!

The fourth was an apprenticeship at Weapon Forging Peak. They wanted someone diligent, hardworking, and able to endure hardship, preferably with some talent; those with a good foundation in body refinement would have priority. Hm, no Spirit Stones, but he could watch an Inner Sect senior brother forge weapons? Screw that!

The tasks that followed were much of a muchness. Pei Ling frowned as he read them. He didn't know how popular Li Siguan and the other two had been, or how long it would take for anyone to discover they were dead. But considering the backing they had, every moment he stayed in the sect was agony.

If he had ten Spirit Stones, he would've rented an Yin Corpse Cloud and run for it already.

He patiently read for a while longer, and at last found a task with a decent reward: "Investigate the truth behind the sudden deaths of every member of the Han Family Manor. Deadline: one month. Reward: eight hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones."

His heart leaped. He was about to accept it without a second thought when he noticed the sentence that followed: "This task is open only to disciples at the sixth level of Qi Refining or above."

Pei Ling: "..."

He looked at the other tasks and found that the better-paying ones—especially those that had to be completed outside the sect—all required at least the sixth level of Qi Refining.

Otherwise, a team had to include at least one person at the sixth level of Qi Refining.

At that, Pei Ling promptly pulled out his Nameplate and began circling the hall, trying to join a team that had taken a task outside the sect.

It didn't matter whether the team was any good. What mattered was that they could take him out of the sect—and the sooner, the better!

With that in mind, he quickly walked up to a disciple shouting loudly that he'd accepted a task to clear out some demon beasts and was looking for two more fellow disciples before setting off. "Senior Brother, I'd like to join your team!"