Rogue Disciple

Days turned into nights as Li Mo carried out his duties as a gatekeeping Daoist boy.

In the blink of an eye, Li Mo had been at the Advanced Study Hall for over half a month.

During this past half-month.

Whenever the Alchemist Hall's Chen Rong Aunt-Master came to lecture at the Advanced Study Hall, Li Mo would always attend, gaining a preliminary understanding of the basic knowledge required of an alchemist and the sect benefits available to one.

Within the Da Gan Kingdom, alchemists were not a rare profession.

At least not in Muzhou, a region known for its vast land, sparse population, and abundant spiritual herbs. They weren't rare, it was just that most precious spiritual herbs were bought by cultivators from wealthier prefectures.

The disciples of Lingmu Sect comprehended the Way of All Things' Primacy, the Way of Human Supremacy, through their Spirit Eye. They could study and learn any method or tool that benefited their own growth, and this included alchemy.

However, for the majority of disciples in the Advanced Study Hall, learning various spells was the primary choice.

This was an instinctive behavior.

As for the benefits of becoming an alchemist, after the graduation assessment, one could directly join the Alchemist Hall as a member of the inner sect and apply for a private spirit field within the sect, only needing to pay the required fees periodically.

Qingming Mountain was rich in spiritual energy.

According to Chen Rong, under the meticulous cultivation of alchemists, the spiritual herbs grown in these spirit fields often matured in one year to the equivalent of two years' medicinal age in the outside world.

Besides the influence of heaven and earth's spiritual energy, a significant reason was the alchemists themselves, who acted similarly to symbiotic or guardian beasts.

This was also why precious spiritual herbs in the wild were always guarded by ferocious beasts.

The meticulous care provided by these ferocious beasts not only promoted the growth of the spiritual herbs but also seemed to involve deeper convergences of heaven and earth's order, possessing the effect of yin and yang complementarity, allowing the guardians of the spiritual herbs to benefit immensely over time.

It was precisely for this reason that a sect in a small country on the border of Gan State had a primary cultivation technique specifically for nurturing spiritual herbs and accelerating their growth.

As a result.

Many so-called thousand-year-old spiritual herbs could mature in four to five hundred years in the public spirit fields of major sects. For Nascent Soul Cultivator who had a lifespan of a thousand years, this was not an impossibly long time.

And because of this.

Many alchemists with mediocre talent and low pill formation rates, after becoming alchemists, often switched to cultivating the sect's public spirit fields and meticulously tending to their private spirit fields, only needing to pay the sect's fees regularly.

This arduous, farmer-like profession held little appeal for many disciples from aristocratic families.

If disciples from aristocratic families truly wanted to refine pills, they could simply go to the Alchemist Hall, spend Spirit Stone, and commission professional alchemists. They only needed to focus on their cultivation and research in fields that truly interested them.

Some itinerant disciples who had once been full of aspirations showed disappointment upon learning this.

Li Mo, due to his past experience as a Traveling Doctor from Jimin Hall, had received a regretful admonition from his Master, Zhang Dongliang. His mother, Zhou Mei, had passed away from illness, a fact he deeply regretted. Naturally, he would not give up because of the difficulties before him, resolving to become a true alchemist.

Unfortunately, Chen Rong, Aunt-Master, only came to the Advanced Study Hall to lecture every three to four days.

This simply could not satisfy Li Mo's thirst for knowledge.

However, in a way, this was also good. Otherwise, Li Mo would have quickly exhausted his ten free auditing opportunities.

At the same time.

After more than half a month of effort, Li Mo had finally learned to circulate the Lesser Heavenly Cycle while standing!

Normally, after he and Wang Zhu finished sweeping the fallen leaves on the road in front of the Treasure Gathering Hall, they would stand quietly by the gate. It was common to not see anyone for three hours, so they naturally had to find ways to relieve the boredom.

Since Li Mo learned to circulate the Lesser Heavenly Cycle while standing, he no longer found the time spent guarding the gate unbearable.

Although the cultivation efficiency was much slower than usual, the process of cultivation always made one lose themselves in it.

Wang Zhu, on the other hand, had taken a liking to making clay figures. Whenever he had free time, he would find a piece of mud and rub it in his hands. Li Mo guessed he found inspiration from the "nose-picking" Dao. Occasionally, Wang Zhu would invite Li Mo to play his so-called "beast chess," but Li Mo was not interested.

On this day.

Someone visited the Treasure Gathering Hall late at night.

The visitor was a hurried, dust-covered man. He flashed a waist token he held at Li Mo and Wang Zhu. The two dared not stop him and let him pass.

"He's from Anbei Prefecture. He's in such a hurry, could he have discovered some treasure?"

Wang Zhu's words made Li Mo's expression stir.

However, even if a treasure was discovered, it had nothing to do with them, two gatekeeping Daoist boys. Li Mo shook his head and continued circulating the Lesser Heavenly Cycle.

Moments later.

A female cultivator emerged from the depths of the Treasure Gathering Hall.

Upon seeing her, Li Mo and Wang Zhu held their breath and stood respectfully on either side of the gate.

Just as they thought the female cultivator was about to leave, she took out a sound transmission talisman, spoke something into it, and then smiled at Wang Zhu.

"Immediately deliver this sound transmission talisman to Hall Master Qian of the Talisman Crafting Hall. Tell him I have a cultivation question I wish to consult him about and that he should come quickly."

"Yes."

Wang Zhu took the Spirit Talisman and hurried towards the Talisman Crafting Hall.

After the white-clothed woman returned to the Treasure Gathering Hall, Li Mo finally breathed a sigh of relief. This person was Qin Yue, the Deputy Hall Master of the Treasure Gathering Hall, a genuine Golden Core Stage cultivator.

Only when the area in front of the gate returned to its usual quiet did Li Mo faintly sense something was amiss.

Logically, the Treasure Gathering Hall, as a department of the Outer Sect, had a lower status than the Talisman Crafting Hall. For an Outer Sect Deputy Hall Master to seek guidance from an inner sect Hall Master for a cultivation problem, rather than going to consult him herself, seemed illogical.

Moreover, couldn't sound transmission talismans autonomously fly to friends within a short range by seeking out their spiritual energy?

This matter was truly filled with many anomalies.

"Could it be related to that person who returned in such a hurry from Anbei Prefecture before? Did they really discover some treasure there?"

Although Li Mo was puzzled, there was no one to answer him.

Fortunately, Wang Zhu returned soon after, and nothing had happened. Just as Li Mo thought no more disturbances would occur tonight, the arrival of an elder immediately put both of them on high alert!

This person had an ethereal demeanor, with long, white eyebrows.

When he reached the main gate, he stopped and looked at Li Mo and Wang Zhu with a gentle expression.

"Heh heh, I am Sima Fu, a direct disciple of the Ancestral Hall, currently serving as the acting sect leader. I've come to visit Hall Master Lü Ci. Please go inside and announce my arrival."

Li Mo and Wang Zhu were stunned.

What did the acting sect leader mean by asking them to go inside and announce him?

Their understanding of the Lingmu Sect now was vastly different from when they first entered the Enlightenment Hall just half a month ago. Ever since a large number of elite disciples, led by Quanzhi Zhenren, perished in the war with Lu Country thirty years ago, the sect's power had plummeted.

The vast Lingmu Sect was precariously supported by the sect leader, Qingling Zhenren, a Nascent Soul Cultivator, all by himself.

However, it was rumored that this sect leader's lifespan was nearing its end, thus the urgent need to cultivate someone capable of undertaking such a great responsibility from the Golden Core Stage cultivators below. Two direct disciples in the late Golden Core Stage were ultimately chosen.

These two direct disciples were Chen Shouyi, a late Golden Core Stage ancestor from the Chen family, one of the four great families, and Sima Fu, a highly respected rogue cultivator also in the late Golden Core Stage.

The Lingmu Sect was sparing no effort to help both of them advance to the Nascent Soul Realm.

While Sect Leader Qingling Zhenren was in seclusion, Chen Shouyi and Sima Fu were the acting sect leaders of the Lingmu Sect.

Now, this acting sect leader, Sima Fu, was asking two gatekeeping disciples to go in and report his arrival, instead of entering the Treasure Gathering Hall directly. This was truly rather unconventional.

"Yes."

But this was the acting sect leader's command after all. Li Mo dared not say more. After responding dutifully, he quickly entered the Treasure Gathering Hall and reported Sima Fu's visit to the hall master, Lü Ci.

"What!"

Lü Ci was greatly alarmed.

He was a decisive, short-haired elder with scars covering his forehead and cheeks. He strode out of the hall and questioned, "Why is he here?"

Li Mo's expression was one of shock and confusion.

"This disciple does not know."

"Hmph!"

Lü Ci snorted coldly. After a slight hesitation, he strode out with a disciple. Li Mo also hurried to follow. The three of them arrived at the entrance of the Treasure Gathering Hall. After a brief exchange with Sima Fu, Lü Ci led him into the inner hall.

However, the Foundation Establishment Realm disciple behind Lü Ci stopped at this moment.

After Sima Fu and Lü Ci walked away, he looked at Li Mo and Wang Zhu with a grim expression.

"What just happened? Tell me everything, from beginning to end, without omitting a single detail."

"Yes."

The two quickly recounted how the deputy hall master of the Treasure Gathering Hall, Qin Yue, had requested the delivery of a sound transmission talisman. Upon hearing this, the man's expression grew even grimmer, and he looked at Wang Zhu.

"You were the one who delivered the sound transmission talisman?"

"Yes."

Wang Zhu replied in a low voice.

The man's face was dark, and a hint of ferocity appeared in his eyes.

"Take out your waist token. As a gatekeeping disciple, you are improperly dressed. Your Spirit Stone remuneration for this month will be deducted!"

Wang Zhu stared blankly at the man, tears welling up in his eyes.

However, this Martial Uncle showed no sympathy.

"And what's wrong with your hands? Why are they so dirty? It tarnishes the reputation of the Treasure Gathering Hall. Your sect contribution for this month will be halved!"

Wang Zhu bit his lower lip, trying hard to control his emotions.

"Still crying? Disrespecting your elders is not allowed. The remaining sect contribution will also be deducted! You'll have to answer to Martial Uncle Chen when he returns!"

After the Martial Uncle from the Foundation Establishment Realm left, Wang Zhu could no longer bear the fear and grievance in his heart and burst into tears.

He didn't understand what he had done wrong.

Li Mo felt the same empathy and sadness, and couldn't help but comfort him.

But they were just two gatekeeping disciples; how could they argue with that Martial Uncle from the Foundation Establishment Realm?

"Li Mo, he's definitely bullying us because he sees we're rogue disciples with no backing in the sect. I've heard for a long time that disciples from noble families look down on us rogue disciples, sob sob."

Wang Zhu's disheveled appearance was due to running to deliver the sound transmission talisman.

As for his dirty hands, it was because he had been molding clay figures.

But they both knew that this was simply an undeserved disaster.

This punishment was sealed the moment Wang Zhu went to deliver the sound transmission talisman for Deputy Hall Master Qin Yue. Even if his clothes were neat and his hands were clean, the other party would have found a hundred excuses to punish him; these were not the real reasons.

In other words.

If the one who sent the communication talisman was Li Mo, he wouldn't have been able to escape this calamity either.

"Sigh, it seems we've been forced into the conflict between the aristocratic disciples and the rogue disciples."

Li Mo had heard about the conflict between the aristocratic disciples and rogue disciples of the Lingmu Sect from Jade Fox Wang Ying, which was nothing more than an issue of resource allocation within the sect.

However, after Li Mo joined the sect, he learned that the conflict was temporarily limited to the mid-to-high level Foundation Establishment cultivators. Golden Core cultivators, and disciples like Li Mo who had just joined the Qi Refining Stage, were not involved in the sect's resource allocation, so he didn't feel it deeply.

Now that they had personally experienced the danger, they felt incredibly wronged.

After a while.

Wang Zhu wiped away his tears and clenched his fists.

"When my cultivation is successful, I will unite the other rogue disciples and no longer let these aristocratic disciples bully us. They are all bad people!"

It should be known that the disciples in the cultivation hall were mostly around the age of tying their hair, a time of great change in their youthful minds. Their personalities often changed drastically due to minor daily events, just like Li Mo two years ago.

Li Mo sighed and nodded.

It wasn't until Xushi (7-9 PM) that their guard duty ended. With nothing else happening, they left the Treasure Gathering Hall and returned to their dormitory to rest.

Three days later.

Wang Zhu found out that the disciple who had been following Lü Ci was named Lü Song, a grand-nephew of Lü Ci.

Because of his good comprehension, Lü Song was accepted as a formal disciple by Lü Ci. Normally, besides the two Golden Core Stage hall masters, Lü Song and his family dominated the Treasure Gathering Hall.

Wang Zhu harbored resentment towards Lü Song.

However, Wang Zhu hadn't thought of a way to retaliate against Lü Song yet.

This day.

Lü Song brought an elder to the entrance of the Treasure Gathering Hall. He pointed at Wang Zhu to signal the elder.

"Uncle-Master Chen, it was this disciple on duty who secretly reported to that old thief Sima. Otherwise, if you, elder, had obtained that thousand-year-old spiritual herb and refined it into a spiritual pill with other herbs, you might have quickly surpassed that old thief Sima Fu and become the second Nascent Soul Realm cultivator of our sect."

Hearing this, Wang Zhu's face turned pale.

Without needing to guess, he knew that the old man before him was another late-stage Golden Core true disciple from the Ancestral Hall, one of the two acting sect masters, Chen Shouyi.

Li Mo also quickly lowered his head, a trace of fear arising in his heart.

It was extremely quiet in front of the gate.

Li Mo and Wang Zhu could almost hear their own heartbeats.

After a while.

Chen Shouyi said in a low voice, "He's just a Qi Refining Stage disciple. We already had an agreement that we wouldn't expand the conflict to these Qi Refining Stage disciples. You don't need to make things difficult for him anymore. That Vice Hall Master Qin is the key. I was quite puzzled why they went to great lengths to arrange for her to compete for the position of Vice Hall Master. I underestimated them. They truly are worthy of Sima Fu."

In just a few days of going out, he had missed an opportunity. Although this made the acting sect master quite angry, he had not lost his reason.

A thousand-year-old spiritual herb couldn't change destiny.

For advancing to the Nascent Soul Realm, this spiritual herb could at most play an auxiliary role. Moreover, he had also gained something during this trip, which offset the loss of this spiritual herb.

In the spiritual fields of the Lingmu Sect, there were many thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, but they were all of a single variety on a large scale.

Some special thousand-year-old spiritual herbs in the pill formulas had to be found by cultivators when they went out.

"Yes."

After Lü Song responded, he followed Chen Shouyi into the Treasure Gathering Hall.

Only then did Wang Zhu and Li Mo breathe a sigh of relief. They exchanged a look of lingering fear and both couldn't help but wish for their duty as gatekeeping Dao boys to end quickly so they could avoid Lü Song.

A few more days passed.

The daily rotation duty as gatekeeping Dao boys was about to end tomorrow.

Just as the two thought the storm had passed and Wang Zhu was prepared to accept his misfortune, Vice Hall Master Qin Yue of the Treasure Gathering Hall unexpectedly arrived at the gate again.

She was still in white, looking at the two on duty.

Seeing this, Wang Zhu and Li Mo both became apprehensive, fearing they would be caught in the crossfire again.

"Have you two been punished by the Lü family quite a bit these past few days because of my affairs?"

Li Mo felt a bit awkward. He had only been apprehensive; nothing had really happened to him.

Wang Zhu immediately started crying, feeling wronged, tears and snot bubbles bursting out. He hated Lü Song to the bone.

"Divide these twenty Spirit Stones between you two. Consider it my compensation. If anything happens in the future, you can come find me."

With that said.

The Vice Hall Master Qin Yue dropped the Spirit Stone and left, leaving Li Mo and Wang Zhu standing at the gate, looking incredulous.

Wang Zhu wiped away his tears, no longer feeling wronged. He looked at Li Mo.

"Ten Spirit Stone each. Let's split it."

"Uh, well, your losses were too great. Perhaps we should forget it. Things are fine on my end."

Although Li Mo felt a pang of reluctance, he said with great loyalty.

Although he was greedy for these Spirit Stones, which at market price were equivalent to ten taels of gold, one hundred taels of Silver, or one hundred thousand copper coins, he had suffered no real loss this time.

On the contrary, Wang Zhu had suffered tangible losses, making him feel a bit embarrassed to accept these Spirit Stones.

It's worth mentioning here that the exchange rate between Spirit Stones and Silver was calculated based on the value of refined silver and Spirit Stones, not as stipulated by the Gan State.

For cultivators, Silver was considered a commodity.

For mortals, Spirit Stones were a luxury item, even usable as decorative pieces like jade pendants, seals, ornaments, or hairpins.

"There's no need to say more."

Wang Zhu wiped away his tears, appearing much more mature.

"Li Mo, I've made up my mind. From now on, I will be an enemy to these aristocratic families! After all these days, I can see that you too have great ambitions. I hope we can cooperate in the future!"

In the end, when the mission concluded, the two evenly divided the unexpected windfall.

Li Mo could tell.

Wang Zhu was now thoroughly entangled in the vortex. He would definitely seek out that Hall Master Qin.

"As for myself, it's best to forget it. With the help of the Misty Dreamscape, I should stay as far away from the vortex of conflict as possible and focus on low-key, steady cultivation. Moreover, my goal is to become a Heaven's Mandate Bureau Inspector, to uphold justice and save the world, not to meditate and engage in factional disputes here."

Thinking this, Li Mo arrived near his dormitory and waved goodbye to Wang Zhu.