Outer Sect Halls

Li Mo had lost, but since he no longer cared about his assessment results, he felt a weight lift off his shoulders.

But then Yang Guang actually beat Yang Zhiman with his martial arts and footwork, squeezing into the top 128 in this assessment. Li Mo, Ma Ling, and Niu Li couldn't help lamenting the unfairness of fate. That guy had really stumbled into a pile of dog shit.

Li Mo also noticed, however, that Yang Zhiman had already reached the mid-stage of the third level of Qi Refining, meaning his cultivation was actually higher than Yang Guang's. It seemed he was no ordinary person; it was just that cultivators in the early stages had too few methods at their disposal to contend with martial artists.

Yang Guang, meanwhile, was beaming with pride. The rewards he stood to gain this time were substantial, and he was getting closer and closer to his goal of placing 109th. If he could break into the top hundred, the rewards would reach another level.

"Luck is part of strength too!"

The three of them rolled their eyes.

What surprised Li Mo a little was that Wang Feng had lost too.

He had reached the fourth level of Qi Refining more than half a year ago, so he was probably already at the fifth level. Yet he hadn't used a single magic artifact during the fight. He certainly didn't seem like someone who couldn't afford one, which left Li Mo baffled.

So he hurried over to ask.

"Why didn't you use a magic artifact?"

At that, Zhu Yidan covered her mouth and chuckled.

Zhao Xiaonan was just as bewildered as Li Mo, while Wang Feng could only smile helplessly.

"When I went back this time, my family had prepared two magic artifacts that suited me perfectly. But Ye Xuan said she was worried I'd get too full of myself and go flirting with women everywhere. She had a relatively dangerous mission to carry out, so she took both of them."

Li Mo couldn't help smiling at that.

"Then why didn't you learn a few more powerful spells?"

Wang Feng gave him a strange smile and leaned close to his ear.

"I'm learning a dual-cultivation secret art, and Ye Xuan is practicing it too. Once we've both mastered it, we'll work together. You wouldn't understand the fun of it, heh heh."

Li Mo was dumbstruck.

"As for the Lingmu Sect's year-end assessment and graduation assessment results, they're small matters. I don't need to get a post through the Lingmu Sect anyway."

"Then how will you get a post after graduation?"

Wang Feng replied, "I just need to graduate without any trouble. Then I'll go back to Yuan City, pull a few strings, and get a post at court through the recommended-filial-and-incorruptible system. After that, I'll find a way to transfer Ye Xuan to Yuan City too and get her an idle position in the Four Seas Hall."

Recommended for filial piety and incorruptibility?

Li Mo couldn't help feeling envious.

There were five Outer Sect halls: the Special Service Hall, the Gathering Treasure Hall, the Supervision Hall, the Four Seas Hall, and the Scattered Leaves Hall.

Cultivators who joined the Special Service Hall would serve in the Gan Kingdom's Heaven's Mandate Bureau as inspectors, responsible for maintaining public order throughout the kingdom. They enjoyed official ranks and court salaries.

The Gathering Treasure Hall needed no explanation. It was responsible for managing the Lingmu Sect's market businesses in various places.

The Supervision Hall was the hall where Ye Xuan currently served. Mine development, recruiting disciples, major construction projects, resource surveys, and maintaining Flying Ship stations all fell under its purview.

By comparison, the Four Seas Hall really was an idle post.

Disciples serving in the Four Seas Hall had only one requirement: they had to stay away from Muzhou and regularly send the Lingmu Sect reports on major events in the places where they lived.

It was the Lingmu Sect's intelligence organization.

As for the last hall, the Scattered Leaves Hall, its name was a euphemism.

Disciples who entered this hall were essentially left to fend for themselves. The Lingmu Sect had judged them to have no value worth cultivating, and their status outside the sect was basically indistinguishable from that of Rogue Cultivators. Their only value was that they possessed spiritual roots.

The Four Seas Hall regularly organized matchmaking events for its unmarried disciples. Later, when the Lingmu Sect recruited new disciples, it would pay special attention to the descendants of those Scattered Leaves Hall disciples. There was no need to spend Spirit Stones testing their spiritual roots—that was all.

Among those eliminated from the Enlightenment Hall, some would join this hall.

After the third-year graduation assessment, many of those who hadn't reached the fourth level of Qi Refining would also be shoehorned into it.

"I see."

Now that Li Mo knew his worries had been needless, he said no more and took his leave.

He wondered whether there were any other disciples in this cohort like Wang Feng. But after giving it some thought, he decided there probably weren't. Even if people from outside had come to the Lingmu Sect with ulterior motives, they should have entered through Anle City, the provincial capital. In other words, they should have been in the Enlightenment class originally taught by Ding Wei.

As for Wang Feng's arrival, perhaps the Ye Family had already spoken with the sect's higher-ups long ago.

"Wait."

Li Mo mulled it over.

"The head of the Advanced Study Hall is named Ye Qing, and she's one of the Ye Family's Golden Core ancestors. There's no need for them to go around the back door!"

No wonder the independent cultivators among the higher-ups resented the four great Aristocratic Clans.

The four great clans had indeed sunk deep roots into the Lingmu Sect. Through intermarriage, they had become intertwined like the roots of ancient trees. Unless independent cultivators united, they naturally stood little chance of resisting them.

What Wang Zhu had experienced while serving as a gatekeeping attendant in the Gathering Treasure Hall was a microcosm of the struggle between the two sides.

But every sect probably had similar hidden troubles. The Lingmu Sect was no exception. The difference was that if a sect's Nascent Soul Realm cultivators were powerful enough, or the sect was prospering, these troubles could be suppressed—or there would be enough cultivation resources to go around.

But now...

The Lingmu Sect's only remaining Nascent Soul Realm cultivator had been in seclusion for ten years. And with the sect's fortunes in decline, the conflict between the clan disciples and the independent cultivators was naturally growing more and more conspicuous.

Li Mo had been at the Lingmu Sect for quite some time.

Compared with the Pingshan Society, he had come to love everything about this place and had made it his home. He truly didn't want to see the Lingmu Sect decline because of the struggle between the two sides.

"Look, Ye Yimeng is here."

At Yang Guang's words, Li Mo looked over.

The usually stern head of the Advanced Study Hall was now gazing at the young woman beside her with a doting expression.

Compared with the first time he'd seen this female cultivator more than half a year ago, Li Mo felt she had grown even more beautiful. She had gone from a bewitching beauty who could make one's bones melt to a graceful, alluring woman, while still retaining an extraordinary, otherworldly purity. After listening calmly to the head's earnest instructions, she walked toward the arena barrier.

"Tsk, she really is the luminous pearl of Qingming Mountain."

Someone nearby sighed. Quite a few people had been drawn over by Ye Yimeng.

"What luminous pearl?"

Li Mo looked puzzled.

Seeing his confusion, Yang Guang smiled and explained.

"Some people say she's not only a young lady of the Ye Family, but also the fairy of our Qingming Mountain. That's why they call her the luminous pearl of Qingming Mountain."

Li Mo suddenly understood.

Ye Yimeng was still beautiful, but the crowd's reaction wasn't as intense as it had been at the beginning. She hadn't inspired the kind of feverish adoration Zhao Huaxue had drawn, either.

Most people looked at her with simple appreciation.

For one thing, everyone had matured quite a bit since first entering the sect.

For another, among cultivators, the desire for romantic love would gradually be suppressed by the joy of comprehending the Great Dao.

But Zhao Huaxue herself also seemed to have something unusual about her.

She seemed to radiate a special, indescribable charm that left many male cultivators unable to tear themselves away.

Ye Yimeng's opponent was a second-year female disciple.

Compared with Ye Yimeng's calm composure, the other disciple seemed rather pressured. Once the match began, both sides brought out different magic artifacts, weaving an assortment of low-level spells into their fight.

Judging by Ye Yimeng's footwork, she clearly had some foundation in martial arts, though it wasn't particularly deep. And just as Yang Guang had said, her magical power was very profound.

After they had fought for a long time, when they seemed to be approaching the decisive moment, Ye Yimeng suddenly raised a hand.

"I concede."

The female cultivator she was fighting stopped, first startled, then furious with embarrassment.

"What do you mean by that?"

Ye Yimeng smiled as she replied, "It's not that I intended to go easy on you, senior sister. I'm simply good at keeping my composure, so outsiders can't see through the truth. In fact, I've already exhausted my magical power and can't go on."

After bowing, Ye Yimeng tore the Evacuation Talisman from her clothes and left the barrier.

The female cultivator on the stage looked doubtful.

Many cultivators below activated their Spirit Eyes, but none of them found anything. Li Mo frowned too. Just as he was about to believe Ye Yimeng, he suddenly noticed that the birds perched in the Divine Tree had fallen completely silent. They were unusually still. He froze for a moment. Only after Ye Yimeng left did the spirit birds in the tree become lively again.

"What's going on?"

Li Mo instinctively sensed that Ye Yimeng must be hiding a great secret.

"Whatever the secret is, I'd better keep my distance from her."

Li Mo had secrets of his own. He wasn't curious about Ye Yimeng's, and he had no desire to draw the attention of someone with such an unusual opportunity and complicated background.

In the subsequent losers' bracket, Li Mo had no choice but to concede after overexerting himself earlier, missing out on a place in the top two hundred.

On the third day.

With Yang Guang's defeat, the year-end assessment was over for their group of four.

Next came the matches between the second-year disciples. As for what place Jiang Sheng, who possessed the Three Yang Physique, would achieve, the four of them weren't particularly concerned.

So Li Mo found Chen Rong, the Martial Aunt from the Alchemy Hall, and told her he was planning to take the assessment tomorrow.

"All right. Wait for word from me tomorrow."

Li Mo then watched a few more matches from below the stage, learning quite a bit about combat.

He could tell that many first-year disciples had taken a tremendous blow from this assessment and were determined to redouble their efforts.

Compared with the contests between first- and second-year disciples, the fights between third-year disciples were truly all-out affairs. They used everything they could, without holding anything back. This graduation assessment affected not only their rewards, but also which hall they would be assigned to, what positions they might receive, and their future prospects. Naturally, they came prepared and fought to get ahead.

Li Mo feasted his eyes on the fights as well.

Suddenly,

he noticed that one of the two contestants was none other than Tian Fen, who had taught him how to summon Thunder Slaves.

His opponent, a female cultivator, seemed to be a disciple from an Aristocratic Clan. Li Mo remembered watching her the previous day; she had brought out several different magic artifacts, and her strength was no small matter.

When the match began, the two immediately clashed.

Li Mo could almost say for certain that neither of them was weaker than the Heavenly Talisman Sect cultivator who had killed Zhou Tai, the Nine Rivers Thunder Dragon. Tian Fen had fewer magic artifacts than the female cultivator, but his three flying swords formed a set, and he had an endless assortment of spells with both lightning and fire attributes. Their fight was truly thrilling.

Tian Fen was at the ninth level of Qi Refining. The female cultivator was most likely at the same level, making them evenly matched opponents.

"I wonder when I'll be able to reach this kind of strength."

Li Mo felt a little envious.

As their fight went on, both seemed to be at the end of their strength, facing a crucial moment. But then the female cultivator sneered and took out two Spirit Talismans. They summoned two mighty stone lions, which charged at Tian Fen from the left and right, their paws pounding the ground with a thunderous rumble.

Tian Fen's gaze grew slightly more serious.

Then something seemed to suddenly explode inside him. Stunning arcs of electricity burst from his body, and his aura surged in an instant. Under the female cultivator's astonished gaze, Tian Fen darted past the two stone lions. His three swords merged into one, and with a single slash, he shattered her umbrella-shaped magic artifact.

The Evacuation Talisman flashed, and the female cultivator appeared outside the barrier.

"You!"

She turned to look at Tian Fen inside the barrier, still unable to believe it.

Tian Fen dropped to one knee, gasping heavily, then greeted her with the air of a victor.

Li Mo's eyes nearly popped out of his head. Tian Fen had been so fast just now, and his explosive power had been immense.

He suddenly recalled that Tian Fen had once told him he would teach him a secret Lightning Technique if he could scrape together three hundred Spirit Stones.

Could that be the ability he had just displayed?

The more Li Mo thought about it, the more excited he became. He wished he could scrape together three hundred Spirit Stones right away.

But three hundred Spirit Stones was no small sum. With his mere fourth level of Qi Refining, it was nothing but a daydream.

After sighing, Li Mo turned and left, ready to rest early, recover his strength, and prepare for tomorrow's alchemy assessment.