Top Grade

Internal Affairs Hall.

In a side hall, Deacon Tang, who looked to be in his fifties, with graying hair and a portly build, took the two letters Yu Xiu handed him.

One was from Guo Boyan, stationed in Guiping County, Donghe Prefecture. It recorded that three Water Demons in Tantan Lake had been slain, who had slain them, and the exact strength of the three demons.

The second was written by Su Wenjin of the Inner Court's Law Enforcement Hall. It explained why Fang Jiming and eight others had died in Guiping County, confirmed that the Water Demon responsible had been slain, and stated who had killed it.

"Yu Xiu?" Deacon Tang glanced up at Yu Xiu while looking over the two letters. He also took the register of Inner Court disciples and found Yu Xiu's records.

After reading them carefully, Deacon Tang looked at Yu Xiu again. His eyes, no longer sharp and almost overly placid, were filled with astonishment.

"You've been in the Inner Court for just over two months—not even three?" Deacon Tang asked, seemingly unable to believe it. He read Yu Xiu's records once more, then forced down his surprise and returned to his businesslike calm.

"When you slew demons in Guiping County and Lushui Town, you must already have broken through the Four Ascending Dragon Passes and entered the Four Great Passes!" It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"Then what were you doing when Fang Jiming and the others went to slay demons?"

Before Yu Xiu could answer, Su Wenjin, who had been nowhere to be seen until now, pulled him aside and glared at Deacon Tang. "Are you in charge of law enforcement, or am I?

"When the Law Enforcement Hall handles a case, since when do you get to question people?"

Deacon Tang choked, then coughed twice. "Look at you, getting worked up again.

"I was only asking as a matter of procedure."

Su Wenjin sneered. "Trying to pressure Yu Xiu, then lure him over to your Powang Peak with a carrot and a stick?"

He gave a snort. "Save your little tricks. Yu Xiu isn't someone your Powang Peak gets to recruit."

'Hm?' Deacon Tang ignored Su Wenjin and studied Yu Xiu for a long while before sighing inwardly. 'He's cultivating the Dragon-Slaying Evil-Purging Sword from Dragon-Slaying Peak!'

It seemed Powang Peak truly had no chance of recruiting Yu Xiu.

'What a pity!'

The people of Dragon-Slaying Peak were certainly lucky to have secured such an uncut jade so early.

Why couldn't a stroke of luck like that have fallen to him?

When Deacon Tang turned back to Yu Xiu, his face was already full of warmth. "Congratulations, Junior Brother. From now on, you belong to the Main Sect and are a true sword cultivator of the Qingwei Sword Sect."

With a sweep of his hand, he marked Yu Xiu's sect-entry mission "Top Grade."

It was certainly worthy of a top-grade assessment. With the strength of someone at the Five Viscera stage, the first pass of the Four Great Passes, he had slain a Water Demon at the Five Elements Realm, the second pass of the Four Great Passes. Such strength was exceedingly rare.

Of course, Deacon Tang knew that Dragon-Slaying Peak had surely been pulling strings.

For one thing, Yu Xiu had learned the Dragon-Slaying Evil-Purging Sword before even joining the Main Sect. That alone meant Dragon-Slaying Peak had given him special instruction.

Yu Xiu didn't know this, but Deacon Tang did: the Dragon-Slaying Evil-Purging Sword was Dragon-Slaying Peak's supreme art. Not every disciple could learn it; only those with exceptional aptitude and talent qualified to cultivate it.

"Thank you," Yu Xiu said, then left with Su Wenjin.

"Tomorrow, you can be promoted to the Main Sect and join Dragon-Slaying Peak," Su Wenjin told him.

When Yu Xiu returned to Bamboo Cottage and was about to refine a Five Viscera Treasurelight Pill to improve his cultivation, someone knocked on the courtyard gate.

It was Zhao Hong and the others.

Compared to usual, though, the four of them seemed noticeably more dispirited.

"For some reason, Senior Brother Du has stopped taking us on missions lately. Instead, he's demanding that we hand over more than half the contribution points we earn!"

"We've also approached people from the Jade Excellence Society and the Skylark Society. They'd be happy to have us join, but if they take us on missions, we still have to give them most of our contribution points.

"According to them, this is already the most generous treatment they can offer, considering we entered the Inner Court in only three years!"

"Of course, when we go on missions with those senior brothers and sisters, we really can't help much. What I can't understand is why Senior Brother Du and the others have changed so drastically!"

The four of them had none of their usual high spirits. Their faces were all clouded with gloom.

The speakers meant nothing by it, but their words struck home with Yu Xiu. In an instant, he understood what had happened.

'As I thought, Senior Brother Du was one of Fang Jiming's people!'

Fang Jiming had used Zhao Zheng of the Flying Smoke Society to set things in motion. Liu Qingchuan, Xu Rou, and Zhao Hong had also become pieces in his game. It had all been to lure Yu Xiu out of the Inner Court.

Now that Yu Xiu had slain Fang Jiming, Senior Brother Du could no longer get anything from him. Naturally, he wouldn't keep taking Zhao Hong and the others on missions for free.

"Even if you have to hand over most of your contribution points, it's still safer to slay demons with senior brothers and sisters from a society," Yu Xiu said, trying to console them.

Put simply, those senior brothers and sisters could slay demons on their own. They had no need to bring Zhao Hong and the others along.

With their strength at the Qi Sea stage, the third Ascending Dragon pass, they couldn't help at all. If anything, they'd only be a burden.

The only reason those seniors were willing to take them along was that they saw their potential.

To be honest, rather than saying the senior brothers and sisters took most of their contribution points, it was more accurate to say they gave them a small share for free.

After all, if they didn't bring Zhao Hong and the others along, the senior brothers and sisters would keep all the contribution points from those missions.

The problem was that Zhao Hong, Xu Rou, and the others had gone on several missions with that ill-intentioned Senior Brother Du and gotten all the contribution points without giving up a thing. Now, when they went on missions, they could only take a small share, and they couldn't come to terms with it.

To put it more plainly, they had all benefited from Yu Xiu. They were bait in someone else's scheme, though they didn't know it, and they were still too weak in the Inner Court.

"Even so, it's just... sigh!" Zhao Hong sighed.

"Cultivating in the Inner Court really is hard. Who knows how many years we'll have to struggle before we can reach the Life Spring stage and enter the Main Sect!"

"By the way, Brother Yu, how has your cultivation been going lately? Are you close to breaking through to the first level of the Qi Sea stage?" Xu Rou asked.

The first level of the Qi Sea stage?

The third Ascending Dragon pass?

Yu Xiu couldn't bring himself to answer honestly. They had all entered the Inner Court on the same day, yet the four of them were still at the first level of the Qi Sea stage, the third Ascending Dragon pass, while he had already broken through the Qi Sea stage and the Life Spring stage and entered the first pass of the Four Great Passes.

He had even reached perfection in the Five Viscera stage, the first pass of the Four Great Passes. He only needed to refine some pills and make up the difference in his cultivation before he could break through the Five Viscera stage and enter the Five Elements Realm.

If he told them that, Zhao Hong and the others might suffer a complete collapse of their Dao hearts right on the spot.

"My cultivation's been going smoothly enough," Yu Xiu answered vaguely.

Then, as if out of curiosity, he changed the subject. "Who is that Senior Brother Du?"

He had conspired with Fang Jiming and tried to get Yu Xiu killed.

Before, Yu Xiu might have had to deal with him himself. But now, he was about to join Dragon-Slaying Peak in the Main Sect and become an enforcer of the sect's laws.

Put simply, Senior Brother Du had broken the rules!