On that same day, the Wind Image Society, where Fang Jiming belonged; the Flying Smoke Society, where Zhao Zheng and Qin Shu belonged; and the Zhiyan Society, where Du Xin belonged, arrived one after another.
They had come for no other reason than to apologize to Yu Xiu and verbally distance themselves from Fang Jiming, Zhao Zheng, Du Xin, and the others.
"Fang Jiming is an extremely selfish man. He puts family above all else and has no sense of the bigger picture. Our Wind Image Society had already stripped him of his position as Inner Court president.
"We never expected that, a year later, he would still dare to go mad and harm his fellow disciples. Though it was his personal conduct, our Wind Image Society is deeply pained by it!"
They had nothing else suitable to give, so they offered Yu Xiu a thousand contribution points.
"Zhao Zheng, Qin Shu, and the others are crooked in their ways. They colluded with Fang Jiming to harm their fellow disciples, and our Flying Smoke Society expelled them long ago. This is our society's failure to recognize people for what they are!"
They offered a thousand contribution points.
"Du Xin is a rotten apple, a black sheep who secretly colluded with Fang Jiming. Our Zhiyan Society knew nothing about this; it was entirely his personal conduct. Our society will never shield someone with such sinister intentions!"
The people from the Zhiyan Society were outraged and likewise presented a thousand contribution points.
After they left, one of the Zhiyan Society's members asked in confusion, "President, why are we being so humble and apologizing to Senior Brother Yu when he's about to enter the Main Sect?
"He may be a genius, but that doesn't mean he can ignore reason. Besides, Du Xin alone was at fault. What does that have to do with our Zhiyan Society?"
The Zhiyan Society's president looked as if he'd swallowed a dead fly. "If he were just an ordinary genius, then whether he became one of the Ten Heroes or one of the Ten True Seeds after entering the Main Sect, it naturally wouldn't have anything to do with us.
"Main Sect experts wouldn't stoop to making trouble for Inner Court disciples like us, nor could they meddle in our affairs. The sect wouldn't allow it, either.
"But the trouble is, he's most likely going to Dragon-Slaying Peak, the sect's enforcer of its laws. Perhaps he can't manage people in the Main Sect yet, but can't he manage the Inner Court?
"Can you guarantee you'll never make a little mistake in the Inner Court?
"If he doesn't handle it, will the Inner Court Law Enforcement Hall?
"Do you think the Inner Court Law Enforcement Hall has no record of that idiot Du Xin's foolish conduct?
"If Senior Brother Yu so much as mentions that the Zhiyan Society should be dealt with impartially if it gets into trouble in the future, there'll be no need for him to show up in person. The Inner Court Law Enforcement Hall alone will make sure our Zhiyan Society suffers for it!
"You might give him this apology and he might not remember it, but if you don't, he definitely will!"
The Zhiyan Society disciple grew more and more alarmed as he listened. Before he knew it, cold sweat had soaked his back. Who in either of the Inner Court's two branches didn't know the Law Enforcement Hall's reputation?
Who didn't make a few small mistakes?
He couldn't speak for anyone else, but he himself had gotten plenty of benefits from newly arrived Inner Court disciples!
It wasn't that he'd forced them to give him anything; they'd insisted on offering it. The problem was, he'd accepted it!
Normally, the Law Enforcement Hall wouldn't bother with this sort of thing—but that didn't mean it couldn't!
No wonder the presidents of the Wind Image Society and the Flying Smoke Society had rushed to apologize even faster than our own president!
They knew to be afraid!
"The Flying Smoke Society, the Zhiyan Society, the Wind Image Society." Yu Xiu shook his head to himself. "Am I really the sort of person to bear a grudge over the slightest offense?"
He put away his identity plaque, now loaded with an extra three thousand contribution points.
Well, he still had to go tell the Inner Court Law Enforcement Hall about this, so the fellows there wouldn't give them trouble later!
Come to think of it, joining Dragon-Slaying Peak sounded pretty good!
He'd just received three thousand contribution points, and he still had several spiritual items on hand that could probably fetch another two or three thousand. That would be enough to keep cultivating for a while after he entered the Main Sect.
He sat down where he was and began refining pills to raise his cultivation.
His realm had already reached perfection in the Five Viscera realm, the first of the Four Great Passes, but his true-qi cultivation was still at the second level of the Five Viscera realm.
That couldn't be helped. His comprehension was too high: he'd mastered all the cultivation techniques for the Five Viscera realm in half a day, but building up cultivation took time. There was no way to do it all at once.
He estimated that refining pills every day to build up his cultivation would take about a month before it caught up with his realm.
"What's the solution to pill toxicity?" Yu Xiu fell into thought.
Other people could cultivate for five days on one Five Viscera Treasure Light Pill, but he used up almost one a day. He couldn't believe that taking them nonstop wouldn't cause pill toxicity to build up.
Can't find it by searching the book title? Try searching for the author instead; maybe it was just renamed!
There were generally three ways to get rid of pill toxicity.
The most common method was to refine it with true qi and force it out of the body. This method was the slowest and took the most time.
That was because sword-cultivation techniques excelled at killing, but weren't good at detoxifying or healing injuries, making them terribly inefficient.
The second method was to cultivate secret techniques for neutralizing and expelling poison. This method worked very well, but was rather troublesome, since it required knowledge of medicine and the properties of different herbs in order to come up with a targeted solution. It was therefore efficient and fast.
The third method was to use the vitality in the Life Spring to devour the pill toxicity. Put simply, it was using one's life to take on the toxicity. It was the fastest method, and it worked every time—but its drawback was obvious, too. It cost you your life.
Yu Xiu didn't think twice. He'd already made his choice.
What are you rambling on about? Tell it to my more than 2,800 years of life expectancy!
His Sword Heart stirred and illuminated his body, revealing where the pill toxicity lay. The moment he spotted even the slightest trace of it, the vast vitality in his Life Spring surged forth and devoured it.
Yu Xiu didn't care in the slightest about the tiny loss of vitality.
Afterward, Yu Xiu carefully checked and found that devouring all the pill toxicity had cost him about two months of life.
That was nothing. He'd lose more life than that just by casually practicing a basic cultivation technique. He could do it once a day without a problem.
The next day.
When Yu Xiu stepped out of Bamboo Cottage, ready to head to Bright Sword Hall, he discovered that the Inner Court was unusually noisy today.
He heard someone say, "Zhu Wenjiu, Feng Zhiyuan, and Zhang Yundu are going to Bright Sword Hall to choose their peaks. Hurry over and take a look!"
"All three are peerless geniuses. They reached the Four Great Passes in just three years and crossed both the Inner and Outer Courts. They're bound to put on quite a show."
"Heh, we're all just here to find patterns and learn from their experience. Why bother with pretty words?"
Are those three choosing their peaks today, too? Yu Xiu thought it was quite a coincidence.
But he didn't need to choose a peak. He'd already practiced the Dragon-Slaying Evil-Purging Sword, which meant he already belonged to Dragon-Slaying Peak.
When he reached Bright Sword Hall halfway up the mountain, he saw that it was nearly packed with Inner Court disciples.
Fortunately, he was there to enter the Main Sect, so he was using a different entrance from those Inner Court disciples who'd come to watch.
There were five or six disciples ahead of him, three of whom stood out the most: Zhu Wenjiu, Feng Zhiyuan, and Zhang Yundu.
Feng Zhiyuan had a round face and looked a little chubby. He seemed especially friendly.
Zhang Yundu was tall and thin. Zhu Wenjiu was young, but unkempt; stubble had already appeared along his jaw, making him look the most mature.
The other three—two women and a man—were strangers to him.
After a while, five stewards finally emerged from Bright Sword Hall, unhurriedly. Each represented one of the sect's five main peaks: Powang Peak and Jinding Peak, the two main peaks of the Sword-in-Hand lineage; Dragon-Slaying Peak; Tianque Peak, the sect master's lineage; and Wen Dao Peak, which specialized in the cultivation techniques and sword arts of the Sword-in-Hand lineage.
The steward from Tianque Peak took out a roster, then looked at the young woman at the front of the line. "Meng Ruizhu, step forward."
He pointed to a Bronze Mirror as tall as a person and motioned for Meng Ruizhu to approach.
Meng Ruizhu saluted and did as instructed, taking her place in front of the Bronze Mirror. A faint light rippled across its surface, and a wisp of divine essence seemed to drift from her body and enter the mirror.
Before long, mountains, rivers, and countless demons appeared across the mirror's surface. Another Meng Ruizhu appeared among them, battling the demons.
Even after the Meng Ruizhu in the mirror vanished, the countless demons still seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance. The scene disappeared, and words appeared across the Bronze Mirror.
"Killed sixteen Five Viscera realm demons"
"True qi: (C, middle)"
"Swordsmanship: (C, lower)"
The image on the Bronze Mirror appeared again, this time showing a stone stele. Another Meng Ruizhu appeared with it.
Meng Ruizhu stood before the stele for a long while. At last, she swung her sword, and the image disappeared.
Words appeared on the Bronze Mirror once more.
"Before the Sword-Worshiping Stone, comprehended one sword, whose power rivaled that of an ordinary Life Spring sword art"
"Comprehension: (C, lower)"
Before you continue