Zhao Hao followed behind Jia Ren, keeping every footstep light.
The greed seeping from that retreating figure sent a chill through his chest.
Beyond the square, the path wound into shadowy depths, swept by cold winds.
Apparently finding their pace too slow, Jia Ren stopped and glanced back at Zhao Hao.
The forced smile had vanished from his face, leaving his original stiffness and indifference.
"Hold steady."
Before his words had faded, a pitch-black sword made of bone materialized beneath Jia Ren's feet.
He grabbed Zhao Hao by the back of his collar, lifted him effortlessly, and leaped onto the sword.
Whoosh!
The bone sword instantly rose from the ground and shot deeper into the sect, cutting through the air with a piercing shriek.
Fierce winds battered Zhao Hao's face, making it almost impossible to keep his eyes open.
Zhao Hao suppressed the urge to look down and quickly scanned their surroundings out of the corner of his eye.
Corpse qi soared into the sky from some mountaintops, where he could vaguely make out stiff human figures hopping about.
Blood qi shrouded some valleys. Below, what looked like an enormous pool of blood bubbled and churned.
Other peaks were enveloped in dense black mist, with ghostly wails and howls ringing out without end.
This was the Extreme Yin Sect.
A demonic domain on earth, in every sense of the word.
Zhao Hao's heart turned ice-cold.
Before long, the bone sword slowed and descended gently before a platform occupied by several black halls.
Still holding Zhao Hao by his collar, Jia Ren casually set him down, then strode into one of the halls.
"Lu Gui!"
Inside, a blue-robed disciple who had been nodding off jolted in fright and stood ramrod straight.
"D-Deacon Jia!"
Without even looking at him, Jia Ren took a blank jade slip from inside his robe, ran his fingertip across it a few times, and tossed it over.
"Register this boy as an inner sect disciple, and give him a general overview of the sect while you're at it. Make no mistakes."
With that, Jia Ren turned and left in a hurry, as though he had some terribly urgent matter to attend to.
His impatience made Zhao Hao all the more certain that this old bastard was up to no good.
The moment Jia Ren left, the atmosphere in the hall relaxed.
The disciple named Lu Gui picked up the jade slip and probed it with his divine sense.
The next instant, his expression changed.
Shock gave way to disbelief, then finally to something bordering on fawning.
He hurried around the counter and bowed a full ninety degrees to Zhao Hao, who was still standing where he had been left.
"I am Lu Gui. My respects, Senior Brother... Zhao!"
The sudden, extravagant bow left Zhao Hao at a complete loss.
"Please don't be alarmed, Senior Brother."
Lu Gui raised his head, his face wreathed in smiles. "With your heavenly spiritual root, your future is boundless. Your cultivation will inevitably surpass mine! It's my honor to pay my respects in advance as your junior brother!"
His attitude had changed faster than the turn of a page.
He was every bit as obsequious toward Zhao Hao now as he had been respectful toward Jia Ren earlier.
Was this how someone with a heavenly spiritual root was treated?
Zhao Hao marveled inwardly, but kept a trace of a ten-year-old boy's bewilderment and timidity on his face.
"I... I just got here. I don't know anything."
"Don't worry, Senior Brother! If there's anything about the sect you don't understand, just come ask me!"
Lu Gui thumped his chest in assurance, then briskly returned behind the counter to process Zhao Hao's registration, talking all the while.
"Senior Brother Zhao, you may not know this, but the realms of cultivation are divided into qi refining, foundation establishment, golden core, nascent soul, and spirit transformation."
"Our Extreme Yin Sect has three lineages: Corpse Refining, Soul Refining, and Blood Refining. Each lineage master is a mighty golden core cultivator! Our sect master, Old Ancestor Extreme Yin, has even reached golden core completion!"
At this, Zhao Hao's expression shifted slightly, and he asked cautiously, "Then... which lineage does Deacon Jia Ren belong to? And what's his cultivation?"
Lu Gui chuckled and lowered his voice. "Deacon Jia? He's a foundation establishment early stage elder of the Corpse Refining Lineage, notorious for his ruthless methods."
"But don't worry, Senior Brother. You have a heavenly spiritual root. Even Deacon Jia can't lay a hand on you without cause."
"And once you break through to the foundation establishment realm, even he will have to treat you politely!"
The Corpse Refining Lineage!
Foundation establishment early stage!
A chill shot up Zhao Hao's back.
A foundation establishment elder who specialized in refining corpses had taken his vital blood essence...
The sense of danger surged like a tide, drowning him once again.
"Senior Brother, here are your identity token, the sect's cultivation art, and this month's stipend."
"Since you haven't begun cultivating yet, I've put some things in this cloth bag. Once you've successfully begun qi refining, you'll be able to use the Storage Bag. Please keep everything safe."
Lu Gui's voice interrupted Zhao Hao's thoughts.
He handed over a cloth bag.
Zhao Hao accepted it and found quite a few things inside.
A black token, cold to the touch, with the name "Zhao Hao" engraved on it.
A thread-bound booklet with Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art written on the cover.
Two exquisite little porcelain bottles, along with a small, heavy pouch.
There was also a gray bag. Deacon Jia Ren had used a similar one not long ago, so this was presumably the Storage Bag.
Seeing his bewildered expression, Lu Gui helpfully explained:
"Senior Brother, this black token proves your identity and serves as the key to your cave abode. It can also transmit messages within a hundred li of the sect. Be sure to keep it safe."
"The Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art is our sect's basic cultivation art. Every disciple starts with it, and it also forms the foundation for the sect's more advanced arts."
"This porcelain bottle contains five Qi Gathering Pills. They speed up cultivation, and each one is worth a low-grade spirit stone!"
"The other bottle contains Inedia Pills. Taking one lets you go seven days without food or water. There's a month's supply in the bottle."
"And this," Lu Gui said, pointing at the heavy little pouch, his voice full of envy, "contains twenty low-grade spirit stones—your monthly stipend as an inner sect disciple!"
He continued, "Our sect has a strict hierarchy among its disciples. Those with four-element or five-element spiritual roots can only become menial disciples. They work themselves to the bone all month for just two low-grade spirit stones."
"Those with slightly better, three-element spiritual roots, or those who reach the fourth level of qi refining, become outer sect disciples. They get five a month."
"Only people with a heavenly spiritual root like you, Senior Brother, or senior brothers with profound cultivation, can enter the inner sect directly. You get twenty spirit stones a month, plus pills!"
"If I didn't have an elder from my clan looking after me in the sect, I never could have landed this job!"
As Zhao Hao listened, he silently tipped the contents of the cloth bag into his hand.
When his fingertips touched the cold, hard spirit stones, filled with wondrous energy, an overwhelming sense of reality struck his mind.
He really had transmigrated.
He had survived, and he had even joined a demonic sect.
"Oh, right. That little gray cloth bag is a Storage Bag. It only has a space one zhang across, but it still counts as a magical artifact."
"You don't have any cultivation yet, so you can't use spiritual sense. Once you draw qi into your body, storing things in it will make life much easier," Lu Gui added enthusiastically.
Once all the formalities were complete, Lu Gui insisted on escorting Zhao Hao to his cave abode himself.
"This way, Senior Brother."
Leading Zhao Hao along, Lu Gui deliberately took a detour past a grand black hall.
"Look, Senior Brother Zhao. That's the Lecture Hall."
"For your first three months after joining the sect, you can attend lectures for free every day from seven in the morning until one in the afternoon."
"The elders there don't just explain cultivation arts. They also teach us to read and cover basic knowledge about the cultivation world."
"Since you've just arrived, you'll definitely benefit from listening."
Zhao Hao silently committed this to memory.
He had only just transmigrated, and the original owner of this body had no memories relating to the cultivation world. The Lecture Hall was undoubtedly an excellent way for him to learn about it!
Soon, the two arrived halfway up a mountain.
A self-contained courtyard carved into the mountainside appeared before them, its entrance shimmering with faint spiritual light.
"Senior Brother, this is your cave abode."
Lu Gui stopped and pointed at the entrance, carefully teaching Zhao Hao how to use his identity token to activate and deactivate the defensive restriction there.
After seeing off the excessively enthusiastic Lu Gui, Zhao Hao held up his token and swept it forward, imitating what he had shown him.
The spiritual light at the entrance flickered, and the stone door opened in response.
He hurried inside, then used the token to close the stone door behind him.
Rumble!
The heavy stone door shut out everything beyond it.
Leaning against the cold stone door, Zhao Hao finally allowed his taut nerves to relax just a fraction.
But he dared not let his guard down. By the light of the glowing stones embedded inside, he immediately inspected the entire cave abode with painstaking care.
One stone chamber, one stone bed, and a set of stone table and stools. Apart from those, it was completely empty.
Only after confirming that nothing appeared out of the ordinary did he finally slump.
Only now did the overwhelming fear of what he had escaped, and the danger still hanging over him, truly surge into his heart.
Jia Ren's greedy gaze, the stolen drop of vital blood essence, and the terrifying "Corpse Refining Lineage" Lu Gui had mentioned—each weighed on him like a mountain, leaving him unable to breathe.
His heavenly spiritual root was a protective umbrella, but even more than that, it was a death warrant!
I have to get stronger, fast!
Driven by an intense sense of urgency, Zhao Hao immediately sat cross-legged on the stone bed and took out the Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art.
Fortunately, the original owner had attended a private school for a year and could recognize some characters.
Piecing things together through a mixture of reading and guesswork, he spent two hours finally working his way through the entire cultivation art.
Just as he finished reading it three times and roughly grasped its meaning, that familiar pale-golden screen appeared before his eyes on its own.
[Cultivation art detected: Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art (Beginner 0/100)]
Zhao Hao's heart stirred.
A wild thought surfaced in his mind once again.
If spiritual roots could be enhanced...
What about cultivation arts?