Li Changde

Arriving at the Merit Affairs Hall, Dong Lin found the duty officer and handled the various formalities for his promotion to the inner sect.

First, he exchanged his sect jade token. The light cyan token was replaced with a dark cyan one, its texture noticeably warmer and finer. It even seemed to possess a faint effect of tempering the spirit.

"Keep this jade token safe. It is an Inner Sect Jade Token, a mystic artifact of the Profound rank. Unlike the entry-level mystic artifacts used by outer sect disciples, Inner Sect Jade Tokens are uniformly crafted by artifact refiners of the Profound rank or above. Carrying one on your person can slowly temper your spiritual power."

"Thank you for explaining, Deacon."

"You're welcome. It has been years since the sect last accepted a specially recruited inner sect disciple.

"Let me introduce myself. I am Li Changde, a deacon of the Merit Affairs Hall.

"I am Elder Xuan's eldest disciple. Master asked me to look after you.

"You've only just entered the sect, Junior Brother. If you encounter any difficulties, tell me."

After helping Dong Lin complete the procedures, Li Changde rose to his feet, patted Dong Lin on the shoulder, and spoke.

"Greetings, Senior Brother. Thank you for Elder Xuan's care. There is indeed something I wished to ask you about."

"Go ahead, Junior Brother."

"I want to find work that can offset my sect assignments. Do you have anything to recommend, Senior Brother?"

"That... there are quite a few intricacies involved.

"Let me think. Junior Brother, you've only just embarked on the path of cultivation, so you probably don't have any particular trade to rely on, do you?"

Dong Lin smiled bitterly. "That is indeed the case. Apart from cultivation, I know nothing else."

"Mm, that does make things troublesome. The sect's artifact refiners and alchemists occasionally post tasks to recruit apprentices. You can keep an eye on the task boards in the main hall of the Merit Affairs Hall.

"Of course, tasks recruiting apprentices are generally extremely sought-after, so they are difficult to secure.

"Even if you manage to get one, you must still pass the masters' layers of selection.

"It is even harder to enter the sect's artifact-refining rooms and alchemy chambers. Those places do not recruit apprentices.

"Besides those two major fields, there are jobs like planting spirit rice and raising spirit beasts. Those are comparatively arduous.

"Moreover, whether in terms of returns or long-term prospects, they cannot compare to alchemy or artifact refining at all.

"Planting spirit rice in particular yields miserable harvests when you first begin and lack experience.

"The only advantage is that the entry barrier is much lower than for alchemy and artifact refining. You do not necessarily need a teacher to guide you; you can consult relevant books and figure things out yourself."

"Alright, thank you for the trouble, Senior Brother. I'll go back and consider it further."

"Mm, there's no rush. Inner sect disciples in the Qi Refining realm have twice the basic assignment requirements of outer sect disciples. You must complete ten Yellow-rank sect tasks every five years.

"The jobs I mentioned just now can offset part of that requirement as well. Junior Brother, decide for yourself."

"Mm-hm, then I'll take my leave first, Senior Brother."

"Junior Brother, let's add each other as contacts. If you have any questions, you can contact me directly through the jade token."

"This sect jade token can add contacts too? Alright, Senior Brother. How do I do that?"

"Mm-hm, that is a function exclusive to Inner Sect Jade Tokens. Come, Junior Brother, I'll teach you. It should work like this."

After successfully establishing contact with Deacon Li through their jade tokens, Dong Lin returned to his spirit chamber and first sorted through the resources he currently possessed.

Because the cultivation chamber's spiritual energy was extremely abundant, aside from the one Qi-Gathering Pill he had taken to help him sense qi, Dong Lin had kept the remaining nineteen pills on him.

At present, Dong Lin had one Vajra Pill, nine Yellow-rank mid-grade Qi-Gathering Pills, ten Yellow-rank high-grade Qi-Gathering Pills, ten Profound-rank mid-grade Qi-Gathering Pills, and several Five-Grain Pills.

He also had two hundred and thirteen low-grade spirit stones and one thousand sect contribution points remaining.

Over nearly half a year, Dong Lin had spent a total of one hundred and fifty spirit stones buying Five-Grain Pills.

The cost of food alone was quite substantial.

As a supplementary pill for body tempering, the Vajra Pill had remained unused at Dong Lin's side.

For the time being, Dong Lin had no plans to embark on the path of body tempering.

His current assets could be considered quite considerable.

This was mainly thanks to the "compensation payment" of one thousand sect contribution points and the "inheritance" of four high-grade spirit stones.

They had ensured that Dong Lin had never needed to worry about food or clothing since stepping onto the path of cultivation.

With Chief Steward Xuan's help along his cultivation path, he had not encountered any setbacks so far.

"They say the cultivation world is treacherous and ruthless, where the strong devour the weak. My circumstances are a little too good right now.

"Since coming to this world, I haven't even left the sect gates. I wonder whether the outside world is as harmonious and friendly as the sect."

After forming a preliminary plan for the period ahead, Dong Lin returned to the Merit Affairs Hall.

The outer hall of the Merit Affairs Hall could be said to be the busiest place in the entire sect.

All tasks within the sect were posted and accepted here.

The outer hall was enormous, encompassing task postings from every sect department as well as individuals.

There were areas for tasks issued uniformly by the sect, as well as dedicated task-posting areas for each department.

The tasks were displayed on enormous jade boards.

The Merit Affairs Hall branch for outer sect disciples had identical jade boards, and task postings and completion statuses were synchronized with the inner sect.

Looking at the "liquid crystal displays" before him, Dong Lin felt rather moved.

Because the sect had just sealed off its gates, many tasks requiring travel outside had been suspended or canceled.

Thus, the current tasks in the hall were somewhat focused on cultivation and production.

The demand for artifact refining and alchemy continued as usual.

However, because materials could not be obtained from outside for a long time to come, many gathering and planting tasks had surged in number.

Tasks to gather medicinal herbs in the secret realms of the back mountain occupied a large proportion.

Normally, the sect purchased all kinds of resources from outside, and the medicinal fields beyond the sect also supplemented part of its supply.

Now that this source was gone, the supply of medicinal ingredients needed for alchemy immediately became strained.

Five years was not considered very long for cultivators.

Some sect patriarchs would spend ten or eight years in seclusion with a single closed-door cultivation session.

Sealing the sect for five years and cutting off contact with the outside world—

for the Heaven Sect, it was merely an explanation offered to the empire's rulers.

It was only a matter of yielding a portion of its interests. Five years was not enough to harm the foundations of a top reclusive immortal sect like the Heaven Sect.

But it was enough for some people to make a fortune.

After thousands of years of development, the Heaven Sect's infrastructure had become exceedingly complete, and it could fully sustain itself.

The five-year period of sealing the sect was a decision Sect Master Xuan Sheng had made after considering the overall situation.

Five taels of Mystic Spirit Grass, one sect contribution point, unlimited quantity.

One Blood Spirit Ginseng, twenty sect contribution points per tael. (Remaining demand: seventy-six taels.)

One Nether Yin Snow Lotus, fourteen sect contribution points per tael. (Remaining demand: eight taels.)

The jade boards in the hall were filled with all manner of herb-gathering tasks.

Most of these required disciples to enter the secret realms within the sect's back mountain to collect them.

The Heaven Sect was situated among mountain ranges. Through the ceaseless exploration of generations of sect masters and elders, nearly all the Innate Secret Realms within the sect grounds had been discovered.

As independent small spaces separate from this world, no one knew how these Innate Secret Realms had formed.

Most were hidden where spirit veins converged, containing many spirit herbs and spirit minerals.

They were treasured lands for cultivators.

Their spaces were incomparably vast, and they housed a diverse array of spirit beasts.

Their strength ranged from the Yellow rank to the Earth rank, corresponding to human cultivators from Qi Refining to the Golden Core realm.

As Innate Secret Realms belonging exclusively to the Heaven Sect, the Heaven-rank spirit beasts within them had almost all been eliminated by the sect elders.

Apart from a very few Heaven-rank spirit beasts that had been tamed by the sect, no wild Heaven-rank spirit beasts remained in the secret realms.

This greatly improved the safety of sect disciples when they trained and searched for treasures in the secret realms.

The secret realm within the sect with the largest area and the greatest number of medicinal herbs and spirit beasts was called the Dawnsource Secret Realm.

This secret realm was relatively low in danger, and it also contained a considerable number of low-rank spirit herbs.

It was the secret realm most often visited by sect disciples at the Foundation Establishment realm and below.