Morning, at the Scripture Repository:
Returning to the Scripture Repository after so many days, Wang Quan found it rather unfamiliar.
He looked around and found the same people studying the Daoist Scriptures. Little had changed.
He also saw Ying Jiaren and her companion.
The two sat facing each other, both studying the Daoist Scriptures.
But Wang Quan noticed that Ying Jiaren's companion would read for a while, then stare blankly for a while.
He could not tell whether the boy was pondering the scriptures' mysteries or thinking about something else.
He returned to his old seat, took out brush and ink, and began answering questions, preparing to pass the examination on this new volume of Daoist Scriptures.
After an unknown stretch of time, he answered every question on the new volume correctly, and another volume appeared.
Daoist Scriptures +1.
Wang Quan smiled.
He had made a little more progress.
Though it was only a tiny bit, he was not far from the second-rank Dao Seal now.
Very good!
"Senior Brother, I thought you weren't coming back-that you'd given up on the Daoist Scriptures!"
A clear female voice interrupted his reverie.
Wang Quan turned and saw Ying Jiaren and her companion.
He smiled. "I had something to take care of outside."
"Besides, even while I was away, I kept studying the Daoist Scriptures!"
"The Daoist Scriptures are a cultivator's foundation. How could I give them up?"
Ying Jiaren's companion sighed. "These past few days, lots of people who came here with us have abandoned the Daoist Scriptures and started practicing their Fundamental Methods."
"After that, they never came back to the Scripture Repository!"
"Senior Brother, will they ever come back?"
Thinking of Qian Xiuyue, then Wu Yong and Zhao Hongyi, Wang Quan smiled. "Perhaps they never will!"
Ying Jiaren and her companion wore complicated expressions. "Senior Brother, are the Daoist Scriptures really that important?"
Wang Quan smiled and nodded as he always did. "Yes!"
The boy sitting opposite Ying Jiaren's eyes flickered. "How important? Could you explain in detail, Senior Brother?"
Wang Quan smiled. "If you keep studying the Daoist Scriptures before you begin refining Dharma Power, one day you'll discover just how important they are."
Of Ying Jiaren and the boy, one looked thoughtful, while the other remained rather skeptical.
At noon, Wang Quan told the Round-Faced Daoist Nun about Qian Xiuyue's agreement.
Delighted, the Round-Faced Daoist Nun insisted on taking him to Fairy Qin for help livening things up. Wang Quan politely declined. "When I ask for your help in the future, Senior Sister, just remember this favor!"
The Round-Faced Daoist Nun nodded vigorously.
The crow flew and the rabbit ran:
One day...
Ten days...
One month...
Wang Quan's days passed simply, without fanfare.
In the morning, he gathered five or six wisps of purple qi, then learned twenty or thirty spells and studied the Daoist Scriptures at the Scripture Repository.
Whenever he grew tired or bored, he practiced the [Great Sun Across the Sky Art], refining [great sun magic power].
Once he had refreshed himself, he resumed studying the Daoist Scriptures.
After night fell, he spent the first half of the night in the Second-Layer World, clearing the reliefs and ghost faces around the Cafeteria.
During the second half, he had the Paper People carry his sedan chair to any convenient mountaintop, where he gathered moonlight to refine Dharma Power.
After gathering purple qi at dawn, he returned to the Drowning Dao Lower Court.
During this time, he also occasionally worked with the Officiant Daoist Nun and the Dream Nun under his identity as the Flower-Scatter Daoist, handling weddings and funerals.
Speaking of those two Daoist nuns, they were in quite a miserable state now.
The reason was:
They had been unable to resolve the anomaly in the Blissful Union House.
In the end, that Blissful Union House was abandoned.
And with the New Method backing it, the Blissful Union House actually forced the two nuns to compensate it for its losses.
Only after paying out more than five hundred thousand Green Beetles in total did the two Daoist nuns escape the Blissful Union House's mire.
Whenever they mentioned it, both nuns sighed. "Had we known it would come to this, why would we ever have done it?"
"If we'd politely refused back then, how could we have ended up like this?"
Wang Quan was puzzled. "You didn't cause the anomaly. Why pay them compensation?"
The two nuns sighed. "If we didn't pay, they would deal with us!"
"Those people all have a bunch of cultivators just like us standing behind them."
"They have strength in numbers. We simply can't afford to offend them, so we could only swallow the loss!"
"Little Brother, you need to work hard too. Learn to gather allies and form your own faction. Once you're strong enough, help us settle the score with them."
Wang Quan... nodded.
Even without the Officiant Daoist Nun saying so, he would settle accounts with the Blissful Union House and the Zhao Household someday.
Who told them to keep withholding the wages they owed him?
If they would not pay his wages, their lives would settle the debt.
That was-as right and proper as heaven and earth.
At the Scripture Repository, after passing the examination on another volume of Daoist Scriptures, Wang Quan checked the information on his [First-Rank Dao Seal].
[First-Rank Dao Seal-Wang Quan-Age/Lifespan: 20/140] [Dao Seal promotion requirement: 12,500/20,000] [Realm: Qi Refining/Yin Spirit!] [Dharma Power: [Bright moon mana-210 strands], [Purple qi dharmic power-200 wisps], [Great sun magic power-3 strands].] [Fundamental Methods: [Bright Moon Shines on Me Method], [Purple Qi Reaches the Heavens Method], [Great Sun Across the Sky Art]] [Spells: [Plain Moon Paper-Cutting Art], [Moonlight Escape], [Yang Qi Furnace], [Great Yin Yin Thunder], [Cold-Ice Yin Thunder], [Illusory Moon Yin Thunder].] [Trait: Qi Gathering +1-Consume 10 strands of Heavenly Opportunity to condense a second trait.] [Heavenly Opportunity: 0 strands.] [Yin Virtue: 15,000] [Green Fly Coins: 400,000] [Spiritual medicines, essences, and Magic Treasures can all be converted into Heavenly Opportunity.]
Much of the information on the [First-Rank Dao Seal] had changed.
His Dharma Power had reached more than two hundred strands, despite his progress being delayed by spending over half of every night clearing away evil.
Otherwise, his Dharma Power would definitely have reached more than three hundred strands.
Though he had less Dharma Power, his Yin Spirit and Yin Virtue had made considerable progress.
Leaving Yin Virtue aside for now, he still did not know how to use it. Even the Daoist Scriptures he currently had made no mention of it.
Still, over ten thousand Yin Virtue was certainly better than a few hundred or a few thousand.
As for his Yin Spirit, its progress was even greater.
Though he had never actively tempered his Yin Spirit during this period, he vaguely sensed that it was about to step into the Yang Spirit realm.
He only needed to clear away some more evil, receive the resulting feedback, and then temper his Yin Spirit with a little essence before he could reach the Yang Spirit realm.
Then he could descend into the Second-Layer World during the day as well.
With that, his cultivation would enter a phase of explosive improvement.
His only regret was that his Heavenly Opportunity remained-zero.
During this period, he had tried converting spiritual medicines into Heavenly Opportunity.
As it turned out, spiritual medicines worth ten thousand Green Beetles could only produce a sliver of Heavenly Opportunity.
Not worth it!
As for converting Magic Treasures... well, he had never even seen one yet, and had no idea how much Heavenly Opportunity a single Magic Treasure could yield.
Only one thing was certain:
Converting the cheapest essences, such as those of the sun, moon, and stars, into Heavenly Opportunity offered the best value.
But even the cheapest essence cost ten million Green Fly Coins.
He would have to sell ten strands of Dharma Power to scrape together ten million Green Beetles.
To gather ten strands of Heavenly Opportunity, he would have to sell a hundred strands of Dharma Power.
But if he sold one strand of Dharma Power a month, no one would care.
Selling a hundred strands in a month, or even a year, however, would raise questions.
If someone set their sights on him, he would be in trouble.
For safety's sake, Wang Quan decided to wait a little longer.
Once his Yin Spirit evolved into a Yang Spirit and he had refined more Dharma Power, there would be no harm in doing it this way.
At that point, what would it matter if someone grew suspicious?
With his powerful Dharma Power and numerous spells, who would dare provoke him?
As he pondered, he withdrew his consciousness from the Inner Landscape and continued studying the Daoist Scriptures.
He had only been reading for a short while when Ying Jiaren and her companion came over. "Senior Brother, could you tell us about cultivators' Manors?"
Wang Quan raised an eyebrow. "Why the sudden interest in Manors?"
The girl remained silent.
The boy spoke up. "Senior Brother, a few people from our intake attended a banquet at the Seven Maidens Mountain Estate after they began refining Dharma Power."
"They said the banquet was so lavish it surpassed every earthly delight!"
"They said..."
The boy chattered on and on.
Wang Quan's mind drifted, as though he had returned to the scenes Zhao Hongyi had described a few years earlier:
"They gathered moonlight and turned it into beauties who danced gracefully..."
"With a casual wave of someone's hand, clouds descended..."
"Someone planted a fruit seed... the fruit tasted so sweet."
"There were so many seekers of immortality... supporting their cultivation."
"Do you want that too?"
The boy froze for a moment, then waved his hands in a fluster. "No, Jiaren and I agreed to study the Daoist Scriptures together."
"We're going to reach ten thousand volumes of Daoist Scriptures, then analyze our Fundamental Methods and start cultivating!"
"We were just curious whether any of it was true!"
Wang Quan smiled. "A real Manor banquet is even more lavish and more pleasurable than that."
Yearning stirred in the boy's heart, while Ying Jiaren beside him continued studying the Daoist Scriptures.
Before you continue