Sect Star-Rating Assessment! Down the Mountain Again!

"I'll keep it for now!"

Lin Ye stopped dwelling on the Sunflower Body Refining Technique and claimed the two Storage Bags. High-grade Yellow-rank Storage Bags were quite good. He used Blood-Drip Recognition on one of them. Its interior was fairly spacious, about five cubic meters, enough to hold plenty of things. He put the 1,000 taels of silver and a bottle of Blood Extreme Body Refining Pills inside.

"I still need to disguise the Blood Extreme Body Refining Pills with flour, but who should I give the other Storage Bag to?"

His disciple Ye Chen?

No, there was no need to give something so good to a disciple he had only just picked up. He would give it to his junior sister instead.

So he left his room, went to his junior sister Yu Yu's quarters, and knocked on the door.

"Junior sister, it's me."

Yu Yu opened the door and looked at Lin Ye curiously. "Senior brother, what did you come to see me for?"

"I have a gift for you."

Lin Ye took out the Storage Bag and handed it to Yu Yu.

Yu Yu looked at the plain little pouch and asked in confusion, "Senior brother, is this a scented sachet? But it doesn't smell nice!"

A scented sachet?

Lin Ye was speechless. His junior sister had actually mistaken the Storage Bag for a scented sachet. But he couldn't blame her. The Black-Yellow Sect was so poor that even their master hadn't owned a Storage Bag, so naturally she had never seen one.

"Junior sister, this is a high-grade Yellow-rank Storage Bag!" Lin Ye explained, then demonstrated how to use it in front of her.

"Ah, so this is a Storage Bag!"

Yu Yu was astonished. "Senior brother, where did you get it? I remember Master didn't have a Storage Bag either!"

Lin Ye had already prepared an explanation. "I came across a fortuitous opportunity before and obtained a few good things. The Storage Bag was one of them. I have two, so you can have one."

"Thank you, senior brother!"

Excited, Yu Yu threw her arms around Lin Ye.

Lin Ye felt two small mountains press against his chest, and an awkward expression immediately appeared on his face. Yu Yu, however, had no reaction. She didn't hug him for long before going off to study the Storage Bag.

Afterward, he disguised the Blood Extreme Body Refining Pills and gave the pills to Ye Chen again.

Ye Chen was deeply moved. He knew how precious those pills were, yet his master gave him bottle after bottle without anything in return. Though the sect had few people, the resources it gave him were beyond what even those powerful sects could offer.

A few more days passed, and Ye Chen successfully reached the initial stage of the low-grade Profound-rank Pure Yang Escape Technique.

"Ding! Congratulations to the host's disciple Ye Chen on reaching the initial stage of the Blood Escape Technique. The host receives tenfold feedback. The Blood Escape Technique has risen to the major accomplishment stage."

The Pure Yang Finger, which was the Blood Demon Finger in disguise, was somewhat harder to cultivate, so Ye Chen had not mastered it as quickly.

One day.

Lin Ye was lying in the sun in the sect when Ye Chen came over.

"Master, someone is looking for you. He says he's from the Martial Alliance."

The Martial Alliance!

It was a powerful organization that set sect rankings and handled promotions, demotions, and assessments for all sects. The Black-Yellow Sect was only a one-star sect. Compared with the Martial Alliance, it was undoubtedly no more than an ant.

The Martial Alliance had branches in many countries, and this man was probably an envoy from its Chu Kingdom branch.

"It must be about the sect star-rating assessment."

Lin Ye immediately got up and followed Ye Chen. Before long, he met the envoy from the Martial Alliance. His cultivation was not low, at the ninth level of the Body Forging Realm, but he was getting on in years. With that cultivation, his status in the Martial Alliance was probably very low, but he was still not someone the present Black-Yellow Sect could afford to offend.

"Greetings, Martial Alliance envoy."

Lin Ye spoke politely and respectfully.

"You're the sect master of the Black-Yellow Sect, I presume? The sect assessment held every three years is about to begin. I took a look, and there don't seem to be many people left in your sect. According to the Martial Alliance's rules, if a sect doesn't even have five disciples, it will be stripped of its status as a one-star sect and forbidden from recruiting disciples," the Martial Alliance envoy reminded him.

"Envoy, we have five disciples. They're just away gaining experience," Lin Ye explained.

The envoy, however, paid that no mind and continued, "In any case, the assessment is a month away. If your Black-Yellow Sect doesn't have five disciples present in the sect then, it will be stripped of its status as a one-star sect."

With that, the envoy left.

"Ding! The Heaven and Earth Devil Sect faces a crisis of dissolution. Host, please gather five demonic-path disciples within one month. Completing the mission rewards five additional draws. If the mission fails, the sect will be dissolved and the system will temporarily enter cooldown. It will awaken again after the host rebuilds the sect."

There was no punishment for failing the mission, so Lin Ye breathed a sigh of relief. But if the sect were dissolved, he would have to rebuild it, and the various formalities alone would be a hassle. Moreover, he would be unable to receive tenfold feedback from improvements in Ye Chen's strength in the meantime.

So he would not allow the mission to fail.

"I already have Ye Chen as a disciple. I still need four demonic-path disciples."

To gather five disciples as quickly as possible, he planned to make a trip.

He promptly told Ye Chen and his junior sister Yu Yu about it.

"Senior brother, I want to go with you," Yu Yu immediately proposed.

"Junior sister, you watch the sect. I can go alone."

Lin Ye had wanted to use the same excuse as last time to persuade her, but this time she refused.

"Senior brother, Martial Nephew Ye Chen can watch the sect. His cultivation isn't low. He's at the seventh level of Body Refining, which is enough to guard the sect."

With that, Yu Yu stared at Lin Ye with a pitiful look, as if she would cry if he refused.

"All right, I'll take you."

Lin Ye reluctantly gave in.

"Yay!"

Yu Yu happily hopped up and down.

"Disciple, watch the sect and don't let strangers approach it. If a powerful enemy comes and you can't beat them, run. Understand?"

"Yes, Master," Ye Chen replied.

Afterward, Lin Ye set out with his junior sister Yu Yu. This time, his destination was not the nearby Black Spirit Town. It was still too small, so he planned to go to the nearby county seat, Spirit Yang City. It had a large population, and he might be able to find demonic-path disciples suited to the Black-Yellow Sect there.

On the road.

Yu Yu was curious about everything. Their master had found her and brought her home, and she had lived in the Black-Yellow Sect since childhood. She had only gone down the mountain with their master once, when she was six or seven, and had not done so again since.

So she longed for a chance to go down the mountain.

"Senior brother, how long are we going to stay in Spirit Yang City?"

"We'll return to the sect once we've recruited four disciples!"

"Ah, won't we have to go back very soon, then?"

"No. My standards for recruiting disciples are very high. If they don't meet my requirements, I won't take them. We might not find any disciples even after ten days or half a month."

"That's wonderful!"

"What?"

"Ah, senior brother, I didn't say anything."

Yu Yu stuck out her little tongue. Realizing she had said the wrong thing, she hurriedly changed the subject and began discussing the nearby powers.

"There are three sects near Spirit Yang City: our Black-Yellow Sect, the one-star Iron Wolf Sect, and the two-star Blazing Sun Sect. The Blazing Sun Sect is very powerful, and we can't afford to offend it for now. Even the Iron Wolf Sect has more than a dozen Body Forging Realm martial artists and is much stronger than our Black-Yellow Sect."

Everything Lin Ye knew about those two powers had also come from his master. But with his current strength, he did not fear the Iron Wolf Sect, and it would not be long before he had the strength to suppress the Blazing Sun Sect.

For now, though, he still had to keep a low profile.