Chapter 53: Life 58, Age 60, Martial Grandmaster 5

Boss Hong led me to a larger settlement where the technique hall for nominal disciples was located. The deacon in charge gave me an unfriendly look but allowed me unfettered access to the manuals there. The main benefit of coming to this hall was that it had techniques for all of the five basic elements. There were only cultivation and martial techniques though, and nothing was above Rank 1 or Peak-Yellow, so it was more limited in some ways, but it did provide me with a wider selection for the future. Boss Hong said that he didn’t know of any secret reserves of knowledge, but that many of the gang leaders had received techniques from the outer sect library. I wasn’t sure how truthful this was, but I didn’t care too much. A few extra techniques weren’t make or break for me. He was able to provide some information regarding the factionalism in the sect that was interesting. The divisions were starker on the Martial Peak. Importantly, Elder Hu’s faction, the Tigers, had recruited several promising disciples with powerful blessings in the past decades, far more than the other two factions. The local nobility seemed to have been receiving a lot of stronger, more combat-focused blessings of late. After reading all the manuals and copying the tidbits of information into my journal, Boss Hong led me to the entrance to First Ring where the outer sect was located. “Here.” I handed him an extra pill bottle. “Good luck on advancing.” “Thank you, lord disciple.” Boss Hong gave a final bow. Again, there was no gate and there were no guards at the opening in the wall that separated the nominal disciples from the outer sect. Everything was handled by formations and the identity jades. It made me curious what would happen if someone lost their jade, but I had no plans to put myself in that situation. Following Boss Hong’s information, I made my way steadily to the outer disciple technique hall. The outer sect had a better feel to it, if only slightly. The area was mostly open grassland with a few trees dotting the area. There were no signs of the large-scale fighting that existed in the Second Ring. As I walked the path, I saw a few small groups of houses in the distance. People were practicing martial arts in open areas around them, but I decided not to approach them. With Martial Masters, I was much less confident in my combat capabilities, so I preferred to avoid any confrontations here. No disciples were lying in wait on the path, and I was able to smoothly access the town that served as a central hub for outer sect disciples. It had a technique hall, pill hall, mission hall, and a few other buildings. I was interested in checking out the pill hall to see the prices they sold things for here, but I refrained. There wasn’t any advantage in doing so, and it might cause unnecessary problems. Partly, this was because I had no understanding of the compulsions the people here were living with or how they would react. The technique hall wasn’t much different from any of the others I had seen. Rows of bookshelves and desks with an elder watching over them, but there were many more people here than I had become used to. Over a dozen disciples sat at desks studying various manuals. After checking my jade, the elder gave me a disgusted look, but he said nothing and allowed me to begin browsing. My first stop was the cultivation techniques. I had already found copies of many of the techniques in other libraries, but they did have one important manual that I had been hoping for, a dual element fire and earth technique. It was only Low-Profound, and I likely would never use it, but it represented a huge boon for future potential research in creating a three-element Earth Rank technique. After paying for it, I picked the manual up, sat down, and began reading it. When I did, I caught the attention of nearly everyone in the room. It was apparently uncommon for someone to read the Profound-Rank techniques. Stranger still was an inner sect disciple coming to the outer sect to study. A big, muscular man walked over to me. “Who are you? I don’t recognize you.” “You recognize all inner sect disciples, then?” I asked with a bit of aggression. “This is our hall. If you want to read, go back up the mountain,” he said, slamming his fist on the desk. At this, the deacon in charge cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the room. The burly man backed up. “Aren’t capable enough to get into the inner sect library so you think you can come down here? Step outside and we’ll teach you a lesson.” He made a gesture he must have thought was intimidating, punching his right fist into his left palm. I looked at the man in qi vision. He was a Martial Master 7, which would have bothered me a little since I wasn’t sure where my actual combat skill would place me, but his foundation was terrible. His meridians seemed to leak more qi than they contained. He cultivated metal qi, and even though I doubted I could control it as I had with those Martial Disciples, I should still be able to defeat someone at his level. This guy wasn’t a problem, but it was possible he represented someone who was. If he had a boss that had a solid Master 9 or higher foundation, I might be in trouble. Best to start thinking my way out of the problem. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Still, I didn’t let this small interruption stop me from copying everything down. After grabbing the Rank 1 and 2 Profound cultivation techniques, I swept through the fighting manuals and grabbed everything I didn’t already have. Also, I checked a few that I had copied previously and found no differences, so I was relatively confident the nominal disciple techniques hadn’t been tampered with. “Enough, time for your lesson!” he said as he began marching up to me. “One moment,” I said. I remained in an open doorway, so he couldn’t do anything rash. “I have just posted two missions inside. I believe the offered rewards will satisfy everyone here.” “A mission? How can you post a mission?” someone in the crowd asked. “He’s an alchy!” someone shouted. “A damn alchy was stealing our techniques!” The crowd became much more hostile at this revelation. I hadn’t expected that, but it was what it was. “I’ll just wait in here for someone to accept my mission then,” I said as I stepped back into the mission hall. Everyone outside stood still for a tense moment, then the burly man shoved his way inside. “Let’s take a look at these missions of yours then,” he said menacingly. First, he picked up the posting for an escort. Upon reading it he growled. I could see his hand twitch to crumple it up, but he refrained. That would have been a huge breach of the mission hall rules. “No one’s taking this mission, coward,” he said glaring at me. “I can wait.” I smirked. After that, he picked up the mission for a spar and started laughing. “Yes,” he said, “I’ll accept! Let’s do this!” He walked toward me like he wanted to bodily hurl me outside, but I pointed to the counter. “Go officially sign up first.” “Of course, young master. We should do this properly.” A grin was plastered to his face as he handed over his jade to sign up for the mission. Then, he came back to me and gestured welcomingly at the door. “Shall we?” We walked outside together and were surrounded by the other disciples. “Back off!” the burly man shouted. “He’s mine.” “Don’t worry,” I said with a calming voice. “If anyone wants, you can also sign up for a sparring session with me. I’ll finish this one first though.” The crowd fell into a stunned silence, but it didn’t last long. The burly man charged me. I could have met him strength against strength, but I wasn’t confident in doing so. I wasn’t sure what techniques he knew, but there were several for metal cultivators that could increase the power of the body. Without being able to directly disrupt his qi, I wouldn’t risk such a direct clash. I had learned several fire-based movement techniques. The flashing I used previously was one of the more powerful, but it took too much energy. Instead, I just focused on increasing my speed and cleanly dodged every punch he threw. While I did so, I kept my qi vision running to watch for any techniques that might surprise me. “Do you only know how to dodge!?” he shouted. “If you’re a man, stand still and fight me!” His shout shocked me enough that I paused my movements. “Are you a child?” I asked. “Why would I just let you hit me?” “How dare you!” He lunged at me. It looked uncontrolled, like he had completely submitted to his rage. As he closed, I dodged his punch, but it had just been a feint. He pivoted on his right leg and swung at me with his left. I had been ready for the attack though, and narrowly slipped past it. Then, with him exposed right in front of me, I swung a qi-empowered fist right at his solar plexus. The brute was blasted backward and collapsed. “Thanks for the spar.” I looked around at the crowd. “Anyone else?”