Insufficient balance

  After walking through the narrow passageway, it suddenly opened up and Tang Hao found himself in a huge great hall.

  There is no sunlight, but the glowstones on the walls of the cave illuminate the entire hall as brightly as daylight. In the center of the hall stands a massive altar, surrounded by various colored spirit stones. Monks in different attire constantly walk back and forth beside it. At the entrance to the altar, several white-robed monks stand guard, collecting spirit stones from those coming and going, demanding ten low-grade spirit stones at a time.

  Although Yun Xi's wristband had storage space, Yun Xi rarely used it to store items, but there were still dozens of mid-grade spirit stones. However, Tang Hao knew that with his own cultivation level, this could be considered a huge sum of money, and would definitely attract envy. Tang Hao didn't dare take them out just like that, fortunately, he had scavenged some low-grade spirit stones from the man in the Daoist robe, which could finally be put to use.

  Tang Hao silently handed over ten pieces of low-grade spirit stones. The man guarding the transmission array, who was probably at the 8th or 9th level of Qi Refining stage, looked at Tang Hao's right shoulder with a puzzled gaze and asked: "You're just a loose cultivator, how do you have so many spirit stones?"

  Tang Hao didn't know about the economic situation of this cultivation world, and he couldn't believe that even a loose cultivator having ten low-grade spirit stones was a rare occurrence. He could only make up an excuse: "I'm actually the daughter of a cultivation family's master, but my family was destroyed by our enemies, and I'm the only one who escaped. These spirit stones were left to me by my father before he died."

  The Immortal Realm was already in a state of chaos, with news of families being exterminated emerging every day. People had grown accustomed to it, and the man didn't say anything more after seeing that the spirit stones were sufficient. He directly said: "This transmission array opens once an hour, and there's still half an hour until the next opening. You can wait over there first." After speaking, he handed Tang Hao a stone tablet with the number 293 written on it.

  Tang Hao put away the stone tablet, found a corner and sat down in boredom. With Yun Xi and Ning Yan not by his side, he was like an ancient person who had crossed over to the modern world, not understanding anything and unsure of how to spend his future days. Tang Hao found a rock to sit on and muttered to himself: "What a crappy transmission array, actually wanting ten pieces of spirit stone from me."

  "Ten pieces of spirit stone is already very cheap. Generally, a transmission array wouldn't even let you use it with just a few medium-grade spirit stones. This transmission array was built on an abandoned wormhole, so the required spiritual energy is less, and it's for large-scale transmission, so the price is cheaper.

  To say that this price compared to the bounty on that demon body is not even worth mentioning." A fat black-robed cultivator sat down beside Tang Hao and actually started chatting with him. The fat cultivator seemed very direct, asking straightforwardly: "Fellow Daoist is a wandering cultivator, I wonder how should I address you?"

  Tang Hao was taken aback and didn't know why everyone knew he was a loose cultivator, so he had to ask: "How did you know I'm a loose cultivator?"

  Fatou looked puzzled and said, "Fellow Taoist, don't you know that anyone with a sect has their own mark on their right shoulder? But you don't have one. If you're not a loose cultivator, then what are you? This is something everyone in the cultivation world knows, why don't you know?"

  Tang Hao laughed and said, "I was sent to this star domain by my parents since I was a child, and I know very little about the matters of the Cultivation Realm. It's not surprising that I don't know." Tang Hao suddenly remembered that there was indeed a golden maple leaf on Lin Yun's right shoulder, including the two people beside her, and even the man in the Taoist robe had one. Could it be that they were all from the same sect?

  Pang Xiu saw Tang Hao ignoring him and didn't give up. "I'm called Guo Yuan, the young master of Liu Yun Men. I don't know how to address you?"

  Tang Hao looked at Gu Yuan's right shoulder, where a green cloud was floating, and said directly: "Tang..." Tang Hao suddenly remembered that he was currently wanted, but he didn't want to use the Japanese woman's name, so he continued: "Wan Er."

  Guo Yuan saw that his shameless approach had worked, so he continued to chat up: "Wan'er fellow Daoist, as a lone cultivator it's very dangerous to be out on your own. Why not come with me to my humble abode and be my guest? If you'd like to join our Flowing Cloud Sect, that's also possible."

  In the Xianxia world, loose cultivators have a low status and receive the least resources. Their cultivation methods are also inferior. Therefore, their greatest wish is to join a sect in search of more resources and better cultivation methods.

  Guo Yuan thought Tang Hao would readily agree, but as a man himself, he couldn't stand the familiarity of this fat man, let alone join his sect. If so, who knows how Guo Yuan would pester him again.

  But now Tang Hao urgently needs a cultivable technique, so he can only ask: "Does your sect have a complete set of five-element techniques?"

  The complete set of Five Elements Kung Fu is like the one Ning Yan and Yun Xi practiced together, which was originally for cultivating the Five Elements Spiritual Roots. Although Tang Hao is currently a Wood Spiritual Root, he still needs to gather all five elements' spiritual roots. Even if it's not exactly the same as having the entire set, Tang Hao wants to make himself as strong as possible, after all, being stronger by one degree means having more chances of survival.

  Kuang Yuan was momentarily speechless, stuttering: "We're just an ordinary third-rate sect, how could we possibly have a complete set of Five Elements techniques?"

  Tang Hao didn't have much hope, seeing the cultivators' right shoulder patterns with different colors, he casually asked: "Why are there also differences in the colors on your right shoulders?"

  Guo Yuan was delighted to see Tang Hao taking the initiative to strike up a conversation, and said: "This color is strictly divided. In the mortal world, white represents a fourth-grade sect, which means that the strongest person in the sect is only at the foundation-building stage; green represents a third-grade sect, with the strongest being a Nascent Soul cultivator; blue represents a second-grade sect, with the strongest being a Core Formation cultivator; and gold represents a first-grade sect, with the strongest being a Deity Transformation cultivator. However, if a Deity Transformation cultivator ascends to the Spirit Realm, and no other Deity Transformation cultivators appear in that sect within a hundred years, it will automatically be downgraded to a second-grade sect."

  Tang Hao finally knew that Lin Yun Dan's sect was not simple at all, and there were actually divine cultivators sitting in town. Seeing the transmission array opening for a while, Tang Hao continued to ask: "What does the golden maple leaf represent?"

  Kuo Yuan stood up solemnly and said, "That is the giant of our region, named Lvfeng Zong. It's said that they have more than one Transcendent cultivator. Our sect is just their vassal. Ah yes, their Wuxing Temple seems to have a complete set of yellow-grade five-element cultivation methods."

  Tang Hao's eyes lit up, but thinking that Lin Yun Dan was also in that sect, a inexplicable hesitation arose in his heart, but for Yun Xi, and to ascend to the immortal realm as soon as possible, he couldn't care about so much anymore.

  Tang Hao asked Guo Yuan: "How can I join Lvfeng Sect?"

  Kuang Garden saw Tang Hao's enthusiasm and was overjoyed, putting more effort into explaining to him, "There are two ways. First, the Miao Xing Sect selects talented disciples from all over the world every year. Generally speaking, as long as they have a spiritual root above the Xuan level, they can be exempt from the usual selection process."

  Tang Hao felt somewhat disappointed; he was merely a yellow-grade spirit root, and definitely wouldn't enter their sights.

  "Secondly, the remaining Huang-level Spirit Root cultivators who cannot directly enter the sect will be given some techniques by the sect to join their affiliated branch. Every two years, the sect will select the fastest cultivating or those who can skip levels from these disciples and they will also be able to join the Lù Fēng Sect as formal disciples. My sect just so happens to be an affiliated branch of the Lù Fēng Sect, and next month I plan on participating in the Lù Fēng Sect's assessment."

  Tang Huan was relieved that he was now a girl, if he were a boy, Guo Yuan would not have paid attention to him. Tang Huan saw a glimmer of hope and asked: "Then if I join your Liuyunmen, can I participate in the Lufeng Sect's assessment next month?"

  "Of course you can," Guo Yuan said with a smile. "As long as you join our Flowing Cloud Sect, I'll be there to cover for you and make sure you don't get taken advantage of."

  After finishing speaking, she leaned closer to Tang Hao's side, getting even closer to him.

  Tang Hao couldn't help but want to beat up Guo Yuan, but thinking that he needed something from him, he didn't dare to act out. Fortunately, the guardian of the transmission array suddenly said: "Time's up, fellow Taoists with stone plaques can come up now."

  Tang Hao hastily stood up and awkwardly smiled: "Time's up, let's go ahead and send the transmission array first."

  Guo Yuan didn't say anything either and followed Tang Huang onto the transmission array.

  Several hundred people all boarded the transmission array, and the entire array platform flashed a white light. Tang Hao's line of sight began to blur, and Tang Hao said in a low voice: "Goodbye Earth!" Then Tang Hao's line of sight was completely covered by the white light.