Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  At this moment, the road they are walking on is built along the beach, with clear and undulating seawater just a few dozen feet away from them. The road ahead still winds its way forward, with mountains rising and falling like a pair of slender arms embracing this bay of water, forming a natural quiet bay.

  The new disciples who came here were not just the ten of them, on the contrary, many new disciples led by senior brothers like Su He and others had arrived, it seemed that many people were arranged to stay here.

  Su He led Shen Shi and the others to a certain place in the middle of the bay, where all the houses were now visible to the young men. Almost all the houses were identical, with glazed tiles, white walls, and divided into two sections, front and back. The front section had a small courtyard with flowers, grass, and trees, although it was not large, it had a clear and elegant atmosphere, making people feel at peace. The back section was where the new disciples or the outer disciples of Ling Xiang Sect lived, because of its proximity to the mountain, they were directly carved out of the mountain body, forming a series of caves, which became their cultivation chambers after being renovated.

  In front of each cave, there was a stone gate with the door tightly closed and the number of words carved on it. Su He led them to a cave with "甲四十" written on it and said, "Starting from here, from 甲四十 to 甲四十九, these ten caves are where you ten will live." As he spoke, he pointed to the stone gate again, and they saw that the heavy stone gate was carved out of a single large stone. In the center of the gate, a round wheel was inlaid, with the Eight Trigrams pattern engraved on it, and faintly, clouds of gas were slowly flowing.

  "After you leave, take out your cloud tokens and stick them here. This 'Bagua Lock' will recognize its master, and from then on, except for you using the cloud token to open the stone door of the cave, others including me will not be able to enter."

  Shen Shi and the others widened their eyes, staring at the Bagua lock on the stone gate. Except for the intricate patterns, it seemed ordinary, but unexpectedly, it had such a wonderful use.

  Su He smiled slightly and beckoned to them: "Now who's going to give it a try?"

  As soon as the words fell, Sun You, who was standing beside Shen Shi, jumped out with an excited look on his face and said, "I'll do it, I'll do it."

  He quickly ran to the stone gate, took out the cloud token from his bosom, and carefully approached the eight trigrams lock. Shen Shi and others were watching closely beside him. At first, it seemed that nothing had changed, Sun You was stunned, turned his head to look at Su He, Su He smiled and shook his head, saying: "Stick closer."

  Sun Youhaha smiled and pushed the cloud token forward, this time directly pressing it onto the Bagua lock. As expected, a moment later, a wisp of cloud energy flashed on the cloud token, and the Bagua lock seemed to have received some stimulation, also slowly rotating. Under everyone's gaze, those intricate Bagua array patterns actually flowed and began to rearrange their order at an extremely fast speed, emitting low and subtle slapping sounds. Not long after, this sound subsided, and after the two characters "Sun You" faintly appeared in the center of the Bagua lock, they quickly disappeared.

  Then, a low rumble sounded from the base of the stone gate, and the entire stone gate slowly retreated to one side, revealing a spacious and bright cave.

  Sun You let out a cheer, laughing haha, and was the first to run in. The crowd, including the Zhong sisters, were also curious, and at this moment they couldn't care less about their previous grievances with Sun You, following Su He and others as they walked in, curiously looking around at the cave behind the stone gate.

  The cave was excavated on the mountain, and the visible walls around it are all hard gray rocks. However, the repaired ones are very flat, and skylights have been opened to allow sunlight to shine in, so the cave does not appear dark and cold, but rather bright and comfortable.

  The tables, chairs and beds are all ready, especially on one side of the wall in the cave, three layers of stone shelves were directly carved out of the stone wall. At this moment, they are all empty, but after a long time of practice, it is likely that many things can be placed here, such as some spiritual materials and so on. It seems that the predecessors who built these caves thought very carefully.

  Su He stood in the cave, letting these excited and curious young men look around for a while before calling them over to gather around the only table in the room. Smiling, he said: "Alright, later your caves will be similar too, you'll have time to look then. Now there are still a few urgent matters, I'll tell you about them first."

  The young men looked at him with a serious expression for the first time, and they all gathered around to listen carefully. Su He pointed to an iron box on the table that had been placed there at some unknown time and said: "Each of you has already had one of these iron boxes placed on your desk in advance. Inside the box are two sets of outer door disciple uniforms, a map of Qingyu Liu Island, a brief introduction to Ling Xiang, as well as our sect's rules and some general information about the current state of the sect, all written clearly. My fellow disciples, I must remind you once again that our sect is a renowned and ancient sect with strict rules. Although our daily cultivation may seem relaxed, there are certain rules that are absolutely forbidden to break. If you do, you will be punished or even expelled from the sect, no exceptions."

  Shen Shi and others were shocked in their hearts, and they all nodded in agreement.

  Su He smiled slightly, his expression relaxed, and said: "All of you brothers and sisters are talented individuals, otherwise you wouldn't have such a good fate to enter the sect. In the future, cultivate well, and the great way can be expected."

  After saying these polite words, he paused for a moment and said: "In addition to this, there is also a Ling crystal in the box, a 'Star Luo Gong' manual, which is the most basic skill of our school, and it is also the foundation of your cultivation in the Qi Refining Realm. From tomorrow on, for seven consecutive days, Wang Huan will be lecturing on Star Luo Gong at the 'Morning Star Hall' on this island. You all need to go there, this is a rare opportunity. After these seven days, if you want to enter the Morning Star Hall again, you'll have to pay with Ling crystals."

  "Huh?" The young men were all bewildered, and one of them asked outright, "Brother Su, what's going on?"

  Su He smiled and said, "The Morning Star Hall was built by the founder of our sect using his great divine power in the place with the most abundant spiritual energy on this island. Under the hall, a mysterious large array is secretly arranged, which can gather and purify the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Cultivating in the Morning Star Hall can increase the cultivation speed of Qi-refining stage cultivators by 10%."

  "So that's how it is." The young men were discussing and debating, but Shen Shi thought of something and couldn't help but ask, "Senior brother, isn't it said that our human tribe can only absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from spirit crystals? Then how can we absorb the spiritual energy gathered in the Morning Star Temple to increase our cultivation speed?"

  Su He was taken aback, clearly also being stumped by this question. After thinking for a moment, he said: "As for this point, I'm not particularly clear either, but the senior brothers who have cultivated in the Morning Star Hall before all had such feelings, so it shouldn't be fake. Maybe... it's because the spiritual energy in the Morning Star Hall is abundant, and there's some nourishment that allows us to absorb more spiritual power from the crystal?"

  Many young people nodded in agreement, apparently accepting this speculation. Shen Shi still had some doubts, but he didn't think much of it either. The Ling Xiao Sect was a renowned and powerful sect with many mysterious and incredible abilities. What's strange about having a small temple that provides some benefits for those at the Qi Refining stage? He quickly dismissed this thought from his mind as well.

  With a sigh of relief, Su He let out a breath and gazed at the young men, smiling slightly. "Alright, now it's just one last thing."

  Shen Shi saw his expression turn solemn again, and there was something strange about it. However, he only saw Su He take out a strange object from his bosom, which resembled a birdcage. But the space inside the cage was not big, and there were no small birds locked in it. Instead, a small animal lay lazily inside, looking like a grey-skinned toad.

  Su He's expression turned serious, and he said: "The true person who took over the position of Zong Shi thirty years ago, for the sake of the sect's hundred-year plan, specially established a strict rule: all new disciples who enter our sect to cultivate must not bring their own spiritual crystals onto Qingyu Island within the first five years. This is so that all disciples can fairly cultivate and discover true talent."

  As he spoke, he pointed to the grey-skinned toad in the cage in his hand and smiled slightly, saying: "Everyone, please come a bit closer one by one. Unless you have that kind of pouch or container that can only be used when you've cultivated to the Condensing Origin stage, such as a mustard seed bag or a乾坤bag, otherwise it's impossible to evade the perception of this 'Crystal Swallowing Toad' which has a natural love for swallowing spiritual crystals."

  Shen Shi was taken aback for a moment, and indeed there were still Lingjing on him. They were given to him by Shen Tai when they parted ways in Xilu City, Yinzhou. He had used one of them to buy that small vase in Liuyun City the other day, and now he still had two left. Unexpectedly, Lingxiao Sect also had such a rule.

  However, upon careful consideration, Shen Shi was more joyful than worried. He had rushed thousands of miles to get here, and although he had some spiritual crystals on him, they were scarce. But Sun You and Zhong Qingluo, who came from local aristocratic families, were entirely different. It could be imagined that without this rule, the amount of spiritual crystals these favored sons would have obtained would have been almost uncontrolled and abundant.

  What is meant by cultivation, to a certain extent, is to see how much spiritual crystal one has, and only then can one's innate talent be high or low. With this layer of family background, it was originally not fair enough, and it was also difficult to see the true level of everyone's innate talent. Unexpectedly, Ling Xuan Sect's current Zhenren Heng Yuanyuan actually had such a far-sighted and powerful vision, setting down such rules, at least in the most critical first five years, all new disciples started their cultivation under roughly fair circumstances.

  Just... Shen Shi was secretly thinking in his heart, while feeling delighted, that this rule might be good, but he feared that the one who made it, Yan Huan, must have offended many of the aristocratic families under the Ling Xiao Sect. After all, this rule seemed to be targeting those vassal families. However, Shen Shi soon smiled slightly and shook off this unnecessary thought, wondering who that person was.

  That is the current Ling Xiao Sect's leader, a renowned figure in the cultivation world. He shouldn't care about the reactions of some aristocratic families, right?

  Um, it should be like this, Shen Shi thought to himself as he walked forward and took out the only two Ling Crystals on his body, placing them on the table. At the same time, the Devouring Crystal Toad in the cage moved its body slightly as he approached, seemingly sensing something, and slowly opened its eyes.

  It's been a long time since I've managed to keep up with two updates a day... it feels like an eternity.