Chapter 18: Unspoken Rules

Although it would take a bit longer, it would be of great help to his situation; the circumstances for outer disciples were even more severe than he had guessed.

Primarily, being within the Ice and Snow Tower would bring foreseeable trouble. Jealousy is a universal human trait, and knowing how to deal with it made the Night Hiding Incantation crucial.

On the other hand, after switching to the "Cold Blood Art," his comprehension of the cultivation technique was no different from starting from scratch, yet it could wash away the Blood-Burning Spiritual Power within Wang Yu and replace it with a new, ice-attribute spiritual power.

Cultivating the Cold Blood Art was like soaking one's body in ice water, providing a thorough, chilling sensation that penetrated from the skin to the blood, and finally into the marrow.

During this process, Wang Yu's physique would be tempered, growing stronger day by day.

He kept in mind the impact that missing an arm would have on Foundation Establishment; the Blood and Qi stage was closely related to physical strength. He needed to cultivate and compensate early to minimize the impact on his Dao path.

Furthermore, the Cold Blood Art and the Ice Sword Technique were originally a set; while consumption was greatly reduced, the power increased exponentially! The intensity of the spiritual power was also much higher than that of a quick-fix demonic art like the Blood-Burning Technique.

With all these factors compounding, the earlier he switched, the sooner he would benefit.

After personally experiencing the content of this stage of cultivation, the rewards fed back by the Idle Slot also changed in nature.

If Wang Yu were to cultivate on his own, he would take the one hundred strands of spiritual power in his body and separate them into groups of ten. During the Great Orbit circulation, ten strands of spiritual power would enter the meridians simultaneously.

Through continuous compression during the orbit, he would force them to merge into one, transforming "strands" into "Dao" to improve the quality of the spiritual power.

This often required persistence—if ten times wasn't enough, then a hundred; if a hundred wasn't enough, then a thousand!

With his wasted spiritual root aptitude, attempting to thoroughly refine them into ten strands of spiritual power to break through to the fourth level of Qi Refinement would be fraught with difficulties.

The feedback from the Idle Slot, however, directly fed the continuously condensing spiritual power into Wang Yu's dantian. Much like when he placed the Ice Sword Technique, he directly obtained the reflex of muscle memory.

Only this time, the feedback was a conditioned reflex for his spiritual power.

There was no sudden growth, no sudden appearance.

Instead, it was a continuous domestication and condensation. When Wang Yu circulated his technique again, he felt a sense of being tempered a thousand times, feeling that everything was incredibly smooth.

It was like a natural progression, as effortless as water flowing into a channel!

At this rate, he could transform the "hundred strands of spiritual power" into "ten strands of spiritual power" and successfully break through to the fourth level of Qi Refinement within six months at most, completing his first Spirit Refinement!

And this was only calculating the efficiency of a single Idle Slot; the timing was more than sufficient.

It would be just in time for him to "place" the supporting techniques.

Over the next few days, Wang Yu was mostly busy running around, learning about the situation in the Ten Reverse-Blood Workshops, with the [Cold Blood Workshop] being the most important focus of his investigation.

The fifth day of his outer disciple life.

In the first-floor lobby of the Ice and Snow Tower, he discovered over the past few days that the cultivators residing in the tower were mostly inner disciples, with most of their cultivation hovering around the late stages of Qi Refinement.

They saw each other every day; although they looked down on a disciple promoted from a spiritual slave, they never truly attacked him, at most offering verbal sarcasm and mockery.

As long as he avoided them, it wouldn't be a big problem. The real trouble came from the outer disciples outside the tower who also served the True Disciples; they coveted Wang Yu's [Essence Chamber] in the Ice and Snow Tower and truly dared to take action!

Most of their cultivation was at the mid-stage of Qi Refinement or below, while the number of outer disciples wearing the Black Blood Token inside the tower was extremely small—aside from him, there was only one other person in a similar situation.

"Junior Brother Wang, sitting here so early, are you waiting for your elder brother?"

While he was lost in thought, Zhao Shang walked down slowly from upstairs. Despite having only an eighth-level Qi Refinement cultivation, in reality, the True Disciple had granted him extremely high authority within the Ice and Snow Tower.

At critical moments, he could even command those few Foundation Establishment masters. At the same time, the perks of this position were incredibly lucrative. As far as he knew, Zhao Shang was not yet thirty years old, and his future Foundation Establishment was almost a certainty.

"Senior Brother Zhao, I indeed have something to discuss."

Wang Yu stood up, poured a cup of tea, and inquired.

"I heard there are many tasks in the Ice and Snow Tower that involve little work but many spirit stones. I wonder what the procedure is."

"That's easy enough."

Zhao Shang did not sit down, but instead pulled a large number of scrolls from the storage bag at his waist and spread them on the table.

"Take your time looking through them, Junior Brother Wang. If there is a task you like, I will explain the details to you."

"Alright—"

Spreading out the scrolls, Wang Yu secretly cross-referenced them with the information he had gathered at the Task Hall a few days ago; they were indeed much more generous.

[1. Second Peak <Heavenly Corpse Peak>, requires three Qi Refinement disciples who understand "Corpse Refining Techniques" to look after thirty Black Zombies for one year. Reward: 800 Contribution Points.]

Take this commission, for example; he had seen similar ones at the Task Hall, but the reward was only 300 spirit stones, not even contribution points.

Contribution points could be used in the sect's treasury to exchange for desired spiritual herbs, materials, and even magical tools, techniques, cultivation methods, the four arts of cultivation... and so on.

Many rare items could only be exchanged with contribution points. This alone meant the commissions from the Ice and Snow Tower far exceeded those released by the Task Hall.

The only difference was that most Ice and Snow Tower tasks were privately issued, with many Foundation Establishment deacons and Core Formation elders participating. The quantity of tasks also served as a side indicator of the strength and influence of the True Disciple behind them.

The Task Hall's tasks were more public, many of which involved maintaining the sect's assets.

Browsing through them, Wang Yu leaned toward short-term tasks that did not require combat.

[12. Responsible for maintaining Deacon Tantai's private medicinal garden for half a year. Requires proficiency in spiritual herb maintenance and herb identification. Reward: 500 Contribution Points.]

The Ice and Snow Tower would take a fifty percent cut, meaning that over half a year, only two hundred and fifty would end up in his pocket. This peculiar number made Wang Yu hesitate for a moment.

During his sixteen years in Stone Lake City, because he had no access to cultivation techniques, he had placed almost nothing but various miscellaneous books, making him quite skilled in the way of medicinal herbs.

But that level was certainly not enough to maintain a spiritual medicinal garden; he would need to urgently catch up for a few days. When the Idle Slot was used for pure knowledge-based items, it often only took a few days to memorize them perfectly.

The *Thousand Character Classic* and the *Ten Thousand Character Classic* had already proven this, so there was no need to worry.

"Senior Brother Zhao, I have made my choice."

"Deacon Tantai's task, huh~" Zhao Shang glanced sideways and immediately recognized the source of the scroll in Wang Yu's hand. He said, "Deacon Tantai's rewards are high, but her requirements are also very high. Are you sure you can complete it?"

"I should be able to."

Hearing this, Zhao Shang couldn't help but look at Wang Yu with higher regard. There were many cultivators in the demonic path who could fight, but those engaged in production were somewhat lacking; there was a severe shortage of technical talent.

"Very well—"

"According to the rules, fifty percent is given as tribute to True Disciple Su. Besides that, one tenth must be paid: half goes to the Foundation Establishment cultivators upstairs, and half goes to me. Any objections?"

Wang Yu froze for a moment, but quickly reacted, saying in a low voice, "No objections."

"Excellent. Then this task is yours. Report to Deacon Tantai within seven days."

"I understand, Junior Brother."

(End of Chapter)