Chapter 31: The Ancestor's Whereabouts

After leaving the Library Pavilion!

Ye Qingxuan directly sent a divine sense transmission to Bai Wenyang, asking him to help acquire seeds of the Pure Spirit Tree.

As for the spirit stones required to purchase the Pure Spirit Tree seeds, Ye Qingxuan could only give them to Bai Wenyang the next time he sold Spirit-Enhancing Pills.

Subsequently, he arrived at a mountain peak via a teleportation array.

This mountain was one of the gathering places for the outer disciples of the Xuantian Sect. Ye Qingxuan had come here to find Ye Qingxiao.

Yes, that was right; Ye Qingxiao had successfully broken through to the late stage of Qi Refinement and had advanced to become an outer disciple of the Xuantian Sect.

However, even as an outer disciple, one could only be assigned to different mountain peaks for cultivation, though the degree of freedom would be much greater.

In the Xuantian Sect, those below the level of core disciples did not have the authority to open their own individual cave dwellings.

Only after breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage and advancing to core disciple status would one have the right to seek out a spiritual land and establish a private cave dwelling.

Those below core disciples could only choose to settle and cultivate on their corresponding mountain peaks.

In the Xuantian Sect, the largest groups of disciples were the inner disciples and core disciples; the miscellaneous disciples were actually the fewest in number.

There was no other reason than the fact that the spiritual energy within the Xuantian Sect was simply too dense. As long as a disciple's talent wasn't ridiculously poor, they could basically break through to the late stage of Qi Refinement and advance to an outer disciple quite easily within about ten years of joining the sect.

Those with slightly better talent could even break through to the Foundation Establishment stage within ten years.

According to Ye Qingxuan's estimation, there were at least tens of millions of disciples in the Xuantian Sect.

The annual entrance ceremonies were ultimately just small affairs; the real bulk came from the grand recruitment ceremonies held once every hundred years.

During every centennial recruitment ceremony, the Xuantian Sect would recruit at least a hundred thousand disciples within the Earth-Mystic Realm.

With tens of millions of disciples distributed across the Xuantian Mountain Range—which was more than ten times larger than the Blue Star of Ye Qingxuan's previous life—they did not seem particularly conspicuous.

Among these disciples, even the worst could break through to Foundation Establishment, and it was very easy for those of medium talent to break through to the Purple Mansion or Golden Core stages; other geniuses were surely countless.

Otherwise, without a sufficient base of disciples, the sect could never support such a massive system or guarantee the orderly succession of the sect.

However, all of this had no impact on him, a practitioner of the Blessed Path.

Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, Ye Qingxuan did not rush in blindly. Without the corresponding token imprint, he had no way of passing through the mountain's protective formation.

Not long after he sent a transmission to Ye Qingxiao, a streak of sword light flashed down from the mountain peak.

"Hahaha, Qingxuan, I'm here!"

Ye Qingxiao's voice arrived before his person!

When he arrived not far from Ye Qingxuan, Ye Qingxiao landed magnificently, even performing a flashy sword-sheathing move!

Ye Qingxuan said nothing, merely watching his performance in silence.

Watching him, Ye Qingxiao felt a sense of unease. He scratched his head somewhat awkwardly and said

"Ha, uh, Qingxuan, how about we go sit in my little courtyard?"

Ye Qingxuan glanced at him but did not agree

"I just happened to stop by to see you and bring you some things. How do you feel after advancing to an outer disciple?"

Hearing Ye Qingxuan's inquiry, Ye Qingxiao immediately put on a bitter face and began to complain

"Don't even mention it! Although the workload for outer disciples isn't as heavy as that of the miscellaneous disciples, the tasks are all time-consuming and labor-intensive. The key is that those guys are too competitive!"

"And..."

Previously, although there was much work in the miscellaneous service courtyard, Manager Mo looked after him, so while the work was plenty, it wasn't strenuous.

Now that he had advanced to an outer disciple and settled on the mountain peak belonging to them, although he had much more freedom, the competition among outer disciples to complete tasks was incredibly intense.

Outer disciples also received sect stipends, but they weren't much—barely about one-third of what Ye Qingxuan received.

If one wanted sufficient cultivation resources, one could only rely on completing tasks.

Therefore, in addition to the fixed tasks they had to complete every month, outer disciples either had to find other sources of income or take on a massive amount of extra tasks to obtain sect resources.

This resulted in these outer disciples being either on their way to snatch up tasks or on their way to performing them; every single one of them was competing to the death for cultivation resources.

Those in the late stage of Qi Refinement wanted to break through to Foundation Establishment, and those in the Foundation Establishment stage wanted to break through to the Purple Mansion.

As a result, Ye Qingxiao had just advanced to an outer disciple and hadn't had time to adapt to this rhythm; every task he managed to snatch up was almost always exhausting and time-consuming.

Otherwise, he would have come to visit Ye Qingxuan much sooner.

"I understand! I understand! You've worked hard!"

After listening to Ye Qingxiao's complaints, although Ye Qingxuan could not truly empathize, he expressed that he understood Ye Qingxiao's feelings.

However, the smile on the corner of Ye Qingxuan's mouth that he simply could not suppress made Ye Qingxiao feel quite annoyed!

Fuming, Ye Qingxiao let out a cold snort and said proudly

"Hmph! That was only before. Now, I won't waste my time competing with them for those tasks!"

After saying this, Ye Qingxiao pulled out a storage bag and tossed it to Ye Qingxuan, saying

"Here, this is some cultivation resource for you, hehehe!"

Seeing this, Ye Qingxuan took the storage bag from Ye Qingxiao's hand in confusion. As he probed it with his divine sense, he said in surprise

"Where did you get so many cultivation resources?"

Good heavens, inside the storage bag Ye Qingxiao gave him, there were a thousand first-grade pills, a full three thousand second-grade pills, and even several hundred third-grade pills—basically all pills used to increase cultivation.

The two had entered the Xuantian Sect together; Ye Qingxuan knew exactly what Ye Qingxiao's assets were. Given Ye Qingxiao's current cultivation level, it was impossible for him to obtain so many resources.

Unless...

Ye Qingxuan looked toward a certain spot behind Ye Qingxiao, his eyes filled with suspicion!

Noticing this, Ye Qingxiao immediately said in exasperation

"Ye Qingxuan, what kind of look is that? Where are you looking?"

"Don't guess blindly. This was given by the Ancestor. The portion in your hand is what the Ancestor told me to give to you!"

"Really?"

"Of course it's true!"

Having received the answer, Ye Qingxuan withdrew his gaze and asked in confusion

"Why would the Ancestor give you so many pills all at once?"

Facing Ye Qingxuan's question, Ye Qingxiao gave a silly smile, scratched the back of his head, and explained

"I heard from the Ancestor that the core disciples of the Xuantian Sect take turns accepting a task in batches. This time it's the Ancestor's turn, and he won't be back for sixty years, so that's why he gave me so many pills at once!"

At this point, Ye Qingxiao paused, leaned toward Ye Qingxuan mysteriously, and whispered

"And, the Ancestor said that if he's lucky, he might be able to use this task to break through to the Deity Transformation stage, hehehe!"

Hearing this, Ye Qingxuan did not feel happy; instead, his brow furrowed.

A great harvest also meant great risk!

"It seems the task the Ancestor took must involve significant risk!"

Ye Qingxuan thought continuously in his heart.

But he couldn't figure out what kind of task would cause a disciple of the Xuantian Sect to take such a risk.

Perhaps, he was overthinking it?

Ye Qingxuan shook his head and thought to himself

"Forget it, I won't think about it. Once my realm is high enough, I will naturally have the authority to know certain things."

Looking at Ye Qingxiao, Ye Qingxuan tossed the storage bag back to him and smiled

"I originally intended to give you some pills, but it seems that's unnecessary now."

"Besides, I am already a mature alchemist. I won't lack cultivation resources in the future, so you should keep these pills for yourself!"

He would not believe Ye Qingxiao's nonsense; it was impossible that the Ancestor had ordered Ye Qingxiao to give them to him.

If the Ancestor truly wanted to give them to him, the Ancestor would naturally have sent him a message; why would he only summon Ye Qingxiao alone?

He estimated that Ye Qingxiao was afraid he would be unhappy if he found out, so he had secretly distributed a portion of the resources to him in the Ancestor's name.

However, Ye Qingxuan did not care about this. After all, his talent was indeed too poor to be worth the Ancestor spending resources to cultivate.

Hearing that Ye Qingxuan had already become an alchemist, Ye Qingxiao said in pleasant surprise

"Qingxuan, really? You've really become an alchemist?"

Ye Qingxuan smiled slightly and nodded.

After confirming that what Ye Qingxuan said was true, Ye Qingxiao laughed loudly

"Hahaha, then I'll keep these pills for myself! If I need anything in the future, I'll come to you for help with alchemy, hehehe!"

"Hahaha, alright, no problem. Qingxiao, remember to come find me if you need alchemy in the future."

"It's getting late, I'll be going now. See you next time!"

After bidding farewell to Ye Qingxiao, Ye Qingxuan departed the mountain peak where the outer disciples resided by flying on his sword.

(End of Chapter)