This rule was truly astonishing, but since it existed, there must be a reason. Demonic cultivators weren't fools; they wouldn't willingly accept exploitation.
Its continued existence indicated it was more profitable than taking commissions from the Mission Hall.
Wang Yu naturally thought of connected individuals securing positions—he was all too familiar with that. This had exactly that flavor!
A true disciple's authority was equivalent to an elder's, with a very wide reach, not limited to just themselves. The Ice Snow Pavilion was a product of this privilege.
If both sides benefited, it made sense.
When he reached the tenth floor, he found it almost fully occupied, with only the twenty-ninth room empty. Wang Yu moved in.
The room's environment was good, and the area was quite spacious.
A large purple paulownia wood bed, big enough for five people to lie down vertically, or more than ten horizontally. The bedding was smooth as water, cool and moist to the touch, made of high-quality fabric.
Tables and chairs were complete, carved with many landscapes.
Green screens and embroidered paintings depicted scenes like cranes dancing in a lotus pond in ink wash style, and an old man climbing a mountain to gather firewood—a worldly masterpiece.
The arched corners of the room were adorned with gold and silver—utterly luxurious.
And it was much larger than he had imagined.
A round-arched curtained door sleeping platform, an octagonal main hall, and a small balcony with railings and seating, offering a view of the beautiful scenery of the Ten Small Markets.
Additionally, there was a sealable quiet room to meet cultivators' seclusion needs.
Thus, Wang Yu's first day as an outer disciple concluded perfectly.
...
...
**The next day.**
He encountered the first challenge after his status was regularized.
Meals!
Cultivators also needed to eat. Before breaking through to Foundation Establishment, Qi Refining cultivators couldn't subsist on spiritual energy alone. Without scheduled meal deliveries, Wang Yu felt somewhat unaccustomed.
He could either buy food outside or purchase Fasting Pills from the Alchemy Hall. One pill could sustain him for three months, meeting daily nutritional needs.
The problem was, Wang Yu had no spirit stones. He did have a few taels of Spirit Sand left, as he hadn't submitted any in the last three months of his spirit slave life.
The Reverse Blood Sect didn't provide disciple stipends. Not exploiting you was good enough; how could they give you a "salary"? Dream on.
Skimming through the booklet Zhao Shang gave him, he found that the Ice Snow Pavilion offered meal delivery services, mostly various kinds of spirit food beneficial for cultivation.
As for the price... Wang Yu hesitated.
Currently, two problems lay before him: making money and switching cultivation techniques. The Bloodburn Art was, after all, a quick-fix demonic technique with no subsequent stages; he would have to change it eventually.
The sooner, the better.
Regarding making money, apart from damaging his own cultivation to refine Spirit Sand or resorting to robbery, he had no skills to earn spirit stones.
"First, solve the survival problem. Then, go to the Scripture Depository in the [Halls Market] to settle the technique issue."
Having decided, Wang Yu went out early in the morning.
Within the Reverse Blood Sect, contribution points and spirit stones were both used as currency, basically equivalent in value, but non-convertible.
Spirit food with special effects was almost always traded with contribution points. Ordinary food wasn't expensive. With a storage pouch, spoilage wasn't a concern.
Wang Yu bought three hundred large meat buns in one go, spending half a tael of Spirit Sand.
After eating casually, the Scripture Depository came into view.
This place was more like a catalog hall. After deciding on the techniques or spells to learn, you took the catalog to the Technique Transmission Hall to obtain the corresponding jade slip.
They couldn't be taken out or taught to others, requiring a heart demon oath.
There weren't many people in the Scripture Depository, perhaps because the formal disciple recruitment period had passed. The ten peaks of the Reverse Blood Sect corresponded to different demonic path legacies.
Wang Yu went to the section corresponding to Coldblood Peak. As an outer disciple of Coldblood Peak, his free technique exchange opportunity could only be used here.
The other benefit True Disciple Su gave had no restrictions, though.
""Coldblood Art", "Nether Yin Art", "Heavenly Cold Strategy", "Ice Marrow Scripture"..."
Without exception, all were ice-cold attribute techniques, all first-grade high-grade, allowing normal cultivation to Great Perfection of Qi Refining. Only after smoothly breaking through to Foundation Establishment would a technique change be needed.
Each had follow-up stages, but the upper limit was only the third grade; there were no fourth-grade Nascent Soul techniques.
[Those who cultivate the Ice Marrow Scripture have stable minds and clear spiritual platforms. After death, their corpses can produce 〈Ice Marrow〉, excellent material for nurturing cold corpses.]
[Those who cultivate the Heavenly Cold Strategy possess powerful ice spell effects, far surpassing ordinary people. After death, their corpses make excellent materials for refining corpses.]
[Those who cultivate the Coldblood Art have strong physiques, cold blood and Qi, higher affinity for Yin-cold attribute spiritual energy, can slightly improve aptitude. After death, their corpses are top-grade materials for refining ice corpses.]
Wang Yu: "???"
So blatant?!
It practically stated outright that the corpse belongs to the sect after death, but the description conveyed a similar meaning.
The only thing that attracted Wang Yu was the description of the [Coldblood Art]. Its claim to slightly improve aptitude was probably very minimal.
But for him, there was no worse aptitude than a Waste Spiritual Root. Every tiny improvement would be amplified several times under the Placement Rack's effect.
That made it quite significant.
"Coldblood..."
Moreover, he had an intuition that this thing paired very well with the [Corpse Demon Secret Method]!
After pondering for a long time, Wang Yu took this catalog and went to the neighboring Technique Transmission Hall. After passing the heart demon oath verification, he successfully obtained this new technique. Without a second thought, he placed it into the Placement Rack to check.
**[Slot 1: Coldblood Art]**
**[Coldblood Art (0/100): Forty-eight practices per day. Mastery achievable in one year.]**
It was worth mentioning that the Ice Sword Art was one of the supporting spells for this technique. Another mid-grade spell called [Ice Shield Art] was also acquired by Wang Yu.
The supporting first-grade magical instrument blueprint [Coldblood Needle] and first-grade pill formula [Coldblood Pill] constituted the complete technique legacy!
Everything was provided as a set. One just needed to gradually master it to become a proper Qi Refining cultivator.
If one could advance to the second grade and become a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the future, there would be more supporting spells, instruments, pill formulas... etc.
Wang Yu returned to the Ice Snow Pavilion satisfied.
He hadn't yet decided how to use the arbitrary exchange token worth one thousand contribution points.
The main focus now, besides breaking through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining, was to perfect all the accumulated spells in his possession.
The high-grade spell [Night Concealment Curse], the mid-grade spell [Ice Shield Art], and the incomplete Nascent Soul secret method [Corpse Demon Secret Method]—three items.
He had already decided to cultivate this secret method but needed to prioritize the order.
Breaking through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining was still far off, so allocating one Placement Slot wouldn't have a significant impact.
**[Slot 2: Night Concealment Curse]**
**[Night Concealment Curse (1/100): Twelve practices per day. Mastery achievable in three months.]**
Seeing this, Wang Yu replaced it with the Ice Shield Art.
**[Slot 2: Ice Shield Art]**
**[Ice Shield Art (0/100): One hundred forty-four practices per day. Mastery achievable in one month.]**
After some consideration, he decided to place the Night Concealment Curse first.
(End of Chapter)