Mu Lu bid me farewell and told me about how will he directly go to the bank to withdraw the money and asked me to wish him luck, I nodded at him absent-mindedly .
His words made me have a more clear understanding about the internal affairs of the Dojo and its disciple, my question to him about the words of those guys, made he look at me and laugh a little .
He found the scene of those guys threatening to strip away my resources yesterday quite funny, I was still not following closely what he was on and on about, but after he explained the situation to me, I couldn't help but have a smile on my face as well .
Mu Lu mentioned that all this nonsense that they said and the words that Lu Chiang said too were all related to the Internal Competition among the disciples here .
Fierce, that was my first impression regarding that competition, that competition was like betting matches between the disciples at first, exactly similar to those ring fight that I had witnessed in that shady area behind the Red Light District, discibles would be betting resources they have against one another, in a winner take all fashion .
When more rumors began to spread about those competition and how there were a huge numbers of Disciples participating in it, also he mentioned that some quite numbers of conflicts and strifes that appeard as a result of it, the competition was then endued by the Dojo Master .
That was to help the disciples gain some combat experience, but to also resolve all reason for conflicts, as all the battles were now being supervised by the Dojo, it was held on the first day of every month, the reward would be distributed by the Dojo for only the guys that were ranked 1st to 4th .
But that wasn't all, there was a new way presented to all the disciples to solve the conflicts among themselves and in not a very civilized way as well, that new way was dueling one another, under some conditions that didn't allowed anyone to get injured severely during the battle and those who will still do something like that, they will be directly crippled as a result and getting expelled .
Things were going well, but then a group of people that were quite familiar with Mu Lu and were also comrades to the guys from yesterday, began to group themselves and target those lower than them, attacking weaker opponents and even though the Dojo had made it clear that only those who are willing to fight can accept to duel .
Those guys had irritating ways to force someone to accept their duel, not only that but their target might be completely looted in a span of an incense stick of time, there will be no short of people who will challenge the target to get his resources and once he agreed to pay, then the Dojo will be responsible for making him pay .
Under the protection of the same guy that forced Mu Lu to this dire state before, those guys continued to plot as they liked and no one dared to even report them, due to the fact that their one Senior Brother responsible mostly for the affairs of the disciples, those outer disciples at least .
I got to know that most of the guys in that group came from some big families and background, at least families that should be wealthy enough to be able to support the cost of those guys practice, so why would they be doing this, instead of focusing on getting stronger and getting promoted for those who hadn't done so .
Yes, there were a few Inner Disciples participating in these kind of things, but they were at most responsible for pressuring someone enough for him to accept getting emptied out, so once I should have been targeted by those guys, I would have most likely end up with nothing of my practice resources and that was what they wanted .
Mu Lu told me the reason that they were doing this, wad them trying to do the same things that they did to him, the part that this guy didn't mentioned before when he was telling me his story began to be explained by him, his expression darkened slightly as he told me about how was he one of the targets of those guys .
How he was taunted during his practice to accept to duel a few times, he refused all those who came at first, but it seem that the guy in front of me was more like the original me than the me in this world, more than I would like to confess .
That guy only accepted to duel them after they promised to put out some valuable resources as bet, he bit on this bait without a second thought, then this guy gambled with almost half the money he had before he finally was able to come back to his senses, they kept on challenging him, so he feigned getting injured and the referee was forced to put a stop to the duel .
A gambler, but at least he had a better perception than I used to, I almost lost all my money back then in a one night, but he was able to escape with half of his original net worth, that was why that guy seemed to know them that well, he was plotted against by those guys from when he fell into the trap they set for him .
Losing money every month, made him focus more on making money than to actually practice, but when it was time to practice, those guys would come knocking on his doors and the Dojo have special rooms that he could rent to train in peace, but the problem with these was them being quiet pricey and him being uncertain that huge figure behind those guys won't pull some strings to attack him on those rooms .
I finally was able to understand from him that those guys target was to push those who they choose as their target into a corner and force their back to the wall, to the point that their targets will be listening to whatever they told them to do, either paying protection fee, helping them out with some shady things .
Those who refused could be many, but in the end they would be faced with the need to make a choice, either they accept and become lapdogs or refusing and getting expelled from the Dojo after three months period of time or if they didn't enter by paying like myself, they would still get expelled after going through the assessment that Mu Lu had gone through .
I was flabbergasted at finding these kind of things happening even in this world, it was even more severe than back in my previous world, I understood that malice and evil was their in all people's hearts, but to think that those guys have formed a group that was maliciously operating with the sole purpose of plotting others to death was something I hadn't expected to witness .
I was replying absentmindedly to that guy because I was completely wondering about what I could possibly do to make things right here, the solution that I came up with was to pull the source of those guys confidence out, that Senior Brother that Mu Lu mentioned was the first person I needed to deal with, if I to dream about making things right .
The reason I I wanted to help making things right around here was because I already felt some belonging to this place, I had a good Master that could have his face tarnished because one of his close discibles was doing something this evil, I didn't like to see Master suffer such a thing, I labeled that Master of mine as a good guy .
And the other reason was because I had already some unsolved grievance with that Senior Brother mentioned here, even though Mu Lu refused to directly tell me his name and didn't tell me anything other than him being a core disciple, I still have a guess that was most likely to be right .
Senior Brother Gu Chu, that guy from before looked at me with resentment, he also was the one responsible in training the outer disciples this morning and the reason that made me suspicious of him the most was because when I tried to run away from him earlier, that guy wasn't even caring about my life as much as he was caring to see what was in my bag .
So no matter which angle, I tried to look at that guy from, I can't seem to see him in a good way, so I'm labeling him as the first suspect here, he might be the guy that was running all this circle of corruption, but was that guy really in need of so much money, enough to not care about what might his actions cause the Dojo and affect its reputation .
But if he was really need to be delt with, it will take a lot of time to convince him against continuing to do these sort of things, then if he didn't respond positively, I will just have to threaten him with telling on him to the Master, that should be more than enough to make him stop going astray, at least I hope .
But to think that I got to know this much after only being accepted as a disciple, I'm really beginning to wonder about what else might my future as Master's disciple bring me .
Thinking about how would those guys react when they find that they were trying to target a Close Disciple, surely would be quite the scene to watch, for now I should try and adapt to my new surrounding, the first thing I did, was to hop into the bed without a second thought .
So soft, that was my first impression on the bed, the feeling of having something soft to sleep on was quite the nostalgic feeling, I couldn't help but wonder, if I was feeling like this because of the muscle memory of this life or my past one, either way, I was really enjoying this feeling .
How awesome would it be if I was able to sleep my worries of on that bed, sadly this wasn't possible, even if I slept now, I don't believe that it will be beneficial to me that much, first I will be wasting a lot of prescious time this morning, second I don't think that I will be able to regain my spent Blood Qi by sleeping, so it was really not a suitable decision to take .
I hopped off the the bed a bit reluctantly, but I forced these lazy thoughts away and insted focused my mind on what I needed to do next, first I sat cross legged on the ground and calmed my still excited heart a little, then I stood up then began practicing Solid Rock Fist, I executed the 15t postures and was able to finally regain some of the Blood Qi that I had already lost, making me appear much more energetic compared to before .
It seemed that Blood Qi is really linked to my stamina, I was able to recognize this truth now, the lack of something to hit in the room to be able to get much recoil force than this was a bit vixen, but I calmed myself down and thought that it would be better to not train in the open with the others disciples or even with the Senior Brothers and Sisters .
After all normal way of practice was somewhat ineffective for me in increasing my strength and to increase my strength, I must practice caution to not create any suspicions about me, I should now be able to use the opportunity that Master gave me with that Gliding Swallow and those precious Pills, me breaking through to the 2nd layer of Flesh Tempering shouldn't create much ruckus, at least I hope so .
I took a deep breath and after making sure that everything was in its position, I stored the Token he gave me into the pouch and directly went out, as I went out, I noticed that it seemed that the rooms around me seemed to be empty, their was not the slightest sound coming from them, it made me wonder about the whereabouts of the other Senior Brothers and Sisters who I hadn't met .
My conflict earlier with Gu Chu should not make that guy wary of me, so it will give me plenty of time to deal with him as I liked, but now, now I need to make a breakthrough and also need to learn more about the world that I will be living in .
I headed to the Scriptures Hall and on my way, I kept getting unfriendly stares from the guys that were practicing according to the orders of Gu Chu, they were giving me stares that were indicating their confusion about me not practicing like them, someone even went to Gu Chu and whispered something in that guy's ears, but all that he did was looking at me and snorting coldly, then he turned his head away .
I too paid neither him nor his lackeys any mind and continued to head into the closet thing to a library around here, I stood at the Hall's Entrance and first knocked on the door to see if there was anyone inside, Guardian Li for example, I didn't want to sound rude by bursting in the hall like this, so I tried to ask for whoever's was inside permission before entering, but it seemed that I thought too much .
No reply came from the other side of the door and after waiting for a few more seconds, I directly entered the Hall and surprisingly this time no one was there, the serenity in the atmosphere here was still there and I couldn't but find coming back here this quick to be quite funny .
I saw that the books of Martial Arts in front of was as organized as before, but there seemed to be some new books added to the collections of Martial Techniques and Martial Skills, I was able to tell after seeing a few new names that I hadn't seen the other day, but those weren't my target this time, my actual target was the book that was behind the door in the corner beside the cupboard that had the robes stored in it .
I opened the door and found that surprisingly it wasn't looked or anything like that, inside there was a single table and chair in the center of the room, surrounded by an overwhelming amount of books, the scene made my stomach churn a little, not liking that scene in front of me one bit, it brought back some memories about me studying back in my old world and they weren't some good memories .
Seeing how tidy the room was, I wanted to retreat and forget about my initial task, but in the end, I forced myself to get inside the room and closed the door behind me, the room was lit by a window on the ceiling and another one on top of the wall, so it was brightly lit in here .
The books in front of me sadly weren't labeled, so I was only able to know the content inside after reading the first page or the first few pages, the books and documents in front of me were too many to count, mostly have more than one volumes, or maybe they were just organized on the basis of color, either way, it would take a considerable amount of time to finish reading all of these books .
I browsed a few of them and found nothing of importance in them, those books that I had browsed were similar to art books, they were either filled with illustration of arts or poems in them, but they at most improved my eloquence a bit more .
I didn't came her with the hope of finding some great secrets in those books, just basic knowledge about everything here in this world, but it seemed more troublesome than I had first imagined .
The numbers of books was quite a lot and there was no index to help me find the books I needed in this place, so I was completely on my own here, not only that but some of the books I read had quite the obscured information in it, things that were completely above my ability to understand at the moment .
Alchemy, Weapon Grades, Heaven and Earth Treasures and more .