Climbing
At the demonic territory, news of Jie Sheng's disappearance has reached the majority.
"Fuck! That bastard went and started a war but disappeared himself!" Says the Patriarch of the demonic Hei family.
"..."
In the room full of Patriarchs and Elders, silence engulfs all. Everyone has things to add, but the glare of the remaining heavenly demon left behind threatens their freedom of speech.
"Aiguo and He Zhou are gone, my master disappeared. Wow..." Says the remaining heavenly demon, Gao Li Qiang. "What does everyone suggest, speak up."
At the very least, they know that Li Qiang is more rational than Jie Sheng. With Jie Sheng and the remaining heavenly demon disappearing, the last heavenly demon, Li Qiang, will be in power.
"I-I feel that we should surrender and simply ask for a truce." Says an elder.
...
Li Qiang shakes his head, and others follow. Everyone wants to surrender and survive but they were reminded of Jie Sheng's speech regarding their conviction. Why did they trek on the demonic path in the first place? Be it for power, fame, or revenge, every one of them knows how cruel and hypocritic the Murim Alliance is. If they don't do something, sooner or later they will fall.
The demonic sects in Kunlai are seen as a disgrace. Usually, both good and bad sides have approximately equal power, yet the balance of techniques and power is tipped towards the Murim Alliance. This cannot continue.
"I have an idea," says Li Qiang. "But that requires the cooperation of everyone. Do you want to hear about it?"
They nod.
"First of all, the Murim Alliance is very selfish, even more than the majority of us. Thus, we simply have to create an internal conflict..."
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2 weeks have passed since enrollment, Li Ruo joined the outer disciples recently and broke through to the 7th stage of Qi Condensation. As a result, her body's genes stabilize and her sclera turns white, she looks like a human now.
Gaoming disappeared for a week and is now back for training. Some outer disciples had a blast slacking.
"T-That..."
Nobody can take their eyes off Li Ruo now. Without her black sclera, she looks to be a normal cute and young genius.
During that period, I occasionally visit He Zhou on her secret spot to train and after a few times, she doesn't seem to mind anymore.
Other than finding out more about Jie Sheng, my main goal is to create a new identity from scratch in the event I need to personally intervene with anything discretely. To do that, I cannot take action that will make me stand out.
Now then, why did I accept such a person as Zheng Cang? It wasn't much of a reason. He is just such a useful pawn for the growth of my sect disciples.
A loving family practising together? Bullshit, such treatments will backfire in the long run and growth will deteriorate. There needs to be a drive of agony to become stronger, to take revenge. Bullying is a perfect factor.
I want to revive the sect, not babysit every one of them.
That might raise the question of why didn't I infect Zheng Cang with the second virus?
To be honest, it would be great if everything could be solved with the second virus. I need Zheng Cang to have a continuous burning desire to dominate the sect, making him loyal will diminish that flame.
Instead of the normal horse stance training today, Gaoming gathered all of us in the mountains.
...?
Everyone stared at Gaoming in confusion. "Wait." He says.
The core disciples and inner disciples appear behind us. Some outer disciples among us who was here before the recruitment joined in.
"I-It's Li Xing...and Xiang Hou, I've heard of both of them."
"Yeah, their fight was amazing! I was there at the competition." Says a boy.
Dei Lo throws a glance at them, everyone looks away. He has a bad reputation as a coward for what he has done during the competition.
Dei Lo sighs and ignored them.
On Gaoming's signal of nodding, they dash out at the steep wall and begin climbing the mountain.
?!!
"What the..." Says the mysterious lady in my group, up until now she hasn't said a thing to us nor her name.
It was an almost impossible feat for a normal human. The cliff is slanted outwards with very steep and jagged rocks protruding out for leverage.
...
I have climbed mountains before. But I had tools...
"The Patriarch wasn't joking about the training being hell, this is only the first part of one set and this is what the inner and core disciples do daily. For starters, all each of you has to do is climb to the top." Says Gaoming.
...
Gaoming sighs. "The first 50 people to reach the top have the right to leave the sect's residence tomorrow and the last 20 will be having only a single bread for dinner."
!!!
"How could you!"
"How are we going to survive??"
"I've never climbed a mountain before!!"
"Silence!!" Gaoming shouts. He glares at each of us. "If you have any dissatisfaction, leave. We are here to become martial practitioners, no pain leads to no gain."
Well said Gaoming.
...
"Tch..."
Everyone grits their teeth. Gaoming points at the mountain. "Time is ticking."
All dash at the mountains and grip firmly on the rough texture. The wall is large enough to accommodate everyone here.
...
It doesn't hurt. When I grasped the rocks and climbed steep mountains, a normal occurrence is skin tearing and blood spewing, it is a test of endurance and core muscle, or it should be but my hardened body easily crushed the rocks. I'm not used to this luxury. Wanted Terrorists are shunned in every civilisation and to avoid risk, my group usually travels by the uninhabited, which is to say steep mountains and harsh conditions, carrying heavy "products".
Even when my base cultivation is suppressed, my body cultivation isn't. I throw a glance at another fellow outer disciple who has already gone ahead, he is gritting his teeth in agony as blood drips from his fingers. The burning sensation of his skin slowly peels off as you attempt to exert enough friction to stay afloat can gnaw at your mind into madness.
I sigh and match the pace of the average, climbing my way up.
..?
However, the person to my right is one of Zheng Cang's lackeys, he smirks at me when he places his feet on my shoulder. Just like that, he used me as a boost to get up further expecting me to drop from his momentum.
...
However, I stay firmly in place. Not a single hint of tremble or tiredness.
"What..." He mumbles.
I continue climbing past him like nothing as he stares at me confused.
This is boring. I look back down. I can feel the mist of coldness and Gaoming has diminished into the size of a rock, maybe I can do a bit of passive cultivation so that my time isn't wasted?
For the remaining journey, I slowly cultivate while matching the climbing pace of everyone.
In the end, barely anyone reach the top. only Li Ruo, Yi Mu, and Tengchao did.
Gaoming sighs. "Since it is your first time, I will let everyone off. The three that managed to climb the cliff, all of you have the permission to leave the sect and roam around Nielong. However, there are a few exceptions, for example, you cannot enter the brothel. You can read more about it at the main hall."
Outer disciples heave out a sigh of relief.
...
Every fifth day of the week, we have to attempt climbing the mountain again. However the next day, we have free time after our morning exercise.
Free time until night... I should leave the sect to check up on Nielong.
Although I am not allowed to leave, I can leave under the excuse of "sect errands". I go to the main hall and look through the board.
Ah... One of the papers pinned states:
==============
Go on a patrol around Nielong and the sect's property for 5 hours.
Rewards:
10 contribution points
==============
I inform Li Ye, who was on duty, about it.
"Ah, you are...Fu Cai? Alright, take this plate, just walk around the premise and keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious. If it is something you can handle, help. Otherwise, report back." Says Li Ye.
"Yes," I reply.
I take the wooden plate and walk out of the sect.
...
I will go to Nielong first, I need something there.