Chapter 120: Hope

Black Peony guessed what Yuan Fang had gone to do and simply continued with her own tasks. She opened the two food boxes and laid out the wine and dishes one by one.

In the main hall, Yuan Fang slapped the receipt onto the counter. “Is this real or fake?”

The innkeeper took one look and immediately understood. He handed it back. “Real. The dark-skinned woman who was just here paid it.”

Yuan Fang took back the receipt, turned, and left without another word, his eyes flickering. So this actually worked?

He had spent years scraping and saving at Nanshan Temple and had only managed to accumulate a few hundred gold coins. Yet one move like this had earned far more. His heart warmed at the thought. He needed to figure out exactly what was happening. If it proved workable, this might be a path to wealth!

He hurried back upstairs, went to Niu Youdao’s side, bent close to his ear, and whispered, “Master Dao, it’s real.”

Niu Youdao slanted a look at him, somewhat speechless. Yuan Fang really was petty in the way he handled things, as though he had never seen money before. Wasn’t he trying to imitate Yuan Gang? Yet a little over a thousand gold coins had been enough to make him abandon the man he was supposed to protect and run downstairs. Which mattered more, money or the person?

Once the dishes had been arranged and the wine poured, Black Peony took out a small porcelain bottle and shook a little white powder over each dish to test for poison, openly demonstrating that there was nothing underhanded.

Yuan Fang, however, reached out and took the small bottle from her hand. He dabbed a little powder onto one finger, touched it to his tongue, and tasted it. Only after confirming there was no problem did he return the bottle.

Niu Youdao had to suppress a laugh. He had forgotten this fellow was an expert in medicines. He pointed toward the Record of Strange Beasts Black Peony had set aside.

Black Peony immediately picked it up and presented it with both hands.

Niu Youdao took the book, flipped through it for a while, found the entry containing an illustration of a Golden King Bear, and handed it to Yuan Fang. “Take a look.”

Look at what? Yuan Fang accepted it suspiciously. The moment he read the entry, his eyes froze.

Niu Youdao gestured for Black Peony to sit across from him and asked, “Black Peony is an alias, I assume?”

Now that he was finally willing to talk with her, Black Peony immediately brightened. She sat properly opposite him, nodded, and smiled. “It’s an alias, but also my real name. I never knew who my parents were. As far back as I can remember, I was wandering the streets. I was dark-skinned as a child, so people called me Dark Lass. Later I met my master, and he named me Black Peony.”

Niu Youdao gave a soft sound of acknowledgment. “What sect or school did your master belong to?”

“None. He was an independent cultivator. Once, when he took me out to sea to gather spirit herbs, we encountered raiders. He was killed. I escaped by diving into the sea and managed to survive.”

Niu Youdao tipped his chin toward her. “You’re alone?”

“I used to be blind enough to follow a man. Later the bastard dumped me so he could climb onto a higher branch. These days, I travel with a few brothers who share the same goals.”

Realizing how much hatred had crept into her voice, Black Peony raised her cup and drank to conceal it.

Niu Youdao drank with her, then glanced sidelong at Yuan Fang and found his expression rather strange. He secretly found it amusing.

Black Peony set down her cup and gestured toward the table. “Sir, try the food and see whether it suits your taste.” At the same time, she rose and moved to sit beside Niu Youdao so she could pour wine for him more conveniently.

Niu Youdao picked up his chopsticks and sampled a few bites. Then he asked, “What is your cultivation realm? And what about the brothers outside?”

“All of us have reached the Foundation Establishment Realm. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have dared approach you.” After filling his cup, Black Peony tentatively asked, “I still don’t know your honored name, sir.”

“Xuanyuan Dao.” Niu Youdao smiled as he introduced himself, then pointed at the grim-faced Yuan Fang. “He’s Jin Wei.”

Because of their feud with the Song family, especially after killing envoy of the State of Yan Song Long, both men had changed the names they used outside. Yuan Fang had never really had a proper name to begin with. At Nanshan Temple he had always been called Little Gold. Jin Wei was a name Yuan Fang had chosen for himself. He thought Yuan Gang’s name sounded strong and hard, and felt his own name could not be inferior, so he had settled on Jin Wei.

Black Peony smiled. “I heard Big Brother Jin Wei call you Master Dao just now. So that’s where the address comes from. I’ll call you Master Dao from now on as well. May I ask what sect or school Master Dao comes from?”

Niu Youdao smiled. “Same as you. I’m an independent cultivator.”

Black Peony’s expression changed, but quickly relaxed again. She smiled. “Impossible.”

Niu Youdao found that curious. “Why impossible?”

“Independent cultivators don’t come by money easily. How many would willingly spend ten gold coins a day to stay at the Inviting Moon Inn? And Master Dao looks so young and carefree, yet even travels with a follower...” She glanced at Yuan Fang and shook her head.

Yuan Fang had already closed the Record of Strange Beasts and sat to one side. He seized a cup of wine and threw it back in one gulp to steady himself.

Only now did he discover that he was actually the sort of creature many cultivators would want to hunt down and kill. Only now did he learn that his fur was considered treasure among cultivators and could be woven into protective soft armor impervious to blades and spears. To think he used to walk around openly displaying all that fur. The very thought brought out a cold sweat.

Niu Youdao glanced at him, knowing exactly what he was thinking, then smiled at Black Peony. “Aren’t you an independent cultivator too?”

Black Peony knew he meant that she had likewise spent ten gold coins to stay here. “That’s different. I paid to get inside because I wanted to find Master Dao.”

Niu Youdao looked interested. “What do you want with me?”

Black Peony did not believe for a moment that he was unaware. If he truly had no idea, why had he ordered her around like this from the start? She secretly gathered her courage and finally stated her purpose. “I want to establish a sect and cast off my status as an independent cultivator.”

“That sounds like a good thing,” Niu Youdao said. “But what does it have to do with me?”

Black Peony asked, “Master Dao surely knows the conditions required to establish a sect. We don’t stop being independent cultivators simply because we say so, nor does calling ourselves a sect make us one.”

Niu Youdao nodded. “First, the sect has to be recognized by the cultivation world before it can formally establish itself. Of course, it’s impossible to obtain recognition from every single person, so the cultivation world jointly recognizes nine highly respected Nascent Soul Realm experts as arbiters. The master behind Star-Plucking City is one of them. Only with the signed certification of those nine does one qualify to establish a sect. And to obtain that certification, you have to prove that you possess both the strength and financial resources required to found a sect, while also obtaining the recommendation and guarantee of another sect. Am I right?”

Black Peony nodded. “Exactly. We aren’t experts in the Top Ten of the Golden Core Ranking, nor do we possess prestige acknowledged beneath Heaven, so we cannot obtain the signed certification directly. We can only follow the normal process.”

Niu Youdao smiled. “Then how many of those conditions have you met?”

“We’ve already proven our strength. We completed thirty missions from the Rogue and Heretic List. What we still lack are the financial qualifications and a sect willing to recommend us.”

Niu Youdao knew what the Rogue and Heretic List was. People who broke the cultivation world’s rules, or who committed so many evil acts that they provoked public outrage, would have their names posted in public cultivator gathering places such as Star-Plucking City. The purpose was to encourage cultivators throughout the realm to eliminate them and uphold the cultivation world’s rules.

If someone wanted to establish a sect, simply claiming to possess strength was not enough. They had to prove it. If they wanted to found a sect within the cultivation world, then the first thing they had to demonstrate was a willingness to defend the rules of that world.

There: a whole list of villains. Pick your targets.

No one forced a specific choice. Deal with whichever ones seemed manageable.

In all, thirty missions had to be completed. Killing twenty targets and locating the hiding places of another ten, then reporting those locations, also counted. The people who posted the list would notify the appropriate enemies of those offenders and let them settle the matter. Of course, if someone was willing to kill all thirty targets personally, that unquestionably counted as completing the requirement as well.

Niu Youdao clicked his tongue. “Completing thirty missions... not easy. Not easy at all.”

Even without considering the danger, the time and effort involved were obvious. These people had truly gone all out trying to cast off their status as independent cultivators.

Black Peony’s expression dimmed. “More than a dozen brothers who started with us died while we were completing those thirty missions. Only the few of us remain. After paying such a price, we owe both the dead and the living an explanation.”

Niu Youdao slowly raised his cup to his lips. “So the difficulty lies elsewhere.”

Black Peony looked at him with a trace of hope in her eyes. “For the proof of financial means, we can find a way to cover the basic application fee of ten thousand gold coins ourselves. What we still lack is a sect willing to recommend us, and we cannot produce the hundred-thousand-gold penalty deposit.”

In truth, that hundred-thousand-gold penalty was not imposed on the applicants establishing the sect. It was imposed on the sect that recommended and guaranteed them. Establishing a sect was a serious matter in the cultivation world, not a game someone could start whenever they pleased and abandon whenever they grew tired of it. For that reason, no sect could casually provide sponsorship.

If a sect recommended and guaranteed a new sect, it had to assume responsibility. For the first three years after establishment, no member of the new sect was permitted to withdraw. Any problems had to be resolved internally. The principle was simple: if a sect lacked even the most basic ability to manage itself, what business did it have calling itself a sect?

If someone withdrew during those three years, the new sect was regarded as automatically dissolved and lost its status, while the guarantor had to pay a penalty of one hundred thousand gold coins to the Misty Pavilion. The so-called Misty Pavilion was neither a place nor an object. Put plainly, it was an organization representing the cultivation world and maintaining its rules.

Under such rules, what sect would casually guarantee strangers? Without a substantial relationship, no one would invite that kind of trouble upon themselves. A sect willing to recommend and guarantee someone was already showing extraordinary goodwill. Any applicant with even a little self-awareness would first put up the hundred thousand gold coins for the guarantor rather than make the guarantor bear the financial risk. The money could be treated as a security deposit and returned once the required period passed under the rules—or the applicant could simply abandon any expectation of getting it back and regard it as a gift paid for the favor.

By this point, Niu Youdao naturally understood what Black Peony wanted.

Independent cultivators truly occupied the most awkward position in the cultivation world. If they wanted to join an established sect, any proper sect concerned with protecting itself would be reluctant to admit random outsiders who had already cultivated elsewhere, unless that person could bring genuine benefits to the sect. Yet cultivators capable of offering such benefits often disdained joining in the first place. Why submit themselves to a sect’s restrictions?

The real crux of the matter was that the various cultivation sects, seeking to protect their own interests, had used the Misty Pavilion, the cultivation world’s alliance, to establish a rule. In the lofty name of preventing disruption to ordinary people’s lives and preventing cultivators from competing with commoners for profit, no cultivator was permitted to engage directly or indirectly in commerce among ordinary people. Anyone discovered doing so would be severely punished without leniency.

On its face, the rule applied equally to every cultivator. But under the influence of every other circumstance, that single rule had nearly severed independent cultivators from any reliable path to wealth.

[End of Chapter 120]