9.1. Outer Sect Realities’

Faust stretched his limbs as he exited the Mission Hall.

“Oh— never again…” Rozaline grumbled.

Faust nodded in agreement. It wasn’t his first administration mission, but it was by far the largest. The deacons in the hall were so picky about the details, forcing Faust and Rozaline to work through the night to redo everything.

“Supposedly, the solidification of the spirit body makes it even harder for toxins to accumulate, letting one go without sleep for up to a month.” Faust commented as the two walked out into the morning sun, already high in the sky.

“Oh… I’d rather not.” Rozaline responded wearily.

“I would have thought administrative work was the specialty of an heir?”

“Oh how you’d think. Cultivation is the most important thing. Everything else is secondary.” Rozaline sighed, tilting her head with her eyes closed in brief reminiscence, pulling out her fan and spreading it open with a flick of her wrist.

“Hmmm.” Faust hummed, mulling it over.

The two soon separated as Rozaline returned to Purple Gem Mountain to sleep after going without for three nights.

Even Faust found it jarring when he hadn’t slept after several days, but while a few hours of meditation and an hour of sleep were recommended every day, brief periods without any meditation or sleep were fine at the Meridian Opening realm and above.

Instead of going straight back to Purple Gem Mountain, Faust leaned over the railings of Clear Jade Bridge, looking into the horizon in silent meditation.

The more senior disciples unconsciously gave a wider berth to the purple gold robes of the inner sect. With how wide the bridge was, that left Faust with relative quiet as the cold wind blew across his face.

Faust thought about his next steps. He still didn’t know how many materials the Roze clan would pay for his Meridian Opening diagram and Foundation Laying method. It would probably mostly be the lower level materials suited for Open Palace. After all, even for a high level method, without Gold Core and Nascent Soul chapters, its value was still comprehensible.

Tracing the horizon with his gaze as light chatter sounded behind him, Faust guessed that it would be a few weeks before he found out.

Depending on the materials delivered, Faust would go on a few missions with Sirius to get the materials and merit needed for the arrays they would use to make up for her current foundation.

Fortunately, Sirius had a solid foundation already, it just needed to be supplemented and compressed some more to ensure she could form an Iridescant Golden Core and reach Nascent Soul.

After making a plan for Sirius, Faust would need to head for study at the Grand Archive, specifically he needed to choose what method he wanted to use to compensate for the current imbalance in his foundation. There was currently a heavy presence of Metal and Earth Qi.

Faust could build the rest of his Inner Palace with Water, Fire and Wood Qi to form a balanced 5 elements palace as his foundation, good for arrays and formations— Or, he could use only Metal and Fire Qi to form an inner palace specialized in weapons and forging.

There was also the option of abusing his 12 Qi Transforms technique and creating a 12 Qi balanced palace, a far more extreme version of the 5 elements palace.

The safest route for an Earth Golden Core was the 5 elements palace, but there was that nagging voice at the back of Faust’s head. A voice that said to aim higher, to aim for the legendary, Heavenly Golden Core, not obtained by anyone but the sect’s founder so far.

Faust eyes become more unfocused, the noises around him drowned by his own thoughts.

“Brother!”

Faust snapped back to reality, straightening his back and turning to see his sister, Foria walking towards him.

“Sister.” Faust smiled. The two gave a brief hug to each other now that there was no danger and he wasn’t acting as chief proctor.

“I’ll show you some things and introduce you to some people first.” Faust led the way towards Diamond Mountain.

“Yes.” Foria followed along.

“Also.” Foria added. “Were the house assignments truly random?”

“Hmmm. Mostly.” Faust answered.

“Really?” Foria seemed suspicious.

“I may have manipulated it slightly.”

“Is that why Aneroze and I are close to the top while Tao is close to the bottom?”

“…Perhaps…”

“How petty.” Foria humphed.

“…I don’t think he’s a good person to hang around.”

“Oh? Really? How come?” Foria asked flatly.

“He looks like a playboy.”

“The real reason?”

“That is the real reason. But if you want a less emotional one.” Faust paused, looking at Foria intently. “It’s because he may be a son of heaven.”

“Huh?” Foria seemed confused, then asked, “Isn’t that a good thing though?”

Faust shook his head gently as they entered the loud and crowded sect market.

“Sons of Heaven are given great opportunities by heaven. But those opportunities are hidden in disaster. Ideally, you should keep them at an arms length away. Familiar, friendly, but not too friendly or familiar.” Faust explained.

Foria looked down, seemingly in thought.

Faust didn’t interrupt, guiding them to a few stalls and merchants he recommended.

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“Anyways, don’t accept any missions like this unless you’ve teamed up with a well known senior in the outer sect. The kind at least ten others have been on missions with.” Faust said, holding a stack of papers detailing a mission before pinning it back to the board in the Mission Hall.

Foria nodded along.

“So, in summary, focus on the low reward, fast, easy to complete tasks since the deacons and overseers usually see how many missions you’ve completed rather than how difficult they were or how long they took?” Foria asked.

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“More or less, but make sure you don’t get a reputation for only doing easy missions. If you hear a large group looking for an extra person to make up the numbers, make sure to join.” Faust affirmed.

“What if they turn out to be backstabbers?”

“If this were a demonic or unorthodox sect maybe, but member deaths are investigated relentlessly by the Investigation Hall. Cases of disciples backstabbing each other or turning out to be spies from a demonic sect can be counted on one hand in the sect’s over two hundred years of history.”

“I thought the sect was older than that?” Foria tilted her head.

Faust shrugged. “All sects were young at one point. The Clear Mirror Sect’s founder ended up reaching the Void Returning realm before disappearing. It’s a similar story to the current Hegemony Sects. One of them started out with just a Nascent Soul founder and no powerful treasure like Clear Mirror Sect.”

While knowledge on the hegemony sects was relatively common, Faust still explained each one in as much detail as he could. At the very least he described what their uniforms looked like so Foria avoided offending them.

The two left the Mission Hall.

As soon as they stepped out, there was a commotion in the middle of the market.

Long Tao stood before a group of more senior outer sect disciples, each with menacing appearances. Burly arms, torn clothes, exposed abs and fresh scars galore— weapons at their sides. They looked like they had just returned from a dangerous mission. Most scars could be healed later at the Medicine Hall.

Countless other disciples, servants and merchants had gathered around in a circle, watching the showdown.