9.2 Outer Sect Realities’

Long Tao awoke slowly. He felt as if a hammer was knocking his head constantly while fog smothered his mind.

Blinking a few times and flailing his arms a bit, Tao felt a stone table and pulled himself up, squinting as light filled his vision.

”~~~—so how is Tao in the wrong!?”

Tao heard voices and began focusing, quickly, his vision adjusted and the buzzing in his ears faded.

”My, think about it from their perspective.” Aneroze’s melodious voice rang out.

Tao looked around and realised he was lying on the stone bench that was part of a set of stone furniture on the side of one of the outer sect paths. Foria, Aneroze and Foria’s elder brother, Faust, were seated around a small stone table, clearly arguing about something.

Tao felt his jaw, rubbing it. His injuries had been fully healed by someone.

”From their perspective they were extolling their impressive feat to the people passing the market, with people moving out of the way for them, when someone passes by in front of them and says they could do better than them.” Aneroze tried to explain, sipping her tea.

Tao walked over, rubbing his throbbing head.

“My? You’re awake?” Aneroze greeted Tao.

“Aneroze… What happened?” Tao asked as he sat down, still wobbling slightly.

“My brother pu—” Foria began, only for Faust to slap a yellow piece of paper over her mouth that began glowing, muting her completely despite her immediate attempt to tear it off with her hands.

“You didn’t drink enough water and passed out.” Faust held his head in one hand, bags under his eyes as he looked into the distance.

“Really?” Tao scratched his head, he didn’t think it was that bad. But he guessed he was still at the Body Tempering realm so his requirement for water was probably different from the disciples around him.

Tao turned to the old ghost who was floating around.

“Hmmm… Better you don’t know and just listen to these two.” The old ghost answered the look, stroking his beard in thought.

Foria finally managed to tear the yellow talisman off and glared at her brother, who sipped tea while pretending not to notice her glare.

“Then, now that the playboy fool is awake. We can start the lesson properly.” Faust spoke, ignoring Foria getting right up in his face with her glare.

“My, indeed.” Aneroze agreed, setting down her tea.

“Long Tao, Foria, listen closely.” Faust pushed Foria back into her seat and cleared his throat.

“To start with, Long Tao, what do you think you did wrong before when dealing with the senior disciples?” Faust began.

“???” Tao squinted his eyes, fighting the pounding headache for answers.

“I… Didn’t do anything wrong though?” Tao responded slowly.

“Huuu…” Faust leaned back into his seat. “This… Is going to be tough…” He sighed.

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Faust dragged his body across the sect. The last rays of warm sunlight tickled his skin before they were obscured by long shadows, the sun disappearing behind the mountain range.

12 hours… Faust thought.

It took 8 hours to get Foria to understand and even after 12 hours, playboy Tao still looked to be questioning everything. Even the heir of a powerful family like Aneroze was starting to lose her mind after the first 5 hours of going in circles with the two.

The inner sect courtyard at the bottom of the Purple Gem Mountain staircase came into view.

Two inner sect disciples were chatting on one of the benches as night descended.

Approaching the stairs, Faust paused.

“Sirius?” He asked the girl who was crouched down on the side of the mountain of the stairs, picking flowers.

“Hmmm?” Sirius turned around with a smile.

“What are you doing?”

“Collecting flowers!” Sirius responded happily, standing up before bouncing over, hopping back onto the stairs.

“What about you?” Sirius asked, jumping right in front of Faust’s face.

Faust looked at Sirius’s wide, pink eyes for a moment, observing the light glow of Qi that was the window to the mind. He turned away uncomfortably and continued up the stairs.

“Heading for some sleep and meditation. I still haven’t properly stabilised my new realm yet. There’s still a bit of turbid Qi in and around my spirit body.” Faust explained.

“Not gonna eat?” Sirius asked, following him up the steps.

“I wasn’t going to.”

“Then join me for dinner first!”

Faust felt awkward. Then again, he shouldn’t, Sirius grew spirit herbs in her spare time much more seriously than Faust did. She was also a competent spirit chef, a chef who could preserve and properly mix the Qi of herbs and Qi left inside the meat from spirit beasts in a way that was both tasteful and beneficial to cultivation.

“…Alright…” Faust gave in, since he had run into Sirius here he should accept. The two walked up the long stairs under the light of the moon.

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Morning came and Faust stretched his limbs, standing up from his meditation mat.

A few hours of sleep and meditation had done wonders.

Faust also realised why Sirius had wanted to invite him for dinner. She had sourced some rather unique spirit beast meat and prepared it well. The strange Qi from the meal had helped to dislodge some of the bits of Waste and Turbid Qi within his spirit body. It was kind of like using soap to help get dirt and grime off.

Faust prepared a simple meal of rice and egg for breakfast, as he did any morning after he had decided to sleep.

Knock! Knock!

There was a knock on the door and Faust got up from his seat, pulled on his inner sect robe and stepped outside.

“Hmm?” Faust paused as he saw the line up.

Sirius and Phalecia stood in front of the courtyard entrance of the manor, on the small path that led back to the Purple Gem Mountain stairs.

Sirius seemed to be in a great mood, beaming as bright as the sun in the sky.

Phalecia gave a small bow, her face blank as ever.

There was also a new face however.

Faust cupped a fist in respect. “Faust of Fallen Petal Ridge.”

The newcomer cupped their fist in response. “Satheon of Forlorn Mountains White Tiger Clan!” Satheon introduced jovially, his robes loose and displaying a set of abs that seemed to glow in the morning sun.

“Junior Sister Sirius told me you also practiced body tempering! My hopes were low but it’s an honor to see someone who truly trains their body!” Satheon continued, holding out a hand.

“You flatter me. I couldn’t take the easy path if I wanted to. I’m too poor.” Faust took Satheon’s hand expecting a shake, but immediately felt a crushing force.

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Faust glanced down at their hands for a moment before responding with his own crushing grip.

The two stood still for a few moments, but Faust felt sweat fall down his brow and gave up first, releasing his grip. Satheon followed and the two released hands.

“Senior brother Satheon is strong.” Faust complimented. From the balance of muscle and strength, he guessed that no matter how many herbs, artifacts, pills and arrays had been used, Satheon had put sufficient effort into training his body the traditional way, with blood and sweat.

“Then,” Faust looked to Sirius, whose smug smile seemed to mark her as the leader of this gathering, “What’s the occasion?”

“The four of us are going on a mission!” Sirius declared, shouting it so loud Faust saw some birds startled out of the trees.

Faust tapped his ear, making sure it still worked. “I see. I have a few weeks of free time.” He admitted.

“And my expert skills last night should have helped you consolidate your breakthrough!” Sirius gloated.

Faust raised an eyebrow at her, but nodded anyway. “It’s almost done.”

“Almost???” Sirius looked at Faust incredulously, then elbowed Phalecia.

“Here.” Phalecia opened her palm, showing three pills. “Qi Purifying pill, Toxin Binding Pill and a Waste Purging Pill.”

Faust had helped gather plenty of herbs for Phalecia while he was on missions for other things, so he didn’t stand on ceremony and took the pills, poking at them in his palm.

Faust widened his eyes slightly. “Perfect grade?” He realised.

“Hmm? Perfect grade?” Even Satheon from a relatively large clan widened his eyes and rubbed his stubble of a beard, impressed.