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I walked up to the desk and stood in front of him, but he didn’t even look at me.

“Hello.” I tapped on the desk to get his attention.

Letting out a long, exasperated sigh, he looked at me. “What? I’m busy preparing to take the Exam to advance to the inner sect. Don’t disturb me.”

“I’m a new disciple. I need to be introduced to the sect.”

He rolled his eyes. “Badge.”

I held up the jade token I’d been given. He grabbed it and threw it onto a small formation plate to the side of the counter.

When he saw the result, he snorted. Then, he reached under the counter, pulled out a book, and threw it at me along with my token.

“There you go. Introduction to the sect. You can leave.”

I picked up the book and quickly looked at it. It had a lot of information about the sect, but I didn’t even know where I could sit down and read through it, let alone where I would find a room to sleep for the night.

I tried to remain patient. “Sorry, but could you please introduce the sect to me? Tell me about a few things. At least tell me where my room is?”

He let out another long, exaggerated sigh and touched a formation plate on the counter. “Wait here.”

Then, he went back to ignoring me.

I stood awkwardly in the room, waiting for something to happen. Several minutes later, the door was pushed open by an older man in his late seventies.

“Senior brother, how can I be of assistance?”

The guy behind the counter waved at me. “Introduce him to the sect.”

The older man bowed. “Of course, senior brother.”

Then, he looked at me, noticed my jade token, and bowed. “Please, follow me.”

After leading me outside, he turned to me with a smile. “What would you like to see?”

“Right, first, what should I call you? My name is Su Fang.”

He gave another slight bow. “I am Mao SongQiao, an ungraded servant disciple. You can call me Junior Brother Mao.”

“Okay, Junior Brother Mao, I need a place to live.”

“Certainly.” He led me to one of the other buildings in the small village. “This is where you can lease a cultivation cave. The cheapest, those in the foothills, cost 5 contribution points a day. The closer to the mountain, or the higher up the mountain, the more expensive it gets. This is because the qi is denser so it’s a much better cultivation environment.”

Mao SongQiao showed me around the little village and explained the general outline to me. Overall, it reminded me a lot of the Twin Mountains Sect. There was a store to buy certain items from the peak directly, a place to rent a cultivation cave, and a library for techniques.

Everything had to be paid for in contribution points. He showed me the Assignment Hall, where I could register for missions that would reward points, but I could also buy them at 500 points per spirit stone. Considering that the sect sold spirit stones for 1000 points each, this wasn’t a great deal.

From Mao, I learned that while there were traders on Dragon Peak who would exchange points for spirit stones at a better rate, this tended to upset the elders if one relied on it too much. The reasoning was explained away as not contributing to the sect, but it seemed more likely that the elders were sour about not getting their cut.

As a Grade 2 outer disciple, I started with 500 points, but instead of renting a cave at the expense of these precious points, Brother Mao led me to a place on Dragon Peak where I could rent a room for gold. The environment wasn’t the best, but it let me hold onto my more valuable resources.

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I had ideas for how I might be able to exploit the sect, but they would take time, and I needed someone to help me understand things while I was getting started.

“Junior Brother Mao. How much do you get paid for your services as a guide?”

His shoulders drooped slightly. “It’s one point a day. Better than most work I could be doing, but it only lasts for these two weeks. After that, I’ll probably have to go back to mining stones for the formation masters.”

“Mining stones? They don’t have mortals do that kind of work?”

“They can, but it takes them a long time, and what they produce isn’t very high quality. Rank 3 and above formations need sturdy stones, and cultivators are better at cutting them cleanly into shape.”

“I see. And how much does that pay?”

“Two points a day, but it’s hard labor.”

“Okay then, would you like to work for me? I need someone who knows the sect, and you’ve been here a good while. I can’t pay you points, but I can give you one spirit stone a month. Will that work?”

Mao’s demeanor instantly changed. “Of course, boss. I’m glad to be working for you. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

I wasn’t a fan of the instant flattery, but I let it slide. He would do as a subordinate for now. I had no idea how trustworthy he was, but at least he knew about the sect. That was all I needed for the moment.

My goal was simply to climb as high as I could as quickly as I could. That meant I needed a steady source of karmic energy.

“Brother Mao, how do sect disciples earn karmic energy to ascend through the Ruler tier?”

“You buy it from the sect with contribution points.”

“Wait… what? You can just buy it? Why isn’t everyone a Lord then? Why aren’t you?”

A look of chagrin crossed his face. “No, let me explain. You can only buy karmic energy starting in Yellow City, higher up the mountain. There, you can only buy enough to break through to Martial Lord. If you want to use it to break through the stages of the Lord Realm, you have to reach Profound City. In Profound City you can buy as much Lord-level energy as you want and energy to break through to King.”

As he talked, he tried to point to cities hidden on Dragon Peak. “Further King-level energy, and energy to break through to Emperor, can only be bought in Earth City. If you want to break through with karmic energy as an Emperor, you need to reach Heaven City.”

“So, climb the peak and I can buy as much as I need?”

“Yes, but the number of contribution points needed is incredible. Even if you reach Yellow City, it will be hard to afford Lord-level energy as an outer sect disciple. As a servant disciple, it’s impossible.”

“What do you mean? Why does that matter?”

“Your position and grade determine the types of missions you can sign up for. As an ungraded servant, I can only do basic missions that barely pay enough points to let me afford a few lessons a month. As an outer sect disciple, you will have more options, but they are still somewhat limited.”

“I see… but I can rent a store and sell things to earn points, right?”

He nodded. “Yes, but how much do you have that people will buy? You can try to sell formations to people, but there are a lot of formation specialists in the sect, and all of them are trying to do the same. If you were an inner sect disciple, you might be able to make something of high enough quality that people would buy it, but as an outer sect, most people don’t have the skills needed to compete.”

“It doesn’t matter that I’m an outer sect disciple, though, right? It just matters how good my wares are.”

“True. But if you could produce something of high quality, you wouldn’t be in the outer sect.”

I smiled. “Don’t worry about that. Just find me a storefront I can rent and sell pills from. Preferably, one close to an herbalist. If I can rent it with gold, that would be best, but spirit stones would also be acceptable.”

“Pills? You’re an alchemist?”

“Don’t worry about that for now. Go find a storefront. Meet me back here when you’re done.” Mao was turning to leave when I caught him. “Also, where can I buy Rank 3 cultivation techniques from the sect?”

The Scripture Pavilion that Mao sent me to was a disappointment. Instead of getting to browse their books, I could only tell the attendant which one I needed. They retrieved it for me from a back room. I would need to look at getting a job in one of these libraries if I wanted to plunder them.

Fortunately, they did have a copy of the Rank 3 Writ of Steady Earth. It cost me all 500 of the contribution points I started with, but I considered it a fair trade. I didn’t plan to be very short of points in the near future.

Once back in my apartment, I began to slowly and carefully disperse my Grandmaster cultivation so that I could restart with the proper technique.

An hour into the process, I was interrupted by Brother Mao who had found a building I could rent in Mortal City. It wasn’t near the Gateway Plaza, but it was affordable and was located near a few independent herb sellers from the Wood Peak.

I gave him five spirit stones to settle the rental agreement and purchase a variety of herbs for me. When I did, his eyes went wide at the sight of them. I sensed greed from him when he saw the stones, but that was natural. It didn’t mean he planned anything untoward. There was a risk he would take the stones and run off with them, but handing him that much money at once was a good test of whether or not I could trust him further in the future. Better to know now than after I had him running a shop for me.

Before opening my new storefront, I wanted to fix my cultivation. It took me nearly a week to completely disperse my Grandmaster cultivation. Then, I spent another three weeks rising back up to Grandmaster 1 with the Steady Earth technique.

With my cultivation base restored, I went to the store to look it over with Brother Mao.

It was a small, cramped affair with only a wooden counter and stool inside. Mao assured me this was the normal setup for a store in the sect. Only the large merchant organizations were willing to openly display things of great value. Everyone else kept the valuable items in a storage ring and only left a book out describing the items available.

I went to the shop’s backroom, took my fancy cauldron out of my storage space, and began making every Rank 3 pill I could think of. While I did this, Mao was busy going to the nearby herb shops and funneling me a constant supply of all the necessary ingredients.

In a sect focused on completing assigned missions, where almost every other outer sect disciple was engaged in constant combat, I had become a merchant. It was an unusual choice, but it was the one that I thought would work best for me.