Apart from the disciples of Yellow Maple Valley, there were the true powers that controlled the sect from within, the many stewards.
These stewards were those disciples who, after entering Foundation Establishment, cultivated for an amount of time and were aware that they were unable to enter Core Formation. They voluntarily renounced their continued cultivation and were willing to enter the inner valley’s specialized administration, performing various duties. Old Man Ye and those tens of people within the main hall were all these kinds of stewards.
Actually, Sect Master Zhong Lingdao was a high level steward. However, he took charge of the entire sect’s overall planning and was the steward of all the stewards.
True decisions regarding the life or death of the sect were decided by those reclusive Core Formation experts. Their mere existence allowed Yellow Maple Valley to be viewed upon as one of the towering Seven Great Immortal Sects, and made it so that evil spirits dared not to cause harm to the sect. Otherwise, Yellow Maple Valley of the Seven Great Immortal Sects would have already been long exterminated countless times from those demons with profound magic power.
Naturally, the information mentioned above did not come from this Martial Uncle Wang but was secretly inferred by Han Li from inquiries and Martial Uncle Wang’s words.
This allowed Han Li to have a clear understanding of his status and environment. This would later be of no small assistance to him when interacting with fellow sect disciples.
Chapter 148: Old Man in Gray
Martial Uncle Wang took Han Li with him on a leaf-shaped magic tool and flew for a couple of hours. They landed on a lush verdant mountain range, within an area crowded with flat houses. These shabby houses were built using rocks from the mountain, and there wasn’t a single person inside these houses. They seemed like they were all empty, and this puzzled Han Li!
“Don’t be surprised. These houses are truly empty. This place is meant for the new disciples to live in until they improved their magic power, then they will move out and look for somewhere else to live. It happens it is currently the beginning of the ten-year rotational cycle. The new disciples haven’t joined the sect yet, so the houses are temporarily empty,” Martial Uncle Wang spotted Han Li’s confusion and explained softly. This cleared Han Li’s bewilderment.
Martial Uncle Wang led Han Li the way as they walked among houses, making so many turns that Han Li felt dizzy. Then they finally stopped at a house that was larger than the other normal stone houses. He didn’t explained much to Han Li and started yelling loudly, “Junior Martial Brother Lin, open the door. I brought a new disciple to pick up the items!”
As soon as Martial Uncle Wang finished yelling, the door opened outwards automatically in a whoosh. Seeing this, Martial Uncle Wang walked in without any hesitation. Han Li paused a little, and followed him into the house.
Inside the house, it was more spacious than it looked outside. This amazed Han Li, wondering what the house was tempered with.
But the specific situation inside the house gave Han Li a certain feeling, and it was the word “messy.”
All kinds of different items were piled here and there. Some were clothes, some were weapons such as knives and swords. But from the wave of spiritual power the weapons were giving off, they seemed to actually be pretty well-made magic tools.
Aside from these things, there were also some other daily items such as shovels and hammers. Those items were also giving off strong spiritual power, it seemed like the items had been. refined into something like a magic tool. This broadened Han Li’s horizons. What kind of special effect did these tools have?
At the center of the house, there was an eight-seater square table. Facing the door and sitting behind the table was an old man in gray clothes with fluffy hair. The old man ignored them as the two of them walked in the house, instead being focused on a small shiny knife, carving a yellow wood about the size of his palms that he held in his hands.
Martial Uncle Wang saw this, he frowned slightly, but his facial expression turned back to normal immediately. He didn’t walk up and interrupt the old man working, instead he pulled a chair from the corner of the room, sat across the old man, and waited quietly for the old man to finish carving the wood.
Han Li blinked his eyes when he saw the situation and stood behind Martial Uncle Wang without saying a word while waiting sensibly with him.
The old man in gray was moving his hands fast like the wind while wood chips fell from in between his finger. After merely the time it took to make a cup of tea, a life-like little monkey appeared within his palms.
“Junior Martial Brother Lin’s carving skills have improved a lot since the last time I saw you!” Martial Uncle Wang just then complimented while smiling.
“It’s nothing impressive. I had nothing to do, so I was just killing time! How come Martial Brother Wang has the time to come and visit my humble residence?” The old man in gray said carelessly, but his eyes were already looking straight at Han Li and seemed to have guessed what the two of them were doing here.
“It’s nothing too important, just wanted to get the equipments that all new disciples who join the valley’s sect would receive for this Martial Nephew Han,” he smiled and answered.
“Didn’t all the new disciples from the Immortal Ascension Assembly receive their equipments? How come there’s another one? And his aptitude is so poor! Did our Sect Leader Zhong’s standards really became that low, he would recruit someone so untalented into the valley!” The old man in gray said bluntly right in front of Han Li, making Han Li sound completely useless. From his tone of attitude, it doesn’t seemed like he respected the Sect Leader Zhong as much either.
Hearing this, Han Li naturally felt extremely awkward, and Martial Uncle Wang was also smiling bitterly.
He knew that because of what happened back then, this Junior Martial Brother Lin had been holding a grudge against their Senior Martial Brother, the Sect Leader, ever since. But in front of this junior, Han Li, how could he possibly pick on the young!
So, he coughed a little and changed the topic, “Junior Martial Brother, this Martial Nephew Han was the one who brought the Writ of Immortal Ascension and joined us in the Yellow Maple Valley! It counts as an exception, so his aptitude is not important. What’s important is that the sect needs to keep our promise.”
“The Writ of Immortal Ascension!” The old man in gray was very surprised and looked at Han Li once again.
“Tsk tsk! If you say so, then this fellow must have a lot of luck, and he can take a Foundation Establishment Pill?” The old man said with a loud voice and looked at him with a look that said, ‘fellow, you’re truly a lucky b*stard!’
“Hehe, normally that would be the case. But Martial Nephew Han and Martial Brother Ye made a deal, and he gave up this Foundation Establishment Pill automatically,” Martial Uncle Wang smiled and mentioned.
“Gave up the Foundation Establishment Pill?” The old man was startled at first, but for some reason his expression darkened right away, and after a moment of silent, he said something that surprised Han Li.
“It’s a good thing he could give it up! The most important thing about being human is knowing your limits. Knowing what to give up and what to take at this young age, this quality is a lot stronger in him than in me!” The expression of the old man in gray seemed to be incredibly lonely. The expression in his eyes, which were originally cold, became more kind.
But after Han Li heard what the old man said, he was confused and didn’t take it to heart!
‘Knowing your limits? That was because I had no choice, so I gave up the precious Foundation Establishment Pill! If it weren’t so, who would give it up!’
Without Han Li mentioning the complaints his heart, the old man suddenly put on a straight face and stood up. He used his hands to lightly and continuously claw at the space around them. An item suddenly appeared in his hand, and the items kept increasing. The whole process stunned Han Li.
“A Yellow S
ilk Shirt, a Azure Leaf Magic Tool, an everyday refinery set, one Fierce Sun Sword and Cold Moon Saber each, and a tenfold storage pouch,” The old man listed all the items in his hands coldly and put them on the table.
“The items are all here. Little fellow, take them away! As for Martial Brother Wang, who is a busy person, I will not ask you to stay. Please see yourselves out!” After saying this, the old man took out another piece of wood from his chest, started sculpting once again, no longer paying attention to the two of them.
Seeing this, Martial Uncle Wang sighed, stopped saying anything else, and told Han Li to pick up the items. As soon as the two of them walked out of the stone house, the door automatically closed up with a loud bang!
Martial Uncle Wang looked at the shut door and shook his head. He then prepared to leave the place with Han Li.
“Oh! You don’t have to carry that many items in your arms, just put them in your storage pouch!” Martial Uncle Wang turned around and saw Han Li carrying everything in his arms, standing like an idiot beside him. His foolish look amused him, so he spoke to remind him.
After Han Li heard what he said, he put the things in his arms on the ground and found the black cloth pouch among the items. “This is the tenfold storage pouch?” Han Li was a little confused!
He picked up the pouch, looked at the incredibly small opening, and then looked at the enormous swords and items. He hesitated a little since he didn’t know how to stuff them in the pouch.
“This is your first time using a storage pouch, so let me demonstrate!” Martial Uncle Wang was understanding. After he recognized Han Li’s confusion, he reached over and took the pouch.
“All you have to do is aim the opening of the pouch at what you want to put in, inject some magic power into the pouch, and focus on the item. It will be sucked in automatically!” Martial Uncle Wang said as he demonstrated it himself.
He pointed the opening downwards, and the white light in his hand flickered. A bright, white light shot out from the pouch and covered everything that was on the ground. Those items immediately shrunk under the white light, and as soon as they reached a certain size, they were sucked into the pouch. Han Li, who was watching on the side, was surprised and amazed!
“You use the same method when you want to take out an item. You just have to focus on the item that you want to take out with your magic power beforehand,” Martial Uncle Wang said as he returned the pouch to Han Li.
“But there are a few rules when it comes to using the storage pouch. Martial Nephew Han, you must remember them carefully!” Martial Uncle Wang put his hands behind his back and spoke seriously.
Hearing this, Han Li nodded like a chicken pecking rice.
“Firstly, the storage pouch can only hold and shrink a certain amount or size of items. If the pouch sucked in something that’s too big or too many in quantity, it will lose its ability, and you won’t be able to put more items inside of it anymore.”
“Secondly, the storage pouch cannot store living things. If you put a live creature inside it, then it will die for sure!”
“Lastly, and also the most important rule you must keep at heart: Low–grade storage pouches do not have the ability to recognize their owner, so whoever steals your storage pouch can take the items inside! Hence, don’t reveal your storage pouch easily in front of other cultivators. You should hide it carefully, or else you could get into serious trouble.”
Chapter 149: Chores
After Han Li heard these words, he naturally kept them in mind.
“Since you’ve received everything, come with me to see the cultivation guidance disciple!” After Martial Uncle Wang said this, he brought Han Li to the flying magic tool and flew.
On this flight, the distance they traveled was far shorter. In a blink of an eye, they arrived at the foot of the mountain. There was a huge stone building built into the mountain. The stone sign on the front of the building had the words “Cultivation Guidance Pavilion” written in golden characters. It was quite busy with a few young disciples nearby, entering and exiting.
Martial Uncle Wang did not say anything this time and just walked in, taking the lead. Han Li closely followed behind. It was clear that a few disciples recognized this Martial Uncle Wang; they had continuously saluted and greeted him. Martial Uncle smiled with a nod. It seemed that his reputation in Yellow Maple Valley was truly quite good.
After entering the stone building, Han Li unexpectedly discovered that the back half of the Cultivation Guidance Pavilion actually extended into the depths of the mountain. Its interior was extremely vast and had rows of stone doors standing side by side with disciples both entering and exiting through them.
Just as Han Li thought to take a good look, Martial Uncle Wang pushed open the third room door on the right side and walked in heedlessly. This caused Han Li to hesitate somewhat; he did not know whether he should follow closely behind him.
“Come in!” Martial Uncle Wang did not have Han Li wait long. After a moment, he emerged from the doorway and called out to Han Li.
There weren’t many people in the room. Inside, there was a black-clothed disciple about thirty years old. He deferentially stood to the side of Martial Uncle Wang. After he saw Han Li enter, he kindly smiled toward him.
“This is Wu Feng; he is responsible for the cultivation techniques of new disciples. If you have any questions with regards to cultivation techniques in the future, you can ask him for guidance. With regards to understanding elementary cultivation techniques, Wu Feng is of the top ten!” Martial Uncle Wang’s words held great admiration toward this fellow.
“I request Senior Martial Brother Wu to give me much guidance in the future!” Han Li respectfully saluted. He clearly understood that this person would be his cultivation technique master in the future. How could he slight him!?
“Hehe! Martial Uncle praises me too much! In truth, I merely have a superficial, incomplete knowledge of cultivation techniques. I can exchange pointers with Junior Martial Han to gain understanding!” This Senior Brother Wu politely added.
“Martial Nephew Wu, I clearly understand your knowledge on cultivation techniques. There is no need to be too modest! I will hand over the matter of Martial Nephew Han’s cultivation technique to you. Currently, I simply brought him so the two of you can be acquainted. After that, I still have to bring him to other places to introduce him. He will not be present here for long!”
Martial Uncle Wang was quite straightforward. After he said those words, Elder Martial Brother Wu respectfully sent them off. They promptly departed from the room.
Next, this Martial Uncle Wang responsibly and diligently brought Han Li to several other essential places and introduced him to many Honored Disciples. Furthermore, he gave him an explanation of a few everyday matters to take notice of before returning him to the gray-clothed old man’s stone house. He had Han Li choose a stone room to live in before leaving Han Li and returning alone.
Han Li stood in front of the stone room he chose and sized up the simple and crude residence with a bitter smile.
At this moment, he already knew that so long as he trained his foundation cultivation technique to the tenth layer, he would be able to leave and move to a residence in a place called the Mysterious Earth Mountain. The disciples there would have much more freedom! Not only could they establish their own residence on the mountain, but there were also no restrictions on the style and dimensions of the houses. Han Li could not help but look forward to this.
Although his cultivation technique had yet to reach the tenth layer, Han Li did not intend to stay at this stone house for long.
Afterwards, he lightly smiled and suddenly took out the flight Azure Leaf Magic Tool from his storage pouch. Then he poured magic power into the magic tool and tossed himself to the sky.
Initially, Han Li was unfamiliar with this object, and he flew abruptly from left to right, high to low. It wasn’t smooth in the least. However, not long after, he easily mastered it and could fly similarl
y to Martial Uncle Wang, confidently and freely with his hands behind his back..
Although this magic tool was easy to master and simple to control, it was obvious that it wasn’t very fast. It was only a bit faster than a steed. This was not surprising as the disciples in the valley only had so much power. Although the Azure Leaf Magic Tool was a bit lacking, it was still Han Li’s first time flying. Hence, he exhilaratingly amused himself for quite a while.
“Hehe!” After a hearty laugh, Han Li satisfied his craving for flight and directed the magic tool toward a certain direction.
On the way, he brushed past several other disciples who were similarly flying. Perhaps it was because Han Li’s face was quite unfamiliar, but the majority of these people looked at Han Li with several gazes of curiosity. However, when they saw that his cultivation technique was merely of the ninth layer, they disdainfully kept away.
Although Han Li saw these people’s actions, he did not show anything in his face. Even so, he inwardly released a bitter laugh several times. It seemed that these so-called great sect cultivators were not any different from mortals of the secular world. They were just as snobbish!
Just as this thought passed through Han Li’s mind, he arrived in front of a large building complex. Then, with large strides, he walked into a large hall with a sign that hung “Hundred Opportunities Hall”.
Inside the hall was a middle-aged Honored Disciple. When he saw Han Li enter, he was somewhat surprised. He could not help but ask, “Junior Martial Brother Han, how did you return so quickly? What about Martial Uncle Wang?”
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 71