Chapter 8 (1/2)
Chapter 8: Bad Little Temper
“Show me your token!” A chilling voice demanded.
It was the young s.h.i.+xiong who took Fang-Xing to Elder Gao for questioning. With a sweep of his sleeve, Fang-Xing’s wooden block flew into the s.h.i.+xiong’s hand.
“A [Ding] rank? It’s another useless one,” flipping over the block, the young s.h.i.+xiong looked at Fang-Xing with contempt. The s.h.i.+xiong pointed in a direction before leaving, “I’m busy right now so just go to [Qing-Yun Hall] by yourself.”
“I’ll remember you. You just wait!” Fang-Xing murmured under his breath. It was clear to Fang-Xing that the young s.h.i.+xiong’s rude att.i.tude was due to Fang-Xing’s low grade.
As Fang-Xing walked towards the direction the young s.h.i.+xiong pointed, he cursed under his breath, ‘How the h.e.l.l do I know where this [Qing-Yun Hall] is? Everything here looks the same!”
“Uhh… Is that you, s.h.i.+di Fang-Xing?” A familiar voice could be heard. Soon, a fat figure could be seen until he was only inches away from Fang-Xing. It was Disciple Yu that Fang-Xing had been drinking with the night before. Yu had promised that he would be waiting for Fang-Xing at the [Samsara Bell] in the morning, but who would have thought that he would oversleep and didn’t wake up until the bell had rung. Realizing that he was late, he had rushed towards the [Samsara Bell] when he b.u.mped into the cursing Fang-Xing.
“Isn’t that s.h.i.+xiong Zhu? I’ve been waiting for you. Where. Have. You. Been?” Fang-Xing smiled welcomingly as he immediately understood what Yu was thinking.
“Ummm. Ummmm. My name is really Yu, not Zhu–” upon seeing that Fang-Xing was quite happy, Yu finally relaxed and smiled, “sorry about keeping you waiting, s.h.i.+di Fang-Xing!”
“Well, there was this young s.h.i.+xiong who was supposed to, but he suddenly had diarrhea and ran to the toilet. And since I couldn’t wait any longer, I decided to go on my own.”
“Cultivators can get diarrhea..?”
“Beats me. Maybe his intestines rotted or something” Fang-Xing cursed the young s.h.i.+xiong one more time as he hooked his arm around Yu’s fat neck. In actuality, Fang-Xing was few inches shorter than Yu so hooking his arm around Yu’s neck took some effort. Yu also bent down a little bit to help Fang-Xing.
“What rank did you get?”
“What’s yours?” Fang-Xing dodged the question
“Unfortunately, I’m in the lowest rank, ‘Ding’.”
“Haha! In that case, we’re the same rank!”
Two contrasting figure: one tall while the other short; one fat while the other skinny, walked merrily towards [Qing-Yun Hall] together.
Yu did not think twice about Fang-Xing’s placement being same as him as more than half of the Outer Sect Disciples belonged to ‘Ding’ or the lowest rank in [Qing-Yun Sect]. Yu told Fang-Xing the different rankings where ‘Bing’, which was only one rank higher held the second largest majority of the Outer Sect Disciples. There was also ‘Yi’ rank which was higher than ‘Bing’ and therefore only an eighth of the Outer Sects Disciples was in it. And finally, [Qing-Yun Sect]’s best rank, the ‘Jia, had only a handful of Disciples and they were all born with good Zi’Zhi. The ‘Jia’ members were the cream of the crop, the pieces the resistance, the cherry on top, the s.h.i.+t, and viewed most likely to succeed in cultivation.
‘On the bright side,’ Fang-Xing thought, ‘at least I’m not THE worst.’
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After a while, the pair arrived at the [Qing-Yun Hall]. The hall was three stories tall with a wood exterior. At a first glance, it looked no more than ordinary, however upon a closer inspection, the intricate details of the hall started to emerge. Simple, yet impressively solemn.
As Fang-Xing and Yu approached the doorway, an old man greeted them. Yu hurriedly informed Fang-Xing that the old man was known as ‘s.h.i.+xiong Qiao’. Fang-Xing used the [Book of Revelation] and figured out that s.h.i.+xiong Qiao, albeit looking as ancient as Elder Gao, had only achieved Tier Four of the [Spirit Stage], same as the young man. Nevertheless, Fang-Xing did not look down on him as he was lower than s.h.i.+xiongQiao.
After s.h.i.+xiong Qiao confirmed Fang-Xing’s new token, he a.s.signed Fang-Xing to his new room within the Outer Sect living quarters without any further questions. He also gifted Fang-Xing with new robes that only the Outside Disciples wore, the remaining chapters of the [Qing-Yun Sect’s Qi Formation] manual, and a red, pebble-sized rock — which was a low-grade Spirit Stone. Afterwards, Fang-Xing was sent off to the [Pavilion of Magical Tools].
“Don’t underestimate a single low-grade Spirit Stone. On top of being able to use this to exchange items, our cultivation almost entirely relies on it as well,” Yu eagerly explained as he saw Fang-Xing’s unimpressed face, “even though we get only 1 of these every 3 months, a single pebble size Spirit Stone is worth over 100 Taels of GOLD!”