37: Chapter 37 Successful Apprenticeship

"You took it, and it felt heavy in your hand."

"There are three bottles of Medicinal Pill inside." Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan extended his finger and counted them for you one by one, "The first bottle contains six Foundation-Cultivating Pills. They can nourish the Meridians and consolidate your Foundation. You have just achieved a Breakthrough to the Grandmaster stage, so your Foundation is not yet stable. Take one every three days. The second bottle contains four Protective Aura Condensation Powders. They accelerate the condensation of Protective Aura and are most effective for those in the Early Stage of the Grandmaster realm. The third bottle contains only one, called the Barrier-Breaking Pill. Keep it and use it only when you touch the barrier of the Middle Stage of the Grandmaster realm."

You opened the cloth bag and glanced inside. Three white jade bottles were arranged neatly. The bottles felt warm and smooth, and a faint medicinal fragrance wafted out.

Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan paused, reached into his sleeve again, produced a copper token, and slapped it into your hand, "This is a School Contribution Token, recording five hundred contribution points. You can use contribution points to exchange for Martial Skills, Medicinal Pills, and equipment within the Cangyun Sect. You are free to read any books up to the third floor of the Scripture Pavilion."

Five hundred points.

You had heard Zhou Shouzheng mention before that an ordinary Disciple could earn about ten to twenty contribution points for completing an outer sect mission.

Five hundred points was enough to last an ordinary Disciple two years without eating or drinking.

"Master." You cupped your hands and bowed, your posture deeper than before by thirty percent, "This Disciple thanks Master for your generous gift."

This expression of thanks was sincere.

Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan waved his hand, "That's enough, stop thanking me back and forth. I didn't take you as a Disciple to do charity. You have the ability, so these things are what you deserve."

He looked you up and down, his brows slightly furrowed, "Go wash up. This state of yours..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but you knew what he wanted to say.

The Impurities expelled during your Breakthrough to the Grandmaster stage covered your body. The smell on your robes was almost unbearable even to you, let alone standing in front of a Great Grandmaster in the Late Stage.

"Tomorrow at the Hour of the Dragon, at the main peak's Great Hall, we will hold your apprenticeship ceremony." Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan put his hands behind his back, "Go."

"Yes." You cupped your hands again, turned, and left.

Seeing that you had already walked far away.

Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan's voice carried a smile as he said, "Zhou Shouzheng."

"Junior Martial Uncle, please speak."

"This apprentice, you were the one who picked her up for me."

"It was Junior Martial Uncle's Wisdom Eye that recognized the talent—"

"Stop flattering me." Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan interrupted him, the smile in his tone becoming richer, "I have lived for ninety-three years and taken seven Disciples, none of whom have satisfied me this much. Two months. The Taixu Visualization Method, in two months."

"Junior Martial Uncle, you have already said that for the third time." Chen Wuyai's voice drifted over from the side.

"I am happy, so what if I say it a few more times?"

The corners of your mouth curled up slightly. You didn't look back and kept walking, your footsteps steady as you returned to the West Peak courtyard.

Xiao Wang was lying in the courtyard gnawing on a bone. Seeing you return, it raised its head to look at you, twitched its nose twice, and then turned its head away in disgust.

"..."

You went to boil hot water with an expressionless face.

—

The next day, at the Hour of the Dragon, at the main peak's Great Hall.

The apprenticeship ceremony was not grand, but it held immense weight.

The West Peak Grand Elder of the Cangyun Sect, Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan, a Great Grandmaster in the Late Stage, officially accepted you as his closing Disciple.

The ceremony was hosted by Sect Leader Qin Tianxing, and present were six Elders, the chief Disciples of each peak, plus over a hundred Disciples who had heard the news and rushed over to watch the excitement.

You knelt, offered tea, kowtowed, and stood up.

The process was simple, but the moment Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan took the teacup and drank, your status changed.

From "newly joined True Disciple of the Cangyun Sect" to "closing Disciple of the West Peak Grand Elder."

After the ceremony ended, Sect Leader Qin Tianxing announced your treatment on the spot: status of an executive, a monthly salary of one hundred and twenty contribution points, one independent mansion, four Utility Disciples, and free access to the Martial Scripture Pavilion below the third floor.

The monthly salary for an ordinary Grandmaster executive was forty points.

Yours was three times theirs.

No one had any objections. For someone who broke through the Taixu Visualization Method in two months, no one felt this treatment was excessive.

After the ceremony dispersed, you followed the executive in charge of arrangements to your new mansion.

The new courtyard was on the mountainside of the West Peak, more than four times larger than your previous bamboo courtyard. It had three courtyards, with a main room, side rooms, a training room, and an alchemy room all fully equipped. There was even a century-old ginkgo tree in the courtyard, its canopy covering the sky.

Four female Utility Disciples were already waiting at the entrance. Seeing you arrive, they bowed in unison, "Greetings, Senior Sister Lin."

Most importantly—there was an open space behind the courtyard, enough for Xiao Wang to frolic.

You nodded, feeling satisfied.

News spread faster than you had anticipated.

That same afternoon, people came to visit.

The first was a Grandmaster executive from the East Peak, beaming with smiles, saying he had come to "congratulate Junior Sister on her housewarming," bringing a box of Medicinal Pill.

The second was a Disciple of an Elder from the South Peak, saying, "I have long admired the great name of Junior Martial Uncle Lin," and brought a pot of fine wine.

The third, the fourth, the fifth...

By evening, your living room table was already filled with various gifts.

You sat on a chair, facing the eleventh visitor, a middle-aged executive whose eyes were squinted into slits from smiling, who was rambling on about "let's get closer in the future."

You held your teacup, wearing a polite smile, with only one thought in your mind—

I want to go back to the cave.

For the next month or so, your life was filled with two things.

The first: dealing with the endless stream of visitors.

There were three thousand Disciples in the Cangyun Sect, over a hundred executives above the Grandmaster level, dozens of Elders, and several chief Disciples of various peaks. More than half of these people had found various excuses to visit your door within this month.

Some came to cozy up, some to test your depth, some to show goodwill, and some simply to watch the excitement—after all, the two labels "Genius who broke the Taixu Visualization Method in two months" and "Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan's closing Disciple" stacked together were enough to make the entire Cangyun Sect boil.

You no longer deliberately hid your face.

Disguise was unnecessary within the School, and also impolite.

Thus, on the first day you showed your true face, the number of visitors doubled.

"Greetings, Junior Martial Uncle Lin."

"Greetings, Senior Sister Lin."

Walking on the road, someone would greet you every ten steps, their eyes filled with awe, curiosity, and—the undisguised amazement in the eyes of male Disciples.

You were already used to it.

From the time you escaped Yunjin City at sixteen until now, you had changed too many identities and seen too many such gazes. To you, they were no different from the stones on the roadside.

The second thing: sorting out the internal relationship network of the School.

The Cangyun Sect was not a Jianghu Gang, but wherever there are people, there is Jianghu.

The faction of Sect Leader Qin Tianxing was the most powerful, with his Disciples accounting for sixty percent of the entire School. Although Supreme Elder Su Chenyuan of the West Peak was a Grand Elder, he had been in seclusion for years and did not ask about worldly affairs, and he had few Disciples. Your arrival, to a certain extent, injected fresh blood into the West Peak.

During this month, you used "Eidetic Memory" to remember the name, identity, faction affiliation, and the information revealed in their words of every visitor.

You did not take sides, did not form cliques, and did not join factions. You maintained an equal, polite distance from everyone—neither cold nor hot, neither far nor near.

A month later, the evaluation of you within the School gradually unified: peerless talent, cold personality, difficult to approach, but also did not offend anyone.

This was exactly what you wanted.

After finishing these, you released the news externally—seclusion.

Once the mansion gate closed, it was quiet.

Time passed quickly in Cultivate.