Wan Ling’s eyes snapped open to the familiar wooden ceiling of his quarters.
Though confused at what just happened he felt much more grounded almost as if he was back to normal reality.
Understanding it as such, he sat up and looked around.
For some reason he was naked with the fabrics of his clothing frozen and laying apart from his body.
That wasn’t all because his fairness had been amplified and he was a step away from looking as pale as a corpse.
"It worked!" He remarked his breathing was icy and cold.
"I really comprehend a bloodline and spirit root." He exclaimed in excitement and rose up.
He stumbled a little but quickly kept his balance after grabbing his bed.
A layer of frost almost froze his bedsheet but he quickly took his hands off it and headed towards a mirror to look at himself.
In terms of appearance, his hair was slowly turning white, his skin was fresh and pale and his muscles defined and flawless.
There wasn’t much of a difference until one used Qi sense and noticed the Qi being refined into ice around his body.
It wasn’t something he was doing but it was happening automatically and yet for some reason Wan Ling didn’t feel it was as drastic as Bai Ruoxue because he felt in control.
Wondering why, he pulled out his status.
[Status]
[Name: Wan Ling]
[Age: 28]
[Cultivation path: Dual Cultivation]
[Cultivation rank: 3rd stage of the Qi gathering Realm.]
[Spirit Root: Frost]
[Comprehended Techquies: Yin and yang Exchange (7%), Fairy Dance Sword techquie(5%)]
[Comprehended Spirit roots:, Eternal Frost Heart( 50%)]
[Comprehended bloodline: Eternal Frost Heart bloodline(50%)
[Comprehension points: 1400]
[System store]
"Holy cow!" Wan Ling gasped in complete shock at what he was seeing.
The eternal Frost heart bloodline and spirit root were all half a percentage from complete mastery and it wasn’t due to his effort.
"Is this the gift that ice dude was talking about?" He was very grateful.
Of course that wasn’t the only surprise because he had earned comprehension points for basically doing nothing.
He wasn’t complaining though.
Why would he when after a decade of playing hardcore he was finally allowed some breather.
Sighing at that thought he walked to his cabinet for a new set of clothing which he quickly switched into and silently patted its wrinkles.
"I feel extremely calm especially after what I had just witnessed." Wan Ling muttered a deep silence following after.
He now had a Spirit root and a bloodline, most of all he had witnessed the powers of whom he assumed was an ancient cultivator and even tried to comprehend their technique.
It ended with failure on his part but still he didn’t feel particularly anything, he was terrified of said cultivator at first but given he hadn’t done anything he gained he hostility, Wan Ling was certain there was nothing to be afraid of.
"For now I need to test my strength!" He remarked.
After everything that happened with Chen Yu and the other four, Wan Ling was now certain that showing off his strength had become more of a nuisance than expected.
He didn’t want to hide what he had but now he wasn’t going to use it unless he had to.
"An ice spirit root is fairly noticeable. I’ll need to go outside the sect to use it." He decided before stepping out his quarters.
Wan Ling walked into the administration building within the outer court.
The administration court was responsible for handling the day to day affairs of the sect.
They calculated the overall merit points a disciple had, recorded their archives and if one wanted to advance in rank they came here.
Either that or they were recommended by sect elders.
More importantly than that, they had a section where disciples eager to test their abilities on field would be assigned a quest which they must complete to be rewarded both sect merit points and spirit stones.
The quests varied.
It could be something as simple as collecting herbs from the mountains or fighting demonic beasts.
There were even escort missions.
In some more notorious sects, the members are even assigned assassination missions.
Though they mostly deny them to save face.
For Wan Ling who felt short in merit points he decided to kill two birds with one stone.
Gain merit points and also experience with his new abilities.
As he entered he was overwhelmed by the massive crowd.
"Oh it’s that time of the month!" He muttered seeing new blood.
Perhaps because he had been so busy cultivating he forgot a year had passed since the sect took in new members.
The sect ran an exam annually to pick from qualified cultivators.
Wan Ling himself has failed but given his abnormal score for the written test and his sister refusing to out right not join the sect if he wasn’t allowed, he ended up inside even though he wasn’t qualified.
"That was a decade ago!" He shook his head feeling nostalgic as his eyes swept among the crowd of New commoners.
Most were eager to display their worth by taking on a quest but honestly that was a flaw in their thinking.
Making yourself known didn’t guarantee success within the sect.
The true game changer was signing up to the occasional lecture of the elders.
Where they would teach and sometimes select disciples.
That was how Feng Ye became a disciple of the best swordmaster within the sect.
"I should probably also sign up for those. I can comprehend a few techniques that way." He mused and calmly navigated through the crowd.
As he did, one of the disciples bummed into him and tried complaining.
"Can’t you see I’m...."
He was silenced mid sentence when he turned and was quickly intimidated by the sheer presence he carried.
The colour soon drained from his face and he bowed respectfully.
"This junior would like to apologize!" He said with a trembling voice.
Wan Ling, seeing this, chuckled softly and patted the disciple on the shoulder.
"Thread well and you will survive!" He said and left the disciple shivering in fright.
Like the he continued until he made his way to a board where the missions were placed.
He scanned through in silence and picked three.
One was from an alchemist disciple in need of some herbs.
Normally Wan Ling would have ignored it but the thought of being able to learn alchemy especially after his promise to Yi Fen interested him.
The second was from a parent looking for both a tutor and sparring partner for their child wanting to be a cultivator.
It was easy cash and since nobody was interested he was going to take it.
The last one was a combat mission.
It was from a nearby village which had recently been attacked by demonic monsters.
The average new comer was too much of a coward to take it and an experienced outer disciple was too busy prepping for the inner disciple exams.
That too was on Wan Ling’s agenda but first he needed to handle these three.