“Always calling it the Purple-Gold Treasure Cauldron isn’t going to work. I should give this treasure a name.”
After pondering for a moment, Fang Ping had an idea.
“Since this treasure can reverse time and was found in the ruins of the ancient Yuanshi Sect, I’ll take the meaning of ‘a primordial beginning’ and call you the Yuanshi Cauldron.”
After muttering the name a few times in his heart, Fang Ping suddenly felt that something was off.
Wait a minute…
Yuanshi Cauldron?
Worried that his Fate Pattern might not be able to bear such a weighty title, Fang Ping thought it over again and decided to omit a character, renaming it the “Prime Cauldron.”
It also rolled off the tongue a bit more smoothly this way.
Having settled on the name, Fang Ping prepared to strike while the iron was hot and formally delve into the Dao of Alchemy.
Since he was going to do this for real, the State of Liang’s mundane Heavenly Heart Pharmacopoeia was no longer going to cut it.
He had to visit the marketplace and purchase a genuine alchemy inheritance.
However, today happened to be the day an outer sect Elder was giving a lecture on the Dao. For outer sect disciples with low cultivation and limited comprehension, this was a rare opportunity that absolutely could not be missed.
He would wait until the lecture ended before setting out to begin his grand alchemy plan.
…
The sun rose high into the sky.
One shichen before the Elder’s lecture, the outer sect disciples began changing into their sect robes and heading in small groups toward the preaching platform at the summit of Tiandu Peak.
Although the lecturing Elder certainly would not arrive this early, the good spots on the preaching platform were limited.
Arriving a moment earlier meant grabbing a spot closer to the front. If one happened to gain some insight while listening, it might even leave a good impression on the lecturing Elder.
Fang Ping did not expect to catch the eye of an outer sect Elder, but there was also no need to deliberately act like a maverick.
Following the crowd, he walked shoulder to shoulder toward the mountaintop with several outer sect disciples he was somewhat acquainted with, chatting about recent rumors and news within the sect.
A disciple named Zhou Yang suddenly thought of something and turned to look at Fang Ping. “I haven’t seen you around much these past few days, Junior Brother Fang. What have you been busy with?”
Fang Ping obviously could not tell the truth. He let out a sigh and said, “My cultivation has been growing slowly. Seeing that there’s still quite a distance before I reach the third level of Qi Condensation, I felt anxious and could only enter Secluded Cultivation to train bitterly.”
A look of admiration appeared on Zhou Yang’s face, quickly followed by a similarly troubled expression.
“Junior Brother Fang’s heart for seeking the Dao is truly firm. I admire it. Ah, speaking of which, my own progress has also been sluggish. Seeing that there’s only a little over a year left before the five-year deadline, I fear…”
Five years was a strict deadline for the outer sect disciples of the Luoyang Sect.
If one failed to advance to the third level of Qi Condensation within five years of joining, they would be deemed hopeless on the Great Dao, expelled from the sect, and reduced once more to a Rogue Cultivator.
But meeting the cultivation requirement alone was not enough.
Some disciples hailing from Rogue Cultivator backgrounds or cultivation clans had already begun their cultivation before entering the sect.
Therefore, in addition to the realm requirement, a disciple also needed to accumulate five hundred sect contributions.
Only by satisfying both conditions could one become a formal outer sect disciple and no longer worry about being driven out after the five-year mark.
To clarify, the five hundred sect contributions required to retain one’s outer sect status referred to the total contributions earned since the disciple joined. It did not matter if those contributions had already been spent.
On this point, the Luoyang Sect was still quite magnanimous, living up to its status as one of the State of Liang’s five great immortal sects.
Of course, crossing this threshold did not mean one could rest easy.
If an outer sect disciple wished to go a step further and enter the inner sect, they had to reach the fifth level of Qi Condensation and accumulate a thousand sect contributions within ten years of joining!
If this opportunity was missed, unless they later rendered some great merit for the sect, encountered a fortuitous opportunity, or managed to cultivate to the tenth level of Qi Condensation Perfection on their own before the age of sixty, they would likely be stuck in the outer sect for the rest of their lives.
Compared to the first deadline, the threshold for advancing into the inner sect was undoubtedly much steeper!
The outer sect disciples were also divided into many small cliques.
Those who ran in the same circles generally had similar strength, backgrounds, and aptitudes. There wouldn’t be too vast a gap between them.
In their small circle of four, Fang Ping and Zhou Yang’s aptitudes weren’t even the worst. The person with the absolute worst aptitude was Zhang Feihu, who was walking beside them.
Just the initial step of drawing Qi into the body had taken him a full three months.
He had then been stuck at the first level of Qi Condensation for another two and a half years.
He had barely managed to advance to the second level of Qi Condensation half a year ago. It was virtually guaranteed that he had no hope of reaching the third level of Qi Condensation before the five-year deadline.
Listening to Fang Ping and Zhou Yang’s conversation, he merely shook his head with a bitter smile, completely lacking the desire to interject.
In contrast, Su Lingyun, the female cultivator traveling with them, had fairly decent aptitude for a Four-Attribute Spirit Root, and her appearance and figure were also top-notch.
Many outer sect disciples believed she had hope of advancing before the five-year deadline and remaining in the outer sect.
At the very worst, by relying on her looks, her charm, and that pair of soul-hooking peach blossom eyes, she could easily latch onto an outer sect steward or an inner sect disciple and become their bedfellow. She wouldn’t have to worry about the rest of her life.
Sensing the heavy atmosphere Fang Ping’s words had unintentionally brought on, Su Lingyun spoke softly to comfort them, “There’s still more than a year before the purge. As long as we cultivate diligently, those of us with Four-Attribute Spirit Root aptitudes still have a chance.”
Hearing Su Lingyun say this, Zhou Yang also mustered up a bit of confidence.
He waved his fist and said, “Exactly. Who can say for certain what the future holds? Even if I can’t keep my outer sect disciple status in the end, I can still go become a guest official for a small cultivation clan, or head to the marketplace to be a carefree Rogue Cultivator. In the worst-case scenario, I can just run off to a mundane imperial dynasty and become an immortal master, indulging in worldly pleasures for half a lifetime. Either way, I won’t lose out!”
Zhou Yang’s words breathed some life back into the heavy atmosphere.
Fang Ping also dropped the subject and casually shared some insights from his recent cultivation, steering the topic in a new direction.
Finally.
As the sky grew fully bright, numerous outer sect disciples successively climbed to the summit of Tiandu Peak, arriving at a mountaintop that resembled a large plaza far more than it did a preaching platform.
Fang Ping and the other three had actually arrived relatively early, but by the time they got there, the front rows of the preaching platform were already packed with people. There were at least a thousand outer sect disciples present.
Aside from a few empty seats in the very first row, only a corner toward the front on the western side still had scattered vacancies.
The four of them seized the opportunity, quickened their pace, and snatched the empty spots in the western corner.
They all took their seats and waited for the Elder to arrive.
The preaching platform was a solemn place. With several stronger mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivators spontaneously maintaining order, no one dared to make a ruckus.
Amidst this solemn and dignified atmosphere, more and more outer sect disciples arrived, occupying the majority of the vast plaza.
It was at this moment that a powerfully built cultivator appeared, parted the crowd, and sat down in those front-row empty seats that no one had dared to claim.
“It’s Senior Brother Liu Wuchen, one of the Three Outer Sect Heroes!”
A cultivator softly murmured the identity of the newcomer.
Immortal seedlings with Dual Spirit Roots or Heavenly Spirit Roots started out directly in the inner sect.
Among the outer sect disciples, the absolute best aptitude was merely a Three-Attribute Spirit Root. Anyone who could step into the fifth level of Qi Condensation within ten years and had gathered enough sect contributions had long since advanced into the inner sect.
After layer upon layer of such screening, given the Spirit Root aptitudes of the remaining disciples, those who could cultivate to the late stage of Qi Condensation in the outer sect were few and far between.
The Three Outer Sect Heroes were the only three who had managed it.
To be precise, this “only three” referred to the relatively young cultivators who remained in the outer sect with the status of contemporary disciples.
In reality, the Luoyang Sect’s outer sect was not lacking in late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators from previous generations of disciples, or disciples who had been transferred out from the inner sect.
It was just that they were generally older, often forty or fifty years of age or more. Because they had no hope of Foundation Establishment, they chose to serve as stewards in the outer sect, or were dispatched to various marketplaces to hold down a region.
Since these outer sect stewards held a completely different status from the disciples, they were naturally not mentioned in the same breath as Liu Wuchen and the others.