After a few hours of travelling, the flying boat had finally reached its destiny.
"It's so vast!"
"I can't believe the Formless Sword Sect manages such a long territory!"
Ling Xu and the rest of the group observed outside of the boat, as an endless mountain range was getting closer and closer.
All of a sudden, the flying boat stopped and a transparent barrier which seemed to be blocking the path appeared in front.
Taking out a token, elder Zhao moved the flying boat once again, after activating the sect token which opened a gap big enough for it to pass through.
While controlling the boat, the elder turned and directed his voice at the young cultivators who were about to become disciples of the sect.
"Listen everyone, we have arrived at the periphery of Formless Sword Sect."
In an instant, everyone stopped looking outside and only paid attention to him as he started talking.
"You are now the new members of the sect and I hope that one day you are able to become its cornerstone. Once we descend, I will bring you to the Affairs Hall at the outer sect and then you will descend the mountain and establish yourselves in your respective rooms."
Hearing the words from the elder they all looked at him in doubt.
"Seeing several faces of doubt, I see that not all of you know the general structure of new disciples so let me explain first. When you first enter the sect, you are unofficial disciples and you will have to select a daily task which needs to be completed."
After hearing that they would need to work, the faces of the young cultivators worsened even more.
"Don't worry, although you will have to complete your daily task until you advance to the Qi Refining Realm and you become an official disciple, you will be rewarded accordingly."
Elder Zhao looked with a satisfied look, after the gazes from the young cultivators improved once they heard that there was a reward.
"At the end of every week, you will be given a blood replenishing pill and a blood tempering pill that is of the same grade as your cultivation level. So depending if you are in the low, middle or high stages of the Blood Qi Realm, you will be given the pills with their respective grades."
Hearing the reward they would be given, the majority started to look excited, eager to start working and receive their reward right away.
After all, although it was normal to get a few low and middle grade pills at Lesser Crimson Town, it was very difficult to get high grade pills for those who didn't have a big backing.
So once they reached the higher stages of the Blood Qi Realm, because the financial power of their family wasn't big enough, their progress would slow down considerably.
But there were also a few who didn't react much, as they were already accustomed to having enough cultivation resources because of their family backgrounds.
Yu Wenqiao and Ma Dongpil were a clear example as they had to work as unofficial disciples until they completed the ninth stage of Blood Qi and broke through the Qi Refining Realm.
On the other hand, Xie Lan didn't show any kind of reaction. After all, being in the first stage of Qi Refining Realm already, he didn't need to complete this daily task as he was going to enter directly as an outer disciple.
…
Once they reached a certain height, Zhao Liu made another set of hand signs at an imperceptible speed, and the protecting barrier on the flying boat disappeared.
Then, he took them down the last hundred meters just like before. Making a few travels back and forth, a dozen people at a time in the smaller flying boat.
He needed to do this ten times, as the number of new disciples they had acquired this time amounted a hundred and eighteen people.
Ling Xu descended last as he came in with the last batch of new disciples.
Looking around, he realized that he was already inside the outer sect of Formless Sword Sect, just outside of the Affairs Hall.
Entering the hall, he saw three lines where the people he came with were waiting to register as new sect disciples.
Taking one randomly, he waited until it was his turn.
After a few minutes, it was Ling Xu's turn.
"Greetings senior brother."
Seeing the respectful young man who greeted him, referring him as his senior brother, the disciple who worked in the Affairs Hall raised his head up and looked at him.
"Welcome to Formless Sword Sect, junior brother. Can you give me your name and cultivation level?"
"My name is Ling Xu, and about my cultivation level, I'm currently in the seventh stage of Blood Qi."
Feeling his aura, which didn't have any sign of leaking out and was extremely solid, Zhou Xueqin nodded with satisfaction.
After giving the identity token that identified Ling Xu as an unofficial disciple and a few other items, he looked down again waiting for his junior to go and register the next person.
After waiting for a few seconds, he felt it strange that he didn't hear any steps from the next disciple coming to register.
Looking up once again, Zhou Xueqin saw Ling Xu as he didn't move from his place.
"Do you need something else junior brother?"
"Senior, could you give me some guidance?"
"Guidance?"
"Tomorrow I'm starting the daily tasks but I don't know which of the ones available I should choose from."
Hearing the doubt of his junior, he looked at him once again and thought.
"This junior brother has quite a high level of purity in his blood qi, I bet he has undergone one blood exchange. Helping him now could prove useful once he becomes a fellow brother in the outer sect."
Realizing that Ling Xu had potential to breakthrough in half a year, he decided to answer his junior in hopes of getting something back in the near future.
"Then let this senior brother help you in choosing the best task for you."
"Thank you for your guidance!"
"Listen closely, there are several daily tasks menial workers can choose from at Formless Sword Sect. If you want to do something that isn't very difficult and can even give you a few benefits, you should choose to guard the border of the sect's array."
Ling Xu's ear perked up, wanting to hear what he was going to say next.
"Although you are guarding the border, this task also needs you to hunt the beasts that are reproducing constantly around it. In this way, you can sell the corpses from the beasts that you hunt to your superior."
Zhou Xueqin was about to end the brief explanation when he remembered something that he needed to tell his junior brother.
"Although the beasts in the border are only in the Blood Qi Realm, their cultivation stages may vary from the first stage all the way to the ninth. If you ever find one on the ninth stage please run right away junior, there are several cases of accidents from disciples who thought they could face one of them and ended severely injured or even dead."
Hearing the second part of the explanation, Ling Xu didn't waver as he had already felt the aura from several cultivators in the ninth stage of Blood Qi and he was sure that he could kill a beast in the same level.
After all, Ling Xu had already faced Xie Lan's aura and realized that when it came to the strength of his blood qi, he was on par with him.
He was confident because he knew that not everybody had the strength Xie Lan had while being in the ninth stage.
That was because not everybody managed to undergo a blood exchange, after all it requires the refining of the muscles to their limit before entering the fourth stage of Blood Qi.
It was even more rare to see someone who had undergone two blood exchanges, not only do you need to refine your organs to the limit before the seventh stage of Blood Qi but if your blood qi purity isn't high enough it won't be able to transform.
This was the reason why only Xie Lan had managed to undergo two blood exchanges in the younger generation at Lesser Crimson Town.
Seeing Ling Xu unmoved by the warning he gave, Zhou Xueqin only thought that his junior didn't know the gap in strength when facing someone with a higher stage of cultivation.
"You will find out soon enough the difference from only a few stages of cultivation, don't think that just because they are beasts that their strength is different from ours. Many times they are even harder to kill because of their tough bodies that are difficult to cut through. Unless you have an advantage in cultivation, it will be difficult to defeat even one of them."
Hearing the second warning from his senior, Ling Xu tried to concede and acted as if he was going to do what his senior said.
Although his strength was higher than what it looked from the outside, having restrained his blood circulation speed completely, Ling Xu still kept in mind his senior's warning.
"Thanks for the guidance senior brother."
…
After choosing the daily task available for unofficial disciples on a big board inside the Affairs Hall, Ling Xu gave it to another worker from the Affairs Hall who was in charge of registering the tasks and missions that the sect's disciples took.
He then exited the place and started descending the mountain, taking a long path leading to its periphery.
"Now that I have become a disciple at Formless Sword Sect, I only need to complete this daily task and before a long time passes I will be able to enter the Qi Refining Realm."
Thinking about the speed at which his blood qi refined his bones, Ling Xu felt that it would take him just a few weeks before he completed the ninth stage of Blood Qi and he was able to become an official disciple and enter the outer sect.
After an hour of walking down the mountain, Ling Xu had finally reached the periphery of the sect.
"I didn't expect that the sect would grow its own food."
He said while observing long pieces of territory, used solely for the purpose of growing life stock and spiritual grains.
It took him an incense stick of time before he arrived at his final destination.
Entering a small villa where he would be living for the following time, Ling Xu was deeply impressed by the vast resources of the sect.
"If I hadn't just gotten my identity token, recognizing me as a menial worker, I swear I would have thought that I was someone important to the sect."
Seeing the size of it, he couldn't believe it.
But he understood soon enough that the whole place wasn't his but just a room, as this villa was built so several unofficial disciples shared it together.
There even was a training ground big enough for several people to train at the same time.
Ling Xu then entered the room he had been designated to and opened up the bag he had been given, containing several items.
The first thing he observed were two set of clothes that represented the status of menial workers.
After struggling for quite a long time, Ling Xu had managed to put on the uniform above his spider silk shirt, which was very thin and acted as a layer of protection.
He struggled a lot not because of the protective shirt but because this was the first time he was wearing traditional clothes.
After changing clothes, he passed from a country bumpkin to a more blending appearance as he was wearing now the same set of clothes that the rest of the unofficial disciples wore.
Ling Xu remembered how his previous appearance was seen, as he was still wearing the clothes he wore on Earth. He observed that several people back at Lesser Crimson Town were looking down at him just because he came from a small place.
But now, with the set of white trousers and a brown robe with a cloud pattern on the collar, he was representing the Formless Sword Sect.
"It's time to see what the other items are."