Chapter 008

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‘ ‘ for thoughts.

“ “ for speech.

<> for non-verbal communication like telepathy

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Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk.

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Note:

Although the full name mentioned here are Chinese style, (example: Fang Hao, surname Fang first then given name Hao), the names clubbed with descriptions are Title first then given name instead of description and surname (example Fatty Hao and not Fatty Meng).

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The group of meatballs made their way to the assignment hall and waited for Old Man Zhu. They, along with the other new outer disciples, didn’t have to wait for long before Old Man Zhu made an appearance. He then announced the available chores and their merits / demerits. It seemed almost exactly what Fatty Zhang had found it. ‘Damn it that retarded fatty was conned out of two fasting pills, and I lost one to him. Old Man Zhu, informed us almost the same thing about the chores, except for the chicken anus part. How will he decide who gets what chores?’

As Fang Hao cursed Fatty Zhang mentally, Old Man Zhu suddenly flicked his sleeve and a small cauldron appeared floating above his head. He then addressed Fang Hao and his clique, “You five fat gluttons come here. Since that Fatty Chen asked me to look after you, I will bestow you some good fortune! Tell me which chore you would like, starting with you!” he pointed at Fang Hao, who whizzed towards him. Seeing such a good opportunity, many of the other outer disciples were fuming with rage. Why weren’t they gluttons as well?

Most of them were in wealthy and powerful mortal families before entering the sect; and now bestowal of good fortune depended not on sincerity, or talent, or even bribes… but on body weight! They wanted to skewer Fang Hao and seize his good fortune, but most of them retained their senses and just observed passively. Fang Hao clasped his hands, bowed and addressed Old Man Zhu politely, “Martial Uncle Zhu, this disciple would be grateful if he could look after spirit beasts.”

Old man Zhu snorted, but had a clearly pleased look as he said, “Don’t think flattering me will get you any more favors you meatball. Here take this token and bind it with your blood. Your task will be to look after spirit chickens.” The floating cauldron above Old Man Zhu’s head spat out a token shaped like a miniature chicken. Fang Hao deftly caught it, thanked Old Man Zhu, and bit his forefinger. As soon as a drop of blood landed on it, Fang Hao instinctively knew the location of the spirit chicken raising pen, in relation with this outer Assignment Hall.

As he was backing away from Old man Zhu, one of the outer disciples couldn’t hold his fury. He said through gritted teeth, “Senior Zhu isn’t this unfair?” Old man Zhu replied smugly, “The heavens aren’t fair.” The outer disciple’s fair handsome face reddened and he shouted disrespectfully, “Old Man Zhu, my elder brother is an inner disciple at the peak of the Qi condensation stage. Once he establishes his foundation, he will become a core disciple. Then a word from him can make your life miserable.”

At the blatant disrespect naked threats, Old man Zhu wrinkled his brows. It was common knowledge among the sect that those who were unable to establish their foundation by the age of 50, would usually take up administrative posts and got a small guaranteed amount of cultivation resources instead of competing with the more talented outer disciples for resources. Many of them who had given up hope of advancing their cultivation and wanted to spend the century left of their lifespan in comfort; it was a very good position!

Regardless of his situation, Old Man Zhu was infuriated and amused at the same time. A trifling junior dared to slap him in the face publically; he couldn’t let this go unpunished. A newborn calf was indeed not scared of the tiger. There was deathly silence in the hall, as he inquired the offending outer disciple, “Junior what is your name?” The offending outer disciple thought that his words had scared the Old man Zhu and he replied proudly.

“I am named Zhen Ji and my brother is Senior Zhen Ley.” Old Man Zhu had a benign smile as he flicked his sleeve. There was a series of popping sounds, followed by a brief pause, and Zhen Ji screamed as he collapsed on the floor. Old Man Zhu appeared unconcerned, and a pick shaped token flew out of the cauldron and hit Ji in the middle of his forehead drawing some blood, and caused him to faint. Two more pick shaped tokens flew out of the cauldron and floated near them.

“You two bind the tokens and take him to a nearby healer’s pavilion. Both of you don’t have objections regarding your assigned chore, do you?” Old man Zhu said with a benign looking smile on his face. These two brats thought they were smart, eh? Given his experience, he could make out at a glance that they were lackeys of that idiot Ji. They probably had some sort of relationship in the mortal world. One of the lackeys hurriedly clarified. He then had the same benign smile and turned to rest of the fatties about their choices.

Naturally they choose the spirit beast task, and were handed chicken shaped tokens which they quickly bound with their blood. No one raised any sort of objections this time. He had that same benign smile and addressed the rest of the outer disciples. “I have one spirit beast token left. I wanted to give it to one of you randomly, but it wouldn’t be fair now, would it? Those of you who want the last token, please step forward.”

A dozen outer disciples hesitated and took a step forward. Old Man Zhu nodded and said, “To *fairly* decide who gets this would be a problem. So all of you can fight each other! If you can no longer remain standing or admit defeat, you are disqualified. The last one standing gets the spirit beast token. Is that clear? You can give up now if you want.” The four of the skinniest and weakest looking outer disciples gave up after a bit of hesitation. Old man Zhu looked at the 8 remaining determined faces, and exclaimed: “Now, FIGHT!”