“You should not have done that! If Shang Lin’s father gets angry, I will not be able to protect you. Compared to me, he has much higher status and strength. Especially because the minimum cultivation required to be an outer sect elder is the improved senses realm(7th realm of body tempering)”

Hao Lin’s expression seemed almost comical, but nothing about the situation could be considered funny. However, Bao Gang would not just allow himself to be taken advantage of. From what he had seen, Xiao Gou Shi could fly at the speed of a xiantain realm cultivator, having been able to fly half a mile within a few seconds. Although he had no prior experience with such a high realm, the lizard had flown at a speed much quicker than Hao Lin, who had reached the realm of invigorated blood. Past this realm, the speed of cultivators would not increase until they had stepped into the xiantain realm, as the later stages had nothing to do with bodily movement. For this reason, he felt security in traveling to an unknown sect. With Xiao Gou Shi, he would at least have the security of a xiantian realm cultivator in the case of an emergency.

While he had come to the Immortal Mountain sect for the purpose of experiencing the increase in cultivation speed a sect could bring, he would not be willing to just accept humiliation.

“When people harbor bad intentions to me, I will not just accept it.”

Hao Lin recoiled at this barbed statement, remembering that her plan was to take away Xiao Gou Shi, but dismissed her suspicions that Bao Gang could know that she lusted after his pet.

“I will take you to meet the outer sect master. He will give you your identification token. This is how the guards could tell that you had not entered the sect, and also how they could tell I had. The walls around the mountain and the gate will trigger an alarm to alert the guards if anyone attempts to enter without having an identification token on them.”

The two of them walked up the mountain, and Bao Gang tried to get a good sense of the layout of the sect in case he would later need to remember the geography during a quick escape. On the four sides of the mountain(North, East, South, and West), there were stairs which led up towards the peak of the mountain. There were also four walls which circled around the circumference of the mountain at set heights. Hao Lin explained that these walls prevented people without the necessary identification token from entering. The first wall at the base of the mountain blocked outsiders, the second at ¾ of the height of the mountain blocked outer sect members from entering the inner sect, and the third at the cloud line blocked those which had not yet become core sect members, and the last wall about 500 feet below the peak of the mountain prevented all but elders from entering. He also noticed that the buildings became more decadent as they grew higher. The spiritual energy density also increased as they walked up the mountain. Of course, he could not use his eyes do detect all this, and this was forced to send tendrils of his soul to observe the entire sect. The walls apparently could not detect his soul tendrils.

He would not have risked using his soul sense, but he had already done so successfully before being warned of the dangers of the walls, and thus decided that using his soul sense posed no danger to him.

When they reached the wall to the inner court(the wall which only allows inner sect disciples through), Hao Lin explained the situation to the guards, and then were let through. The same thing happened, when they reached the wall to the core disciples court, however, after reaching the wall to the elder court, they were no longer allowed through(as Hao Lin had not yet reached the position of elder) and had to ask the guards to alert the outer sect master that he had visitors. She also whispered something in the guards ear.

The outer sect master kept them waiting for over an hour, by which time Bao Gang was growing restless. Although he had resolved not to absorb spiritual essence at such a fast rate because it would draw attention from treasure seekers like Hao Lin, he would still have been able to enter a new stage had he been alone in the wilderness within an hour.

Hao Lin on the other hand, was sitting prim and proper, eager for the outer sect master to come, and not holding this delay against him, thinking,

“As soon as we tame Bao Gang’s contracted pet, I will be able to receive the contribution points which I need in order to buy cultivation materials and be promoted to elder!”

This was also the reason why she was forced to search for treasure instead of cultivating. With the treasures, she would be able to promote to the position of elder. Although she had not yet reached the realm of improved senses, everyone in the sect knew that with contribution points, cultivating would become much easier.

If one hit a bottleneck, they could buy a stage-breaking pill, if they wanted to absorb spiritual energy faster, an advancement pill would do the trick. In fact, an advancement pill would be able to quadruple the rate of spiritual energy absorption for 2 days! After cultivating for 2 days, they would have the same result as cultivating for 8!

Truly twice the results with half the effort! While these pills would leave behind pill toxins which would make later cultivation harder, these would take time to build up. For a cultivator like Hao Lin who only desired to become an elder, this would pose minimal problems.

Additionally, disciples could buy spiritual herbs which would leave behind no after effects, only allowing faster cultivation, however, would cost much more compared to an advancement pill, as well as not being as fast. This is why Hao Lin would rather hunt for spiritual herbs and turn them in to the sect to buy advancement pills, rather than just eating the spiritual herbs.

After waiting for an hour, they saw an imposing man walk out of the elder court--the outer court sect master.

He had a full beard and short, spiky hair. Around his waist hung a saber, and muscles could be seen bulging out of his shirt and on his arms. A sharp glint shone in his eyes.

“So this is the guy with the strong contracted beast? Hao Lin, you better not be wasting my time again! If this beast happens to be like that “special” rock you found you will be in for a world of hurt. Just because it happened to be of the same color as the legendary purple god rock doesn’t mean it has the same properties. It broke after just one hit from me!”

The outer sect master began to inspect the lizard on top of Bao Gang’s shoulder. It should be mentioned that he did not ask before doing so, not the lizard, nor the owner.

However, Bao Gang held back his anger.

Xiao Gou Shi did not.

“AGHHHHHHHH.”

The outer sect master got done in just as easily as Bao Gang had, losing a small chunk of his hand.

Realizing, just as Hao Lin had, that the lizard was anything but ordinary, he gulped loudly.

“If this lizard was fully grown, it would be terrifying! I must have it.” He thought.

He first considered the option that the lizard had already become an adult, however, after secretly checking the bone age of the lizard using a magic technique, he realized that the lizard had to be under 2 years old from its bone age!

If he knew that the lizard had actually been less than 2 weeks old he would have been astounded!