The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 10

The morning after, Li Jian was counting his storage ring when he frowned slightly. The recent purchases had made quite a dent in his earnings and so perhaps it was time to find some work again. The fighting arena was out of the question, no one would dare fight against him there anymore. He cursed himself for his lack of foresight and his anger that day. Perhaps a sect? There was the sect those three kids were from. The Spiritblade sect? He thought carefully to himself and shrugged. Why not?

After getting dressed, Kon Wang floated above and looked at him. “Master, is it meat bun time?” Li Jian frowned at him as he walked out of the house. “Always with the meat buns. I feel like an omlette wrap today.” The thousand year old sword spirit sighed at him. “Master is always so cruel.” Li Jian however did pick up two meat buns along with his omelet wrap and handed it off to the floating Sword Spirit as he walked down towards one of the center of the city. Thankfully one of the abilities of a high powered sword spirit was the ability to keep himself invisible. After getting directions from some people, he would make his way towards the steps up to the Spiritblade Sect. He found the entrance rather easily, and in front were already people waiting in line.

“The test is simple. For outer disciple, all you need is to bring in one of the items on the list. For inner disciple, you must fight an inner disciple of the same level and impress one of the Elders.” Li Jian yawned to himself. Fight an inner disciple of the same level? Someone of the same level didn’t exist in this universe. Forget it, outer disciple it is. He checked the list and saw that one of things on the list is 20 spirit grasses. He laughed and walked up to the Elder at the gate. “Elder, I am Li Jian. I have the 20 spirit grasses, is that sufficient to get in as an outer disciple?”

The Elder Shan Hui looked at him and nodded. “You do not have any cultivation I can see but this is the perfect place for you to cultivate and become a member of the Sect.” Li Jian bowed. “Thank you Elder.” Elder Shan pointed towards one of the buildings. “That is where you should head to next. There will be someone who will tell you what to do.” Li Jian bowed again and began making his way through. Inside the gate of the Sect, the courtyard was massive. Inside were various buildings including the Spirit Mountain where the Inner Sect disciples resided. He yawned again and stretched before walking into the pavilion for new entries.

“Listen up carefully, as outer disciples you are only qualified to take on the various jobs on the board. Payment will be sent by the Sect. Of course you are also allowed to compete in the Outer Sect competitions. The Inner Sect Disciples have their own competitions. The top ten list is always open for challenges. As long as they accept, you will receive their position.” A young female disciple called out. She stood there in a pair of the blue and light blue robes that disciples wore. A long sword was by her side as she looked around at the new outer disciples that had gathered around.

He yawned, bored rather and went up to collect his robes. “Is it mandatory to wear the robes? He asked the female disciple casually. She glared at him fiercely, noting his casualness. “A new outer disciple dares to be so casual? I am Xiao Wu, you may address me as Senior Sister Xiao or Senior Sister. Learn your manners, junior brother. It will save you a lot of headaches here.” Li Jian sighed to himself. The process of joining a sect was such a pain. “My sincere apologies Senior Sister, I did not recognize you. I am at fault, please forgive me.” Xiao Wu looked at him and softened a bit. “The uniform is not mandatory although many new disciples here come from poor back grounds and it is a good set of clothing. However, the display of the Spiritblade token is mandatory.” She handed him a token of an outer disciple. “Right now it is only a simple light blue because you are new. Once you have achievements and accomplishments, the colour will change.”

She held up her own to show that it was of a magenta colour. “This means that I am part of the outer sect’s top ten. He nodded and pretended to be very impressed. “Senior sister must be a genius to achieve such a feat.” She smiled and blushed at the compliment, waving her hand however as if for him to go on. “Please please, it’s nothing. I am just lucky.”

“Ah the casually arrogant disciples.” He thought to himself as he attached the token of the Spiritblade sect onto his belt and was about to leave when she stopped him. “Oh and be careful if you take one of the jobs. A lot of the jobs are left over ones that most people see as too dangerous. Inner sect disciples get first pick after all.” Li Jian nodded and bowed again. “Thank you Senior sister, I will keep that in mind.”

He walked off grinning to himself. The job board was where he went to first, and he scoured it. It seemed that the silly girl from earlier was right. There were some high paying ones but they were not ones that could be easily done. One of them was to kill a King Spirit beast but the payment was more than one hundred spirit stones. Two hundred spirit stones if the beast core was recovered. Another one was to hunt down an Assassin Sect that had popped up. That job paid four hundred thousand spirit stones. He hmphed to himself and took both of the job postings off. It should be a good amount and really for him, it was easy work. His sword spirit was bored at this moment and amused himself by floating around while invisible and blowing wind underneath the skirts of various female disciples. Li Jian gave him a rather stern mental warning after the six or seventh shriek by some poor girl who had her choice of underwear revealed.

“Come now Kon Kon, we have work to do.” The Sword spirit merely sighed and floated along behind Li Jian. Li Jian looked as well at the various postings. There was a competition for the outer sect, a prize of three hundred thousand spirit stones and of course, a right to try out the trial to get into the inner sect. He couldn’t care less about the inner sect but the three hundred thousand spirit stones, that was a pretty penny. He might be able to afford some servants soon too. The competition was taking place in about a month, so he made a note. There was a line up of people already signing up to the competition. Of course, there were conditions. Each person who signed up had to pass a strength test, where a large rock the size of a small house was set up. Each person would punch the side of it and it would reveal just how much strength the person had. If someone did not get above five thousand jin, they would be disqualified. This was also to ensure that those who competed in the outer sect were those who were truly worthy.

“Come on, four hundred jin, you’re just wasting everyones time.” An outer sect disciple in the line called out to a younger boy at the front of the line who was not able to generate force anywhere near the limit. He was booed off from in front of the rock while someone else stepped up. “That’s the monster Wan Bai. He’s at such a high level already, Golden Core realm.” The line was quickly filled with various gossip about the strength of Wan Bai. Using his spiritual force to infuse his fist, he punched the test stone and the number quickly lit up on top. 25 thousand Jin. He smirked and walked off, confident in his strength. “Did Brother Wan not eat today? It’s not good to skip your meals.” Another disciple cat called. Wan Bai turned and glared at the one who spoke. “That’s Lan Gang, he’s rumoured to be one of the new favoured to become an inner sect disciple.”

Li Jian was quite bored with the waiting. The few golden cores and mostly foundation establishment disciples were discussing excitedly about which level Golden Core who was at. Li Jian could barely remember his time as a Golden Core, he had spent most of it in seclusion on top of a mountain. “Wait until the competition Lan Gang, we will see who skipped their meal that day.” Wan Bai threatened before stomping off. Lan Gang laughed and walked up to the testing rock, and punched it casually. 50 thousand Jin. Self satisfied, he looked down at the line of people. “If anyone of you wastes in this line can get higher than me, then I will bow down and call you Grandpa from now on.” Li Jian called out “Bet some money on it too, be a real man.” He snickered, having used his spiritual force to make his voice come out from another side of the line.

“Fine, 50 Spiritual coins then.” 50 Spiritual Coins was worth 50 thousand spirit stones, each spiritual coin worth one thousand spirit stone. It was not a small amount in the outer sect. “What happens if we can’t then?” Lan Gang fanned himself with an expensive silk fan, laughing arrogantly. “If you can’t? Well this young master is merciful. All you have to do is kneel in front of me and take one of my kicks.” A few boos came out of the crowd, more people drawn in by the arrogance of Lan Gang. Li Jian however simply shrugged. He walked out of the line and upto the stone before looking at Lan Gang. “Who the hell are you?” The still fanning himself young man asked with disdain. Li Jian ignored him however. “Hey prove that you have 50 spiritual coins first.”

Lan Gang turned red in the face. “You dare question this young master?” Li Jian shrugged at him. “Well it’s a bet, so I have to ask.” The arrogant youth smirked and took out a pouch from his belt, opening it to reveal indeed 50 spiritual coins. “Are you ready to take one of my kicks?” He asked, snapping his fan shut and revealing an ugly smile. Li Jian looked at him and blinked before casually tapping the measuring stone. “One hundred thousand Jin.” Li Jian was crestfallen, he didn’t mean to hit it that hard, he was only aiming for maybe 60 or 70 thousand Jin.

The crowd of people went silent, Lan Gang staring at him with his eyes bulging. “How did you manage to cheat that?” Li Jian ignored him and swiped the bag of spiritual coins from his belt and sent it into his storage ring. “You should be more polite when you speak to your Grandfather.” He laughed as he walked off, feeling much better now that he’s made some money off an idiot. It was time to head to the mountains to find a King level spiritual beast. After that, it will be time to deal with the little assassin sect.