After hearing that he had no spiritual roots, meaning that he was unable to walk the path of immortality, Ip An became quite depressed. Some hope appeared when Ai Guanyu mentioned, “Although Ip An is a mere mortal, he essentially presented us with a letter of recommendation from Ancestor Ai, the founder of this very sect in combination with the Heaven-Chosen Medallion. If we were to “renegade on her word and the decree of the medallion, even if the person in question is a mortal, wouldn’t this be considered a very unfilial action and unfair to Ip An?”

He began stabbing needles into the people who he knew would be least favourable towards the idea of Ip An joining the sect as he continued, “Do we, the Inner Court Stewards that represent the Bloody Path Sect on all internal matters really have the face to steal from a mortal boy? Even then, I can say with much certainty that the words of Ancestor Ai overwrite any rules that our sect has. You can’t just send him off with nothing.”

The Stewards spent several moments thinking on Ai Guanyu’s words until Wei Jin pondered, “Hmm, Brother Ai’s words are definitely quite agreeable. Is everyone else in favour?”

Everyone nodded in agreement, albeit the fatty gave a very stiff one, an impatient expression of displeasure on his face. He was clearly in opposition to a mortal potentially joining the sect but painfully nodded his head in agreement as he didn’t want to become an outlier and waste his own time.

“However, we still have to make a compromise”, Wei Jin stated.

He looked to his side where Ip An stood as he proposed, “How about this Ip An. One of my close relatives is the leader of a very wealthy and influential clan in Peerless Cliff City. I can simply send him a single letter and you can live in supreme luxury for the rest of your life. What do you think?”

Ip An was slightly shocked for a second but soon began pondering Wei Jin’s words. If Ip An was being honest, Wei Jin’s words were very tempting. He could do literally whatever he pleased if he decided to live that kind of life. He wouldn’t have to worry about anything at all except what he wanted to do every day when he woke up. He would be living like a king!

But Ip An remembered the promise he made to himself and his grandfather. He had to make him proud. If he was still alive, what would he think if he decided to just live his life like that? To just live without any challenges or difficulties. Living on top of the efforts and work of others. Besides, Ip An had been a village boy his whole life, he couldn’t see himself living in riches in a big city the rest of his life. It would just never feel right.

And he would be a fool to be tricked by Wei Jin. He wasn’t going to be dealt with that easily. His heart was already set on joining the sect, there was no other way he was willing to go.

Ip An responded, “I am deeply sorry, but I am going to have to reject Immortal’s proposition.”

Many Stewards were at a loss when they saw Ip An reject Wei Jin. Many now had a newfound respect for his bravery while otherwise were ticked off thinking that Ip An was merely being an ungrateful brat and was asking for the moon.

Wei Jin wasn’t offended but rose an eyebrow as he investigated, “Then what is it that you want?”

Ip An pondered what he wanted to say for a short moment before answering in a humble tone, “All this one wishes for is to enter the Bloody Path Sect. Immortal does not even need to give me anything or make me what Immortal calls an ‘inner sect disciple’. Simply let me enter the sect as if I was just another ordinary disciple. I do not ask of anything else.”

Ip An’s proposal caused many to wonder what Wei Jin’s decision would be.

“That is…”, Wei Jin made an exaggerated expression of struggle, “Doable. But what does everyone else think? If we get a majority vote then i will allow it.”

Immediately, a number of hands were thrown up, showing an overwhelming majority vote in favour of Wei Jin. If one didn’t know better then they would think that these people all agreed with Wei Jin. But this was far from the truth. These people were simply part of Wei Jin’s faction, this included Ai Guanyu. But, the fatty, for example, was part of the other faction in the Inner Court Stewards. Wei Jin’s faction accounted for about seventy-five per cent of the Inner Court Stewards.

Whereas, the remaining twenty-five per cent were led by a coarse, irritable young man named Fu Cheng. If it weren’t for him being absent on this particular day, then Ip An’s process of entering the sect would not be as smooth. There would’ve been significantly much more resistance from the other faction. But Fu Cheng was missing, so it had played out as it has currently.

As for Ip An, he could barely contain the excitement that was rushing through his body. A bright smile was brought to his face as he began to repeatedly thank Wei Jin with deep gratitude, bowing several times in the process. At that moment, he swore that he would repay Wei Jin someday for his kindness towards him.

……

“And this is where you’ll be living”, a tall man with small eyes and a long face gestured to the small wooden house in front of him. On the right side of it was a small vegetable garden and sitting on a wooden chair beside the house’s entrance was a snoozing middle-aged man with greying hair.

A small child with tanned skin wearing the same white and red robes as the tall man asked, “With him?”

This was Ip An.

“Correct”, the long-faced man confirmed before continuing, “Since you are still a child you will need someone to watch over you. This place has all you need to survive so you don’t have to be hiking up mountains to get all your necessities. If you had spiritual roots, then you would be sent to the Training Pavilion. But Wei Jin would like to keep your entrance into the sect a relative secret so he sent you out here. And this is good for you too. I can imagine many prideful and hot-blooded disciples would try stirring trouble if they found out about you.”

The long-faced man’s words realise how much Wei Jin had put thought into this. He had only become even more indebted to the Head Stewart.

“Now that I have introduced you to the sect and all its rules, dropped you off at your permanent residence and you have gathered what you need, I will bid you goodbye. And a piece of advice, make sure to leave a good first impression on old Manzi, you don’t want to get on his bad side.”

The long-faced man then swiftly hopped onto his flying sword and into the distance. When Ip An turned around to face the house, the ordinary-looking man had already awoken. Noticing the man’s sleepy gaze on him, he walked over and introduced himself, “Greetings Uncle! This one’s name is Ip An. I am going to be living with Uncle from this day forth. Please treat me well.”

Ip An bowed, respecting the other person’s seniority. When he lifted himself back up, he saw them wiping their teary eyes while letting out a low yawn. Once the ordinary-looking man was done he stared at Ip An with a blank face for several seconds.

“Uncle, are you oka-”, as Ip An was in the middle of asking his question, the ordinary-looking man released a frighteningly strong killing intent that paralyzed his whole body. A moment later, a fist seemingly made out of leather met his face, sending his face directly into the ground. Ip An’s vision quickly darkened as he fell unconscious.

As Ip An woke up, his eyes met a dark-brown wooden ceiling. For a few seconds, he stared blankly, until he suddenly jerked up and looked at his surroundings. Where was he? He was inside a small room with a closed door. He currently laid on a mattress made out of thatching, and covering his body was a thin white quilt. It seemed he was in the house that he was standing in front of with the long-faced man just before. That's when he suddenly remembered what had happened prior. He had been knocked out by the man he was supposed to be living with!

Anxious, Ip An jumped to his feet and exited the room. As looked around at the homely house, decorated with quite a few objects, he spotted an ordinary-looking man middle-aged man sipping tea while reading a book in his left hand. This was the very person who had just knocked him unconscious.

Ip An’s clenched his fists tightly as he began approaching them. There was a slight falter in each of his steps, but he kept moving forward.

“Why did you punch me?” Ip An ask, his eyes glazing over the words the man seemed to be reading at that very moment.

He was ignored. The man’s eyes remained on the book below him as if Ip An was not there. That’s when Ip An recognized that book. It was one of the books he had chosen out from the Sect’s Library earlier today with the long-faced man!

“Is that also my book?” Ip An asked with a slightly frustrated expression due to being ignored. Yet again the man ignored him. Having enough, Ip An walked even closer, intending to steal the book from him. But before he could take a second step the man gave him a gaze filled with the same intense killing intent as before. That's when Ip An remembered the man's paralysing killing intent! He quickly realised he had made a dire mistake. Unsurprisingly, it completely paralysed Ip An like last time, he was unable to fight back.

“I will talk to you when I’m finished reading”, his eyes widened to a scary degree as his eyes seemed to pierce into his very soul. It felt like he was going to kill him at any moment, his life akin to a flickering candle in the midst of a large storm.

As he turned back to his book, his killing intent dissipated, allowing Ip An to move again. His whole body nearly collapsed in relief, as if he had just avoided death by a single hair. After he recovered, he stared at the man with studying eyes. Although what the man had done to him was infuriating, and he was plainly terrifying, he decided to take a different approach.

“I have to listen to this person. He’s not afraid to do what he says he will. Let’s just do as he says. I have no hope at defeating him in a fight even with the strength that my inner qi can give me. Either way, i will be living with this man for a long time to come. We have to at least build a friendly relationship or otherwise my life will become very troublesom”, Ip An analysed before walking away from the man with an erratic heartbeat, trying to escape danger.

Acknowledging this, he went to explore the rest of the house he would be living in as that scary man was reading. He almost couldn’t believe he was living with someone like this. But after all the things he had seen in the last two days, it became quite believable and was actually quite tame in comparison.

Immortal techniques, flying swords, structures that seemed as if they had been directly plucked from the heavens. It was a lot to take in. But it wasn’t bad. It actually excited Ip An very much.

A couple of hours passed as Ip An familiarised himself with both the outside and inside of the house. Eventually, Ip An sat opposite of the man with a blank expression as he read. A couple of hours passed like this but just as the sun was starting to set, the man flipped the last page and placed the green book on the table in front of him and let out a long sigh.

The man's eyes flickered with a strange glint, as his eyes met with the patiently waiting Ip An.