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Chapter 177 - Debts
🕑 Added 2025-08-01 04:19:03 +0000 UTCA new day dawned over the Infinite Dao Sect, and unlike the usual calm, this day could be called extraordinary.
The day had barely begun, and disciples were already leaving their caves as if they had coordinated it beforehand.
Like a swarm of little ants, they flew on their swords, all heading in the same direction… the Missions Pavilion.
This pavilion, in particular, was divided into two buildings—one lower on the mountain and one higher up, with the lower being the outer pavilion and the upper one the inner pavilion.
Outer disciples had no access to the inner pavilion or its missions, while inner disciples had access to the outer pavilion.
However, it didn't make much sense for inner disciples to seek outer disciple missions, considering that the quality and rewards of higher-ranked missions were far superior—and of course, so were the responsibilities and required skills.
Since there were still few Core disciples in the sect, a third pavilion hadn't yet been built. Provisionally, they had access to their missions within the inner pavilion, together with the now nearly four hundred inner disciples, but in a separate area to which inner disciples had no access.
Fortunately for the inner and Core disciples, there was no long line to face before choosing missions.
The outer pavilion, on the other hand—with over ten thousand disciples wanting access—was obviously a headache on its own.
But all the commotion of this day began with a simple announcement made by the sect elders the day before, containing roughly the following words:
"Tomorrow, the sect will launch a large wave of missions. Everyone is invited to explore, contribute, and receive contribution points to advance their cultivation, and then continue contributing more and more to the sect."
Those weren't the exact words, but the message wasn't far off.
And at that moment, in the private area of the missions pavilion for Core disciples, Xiao Ling calmly observed the pavilion, her long blue hair flowing down her back.
Xiao Ling looked at the circular panel that emerged from the floor in front of her. In its center, there was a round cavity.
She shifted her gaze to the side, where, farther away, beyond the Core disciple area, hundreds of inner disciples stood before several similar panels spread throughout the pavilion.
At those circular panels, they inserted their sect tokens and kept their hands resting on top of them.
Her blue eyes returned to the panel before her.
She touched the storage pouch at her waist and withdrew her token.
Holding it in hand, she pushed it into the slot of the white panel with golden details in front of her. The fit was perfect.
With the sound of it clicking into place, the panel vibrated slightly with energy, and its golden patterns lit up, indicating it was now active.
Before her, a curtain of light appeared:
[Core Disciple: Xiao Ling
Affiliation: Treasure Pavilion
Current Missions: None]
[Select mission type:
1- Sect Affiliation Missions
2- Sect General Missions
3- Private Missions
4- My Requests]
Xiao Ling read it with curiosity and attention.
This was the first time she had operated one of these terminals. The sect had been going through updates since conquering the new domain, and many of these changes had yet to be explored by her.
Previously, accepting missions was done at the counter. Now, from what she had heard, everything was done directly through the terminals.
Mission completion still had to be reported at the counter, but the search and acceptance were now done individually at the terminals.
Even creating private missions could be done there, under the "My Requests" tab, as well as accepting requests from other disciples under "Private Missions."
Xiao Ling placed her hand on her disciple token and sent a bit of energy into it. She immediately felt a connection to the terminal under her hand.
Manipulating it with spiritual energy and intent, she selected the first option: Affiliation Missions—missions specific to the pavilion to which she belonged.
[Select mission level:
1- Core Level Missions
2- Inner Level Missions]
Without hesitation, she selected the first option again.
There were very few missions in this section, and Xiao Ling furrowed her brow slightly, but quickly understood.
'I'm the only Core disciple from the Treasure Pavilion. It wouldn't make sense to have many missions. These missions are basically placed by my master for me, and I don't have to compete for them with anyone,' she thought, her beautiful blue eyes calming, and a small smile appearing on her lips at the memory of her silly master.
Xiao Ling had great respect for her master.
Despite sometimes being stingy, he had always treated her kindly, with no hidden motives other than fulfilling his duty as a master.
Turning her attention back to the missions displayed on the screen,
There were some filters above, whose purpose she hadn't even noticed until a bit of feedback from the terminal explained how they worked.
Without hesitation, she filtered the missions from highest to lowest in contribution points.
Her eyes carefully scanned the list that appeared.
'Recruitment management missions in cities within the domain, missions to find qualified workers and implement sect plans in smaller cultivation cities, missions to…'
As she read, Xiao Ling was slightly shocked by the overall picture unfolding before her.
Treasure Pavilion missions typically focused on administrative work and resource and personnel management.
Thus, as the Core disciple of the pavilion, the responsibilities placed upon her gave her insight into the direction the sect was heading.
And what she saw was that the sect seemed intent on reshaping the entire power dynamic of the domain—into something she had no idea what it might become.
And her compensation for helping was anything but small.
If it were an ordinary sect, an administrative disciple like her might not be as wealthy as a talented pill-crafting disciple. After all, there wasn't always that much work, and there was also a lot of competition.
But here, it was different. The sect was growing; not only was there plenty of work, but also few people available. The wealth before her was immense.
Without hesitation, she began accepting missions one after another, manipulating the panel.
There wasn't a real limit to how many missions a disciple could accept, but there were punishments for those who accepted and failed to complete them. Some missions also required exclusivity, preventing their acceptance if other active missions were already on the disciple's list.
And, since they were mostly administrative and long-term missions, Xiao Ling could carry them out simultaneously, without overburdening herself or needing to be in several places at once.
She also had a lot of free time now. As a perfect root, her cultivation had already reached the perfection stage of Foundation Establishment. The next step was to acquire the Golden Core cultivation techniques — and they were far from cheap.
After accepting all 6 available missions, which appeared beneath her name on the panel, she glanced at the other missions that didn't require a specific pavilion, and seeing none that matched the ones she'd already taken, she, without hesitation, drew her token with spiritual energy and departed.
What she didn't know was that, as soon as her administrative missions were accepted, new missions appeared for the other disciples.
These missions were based on finding Xiao Ling in the Treasure Pavilion and coordinating certain tasks with her.
Even though she knew such missions would exist, she didn't know they would only appear after she accepted hers.
Xiao Ling quickly made her way to her pavilion, hoping to find her master.
And luckily, she found him coming out of the sect's vault.
"Master!" she called out, slightly excited, and ran up to him, joining her fists and bowing with a serious expression.
Bao Hui, caught off guard by her sudden shout, looked at her curiously.
"Ling'er, what made you so happy today?" He smiled at her and asked, calmly placing his hands behind his back.
Xiao Ling straightened up and smiled gently.
"Master, I received the missions you put in for me," she replied softly.
"Ohh… I see. Those are good missions for your current level, and they'll help train you to take on greater responsibilities in the future." He nodded. "Since you're here, let your master see if you perfected your foundation like I instructed." He extended his hand to her.
Her eyes sparkled, and without hesitation she offered him her wrist.
Holding her wrist without any awkwardness, Bao Hui circulated the energy from the roots in her arm to her dantian.
He closed his eyes and analyzed calmly.
"Uhmm… good. Your dantian is well-forged, but you could reinforce this part here, apply pressure to this area…" He began giving a few pointers, and indicated the areas of the dantian with his spiritual energy.
He had already given her advice before, but as she corrected what he'd taught, he began pointing out smaller, more difficult issues to fix.
Xiao Ling listened seriously, closing her eyes as well and engraving her master's words in her heart.
Soon, Bao Hui finished explaining the few points and released her wrist as he opened his eyes.
"That's basically it. After correcting these small imperfections, you'll reach pretty much the limit of what your current control of spiritual energy can do to improve your dantian," he explained to her, who also opened her eyes and nodded firmly at his words.
This was the benefit of having a master in the sect. He could give tips, analyze cultivation, and be very helpful.
Inner and outer disciples could also ask the elders for advice, and they would help to the best of their ability, but they wouldn't be as proactive or focused on a few disciples, tracking each one's specific progress and offering guidance without being asked, simply because there were too many of them.
"Ling'er, how many contribution points do you currently have?" Bao Hui suddenly changed the subject, leaving her slightly confused, but without hesitation, she took out her token and activated it, showing it to him.
[Infinite Dao Sect]
[Position: Core Disciple]
[Name: Xiao Ling]
[Contribution Points: 12,000]
Bao Hui raised an eyebrow at her.
"Why do you have only twelve thousand? I remember that almost a month ago, the sect distributed fifteen thousand points to each core disciple who took part in the war," he asked, confused.
"That… it's because I paid the 20 thousand to the sect for the initial equipment package when we entered the sect. Normally it's paid through a percentage cut from missions, but I decided to pay everything at once. Now I only owe 49 thousand for the Foundation Establishment technique package and the Qi Disguise technique," Xiao Ling said with a slightly awkward expression.
The truth was that she was embarrassed—being a disciple of the Treasure Pavilion, she owed 70 thousand points to the sect. Of course, everyone owed, but as a disciple of the Treasure Pavilion, she didn't feel it was right for her to be like that too.
Bao Hui seemed to notice what she was thinking and felt a slight headache.
Massaging his forehead, he explained helplessly:
"Girl, if you have a debt, and it doesn't grow over time, and there's no problem in taking long to pay it back, you only pay it at the very last moment. The money you have in hand you use to invest—either in yourself or to make more money. Feeling ashamed doesn't fatten your pockets. Just be careful not to let the debts you have to pay pile up to the point where you can't handle them," he taught sincerely.
But seeing her nod, eyes drifting a bit, he knew this silly disciple wasn't fully accepting his advice.
Aotian sighed. He wasn't just using Bao Hui's personality—he was being serious.
"Haah… silly girl, forget it, when you're older you'll understand better. For now, I'll lend you 8 thousand contribution points. This will be an advance from one of the missions you picked. Go to the Heritage Pavilion and choose a Refiner-Tier body refinement technique." He waved his hand helplessly, pulled out his token, and touched it to hers, transferring 8 thousand points.
Only elders can make such point transfers between tokens.
There's no such thing in the sect as lending or giving points between disciples. The only way to transfer points between them is through mission assignments—using your own contribution points to create a mission—but aside from the sect taking a percentage from each mission, there's no guarantee someone else won't accept the mission before the intended disciple gets to it.
Xiao Ling stared in a daze at her master's actions.
"Master, 20 thousand points on a Qi Refinement technique? Aside from being so expensive, is it really worth it when I'm so close to reaching the Golden Core?" Xiao Ling asked, confused, looking at her master with doubt.
Bao Hui rolled his eyes.
"'So close to reaching the Golden Core!' You have to pay your 49 thousand debt to the sect before you can even get the Golden Core cultivation technique, which costs 250 thousand points. For you to reach that amount, you're going to need to work non-stop for several months."
"In the meantime, it's better to spend a bit and improve your foundation and strength, and body refinement will help with that. You should also invest in some Founder-Tier spells from the sect. They're more economical to use in the Golden Core realm and have similar or superior power to the Core-Tier techniques you see out there. Now go, go, just talking about spending gives me a headache—fortunately, it's not my money."
He instructed with a dark face and waved her off before turning and leaving, massaging his head.
Xiao Ling remained there, in the wind, her face pale as the number of contribution points she needed kept growing in her mind. Just one Founder-Tier spell cost 10 thousand points—let alone a few of them.
Her face, which looked like she'd seen a ghost from thinking about spending, finally began to resemble her stingy master's a little.
Comments
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Lol thank you for the chapter
