Chapter 9 Quiet Days Are Boring

The day after the confrontation on the path, the outer sect was strangely quiet.Too quiet infact for Lin Feng. No one blocked his way, n one came to his door. Zhao Feng and the Tiger Claw group had completely disappeared from sight. It was as if they had all agreed to pretend he didn’t exist.

Lu Cang found this deeply unnatural.

"They’re planning something," he said while pacing around Room . "People like that don’t just stop. They got warned by the Enforcement Hall, so now they’re going to do something dirtier. Mark my words."

Lin Feng was lying on his cot with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

"I preferred it when they were loud."

"Of course you did," Lu Cang muttered.

Lin Feng opened the system screen.

[Current Rage Points: 1,021]

The number hadn’t moved since yesterday. Without people actively getting angry at him, the points had stopped flowing. The silence was bad for business. He sat up.

The Tier 2 shop had expanded. New items lined the interface, most of them still ridiculous, but a few looked promising.He scrolled slowly.

[ Item: Instant Apology Curtain (180 RP) ]

( Deploys a large cloth that falls over the user while the words "I was wrong" appear in glowing letters. Does not actually reduce hostility. Usually increases it. )

[ Item: Echo Mockery Bell (220 RP) ]

( A small bell that repeats the last angry sentence shouted at the user in a high-pitched, mocking voice for thirty seconds. )

[ Item: Thin Face Amulet (250 RP) ]

( For ten minutes, the user’s words hit harder against people who care about face. Side effect: After it ends, the user becomes slightly more punchable for an hour.Lin Feng bought the Echo Mockery Bell and the Thin Face Amulet. )

"I’m going out."

Lu Cang looked at him in horror.

"Lin Feng can you please, for once, not go looking for trouble while we’re under observation?"

"I’m not looking for trouble," Lin Feng said as he put on his outer robes. "I’m looking for contribution points little Lu."

"No you’re not."

Lin Feng waved his objections away and went out anyway. The contribution board was more crowded than usual. With the assessment only a few days away, disciples were scrambling for every available task. Lin Feng stood in front of the board for a while, reading the remaining slips.

Once again most of the decent tasks were gone. What was left looked dull. He was about to take a simple cleaning task when a voice spoke beside him.

"You’re Lin Feng, right?"

He turned. The speaker was a young man he didn’t recognize, wearing clean outer sect robes and a polite smile that didn’t reach his eyes. The system tagged him as Qi Condensation Level 3.

"Depends," Lin Feng said. "Are you here to admire me or blame me for something?"

The young man gave a short laugh.

"Neither. My name is Gao Ren. I just thought I’d warn you. A lot of people are waiting for you to slip up before the assessment. Some of them are quite patient."

Lin Feng looked at him with mild interest.

"And you’re telling me this out of kindness?"

"Maybe, i’m telling you because, not everyone hates you here as you think. Many even admire you for standing up to the bullies but they won’t say it loud, ofcourse." He then nodded once and walked away.

Lin Feng watched his back for a moment. The system didn’t register any strong hatred from him. Not enough to move the count.

Lin Feng ended up taking a task delivering low grade spirit beast feed to the outer sect beast pens. It was mind numbing work, but it gave him time to think and a few contribution points.

By the time he returned to the dormitory in the evening, the sun was already setting. Lu Cang was sitting on his bed looking even more nervous than usual.

"Zhou Ming came by," Lu Cang said the moment Lin Feng entered. "He didn’t come inside. He asked where you went."

"And what did you say?"

"The truth. That i literally don’t know."

Lin Feng dropped onto his own cot and stared at the wooden ceiling again. The direct attacks had open shouting had stopped.

In some ways, this was more annoying.He opened the system shop and scrolled through the Tier 2 items without buying anything. His Rage Points were stuck. The milestone was stuck at 7/10. The assessment was getting closer.

A slow smile crept across his face. If they wanted to wait until the assessment to deal with him, then that was fine.