Chapter 21 - Return To The Mountain, Outer Sect Competition
[Ding! Congratulations on obtaining the Hunter Swallowtail Butterfly Gu!]
[Due to the lack of demon beast puppets, the effect of your Hunter Swallowtail Butterfly Gu has been greatly reduced. ]
Fine, I knew there was nothing good about it.
Fang Yuan curled his lips and directly ignored it.
Demon beasts were not so easy to come by. Along the way, he had only come across these two.
Moreover, it was the Hunter Swallowtail Butterfly Gu that had controlled them and brought them with it.
Otherwise, he might not have even met one when he reached the capital.
However, with the principle that it was better to have something than nothing, after Fang Yuan resumed his journey, he still paid attention to whether there were any demon beast habitats along the way.
Unfortunately, he was disappointed.
Reality proved that a person's luck would not always be good.
In the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed, and by the time the convoy arrived in the capital, not to mention demon beasts, they did not even encounter any robbers.
This journey was only slightly more thrilling in the first half.
After they reached the place, these goods were no longer under Fang Yuan's control.
There was also a Fang clan's shop in the capital, and the shopkeeper here would negotiate with Song clan regarding the transaction.
The group of people who helped escort the goods received a lot of primeval stones as rewards.
This mission was very generous. Even Yu Bing, the logistics team leader and member, was given twenty-seven pieces, and even though they were only fingernail-sized, in the Gu Immortal Sect, it was already nine months' salary for an outer sect first layer Foundation Establishment disciple.
Fang Yuan was the main battle team leader and the leader of the caravan, so he was given the most. He directly received a bag that was even bigger than his palm.
The bag was filled to the brim with primeval stones, and it was very heavy in his hands.
But he did not count it carefully, and casually threw it into the storage space of the Drunken Gu.
Afterwards, Yu Bing pestered him to play in the capital for two days, but as her elder brother, Fang Yuan could not win against her, so he could only agree.
A few days later, Fang Yuan brought Yu Bing on the return journey.
This time, they took the water route. Travelling by boat was much faster.
During this time, they encountered a pirate ship robbery, but they were all ordinary people. Fang Yuan and Yu Bing did not attack. They jumped into the sea and swam back to the shore. After half a month of traveling by land, they finally returned to Yunding City.
Standing at the city gate, Fang Yuan did not enter.
"Sister, help me bring this back."
He took out a large jar of Gu wine and placed it on the ground.
Yu Bing tilted her head and looked at him, "Brother, aren't you going back?"
"No, my parents will ask me to stay when I go back. Uncle Shi Hao's injuries should be almost healed."
Fang Yuan's gaze was deep, "It's time for me to return to the sect."
Yu Bing opened her mouth and choked, not saying a word.
Fang Yuan smiled and stroked her head, remembering the same scene when she was young, and he suddenly had some feelings.
"I'm leaving!"
Fang Yuan turned around resolutely.
Yu Bing pulled his hand, pursed her lips, and then let go. She waved goodbye gently.
Clang!
A crisp sound came from the wine jar. Yu Bing looked down and saw that it was a half-filled black embroidered bag. When she opened it, she saw that it was all primeval stones.
Yu Bing suddenly raised her head, but she found that Fang Yuan had already left.
She held the primeval stone bag tightly, muttering softly.
"Brother, I will cultivate properly."
"Next time, it will be me protecting you."
...
A few days later, at the foot of the Gu immortal mountain.
"Gu slave, you cannot stay on the mountain, but you can find a place nearby to cultivate."
"Yes, Master."
"Right, where are the treasures in Black Wind Mountain Village? Have you sold them all?"
"I have sold them all, master. Here are primeval stones."
"Alright, these are for your daily use, go."
Fang Yuan set some aside for the Gu slave, and he began to count the primeval stones in the bag given by the Gu slave.
A few minutes later, he threw them into his storage space.
Overall, this quantity did not make him excited, nor did it disappoint him.
At least, it would not be a problem to speed up the cultivation of the Gu worms in his acupoints for a period of time.
"Stop!"
The Gu Immortal Sect's guard disciple had a solemn expression as he glanced at Fang Yuan's waist.
Only then did Fang Yuan remember to hang up the token.
This was something he had taken off when he jumped into the sea during the pirates incident, and he had forgotten to hang it up and almost had an accident.
"Outer sect disciple Fang Yuan, returning to the mountain for training." He cupped his fists.
"Mm..."
The guard disciple's expression softened, and he said: "Junior brother, if you want to return to the sect, then hurry up. The sect is holding an outer sect disciple competition right now, if you don't register now, it will be too late."
"Ah? I'll go now."
Fang Yuan took out a small primeval stone from his pocket and quietly put it into the other person's pocket. "Thank you for your advice, senior. I'll treat you to a drink next time."
The gatekeeper grinned. "You're too kind, junior. When you enter the inner sect, don't forget to give senior a hand."
"Of course, of course…"
Fang Yuan did not expect the outer sect competition to arrive so soon.
This was a grand ceremony that was held only once a year in the sect. Only disciples with sufficient strength could stand out from the crowd and enter the inner sect.
That was a place that countless outer sect disciples looked forward to.
No one wanted to stay in the outer sect for their entire life.
To put it bluntly, outer sect disciples were handyman disciples who specialized in handling all kinds of dirty and tiring work that no one did in the sect. They only received a monthly salary of a few primeval stones. They worked themselves to death and did not even have time to cultivate.
The inner sect was the place where the sect truly poured in resources. Some people said that a hundred outer sect disciples in total received the same amount of sect resources as a single inner sect disciple.
Although it was a bit exaggerated and couldn't be verified, rumors must be born somewhere.
Since this saying had spread, it was enough to prove that the treatment of the inner sect was definitely much better than the outer sect.
Fang Yuan naturally wanted to go in.
After all, who would be willing to rely on their own family.
That was akin to waiting for death.
There was no one at the registration area now. Fortunately, it was not closed yet, and Fang Yuan had caught up with the last batch of registration.
"Outer sect Fang Yuan... Yes, take your identity token. The participation rules are written on it. If you are discovered changing tokens or taking the test in someone else's place, you will be disqualified!"
The registration elder looked dignified and expressionless as he looked at Fang Yuan.
"Your disciple understands."
Fang Yuan bowed respectfully. This was a big shot, so he had to put in more effort on the surface.
After registering, Fang Yuan didn't forget to make a trip to the mission pavilion to submit his mission materials.
As soon as he entered the door, he saw a female cultivator with a good temperament and good looks.
She seemed to be on par with Yu Bing.
Fang Yuan didn't pay too much attention to her. He walked directly to the counter and began to search for the materials.
Last time, he had accepted a total of four missions. He had only completed one mission to collect materials related to the frost wolf.
Therefore, he explained the situation to the disciple at the counter first and canceled the other three one by one.
At this time, the beautiful female cultivator at the side asked, "How is it? Have you checked up on my mission request?"
"Senior Wan, your request hasn't been completed yet. Why don't you wait for a while?" Another disciple at the counter replied.
The beautiful female cultivator frowned slightly and said in a somewhat urgent tone, "Can you hurry a bit more? I really need those materials. I can't wait any longer. I can double the reward. Can you help me, junior?"
"Then... okay..."
The disciple at the counter looked through the materials again and then changed the information. As he changed the information, he asked, "Four frozen wolf teeth, a pair of claws, and three broken tailbones. Is that all, Senior Wan?"
At the same time, an exclamation came from the side.
"Junior, why did you bring an entire frozen wolf here?"