The first location Ace led the representative Vale to, was the mission board in the sect.
Even though every sect just like theirs had missions for the disciples to decide on and clear it in exchange for merit or contribution points, there was one thing about the mission board of his sect that stands out.
The difficulty of the missions. Even the lowest rank missions that his sect accepted were those that were important, such as the clearing of bandits or defending villages for a certain time period against a potential threat.
"Sect master Ace, it seems that not everything in your sect is able to stand out as much. If that's all for me to gauge, I should be able to give your sect a rating right away." Vale said as he took out what seems like a book with checkboxes that were ticked.
Ace however just smiled and told Vale, "Don't worry representative Vale, there are still a few more hidden features unique to my sect that you must see and give a grading."
Confidently, he led the way towards the spirit with Cidd following behind them and Charlotte remaining by his side silently.
On the way, the representative Vale couldn't help but be amazed by the high quality of the disciples. "Sect Master Ace, how did you manage to recruit so many talented youths into this sect of yours, just for any disciple of your sect, the black grade sects wouldn't even hesitate to break out into for them."
"Haha, thank you for the praise representative Vale, but you shall see the answers with your own eyes soon enough." Ace assured as they stopped before a tree.
A gigantic tree that had the potential to challenge the heavens, yet willingly staying here in this sect to repay Jay and most importantly, see how things would unfold for the youth who had caught his eye.
Not to mention, the tree spirit was pleased by the disciples that came here with the true intent to cultivate without the slightest trace of disrespect for him just because he was a tree.
"What's this tree? The aura it's eluding seems to be sucking me in like a whirlpool!" Vale exclaimed as he walked towards the tree and sat down, getting into the illusion realm to cultivate.
"Don't worry young fella, just let this man have the chance to cultivate in my illusion realm for a moment, I'm sure that it'll help him to make a breakthrough in his martial arts and with that, the rating your sect gets will go higher and my name will be recorded down." The spirit tree laughed and told Ace through telepathy.
This tree, it's true intention is just to make use of me in order to gain fame. Ace couldn't help but laugh at this thought, "Don't you just want to become famous with helping me being the secondary reason?"
"Young fella, one more word and I'm sure you'll deserve a beating from me, one that you wouldn't enjoy." The tree spirit took on his human form and threatened with his finger pointing towards Ace.
"Alright alright, anyways, what do you mean by martial arts for that representative?" Ace raised both his hands up and surrendered, asking with interest about the martial arts that the representative cultivates.
"Martial Arts are where the origin of cultivation, having existed before weapons and cultivation were known of. Even though the benefits of cultivating outstripped that of martial arts, there were some talented souls that have yet to lose heart about cultivating.
Not only that, martial arts down to its origin demands that a cultivator can never make use of a weapon in battle, the only weapon they have is their own body, that was the only reason why I decided to help this man.
With this assistance, your sect would have secured a strong ally this time. Oh, he's waking up." The tree spirit cut his words short and vanished as Vale opened his eyes in a daze and stood up.
Feeling the immense amount of energy constantly circulating within his body, Vale knew that what he just experienced wasn't just a figment of his imagination, but probably an illusion realm.
"Sect master Ace, I don't think that there's a further need for me to inspect your sect. From today onwards, your sect will be officially recorded and known as a 4 black stars grade sect." Vale said as he gave Ace a pat on the shoulder.
"Thank you for the grading representative Vale." Even though it wasn't needed, Ace appreciated the grading from the depths of his heart. If it was some other representative that held some malicious intent such as blackmailing him for usage of the cultivation grounds, then things wouldn't have been that simple.
"In a month's time, I hope that my master can come here to experience that illusion realm as well. I know that this request might seem selfish, but is it possible for my master to just enter once?"
"Sure…"
After Vale left, that was when the fun came in, not just for Ace, but the entire sect.
"Monthly data of the sect has been tabulated! Results are as shown below."
Sect system: Level 1 (978/1000) EXP
Grading: 4 black stars officially, 2 copper stars unofficially (Based on system's gauging)
Members: (100/1000)
Elders: 4 (Clarissa, Arith, Cidd, Jay)
Disciples: 96
Average cultivation base: early stage Martial Master realm
Average age: 17 years old
Location: Nascent mountain (low spirit grade)
Sect buildings: Martial Pavilion, Middle grade dwellings, Lecture hall, Alchemist workshop, Blacksmith workshop
Sect points: 978
"All elders, please gather all the disciples to the main hall."
"Sect master, all disciples will be there in five minutes excluding those that are out on a mission or at an important point of stage in their cultivation." Cidd said through the communication system before making his way here as well.
"Alright."
By the time the disciples were here, Ace had already written down the improvements that he was going to make to the sect this month on a board.
"In order to make things quick this time, these are the three new improvements that are going to be added to the sect this month.
1)From now on, all disciples of the sect will be able to collect any amount of Spirit Generation Pill for cultivation purposes when needed.
2)In order to make the newest improvement implemented possible, more disciples are welcome to pick up alchemy.
3) The final improvement would be one that all disciples would be interested in, from now on, all disciples would be able to improve their combat strength against a wooden dummy. Eight wooden dummies that can be used individually, arrangement would be up to the disciples.
Before anyone could pose any question, Ace had already left the scene, but it was fine, the changes were made.
"Alchemy workshop 2: Four slots for double the initial price, 100 system points deducted!"
"Eight soul combat dummies were purchased, 800 system points deducted!"
Soul combat dummy: Able to utilise different weapons, would choose one that's the same as the opponent, capable of combating against any cultivator below the Transcendent realm.
While some of the disciples that were showing more leadership stepped out and suggested an arragement for the wooden dummies, the elders left the room with Clarissa approaching Ace.
"Sect master, how do you expect me to take in more disciples with that small alchemy workshop you gave me?" Clarissa questioned as she pointed towards the direction of the alchemy workshop, only to realise that the youth was smiling at her.
What?
"Go take a look, I've improved it for you. It shouldn't be a problem for you to accommodate up to five to six disciples now while having personal space." Ace explained as he walked off, only to be stopped again.
"Sect master, when are you going to improve my forging workshop as well?" The person who was probing was Arith who had just come searching for him.
"I'll do it next month. If the performance of your two disciples and yourself meet my expectations that is."
"Don't worry sect master, just keep your promise when the time comes." Arith assured before leaving, Ace laughing at this as he asked himself, what the hell am I supposed to do now?
"Sect master, there's a man at the foot of the mountain requesting an audience with you. If I'm not wrong, that man should be someone from the Valor Kingdom.
Ace nodded his head while thanking Cidd as he made his way down.
The person looking for him was a well-built man in his middle age, behind his back was a heavy sabre that has yet to lose its edge even after countless battles.
"Are you the one looking for me?" Ace asked the man who was walking in circles anxiously, glancing towards his sect every few seconds.
"You're finally here! We need your sect to help us out right now, another beast invasion has occurred and this time, it's one of the fifth grade. Demon beasts of the Transcendent realm have appeared and all sects are requested to participate in the defense."
"Got it, give me the location, I'll lead my sect there." Ace nodded his head and made the promise as the man left hurriedly.
Valor Kingdom huh? From what Ace knows, the only way for a city to get promoted to the ranks of a kingdom was to have an expert in the four domains to stay guard there, yet for the valor kingdom to call for such backup, it could only mean one thing, this demon beast siege was infinitely close to the sixth tier.