While the Immortal Demon Sect remained in the dark before, servants were already awake, performing their assigned duties.
One of the servants, Ace, carried a dozen chopped woods behind his back and placed them before the Old Observer.
The Observer counted the woods and confirmed his quota, "You may go."
"Thank you, Sir." Ace respectfully lowered his head to the Observer and left. Ace passed the servant's quarters and went up the mountain after confirming no one was around.
Ace traversed the usual pathway he had been using for the past few months, and halfway up the mountain, he reached a wall of tangible mist.
Looking up, Ace could see the mist stretching even past the sky. This wall of mist separated the mortals from the Outer-Sector of the Sect, where the Outer Sect disciples reside and cultivate to reach the peak of the Martial Path.
Every cultivator in the Nine Worlds dream of ascending to immortality and one day attaining everlasting life but becoming a cultivator requires one to possess the talent to break the limits of mortality.
To become cultivators, these talented individuals gather and maximize their chances of ascending in a place called Sects.
Consequently, the Immortal Demon Sect was one of the most prominent Sects in the Ancient Dragon Continent.
The Immortal Demon Sect is an Immortal Rank Sect with thousands of years of heritage at its back, and Ace was one of its millions of servants who helped do its chores.
Ace was assigned to chop woods every morning and does the laundry in the afternoon. Like the other servants, he chops three wood logs every day and shows them to the Observer and then another three in the afternoon before night falls.
Every servant has to secure their food to eat, so most of them will hunt wild animals to eat a decent meal, and the only payment they receive from being a servant is one low-quality crystal essence.
The servants' jobs may look hard, but no one complains because every single one of them chose to become servants to the Immortal Demon Sect themselves, and Ace was not any different than them.
They could leave anytime they wanted but chose to remain.
It may seem strange why anyone voluntarily becomes a servant doing all this manual labor for a low-quality crystal essence. But being a servant in the Immortal Demon Sect was better than not becoming one.
The outskirts of the Sect possess a much better environment than some backwater Sect.
Becoming a servant was their only hope of officially entering the Sect after failing the sect examinations or being scouted to join the Sect personally.
Every year, hundreds flock to Sect Gate to become Servants.
There was also the fact that the Immortal Sect only recruits every 100 years. Most of them would already be dead when the subsequent recruitment happens.
The last Sect Recruitment happened a few months back, and Ace failed the third and final assessment leading him to become a servant.
No, he was one of the many who attempted to become an official disciple by breaking through the limits of a mortal body by creating a Soul Seed inside the dantian before the set age limit.
Cultivation was the norm in all Nine Worlds; by cultivating, gathering, and refining the heavenly essence of the world, one would be able to become a full-pledge cultivator.
If a servant were able to create a Soul Seed inside their dantian before the age of sixteen, the Immortal Demon Sect would grant them entry, officially making them a disciple of the Sect.
However, Ace has a massive problem in his cultivation, and that problem was he couldn't create the Soul Seed inside his dantian even though the amount of heavenly essence in his body was enough to form one.
Ace's body was strong, and his meridians were normal, yet he could not create a Soul Seed. Ace was frightened that he could not create a Soul Seed, wasting his time on a worthless and fruitless journey.
After checking his body for problems and even asking the Observers about his condition in a roundabout way, he still came out empty-handed.
Without any more leads to follow, Ace finally concluded that his strange problem had something to do with the thin floating translucent board that appeared in his head on the day of the third assessment.
He discovered the translucent board while meditating three months ago, just as he started sensing heavenly essence.
Name: Ace
Level: 0
Experience Points: 95/100
Martial Skills: <
That translucent board was strange, showing him words and numbers he could not quite grasp. The only thing he could understand about it was the Name and the Level.
The name was unmistakable; as for the level, he connected it to Cultivation Stages.
Core Formation, Minor Saint, Great Saint, Sovereign, and Earth Sovereign, each stage was divided further into nine levels.
"It sounds the same, so they might have the same meaning."
Ace had never seen or heard such a thing, so in fear of attracting unwanted attention, Ace kept quiet about it.
It might connect him to the Devil Path, so he kept his silence. Ace didn't want to risk getting harpooned for uncertain answers.
Ace knew what to call the translucent board as its name came with it as he made the discovery—System.
Without any manual or books concerning his situation, System Ace had to discover its use all on his own, and in the past three months, he only learned one thing: the "Experience Points."
Every time Ace hunted a rabbit; he would find that his experience points increased. After three months of hunting and feasting on wild rabbits, Ace increased his experience points from 3 to 95 Experience Points. He currently only needs five more points to reach 100.
Ace stood in front of the mist barrier and sighed—
PAH!
"Let's do this!" he roared and woke himself up!
He came to the mist barrier to freshen his mind and reignite his ambition, and after a while, Ace's face showed a bright smile, "I'll cross this barrier someday!"
Again, he shouted, reaffirming his conviction.
"Time to hunt some food." Ace went down the mountain and retrieved his bow and arrow.
After Ace went down the mountain, the sun slowly rose into view, and Ace went hunting in the forest for wild rabbits. Ace was moving relatively quicker than when he was trying to go up the mountain, so it didn't take him long to reach the plains where the rabbits frequent.
Ace climbed up the tree and hid behind the branches and leaves, regulating his breathing; Ace waited for a rabbit to appear while hiding his presence as best as he could.
In the time since Ace became a servant, he noticed the manual labor was strengthening his body; the strength he got from cutting wood helped him immensely when he hunted for food, for Ace being a servant has many hidden benefits.
Ace waited and noticed movements from the foliage; Ace took a deep breath, took an arrow from his quiver, and knocked it on his bow. Drawing the bowstrings, Ace squinted his eyes and waited for the right timing.
Then, as he kept his motionless stance, Ace looked far off and released the arrow.
Whoosh!
The wind shrieked, as did the tiny creature.
Ace climbed down the tree to get the rabbit.
His arrow pierced its neck, pinning it to the ground.
Ace carried the rabbit and went to another location; like before, it didn't take long. He climbed up another tree, hiding behind the branches and the leaves; he waited for another rabbit to come by.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Ace killed another three rabbits counting the other one he killed. He currently has four, equalling 4 Experience Points, "What a nice haul for the day; this should last me for a while."
After checking the system, Ace found that he only needed one more point to reach 100, so after thinking about it for a while, Ace decided to wait for another rabbit to gain the last Experience Point needed.
"Just one more." he excitedly said under his breath.
Ace waited, but no rabbits came for a long while, he felt his feet numb, but he kept waiting for the next rabbit.
Rustling reached his ears, and his eyes squinted like before. Ace knocked an arrow and drew it back as far as possible.
Taking a deep breath, Ace waited, and when his ears picked up the rustling noises a second time, Ace released the arrow from his bow and fired it off, hitting a rabbit a hundred meters away.
"Yes!" he celebrated.
Ace wanted to run up and get the rabbit, but when he was about to climb down the tree, Ace's head received a sudden flow of information from somewhere he did not know.
Name: Ace
Level: 1 <
Experience Points: 0/200
Martial Skills: <
"Level up? Did I perhaps reach a new stage…" suddenly, he felt a smoldering sensation within; Ace lost his balance and fell, "Burning….my body is burning."
If Ace could look into his body now, he would be surprised to see that the heavenly essence all around him gathered to his body.
Heavenly Essence swirled as it condensed to a single point and connected to his soul. The Soul Seed he couldn't form was being formed inside his body the same moment after leveling up.