"Disciple Situ, I've heard you've come across a good fortune recently."
Upon hearing these words Yuyue felt like stabbing the man in front of her with her sword.
"Senior Disciple Ma, you flatter me too much, it was only a little bit of luck"
An ugly expression appeared on Ma Luo's face.
"A little bit of luck? Disciple Situ, I will be honest with you. It is difficult to be an outer sect disciple there are many dangers in this forest, I will be willing to give you some protection… for a price of course."
Yuyue felt herself biting her lip. Ma Luo was obviously trying to exhort her. Even though he was framing this as offering "protection" it was an offer that she wasn't allowed to refuse. As for protection, Ma Luo would only truly protect her if whatever was threatening her, stopped her from giving him more spirit stones. Accepting the deal was the same as allowing Ma Luo to step on her!
Her mind racing, Yuyue quickly came up with an excuse.
"Senior disciple Ma, while your offer is tempting, I have already accepted the protection of Senior Disciple Liu"
"Liu Fan?" Ma Luo said his eye-raising.
Liu Fan was one of the other three chosen of the sect, in terms of strength she could be considered ranking second, just above Ma Luo.
Using the name of Liu Fan was more reasonable than using the name of Tu Kan who was the top-ranking chosen. Tu Kan was reclusive and the idea of him approaching Yuyue was simply too outlandish.
On the other hand, Liu fan often took exceptional outer sect disciples as maids, with the number of contribution points that Yuyue had earned she was already a rare breed among outer disciples which made it more plausible that she had already been approached by Liu Fan.
"Yes, she has already accepted me..." Yuyue said carefully.
On the inside, Yuyue was quaking. If Ma Luo saw through her lie then the ramification of her actions would be even worse.
"I see"
Even though Ma Luo was willing to suppress a junior disciple, he didn't dare try to suppress the subordinate of someone ranked higher than him.
Seeing that Ma Luo was still suspicious, Yuyue relented slightly she put a hand into her bag of spirit stones and handed a mid-grade stone to Ma Luo.
"Since senior has taken the time to talk to me, I would like to give a small offering."
Ma Luo took the stone into their hand.
He knew the value of such a stone to an outer sect disciple was immense. For Yuyue to be so willing to hand him a stone like this, she must have some sort of backing.
"Mhmm," He said, although he was suspicious of Yuyue he didn't have the ability to disprove her lies at the moment, moving against Yuyue at the moment was dangerous and he could always exhort her later.
With the stone in hand, Ma Luo nodded his head towards Yuyue and then flew off.
Upon seeing the figure of Ma Luo disappear in the distance Yuyue felt her entire body heave a sigh of relief.
It seemed like Ma Luo was unaware that Yuyue had bought an immortal den. If he knew, he likely wouldn't have let her go.
Immortal dens were protected by arrays that would attack any intruders.
Although, now that Yuyue was safe she didn't know how she would get past Ma Luo once he had seen through her lies.
She quickly went to where her new immortal den was located. It was a cave that was carved into a wall near a river.
The Qi here was incomparably denser compared to the Qi near the dorms. At the dorms, she had to fight with other disciples to gather all the Qi in the area but now she was alone and near a river that constantly brought a good Qi flow.
Sitting down in the cave, Yuyue let out a sigh. She would be unable to leave this area for a long time. It would not take long for Ma Luo to see through her lie after confirming it with Liu Fan.
Yuyue knew that she was only delaying the inevitable. Although she had managed to move to a safe location, she would not be able to leave it.
This meant that she would not be able to gather animals for contribution points and also not access the contribution point stand.
Although she left enough contribution points in the stand to cover her daily allowance for several months she didn't know if she would be able to leave the den by then.
Regardless there was only 1 path forward for her.
To cultivate!
If Yuyue reached a higher level of cultivation she would be able to become an inner sect disciple and thus it would be difficult for Ma Luo to suppress her.
Even still, for a disciple like Yuyue reaching the third step of Qi cultivation within only a few months was unheard of. It would take most disciples several years as each step becomes more difficult.
But Yuyue had a secret weapon. She had the pill given to her by the senior and the 23 mid-grade spirit stones.
With these, she should be able to break through two stages at once! Once she had created her lower Dantian at the second step of Qi cultivation and could adequately digest pills she would take the pill and push to the third!
Yuyue knew that this would be over-straining her body, and could potentially destabilize her foundation but once she reached the third step of Qi cultivation she could slow down and stabilize her Qi base.