Taking a step into the inner courtyard, the air felt different, the space felt so much wider than the outer courtyard, he had yet to explore anywhere in the courtyard, but he could already tell it was an entirely different world.
"Come this way, Student Lin" Huang Xiao Zhang said, beckoning him to an office with a counter.
"You can pick up your inner disciple token as well as your robes. The token is how you will store points as well, but I wouldn't sweat it as much, because you'll be going to transition into a core disciple soon. All they need is to check if you've become a Hou Tian cultivator, tests will run every 2 months, luckily for you it will be in 1 month's time. So until then I'll provide lodging for you so you can meditate there."
Zhu Jiao turned around after collecting his robes and his disciple token and nodded his head,
"I'll be relying on you then. You mentioned something about giving me access to a storage and taking anything I want from there is that correct?"
Huang Xiao Zhang's face had a visible change, as he stifled a cough,
"Ahem, let's get you settled in the room first before we start worrying about the rest of the things okay?"
Xiao Zhang replied as he tried to lead Zhu Jiao into his allocated room, along the way plenty of inner disciples pointed and stared at Zhu Jiao who was walking closely beside Huang Xiao Zhang.
"Why is the dean following him around?"
"He must be some kind of noble child, pulling relations to get here."
"I look down upon people like that."
The students whispered as their eyes followed the two as they entered a room.
"You can settle down here later, everything you need is here. There will be people delivering your food here, but if you decide to go into closed-door cultivation, just close the door and it's fine. I'll tell the servants not to bother you."
Zhu Jiao nodded and continued to look at Huang Xiao Zhang with longing eyes. Xiao Zhang had a chill run down his spine before sighing.
"Alright, alright, come with me. I'll bring you to the storage."
Huang Xiao Zhang led Zhu Jiao out of the room and into a dark path, he looked around and wondered why somewhere with plenty of treasures would have such weak security. Usually, there would be some traps,
After walking underground for a bit he ended up in front of a huge door with ornate decorations, it was huge and red with gold trimmings.
"Ahem, behind this door is the storage of the inner courtyard. When you go in you can choose and pick whatever you want, even if you empty the room it's fine too."
Xiao Zhang told Zhu Jiao as he stroked his chin before backing away from the door.
Zhu Jiao smiled as he got excited, the hoarder in his blood getting more and more excited as he was ready to pick up stuff, like a boomer looking for toilet paper.
The door creaked open as a blast of blinding light shone out into the darkness. As the lights dimmed, he excitedly looked into the room trying to see the items that will belong to him.
As he looked into the room, Zhu Jiao was speechless "..."
"What the heck is this? Is this an episode of Container wars?"
He turned to Huang Xiao Zhang questioning him about the state of this storage. Within the room, lay bits and pieces of broken metals and weapons, there was not even a single piece of equipment that lay fully formed.
"Why… Why is your treasure vault like this? It's all in shambles what the heck"
Zhu Jiao turned to Xiao Zhang agitated, of course everyone's reaction is agitation when you take a look at a room full of scrap metal.
"I told you I'd let you take anything you want from the inner courtyard storage, I didn't say it was a treasure vault… This is a storage of all the broken weaponry and equipment we managed to acquire over the years. It's still worth quite a lot of gold."
Xiao Zhang answered, with just a little look of guilt on his face.
Zhu Jiao shook his head as he opened up his
"You have a storage ring? That's good! Thanks for clearing everything up from the storage, we were having difficulties storing everything."
Xiao Zhang thanked Zhu Jiao happily, he had avoided a catastrophe, yet at the same time he had killed 2 birds with one stone, making Xiao Zhang super happy with himself.
Zhu Jiao mumbled all the way back to his room before closing the door shut.
"That old fox! I can't believe he tricked me like that! On top of not getting premade stuff, I now have to use more effort to repair stuff? That's it, I'm going on hiatus. I'm going on hiatus for a month. Hmph!"
Zhu Jiao was visibly upset, it wasn't that it was a financial loss for him, just that something that made him put in effort was considered a huge loss to him.
A month quickly passed as a group of inner disciples stood outside Zhu Jiao's room gossiping.
"I heard he has been in closed door cultivation for a month!"
"I heard the dean gave him some life changing items for him to cultivate!"
"I'm totally jealous now! If I was given the same opportunities, I would become a Hou tian expert too."
"Shh, keep quiet, the door's opening"
The door to Zhu Jiao's room opened to reveal a very dishevelled Nan Zhu Jiao, his eyes were a bit bloodshot and his facial hair seemed to have grown out extensively.
"What… what happened!? Did he deviate from his cultivation? Why does he look so horrible!?"
Zhu Jiao took in a breath of fresh air before letting out a large sigh.