Following that, Bai Yichen asked about the tasks mentioned by Steward Fang.
Yuan Hao patiently continued:
"Junior Brother, rest assured. For those of you who have not yet established your foundations, the tasks set within the sect will not be too difficult. They are mostly things you can accomplish within the sect, often involving errands and cleaning, much like what you saw from the Shu Wu Courtyard disciple earlier.
This approach also helps you better familiarize yourself with the sect and contributes a bit to the sect, allowing you to earn merit for exchanges."
Yuan Hao seemed to sense Bai Yichen's thoughts and added:
"The tasks from the Gong De Courtyard mainly involve more advanced practitioners. Thus, the tasks for these lower-level disciples are managed by the Shu Wu Courtyard."
Bai Yichen nodded in thanks.
It seems that only after arriving in the cultivation world did he realize that the titles from the mundane world were unsuitable for the cultivation realm.
Different practitioners are addressed differently. The three lower realms, needless to say, are all considered minor cultivators.
Once they reach Foundation Establishment or the Essence Refinement Realm, they are referred to as true cultivators. As for those at the Soul Realm, they are called seniors, while Golden Cores are called masters, and those in the Yin God stage are honored as venerables. Finally, breaking through illusions to achieve the primordial spirit is what can be termed a true person.
Seeing a mountain peak about three hundred feet high appear ahead, Bai Yichen quickly asked his final question: "I have one last question to ask, Brother. How should I choose a technique?"
"Eh, didn't Uncle Lingyun tell you about this?" Yuan Hao asked in surprise.
"Uncle said it was inconvenient to say much about the sect's matters before I entered." Bai Yichen could only respond with a wry smile.
Yuan Hao laughed upon hearing this: "Haha, that's just Uncle Lingyun's character."
Afterward, he hesitated and said, "But the matter of choosing techniques involves individual paths. With my current cultivation level, it's not appropriate for me to give too much advice. Perhaps you should think it over for a few days, and you will find your answer."
Bai Yichen had some guesses in his heart but felt it was not the right time to voice them.
Yuan Hao then pointed out a few things that Bai Yichen, as an inner disciple, needed to be aware of.
They soon arrived at Longyu Peak, where tall pines stood upright, cypress trees cast shade, and waterfalls flowed gracefully. One building after another, including pavilions, courtyards, and caves, rose between the mountains.
The cloud boat arrived at a grand hall that was significantly larger than the Shu Wu Courtyard. Just as the two had just landed, a person dressed similarly to Steward Fang came up to greet them; it turned out that Steward Fang had already sent word ahead.
This person was one of the stewards assigned to Longyu Peak by the Shu Wu Courtyard. After some polite exchanges, they learned that this hall primarily served the inner disciples of Longyu Peak. Within, there were many miscellaneous servants, and the back hall even had a kitchen for disciples who did not wish to avoid grains.
The steward called over the two servants assigned to Bai Yichen, and upon seeing them, Bai Yichen felt quite curious.
Although these two had human forms, their facial features resembled beasts; one had horns resembling those of a bull, while the other looked like a dog.
"These servants are mostly subhumans left behind by the masters when they opened the Great Lake in the past. Though they find cultivation difficult, they can handle heavy labor, so they are assigned to assist disciples with miscellaneous tasks."
Seeing Bai Yichen's reaction, the steward explained and handed him an iron token; it turned out that this was the life token for the two servants. Once Bai Yichen refined it, he could control their lives with a thought.
Of course, as the Taiyuan Sect is a righteous sect, they place great importance on the cultivation of one's character. Naturally, they do not allow disciples to abuse or kill their lives casually. If a disciple were to crush the life token and this were discovered by the Zhengqing Courtyard, they would undoubtedly face severe punishment.
Knowing this, Bai Yichen immediately refined the life token using his spiritual sense and then straightened his expression, intending to clarify matters with the two servants.
"What are your names?"
"I am Niu Xiang."
"I am Ha Ji."
"Good, since you will follow me in cultivation, you must obey my commands. If I attain enlightenment in the future, I will surely give you a clear path. But if you cause trouble and lose your lives, don't say I didn't warn you!"
The two hurriedly bowed and acknowledged him.
They then led Bai Yichen to his cave dwelling.
Seeing that everything had been settled, Yuan Hao bid farewell to Bai Yichen.
Bai Yichen felt it was not appropriate to entertain him since his cave dwelling was just established, so he bowed and said, "Thank you, Senior Brother, for all your help today. I truly appreciate it."
"Haha, you're too polite, Junior Brother. With your intelligence, these trivial matters are no challenge for you. Moreover, this was instructed by the elders, and I will certainly do my best."
Yuan Hao replied straightforwardly.
Suddenly, a yellow talisman fell into Bai Yichen's hand, followed by a voice transmission.
"This is my voice transmission talisman. If you have any matters in the future, you can use this to contact me."
Bai Yichen carefully put away the talisman and then, along with Niu Xiang and Ha Ji, arrived in front of the cave dwelling he had chosen.
He took out his jade token, infused it with his true qi, and the formation restriction within the cave dwelling seemed to respond, causing the stone door to open immediately.
This was quite convenient. If Bai Yichen wanted to enter seclusion in the future, he would only need to close the formation to create a barrier isolating the inside from the outside, making it difficult for even ordinary Foundation Establishment or Essence Refinement true cultivators to intrude.
Furthermore, if the formation were attacked, the law enforcement cultivators from the Qingzheng Courtyard would sense it and rush over immediately, which put Bai Yichen's mind at ease.
Upon entering the cave dwelling, the first thing that caught his eye was a spacious front hall.
The hall walls were inlaid with luminous pearls, emitting a soft light that illuminated the entire inner chamber. The floor was paved with a special type of jade stone that felt warm and comfortable underfoot.
Bai Yichen looked around and saw a cultivation room, a bedroom, and a pill refining room on the left; on the right were a spirit pet room and several other empty stone chambers that seemed to be transformable by the cave's owner; the servant room was near the entrance.
However, it seemed that this place had been uninhabited for a long time. Looking at the dust, Bai Yichen instructed the two servants to clean up first.
Afterward, he checked each of these rooms in order.
In the bedroom, there were several ancient bookshelves, with a few scattered old books still remaining, though the pages were yellowed and exuded a musty scent, indicating they were not precious items.
The pill refining room had a cauldron still present, and Bai Yichen had some expectations, but upon closer inspection, the cauldron was covered in mottled marks, with only a faint fragrance of some pills lingering.
However, after infusing his spiritual sense, he found no reaction at all, confirming that the restrictions had completely dissipated, rendering it a mere mundane object.
The cultivation room was rather well arranged, with much richer spiritual energy than the other rooms. It turned out there was a naturally formed spiritual spring inside, with clear water bubbling up constantly, releasing waves of spiritual energy.
In this place for closed-door cultivation, he could use the power of the spiritual spring to accelerate his training progress.
This could be considered the most valuable part of the entire cave dwelling, and that spiritual spring matched perfectly with the remaining tea leaves he had.
With this in mind, he returned to the front hall and found it considerably brighter after the cleaning was completed.
He then called over Niu Xiang and Ha Ji, praised them, and asked them to fetch some tea utensils.
Next, Bai Yichen decided to refine the storage bag granted by the sect.
His spiritual sense sensed that the internal space was indeed smaller than the Spirit-Confounding Gourd, only about one cubic meter in size.
Then he took out the inner disciple robes, spirit stones, magic sword, Qi Cultivation Pills, and Avoiding Grain Pills, checking each one carefully.