"You want to become a priestess?" The monk was stunned when he heard Jiang Fengmian's words. But then his eyes glistened, and a smile appeared on his lips!
"Great!" he exclaimed. "We were short on manpower already. No one from this damnable kingdom wants to join us, and the people from the headquarters are not keen on sending people to our branch due to this place’s backwater location at the outskirts of the continent."
"I could easily use a beautiful angel like you to raise the status of our temple once more," he snickered. "I might not be the cleanest or easiest to deal with," he began, "but I can swear that as long as you work here, no one will dare to lay their hands on you!"
"This is a poor temple though, all we can offer is food and shelter. There is no salary; we are monks and priests, after all. We are not permitted to be tempted by worldly objects and material wealth."
"We get a certain amount of donations every month from the Vermilion Forest Kingdom’s royal family itself, but all of this money goes mostly into buying food and clothes for the poor and unfortunate."
The monk, who had been annoyed when Xue Wei had put out the candlelights, was now so excited that spittled flew from his mouth as he spoke, and his eyes were shining as if he had seen a real angel.
This monk was actually not very old. He was a martial artist, and thus his lifespan was much longer than a mortal. He seemed to be around the late twenties, but his real age could easily be much more.
"May I ask a sensitive question?" Xue Wei finally decided to ask a few questions. "I do not wish to be rude, but how do you protect the temple from robberies and evildoers?"
This was something he genuinely wanted to know the answer to. From traveling together with Jiang Fengmian thus far, he had come to consider her a true friend. After hearing her story, he pitied her greatly. He wanted her to have a bright future. He wanted her to no longer encounter any hardship.
If she were going to be in danger, then he would do anything in his power to persuade her not to walk down this path.
"Rob the temple?" The monk was stunned, but then he started guffawing as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.
"Kid, don't worry. These people might be poor, and they might be desperate, but they are not suicidal," he said with a shake of his head.
"I am the man in charge of this temple, and I happen to be the strongest expert in the kingdom. If they were to go against me, I would teach them a lesson. I might be a monk, but even monks can fight – and quite possibly take a life – if the situation calls for it."
Xue Wei looked at the monk with surprise. This monk was the strongest expert in the entire Vermilion Forest Kingdom? If he was, then he was definitely a Heavenly Warrior, or perhaps a Knight of some sort. Although the Vermilion Forest Kingdom was very similar to the Kingdom of Heping, Xue Wei did not doubt that this hidden expert had a strength that would shock the surrounding world.
He nodded his head. "I am relieved then," he said. "Fengmian is a dear friend of mine. I wish for her to live a life of leisure, but she wants to save people. I hope that you will take her in as a younger sister and protect her. Her spirit is unbreakable, her will pure."
Xue Wei praised Jiang Fengmian in front of the monk, and that in a very solemn and serious manner.
"I have been alone in this temple for many years already," the monk replied with a sad voice. "I am happy that someone has decided to join me. I swear on the Nine Heavenly Tribulations that I will give my all to protect younger sister Jiang Fengmian, as long as she keeps to the righteous way and as long as she dedicates herself to help the poor."
As the monk spoke, the loud rumbling of thunder could be heard above the temple. Xue Wei was greatly shocked.
A Nine Heavenly Tribulation oath was not to be taken lightly; it was clear that this monk wished to remove every single doubt that Xue Wei might have. To this, both Xue Wei and Hei Gou nodded their heads.
"Stay for a day or two," the monk requested. Neither Xue Wei nor Hei Gou had any reason to reject him, so they accepted the offer. They were running low on money so saving the money on the inn was always welcome.
These two days were mainly spent cultivating in the shabby temple. They discovered that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was denser here than it was in the rest of the capital. It was the most ideal place to cultivate within the entire capital if you excluded the king's castle.
Xue Wei and Hei Gou banked on this opportunity and spent most of the time isolated in self-training. Although they were eager to raise their ranks, they also made sure that Jiang Fengmian was settling well into the temple by spending any spare time with her.
Jiang Fengmian had been shocked at first when she started working in the temple. Every mealtime would be filled with poor people who came to eat. They were orphaned children that had lost their families to the Primordial Beast hordes. They were adults who lacked talent for cultivation and had never learned a mundane skill to a level where they could live of off it.
In this capital, there were thousands of people who lived in poverty. Every mealtime, the temple would feed them all, but this was nothing but a stop-gap measure.
The demography of poverty-stricken people grew every day. The war against the Primordial Beasts was not letting up, and the poor children that were left behind had no time to work and help their family’s livelihood as learning martial arts after the age of ten was a mandatory obligation across all walks of life.
Those below this age were usually pickpockets. Those above were starving every day, trying their best to change their fate through cultivation, but without enough nutrients, how could their body possibly become strong enough to absorb the energy of the heavens and the earth?
Xue Wei knew it would be many times harder for these children to cultivate than it would for the children with families – but even so, they were forced into it by the government.
From time to time, the government would raid these poor areas and ensure that every child went to the training ground. They would rather send one that was too young than miss one that was old enough.
In the end, if one were caught twice without going to the training facilities, they would be sentenced to death. The rules were harsh, but the public opinion did not oppose it. These children were needed as cannon fodder on the battlefield.
Jiang Fengmian's heart ached for these children, and even Xue Wei and the usually aloof Hei Gou felt pity. But where Jiang Fengmian was confident that she could make a difference, Xue Wei was certain that this society was not going to change because of him. At least not with the strength he currently possessed.
Coincidentally, the inspection was being carried out at precisely the day Xue Wei and Hei Gou were going to leave, when the guards of the kingdom started raiding the western district, looking everywhere for young children who were skipping out on practice.
"Who is this?!" someone exclaimed in the temple where Jiang Fengmian was sweeping the ground.
A set of guards had entered the temple to look for children, but they were met with a sight they had never expected. There were three young people; a woman, and two men.
These three young people were undoubtedly at an age where they should be in the army. Why were they here?
Upon closer inspection, the guards even noticed the cultivation bases of the two men and were genuinely shocked. They could not make light of such strength! Two men as young as they were in the Sky Warrior ranks?! They would without question be geniuses amongst geniuses in their Vermilion Forest Kingdom.
Yet why had they never heard about them before? Also, why were they with a young woman who was obviously the prime example of a mortal? And how had this woman managed to never cultivate in the first place? Many questions erupted in their minds, but none of them said anything.
"Why are you three youngsters here when you should be in the army?!" another guard shouted at them. His eyes were filled with hostility. One has to know that the army had been a hellish period in their lives once, so this was slightly personal.
But these three had escaped from the clutches of hell. This made that guard furious.
"Stop yelling in my temple," a lazy voice sounded out. The monk who was in charge lazily walked out from inside the temple grounds.
"Senior, we respect you and what you do for this Kingdom," the speaker was the one who first spoke out earlier. "But there are some deserters here. They are criminals and are bound to be punished as such!"
Hearing this, the monk snorted. "The two men are not from the Vermilion Forest Kingdom, yet you still wish to forcefully draft them into your army? My temple protects the woman, our new priestess, mind you, and she has already sworn an lifetime oath to help the poor and unfortunate souls of the Vermilion Forest Kingdom. Who are you to decide what my disciple is to do?"
The monk was overbearing, and his words struck the guards hard, making their heads spin. It made them realize they had made a mistake.
"They are not from the Vermilion Forest Kingdom?" The guard was suspicious. The monk nodded his head. "They are out traveling and experiencing the world. Can you not sense their strength? They should not be forced into the army because of your inferiority complex," the monk said calmly.
The furious guard could not curb his anger, but he dared not talk back. He did not understand the status of this monk, but he had been warned multiple times not to insult or cause trouble for him.
Xue Wei grinned at the sight of the paralyzed guards, but he was also alert. If these guards were serious about causing them problems, it would not be too late for them to do it when they exited the city.
"We will leave for now," the guard spoke, but his eyes were sharp as he swept a glance at Xue Wei and Hei Gou. It was clear that he was warning them.
Xue Wei and Hei Gou stayed in the temple for a few additional days, but nothing happened in that time. They were allowed to cultivate in peace, and Hei Gou's Qi-level rose to the fifth layer of the Sky Warrior rank, while Xue Wei managed to stabilize his foundations after advancing into the Sky Warrior rank, and reached the peak of the first layer, needing only a little more to pass over into the second layer.
As they reached this point, both of them knew that there was not much more they could gain from staying in the Vermilion Forest Kingdom. It was time for them to move on.
They had ensured that Jiang Fengmian was fine and that she would have a great future. However, they also knew that their time together was short-lived.
It was time for them to say their goodbyes and leave the priestess behind so that they could continue their journey.