Chapter 164: The Cultivation Places
Nory nodded and said, “Yes, I am from the Mo Clan in the northern part of the city.”
The Mo Clan was not a well-known noble clan, but there was a renowned ancestor in their history and his name was Jack Mo.
In his youth, Jack had joined the imperial army and led them to many victories. And because of his extraordinary feats, the Mo Clan was given the title of a noble clan at that time.
Nevertheless, there was no other influential figure that sprung up from the clan after Jack Mo. Thus, the Mo clan remained at the bottom amongst all the noble clans.
“If you're a member of a noble clan, why did you still join the initial exam of the Cloud Sect?” Zen asked.
If Nory was indeed a member of a noble clan, he didn't need to join in the initial exam of the Cloud Sect. But Zen could clearly remember that Nory did sign up for the exam with him.
With a smile, Nory replied, “My clan didn't grant me a noble clan certificate, so I needed to sign up for the initial exam like anybody else.”
Wurth interjected, “From how I see it, you're in a bad place within your own clan. But, are you upset with the current affairs of your clan?”
Nory nodded and answered, “Well, that's true. Though we haven't had any influential clan member for many years, the rest of the clan members are making great efforts to help improve our clan's standing. I heard that my other relatives invited some of their friends they met in the Cloud Sect to our clan party. And here I am, doing nothing.”
But Nory didn't tell them the whole truth.
In order to boost the clan's standing, it was not only necessary that the clan had its own strength and influential members; it also required the clan to have many great connections with other noble clans.
The connection with other clans was an essential aspect for a noble clan's standing and influence. In fact, it was mostly connections that could get a clan in good standing.
Nory didn't want to use his clan's influence to enter the Cloud Sect. He wanted to do it on his own, but the Mo Clan's big shot members were not impressed, and they ridiculed him for that. Thus, they didn't prepare a noble clan certificate for him.
Fortunately, Nory met Zen during the initial exam, and with the latter's help, he passed the exam and became an outer disciple.
However, being an outer disciple still didn't give Nory and his family the prestige they were looking for within the Mo Clan.
The clan party was an opportunity for every Mo Clan's member to parade their connections with the noble clans.
According to Nory, the young people of his age from their clan had already made friendly relationships with the other noble clans. This made it possible for them to invite them to the Mo Clan's party and even some of the members of the top seven noble clans were looking forward to attending the said event.
On the contrary, Nory didn't make that many acquaintances with the noble clans except for Zen, Sean, and Wurth.
After listening to Nory's story, Sean, who had been drinking, suddenly laughed and said, “Nory, stop being childish about it. It's not something you should be upset about. Why are you so insensitive? Aren't these two the best? Wurth and Zen are more influential than those kids from the prestige noble clans. I bet even in the top seven clans, there are only a few who could match these gentlemen's influence and credentials.”
Sean sounded reasonable despite being drunk.
Although the Zhang Clan was not a noble clan, they had such vast wealth that most noble clans wanted to associate with them.
Even the combined small noble clans could not compare to the Zhang clan. They had the power and influence like the top seven noble clans.
And Zen had proven prominent strength.
The noble clans might have the most geniuses in their roster, But Sean asserted that none of them could match Zen's skill, strength, and power.
And at the rate Zen was improving, it was only a matter of time before he could transcend the notable disciples from the top seven noble clans.
Patting Nory encouragingly on the shoulder, Sean continued, “I have personally recommended the most notable people to you. Why don't you invite them to your clan's party?”
“I...” Nory stuttered. He hesitated a little.
Of course, Nory would like to invite Zen and Wurth to his clan's party. He just didn't know how to say it because of his inferiority complex from being constantly turned down. And Sean suddenly encouraging him made him a little embarrassed.
Zen and Wurth exchanged glances and then looked at Nory with a smile, anticipating for him to say something.
After hesitating for a while, Nory solemnly said, “Zen, Wurth, it would be my pleasure if you will come with me to my clan's party next month.”
Zen and Wurth both nodded and smiled at Nory.
“Hey, what about me? Am I not invited?” Sean said, fooling around with Nory as he patted the latter's shoulder hard.
“Of course! How can I forget you?” Nory chuckled.
The four had the best night together as they drank their hearts out and did not go back home until late that evening.
When Zen was finally back to his place, he began to check his new possessions from his recent adventures.
During his trip to the White Emperor City, Zen obtained different new things. Aside from the two crystals embedded in his arms, he got a pile of valuable other things.
Some of those valuable things were the spiritual weapons from the Illuminating Soul Realm masters that Zen defeated in the fairy palace. When they died, their spiritual weapons didn't die with them. These weapons were left scattered on the floor and Zen kept them.
Zen even found four space rings and one of which had a spacious inner area than Zen's.
Even though the house provided by the Could Sect was big enough for Zen, his new possession could not all fit in his place.
He had to deal with them the next morning and arrange them so he could still have some space for himself.
On the next few days, aside from further cultivating his strength, he spent most of his time contemplating on the Sun Moon Stars Picture.
The picture indeed had quite a wonderful effect for cultivators of martial arts.
The last time he was at the fairy palace, he absorbed a part of the power from the Stars during the first contemplation, and now his demonic life vitality contained part of that Star power.
When he used the star power, Zen was overwhelmed by the energy that it released.
'I have only absorbed a little of that Star power. I wonder what will happen if I absorb all the powers of the Stars, Sun, and Moon. Will my demonic life vitality be more powerful than ever?' Zen thought ecstatically.
But contemplating the picture now, Zen didn't feel that same wonderful feeling he had the first time.
And he also noticed that he was having a hard time “seeing through” the Sun Moon Stars Picture at that time.
Aside from contemplating the Sun Moon Stars Picture, Zen also took the time to consider the means for cultivation.
The Cloud Sect was called the holy land for cultivators because it owned plenty of cultivation handbooks, and its most attractive feature was the excellent and conducive cultivation places it had.
Since Zen just became an outer disciple of the Cloud Sect, he was not aware of the cultivation places.
And he had been busy trying to earn points and even argued with Master Su on how he could earn points faster.
Just two days after Zen had returned to the Cloud Sect, Aura sent someone over to give him a jade manual since she knew that Zen wanted to further improve his strength in no time.
The jade manual had all the information about every cultivation place throughout the Cloud Sect.
In the manual, Zen had read about the Nine Yin Thunder Valley, which was a perfect place where one could use the Nine Yin Divine Thunder to refine the body.
Another one was about the Freezing Cave. From the name itself, the temperature in place was below the freezing point which was best to strengthen one's will and purify the heart.
The jade manual also included the Seven Star Sword Light Platform, where swordsmen could master their sword art ten times faster than any regular cultivation place.
Learning about these special cultivation places made Zen excited.
He scanned the pages of the jade manual when he came across the Great Gravity Road. Reading about it, Zen remembered the road with a strong gravitational pull that they took during the initial exam.
If he used the Great Gravity Road for his cultivation, it could speed up the refinement of his physical body. Even if he entered the nature level, body refinement was still important. He would definitely go to the Great Gravity Road for his further cultivation, but it wasn't his priority for now. So, he continued to read through that jade manual.
When he turned to the next pages, he noticed the Lake of the Magical Fish. According to the manual, one could hone his attack skills by killing countless phantom murlocs in a life and death situation under strong water pressure.
It was the perfect place for Zen and he intended to go there for his training.
From the flesh refining level to the nature level, Zen figured that there was no better way to improve his strength and power other than going through life and death situations.
The fighting experience during those situations was more valuable and important than those gained during daily cultivation.
But Zen's excitement was washed off when he read the small annotations at the bottom of the jade manual. He got a little disappointed.
It turned out that these places for cultivation were not free of charge.
And the costs were pretty high.
For example, an hour of cultivation at the Seven Star Sword Light Platform required forty points.
And the cultivation at the Great Gravity Road cost sixty points per hour.
As for the Lake of the Magical Fish, one hundred points were needed for an hour of cultivation.
These were too expensive for Zen.
Zen's points were already far more than that of other outer disciples. If Zen felt his points were not enough for entering these cultivation places, they couldn't afford the costs as well.
Even most of the inner disciples didn't have enough points to access the secret places.
But Zen could not be discouraged just by the costs of these secret places. He had received various tasks from Aura that earned him points, so he knew where to get the points from for his training.
He might find an easy task that could give him a couple of points, but it would surely take a considerable amount of time to earn enough points from easy hands for the cultivation places.
It was more likely that he would earn more points by completing a hard task. But a hard task would take him ten days to a half month and the points wouldn't be enough for an hour at any of the cultivation places.
One could buy points by exchanging a lot of cubic crystals in the Cloud Sect, but only the noble clans could do such a thing. Even if the average disciples had enough cubic crystals, they couldn't just exchange them for points.
The Cloud Sect was just like a huge company. Every month, the Cloud Sect spent a huge amount of money on the salaries of managers and other officers, as well as the monthly allowances and pills of the hundreds of thousands of the Cloud Sect disciples.
And in order to maintain the expenses, the Cloud Sect had to charge high fees for the use of some of its places.
In addition, the maintenance of the training sites also required a lot of crystal energy.