Heavenly Dao Engine

Chapter 31: Chapter 0031: House Rules Chapter 31: Chapter 0031: House Rules Please do show your immense support, folks. Your Knight-in-Arms is grateful.

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After using up all 17 top-grade Essence Qi Pills, Qi Tian finally unblocked the second meridian of “Black Jade Skills”, which was his personal fifth meridian. At the same time, he managed to advance to the second level of Qi cultivation.

Looking at the time, Qi Tian realized he had already exceeded the ten-day limit for renting the advanced single room by half a day. The regulations of Imperial Master Mansion were stringent about such matters; he would have to pay double the due afterwards.

Qi Tian did not dare to waste any more time. Without checking whether he could open the sixth meridian, he stood in front of the iron wall, took a deep breath, and mobilized the True Essence in his five meridians, converging it onto his right hand, and then threw a punch.

With a thud, a deep dent formed on the iron wall. Qi Tian looked at it, estimated the depth to be about 1.7 inches indicating that his punching power had reached 1700 pounds, an increase of 200 pounds compared to when he had four meridians.

This resulted in Qi Tian frowning deeply. When he unblocked the second, third, and fourth meridians, his strength increased by 300 pounds each time.

Why, then, had he only enhanced his power by 200 pounds this time, despite unblocking a meridian and advancing a stage in his cultivation? Were there any problems? If so, where might they lie?

With these questions swirling in Qi Tian’s mind, unable to find any valuable answers, he decided to put them aside first. After leaving the advanced single room of the cultivation studio, he would search for the answers.

Qi Tian hastily packed his things. The results of this closed-door cultivation were remarkable—he had mastered the first layer of the Tiger Golden Body Skills, and unblocked two meridians—but the consumption had been astonishing. Fifty mid-grade Tempering Body Liquids, twenty high-grade Essence Qi Pills, and two hundred mid-grade Essence Qi Pills had been used up. The total value of these pills exceeded 45,000 taels of silver. Not to mention, once he went out, he would have to pay the rent for these extra ten days, costing over 20,000 taels.

Adding it all up, it cost about 60 to 70 thousand taels. In his previous life, Qi Tian wouldn’t have dared to think about such enormous wealth. Even in this life, he found it had to believe he had spent so much money. And this was just for advancing to the second level of Qi cultivation. If he were to reach higher levels, how much more would he need? Several hundred thousand, or perhaps one or two million taels?

This cultivation path was indeed paved with money. Compared to the cost of training astronauts in his previous life, his cultivation expenditure was far greater.

Qi Tian shook his head with a bitter smile, then carried his medicine box out of the high-grade singles cultivation room. When he arrived in front of the inner sect disciple in charge of managing the cultivation room, he was surprised to see that the person in charge was no longer Zheng Shaosheng, but an inner sect disciple he didn’t recognize.

After confirming Qi Tian’s rental information, the disciple dutifully asked Qi Tian to pay a total of 22,002 taels in silver. Qi Tian dug out the last 20,000 tales from his pocket and asked, “Brother, I don’t have any more money left. Can I owe the remaining 2000 tales for now?”

The inner sect disciple replied, “I don’t even know you among the more than two thousand outer sect disciples. No, you must pay the rent in full. Otherwise, you can’t leave.”

“I really don’t have any money left,” Qi Tian pleaded.

The inner sect disciple glanced at the medicine box in Qi Tian’s hand before saying, “If you don’t have silver, you can use pills as compensation. Do you have any Mid-grade Essence Qi Pills? Just give me 21.”

A mid-grade Essence Qi Pill cost was 100 taels, thus 21 pills amounted to 2,100 taels, which was considerably more than the 2,000 taels Qi Tian owed. This was clearly a tip that the inner sect disciple was asking for. If it had been before, Qi Tian might have argued with the disciple, but now, he hardly cared about a single mid-grade Essence Qi Pill. All he wanted was to leave and find the answers to the questions plaguing him.

Moreover, in the future, he might have to rent a high-grade singles cultivation room again. If he offended this inner sect disciple over a trivial Essence Qi Pill, it would be more loss than gain. He clearly understood that the power of the local official was present.

So, Qi Tian opened the medicine box, counted out 21 mid-grade Essence Qi Pills, and handed them to the inner sect disciple. The disciple didn’t give Qi Tian a hard time either and promptly completed all the procedures, allowing Qi Tian to leave.

Qi Tian planned to return to his room, take a shower, and change into clean clothes. As he headed to his room in the Imperial Master Mansion’s dormitory area for outer sect disciples, he noticed many people pointing and whispering about him along the way.

“Did you see? That’s Qi Tian. He’s the badass who burst Huang Yaozu’s sixteen defensive armors with a single punch at the Moon-duel.”

“He just looks like an ordinary person, how can he be that amazing? Did something go wrong?”

“How could there be any mistake? Didn’t you see the latest Sparrow List ranking? His ranking has already risen to one hundred and sixty-six. This was collectively evaluated by the stewards of Huangque Hall and a few of our inner sect senior brothers. Are you questioning their credibility?”

“Damn, he catapulted from nearly the two-thousandth place to the one hundred and sixty-sixth, has he not set a record for the fastest ranking rise in the history of Huangque Hall? Just for this, he can get quite a lot of rewards, right?”

…

Some people discussed Qi Tian, others greeted him, but most simply ignored Qi Tian. On one hand, many of them didn’t know Qi Tian at all. On the other hand, despite Qi Tian’s rapid rise in ranking, he was still not a member of the top circle of the Sparrow List. They were all outer sect disciples; if you are not particularly outstanding, who is going to bow down and humble themselves in front of you?

Qi Tian breezed back to his room, where he found a notice pasted on the door, telling him to go to Huangque Hall to collect his reward within ten days of the new Sparrow List ranking. If he did not collect it within time, the reward would expire.

Counting, Qi Tian realized that today was the last day of the deadline. He hastily went back to his room, took a quick cold bath, changed into clean clothes, and hurried to the outside of the National Master Manor. Huangque Hall was in the courtyard of the National Master Manor. He had to get his reward there.

The reward collection room was room A in Huangque Hall. Qi Tian entered the room and handed over his card.

After the inner sect disciple in charge of receiving him had checked his identity, he gave him the reward.

The reward was divided into three parts. First, he received a reward of over seventeen thousand tales of silver. It didn’t seem small, but in fact, it was just a reward of ten tales for each rank up on the Sparrow List. Qi Tian had made this amount because he had risen a lot in the rankings.

The second reward was an upgrade of his dorm room to a slightly better one. It was no longer a cramped room that could only fit a single bed, but a narrow one that could now fit an extra half bed.

The third reward was as an outer sect disciple; his monthly stipend had been increased from ten tales of silver and one disciple credit to fifty tales of silver and five disciple credits.

Aside from this, there were no other rewards. The scene he had seen in novels in his previous life, where the big BOSS of the sect fought to take him as a disciple, didn’t happen at all.

Apart from the outer sect disciples, no one took Qi Tian’s ranking rise of over a thousand and seven hundred places in a single Moon-duel too seriously. Although such instances were rare, the higher-ups of the Imperial Master Mansion had seen many more incredible things. Compared to these strange happenings, Qi Tian’s achievements really didn’t amount to much.

It’s not that these big shots didn’t value the cultivation of outer sect disciples. But, for talented youths like Qi Tian, as soon as they joined the Imperial Master Mansion, they had already been screened. Those who were exceptionally gifted were already taken by these big shots. To make an inappropriate comparison, Qi Tian and the others were the dregs they didn’t put much value in the beginning. Who would pay attention to see if there were any standouts among the rejects? Even if there were, the big shots would simply ignore them.

Qi Tian was somewhat disappointed, but more relieved. He had many secrets and the higher-ups not paying attention to him was the best scenario for him.

After receiving the silver and his new identity jade card, Qi Tian left Huangque Hall. He planned to go to Hundred Spirit Hall—or the library of the Imperial Master Mansion—to look up some information. To view various heritage skills at Hundred Spirit Hall required a fee, but to access other information like tales and records was free. Even if there are charges, Qi Tian intended to look up more information to solve his numerous dilemmas.

Of course, the Imperial Master Mansion had arranged teachers for Qi Tian and other outer sect disciples. They would give two or three classes every month, each class lasting two hours. The rest of the time required the outer sect disciples to figure things out by themselves. However, privately asking teachers for guidance was allowed. Huangque Hall had quite a few small classrooms which functioned like training classes in Qi Tian’s previous life. Fees were separately charged, with the rates being quite steep – a 40-minute session could cost several dozen to a hundred or even more tales of silver.

Such high expenses were unaffordable for many outer sect disciples.

Despite having just received over seventeen thousand tales of silver, if Qi Tian sought an inner sect disciple in Huangque Hall for tutoring, the sum might not even be enough for him to fully understand his question.

This kind of tutelage for a fee had existed in the Imperial Master Mansion for many years. This way might seem mercantile, but there were benefits to it. Both parties had a clear transaction, one need not act as a mentor, nor did the other need to act as a disciple; everyone got what they wanted. The teaching party earned money they could use to buy more cultivation resources, and the learning party gained the knowledge they wished to learn. It was a good arrangement.