After taking Ye Ling in as her disciple, Bai Yiyi strutted through the rundown Taoist temple like a proud little lioness, leading Ye Ling around as she "inspected" the place while recounting the history of her sect.
Heavenly Gate Sect, a mountain sect founded by the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden, who had ascended ten years ago.
The name sounded imposing, but in terms of actual rank, it barely qualified as a sect at all. Even after accepting Ye Ling, the Heavenly Gate Sect only had eight members. A third-tier sect required at least ten. Even back when the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden had yet to ascend, they were still one disciple short of that standard.
That said, the sect's founding ancestor was a true heavyweight who had already ascended to the Immortal Realm. Calling the Heavenly Gate Sect a reclusive sect was hardly an exaggeration. Because of that, even ten years after the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden's ascension, no other sect dared to seize the Heavenly Peak.
Heavenly Peak, the number one peak in Yingzhou, connected directly to the Heavenly Vein and ranked twenty-seventh on the Grotto-Heaven & Blessed Land Rankings.
Ye Ling suspected that back in the day, the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden must have had countless admirers. Otherwise, even as the number one female cultivator, she wouldn't have been able to establish a sect on the Heavenly Peak. Of course, that was just his own guess. He didn't know the real reason.
Still, with a place this good, Ye Ling refused to believe that no major sect would want it.
As he listened to Bai Yiyi talk about the sect's past, Ye Ling looked around at the shabby Taoist temple, a sense of melancholy rising in his chest.
Such a promising sect had ended up in the hands of his unreliable Master. Truly, fools had foolish luck.
But that was fine. Now that I, Ye Ling, am here, I'll definitely turn you into the number one sect in Yingzhou.
As for becoming the number one sect in the entire cultivation world, that was still too far off. Ye Ling wasn't aiming that high yet. For now, he had simply set himself a small goal.
At the same time, he split his attention and checked his System.
[Reasonable Cultivation System]: As long as the host's cultivation actions are judged to be reasonable by the host's Master, the system can distort causality and alter reality to make those actions reasonable.
After reading the description, Ye Ling finally understood why the System had arranged for him to become Bai Yiyi's disciple. If it were anyone else, there was no way he could have talked his way through it.
But with Bai Yiyi as his Master, he was completely confident.
He still didn't know how the System worked in practice, but that wasn't a problem. He could always just bluff his way through.
Next, he opened the beginner's gift pack the System had given him—
[Storage Ring (Inferior)]
[Capacity: 10 cubic meters]
[Note: Upgradeable]
As he walked, a ring suddenly appeared on Ye Ling's hand. The Small Formless Sword he'd been holding, along with the bundle slung across his back containing the identity documents prepared by the System, were all absorbed into the ring at once.
Throughout the entire process, Bai Yiyi, who was walking ahead, didn't seem to notice anything unusual, as if Ye Ling had been wearing that ring from the very beginning.
"My dear disciple, our living quarters are just ahead."
Bai Yiyi was clearly in high spirits. Her adorable face was animated and lively, completely out of place amid the lonely, rundown Taoist temple.
She led Ye Ling into a small courtyard, resting her left hand on her hip while pointing with her right toward the room in the center. "That's my room. If you need anything in the future, come find me!"
The courtyard wasn't very large. There were ten small rooms in total. Seven of them glimmered with divine light, kept neat and orderly by a Cleansing Formation. The remaining three, located along the outer edge, were just as dilapidated as the temple outside.
Before Ye Ling could ask anything, Bai Yiyi pointed to the room closest to the gate at the far edge of the courtyard. "My dear disciple, you'll live here from now on."
"Master, what about my Martial Aunts?"
Looking at the room she had indicated, its roof partially collapsed, Ye Ling couldn't help frowning.
He thought that even if his Master was unreliable, surely his Martial Aunts would at least lend a hand out of consideration for the sect. No matter what, as a disciple of the Heavenly Gate Sect, he shouldn't be staying in a place like this.
"Them?"
Bai Yiyi began counting on her fingers as she spoke. "The second is helping the Tianji Sect prepare their year-end assessments. The third is forging weapons at the Myriad Furnace Sect. The fourth should be coming back from the Immortal Talisman Sect soon. The fifth is probably on her way to Myriad Demon Ridge to look for ingredients. The sixth ran off to the Evil Spirit Sea to hunt sea beasts for their cores to refine pills. As for the seventh, she was invited by the Great Xia Dynasty's royal family to update the Imperial Protective Grand Formation in the palace."
If Bai Yiyi said this out loud anywhere else, she'd probably be laughed at. Even if she revealed her Nascent Soul Stage cultivation, the result wouldn't change. At best, the mockery would simply move from open laughter to quiet snickering.
Ye Ling had only just arrived in this world and wasn't familiar with sects or locations, but even so, it all sounded a bit ridiculous to him.
Tianji Sect, Myriad Furnace Sect, Immortal Talisman Sect. Just hearing those names made them sound powerful. Surely they weren't low-tier sects like the Heavenly Gate Sect?
With names that good, Ye Ling didn't believe no one would have snapped them up already.
As for places like Evil Spirit Sea and Myriad Demon Ridge, they sounded like the kind of pitch-black danger zones on a game map, areas even high-level players would enter with caution.
Yet the way Bai Yiyi talked about them, they sounded no more dangerous than the area outside a beginner village, places you could just casually run around in.
As for the Great Xia Dynasty, Ye Ling already knew from the System that Yingzhou, where he was now, fell within its territory.
With sects scattered all across the Great Xia Dynasty, how could the formations in the imperial palace possibly need disciples from the Heavenly Gate Sect to maintain them?
Had the royal family's own experts really become that inadequate?
More importantly, even if everything Bai Yiyi said was true, the System had explained that cultivation involved the Six Arts.
Divination, Artifact Refining, Talisman Drawing, Spirit Food, Alchemy, and Formation.
These six disciplines were secondary paths for cultivators. Each one demanded immense effort and vast resources. As a result, most sects only allowed their disciples to focus on a single art.
If a sect tried to dabble in all six like the Heavenly Gate Sect supposedly did, there was only one possible outcome. Being mediocre at everything.
Looking at his easily fooled Master, Ye Ling guessed that his Martial Aunts had probably gotten fed up with her and made up excuses to leave the mountain.
Sigh… what am I supposed to say about you, Master?
Shaking his head inwardly, Ye Ling looked at her with pity and said, "It's fine. I'll stay with you."
"???"
Bai Yiyi didn't understand why Ye Ling suddenly seemed so concerned about her, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. Lifting her chin, she said in an old-fashioned, authoritative tone, "It's fine. Once your Fourth Martial Aunt comes back, the sect will be lively again."
With that, she took Ye Ling by the hand and led him toward her room.
"Until your Fourth Martial Aunt returns, you'll stay with me."
"???"
"But you'll be sleeping on the floor."
Before Ye Ling could even react, Bai Yiyi had already pulled him into a room filled with a soft, fragrant scent.
Master… looks like you still care about me after all.