Chapter 18: Unspoken Rules

While it might take a bit longer, it will greatly help his situation, as the circumstances for outer disciples are more severe than he had anticipated. Primarily, his presence in Ice Snow Tower will bring foreseeable trouble. Given that everyone harbors jealousy, the Night Concealment Charm is crucial for dealing with these challenges.

On the other hand, switching to the Frigid Blood Art means starting from scratch in his understanding of the cultivation method. However, it will purge the Blazing Blood spiritual power from Wang Yu's body, replacing it with new spiritual power of the ice attribute. Cultivating the Frigid Blood Art is like soaking one's body in ice water, imparting a sensation of thorough coolness that penetrates from skin to blood, and then deep into the marrow. During this process, Wang Yu's body will be tempered, growing stronger day by day. He keenly remembered the impact of lacking an arm on Foundation Establishment. Since the vital essence barrier is closely related to physical strength, it's best to cultivate early and address these deficiencies promptly to minimize the impact on his cultivation path. Moreover, the Frigid Blood Art and Ice Sword Art are originally a set; while consumption is greatly reduced, their combined power surges! The spiritual power intensity is also much higher than that of quick-success demonic arts like the Blazing Blood Art. With all these factors combined, the sooner he switches to this cultivation, the sooner he will benefit.

After personally experiencing this stage of cultivation, the feedback he received from the "placement slot" also transformed. If Wang Yu were to cultivate on his own, he would separate the hundred strands of spiritual power in his body into groups of ten. During the operation of the Grand Cycle, these ten strands would simultaneously enter his meridians. During the cycle's operation, he would continuously compress and force them to merge into one, transforming strands into "Dao" and thereby improving the quality of his spiritual power. This often requires persistence; if one attempt isn't enough, try ten; if ten aren't enough, try a hundred, or even a thousand! With his crippled spirit root aptitude, completely refining these strands into ten streams of spiritual power and subsequently breaking through to the fourth layer of Qi Condensation would be fraught with difficulties.

The feedback from the "placement slot," however, directly channels the continuously consolidating spiritual power into Wang Yu's Dantian. It's akin to how he "placed" the Ice Sword Art, directly granting him the reflexes of muscle memory. This time, the feedback is a conditioned reflex for his spiritual power. There is no sudden increase or appearance of power. Instead, it continuously tames and solidifies the spiritual power. When Wang Yu then circulates his cultivation method, he feels as if it has been tempered a thousand times, and everything feels incredibly smooth. It's like the natural feeling of water finding its course!

At this rate, he can transform the "hundred strands of spiritual power" into "ten streams of spiritual power" within half a year at most, successfully breaking through to the fourth layer of Qi Condensation and completing his first spiritual refinement! This is only considering the efficiency of one "placement slot," and the time is entirely sufficient. This will be just enough time for him to "place" the complementary spells.

Over the next few days, Wang Yu was mostly busy gathering information about the Ten Reversal Blood Sects. The Frigid Blood Workshop, in particular, was a top priority for his investigation.

It was the fifth day as an outer disciple. In the grand hall on the first floor of Ice Snow Tower, after a few days, he discovered that most of the cultivators residing there were inner disciples, whose cultivation levels were mostly hovering around the late-stage Qi Condensation. They saw each other daily. Although they disliked him, a disciple who had ascended from a spirit slave, they never actually acted against him, at most resorting to verbal sarcasm and mockery. As long as he kept his distance, it wasn't a major problem. The real trouble came from outer disciples outside the tower who had also pledged allegiance to True Inheritor Su; they coveted Wang Yu's Essence Qi Chamber in Ice Snow Tower and were truly willing to act. Most of their cultivation levels were at mid-stage Qi Condensation or below. The number of outer disciples with Black Blood Tokens inside the tower was extremely small; besides him, there was only one other person whose situation was similar to his.

"Junior Brother Wang, sitting here so early, are you waiting for me?"

As he was pondering, Zhao Shang slowly walked down from upstairs. Although he only had a cultivation of the eighth layer of Qi Condensation, in reality, within Ice Snow Tower, the True Inheritor had granted him extremely high authority. At critical moments, he could even command those several Foundation Establishment grand cultivators. At the same time, the illicit gains from this position were unbelievably generous. As far as Wang Yu knew, Zhao Shang was not yet thirty years old this year, and his future Foundation Establishment was practically a certainty.

"Senior Brother Zhao, I indeed have something I wish to discuss." Standing up and pouring a cup of tea, Wang Yu asked, "I've heard that Ice Snow Tower offers many tasks that are light on work and high in spirit stones. Could you explain the procedure for these?"

"Certainly." Zhao Shang did not sit down; instead, he pulled out a large number of scrolls from his waist storage bag and placed them on the table. "Junior Brother Wang, take your time looking. If there's a task you like, I'll then explain the details to you."

"Alright—"

Unrolling the scrolls, Wang Yu secretly compared them with the information he had gathered from the Mission Hall a few days prior and confirmed that they were indeed much more generous.

1. Second Peak (Heavenly Corpse Peak): Requires three Qi Condensation disciples skilled in the "Corpse Refinement Art" to look after thirty Black Zombies for one year. Reward: 800 Contribution Points.

For example, he had seen a similar commission in the Mission Hall with a reward of only 300 spirit stones, not even contribution points. Contribution points can be exchanged in the sect's treasury for desired spirit herbs, spiritual materials, and even magical artifacts, spells, cultivation methods, the four immortal arts, and so on. Many rare items can only be exchanged with contribution points, a fact which alone made the tasks from Ice Snow Tower far superior to those released by the Mission Hall. The only difference was that most of Ice Snow Tower's tasks were privately issued, with many Foundation Establishment deacons and Core Formation elders involved. The sheer number of tasks indirectly proved the strength and influence of the True Inheritor behind them, as well as their faction members. The Mission Hall's tasks were more general, often involving the maintenance of the sect's assets.

As he browsed through them, Wang Yu leaned more towards short-term tasks that didn't require combat.

12. Maintain Deacon Tantai's private medicinal garden for a period of six months. Requires mastery of cultivating spirit herbs and identifying various plants. Reward: 500 Contribution Points.

Ice Snow Tower would take 50%, meaning that over six months, only 250 contribution points would actually land in his pocket. This peculiar number made Wang Yu hesitate for a moment. During his sixteen years in Stone Lake City, since he couldn't access cultivation methods, he had mostly "placed" various miscellaneous books, making him quite proficient in herbal knowledge. However, this level was certainly not enough to maintain a spirit medicinal garden. He would need a few days of urgent crash course. When the "placement slot" was used for purely knowledge-based items, it often only took a few days to commit them to memory. The Thousand Character Classic and Ten Thousand Character Classic had proven this, so there was no need to worry.

"Senior Brother Zhao, I've made my choice."

"Deacon Tantai's task, eh?" Zhao Shang glanced sideways, immediately recognizing the origin of the scroll in Wang Yu's hand. He said, "Deacon Tantai offers a higher reward, but her requirements are also very high. Are you sure you can complete it?"

"I believe I can."

Hearing this, Zhao Shang couldn't help but look at Wang Yu with renewed appreciation. While there were many cultivators in the demonic path who were good at fighting, those engaged in production were somewhat unsatisfactory, and there was a great lack of skilled professionals.

"Very well—" Zhao Shang continued, "According to the rules, fifty percent goes to True Inheritor Su. Additionally, you need to pay another ten percent: half of that goes to the Foundation Establishment cultivators upstairs, and half to me. Do you have any objections?"

Wang Yu paused, startled, but quickly reacted and said in a muffled voice, "No objections."

"Very good. Then this task is yours. Report to Deacon Tantai within seven days."

"I understand, Senior Brother."