Immortality Cultivation: Fellow Daoists, please live for two more episodes!

Before coming, Zhou Youyuan had done some research.

Within the Shuiyue Branch, the lives of outer disciples and menial disciples are completely different, yet similar in many ways.

If the menial disciples have no choice but to risk their lives to contribute to the sect, then the outer disciples have a choice: they can decide for themselves whether to contribute with their lives or with their labor.

All of this stems from a peculiar system implemented by Shuiyue: the points system.

In Shuiyue, spiritual herbs and spirit stones may still have value in trading, but they are no longer the basic units of exchange.

There is only one true hard currency: Water Moon Points.

You can use it to practice your skills in the Scripture Pavilion, or trade elixirs and magical treasures with others to improve your cultivation. You can do anything and trade anything you want.

Each outer disciple receives 1000 points upon joining the sect.

But Shuiyue wouldn't be so kind as to give you a huge fortune for free; there's another rule.

All outer disciples must hand over their soul lamps to ensure they cannot defect from Shuiyue. In addition, outer disciples must contribute 100 points to the sect each month for the sect's operation.

What if I can't pay?

It doesn't matter. People with cultivation are treasures in everything. Their flesh and blood can be used to refine pills, their souls can be used to nurture spirits, and even their essence, blood, and lifespan are a hundred times more useful than those of servants for watering flowers.

In other words, these 1000 points are Shuiyue's investment in you, and it's very profitable; you can recoup your investment in 10 months.

What should we do to stay alive?

It's very simple. Whether it's doing missions, sect missions, betraying yourself to other disciples, or even plotting, cheating, deceiving, or harming fellow disciples, Shuiyue never cares about any of that.

They act like an intermediary, setting no rules for you and imposing no restrictions on you, at most they can impose some constraints within the sect.

As long as the time comes, you submit what you are required to submit.

That's enough.

If you master the rules of survival here, you can live longer.

Congratulations! You will become one of the sect's most beloved servants.

Therefore, as long as there are outer disciples living, the Shuiyue Branch can continuously reap wealth; this is Shuiyue's management philosophy.

When Zhou Youyuan walked out of the registration area and stepped into the outer corridor, he found that there were already quite a few disciples waiting there to receive a good mission or return from fieldwork the next morning.

Two rows of wooden shops lined up along the corridor, with a narrow passageway between each shop and a small wooden cabinet at the entrance.

There weren't many empty beds left, so he picked one against the corner, put his bundle down, and sat down.

"New here?"

The person who spoke to him was a young man in his early twenties from the next bunk. He had a round face, a bright white smile, and was leaning against the wall, munching on a dry biscuit.

"Yes, Sun Yunqi, he's back from his field mission at Cangwu Mountain."

"Field work, oh, you've worked hard."

The round-faced man nodded: "My name is Fan Xiao. I've been here for almost a year. How's it going over Cangwu Mountain? Have you found anything good?"

"I picked up two rotten grass roots and handed them in."

Fan Xiao chuckled: "That would be a huge loss. But it's normal. Eight out of ten field missions are wasted. It's more reliable for someone like me who stays on the mountain and takes on assignments."

He started talking and began to chatter on his own, regardless of whether Zhou Youyuan responded or not.

From how to snag tasks in the Deacon's Hall, to which time to go to the Dining Hall without queuing, to which people in the outer porch you shouldn't mess with.

Fan Xiao is quick-witted and rambled on for a long time, showing that he is a natural chatterbox.

Zhou Youyuan leaned against the bed and listened, occasionally responding, but his mind was elsewhere.

He was thinking about the outer sect competition.

Five months is not a long time. Since we have decided to start with the outer disciples and find a way to get rid of this hot potato, we can't be slacking off. We have to come up with a plan as soon as possible.

I remember when I was following Li Feiyu in the miscellaneous market, the information broker once said that Li Feiyu had paid money to find out when the outer sect disciple competition would be held, how often it would be held, and what cultivation level was required to register.

At that time, he was just a lowly servant, so this news meant nothing to him.

But now that he's standing on the outer porch, the situation is different.

His original plan was to send the goods to higher authorities through Zhao Donglai, a method that was considered safe and reliable.

After all, the source is too low-level and involves too many people, so even if the higher-ups want to investigate, they have to go through multiple layers of screening.

But time is tight and the task is heavy. If we want to get rid of the stuff as soon as possible, we might consider unconventional methods.

If we select a top expert who can enter the inner sect through a major competition, bind them through the "Final Passage Record," and plan ahead, it's not impossible to achieve success in one step...

However, he still knew nothing about the specific rules of the competition and would have to find an opportunity to inquire about them.

"...By the way, senior brother, if you want to earn points..."

Over there, Fan Xiao had somehow steered the conversation to earning points, and a small, round face suddenly leaned closer:

"I happen to have a job. It's in the Falling Star Pit on the back mountain. We need to collect a batch of Falling Firestone. It's worth 400 points, but it requires at least two people to work together."

"I've been waiting here for almost half a month, but I still can't get enough people together. The formation in the pit is complicated. Last time I went there with the handymen, I only explored a little over half of the path. One person can't handle it."

Zhou Youyuan: ?

I knew it! Why were you rambling on about all this nonsense?

So they were waiting for me from a distance.

There are quite a few people looking for partners to complete tasks, but most of them form regular teams, after all, everyone in Shuiyue has a certain personality...

They both knew it perfectly well.

This kid is probably either hiding something and planning to double-cross someone, or he really can't find the person and has no choice but to ask the disciple who returned from fieldwork for help.

Four hundred points is a lot, after all, he's not the real Sun Yunqi. Without points to rely on, he'd probably have trouble even making his monthly payments this month.

but……

"Junior Brother Fan, I just got back and I still have some things to sort out. Let's talk about it later."

"Okay, no rush."

Fan Xiao was quite straightforward and didn't press the matter further.

Before the time it takes to drink a cup of tea was up, a disciple passed by in the opposite passage, and Fan Xiao struck up a conversation again, still talking about the Falling Star Pit.

The man hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Are there other suckers getting hooked?

That would be best, so that Fan Xiao won't bother him again.

After all, it's hard to say whether that guy is a human or a ghost. Zhou Youyuan has already planned that when it comes time to collect rent, he can simply sell some of Chen Changsheng and Zhao Donglai's treasures.

I think if I stick with it for a while, there shouldn't be any major problems.

……

The next morning.

Zhou Youyuan ate a bowl of noodles at the canteen and planned to find a place to stay first. On his way back, he passed by the outer gate courtyard and saw Fan Xiao packing his things in the courtyard.

Behind him stood the disciple who had agreed to share meals with him yesterday, and behind that was a row of five servants, three men and two women, all wearing gray cloth short shirts and standing in a row with their heads down.

Zhou Youyuan glanced at the markings on the servant's sleeve.

Dingzi Medicinal Herb Garden?

He slowed his pace by half a beat, his gaze sweeping from the front of the line to the back.

Her coarse cloth shirt was rolled up to her elbows, and her brows and eyes were constantly filled with worry. That sorrow made her seem unlike a girl her age.

Is it Yunniang?

His waist was clean and tidy; the oil paper package was gone, and the bamboo plaque was also gone.

Zhao Donglai took the escape route he had accumulated over ten years and disappeared without a trace in just three days.

At Fan Xiao's call, the group headed towards the back of the mountain, with Yunniang following at the very back, head down, step by step.

Zhou Youyuan stood there with his bowl in his hand, watching the group turn onto the road leading up the back mountain until the last figure disappeared around the corner of the mountain path.

He turned back to his bunk, placed the half-eaten noodles on the wooden cabinet, lay down, and closed his eyes.

The book of funeral rites lay quietly in his mind's eye, and at the end of Zhao Donglai's page, the last line of seal script had not yet faded.

After that, no one called her Nianqing again.

Zhou Youyuan rolled over, covered his face with the blanket, and muttered a curse.

Then he lifted the blanket from the lower bunk and chased after them in the direction of the fallen star crater.