Founder's Pack

There were many rules governing the sect but Song Yang memorized only those that concerned outer disciples:

- Outer disciples were assigned a house to share with two other outer disciples in the sect's Outer-Sect Area. And, except in special circumstances, they could not ask to change the house to which they had been assigned.

- Outer disciples received each month five Cultivation Pills and five Spirit Stones.

- Outer disciples could challenge each other in an official duel.

- The loser of an official duel had to give the winner one Cultivation Pill or one Spirit Stone.

- If the challenger had the same cultivation level as the challenged, the challenged couldn't refuse the duel except if he already participated in two official duels in the month.

- Once outer disciples reached the first level of the Meridians Opening realm, they could enter the Martial Hall once a month to borrow a Mortal-grade or an Earth-grade Martial Art.

- Once outer disciples reached the third level of the Meridians Opening realm, they could do missions for the sect to earn Contribution Points. These points could be exchanged for cultivation resources, Spirit Stones, or to buy a Spiritual weapon.

- Outer disciples who couldn't reach the Qi Condensation realm before the age of twenty five years old were demoted as working disciples.

- The promotion exam to become an inner disciple was held once every six months.

- Outer disciples who couldn't pass the promotion exam before the age of thirty could no longer take the exam.

- It was forbidden to kill another disciple of the sect.

"Any sect disciple that transgresses these rules will be severely punished depending on the gravity of their actions: expulsion from the sect, crippling of their cultivation, or execution." He read.

He was momentarily surprised to hear his new voice. It was melodious and gentle, far too feminine for his liking...

After he finished reading the book, Song Yang had a better understanding of the place he was in. The Myriad Clouds Sect was a massive sect with a strict hierarchy between its members.

The working disciples who were in charge of doing chores for the sect were at the bottom of the hierarchy followed by the outer disciples, the inner disciples and the core disciples. Then came the Elders, Grand Elders, Protectors, and Ancestors of the sect. Finally, at the top of the hierarchy was the Sect Leader.

Song Yang sat down on his bed. A large grin could be seen on his face as he was excited to finally check the items he received with his system.

There was no tutorial explaining how his system worked but since he had read so many web novels with a system, he had a good idea of how to use it.

'Inventory.' He thought, and a screen showing many boxes storing his items appeared before his eyes.

The first thing he wanted to check was if the Spirit Stones from his system were the same as the ones from the sect.

With a thought, he retrieved one Spirit Stone from his inventory and compared it to one from the pouch. Thankfully they were identical. It meant that with 50000 Spirit Stones, he could be considered very rich since outer disciples received only five Spirit Stones per month!

With another thought, Song Yang retrieved the Divine Talent Upgrading Pill from his Inventory and it automatically appeared in his hand.

The Divine Talent Upgrading Pill was a multicolored pill the size of a marble. The smell it gave off was extremely pleasant and almost surreal.

'According to my status, my current cultivation talent is D-grade but this pill is supposed to upgrade it to S-grade, this is truly a heaven-defying pill! I just hope that it will not provoke a heavenly tribulation or something like that after I eat it...' He thought.

Song Yang guessed that if there was a risk of provoking a heavenly tribulation, the system would have probably warned him beforehand. Since there was no warning, he decided to take the risk and ate the pill immediately by putting it in his mouth. The moment he swallowed it, he felt an explosion of energy inside his body. However, it was not painful, on the contrary, it was more like his body was reinvigorated and cleansed from the inside.

[Divine Talent Upgrading Pill successfully absorbed. Host's cultivation talent increased to S-grade.]

After his talent was upgraded, Song Yang didn't feel different physically. However, he could now clearly feel that there was a kind of energy present in the air.

'What is this energy? Is this what cultivators call the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth? I couldn't feel it just a moment ago but now that my talent has increased, I can naturally feel it everywhere around me!' He thought, excited.

it was indeed the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth. Cultivators needed to absorb it in order to increase their cultivation. However, the amount of Spiritual Energy they could absorb at once was limited by their innate talent. Which meant that the talent of a cultivator directly influenced their cultivation speed. Thanks to his new S-grade talent, Song Yang broke free from this limitation.

To absorb the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth, a cultivator needed to follow a method described in a Cultivation Manual. Song Yang currently had the Myriad Clouds Sect's Basic Cultivation Manual but it was only a low-grade method used by all the outer disciples of the sect. Thankfully, he received a Divine-grade Cultivation Manual ticket with his system.

'I hope I will get something good.' He thought before using the ticket.

[Host has received a Divine-grade Cultivation Manual: <Heavenly Ice Scripture>]

'Seriously? Is the system trolling me? Ice is for girls!' He lamented.

Even though Song Yang thought this, he was still very excited by the domineering name of this Cultivation Manual. He immediately took it out of his inventory and a beautiful blue book with intricate gold patterns engraved on it appeared in his hand.

He was about to open it but a message from his system suddenly showed up.

[Divine-grade Cultivation Manual detected. Do you wish to spend 400 Diamonds to instantly master it?]

'Huh?' Song Yang didn't expect his system to have such a function, he was pleasantly surprised.

Four hundred Diamonds didn't seem a lot knowing that he had five thousand of them but since he didn't know the other usage of the Diamonds for now, he wanted to first check if he could understand the method described in the manual himself.

He opened the blue book and started reading the description of the method:

- By cultivating this method, a cultivator would be able to produce ice of the Pure Yin element, called Heavenly Ice, and freeze their enemies with mere contact.

- By using Heavenly Ice Qi, the unique Qi produced by cultivating this cultivation method, the power and efficiency of Martial Arts of the Ice element would be greatly increased.

- However, due to its nature, only women could cultivate this method and it was recommended to cultivate it at night as it was less effective to cultivate it during the day.

After he finished reading the whole manual, Song Yang had a complicated expression on his face.

'It's so hard to understand...' He thought, frowning.

The method explained that the Spiritual Energy he absorbed had to circulate through certain meridians. However, he had no idea where these meridians were located in his body. Moreover, the mantra he had to recite and meditate on while absorbing the Spiritual Energy was very profound and complex.

Song Yang knew that if he tried to practice this method himself, he would eventually make a mistake, suffer from Qi deviation, and die. Therefore, it was safer for him to spend the Diamonds to master it.

[400 Diamonds have been spent to master the Cultivation Manual <Heavenly Ice Scripture>]

A large amount of information started to flood his mind...

Around a minute later, Song Yang smiled widely. He now perfectly knew how to absorb and circulate the Spiritual Energy in his body. He was even more surprised to discover that there was actually a special method hidden in the mantra. Apparently, he could use the ice he produced, also called Heavenly Ice, to purify and temper his body to make it stronger! Although it would be very painful, it would greatly benefit him in the long term.

In the end, he was extremely satisfied with his Cultivation Manual and couldn't wait to start cultivating. But before that, he needed to finish exploring his system.

He used the Divine-grade Martial Art ticket and hoped to once again receive something good.

[Host has received a Divine-grade Martial Art: <Soul Reviving Flame>]

'Soul Reviving Flame? What kind of Martial Art is that?' He wondered.

He took the item out from his inventory and a pitch-black book appeared in his hand. It was at this moment that a new message from his system popped up.

[Divine-grade Martial Art detected. Error: Host must at least have reached the first cultivation realm to be able to learn Martial Arts.]

It seemed logical to Song Yang that he would first need to be able to use Qi before being able to use a Martial Art so he was not surprised by this message.

Although he couldn't learn it, he still read the description of the book to see what kind of technique it was.

- The Martial Art allowed a cultivator to revive a targeted corpse (beast or human) and restore it to the might it had at its peak during its lifetime. The corpse was forced to obey the cultivator's orders until the technique was canceled.

- Canceling the technique reduced the revived corpse into ashes.

- If the targeted corpse had been dead for more than a thousand years, its power was reduced by 50% when revived.

- The total number of corpses a cultivator could control depended on his cultivation level.

'So it's basically a necromancer technique.' He thought

Song Yang found this Martial Art awesome and thought that having an army of powerful undead who obeyed all of his commands would be really amazing. He was not the kind of person who thought that necromancy was creepy, he actually found it cool.

Unfortunately, he knew that he couldn't use it because If someone in the sect saw him using this technique, he would probably be accused of being evil and be executed. He didn't know anything about this world so until he became strong enough and independent, he preferred to stay low-key.

With a sigh, he put the black book back in his inventory and checked the last item he received with his system: the Diamonds.

[Diamonds can be used in the shop. Do you want to open the shop?]

However, the moment Song Yang was about to answer yes, he heard noises coming from outside his bedroom...

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Author's note: The switch from he/his to she/her happens in chapter 19.

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