Jesse ! We need to cook !

Ling Xuan was mentally tired after being trapped in the Library. So the moment he returned he immediately went to bed to sleep. Now the Moon was gone and the Sun had risen, today had arrived and so a new day for cultivation.

As soon as he woke up, he freshened up and started cultivating. It felt good. After about an hour Ling Xuan made his way to the lounge for breakfast.

The tavern owner welcomed Ling Xuan with a smile on his face. After the conversation yesterday the tavern owner had taken a liking to Ling Xuan because he was a young and a hardworking cultivator.

Ling Xuan reciprocated the tavern owner's greeting with a smile and soon sat over a table in the corner. He ordered a heavy breakfast as he wanted to skip lunch. 

Soon later, the tavern owner himself served the food and sat in front of Ling Xuan as he wanted to talk with this young cultivator.

Ling Xuan was confused as to why the tavern owner sat at his table. His thoughts scattered,"Is the food poisoned, is he trying to attack me"

The tavern owner smiled and said,"Young boy you always seem to be lost in some deep thought. Why don't you eat."

Ling Xuan replied,"No sir, i was just wondering about the reason you were sitting here"

The tavern owner replied with a proud face,"My son is also a cultivator, he is a high adept cultivator. As soon as I saw you yesterday, you resembled my son. So I wanted to talk with you."

Ling Xuan finally relaxed and answered," If that's the reason we can talk sir"

The tavern owner was delighted and asked,"So which sect do you want to join"?

"I am thinking of joining the Thunder Law sect",replied Ling Xuan 

"So you want to join the sect of muscle heads, why don't you join the Silver Silence sect or maybe The White blade sect. Why do you want to join the Thunder Law sect"?

Ling Xuan was dumbfounded; he heard of the Silver Silence sect but never heard of the White Blade sect.

Ling Xuan asked,"How many sects are there sir"?

The tavern owner was surprised that Ling Xuan didn't know the sects but cultivated enough to reach mid apprentice. He concluded that Ling Xuan might be from a well off family.

The tavern owner explained," Boy there are a total of 12 sects in the Xia Empire.

Emerald Throne Sect : 

 This sect is one of the prestigious sects out of the 12, and produces strategists and scholars. In fact many of the people who administer the empire have graduated from this sect.

Silver Silence Sect : 

This sect has produced a number of assassins and is specialised in stealth missions.This sect is worth for someone who is calm and confident as well as ruthless.

Regal Peacock Sect : 

It is a sect which has produced numerous linguists and also people who can use music as a weapon.

Hunter's Bow Sect : 

This sect specialises in hunting and taming beasts as their source of strength. A person needs to be courageous and brave to join this sect.

5.Thousand Masks Sect : 

This is the most unique sect of all, as they specialise in body deforming and disguise. No one has ever seen the true faces of these people.

6.Divine Sun Sect : 

This is also a prestigious sect and teaches disciples who possess a body of yang attributes.

Supreme Yin Sect : 

This sect is said to be the most isolated and nurtures disciples who possess a body of yin attributes. All the people who cultivate in this sect usually lose their emotions.

8.Beggar's Sect : 

It is a unique sect where not many people wish to join but it is also an important sect which consists of people who travel every nook and corner of the continent to collect information and sell this information to the other sect.

9.White Blade Sect : 

This sect is not for faint hearted people as it trains its disciples vigorously in sword arts and make them the best in swordsmanship.

10.Golden Pill Association : 

It's a sect which specialises in pill manufacturing and also producing doctors. Also this is the only sect which supplies the pills to the whole continent.

11.Merchant's Guild : 

This sect consists of merchants and they are responsible for collecting treasures and also conducting auctions all over the empire.

12.Thunder Law Sect : 

It's the sect which has the most number of maniacs who are only striving for power and all of them are trained to be muscleheads.

So tell me which sect you want to join now" ?

Ling Xuan, after listening to the detailed explanation was shocked as he didn't even know half of the sects the tavern owner mentioned.

After understanding about the sects Ling Xuan answered," Sir thank you for providing such valuable information, but i still want to join the Thunder Law sect."

The tavern owner sighed as he replied," Oh boy i can't do anything, it's your life and it's your choice about what to do with it"

Ling Xuan chuckled as he ate his breakfast. A little while later he retired to his room and started cultivating the ling clan's technique.

The Four Pole Star Technique was quite a powerful one that was known to the masses residing in the Ling clan territory.

The way of circulating Qi according to the Ling clan's technique was to gather the Qi present in the surroundings, and to refine the four limbs of a human.

This was extremely beneficial for a person who wishes to strengthen his body. This technique was not only used by cultivators but also the people who do physical work.

That is the reason 70% of men in Ling territory are at apprentice level, and 35% of them were at the adept level even though they never joined a sect.

He cultivated for three hours until he reached his limit. He then took a bath which felt quite refreshing. It was only evening now and he had a lot of time before he could have dinner so Ling Xuan ventured into the market. 

Not a long time later he came across a shop which sold pills.

Ling Xuan concluded that the tavern owner was talking about these pills. The tavern owner had explained that there were many types of pills, few which could recover health, few which could aid in cultivation, and there also exists elixirs which help people to breakthrough a bottleneck in cultivation.

According to the tavern owner there exists 5 grades of elixirs 

The 1st grade elixirs are the weakest and most common and have very less effect on cultivation,and they are useful to only the apprentice and adept stage cultivators.

The 2nd grade elixirs were better and rare, as well as costlier than the first grade elixirs,these elixirs could aid a peak adept or a newly advanced expert.

The 3rd grade elixirs were much rarer and very costly, they aid expert and master level cultivators.

The 4th grade elixirs are very few in numbers and are only available as a prize for some competition,these aid in cultivation of peak master level and grandmaster level cultivators.

The 5th grade elixirs are only a myth and not even 1 of them exists in the present day.

After entering the shop Ling Xuan purchased 2 grade 1 elixirs as they would further help him in cultivation.

It was already night by the time he returned to the tavern.He directly entered the lounge and ordered dinner as he was tired and hungry after all the exploration.

This time again the tavern owner served the food and started talking with him.

The tavern owner was curious as to why Ling Xuan chose the Thunder Law sect instead of the other 11 sects.

The tavern owner with a hint of curiosity asked," Boy,why are you so hellbent on entering the Thunder Law sect"?

Ling Xuan replied ,"Sir, I am more interested in raw power than the skills which other sects offer. I would also like to become a great cultivator in order to establish my identity in this world which is possible only for a person who has great power"

The tavern owner was dumbstruck after hearing such a matured and far sighted reply from a young boy. The tavern owner smiled and left the boy so that he could continue eating his dinner.

After completing his dinner he returned to his room. 

In his room he sat cross legged and opened the elixir he bought just before, there were two pills on in light blue colour and the other in pale yellow colour. They were small,the size of a glass marble.

He first took a bite out of the yellow coloured pill,and suddenly there was a burst of qi level in his body, so he swallowed the whole pill and started refining it in his body. An hour later he completely refined the pill and could see the difference immediately. There was an increase in his strength for sure.

As he saw a surge of increase in his strength he was now convinced that he could reach the level of grandmaster,slowly but surely. Even though the refining process is taking a longer time it was still a progress.

Because of the newly achieved results he soon started cultivating the Ling clan's cultivation technique.

After cultivating for 2 hours he was now a bit closer to high apprentice level.

He was quite satisfied with the results and suddenly an idea struck his head,"Should i eat the blue coloured pill too"

After analysing a bit he decided to eat the pill tomorrow morning.

Due to the fatigue Ling Xuan soon slept.

After a long sleep Ling Xuan woke up. He was now used to cultivation and was excited. After getting freshed up he swallowed the light blue pill he had purchased yesterday at the market. He started cultivation and soon enough he could observe the results.

He was slowly reaching the stage of high apprentice.

A little while later he reached the lounge for breakfast. Now the tavern owner was fond of Ling Xuan. They had yet another interesting conversation. After a few hours passed Ling Xuan decided to continue his journey towards the capital.

It had already been 3 days since he started his journey from the ling clan residence. Now only 27 days were left for the competition in the capital. Ling Xuan wanted to reach the capital as soon as possible and sort out his odds and opportunities there.

He went up to his room after having breakfast and packed up his luggage and tidied the room. A little while later he made the payment to the tavern owner and started leaving the border city of the Ling clan territory.