Redy

There were over 500 gifts and letters.

Heaven's Way Sect has over 1,000 disciples; Less than 20 are at the 10th stage of energy gathering; 300 are between the 7th and 9th stages, and 400 are between the 4th and 6th stages.

Most sent a simple congratulatory letter and contribution points cards as gifts. Three years ago, Jack created a central system for processing contribution payments; it could issue tokens, which kept a record of contribution points; contribution points gifts come from that central processing system.

Reaching the core formation was no small matter; everyone wanted Faith to remember their names, so they sent her a lot of contribution points.

She counted and was surprised to find that she gained over 2 million contribution points!

Some even sent better gifts, things that cannot be bought with contribution points.

Amber, another girl from her tribe who also recently broke through the 10th stage of energy gathering, gifted her with a Fire element Crystal.

Fire element crystals are very suitable for Heaven's Way cultivation technique; everyone would flock to buy them, but unfortunately, they're so rare that they're usually unavailable. Depending on the size, they can be bought and sold in the free market for up to 300,000 contribution points.

The sect has two markets: an official market, where disciples can directly buy things from the sect; the official market has fixed prices.

There is also a free market, where disciples can buy and sell with other disciples; there are also auctions, where disciples can put their positions up for auction.

Amber gave her such an amazing piece; Faith took a mental note that she must make up for it later when Amber broke through to the core formation. As a senior sister, she must even gift a more precious thing to Amber to keep her face.

Cultivators are famous for caring so much about their faces; Heaven's Way sect is no different. Here, you must keep your face, protect it, and not let it down. If you yourself don't respect your face, nobody else will.

There was also Himari, who was Faith's main competitor.

She was extremely talented, reaching the peak of energy gathering not far behind Faith despite being admitted to the university three years after Faith. She gifted her an immortal item, the crystal ball.

The crystal ball appeared in the free market auction a few years ago; back then, Himari outbid everyone else, spending over 65,000 contribution points to buy it. It is a powerful immortal item with innumerable uses; it was probably one of the most valuable things Himari had.

"What a headache!" Faith thought. She was happy to get valuable gifts but worried about the future when Himari broke through the core formation. At that time, as a senior sister, she must give Himari something even more valuable; otherwise, her face as a senior sister will go up in smoke.

These gifts are all actually investments; sure, Faith isn't bound to gift better items to them when they break through core formation, but if she doesn't, her face would be trashed.

"Hopefully, I can discover good magic items in the Far West!" Faith thought.

The sect would allow disciples to keep what they found most of the time.

These are exceptions; if the sect especially wanted an immortal item for the greater good of the sect, it can force the disciple to sell It, though It must pay double the amount of a fair price for it.

Also, if disciples find an item because of a sect mission that they are paid for independently, they must give it to the sect. For example, if the sect locates a magic treasure somewhere and pays the disciples to go and retrieve it, the students cannot claim the item for themselves.

The sect rules are very favorable to disciples; unless one of the exemptions applies, the students can explore the world and keep the treasures they find.

Even if they find an energy stone mine or other resource points that can be milked over an extended period, the sect would pay for all upfront mining costs and give the disciple or disciples who found it a 50% share of the profits.

Even though Jack's governance of the country as a whole was very leftist and collectivist, his management of the sect was extremely capitalistic; private property was respected, and everything was possible with enough contribution points; the sect even gave a massive share of mining resources to the student who mined it.

Jack governed the country the way he did because he wanted left-of-center votes; he didn't need to run in elections in the sect, so he governed the way he thought would be the most effective.

People are greedy; there is no way around it; even the sect's disciples, who are much smarter than the general population, are no exception. When making laws, one must take greed into account.

If he set a rule that all items found by disciples are to be handed over to the sect for 'collectivist good,' he would basically guarantee that disciples would hide valuable items they find. If he prohibited immortal item trading and the black markets, he would only drive those markets out of the sect; the black markets take form because society needs them; one cannot just ban them.

If he took all resource points disciples found, then there would be no incentive left for disciples to explore the world to find them; it must be noted that the fact that discovering resource points paid so well was a massive incentive for everyone to take days off and wholeheartedly look for them.

He went the capitalist way because it was the best system for a newly formed sect that was expanding. He might have gone a different way if he was the only force in the world; if he had absolute power, he would just confiscate all resource points, as there was no way anyone beside him could mine them. At most, he would have paid some contribution points as compensation.

Jack only cares about what benefits him the most; he doesn't care about right or left. He has no principles.

…

A core formation cultivator can fly at amazing speed, traveling hundreds of kilometers in one hour. Still, it took Faith five hours to reach the Windland Mountains.

The Windland Mountains were the border of the Republic with the western barbarian land; once she passed the mountains, she would be in the Wild Territory.

Her family was on the border; she planned on visiting them after the mission concluded. However, she is now on a sect mission, so she cannot just waste time visiting her family. She can only do personal things in her personal time.

The Windland Mountains are huge, with many peaks over 10,000 meters tall. Passing them is difficult, and they act as a barrier that keeps most barbarians from reaching the republic.

Still, for Faith, it was very easy to get past the mountains; she just flew higher than 10,000 meters; as for the cold air, she didn't care at all.

In this mission, she came alone; no energy-gathering disciple could help her in any battle; they would only be an obstacle.

Michael was out on another mission, and Jack was the sect master. Jack appointed Faith as the sect master, but they decided to transfer the powers formally only after Faith went on a mission to the Far West. Furthermore, Faith was very suitable for this task because of her looks, red eyes, and hair; if she brought Jack, her disguise would break. Jack could have changed his looks, but he didn't; Faith alone was enough in any case.

...

After flying for two days, she finally found a big barbarian city.

Core formation cultivators can fly as an instinct; she didn't spend any mana flying for over a day; of course, in battles, this speed isn't helpful; at that time, core formation cultivators must spend mana to increase their speeds.

The barbarian city was not unlike cities in the republic; by now, Faith had understood that the 'barbarians' reputation was mostly undeserved.

Some barbarian tribes living near the Windland Mountains are wild, living in caves and eating raw meat, but besides a few wild tribes, most live in cities.

The biggest difference with the republic is that cities here are controlled by a single tribe; in a tribe, everyone is related by blood; anyone from outside the tribe would be forced out at best and killed at worst.

She saw a few big cities populated with hundreds of thousands of people; this big city, however, was the most massive, with over 2 million tribesmen at minimum.

The land was extremely deserted and cold, with barely any life form; it's no wonder that so few live here, despite it being at least ten times bigger than the much more fertile land in the east.

Still, Faith has paid attention to an important detail: even though the land is infertile, the concentration of energy is not one bit lower than in the East; in places, it is even higher; this land is much more suitable for cultivation than the East.

The land around this city was especially rich in energy; She had already found a few unexplored small-scale energy stone mines and immortal treasures with a surface look.

"This is indeed a treasure land for cultivators," she thought. Now, she only has to take over the big tribes here and use them to quickly look for immortal resources. After all, the land is vast; she only found a few of the most visible resources; there are surely many others, better, well-hidden resource points.

...

Charles was the Khan of the Half Moon tribe.

The Half Moon tribe considers itself the biggest tribe and the strongest force in the world; they control thousands of kilometers of land, along with hundreds of thousands of horses and more than 500,000 fighters.

Their skill with horse riding and arrow is not uncommon, but their armor is; they are one of the few who wear metal armor. Their horses are extremely strong and famous; they're much bigger and faster than others.

"Charles, my khan, unfortunately, more of them died today!" a man with a big mustache came and bowed, then said.

Shaking his head, Charles said, "I don't care about losses; keep impregnating mares with redy," he ordered.

Some time ago, a horse with pure red skin, hair, and eyes was born; initially, it became famous because it looked so much like the barbarians themselves.

Charles declared it a good sign and took it as his horse. But he soon realized that the horse's color was the least impressive thing about it.

Usually, the horses stop growing after 5 years, but Redy, as Charles named it, didn't stop growing; it has been 7 years, and it is still growing bigger. By now, it's about three times a normal horse's size, much more muscular, faster, and stronger.

Since its birth, Charles ordered his subordinates to try mating it with mares, but it failed every time. Redy seems to have a defect; any mare impregnated by it would die; they initially gave up mating him, but after discovering Redy's physical qualities, they began trying again. If they could have an army with such horses, no one could resist them; the entire land would be theirs.

As a result, in the last few years, thousands of mares have been killed in the process.

As time went on, they realized that the issue was not that Redy was infertile; the issue was that mares could not bear his child; they were too weak and too small; as a result, they died a few months after pregnancy.

Charles has ordered his subordinate to inform him about every detail, which is why they came to report the death of a few horses.

Horses are extremely important for their tribe; good horses can destroy their enemies.

Khan sighed and allowed his subordinate to leave.

...

Khan Charles's main hobby was reading books.

For a khan of the Half Moon tribe, reading books was strange; after all, as the leader of the most powerful tribe, it was expected of the khan to drink wine and eat meat, ride horses and fight, and mate with powerful females to strengthen the tribe's future khan. Reading a book was for the weak.

But Charles was different; he was actually quite weak and sickly for what tribespeople expected of their khan.

Most thought of their khan as a muscular man 2.5 meters tall with a massive beard and a scar on his forehead.

But, in fact, he was only 1.8 meters tall and not very muscular; even worse, he read books instead of eating, drinking, fighting, and mating. It can be said that if the word went out, his position as Khan would be endangered.

Fortunately, he had many propaganda agents in the tribes who spread false tales of the Khan's achievements and glory.

In small tribes, usually, all tribesmen know the khan, but in a tribe with millions of people, barely anybody has personally seen the khan; 99% only heard of him from the tales around the city. The legend of Khan's 2.5-meter and muscular appearance came from Khan's agents, who were overzealous in describing his achievements.

"The Geography of the Windland Mountains" was the title of the book he was reading now; this book was stolen from the land in the Far East.

Some wild tribes in the Windland Mountains usually invade the Far East and steal anything they can: slaves, gold, and books.

Khan Charles was most interested in books; he bought nearly all the books looted from the East. He also bought slaves from there who taught him to read and write.

"The Windlands are home to Red Pupil tribes; traveling there requires a lot of preparation. This book is a comprehensive guide for survival in the Windland Mountains," Khan read.

His ambitions were far beyond most barbarians; he planned to unite every tribe and eventually invade the Far East. He wasn't like everyone else; he knew there was a wider world besides the tribes of the West.

Suddenly, a very bright light caught his attention.

"It's night, so where is this light coming from?" He was astonished; it was so bright that it made the night as bright as day.

Standing up, he went to the window. Then, he saw a goddess; he could see her perfectly, even though she was far away.

Wisps of golden light revolved around her as she stood in the sky; her looks were beyond this world. His red pupils stared at her wide and started tearing up; he didn't look away despite the bright light hurting his eyes. In one look, Charles completely fell in love with the goddess in the sky.