More Learning

The next thing on the list was the grading system. The post gave general information about the different grades the cultivators used in 'Eternal Cultivation'.

There were 4 grades known to the public as of yet. They were Mortal, Earth, Heaven, and Immortal. Mortal was the lowest of the grades, and Immortal was the highest. 

These grading systems are applied to different items, formations, artifacts, pills, cultivation methods, techniques, and even a cultivator's talent itself.

"Huh? Talent too? But my talent is 'God' grade. Is the existence of a God grade not known to the public yet?"

He looked through the comments but saw nothing about a God grade. Some comments said they knew a higher grade existed, just that they didn't know the name of it.

"That must be a God grade. It can't be I am the only person with a good grade, right? There must be other people who have it. They must be keeping quiet about it for some reason."

Alex decided to not reveal anything about it either.

Alex remembered there not being a grade for the pill, but he might have been wrong about that. No one in the comment was contradicting the poster, so he was probably mistaken.

The last thing he decided to look at was the alchemy itself. The game didn't allow recordings, so most of what was written here was hearsay.

They said alchemy was similar to cooking. You took a pot, lit the fire underneath, and put all your ingredients at a specific time. You took care of the temperature and timing, and a pill would be formed at the end.

Of course, it wasn't that simple. You also needed to know alchemy techniques as well to properly mix together all the Qi and energies in the ingredients so as to not burn them, or in worse cases, explode them.

  Once you were successfully done, a pill would be formed. 

Alex decided to check what pills usually sold for but found the information unhelpful at the moment since he didn't know what any of the pills were or did. 

"Guess I will check after I learn a bit more in the game." 

After checking a few more things in the forum, he logged in to the game.

Alex opened his eyes in his small cottage. It was nearly 4 pm, so he sat down and decided to look at the different items he got from Elder Lang.

"Inventory"

There were 6 new items in the inventory now. The first 2 items were clothes. He decided to change into the sect's outfit. 

He was now wearing a light green robe with bronze linings along the sides. He then looked at the other 4 items. One of those items was the token for the library. 

The other 3 looked like a rectangular piece of paper, not unlike the one he wrote his answers in during the entrance test. 

The system seemed to call it a talisman. He took one of the talismans out and decided to read it. The talisman had the same unreadable squiggly lines that had appeared on the talisman he wrote his answers in. 

Just as last time, a panel popped up in front of him with all the information in the talisman. It seemed he had taken out the map of the Hong Wu Sect. 

Hong Wu Sect had 6 mountains under it. Of the 6, the one closest to the gate was the outer disciple mountain. 

The adjacent mountains to the outer disciple mountain were the Inner disciple mountain on the left, and the core disciple mountain on the right.

Opposite to Outer Disciple mountain, was the mountain where the sect leader lived. The sect leader's mountain was surrounded by two other mountains that were named the alchemy gardens. 

At the center of all 6 mountains was the valley, which was the main grounds of the sect. This was where the sect disciples went to learn, train, make pills, buy pills, etc. The elder also lived in the valley. 

"Wow, do I have to walk so much all the time? Going up and down the mountains would take a lot of time." 

He was worried about how much time he would waste just walking around the sect. 

He put back the map talisman and took out another talisman. This was the rulebook for the sect.

There were 4 rules for the Outer sect disciples.

The outer sect disciples were not allowed to visit the inner sect and core disciples' mountains without strict permission from the Elders. If they were found wandering in any of the other mountains, they would be punished accordingly.

The outer sect disciples were not allowed to go into the forbidden alchemy gardens and the sect leader's mountain. If they were found anywhere close, they would be immediately expelled. 

The outer sect disciples had to earn at least 20 contribution points a week from the sect. Anything less, and they would be expelled.

Finally, the outer sect disciples were only allowed to perform alchemy at night time, when the inner sect disciples and core disciples would not be hindered.

"Wait, so I can't perform alchemy during the day at all?" he was surprised. He wanted to earn money through making pills, but if he could only do it at night time, when would he sleep?

"Oh wait, they did say you sleep outside while you play the game at night. Maybe this won't be a problem at all." 

He was worried for a moment before sighing with relief. Another thing that confused him was the mention of 'contribution points'. 

"What are contribution points? If I go by the name, they must be points I get by contribution to the sect. But what could an outer sect disciple do that counts as a contribution? I hope I won't have to sweep and pick up garbage." 

There were a few other things in the handbooks that mentioned how everything in the sect cost contribution points, and that one would even go hungry without them. 

He decided he would learn about it once he went to the sect valley.