Mila
“She’s clean.” The D rank human woman nodded to the D rank human man who’d been guiding Mila and the other 107 new recruits and moved on to one of the others.
She’d just scanned Mila with several D rank artifacts and a couple detection skills of her own, but she hadn’t been able to notice Mila was a monster, or anything else wrong with her fictional identity.
This wasn’t just because Mila specialized in disguises and her Trickster’s Guise skill was powerful, but more because succubi were inherently one of the monster races closest to cultivators. Her cultivation speed as a Strong Soul Succubus Princess for example was about the same as an Epic grade human. Sure, it was nothing compared to Diana’s speed, even discounting her bloodline, but it was far faster than most people on Earth, and that was almost unheard of for a monster. There just wasn’t that much Mila had to change, making her disguise easy.
Located in a large ornate hall on the top floor of one of the Violet Mountain Blessed Land’s many skyscrapers, Mila then followed the directions of the D rank guide, a man with a class specializing in food production, and placed her hands on a black orb floating in the middle of the room.
The Violet Mountain Sect’s Elder Lander Haxor has sent you a contract request.
Terms:
Punishment:
Permanent loss of cultivation
Do you accept?
Yes/No
The position of core disciple of the Violet Mountain Sect was a lot like the position of servant of the Heavenly Spark Soul King, in that it was a position bound by a contract. Granted, core disciple was a nicer position than servant, but it was a contract bound position nonetheless, and the big loophole in this contract was that the sect could redefine the benefits and obligations of the position at will, without any core disciple being able to do anything about it.
Sure, that would almost never happen outside times of war, but it was something Mila very easily spotted and it was something her identity, with the class of Lawyer, would notice as well.
So, she walked up to the large caucasian-looking chef with the bald head and huge bushy beard and asked, “What are the obligations and benefits of a core disciple of the Violet Mountain Sect?”
“You have to show improvement every 3 years as an F rank, you have to represent the sect in any inter-sect competitions, and you must follow the instructions of any of the sect’s elders, core disciples of higher rank, or D rank inner disciples such as myself. Though these obligations will change as you advance in rank.
“As for benefits, the sect will help raise you to the best of our ability.
“You will have your choice of any of the sect’s cultivation techniques, every 30 days you will receive a serving of Foundation Establishment Soup made by me and my department, and you will receive 32 E rank violet mountain credits every year for use in paying for classes, obtaining sect resources, and any other type of spending within the sect.
“Like any member of the sect, you are free to run your own business to earn violet mountain credits, and, while you maintain your status as a core disciple, you’ll be free from the mandatory contribution requirements of sect members with less potential.”
Mila pretended to think for a little bit, then asked, “Are there any rules about having to stay within the sect? My grandfather is a really good teacher and I’d still like to train with him, but he has his own lands to govern.”
“You’ll be able to find much better teachers within the sect,” the large chef began, but then, as she started frowning, he seemed to think about the fact she was a new core disciple from outside. “If that isn’t the case, though, you can ask for special permission from the sect.
“Who’s your grandfather.”
“Epecteos Ka’Dravone.”
The chef’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “Ah. In that case, I’m sure you’d be able to get special permission quite easily.
“Is Lord Ka’Dravone doing well?”
Mila smiled at the man, acting like she enjoyed his obvious admiration of her great-grandfather. “He’s getting on in years, but he’s still as hale and healthy as ever. Thank you for your concern.”
Mila then accepted the contract and, to her surprise, a special violet runic tattoo appeared on the back of her right hand, flowing all the way up her forearm.
“What is this?” Mila politely asked as she stepped away from the black orb.
“That is a mountain mark.” The D rank rolled up his right sleeve and poured mana into a previously invisible tattoo on his arm of a similar shape, only his was red. “Violet is for core disciples. Red is for inner sect disciples. And blue is for outer sect disciples. The mark monitors your lifeforce, so the sect can know if you are in danger as long as you stay within the Carium Galaxy Cluster, and it also provides proof of your identity within the Violet Mountain Sect.
“It will serve as your residence key, as your identification when receiving resources, and as your access key for your violet mountain credits. If you ever want to trade violet mountain credits to another disciple, for example, you can just touch your mark to his and will the mark to transfer the credits.”
“It also monitors your status,” Nana Xara added after listening to the man’s explanation. “You won’t be able to change your identity while within the Carium Galaxy Cluster or the sect will instantly notice. And, by the same logic, you also won’t be able to leave the Carium Galaxy Cluster without the sect noticing either.”
Well, that complicated things. At the same time, though, it seemed the simplest of her plans to get access to the Twelve Element Primal Code would work, and that was a good thing.
When the last new disciple had pledged his loyalty and received his mountain mark, the chef then brought them to another building, one under much, much greater security judging by all the formations Mila could sense through Sensory Domain, and Nana Xara began describing each one in detail as they passed them.
The place was very much not somewhere Mila would be able to break in on her own, and it would probably take Aalam a month of work just to get past the lesser defenses on the building, let alone the more complicated ones.
After they had passed through all the security, however, they arrived in a large room that reminded Mila of an art gallery. All four walls, except for the doorway they’d just entered, were covered in small glowing information orbs behind some strong see-through crystal walls, and, through Sensory Domain, she knew the visible orbs were just a small fraction of the information orbs stored in the repository, Sensory Domain allowing her to spot seven different spatial storage artifacts behind the walls as well.
Through the walls there were small tunnels, just the right size for the information orbs to move through, and these tunnels were connected to eighteen pedestals in the center of the room.
The chef had eighteen of the new disciples move to the pedestals and, after seemingly looking through some System menus, one by one they started choosing the cultivation techniques they wanted to practice and orbs moved from the walls into the tunnels, then down through the floor and up to rest on the pedestal in front of the disciple who wanted to learn their contents.
The disciples would then place their right hands, covered in their mountain marks, onto the information orbs and the information contained within would transfer directly into their minds.
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Soon it was Mila’s turn and she also stepped up to a pedestal, her mountain mark glowing slightly in response, and she almost immediately saw some System messages pop up in front of her eyes.
Detecting Violet Mountain Mark.
Detecting F rank power.
Welcome Core Disciple Sarra Lin’Talic.
Only access to cultivation techniques currently unlocked.
No cultivation technique yet chosen.
Access to all cultivation techniques granted.
Please choose a cultivation technique from the following lists.
There were three lists, one for outer sect disciples, one for inner sect disciples, and one for core disciples. In the cultivation techniques for core disciples, however, there was no cultivation technique for a purely life element cultivator, and, in the cultivation techniques list for inner sect disciples, the best pure life cultivation technique was the Seventeen Life Codex, a cultivation technique Mila already had.
Nana Xara had been able to give an artifact to both Diana and Mila upon them reaching F rank, but had pretended she had to give Diana Mila’s artifact instead given Mila was on Hira at the time. And, in truth, she’d offered Diana Mila’s artifact, but Diana had refused, just taking a resource which would help with her next race advancement for her own reward.
Thus, when Mila arrived on Earth, she still had an artifact reward from Nana Xara pending, and Mila, already aware she’d need to search the universe for a copy of the Twelve Element Primal Code, had chosen an artifact she thought might help with that, an information orb duplicator, before cutting Nana Xara off from watching her for a few weeks.
With enough mana and time, the duplicator could copy even a complicated cultivation technique into a new orb. And, as Mila had way more trial points from the Trial Tower than she could actually use on her own small group, she’d used a couple hundred trillion to get some of the best cultivation techniques the Trial Tower allowed for purchase.
This included two different levels of techniques for those training in Laws of only one element, the best she could get access to and the cheapest technique among those considered second tier for the element, the one generally the easiest to find in the outside world. Being common didn’t mean these twelve single element second tier techniques she acquired were bad—they were still the types of techniques which would be the cornerstone of a C rank force—but it meant there were likely quite a few supplementary techniques and cheap guidance tomes from existing powers for each of them, and that was a big plus.
The original intent was to use these cultivation techniques to reward compliance on Earth, the second tier techniques available for anyone who qualified and the better techniques available for those who were more loyal, but, when Mila decided on the identity of Sarra Lin’Talic, she immediately set the duplicator to creating a duplicate of her second tier technique for the life element, and that’s how she got her hands on a copy of the Seventeen Life Codex which couldn’t be traced back to the Trial Tower.
The copy of the Seventeen Life Codex was in her spatial storage ring, and her story was that it was meant to be a backup cultivation technique from her great-grandfather in case she couldn’t find anything better in the Violet Mountain Sect. So, instead of getting another copy from the Violet Mountain Sect, Mila went back to the list for core disciples only and chose the cultivation technique she’d originally joined the Violet Mountain Sect for in the first place, the Twelve Element Primal Code.
Using Sensory Domain, she watched as the information orb holding the Twelve Element Primal Code shot out of one of the spatial storage artifacts, down the tunnels, and up through the pedestal in front of her. Then, when she reached out her right hand to touch the orb, she received another System message.
Would you like to learn the Twelve Element Primal Code?
This will be the only cultivation technique you will be able to learn from the Violet Mountain Sect’s repository and it appears to be a technique you won’t be able to use.
Yes/No
Mila chose yes and the information orb glowed with twelve colors, marking her soul in the same way Yin Yang Cosmology had when she’d learned it, Mila now able to enter the legacy bound to her soul at any time to learn the technique.
More importantly, however, if she was on the same planet as Aalam, given the strength of their bond, he’d be able to do the same.
The only problem would be getting to see him again, but that was a much easier issue to solve than trying to get a copy of the Twelve Element Primal Code gifted to Epecteos.
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