Chương 38: Chapter 37: The Golden Carp

Nero chatted with Senior Chang for a while, as he told him how he'd gone about changing the official story of him beating them, into a senior disciple beating them. After knocking him unconscious, the senior had called for disciple Shen to retrieve Nero's body back to their cottage, while simultaneously calling for the outer disciples of Wu Fang and Fei Liu's cottage to retrieve their fellow roommates.

Naturally, these disciples hadn't dared to ask him what happened to their roommates or whether it was him who'd beaten them. Instead, it was the other senior outer disciples who'd gone about asking those questions. It was here that Senior Chang had flipped the story on its head.

"The newcomers these days have gotten too rowdy and disrespectful!" he'd said to another fellow senior.

"To think they'd dare irritate me, their senior, just because they hail from a family of higher standing or have someone of distinguished position within the sect! I've only taught them the lesson in humility and respect that their parents failed to teach them!" After saying that to his fellow seniors, Senior Chang had then gone straight to the elders' hall to complain about the conduct and decorum of Nero, Fei, and Wu together. Yeah, he'd been lumped together with the aggressors and young masters.

The story panned out rather well too, because of his connection with the direct disciple in training, Sylvia. The elder hadn't bothered with calling for mediation, and instead had just dismissed the entire matter as a senior putting juniors in their place and maintaining sect hierarchy. Unlike him, though, the other two had apparently been thoroughly confused after waking to consciousness.

They'd initially blamed Nero, but as their sect mates laughed at them for having their memories jumbled from taking a good beating from a senior, they chose to keep their mouths shut to avoid shame. Senior Chang leaned back in his chair, twirling a pen between his fingers.

"Naturally, those young masters are no fools—they've certainly contacted their families by now. But since the official story suggests it was me who beat them, instead of some no-name slum-born like you, their pride would be hurt far less. Though, I suppose they'll still try to make things a bit more difficult for me to save face, since I myself don't hail from a major family." Setting the pen aside, the senior pointed a finger at him, who was making a guilty, worried face.

"I can handle whatever they throw at me, thanks to my connections. But you, on the other hand, junior—you ought to be more careful." Nero nodded.

"Understood, Senior. This junior will keep your words in mind. And again, thanks a lot for saving me!" The senior just waved off his thanks and gestured for him to leave. Nero obliged..... And just as Nero left the room, Chang's happy expression turned a shade more serious.

"I've really gotten myself a golden carp, huh." He opened the catalog where he'd collected the data on all the junior disciples of the outer courts—their core levels and talent. Among them, Nero was listed at the top, just above disciple Shen.

"No beast core, yellow-grade aptitude, connection with a future direct disciple which he doesn't even bother using, and still beating a copper core intermediate and an upper-stage disciple effortlessly." Disciple Chang closed the catalog and went over to the window. The breeze coming in rustled his black hair, which came down to his mid-back. Disciple Chang had been in this sect for a while. When he joined, his family had been wealthy—their vineyards lush with fruit, their business booming greatly.

But then things started going downhill when his father attracted the ire of a high-born noble, who in turn made running their business smoothly extremely difficult. People began distancing themselves from their family soon after. It wasn't long before they'd had to file for bankruptcy. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. From then on, Chang worked tirelessly to forge political connections of his own while improving his cultivation base.

He was currently at Copper Core Peak Stage, a step away from the realm of Silver. According to his Profound-grade aptitude, he shouldn't have difficulty crossing the threshold. Entering the realm of Silver would also allow him to join the inner court. But as the legends foretold, crossing the threshold often depended on the amount of resources one poured in, just as much as one's own aptitude.

And as luck would have it, their family business—which had been improving rapidly again after he'd pulled several of his connections to stabilize the situation—had gone cold once more, thanks to a change in weather. The costs of production needed to maintain the vineyard had skyrocketed, leaving his father with no choice but to shut down the whole operation for now. It happened just when he needed the resources and money brought in by the family business.

And based on the news arriving from the eighth circle, that ascended floating dungeon run by a dungeon spirit wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. The Silverine Knights, made up entirely of Silver Core adventurers and sect disciples, were at their wits' end dealing with it. That also meant the cold winter season brought on by the dungeon's industrial mana extraction wasn't going anywhere either.

"It's the opposite—it's only going to worsen from here on." It was mainly because of the ascended dungeon that had formed within their own circle. That thing would soon, if it hadn't already, begin running industrial mana extraction of its own to power and feed its ever-growing spawn of ogres and higher-ranked monsters. And then came the call for deployment by the Senior Direct Disciple, Earl Long.

A deployment of copper core disciples to deal with a threat that silver core disciples had been struggling against for nearly a month already? It was obvious how much fodder they'd be against an ascended dungeon run by a spirit. He'd also already been enlisted, thanks to his status as a senior outer disciple. He had no say in it. In a few more days, he'd be sent to the frontlines.

"If I were to die—and the chances of that are rather high—my family would be truly done for." He had young sisters, several of them, and little brothers too, turning twelve this year. All of them currently depended on his pay as a senior disciple to survive. Their savings had run dry advancing him along the path of cultivation. It was only fair he carried their weight now that things had gone south. But dying on the frontlines? That would certainly sever the one lifeline of support they had left.

And with it, their status as lesser nobles would vanish too. If not for him being a step away from Silver Core, that status would've been stripped from their family by the City of Silver long ago. It was also exactly why, in these dire times, he was using every connection he had to help a nobody junior. The boy was growing rapidly, drawing close to awakening his dormant core already, and he was buying spirit stones with money sourced from who-knows-where.

"That silver aura of his is interesting, too." It was a gamble—a gamble that the boy would ascend to true disciple and go further along the path of cultivation, the path of immortality, than him. So that if something happened to Chang, his family would have at least someone to turn to and wouldn't be completely powerless. It was both a gamble and an insurance.

"Truly, how far have I fallen, to have to rely on a junior who's still so green.".... Back inside his room, Nero resumed his cultivation and finally finished off the last spirit stone he'd bought. After talking to the senior, he'd gone back outside, sold some more water elemental mana crystals, and bought himself two more spirit stones!

"I believe this much should be enough to kickstart the initial awakening of the core." The balls of viscous, pristine, rainbow-colored energy sitting at his lower dantian were already at a decent quantity. With the energy of these two added on top, it would allow him to cleanse his lower dantian, which would then make the sleeping, dormant core more visible—allowing him to begin nourishing it and slowly awakening it to full functionality.

His intermediate meditation technique was proving enormously helpful in supplementing him with extra energy. He focused on siphoning and refining the energy of the spirit stones while intermittently switching back to cultivating his meditation technique to advance its rank. On the side, he'd also been working on merging the effects of Pristine Sphere and his Beast Soul into another technique: the Blue Phoenix Manifestation. A few more days passed.

He finally broke through, as the system notification pulled him out of his cultivation session. In front of him, two entirely new techniques manifested within [The Endless Path]'s progression panel!