ARK SPIRIT

After another month roaming the mountains of Tieu Dao, Hao Nhien finally returned to the main mountain region.

By the time he appeared on the narrow path leading back toward the outer sect, it was already past noon. White clouds drifted lazily above the distant peaks, while wind moved through the pine forests on both sides of the road, carrying the scent of dry leaves and the familiar, refreshing spiritual qi of Tieu Dao Mountain.

Compared with when he had left, Hao Nhien looked somewhat leaner.

He had changed into a fresh set of pale blue outer sect robes, though several edges were already worn from days spent moving through the mountains and forests. His hair was tied neatly behind his head, and his skin had darkened slightly from sun and wind. He was not particularly broad or imposing, but every step was steadier than before. The youthful look of a newly admitted disciple had also faded from his eyes, replaced by the quiet alertness of someone who had truly experienced battle, injury, and the constant need to decide whether to advance or retreat.

The past month had not been easy.

He hunted demonic beasts, searched for medicinal herbs, avoided regions occupied by creatures beyond his ability, and stayed away from outer sect disciples whose intentions seemed questionable. Several times, Hao Nhien noticed signs of an ambush from a distance and immediately changed routes. On other occasions, he encountered beasts stronger than expected and withdrew without even attempting to fight.

Most of his time had not been spent in battle.

Tracking signs, checking the wind, scouting terrain, practicing breathing cultivation, treating injuries, and choosing suitable targets took far more time than actually drawing his sword.

On nights when his condition was poor or he needed to avoid other people, Hao Nhien would enter the Cave Dwelling within the Cosmic Ark, tend to his wounds, and quietly review every decision he had made that day. Where he had been too impatient, where he had failed to notice a change in the surroundings, where he should have retreated earlier, he remembered them all.

As a result, his harvest was not so great as to seem exaggerated.

But it was enough.

After nearly losing all his gains to other people twice before, Hao Nhien had become far more cautious. On the return journey, he avoided familiar routes and did not deliberately travel along crowded paths merely for a false sense of safety. From the southern region of the lake, he circled around a mountain slope with few footprints, avoiding narrow ravines that could easily be blocked and roads frequently used by disciples returning from missions.

He restrained his true qi, kept his breathing steady, and paid particular attention to the direction of the wind. Any blood on his body had already been cleaned away, while his spoils were sealed inside his storage pouch and kept out of sight.

Hao Nhien still encountered several groups of outer sect disciples along the way.

Some glanced at him once and continued walking.

Others let their eyes linger a little too long on the storage pouch at his waist.

Hao Nhien did not react.

He did not provoke anyone, did not show off, and gave no indication of how long he had been in the mountains or what he had gained. By now, he understood one very simple truth. In the outer sect of Tieu Dao Sect, finding something did not mean it belonged to you.

Only bringing it safely back to the Mission Hall made it truly yours.

At the foot of the main mountain, Hao Nhien paused for a moment.

The outer sect district ahead was as lively as ever. Stone paths curved along the mountainside, weaving between stone houses, wooden buildings, market stalls, smithies, tea shops, and various administrative halls. From a distance, it looked like a miniature cultivation town nestled in the mountains.

Yet compared with more than a month ago, the atmosphere had clearly changed.

More urgent.

Hotter.

Like a pot that had been sitting over the fire long enough for currents of heat to begin rolling beneath the surface, even if the water had not yet fully boiled.

Hao Nhien did not stand there for long.

The first thing he needed to do was exchange his gains for contribution points.

He went directly to the Mission Hall.

The Mission Hall stood at the foot of a rocky slope. It was spacious but plain. An old wooden sign hung above the entrance, carved with the words Sect Missions. Inside were rows of shelves filled with jade slips, one wall covered in wooden mission plaques, and a long counter used for turning in mission items and receiving rewards.

The hall was relatively quiet when Hao Nhien entered.

Most outer sect disciples were probably still out completing missions or crowding the market in preparation for the upcoming examination.

Behind the wooden counter, a silver haired elder was resting his chin on one hand, eyes half closed.

The sound of footsteps startled him awake.

“Who’s there? Taking a mission or turning one in?”

Hao Nhien stepped forward and cupped his hands.

“Senior, this disciple is here to submit items for contribution points.”

The elder cleared his throat and straightened.

“Exchanging for points? Fine. Let me see what you have.”

Hao Nhien removed the storage pouch from his waist and began taking out his spoils one by one.

First came ten first rank beast cores.

Each carried a different color and aura. One was dark red from a fire attributed beast, another pale blue and faintly moist, while others were gray silver or dull yellow, taken from various demonic beasts of the mountains.

It was not an excessive number, but all of them had been preserved well.

Next came five portions of low level medicinal herbs. Hao Nhien had already sorted them beforehand, placing each type in a separate wooden box. The roots and other medicinally important parts were almost completely intact.

Then came two mid level medicinal plants.

The spiritual qi around these two was clearly denser than that of the others.

Finally, Hao Nhien took out four second rank beast cores.

One was dark violet, marked by faint rippling patterns. It belonged to the Mystic Sound Wolf. Two others carried different attributes and had been obtained during the past month. The final core was dark red mixed with gold, still radiating a trace of warmth from a fire attributed demonic beast he had spent considerable effort killing during the final days of his journey.

The moment the four second rank beast cores were placed on the counter, the sleepiness vanished from the elder’s face.

He looked over the items before finally raising his head.

“Token.”

Hao Nhien presented his outer sect token with both hands.

The elder sent spiritual qi into it, checked the information, then looked at Hao Nhien again.

“Quan Hao Nhien. You haven’t been in the outer sect very long.”

“Yes.”

The elder glanced at the pile on the counter again.

“Bought mission spoils outside and brought them here to turn in?”

Hao Nhien froze for a moment, then understood what he meant.

Within the outer sect, contribution points themselves were not the only thing used in trade. Mission spoils, medicinal herbs, beast cores, and other items accepted by the sect had long since formed a market of their own. With enough spirit stones, someone could simply buy qualifying materials and bring them to the Mission Hall.

That too was a way of using resources.

Hao Nhien shook his head.

“No. Most of these were gathered by this disciple personally in the mountains.”

The elder studied him for a while but did not ask where every individual item had come from.

At last, he picked up the Mystic Sound Wolf core and examined it more carefully.

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“For a new disciple to bring back this much, luck alone isn’t enough.”

He set the core down.

“Being able to hunt something is one matter. Keeping the spoils long enough to bring them back is another.”

Hao Nhien lowered his head slightly.

“This disciple was only a little more careful.”

The elder laughed.

“Being careful enough to stay alive is also a skill.”

He began counting the rewards.

“Ten first rank beast cores, ten points each. One hundred.”

“Five portions of low level medicinal herbs, preserved to an acceptable standard. Fifty.”

“Two mid level medicinal plants, both of decent quality. Eighty.”

Then his gaze shifted to the four remaining cores.

“Four second rank beast cores, thirty points each. One hundred and twenty.”

His finger stopped on the dark violet one.

“The Mystic Sound Wolf is somewhat uncommon. This one earns another ten points.”

The elder recorded the result.

“Three hundred and sixty points in total.”

Hao Nhien relaxed slightly when he heard the number.

Three hundred and sixty.

Not an enormous amount.

But enough for what mattered most.

The elder looked at the token in his hand.

“What do you want to exchange for?”

Hao Nhien did not need to think.

“This disciple wants an inner sect examination token and the Tieu Dao Encyclopedia.”

The elder raised an eyebrow.

“You just earned the points and already want to spend three hundred?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not planning to save them for pills or artifacts?”

“Those can be obtained in other ways. These two are more important right now.”

The elder studied him for several breaths, then nodded.

“At least you know what you need.”

He turned, opened a cabinet behind the counter, and took out a pale blue jade token and a blue covered book.

“Inner sect examination token, one hundred points.”

“Tieu Dao Encyclopedia, two hundred.”

Hao Nhien accepted both items.

The elder did not return his sect token immediately.

“This only gives you the right to participate. There is still more than a month before the examination. Don’t think holding this token means you already have one foot in the inner sect.”

He glanced toward the doorway.

“The closer the examination gets, the more chaotic the outer sect becomes. Some people lack points, some lack pills, some lack teammates, and some only lack a single opportunity to change their fate. When that time comes, anything valuable will rise in price, and anything worth taking will attract people willing to take it.”

Hao Nhien cupped his hands seriously.

“Thank you for the warning, Senior.”

The elder handed his sect token back.

“Three hundred and sixty minus three hundred. You have sixty points left. I’ve recorded them on the token.”

Hao Nhien sent a trace of true qi into it to check.

Sixty points.

A month in the mountains, all the injuries, all the times he had been forced to flee, and all those nights spent alone reviewing his mistakes had finally turned into something he could actually use.

Hao Nhien cupped his hands once more.

“Thank you, Senior.”

The elder waved him away.

“Go. Whether you enter the inner sect or not still depends on you.”

Hao Nhien carefully stored the two items and left the Mission Hall.

The afternoon sunlight had already begun to slant across the mountainside.

He did not go to the market immediately. Instead, he first returned to his stone dwelling on the mountain.

After entering, Hao Nhien closed the door, activated the room’s restriction, and sat beside the stone table.

The room was as simple as when he had left, containing only a stone table, a meditation cushion, a wooden bed, and a window overlooking the valley of clouds. After so many nights spent in the forest or inside the Cosmic Ark’s Cave Dwelling, the place suddenly felt peaceful in a way it never had before.

Hao Nhien took out the examination token first.

The jade token was pale blue, its surface carved with only a few simple cloud patterns. At its center ran a faint line of light, resembling a narrow road hidden within the clouds.

He sent a trace of true qi into it.

The token trembled slightly.

Nothing else happened.

No information entered his mind, and no unusual reaction appeared.

Hao Nhien turned it over several times before putting it aside.

“Maybe it only activates on the day of the examination.”

His gaze shifted to the blue covered book beside it.

The Tieu Dao Encyclopedia.

The book was roughly two fingers thick, its cover engraved with the image of a crane flying through layers of cloud. It did not look especially remarkable, but the moment Hao Nhien placed his hand on it, he sensed a very thin restriction covering its surface.

This was not an ordinary paper book.

He placed his outer sect token beside it and sent true qi into the book.

A faint light immediately spread across the cover, passed over the token, then returned.

A line of information appeared in Hao Nhien’s mind.

Authorized user confirmed: Quan Hao Nhien.

A warning followed immediately afterward.

The Tieu Dao Encyclopedia could only be directly accessed by its authorized user. Its complete contents could not be copied, forcibly transmitted, or directly transferred to another person through spiritual awareness. Deliberately attempting to break the restriction would sever the connection and could cause mental backlash.

After reading it, the corner of Hao Nhien’s mouth twitched.

“Strict enough.”

But after thinking about it, he found the restriction perfectly reasonable.

If one person only needed to spend two hundred points for an entire group to copy the book, most of its value would disappear immediately.

Tieu Dao Sect allowed disciples to buy and sell mission spoils, exchange resources, hire others, and even use spirit stones to indirectly solve many problems.

But anything given a price still had ways to preserve that value.

Hao Nhien continued sending true qi into the book.

Instead of an enormous mass of knowledge flooding into his mind as he had imagined, a series of broad categories appeared in his awareness like the pages of an invisible table of contents: sect history, the seven peaks, outer sect regions, missions, maps, demonic beasts, medicinal herbs, artifacts, secret realms, examinations, famous figures, and several ancient records concerning Tieu Dao Mountain.

Hao Nhien immediately understood how it worked.

It did not pour all its knowledge into his mind.

It was a reference tool.

The Tieu Dao Encyclopedia only opened the information he chose to search for.

That both reduced the burden on the mind and forced the user to know what they were actually looking for.

Hao Nhien thought for a moment, then selected secret realms.

The examination was no longer far away.

This was the information most worth checking first.

The relevant records quickly appeared.

According to the Tieu Dao Encyclopedia, Tieu Dao Sect currently controlled nine ancient secret realms that had been inherited and maintained across many generations. They were divided into three broad tiers according to the cultivation, status, and authority of those permitted to enter.

Three secret realms were commonly used by the outer sect.

The first was the Cloud Sea Illusion Realm.

It was a mountainous region covered in mist throughout the year. Spiritual qi there was dense but chaotic, and many old illusion formations overlapped one another. Most demonic beasts inside were first rank, but their ability to hide within the fog made them more dangerous than usual.

The realm primarily tested navigation, movement techniques, resistance to illusions, and mental stability. Common resources included low level medicinal herbs, beast cores from creatures adapted to the mist, Cloudheart Stones, and minor treasures left behind by ancient formations.

The second was the Mystic Yin Stone Cavern.

This was a vast system of underground caverns deep beneath the mountains. Bone chilling cold lingered throughout the year, light was scarce, the passages were complicated, and many demonic beasts possessed yin or cold attributes.

The greatest challenge was not the number of beasts, but the ability to maintain stable true qi, remain alert over long periods, and avoid losing direction while isolated.

Mystic Yin Stone found within the cavern was a valuable material for certain yin attributed artifacts and formations.

The third was the Spirit Beast Forest.

It was the most dangerous of the three secret realms commonly available to outer sect disciples.

The realm contained a vast primeval forest inhabited by many populations of demonic beasts. In some of the larger groups, the beasts formed ranks of Soldier, General, and King according to their roles within the pack. These titles reflected status and command within the group and did not replace the normal classification of first rank, second rank, and higher demonic beasts.

Disciples entering the Spirit Beast Forest during an examination would each receive an escape jade talisman.

If they encountered danger beyond their ability to handle, they could activate the talisman to leave the realm. However, anyone who left before completing the examination requirements would be considered to have failed, and all resources obtained inside would be reclaimed by the formation.

If the examination selected the Spirit Beast Forest, anyone who completed the basic requirements would receive an additional five hundred contribution points.

Hao Nhien paused at that number.

Five hundred points.

Even for him now, that was a substantial amount.

But the most dangerous outer sect secret realm also offered the greatest reward.

There was nothing difficult to understand about that.

Tieu Dao Sect had never hidden this principle.

Those who wanted more had to accept a greater price.

Hao Nhien continued reading.

The three secret realms intended for inner sect disciples were the Heavenly Cloud Tower, the Void Secret Realm, and the Myriad Beast Valley.

The Heavenly Cloud Tower primarily tested willpower, sustained combat ability, and control over true qi.

The Void Secret Realm contained unstable space. Direction and distance frequently behaved incorrectly inside, making ordinary experience with navigation unreliable.

The Myriad Beast Valley, as its name suggested, contained large numbers of powerful demonic beasts and was far more dangerous than the regions available to outer sect disciples.

The final three secret realms belonged to a special tier.

Detailed information was restricted. The encyclopedia only stated that they did not open according to any fixed schedule. Gaining a chance to enter required special mission points, major contributions to the sect, or fulfillment of certain individual conditions.

Hao Nhien only glanced over their names before stopping.

At his current cultivation, knowing that they existed was enough.

Thinking any farther ahead would accomplish nothing.

He returned his attention to the three outer sect secret realms.

Cloud Sea Illusion Realm.

Mystic Yin Stone Cavern.

Spirit Beast Forest.

There was still no announcement indicating which one would be used for the upcoming examination.

But one thing was already clear.

The inner sect examination was not simply a matter of pairing disciples and seeing who could defeat whom.

Each secret realm tested a different form of survival.

The Cloud Sea challenged one’s sense of direction and trust in one’s own perception.

The Mystic Yin Cavern tested endurance against cold, isolation, and prolonged depletion.

The Spirit Beast Forest made the choice between profit and survival impossible to ignore.

Tieu Dao Sect appeared free and unrestrained on the surface.

But the way it selected its disciples was anything but careless.

Hao Nhien withdrew his true qi from the Tieu Dao Encyclopedia and set the book down.

After resting for a while, he changed back into his outer robe and left the room.

He wanted to see how much the outer sect had changed.

More than a month ago, the area had still carried the excitement of newly admitted disciples. Some asked for directions, some searched for teammates, and some stood in the middle of the market loudly declaring that they would definitely enter the inner sect. A few young women had even gathered near clothing stalls to discuss which style of sect robe looked best.

Back then, there had still been a trace of innocence beneath all the noise.

Now it was different.

The stone road leading down toward the market was packed with people. Temporary stalls made from bamboo, timber, and cloth lined both sides. Bargaining, shouting, and heated discussion blended together without pause.

“First rank beast cores! One hundred and eighty mid grade spirit stones each! If you’re still short on points, buy now!”

“Healing pills! Thirty points or mission spoils of equivalent value!”

“Heart Calming Talismans, Illusion Breaking Talismans, Direction Talismans! Rumor says this examination may use the Cloud Sea Illusion Realm! Wait for the official announcement and you won’t get this price anymore!”

“Looking for two seventh layer Qi Condensation cultivators or above! Formation knowledge or medicinal herb identification preferred!”

Hao Nhien slowed his steps.

The outer sect truly had its own way of handling trade.

Contribution points could serve as a unit of value, while actual payment could be made through mission items, spirit stones, or whatever form of exchange both sides accepted. Some transactions could even be verified through the Mission Hall or sect stewards acting as intermediaries.

Tieu Dao Sect did not try to prohibit things that were difficult to prohibit.

It simply established