Against The Heavens 73 Yuan Clan

The foot of the mountain was paved with a thin layer of dark yellow stones that released a constant stream of faint warmth. There were a few small houses around the foot of the mountain, with more buildings appearing higher up the mountainside. The place where Yuan Luoyang brought them was one of the open areas located between the buildings, probably a small plaza where disciples could gather to sell some of their items.

Li Yang could see a few disciples clad in the yellow robes of the Yuan clan, but they only sent a quick glance at Li Yang and the two girls, quickly returning to their own business, with only a select few sticking around to check out the new disciples.

Standing in the middle of the small plaza was the elder with the half brown and half cyan hair, 10 other youths, as well as one unfamiliar elder that released a strong pressure. Yuan Luoyang brought them to the front of the elder with the strange hair, the elder giving her a nod and then addressing the new disciples, introducing the unfamiliar elder next to him.

"Good, you have all arrived. This is Eighth Elder Yuan Qigang, he is the one who will officially initiate you into the clan."

Yuan Qigang had a tall body, his back completely straight and upright. His hair was a bright white in color, but it looked like fine silk, swaying in the wind. He had long eyebrows that were as white as his hair, and deep brown eyes. Yuan Qigang nodded at Li Yang and the others, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out an orb made out of yellow jade.

"Alright children, come up to me one by one, state your name, age, as well as your laws. I will then extract some of your blood and store it into a jade like this, allowing us to know if you were to perish. I will then mark you with the mark of our clan, allowing everyone from the other clans and sects to know that you are already members of the Yuan clan."

Yuan Qigang released a mighty pressure, but Li Yang could tell that he was actually doing his best to hold the pressure back so as to not scare them. He simply didn't seem to be used to hiding away the pressure that his cultivation brought about. After Yuan Qigang finished talking, Li Yang and the others quickly walked forward and did as they were ordered.

"Cheng Xun, 26, the law of motion and the law of wind."

"Qiao Ping, 21, the law of plants and the law of wood."

"Li Yang, 14, the law of fire, the law of ice, and the law of lightning."

Li Yang wasn't quite 14 yet, but half a year or so made no difference to him. Yuan Qigang and the others were rather surprised at Li Yang's age, especially Yuan Luoyang and the 10 other youths waiting behind Yuan Qigang. If it was someone who was diligently raised by a clan, it wouldn't be much to have Li Yang's strength at his age. But Li Yang was simply a child from some village, so it was quite shocking for him to have his achievements at his age.

After they stated their information, Yuan Qigang tapped the air with his finger, a drop of blood pus.h.i.+ng itself out from the fingers of Li Yang and the two girls. Two more orbs of yellow jade appeared within Yuan Qigang's hand, each drop of blood dripping down on a different orb.

Once the blood dripped onto the orbs, it sank into them, causing the jade to light up with a faint light. The orbs cracked down the middle, splitting into two parts. One part flew into the chests of Li Yang and the girls, while the other half stayed with Yuan Qigang. When the jade sank into his body, Li Yang felt a faint stream of energy seep out from the jade and into his head. With the energy settling in his head, he was now able to sense a similar energy within the other people around him, marking them as people from the same sect. After Li Yang and the two girls got used to the sensation of feeling the others around them, Yuan Qigang clapped his hands and spoke up.

"Congratulations, you are all now official members of my Yuan clan. In the future, I hope that you will consider it a second home where you can lay down your burdens and ease your weary bodies. Teng, I will leave the dividing of the manpower to you."

The Teng that Yuan Qigang spoke to was the elder with the strange hair, Yuan Teng. After Yuan Qigang tossed the remaining responsibility to Yuan Teng, he said his farewells to the disciples, flying into the air and toward the peak of the mountain. Once Yuan Qigang vanished from sight, Yuan Teng waved the 10 youths standing behind him over, introducing them.

"Standing behind me are several provisional disciples as well as one other outer disciple, Jiang Chen. In the future, these provisional disciples will be considered your servants, so take good care of them. If you feel like it, you can also teach them a little about cultivation. Jiang Chen will guide you around the clan, as well as explain anything that you will need to know. He joined the clan before you, so you must refer to him as Senior Brother Chen."

Jiang Chen had a bit of a short stature and was a bit chubby, but he had smooth and delicate skin, almost like a woman's. He had black hair that hung down to his ears, the hair tied into a neat bun at the back of his head. After briefly introducing the 10 people behind him, Yuan Teng turned to Jiang Chen.

"Junior Chen, I trust that you know your duties?"

Jiang Chen had already expected all the responsibility to be dumped onto him so he quickly put on a smile, giving Yuan Teng a bow and a.s.suring him.

"Please don't worry, Elder Teng, I will educate them well, so you can rest easy."

Yuan Teng nodded his head in appreciation, giving Li Yang and the others one last quick glance before he flew into the air and vanished up the mountain. As an esteemed elder, he found it beneath him to guide around a bunch of outer disciples. Jiang Chen let out a loud sigh after Yuan Teng vanished from sight, rolling his shoulders and speaking up.

"Alright, now it's just us. Jeez, standing in front of the elders is always so suffocating. Rivergra.s.s, Ji Shun, and Blackstone, the three of you can follow Junior Brother Yang in the future. Cloudfall, Shentu, Liang Su, the three of you can follow Junior Sister Ping. Riverflow, Rainsong, Fireheart, the three of you follow Junior Sister Xun. Listen to their orders and do your best to aid them."

Jiang Chen swiftly divided up the nine provisional disciples, not even bothering to check what they or Li Yang and the others wanted. Of the three that were given to Li Yang, Rivergra.s.s and Ji shun were women, while Blackstone was a man. Looking at the three that were handed to him, Li Yang could easily tell why they were only provisional disciples.

Rivergra.s.s seemed to be in her late thirties, had deep blue hair and graceful features, and light blue eyes. Ji Shun seemed to be in her early thirties, had smooth and somewhat pale skin, chestnut brown hair, and black eyes. Blackstone seemed to have already reached his forties, had pitch black hair, slightly scarred skin, and black eyes, perfectly fitting his name. Li Yang was unable to sense the clan energy from these three, so it seemed that provisional disciples weren't counted as actual disciples.

All three of them had reached the late stage of the Xiantian Rune realm, only a small step away from the Ascending Heaven realm. Blackstone didn't seem to be all that content with ending up under the care of Li Yang, but as a provisional disciple, he could only swallow his discontent. If he did end up becoming too rebellious, Li Yang would simply have to beat him into shape.

After the provisional disciples lined up behind their future caretakers, Jiang Chen gave a nod of his head, giving Li Yang and the two girls a light reminder.

"They are only provisional disciples but do your best to take good care of them, keep the abuse to a minimum. Just like Elder Teng said, I am Jiang Chen, or Senior Brother Chen to you. Let's bring the provisional disciples to your houses, and then I can start the guiding."

As newcomers, Li Yang and the two girls listened to Jiang Chen's suggestion, all of them quickly heading through the forest and to their houses by the lake. After Li Yang let his three servants enter his house, Jiang Chen furrowed his brows slightly, pointing at Li Yang's wolfskin robes.

"Junior Brother Yang, I suggest you change clothing, otherwise you might attract some trouble."

Li Yang slightly raised one of his eyebrows, glancing at his own robes. He still wore the custom ordered robes that looked like violet wolfskin, having gotten a bit attached to them. There was also the fact that Jinwu and Shenlong were used to these robes, so if he was to change robes, he wanted to at least be given a good reason.

"Are robes like these against the rules of the clan?"

Li Yang didn't want to stir up too much trouble, he just wanted to acquire resources and raise his strength before the compet.i.tion. Jiang Chen's expression turned complex for a second, but he shook his head to Li Yang's question, explaining the reason for his statement.

"Not at all. It's just the fact that the robes resemble the clothing that the Beast Lovers, disciples of the Myriad Beast sect, wear. The Myriad Beast sect is tied with the Yuan clan for the fourth spot in the sect rankings, so we often end up clas.h.i.+ng. Over the course of all these clashes, quite a few disciples have died, so our relations.h.i.+p is currently at the bottom, with quite a few disciples growing to hate the Myriad Beast sect. We don't currently have any ongoing battles, everyone saving their strength for the grand compet.i.tion, so some disciples might end up unleas.h.i.+ng some of their pent-up anger on you if they see you wearing robes like that."

Wherever there was more than one great power, there would always be compet.i.tion and ranking of their might. The Duan, Huo, and Tian clan held on tightly to the top three spots, but the fourth-ranked spot was shared between the Yuan clan and the Myriad Beast sect.

To prevent the clans from starting any ma.s.sive battles between each other, battles that might wipe out either of them, the higher-ups had decided to let the younger generation battle each other, using them to see who would hold onto the fourth-ranked year after year. After hearing the explanation, Li Yang gave a short nod of his head.

"I see, thanks for the warning, I'll go change before we continue."

The reasoning was sound, and since Li Yang did not want to attract too much trouble just for a robe, he entered his house and put on one of the Yuan clan robes that were already stored inside the house. After he switched robe, the group of four started to walk through the forest, Jiang Chen starting his explanation of the clan.

"The area of the clan is divided up quite simply, with the outer 20 kilometers of the forest housing the provisional disciples, the rest of the forest housing the outer disciples, and the mountain itself housing all the other disciples. I suggest staying away from the provisional disciple area, as they might swarm you and beg you for the chance to become your servants, it's quite a common thing for them to do."

Even if it was shameful to beg for the chance to become a servant, the truth was that almost 90 % of the provisional disciples would never be able to become outer disciples. But if they managed to become the servant of an outer disciple, they might get the chance to get some leftover resources and guidance, drastically increasing their chances of becoming an outer disciple.

"Except for the core and private disciples, each of the other grades of disciples all have five different leaders that have divided said grades into different groups, creating a total of 15 different miniature a.s.sociations within the clan. The higher-ups know of this, but since it creates a bit of healthy compet.i.tion, they have elected to quietly allow it."

No matter how unified an organization was, different groups would always sprout up sooner or later, those with similar ideas gathering together. And not only did it create compet.i.tion that would promote growth, but it would also make it easier to control everything. Rather than try to control all the disciples, they would only have to control the disciples that ruled the other disciples, saving them a lot of work.

"I'm not gonna bother talking about the five leaders of the provisional disciples, as you will have next to nothing to do with them. But the five leaders of the outer disciples and the five leaders of the inner disciples are people you should know about."

Unless an outer disciple truly messed up something, they would not get demoted to becoming a provisional disciple, so it was not wrong to say that they would have nothing to do with the provisional disciples. But there was one thing that would always exist side by side with rulers.

"The outer disciples are led by Senior Brother Wuying, Senior Brother Huang, Senior Brother Tai, Senior Sister Yijun, and Senior Brother Fen. They are the five strongest outer disciples, with each of them ruling one part of the forest. If you want your life in the clan to be easier, I suggest you just quietly pay the tax they want you to pay. They should send some goons to collect the tax once the monthly Spirit Stones arrive, so in about three days."

Wherever there were rulers, there were taxes. While killing and crippling other disciples was forbidden, causing them a bit of pain and making things difficult for them was very easy. Jiang Chen seemed to suddenly remember something, his expression a bit queer as he turned towards the two girls.

"Looking at where your houses were located, you fall under the domain of Senio Sister Yijun, so I suggest that Junior Sister Ping and Junior Sister Xun request to be moved further to the east of the forest, out from her domain."

Cheng Xun and Qiao Ping looked rather confused at the strange suggestion, Li Yang also growing a bit interested. Jiang Chen stopped walking and swept the surrounding forest with a quick gaze, leaning in a bit closer to whisper.

"Senior Sister Yijun is usually a refined and gentle woman, if a bit of a drama queen at times. But she is quite fond of girls, especially fresh and young girls like the two of you. So for your chast.i.ties sake, I highly recommend you change housing, or just hide whenever Senior Sister Yijun is out and about."

Cheng Xun's and Qiao Ping's expression changed a bit after hearing the truth about Yijun, but Li Yang didn't find anything strange about it. He had met men who liked men, women who liked Demonic beasts, even men who only like normal animals. For someone's s.e.xual preferences to shock him, it would take quite a bit. After delivering the warning to the two girls, Jiang Chen continued with his explanation of the clan.

"As for the five leaders of the inner disciples, they are Senior Sister Nuang, Senior Sister Jiao, Senior Sister Yong, Senior Brother Fang, and Senior Brother Long. As the top dogs of the inner disciples, they rarely interact with us outer disciples, but should someone come and mention any of those names, I suggest to just listen to their orders, don't a.s.sume that they are lying and risk it, it's not worth it."

It was not completely out of the question that a goon working for one of the five inner disciple leaders could come out here and s.n.a.t.c.h up a disciple, forcing them to help with whatever task they were working on. After telling the newcomers about the most important people to keep in mind, Jiang Chen decided that it was time to start actually telling them about the various locations within the clan.

"But enough about that, let's talk about the various places within the clan that you should keep in mind! The most important places are the mission control building, the arena, the training grounds, and finally the storehouse."

The ears of Li Yang and the two girls perked up, so as to not miss a word. Jiang Chen quickly brought them deeper into the forest, until they reached a location that was about 50 kilometers away from the central mountain. The trees here were very spa.r.s.e, so it was easy to see everything in the surroundings, so when Jiang Chen pointed at a ma.s.sive building, it was impossible to not see it.

"See that house over there, the one that looks like a ma.s.sive yellow dome? That is the mission control building, its where you can accept and deliver clan missions, earning contribution points based on the rank of the mission. Some disciples take on a bunch of missions to temper themselves and earn rewards, others, on the other hand, prefer to only take on the required missions, cultivating in peace."

The mission control building looked like someone had buried a ball halfway into the ground, with only the top half visible. The entire dome was covered in runes that coiled around each other, looking like serpents that were trying to fight each other. After showing them the mission control building, he took them to the forest that was north of the central mountain, pointing at another mountain that had been cut in half horizontally.

"The arena is located over there, it's that mountain that has been shaved in half. The arena is the place where you can challenge the top-ranked disciples in an attempt to take over their spot, or if you have any feuds with other clan members that can only end when either of you dies, you will have to request for permission to use the arena for a death match. Other than these two purposes, the arena is mostly used for live combat training, as well as gambling matches, so you might be able to earn a pretty penny there."

The arena was the perfect place for disciples to test how much their strength had improved, allowing them to challenge other disciples that they could use to gauge their own strength. After checking out the arena, Jiang Chen brought them back to the foot of the central mountain, pointing at a ma.s.sive paG.o.da located a bit up the mountain

"The storehouse is that paG.o.da over there, the black one that is located halfway up the central mountain. That is where you can go to exchange your contribution points or Spirit Stones for resources or cultivation manuals. The higher up the paG.o.da you go, the more valuable the items become."

Li Yang made sure to get a good look at the paG.o.da, as this was where he would acquire the resources he was looking for. After giving them a good look at the paG.o.da, Jiang Chen didn't lead them further into the forest. Instead, he pointed toward the distant mission control building that was still faintly visible.

"And finally, the training grounds. They are a bit harder to guide you to, as they are spread all around the clan. We have training grounds for almost all types of laws, so I suggest you just head to mission control and have them direct you toward the training ground you are looking for, it'll save you the searching."

For a clan as large as the Yuan clan, it was not hard for them to create multiple training grounds filled with a wide variety of elements. And while this forest didn't look like a good place for most of those training grounds, the Yuan clan was far larger than just this forest, this forest was merely the tip of the iceberg. After pointing at the mission control building, Jiang Chen clapped his hands and announced the end of the tour.

"And that's it, those were all the important places and information that you newbies needed to know. Should something pop up, or you rise in the ranks, you will probably be told about it then, but there is no point in confusing you with all that now. Just focus on cultivating and increasing your strength, make the clan proud."

After speaking., Jiang Chen did not bother staying around any longer, swiftly vanis.h.i.+ng into the forest. Li Yang and the two girls were only newcomers, as long as they knew the most essential information, it would count as Jiang Chen doing his job. Since he had now completed his job, he was free to return to his own house and servants, focusing on preparing for the upcoming Huo clan compet.i.tion.

The two girls were a bit caught off guard at Jiang Chen's swift retreat, as his guiding tour had only lasted a few hours. They had just joined the clan, so they thought that they would be guided and led a bit more than that. Li Yang on the other hand simply bade the two girls farewell and returned to his own house. First, he would get a day of rest, then he would start accepting missions to gather up contribution points.