Chapter 67 · Volume 1

Farming Rewards from an NPC Senior, Status Boost Upgrade, Xuanqing Market

“Holy crap, I can farm her repeatedly?” Seeing that as long as he spoke words of righteousness, Zhu Xuanwei would trigger the code and hand over opportunities like an NPC, Ye Lin was overjoyed.
Thus, what followed was:
Ye Lin: “I hold the long sword for the human race, swearing to guard the peace of all living beings until death!”
Zhu Xuanwei's clone: “A young man with great ideals. The human race needs talented geniuses with ideals like yours. This treasure is yours...”
Ye Lin: “I guard the borders for the human race, embarking on this journey with no regrets in life or death!”
Zhu Xuanwei's clone: “A young man with great courage. The human race is in need of brave, talented geniuses like you. Take this.”
...
On the side, seeing Ye Lin and the usually cold Senior Zhu chatting so enthusiastically, and seeing that this senior kept giving Ye Lin treasures, Jiang Ningzhi was completely dumbfounded.
Since when was Senior Zhu so easy to talk to? Since when did Senior Zhu care so much for the younger generation of the human race?
And was Ye Lin really as perfect as the senior praised him to be?
If Ye Lin had the spare mind to notice her, he would have definitely said righteously:
“Is the senior amazing, or are you amazing? Since even a senior is so certain that I am amazing, how dare a junior like you question it? This is simply preposterous!”
But just as Ye Lin had farmed dozens of treasures, a trace of playfulness suddenly appeared in Zhu Xuanwei's eyes.
[Ding! It is detected that you are in combat with another race. The trait 'The Strictest Father of Other Races' has been automatically triggered...]
The moment Zhu Xuanwei's aura was slightly revealed, the game prompt suddenly rang in Ye Lin's ears.
Seeing the different look in the eyes of Zhu Xuanwei's clone, Ye Lin knew that this had probably caught the attention of this senior's main body.
Without any hesitation, he activated the 《Swimming Dragon Sky-Treading Steps》, covering dozens of meters in a single stride, and ran off.
“Thank you for your generous gifts, Senior! This junior will definitely cultivate diligently and slay more of the other races!” He had almost run out of sight, but his voice still echoed from afar.
“This junior shall take her leave.” Seeing this scene, Jiang Ningzhi was also completely dazed. After respectfully bidding farewell, she flew on her sword to chase after Ye Lin.
“You little brat, you actually treated my clone as a wholesale market?” Looking in the direction of where Ye Lin had run, Zhu Xuanwei did not stop him, only cursing with a laugh.
Then, with a casual wave of her hand, she modified the clone's settings so that Ye Lin could no longer farm rewards from it.
“Junior Brother Ye, how on earth did you get Senior Zhu to give you so many opportunities?”
On the other side, in the sky east of Xuanqing Island, Jiang Ningzhi had already caught up to Ye Lin on her sword. Looking at the pile of treasures in Ye Lin's hands, she spoke with great curiosity and envy.
One had to know that when she recruited a Saint-grade genius like Xu Qing'an for the academy, the Mysterious-grade Cultivation Academy had only given her two high-grade treasures and tens of thousands of low-grade spirit stones.
But what about Ye Lin? Just by meeting Senior Zhu once and chatting for a short while, he was able to obtain dozens of Earth-grade rewards.
Taking out any single one of them, its value was higher than all the rewards the Mysterious-grade Cultivation Academy had given her combined.
How could this not make one envious and curious?
“Perhaps Senior Zhu saw that I have slain many evil spirits and felt that I am a relatively righteous person,” Ye Lin said honestly.
However, this righteousness of his could only be used by him alone; others could not replicate it. Firstly, he had enough demon-slaying points on him to prove that he was truly doing great things for the human race.
Secondly, his destiny was that of a Son of Destiny. Only with the boost of his luck would it trigger Senior Zhu's act of gifting opportunities.
Looking at the entire Tianyuan Cultivation Academy, there was no one else who could satisfy both conditions at the same time, so no one could replicate his actions.
“Slain many evil spirits?” Hearing Ye Lin's response, Jiang Ningzhi could not help but smile bitterly in her heart.
She had already reached the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, but the combat power of evil spirits had always been stronger than that of the human race, so she could only kill evil spirits of the Qi Condensation Stage and ordinary Foundation Establishment Stage.
As for those of the Golden Core Stage, she did not even dare to think about it.
And when Senior Zhu was registering Ye Lin's achievements, she had seen them. Ye Lin had killed five Golden Core evil Venerables, as well as over a hundred Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation Stage evil spirits, in one go.
With Ye Lin possessing such dazzling combat power and achievements, it indeed seemed very reasonable for Senior Zhu to gift him some opportunities.
Having figured this out, Jiang Ningzhi did not dwell on it further and immediately led Ye Lin to a secluded, independent small peak on the eastern side of Xuanqing Island.
Atop the peak stood an antique grand hall. Beside the hall were a courtyard, a martial arts arena, specialized alchemy and refining rooms, medicine fields, a pond with lotuses, a pavilion with willow trees, and so on.
At a glance, it was far more complete than Cave Dwelling No. 1 of the Outer Academy, and the spiritual energy was also extremely abundant.
“This will be your cave dwelling in the Inner Academy from now on. The dwelling is equipped with various Spirit Gathering, defensive, and concealment formations, which are sufficient to prevent Nascent Soul cultivators from spying.”
“Also, if you need handyman disciples, you can go to the Outer Academy and select two.”
Bringing Ye Lin to the front of the cave dwelling, Jiang Ningzhi began her introduction.
A quarter of an hour later, Ye Lin used his token to take control of all the formations in his new cave dwelling and familiarized himself with the layout.
[Ding! You have successfully advanced to an Inner Academy elite disciple. Your identity has been updated, and your cultivation speed has increased by 50%.]
Having taken control of the cave dwelling, the game prompt for the status boost upgrade rang in Ye Lin's ears.
“An increase from 35% to 50%, not bad!” Ye Lin was quite satisfied with the upgrade to his status boost.
Afterward, in accordance with their prior agreement, he headed to the market on Xuanqing Island together with Jiang Ningzhi.
It was worth mentioning that there were quite a few Inner Academy disciples on Xuanqing Island, as the arrangements for Inner Academy disciples were different from those of the Outer Academy.
Outer Academy disciples could only cultivate in the academy for a full year before they were required to go to the Demon Abyss to guard it for a period of time before returning to continue their cultivation.
On the other hand, Inner Academy disciples could cultivate for three years before being forced to go guard the Demon Abyss. Of course, as long as they had cultivated for a full year, they could also choose to go guard it early and then return to cultivate.
Outer Academy disciples could cultivate in the academy for a maximum of thirty years, while Inner Academy disciples could cultivate for a full hundred years.
In other words, although not many Inner Academy disciples were recruited each year—only dozens to a hundred—with a full hundred cohorts of disciples, and even after excluding those who fell along the way due to various reasons, got promoted, or left the academy, the permanent resident population remaining in the academy still numbered in the thousands.
Such a large population naturally gave rise to a cultivator market.
And as the largest island in the Inner Academy, Xuanqing Island's “Xuanqing Market” was naturally the largest as well.
In the market, street stalls, restaurants, cultivator general stores, and the like were all readily available.
To Ye Lin's surprise, the Tianyu Chamber of Commerce, where he held a purple-gold black card, actually had a branch here as well, and it was the largest store in the entire market.
That store not only sold and bought back various cultivator goods, but the restaurant and teahouse were also run by them.
“It seems this Tianyu Chamber of Commerce has quite a formidable background, and that woman in red who gave me the purple-gold black card back then is no simple figure either.”
Glancing at the Tianyu Chamber of Commerce in the market, Ye Lin could not help but mutter to himself.
It was also worth mentioning that although cultivators could practice Bigu once they reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, the food and drinks in cultivator restaurants were by no means ordinary, and consuming many of them was highly beneficial to one's cultivation.
Therefore, unless they were in long-term secluded cultivation, the vast majority of cultivators would still choose to eat as an alternative way of aiding their cultivation.
After all, if spending some spirit stones on food could assist in cultivation, who would want to endure the bitter hardship of secluded cultivation every day?
Before long, Ye Lin and Jiang Ningzhi arrived in front of the restaurant with the best foot traffic in the market, named “Celestial Abode.”
“Please come in, you two. Would you like a private room or to dine in the main hall?”
Just as they stepped into the restaurant, the welcoming maid smiled and came over to lead the way.
“A private room, and bring us a few of your signature dishes,” Ye Lin said to the maid.
Soon, they were led to an antique private room.
“Honored guests, our Celestial Abode will be hosting a competition of the four arts—zither, Go, calligraphy, and painting—in a moment. Anyone who participates can receive a mysterious reward.”
After arranging for the dishes to be served, the maid suddenly said with a smile.

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