Li Ling folded his arms, not bothered by the disdain of the six Hall Masters. After all, this was not like the Number 5 Joyous Market where Li Ling could smash a bunch of third realm rogue cultivators to death with his Perfection-stage Meteor Spell without even being at the peak of the second realm.

Those were rogue cultivators with shaky foundations, practicing average skills and with limited advancement in their daoist arts. These were powerful Hall Masters of one of the top sects on the entire continent, with perfected cultivation at the third realm in both sides, using high-quality cultivation methods with top-level daoist arts that might even be at Perfection.

If Li Ling was considered a realm climber who could punch above his level, then so were they back when they were at Li Ling's cultivation stage.

The Hall Masters were in an awkward situation, being at the peak of the lower sect's hierarchy with talent that allowed them to go forward, but regulations that did not. As Li Ling had come to understand back when Bai Ruyi first explained it, a sect like the Six Paths Demon Sect had two tracks—the 'student' track for disciples and the 'teacher' track for elders.

Both tracks split off after the first level, which was the Path Walker stage. Once one became a Path Lord, they could make a sort of preliminary track selection by choosing to take up managerial roles in the sect, like Ren Xue, who was head of the Binding Blood Wing.

If one did so, then they would be on the 'elder' track for life, where their advancement would see them either retain roles in the lower sect or be sent to expand outward. For example, there were so many warfronts of the Six Paths Demon Sect across the continent, and those related to the lower sect had a Core Formation or even Nascent Soul cultivator in charge to prevent sudden annihilation.

If only the Hall Master and his two deputies were third realm equivalents, then how could they find enough people to fill the blanks?

The disciple track was already clear to Li Ling. Once he reached the third realm of his path, which was the Golden Body realm of the Blood Asura Descent, he would upgrade to become a Path Ascender and be eligible for the yearly tournament to rise to a Core Disciple.

But that was for later.

Following the above scenario, the question was simple. Who ranked higher—a Path Ascender or a Hall Master, both of whom were at the third realm?

Theoretically, they should be equals, as the world respected power the most, but in a social structure like a sect that had its own internal rules, things became a bit murky. This was why, despite knowing that Li Ling would definitely advance further and even surpass them in the future, these Hall Masters still dared to cause trouble.

It was because the elder track would always have an advantage over the disciple track of the same realm, regardless of the actual power difference. Tang Huo could take away Li Ling's benefits with a wave of his hand, even if Li Ling reached the third realm peak and could beat Tang Huo into the ground.

"Well, I do thank Hall Master Shen for the offer. Why not announce it to the sect that the day before the final battle, there will be a spar between us to show the youth of the sect the necessities of battle?" Li Ling offered with a smile.

Shen Taixu scoffed with a cold sneer. "There's no need to find a lofty excuse for me. If you want, you can even say it bluntly: I don't like you and want to suppress you! That's all there is to it!"

Li Ling burst into laughter for the first time, causing the expression of the Divine Deva Hall Master to become cold. "Make an excuse for you? Why would I waste my time doing that? The reason is just so that no one points fingers at me for being disrespectful for bullying my elders!"

"Good! Good! Good! I really hope you can maintain such amusement in the dueling ring when your face is pressing against the ground!" Shen Taixu retorted through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowing menacingly.

"Alright, alright, let's not worsen things further. It's safe to say that today's meeting has fallen into ill-repute due to the various grievances and misunderstandings between us all, so let us reconvene after the proposed duel to finish what was started here." Gu Mugui immediately spoke softly to placate the two, who backed off.

"Indeed, a solid option!" Hu Wulei hurriedly agreed, as he also needed the right scenario to launch his devious plan for success.

"Hmph, the previous matter cannot be waived by just a word from you, Hall Master Tang. We shall indeed need to look into this further." Yan Moqing added grimly, also desperately needing time to rush back to her drawing board to establish a new plan.

"My intentions remain the same—to assist and guide young Li Ling to achieve his full potential. If such an arrangement will be better made after a duel, then I shall bide my time as necessary." Cao Tian also relented but made sure to play it off as her magnanimity rather than being rejected to the face.

Tang Huo glanced around and felt that something was not right with his compatriots. However, a wise man knew when to stop resisting and travel with the flow of the river, so he nodded gently and spoke.

"Path Lord Li, you will spar with Hall Master Shen this Thursday at noon. Make sure to be present, or you will be sanctioned for avoiding an authorized challenge." Tang Huo stated clearly, glancing at Li Ling lightly.

"Understood. If you have nothing more for me, then I will take my leave, esteemed Hall Masters." Li Ling replied with cupped fists, his slight smile quite aggravating to look at for those arrayed here.

Without giving them another look, the young man turned and left, with the eyes of the six Hall Masters trailing his movement until the door closed behind him. After that, Li Ling was no longer interested in the matters going on within that chamber or their subsequent plans.

Right now, he was only concerned with earning merits as quickly as possible to acquire more abilities, but he found that even if he didn't, he simply did not have enough Slaughter Points to invest in another top-level skill. Even the ones he already had—which could still be upgraded—could not withstand the cost, making him feel deep poverty for once.

Unfortunately for him, once one signed onto a war, regardless of whether it was of Conquest, Contest, or Annihilation, you could not return to the sect grounds whenever you pleased or leave the outpost unless you had a dispatch.

This was why Li Ling had been stuck here since he joined, even though some things would have been better achieved if he returned to the Tianmo Empire—like getting a Core Formation cultivation technique or commissioning a new weapon.

This was also why he couldn't just plunge back into the war zone and harvest minor kills to raise his Slaughter Points, forced instead to learn Alchemy to pass the time. However, since that was the case, he would rather use this chance of a spar to earn a bucketload of merits, and Li Ling had come up with more than a few ideas how.

As such, he went to the marketplace, entering the Six Paths Pavilion to check on his weapon commission that was still underway, then left to browse through the stalls again. Unfortunately, he did not find anything useful this time, so he could only shake his head with lament and return to his courtyard.

Over the course of the next four days, Li Ling focused on Alchemy practice, familiarizing himself with the Earth Nurturing Technique and creating two sets of pills per recipe—in which one set was done using 'natural talent' and one was done using realm advantage.

Like this, he went through every common recipe available for the first realm, whether they were pills that aided or hindered Qi Refinement or Mortal Flesh cultivation realms. After that, he tried to get started on the Earth Alchemy unique pills, finding his results there to naturally be slightly better since he possessed a spirit root of the earth element.

Finally, he tried to craft those unique pills that only the Earth Nurturing Technique itself could create, which came as a package along with it. They were not many, just three recipes—two at the first realm and one at the second realm.

The two First Realm pills were called the Earth Veins Marrow Pill, which was suitable for any Earth element body cultivation techniques and would advance them by 20%, while the second was the Mellow Earth Pill, one that helped qi cultivators at the first realm purify their dantian and refined spiritual qi with soft earth element power.

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