Chapter 59: Upgrade
Lu Yunxi stood on the beach, watching the badge in the elder’s hand flash a brilliant red. In the blink of an eye, a massive, imposing gateway materialized out of thin air before them.
The two stepped through the threshold together.
Contrary to her expectations, there was no grand, ostentatious archway bearing the words “Yanyu Palace.” At first glance, the realm appeared to be nothing more than endless, rolling mountains wreathed in thick, swirling clouds.
If someone hadn’t personally guided her through the spatial tear, she never would have noticed a sect was hidden here, even if she had walked right past the entrance in the outside world.
“This is our sect,” the elder said, noticing her wide-eyed curiosity. He began leading her on a brief introductory tour. “Yanyu Palace occupies eight distinct mountain peaks. The Main Hall sits at the summit of the central peak; that is where we hold formal assemblies. The Library Pavilion and the Martial Training Grounds are also situated on the slopes of the central peak. As for the other peaks, you simply need to have a general idea of their layout for now.”
Yunxi nodded, following the elder for a quick look at the central peak before being escorted toward one of the outer mountains near the entrance.
“This is where the menial disciples reside.”
After formalizing her registration and bidding farewell to the elder, she was directed to her new living quarters.
The accommodations for the menial disciples were surprisingly decent. They lived in traditional courtyard houses, though eight disciples shared a single courtyard.
When Yunxi arrived, the courtyard was entirely empty; it seemed the other disciples were all out attending to their duties.
She opened the door to her assigned room, quickly cleaned up her space, and set out to gather intelligence on the sect’s internal structure.
The hierarchy of Yanyu Palace was strictly divided into seven tiers: Menial Disciple, Outer Disciple, Outer Sect Steward, Inner Disciple, Elite Inner Disciple, Inner Sect Leader, Elder, and Palace Master. Distinguishing between ranks was remarkably simple—it was entirely color-coded. From the lowest rank to the highest, the uniforms progressed through Purple, Blue, Indigo, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red.
Currently, she was nothing more than a lowly errand runner clad in purple. If she wanted to climb the ranks, meeting the martial proficiency requirements wasn’t enough; she also had to accumulate a massive quota of Sect Contribution Points.
Based on her raw combat stats, she easily qualified to be promoted directly to an Inner Disciple. However, the promotion required a staggering amount of Contribution Points, meaning she had to grind out tasks at the Mission Hall to earn her keep.
Yunxi didn’t waste a second. She locked her door and sprinted straight for the Mission Hall.
The hall was bustling with disciples, its walls plastered with countless task scrolls. To accept a commission, a disciple simply had to pull the scroll off the board and hand it to the presiding clerk for registration.
She scanned the densely packed boards, desperately hunting for a simple, highly efficient task that yielded a massive point payout.
Unfortunately, after a thorough review, she realized the absolute highest payout available for menial disciples was a pathetic 5 points. Worse, it was a long-term contract: she would have to clean an elder’s private residence every single week, netting her a measly 5 points per month!
She would be vastly better off doing menial daily labor, like farming or washing vegetables in the kitchens, which guaranteed a steady 1 point per day!
Yunxi mulled over her options and finally accepted a text-copying assignment. She had originally hoped this task would grant her access to transcribe martial arts manuals, allowing her to farm points while secretly memorizing advanced techniques. It seemed like the perfect loophole!
So, she formally accepted the commission and began her career as a scribe.
However, after finishing her very first book, she abandoned the stupid task entirely.
The texts she was ordered to copy weren’t secret martial arts manuals from the Library Pavilion. Instead, they were basic enlightenment primers used on the menial peak, such as the Hundred Family Surnames and the Thousand Character Classic.
She had already memorized those texts in her past life; naturally, she had zero desire to copy them by hand. Furthermore, traditional calligraphy was painstakingly slow. If a single drop of ink accidentally stained the parchment, the entire page had to be scrapped and rewritten from scratch.
Frustrated, she switched her occupation to a cook in the menial peak’s cafeteria.
“There are two operational modes in the cafeteria,” the kitchen steward explained. “The first is the public free-meal line. If you steam the required quota of buns every day, you earn a flat 1 point. The second is the private-order kitchen. If a disciple specifically orders a dish from your station, you earn contribution points based on the transaction. You dictate the menu and set your own point margins.”
Yunxi nodded, selecting the second option without a second thought. Isn’t this basically running my own restaurant? And I don’t even have to pay rent!
From that day on, she planted her roots in the cafeteria.
In Yanyu Palace, outer and menial disciples were not assigned personal masters; a disciple only earned the right to formal mentorship after breaching the Inner Sect. Therefore, aside from attending a mandatory public lecture at the Main Hall on the first of the month, the outer disciples spent the entirety of their time frantically grinding tasks.
On her first day, Yunxi threw open the window of her private kitchen station. She watched the massive crowds of disciples shuffling through the free-meal line next door, feeling a twinge of envy as not a single person approached her window.
The second and third days yielded the exact same result: zero customers.
Yunxi began to panic.
“Junior Sister, just give it up!” One of her courtyard roommates sighed, shaking her head helplessly when she saw Yunxi stressing over the kitchen. “No one on our peak has ever successfully run the private-order kitchen.”
The menial disciples worked themselves to the bone day and night for an entire month just to scrape together a handful of contribution points. Who in their right mind would be willing to squander their hard-earned currency on something as trivial as flavor? It was just food! As long as it restored their hunger bar, it didn’t matter what it tasted like. Saving points to level up was the only thing that mattered!
Lu Yunxi: …
Having received a harsh reality check regarding the local economy, she was forced to abandon her culinary ambitions and pivot to a new job: farming.
There’s no way I can mess up farming, right?!
Fortunately, this endeavor finally provided some stability.
After half a month of grueling, non-stop agricultural labor, she finally stockpiled enough contribution points to trigger her promotion, successfully shedding her menial status to become an Outer Disciple.
The Mission Hall for Outer Disciples offered a vastly wider array of tasks. While the difficulty scaled significantly, the point payouts were astronomically higher, and the boards even featured active combat and hunting commissions.
When Yunxi spotted a hunting task on the board, she nearly wept tears of joy.
Hunting is truly the absolute best!
After spending a few days massacring wild rabbits in the designated zones, she effortlessly accumulated enough points to be promoted to an Outer Sect Steward.
And just like that, through a manic, relentless grind, she finally succeeded in breaching the threshold, officially securing her promotion to a standard Inner Disciple.
Unbeknownst to her, a legend was already quietly spreading throughout the lower peaks of the sect.
“Have you heard? A junior just skyrocketed from a menial to an Inner Disciple in less than a month!”
“Are you talking about Lu Yunxi? I’ve heard the rumors. She’s an absolute monster!”
“Alas! Is this the insurmountable gap between mortals and geniuses? I’ve been grinding in the outer sect for five years and still haven’t managed to level up!”
“…”
Wherever Yunxi walked these days, she could hear disciples whispering her praises. At first, the attention made her incredibly self-conscious, but after hearing it constantly, she grew numb to it.
Soon enough, the gossip surrounding her rapid ascent faded, replaced by a much more pressing topic sweeping the sect.
“The Inner Sect Grand Competition?”
“Indeed,” her newly appointed master—the very same elder who had served as her entrance examiner—stroked his beard and nodded. “During the Grand Competition, the top ten combatants will receive substantial rewards, but the top three will be granted truly unimaginable treasures!”
“The prize pool rotates every year, but without exception, the artifacts are legendary. Just… do your best, disciple.”
The elder offered a supportive, albeit realistic, smile. The Grand Competition included every single member of the Inner Sect, which meant elite disciples and the reigning Inner Sect Leaders would be participating. Their combat parameters were terrifying; it was fundamentally impossible for a freshly promoted disciple like her to crack the top three.
Yunxi nodded seriously. She delivered a massive stockpile of premium dishes to her master as a filial gesture before returning to her quarters to strategize.
Since officially becoming his apprentice, the elder had been incredibly generous, supplying her with a massive cache of resources every month, including various Purple-grade medicines and rare ingredients.
She deduced that if a prize pool featured items that even a Grandmaster elder struggled to procure, the rewards had to be Orange-grade artifacts—or perhaps even higher.
She was absolutely determined to secure a top-tier reward.
After spending so much time in this world, she fully understood just how absurdly rare Orange-grade items were, to say nothing of Gold-quality artifacts, which she had only ever heard of in rumors.
To ensure absolute fairness during the tournament, contestants were strictly prohibited from wearing their color-coded sect uniforms, as the higher-tier garments provided massive stat multipliers. If an Inner Sect Leader was permitted to fight in their specialized uniform, an ordinary Inner Disciple wouldn’t stand a chance of breaking their defense! Every combatant was required to wear plain, stat-less clothing.
Yunxi swapped out of her sect uniform, slipping into a set of plain, unbuffed training clothes, and marched straight toward the sect’s coastal border.
Yanyu Palace boasted a spectacular geographic location; it was flanked by towering mountain ranges on one side and a sprawling, pristine ocean on the other.
The monsters inhabiting the shallow waters generally hovered between Level 50 and 60 and were notoriously difficult to fight, while the leviathans lurking in the deep sea were exponentially more lethal. Even her master refused to venture into the deep waters.
Naturally, Yunxi wasn’t suicidal enough to dive into the deep ocean. Instead, she set her sights on the massive razor-clams scattered along the shoreline.
The clams were Level 50 monsters—exactly matching her current tier. While their physical defense was incredibly high, their movement speed was pathetically slow. The real advantage, however, was the loot table: killing a clam not only yielded premium clam meat, but occasionally caused rare, high-value pearls to explode from the shell.
Money, premium meat, massive experience points, and she didn’t even have to risk stepping into the water. Was there a more perfect mob to farm?
