Molting the Mortal Coil

With nothing else to tie him down anywhere, Sage had no problem following along with the other new disciples and the Holy Flame Sect Elders as they were led from the recruiting area in town to a large ship. Sage was surprised. He’d heard of this sort of Magic Tool from books but he’d never actually seen one up close. It looked like an old ship from the middle ages except without any sails. Later, Sage learned that at the center of the ship was a massive crystal of some sort surrounded by array formations. He later learned this was called a spirit crystal and was like a spirit stone the size of a car that didn’t shatter to dust when it was expended. It was pretty inferior to regular spirit stones except in one way: it could be refilled with qi. With a bank of them and qi gathering arrays a defensive array could be maintained indefinitely. The same could also be accomplished by having a few cultivators taking turns charging the crystal and recovering their qi.

The Sect Elder let the disciples wander around the ship freely, informing them the journey to the actual sect would require a few hours of flight. Sage was surprised to see how fast the ship flew and was pleased to learn that there was an array protecting them from the rapidly rushing wind. He felt only a gentle breeze while standing on the deck instead of the raging wind that he should have felt as he gauged the ship was moving faster than the speed of sound. Interesting. I didn’t realize how far away the sects were. They hold recruiting events in a number of towns but their actual locations weren’t mentioned.

Sage spent the journey admiring the ship, examining the metals and other special materials it was made out of. He knew nothing about arrays so he could only marvel at how impressive they were. Eventually, the ship started to turn towards the right and made a few long sweeping circles around a strangely shaped mountain range. The Sect Elder in charge of the ship called everyone to the deck to take a look.

“Welcome to the Holy Flame Sect!”

Below them was a massive crater. It was easily a thousand miles wide and surrounded by towering mountain peaks. It looked like a massive meteorite had struck a forest of towering mountains and carved out a huge valley within it. The crater was overflowing with life, shimmering green in the sunlight and quite shocking in comparison to the many mountains around it. In the distance to the north, the mountain range started to grow white while to the south were barren black mountains that extended down to the edge of a sea. He could even see a plume of smoke from what was probably an active volcano extending the land further into the water.

This world seemed to be far larger than Earth and the horizon didn’t curve out of view at only thirty miles or so. As a cultivator Sage’s senses were much stronger than a regular person and he could easily see thousands of miles while up in the air on the flying ship. Pretty good spot. Holy Flame Sect has a thriving valley surrounded by hundreds of miles of huge mountains.

“This is our Heaven Stone Valley. All of the neighboring mountains belong to the Peak Masters of the Sect so don’t go climbing them without permission. Once we arrive some of your elder Brothers and Sisters will come to show you around.”

Sage had finally become part of something. It brought a smile to his face and he looked forward to life within a sect. He had no idea what things would be like, but later learned it was quite similar to back in the Lang Clan. A couple older Disciples were assigned to their group of new recruits and divided them up amongst themselves.

“My name is Bi Shunfu and I’ll be showing you all around. All of us Outer Disciples stay in dormitories. There’s many styles and you can swap around with others using favors or contribution points. Oh, Contribution Points are our internal currency we use here, they can be exchanged for nearly anything so don’t squander them. Every Outer Disciple gets a stipend of a hundred contribution points per month. As an example meals usually cost a couple points, a basic qi gathering pill costs ten points, and technique manuals usually start at around a hundred points.”

From there, Shunfu took them around to a number of places showing off the huge herb fields, livestock pastures and pointing out some of the more remote dormitories. In the direct center of the massive crater was a large city that served as the hub of the sect. The Personal Disciples and the Peak Master’s lived on the surrounding peaks along with servants and some high status Inner Disciples. Inner Disciples as well as Elders all had a whole manor to themselves while Outer Disciples and servants all lived in various dormitories. For the most part they were all located in and around the city but there was the equivalent of small towns dotted around the crater. The sect was a thousand miles wide so it was more convenient to have smaller towns scattered around to handle the medicinal fields, the beast ranches or whatever else was in the area. Even with the cultivator’s impressive speeds nobody wanted to have to fly for an hour home every night.

As Sage traveled through the Holy Flame City he realized it was quite different from a regular city. The number of businesses was actually quite low, as most people simply frequented the central plaza. The Central Plaza was immense. Nearly a mile from one end to the other, the massive Main Hall of the sect sat directly to the front while the buildings ringing around the central plaza were each the headquarters of a different profession. The majority of business was done either with these Headquarters or outside of them as the Central Plaza was usually the home of hundreds of impromptu stalls.

“Nearly everyone in the Holy Flame Sect practices a profession and here in the Central Plaza is where we can trade with our Brothers and Sisters to try and get a better deal. Half of the people here are just taking orders to craft things while the other half are trading for materials or goods. The Sect deals exclusively in contribution points and has solid buying and selling prices, but doesn’t forbid these outside trade deals. If an item isn’t in stock at the Profession Houses or you want something custom made the stalls in the Central Plaza is the best place to go. Sometimes there are even people selling rare items found from outside or from rare occurrences.”

From the Central Plaza, to the north was the Main Hall. To the south was a massive coliseum used for challenges and the yearly ranking tournament. To the east was the Million Skill Library where thousands of different skill manuals could be obtained. To the west was the Sunfire Pagoda. The Sunfire Pagoda was only about fifty feet wide but it rose up into the sky like a needle 99 stories tall.

“The Sunfire Pagoda houses its own special dimension inside and is used for training and testing potential. It has eleven different types of training with nine levels each. It costs contribution points to use but it gives great benefits.”

With the basic tour over, Bi Shunfu took them to the Outer Hall which is the place that handled administrative matters for the Outer Disciples. They were given basic supplies and told this was the place where disputes were settled and most administrative tasks could be taken care of.

“This is where you can apply for a profession, get assigned to different duties, or to change housing. You can also take missions here for contribution points. The tokens you’ve just been given will prove your identity in the sect and record your contribution points. Nobody else can use your token but if you lose it will cost a hundred contribution points to get a new one made and you’ll suffer some punishments, so keep track of it!”

Bi Shunfu then bowed to them all and left them to complete their registration. Sage got a set of the Sect Robes, a Sect Token, a copy of the Sect Rules, and a small Storage Bag. Looking inside, the bag was only a three foot wide cube inside and he was told that no living things were allowed inside and after testing later on he found out that it didn’t preserve things like his Storage Ring did. Seems my storage ring isn’t normal after all.