How Much For Your Soul?

Three hours later, the men from Tiny World had settled into their new rooms. It's true what they say, you get what you pay for. Considering that the rooms were free, it was no surprise that they were nothing special. Hours of waiting in line to verify their admission and be allocated a place to stay was not even the worst part of the ordeal. That belonged to the tiny shoebox rooms with shared amenities, it was not going to work for Shen Yue.

Maybe it was meant as an incentive to work harder so that students could use the spiritual stones gained from becoming stronger to rent a private courtyard. It was unquestionably motivating him! But for now, it would suit his needs, blending in among the majority and giving him time to grow accustomed to the Skysoul Institute. Since there was no need to unpack with interspatial rings, after looking at the rooms, they met downstairs of the complex of free student housing.

Just in the West District alone, there were artifact shops, tea houses and market places to trade everything and anything to do with cultivators and supplying them with food and luxuries. Each district was practically its own city built purely for the students. The only problem was that everything cost spiritual stones and Shen Yue had none. Students at the Skysoul Institute of the Divine Feathers Sect received a monthly allowance based on the grade of their Spiritual Roots, but since Shen Yue had chosen to hide his talent and abilities, he received just one spiritual stone a month.

Because Shen Yue didn't plan to sell of demon spirits, he would need another source of income. To him, it seemed stupid for Nie Li to arm everyone with better weapons to kill him with, and he only received a paltry sum of a couple of spiritual stones for his efforts. He had never understood that part in the novel, why wouldn't he have left them behind in Tiny World to arm his Family and friends to fight against Demon Beasts? No, Shen Yue planned to scout out a few job opportunities at the Cultivation Hall.

The Cultivation Hall is the place where missions are assigned. After the students completed their assignment, they would return there to receive either spiritual stones, artifacts or other rewards. This was where Nie Li found out about Gu Bei's sick sister and the thousand spiritual stones reward for curing her. As Shen Yue and his men walked into the Hall for the first time, he was amazed that there were not very many people there. For a building shared by all the Districts, he had expected it to be teaming with poor students looking for work. All the walls in the Hall were covered in reports listing various missions and rewards with only a couple hundred people looking for a job.

There were thousands of different missions pasted all over the walls, how Nie Li found Gu Bei's task could only be thanks to plot armour. One thing that baffled Shen Yue was the inefficient way that missions were posted and chosen. Surely having some low ranked wage slaves assigning jobs like a stereotypical adventure guild would have been more productive? This would be changed when he took over, it was so wasteful, that half the missions would become redundant before anyone found them to even think of accepting it!

As Shen Yue circled the Hall looking at missions, he came to realise that they could be grouped into four different categories.

Hunting for specific Demon Spirits.Forging artifacts.Collecting materialsHealing unusual injuries.

They didn't have the strength or skills needed to succeed in the first three groups, so that left the fourth group of jobs, healing injuries and illnesses that had stumped the doctors of the Draconic Ruins Realm. Realistically, people only posted these missions in the off chance that someone could perform a miracle. There were only two reasons why people listed healing jobs in the Cultivation Hall. Either they were unable to find a cure because it was so rare that no one knew how to treat it, or they were too poor to pay the doctor's prices and hoped someone would be able to cure it at a lower price.

Gu Lan's case was a mixture of both reasons. Her Clan had practically abandoned her in favour of Gu Heng, and Gu Bei only had a thousand spirit stones to pay for the treatment. If the wealthy Gu Clan still supported Gu Lan, then they would have used their enormous influence to help cure her. The fact that only her brother was still searching for a cure hinted at the Clan's enthusiasm to help the siblings. The Clan wouldn't even allocate some of their vast resources to incentivise doctors.

Shen Yue had debated curing Gu Lan and risking being exposed since he had entered this Realm. On the one hand, Gu Bei would be the perfect frontman for the West District, but on the other, he was a bit too high profile. But Gu Lan was supposed to be very beautiful. Shen Yue sighed, he cursed himself for being a weak-willed man. The chance to capture a beauty tipped the balance between concern for his safety and gaining a new follower that could be set up as the next Sect Leader.

But for Shen Yue's plan to work, he would first need to break through to the Heavenly Fate Realm and gather some minions to be used as intermediaries. There were so many things that could go wrong, so he needed to start eliminating the potential risks of exposure in his plan. The first, was Gu Bei being seen together with anyone connected to Shen Yue in public. To achieve this, he would need to recruit some fresh talent that had recently joined the Skysoul Institute. Off the top of his head, he knew of twenty new recruits from the Little Heaven Realm! Maybe his revenge for being mocked may come sooner than he thought!

With the bare bones of a plan starting to form, Shen Yue finished his sightseeing tour and gave orders to his men to scout out Hua Ling's men. He doubted that Hua Ling was the kind of guy to share his private courtyard with his lackeys. Sun Jin was also to ask Aiguo, the suicidal new minion, what Hua Ling's plans were. While his men were off gathering information, Shen Yue retreated back to his room and entered the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, it was time to become a real cultivator.

Shen Yue had been putting off creating a Fate Soul for a long time. Since he had read Tales of Demons and Gods cover to cover many times, he knew that those that can create stronger Spiritual Flames before breaking into the Heavenly Fate Realm, can create a stronger Fate Soul. He had long ago perfected it and just needed to take the last step to reach the Heavenly Fate Realm.

Originally, Shen Yue had intended to go to the rookie lessons that were available to all new students but had decided not to. He had thought to use the lessons to break through, yet he was unsure if something might give him away to the teacher when he finally accomplished it. To be caught out for hiding his strength would attract a lot of serious attention, more than if he had just tested as a genius to start with. After all, it is not the righteous idiots in the light that people fear, it is the cunning and talented people hiding in the shadows. To be publically outed would forever put him in the spotlight.

Also, Nie Li attended the class for a week, and that was the genius Heaven Root class. He was pretty sure that the hundreds of lessons teaching the bulk of the student body couldn't care less if he attended. They only trained the basics of cultivation and combat, and Shen Yue was confident he could pick up any useful tips when he started enslaving people. Much better to just privately train and act surprised if anyone mentioned training courses, it wasn't his fault that Enforcer Gu wasn't thorough in his induction after testing his talent!

Shen Yue calmly sat next to the ten-thousand-year-old Chinese Parasol Tree while Blaze chirped happily above him. Gazing out over the calm waters of the pool of water in his private training area, he read over the chapter when Nie Li broke through to the Heavenly Fate Realm.

According to the novel, he was about to experience literal soul splitting pain, and he was unsure if he could control it. The worst pain that Shen Yue ever had to deal with was a broken leg on Earth, but he was drunk as a Lord at the time. This was definitely going to suck.

He would just have to grit his teeth and soldier on through the pain. He would not let himself fail at such a crucial step to achieving his dream of world domination! No one would respect a Legend ranked Emperor, he would become a laughing stock!

Breathing in and out deeply as he cleared his mind, Shen Yue prepared to take his first step on the path of cultivation. Taking out four spiritual stones, three of which his loyal men 'donated', he began to cultivate.