The next day, I sat in my usual training spot in the eastern grove.

  I wasn't practicing the Primordial Wood Arts.

  I was just sitting there, thinking.

  The problem was pretty straightforward. I'd made good progress with the World Tree Sutra.

  I had formed and awakened the Genesis Seed, which was more than ninety-nine point nine percent of World Tree Sutras could say. And the Primordial Wood Arts had provided me with genuine combat ability that didn’t rely on getting my face slammed into the ground by inner disciples.

  However, I'd hit a wall.

  Not figuratively. Literally.

  A physical barrier that I couldn’t get around with techniques or genre awareness.

  My cultivation stage was holding my combat ability back.

  The issue is that I couldn’t simply sit down and meditate my way to the next cultivation stage.

  Sure, meditation worked fine for the basic Qi Condensation progression.

  After all, it had taken me from Stage 1 to Stage 3 in around three months.

  Most outer disciples would need twice as long to make that kind of progress.

  But sooner or later, it got to a point where meditation begins to produce diminishing returns.

  The higher your cultivation level, the more energy you needed to advance.

  If it took a cultivator fifty spirit stones of energy to go from Stage 1 to Stage 2, then going from Stage 2 to Stage 3 would take one hundred or two hundred, and then Stage 3 to Stage 4 would easily need more than five hundred,.

  The amount needed would only continue to increase exponentially.

  And that was just for normal cultivation methods.

  For someone like me who cultivated a Beyond Heaven cultivation method, I needed more than spirit stones to make progress. According to the World Tree Sutra, the Second Stage was all about feeding elemental essence to the Genesis Seed to develop and expand the inner world.

  "So," I said to Azure, "we need elemental essences. Is there any way to get those?"

  "The sect library likely has information about them," replied Azure. "Elemental essences are usually harvested from natural treasure locations or extracted from spirit beasts that have a strong elemental affinity."

  “That means we'll have to spend spirit stones to buy them.”

  “A lot of spirit stones, yes.”

  I looked at my sect token and saw I still had zero.

  I had used all ten of my monthly stipend on the soul cultivation techniques.

  And I wouldn’t get another payment for three weeks.

  Even if I waited for that payment, I couldn't possibly afford to buy a single pure elemental essence. Elemental essences were extremely rare, so highly valued that inner disciples competed for them. Outer disciples such as myself couldn’t casually buy them.

  So, I needed to find another way to get them.

  And what came to mind was missions.

  The Azure Peak Sect had a system where disciples could complete various tasks for the sect itself or for affiliated organizations and in exchange, they would receive contribution points or spirit stones. And the riskier the mission, the greater the reward.

  There were many different types of missions available at all levels. Herb gathering, spirit beast hunting, escort duties, patrolling, delivering messages to other sects. While some missions were very easy and involved little or no danger, others could result in death if the disciple wasn’t careful.

  The problem was that most of the good-paying missions were restricted.

  There were many rules about who could take what mission.

  And the one that was getting in my way was where outer disciples below Stage 6 Qi Condensation couldn’t take missions that involved them having to leave the sect’s territory.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  But I couldn’t blame the sect.

  The sect didn’t want to lose talented students to bandits or spirit beasts, simply because some Stage 3 student thought they could complete a delivery mission through treacherous wilderness. Allowing low-level disciples to wander outside of sect-protection was effectively wasting future talent.

  But even though I understood why, it was still frustrating.

  As for the missions that kept the disciple within the sect’s boundaries, they were dull and safe.

  And while I usually would have loved that type of mission, they paid terribly.

  "Help the old farmer harvest his spiritual wheat. Reward: 2 spirit stones."

  "Patrol the eastern road between villages. Reward: 3 spirit stones."

  "Assist in maintaining the herb gardens. Reward: 1 spirit stone."

  These were examples of the types of missions available to Stage 3 cultivators such as myself.

  These types of missions often needed several days to complete, and the pay wouldn’t even cover the cost of a basic cultivation manual.

  As for the missions outside of the sect boundaries, they paid very well.

  "Hunt down the Iron-Hide Boar terrorizing Mountain Pass Village. Reward: 70 spirit stones."

  "Escort merchant caravan through Crimson Forest. Reward: 80 spirit stones."

  "Investigate spiritual energy disturbance in the Howling Valleys. Reward: 100 spirit stones."

  That was a huge difference in pay.

  One high-stakes mission could potentially earn me more spirit stones than I would earn in six months of safe work inside the sect boundary.

  Of course, that increased pay came with a price tag.

  Danger.

  Actual danger.

  The type of danger that could get disciples killed. Cripple them. Turn them into a cautionary tale that older disciples told the younger generation to discourage them from getting too greedy.

  I've already died twice in the Two Suns world.

  While that was unpleasant, at least I woke back up in Ke Yin's body afterward.

  But if I died in the cultivation world in Ke Yin's actual body?

  I don't think I'd get a second chance. I'd be dead.

  And I really didn’t want to be dead.

  So, taking high-stakes missions outside the sect’s boundaries was an unwise decision.

  The smart choice would be to remain inside the sect’s boundaries and continue to take the dull, low-reward missions. Gradually build up a supply of spirit stones over months or years. Eventually, I could save up enough to buy what I need.

  Unfortunately, with the dangerous drama going on within the sect, I might not have months or years to wait.

  The sect was dangerous.

  Zhou Ming had proven that by deliberately crippling Wu Kangming during what was supposed to be a training exercise, and the only punishment had been getting banned from helping with outer disciple training.

  Until Wu Kangming killed him in a duel, Zhou Ming had been free to keep bullying weaker disciples. And there were probably dozens more just like him throughout the inner and core disciple ranks.

  It was only a matter of time before I caught the attention of someone like that. Someone who decided I was too uppity for a village recruit. Someone who thought it would be funny to "accidentally" destroy my cultivation during sparring.

  I needed to get stronger. Fast enough that I could defend myself. Strong enough that bullies would think twice before targeting me.

  But not so fast that I ended up crippling or killing myself.

  All the while, I had to balance classes.

  Yeah, I only had two days left of my ‘break’.

  After that, I would need to return to morning meditation, combat training, weapon training, theory classes, and anything else the sect thought we should know.

  The full outer-disciple schedule.

  If I wanted to take time off to pursue missions, I would need to ask Senior Sister Liu for permission.

  And I'm pretty certain she wouldn’t grant it.

  She was already irritated when I requested a week of time-off to focus on the World Tree Sutra.

  She granted it because I had picked a dangerous cultivation method and needed time to create a stable foundation without dying or becoming a tree.

  But requesting more time off right after returning from my break?

  She would believe I’m pushing my cultivation too hard, trying to advance too rapidly without properly consolidating my previous progress.

  That would trigger all kinds of red flags for someone like Senior Sister Liu.

  Cultivators had a concept called qi deviation.

  It was something that happened when a cultivator pushed their cultivation too aggressively, too rapidly, without adequately stabilizing each stage of their cultivation.

  Qi deviation could manifest in different ways depending on what the cultivator was doing wrong.

  If they draw too much spiritual energy during meditation without properly refining it, their meridians might rupture due to the excessive energy pressure. If they tried to breakthrough to a new stage of cultivation before their foundation was solidified, their inner world might collapse. And if you force-incompatible cultivation techniques to work together, you might damage your soul.

  A minor case could give the cultivator headaches and make them feel nauseas.

  A severe case could cripple their cultivation permanently or even kill them outright.

  That is why the sect emphasized gradual, controlled cultivation.

  If I walked up to Senior Sister Liu today and said “Hi, I need some more time off to do missions and earn some spirit stones so I can breakthrough,” she’d automatically assume I’m about to qi-deviate myself into a cripple.

  So yeah, I couldn’t use cultivation as an excuse to get more time off.

  Which meant I was stuck.

  Maybe there was a different way to get elemental essences that didn’t require spirit stones.

  The cultivation world ran not only on spirit stones, but also favors,

  And there was one disciple that was well connected and seemed trustworthy enough to turn to.

  Wei Lin.

  He already said that he valued relationships and future connections above short-term profits.

  Not only that, but it seemed like he genuinely liked me.

  Or at minimum, he believed I had enough potential to invest in.

  He had offered to get me an Earth-rank cultivation method from his father.

  He even gave me the Phantom Strike technique for free as a “friends-only” discount.

  If I approached him the right way, explained what I needed and why, he might be able to help.

  Whether it be loaning me spirit stones, knowing a different way to get elemental essences, or having friends who could connect me with better mission opportunities.

  That felt like my best option.

  It was time to find Wei Lin.

  If anyone could help me solve this elemental essence problem without getting myself killed or crippled in the process, it would be him.

  And if he couldn't help?

  Well, I'd figure that out when I got there.