A week of classes passed surprisingly quickly when all the teachers could be bothered to actually teach, she found. It was a quite stressful week, too, hounded by work on every side and expectations on the ones that weren’t, by those quiet, judging stares… she could not help but feel, even though they probably didn’t care that much. Probably. She was almost certain that her formations professor personally disliked her.
Still! It was the first day of the weekend, and Lily was excited. She’d finally managed to get ti off for sothing she’d dearly wanted to do— and now that it was right around the corner, she was so excited as to almost be nervous. A feeling roiled in her chest, light and airy as it leapt and bounded in the center of her chest, almost palpable… resisting the urge to smile brighter than the sun, she composed herself, smoothed out her robes, and stepped into the administrative hub.
It looked pretty much the sa as it had the last ti she’d visited. Almost tiless, in a sense… though, she supposed that most buildings host to such powerful cultivators had a certain tiless air about them. The functionary sitting behind the front counter was different from the one who’d processed their intake, but that was a minor difference. Almost inconsequential, really; it did not matter who they were, rely that they were part of the tapestry of the setting, the backdrop, the paint that all ca together to make of the artwork sothing more…
The decor was the sa. The paint, the plants, the finely wrought pots and porcelain artefacts that were the equal, she was sure, of even the greatest of Guxi’s collection— utterly unmoved. The dust was the sa, even; she hadn’t really noticed, back then, but now that she’d raised her cultivation and gotten used to the increased perception, she could see that the thin layer of dust in the rafters above had been there for what seed like forever, and everywhere else was kept clean.
Trying not to let trepidation stay her steps, she made her way forward until she was standing in front of the desk. “Excuse …”
“Yes?” The functionary glanced up, looking unimpressed by her presence. She tried to imagine what it felt like to him— to see just another student, to see just another person— whoever they might be, whatever future they might have as one of the best young talents of East Saffron… and not care. It was difficult.
“I’m here to trade in contribution points.”
The man grimaced, looking like he was resisting the urge to sigh. “Alright, then… let get out the forms. Place your university access token on the table, and I’ll perform all the necessary verification techniques…” he ducked beneath his table, rummaging around for sothing— the forms, presumably— and Lily took the opportunity to place her access token and the red-jade slip that carried the contribution Zhihu had given her. It was almost a sha to see it go— it really was beautiful, the design that had been impressed into it. She could not tell exactly what it was supposed to represent— so mythical bird, of course— but beyond that the details eluded her.
The functionary stood back up, dropping an entire stack of files onto the desk. “Alright. You’re going to have to sign…” his voice trailed off as he stared down at his desk, for a long mont perfectly, almost disturbingly silent. When he spoke again, his voice was underlined with a cold, cultivator’s steel. “Where did you get this?”
“It was given to —” a slight narrowing of his eyes, a touch of intent— not quite killing intent but definitely the intent to do harm— and slightly panicked, Lily quickly changed tack. “By Ohm Zhihu! Outer— no, inner disciple Ohm Zhihu!”
For a long second, the functionary just stared at the contribution point token, then at her, then back at the token. nacingly. Then, he frowned. “Swear to on your honor as a cultivator that you’re not lying. And—” before she could speak— “you wouldn’t know this yet, but the punishnt for misappropriating or counterfeiting contribution points is… well, it is designed to cripple for life. To soone as weak as you are, it’d just be death.”
“I…” she gulped. The man made it sound so nacing, even though she knew that she was entirely innocent. “I swear that I got these exactly where I told you I got them— I do not lie, may the heavens strike down if I speak falsely." Luckily, the heavens did not strike her down. For now, at least. “I was… given them… after performing a service for the city that the outer— inner— disciple found ritorious."
“You?” He raised an eyebrow, sohow looking both utterly unamused and entirely incredulous.
She nodded. “I assisted in the safe dispersion of a technique that would have destroyed the building it had been used in…” she let herself trail off. It was probably for the best she didn’t explain the nuances of a foreign Sundering cultivator’s technique to a random functionary. Probably.
A tense half minute passed, before— sothing, she was sure, ca to a head within the functionary, and he just reached out and snapped the token off of the table. “I will go and take this to the proper authorities. You will stay here. Understood?” She just nodded as the functionary stalked away, slipping through a door in the back and leaving her alone.
The wait was nervewracking. If she’d thought she’d been nervous before, she’d clearly had no idea what nervousness really ant— no, just standing there, in front of an empty desk, occasionally drawing glances from the other functionaries in passing as she awaited her judgent— whatever that may be— that was nervousness. Her palms felt like she’d dropped a bucket of water over them, and her chest trembled with the sheer effort of just breathing, and not—
“Alright.” She, bravely, did not squeak in surprise as the functionary returned with nary a sound. “The… team lead—” the all but drawled that out— “made his decision. You have the points, they’re valid, and appropriately logged, which ans that you have access to both the lesser and greater treasure pavilions of the pagoda. Now, a word of caution, from the— team leader.” He waved at her to follow, and with a start, she scampered after him as they delved deeper into the building— deeper than she’d ever been before. “The lesser pavilion is safe, essentially. It’s filled with techniques that specifically are designed for ambitious and slightly foolish young Shedding cultivators to play around with. The greater pavilion… not as such.”
They traveled through a tunnel, the familiar sensation of a formation prickling over her skin for a brief mont before— he pushed open a door, and she stood in the center of an unimaginable hoard of wealth. The wall was covered in spiritual weapons of every variety, formations lay stacked in heaps, and the books… not just books, books and scrolls and bamboo slips, and all sorts of incredibly different things… she wanted to read it all, have it all— but, no, she only had a couple contribution points…
The functionary gave her an amused glance. “Well, you look like you’re having fun. This is the lesser treasure pavilion—”
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“This is the lesser pavilion?”
“Heh.” He chuckled softly, the sound so incongruous with his stern deanor that it took Lily a mont to parse it. “Young cultivators always think a depot of resources like this is the greatest thing in the world… and to any one cultivator, perhaps, it represents an almost unimaginable fortune. Yet— consider for a mont the wealth of a sect of cultivators, each who live sotis as much as millennia… is it any surprise that such wealth accumulates easily?” He shook his head. “It is, therefore, the responsibility of the sect less to have such wealth, but rather to steward it; such is the position of contribution points. You may select any item or combination of items up the total value of the contribution points you brought with you, which is… a great deal. Here.” He tossed her a slip of jade. A jade slip. She all but vibrated in excitent at the prospect. “Use this to find what you’re looking for.”
She held up to her head— nervously glancing back at the functionary, who just nodded— before cycling a little of qi into it. Instead of a deluge of secret and esoteric techniques like she’d expected, she received instead a rather mundane accounting of what was in the room, nicely compartntalized into little blocks…
She pulled back her qi, and the mories… departed. No, not departed, more just… they were suddenly muted, like a dream half rembered. Now that was disturbing… she shivered, and tried her best not to think about it as she made her way over to the section regarding cultivation techniques.
The techniques were… surprisingly anemic. Obviously, there wasn’t a ridian Opening manual— if only she was that lucky— but even beyond that the techniques were… rough. Qi cycling techniques, sword forms that would supposedly gather qi to the user when properly attuned, even a few more esoteric patterns of qi manipulation that seed promising at first but were really just worse versions of what Mingtain had given Avyr. Vastly worse, she realized— the best of them, which sold for thrice again as many cultivation points as she had— could purportedly raise soone to Opening in as ‘few as five years.’ It was definitely good that modern cultivation didn’t rely on that, if that was the asure of those techniques…
She glanced through all of them— not allowed to actually read them, unfortunately— before she ended up grabbing a wide variety of the various ‘cultivation manuals—’ prioritizing diversity over effectivity, hopeful that she could learn at least sothing from all the various techniques.
She left, contented… but she did not leave the administrative hub. Instead, the functionary just took a single look at the stack of various books and scrolls she’d collected, humming in interest before offering her a nice bag and leading her on to the real treasure pavilion.
They ascended from the first, following a twisting stair up at least three floors, until it felt like there was no further up they could go. Finally, at last, they ca to an enormous crimson door ford from a single, intricately carved piece of mahogany wood— all four of the cardinal beasts flowing into one another in a breathtakingly intricate creation. Feathers to scales, scales to fur… almost molded, from that bright vermillion, almost bloody…
The functionary stepped forward, bowing three tis to the door. “Disciple requests access to the greater pavilion.” A second passed— and then, the beasts ca alive, qi running down their length as the door split apart, peeling back into four guardians that watched them with unreadable, wooden expressions. It was magical.
Then, she saw what lay beyond, and she forgot all about the guardians. Clearly the functionary had been right when he’d called the lesser pavilion small… compared to what lay before her, that cluttered room was the impoverished desne of a beggar.
The room was better organized than the other, but that didn’t stop it from practically overflowing with treasure. A cardinal rose had been inscribed onto the floor, concentric circles made of brass and so undefinable tal— gold, perhaps— wrought into a powerful array. The entire room was part of the array, self reinforcing and falling, upward coalescing, towards…
She stared at the center of the roof, and felt an indomitable gaze staring back, and quickly averted her gaze. “What was that?”
The functionary smirked. “The greater pavilion is situated directly beneath the rooms of the Outer Elder. The Inner Eye of the pavilion is designed to allow the gaze of the elder to penetrate into its sanctified halls— may anyone who thinks to cheat the sect think twice.”
Lily gulped, and stepped into the room, letting the pressure roll of the edge of her own qi, the wound in her spirit smarting. It was just the edge of the Elder’s aura, and still it threatened to send her to her knees…
She got the impression that Shedding cultivators did not often make it to the greater pavilion. “How… I have twelve points. What cultivation techniques can I buy with that?”
The functionary stared at her incredulously, then— after a second— laughed. “Oh, to be young again… if you had twelve hundred contribution points, then maybe you might be able to find a decent technique… within, of course, the outer sect’s treasure pavilion. Here? You would have better luck finding a bar of gold in the slums. No— save your effort. If you are accepted into the Bloody Saffron Sect, you’ll be given a priceless cultivation technique.”
“It… is still sothing that interests . And I already know better than to damage my foundations. I’d still like to look.”
The functionary sighed. “Fine. Over there are the cheap techniques. They’re decent. Not cultivation decent, like you seem so obsessed with, but decent enough.” He waved at a shelf stacked high with hundreds, thousands of jade slips. “You have as much ti as you want to look through them, but no more than thirty seconds with each slip.”
“Why?” A glare. “I, um, of course senior martial brother.” Then, before she could get chastised any further, she scampered over to the shelf.
She picked up one at random, and pressed it to her head, and…
Crashing waves. A line of searing qi crossed the sky, crossed the spirit, and connected heaven and earth as the— she gasped, just barely managing not to drop the slip. That had been… intense. The mories, though, of what it’d been— they faded as quickly as they’d co.
The next one… a vast and open desert. Five pillars that rose over the horizon, enclosing, entrapping… she shivered as she pulled back from it. That… that had been just as disturbing. Still… it had not been what she wanted.
Again— a lone man toiled at the top of the world, and dug a mountain down to—
A jade mirror shimred in the light of the moon—
Two peach blossoms wilted together—
A man split the earth and drew the water, and planted, and— that one! That one, she was sure— she grabbed the jade slip tightly to herself and brought it to the functionary, who picked it up and inspected it briefly. “Hm… ‘the Farr-King’s Purple-Colored Herb Tract…’ a useless technique, made for servant disciples to cultivate a valuable cultivation resource that has long since gone extinct. Far too complex and unwieldy for anything else… yes, I can see why the price was so low. You will get nothing of worth out of it.” Except for the hundreds of different intricate steps that would’ve been required to carve it into her spirit, which…
It was not quite ridian Opening, but it was a start. “I’ll take it.”
“Your loss.” The functionary logged the purchase, and led her out of the mystical treasure pavilion, and shooed her— politely— from the administrative hub…
New techniques in hand, almost giddy from excitent, Lily scampered back ho.
The possibilities…
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