The loss of more than 60% of the outer sect disciples was indeed a huge loss to the sect.
The few elders gave all the outer sect disciples a sum of spirit stones on the spot and increased their benefits in the sect.
For all the survivors, this was a rare consolation.
While waiting, the flying ship from the sect finally arrived. With his current identity, Jiang Li at least experienced the feeling of staying in the upper room of the ship.
They took a gentle flying ship back to the sect. After the other outer sect disciples were exempted from the sect mission for half a year, they returned to their own places to recuperate.
Under Elder Zhong’s lead, Jiang Li headed deeper into the sect.
The Long Clear Hall was the main hall of the Scripture Storage Valley. All the major and minor meetings in the valley would be held here.
Every year, the outer sect competition was neither big nor small. It had been a tradition for many years for outer sect disciples to be promoted to the inner sect and acknowledge an elder as their master.
While making it convenient to choose disciples, it could also allow the disciples to identify people and increase the cohesion of inner disciples.
Not to mention that this time, such an accident had occurred in the Outer Sect Grand Competition, so the outer sect disciples had suffered heavy losses. The sect naturally had to express their gratitude towards Jiang Li who was the only one to complete the mission and win this competition.
It was the first time Jiang Li had seen so many sect elders, and he could not help but feel slightly nervous.
This was especially true when he saw the Scripture Storage Valley’s Valley Master. To be honest, even Jiang Li did not know his name. Normally, not many people in the sect dared to call him by his name. The Skill Imparting Elder seemed to have mentioned it before, but he had forgotten everything after hearing it.
Fortunately, no one would specially test if he knew the Valley Master’s name, and it was not awkward to call him Valley Master directly.
Jiang Li stepped into the hall, and a majestic aura directly made him tremble.
It was not that someone deliberately released their pressure to scare him, but there were more than 30 to 40 elders at the top and sides of the hall.
As a small Qi Refinement cultivator, he naturally felt uneasy being stared at by such a group of high-level cultivators.
At the same time, he felt a little overwhelmed.
It was because other than the Valley Master, if any of the other elders came here, it meant that they had the intention to take a disciple. Jiang Li could choose any one of them to become his master.
He had a medium-grade spiritual root aptitude and could receive such treatment probably because of the unexpected incident in the “Outer Sect Grand Competition”. The sect probably gave him some preferential treatment.
Jiang Li raised his eyes and glanced over, and he clearly saw that Elder Red Hair of the Alchemy Hall and Elder Weng of the Mystic Gate Hall were amongst them.
“Disciple greets Valley Master and Elders.” Jiang Li bowed and cupped his hands.
“Disciple Jiang Li has joined the sect for less than half a year and has cultivated to the mid-stage Qi Refinement realm with the aptitude of a medium-grade spiritual root. This hard work is quite rare.”
“Both the Skill Imparting Elder and Elder Weng of the Mystic Gate Hall have high praises for you. Previously, you even made contributions to the sect during the mission in the Southern Seal Kingdom.”
“The sect originally wanted to take you in at that time. I didn’t expect that in less than half a month, you would still stand here relying on your own efforts. I’m very happy to see that.”
The Valley Master looked like an approachable middle-aged uncle, far from the dignified and inflexible image Jiang Li imagined.
Jiang Li was a little surprised by the Valley Master’s understanding of him. Although this was definitely information gathered at the last minute, it still meant that the other party valued him greatly.
“Valley Master, you’re flattering me. I’m ashamed. It’s all thanks to the guidance of the elders. I was just a little lucky.”
Jiang Li was modest, but the feeling of being praised by the Valley Master was really not bad.
“You are now an inner sect disciple. The treatment you received in the past is naturally no longer suitable for you anymore.”
“From today onwards, your monthly allowance will be the same as your other senior brothers.”
“In addition, since you’ve become an inner sect disciple, you naturally need to acknowledge a master. You have a dual-attribute Yin-Wood spiritual root. Originally, Elder Lin should be your best choice. However, Elder Lin is in seclusion all year round and has no intention of taking in disciples for the time being.”
Jiang Li also knew that Elder Lin was the descendant of the corpse manipulation clan that had inherited the ‘Coffin Burial Art ‘. His spiritual root attribute was the same as Jiang Li’s, and if he took the other party as his master, he might really be able to obtain more help.
“How about this? I see that you’ve learned a lot of things. You’ve dabbled in alchemy, zombie puppet, and body refinement. In the future, it’s best to focus on one aspect. You can tell me which you prefer.”
When he spoke about the puppet, Jiang Li was a bit nervous. After all, his black zombie was refined from the corpse of an outer sect senior brother, so it was a bit inappropriate.
However, it was obvious that no one wanted to pursue this matter.
“I want to focus on body refinement.”
Cultivating his body in the future was also Jiang Li’s decision after careful consideration.
First of all, he had not given up on refining pills because of Elder Red Hair.
In the beginning, he had high hopes that an alchemist could earn a lot of money from cultivation novels he read.
However, after trying for a period of time without giving up, he helplessly discovered that he indeed did not have much talent in this aspect.
Elder Red Hair and Senior Sister Little Four had taught him well for a few days.
However, the final conclusion was that he could refine poison, but forget about refining pills.
In the cultivation world, many things could not be changed by hard work. Talent was talent. Without talent, no matter how much effort and resources one put in, it was useless.
On the contrary, he would often stare at the runes on the pill furnace in a daze or even have illusions. After being discovered by Elder Red Hair, he felt that Jiang Li should still have some talent in array formations and runes, but he could not say for sure how talented he was.
In terms of the zombie puppet, there were very few elders and disciples in the Scripture Storage Valley who mainly cultivated it. Elder Lin did not want to take a disciple either.
Other than that, only the Mystic Gate Hall had dabbled in this aspect. The corpse of the Golden Core zombie demon was currently being modified in the Mystic Gate Hall. However, because the Zombie Core had been stolen by Elder Duan Shuang, the power of the zombie demon puppet had greatly decreased.
Of course, the most important problem was that this Zombie Puppet aspect was unable to fully display the effects of Jiang Li’s cheat. It was fine if it was used as a support, but if it was cultivated mainly, the gains would not make up for the losses.
As for body refinement, based on Jiang Li’s current situation, he knew that relying on his plus and minus buttons, body refinement was practically a wide path. There was no reason to not choose it.
“Yes, I heard from Elder Zhong that you are indeed quite talented in body refinement. Why don’t you become Elder He’s disciple? He is proficient in body refinement and no one in the Scripture Storage Valley can compare to him. Even in the Great Mountain Region, only the monks of Benevolent Travel Temple can compare to him.”
Jiang Li followed the Valley Master’s guidance and looked at a super burly man whose entire body was covered in complicated tattoos.
The skin that looked as hard as metal and the bald head that could almost be used as a mirror made Jiang Li’s scalp go numb upon seeing him.
The other party nodded at Jiang Li.
Jiang Li immediately reacted and immediately bowed to the other party, “Disciple Jiang Li greets Master!”
Jiang Li had heard of this Elder He before. He was the Head Elder of the Scripture Storage Valley’s Demon Vanquishing Hall, the boss of Elder Duan Shuang. His iron fists were very powerful.
Not to mention other things, just his status as the disciple of the Demon Vanquishing Hall’s Head Elder would bring him great benefits.