Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When Zhang Lisheng’s mind was jumbled due to his thoughts, Min Lan had already given out her orders clearly. In the end, she told the green-clothed disciple in the courtyard, “Disciple Wei, I’m going to look for Deacon Su to report my task now so make sure you settle down Disciple Zhang properly. Deacon Su will come see him personally in a while.”
“Deacon Su will come personally?” The skinny Wei Qing, who had a thin angular face who looked to be in his forties, bowed and said in pleasant surprise. “Don’t worry, Senior Sister Min, I’ll settle Junior Brother Zhang properly.”
“Alright!” Min Lan nodded and turned to Zhang Lisheng to say, “Lisheng, I’ll take my leave first. If there’s anything that you don’t understand about the Gate, you can just ask your Senior Brother Wei directly. He’ll take care of you.”
Then, she turned around and left.
“Alright, Sister!” Zhang Lisheng nodded and watched the girl walk out of the courtyard’s red door painted in red. He then cupped his hand in front of his chest awkwardly at Wei Qing before calling out, “Senior Brother Wei, please take care of me.”
“Junior Brother Zhang, there’s no need to be too polite, you’re a person highly regarded by Big Boss Su. You’re temporarily staying in our courtyard and I guess you’ll be upgraded to stay in the house halfway up the hill in the city. That time, it would be you who takes care of me instead. Alright, it’s like this. We have two central rooms in this courtyard and there are four wing rooms. In total. Now that you came, I’ll ask Junior Brother Song and Junior Brother Chu to vacate the central rooms…” After Min Lan left, Wei Qing maintained the same attitude towards the young man and said enthusiastically.
“There’s no need for that, Senior Brother Wei. How can I possibly let my Senior Brothers vacate a room for me. I’ll just stay in whichever empty room,” Zhang Lisheng interrupted Wei Qing’s words in a humble manner.
“T-This isn’t good! Only the wing room is vacated now. If you stay there and if Big Boss Su comes later…” Wei Qing chuckled dryly.
“What is not good about it? When Deacon Su comes, I’ll explain to him that it’s me who wants to stay there. Senior Brother Wei, which room here is vacated?”
“The one with the door to the right, Junior Brother Zhang. Actually the environment of the wing room is also nice so it’s also good if you want to stay there.” Wei Qing was quite satisfied with Zhang Lisheng’s sensibleness. “If you stay there, I won’t take in any more people so you can stay comfortably in the room alone!”
Then, he proceeded to bring the young man to walk up the stone steps on the right and turned at the corridor before entering a room that had the size of 20 to 30 square meters.
There were very few furniture in the room. Other than the wooden bed on both left and right sides of the wall and the cabinet at the head of the bed, there was nothing else inside.
Looking at the almost empty room, Zhang Lisheng secretly cursed at the stingy Gate of Witchcraft. Helplessly, he asked, “Senior Brother Wei, is there any place in the city for me to buy bedding?”
“Brother, if you want bedding, I have a few old sets with me. They have been washed and starched thoroughly. If you’re not used to using old bedding and want to buy a new one, then you can just walk down the mountain foot and there are some shops but there are very pricey. Actually, we usually go to town to buy our daily necessities and would secretly transport it back to the Mountain Gate after 12 o’clock at night. You just have to make sure that you wrap it properly with plastic so it won’t get wet.”
“Can we go out anytime after entering the Mountain Gate?” Zhang Lisheng asked in joy.
“Looks like you’re really not familiar with the situation in the Gate. No wonder Senior Sister Min would ask me to tell you about it!” Wei Qing smiled while stunned. “Entering the Mountain Gate doesn’t equal to entering a prison. Other than those high-ranking disciples who are restricted by their masters’ rules, we can go out at any time.”
“What do you mean by high-ranking disciples?”
“It’s like this. come, I’ll fill you in. The official disciples in our Gate of Witchcraft are separated into ‘A, B, C, D, E’ ranks. Disciples of the same rank are put in order into Senior Brother, Junior Brother, Senior Sister and Junior Sister by age while disciples of different ranks would be put in order into Senior Brother, Junior Brother, Senior Sister and Junior Sister according to ranks. Just take you for an example, Junior Brother, you’re an E-ranked disciple so when you’re promoted to D-rank, you still have to call me by Senior Brother because of our age. however, if you become a C-ranked disciple, I’d have to call you Senior Brother instead. Also, once there’s a difference of two levels between two disciples, the high-ranking disciple can call the low-ranking disciple by ‘Disciple’. The low-ranking disciple, on the other hand, would still continue to call the high-ranking disciple as Senior Brother or Senior Sister. Oh yeah, another thing! The E-ranked disciple wears black robes while the D-ranked disciple wears green robes. This is the easiest level to be promoted. Usually, if you can last for more than ten years, you’ll be able to change your black robe to a green robe. However, when you’re already a D-ranked disciple, it’d be hard for you to continue to be promoted. Once you’ve become a silver-robed C-ranked disciple, you won’t be able to enter or exit the Mountain Gate freely as you like anymore. However, at the same time, your accomodation and food expenses would be provided by the Gate. Not only that, you’ll also stand a chance to be a disciple of the Grand Wizard and your usual life can be said as stress-free…” Wei Qing explained through a string of words.
Zhang Lisheng nodded constantly, patiently listening to the middle-aged man who had a thin angular face beside him to continue to talk enthusiastically. “B-ranked disciples, on the other hand, are the elite disciples in the Gate. They’re the main pillars and wear gold. All of them are the direct disciples of the Grand Wizard. Then, higher up would be the A-ranked disciples who can wear whatever they want to. For this reason, if you want to live safely in the Mountain Gate, the simplest method is to make sure you have the correct behaviors in accordance to the different clothing. You better not pick any trouble with a disciple who has a higher ranking than yourself. Not only that, other than the disciples of D- and E-ranked who live together, the other disciples of the other three rankings would stay in the mountain city from bottom to higher up. For this reason, many prudent disciples would not simply go stroll around at the higher place of the mountain city.”
Wei Qing finally finished his explanation. With a grateful expression, Zhang Lisheng said, “So there are actually so many rules. If you hadn’t told me, Senior Brother Wei…”
Right at this moment, Su Deli brought Min Lan striding through the widely opened door together.
“D-Deacon Su, you’re here!” When Wei Qing, who was already mentally prepared seeing the Deacon coming in for real, he still froze visibly. Flustered, he bowed with a smile on his face.
“You must be Disciple Wei Qing. It seems like you’ve carried out my order well. Even though it’s a wing room, it’s still very bright,” Su Deli smiled as he said in a slightly low voice.
This somewhat unpleasant tone made Wei Qing explain in a stutter. “Deacon, y-you asked Senior Sister Min to personally order me so how could I possibly dare slack? I originally wanted to give the main room that I’m staying to Senior Brother Zhang but he kept refusing so I had no choice but to bring him to the wing room.”
“He just entered the Gate so it’s right for him to stay in the wing room!” Upon hearing this, Su Deli’s frown eased away. “Alright, Disciple Wei, you may retreat now. I have some personal matters to discuss with Disciple Zhang.”
“Yes, Deacon!” Wei Qing inwardly sighed with relief as he hastily left the wing room.
After when only three of them were left in the room, Su Deli, who had changed into a suit, took out a skull the size of a walnut that was carved vividly; a curved tree loop that had its canopy and root connected together; a statue with no face but had a carving of several dozens of bean-sized monsters on its body; three books; and one contract.
Walking up to Zhang Lisheng, he handed them over. “Disciple Zhang, let us have a fair transaction. You can also see that these three secret cultivation methods that I’m giving you are authentic cultivation methods. The Gate of Death is still okay but it’s all based on luck that I managed to get the Gate of Sacrifice and Life. You can sign the contract after feeling it.”
At that moment, Zhang Lisheng still could not understand what Su Deli was talking about but since he was about to achieve his goal, he dared not complicate the issue by asking more questions. After taking over the books, he looked at the skull, the tree loop and the monster carving as his brain began to whirl rapidly.
Some conjectures rose in his heart. Slowly, he placed the books on the wooden bed and just took the skull alone to study it thoroughly. After not finding any abnormality on it, he hastily urged the wizard power in his body to infiltrate into it.
With lady luck by his side, the skull opened its mouth widely as a spot of red light the size of a pinhole appeared in the throat, easily attracting the young man’s attention.
A series of sinister whistling-like incantations could be heard clearly in his ears. The runes and spells he had learnt before when he was young emerged from the depths of his consciousness one by one, drifting, changing and combining to become 17 chapters of cultivation methods from shallow to deep. Adding on to his innate knowledge of a Rank-1 Wizard, it was a secret cultivation method for the Witchcraft’s Gate of Death all the way to Shed and Restore.
The young man did not pay attention to the first 10 chapters of the secret cultivation method, he only looked at the last 7 chapters in his mind. When he saw that the cultivation method was completely equipped with Rank-12 Wizard to Rank-18 Wizard chapters, even though he knew that he could not lose his cool, he still secretly clenched his fist and muttered, “Not bad! Not bad…”
His overwhelming emotion was not exposed due to the concealment from the Mask. In Su Deli’s eyes, he was merely an outer sect’s wizard who had never seen an orthodox witchcraft inheritance before. Unbeknownst to him, Zhang Lisheng was actually putting on a facade despite already being beside himself with so much overflowing joy that he could not exercise self-restraint after obtaining the authentic inheritance.
Su Deli could not help but say with a curl of the lips, “Of course it’s not bad. Even though this Witchcraft Bone Scripture is not the most supreme cultivation method of the Gate of Witchcraft, it’s still a secret method directly linked to the foundation. Oh yeah, Disciple Zhang, now that you’ve felt the Witchcraft Bone Scripture, let us proceed directly. My time is very precious.”
“Yes.” Zhang Lisheng collected his emotions, put the white human skull back on the wooden bed, and picked up the statue with no face. Without rushing to feel it, he first asked Su Deli politely, “Deacon Su, cultivating the Witchcraft Bone Scripture will not have any conflict with the cultivation method passed down in my family right?”
“You don’t even have the common knowledge of cultivation in witchcraft?” Su Deli was stunned. Bursting out with a chuckle, he studied Zhang Lisheng for a while but surprise could be seen in his eyes, surprise that the skinny young man could still make a breakthrough to the transformation stage despite being so ignorant. Inadvertently, it indicated that the Yin energy in the Zhang Family’s old family was very valuable, to a point where it might have exceeded his expectations.
The moment Su Deli thought of this, he was overjoyed with this news. He casually pulled out a wooden token from his pocket and threw it to Zhang Lisheng. “Disciple Zhang, looks like you’re very lucky that Qi Deviation didn’t happen on you. The essence of witchcraft is dated back to a person’s bloodline. With the various innate variant abilities of the wizard, how is it possible for the cultivation methods to clash with each other? No matter what, you’re still the disciple that I’ve recruited into the Gate. Bring this wooden token to the library in the mountain city to read for a few days and learn all the basic knowledge. Don’t be so ignorant that you’ll bring shame to me!”
“There is also a library here…” Pleasantly surprised, Zhang Lisheng put away the unexpected gain and when he saw Su Deli’s impatient expression, he no longer delayed any time and urged the wizard power in his body to infiltrate into the statue in his hand.
In an instant, fiendish and hideous facial features appeared on the face of the statue that was originally empty. The young man felt his mind becoming blank and in the midst of his daze, chapters of another secret cultivation method appeared in his mind. It was none other than the cultivation method from Rank-1 Wizard to Rank-12 Wizard for the Witchcraft’s Gate of Sacrifice.
