“Senior, I’d like to learn about Puppet Scripture. What are the requirements?” Yun Jiuge asked the elderly man seated behind the window.
He lifted his head and glanced at Yun Jiuge. Then he said in a flat voice, “300 Contribution Points.”
“How many Contribution Points?” Yun Jiuge clicked her tongue in annoyance.
If one wished to learn new skills or obtain Medicinal Pills in the Yin Corpse Sect, one had to exchange them for Contribution Points. The sect did not accept Spiritual Jade or Spiritual Stones.
Yun Jiuge and the rest of the secondary disciples who had just passed the examination were allowed to live in their rooms free of charge for half a month.
However, after that, they needed to pay 30 Contribution Points every month in rent. Failure to do so would result in losing one’s status as a Yin Corpse Sect disciple. Furthermore, the person in question would also be sent straightaway to the Mass Grave.
It was possible to purchase Contribution Points with Spiritual Jade. One Contribution Point cost one piece of Spiritual Jade.
Yun Jiuge could use 300 pieces of Spiritual Jade to buy 300 Contribution Points right now, but she would just attract a lot of unwanted attention. After all, no disciple would do something like that.
Another way to obtain Contribution Points was to finish various missions in the sect.
This method was considerably more accessible than having to pay with Spiritual Jade. It was also mutually beneficial for both the disciples and the sect.
Yun Jiuge did not have any Contribution Points at the moment. She had to find a way to earn them.
She thanked the elderly man dressed in gray and headed over to Mission Hall.
Mission Hall was much bigger than Chuan Gong Hall. It was currently packed with secondary disciples, and each and every one of them was trying to pick a mission for themselves.
From the outside, Yun Jiuge was able to see everything that was happening inside thanks to her excellent eyesight.
She noticed that there were a total of thirteen pillars within Mission Hall, and every single one was pasted over with tons of mission lists.
The mission lists were arranged according to difficulty. The most straightforward missions were pasted on the pillars to the left of the Mission Hall, whereas the hardest ones were pasted on the right.
The lowest-ranked missions involved sweeping graveyards, gathering and washing bones, patrolling, and more. These were mostly menial tasks with meager pay.
The pay for the intermediate missions, on the other hand, was quite good. However, the tasks were very demanding and also came with quite a bit of risk.
The area that held the advanced missions was only accessible to disciples who had managed to enter the fifth layer of the Qi Refining stage. Yun Jiuge would not even be able to look at them, given her current cultivation level.
Yun Jiuge walked once round around Mission Hall. She soon realized that it would not be easy to earn 30 Contribution Points in a month.
The jobs that were not life-threatening were incredibly tedious. She would not have much time to train and cultivate after finishing them.
She might be able to continue staying in the sect as a secondary disciple by finishing those jobs, but if her cultivation failed to improve, she would just end up being pushed around.
However, the missions with higher pay were not easy, either. They were all dangerous.
For example, one of the intermediate missions that had been posted was to kill Yin Ghosts and collect their Yin Qi.
Every bottle of Yin Qi could be exchanged for 10 Contribution Points.
Any disciple who did not have sufficient cultivation to defeat the Yin Ghosts would just end up as their fodder.
“What do you think about this mission?” Yun Jiuge was interested in taking up the mission to kill Yin Ghosts.
The Yin Corpse Sect required large amounts of Yin Qi daily to facilitate their pill production and corpse refinement processes.
Thus, the mission of killing Yin Ghosts and collecting their Yin Qi would be available every single day. This mission was also one that the secondary disciples preferred to undertake.
“You just became a disciple of the sect. Going on this mission will just cause you to stand out from the pack. Start with the lowest-ranked missions and work your way up!” Zi Shang wanted Yun Jiuge to make use of the missions to familiarize herself with the inner workings of the Yin Corpse Sect.
“Alright, then!” Yun Jiuge took on all the low-ranking missions on the lists.
Every day, after she finished her training, she cleaned the graveyards, gathered bones, mopped the floor, and tidied up the entire peak where she lived.
All of the jobs were extremely exhausting, but she was quickly able to familiarize herself with the workings of the Yin Corpse Sect.
She also realized that not all the secondary disciples in the sect were evil and up to no good. Some had only joined the Yin Corpse Sect because they’d grown up in a land that belonged to a Demonic Sect.
Their background made it impossible for any of the righteous sects to accept them. Joining a Demonic Sect like the Yin Corpse Sect was the only choice they had.
Yun Jiuge finally came to understand why Zi Shang had wanted her to change her name and her gender, and why he’d made her go to the Dabie Mountain.
She would only be able to assimilate into the Yin Corpse Sect once she had completely gotten rid of all traces of her past.
Yun Jiuge finally earned 300 Contribution Points after doing countless low-ranking missions for a month. Additionally, she also managed to enter the second layer of the Qi Refining stage.
She made her way over to Chuan Gong Hall once again and exchanged her Contribution Points for the Puppet Scripture. She then returned to her room with Zi Shang, and the two of them began making the necessary preparations to refine the Xuan Yin White Bone Monkey into a puppet.
The most important thing that they needed to do before refining the Xuan Yin White Bone Monkey was to come up with a mixture of Charm Liquid that possessed spiritual power.
A lot of different ingredients were required to make the Charm Liquid. The element that they needed the most was Corpse Grass.
Thankfully, Yun Jiuge had prepared a lot of ingredients with the Yin attribute before she’d set off for the Yin Corpse Sect. She had more than enough Corpse Grass to make the Charm Liquid.
Zi Shang crushed the Corpse Grass in a mortar before mixing it with Yun Jiuge’s blood essence. He then dabbed his index finger in the resulting liquid and drew a rune on the White Bone Monkey.
The red-colored rune quickly seeped into its white bones. There seemed to be a little more life in the White Bone Monkey now.
They were moments away from refining the Xuan Yin White Bone Monkey into a puppet when Zi Shang suddenly stopped what he was doing and began drawing a spell formation on the floor.
“What are you doing?” Yun Jiuge did not know much about spell formations, but she recognized the one that Zi Shang was drawing. It was the Soul Ensnarement Formation.
“This room is too simple and run-down. I’m worried that the White Bone Monkey’s spiritual energy will be picked up on by others when we are done,” Zi Shang replied without turning around.
“You are overthinking!” Yun Jiuge did not think there was a need to be so cautious.
It was just a puppet! It was not like they would be able to transform it into some kind of divine tool or weapon.
Zi Shang finished drawing the spell formation on the floor, he went back to drawing runes over the Xuan Yin White Bone Monkey.
When he finished the final rune, a gust of Unholy Wind suddenly blew around the circle that Zi Shang had drawn.
All the furniture that was positioned near the circle was destroyed by the sudden gust of wind.
Yun Jiuge’s hair flew about wildly, and her clothes billowed with air.
Fortunately, the Unholy Wind only blew inside the circle that Zi Shang had drawn. It would have surely destroyed the roof had there not been any restrictions in place.
The Unholy Wind continued to blow for a while. Then, all of a sudden, two pea-sized flame balls appeared on the monkey’s skull, which had been placed in the center of the circle.
A moment later, a clattering sound filled the room.
The small White Bone Monkey rose to its feet. It had a large head, but its body was little. It looked just like a beansprout.
It turned its big head and looked to left then right before walking over to Yun Jiuge and staring at her in a daze.
Frankly, the White Bone Monkey looked rather frightening with its white bones and red eyes.
Clatter! Clatter! The White Bone Monkey’s jaws began moving. It seemed to be talking to Yun Jiuge.
Sadly, Yun Jiuge did not know how to speak the Ghost Language. She only knew beast-speak.
Even if she could not understand Ghost Language, she could vaguely tell that the White Bone Monkey was asking her to protect it from harm.
Tsk. This little thing is pretty smart, Yun Jiuge thought to herself.
“Your spiritual sense is still too weak at the moment, so you can’t control the White Bone Monkey well for now. But you’ll definitely have no problem controlling it once your cultivation improves.” Several beads of sweat formed on Zi Shang’s silky white forehead, and his chiseled face showed hints of exhaustion. Refining the Xuan Yin White Bone Monkey clearly had not been an easy task.
“Are you alright?” Yun Jiuge fished out her handkerchief and helped to wipe the sweat off Zi Shang’s brow.
“I’m fine.” Zi Shang shook his head. He then pointed at the Xuan Yin White Bone Monkey and said, “Keep that away first.”
“There’s no place to keep it here!” The White Bone Monkey might be small, but her sack would not be able to hold it!
“You just need to get him to disintegrate,” Zi Shang explained. Then, he gave the White Bone Monkey a command: “Disintegrate.”
The monkey instantly disintegrated into a pile of neatly-stacked white bones that could easily be stowed away in a small bag.
“That sure is convenient.” Yun Jiuge stuffed the bag into her larger sack. It fit perfectly.
“Since you have managed to enter the next layer of the Qi Refining stage, let’s go and take up the mission to kill the Yin Ghosts!” Zi Shang felt that Yun Jiuge was strong enough to defeat the Yin Ghosts now. It was time for her to train by fighting actual foes.
She would not be able to become stronger just by training alone in her room every single day. She had to transfer all that she’d learned into actual attacks.
Most importantly, it would be extremely beneficial for them to gather more Yin Qi.
