"Faction Branch Commander, there are two direct disciples here to report."
In the faction conference hall, a faction branch deacon came reporting.
"Another two?"
The Faction Branch Commander was Wang Gan, a low leveled Heaven Realm martial artist.
He always had headaches when there were things that involved direct disciples. They were indeed formidable, but also too reckless. They rushed off to wherever danger was. The sect actually gives faction branches a fatality indicator. For direct disciples, their fatality indicator had a quota of 1 per year and so coincidentally, this year, a silver class direct disciple had his blood sucked clean. If another one died, he as the faction branch commander would have his score deducted and if his score went below the passing rate he would be dismissed from his commander position.
"Let them in then!" Wang Gan helplessly said.
Even though it was a problem, he knew that direct disciples had to go through live combat in order to develop, and since he was this faction's branch commander, he would have to take all these things into consideration.
Li Fuchen and Xiang Tianqiang walked into the conference hall.
"Direct disciple Li Fuchen, Direct disciple Xiang Tianqiang, greets Commander Wang."
The two of them greeted in unison.
"So you are Li Fuchen." Hearing Li Fuchen’s name, Wang Gan was shocked. He had long heard of Li Fuchen’s reputation. During the Hundred Herbs Hidden Domain mission, he relied on his own ability inflict heavy casualties against the other three sects. He was even more prominent than the previous Sword Maniac.
"Yes I am." Li Fuchen replied.
Wang Gan frowned, "You just become a direct disciple a few months ago. Why the hurry to hunt down demon dao martial artists? You shouldn’t be lacking in contribution points right?"
Li Fuchen's current cultivation level was too low. If he had been a mid leveled Earth Realm martial artist, Wang Gan wouldn’t object to it. If he was a mid leveled Earth Realm, he would have been able to go against high leveled Earth Realm enemies. As long as no Heaven Realm enemies appear, he wouldn’t be in too much danger.
Li Fuchen replied, "Only with danger can I temper myself. If not, there would be no meaning in me being here."
If he followed the normal route and cultivated, Li Fuchen would continue to progress to the peak stage of the Earth Realm, to the Heaven Realm, to the Reincarnation Realm, or even perhaps exceed the Reincarnation Realm. But it would be too slow and by the time he was there, it would be several tens of years later.
Other than that, the world was changing too quickly. Who would know for sure if the Azure Water Sect would face a sect eradication crisis. Who truly knew when the fourth sects war would happen. He just wished that by then, he would have the ability to protect himself.
Even if Xiang Tianqiang didn’t invite him this time, he would have eventually come out to train himself after a period of time.
Wang Gan shook his head. He had already expected his advice to be in vain.
"This is your first time here. Let’s do it like this. I will arrange for the two of you to be in Group 10's 3rd team and 5th team. They are coincidentally short handed now." The seventh branch had a total of 10 groups, each group was led by a group leader who was at the peak stage of the Earth Realm. When compared to other groups, Group 10 had the least work and he arranged quite a number of direct disciples to be put in there too.
"Thank you Commander Wang." Li Fuchen and Xiang Tianqiang thanked with wrapped fists.
Group 10 was located to the northwest of the manor.
In a short moment, the two of them arrived at a big sized courtyard.
This courtyard was separated into a hall, a big yard and five smaller yards. Each of the yards were further separated into five smaller rooms.
In the hall…
"Direct disciples Li Fuchen and Xiang Tianqiang reporting."
In the hall was a bear sized man who lifted his head and said, "Come in!"
"Greetings to Group Officer Chen!"
Hearing the voice, Li Fuchen and Xiang Tianqiang walked into the hall and greeted the bear sized man.
This buffed man was the group officer of Group 10, Chen Daxiong. At the peak stage of Earth Realm, his status was higher than outer sect elders and city lords, he was considered a higher classed outer sect elder.
"What arrangements does Commander Wang have for the two of you?" Chen Daxiong yawned as he asked.
Li Fuchen replied, "Commander Wang asked us to join the 3rd Team and 5th Team."
"Oh.. Then you shall join the 3rd Team and 5th Team then." Chen Daxiong nodded.
"Officer Chen, we do not know who the Team Leaders of the 3rd and 5th Team are." Xiang Tianqiang said.
Chen Daxiong waved his hand, "Don’t worry. You will know them in a few days. Our Group 10 has the lightest duties anyway."
Li Fuchen and Xiang Tianqiang looked at each other.
After Li Fuchen and Xiang Tianqiang left, Chen Daxiong mumbled to himself, "My Group 10 is almost becoming a direct disciple refugee camp. This cannot continue, I have to discuss with Commander Wang to let me become a Group Officer for another group."
Li Fuchen was a member of the 3rd Team, hence he went to the third courtyard.
While Xiang Tianqiang was a member of the 5th Team, thus he went to the fifth courtyard.
Just as Chen Daxiong mentioned, they did get to know of their team leader after a few days.
The 3rd Team's Leader was Xu Qinghai, a seventh level Earth Realm martial artist. He was originally an outer sect elder, but he couldn’t bear the overly peaceful life in the Azure Water Sect so he came to the seventh branch of the Divine Wind Faction.
"You are our team’s second direct disciple. Previously our team had two direct disciples too, but one of them died." Li Fuchen was in the backyard, having tea and mingling with Xu Qinghai.
"Doesn’t Group 10 have the lightest duties? How did he die?" Li Fuchen queried.
Xu Qinghai laughed bitterly, "That direct disciple found Group 10 to be too peaceful and sneaked out to single handedly hunt a demon dao martial artist. He ended up having his blood sucked dry by a demon dao martial artist who cultivated a blood sucking technique. By the time we found him, he was already a mummified corpse that didn’t even have a single tooth or hair."
Li Fuchen was silent. Time and life went on as it pleased. Since he was now at the Divine Wind Faction, he had to prepare for death. Of course, he wouldn’t act like that direct disciple, going solo to hunt down demon dao martial artists. It wasn’t necessary.
He believed there will definitely be opportunities to go hunting for demon dao martial artists.
"Oh right, Jiang Nuohai is now cultivating in seclusion. Once he is out, the two of you can get to know each other." Jiang Nuohai was the other direct disciple that Xu Qinghai mentioned.
"Sure." Li Fuchen nodded.
As days passed, in a bat of an eye, Li Fuchen had been at the seventh branch for a week now.
The other groups would have missions every other day. Only Group 10 would remain as it is.
Li Fuchen wasn’t in a hurry. He cultivated the True Inferno Technique in his room during the day.
He would then head to the outdoors of the seventh branch to cultivate the Black Wind Three Clones.
Black Wind Three Clones was a mystic class, mid-tier light body technique. Once at the sub-perfection stage, the practitioner could create a phantom clone. When at the perfection stage, the practitioner would be able to create two clones. When including the real body, it would be three bodies, which was why the technique's name was Black Wind Three Clones.
"You are Li Fuchen?"
On this day, as Li Fuchen was cultivating his True Inferno Technique, he was interrupted by a voice from the top of the wall.
Li Fuchen frowned, "Jiang Nuohai."
He could sense traces of animosity from Jiang Nuohai.
Had it been others, they would have knocked. But Jiang Nuohai went ahead to stand atop the walls.
"You better distance yourself from Chen Fanghua shimei in the future." Jiang Nuohai said indifferently.
"Why should I?"
He didn’t know of the relationship between Jiang Nuohai and Chen Fanghua. But it was unrelated to him.
"Just because you aren’t my opponent right now."
"That may not be the case."
Li Fuchen wasn’t interested in Chen Fanghua. As of now, there wasn’t any woman that made his heart move. But it didn’t mean that he couldn’t be friends with Chen Fanghua. If they were friends, there would definitely be times when they would move around together.
"You want to try? Jiang Nuohai let out a sharp qi presence.