Chapter 66: Brought Coal During Winter
Fang Hetong led Wei Yuan to a small, modified ancestral hall inside the village. In the middle of the room was a square table with a map spread across its surface.
Wei Yuan glanced at the map and immediately recognized it as a hand-drawn topological sketch of the terrain surrounding Quyang County. The map was exquisitely detailed, marking even the smallest streams and earthen mounds with remarkable clarity. The brushwork was superb, with every stroke and curve possessing its own artistic merit.
After Fang Hetong beckoned Wei Yuan to take a seat, they exchanged introductions with each other.
Fang Hetong hailed from a small sect of the local commandery known as White Maple Academy. He was currently thirty-eight years old. It took him over two decades of hard work to forge his Dao Foundation. The headmaster of the academy was the only one who had barely made it to the Avatar stage. The rest of them—eight of them to be exact—were stuck at the Dao Foundation stage, never to advance further. They were the classic example of a small sect and faction. In fact, if Bianning Commandery wasn’t located at the borders, if its population was bigger, and if the foreign races didn’t pose a constant threat against their existence, there was no chance White Maple Academy would have qualified as a fourth-rate sect.
Looking at Fang Hetong, Wei Yuan truly felt the strength of the Palace of Absolute Beginning for the first time. In the Palace, Human-tier Dao Foundation was almost extinct, Earth-tier was treated as trash, and Heaven-tier was the baseline for someone to earn a respectful nod from the sect. But not all of them; only one as rare as Yan Ming’s.
On a related note, the headmaster was also the only Earth-tier Dao Foundation cultivator in the entire White Maple Academy. Everyone else was Human-tier. Unless a junior rose to the occasion, the academy was going to lose their status as a fourth-rate sect once the headmaster had passed away.
Despite cultivating for a whole decade, Wei Yuan still hadn’t formed his Dao Foundation. There was no doubt that he ranked among the bottom rung of the Palace right now. However, despite spending over two decades to form a Human-tier Dao Foundation, Fang Hetong was considered above average in the White Maple Academy.
But of course, Wei Yuan was superior in terms of combat strength. Back then, he had defeated the Earth-tier Hsu Du when he had just finished tempering his flesh. After tempering his blood, he could consistently defeat a Human-tier Dao Foundation cultivator wielding a mystic artifact. Today, Hsu Du would need to wear the full set of Bao Yun’s armor just to survive a single exchange against him.
After they were done with the introductions, someone entered the room and placed a cup and a bowl on the table. Fang Hetong said, “You’re traveled a long way, Junior Brother Wei. I’m sure you’re famished. Unfortunately, we do not have much to offer at the moment, so I ask you to make due with what we have.”