Chapter 69: The Appraisal
It took Xu Qing nearly ten minutes to feel satisfied. She had beaten Han Yu black and blue—his face was covered in bruises, one eye had gone full panda-mode, and his head was sprouting more bumps than a porcupine in puberty.
Thankfully, the ever-lurking medic disciple was nearby, and with the speed of someone used to this exact scenario, patched Han Yu up. Soon, he was good as new—if you ignored the faint, lingering pain and the occasional twitch.
’Man, she’s much scarier than Elder Nie Jing,’ Han Yu thought, silently swearing to never cross Xu Qing again unless absolutely necessary. Like, if the world was ending. Twice.
"HUMPH!" Xu Qing harrumphed, arms crossed, as she watched Han Yu get bandaged like a discount mummy.
She really wanted to give him another round for good measure, but now wasn’t the time. The Appraisal of the recruits was about to begin—and that was serious business.
It wasn’t just important for Han Yu, but for Xu Qing too. This was where the true worth of a recruit would be revealed, and depending on the results, inner court disciples like her would receive a proportionate amount of sect merits.
Sect merits were the official currency of cool within the sect. Sure, spirit stones were used in the common markets for basic trade, but when it came to serious purchases—like pills, weapons, or renting a fancy alchemy room with better lighting—merit points were king.
They could be exchanged for guidance from elders, exclusive cultivation techniques, custom weapons, or even rare pills. Want to rent a training hall that smells faintly of enlightenment and despair? You’d better have enough merit points.
Xu Qing needed those points badly. She was stuck at a cultivation bottleneck, her progress as slow as a turtle in a tar pit. A breakthrough pill would help, but they didn’t come cheap. And she didn’t want a repeat of last time.