Dual Cultivation

"For those of you who want to be dual cultivators, due to the imbalance in gender, things are much more complicated, so I will deal with you last," said Su Yang before he turned to look at the 800 disciples that wished to practice cultivation normally.

"All of you get in a single file line and come to me one at a time. I will give you your disciple rank now, which will be based on your talent and current cultivation base."

The 800 disciples quickly stood before him in a line.

Once a disciple approaches him, Su Yang hands them a medallion that corresponds with their disciple rank.

There were five colors of medallions; white, green, red, black, and gold.

The Outer Court disciples will be given the white medallions, whilst the Inner Court disciples will be given the green medallions. As for the red and black medallions, they are given to Core Disciples and Sect Elders. And finally, for the gold medallion, only the Legacy Disciples are allowed to carry them.

Half an hour later, once all of the disciples received their disciple ranks, Su Yang said to them, "Now that you have your ranks, I will talk about your allowances."

Every disciple within the Sect are usually given allowances in the form of spirit stones, and this is a normal practice across most Sects around the world except for the poor ones that cannot afford to hand out spirit stones to their own disciples or the strict sects that refuse to spoil their disciples, forcing them to find their own resources.

"Outer Court disciples will be given 100 spirit stones every month…"

"What?! 100 spirit stones?!" Not just the disciples but even Liu Lanzhi stared at him with wide eyes.

A hundred spirit stones can last an ordinary Cultivator for many months, even years if they use them sparingly, and to give out 100 spirit stones every month to Outer Court disciples was simply too generous — even insane. Not even the richest Sects in this world would dare to imagine handing out so many spirit stones to their Outer Court disciples.

After giving the new disciples their ranks, there are over 700 Outer Court disciples currently in the Sect, which means it would require them to spend over 70,000 spirit stones every month on the Outer Court disciples alone. Furthermore, they are bound to have more Outer Court disciples in the future. What will happen once they have 10,000 Outer Court disciples? There is simply no way they can spend one million spirit stones a month on the Court Court disciples, and this budget does not even include the Inner Court disciples, much less the Core disciples and everything else!

"S-Su Yang… 100 spirit stones…? I don't want to doubt your judgment, but don't you think you are being a 'little' bit too generous? In the past, even the Inner Court disciples received less than 10 spirit stones a month... " Liu Lanzhi said to him with her back soaked in sweat. "Even if we can afford to give them 100 spirit stones a month, they won't have enough time to cultivate so many spirit stones."

Su Yang understood why Liu Lanzhi was reluctant to give these disciples so many spirit stones, as 100 spirit stones is truly a lot of money and resources, especially if they are to be spent on mere Outer Court disciples, who are often seen as inferior disciples whose purpose is only to increase a Sect's population. However, if one looked at these Outer Court disciples as though they are as talented as Core Disciples from the other sects, they might no longer hesitate to spend so much money.

"You should stop looking at these disciples as just 'Outer Court disciples'." Su Yang said to her with a calm expression.

"Indeed, it may seem reckless to hand out so many resources to beginners, but if you consider what they will become in the future, it's a worthy investment, even if it's somewhat expensive."

"These disciples here are not your ordinary 'Outer Court disciples'. They are all geniuses that have been chosen from hundreds of thousands of people. Although they may appear insignificant right now, they all have potential that surpasses even Core Disciples from other Sects."

"Even if I understand your intent… our resources are not unlimited..." Liu Lanzhi sighed.

They may be rich right now, but they have already spent millions of spirit stones to expand and upgrade the Sect into a much better place. Compared to the Profound Blossom Sect before, the current Sect was at least two times larger, and even all of their facilities and living quarters had been upgraded. However, even with the expansion, there are still many things they needed to fix or buy for the Sect in the future.

If they continue to spend so carelessly, their resources will be depleted before they know it.

"You are worried about our funds? Have you not looked in the Treasury recently?" Su Yang asked her with a calm voice.

"I last checked a few weeks ago when I had to pay for the Sect's expansion and upgrades, but I haven't been there since then…" Liu Lanzhi shook her head.

"Then you should go and take a look right now," he said with a mysterious smile on his face. "I will even wait for you to return before we continue."

Liu Lanzhi nodded her head before rushing to the Treasury.

A few minutes later, she arrived at the White Pearl Treasury, which is still being guarded by Elder Zhao.

"Sect Master. What brings you here today?" Elder Zhao greeted her.

"Su Yang told me to check the Treasury. Do you know why?" she asked him.

"The Treasury? I'm not sure. He showed up here once right before the disciple examination to put something inside, but he told me to not look inside for the time being, so I don't know what he left inside," he responded.

"Open it. I want to see what's inside."

A few moments later, they stood before the Treasury room and the powerful formation that guarded it.