Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex was shocked that the entrance to the sect was actually a bustling market. He saw some shops that sold alchemy ingredients, some that sold weapons, some sold general artifacts, some sold talismans, and some even sold formation flags.

'What is going on here?' he wondered. Most of the customers in this market were disciples of the Tiger Sect with their yellow robes and either green or blue linings.

'Blue, I think was Inner sect disciples, right? So green has to be the outer sect. Was senior sister's red-colored lining for core disciples?' he wondered.

He walked past the many disciples and finally saw a small but expensive-looking gate. The gates had two pillars with a statue of a mighty tiger in a mid striking pose on top of both the gates. Between the two pillars was a massive curved board that had the words, 'TIGER SECT' written on it.

Alex walked past the gate and was immediately stopped by a man in a yellow robe with silver linings. 'Elder?' he thought.

"Stop right there. Who are you, and what are you doing here?" the elder inquired.

"Ah, hello. My name is Yu Ming. I am a new disciple of the Tiger Sect. I was told that you guys would know about it." He said.

"Hmm… Yu Ming?" the elder quickly checked his notes and exclaimed, "Ah, yes. We are waiting for you. Come with me." The elder took him to a building right next to the gate and knocked on one of the doors inside the building.

"What is it?" a sound came from the inside.

"Leader, the disciple named Yu Ming is here." The elder said and waited.

"Come in." The elder opened the door and walked it. Inside the room, was a very young man sitting on a chair. He had short black hair and was wearing an elder's clothes. As for his age, he was barely in his late 20s.

'Such a young man, and he's already an elder? He looks way younger than even martial uncle.' Alex thought.

"Leave," he commanded and the other elder left. "So, you are the new disciple huh." The young man said.

"Yes, Elder," Alex replied. The elder stopped for a second but continued as if nothing happened. "Hmm… Bone Tempering 3rd realm huh. He did say you were around this cultivation stage. That means you will directly become an inner sect disciple."

The elder took out a couple of things from his bag and handed it to Alex. "Here are 2 sets of clothes, and this is your badge." Alex took the clothes and kept them in his bag. As for the badge, he looked at it and just saw a big number '2608' written on it. He tried to scan it with his spiritual sense and realized it had a formation plate inside of it. But unlike a nameplate, he couldn't access it.

The elder then began to explain, "Tiger sect is different from Hong Wu sect. The alchemists are a bunch of pacifists who only hole up in their homemaking pills. In the Tiger sect, everything depends on your cultivation and fighting strength. You are currently the lowest-ranked disciple in the sect."

"However, you can go challenge anyone in the top 275 that is not in the Bone Tempering realm and get their homes for free. I suggest you go for the person at 275 so that it's an easy win and you don't need to go through a lot of trouble today."

"In Tiger sect, the disciples are separated into Outer, inner and core disciples based on their Cultivation base. Anyone with cultivation can automatically become an outer sect, anyone with Bone tempering realm of cultivation can become an inner sect, and anyone with Meridian Tempering realm can become a core disciple."

"There is a maximum quota of 50 core disciples, 225 inner sect disciples and the rest are outer sect disciples. Depending on your rank, and the strength of other disciples, you can be a disciple with high cultivation base and still be an outer sect disciple."

"Also, I don't know why, but I was told to give you this." He took out a normal-looking sword. "It's a Common mortal-grade sword that doesn't even have a name. From now on you are to use this sword to fight."

Alex was surprised. 'How often do I have to fight in this sect?' he wondered. "Now go and settle or fight. Here in Tiger sect, we do whatever we want."

Alex was stunned as he was sent away. The elder didn't give him a single piece of information about the sect itself. 'Where am I supposed to live? I don't even have a map,' He thought.

After he left the building, he walked a little further to see a massive mountain. The mountain wasn't very tall, but it was very wide. He saw thousands of houses on the mountain and a single pathway up the mountain. Many disciples were walking up and down the mountain.

He walked up the mountain and saw the houses had numbers. "Hmm… 2138" he walked to the right of the house and saw the next house had the number 2139. "Oh, so we are supposed to live in these houses huh. Since I'm already an inner sect disciple, I should do what the elder said and challenge someone in house 275.

It took him a while to understand the logic behind how the houses were named. From the ground to the top of the mountain, there was only a single path. However, every time the path crossed a line of houses, there were another 2 paths spawning from the original path, that circled the mountain.

The lower the base a house was, the higher its number was. Alex immediately started walking upwards, skipping tons of houses.

Finally, after skipping dozens of lanes, he reached the lanes where the houses were numbered in the 200s. After searching for a while, he found a house numbered 275. He scanned the house using his spiritual sense and found that no one was inside.

Alex was puzzled as to what to do next.