Tainted will

Teng family courtyard,

Bai Ming was seated down in a lotus position with a contemplating expression on his face.

'I'll have to wait till I reach the Yin-Yang void realm before getting rid of this restriction. If I try to expel it now it'll not only require 4 days' worth of time but will also alert Teng Zhe in the meanwhile. Hmm, even if it was possible to remove this divine sense marker instantly it's not quite beneficial for me.' Bai Ming's gaze shone as he carefully assessed the situation, leaving no room for mistakes.

Bai Ming's inner thoughts quickly settled down.

"Are you ready?"

A cold voice was heard as a lofty shadow appeared in front of Bai Ming.

It came from a middle-aged man who had a long red robe and a cold expression. His eyebrows were able to display majesty without losing his temperament. While holding his hands behind his back, he gazed down at Bai Ming.

It was none other than Teng city's lord, Teng Zhe.

"Let's depart" Bai Ming nodded and said immediately, without any hesitation. Teng Zhe had already given him the remaining Yin-Yang void realm cultivators' corpses, hence he had no reason to reject him.

"Grasp my hand," Teng Zhe plainly said.

After grasping Teng Zhe's hand Bai Ming felt a special power gathering beneath Teng Zhe's feet. Subsequently, the figure of Teng Zhe was floating and then Bai Ming also began floating.

Then… Boom!

They left at an incredible speed.

Every step he took left a ripple in the air.

"Is this Void Walk?" Bai Ming secretly thought to himself and became even more eager to reach the Yin-Yang Void Realm.

The void walk was a natural ability gained when a cultivator achieves the void phase in the Yin-Yang void realm, like how martial artists gain the ability to fly when they reach the spirit realm or the ability to communicate using their divine sense after reaching the core formation realm.

The Key difference between flying and void walking wasn't just the speed boost naturally obtained from it. No, it was mainly the ability to use movement techniques in the air.

Normally, the distance between Teng city and the Red lotus sect was nearly a four-day journey for most spirit realm cultivators, but now it would only take an hour to rush to the red lotus sect under Teng Zhe's lead.

After just a little while void walking, the wind caused Bai Ming's eyes to turn red and tear up. Even with his treasure body and spirit realm cultivation, he could hardly see anything.

If it wasn't for Bai Ming's mid-grade treasure body the wind hitting him would have surely caused him pain.

Flying quickly through the sky. The Teng city had already turned into a little black dot as they quickly flew forward.

An hour later, two figures quietly hovered high above the red lotus sect.

Bai Ming was floating in the air, overlooking the boundless ground in astonishment. Below him, he saw two giant mountains covered in clouds, which hid their true appearance. Echoes of beasts' cries could be heard. The area between the two mountains was full of magnificent palaces and pavilions that towered above the ground.

In the center, a statue of a gigantic scarlet lotus was radiating a faint scarlet glow. This glow emanated a profound aura that caused all those who dared to glance to suffer the palpitation of the heart.

It was a paradise-like scene, with mountains, flowers, and ponds. It was a truly idyllic scene.

With these natural beauties, this was truly worthy of being the location of the Red lotus Sect. The Red Lotus Sect was one of the few first-tier righteous sects in Tiannan province. With nearly nine thousand years of history, it was one of the oldest and strongest first-tier sects in the entire cultivation world of azure.

The Red lotus Sect was worthy of its name. It even contained Scarlet elemental Qi, birthed from the Scarlet Spirit Vine that ran through the mountain. This qi defined the Red lotus sect and was used in many of its cultivation methods to bolster one's cultivated qi, but mainly to allow the red lotus sect's disciples to cultivate their sect's fundamental heavenly lotus cultivation mantra which depended on absorbing scarlet qi instead of heaven and earth spiritual essence.

"Let's go down."

Teng Zhe dived down along with Bai Ming. Upon reaching the ground, many figures could be seen moving here and there.

Many cultivators could be seen flying with their swords in the sky. There were even various kinds of ferocious birds.

'Along with the Scarlet qi, this place had a denser level of Heaven and Earth essence compared to Teng city. It is much more suitable for cultivation.' Bai Ming thought inwardly while casually looking around.

"We have to get you registered," Teng Zhe said as he led the way. Following him, Bai Ming saw many outer sect disciples meditating along the way.

The outer sect did not allocate special cultivation grounds and cave abodes for the outer sect disciples. Everyone just randomly found a place to practice their cultivation mantra and were not to cause trouble.

After another ten minutes, Bai Ming completed his registration as a true disciple. He received a Sect identification token, a sect merit token with thousand sect points, a high-tier storage bag, a rule book, and a Red lotus Sect Daoist robe.

A few minutes later, Both Bai Ming and Teng zhe arrived at the entrance of bai Ming's new courtyard which was assigned to him.

Generally, the inner disciples would only be allocated cultivation caves, as for outer sect elders, personal disciples, and core disciples would be allotted personal abodes.

"Here, this jade slip contains a map and all the information you will need about the sect, I assume you have already gone through the sect rules." Teng Zhe handed Bai Ming a jade slip.

Bai Ming scanned it with his divine sense before accepting it, he then continued to calmly stare at his new teacher.

Teng Zhe knew what Bai Ming wanted, he coldly smirked before taking out his sect merit token, "Give me your merit token."

Bai Ming quietly handed over his merit token to Teng Zhe. Next, Teng Zhe placed his merit token above Bai Ming's and transferred a huge sum of sect points to Bai Ming.

Bai Ming received his sect merit token and inspected it using his divine sense. He was internally startled seeing 1,000,000 sect points.

In terms of spirit stones, 100 spirit stones equal one merit point. That means 1 million sect points equal 100 million spirit stones.

"Remember, these sect points are very precious. Use them wisely, Get as strong as possible before the next five months, and I'll arrange a subordinate for you to look after your needs while you're in the sect." Saying this Teng Zhe paused before continuing, "My residence is just a few thousand meters from here, but unless it is urgent don't come and disturb me. You also have a voice transmission jade with you right, you can communicate with me using that instead."

Bai Ming heard this and coldly snorted internally but on the surface, he expressionlessly nodded in acknowledgment.

"Then I'll take my leave now." Saying that Teng Zhe turned around and slowly left. But just when Bai Ming assumed Teng Zhe had left, he heard a voice in his head telling him, "Yi Yun, be careful, the word of me accepting a disciple has already spread. There will be people coming looking for trouble with you sooner or later, even inside the sect you need to always be on guard. I have left a charm in your right pocket, it can block a few dozen attacks from peak Yin-Yang void realm cultivators. But you still need to keep vigilance. I am staying in the sect to ensure your safety."

Bai Ming paused his footsteps for a brief second before continuing to head inside his dwelling.

As he arrived, he was met with a well-maintained, nearly too clean, room with a single king-sized bed and a table with few antique chairs.

The moment Bai Ming entered his divine sense had already scanned the room, after finding no abnormalities Bai Ming began setting up all kinds of defensive restrictions and took out a bunch of formations, he had prepared these arrays in advance.

Within a few minutes, Bai Ming completed setting up hundreds of restrictions along with dozens of both defensive and offensive formations. Bai Ming also placed down a teleportation formation here, but unfortunately, he was only able to place three coordinates in Teng city, and that too with much difficulty as for the remaining coordinates he was unable to place them down in different places without Teng Zhe noticing.

'With this teleportation array here, I can almost instantly teleport to my house in Teng city. I can only thank my formation path attainment for it, even though the divine sense marker( Divine sense marker is a type of restriction) lets Teng Zhe know my location, hehe with my methods I can also somewhat make out his location, maybe not as accurate as him but it's doable. Taking advantage of the fact he had to hunt down a few Yin-Yang void realm experts for me, I was able to move more freely within the Teng city. But, I am not sure whether the Yin-Yang void cultivators in Teng city were observing me at that time, it's a problem but there's nothing that can be done about it. Unless there's no other choice I will avoid this risky method of teleportation.' As Bai Ming contemplated, he strode out of his room and began setting up restrictions outside as well.

By the time he finished setting up formations, he felt the aura of a peak core formation realm martial artist approaching his courtyard.

A sweet voice suddenly entered his ears, "Senior brother Yi Yun, Elder Tian has sent me here."

Bai Ming didn't reply instead he entered his room and changed his dress and put on the red lotus sect's Daoist robes.

The red lotus sect robe was Red with Golden stripes. After Bai Ming wore it, his charm was completely unleashed. He was an average-looking youth, but the way he held himself would make others take another look at him. And those piercing crimson eyes of his were enough to leave a mark on someone else's heart.

'She has some patience,' Bai Ming thought as he once again headed to the Courtyard, he stood there with his hands behind his back and coldly spoke, "Enter,"

Bai Ming saw a 20-year-old girl with long black hair like a waterfall, bright red lips, and beautiful eyes that could move anyone's heart enter the courtyard. Even in the entire inner sect, her beauty was among the top five.

Dong Mei was nervous inside, she walked toward Bai Ming and elegantly curtsied before him.

"What is your name?" Bai Ming asked coldly, indifferent to the beauty standing before him.

"Senior brother, it's Dong mei" She replied softly, Seeing Bai Ming, For some reason, her heart tightened, and became even more nervous.

"Hmm, tell me are you willing to become my helper." Bai Ming calmly spoke.

Hearing the word 'helper' instead of 'subordinate' made the nervousness in her heart vanish and her opinion of bai ming improved by a level, she nodded lightly and spoke in a soft tone, "Senior brother Yi Yun is a true disciple if I can follow you it will be my honor and fortune." while speaking, she moved a few strands of her hair behind her ear, revealing her feminine charm.

Unfortunately, this act didn't attract Bai Ming at all. After she noticed that Bai Ming's gaze had turned even colder, she felt a bit disappointed.

"No need for flattery, if you want to follow me there is just a single condition." Bai Ming raised his index finger as he spoke.

Dong Mei's heart wavered, she prepared herself for the worst, and spoke in a low tone, "Please tell me, senior brother, as long as it is within my ability I will do it."

Bai Ming released a bit of his spirit realm aura and coldly glared at her, his tone apathetic, "Nothing much, you just have to agree to let me put this soul-binding vow on your soul, and then you can be my helper. If you are unwilling you can leave, don't waste my time. I am neither interested in your strength nor your flesh, I only want someone to run errands for me. As long as you can do that, stay, otherwise just scram."

Dong Mei's face became pale, and her body instantly shivered. She raised her head and forced herself to calm down. She forced a smile, but she couldn't stop her voice from trembling, "Se...Senior brother is there a need for this?"

Bai Ming didn't say a word and only calmly looked at her.

She immediately saw the coldness in Bai Ming's eyes. She suddenly became very nervous. This youth in front of her seemed to be a very ruthless person. He wouldn't show her any mercy because she was a woman.

Bai Ming gave a cold snort, before turning around and walking away. In actuality, he didn't care much about getting a servant, gaining a servant was only to make things easier for him. He wouldn't have to personally visit stores to buy treasures or pills. He would also have someone other than Teng Zhe to gather some bits of information for him, to constantly keep him updated about the Sects news. There were some benefits in keeping her, but he couldn't be bothered to go out of his way to convince her.

But he also understood Teng Zhe's little plot, sending a beauty such as her to get close to Bai Ming. There were two objectives behind this move, one was to keep tabs on him constantly. Secondly, Teng Zhe didn't have much of a hold over Bai Ming's weaknesses, so he wanted to create one. How would he achieve that?

Dong Mei was an extremely alluring girl, it was only normal for boys of Bai Ming's age group to be attracted to her and even fall in love with her. It was as simple as that, he wanted both of them to form an emotional bond. And once that happens Teng Zhe would naturally gain an advantage over Bai Ming.

Teng Zhe had also wisely chosen Dong Mei for this task, why? It wasn't just because she was a drop-dead gorgeous girl. It was because she was desperate.

What is the common problem for cultivators, it's the lack of cultivation resources.

What is the common problem for beautiful women, it's those lusty werewolves who are hiding in human skin.

Female cultivators face both of these problems simultaneously, without a strong pillar to lean on they can only go so far. Either their progress stops or they get devoured or sometimes both happen.

Dong Mei a newly promoted inner-sect disciple of the Red lotus sect, came from humble origins. She was able to progress thus far because of her talents, sharp intellect, and lucky encounters. Along with some perseverance, tolerance, and hard work.

But without an elder to protect her, she was targeted once again by a different person after entering the inner sect. And the person targeting her this time was not only a top-tier inner disciple but one who held a nasty reputation among the inner disciples. If she didn't want to become his plaything, she had to look for someone stronger or at least on the same level as her predator.

'Fu*k, what should I do? If I agree to his condition, I'll just become his puppet. But if I don't not only will that scum Chen come for me, but I will also have offended Elder Teng. Once that happens I am doomed, sigh. I have no choice but to become Yi Yun's puppet, but it might not be as bad as I think. He seems completely uninterested in me, but as long as I stick with him it might even benefit me in the future. At the very least, I will not have to worry about that dog Chen and elder Teng. That trash Chen wouldn't dare offend me once I have the backing of a true disciple. After all true disciples have lofty statuses similar to core disciples.' Dong Mei bit her lower lip. Her face showed a decisive expression as she immediately spoke in a loud voice, "Senior brother, I am willing to become your puppet."

Bai Ming paused his steps, and with a cold smirk on his face he turned his head back slightly, he spoke in an insincere tone, "Junior sister Mei, don't worry I'll treat you like my little sister."