Chapter 558   – Initiate Candidate

"Oh, here," Miaomiao showed the elder his ID token.

The elder examined it and compared the photo with Miaomiao's current face. He frowned.

"Your skin in the photo is different."

Miaomiao shrugged, "I have recently inherited a demon bloodline. It makes my blood purple. Welp, you know what happens in cultivation."

"I see," The elder gave Miaomiao a meaningful look after he double-checked the latter's race.

First Generation War Marionette?

A member of the Trumpet Alliance?

But the Trumpet Alliance members never showed their faces in public. This one might be related to other Prototype War Marionettes, such as Adam.

Considering that Miaomiao came here with Adam, the elder believed that Miaomiao was one of Adam's secret creations, just like the high elves on Eden Garden Planet.

The elder gave the ID back, "Well, welcome to Eden Garden Sect's mortal branch. We don't discriminate against any race, ethnicity, background, or culture here. However, we only have one religion and several rules that you have to comply with."

The elder lectured Miaomiao on what he needed to know before he started living here.

First, this sect worshiped Adam as their only deity. They believed that Adam was the only righteous emissary of Nuwa while other gods and sages were nothing but hypocrites. Any disrespect toward Adam would not be tolerated.

Secondly, Eden Garden had a friendly relationship with the factions of Devil, Joshua, Eve, Mu-Nyang, and Nirvana Buddha. People under these gods often visited their chained networks or Eden Garden Sect for businesses. All personal of Eden Garden must be respectful toward the esteemed guests, or they would be expelled.

Next, the sworn enemies of Eden Garden were Lilith, Gaea, and Uranus. As a result, the Olympus of the Olympus couple and the Netherworld Realm of Lilith were considered hostile territories. All members of these organizations were on the sect's kill list, Lilim included.

The elder continued, "Now that you know about our general situation, you should be able to adapt to our ways of life."

Miaomiao had the urge to rebuke, "General situation? That's more like your political stance! What about the status of your sect? How many disciples do you have? Who are the big shots here? What about other info?! Anyway, you just said that you don't discriminate against any race or ethnicity, but you want every disciple to kill people from Netherworld Realm and Olympus! Are you for real?"magic

Not caring about Miaomiao's thoughts, the elder kept on talking, "Anyway, that's not something you should be worried about. First, it's about your status. As an initiate candidate, your job is to surpass at least one of the initiates to get their position. Your first goal is to get stronger before the next annual promotion exam."

The elder gave Miaomiao a backpack. Inside, it contained a jade slip, a third-grade soul stone, a jar of grain pills, and a coin with the 13th number on the face and Adam's face on the front, and an apple on the back.

"Adam Coins will be the proof of your status and the primary currency here. Never lose it to anyone, or you will be expelled from the sect at the annual promotion exam day. On that day, our sect's deacons will inspect your ID and your coin. If you don't have any coin on you, you'll be kicked out on the spot. However, if you happen to have more than one coin, you may use them to trade for our sect's cultivation resources, cultivation manuals, skill manuals, artifacts, or even a private lecture class of an elder. Of course, you may use any method to obtain the coins."

"What about a part-time job, an assignment, or a way to earn the coins?"

"None. Only official initiates can accept the sect's missions. As for the candidates, you have to prove your worth with your strength and wits."

"…"

Now, Miaomiao understood why Adam said that his sect's disciples were competitive. They were forced to either steal or fight others to acquire other candidates' coins.

What troubled Miaomiao was the method to gain coins. The elder downright declared that he could do anything necessary to get them.

"Well, you may descend the mountain and stay on any mountain peak other than this place. Most of them are occupied by your seniors, and they might not be very friendly toward juniors. Good luck."

Miaomiao tilted his head.

'That's it? You're just going to dump me and let me be on my way?'

As if the elder could read Miaomiao's expression, he coughed and gave Miaomiao a hint.

"The higher the mountain peak, the denser the Soul QI in the air. However, if you can't cultivate Soul Qi yet, you should stay at the foot of the mountain to cultivate elemental Qi, Life Essence, Death Essence, Twilight Essence, or whatever essence you need. There are plenty of ruins and caves with those essences everywhere here."

Miaomiao nodded in understanding, but he had a few doubts, "Does everybody here cultivate the same cultivation method?"

"There are 108 methods in the jade slip I gave you. Pick one that suits you. Come back to me when you reach the bottleneck of the mortal realm."

"I see. Thank you very much, elder."

Miaomiao bowed toward the elder and turned around, planning to descend the mountain.

However, the elder hadn't finished, "One more thing."

"Yes?" Miaomiao turned around.

"I've smelled a woman's perfume on you. Since you've experienced a woman's warmth, you shouldn't mention your experience here."

"Why?"

The elder coughed and looked away, "We don't have many female cultivators in our sect, so they're kinda… depraved."

"…"

"Get rid of that perfume ASAP. Pretend that you're a virgin or something to avoid trouble. You don't want those virgins to pester you about women."

Miaomiao bowed to the elder again, "May I know your name, senior?""Sun Bin."

'… Sun Surname? Wait, Sun Bin?! The legendary strategist of the Warring State Period?'

Miaomiao raised his eyebrows and carefully sized up the elder. He didn't seem weak as he was depicted in historical documents. Instead, he looked like a former athlete in his 80s.

Sun Bin's arms and skin were wrinkled because of his age, but the muscle underneath his skin seemed firmer than ordinary cultivators. Miaomiao could even hear the faint sound of a waterfall from the elder's chest, which was the natural noise of his Soul Essence's circulation.

"One more question, how strong are you, elder?"

"25-Star Stellar Constellation Realm. Is that enough?"

Stellar Stars!

Compared to ordinary constellation immortals, this elder might be as strong as 50-Star constellation immortals or so!

Miaomiao nodded and excused himself. He was glad that he joined the right sect to hide and cultivate.

…

As Miaomiao wanted to start over from the bottom and climb his way up properly, he purposely descended to the mountain foot. He ignored the best cultivation spots on various mountain peaks, avoiding early troubles.

When Miaomiao was about to reach the foot of the mountain, he discovered a large city nearby.

Miaomiao felt a sense of déjà vu when he observed the city from afar. The liveliness of this city reminded him of Mountain Goose City before the chaos.

'Should I hide in the city? Maybe not. I should act like a lone wolf and avoid civilization.'

Miaomiao flew away from the city, planning to dig a cave and cultivate in seclusion for the time being.

However, as Miaomiao got further from the sect's mountains, he unknowingly got out of the invisible protection array. As soon as his body left the array, the intense gravity pressed on his body.

Miaomiao collapsed on the ground, and the dirt sank by a meter.

"Shit!"

He felt like his body had gotten heavier by several tons. His knees and legs gave in to the crazy gravity of this planet.

Miaomiao tried to lift his body from the ground, but the gravity slowly pulled him into the dirt as if it was quicksand.

'Master, use the power of gravity to counter the gravity field!'

Xie Tian's voice reminded Miaomiao of the gravity law, one of the space-time powers that they could use. The latter immediately converted his Life Essence into the power of gravity and repelled this world's gravity force field.

It worked. As long as his Life Essence was being converted to generate gravity force, Miaomiao didn't feel the gravity of this planet anymore.

Unfortunately, this task was energy-consuming. Miaomiao calculated that the upkeep would consume all of his Life Essence completely within less than a day had this kept up.

His Life Essence regeneration rate was a lot slower than the gravity power's consumption rate!

Without a choice, Miaomiao retreated back into the domain of Eden Garden's mountains, closer to the city.

After Miaomiao got back into the protection array of the sect, the suppressing gravity force no longer affected Miaomiao. He managed to catch his breath and wipe the sweat drops on his face.

'That was close.'

Miaomiao heaved a sigh of relief after he made it back. Unfortunately for him, someone noticed his presence.

Three middle-aged cultivators spotted Miaomiao and discovered that he had tried to leave the sect's domain. They laughed at him.

"He must be running away from the bullies up there. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him before."

"Hey, lad! Where are you running to? Are you dumb?"

"A purple demon? Can he be someone from the Netherworld? Should we attack him?"

Miaomiao turned around to look at them. All these men were 8th-stage cultivators. However, their aura and their Soul Qi revealed that they didn't use Adam's method.

"Meh, a group of pushovers," Miaomiao laughed at them while he patted the dirt off his war god armor. Then, he flew toward the foot of the mountain to find a good resting spot.

The group heard Miaomiao's remark. They immediately surrounded him on all sides.

"Yo, brat. I don't know who you are, but you can't just say that and leave."

"Who are you? Identify yourself!"

"Are you from the Netherworld Realm?!"

The men unsheathed their swords, threatening Miaomiao.

Looking at these people, Miaomiao raised his eyebrows. Instead of being scared, he was delighted.

"Cool! EXP comes to me by themselves," Miaomiao rubbed his hands while his golden pupils scanned for their soul cores and their karma strings."I'm not from the Netherworld Realm. I've just recently joined Eden Garden Sect."

Even though Miaomiao didn't need to answer their questions, he said so to prevent unnecessary misunderstanding. He also tested their characters if they were righteous cultivators or 3rd-rated villains.

Unfortunately, they were the latter.

The three men looked at each other. Then, they laughed.

"Then, that makes things simple! Since you've recently joined the sect, you must follow the local rules here. Hand over your coin, and we shall protect you!"

Miaomiao scoffed, "What if I say no?"

The group smirked. They circulated their soul Qi, preparing to attack Miaomiao from all sides.

Noticing their intention, Miaomiao slightly shook his head.

"Killer Queen."

SHING

Miaomiao unsheathed Killer Queen and slashed three karma strings.

However, their karma strings couldn't be cut. Killer Queen couldn't touch the karma threads.

Miaomiao tried again. He reached out to grab the karma strings.

Again, he couldn't touch them.

Miaomiao's furrows deepened. Something was not right!

The script was wrong! This situation was supposed to be a face-slapping scene, not MC getting his ass kicked!

As Miaomiao was baffled how his karma power didn't work, he heard Adam's voice transmission.

'I forgot to tell you. The Dark Forbidden Zone negates the power of karma. You can't tamper karma strings in here.'

Miaomiao was enraged, 'Shit! You should have told me earlier!'

'You can't rely on that power all the time since it belongs to the Heavenly Dao and sages. I bring you here, so you can truly refine your combat abilities, not exploiting your karmic power. If that becomes a habit, you will never be able to surpass the sages.'

"…"

Getting the wake-up call from Adam, Miaomiao realized his current short-coming. He remembered that he was supposed to increase his cultivation base and complete his foundations as soon as possible.

He had been cutting karma strings left and right, and it might become a habit!

Miaomiao sighed, but his golden pupils glowed brighter.

Meanwhile, the trio laughed again.

"Hey, what did you do?"

"He must have gone crazy!"

"Let's get this over with. We need to search for other newbies."

The gang activated their domain power. Three colorful domains overlapped and covered the range of one kilometer.

"Mhm. I thought so, too."

Miaomiao calmly circulated Chrono Element Qi and activated his domain power as well. However, instead of stopping time, he created a compact domain, which decelerated the time flow.

The three men's movements turned into a slow motion. Only Miaomiao could use his normal speed under this time domain.

The three men widened their eyes as they could still see and sense everything, but their bodies couldn't move as fast as they wanted to.

Miaomiao gently stabbed each of them with Killer Queen once, piercing their soul core. Without saying anything, the katana sucked their Soul Qi from the wounds.

He just stood there, waiting for Killer Queen to eat her fill.

Three soul formation cultivators could only look at Miaomiao and the heaven-grade sword. They wanted to scream and beg Miaomiao to let them go, but they couldn't utter a word.

A minute later, their Soul Qi had been sucked dry. Yet, Killer Queen continued absorbing something else.

She wanted their soul cores!

Miaomiao snapped his fingers and disabled his time domain. However, the three men no longer had enough Qi to support their martial skills, let alone standing straight.

Killer Queen pulled their damaged soul cores from their bodies. Then, she devoured everything.

'Finally, a fucking delicious food. Miaomiao, you should treat your partner better!'

Killer Queen complained since he hadn't used her as often as in the past.

Miaomiao snickered as he cleaned the black blade with a handkerchief, "Yeah. Sorry that I've been ignoring you. I'll be using you more often from now on."

The three robbers dissipated into dust. However, their clothes, weapons, and spatial rings remained.

Miaomiao picked them up and scanned for their belongings.