But Ryan Li had barely finished laughing when Logan Luo let out a cold snort. Ryan’s whole body tensed, and he felt a powerful force flip him over. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
"Ryan!" Evan Yang rushed to help Ryan Li, glaring fiercely at Logan Luo. Logan completely ignored him, snorting, "From now on, you all have to obey me here. Otherwise, you'll end up like this kid. And you—you're not even qualified to be an outer disciple. Starting today, you report to me every day. Don’t even think about slacking off."
Logan Luo swept his gaze over the group and said, "Come inside to collect your uniforms and daily supplies!" After witnessing what happened just now, everyone obediently followed Logan in to receive their items and room assignments. Evan Yang and Ryan Li were deliberately separated into different rooms.
On the surface, they all despised the steward before them, but there was nothing they could do except endure and return to their rooms. Luckily, Evan Yang and Ryan Li’s rooms weren’t far apart. After Evan helped Ryan back to his own room, he headed to his own. Looking at the room number on the door, Evan pushed it open and saw two beds inside. "Do I have a roommate?" was his first thought.
Sure enough, just after Evan entered, a skinny young man rushed in, looked Evan up and down, and grinned, "Are you new here?"
"I’m Evan Yang. May I ask your name, brother?" Evan had been sitting at the desk, but stood up as the newcomer entered. The young man, with shifty eyes and a quick glance at Evan, introduced himself.
It turned out this young man was Tiger Sun, an outer disciple who joined the Rising Sun Sect ten years ago. Because his talent was poor, he’d spent a decade here, mostly doing odd jobs around the manor and cultivating alone without guidance. As a result, his cultivation had stalled at the third layer of Qi-Refining for years. He patiently explained the compound rules and some things about the Rising Sun Sect to Evan Yang.
From Tiger Sun, Evan learned that the current sect master of the Rising Sun Sect was a Core Formation stage expert, along with several elders at the same level and some Foundation Establishment disciples. Overall, the Rising Sun Sect was a mid-tier cultivation sect with over a thousand disciples, respected enough that its members wouldn’t be casually bullied outside. The sect’s core heart-method was the Rising Sun Scripture, which could guide a cultivator from Qi-Refining all the way to the Core Formation realm.
Evan didn’t really know how strong the Core Formation stage was, but he got a rough idea. He opened the bundle he’d received from Logan Luo and found a small wooden slip, about the length of a palm and the width of two fingers, carved with the mnemonic for the Rising Sun Scripture. Seeing the mnemonic, Evan was surprised. "What’s this?"
"That’s the mnemonic for the first layer. Whenever you’re about to break through, you can go to the steward and get the next layer’s mnemonic. But that steward is no good—you’d better not cross him." Thinking of Logan Luo’s usual behavior, Tiger Sun couldn’t help but shudder, but quickly composed himself and showed Evan how to use the wooden slip.
Evan had already realized Logan Luo was no good, especially since he’d been ordered to report every day. When Tiger Sun learned about this, he stared at Evan in shock. "Evan, did you offend the Demon?"
"The Demon?" Evan couldn’t help but laugh, but he was curious why Logan Luo wanted him to report every day. Was it just because he’d entered the sect by special means? He had no idea Logan Luo was already scheming how to deal with him.
After meeting, Tiger Sun didn’t say much more and returned to his bed to sit and cultivate his technique, hoping to leave this ghost place someday. Seeing Tiger Sun like this, Evan lay down on his own bed, studying the wooden slip with the mnemonic. He marveled at how it could store information. Thinking about everything that had happened today, he felt at ease—after all, things in the cultivation world couldn’t be judged by mortal logic. Following Tiger Sun’s example, he began cultivating the Rising Sun Scripture from the wooden slip.