The elder looked back to Zhang Yan and Fatty, then he nodded approvingly, "You were so great that you broke out of the siege of wolves with barely a scratch. It's quite unexpected. You get out quickly, I should move forward to check whether anyone is alive."
The two persons recovered from shock, and Fatty, looking into the direction from which the elder disappeared, said with highly praise, "No wonder he is the elder of Qingyuan School, he is so strong that he even killed the wolf king in the blink of an eye. It's unbelievable!"
Zhang Yan also nodded, "So strong, indeed. What's more, he shot very easily. He might use below one tenth of his strength."
Elder Liu kept finding along the way to the forest center, no disciple alive. According to the check of Qingyuan School disciples, only twenty disciples survived this wolves-accident. Finally, Qingyuan School decided to recruit the twenty persons as outer court disciples.
Zhang Yan suddenly found Ma Yong amongst the twenty disciples. Looking at each other, Zhang Yan tried to resist his urge to kill Ma Yong while Ma Yong shouted arrogantly, "I didn't expect that you would take the exam. Your lifespan is so long that you survived the wolves attack."
"Why weren't you eaten by the wolves? God is blind," Zhang Yan sighed and said with a false pity.
When Ma Yong pointed to Zhang Yan angrily and tried to curse him, the elder Liu beside them snorted, "No matter what contradiction existed between you before, you must obey rules since you have been a disciple of Qingyuan School."
"Disciples of Qingyuan School are allowed to compete in martial skills—but only to a point. This is your entrance welfare, keep them." As the elder Liu spoke, he distributed some storage bags among the disciples.
Storage bag, as the term suggested, was a bag used by a warrior to store objects. Though it looked like an ordinary purse, it had a large room inside. An ordinary storage bag had an available room inside of one cubic meter which was convenient for a warrior to carry some personal effects.
A higher quality storage bag had a larger room inside. Even a small storage bag would fetch quite a lot money on the market. Zhang Yan had never expected that he could own such a bag. When he found a small available room inside the bag, he realized how valuable the dragon ring on his finger was. In terms of storage function, the dragon ring could be regarded as the top one.
Opening the storage bag, Zhang Yan saw a robe of Qingyuan School, a token carved with his name, and a palm-sized light green grass. Zhang Yan recognized the grass which was a kind of high-order spiritual herb of royal class, Cloud Spiritual Grass. It contained high quality spiritual gas, which played a great role in cultivation for Xiantian warriors and warriors in Body Refining. The Cloud Spiritual Grass was too expensive to buy because of its rarity.
Zhang Yan never thought Qingyun School would hand out the precious herbs to everyone. It deserved to be regarded as a saint martial land of high repute, which had a lot to offer historically and culturally.
In the outer court disciple area, Zhang Yan came to his room. Each disciple had a courtyard alone and Zhang Yan's residence was next to that of Fatty. After sweeping the yard well, he sat cross-legged on his bed and took out the Cloud Spiritual Grass on his hand.
The Cloud Spiritual Grass gave off several small pure spiritual gases. They were absorbed through Zhang Yan's mouth and nose into his body, then they were transformed into pure spiritual energy which entered his Dantian through his meridians. He sensed the spiritual gases of refined purity clearly. The spiritual energy assembled in his Dantian, from a small spot to an aperture and finally to a cyclone.
The third spiritual energy cyclone was formed while Zhang Yan drained the spiritual energy of the Cloud Spiritual Grass, after which he broke through to the third level of Xiantian Stage.
He got up with excitement, clenching his fists and feeling energetic. He sighed, "It's a pity that half of my spiritual energy was drained by the spiritual root inside my Knowledge Ocean, or I would have broken through to the sixth level of Xiantian Stage." Though he complained about it, he felt happy with his progress. Cultivation could be improved little by little, but spiritual root was so critical to a warrior. His spiritual root was growing. Slowly though it grew, it was believed to develop into a top immortal one. At that time, he would be a terrific warrior.
While Zhang Yan was feeling the energy brought by improved cultivation, someone kicked the yard gate. Three strong adults entered his yard swaggeringly, the tallest man on the right shouting, "Get out!"
As the three people appeared, Zhang Yan understood they didn't come with good intent. He puzzled that why some people bothered him as soon as he was recruited into Qingyuan School.
Zhang Yan suppressed his anger reluctantly, He pushed the door and walked to three people, smiling, "Three senior brothers, what's your name? May I help you? Did you get the wrong place? I didn't know you."
"A wrong place?" the leading bald man cried arrogantly, "We come here for you. Are you the newcomer of outer court disciple, Zhang Yan? We are members of the Green Gang. You have been arranged to live here under our jurisdiction, so you have to abide by our rules, or we'll let you see what we are all about."
At the moment, Fatty lived next door ran into the yard. He was worried that Zhang Yan's tough character may cause offence to the members of Green Gang, so he immediately pulled Zhang Yan, "You arrived here just now. You might not know that the Green Gang is the largest group of the outer court of Qingyuan School. It boasts one fourth outer court disciples. If you offend them, we cannot survive the outer court. Just bear and follow their principles."
Zhang Yan nodded, "Relax, if they don't go too far, I will obey their rules."
"Could you please tell me about your rules? I don't know them at all, I'm a newcomer." Zhang Yan cupped his hands and smiled.
The bald man said to the tall man beside him, "You tell them."
The tall young man laughed, "You are sensible. Our rule is simple. Each newcomer must turn in a Cloud Spiritual Grass, after which you become one member of us and no one can touch you in the outer court of Qingyuan School."
"Cloud Spiritual Grass?"
Zhang Yan was stunned when he heard the Cloud Spiritual Grass. He originally thought that he would be required to hand over some money for protection. Unexpectedly, the Green Gang demanded an exorbitant price, a Cloud Spiritual Grass. Zhang Yan would never give it to them, in addition, he had already drained it. The Cloud Spiritual Grass was a treasure, how could Zhang Yan give it up? It was not his manner.
Looking at Zhang Yan's face, Fatty understood that Zhang Yan was unwilling to hand over the grass. For security's sake, Fatty persuaded Zhang Yan, "We have to be humble when we're trapped in an inferior situation. The Cloud Spiritual Grass was given by the school for free. Spending money for security is right. We are newcomers, our cultivation is lower than theirs. My Cloud Spiritual Grass has already been taken by them. Two newcomers were beaten to disability by the three, because they refused to hand it over. Finally, their grasses were robbed by the three."
"A wise man doesn't fight when the odds are against him. You'd better give your grass to them."