From the outside, the Heavenly Mortal Sect looked as though they only had two mountains and nothing else. However, after Mo Wuji entered the sect itself, he could sense how extraordinary this sect used to be.
After entering the defensive array, a few metres wide green jade stairs extended to the mountain. From the foot of the mountain to the summit were all sorts of immortal residences and rest houses built on it. If it weren't for the fact that these were the only two mountains around, this sect would definitely have the aura of a powerful sect.
The only point that wasn't coordinated was the slightly dilapidated green jade stairs. Moreover, the god spiritual energy here was extremely sparse to the point that was even worse than an ordinary city of the Cultivation World.
There was a true plaza at the foot of the mountain and in the centre of the plaza was a towering statue. The statue looked slightly broken as if it had been through endless of hardships.
"Mo Wuji, the eyes of this statue looked slightly like yours," Yin Lin suddenly mentioned.
Mo Wuji had already noticed the pair of eyes on this statue and indeed felt that it looked like his.
Before Mo Wuji could speak, a middle-aged man in grey robe had already brought four people as they walked speedily down the green jade stairs.
Mo Wuji couldn't tell this middle-aged man but he could feel the tremendous strength of this man. In fact, Mo Wuji suspected that he might be even stronger than Xi Jing.
"Wei Jie (Su Xia) greets the Sect Head!" Wei Jie and Su Xia, who were leading the way, hurried to bow to show their respect as they saw this middle-aged man walking down.
Mo Wuji and co. were shocked because they didn't expect the sect head to be out here to welcome the few newcomers like themselves. Wasn't such a thing unseen or unheard of since ancient times?
The middle-aged man laughed out loud as he hurried to take a few more steps forward to hold Wei Jie back up. "It must have been tough of Elder Wei Jie and Su Xia to be recruiting disciples this time around."
Wei Jie replied with a guilty face. "I've let Sect Head down because I've only managed to find six new disciples this time around."
The middle-aged man said. "Elder Wei Jie, as compared to the previous few attempts where we didn't even manage to recruit a single disciple, six is much better than nothing."
"This is the sect head of our Heavenly Mortal Sect. Why are the few of you still standing around and not greeting our Sect Head?" Wei Jie turned and shouted at Mo Wuji and co."
Mo Wuji followed the rest of the disciples as everyone bowed in sync.
The middle-aged man waved his hand as he said with a bright smile on his face. "My name is Shi Su and I am the Sect Head of the Heavenly Mortal Sect. These people beside me are the Heavenly Mortal Sect's Elder Pang Fengban, Elder Xu Yi, Elder Hui Yu and Elder Niu Zhitian respectively. In the Heavenly Mortal Sect, we're one big family. Therefore, if you have any questions regarding cultivation, you are free to ask any of us."
"Many thanks, Sect Head!" Even though Mo Wuji and co. had no idea what was going on, they harmonized their gratitude perfectly.
To welcome the few newly recruited disciples, the sect head brought the elders down to greet them. Additionally, he even mentioned that they could ask any of the elders and sect head himself if they had any questions in the future. This was simply a treatment received by the number one disciples of a sect.
"Su Xia, I have to trouble you to help arrange the residences of these newly recruited disciples before briefing them about some matters of the sect. Elder Wei Jie, you've worked hard this time around. Do head towards the sect's Cultivation Holyland to cultivate for half a year." Shi Su was still smiling and it almost felt like he was incredibly ecstatic to have recruited six new disciples.
"Many thanks, Sect Head." Wei Jie smiled as he hurried straight up the green jade stairs and disappeared right before the sect head's eyes.
Mo Wuji was slightly speechless because this sect head really didn't feel like the sect head while the elders didn't feel like elders of any other sects. He started to wonder if he was actually kidnapped by these random people.
Could it be that these fellas were like Zhu Yin, who liked to swallow cultivator's primordial spirit and soul to cultivate? However, the few of them were unwanted disciples so even if the sect swallowed their primordial spirits, it shouldn't be much of a use or benefit to them.
After Sect Head Shi Su left with the few elders, Mo Wuji whispered, "Senior Sister Su Xia, how many members are in our sect?"
Ever since they arrived here, Mo Wuji hadn't really seen anyone else except the sect head and the few elders he brought along.
"Including the few of you, I believe we should be reaching about 100 members now." Su Xia replied with a smile.
Mo Wuji and co. were instantly at loss for words. How wretched must a sect be to have less than a hundred members?
Su Xia knew how everyone felt upon hearing that so she didn't continue to say anything else. The truth was that when she first joined the Heavenly Mortal Sect, she felt even worse than Mo Wuji and co. presently. Back then, the Heavenly Mortal Sect didn't even have 50 members. Over the years, they managed to increase by multiples of tens. If she were to compare it with the past, the Heavenly Mortal Sect's progress was actually pretty decent.
"Sister Su Xia, the Heavenly Mortal Sect does look very imposing and I'm certain that it must have been a huge sect in the past. How did it fall to a state like today's? Yin Lin disrupted the awkward silence in the air.
Su Xia explained, "I've heard that the Heavenly Mortal Sect used to be one of the peak grade sects. In fact, it was even greater than Phecda God Sect as well as the Forgotten Creek Dao School. For some unknown reason, a change occurred and amidst the change, the Heavenly Mortal Sect suffered tremendous losses and almost our entire army fell. The many mountains of the Heavenly Mortal Sect were eventually shifted away by others.
Fortunately, Ancestor Pang Jie survived and even though he was only an outer disciple, he was extremely capable. He single-handedly prevented the complete extermination of the Heavenly Mortal Sect. Our current sect head was indeed Ancestor Pang Jie's direct disciple. Elder Pang Fengban was also the descendant of Ancestor Pang Jie. Also, there's a reason why the god spiritual energy here was so sparse and almost nobody was willing to come here. That was due to the fact that many of our god spiritual veins had been extracted out by others after that massive war."
Regardless of how incredible Su Xia described the Heavenly Mortal Sect was in the past, they could only describe the current Heavenly Mortal Sect as down and out.
What made Mo Wuji feel slightly better was that even though the immortal residences weren't very luxurious, they were pretty impressive.
After entering the sect, everyone realised something. Despite the fact that Mo Wuji was accepted as an inner disciple, all disciples here were treated equally.
Not only did Mo Wuji get assigned to an immortal residence in good condition, there was even a herbal field for him.
As for the important Scriptures Library, Assignment Hall, Technique Transference Hall and etc, the Heavenly Mortal Sect had neither of them.
Whether you were a direct disciple or inner disciple, you wouldn't need to complete assignments. Naturally, there wouldn't be any pills or technique for you to collect.
It felt like Mo Wuji and co. were recruited into the Heavenly Mortal Sect only to increase their numbers.
Mo Wuji asked around and he found out that the Heavenly Mortal Sect allowed their members to leave the mountains at will. This meant to say that they could leave the sect's territory anytime as long as they didn't quit the sect permanently. This made Mo Wuji heaved a huge sigh of relief.
Because of the sparse god spiritual energy here at the Heavenly Mortal Sect, Mo Wuji had just moved into his immortal residence but Yin Lin and co. had already come looking for him. They were asking if he wanted to leave the sect to look for cultivation resources with them.
While the immortal residences here at the Heavenly Mortal Sect was really impressive, they came here to cultivate and not to stay at the residence. Since they couldn't cultivate here, heading out to find cultivation resources to cultivate was what they needed to do.
Mo Wuji rejected Yin Lin and co.'s suggestion because he still had some immortal veins and green crystals on him. He decided to step into the Great Circle of the Immortal Emperor Stage first before thinking of a way to become a Nascent God. Unless he stepped into the Nascent God Stage, he wouldn't leave this place. This was the God Domain where the laws of Heaven and Earth were much greater than the Immortal World. Mo Wuji believed that even with the lack of abundant cultivation resources, he would be able to advance into the Great Circle of the Immortal Emperor Stage.
The greatest benefit in the Heavenly Mortal Sect was the freedom Mo Wuji had. He installed a few defensive arrays and concealment arrays around his immortal residence. This was his preparation to enter secluded cultivation.
He cultivated the Immortal Mortal Technique which required all 108 meridians to circulate spiritual energy simultaneously. Even if the god spiritual energy here was sparse, his cultivation would still cause a great commotion. He really didn't want anyone to find out about his cultivation secret so he chose to install a series of different arrays around his immortal residence.
As for spirit gathering array, Mo Wuji didn't bother installing any. He believed that due to the sparse god spiritual energy here, it wouldn't matter whether he installed it or not.
Mo Wuji didn't start by taking out the immortal crystals and immortal spiritual veins. He intended to try cultivating to see how sparse was the level of god spiritual energy here.
When Mo Wuji started forming circulations with his 108 meridians, he was completely dumbfounded.
A frightening amount of god spiritual energy appeared as though it emerged out of thin air. It surged towards his meridians before fusing with all 108 circulations. The extent of cultivation here was definitely more than ten folds greater than when he cultivated at the Lightning Sword Manor.
Mo Wuji was so astonished that he stopped cultivating. The frightening rate of god spiritual energy absorption was simply beyond his wildest imaginations.
When he stopped cultivating, the god spiritual energy seemed like it suddenly disappeared. Following that, the god spiritual energy in the entire space around him turned sparse again.
Could it be because of his own Immortal Mortal Technique, he could absorb the dense god spiritual energy which others couldn't even see or feel?
If this was true, he would have truly found the right place and Mo Wuji was understandably very excited.
Fortunately, he was also a sect head of a sect and was well experienced. When he finally calmed himself down, he started to install more defensive arrays again. Multiple spirit concealment arrays were installed as he was worried that his absorption of god spiritual energy would be so immense that others would notice.
The second time Mo Wuji started cultivating, he was much more cautious. No matter how cautious he was, Mo Wuji entered the state of indulgence very quickly after he started cultivating under such circumstances.
This was already the seventh month Mo Wuji started his secluded cultivation. In the sect head's hall of the Heavenly Mortal Sect, Sect Head Shi Su sat down. Other than the four elders who followed him the previous time, Wei Jie, Su Xia and the other disciples which Mo Wuji and co. had not seen before were all seated in the hall.
"While everyone else is under closed doors cultivation, I've invited everyone here because there are some matters which my Heavenly Mortal Sect is unable to avoid." Shi Su said with a lack of energy.
"Sect Head, please go ahead and tell us. Even though our Heavenly Mortal Sect is down and out, we wouldn't be exterminated as long as there are still members here." Wei Jie said so convincingly he was only lacking the act of the patting of his chest.
Shi Su nodded, "Su Xia, how are the six disciples who had most recently joined us?"
Su Xia stood up hurriedly, "Yin Lin and Di Butong had just returned to the sect and I've heard that Pu Jia got into an accident. Ever since Mo Wuji arrived at the sect, he had been behind closed doors. Ku Cai didn't go into seclusion and she appeared slightly eccentric as if she had no idea what she should be doing."