Next in line to hand in their gifts were the rank 1 organizations and at the lead was the One thousand hall battle palace.
Ren Xin the Hall master of the Rapid spear hall walked forward, followed by Wei Liling and Liu Juan, the two legacy disciples that were in attendance. The rest of the disciples were left behind at their seats.
Wei Liling and Liu Juan being chosen as part of the procession of the One thousand hall battle palace, wasn't by accident but rather by design. In his time at the Battle Palace, Yang Qing had formed a connection with both of them, among the rest of the Battle Palace disciples. Their attendance was expected and even their coming forward with the Hall master Ren Xin was expected too.
"Congratulations Master Yang Qing. It seems it won't be long before you overtake us too," said Hall Master Ren Xin with a teasing smile on his face.
"Surely you jest Hall master Ren Xin. I doubt I'd be your match even if I was in the domain realm," said Yang Qing.
Every hall master was once a legacy battle palace disciple and for one to be considered for the hall master position, they had to be the best amongst the legacy battle palace disciples.
With such a reputation, few of those within his realm could match Hall master Ren Xin in combat, even among the domain experts from the Order.
The ones he thought stood a chance against him were maybe the special inquisitors, the top-tier roaming inquisitors, requiem guards who were in charge of guarding the region that held late-stage domain-level criminals and maybe the judges of the superior domain court like Meng Chao, and maybe a few deans from the institute who specialized in combat or someone like Zhu Lao.
"Maybe someone from the Shadow Hawks division might, but they don't specialize in direct confrontation, so it's highly doubtful," thought Yang Qing.
"Who knows, you just might. Getting a placement in the top 20 isn't an easy feat. But enough about that, Liu Juan told me you like tinkering around with cultivation arts, so I thought it best to give you that rather than give you something else that you might not necessarily like.
Here you can have this instead," said Hall Master Ren Xin as he handed Yang Qing a worn-out bamboo scroll.
Yang Qing could sense the vicissitude of time on it, along with an aura that could be sensed in cultivation arts that had reached the blue grade.
"The 108 steps of the wondering autumn leaves," Yang Qing muttered to himself as he read the worn-out title at the top.
He could sense a bit of the owner's will in that writing. He slowly traced down the writings on the scroll with his fingers and eyes closed, slowly sensing the intent behind the writing. With every syllable, Yang Qing couldn't help but marvel at the profoundness of the cultivation art stored within, however, that excitement was soon cut short when he felt the sensation cut off.
Yang Qing's brows furrowed slightly as he opened his eyes.
"As you have guessed, the technique is incomplete and based on our estimates, it was at least a low-tier gold-grade cultivation art. There are no records of it around the continent in any organization we know of.
We would have restored it, but we already have hundreds of thousands of techniques just like it waiting to be restored, so I decided rather than it gaining dust on the bookshelves at the palace, maybe you can make use of it.
It seems to be a technique that focuses on building up the basics of each level, its not an exaggeration to say we already have enough of such techniques to fill a mountain including our own that we have refined over the years, so it will be wasted with us.
I hope you can make the best use of it, and hopefully bring the full technique to Light," said Hall master Ren Xin as he patted Yang Qing on the shoulder with an encouraging glance.
"Don't you think you're thinking too highly of me there, Hall Master Ren Xin?" said Yang Qing with a rueful smile.
He has rebuilt some cultivation arts over the years and got many merit points within the Order as a result of it, but most of those cultivation arts were low grade most were red grade and the highest he had ever worked with a top-tier Orange grade cultivation art which he elevated to a low tier blue grade art and named it the Brilliant ray fist art which he later shared with Peng Zhen to use in the duration of his life and death duel with the students of the Institute for the next five years.
He has never improved a blue grade technique let alone a gold grade art. Someone like Dean Zhu Lao would more than likely be able to, but Yang Qing was still finding his legs in this area.
Though even if he thought that, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the cultivation art, and the excitement he had at potentially restoring the art, was evident for all to see.
"It seems Liu Juan was right. Best of luck with it, Master Yang Qing," said Hall Master Ren Xin.
"Liu Juan, you never struck me as the proactive type or that you even listened when we talked, you were always asleep half the time," said Yang Qing with a puzzled expression.
The Liu Juan he knew was always lethargic and wanted to expend the least amount of energy as possible. Even breathing and walking were a chore to him. He would always be caught sleeping openly or using silent meditation as another form of sleeping. While they could be considered friends, they never talked much, and mostly it was Yang Qing talking and him off-handedly making 'mmh' sounds with his eyes closed. The only time he ever seemed active was when Yang Qing was bragging about the nest of the Celestial nesting weaver.
He was surprised that such a person would go out of his way to tell the hall master the kind of gift he liked.
"Liling told me if you want something, you must give something in return. Yang Qing, you like the cultivation art right?" asked Liu Juan. His voice started off lay but towards the end, it had a bit of erupting energy in it.
"It is, and I am very grateful for it," Yang Qing slowly said with a foreboding suspicion in his heart as he saw a glint flash in Liu Juan's eyes.
"Great!!!! Can I have the nest in exchange?" said Liu Juan as he rushed Yang Qing before he even had time to react.
'I Knew it,'
"It wasn't you who gave me the gift but it was Hall Master Ren Xin. You can forget about weaseling your way into getting it. If you want it that bad, you only need to compensate me its current value along with the treasures I've spent on it over the years, including the emotional damage fee I endured because of that damage.
The rough estimate should be about 100 million high-grade spirit stones but on account of our friendship and also in acknowledgment of your efforts in helping me gain an incomplete gold-grade technique, I will deduct 10 million from the total, bringing the amount to 90 million high-grade spirit stones.
As long as you can cough up that amount, I will be glad to give you the nest, I'll even add in free delivery services," Yang Qing pompously said taking great comfort in Liu Juan's current dark look.
"You could have just said no, there was no need to be cruel about it," Liu Juan said with a downcast expression.
"Sister Liling you lied, I won't be sparring with you anymore," Liu Juan said to the red-haired lady beside Hall master Ren Xin. He didn't bother to stay behind and opted to go back to his seat with a listless demeanor to him.
"Yang Qing you bastard couldn't you just give him the nest?!!!!!" Wei Liling who had been busy eyeing potential spar targets with excitement in her eyes turned livid when Liu Juan made his statement about canceling their sparring sessions.
She even charged to take a swing at Yang Qing, luckily Hall Master Ren Xin stepped in and forcefully dragged her away, creating a bit of a scene.
Yang Qing started getting strange looks from the crowd. The males gave him knowing looks, while the ladies had looks of disdain on their faces when they looked at him.
"What do they think I did?" Yang Qing wondered with a sheepish smile.
"Juan , Liling, you can come later at my abode, I will be hosting an after party there. Even if I can't give you the nest, you could try it when you are here, Juan," said Yang Qing .
His statement seemed to have brought life to the dead looking Liu Juan.
"Oh, and Liling, Huilang said there were cultivators in the battle palace who would never beat him even if they were one major realm apart, as much as it saddens me to say, you were one of the names mentioned."
Yang Qing decided to deflect Liling's wrath to someone else, and what better person than Kang Huilang.
"I know you're lying, but it's a good excuse as any to get my vengeance on him," Wei Liling said with a malevolent smile.
Kang Huilang had been in the midst of laughing when he detected a dangerous aura lock on him. He turned his head with a puzzled expression, only to see Wei Liling throwing a malevolent look his way and Yang Qing joyously smiling.
"What's with these two?" He wondered before he pushed the matter to the back of his mind and resumed what he was doing.
After the One thousand hall battle palace, the rest of the gift giving process went on smoothly and without incident.
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om