Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Southern Heaven Hall
There are three days left until the time my master mentioned for the sermon, so Lu Yu is in no hurry to return to Beifeng City.
If the opportunity arises, he wants to exchange game experiences with the other two players.
Staying in his room, Lu Yu checked the items in his storage bag: a few books introducing the Divine Weapon Pavilion, and three sets of disciple uniforms from the Divine Weapon Pavilion, each set being spiritual armor.
Providing each disciple with spiritual armor shows the grandeur of the Divine Weapon Pavilion.
Lu Yu had learned earlier that a regular grade-one spiritual armor costs about 7,000 to 8,000 gold coins, with slightly better ones costing over 10,000.
The spiritual armor provided to disciples by the Divine Weapon Pavilion is of the highest quality among grade-one armor, and when infused with Spiritual Qi, it can withstand attacks from Martial Cultivators below the sixth level of Qi Cultivation.
Lu Yu put on the clothes; although he couldn’t infuse Spiritual Qi, just the material of the spiritual armor itself could resist damage from below the third level of Qi Cultivation.
More importantly, it would prevent the embarrassing situations like the one in the Fire Rain Mountain secret realm.
The books were informational; Lu Yu couldn’t learn from them through the system’s load panel, so he had to take some time to browse through them to understand the internal rules of the Divine Weapon Pavilion and to avoid making some common mistakes.
By the time he looked up again, it was already dark outside. After an afternoon of studying, Lu Yu had almost finished reading the books. While not very detailed, he remembered most of the contents.
Since becoming a Martial Cultivator, Lu Yu’s memory and cognitive speed had improved significantly, allowing him to read several books in an afternoon.
Putting the books back into the backpack and taking out his Identity Token, Lu Yu saw his contribution points after some simple operations: 1,427 points.
Contribution Points are the standard trading currency within the Divine Weapon Pavilion. Although gold coins and other currencies can be used, utilizing facilities, areas, exchanging for cultivation techniques, or arranging for elder teachings all require spending Contribution Points.
In short, as long as you have enough Contribution Points, you can do anything within the Divine Weapon Pavilion. Even as a regular disciple, you can enjoy the treatment of a direct disciple and receive one-on-one guidance from elders on cultivation.
Obtaining Contribution Points is difficult and there are many ways to spend them. The most common way to earn them is by completing tasks commissioned by elders or other disciples, followed by some public tasks issued by the Divine Weapon Pavilion.
The former is personally issued, usually meaning once someone takes the task, others cannot. However, as long as the latter tasks are still ongoing, you can join at any time and receive corresponding rewards according to the contribution made during the task.
For disciples, the main way to earn Contribution Points is by completing public tasks, or "faction tasks," issued by the Divine Weapon Pavilion. Personal tasks usually provide other items offsetting Contribution Points as rewards.
After reading a few books, Lu Yu understood the value of his 1,427 Contribution Points, roughly equivalent to 140,000 gold coins outside, but what can be bought exceeds the value of 140,000 gold coins greatly.
If he wanted to, he could immediately exchange the 1,427 Contribution Points for 142,700 gold coins. Both the disciples and elders within the Divine Weapon Pavilion are eager to spend money to acquire Contribution Points, because some things cannot be bought with money; they can only be exchanged with Contribution Points.
In summary, the more Contribution Points, the better. Contribution Points can even buy the status of an elder’s registered disciple.
Checking the time, it was now 8 PM, not too late. Lu Yu left the bamboo grove and headed for Heaven-Breaking City.
Li Qiuyang’s cave dwelling was located on the other side of the mountain range where Heaven-Breaking City was, so Lu Yu needed to cross the entire mountain to reach Heaven-Breaking City. But it was much closer than coming from the Teleportation Plaza.
Arriving at the Southern Heaven Hall in the southern part of Heaven-Breaking City, the Southern Heaven Hall is where Divine Weapon Pavilion disciples receive tasks. Sometimes tasks are directly issued to Identity Tokens, but those are generally mandatory tasks.
Facing the Heavenly Fire Furnace, Heaven-Breaking City does not require additional light sources for illumination at night. The fires of the Heavenly Fire Furnace, visible from miles away, are enough to light up the entire Heaven-Breaking City.
When he reached the Southern Heaven Hall, Lu Yu realized that the city had more residents than he imagined. Most of the Divine Weapon Pavilion disciples chose to live near the Southern Heaven Hall, the Heaven-Piercing Tower, the Path Transmitting Pavilion, and other nearby areas.
It saves time and is more convenient.
The Southern Heaven Hall is a place to earn Contribution Points, while the Heaven-Piercing Tower and the Path Transmitting Pavilion are places to spend Contribution Points. Inside the Heaven-Piercing Tower, there are numerous suppressed demons, monsters, and evil beings, forming a world on its own, where Divine Weapon Pavilion disciples can enter for training.
The Path Transmitting Pavilion is essentially a library, containing a vast collection of cultivation techniques, martial arts, secret techniques, array knowledge, artifact refining knowledge, and cultivation notes, which require Contribution Points to access.
Lu Yu entered one of the main halls of the Southern Heaven Hall, which is not just one hall but an entire area containing hundreds of halls, collectively known as the Southern Heaven Hall.
He was entering the Southern Heaven Hall designated for Qi Cultivation disciples to take on tasks.
Each Southern Heaven Hall is a large artifact-refining creation, endowed with an Artifact Spirit. Upon entering, Lu Yu’s consciousness connected with the Hall’s Artifact Spirit, which was akin to a computer that could be accessed with consciousness.
Upon connecting to the Artifact Spirit, Lu Yu could see the task boards hung inside the Southern Heaven Hall, with tasks available for Qi Cultivation disciples. Since there was no hall for Body Refinement disciples to take on tasks, Lu Yu could take tasks here.
The boards were divided into heavenly, earthly, mysterious, and yellow, with the heavenly and earthly task boards floating in the center of the Southern Heaven Hall, while the mysterious and yellow boards hung on the left and right.
Generally, yellow board tasks are for disciples below the third level of Qi Cultivation, mysterious board tasks are for those below the sixth level, and earthly board tasks are for those from the seventh level to the peak of Qi Cultivation.
Apart from heavenly tasks, the other three task boards didn’t have strict acquisition limits; if someone believed they could handle it, a disciple at the third level of Qi Cultivation could take on an earthly task.
But heavenly tasks are different; to take on a heavenly task, one must have completed three earthly tasks.
High-difficulty tasks that could not be completed on the earthly board, yet were not beyond the capabilities of a Qi Cultivator, would be elevated to the heavenly board, with significantly increased rewards to attract the strong to complete them.
The division of tasks into heavenly, earthly, mysterious, and yellow boards was originally intended to help Divine Weapon Pavilion Qi Cultivation disciples grow in strength, not to restrict them.
Lu Yu approached the yellow board, where the tasks were ones low-level Qi Cultivation disciples could complete. Task difficulty could be judged by the Contribution Points awarded, with yellow board tasks offering 1–30 Contribution Points as rewards.
The simplest tasks—patrolling the mountains, cleaning the city, gathering herbs, mining—had no requirements for strength and posed no danger, only offering low rewards and taking a long time to complete. These are suitable for those who had just reached Qi Cultivation without much strength in the Divine Weapon Pavilion.
Not every Divine Weapon Pavilion disciple, like Lu Yu, joined through heroic recruitment orders and trial completion.
Many disciples joined through family background, gaining the opportunity to become a disciple of the Divine Weapon Pavilion by paying a price.
Advanced tasks—repairing arrays, refining pills, crafting weapons, drawing talismans, hunting beasts, collecting rare treasures—required certain strength to complete. These could be completed in secret realms and were relatively safer, offering better rewards. But they needed disciples with a certain level of foundation to complete them.
Tasks with richer rewards either require strong and powerful disciples, or those with achievements in artifact refining, arrays, talismans, and other areas to complete.
Most combat tasks carry significant danger and most of them need to be completed outside the secret realm.