Liu Yun was a female cultivator who had been here for quite a long time, and she had never seen Deacon Xie act this way.
Suddenly, Liu Yun changed her tone, leaned in coyly toward Jiang Chen, wrapped both hands around his arm, and coaxed him, "Brother Jiang, why don't you stay and keep this humble servant company? I certainly wouldn't dare charge you for your spirit stones~"
Jiang Chen only felt a wave of softness against his arm.
He was already quite immune to this sort of thing. He silently pulled his arm away, raised his right hand to push Liu Yun aside, and said indifferently, "Men and women should not touch when giving or receiving."
"Alright, I have menial tasks to attend to."
With that, Jiang Chen turned and left without looking back.
"..."
Liu Yun looked with lingering resentment at Jiang Chen's retreating figure, cursing this unromantic fellow in her heart.
"Brother Jiang is bound for greatness in the future; his willpower when facing women is truly unshakeable."
Liu Yun sighed inwardly, while feeling a twinge of regret that she wouldn't get to taste this talented and handsome man. She would have been willing to accompany him even for free...
Along the way, quite a few people greeted Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen responded to each of them with a smile.
During this period, though he kept a low profile and rarely went out, he had grown close to the surrounding neighbors, treating everyone with great kindness and respect.
Because of this,
he was very well-liked in the neighborhood.
"Brother Jiang's cultivation is so powerful, yet he still works this hard at his practice and is so diligent and earnest—truly a model for our generation!"
"That's right, you probably don't know, but there are countless courtesan female cultivators who would gladly throw themselves at Jiang Chen for free, yet he hasn't committed a single transgression!"
"We should learn from Brother Jiang. If we had even a fraction of his diligence, even if we can't match his strength, we'd still have a great chance of breaking through to the Qi Refining 3rd or 4th Layer."
"..."
Without even realizing it, Jiang Chen had somehow become a role model in the eyes of these fellows.
As he walked past the area where the female cultivators lived, however, his pace couldn't help but quicken a bit.
"Don't rush off, Brother Jiang. Early in the morning like this, Brother Jiang must be feeling quite hot-blooded, right? Let this humble servant help you vent that heat~"
"Brother Jiang, come and bestow your favor upon this servant just once~"
"..."
Jiang Chen turned a deaf ear and hurried past.
Every time he passed through here, it was the exact same scene.
Once he had walked far enough away that the voices faded, Jiang Chen muttered inwardly, "If I'm going to take a cultivation partner, she has to at least be on the level of a sect Saintess, right?"
"This bunch of vixens are simply daydreaming!"
Ever since he crushed Wang Hu, the enthusiastic voices around him had only multiplied.
Suddenly, Jiang Chen's expression turned slightly solemn as he fell deep into thought.
"Now that my strength has grown, and with the sign-ins happening more frequently and my power increasing faster, I need a residence with much better privacy."
The place where he currently lived lacked privacy—or rather, had virtually none at all...
It belonged to one of the poorest areas designated for menial disciples.
Occasionally, Jiang Chen could even sense figures lingering suspiciously around his house in the dead of night.
That's right.
Even though half a year had passed and many people had quieted down, intimidated by his overwhelming strength,
there were still those who refused to behave, wishing to take a gamble and steal something from him.
"Sigh..."
"I need to find a way to change my residence."
Regarding this matter, Jiang Chen already had some vague ideas.
The most crucial factor in changing residences was work output.
Once his workload was sufficient, he could speak directly with a deacon to arrange a transfer.
As early as last month, Jiang Chen had mentioned this to the deacon once. The deacon's stance at the time was quite simple: let Jiang Chen stay a bit longer, complete some more menial tasks, and the deacon would pull strings for him as soon as possible.
After all, good residences in the Xianyun Sword Sect didn't just offer better privacy; they also possessed denser spiritual energy. Naturally, Deacon Xie couldn't make such decisions entirely on his own authority.
If he wanted to make it happen, he still had to grease some wheels.
"Let's finish today's menial task first."
Jiang Chen prepared to check today's assignment. The tasks assigned to him lately had all been rather subpar.
The quality of the rewards granted by his sign-in system was determined by the Dao Rhyme.
The stronger and denser the Dao Rhyme at Jiang Chen's sign-in location, the better the reward he would receive, and vice versa.
Yet lately, Jiang Chen's tasks had all been in places with weak Dao Rhyme, or even none at all...
This had resulted in rather meager gains for him over this period.
"It's actually the Pill Pavilion?!"
Jiang Chen was slightly surprised. The Pill Pavilion, as the name suggested, was where alchemy was practiced in the Xianyun Sword Sect.
Every single pill in the Xianyun Sword Sect, whether defective or of top-tier quality, came from the hands of the alchemists in the Pill Pavilion.
Naturally, the Dao Rhyme in such a place was incomparably rich."I did hear people say before that the menial tasks at the Pill Pavilion are the most troublesome and tricky."
Jiang Chen hadn't bothered to ask for specific details. He simply took out his menial token and teleported directly to the Pill Pavilion.
...
Outside the Pill Pavilion.
Jiang Chen walked in slowly. Along the way, he ran into another menial disciple whose task for the day was to sweep up the trash outside.
Upon seeing Jiang Chen, the disciple clearly recognized him and said in surprise, "Senior Brother Jiang, is your task today to sweep the Pill Pavilion?"
Jiang Chen nodded.
The menial disciple glanced around as if on guard, and upon finding nobody else nearby, he hurried over and lowered his voice. "Senior Brother Jiang, cleaning the Pill Pavilion is no simple task."
"Your job is to clear away the waste pills, pill dregs, and things of that sort. Especially the waste pills—the ones from failed alchemy batches contain malignant qi, and there are a lot of them, so you need to be careful."
Pausing, the menial disciple seemed to hesitate, but hardening his heart, he whispered, "Senior Brother Jiang, none of those alchemists have good tempers. Even their apprentices are the same."
"They're terribly arrogant. If you get wronged, under no circumstances should you argue with them—just bear with it. An alchemist's status in the Xianyun Sword Sect is extremely high."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen smiled. "Thank you."
The menial disciple smiled back. "Oh, it's nothing. Senior Brother Jiang, I've finished my task, so I'll be heading back."
After he left, Jiang Chen's expression tightened slightly.
The malignant qi within the waste pills was somewhat troublesome.
If the quantity were small, with Jiang Chen's current strength, it wouldn't cause much harm, and handling it would be easy enough.
But if that were the case, they could have just had a couple of alchemists toss them out casually; it wouldn't take any time at all, so why bother sending a menial disciple?
The only reason to send a menial disciple was that the quantity was massive, and... menial disciples held the lowest status of all.
"I need to enter the outer sect as soon as possible..."
Jiang Chen shook his head, then slowly stepped into the Pill Pavilion.
Upon reaching the first floor, a pill apprentice dressed in white glanced at him, noticed the menial disciple robes Jiang Chen was wearing, and said with a hint of disdain, "Here to deal with the waste pills, are you?"