After the sacrificial rites to heaven and earth, it was time for the disciple promotion ceremony.
Under the watchful eyes of over a dozen visiting sects and a hundred guests, Yang Hong unfurled a purple-gold brocade and, under the expectant gazes of his disciples, got straight to the point.
"Qingfeng Villa has developed at a rapid pace over the past decade, and this is inseparable from the efforts of all our disciples. Therefore, I have decided to promote a portion of you to Inner Disciples. The list is as follows:
Ke Ji Mei, for her meritorious service in teaching disciples over the past ten years, is promoted to Inner Disciple and bestowed with one bottle of Youth-Preserving Pill."
"Disciple Ke Ji Mei obeys the order."
Hearing that she was the first to be promoted, Ke Ji Mei excitedly stepped forward. A new disciple token and a porcelain bottle flew to her.
"Thank you, Sect Leader, for your bounty."
Ke Ji Mei gratefully accepted the two treasures and kowtowed.
Yang Hong nodded in satisfaction and gestured for her to step aside.
"Disciple Zhong Cheng Feng, for his meritorious service in alchemy and medicine over the past ten years, is promoted to Inner Disciple and bestowed with a copy of the 'True Scripture of Alchemy'."
"Disciple Qiu Kun, for his meritorious service in external campaigns and internal protection of fellow disciples, is promoted to Inner Disciple and bestowed with a copy of the 'Three Yuan Sword Canon'."
...
"Disciple Gu Bo Ji, for his meritorious service in managing miscellaneous disciple affairs, is promoted to Inner Disciple."
After a lengthy promotion session that lasted half the day, Yang Hong elevated two disciples to the Integration Realm, two to the Spirit Severing Realm, four to the Nascent Soul Realm, four to the Golden Core Realm, and one each to the Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation Realms.
A total of fourteen Inner Disciples were promoted, each receiving corresponding rewards – treasures that they urgently needed and were suitable for their current cultivation stages.
These fourteen individuals, despite their varied cultivation levels, shared a common characteristic: they all possessed blue-colored fate.
Disciple Gu Bo Ji, who was at the Qi Condensation Realm and was formerly the king of Gu Li Kingdom, had blue-colored fate even before cultivation, which deepened slightly after he began practicing.
The other thirteen disciples' fate colors had improved to a light blue after the "Li Huo Flying Locust" plague.
Through observation, Yang Hong had confirmed that conflicts between cultivators could indeed lead to the plundering of fate, but the underlying rules were too complex and peculiar for him to comprehend with his current cultivation and experience.
For instance, Zhang Zheng Yan, an outer sect steward, had his fate elevated to blue after eliminating a large number of Li Huo Flying Locusts during the previous plague. However, later, his fate color regressed to dark green when he continued to eliminate Li Huo Flying Locusts in the Yu Rou Plains.
Qiu Kun, who underwent a similar experience, saw his fate color improve from green to blue.
There were many such inexplicable situations.
However, Yang Hong had identified one sure-fire direction: planting spiritual plants.
He discovered that disciples of any cultivation level would experience a noticeable improvement in their fate if they diligently and extensively planted spiritual plants.
It was this discovery that led him to spare no effort in planting spiritual plants and to have all the disciples of Qingfeng Villa do the same.
He was certain that planting spiritual plants could repair damage to the world and increase spiritual energy, much like afforestation restored ecosystems on Earth.
This was contingent on not using the [System] to plant at the cost of damaging the world's origin!
Looking at the fourteen Inner Disciples and the horde of eagerly awaiting outer sect and manual laborers, a thought crossed Yang Hong's mind as he spoke:
"You fourteen are the pillars of our sect. You may not all have the highest cultivation, but you each possess a unique skill. Continue to work hard.
In addition to improving your cultivation, continue to shine in your respective fields."
"Outer disciples who were not promoted need not be discouraged. From now on, a batch of Inner Disciples will be promoted every ten years. Perhaps you will be among the next to be elevated."
"The number of manual laborers is too great. From now on, there will be an opportunity to be promoted to outer disciple once every three years."
Yang Hong paused here, allowing the disciples, who had already begun whispering, to discuss amongst themselves.
All the disciples of Qingfeng Villa were thrilled. Manual laborers, in particular, had much to gain. Although manual laborers at Qingfeng Villa could cultivate the Earth-grade technique "Five Elements Unity Art," they received very limited cultivation resources.
Furthermore, manual laborers had fewer opportunities for guidance than outer disciples.
Simply becoming an outer disciple meant a monthly stipend of 100 spirit stones and 40 cultivation pills corresponding to their cultivation level.
Even Qi Condensation disciples would scoff at such a meager amount of spirit stones, but the 40 pills were enough for their monthly cultivation.
In the past ten years, three of the four Sixth-stage Spirit Severing Realm cultivators from before had broken through to the Seventh-stage Integration Realm.
This was the power of Sixth-stage cultivation pills!
If they had to rely on slow cultivation, they might not have broken through even after another hundred years.
This benefit, upon reaching the Inner Disciple stage, escalated to a monthly stipend of one thousand spirit stones and one hundred pills!
Spirit stones were still a minor factor; the extra seventy pills they received each month could be exchanged for several or even hundreds of times that amount in spirit stones.
Moreover, upon promotion to Inner Disciple, they could reside in the Inner Disciple area, which not only boasted denser spiritual energy than the lower two areas but also contained various functional buildings.
These included buildings for artifact refining, alchemy, and other purposes, as well as secluded meditation chambers and spell cultivation rooms.
Most importantly, only by advancing to Inner Disciple status would they qualify to enter the Qingfeng Villa's [Scripture Repository], which housed ten thousand volumes of cultivation techniques, a hundred thousand volumes of spells, and extensive knowledge of the various arts of cultivation.
Upon learning of these benefits, all the disciples of Qingfeng Villa went into a frenzy.
It was for this reason that Zhang Zheng Yan had specifically mustered the courage to interrupt Yang Hong's planting work.
It was a pity that Yang Hong still hadn't promoted him, leaving Zhang Zheng Yan with a perpetually mournful expression.
The guests, unaware of Qingfeng Villa's benefit policies, wore smiles but inwardly scoffed at Yang Hong's perceived stinginess and erratic behavior.
It was understandable if a Qi Condensation novice was promoted alongside Seventh-stage Integration Realm experts, provided the disciple had exceptional talent.
However, having Seventh-stage Integration Realm and Sixth-stage Spirit Severing Realm cultivators relegated to the same manual laborer status as most Qi Condensation disciples was insulting.
What was most astonishing was that these high-level cultivators within Qingfeng Villa seemed to have no objections, which was utterly unbelievable.
As the observing cultivators grumbled, Yang Hong made another inexplicable decision.
"To provide you all with a clear direction and an opportunity for rapid advancement, our sect's primary mission for the next ten years will be farming,
Farming in the desert!"
"Farming? How wonderful! Thank you, Sect Leader, for your benevolence!"
"Haha~ This way, I can be promoted to Outer Disciple quickly. My specialty is spiritual plants."
"Hehe~ I have good relations with the mortals in the villages below. I can hire some people to help and plant more."
Upon hearing Yang Hong's words, the disciples of Qingfeng Villa began happily whispering amongst themselves. Yang Hong had said "farming," not "planting spiritual plants," which delighted all the disciples.
Farming was such a simple task that they could quickly get the hang of it even without prior experience in spiritual plants.
This was a true boon!
"Alright, the Disciple Promotion Ceremony has concluded.
Distinguished fellow Daoists who have traveled from afar, please be seated and sample the spiritual wine of our Qingfeng Villa."
Seeing that the time was getting late, Yang Hong directly announced the feast.
As for the gifts from the smaller sects?
Yang Hong found such trash worthless. Even the manual laborers of Qingfeng Villa wouldn't deign to accept them.
As for the major sects that had come to observe without an invitation, Yang Hong neither accepted their gifts nor invited them to the feast.
After all, his [Qingfeng Villa] was only a First-Rank sect.
At this moment, the guests from the smaller sects, who were now seated, stared in stunned silence at the spiritual wine and delicacies before them, while outside, waves of exclamations erupted.
"Oh, those are Fifth-grade spiritual fruits! Qingfeng Villa is truly generous."
"Hiss~ That's Fifth-grade Iron Thorn Wine! It's actually Fifth-grade spiritual wine. A pot of that must be worth over ten thousand spirit stones?"
"Sev-sev-seventh-grade spiritual cuisine! It's actually Seventh-grade spiritual cuisine! Seventh-grade spiritual cuisine hasn't appeared in the entire Yu Rou Plains for several hundred years!"
Amidst the gasps of astonishment, Yang Hong raised a cup of spiritual wine and shouted, "Let the feast begin!"