Chapter 15: Honorarium

A sect opens its outer gate to recruit disciples, imparting cultivation knowledge and skills. Disciples bow upon entering the sect, cultivate, and learn, after which they are required to pay tuition fees.

Different grades of sects have different tuition fees; the higher the grade, the more expensive the fees.

The Tongxian Gate in the cultivation world is only a first-grade sect, but in Tongxian City, which only has first-grade sects, it is the largest. The annual tuition fee is one hundred spirit stones, and this doesn't include various other miscellaneous charges.

One hundred spirit stones is not overly expensive, but it is by no means cheap. It is roughly equivalent to the annual income saved by an ordinary Qi training rogue cultivator, provided they don't fall ill or get injured, or have other expenses requiring large amounts of spirit stones.

If they encounter illness, disaster, or difficulties requiring spirit stones to resolve, it is possible to have no harvest at all in a year.

The New Year period was joyous, but once it passed, the burden of cultivation life seemed to press down again.

Mo Shan placed a storage bag on the table and said somewhat guiltily, "I found a few brothers to borrow some spirit stones, plus what I had saved before, it's a total of over eighty pieces..."

Liu Ru Hua comforted him, saying, "Tomorrow I'll also go find the kitchen manager and ask him to advance some spirit stones..."

Just as Mo Shan was about to say something, he discovered Mo Hua crouching at the door crack, eavesdropping.

"Hua Er!"

Since he was discovered, Mo Hua could only offer an embarrassed smile and run to sit by his mother's side.

Liu Ru Hua affectionately pinched Mo Hua's ear and said reproachfully, "So young, and already you know how to eavesdrop!"

"Dad, Mom, are we still short on spirit stones at home?"

Mo Shan said, "We're short some, but your Uncle Ji said yesterday he'd lend me some, and he specifically told me to make sure you study hard at the sect."

"Uncle Ji?"

"That's right, your Uncle Ji said you're smart and always praises you," Liu Ru Hua said as she stroked Mo Hua's head.

"But Uncle Ji's family isn't exactly overflowing with spirit stones either, right?" Mo Hua said.

Mo Shan sighed lightly, "I'll repay him soon after the New Year. This year, who has spirit stones to spare?"

"I do!" Mo Hua giggled.

Mo Shan and Liu Ru Hua were momentarily stunned.

Mo Hua trotted with his small legs, thump thump thump, back to his room, then ran back again, holding a storage bag in his hand.

Mo Hua opened the storage bag. Inside, fifty spirit stones interwoven with faint light, reflecting in various colors, were extremely beautiful. But the scene he had imagined, his parents moved to tears and praising him for being sensible, did not appear.

Mo Shan's expression was solemn, and Liu Ru Hua also slightly furrowed her brow.

Mo Hua asked uneasily, "What's wrong?"

Mo Shan tried to ask in a gentle tone, "Hua Er, who gave you these spirit stones?"

"Nobody gave them to me, I earned them myself!"

Mo Shan was stunned for a moment, "You... earned them yourself?"

Liu Ru Hua's brows relaxed slightly, and she gently hugged Mo Hua into her embrace, "Then tell Mom, how did you earn them?"

"I draw formations for Youyuan Zhai, but it's the simplest kind. I can earn one spirit stone for each one I draw well."

Mo Shan and Liu Ru Hua exchanged glances. They thought about how their son had spent most of his time in his room before and after the New Year, not playing much, and coming back soon after going out. He had been drawing formations to earn spirit stones.

They looked at the spirit stones in the bag again. One spirit stone per formation, nearly fifty in the bag, meaning he had to draw at least fifty...

Liu Ru Hua couldn't help but hug Mo Hua tighter.

Mo Shan wanted to speak several times but stopped, not knowing what to say. Finally, he just reached out and gently touched Mo Hua's head.

"These spirit stones were hard-earned by you. You should keep them yourself, save them for cultivation or buy some good food. Dad will find a way to solve the Tongxian Gate tuition fee matter."

Mo Hua knew his father was reluctant to use these spirit stones. His eyes rolled, and he said, "Then Dad and Mom, you keep these spirit stones for me first, help me store them. I don't need so much as a child, and it's easy for them to be stolen or robbed."

Mo Shan and Liu Ru Hua looked at each other, speechless, and couldn't find a way to refuse.

Finally, Liu Ru Hua said, "Okay, Dad and Mom will keep them for you first."

"Mm-hmm!" Mo Hua nodded heavily.

"Okay, it's getting late. You have school tomorrow, so go to bed early."

"Mm, good night, Dad and Mom!"

Mo Hua got up to go back to his room. He thought for a moment, then turned back and said, "Dad and Mom, you should use them if you need to, don't save them just for me."

The Mo Shan couple were both crying and laughing.

Watching Mo Hua go back to his room and close the door, Mo Shan finally sighed and smiled bitterly, "As a father, I'm not even as good as my child."

Liu Ru Hua comforted him, saying, "What are you saying? It's a good thing that Hua Er knows how to consider his parents. He can earn spirit stones by his own ability, and we should be happy. It's just that..."

Liu Ru Hua lowered her head to look at the spirit stones in front of her, then looked up at her husband and said doubtfully, "He's so young, can he really draw formations for others to earn spirit stones? And earn so much... I'm afraid someone is taking advantage of his young age and wants to..."

"I'll go see tomorrow."

Mo Shan said, his eyes also gradually becoming sharp.

The next day, Mo Hua woke up on time, cultivated for a while, then went with his mother, Liu Ru Hua, to Tongxian Gate's outer gate to pay the tuition fees and register for enrollment.

Mo Shan had already left early. According to Liu Ru Hua, Mo Shan was going into the inner mountain with several demon hunters today, so he had to prepare early.

Upon arriving at the Tongxian Gate outer gate, Liu Ru Hua paid the tuition fees and completed the enrollment process. She couldn't help but look at Mo Hua several times more.

Once he entered Tongxian Gate to cultivate, she wouldn't be able to see her son on ordinary days unless there were sect holidays during New Year festivals.

Liu Ru Hua again instructed Mo Hua several sentences to cultivate well, get along well with fellow disciples, eat well, drink well, wear well, not bully others, and so on, then reluctantly went back.

Mo Hua stood outside the mountain gate and waved until Liu Ru Hua's figure disappeared around the corner of the road, then turned around.

He didn't enter the sect but first went to Youyuan Zhai on North Street, found the Fat Manager to pick up twenty sets of Minghuo Array materials, and agreed to hand them in at the latest in half a month.

The sect has three ten-day breaks every month, in the upper, middle, and lower periods, with one day off each time. Mo Hua planned to take advantage of the ten-day break to slip out and transact with the Fat Manager.

For the twenty sets of materials, the Fat Manager still only received a ten spirit stone deposit. Given the pleasant cooperation with Mo Hua... or rather, his elder brother, and the increasingly high quality of the formations handed in, the Fat Manager was very satisfied and kept the deposit unchanged out of respect for Mo Hua's face.

After discussing everything properly with the Fat Manager, Mo Hua left Youyuan Zhai satisfied.

After Mo Hua left, he didn't notice a burly man standing silently outside Youyuan Zhai, watching him.

After Mo Hua left, the man walked into the gate of Youyuan Zhai.

The doorbell rang. The Fat Manager looked up and saw a man with simple clothes but a handsome and upright figure, sword-like eyebrows, and star-like eyes, looking at him with an examining gaze, his eyes revealing a pressing sharpness.

The Fat Manager saw at a glance that this man was a demon hunter, a true blood-seen demon hunter! And his attitude was not very good. He looked at himself as if looking at a demon beast about to be slaughtered.

In terms of cultivation, the Fat Manager was confident he was not worse than this man, but it was hard to say who would win in a real fight. After all, demon hunters live on the edge of a knife year-round, fighting with demon beasts.

Meanwhile, he had been sitting at the counter year-round, and didn't know how long it had been since he had touched a sword. His fighting methods were also long unfamiliar.

The Fat Manager weighed the situation for a bit, then straightened his attitude and asked cautiously, "This Daoist friend, what kind of formation do you need?"

The burly man was precisely Mo Shan. He unfolded a crumpled paper. There was a copied formation on the paper, with several places copied incorrectly, so there were smudged traces.

"What formation is this?"

The Fat Manager glanced at it, then said, "It's the Minghuo Array."

"Do you accept this kind of formation?"

The man's tone made the Fat Manager very uncomfortable. On ordinary days, he wouldn't bother to deal with such a person, but today he felt that the visitor was a guest, and guests should be treated politely and thoroughly.

"Of course we accept it. This is a commonly used formation, and ordinary cultivators' families will all use it, so the consumption is relatively large."

Mo Shan said, "Did the child who just left also draw formations for you?"

The Fat Manager said, "This kind of matter cannot be told to outsiders. Youyuan Zhai wants to protect customer privacy. This is our business principle."

Mo Shan's eyes instantly pressed forward like knives. The Fat Manager, feeling a prickle on his back, thought for a moment and felt that cultivators should not be too rigid; principles could be followed flexibly.

"It wasn't that child, it was his elder brother."

Mo Shan frowned, "Elder brother?"

The Fat Manager said, "That's right, how old is this child? What kind of formation can he draw? He just runs errands for his elder brother, and the formations are all drawn by his elder brother."

"Did he say this himself?"

"Of course," the Manager replied, "Otherwise, why would we do business with a child?"

After the Manager finished speaking, he vigilantly stared at Mo Shan:

"As for this child's surname and name, and where he lives, it's impossible for me to tell you."

Mo Shan rolled his eyes at the Fat Manager. This child's surname and name, and where he lives, I, as his father, am not clearer than you. Do I still need you to tell me?

However, knowing that Mo Hua was not being taken advantage of, Mo Shan's attitude also eased. He cupped his hand to the Fat Manager and said, "Many thanks, I'll take my leave."

The Fat Manager breathed a sigh of relief, then nodded slightly with arrogance.

Mo Shan turned and left. After his back disappeared at the door, the Fat Manager finally breathed a sigh of relief and muttered discontentedly, "Didn't even buy anything..."