As I can see Tai Ye shuffle over to me, only one question comes to mind.

What type of complicated thing must have Gong found out that she couldn’t send over to me through the mental connection?

Being out in the open, I feel unsure about the content that she’s going to be showing to me out here.

“Should we be having this done out here?”

And I send that worry over to her.

She assures me it’s fine, as many other major players already know what she’s going to openly reveal. She also hints that would be better for others to see the intelligence of the hero group. Raising my value up.

My favorite giant spider waddles over and even I consent to the concern she has that Gong was careful to not reveal over the connection.

She quickly moves extremely close to me (which honestly is a little frightening, as she is still an enormous spider). After making it so no one else can see, except the cultivator with his low-level spiritual sense, she makes a tiny web in the space between us.

Using this web and our connection, both Tai Ye and Gong essentially paint me a picture of the events that have occurred while I’ve been gone.

After the alchemy Guild had discovered they had failed the assassination attempt, they collected more information on me. Part of that information was, of course, to find out the backing I had.

At the same time, big sis crane made her presence known and that she no longer would tolerate any other attempts on my life from them. Gong had felt suspicious about why this was allowed in the first place, but big sis crane wouldn’t give a straight answer.

What she gave up to all parties involved is that everything but life was fair game. To be specific, if they want to interfere in other portions of my life, they could. Similar to the last young man’s (that I helped cross the finish line) master, she stated that if I couldn’t overcome something like this on my own, then I didn’t deserve her protection.

From the little Gong could discern, it’s a test of sorts, to show I’m worthy of Gong’s affections. Just being able to survive an assassination attempt through indecipherable means allowed her to go this far in her eyes.

However, this doesn’t mean other groups can’t make attempts on my life. All the alchemy Guild has to do is set the stage for another group to take care of their problem for them. This sort of arrangement between big groups is common. Big sis crane believes her only job is to prevent the big groups from just killing me outright. Smaller groups are up to me to handle.

One other thing she did in my favor is that she wouldn’t confirm or deny that the ability to come back from that assassination attempt was because of her intervention. She only hinted that I may have backing that’s deeper than hers.

Sadly, it looks like the alchemy Guild is just assuming that’s another way that she can protect me.

It looks like the consensus on their side is that based on my history, they’ve done enough that we cannot live under the same sky.

I mean, they killed me. So, they have a bit of a point there.

What they’ve done to stop my progress in the sect and turn things against them is to leverage their existing contacts to get involved in the testing process.

Every single judge for each of the tests is an alchemy Guild representative. And they are planning to disqualify me for every test. They’ve already bribed the sect elder who is running the rest of the tests to make this happen. The only test that they couldn’t manipulate is the spirit root test.

This is an open test and was the sect’s bottom line. If the spirit root is high enough, then they shouldn’t block me from progressing. After all, it would be to the sect’s strength if a strong cultivator joined.

If I want to get the sect’s protection, I would need to become part of the inner court. Being part of that level, or affiliated with someone higher than that level, makes you a treasured part of the sect. The normal people, who even in a righteous sect like this one, are still used as the grunts or the red shirts of the sect.

If I’m only part of the outer court, then an ‘accident’ could happen, liked it has too many other disliked upcoming cultivators.

This is why the alchemy Guild cultivator was sitting outside of Mei Lin and I’s room. He was using a tool to approximate my spirit root level.

It’s also why the level that the sect would accept had increased. The Alchemy Guild pulled out a few stops to make sure a future enemy/competitor would not grow.

And I’m not the first one they’ve done things like this for. Things like this happen all the time in the background. The scariest part is that they are simply exerting a small amount of effort. They even have an informal agreement setup with the sect to let things happen for a certain cost.

For them, manipulating these things behind the scenes is as easy as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood.

But even with their strength, they went too far.

Big sis crane revoked her earlier restriction to just my life and forbid them from interacting any further with the situation. Beyond the plans they’ve already made. Apparently, it was affecting some of her other plans.

But the damage has already been done. They basically have what they wanted.

In fact, this issue has likely been delegated to a lower ranked elder of their Alchemy Group and viewed as mostly resolved. All that needs to be done is for me to go through the trials and have an accident arranged by a third party. Once I’m in the outer court and take on a job, of course.

After hearing all of this from both of them, I can’t help but rock back on my feet.

These are some huge developments. Especially to be walking into the sect with.

I’m still fucked, though.

I’m not seeing an easy way to get into the inner court.

While they weren’t sure what my spirit root actually was, they still were close enough to determine that an increase could stop me. This is obviously concerning on multiple levels. The only way I could increase my spirit route above that level, in such a short time, is to upgrade my healing aura to where it can actually optimize my body to the highest level.

What this would also do is allowing me to heal things that are outside the norm of my previous ability, such as mental issues.

This would take an enormous number of conditions to heal. Not nearly enough to make it in time.

And even if I raise my spirit root, I’ll need a corresponding excuse on why it happened.

With that being all the revelations that she could gather for me, Tai Ye heads back to the rest of the group.

The last suggestion Gong gives is to be as open about the abilities I was willing to show as possible (within limits, of course).

Something I’ve already been doing by making all the concoctions for others.

With that hint, she leaves me to consider my next steps.

Only one thought remains.

Messing with people’s profits and face is no joke…