"What’s up, Daoist friend? Are you interested in learning something? These are all basic spells. To learn advanced spells, you’d need to complete special trials first."
These are just basic spells? Xiao Jie felt even more envious after hearing this, damn, magic professions are indeed awesome.
Becoming immortal, becoming immortal, I’ve gone to great lengths to get you this opportunity to enroll. You’d better not waste it.
"No need, Daoist, my sect contribution isn’t enough. I’ll come back and learn later."
Xiao Jie looked at the other skill trainers but didn’t go up to talk. No need to ask, definitely all requiring prerequisite skills and sect contribution.
This sect contribution must be like the internal currency of Xuanxu Palace, similar to honor points or conquest points in World of Warcraft.
Probably need to complete work or tasks within the sect to get it.
Wonder if doing miscellaneous tasks in ’I Want to Be Immortal’ counts as contribution value.
But this is troublesome. I have no chance to earn this contribution value, which means all the NPCs won’t be able to gain benefits either, Xiao Jie frowned, looking at the screen.
Thinking carefully, it seems like I shouldn’t even think about mixing in to reap some internal benefits as a disciple. Without sect contribution, I probably can’t even buy talismans and elixirs.
Plus, even if I could buy them, I don’t have much money.
So what if I increase the NPCs’ favorability?
That’s not realistic either. These NPCs are all accomplished masters; they probably won’t be interested in the junk in my bag at all. I can’t give anything away, with NPCs like the White Ape who fancy daily necessities being a minority.
Moreover, favorability must be maxed out to have a reward. No way I can achieve that in one night.
Or should I start with the animals? I have the talent ’Learning from Beasts.’ The animals in Xuanxu Palace are probably not ordinary animals. Maybe I can learn some magic-related abilities from them?
After much consideration, that seems to be the only way out.
Xiao Jie then left the Tongxuan Hall and walked towards the garden of Xuanxu Palace.
A crane playing in the Lotus Pond caught Xiao Jie’s attention.
System notification: Recognition failed.
Huh? How can this be?
Never mind, let’s just go for it.
"Mr. Immortal Crane, may I have a chat with you?"
The crane glanced at him haughtily, "You are quite rude, Taoist. I am Master Mingyue’s mount, and I’ve been with the master fighting demons for over three hundred years. I’m quite your senior by generations. Don’t you know to respect your elders and the way of the Tao?"
Xiao Jie was momentarily stunned, thinking, no way, even a bird’s setting is this impressive?
"Er, Senior Immortal Crane? Aren’t you curious why I can speak your language?"
"Ha ha, how laughable. You, a human, speaking human words—how could you possibly speak beast language?"
Human words? Xiao Jie then realized that the crane was actually speaking human language.
It suddenly dawned on him; this crane must belong to the category of [Immortal Beasts]!
In Beast Knowledge, there are special sections like Immortal Beast Chapter, Demon Beast Chapter, and the like.
No wonder I couldn’t use Beast Recognition to get information earlier.
This is troublesome now. Ordinary beasts can be directly coaxed with the Beast Language Skill, but Immortal Beasts that can speak human language and seem worldly probably won’t be so easily fooled.
Now he only had one last trick left.
"Mr. Immortal Crane, have you had your dinner? I have something tasty here, why don’t you try some?"
As he spoke, he threw out a piece of Secret Dog Food—Beast Temptation!
However, the Immortal Crane didn’t even glance at the meatball on the ground, seemingly too haughty to lower itself to Xiao Jie’s level. It huffed coldly and flew away directly.
Watching the departing figure of the Immortal Crane, Xiao Jie felt a wave of helplessness. Xuanxu Palace truly lived up to its reputation as a top-tier sect; even a crane was so damn hard to serve.
His Beast Taming skills, of which he was so proud, were completely useless here.
Was his exploration for the night destined to end fruitlessly?
Just as he was about to pick up the Secret Dog Food and make a swift exit, he lowered his head to find a rat voraciously gnawing on the meatball.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak, it’s so delicious, so delicious, one more bite, one more bite."
Huh, there are rats in Xuanxu Palace?
Xiao Jie was somewhat surprised but also delighted. This time he should be able to communicate properly, right? Surely not even the rats would be uncooperative, would they?
"Little guy? Is it tasty?"
"Little guy, hehehe, don’t be fooled by my small size, I might be older than you, kid. How did you make these meatballs? They’re so delicious?"
Holy shit, talk about getting what you wish for. This little rat looked quite adorable, yet as soon as it opened its mouth, it spoke with the voice of a middle-aged smoker.
"Demon my ass. If I had even a whiff of demon energy on me, those stinking Taoists would have discovered me and captured me for alchemy long ago."
"Humph, when you get to my age, you’re bound to grow up a bit." As the rat spoke, it had already devoured the entire meatball, yet its body remained tiny, which was truly fascinating.
"If you’re trying to butter someone up, approaching those stinking Taoists is futile. In this damned place, everyone looks down on others, and even the birds and beasts are snobbish by association."
"Oh? Do you have any advice, Mr. Rat?"
"Squeak squeak, since you gave me such delicious meatballs, I’ll give you some clear guidance. Head to the location on the east side against the mountain wall, where there’s an obscure hall without doors or windows. Many Taoists live there. Although they’re a bit odd, they’re some of the more approachable people around here. Last time I went, someone even fed me steamed buns. I better scram now before someone spots me."
With that, it zipped into a crack in the ground and disappeared.
Hope sprouted in Xiao Jie’s heart; maybe tonight he could snag some benefits after all.
He followed the rat’s directions and headed eastward, indeed finding a mountain wall. Searching up and down the wall, he indeed stumbled upon an unremarkable side hall with no windows and just walls on all sides—only a single door made it stand out as quite odd.
Two Golden Armored Celestial Soldiers stood guard at the door.
Protecting Heaven Soldier (Guard): Level 30 Summoned Creature. Life Value 1200.
Could it be a treasure vault?
Curiosity welled up in Xiao Jie’s mind.
Testing his luck, he approached, but the Protecting Heaven Soldiers didn’t make any move to stop him. Steeling his nerves, Xiao Jie pushed the door open and went inside.
Inside was an empty room, with candles lit at each corner and a staircase leading downwards.
The more Xiao Jie observed, the more he felt something was off. Damn it, this must be a dungeon, right?