Yellow Lily Pond Hall

The Sapling Sword Sect was a society of its own, and this particular society had incredibly clear hierarchies.

Much like a city, the more powerful Inner disciples would all train and live in the Inner Court, separated from the Outer disciples who lived in the Outer Court.

Even within the Outer Court, the closer you were to the centre, the better the housing became.

"There is a dormitory near the boundary between the Inner and Outer Court where the bottom 50 Outer Steps, the strongest 50 Outer Disciples may reside. The rest of you can just find any available housing in the residential area," Elder Lucas said.

As one of the younger Elders, he was pushed into doing the tedious job of showing all the new disciples around.

"Any house that doesn't have a plaque in front is available. You've been given your residential plaques along with your disciple robes at the gates, please change into them and return here within an hour. Dismissed," he said lazily.

The Disciples all bowed in unison and began to depart to find their new homes.

This would be another tacit restructuring of their social hierarchies as the more powerful disciples from prestigious clans would take up the housing closest to the Inner Court.

Yeon who was already used to the layout of the Outer Court began making his way to the very outermost regions with Sylvie on his back.

"Sylvie, you're going to be living with me now," Yeon said gently as he walked.

"Yes, Master," she replied in a neutral tone.

"And how does that make you feel?" he asked, trying to bring out a subjective and more emotional response from Sylvie.

The more he interacted with her, and the more he tried to invoke a personal opinion, the quicker she would get better.

Yeon had been delighted when Sylvie had asked where they were heading at the beginning of their journey, her showing any form of curiosity made Yeon's heart fill with warmth.

"I'm fine," Sylvie replied. It was a positive response but one with no real thought put into it.

"But if you had to describe it. Would you say that you are happy or upset about it?

"I…" there was an unusually long silence from the girl who normally replied immediately:

"I am happy…?" it was a tiny, almost negligible difference from her usual indifferent tone, but her voice was raised inquisitively at the end.

Yeon who had been listening carefully picked up on this slight difference.

"Good, good!" he hummed as he carried her away.

Perhaps his mood had gotten better, but his walking pace got a tad bit faster.

"Yeon, where are you going?" Mia asked while smiling brightly.

She found Yeon's interactions with Sylvie to be very cute.

"…To pick a home," Yeon replied.

"Why not pick one closer to the Inner court? The houses we saw on the way here near the outskirts were more like huts and cottages than actual houses."

"I agree. I doubt anyone would try and stop you if you did. You technically placed top 20 in the disciple trials after the duel," Emily added on.

She had been in a good mood since they entered the sect.

'I want to go back to my old home,' was something that Yeon couldn't say.

"I just want my house to be somewhere quieter. I'm sure that Sylvie would prefer it in a place with fewer people, right?"

"Yes, Master," she replied without putting much thought into her words.

It took a while, but they reached Adil's old cottage.

'They already took down my old residential plaque,' he thought.

A small wooden building that was more run-down than the rest. It was placed within a small forest of trees and had its own little garden where Adil used to practice.

It felt peaceful but desolate, a home suited to isolation.

"It's perfect," Yeon said proudly.

"How did you even find this place?" Emily asked while looking at Yeon questioningly.

He had been too confident in his directions as if he already knew where he was going.

"Fate brought me here," Yeon replied while smirking, "it called me out."

"To one of the worst houses they have? This place is practically the furthest you can get from the Inner Court," Emily replied dryly.

And she was right, this place was the furthest from the Inner Court.

"Away from everyone annoying. What about you girls? Where are you going to live?"

"Emi and I have talked about it and we both picked one not too far from here. We're going to live there since we can't live too far away," Mia replied while looking in the direction of her new home.

"You can't?" Yeon asked, confused.

"It's because everyone still thinks we're… l-lovers," she replied while blushing.

"Is that so… Well then, my loves, I need to get changed so unless you're here to watch me, you should go place your plaques before someone snatches away your top picks."

"I-I don't mind watching…" Mia mumbled softly before being pulled away by Emily.

"We'll see you later, Yeon," Emily sighed. She wore a faint blush as she had heard what Mia said, causing her to think back to Yeon's topless figure during the second trial.

"Nooooo~, let me stay," Mia whined, eliciting a chuckle from Yeon.

"You can watch next time!" Yeon shouted to their departing figures.

"Y-You heard that!"

'Of course, I did,' he thought.

It would be stranger if he didn't hear considering how close she was.

Yeon placed his plaque that read [Yeon] at the entrance.

Since he wasn't from a clan, his first name was used for his plaque, and as a rogue, the colour of his plaque was a shade darker than the other red plaques the others had received - a form of systematic discrimination.

He looked around the entrance and found a piece of dirty red wood on the floor.

He picked it up, and as he had expected, it was the old [Ashford] plaque, littered there like a piece of trash.

"Come on… Fath-, ahem, Janus Ashford is still technically an Elder of the Divine Sword Sect," he said disgruntledly.

He cleaned the dirt off on the bright red plaque, even going as far as to polish it on the new white disciple robes he had been given.

It was something he had carved together with Elia when he was younger. It was something precious that he had forgotten to take that day because his mind had been in disarray.

Sylvie, who Yeon had let down when they arrived, was looking at the cottage with a blank expression.

"This is where we'll be staying from now on, Sylvie."

"…" There was no response from her as she stared at her new home, her usually stale eyes shining a bit more than usual.

"Let's go in together," Yeon said as he held her hand and walked her inside.

Sylvie was half-pulled, half-dragged around the house as he showed her around.

It was the cottage where Adil had been relegated after the Ashford clan had lost power.

He had lived in one of the nicer houses near the Inner Court when he had lived with his sister. Elia was an incredibly proud girl, but she had lived in the Outer Court as an Inner Disciple so she could be with Adil.

There were only 3 rooms, a bedroom, a small kitchen, and a bath.

"There's not much, but look at our garden," he said warmly, his mind filled with old memories.

The old area where he usually practised had grown weeds during the time he wasn't here and was in need of some gardening.

"And this is the bedroom," he said.

Yeon stared at the small bed realising that it was the only place to sleep in the house which wasn't on the floor, in the tub, or outside.

"You still haven't slept properly, have you?" Yeon asked.

"No, Master." She had only slept for tiny intervals of around 2 hours ever since she had been with Yeon.

"Then get in bed and try to sleep. I'll be having a tour of the sect and will be back at night. I'll bring some food so try and get some rest until then," Yeon said while pointing at the bed.

"Yes, Master," she said while taking off her new shoes that Yeon had bought her with some of the remaining money he had left.

Yeon tucked her in bed and pulled the duvet up so that only her head was sticking out from under the covers.

Yeon was about to get changed into his new disciple robes as he had been instructed when he realized that Sylvie was in the room.

'Well, she probably doesn't care,' he thought while taking off his outer robe.

Yeon was getting changed and had just put on his new trousers when he felt a silent stare.

Sylvie had yet to close her eyes and was instead watching Yeon.

'Maybe she does care?'

"Why? Do you think I'm beautiful?" Yeon asked jokingly.

But to his surprise, the usually silent Sylvie replied, "Yes, I think that Master is very beautiful."

"Haha, you flatter me, Sylvie," Yeon replied chuckling.

He went to pinch her cheeks only to stop when there was nothing to pinch, only her skin that had sunk into her emaciated face.

She had gained a tiny bit of weight, but she was still worryingly skinny.

Instead of pinching her, he ended up stroking her scarred right cheek.

It hurt to touch, not because it was rough, but because it reminded Yeon of how much Sylvie had been forced to endure up till now.

"… I'll bring lots of dinner," Yeon replied determinedly before leaving for the meeting place.

***

Elder Lucas was taking his time to quickly show all the disciples around the Outer Court.

He showed them all the important facilities that Yeon had no interest in and already knew about, such as the training grounds, separate lecture halls, medicinal hall, as well as the mission hall.

He was now showing off the line of street stalls.

"The Sapling Sword Sect prides itself in its wide variety of food available for its disciples. A good diet is just as essential as training and rest, especially for those of you in the lower realms who rely less on qi to sustain yourselves," he explained.

"You can look through these later, but I have to show you the final spot," he said as he guided everyone to the top of the street.

This 'cafeteria' stretched on for quite a while before abruptly stopping at a red line.

"Beyond this line is the Yellow Lily Pond Hall," Elder Lucas said as he pointed at the line that separated the empty street ahead and the food stalls.

"You must pay 25 contribution points to cross this line and you will have to spend more to do anything worthwhile at the Yellow Lily Pond Hall,"

The external mission Adil took to gather Ruby grass awarded only 3 contribution points. Yeon had started off with a monthly income of 50 contribution points for coming in the top 20 of the disciple trials.

This showed just how expensive it was to enter the Yellow Lily Pond Hall.

"If it's so expensive, then why would we go there?" one disciple asked from the crowd.

"You must not know much about the Sapling Sword Sect," Elder Lucas replied while chuckling.

"The Yellow Lily Pond Hall has a selection of highly trained cultivator chefs who can cook level 2 magical beast meat," Elder Lucas said, giving the first reason why the Yellow Lily Pond Hall was so expensive.

"Oh!" Mia squealed from beside Yeon, her golden eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Let's head there sometime when we gather more contribution points," Yeon said.

Both Mia and Emily vigorously nodded.

They hadn't forgotten the flavour of Yeon's magical beast cooking, the juiciness of level 2 magical beast meat was surely even better than the sub-Kanju steaks they had feasted on.

"The other reasons become more obvious when you head inside. I'll tell you the rest there, make sure to keep quiet. There are plenty of people you don't want to upset inside," Elder Lucas warned.

They walked down the empty road, the path becoming more and more luxurious as they approached the Yellow Lily Pond Hall.

The stone path was elegant and simple with stone light stands along the sides.

The building itself was surprisingly large. It had a magnificent pair of wooden doors as its entrance with an intricately decorated pattern of lilies up and down the sides.

"Today is the only day where you will be allowed to enter the hall without paying 25 contribution points. However, any bad behaviour will cause a deduction of contribution points as well as a permanent ban,"

The two guards at the front nodded at Elder Lucas before opening the door.

There were already disciples walking about, but most, if not all, were wearing white robes with blue cuffs compared to the red cuffs the Outer Disciples were wearing.

"It is also the only area of the sect where Outer Disciples may visit Inner Disciples," Elder Lucas explained the second reason why the Hall was so expensive.

The Inner Disciples looked at the new disciples curiously, scanning over them, before going off to where they were originally heading.

Yeon looked at the opulent decorations and elegant architecture of the building and breathed in that nostalgic woody scent mixed with various foods and spices.

He hadn't entered here since his sister had left, and when he grew older, he didn't have enough contribution points to enter. Even if he did manage to scrape together enough points, he was sure to be bullied out of the Hall.