[ DO NOT WASTE FAST PASS OR COINS ON THIS CHAPTER! ]

Hello readers,

I will be on hiatus till the end of the month, but if you want to read the few chapters that I stockpiled then please visit my Patreon page (pa treon.com/Naked_Sword_art)

Thanks for all the support and I apologize for stopping at such a terrible spot. I hope to see you again when I return. Till next time, Cya :)

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Questions and Answers:

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Q: "In what month is the test for: Outer Court, Inner Court, and Sect Tournament?"

A: Outer and inner court exams take place at the same time, but the sect tournament take place a month earlier when the sect heads are invited into the royal court.

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Q: "But, didn't they go to the Divine Sword Sect about 3 months before the Inner Court Exam?"

A: The Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the 13 sects all had another reason for going to the royal court.

Retired Patriarchs (like Xiao Kong) lived in the royal court, so they would play politics and participate in discussions relating to the well-being of the country and carry out missions with other Retired Patriarchs under the instructions of the Royals court. When the current Patriarchs (like Xiao Jianghong) enter the Royal sect, their first order of business is to inform their Retired Patriarch on what's been happening back at their sect, then they will try to come up with a plan for its future.

The tournament starts 1 month before they leave, but until then, the handful of selected disciples from each of the 13 sects enjoy a comfortable place to train that is rich with natural qi and valuable cultivation resources they can't get anywhere else in the country.

So it's not only for Patriarchs to discuss important matters, but it's also an opportunity for their disciples to train in their special training grounds.

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Q: "Was Zhao Pan secretly raised and trained by Yao Wu within the inner or outer court of the Black Paradise sect?"

A: The Black Paradise sect is more than just a sect. The whole city is a part of their territory. Yao Wu secretly kept Zhao Pan inside of the city, but not inside the actual sect walls till she was old enough to do the entrance exam.

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Q: "Can someone know the nature of someone's qi and recognize the cultivation method they practice without seeing them use a cultivation techniques?"

A: One cannot tell what cultivation method someone possess without seeing them use a method-specific technique. However, cultivators that practice the same cultivation method could recognize (guess) that they cultivate the same method, purely by looking at their aura and/or physical characteristics. Cultivating a method doesn't change your qi permanently (like a spirit attribute does), but it will change your aura and physical body.

Body Method Example: If Cultivator A* sees Cultivator B* (a swordsman), and if Cultivator A* has a lot of experience fighting against swordsmen or is a swordsman himself, then Cultivator A* might be able to guess that Cultivator B* is a swordsmen just by looking at the things they wear or the way they are physically built. However, Cultivator A* won't know for sure what cultivation method he practices till he see Cultivator B* use a sword technique. Even then, unless Cultivator B* uses a method-specific sword technique (Like Xiao Fang's 'Divine Sword' technique which comes directly from the Divine Sword method) and not a general sword technique (like Xun Wei's 'Quick Sword' technique that she got from the Black Paradise Sect's Archives) Cultivator A* won't know which sword method Cultivator B* is practicing.

Spirit Method Examples: Death Reaper method makes Xiao Fang carry around an aura of death the more people he kills. Death Reaper cultivators might recognize it and assume he is a fellow Death Reaper cultivator, but they won't know for sure till they see him use a method-specific technique like [ Reaper's Grasp ]

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Q: Does the black paradise sect only accepts cultivators that are at the age of 18? If not, is there an age limit for students to be accepted after the age of 18?

A: The Black Paradise sect only accepts 18 year olds unless they are brought into the sect by an elder. Elders can bring 1 disciple into the sect, but only into the outer court and they have to be under the age of 30. The new disciple will have to climb to the inner and core court by passing the exams just like everyone else, and they will be kicked out if they don't pass the inner court exam before the age of 30.

Age limit changes the higher up you go:

30 for outer court

40 for inner

50 for core

30+ Elders (if they pass an elder's test)

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Q: "Let's say that there is a strong disciple that can't pass the exam before being expelled by the age limit, can they become elders of the outer court?"

A: Yes, they can do that. Many elders were inner court disciples that gave up on trying to pass the core court exam. Similar in Jiang Mei's case, she gave up on passing the core court exam really early, so she just focused on passing the elder exam.

Note: Inner Court disciples that want to become an elder needs to start as an outer court elder after they pass the elder exam. The only way to become an inner court elder is by having your disciple pass a specially made test. To deter outer court elders from just getting a bunch of disciples and trying her luck that way, the sect made it so they are stuck with one disciple for at least 5 years before they can accept another one. That's why many elders are really picky with their choice.

As you will learn when they get into the inner court, becoming a core court elder is much more difficult.

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If you stayed till this point then I feel like I should reward you. Here's just a bit of the next chapter:

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Next chapter: Searching The Outer Court

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[ Li Lian's house ]

Upstairs in a large empty room, Xiao Fang sat in the lotus position as he tried to fully integrate the [ True Immortal Lightning Tribulation ] spirit attribute into his body. The time it took him to cultivate the spirit attribute was already much longer than Li Lian's and Xun Wei's combined, but he didn't break his concentration, even when he was beginning to feel weak.

As the days passed, the outer court gradually descended into madness. Li Lian, Xun Wei, and Xiao Hei didn't know about it because they had been at home for the last few days.

Since they killed people, they thought it would be wise to stay at home and keep a low profile.

However, one day there was a knock on the door. Li Lian got up to answer it, but not without getting Xun Wei's attention first.

Xun Wei and Xiao Hei suddenly stopped what they were doing as Li Lian went to answer the door. When she opened it she saw two women standing at her doorsteps, but she froze when she saw the colours of the two women's robes.

One was white, meaning that she was from the core court, and the other was black, meaning that she was from the inner court.

"Hello, we're both a member of the disciplinary department. Respectively from the inner and core court," the black robed woman said as she pointed at herself then at the white robed disciple standing behind her.

Li Lian didn't know what to say. She still couldn't believe a core court disciple would come knocking at her door. The admiration in her eyes slowly turned into worry when she started to suspect that the came to investigate Song Du's murder.

The outer court disciplinary department always did their own investigation, and they were usually really good at it. However, their punishment would only go as far as making them pay a large fee of merit points.

The day Li Lian returned from the Divine Sword sect with Xiao Fang, she was apprehended and forced to pay 25,000 merit points. If she didn't have the money they would have forced her into doing manual labour for the sect till she could pay it off. Luckily for her, Xiao Fang had boat loads of merit points that he didn't know what to do with, so paying the fee was no big deal. Xiao Fang was upset that they were accusing her instead of him, but they just accused him of simping.

Although there was a general rule against killing other disciples, no one really cared enough to do anything about it, especially if the victim was a man. Perhaps because Song Du came from a more noble family they were taking the case a little more seriously, but it didn't make sense that they would go so far as to bring people from the inner and core court to do the investigating.

Li Lian dismissed any thoughts that they were in any trouble, so instead of worry she became curious. However, before she could ask why they came, the inner court disciple suddenly spoke.

"May we come in?"

"Em, sure. Please come in," Li Lian replied.

Li Lian idolized the Core Court disciples of the Black Paradise sect since she was young, so inviting one into her home was like a dream come true.

Seeing that people were being invited into their house, Xiao Hei went into [ Stealth ], then quickly ran upstairs into Xiao Fang's room. Seeing that Xiao Fang was still meditating, she tried to be quiet even though she knew that he couldn't hear, see, or feel anything in that state.

Back downstairs Xun Wei had confronted the visitors after wiping the sweat off her skin with a piece of cloth.

"What is this about?" Xun Wei asked.

"We are doing a quick inspection of the outer court," the Inner Court disciple said.

She then took something out from her spatial pouch and handed them to Li Lian and Xun Wei.

"Put your qi into them."

Li Lian did as she said. Xun Wei hesitated for a moment then eventually did the same.

Shortly after their qi entered the crystals, they slowly began to glow.

"The crystals are glowing. What does that mean?" Li Lian asked.

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