Unlike that of others, this was Yan Li's second time joining Dahuang Palace. Rejoining the clan, Yan Li sensed a strange feeling inside as the tragic scene of depriving him of his basis uncontrollably resurfaced in his mind.

With his basis destroyed, Yan Li fell from a talent to a loser who underwent endless taunts and insults before having to leave the clan with his tail between his legs and then died alone miserably in the middle of nowhere.

He felt his heart clenching at the thought of that and swore to himself that he would do whatever it took to hunt down the guy who destroyed his basis back then.

Yet, everything and everyone in his two lives were still the same, so it would not be easy to find that guy unless Yan Li could lure him out somehow

Then again, there was another thing that had been boggling him even before the very moment when he jumped off the cliff--why would that guy want to destroy his basis?

Back then, he had already been a master in Xuan realm with sharp senses, so if anyone could destroy his basis without him noticing anything at all, then that person had to be more powerful than him. Yan Li was certain about this because it would even be impossible for someone who was a Xuan realm master to sneak up on him and destroy his basis, so it was most likely that the guy was a Mi realm master who had transcended the Xuan realm.

Dahuang Palace was the most prominent clan of the Yun Empire with its many disciples separated into four cla.s.ses: the out-door, the in-door, the elite and the core disciples.

The out-door disciples were usually martial artists in Lianqi realm, while the in-door disciples Yuan realm, and the elite disciples Xuan realm; as for the core disciples, they had reached Mi realm.

If this was the case, then the person who destroyed his basis was very likely to be a core disciple. But Yan Li had, in all honesty, never had any bad blood with any core disciple.

In the meantime, the core disciples, with their phenomenal skills in martial arts, were barely seen out in the public too often, and even the elite disciples could barely catch a glimpse of them all year around.

Although Yan Li was one of a few candidates that could be elevated into the core group, he would not possibly be much of a threat to those arrogant core disciples, let alone making them feel jealous enough to destroy him.

But if it wasn't for this, then what would it be?

You know, Yan Li wasconsidered a genius in martial arts, but he never treated people badly or held any grudge against anyone; besides, his rise was only a flash in the pan, which should not draw much attention from other clans. Therefore, whoever destroyed his basis back then did not do it out of envy or hatred.

“Then…” something popped up in his mind and hit him like lightning, “Was it because of Ziyue?”

In his past life, his relations.h.i.+p with Long Ziyue had almost everyone's eyes turned green. Yet, after being long enough with her, Yan Li realized that Long Ziyue was not as innocent as she seemed; in fact, her ident.i.ty was extremely mysterious.

Then came the day when Lin Jingyun, soaked in blood, told him that Long Ziyue was taken away by some men whom he himself, a Mi realm master and the top swordsman on Tianhuang Land, qualified to even take on a w.a.n.g realm master, couldn't begin to compete with. Aside from Lin Jingyun, Long Ziyue didn't put up too much of a fight, either.

At that time, Yan Li was too absorbed in sorrow to really think it through. But now when he came to think about it, there was much to be questioned.

“Who were those people that took Ziyue away? Why would they take her? Could it be them who destroyed my basis?”

Chills ran through him as Yan Li realized there might be many more unknown secrets and powers swelling under the seemingly calm surface of Tianhuang Land.

“What's wrong, Brother Li?” A clear voice rang beside his ear, pulling him out of his thought and back into reality.

Yan Li looked around and took in the worrying expression on Xue Zhan and other people's faces. Touched, he put on a smile, “Everything's fine. I was just thinking about something.”

“Really, Brother Yan? I just saw you look…...”

“I'm okay, really!” Yan Li shook his head, forcing those heavy thoughts out of his mind, and regained his polite manner. “Let's go and get our names registered!”

Xue Zhan and others were still just a bunch of teenagers, so they didn't think too much of it after seeing Yan Li was all himself again; and now knowing that they were going to become disciples of Dahuang Palace, they simply couldn't help but crack a smile.

The out-door disciples ranked the lowest among all four kinds of disciples, only being slightly more decent than the scullions in Dahuang Palace. The scullions were poor boys who failed the entrance test but didn't want to leave Dahuang Palace, since they had already walked far and wide here, so instead of going back home, they chose to stay, hoping that someday they could be b.u.mped up to the out-door disciples if they did well enough in the annual martial arts contest held among the scullions.

Newcomers of Dahuang Palace were required to register at the Out-door Affair Yard and pick up their ident.i.ty badges, which, aside from showing that the owners were disciples of Dahuang palace, also provided them credit points, a special kind of currency used within Dahuang Palace, which could be acquired through donating money or finis.h.i.+ng the tasks posted by the clan.

But what exactly could credit points do? To answer this, we have to talk about resources that helped to accelerate the process of practice. The clan would hand out free resources to its disciples, but these were far from sufficient if you wanted to improve faster; then you could purchase some more resources such as practice guidance, martial skills, elixirs, weapons and stuff like that by using your credit points, which could get you better and cheap resources than any of those you bought outside Dahuang Palace.

In Dahuang Palace, credit points were more valuable than silver or gold. One could donate money in exchange for credit points, but with a certain limitation posed for different kinds of disciples. For example, the out-door disciples were only allowed to donate 10,000 Liang (17,600 ounces) worth of silver every month, which would get them 100 credit points in return.

Let's say, the vigor boosting pills favored by martial artists usually cost 50 Liang silver per pill, but you could get 3 pills for one credit point in Dahuang Palce, meaning if you sold them to other people, you'd be making a decent amount of money in no time.

However, Dahuang Palace was none to be fooled around by some trick like this. First of all, according to your ranking, the person in charge would only be giving you the number of pills you were allowed to have; if you wanted some more, sorry, no go! Then it was also made clear that selling clan products was absolutely forbidden and would result in punishment, to say the least, or deprivation of one's skills and exile from Dahuang Palace, to say the worst.

Now let's get back to the registration process.

Yan Li and the others were guided to the Out-door Affair Yard, where many other qualified teenagers were waiting in a line to get their names registered and pick up the ident.i.ty badges, so all six of them joined the line, too.

“Name, please?” When it was Yan Li's turn, he noticed the person in charge of registration was a young man in white, indicating that he was an indoor disciple.

“Yan Li!”

“Age?”

“Fourteen!”

After getting some other personal information from Yan Li, the young man handed him a palm-sized badge along with four cyan uniforms. The badge was made of a unique material that resembled both iron and gold; it didn't weight much, and you could tie it on your belt with a silky thread attached to its top.