“Excuse me? I'm sorry, but...”

  “Of course, I don't mean actual espionage. After all, I am also a member of the same Sect. But you see, there is a special group within the Island Mountain Sect called the Mage Support Group.”

  “A support group for mages?” She had never heard of such a thing.

  Although the name didn't sound bad, she didn't like the situation. Spying wasn't for her. She didn't want to attract attention. And if someone had discovered her doing this, she would most likely have been sentenced to death.

  “I can see what you're thinking. But as I said, it's not spying. It is completely safe.”

  “But that's what you called it.” She replied. As if he thought she had already forgotten what he had said a moment ago.

  “To make it easier for you to understand. You see, there is a fairly large group of mages in the sect, but they are quite... discriminated against. You have a lot of talent, and we can offer you support. In return, you will have to help us from time to time.”

  “It still sounds like espionage,” she replied. “And what kind of support would that be?”

  The man smiled as if he had been expecting that question. Suddenly, he bent down and pulled something out from under his table.

  He placed a huge chest in the middle of the table, and when he lifted the lid, she saw hundreds of gold coins. Each one was worth 100 mu! There must have been at least several tens of thousands of mu in that chest.

  She felt stunned, but quickly regained her composure. The better the offer sounded, the more suspicious it seemed to her! An ordinary child might have fallen for it, but she was a grown woman.

  “Cultivation requires a lot of resources, but with us, you won't have to worry about that. Our group is quite influential, so we can even make sure you get into the Inner Court one hundred percent!”

  A normal child would go crazy over such news. But May already had a guaranteed position thanks to the spirit of the previous leader. It was much more credible.

  But it seems he doesn't know everything. The ghost must not trust him either. But it's better for me. A child from a small town should go crazy at the sight of so much gold and the assurance of a place in the Inner Court... But for me, safety is more important.

  However, she decided not to reject him right away, as she didn't know how he would react, so she decided to get more information.

  Besides... If I report him, won't I get more gold from the sect? After a moment, however, she gave up on the idea. It seemed that the repression against mages was strong anyway. Her mother was also a mage, so she preferred not to cause a scandal. She could imagine what the consequences might be.

  “And what exactly would I do for your organization?” she asked, feigning interest in the subject. “After all, you're not going to give me such a fortune for free, are you?”

  "Yes. You see, after the Silent Destruction, many mages fled to this continent, but they are still rather... unwelcome here. The Island Mountain Sect does not accept any mages into Inner Sect. Even the strongest only have a chance of becoming Outer Elders. However, even they are treated as strangers." He began to speak with great passion; you could see that he really cared.

  “But our kids are different. They can climb higher in the sect. Just like you. You’ve got talent and you can help us.”

  “Help with what?” she asked. Although the man spoke reasonably, she felt he was speaking in generalities and not about anything specific. It sounded good in theory, but she knew there had to be more to it. She wanted to get as much information out of him as possible.

  “At first, you just have to climb as high as you can in the sect, which we will help you with. Believe me, it’s not easy without external support. Many people have the backing of their families, so we’re not that different from them.” He said. May thought he was trying to make the situation seem trivial and normal.

  “But what am I supposed to do once I get there?” she asked again, slightly annoyed by the lack of a clear answer.

  "Nothing scary." He changed his tone when he noticed May's reaction. He was a good speaker who could adapt to the situation. "For example, one of our mages wants to open a shop in the capital, but he needs the sect's permission to do so. You can ask your friends and get it done faster. Nothing scary."

  Some kind of lobbying? Or rather cronyism? In any case, I more or less understand, but I still think I don't have enough information. I could use the money, but... it's risky. Besides, I don't trust him. Why should I get myself into trouble when all I have to do is cultivate? Now I just have to respond in some way so as not to offend him...

  "I know how hard it is to be a mage. My mother didn't have it easy..." In fact, it was a lie, because she had never seen her struggle. She was highly respected in their town. "But I can't take that risk and be a spy. I'm sorry, I want to live free from worry. I promised my parents I wouldn't get into trouble."

  “I understand, but it's not dangerous. On the contrary! We'll provide you with protection at the academy, so you'll be much safer.” He replied immediately, dismissing her words.

  “But if the sect found out about it, wouldn't I be killed for treason?”

  “For treason?! What are you talking about? We belong to the same sect. We may be part of the Outer Sect, but we’re still part of it. Who would it be treason against?”

  At that moment, it became clear to May that no matter what she said, this man would respond with what she wanted to hear. Each of her doubts would probably be answered, and most likely in a logical way. But that was precisely why she didn't trust him. No one who is always sure they are right about everything is trustworthy.

  Their verbal sparring continued. Every one of her doubts was answered. However, she was still not convinced. The man seemed to be overly desperate.

  “I can see you're really not interested. I understand your concerns. You don't have to give us your answer yet.” He said this completely ignoring the fact that she had already given them her answer, in which she clearly stated that she did not want to join them. "But remember, our door is always open. Just keep this conversation between us. If you tell anyone about it, we'll know."

  May suspected he was bluffing. How would they find out? Perhaps if she had let it slip to one of the spies, then maybe. In any case, she had no such plans, at least not for the time being.

  “Well, though you don't deserve this gold.” He said, hiding the chest with gold coins, which he wanted to use to convince her to become a spy. “You still deserve the prize for first place.”

  Finally, he took a small wooden box out of the shelf. He opened it.

  Inside was a pill that looked different from the ones she had seen before. It was called the Scarlet Pill of the Lesser Heaven. It really deserved its name.

  Although she had seen a few pills in this world, none of them were as beautiful as this one. As the name suggested, it was scarlet in color, but something was stirring inside it. It resembled a lava lamp that changed shape inside the pill. It resembled a starry sky in the middle of a scarlet sky drenched in blood. She immediately felt the energy emanating from the pill. Other pills she had seen looked like ordinary objects, but she could sense that this one was filled with incredible energy.

  She took the box in her hand and brought it close to her eyes. The pill was much larger than the others. It was a ball about the size of a Raffaello praline. She felt a slight sadness that she would have to sell it as promised to Minnie.

  “Thank you very much,” she said.

  “You're welcome, the whole group invested in it. If you ever need money or support, talk to my daughter Izzy. Remember that we will always be eager to help such outstanding new talent from the younger generation.”

  “Thank you. I'll keep that in mind. Goodbye.” She said, then left the room.

  The trip to this place brought unexpected results. Until now, she had no support from anyone. Her parents had no influence.

  And now she had met the powerful spirit of the former leader of the sect, as well as a new but seemingly influential group of mages.

  However, I cannot rely too much on her or them.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  She had some trust in Lin Yun, but she couldn't say the same about this group. If something unfortunate had happened and she had no other choice, it would be good to have at least some way out. But that's exactly what this group was to her. Her last resort in the worst possible situation.

  She left the room and went downstairs to her room. The party in her honor would begin soon. She was advised to take the pill at his residence, as it was safer than carrying it with her. The pill worked immediately, so no further action was required. He told her to take it before the ball.

  Of course, she had no intention of taking it. She had already promised to sell it.

  She took the pill out of the box and looked at it one last time. Even if she hadn't promised Minnie to sell it, she probably would have done so anyway. Although a 10-15% improvement was good for ordinary people, it was more profitable for her to enhance her talent.

  “Minnie, I want to sell this pill.” She said, taking it out of the box.

  The pill immediately disappeared. There were no light or sound effects. It just vanished, as if it had never been there. There was something unsettling about it.

  She decided to check her profile and current balance. She had spent a lot of money.

  She currently had the most money she had ever had in her entire life, but almost all of it came from selling pills. She knew that another opportunity to earn money like this would not come around soon. Of course, if she had contacted the Mage Support Group, she could have easily obtained a lot of money, but she did not intend to do so.

  “According to the agreement, you have to spend it,” Minnie said happily.

  “Yes. But I didn't say when I have to spend it...” It was a somewhat heartless thing to say, but she felt no sympathy for Minnie.

  “What? You've got to be kidding me. Do you really think I—”

  “Slow down. I'll spend most of it, but I need to keep some for a rainy day.” She said, because despite everything, she didn't want Minnie to be upset again. She was only going to spend as much as necessary to keep her happy.

  Minnie fell silent, probably still processing it.

  “You know I have no authority over you. However, you should know that my memory is perfect. I never forget.”

  “All right. I want to be fair to you too.” She had no intention of being fair.

  May wondered what to buy first and came to the conclusion that she should continue to improve her talent. However, a talent that occurs once in a hundred thousand people cost the same amount of 100,000. She didn't have that much money.

  However, her current talent 1:10,000 (Weak) was the weakest possible in this category. Talent was defined by how many people had it. The chance of being born with a talent of 1:10 was 10%, and the chance of being born with a talent of 1:100 was 1%, and so on. However, even within these categories, individuals were at different levels. The intermediate categories for talent were: Weak, Intermediate, Strong, and Peak Talent.

  Improving her current talent by 1:10,000 (Weak) to 1:100,000 (Weak) would cost 100,000. However, she could buy an upgrade to a higher intermediate level. So she would still have a talent of 1:10,000, but at a higher level. Buying them indirectly would cost 25,000 each. It was expensive, but she knew it was a necessity for her. She decided to improve her current talent to the Intermediate level.

  It was an expensive purchase, but she knew that it was the overall optimum move. Talent was a key factor in the cultivation, as it dictated how far you could go. She just felt a slight feeling of regret that all the money that she just earned was gone like that.

  However, there is no point in regretting what has already happened.

  From the money she received from the system for selling the pill, she only got ten thousand left. So she was left with a total of 18,769. It wasn't a bad amount, but in reality, it would only be enough for one good E-class skill. It was far from an ideal situation.

  “Hey, you should buy something else...” Minnie suddenly began. “Spend at least a few thousand more.”

  “Isn't that enough for you?” May was surprised; she thought that such a purchase would completely satisfy her. However, her appetite was clearly unsatisfied. “I don't feel like buying anything else.”

  “In that case, forget about my help in the future.” She replied succinctly, which was very unlike her.

  May tried to convince her, but Minnie remained silent. It was ironic, because usually it was the other way around.

  May remembered how Minnie had refused to help her during the fight. She couldn't let that happen again. It seemed she really did need to buy something else.

  The problem was that she didn't really need anything at the moment. She had already stocked up on pills for cultivation. And she couldn't afford any good techniques or skills that cost several thousand. She didn't know what to do.

  Should I do it again? I don't know if it's a good idea, but... I think I deserve a bit of fun after this whole tournament.

  She was lucky enough to get a class D skill. Normally, they are worth about 100,000. And that was just from the bronze lottery. Of course, she suspected that the first draw was rigged to get her to spend more money. However, even though she wasted more money later on, it was still financially profitable for her.

  “What do you say, Minnie? I'll buy a chance in the silver lottery.” She asked, hoping that one entry for just a thousand would be enough to convince her.

  “At least three.”

  “No way!”

  They started arguing, and in the end May managed to negotiate only two draws in the silver lottery.

  It was her first time in this category. Until now, she had only bought bronze prizes. She wasn't expecting anything good. Although she secretly hoped she would be able to draw a martial art. She really didn't like her Water Knight Art. However, she knew she had little chance of succeeding.

  She remembered how she promised herself she would quit gambling. But all addicts say that. However, as long as you set firm boundaries, it shouldn't be too bad, right? In any case, she decided to spin the wheel of fortune.

  She saw it again, but this time it was very different from the one in the bronze level. However, this was not surprising considering that it was more than ten times more expensive.

  The bronze wheel of fortune had four colors: white, yellow, orange, and red. Now there was a fifth: purple. However, there was so little of it that she hardly noticed it. She suspected that it was about 0.1% or maybe even less. There was no chance of winning that color.

  On the positive side, however, white was no longer so dominant. Instead of 90%, it was more like 80%. Orange also became much more pronounced, accounting for about 2-3 percent. She was counting on this color a lot, as it was the one she had recently drawn for her Potion Shelter skill.

  She decided there was no point in waiting any longer and spun the wheel of fortune. It kept spinning for a very long time. Too long, and the anticipation was quite stressful as she watched the colors constantly changing. Finally, it started to slow down, and May felt her heart beating... Finally, it landed on yellow, and she felt a slight disappointment. It wasn't as good as the orange one, but at least she didn't get a white one.

  She read the inscription on the randomly selected box. Item.

  Oh, yellow should correspond to rare items? If it's something good, maybe I'll even gain something from it.

  However, as is often the case in gambling, the gambler always loses.

  The name was quite... interesting, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions before reading the description.

  What the hell is this!

  “Hmm, not a bad item,” replied Minnie.

  What's so good about it? To me, it looks like a regular trash item, and besides, why is it so cheap? Shouldn't rare items cost at least 10,000?

  “That's the average price. But it's logical that not all of them are worth the same.”

  Ugh. Forget it. I want to sell this item.

  “I'm sorry, but items won in a lottery cannot be sold.”

  Wait a minute! Since when is that the rule? You must have just made that up.

  "It's always been the rule, you just never tried it before. Just as you cannot buy pills from the system and sell them back to the system. It is fine if you sell them to someone else and give the money to the system."

  She had just thought that she had made a good profit, and now...

  “It's a scam!”

  This ring has no benefits other than to make me smell nice. I can always try to sell it later... I bet some aristocrat would definitely want such a piece of junk.

  She concluded that it wasn't worth arguing about. She put the ring on her finger. She could smell a delicate floral scent.

  Hmm, it really does smell nice.

  In any case, she wasn't happy with it and decided that she would sell the ring in the future.

  She spun the wheel of fortune once again. Once again, she wasted her hard-earned thousand. The wheel kept spinning and spinning. Finally, it landed on... White. Item again

  Okay, I'm quitting gambling.