Chapter 109: Trial Grounds
After resting well and sleeping through the night, it was noon the next day when Xilutiya finally woke up leisurely.
She changed into a dress with a pure white base, accented with light yellow ribbons and lace, gathered her hair to the side of her shoulder, and then went downstairs.
Today Madam Fran did not go out, but sat in the living room flipping through books. Seeing this silver-haired maiden dressed in a dress coming down, she nodded slightly, then beckoned.
“Come here, Tiya~”
“Alright.” The maiden, who had wanted to sneak off to eat something to fill her stomach, could only turn around and come to Madam Fran’s side.
Seeing this maiden’s little actions, Madam Fran found it somewhat amusing, so she told her.
“Wait a little longer. Lining is already preparing a sumptuous lunch.”
“Alright.” Xilutiya obediently sat on the sofa.
“You were too tired yesterday, so I didn’t tell you much about the Secluded Forest. Today, we can talk about it properly.”
“First, how much do you know about the Secluded Forest?”
“It’s probably a place where various organizations recruit students.” The maiden answered based on previous intelligence.
“Yes, but not entirely correct.” Madam Fran thought for a moment and replied thus.
“Secluded Forest is just a general term. In fact, it is multiple Shadow World outposts in the Southern Continent, drawing in countless talented young people and throwing them in, where a portion rapidly grow and succeed, becoming the backbone forces of various schools and organizations resisting the Twisted and acquiring resources.”
“But those who fail also die silently in the forest, unknown to anyone.” She propped one hand against the side of her face, her golden hair slightly curling.
“I rarely tell you about my past, Tiya.”
“Once, I had a very close companion who also entered the local Secluded Forest. At first, she wrote to me once a month, telling me about her progress and growth. It was clear she was in a good state then.”
“But a few years later, she began to grow anxious because the tasks on her became heavier, and she started falling behind her peers who were geniuses.”
“After that, she had to take on more dangerous but higher-reward tasks, until eight years later, I never received another letter from her.”
“Many years later, when I advanced to Third Order and joined the loose organization ‘Sunflower Hut’—though it’s a very small organization, its founder was once a member of the ‘Four Seasons Alliance’ and had deep connections in the forest—so through him, I obtained a letter of recommendation and went to the forest branch where my companion disappeared.”
“After investigating for several months, I finally found her name in the records. It noted her last information: she and her entire adventure team went missing while heading to a hidden Shadow World to search for a ‘Scarlet Monkey’.”
“‘Scarlet Monkey’ is a monster in the Shadow World. Its eyeballs and heart can be refined into the special spiritual medicine ‘Scarlet Stone Dew’, which is a spiritual medicine that stably enhances the ‘Blood Law’ nature, and also a rare potion for many Transcendents struggling with advancement to Third Order.
“Ordinary students can’t afford it at all and can only go to the Shadow World themselves to find materials and refine it.”
“Actually, her talent was no less than mine. You can imagine, advancing to Second Order in five years and attempting Third Order before age thirty—this was already beyond many people’s imagination.”
“It can only be said that excessive anxiety and haste ruined her, but the atmosphere of the Secluded Forest is like that. It cultivates Transcendents in an extremely efficient manner, but also eliminates a large number midway—those with bad luck, poor talent, or who took the wrong direction.”
“In the past, many organizations didn’t care about the Shadow World or the Abyss beneath the Twilight Sea, but those organizations that ventured into the Shadow World early gained extremely rapid development, with fresh blood constantly joining, new backbone forces growing in the organizations, making them powerful and starting to squeeze the living space of other organizations.”
“Under such circumstances, various organizations and schools had no choice but to participate in the competition for the Shadow World. Even the Regas Kingdom’s royal family you are familiar with has outposts in the Shadow World, where they train reserve retainers for the Fir Knights.”
“The Candle Fort School is somewhat special. They participate little in the Shadow World conflicts but deeply involve themselves in secular kingdom politics, an area with little competition, so the only thing ordinary people know might be the Candle Fort School. In fact, there are many organizations stronger than the Candle Fort School, such as the ‘Four Seasons Alliance’ I mentioned earlier—they are one of the three strongest forces on this continent, remotely controlling many countries from behind the scenes.”
“The so-called Secluded Forest is the entry point for these organizations to recruit new members. Going there, you will receive resource cultivation from the local forest and have dedicated teachers imparting various knowledge to you.”
“These benefits come at a cost. Every course charges a fee, and the cultivation resources given to students must be slowly repaid over several years.”
“However, as long as you advance and join one of the organizations, all previous cultivation costs will be covered and written off by the organization.”
“Talented students, or those with special skills abilities, are very popular there, with various organizations offering generous conditions to recruit them.”
“There are many benefits to joining an organization. First, resource gathering has organizational help, and safety is also somewhat guaranteed, because casually murdering organization members will provoke retaliation from the organization.”
“Originally I didn’t care about this, but a few years ago, considering safety issues, I joined the relatively loose and lenient ‘Sunflower Hut’. As a member of the organization, I have the obligation to hand over a portion of refined ‘Sunflower Seed Oil’ every year. Aside from that, the ‘Sunflower Hut’ has few requirements. Of course, they won’t provide many benefits either—that’s the price of freedom.”
After hearing Madam Fran’s account, Xilutiya finally understood what kind of place the Secluded Forest was.
“If I don’t go to the Secluded Forest and seek learning through other methods, would it be very difficult?” she inquired of Madam Fran.
“Exactly. The temperaments of various organizations differ. Without a recommendation, it’s hard for them to trust you, so joining one would probably take several years of working in peripheral organizations and passing assessments before you can gradually approach the organization.”
“Moreover, once you switch places, your previous accumulation resets to zero, and you need to rebuild trust and relationships.” Madam Fran commented.
“People without an organization’s endorsement are hard for others to trust, just like wanderers of unknown origin. Once you have an identity from a certain organization—as long as that organization’s reputation is not bad—you can easily gain trust from others.”
“Of course, if you do something that damages the organization’s reputation, the organization will have corresponding internal penalties, some even particularly severe.”
“For the Candle Fort School, writing and publishing books is extremely important, and plagiarism is considered absolutely intolerable. Now you understand why Scholar Heide was punished so severely after being framed back then.”
“According to our previous plan, if you continue studying by my side, I can recommend you to a peripheral organization of the ‘Four Seasons Alliance’ in two years. You work there for five years to become a formal peripheral member, and to truly join the ‘Four Seasons Alliance’, you still need to perform outstandingly in the peripheral organization and demonstrate special talent and strength.”
“If you go to the Secluded Forest, as long as you have outstanding achievements in three years, you can directly join the ‘Four Seasons Alliance’ as a probationary apprentice and start enjoying many of the organization’s benefits and perks.”
“And upon stepping into Third Order and formally becoming a member of the ‘Four Seasons Alliance’, they will let you choose one of the Four Seasons Potions to grant you. If you choose the ‘Spring Potion’, you gain twenty years of eternal youth. If you choose the ‘Summer Potion’, your body regains vitality, healing any injury or illness, including severed limbs and disabilities. If you choose the ‘Autumn Potion’, your nature refines and condenses, making it easier to breakthrough to the next stage. If you choose the ‘Winter Potion’, your physical state stagnates, entering icy slumber for sixty years.”
“Of course, if you’re not interested in the ‘Four Seasons Alliance’, you can join other organizations, such as ‘Moonfall Forest’, ‘Holy White Knights Hall’, ‘Rainbow Glazed Bottle’, ‘Magic Pupil Sect’—these are all relatively well-known powerful organizations, and their new members receive various different precious benefits.”
“The advantage of the Secluded Forest is that the achievements and results you obtain there are universally recognized by all organizations, which is much easier than in the outside world and gives you more choices.”
