Chapter 222: Branch

"Fang Lin?" Lin Feng raised his brows as he stared at the sect servant in front of him. After a few seconds of observation, Lin Feng's eyes widened as he stared at Fang Lin. His mouth was quivering as he said,

"Aren't you one of the winners of the last year's disciple selection? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be an inner disciple already?"

Lin Feng's shocked words were heard by Lin Tong, whose mouth dropped when she saw the sect servant in front of her having the same face as Fang Lin!

Fang Lin smiled and just shook his head while saying, "Private matters, private matters."

Lin Feng and Lin Tong immediately realized that whatever Fang Lin did to land at this spot must be an extremely confidential matter.

They did not continue pestering the unfortunate Fang Lin as they walked towards the direction that he indicated. Lin Feng's eyes narrowed when he saw the woman that Fang Lin said recognized him. He grit his teeth as he and his sister walked towards the woman, who was now giving them a gloating look.

..........

"This really sucks." Fang Lin thought to himself as he flitted around the crowd of the Immortal God Sect's aspiring disciples. He was given strange and pitying looks due to the clothes he wore. There were also some looks of gloating, as if they were rejoicing at Fang Lin's misfortune.

"These bastards..." Even though Fang Lin badly wanted to smash the faces of these people, he still kept a smile on his face. He had no choice but to act like this, since this was what he was supposed to do.

His status as sect servant made him as a favourite to be given commands by the Elders and the Disciples. Most of the commands were related to labor and security, which Fang Lin did a great job on completing. The problem was that some of these commands were made to humiliate Fang Lin. These commands were of course rare, and those who made it were severely punished for misbehaviour. But Fang Lin still loathed these commands the most.

But Fang Lin endured this because he had no choice but to endure. After all, Xiao Ya was monitoring him all the time.

"That vixen...." Fang Lin thought angrily at the culprit of his current predicament. Even though Xiao Ya was Fang Yu's master, she was still merciless on punishing Fang Lin.

Due to the distrust by the Tian Ji Empire after the fiasco at the Solstice Kingdom, the whole experiential training was cancelled, bringing their trip to a halt. Fang Lin and the other Immortal God Sect Disciples had no choice but to return to the Immortal God Sect.

At their arrival, all of them were surprised after hearing that the Immortal God Sect was at the danger of being routed by other powers in the Immortal Continent. They panicked at first, but they also calmed down as the Immortal God Sect provided them with something to do.

The information about the war forced the Immortal God Sect to open their pocket realm. At this pocket realm, almost all of the promising disciples of the Immortal God Sect were gathered. Their goal in the pocket realm was to improve their power, at least by one stage. The sect wasted no time as they used many precious resources to hasten their improvements.

All of these were done to increase the over-all power of the Immortal God Sect. After all, the stronger their disciples are, the higher the chances of the Immortal God Sect to survive.

Fang Lin's friends and companions like Tang Ya, Shi Poyun, Li Min and Long Juo were all inside the pocket realm, consolidating their power for the next stage.

All of these disciples were still not coming out of the pocket realm even after 6 months have already passed. From the looks of it, it might take around 6 more months before they come out. Until that time, the disciples that will be found in the Immortal God Sect were those with the average talents.

Fang Lin, of course was not an average talent. But due to Xiao Ya's intervention, Fang Lin's fate was not to stay in the pocket realm.

When Fang Lin arrived at the Immortal God Sect, he was immediately whisked away by Li'er, who was now Xiao Ya's maid since her master Fang Yu had left.

Upon his arrival at Xiao Ya's room, he was peppered by countless remonstrations and scoldings by Xiao Ya. Most of these were related to the countless risks that he and Fang Yu took in the experiential training.

When Xiao Ya was finished with her talk, Fang Lin stood up to leave but before he could, Xiao Ya gave him a glare as she said that it was time to talk about Fang Lin and Fang Yu's sins. Before Fang Lin could sputter, the Grand Elder entered the room as he gave Fang Lin a pitying look. On his hands was a scroll which he read aloud in the room. Fang Lin's face turned paler and paler when he realized that this scroll showed all his and Fang Yu's 'bad' conduct in the experiential training!

Ditching teammates to go to the Forest of Death even though it was stated to not abandon them.

Abusing the Grand Elder's authority to obtain countless talismans, items and weapon from the Sect Treasury.

Allying with the rebels of the Solstice Kingdom.

Assaulting sect disciples(Ling Tian, Long Juo).

Failing to accomplish the mission to deal with the dragonscourge.

Kidnapping Mina, the daughter of the Talisman Emperor

Forming an unconfirmed alliance with the leader of the Underworld Army

Kidnapping Tang Li, daughter of the Grand Elder of the Immortal God Sect.

"...." Fang Lin was speechless upon seeing this list of his 'misconducts'. He tried to explain, but when he saw the look of Xiao Ya and the Grand Elder's face, he had no choice but to close his mouth. Xiao Ya then declared that due to the countless 'sins' that Fang Lin had committed, he was to be temporarily demoted as a sect servant for a year.

Only after one year passes that Fang Lin can be accepted as an Inner Disciple.

Were if it were only this punishment, Fang Lin felt as if he could still endure it. But to his anger, he found out that his master, Wang Hao, was actually exempt from the punishment!

Actually, out of all those who joined the experiential training, only Fang Lin will be punished!

Now, Fang Lin could only watch as his fellow disciples entered the pocket realm.

As for Wang Hao, due to his special circumstances, he stayed behind the sect. Wang Hao then brought two new women with him, named Thea and Fang Xingwei. Fang Lin could hardly believe that his master has the charm to attract women like them. He grit his teeth as he realized that his master was really a master of the Dao of Harem.

But that does not still hide the fact that his master got scot-free from the punishments.

As for how his master did it, Fang Lin was sure that Wang Hao gave Xiao Ya and the Grand Elder some bribes!

Fang Lin of course confronted his master about his predicament. But what his honourable master said to him was,

"Fang Lin, consider your one-year term as sect servant as a way to mold your patience and temperance. Do not waste this moment! Your chance to experience life-changing things like this will be rare in the future, so you must treasure your punishment!"

"..." Fang Lin knew that he had no way to refute his master's twisted logic. He sighed, knowing he had no choice now but to be a sect servant.

But even with his bad luck, some things were still bound to make him happy.

His wife, Xue'er, was accepted as the second personal disciple by Xiao Ya. To the surprise of everyone, she refused to enter the pocket realm and stated that she will stay with her husband Fang Lin.

This made Fang Lin happy and of course fearful for his life since he knew his fluffy wife will surely attract some perverts that might plan some unsavoury things to Fang Lin.

Fang Lin's mouth then watered as he remembered Xue'er's promise to him earlier that morning.

"If you do not get angry or pissed at the Immortal God Sect Disciple Selection, I will give you a 'reward'!"

"Hehehe a reward..." Fang Lin hurriedly wiped the drool that almost trickled from his mouth as he imagined what sort of reward Xue'er will give him.

While he was busy fantasizing, Fang Lin felt his body lurch as he saw the same exam proctor last year appearing today. He was clearly here to announce the start of the selection.

The proctor waved his hands, and silence ensued in the area. He let out a light cough as he said,

"I am quite happy that even though the Immortal God Sect was facing a dire situation, there were still some who came here. It doesn't matter if it was due to bravery of stupidity, I just appreciate all of you coming here."

"........"

The exam proctor gave them a thin smile as he continued talking.

"Due to the situation that the Immortal God Sect was facing now, we are going to change the place of the selection."

Murmurs were heard as everyone speculated on where the new place will be. The proctor raised his hand once more, and silence once again covered the area.

He gave each one of the applicants a gloating look as he said,

"As for the venue of the selection, it will be held at the Immortal God Sect Branch in the God Continent."

"Eh?"