Identity Token

There would be none of that "higher talent gets more resources" business.

If you wanted cultivation resources, everyone had to earn them through their own abilities.

If someone didn't want to work hard and only wanted to focus on secluded cultivation, then they would simply receive the basic disciple allowance. After all, the sect was not a charity institution. The idea of a bunch of people working hard to support one person who did nothing but cultivate without contributing—Lin Xiao couldn't quite accept that.

And so, with this, the Lingxian Sect's system was considered initially planned out for now.

Of course, this didn't mean things would necessarily stay this way forever. Systems were meant to be continuously revised and improved.

As long as this system could work for the present and a while beyond, that was enough.

What the future held was a matter for the future.

Though one should view matters with a developmental perspective, one couldn't just leap all the way to the end in a single glance, right?

After sorting all this out, Lin Xiao opened the identity token generator again and saw that all kinds of identities had indeed been updated accordingly with his changes.

So he casually selected the first identity—the Hall Master of the Finance Hall—and dropped a spirit stone into the generator, then closed the lid.

Immediately, a flash of green light appeared, vanished after about two breaths, signaling that the generation was complete.

Lin Xiao opened the lid and saw a white jade token lying quietly inside. He picked it up and examined it from all sides.

He found the token's design was strikingly simple and elegant. Around the edges were clean, understated cloud patterns in relief. The front bore the carved characters "Hall Master of Finance," and the reverse read "Lingxian Sect."

He didn't rush to generate the other tokens. Instead, he tossed this one into his private storage and used the appraisal function on it.

[Lingxian Sect Finance Hall Hall Master Identity Token: Grants the holder all authority of the Finance Hall Master. This token works in conjunction with the Finance Hall buildings and the sect's mountain-protecting grand array. It can store an individual's contribution points based on personal merit. Contribution points can be used at the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall. Additionally, the token's owner can traverse the Heart-Questioning Path without hindrance as long as their inner state remains largely unchanged.

Friendly tip: Upgrading the Identity Token Generator can unlock more token functions!]

At the same time, the system notification rang out in Lin Xiao's mind:

[Ding—Detected that the host has successfully generated the sect's first identity token. The sect contribution statistics function has been activated. Based on the sect's current categorization, contribution statistics stations have been automatically generated at every corresponding location. Please be sure to check them.

The contribution statistics stations can automatically record each disciple's contributions to the sect. Additionally, those with elder-level or higher identity tokens can award disciples extra contribution points as rewards.]

In other words, the system would automatically calculate everyone's contributions, and then they would need to take their identity tokens to the corresponding contribution statistics stations to carry out transactions. Meanwhile, hall masters, elders, or the sect master himself could directly use their own identity tokens to grant disciples additional contribution points.

It seemed that the issue he had been somewhat worried about—how to keep track of disciples' contributions—had been solved by the system. Without it, the accounting would have been tedious and prone to favoritism, oversight, and even deliberate misconduct.

Lin Xiao figured that each building was somehow connected to the sect's mountain-protecting grand array, which allowed the detection of each disciple's level of contribution, thereby registering the appropriate contribution points.

With these identity tokens, sect disciples could use their contribution points within the sect's territory, inside any corresponding departmental buildings.

He hadn't expected such a tiny identity token to have so many uses. And judging by the implications, more functions could be added in the future.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao was greatly satisfied.

Only then did he withdraw from his private storage, open the identity token generator, switch the identity to "Finance Hall Appointed Disciple," and throw ten spirit stones inside.

The moment the ten spirit stones entered, they vanished without a trace, leaving the box empty again. It seemed that maybe the number of tokens generated at once didn't matter?

As he pondered, he closed the lid. After a moment, another flash of green light appeared and then disappeared.

When he opened the lid again, he saw ten Finance Instructor disciple identity tokens lying inside.

And so, Lin Xiao proceeded to generate every type of identity token in sequence.

He made one token for each hall master, elder, and the like, while for roles like appointed disciple he temporarily generated twenty per department.

After finishing all that, he finally selected the ordinary disciple identity—the one with no official post at all—and synthesized five hundred tokens.

This would be the identity token every member of Lingxian Sect would have, regardless of what they did or didn't do. On these, it only read "Disciple of Lingxian Sect."

Any token bearing a specific position would only be issued upon appointment and would have to be returned upon removal from the role.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten to generate himself a Lingxian Sect Sect Master token.

His token was different from all the others.

Although it also cost just a single spirit stone, his Sect Master token had a gilded edge! Moreover, the characters "Lingxian Sect Sect Master" were notably more grand and elegant—exceptionally stylish.

He was very pleased.

Holding his token, he admired it with great delight for a long while before stowing away the large pile of freshly made identity tokens. Then, carrying his own identity token, he made his way to the cliff face just outside the Beast Garden, where a small recessed slot fit.

The size of that slot matched their sect's identity tokens perfectly.

Without hesitation, he inserted his Sect Master token and began adjusting the Beast Garden's settings.

First, he turned on all the illusion arrays, isolation arrays, and other barrier formations.

Then, he set the entry permissions to be limited to the Beast Garden's master, its appointed staff, and himself.

For creatures that had not yet developed sentience, he configured the system to allow normal passage.

After all, beasts being cooped up in one place all the time would surely be dull. To give them some variety, of course he wouldn't block small animals from wandering in to keep them company.

Once those adjustments were done, Lin Xiao finally stepped into the Beast Garden and began emptying his living creature storage area.

A whole herd of flying and running spirit beasts was released all at once. As if freed from captivity, they bolted in every direction toward the areas whose aura appealed to them, thinking they had escaped their imprisoned lives.

They didn't even spare a single glance at Lin Xiao—the very person who had captured them—and simply ran to claim their own territory.

They had no idea they'd merely gone from one cage into another.

Still, the Beast Garden was surely far better than the empty living storage space. At least here they had the environments they loved and the food they craved, right?

Furthermore, the Beast Garden took great care to ease the beasts' emotions. The illusionary arrays meant to keep them inside were so realistic that the animals would hardly register they were trapped at all.