(The day after the courtyard incident)

It was midday in the Azure Profound Sect.

In a room within the Servant Quarter's healing centre, a young man with long black hair and a handsome face abruptly awoke from his slumber. 

As quickly sat up into an upright position, his bright blue eyes analysed his surroundings vigilantly and after noticing where he was, he laid back down and let out a sigh of relief.

This boy was the one crowned with the special title of 'protagonist' by the System, Lin Fan!

After taking a few moments to recall what happened back in the courtyard and his humiliating defeat, his neutral expression morphed into an ugly frown. He covered his eyes with his right arm and thought to himself self-deprecatingly,

Damn it!

After acting so big in front of everyone, I ended up losing miserably without even getting a chance to retaliate!

How could I now have the face to see Brother Bao again after such a humiliating defeat?!

As he thought of this, memories started to surface causing him to unconsciously started gritting his teeth,

I'm so pathetic now!

Ever since my cultivation base mysteriously started to degenerate six years ago and the great talent that I used to be proud of vanished, everything has gone to sh*t!

The people who used to act nice to me started mocking me and giving me the cold shoulder, my fiance personally came to dissolve our engagement turning me into a laughing stock, and after a few years I was mercilessly exiled out of the Lin Clan!

Heh, fate really seems to love toying with me. After barely getting through countless obstacles and going through multiple near-death experiences, I was able to finally get into this sect as a servant!

How hilarious is that? I, Lin Fan, the once-proud son of heaven and young master of the mighty Lin Clan am now nothing more than a powerless servant who can't even beat a bunch of lowlives!

As he finished going down memory lane, he laid down in silence with tears trickling down the sides of his face.

His sadness was reasonable, as all this time he'd tried his best to get out of this predicament and regain himself. 

He'd endured all this difficulty because he believed his great talent would return, and then he could fulfil the promise he made to himself and show all the people who looked down on him that he, Lin Fan, was not a pushover.

But after four years of being tormented by others, and two more years of struggling alone to survive, he started to lose hope.

And this incident seemed to drive the nail into the coffin.

He realised that, realistically, his talent wasn't returning and even though he had a foundation in martial arts due to his past, it was not even enough for him to contend against even a mere servant!

He was about to go to sleep when out of nowhere he heard a voice in his head say,

"Are you finally done crying, you brat?!"

The sudden appearance of the voice shocked Lin Fan so much that he shot up into a sitting position for a second time!

He frantically looked around, and after seeing no one he warily said out loud,

"W-Who was that!

You have guts sneaking into the mighty Azure Profound Sect!

Show yourself or else!"

Lin Fan didn't know where the source of the voice came from, and couldn't confirm if they had any ill intentions therefore decided to use the name of the Azure Profound Sect to probe them.

Lin Fan knew that at a certain level cultivators could use voice transmission, and therefore guessed that the person behind this voice wasn't simple.

But in any case, he knew that throwing out the name of the sect would be good either way for him.

If this person had any evil intentions they may be dissuaded to act due to the sect, and if they were a mighty figure from the sect then they would have a better opinion of Lin Fan as he threw in the word 'mighty' whilst describing the sect.

The voice snickered and said,

"Hehehe, there is no need to be so fearful of me, Lin Fan. I will not hurt you, rather, I will help you immensely!"

Lin Fan immediately burst into frantic shouting,

"SOMEONE HAS SNUCK INTO MY ROOM!

HELLLLLPPPPPP MEEEEEE!"

As if he was going to believe a single word from a stranger who said they aren't a threat!

If there was one thing he learned after all these years, it was that these people are usually the shadiest bunch!

"..."

The voice was stunned by this junior's boldness and decisiveness.

Soon enough, an old man wearing a light green robe opened the door and looked around inside whilst panting tiredly.

After seeing no one else, other than Lin Fan, his expression fell and he said to Lin Fan irritatedly,

"You!

How dare you mess around with this old man like this whilst I was having a nap!

Next time, even if you are bleeding from seven orifices and screaming like a banshee I won't help you!"

He then slammed the door shut before Lin Fan could even say anything, and through the door, his angry ramblings could be heard. 

"That damn Qin Gou and his lackeys making me work more than this old body of mine can handle!

If it weren't for the punishment system being so strict, I would rather get in some more sleep than run around like a headless chicken tending to these ungrateful youngsters!"

"..."

This time it was Lin Fan's turn to be speechless. 

The voice called out again,

"As I said before, there is no need to be so scared. Plus, except you, no one else can hear me or find me."

This time, Lin Fan didn't scream as it seemed like it was futile, and instead responded by saying quietly,

"Who are you then?

And was what you were saying about helping me, true?

The voice seemed to have been waiting for this moment, as it said proudly,

"Heh, I thought you'd never ask!

To answer your first question, I am a remnant soul from the divine world who ended up fusing with you!

You can call me Grandpa Yi!

As for your second question.

Yes, I will assist you personally and help you with your cultivation journey- You should feel honoured!"

Hearing this, Lin Fan instantly became shocked and his heart started to beat faster from excitement.

Although I don't know what this divine world is, it must be an impressive place if an expert who could survive with just a remnant soul could be birthed there!

Hasn't this been the chance I've waited for, all along?!

Maybe he can help with what happened to my talent, and allow me to cultivate again!

And even though I'm unsure if this guy has any hidden motives, I feel I have to take the risk if I want to go anywhere in life!

I refuse to stay pathetic any longer!

After thinking this, Lin Fan's eyes gleamed with a determined light as he asked nicely,

"Old m-Grandpa Yi, if you are truly that amazing, do you have any solutions to solve the degeneration of my talent?

Because I'm a bit sceptical of you right now."

The voice seemed to have been stumped for a moment before he responded awkwardly,

"Ehem, I'll be honest with you since you called me grandpa and tell you that I was the reason behind your cultivation base falling and the reason why you couldn't cultivate.

But don't worry!

Now that I've absorbed enough spiritual energy for myself, your talent will be back in a few hours!

And I promise you that with my assistance you will reach great heights!

So don't be mad, okay?"

Lin Fan took a while to process everything being said.

As he double, triple, quadruple-checked that he had heard right, his expression got darker and darker each time and the veins on his head started to bulge.

Eventually, the young man couldn't hold back the rage that came from finding the one who ruined him and he roared furiously,

"SO IT WAS YOU WHO DONE THIS TO ME!

YOU DAMN UNSCRUPLOUS B*STARRRRRRRRDDDDD!

IF I DON'T RESOLVE THIS GRUDGE, MY NAME IS NOT LIN FAN!"

Safe to say, the old man at the healing centre wasn't having a nice nap anytime soon.

...

Mean whilst Lin Fan was having an internal crisis, Zhang Wei was eating a bowl of rice in the dining hall, contemplating over the information given to him yesterday by the System.

After he and the other background characters united and worked diligently to clean up the mess caused by the aftermath of the brawl- Blood stains, dust, items knocked over, etc- he received two notifications from the System.

[Congratulations Host, you've successfully completed a task required of a background character- Tidying up the mess left behind by the protagonist!]

{You receive thirteen days worth of cultivation using [Choose cultivation technique]}  

[Seeing that the Host has only just started taking his few first steps towards becoming an ultimate background character, the System will provide a hint in order to guide you.]

{Hint: Rumours can make or break a person, but the protagonist will always benefit in the end!}

Seeing that he had gotten something from the System, Zhang Wei did not hesitate to rush back to his small place in the servant dormitories to try it out.

He quickly bade farewell to all the friends he cleaned with, then hastily ran home in a short fifteen minutes and locked the door shut.

He first decided to try out the cultivation reward and ignored the hint, for now, so he sat cross-legged on his small bed and ordered internally,

System, redeem my thirteen days of cultivation using the basic breathing technique.

Instantly, a feeling of freshness spread through his entire body and he felt 'fuller' and better than before, even a part of the fatigue caused by running here and cleaning earlier had disappeared.

Sadly, however, he wasn't able to break through again.

But...Zhang Wei had already expected this.

The cultivation technique given to servants was, for lack of a better word, dogsh*t. 

The servants all named it 'The bone provided to entertain the dogs'.

Why was it called this?

Cause it gave naive servants the false hope that the technique could allow them to become mighty cultivators!

The sect used this technique to persuade many people who had failed to become outer disciples, due to a lack of talent, to become a servant and continue their cultivation dreams.

Sadly, this was merely a trick.

Cultivation hugely relied on two factors, talent and resources.

Without both of these factors, not many could go far with cultivation.

A sect is a place where you can get resources, but if you lack talent then they would not invest in you. 

Like that, even with the servant's cultivation technique in your hands, you'd still be lacking in the talent and resources to achieve anything with it and, therefore, by the time you realise it's a scam you'd have wasted a lot of time working.

Anyways, it wasn't just the fact that people here had bad talent that they couldn't achieve much, it was also due to the breathing technique just lacking overall.

It had the quality you'd expect from a free technique, it took in spirit energy incredibly inefficiently, and even with average talent, you'd need a long time to break through to the next realm- Which was body refining.

So after saying all this, you may be asking why every servant hasn't just quit?

Heh, before joining the servant quarters people had to sign a contract. In this contract, it was stated that in order to quit you had to have worked for a certain time or place top ten in the tri-monthly servant competition.

Of course, as a hot-blooded youngster with huge aspirations, you'd obviously scoff at this and imagine that it would be a piece of cake for you to reach the top ten after getting your hands on a cultivation technique.

Unfortunately, you'd be gravely mistaken.

The older servants will be dominating the top position for themselves each time due to more accumulation and experience, whilst you'd be stuck there with your meagre talent. This then culminates into a vicious cycle of older ones beating younger ones and gaining freedom, and then the beaten younger ones eventually becoming the older ones that beat the new younger ones.

Oh, and if there does end up being a younger one who is talented then, if they are below a certain age, they will get the option to join the sect for real as an outer disciple.

Said talented younger one will obviously not refuse such an opportunity, and like that everything goes smoothly and the sect benefits completely.

As for running away?

Pffffft, even if Zhang Wei had ten times the guts he'd never think of running away.

This was a sect full of powerful cultivators we were talking about!

How could a mere servant contend with that?

You'd probably be dead the moment you try!

In conclusion, being a servant was very 'fun'.

Anyways, back to Zhang Wei.

After he redeemed his reward for being the protagonist's cleaner, he started to think about what the hint could entail.

After a while of thinking, a devious smile appeared on his face as he came to the conclusion that...

I must spread the word about Lin Fan's victory!

I'll also make sure to specify that Steward Qin was humiliated!

After all, isn't it a background character's job to spread the news of the protagonist's feats?

Like that, he cultivated for a while until dark and then went to bed.

Now moving on to the next day, where Zhang Wei was sitting in the dining hall eating breakfast at a table with a group of people. The hall was quite busy and many servants were heartily eating their breakfast whilst chatting with their friends.

Zhang Wei usually didn't eat here and preferred a quiet place, but today he had a mission!

To spread rumours!

And how was he going to do that?

"Did you guys hear about how that decrepit old snake, Qin Gou, was at the healing centre with bruises and slap marks on his face?!"

"Hahaha, yeah! Seems like heavens have finally opened their eyes and enacted justice on that cocky old b*stard!"

"I still remember when Brother Wei and I were getting our weekly pay, and the old man had the cheek to pocket half our earnings and tell us to piss off! If he wasn't under that outer disciple, then I would've given him a tight slap to his old mug!"

"What about you Brother Wei, did you hear anything?"

Heh heh heh.

Zhang Wei laughed internally after hearing the topic he wanted to talk about appear.

He smiled as he looked at his four friends at the table and said cheerfully,

"Of course I've heard of it, in fact, I was there when it happened!

It was honestly a sight to see, let me tell you all about it!"

...

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Author's note:

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Any feedback is appreciated.