Will was on the road again. Except without the road part, because why would a snake need a road? They were going in as close to a straight line as possible, though not a totally straight line since they needed to avoid obstacles.

It had been an hour since they set off when Sarah started talking to him.

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She thought about it. It was a hard question. Most two year olds don't try to join a sect. They're either being taught martial arts to prepare for cultivation in a clan or family or whatever, or they're just doing two year old things. Even for orphans, they wouldn't try to join a sect.

It was a pretty common thing for orphanages in certain places to kick out young children because they couldn't afford caring for them or needed to make space. But that was usually, like, five year olds. Two years old was too young for pretty much any orphanage to kick out.

Not to mention the admission tests. They weren't exactly child's play. Even though the age requirements they had were usually on maximum age, that didn't mean they would just go easy on the participants. Though participants usually wouldn't die, there were still real risks involved.

In conclusion, she couldn't be sure.

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A bit after their conversation ended, Will realized how tired he was. He'd been up for a while now, so it wasn't really shocking. But he was also riding a snake at a cool bajillion miles per hour. And he'd prefer not to fall off.

Thinking about it further, couldn't he just half sleep? Leave some consciousness mapping and holding on properly, and let the rest sleep. He decided to go with that. He split his consciousness, and half slept for the rest of the ride.

They arrived at the destination at noon the next day. The trip had taken about a full day.

Will half-woke up, which, since he was half-sleeping, was actually a full-wake up even though it only contained half the waking up of a normal wake up overall. In other words, he was fully awake now.

He was debating what to do with the snake. Normally he'd leave it hidden, but this was a sect, and wouldn't being able to tame a giant snake be a desirable trait in a sect disciple? But then again, he didn't want to stand out too much.

He wanted to hit that perfect main character level of standing out, where he'd have as many things happening to him as possible. Not so much that everyone was scared of him, but not so little as to go unnoticed. In that context, giant snake was almost certainly a nono. So he had to leave it around here somewhere.

There was a forest here, so the snake would be able to hide, but it might also get attacked by the sect's cultivators. Hmm, would he have to send it away, then?

But how would he contact it again later? Wait, he had a contract with it. Couldn't he communicate with it like he did with Sarah? Through some mental link? He gave it a shot.

<~Hey, snake, can you hear me?~>

“~Yeah?~”

It worked, but the snake was just hissing out loud instead of telepathically.

<~Can you try transmitting through the link I'm speaking through now?~>

<<~Like this?~>>

It was speaking telepathically now, so everything was in order.

<~I'm gonna walk the rest of the way from here. This place will probably have cultivators around it a lot, so it's best for you to head off somewhere else for now. I'll call you through the link if I need your help.~>

<<~Alright.~>>

Will hopped off and started walking. He was heading for a small town just outside of the sect. The sect appeared to be an area surrounded by the largest wall Will had ever seen. It was made out of a pinkish white marble-like material, and he couldn't even tell how tall it was. It was massive, though, probably a mile tall at least. He doubted it was just that, but he'd never seen how long a mile looked standing upright, so he couldn't tell.

The town was surrounded by a much smaller grey stone brick wall. The gate at the front was particularly large, with an equally large road leading to the sect's gate in a straight line. The town inside seemed pretty well-off. It seemed to be especially bustling currently, which was a good sign. It being like this meant there was a good chance the admission test wasn't over yet.

The guards at the gate just gave him a friendly nod as he walked past into the town. He supposed vetting entry wasn't that big of a deal when they were right outside a sect. Anyone who caused trouble in the town would probably just be shot with a laser beam or whatever cultivators did to attack people.

It wasn't hard to find information on the admission test. This was because there were flyers put up pretty much everywhere.

As far as he could tell, there was no minimum age restriction, only a maximum age one. The test seemed to consist of three trials, though there wasn't any info about what they were.

On the day of the testing, participants were allowed to stay in the waiting area until it started. They seemed to be providing free food and drink there, as well as some other stuff. It also seemed like today was the day of testing. It seemed like all he had to do was head over to the people at the sect entrance to sign up, so Will headed over.

He arrived quickly, though not as fast as he could've since he was still trying that footwork switching thing he'd been working on. It was still a bit slower than just using Wind Dance, though it wouldn't be for long.

To the right of the sect's gate were two women standing underneath a three walled canopy. Judging by the sign hanging there, they seemed to be the ones he had to talk to.

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The woman on the right seemed like a serious woman in her mid-thirties. But even though she looked serious, she was smiling slightly. Will got the impression that she cared deeply about the sect, and took her role very seriously, but because she cared about the sect so much she was happy about new disciples coming. Or he was just making stuff up. It's not like he knew her. She could be an unserious woman who wasn't very expressive who was happy because she was a sadist excited for all the test participants to struggle. He hoped it was the former, but he couldn't be sure. It's not like he was good at reading people.

The woman on the left seemed like a laid-back, serene kind of person. She looked like she'd be very kind, but a bit clumsy. Though Will had no way of knowing if that was actually the case. She gave off the feeling of a big sister, or maybe a young aunt. She seemed to be in her thirties or so if Will had to guess, though she may be in the hundreds considering that this was a sect. She was smiling brightly.

Her eyes looked to be pretty much completely closed, as well. Will wasn't sure how she could see like that, but the way she moved her head to face him gave him the impression that she could.

“Are you lost, little one?”

Her voice was soft and airy as she crouched down to speak to him. She seemed to be showing genuine concern for him.

Will, however, was not a lost child.

“No. I'm here fow the test.”

The serious woman spoke.

“If you're not lost, then I'd suggest you head back. The admission test isn't something to be taken lightly.”

“I'm not taking it wightly. I know the wisks and want to participate.”

The serene woman looked a bit worried now.

“Do your loved ones know that you came here?”

Will thought about it. Loved ones. He didn't have those. He was an orphan, and he didn't love any of his parents when he wasn't. The closest thing he had to family was Sarah. Well, in that case, Sarah certainly knew he was here, so his answer was yes? Whatever.

“They'we dead. I'm an orphan.”

The woman looked a bit sad as she looked at him with pity.

“I'm sorry to hear that. But even without your parents, are there not still people who care for you?”

Will felt the woman was good at dealing with kids. He felt that her words would surely resonate with a young orphan who ran away from their orphanage in secret. But Will wasn't that. He did have a few people who cared about him, though, at least. He nodded.

“A few.”

The woman smiled at him with a hint of sadness.

“Then I'm sure they must be worried sick right now, wouldn't you agree?”

Will shook his head.

“No.”

The woman showed a look of confusion. Then she seemed to understand something and spoke.

“Did you tell them that you planned to come here?”

Will nodded.

“Yes.”

“Then did they give you permission to take the admission test?”

“I don't need permission fwom them.”

“If you left without permission, don't you think they'd be worried?”

Will was tired of this now.

“I didn't ‘weave without permission’, I just weft. They aren't my cawetakers, they're just some peopwe I hewped.”

He remembered Sarah. The wording of the questions had made him only think of the Li family.

“And a sword! Thewe's also my sword. She cawes about me. I think.”

He wasn't actually sure about that.

<>

“She does!”

The kind lady he was talking to was looking utterly baffled by this point.

“Your… sword?”

Will remembered about that now. Talking swords weren't actually common occurrences. He was planning to hide that. Well, it was too late for that now, and it's not like it mattered much anyway.

“Yeah. Talking sword.”

He held up Sarah for them to see. She was in her sheath right now. Sarah took that as her cue to talk.

“Hey.”

Both of the women were clearly shocked. Will decided to make use of this opportunity.

“I have a talking sword, so wet me take the test okay? I can handwe it.”

Seeing the women didn't seem sure yet, Sarah came in with another assist.

“It's not a lie. They can handle it.”

The women weren't as shocked the second time, and calmed down quickly. The women looked each other in the eyes for a moment. Then the serene woman who had been crouching stood up. The serious woman started speaking, grabbing a scroll from a table behind her and pulling a quill from her storage ring as she did.

“Alright, kid. Can I get your name?”

Will hesitated for a moment. He'd never been asked for his name like that. Thinking further, he was pretty sure fae weren't a xianxia thing, right? And the wording of the question would technically just mean he'd be giving permission for the attempt to gain his name, since it was “get” instead of “have”. So he told the woman his name.

“I'm Will.”

She went to write it down, then froze, turning to Will.

“How is that spelled?”

They wouldn't know what he was talking about if he started saying English letters, would they?

“Hewe, I'll show you.”

He unsheathed Sarah and wrote his name in the dirt, underlining it so they didn't write it upside-down, and resheathed her again. Both women looked confused at the name, but they both shrugged it off, with the serious one writing it on the scroll. Once she was done, she put the scroll and quill back where they came from and spoke again.

“You can head in. A disciple will guide you to the waiting area once you enter.”

Will smiled brightly.

“Okay! Thanks!”

He skipped off to the gate and stepped through.

The change was immediate. The spiritual energy here was incredibly thick. It also felt a bit… calmer? He got the feeling it wouldn't give people qi deviation like standing over his arrays would.

The calm spiritual energy reminded him of his dantian full of very not calm spiritual energy. He checked in on it to see the progress.

The spiritual energy looked to be constantly moving around at a ridiculous speed. It still wasn't having any effects, though. He brought his attention back to the task at hand.

He noticed someone coming towards him. It was a teenage girl. She looked down at him as she arrived.

“Are you… uh… a test participant?”

She seemed unsure, which was understandable since she was probably expecting to guide someone who wasn't a baby.

“Yes.”

With the confirmation, the awkwardness was replaced with a cheery smile.

“Alright! Then follow me!”

Will nodded and followed the girl. It wasn't for long, as the location they were heading towards was pretty close to the gate. It was barely a two minute walk.

The waiting area was a huge building even larger than Li Rencai's house. Especially the height. That was a lot higher than Li Rencai's house. Will was led down a hallway until he arrived at a big room, with a bunch of food on a huge table in the center. There was even a bunch of women on a stage playing music, though not anything good. At least not to Will. It sounded like something that would play as background music at a lake area. Only with more erhus and zithers and whatever else they were playing up there. He only knew those two. Not as in he only recognized those two out of the instruments he saw on the stage, but as in he knew those were names of instruments. He didn't have a clue what they looked or sounded like.

The guide pointed around telling him where and what everything was before leaving Will to his own devices.

His own devices included eating. He ate a bit of everything and was full for the first time in a long time. After eating, his next stop was the bathroom.

Not to use it or anything. He just needed a place to stab himself.

He went down the huge hallway off the left side of the banquet hall, took the first right he saw, and walked down that huge hallway. At the end of the huge hallway was another huge hallway heading off to the right. Along the right side of this hallway were at least a hundred evenly spaced doors. This was where the bathrooms were.

Opening the door to an unoccupied bathroom, Will found himself in yet another hallway. Though not a huge one this time. There were three doors other than the entrance.

After locking the entrance door behind him, Will headed to the door on the right wall. This door led to the changing rooms. Inside the room, Will was greeted by an open area to change in with racks and closets and a large mirror on the left wall. On the back wall were five stalls with curtains to change in, with a mirror on the back wall, a closet on the left wall, and a rack on the right wall in each. On the back wall to the left of those were five stalls with doors with a closet on the back wall, a mirror on the left wall, and a rack opposite the closet in each. All the closets were full of clothes, while the racks had none. The room made Will annoyed so he left.

The door on the left side of the hallway led to a shower and bathroom room. It had five showers out in the open on the right wall, five showers in alcoves on the left wall, five showers in alcoves with curtains next to those ones, five showers rooms with doors on the right side across from the curtained alcoves, five full bathroom stalls with a shower included on the back wall, and five full bathrooms with a shower included with full coverage doors to the left of the stalls. Of course, there were also racks and closets on the wall the door was on and in the bathrooms. Will left, once again annoyed.

The door on the back of the hallway led out into a locker room. There were about a hundred lockers lined up on the right wall. Opening a few, it seemed like every single one had different clothes in it, and every single one had an empty space to put more clothes in it. The center of the room had even more lockers, two lines just a bit shorter than the right wall placed back to back with each other. Every ten or so meters, there was a gap so that someone could cross to the other side of the locker wall. The left wall had a mirror spanning the whole thing. There was a door on the back wall. Will used his footwork to head to it.

Opening the door, Will found another annoying room. It looked like a hot spring. Except more fancy. It had a big pool in the center, with a waterfall at the back of it. There were also four doors on the side walls. The ones on the left had blue door frames, while the ones on the right had pink ones. Each side had a regular sized door up against the wall he entered through, and a large gate-like doorway in the middle. He opened up the small door on the left side and looked inside. It was another hot spring identical to the middle room. The right side was exactly the same.

Looking around, he found a way to change the temperature of the water, as well as add bubbles or jets. All three rooms had the same thing. After that, he found a way to open the gate or remove the wall entirely. There was also a way to link multiple pools into one long one. This could be done with the wall still up as well so there would be a gap under the wall full of water. All the settings for the pool, including temperature, could also be different for multiple pools even if they were connected. The temperature wouldn't spill over to the other pool, either.

And all of those settings could be locked, in each side room, so that only people in that room could connect it with the others or adjust the walls or the gate or whatnot.

The whole place was sickeningly opulent. Who would even make something like this? And the whole thing was repeated over and over down the whole hallway. How could anyone afford this!? And why would they make it even if they could!?

Whatever. It didn't matter. He was here to stab himself. He stored his outfit in his storage ring, then pulled out the knife.

He stabbed himself four times as quickly as he could, then took a healing pill. Once he healed, he did it again. He now had nine dantians. It also meant the numbers he gave the old ones changed. He put the knife back in his ring and moved to get dressed again. Then he realized. He could take a shower. He went back to the shower room, hopped into an alcove and washed up. It was a bit of a challenge considering he couldn't let go of a sword, but he made it work.

After drying off he went to the changing room. He was somehow able to find clothes that fit him. It was a bit surprising. He grabbed an outfit that looked pretty similar to what he was wearing before and some underwear and got dressed.

He really felt better than ever now. He was clean, full, not thirsty, and had more dantians than any human should ever have. He headed back to the banquet hall with a bright happy smile.