The actual paperwork to apply for sect entry was simple enough. He just had to list his minimal experience, his cultivation blockages, which were many, and his advantages, of which a functioning Sealed Land was the only one.
If not for the last section where he could add a small essay describing himself, Kevin would have been left with little hope. As it was, he had to trust that he’d conveyed his determination to succeed with enough clarity that they’d understand.
It felt rather like applying for college all over again. A mediocre record, backed up by every assurance he could give that he would work harder than anyone.
“So that’s it then,” Kevin sighed, leaning back.
“That’s it,” Travis confirmed, nodding as he pulled another sheet of paper from thin air. “I’ll add this recommendation letter and then we can send it off.”
“Thanks again for all of your and the OIM’s help,” Kevin said, smiling at the agent. “I can’t imagine how difficult this would have been without it.”
Travis glanced away, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. “Don’t mention it, we're just doing our jobs. Now, I believe there was a celebration I was supposed to attend as well?”
“Right,” Kevin snorted, shaking his head. Trust the agent to not accept his thanks again. “I bet you just want to see Vanessa again.”
The agent shrugged, his face blank as he stood to leave. “I didn’t even know she would be there,” Travis responded blandly.
Chuckling, Kevin stood as well and led the way out of the room. After ducking by the post office, they made their way to the private room he’d booked at Vanessa’s cafe.
The trip took longer than Kevin was used to since they had to keep pausing for people to greet Travis. The man’s popularity with the town had dipped over the last few months, but he still had more people greeting him than Kevin, despite only being in the town for a few days in total.
Vanessa had someone else running the kitchen so she could join the rest of them over a late lunch. She plus the cultivation group represented the only real friends he’d made since arriving at the town.
“A toast,” Emily called out as the meal finished, “to a fellow cultivator. May he have the best of luck getting into his chosen sect.”
“To all of you as well,” Kevin responded, gesturing to the group members. They would have their own exam soon, one with a skill test beyond anything he expected to deal with.
“So how long do you have left in town, Kevin?” Vanessa broke in, a sad tone in her voice.
They’d grown to be close friends since she’d dragged him into that cooking lesson over four months ago, and it seemed like she was regretting his departure. Kevin had to admit, he was more than a little sad as well.
“Well, the test is in two weeks,” Kevin began, working out the math in his head. “But it’s halfway across the country, so I’d better leave a few extra days to get there.”
“I’ll come pick you up,” Travis said, shaking his head. “Can’t risk you getting lost on the way and missing the exam. If I come down the night before, we can get going early in the morning and have plenty of time.”
From the way the man was glancing at Vanessa out of the corner of his eye, Kevin could guess the offer wasn’t entirely about him. Still, it was appreciated.
“Thanks, man,” he responded, clapping a hand on the agent’s shoulder. “I admit I wasn’t looking forward to spending days at a time on haulers.”
Did that mean the agent would fly the two of them over? He couldn’t see any other way they could cross a couple of thousand miles in a single morning. That was incredibly exciting, and more than a little terrifying.
The celebration continued for another hour before people started drifting away. Each member of the cultivation group passed by to wish him good luck, to which Kevin responded in kind.
Vanessa gave him an enormous hug before vanishing to help clean up for the day, and even Travis left along with her. Though perhaps that was not quite a coincidence.
Leaving Kevin to return home to prepare.
Only two short weeks remained.
----------------------------------------
The last two weeks passed quickly as Kevin scrambled to do anything he could to improve his chances. When it soon became clear that he had to leave his body to gather more Qi, he found a tutor for intensive martial arts training.
That was something he was now kicking himself for not having started sooner. He’d been so caught up in the extreme focus required for the Sealed Land technique that he hadn’t even considered building skills that might be important in a sect.
Two weeks wasn’t nearly enough time to reach the level of even most civilians here, but it would at least mean he didn’t look quite so much like a stumbling moron. With any luck, he could also point toward it as a sign he was willing and ready to learn.
In the end, he did four hours of lessons a day and trained as much as he could outside of that time as well. By the end of the two weeks, he’d gotten the basic strikes down, while also working on his fitness.
Fitness was a bit of an odd subject right now. He wasn’t exactly unfit, having worked for hours at a physical job each day, but he hadn’t been doing much cardio during that time.
On top of that, being in the Body Cleansing realm pushed his body further than it would have otherwise. It was like Qi slowed the rate his muscles and lungs built up exhaustion compared to what would be normal, while also speeding his rate of recovery.
Two weeks wasn’t enough time to make a tremendous difference there either, but any little improvement might tilt the scales in his favor. Given his other limitations, that could be the difference between being let in and being let go.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
After thinking about it further, Kevin had grown more certain that the Twisted Path was the best sect for him. He had a lot more in common with a sect specializing in odd cases than a couple of random support sects whose major draw was that they might accept him.
If he failed now, he’d have to make a hard choice between waiting six months for the spring exams, or falling back on one of the other two sects now. He could only hope he wouldn’t have to make that decision.
Kevin didn’t even see Travis the night before the big day, but the agent knocked on his door bright and early as promised. After grabbing a quick breakfast, the two of them moved over to the town’s landing pad.
“Are you sure that thing can hold both of us?” Kevin asked skeptically, staring at a polished wooden plank about the size of a surfboard. It was larger than the little disk he’d seen the agent use before, but would still barely fit the two of them.
“It’s fine” The agent shrugged, “it runs off my reserves, and I’ve got plenty of energy. Now get on,” he finished, glancing left and right as if worried someone might come by.
“Well, if you're sure,” Kevin responded as he stepped onto the back of the board. There wasn’t anything to hold on to, but he found it stable and easy to remain upright on. Easy while on the ground, at least.
The agent stepped onto the front section, and a moment later, the flying device lifted into the sky. Bands of energy wrapped around Kevin’s body as they took off, holding him steady as they shot into the sky.
“Neat,” Kevin laughed, glancing down at the landscape below. It was speeding past at a far greater rate than the hauler he’d arrived on; perhaps even faster than the disk they’d first taken over the city.
As with that trip, a barrier of some kind split the surrounding wind, turning what would otherwise be a struggle to stay upright into a pleasant journey. At the rate they were going, he could easily see how they would make it before midday.
Hours passed in relative comfort, the only issues being a growing soreness in his legs, and a level of boredom with the trip. As amazing as the view was, even the changing landscape below grew monotonous.
The agents’ disregard for conversation didn’t help. The one time Kevin tried to strike up a conversation, the man shouted back to let him focus. Given how tense Travis’ voice had been, Kevin had left it alone.
Pushing it would not be smart when distracting the man might send them both plummeting to their deaths. Or at least his death; Travis could almost certainly float down.
In the end, it was the agent who shouted back of his own accord. “That’s the Twisted Peak up ahead.”
True to its name, the mountain was tall, thin, and covered with strange, curving ridges. It looked like someone had grabbed it with a gargantuan fist and twisted a normal mountain around and around.
Kevin licked his lips, nervous energy swirling in his stomach. This was it, the time for the entrance exams had come.
----------------------------------------
Much like the Severing Sword sect had Ostale, the Twisted Path had a large town at the base of its mountain. Travis brought the flying device down to land a little away from the walls before gesturing for Kevin to get off.
“This is where I leave you,” the agent said, clapping Kevin on the shoulder as he got off. “Good luck, and send me a letter whichever way it goes. We’ll need to hurry to make the other two sects exams if needed.”
“Sure,” Kevin mumbled, tension spreading through his body. “Where’s the meeting point?”
“The town gate facing toward the mountain,” Travis responded, raising an eyebrow.
Right, he’d known that. He had to get it together before he flunked out for something silly. Waving his goodbye to the agent, Kevin began striding toward the gate.
Within a few steps, the first bundles of power began lighting up in his senses, almost all stronger than him. Nor did that discouraging trend slow as he approached the milling crowd in front of the gate.
There had to be almost two hundred people here, with Kevin being among the least of them. Why had he ever thought this was possible?
No, that was the wrong way to think. He might be on the lower end power-wise, but he’d made it that far in record time after he’d gotten started. If he could get access to more techniques and cultivation resources, he’d go a lot further.
He just needed to convince the sect of that.
It seemed he was a little early, as the crowd grew for almost another hour before anything changed. Then, as a clock tower struck twelve somewhere in the town, a black-clad figure swept down from the mountain.
Dressed in dark versions of traditional cultivation robes, the man dove down, standing on the flat of a narrow sword. Compared to the board he and Travis had ridden in on, it looked far more impressive.
Was that why the agent always hid his flying devices before someone could see them?
Before Kevin could consider Travis’ habits further, the man spoke, his voice echoing across the entire area. His power, too, drew attention, as he glowed like the sun in front of the group.
The man had to be vastly more powerful than Travis, and he was the strongest cultivator Kevin had seen since getting his new sense. Would that put this man in the Core Formation realm? Or perhaps even Golden Core?
“Welcome, hopeful students of the Twisted Path sect. Behind us lies our sect’s proud mountain, and also your first task. The paths of the Twisted Peak are ever-changing; find your way to us before nightfall to progress.”
Then the figure was gone without another word, shooting off into the sky and leaving a stunned crowd behind. For a second, nobody moved, and then almost the entire group was racing toward the base of the mountain.
Ever changing paths? That didn’t sound very efficient for getting people or supplies up the mountain. There had to be a trick to it.
Looking around for someone to team up with, Kevin slumped a little to see the empty field and road. It looked like he was already behind.
Still, there was plenty of time, how hard could it be?
----------------------------------------
Jogging toward the mountain’s base, Kevin found little sign of the other examinees or any paths. The road from the town seemed to end against a flat stone cliff, and further up, he could only see a few hints of flapping clothes against the mountainside.
Had everyone already found a way up? Or were the paths shifting so rapidly that the routes others had taken were already gone?
The stronger cultivators might well have been able to climb straight up this cliff as well, or perhaps even use a flying device. Compared to that level of ability, he was far behind.
But there were easier ways for the sect to test such abilities; he had to believe there were other ways to think your way through this.
They were called the Twisted Path sect and lived on the Twisted Peak, so perhaps taking a curving path was the correct choice? It was as good an option as any.
Shifting back into a jog, Kevin ran left along the base of the cliff. After a few hundred meters, he found a cleft in the side with carved stone stairs leading up. Despite looking obvious, he hadn’t seen it until he got close.
Had it been hidden with some technique? Or perhaps it hadn’t existed until the mountain shifted again. He’d better hurry before it vanished again.
Jogging up the steps was harder work than along the ground, but Kevin wasn’t about to waste time worrying about a little exercise. Better to push ahead now, while he had plenty of time than to wish he had later.
Before long, the stairway reached the top of the cliff, only to run straight into a wall of thorny pushes. Should he try to force his way through, or was this a dead end he had to turn back from?
A single brush of his clothing against the thorns answered that question as they cut through the cloth with ease. He’d be torn to shreds if he pushed through.
Sighing, Kevin turned to head back down the stairs, only to pause. If the paths were ever-shifting, could he just wait until a new one opened up?
It would risk a little time, but he could spare fifteen minutes to see if there was a massive loophole in the challenge.
A few minutes later, a broad grin spread across his face as an arch appeared in the thorns. How much more time would he have lost backtracking instead of waiting for a way forward?
Perhaps there was a philosophy hidden there about trusting your path, even if it didn’t look like it was leading anywhere. Or perhaps it was just a quirk of the test.
Either way, he could do this. He just had to combine patient waiting with rushed progress whenever a path opened.
The first test was as good as finished.