The group of young cultivators came to a stop in front of the imposing golden gate, waiting for their guide to open the way for them.

They all, apart from the two among them who had been born into the sect, collectively prepared themselves mentally for whatever they may witness next.

Yu Xiang smirked as he saw his fellow disciples gulping exaggeratedly and wiping the sweat from their brows. Not even the normally aloof Lin Fen was able to keep his cool, his feline tail curling nervously against the side of Yu’s leg.

Their crimson clad guide lazily approached the door to the inner compound, fishing a carved token out of his robes.

With a casual tap of the metallic structure, the imposing doors slowly opened themselves, letting a blinding beam of light hit their eyes.

The young reincarnator covered his eyes incredulously, recognizing the theatrics for what they were. As a cultivator, even before he had entered the Constitutional Realm, he’d been able to look directly at the sun with no discomfort, so there was no way that natural sunlight would’ve been able to make him look away.

The flash lasted for no more than a few moments before the disciples were finally able to lay their eyes upon the Inner Compound and take their first steps inside the middle plateaus of the Golden Peak mountain.

In a way, it was much the same as the lower compound, except more.

The gate they’d just passed led into a vast plaza much like the one they were familiar with, there was even the same elevated platform for public duels and announcements, just bigger.

The stone tiles that covered the entire plaza looked cleaner, gleaming an almost radiating white that made them seem impossible to stain. The compound’s walls were taller and thicker, more solid. Radiating an aura of reassuring wholeness that was obviously not mundane.

Even the buildings were bigger, looking more elegant and opulent despite their style being just as austere as that of the outer compound’s.

The quality of their materials was simply superior, so much that even the most drab and bare edifice in their sight was still more awe inspiring than the opulent restaurant Yu Xiang and Lin Fen had visited but a few days prior.

But it wasn’t just the scenery that left them rooted on the spot. Dozens of men and women of various heights and ages made their way around the compound, unconsciously radiating enough power to make them freeze.

Simply put they were not used to being around so many powerful cultivators at the same time.

Their sudden bout of stillness was further exacerbated as some of the older inner disciples stopped to look at them in curiosity, their auras crashing against them and putting even more pressure on their spirits with nothing but a cursive peek.

Thankfully, their guide, who had been waiting by their side and giving them a few minutes to properly take in the impressive vista of the inner compound, decided to intervene then, before one of their group wet themselves in fright.

A casual flex of his own presence brushed away the heavy auras weighing them down, and with a dismissive wave of his hand, he sent the idling disciples back to whatever they were doing before their arrival.

The newly promoted inner disciples let out a sigh of relief, muttering their thanks to their still unnamed guide who simply nodded in acknowledgment.

Once they were metaphorically back on their feet the red robed man motioned them to follow him.

“Now that you got the traditional Inner Disciple welcome I’m going to take you to your new homes, and explain a few things on the way.” The core disciple broke the silence, adjusting his bulging bag over his shoulder.

Their group moved forward like a bunch of baby ducks following their mother, making sure to impress every word that came out of their guide’s mouth in their mind.

“First of all.” He began without delay. “Much like when you were outer disciple, you will be expected to complete a number of missions every month, certain missions can obviously count more than others based on their difficulty and what they bring to our Sect. I’m sure I don’t have to explain the fine details of what will happen if you decide you don’t feel like contributing to the Sect.”

The red clad core disciple turned his head sideways towards them, looking them over with a single raised eyebrow.

Yu Xiang and the other young cultivators were quick to reassure the man that there wouldn’t be any need to.

He nodded in satisfaction before continuing. “Now, there are a number of groups that work together to take care of certain indispensable needs of the Sect. The Apothecary supplies the most common medicines and elixirs and takes in any aspiring alchemist. The Hall of Knowledge registers and compiles all the information that is deemed important for the sect, and also does maintenance for the various arrays that keep our barriers and communications running. The Forge is where our crafters practice their trade, that’s where you want to go if you need weapons or armor or even something like a really sturdy chair, they’re the ones who take care of our buildings and are also tasked with securing any dangerous artifacts, so if you ever come into possession of something you think is dangerous bring it to them. Are you all still following me?”

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A barrage of words sucker punched them out of nowhere, the lazy looking disciple revealing himself as much more knowledgeable than he’d seemed at the start.

The young inner disciples nodded at him, which made him continue without hesitation, but something was bothering Yu Xiang.

They’d been walking for a while, at an almost mortal’s pace to be fair, but still, at this point, they’d walked almost the entire length of the outer compounds without reaching their destination. Shouldn’t that be impossible?

The Golden Peak mountain might have been a heaven for cultivators where the spiritual energy in the air increased the further one climbed, but in the end, it was still just a mountain, going up should’ve meant less space available, not more.

Their guide continued his explanation, oblivious of Yu Xiang’s internal debate.

“Alongside the groups I’ve already talked about, there’s another two I haven’t mentioned yet. The Punishing Force, which is the smallest, you can probably guess what their duties are from their name. They make sure that the rules of the Sect are upheld by every disciple and punish anyone who disregards them. Then there is the largest group, the Exploration Troop, they have by far the widest and most diverse amount of duties.”

A bit farther ahead Yu Xiang could see a low wooden wall, relative to the one that encircled the entire compound, with a wide golden arch acting as a gateway.

Vague memories of when he was still a kid living in the inner compound’s nursery told him that this was the entrance to the housing area of the compound aka their destination.

He was proven right soon enough as their guide slowed his stride. “Alright, since we’re here already I’ll finish up quickly.” He said while rummaging through his bag.

“The Exploration Troop manages the other branches of the sect, safeguards our treasure mountains against would be thieves, searches the territories adjacent to our own for treasures and uncommon phenomenons, and acts as messengers between our Sect and the other Great Sects. Now that that’s over with, here. Take these.”

Their guide passed a handful of scrolls to each of them, alongside a pair of tokens, one of which was exactly like the one he’d used previously to open the gate to the inner compound.

“In there you’ll find the rules of the inner compound, a map, and some instructions on how to participate in a mission. Those tokens are the keys to your houses and the golden gate from before.” He scratched at his shaved chin absentmindedly, checking his bag one last time.

“Oh, right I almost forgot.” He blinked blearily and snapped his fingers as he remembered something. “You won’t be needing to take on missions for your first month, so take your time to accostumate yourself with the compound and its going ons.”

With that said he adjusted his now empty bag, and turned around to go away. “I’m done here so feel free to get yourself situated in your new homes.” He waved lazily behind his back as he slowly walked away.

Lin Fen watched him in perplexed silence, left befuddled by the core disciple’s bizarre behavior. “He didn’t even tell us his name…” He commented with a hint of reproach.

Yu Xiang and the others just shrugged in indifference, having somewhat expected that the core disciple wouldn’t be a normal person, after all being at least a bit insane or even just weird was an unspoken requirement for becoming a higher realm cultivator.

While they had their moment of common understanding Su Rong and his two companions walked away, no doubt uncomfortable being around Yu Xiang after their latest bout.

“Well, it was a pleasure to see you all again.” Spoke the young reincarnator pleasantly. “But we should probably go now, we wouldn’t want the ingredients in here to go bad.” He added patting the wooden crate still attached to his back.

Lin Fen huffed, rolling his eyes at the idea that the herbs that he had preserved himself would degrade that fast, but he didn’t speak up in dissent so they said their goodbyes and headed towards their new abode.

They checked their scrolls, noticing that they had been assigned to the same residence, probably because they'd been already living together for years by now. At least there would be no need to ask anyone how to renege ownership of a second house this way.

They walked calmly, not wanting to shake the relatively fragile contents of the crate too much, and simply took in their new environment.

Much like everything else in the inner compound, the houses were bigger and so were the gardens. They looked much more lived in, with various personal modifications like personal flower beds and wooden verandas.

They looked much more homely than the ones down in the outer compound, and there was no ugly giant blocky building acting as some kind of giant communal apartment block to ruin the sight.

But as much as he found the sight charming, Yu Xiang could fully bring himself to enjoy the scene.

Something was pocking at the back of his brain, just like before, something was familiar about this place.

This shouldn't have been weird considering he'd spent his childhood in the inner compound, but he'd rarely left the sect's nursery back then, hyper focused as he was on unveiling the secrets of cultivation, and even then he had never come to this part of the higher plateaus.

The feeling that he was missing something intensified further once they arrived at what was going to be their home for the foreseeable future.

A huge open veranda acted as a shelter for a table and a pair of chairs, a dirt filled pot that must've been filled with flowers at one point resting in the middle of the table. The house's walls were the color of light cream, giving the whole structure a clean and inviting air.

It began to really bother the green eyed cultivator once they made their way inside, an annoying sensation like something was just on the tip of his tongue.

Only once he'd deposited their luggage and gone up the lone flight of stairs in the building did he finally down upon him.

There were three rooms on the house's second floor. One was a small closet, another was a large bedroom.

The last one was an infant's room.

Yu Xiang's eyes fixed themselves on a wooden cradle and various other children's implements. This was his once, he was sure of it.

Back before he'd "woken up", so to speak, when his brain was simply not developed enough for his mind to work properly. When his "parents" had still been alive.

Slowly he marched back towards the large b- his parent's bedroom. A framed picture was standing alone on the nightstand beside the bed.

A woman and a man smiled in the frame. She had light brown hair just like his, reaching out past her shoulder but her eyes were a dark shade of wooden brown, while the man had familiar striking green eyes and a short mop of dark hair.

Both of them were smiling towards whoever had immortalized this moment, and between the two of them, held carefully in their arms, was a small child that couldn't have been more than a few months old.

Yu Xiang himself.