I arrived at an expansive square where thousands of sect hopefuls had already gathered. Unlike most of the town, the ground of the square was cobbled with dull white stones whose cracks and pitting showed the wear of ages.
On the far side of the square was a raised dais where a middle-aged man sat, examining everyone as they milled about. To either side of this dais were large paifang arches. Each arch crossed over a cobbled road. The two roads each stretched off in the direction of one of two mountains that rose up behind the scene. These mountains were where the Twin Mountains Sect resided. All I could see from here was dense foliage. Large forests covered both mountains, and the peaks looked to be nothing but barren stone.
I waited in the square as more people gathered. The man on the dais was in no rush to start the proceedings. He waited until some appointed time. I had rushed there, expecting to be late, but over an hour after I got there, I was still waiting.
Finally, when the sun was high in the sky, the man stood up and addressed the crowd.
“Welcome, all, to the Disciple Selection of my Twin Mountains Sect. Though it is only a small sect, and there are many of you here, we do not turn away anyone who is worthy of joining us. If fortune favors both you and us, then everyone here may become new disciples.”
At this announcement, there was mild cheering throughout the crowd. For many here, joining this sect was their only hope for the future. Others, though, stood with smirks on their faces as they looked at the more excited members of the crowd.
“In front of you are two archways,” the man continued, gesturing to both his left and right. “These arches lead to the two different branches of the sect. If you follow the path to your right, you will find the Martial Peak. This is where the fighters of the sect learn and train. If you wish to become a hero in the future, this is the path of your destiny. If you follow the path to your left, you will find the Alchemy Peak. This is where our alchemists work for the betterment of the entire sect.”
He held his arms wide with each one pointed at one of the two arches by his side.
“Each selection, you may only attempt a single path. If you fail, as long as you still meet the requirements, you may try again in the future. Anyone may try to become a sect alchemist. To become a sect warrior, however, you must be no older than 18 and at the level of at least Martial Disciple 6, preferably stronger. If you do not meet these requirements, please leave now. We will not question anyone who does so, but if you try to sneak in, you will be punished.”
At this point, the man waited for a short while to allow anyone who chose to do so, though none did.
“Very well. Selections will be carried out in groups of 500. You may begin entering the arches. Once the quota has been met, a barrier will prevent any further entrants until the previous group has finished.”
With that, the man sat back down and simply watched.
The moment someone passed through an arch, they would disappear from sight. It appeared as if they were being teleported away. My own experience showed that teleporting a single person across a city costs the equivalent of all the energy in a Martial Disciple 3. Could this sect really be that much more efficient than the System? I was surprised the sect would be willing to spend so much energy on a disciple selection, teleporting thousands, just to appear mysterious.
I decided to hold back and not join the first people who rushed to the archways. It might have been a good thing I did so. Shortly after people began converging on the ‘warrior’ arch, there was a bright flash of lightning. Dozens of people were blasted backwards, and I wasn’t sure how many had been seriously injured.
I looked back at the dais, but the man there didn’t give the disruption any attention. So yeah, better to be careful here.
It wasn’t until nearly three hours later that the first group to enter the alchemist arch had completely finished. The warrior arch was cycling at intervals of less than an hour each. Though it had taken a while, there did not seem to be as much of a rush to enter the alchemy arch, so when it reopened, I had an opportunity. To not waste any more time than necessary, I hurriedly entered.
As soon as I passed through the opening, the world around me twisted.
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I stood in a new courtyard that looked very much like the one I had just exited. It had the same dais on the opposite side, though with an elderly man sitting in the chair. This time, the arch on the left was painted red, while the arch on the right was a dark black. However, the most important change was that instead of a courtyard packed with young hopefuls, this one held hundreds of alchemy workstations.
A young man dressed in robes similar to the men on the daises spoke up as I entered.
“Go stand in front of a workstation. Touch nothing until told to do so or you will be expelled,” he said disinterestedly. He didn’t even look at me to see if I had any questions, though I guess no one would at this stage.
I quickly moved to a workstation nestled near the center of the courtyard. I had no desire to try and stand out by selecting a more conspicuous position. All the workstations quickly filled with people coming out of the arch. It was not long before everyone was waiting quietly. Finally, the elderly man on the dais stood to speak.
“Welcome to the Twin Mountains Sect Alchemy Disciple Selection. I am Elder Mu. I am an outer sect elder. In the future, I hope to see all of you successfully enter the outer sect.”
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He waved at a display that had been set up in front of him that had items similar to those on each of the workbenches.
“In front of each of you is a workstation with everything you will need to pass the preliminary selection exam. First, on the table, you will see two scrolls. The first is a simple fire qi cultivation technique. For those who have not yet cultivated their fire qi, this will allow you to quickly do so, helping you to concoct alchemical pills. You will be at a disadvantage to those who have long practiced this technique but don’t worry. You are not competing against each other. As long as you succeed, it matters not how others perform.”
Walking back to the front of his dais, a wide grin spread across his face.
“I expect many of you have come here because you have heard that you can get a free cultivation technique. That is absolutely true! You will not be permitted to take the scroll with you, but you are welcome to keep cultivating it after you leave. If you are unable to reach a high enough proficiency within the next few hours to concoct a pill, I encourage you to train this technique and come back next year.”
There was a bit of shuffling at this announcement. I could see that many people were excited to begin cultivating. I, however, was markedly less so.
The sect was giving out a free cultivation technique to anyone who came. What did that mean? It was a trap, obviously, but what was the trap? Was the sect so brazen to hand out slave mantras to thousands of applicants? That didn’t feel right.
I didn’t yet have enough information to draw conclusions about this technique, but I would not be cultivating it. Still… It was a free technique…
“Next to this technique, you will find the instructions for how to concoct a Basic Rank 1 Qi Gathering Pill. Most of you will be well acquainted with it, but this exam is open to everyone. We encourage everyone who wants to learn alchemy to use this exam as a free lesson! First, I will demonstrate.” He picked up a blue flower. “This is blue peony. I am sure everyone here has seen them growing in the wild. When harvested in the right way, at the right time, it is the only ingredient needed for the Basic Qi Gathering Pill.”
He started giving roughly the same instructions and demonstration that Rudy gave me so long ago. It was nostalgic, kind of. The result of this display was a small pellet that he held up to show everyone.
“This is a Low-Grade Rank 1 Qi Gathering Pill. The more pill toxins you remove the better. Pills are ranked from Low-Purity to High-Purity. Above High-Purity are Perfect pills, where all toxins have been removed. As I’m sure you know, the higher the purity, the greater the value. This is especially true of Perfect pills!”
He placed the pill into a jade bottle and set it aside.
“Your test today is simple. Create Qi Gathering Pills. You will gain points based on their purity. A Low-Purity pill is worth a single point. Mid-Purity pills are worth 5. Highs are worth 10. If someone were to make a Perfect pill, it would be worth 30 points.”
Why did that sound familiar?
“Each person has 10 peonies to work with. You must turn in pills worth a total of 5 points. If you do, you will become a sect disciple and be trained in the dao of alchemy. Though you only need 5 points to pass, you will be rewarded for earning more, so do your best.”
After giving us this encouragement, his face turned somber.
“Finally, I want you to be very clear about the rules of this trial. One, the pills you turn in must come from flowers provided during this trial, you may not use outside pills or ingredients. Two, no fighting. You may not fight with anyone, in any way, during the trial. Three, you may not use any form of pressure to force someone to give you pills they concocted. This includes using your family or status. Four, you may not intentionally interfere with another participant’s efforts. Finally, we have proctors watching everything, so do not worry about reporting any breaches of the rules yourself. We will deal with it.”
With that, the elderly man sat back down on his chair and waved one hand.
“Begin!”
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I did not immediately begin working on the pills. My mind kept drifting back to the cultivation technique. Using it was a bad idea, but that didn’t mean I shouldn’t still learn it. Time was the only problem here. Quickly memorizing a complex cultivation technique would be difficult.
“System,” I whispered, “would it be possible to create like a mental bookshelf of all the techniques I’ve ever read? So that, if I read something one time, a perfect copy will appear on the bookshelf for me to reference later?”
Yes. This is a form of a perfect memory. If strictly limited to only techniques, the price is reduced. The price would be based on the highest rank of technique included. To create a mental bookshelf which will copy every mundane, unranked martial manual you read in the future, the cost is 100 credits. For it to copy Rank 1 scrolls, the cost is 1000 credits. Each additional rank will multiply the cost by 10.
“Only ones I read in the future?”
Yes. It will only record information as you see it.
“Why the extra cost per rank? They are all still just paper and ink. If anything, shouldn’t the cost be based on the amount of information? Why would the words in a scroll that describes a Rank 2 technique cost more to copy and store?”
Do you wish to purchase that information?
I sighed, “No, I guess not.”
For now, no reason to focus on the technique then. I only had 10 points. I considered trying to use them to specifically have perfect memory of this scroll, but what was the point? The technique was almost certainly a dud, and it was possible I would need those points in the future.
Setting the technique aside, I moved on. I didn’t need the instructions for concocting a Qi Gathering Pill, so I ignored that too. All that was left was to make some drugs.
While I had 10 chances to concoct a pill, I only had enough energy for two or three. If I really pushed to make the first one as good as I could, I might only be able to make a single pill. I wasn’t sure what would be the best play. Was one superb pill better than three mediocre ones? Hard to say. But I decided to go with quantity. My reasoning was, even if I tried my best, failure was possible. Limiting myself to one pill and failing it would be the end of the road, so better to give myself a buffer.
In the end, any worry may have been unfounded. I carefully, yet efficiently, created three pills. All three were Middle-Purity. I could almost always get a High-Purity pill out of a batch like this, but I did not push for that level during the exam since it wasn’t necessary.
I thought I had been pretty fast, all things told, but when I looked up, I found that over two dozen workstations were already vacant when I finished. Maybe they just decided to make one pill? I mean, I had completed the assignment after the first pill too, so maybe they just didn’t see the value in any extra credit.
Well, no worries. This wasn’t a competition, and even if there were competitive elements I didn’t know about, I already knew I wasn’t the best alchemist here, so no real harm done.
I gathered my three pills and the seven extra flowers then headed to where the evaluations were being done. I handed them over to the man, and he gave them a quick once over.
“Three Mid-Purity, 15 points. Here’s your identity jade,” he said perfunctorily, handing me a bracelet with a large solid green jade embedded in it. “The extra flowers are yours to keep. Go through the red arch and you’ll enter the sect. Good luck.”