Elder Shu led Su Yuchen to register a personal courtyard for him and then left after giving him some instructions.
Su Yuchen felt some relief after he left. Although the elder comforted him when they left the main hall, he still felt troubled. Meeting with the sect master felt way more worse than attending a job interview. He might not have felt the same pressure even if he had attended a job interview without preparation. Those few minutes made him feel like standing in an ice cellar.
Next, a inner sect disciple guided Su Yuchen through numerous courtyards to his courtyard. His thoughts diverted and he became excited looking at all the courtyards wondering if he would receive a similar one.
“Thank You, Senior brother for leading me to the courtyard.”
“No worries.”
The inner disciple left after showing Su Yuchen his courtyard.
Su Yuchen was surprised by the elegant courtyard allocated to him. Many beautiful trees and plants decorated the courtyard. The space inside the courtyard was more than enough for a family. There was also a small personal training ground with a formation.
The courtyard had a tranquil atmosphere with a spacious garden and a small pond filled with colourful fishes in the courtyard.
After exploring his courtyard he decide to go to the assessment ground. He changed into inner disciple robes and walked towards the inner sects mount stable where he could rent a horse. A mortal horse is supposedly free to rent for inner disciples.
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Su Yuchen reached the assessment ground in 20 minutes, after renting the horse. The mortal horse he rode was a lot faster than the horses he rid in the village.
The assessment ground was filled with a lot of noise. For spectators seats they were seated in a tiered arrangement. It was in a slightly curved structure to only one side of the ground. As Su Yuchen walked towards the inner disciples seats he was filled with excitement and nervousness. Many disciples stared at him while those in the way respectfully made way to him.
As he entered and sat on a seat in an empty place, Su Yuchen felt some curious glances on him which only lasted for a moment.
The assessment ground was too big to see anything in the distance. He would need a super power to observe anything. Fortunately a Senior brother at the mount stable lent him spectacles that could let him to look into the distance, after he learned his purpose for the mount.
The spectacles surprised him, they looked like antique spectacles he might have found in his previous world. He doesn’t have enough knowledge about science and technology or history of his previous world to guess if there is a possibility for other transmigrators in this world. The cultivators might have also invented these similar spectacles as they are useful in many places.
On the ground, the assessment of combat ability was finished and he quickly found his friends. Most of them were in a bad situation. There were many injuries and bruises on their faces. And still he found that their faces were extremely excited, it looked like they passed the assessment.
He sat there and followed the assessments.
The purpose of the next assessment was gauging the willpower of the candidates. A small hill was raised in the middle of the assessment ground, it felt unbelievable. There were steps surrounding the small hill that reaches to the top of it. All the candidates regardless of their results in the first assessment participated in this.
The candidates looked as if they faced extreme pressure with every step they took. There were even illusions that tested them. The battered and bruised candidates were tortured and their willpower was tested to the extreme.
Su Yuchen came to a conclusion that he would have failed in both assessments after looking at the candidates.
Most candidates were disqualified from the recruitment after this assessment. Some of them were given the choice to become menial disciples, though.
The qualified candidates were now eligible to become outer sect disciples.
The next assessments tested the intelligence, loyalty and dedication of the candidates of through questions. The results for this assessment were obtained before the start of the next assessment as the candidates were given a lot of to rest.
The last assessment was to look at the mastery of their weapons. Every candidate displayed their mastery in weapons. His fellow villagers had no eye catching skills and techniques to display, but they still showed what they trained in swords, spears and archery. It was better than showing nothing. This assessment quickly became boring except for some city children who could use astral energy in their techniques. That was a good show from them.
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Every candidate was given a ranking at the end of the recruitment. Unfortunately none of his fellow villagers were in the top one thousand. Fortunately all his friends were now outer sect disciples.
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“Senior Brother Su, this junior disciple greets you.”
“Senior Brother Su, we are graced with your presence.”
The bruised face Liang Yu, and the purpled eye Wang Daming noticed Su Yuchen walking towards them and immediately gave a playful greeting to him.
Others noticed him and mimicked Liang Yu and Wang Daming and bowed to him.
Su Yuchen gave a soft laugh when they teased him.
He tried to act elegant and calm, with his left hand behind his back and raising his right hand he spoke, “Rise, junior brothers, you may drop your formalities. I congratulate you on qualifying to join the sect.”
“Thank you, Senior Brother Su.” They all shouted in cheerful voices. “We will be under your guidance from now on.”
“Haha, so how was the recruitment assessments?”
“Terrific.”
“Dreadful.”
“Many candidates tried to kill their opponents in the combat test. A candidate died.”
“My opponent was only hitting my head. He fucked up my head.”
“My jaw was nearly destroyed by a punch.”
“Yuchen, how much time has it been since you have arrived? Have you seen our assessment?”
“Did someone really die? You guys were too lucky then, I should say.” Su Yuchen said with shock. “I arrived after the combat assessment and then watched you guys blanking out in the willpower assessment. I seriously didn’t think you guys would reach the top. And also a lot more guys did reach the top.”
“Under the pressure from the small hill, refining the astral energy kept us energetic.”
“It’s terribly painful, never try that I say.”
“Some of the children from our village fainted as they couldn’t handle the pressure, illusions and from fatigue.”
“Where are they?”
“Zhang Mei is taking care of them. She also hurt her meridians while refining the astral energy.”
“I think we might have some hidden damages to our meridians.”
“That’s for sure.”
“Only few people dared to refine astral energy.”
“We are used to refining astral energy even in afternoons. That’s why we are not injured.”
“The city kids are weak and cowards. Many of them didn’t even try to refine astral energy and gave up the assessment in the middle.”
“They are not as tough as us.”
‘Did you guys even concentrate on the assessment?’ Su Yuchen thought.
“If we had instructors we could have even performed better with our weapons and get better rankings.”
“It’s just as Zhao Feng said, they only have better resources and guides than us.”
Su Yuchen listened to them and said, “I think if we can increase our combat experience, we can have a better life in the sect.”
“Do we have to fight more? I don’t want to. Those guys are madmen.”
“Listen to me, I can’t even fight as well as you guys. If I was taking the assessment, I might have even died.” Su Yuchen spoke in a heavy tone. “Elder Shu instructed me to spend my free time sparring with puppets and to learn strategies and experiences of other warriors from the library. This is the instruction of an inner elder. I think you guys can also listen to it.”
“Really?” Liang Yu asked.
“Zhao Feng said something similar.” Wang Daming remarked.
“Okay we will try to see.”
“What did you do after you left us?”
“Elder Shu registered my identity and then he led me to meet the sect master.” Su Yuchen answered.
“You met the sect master?”
“Su Yuchen are you speaking the truth?”
“Really?” Liang Yu asked.
“Well, I really met the sect master but it was a short meeting. He listened to my qualifications, asked me a question and announced my acceptance to the inner sect.” Su Yuchen replied.
“What did he ask you?” Wang Daming asked.
“Why did I want to join this sect and why do I wish to cultivate.” Su Yuchen replied.
“How did you answer?”
“I fumbled on my answer. The sect master realised that for sure.” Su Yuchen said.
“What was your answer?”
“I don’t remember, I might have said, I want to cultivate.” Su Yuchen said with some embarrassment.
“Are you for real? That’s your answer?”
“You could have at least said that you want to become the strongest person in the world and he might have taken that answer lightly.” Wang Daming laughed.
“I thought about it but felt that it was a common answer.” Su Yuchen said in a low voice.
“Because it is a common answer?”
“There is a reason on why it is the most common answer.”
“Is your answer even an answer?”
“Becoming the strongest is the only true answer.”
“Leave that, I don’t know have a reason for cultivation even now.” Su Yuchen urged embarrassedly.
“You should have participated in the combat assessment.” Liang Yu said.
“Yes, then he would have found his reason in front of the shadow of death.” Wang Daming said.
“Stop that and let’s go to celebrate our achievements. I have seen a lot of restaurants on the way here.” Su Yuchen said.
“It’s your treat, you are gonna pay the bill.”
“Yeah, Senior Brother Su must take care of us.”
“It’s my treat. As your Senior Brother, I am inviting you to the dinner.” Su Yuchen said.
“Lets register our identities and then go to eat.”
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Su Yuchen spent all his savings for the dinner and then went to his courtyard. He was already ready to splurge his savings after learning about the value of the stellar rocks and astral refinement pills he had with him.
With a filled tummy he went to sleep.
The next morning.
The bronze frog statue near his bed made noise to wake up Su Yuchen before dawn.
The sound was too irritating and successfully woke him. Su Yuchen sat up on the bed. He slapped the frog to make it stop. It was painful.
Immediately he said in his mind, “Sign in!”
[Ding! Daily sign in completed. Rewarded “Cultivation Notes Volume 01”.]