“Of course not Senior Sister, I was delayed on the road, but I would not allow anything to stand in the way of fulfilling our bargain.” Elder Lu stopped to cup his hands and shoot a glance at Lu Wu before continuing forward into the courtyard.
Lu Wu, having received Elder Lu’s signal stopped where he was and bowed before continuing, with Ji Kang and Yu Shuren following his lead.
Inside the courtyard was very plain, there were no artificial mountains or garden, just a flat square of packed bare earth. Standing in the center was a woman who was bowed with age, with long snow white hair in an outdated style, and a midnight blue robe that matched Elder Lu’s except that the black embroidery was far more prominent. She leaned on a gnarled and knotted piece of wood that tapered from as thick as Ji Kang’s head at the top to as thin as his thumb at the bottom, using it as a walking stick. She had a bearing that was impossible to overlook, radiating danger the way a stove radiated heat and her eyes glinted with an intense intelligence.
“As agreed, here are the five kilograms of Dream Sand.” Elder Lu retrieved a bag from thin air in a brief flash of light, and presented it to the old woman who waved her hand and caused it to float to her and began inspecting its contents immediately.
“And here are the three young disciples we discussed. This is Lu Wu, to his right is Ji Kang, and on the end is Yu Shuren.” After introducing the three of them Elder Lu fell silent and waited for the old woman to finish inspecting the Dream Sand with an expectant expression.
She stowed the bag and carefully examined the boys, before looking at Elder Lu and nodding. “Your side of the bargain has been fulfilled, so I will accept these three as my personal disciples.”
Elder Lu bowed one last time before bidding his farewells and immediately leaving. As the courtyard exterior door closed behind him Ji Kang couldn’t help thinking Elder Lu was running away rather than spend one more moment in the old woman’s company.
“I assume you all understand by now, but for propriety’s sake I’ll say it again. My name is Shen Lan and from this day forward I accept you three as my personal disciples. Should you have any questions in your cultivation you may look for me.”
As she finished speaking all three knelt and kowtowed three times to make it official.
“Lu Wu greets Master!”
“Ji Kang greets Master!”
“Yu Shuren greets Master!”
“All right, you may stand. Come closer, let me see the talent of my new disciples.”
They lined up before her and Lu Wu offered his wrist first, followed by Ji Kang, and then Yu Shuren.
“Hmm, Lu Wu was it? Not bad I suppose, you have B grade talent, you have a great future ahead of you should you have decent luck and live long enough to fulfill your potential.” She spoke with an entirely neutral tone, but something in her expression hinted that she thought that outcome unlikely.
“Ji Kang you called yourself? Yes, a C grade talent. It’s not impossible for you to attain Core Formation eventually.” She quickly dismissed Ji Kang and moved on, but Ji Kang again wasn’t upset at having been overlooked. He was young and had plenty of time to grow. He was not worried that all of his elders seemed to think he would never achieve anything because he had seen that assumption in the eyes of strangers and passersby his entire life. Ji Kang knew he had a hard and arduous climb in front of him and was eager to begin.
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“Oh my, you’re a big one aren’t you? You look like you could crush this old lady’s head with one palm. Let’s see what your talent is like. Mmm, disappointing, C grade again. Well, like I told the other one, Core Formation is not out of your reach.”
Her odd tone while she was speaking reminded Ji Kang of a grandmother and formed a disconcerting contrast to the menace that was still inherent in each of her steps. Shen Lan stepped back to once again see them all together before continuing.
“The first order of business will be to get you all registered with the sect at the administration center. Although being accepted as my personal disciples will allow you to skip the Outer Sect, you still require your identity token and robes. You wouldn’t want to miss the monthly stipend for all Inner Sect disciples either, so put those bags down and come with me.”
Ji Kang and Yu Shuren left their own luggage and Lu Wu’s bags in Shen Lan’s courtyard and followed her. As they made their way out of the courtyard and towards the administration building at a leisurely pace to accommodate Shen Lan with her walking stick, she continued to familiarize herself with her new disciples.
“You can all read, can't you? I will not allow a disciple of mine to languish in the depths of ignorance as an illiterate.”
“I can, Master, and I have studied all of the classics.” Lu Wu answered.
“Of course you can, I wasn’t talking to you fool boy. I was asking those two, they have something of the look of the street about them.” She replied, gesturing towards Ji Kang and Yu Shuren.
“I can, Master.”
“I’m ashamed to say that I can’t, Master.”
Answered Ji Kang and Yu Shuren respectively.
“You can’t? Well, we’ll need to address that right away. How on earth will you understand cultivation manuals if you can’t read? Am I supposed to read them to you? Hmph! I’ll find you a mortal tutor who can teach you to read, but I warn you, if you can’t read by the time you’ve reached Foundation Establishment you truly will suffer from the lack. And should you allow someone outside of the sect to read any of your cultivation texts in order to narrate them for you, I will find you and flay you down to the bones.”
She finished that diatribe with a probing glance at Yu Shuren as if imagining what he would look like without skin and turned away looking amused. Ji Kang found her increasingly disconcerting to be around, but he remembered how much respect Elder Lu had shown her and found the idea of having such a powerful master as his backer to be very cheering.
The administration center turned out to be a beautiful pagoda with 5 tiers, with the white walls and blue ceramic tiles for the roof that seemed to be common to all the buildings in the sect. Indeed, Ji Kang was starting to wonder if that particular shade of roofing tiles was part of the requirements when undergoing any new construction on the mountain, such was its universality. Making sure all of the buildings in the sect had the same shade of roofing tiles seemed a somewhat silly thing that someone had obviously put no small amount of effort into, perhaps even to the point that there was a craftsman down in the village who specialized in producing this specific color of tiles.
Registering with the clerk working the desk inside ended up being very quick, after all no clerk in the world would want to delay with such a mercurial cultivator as Shen Lan watching over their shoulder.
They received light blue robes like they had seen other disciples on the mountain wearing, as well as azure jade identity tokens that were stamped with their names on one side and the words Azure Grove on the other side. They were told to come back monthly for their stipend. According to the clerk the stipend would be one Qi Burst pill and 5 spirit stones until they reached Foundation Establishment, afterwards it would consist of one Meridian Cleansing pill and ten spirit stones.
At this point Ji Kang had heard quite a lot of terms that seemed to describe stages of cultivation, but apart from Lu WU’s sketchy second hand account on the boat he had heard no comprehensive explanation of the Imperial Cultivation system. While they followed Shen Lan back to her house he decided to see if he could get her to give them an overview as someone who had experienced it.
“Master, I wonder if you could shed light on the answers to some questions I have.” Ji Kang brought this up shortly after they had set back out onto the path.