"A direct message from the Patriarch?!"

Instantly Shin Sumi's mind was overflowing with all the things she did and shouldn't have done, especially over the past few days.

"Does he know I'm in the lower valley? Does he know about the dark chasm? Has he changed his mind about joining three Pavilions?"

Not wanting to draw more conclusions before even listening to the recorded divine sense in order to not freak out unnecessarily, Shin Sumi took a deep breath and took out the vibrating jade.

"Follow the trail up the mountain at the north of the valley. Wait in front of the dilapidated building called House of the Sky. Be there in fifteen minutes."

Shin Sumi let out the air in her lungs. She didn't think she was in trouble after all. She couldn't be sure yet but the tone used by the Patriarch was not harsh at all.

"Another ruins? Is that all the Ghost Pavilion can do? First my new house and then this House of the Sky... North of the valley... Wait, fifteen minutes?!"

Shin Sumi's head started spinning when she recalled the Patriarch's last words.

Even by the most basic calculations of the speed she could muster, there was no way she could get there in fifteen minutes!

Even though her speed had gone through an insane increase with her new power level, she was currently in the dark chasm!

Back when she was an Honorary Disciple, the dark chasm was almost two hours away from the lower valley!

Not spending another second in waste, Shin Sumi concentrated all her Shinsoo from her dantian into her legs.

Faster than the wind, she left a trail of flying leaves behind her as she dashed continuously towards the lower valley.

From there she didn't stop even to take a breath. Clenching her teeth, she approached the pillars of the entry to the upper valley.

"Even if I'm caught, surely the Patriarch will have my back on this, right?!"

She was going faster than she ever did before. Running in a straight line between the trees, she couldn't see the Liquid Realm disciple in charge of guarding the gate to the staircase to the upper valley.

Half a second later, the gust of wind she had inadvertently summoned crossed through the building, howling as she ran up the stairs, twenty steps at a time.

More than ten minutes had already passed when she finally reached the upper valley. According to the mental map in her head, Shin Sumi knew she was currently on the southern side of the valley.

Rather than crossing in a straight line towards the north and risking to be slowed down in the busy streets, Pavilions and market area, Shin Sumi decided to run around, keeping close to the Star Arenas.

She was passing the Fourth Star Arena, the one close to her own house when a second gust of wind approached her without her realizing.

A swish of a sleeve later, Shin Sumi was on the back end of a silver arrow flying through the air at more than twice the speed she previously had.

"Hey Sister Shin."

"Brother Fen?! How- Why did-"

Fen Wudao spread his arms wide, instantly covering the both of them by a curtain of Shinsoo, much like Shin Sumi's hiding formation.

"What were you doing in the lower valley?"

Shin Sumi was taken aback. Had Fen Wudao followed her from all the way back there? What did he see exactly?!

"You know what? Nevermind. It's fine you can do whatever you want as long as no one catches you. We're here anyway, let's get you introduced, little Seventh Ghost."

His reassuring smile dissipated all of Shin Sumi's confusion. The both of them landed in front of an old building that looked like half ruins.

A wooden panel still half hanging over the bronze door informed them that it really was the House of the Sky.

"Is that the usual meeting place for the sixth Pavilion?" asked Shin Sumi in a low voice.

"It depends, we only know at the last moment... I am not even sure what this is all about. I'm only guessing this meeting is for you."

Shin Sumi entered behind Fen Wudao, keeping the etiquette of following the higher ranked. Contrarily to her expectations, there was no magical seal on the building, nothing to keep it secret.

Despite being away from the areas where disciples were allowed to roam free, the lack of secret seemed a bit strange to her.

The House of the Sky was an obscured building with a simple looking entry. The smell of dust and mold was overflowing Shin Sumi's nostrils, obviously coming from the dark wood panels covering the floors and walls.

Greyish tapestries were here and there, the drawings too faded to see what they once represented.

Both disciples, Fen Wudao and Shin Sumi were waiting in silence, when Fen Wudao suddenly looked in the distance, as if he was seeing through the walls.

Answering an order that Shin Sumi never heard, Fen Wudao nodded before turning back to her.

"Wait here Sister Shin, you'll be called in soon."

And just like that, Fen Wudao disappeared after sliding close the door to the main room.

Conscious that she was being observed, at least by divine sense if not directly, Shin Sumi didn't move a single muscle, waiting for instructions. The anguish in her heart was only topped by her expectations for the meeting.

More than half of a sixty minutes cycle passed, Shin Sumi not batting an eyelid.

Finally when she thought she would die from heart failure, the wooden panel opened by itself, the old voice of Patriarch Sen prompting her to enter.

"Disciple Shin Sumi pays her respects" she called, her head low, getting to her knees and bowing as soon as she walked in.

Another few minutes of pure silence.

Piing.

Something just registered in Shin Sumi's divine sense range. A tiny metallic pin had been thrown in front of her.

She instantly recognized the moon overlapped with the silhouette of a ghost.

"Stand up and stick out your palm."

Doing as she was told, Shin Sumi finally took a glance at the full room around her. She could feel three presences in the room, although only two of them were familiar.

Behind the seated Patriarch, Fen Wudao was looking at her with a straight face, although his eyes were smiling. Off to the side, a third person was standing, hidden by the darkness.

Obviously, the third person didn't want her to see them. And they were definitely much stronger than she was, completely obliterating her divine sense.

"Who is it? The Ghost number one? Two? Even the Copper Bell can't activate and dispel the darkness with them around..."

Shin Sumi kept her interrogations to herself, concentrated on making her hand steady, the trembling agitating her being repressed by sheer willpower.

From nowhere, Shin Sumi felt a prick in the middle of her palm. A single drop of blood flew out of the tiny wound, completely out of her control.

Both floating in the air, the drop of red blood collided with the ghost insignia, leaving a brownish mark on the backside of it.

'Seven' read the blood stain.

"Welcome to the Ghost Pavilion, Seventh Sister."

The voice that had just spoken came from the unknown person in the room, who was apparently sounding like a middle aged woman. A few simple words and then she was gone. Just like that the presence disappeared, Shin Sumi never hearing the opening of a door or feeling the movement of Shinsoo in the air.

She didn't know what cultivation level the woman had but it was so much higher than hers, leaving Shin Sumi feeling like an ant in front of a building.

Despite being accepted officially as a member of the Ghost Pavilion, Shin Sumi felt like she had been grazed by death itself, the knowledge that at any point she could have been dead without knowing it.

Patriarch Sen sighed, a serene smile wrinkling his old face. From his sleeve appeared three rolled up scrolls. All of them were sealed by a wax moon crescent. White, grey and black, each their own color.

"These are now for you to learn, number seven. If you have any questions, six can answer for you" the Patriarch said, Fen Wudao gently nodding, "good luck on your selection for the other branches."

"Wait, is this all there is to it?" Shin Sumi asked herself in disbelief as she was walking down the mountain.

Above her head, Fen Wudao's silver arrow flew like a comet as he disappeared in the clouds.

Back in her courtyard, Shin Sumi went straight to the bathing room, letting the fresh water relax the heart-stopping tension that had been wrecking her nerves.

"The selections start tomorrow... I should go straight to the Swords Pavilion then, it's the hardest to get in. Once that is done, I'll at least be sure to accompany Yue in the future."

There were still a few hours to kill before Shin Sumi had to move, which she spent trying to circulate Shinsoo according to the Moon Severing Ephemeral Shadow method.

The technique was as hard as before to circulate, but with the explanations provided by Xiao Yue, at least Shin Sumi knew that it could be a good thing.

"At least with all sixty four Doors opened, it is theoretically possible. The number of high-level Doors is also very high, which should enable more power once I manage to succeed. It's only normal that it's difficult!"

After a few cycles of complete exhaustion and recuperation in the bathing room with the help of the little nut, Shin Sumi was only one step closer to completing the technique.

Giving up for now, she chose a new cultivation dress, her features turning to that of Bai Fulong almost instantly.

"Sky Deception, now is your time to shine" she stroked the length of the grey blade, infusing her Shinsoo and talking to it like one would do with a pet.

The Sword Pavilion stood proudly close to the middle of the upper valley. It was a grand building adorned with all sorts of pillars and decorations, a flamboyant red shining like a torch below the dark clouds.

A large crowd was already gathered in front of it, by far the most impressive crowd of Liquid Realm cultivators Shin Sumi had ever seen.

"Were there that many people in the Rising Star Tournament to begin with?!" she couldn't believe it. The discussions around her, though, informed her that anybody could take the selections.

"How many times have you tried it, Brother Hao? Three?" asked a dark skinned cultivator to the middle aged man next to him.

"Yeah, I feel like last time I was close to succeeding in the imparted time though! I prepared during the whole year for this!"

"It would suck to be forced to go to the Beast branch again... I just wish the selection this year would be the same as last year. Man, cutting that Shinsoo reinforced stump with a normal blade was too hard then but now I feel like I can do it!"

"You know it's gonna change. And I bet it's going to be harder this year with- Oh look, it's the direct disciple giving the talk!"

Shin Sumi detached her eyes from the couple of cultivators. The direct disciple could only mean one thing.

Xiao Yue had appeared, opening the doors to the Sword Pavilion wide. She was wearing an all black robe, her Black Devil Spear in her hand, leaving a trail of deathly smoke.

Her face was stern but Shin Sumi could tell by the discreetly wandering eyes that her sister was looking for her.

"Today's selection process is easy. Each of you is to take a piece of parchment and grab a tree leaf. The first thirty disciples to cut the parchment using the leaf will be accepted in the Star-Sword Pavilion. Begin!"

At the exact same time as Xiao Yue was giving the starting signal, the top most window of the pavilion opened, a thousand white squares of parchment falling from the sky like fireworks.

The beautiful display didn't take the disciples mind away from their tasks though. The next instant the crowd had dispersed, looking for the nearby tree to plunder for a good looking leaf.

Shin Sumi followed suit, Bai Fulong's face as concentrated as anyone's.

"I definitely didn't expect this sort of trial. What does it even mean as to our abilities with weapons?!"

Besides, Xiao Yue's voice was clear. Only thirty disciples would be allowed to enter the Sword Pavilion, not one more.

Still having the Ivory Silk Feathers plant in her bag of holding, Shin Sumi hesitated for a short few seconds whether she should pluck one of its leaves and use it instead of a tree leaf. In the end she decided against it in the name of fairness, as well as because of the discrete assembly that had formed around the Sword Pavilion.

Because of the flying parchment squares and the rush to grab a tree leaf, nobody had really paid attention to the newcomers. And now, around fifty disciples were standing at the bottom of the pavilion, some of them leaning against the walls, others simply waiting behind Xiao Yue.

Shin Sumi had not felt them arrive at all, but now that she had seen their presence, her divine sense was going wild.

A formless pressure had accompanied the troop, a high level group of cultivators for sure. Besides Xiao Yue, all of them must have been at least third step Liquid Realm disciples.

"Star-Sword practitioners... These are disciples who have already entered the number one branch of the Dark Sky Starry Sect..."

If Shin Sumi was wondering what they were doing there, the answer came abruptly when two of the disciples in standby leaped from the ground. The next instant, the both of them reappeared on either side of a trial taker, not five meters from Shin Sumi.

The two third step disciples had one hand each on the newbie's shoulders, the other hand firmly gripping the hilt of their swords in a terrifying manner.

The trial taker was knocked out instantly, his consciousness escaping without his realization, probably. He was quickly taken away, the general confusion mounting as to what had happened.

Xiao Yue cleared her throat loudly, bringing the attention back to her.

"If this hadn't been clear enough before, only one normal leaf is allowed. Any disciple attempting to cheat their way into the selection by using an Immortal plant leaf or a blade of any sort will be gently asked to step out."

Much like everybody else's, Shin Sumi's back shivered. She definitely hadn't been the last person to think of trying to cheat.

The warning was simple. All the attendees were step one Liquid Realm cultivators whereas the referees were the fifty high level disciples. There was no way to cheat.

Silence dawned on the crowd. Fear was a powerful tool, and a good motivator too. With a simple action, it was now certain that nobody would try to cheat and instead diligently worked on their task.

"Cutting parchment with a normal leaf" sighed Shin Sumi.

The goal was definitely exuberant. Who in their right mind would think of that?! But after all it was the Sword Pavilion's trial.

The Star-Sword branch was completely focused on using weapons instead of any other form of fighting. And yet the disciples attending the selection process were not allowed to use any weapon.

"We are Immortal cultivators. The key is definitely the flow and use of Shinsoo. I've got it!"

Shin Sumi was not the only one to understand the point of the trial. In the distance, Xiao Yue had spotted Sui Lin, the previous member of the Big Three from the lower valley.

She was surprised that Sui Lin would attempt to get in the Sword Pavilion, when her techniques and magic would definitely do wonders in the Formation Pavilion. Maybe because Jun Qian had been accepted as Master Cloud's direct disciple, she wanted to get away from him in order to not be his shadow forever.

As for the third member of the Big Three, Tai Bu, he was currently trying to infuse his tree leaf with Shinsoo.

"Two promising disciples, and they already figured out what to do. And that is not even considering all the older disciples attempting the selection once more. There's bound to be a few of them succeeding soon."

The voice behind Xiao Yue startled her a little bit. She had not heard him get so close behind.

"Where is the friend you've told me about, Yue?" asked Master Sword, a grim looking man with an unintentionally terrifying smile.

"Master, I don't need to tell you for now in my opinion. If everything goes right, my friend will enter the Pavilion in no time."

"Oh?" said Master Sword with a scoff. Sometimes even he was taken aback by the audacity of Xiao Yue's words. That was what he had liked about her in the first place. "I sure hope they don't disappoint me. Anyway we'll be fine if we get the two members of the Big Three."

Xiao Yue nodded, the presence of her master disappearing from behind her the next instant. She wasn't sure anybody had even realized that the proud number three expert in the entire sect had shown up just now.

"Sumi, I believe in you. Don't make me look like a fool in front of my Master, please."

In her Bai Fulong disguise, Shin Sumi had indeed understood what the trial was about.

She was gently trying to infuse moderate amounts of Shinsoo in the tree leaf resting on her palm.

"It's an exercise of Shinsoo control. Anything can become a weapon with enough Shinsoo infused into it, the hardest thing is to not consume the frail leaf with energy."

Because only one leaf could be used, insuffling too much Shinsoo into it automatically meant failing the trial.

"It should be good now" thought Shin Sumi, holding the leaf carefully, the parchment piece in her other hand.

Slash.

The second half of the parchment fell to the ground without a single noise. The green leaf suddenly burst into pieces, unable to endure the Shinsoo anymore, not that it mattered.

Ziiiiiing.

Shin Sumi caught the small object flying towards her at the last moment.

"A pin in the shape of a sword eh? How original."

Xiao Yue herself was handing out the insignias to all the disciples that had succeeded. Because of her current occupation she had failed to find her sword sister previously, but her heart was finally made at peace when she found herself throwing a tiny sword pin to the well known silhouette of Bai Fulong.

"Sumi as Bai Fulong, Sui Lin, Tai Bu, and twenty seven other good disciples. Master Sword will be happy."