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Mingwei stood and faced an Inner Disciple.

He looked at his QI Storage. He had used some Qi for the jumps, blocks and punches in the earlier practice move.

Qi Storage

86/100

Core Endurance/Toughness

100/100

He bowed. “I’ll go first.”

He used 5 QI to leap in, and tried to punch. Just a 1 Qi punch. The inner disciple blocked it easily.

Another Qi punch. This time, 2 Qi.

The inner disciple blocked it too, and he smiled. He lifted his hands, and punched. So fast! No time to leap away. Mingwei looked at the punch. It was easily a 30-Qi attack!

He used 20 Qi to block! But he still staggered back! Somehow his punch dealt more damage than he expected, and he felt his core take the hit!

Qi Storage

58/100 (-28)

Core Endurance

70/100 (-30)

That wasn’t a regular Qi punch. It was an upgraded Qi punch!

“Pretty good!” The inner disciple said, and he leaped towards him. The inner disciple smiled, and jumped. In all honesty, Mingwei knew there was no way he would win. The 3-star inner disciple’s QI was easily around 20,000 to 30,000. This was a game for the inner disciple.

Mingwei used his Qi Leap to get some distance, but the inner disciple was faster, and he was closing in.

A QI punch. Mingwei froze. There wasn’t much he could do other than block it with everything he had. Which, sadly, was capped at 20 Qi He felt the attack damaged his core massively.

Qi Storage

33/100

Core Endurance

20/100 (-50)

Mingwei immediately knelt on the floor. It wasn’t worth dying for a sect trial! “I surrender!”

The inner disciple had stopped. “Alright, you pass! Good control and instincts for a newbie, and you were able to react in time. Impressive for someone just at the Early 1-star.”

Mingwei’s hands were sweaty. Inside, his child-part and his past memories clashed. His original personality, the child, argued whether this was worth it. He didn’t like fighting, and he didn’t like getting beat up either! The child part of him still felt the very real fear of death, as much as the older, past selves of him helped him resist it.

“Hey, did you hear me? I said you passed.”

Mingwei was still caught up in his inner conflict. This was between him and his past selves.

“Hey, hey. Don’t embarrass me. Stop kneeling. The elder’s going to think I’m bullying a candidate! Hey!”

That last word made Mingwei jolt and he stood up, still sweaty and weak. “Uh... sorry? Did I fail?”

“No. I said you passed.”

“Oh. Okay.” Mingwei breathed a sigh of relief. “I... passed?”

“Yes.” The inner disciple looked around. “Alright, next.”

“Oh.” Mingwei sat and panted. A few of the candidates looked at Mingwei with sympathy and pity. Well, he did lose quite miserably.

As it turned out, the battle pretty much knocked the candidates down to only 30. The inner disciples were looking for candidates that didn’t freeze in combat, could react well for their level, and used their QI carefully.

Elder Hulong and the disciples then moved those who passed to a quieter area.

“Alright, the 30 of you passed! That means, from today, you will live in your assigned quarters, and you are now junior disciples of the Longbow Sect! Perform well over the next few years, and you might get upgraded to Outer Disciple!”

Mingwei still reeled from the damage to his core. In fact, all of the candidates looked like they were given a beating. Was this normal?

“So, it’s been a long day, so let’s get all of you back to your new quarters. Tomorrow’s a rest day for all juniors, so feel free to just walk around the common general areas. And just to be clear, all of you are the 388th junior batch!”

388th junior batch. That meant that the Sect has been around for perhaps... 190 years, if they did Sect Trials twice a year?

Some inner disciples led them to the quarters. “Alright, this is the 388th batch housing. All 30 of you will live here. How you split the rooms is up to you.” There were two three-story wooden houses with about three rooms per floor. A total of 18 rooms. There’s 30 of them. Some of them probably didn’t have to share. Each house had their own washroom and shower, and like Mingwei’s past world, they had specialised Qi formations for the purpose of sanitation and cleanliness.

The inner disciples then pointed. “That’s the 387th batch housing, and that’s the 386th batch, 382th to 385th batches are there.”

Junior disciples are fodder. Juniors have to make it to outer disciples within 5 years, or they will be kicked out. Some, that clearly are not making progress, are told to leave within 3 years.

“Alright. Sort yourself out.” The inner disciples said and left.

Mingwei stood in their quarters, and looked at the rest of the disciples. It was quite an equal mix of men and women, and very quickly, a loud woman said. “The girls are taking that block.”

“Fine, the men are taking this block, then.”

With that, the 14 guys were left to split 9 rooms. “So, who wants to share?”

“I’m sharing with him.” A guy said to the group, pointing to another guy. “We’re from the same village.”

“Alright. Who else. I’m not sharing.” One of them.

Mingwei was really tired, and he just looked around. He saw one guy that looked equally bored and tired, so he walked over and asked. “Hey, do you want to share rooms? I won’t bother you much.”

The guy turned, gave him a look, glanced at Mingwei from top to bottom, then nodded. “Yeah.”

“Alright, the two of us are sharing. We’ll go get one of the rooms now.”

“Take the bottom floors. The upper floors are for the better ones!”

Mingwei’s roommate looked at him and shrugged. He shrugged too. “Alright then.” The two of them took one of the ground floor rooms, and it was honestly quite cozy. It’s clean, there’s two beds, one at each end of the room, and there’s actually a large wooden moveable screen that can be used to somewhat partition the room into two for privacy.

He looked at his roommate. “I’m going to take a long nap. I’m Mingwei, by the way.”

“Yu Huadao.” His roommate went to his side of the room, and they both went to sleep.