The room they found themselves in was just alright. But there was a silver lining for Wang Jie, for once while sharing a room with other people, he wouldn’t have to sleep in a bunk bed. They each had their own bed to sleep in.

Sitting down and claiming a bed, Wang Jie said, “So you guys have any idea what kinda transportation were waiting for?”

“Should be some kind of large flying tool.” Tang He said.

“Flying tool?”

“It’s a kind of spirit tool, powered by Qi or spirit stones.” Lou Fu said, “Spirit stones are basically a source of Qi, usually used as a currency.”

“I see.” Wang Jie nodded, “You both know a lot about all of this.”

“Well both of our family clans have cultivators.” Tang He said to explain.

The time passed peacefully. Unfortunately they weren’t provided any meals, so Wang Jie had to borrow money from Lou Fu to eat every time. Lou Fu didn’t mind and had plenty of money, but Wang Jie felt a bit ashamed. But at least he’d heard from them that meals were free at the sect.

During this waiting period, except for conversing with Lou Fu and Tang He, Wang Jie had initially spent most of his time cultivating. Neither of the two boys spent a minute of their time cultivating though. They had been cultivating with their clan’s cultivation techniques since 13, but after reaching Qi Condensation tier 3 they had stopped. Apparently the sect’s cultivation technique was of a higher grade, so cultivating with it would allow one to form a higher quality cultivation base. But since the difference between their cultivation techniques and the sects wasn’t that big, the difference was negligible before breaking into the 4th tier.

On the other hand they had advised Wang Jie to completely cease cultivating with what they referred to as his trash cultivation technique. So he was pretty much forced to stop cultivating whenever they were around. He wasn’t really able to explain how he had an extremely good cultivation technique. At least as far as he thought.

He’d also found that his cultivation speed had decreased by quite a bit. It seemed that cultivating wasn’t as easy or fast as he had expected it to be. What he didn’t realize was that his speed was actually quite fast considering he wasn’t using any resources to increase his rate of progress.

—-

After five days the transportation finally arrived. As Lou Fu and Tang He had guessed it was indeed a kind of flying tool. More precisely, it was a large flying ship. When they were herded on board they were met with two other elders and around 50 other new disciples. The reason they had to wait was because the flying was picking up the new disciples that had been selected in the other capital city.

Now all here, the flying ship set off for the sect. Unlike the generous lodgings that they had stayed in at the courtyard, the ship wasn’t comfortable at all. They were stacked on it like cattle, just sitting on the deck. There wasn’t really much space to move at all. But fortunately, the meals were free here, not that there was anywhere to buy them anyway. Wang Jie figured that some of the elders probably had that same sort of ring that he had stored the cultivation manual in.

It only took another three days before they arrived at the sect. Supposedly the location of the sect was close to the city of Andory. Flying over the steep mountain peaks made for quite a grand sight. Wang Jie was shocked at what he saw before him, apparently the six mountain peaks way in front all belonged to the sect. It was quite a big territory.

They flew closer and landed on the outskirts of the sect. Herded off the flying tool they followed two of the elders while the other two elders left to do something else.

It didn’t take long before they arrived at a two story wooden pagoda named Cloud-Spirit Hall. Despite not being very tall, it was quite an impressive sight. The fine craftsmanship and design was breathtaking. They formed a line and waited their turn to be registered. Wang Jie waited in line with Tang He and Lou Fu for a few hours before they got to the front. Standing in front of the pagoda, there was a hole in the wall where an elderly man sat, facing him.

“Give me your token.” The man said in a monotonous voice.

Wang Jie pulled his token out of his pocket and handed it to the man.

“A-Rank hmm?” The man stroked his white beard, “Quite good.”

The elderly man didn’t say anymore and just assigned Wang Jie to the 4th district within the outer disciples living quarters, handed an outer disciples robes, a translucent blue pebble sized crystal and the Mountain Cloud Sect’s cultivation manual. He was then sent off in a hurry.

After getting his things, Wang Jie decided to wait for Tang He and Lou Fu. It took a few more minutes before he saw them both come over.

“What’s this crystal?” Wang Jie held up the translucent blue crystal he’d received.

“Oh that’s a Spirit Stone. If you hold it while cultivating you can cultivate faster.” Tang He said, “It’ll get used up though.”

“Thanks.” Wang Jie stuck the Spirit Stone back in his pocket.

“As A-Ranks the sect will give us four every month, Lou Fu only gets two.” Tang He laughed mockingly at Lou Fu but then frowned as he remembered, “But his family will likely provide him with even more than us.”

“Wealth is also a talent.” Lou Fu said and changed the topic, “What district are you guys in? I’m in the 4th.”

“Same.” Wang Jie said.

“Me too.” Tang He added.

“Lucky!” Lou Fu cheered and smiled, “I guess it’s assigned in order.”

“Guess so.” Tang He nodded.

Together they went to the 4th district to find their living quarters. The 4th district was in a little valley, small buildings were scattered throughout. A river peacefully flowed through the valley and it was a bit breezy as the wind rustled their clothes. They were already a few weeks into summer, but on the eastern continent it rained all year round so the grass was wet and damp. Just breathing in Wang Jie could feel the thick spiritual energy in the air.

While they had all been assigned to the 4th district, their rooms weren’t right next to each other. They split up and went their respective living quarters, but not before agreeing to meet up at the same spot and explore after they had changed into their robes.

The living quarters were plain and cramped. A bed, dresser, table and chairs was all the furnishing the room had to offer. Wang Jie didn’t need much though, so he was very comfortable with the arrangements. Most of all, it felt great to have a private place to call his own. Rooming with others was nice, but he wasn’t even comfortable bringing out his cultivation manual in an environment like that. He put the Mountain Cloud cultivation manual in the dresser, it didn’t matter much to him. But he’d read it anyway just to see if it contained any basic information that the White Tiger cultivation manual didn’t have.

He stripped and changed into the blue and cyan colored robe that indicated he was an outer disciple. Having changed, he left his quarters and went to meet up with Tang He and Lou Fu.

As they explored the sect, Tang He was able to explain a lot about the various places because of the information he’d received from his brothers.

“This place should be the canteen, most of the outer disciples eat there…”

“That over there is the Pill Refining Valley, only inner disciples are permitted to study pill refining there. Everyone needs medicinal pills, so my brothers both said it was best to be on their good side. You never know when you might need their help. Of course you could always become a pill refiner yourself, though I doubt either of you have the knack for it.”

“What are you on about? I’m sure I have a great talent for pill refining.” Lou Fu bragged and thumped his chest.

“Arghh be quiet, quit blabbering Lou Fu.” Tang He gave him a jab and turned to Wang Jie, “What about you Wang Jie? Are you considering pill refining?”

“Nahh, I lean more towards battling.”

“It’s the same for me.” Tang He nodded in approval, “Strength is all that matters.”

They left to explore the other places of the sect, after walking for a while they stood in front of a giant pavilion with multiple levels.

“As far as I know, this should be the sect library for inner disciples. The sect has a giant collection of various techniques and books. There’s a sect library for outer disciples too, but it’s only general information…”

“What’s that Tang He?” Lou Fu pointed at a distant summit.

“Actually I’m not quite sure about that. I’ve never been here after all, I only know these places from my brothers’ descriptions.” Tang He shrugged and gazed at the summit.

The summit was shrouded in thick white fog, circling around and completely covering up what was behind it. One couldn’t help but be drawn to it and what it was hiding.

After they had explored for a few more hours they went back to the canteen and ate a big meal. At that time the canteen was filled with other outer disciples, but it was still easy to find a table. After satisfying their hunger, they walked back to the 4th district and split up to return to their quarters.

Now alone in his room Wang Jie pulled out the book and began to browse through it. The diagrams didn’t seem quite advanced as his own manual, but there was quite a bit of information that his lacked. For example, the book had a detailed guide on how to use the Qi of a Spirit Stone to aid in cultivating.

Deciding to try it out, Wang Jie pulled out his Spirit Stone and sat cross-legged on his bed to cultivate. As he held it in his palm, he closed his eyes and began cultivating. He quickly felt a difference in his flow of his Qi as he absorbed the Qi from the Spirit Stone. It was indeed quite a bit faster than just cultivating without the aid of the Spirit Stone.

However, he also felt that the stone wouldn’t last very long at the rate he was going. It wouldn’t take more than five days before the stone was completely used up. If he was to receive four stones a month he would only be able to use a Spirit Stone twenty days out of a month. Still, it was better than before when he hadn’t had any stones at all, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t cultivate without, it was just slower.

Wang Jie now understood what Tang He had meant. If Lou Fu’s family provided him with enough Spirit Stones to cultivate with, it would definitely make up for his lesser talent.