The bird sped up leaving the star shaped Grandfort city behind and soon a large lake appeared and in the middle of that same lake stood a mountain. It had cherry blossom trees next to it and some pavilions, big and small, spread across it’s slope. A lot of large magic beasts could be seen in its vicinity. It was a sight to behold.

The eagle landed near a pavilion at the foot of the mountain.

Every single new recruit was fascinated and even their pets didn’t differ.

Mentor 1 didn't say anything and just guided the kids towards the entrance of that pavilion where some youths around 18 years old stood guard.

“Good Afternoon Senior.” They all bowed towards Mentor 1 and opened the door.

Inside of the building were various desks with people working behind them.

“In order to officially become a member of our Sacred Bond Martial House you will need our official robes and identity tokens”.

Mentor 1 moved his right hand over his ring and there appeared a coin made of a material quite like metal with a number carved into it.

“This is my identity token, it has various uses, the first and most obvious one is to identify you as a member of our Martial House, even if it gets stolen we can still tell unless the thief is able to change their aura to resemble yours.”

People were looking at him talking but weren’t quite listening. They were mesmerized by the ring on Mentor 1’s finger, they all knew what it was…, a spatial ring..

It was an item that had a small spatial dimension inside which could be used to store some items, it wasn't that rare of an item, it was just that the people present were literal country bumpkins when it came to the cultivation world.

Mentor 1 noticed the brats weren't paying attention and upped his tone a bit. “SECONDLY, it's the way we store and register the contribution points you gain by doing missions, those points can then be used to buy weapons, pills and if you have enough of them you could even ask the mentors for private lessons.”

“And last but not least, it tracks your ranking inside the martial house, for example, there are at this moment 803 people in the martial house, you guys will be placed at the bottom of the list according to your entrance rank so the number 1 will be rank 804, number 2 will be rank 805 and so on. Ranking is extremely important because it decides how many resources you will get each month with the amount increasing every 100 ranks so the person ranked 799 will receive more than you.”

“ I won't go into more details for now, you just have to know that to increase your rank you have to challenge the battle tower and that for now you will receive one spirit grass per month.”

“Now you will form a line and talk to these fellow disciples to get your robes, your identity token and a key to your accommodations. I'll see you tomorrow at this place to help you choose your weapons and go more in depth regarding missions.”

Mentor 1 slowly walked out of the pavilion into a gravel road and soon disappeared along that path.

Everyone was rather confused, there was too much to process but they still formed the line and waited.

When it got to Aegon's turn, a youth around 17 years old was the one that gave him his robe, identity token and key while also giving him a small introduction.

“First of all welcome to our Martial House, here you have your robe, it's pretty standard stuff but try to keep it in good condition, in case you lose it, damage it or for some reason need more of them you have to pay, but dont worry too much they aren't expensive.”

“To use your identity token to buy something just give it to the elder responsible for that store, your rank is displayed on the back of the token and it will change automatically when your rank changes. Any questions?”

Aegon took the token and behind it he saw the number “831”. [So that means I was 28th place in the tournament… Well, I think that's decent.]

“Humm, so how do I know my balance?” Aegon was kind of worried he would have to keep track of it himself.

“Oh right sorry, to know your balance you need to send a bit of your energy into the token but since we can’t control it just yet you can touch the token to the large blue stones we have around here that will power it and you will instinctively know your balance, It's a rather curious feeling.”

“As for your room, it has the same number as your rank so just follow that gravel road and you will find it for sure”

“Ok... thanks.” Aegon said, still a bit overwhelmed while he walked into that gravel path..

[Instinctively know my balance? And there are at least 855 rooms in this mountain? Holy shit!]

His thoughts were still a bit off because soon he spotted a room numbered 999, it was a shabby place around 4 square meters with an angled roof. It had a little garden so that the person could plant some spirit herbs and nothing much besides that . 98 similar rooms followed, half on each side of the road which was slowly climbing around the mountain.

Room 899 was a bit different though, it was 6 square meters and had a bigger garden.

“Not too shabby, I lived in something similar back in Grandfort.”

He zoomed the rest of the way with Kuro in tow until he spotted number 831.

Aegon stopped in front of his room and looked around the house, he was on the cliff side of the road. The house across from his was already lit. He was really happy he made it, he was now officially a disciple of the Sacred Bond Martial House.

He petted Kuro and walked inside, closing the door behind them.