When a person enters a new area, their first reaction is usually to take a look around.

In contrast, a person who’s worried about threats will focus on that first. After experiencing the weight of the gates, I was no exception to this.

When I finally managed to get out of threat analysis mode, the sights I saw in this outer court shocked me.

Across the sky float small spiritual beasts, in the shape of birds and other animals.

Some are reminiscent of the paper lanterns people in Asian countries would send off into the sky. Unlike my world, these seem to go from building to building and have a life of their own.

These buildings sit upon massive stone mountain spires that crowd the landscape, going up the mountain like the spines of a porcupine. Vast swaths of land cover the flattened ground area, but as my eyes start to comprehend the distances involved, I can see that each of these are islands of monoliths that rise up from the mountainside. Ornate bridges melding into the landscape, while matching the architecture of the buildings.

The style of the buildings remains similar to those in the wealthier portions of the outer city, but even the lowest of the buildings here emits a radiant quality. The light that shines out of the windows seemingly wraps around the buildings like a fog. What I could easily explain away as the fog diffusing light on earth, my scan reveals that there is something much more being done with these.

Each building seems perfectly positioned in order to enhance these qualities, reflecting the lights on others and enhancing them in the spaces between and on each other. It is almost as if something imbued them with some type of heavenly light, as part of a larger array.

Even the creatures that float in the air, dipping onto the roofs of the buildings, glow a little brighter as they leave the rooftops.

This is amplified by the fact that there seems to be two layers of clouds that this area rests between: one that lies just below where the gate of introspection is but barely visible on the way up, and one that lies above the tallest of the Spires that pierced the air above us.

The light seems to shine and reflect in every direction, filling the area with patterns of darkness and light in seemingly impossible ways. In some places, the beams are focused and sharpened to a point like swords diving towards the mountainside below.

Truly, the Revolving Heavenly Light Sect deserves its name, if this is what I can see at the lowest level of the sect.

But what does scare me a little, is the spaces in between.

Looking down the mountain at one of the other Spires, I can see a light cloud cover between each of the islands that the fancy bridges connect.

Below these are crevices that dive deep into the earth. A few of the shards of light that pierce this cloud cover and go into these dark places, are literally swallowed into the darkness. Not illuminating anything around them.

There’s a purpose for those, one that I hope I don’t find out anytime soon.

The one area that does not have islands and is part of the base level of the mountain is revealed to be that same road that I saw in the outer city. It is a massive distance away from us, only viewable because of my improved eyesight and the low curvature of the world.

After seeing all of this and experiencing these wonders beyond imagining, one last question comes to mind.

How the hell do normal people cross these types of distances in reasonable amounts of time?

My scan gives me the answer pretty quickly, being that they simply have fast transportation methods. Just like the carriage we used to get here.

For trips that have little to transport and need a fast travel time for increased cost, there are also teleportation methods.

That is its own can of worms.

Moving on, I actually notice that far in the distance there are people training and following a unified martial art routine. Most of them already seem to be low level body cultivators, that are just learning cultivation. Only one or two in the group have gotten to the Qi Condensation

They’re likely to be the outer sect members.

Standing at the head of them is a cultivator, watching over each of their moves and correcting them when necessary.

I shift my attention back to the group that I had arrived here with, noticing that there’s a large group of them around another cultivator. He seems to be a normal sect member those instructed just to guide us to where we need to go.

Knowing that this is important information, I quickly head over there. It appears he simply talking about the sect and what the next steps will be for all of us. Some people try to ask questions, but he cuts them off and says he won’t be answering any.

It appears there may be a stigma for sect members versus normal people. My guess, is that it’s simply that he just views that any time spent on people that may not be of benefit to him is a waste of time. It’s only when you proven yourself to be competent or have backing, that people will respect you here.

After some time of explaining this sect and their goals, which is basically get stronger, he gestures over to a slope which I strangely didn’t notice. Off to the side of the stairs that we used to arrive here is a smooth slope that leads to a tiny city. The reason why I say city, is because the sheer number of buildings there could easily house hundreds of thousands of people.

My scan shows, that these are basically all empty.

We must have been the first group to arrive here.

He then goes on about the other areas of this outer court area.

Apparently, the towers laying on the peak of these mountain peaks are where the sect members live, while the sect servants have living areas similar to the one that we will be staying in today.

While I think that, the cultivator says something that immediately catches my attention.

“Make sure to not go near the towers or any of the outer court members until you’re confirmed to be at that level or up. Our esteemed elders have decided that the level of sect needs to rise further than we’ve allowed in the past.”

He casts a side eye at the masses of the group.

“With the new requirements and the exceptionally large number of people carried up in this batch, I’m expecting many of you will become sect servants. Make sure to pay attention to the lessons that they give you there to show the proper respect.”

I can’t help but raise a question at this, despite the fact that I have the scan and could potentially find out.

“There are new requirements?”

His eyes land on me, without any recognition. Despite his earlier words that he wouldn’t answer questions, he humors me.

“It has been decided that the new spirit root requirements for this Quality Year will change as such…”

He details the below:

Original Sect Standards:

Sect Servant Quantity Year: Rose Man 3 and below Quality Year: Rose Man 4 and below Outer Court Disciple Quantity: Peony Earth 1 and below Quality: Peony Earth 3 and below Inner Court Disciple Quantity & Quality: Orchid Heaven 2 and below Or has powerful connections Core Disciple Quantity & Quality: Orchid Heaven 9 and below Or has personal and transcendent connections

New Sect Standards:

Sect Servant Quantity Year: Rose Man 3 and below Quality Year: Rose Man 4 and below Outer Court Disciple Quantity: Peony Earth 1 and below Quality: Peony Earth 4 and below Inner Court Disciple Quantity & Quality: Orchid Heaven 2 and below Or has powerful connections + close to requirements Core Disciple Quantity & Quality: Orchid Heaven 9 and below Or has personal, transcendent connections + close to requirements

My scan reminds me of the rankings of these spirit roots

Spiritual Roots:

Cultivation Speed:

Ranking

Type

Grade

People

No Talent/Cursed/Crippled Cultivation

Demi-Humans, Gong (Pre-Healing)

Low Talent

Rose Man

1

James Delinion(Pre-Healing)

1/10,000x

2

Majority of People

1/1,000

3

1/100

4

1/10x

Ordinary

5

James Delinion (Post-Healing), Majority of Cultivators

1x

6

Lin (Pre-Healing))

2x

7

5x

8

Gong (Current)

10x

9

15x

Above Average

Peony Earth

1

Majority of Demi Human Cultivators

25x

2

AI (Pre-Healing)

50x

3

75x

4

James Delinion (Current)

100x

Rare Genius

5

250x

6

Lin (Current)

500x

7

Mei Lin (Current)

750x

8

1000x

9

1250x

Extremely Rare Genius

Orchid Heaven

1

Ai (Current)

2000x

2

3000x

3

4000x

Powerful and Rare Genius

4

7500x

5

Da Xia (Young demi human girl – Current)

10,000x

6

20,000x

Heaven Defying Genius

7

50,000x

8

100,000x

9

200,000x

Transcendent Genius (stories)

Jade Flower Void

1,000,000x

What does this tell me?

That my Peony Earth 4 spirit root, isn’t enough anymore to get into the Inner Court.

Well, at least I have the other tests to do well in. I might need to make sure to show off a bit more than I thought, to guarantee my entry into the Inner Court.

It is at that moment, that I get a prompt from Gong.

She wants to send me a mental update and has Tai Ye shuffle over to communicate it.

… why do I get an exceptionally bad feeling about this?