The next morning, Wu Guang saw Xiao Feng for the first time from the night in the tunnels. Greeting each other, they descended to the first floor, where after breakfast everyone leaving the city would gather.

While eating they were approached by the Cui brothers, who would also travel with them to the sect.

Nine days were remaining until the start of the 'Three Hills Selection', so except for people on missions, everyone was recalled.

The six young clansmen traveling to train at the sect approached the table where Wu Guang and company were sitting, and except Duqi who simply greeted, the rest introduced themselves.

"Clansman Big Bull (Daniu) from the Assembly Bull Clan greets the warriors"

"Clansman Big Pole (Dazhu) from the Assembly Sparrow Clan greets the warriors"

The first to introduce themselves were the two zero cultivation teens from the minor clans. Their names described them fully, with one being stocky and muscular while the other one was tall and lean.

The two from the Bear Clan also similarly introduced themselves, but as warriors. They were a pair of twins, tall, muscular, and with the distinctive short, black hair of the clan. Their names were Lei and Yang. Having no surname meant that they were from the common clansmen, and not from the Clan ruling family.

As they introduced themselves as warriors, it meant that they had passed the selection, and started cultivating already. If Wu Guang's information was not mistaken, they should be on the 2nd or 3rd level of the Body.

The last person to introduce was the only female from the group, and also the only one from the group who wasn't dressed in the common leather outfit of the clansmen.

She introduced using common language, and was surprisingly fluent with it. Her voice was melodious, but slight raspy notes could be heard, a common sign of her Clan.

"My name is Lang Juan and I am from the Stone Wolf Clan. I thank you for your efforts in rescuing us"

She was slim, of middle height, and could be said to be a small beauty, almost as if her name was chosen to acknowledge the fact. Dressed in a light green travel dress with long silver hair falling almost to her waist she had white jade-like skin and a pair of bewitching eyes. While introducing a brief smile crossed her face, and pearly teeth were seen between her slightly plump lips.

In response, the four teens stood up and Wu Guang introduced himself while translating for the others.

Except for Xiao Feng who took a long look at her, the Cui brothers didn't really react to her beauty, while Wu Guang wasn't interested at all.

With the introductions finished, Lang Juan and Duqi after asking sat down at the bench that Wu Guang was occupying, while the other four went to sit at another table. Although Wu Guang and company had already finished breakfast, they would depart from here, so they asked the servant to bring some tea alongside the food for the Clansmen and remained in the canteen.

Lang Juan was surprisingly easy to speak with, a thing that nobody would expect from the strongest clan Chief's daughter. Duqi didn't speak but attentively listened, seemingly itchy to improve his common. Wu Guang promised to help him along the way as he was the only one from their age group who spoke both languages.

She politely answered several questions about the Clans that Xiao Feng brought up but fully ignored his attempts in what one could describe as flirting. When he noticed it, he finished pestering her and sat there with a slightly depressed face. Using this pause, Lang Juan suddenly turned towards Wu Guang who was sitting on the same bench but had made enough space for at least two people to sit between them

"Wu Guang, right? Duqi told me that you lived in the Wildlands?" She asked

"Yes, I had the fortune of apprenticing under Master Shu and lived for two seasons in the Boar Clan Town" He politely answered

"Oh, the Ambassador past the Hills was your mentor? I had to accompany my father to the Assembly during the Winter council and met him. I thought he was supposed to have left several weeks ago?"

"No, he is already in the sect. There was an incident before we arrived at the city, and because of an injury that Palace Master Chen cured me of, I stayed here" Although he answered, Wu Guang did not explain about the ambush, judging that if Lang Zheng did not explain, he should not do it as well.

Before she asked further, they were interrupted by the arrival of Zhen Mang. After everyone stood up and greeted him, he simply said

"We will leave shortly, if you need to grab something from the rooms, do it before we seal them"

The clansmen bags were recovered from the small room in the north wall that connected with the tunnels by the enforcers, but they had brought them along to the canteen for breakfast so there was no need to return to their rooms. Wu Guang had also brought his bag, while the Cui brothers and Xiao Feng being in the Spirit realm used Holding pouches, and always carried them on themselves.

Seeing that nobody needed to ascend, Zhen Mang nodded.

A moment later, Elder Chen and Lang Zheng also descended from the upper floors.

After a quick round of greetings, Elder Chen instructed everyone about their journey.

The instructions were simple, they would travel together at a normal pace for the first day, rest in a road inn located mid-way, and arrive at Blue Tree City on the second night.

Everyone except the Elder and Zhen Mang would be lodged in the city until the entrance ceremony would begin as per sect rules until accepted into the sect, one could not stay in the sect grounds.

When they exited the tower, Wu Guang was surprised to see that Ji Yong would travel with them. After asking, it turned out that Ji Yong was instructed by Elder Chen to take part in the 'Nascent Pride' tests and graduate after being granted inner-circle status. He would actually return to the tower later, but as a lower class elder to officially work as the Tower's housekeeper. Ji Yong also added with visible gratitude on his face that until now, his position was treated as a voluntary mission, while after this he would actually perceive allowance as an Elder and have full authority over all the Tower's mundane matters.

When the group started walking, the doors to the tower were closed. Only the servants, Chef Ji, and the six enforcers who would stay as garrison left inside.

It took them a full hour to arrive at the South Gate of the City. It was also a paired gate, but this one was twice the size of the opposite, North one.

After Zhen Mang who was walking in front flashed a black medallion, with the sect's name engraved on it in red characters, the guards let them exit directly, skipping the line of people queued to be questioned and carts to be inspected.

***

It indeed took them all day to reach the inn that Elder Chen mentioned before. The journey was uneventful and there was nothing to observe except for the forest strewn to the sides of the road. The road was earthen and no signs were seen indicating where the smaller side-roads left, but comparing their locations to the map that Wu Guang had memorized, he could guess that each led to one of the small and big villages where most of the territory population lived.

The inn was pretty big, with several separate buildings located inside a garden and around the main courtyard. Zhen Mang entered and quickly returned with two servants. One of these servants directed Wu Guang and the rest of the young men towards a wooden one-storied building, while the other led the seniors and Lang Juan into the courtyard.

The building that Wu Guang and company entered was sparsely decorated and seemed empty. The servant quickly showed them towards a corridor that led to five rooms with two beds each. After a brief discussion, the rooms were assigned; one for the Cui Brothers, one for the Bear Clan, one for the minor clans, Ji Yong would stay with Duqi and Xiao Feng would stay with Wu Guang. Before leaving, the servant informed that dinner would be brought to the room at the entrance in half an hour, while the washing facilities and bathroom were located at the end of the corridor.

"Seems that Head Enforcer decided to keep us away from the secular dangers and sent us to one of the lodges that merchant companies or soldiers use" Xiao Feng spoke with distress all over his face

"Well, you could always go and upgrade your conditions by paying" Shrugged off Cui Li

The Cui brothers were not really interested in the quality of their rooms or socializing with people outside their sect.

Wu Guang and Ji Yong considered that a decent place like this was good enough, especially as they were not paying themselves.

While the Clansmen who were accustomed to a similar type of buildings in their towns were content with the fact that they would not need to camp.

After some time two servants brought in a tray full of food. Everything was pretty simple but in big quantities. An enormous casserole full of spiced meat and veggies accompanied by twenty rice bowls and some small extras. After making another trip, they brought a small barrel of beer and several jugs of fruit water as a drink.

Although Wu Guang was surprised to see even light alcohol like beer to be brought, he quickly joined the others in pouring himself a glass. It was a bit watered, but the taste was acceptable.

Half an hour later all the food and drink were finished everyone went to sleep early as Elder Chen had said while instructing them in the tower.

Wu Guang was the only one who remained awake for a while, remembering details from the time he lived on the Blue Planet. Although he only lived there for some twenty-five years after he managed to trick his attackers and let part of his soul escape alongside all his memories by using a forbidden technique, he grew fond of the technology and life of that mortal world. "Heh, who would think that an immortal reborn on a non-astral plane would be enamored by things like that. When I achieve the Divine realm, I shall try to contest for the rights of that realm if it's possible. Some of the technology should be able to be adapted to qi before they disappear".

If someone knew that one of the most recognized scholars in the higher realms wanted to use mortal technologies in the cultivation world, they would be shocked, and even angered.

It was a fact that all worlds that connected to the Astral Road would slowly reach the same level of civilization, basically discarding most of the technology. Most of the scientific discoveries would be overturned when the Dao laws appeared, and a big part of the technological advances would not work in an intended manner as well.

The cultivators would begin to create and use commodities and tools controlled by qi and the mortals, would return towards more basic tools, ones that did not get affected by the laws of their plane.

If someone asked for examples related to the Blue Planet, Bai Qi or better said the native of that plane would easily give dozens, but the most shocking for the people would be that mechanisms like the combustion engine would not work because the oxygen in the air would be infused with qi, and the air itself would be under the control of the Heavenly Dao Laws. It would not happen at the first moment, but as the qi concentration augmented everything like planes, guns, and other things related to air would be unable to work as intended. Explosions and such would also slowly become unable to cover areas as before, basically because of the force needed to break through the qi pressure. And scientists would find out that whatever they researched before to be false.

With such thoughts floating inside his mind, full of the memories of an immortal scholar that lived for almost eight hundred years, a young man from the blue planet and mixed with the memories of the dead Half Island youngster, Wu Guang slowly descended into sleep.