Chapter 37 - Gathering of the Geniuses
The Mystic Spirit Sect was located in the north of the Luo River Kingdom; it used Tian Feng Mountain as a foundation to build its entrance.
Qin Nan was currently standing at the foot of Tian Feng Mountain. Ahead of him stood an enormous arc-shaped door around fifty meters tall. Behind the door, a few lines of green pathways made of flagstones led toward the mountain’s peak.
On top of the tall mountain peak, among the mists, there stood a huge flaming-red palace that was only faintly discernible, causing one to feel tiny before it. This was the Mystic Spirit Sect, one of the four big sects of the Luo River Kingdom, the dream sacred martial ground of countless youngsters within the kingdom.
As Qin Nan had a firm heart to pursue Martial Arts due to his Divine Battle Spirit, he began to feel excited at the foot of the Mystic Spirit Sect.
Upon entering the Mystic Spirit Sect, he would start to know more about the world, and step onto a bigger stage.
Upon entering the Mystic Spirit Sect, he would meet all different kinds of geniuses and compete with them in battle.
“Let’s go. The new disciples from all over have surely gathered here in the Mystic Spirit Sect by now.” Xiao Qingxue said while covering her smile with her hand, her eyes flickering.
No one would have guessed that the ‘the top-ranked beauty’ of the Mystic Spirit Sect—who was also one of the top geniuses—was looking forward to seeing what kind of drama Qin Nan would cause after he joined the Mystic Spirit Sect.
Qin Nan raised his head slightly, and stepped past the big entrance as he followed behind Xiao Qingxue. They proceeded upward following the meandering pathway.
On the way, Bai Heng hurriedly explained, “Young Master Qin Nan, the disciples of the Mystic Spirit Sect are classified into outer, inner, and core disciples. Every new disciple who recently joined the sect is classified as an outer disciple, regardless of their Martial Spirits’ grade. They are promoted once their cultivation has improved. Those below Martial Emperor Realm are outer disciples, and those above, inner. As for the core disciples, their presences are highly ranked in the Mystic Spirit Sect; I have no information about them unless their authority is weaker than the elders’...”
Qin Nay nodded lightly, but in his mind, he was surprised.
This is indeed one of the top four sects of the Luo River Kingdom; one has to reach the Martial Emperor level to be promoted to a mere inner disciple.
If that’s the case, how powerful could the core disciples be?
Bai Heng continued to explain, “Outer disciples live in the outer domain. Inner disciples are allowed to develop their own caverns as homes. Furthermore, the Mystic Spirit Sect has a few main halls, which are: the Sect Leader’s Hall, the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Discipline, the Skills Library, the Treasure Vault, and the Hall of Life and Death. The functions of these halls can mostly be determined from their names, except for the Hall of Life and Death, which is somewhat special.”
“Hmm?” Qin Nan was slightly intrigued.
A complicated expression appeared in Bai Heng’s eyes as he said, “Infighting is prohibited in the Mystic Spirit Sect. Those who break this rule are exiled without exception. Thus, the purpose of this Hall of Life and Death is to resolve conflicts between the disciples. However, once the two enter the Hall of Life and Death, there are no restrictions on their lives anymore—the fight will only end once a person is killed. If not for this, they would need to face penalties according to the rules of the sect.”
“No restrictions on their lives, and one of them must die?”
Qin Nan took a deep breath. I never expected this Hall of Life and Death to be so cruel; one of the two must die upon entering it.
“Besides that, there are ten important rules in the Mystic Spirit Sect. The first rule is no infighting, as mentioned before. The second one is: no betrayal is allowed. The third one is…”
With Bai Heng’s explanation along the journey, Qin Nan could now somewhat understand how the Mystic Spirit Sect operated.
In the meantime, they arrived at the mountain’s peak.
A spacious outdoor dojo appeared before Qin Nan. The whole dojo was made of white jade, which made it look like an enormous ice cube. Under the dojo, it felt like there existed a huge active formation, which caused the Qi at the dojo to be several times more abundant. At this time, the huge White Jade Dojo was densely filled with people; an estimated few hundred at least.
Qin Nan instinctively looked at the crowd, some of them were wearing luxurious clothing, while others wore plain clothing; some had a somewhat weird style of fashion. They were all young-looking, but the most eye-catching thing for Qin Nan was the powerful aura emitted from all of them.
Qin Nan had noticed that the weakest cultivation base among the crowd was the fourth-layer Body Tempering Realm, while the strongest had even reached the tenth-layer Body Tempering Realm!
“These are this year’s freshly recruited disciples.” Bai Heng lowered his voice. Instead of gazing at the crowd of youngsters with arrogance, a hint of fear could be seen in his eyes.
When he heard this, Qin Nan’s heart skipped a beat as he secretly inhaled sharply.The Mystic Spirit Sect being one of the top four sects is no joke at all; these new disciples are all so talented.
“Bai Heng, this will be as far as you accompany us.” Xiao Qingxue said.
Bai Heng nodded his head, without showing any signs of growing angry. He gave Qin Nan a respectful bow and walked away swiftly, disappearing into the palaces behind the White Jade Dojo.
Xiao Qingxue softened her tone, “Qin Nan, I’ll accompany you here. Later, an elder will be here to announce the start of the Trial of Versatility. Be sure you do not have any conflicts with anyone—let me handle it.”
Qin Nan nodded and proceeded toward the crowd of hundreds of young disciples, together with Xiao Qingxue.
At the same time, the group of young disciples noticed their approach and turned their gazes toward them.
Of course, their lines of sight were attracted by Xiao Qingxue; their eyes were filled with surprised expressions.
After a while, they collected their thoughts and noticed Qin Nan, who was standing beside Xiao Qingxue. Complicated expressions such as doubt, disdain, derision, curiosity, and pride could be seen in their eyes, as they started to gossip with each other.
“Who is this young man? Why is he accompanied by such a beauty?”
“What, are you stupid? This is our Senior Sister named Xiao Qingxue—an inner disciple. Not only is she known as the number one beauty of the Mystic Spirit Sect, but she also possesses an eighth-grade Huang ranked Martial Spirit!”
“”What? This lady has an eighth-grade Huang ranked Martial Spirit?”
“My god, not only is this girl beautiful, but she also has such a powerful Martial Spirit. No wonder she is the top beauty of our Mystic Spirit Sect!”
“Hehe, from today onward, Sister Xiao will be my dream girl!”
“……”
Among these hundreds of new disciples, everyone apart of a few were attracted by Xiao Qingxue.
How could they not be attracted by a lady who was powerful and gorgeous at the same time?
Qin Nan was not bothered by it. Instead, he preferred the situation to stay like this, so he could check the disciples out when their attention was focused on Xiao Qingxue.
After a period of observation, a heavy expression appeared on Qin Nan’s face. By his judgment, there were forty-three people he needed to keep an eye on.
These forty-three people had no doubt reached the sixth-layer or above of the Body Tempering Realm. Furthermore, Qin Nan was able to feel a sense of danger from these people, possibly because they had a lot of killing experience.
That being said, even though these forty-three disciples possessed high cultivation bases, their Martial Spirit’s grades were not higher than Qin Nan’s.
The reason behind this was that the Mystic Spirit Sect had changed its period of recruiting disciples from every three years to every two years. After losing to the super geniuses from the previous trials, those disqualified talented candidates would use the period between the trials to improve themselves, just like Fang Rulong of Lingshui City.
If Qin Nan had not forced him to forfeit his cultivation, in two years’ time, his cultivation base would have improved to a certain degree. When that time came and there was no other genius from Lingshui City who could surpass Fang Rulong, then Fang Rulong would have become the top genius of Lingshui City, and would have been qualified to join the Mystic Spirit Sect.
At this time, a sudden, slightly wicked voice was heard, “Yo, I was just guessing who had caught the attention of all the disciples here, and it appears to be the Beautiful Xiao. Tsk tsk, why is the Beautiful Xiao here keeping a ladyboy company, instead of her spending time with Mr. Ou Yang?”