He bought a good horse and rode it to a big city about thirty miles away. If his memory served him right, there was a decent cultivation marketplace there, where he could rent spiritual mounts. Flying ships and flying swords were all treasure artifacts and above, and as such they required a divine soul and spiritual power to control—both of which were beyond him now. He cheaply rented a horrendous-looking bird and flew for twenty days before arriving at the scenic landscape where Woyun Sect was located—the Blessed Realms, where twenty-two snowcapped mountains towered tall and majestic amidst lingering swirls of drifting clouds and mist.
It was the last day of recruitment for the year, and a crowd of aspiring cultivators hoping to join the sect had gathered in front of the mountain gate. Of course, there were also vendors peddling tea and snacks.
Mo Tianliao had been to the other two Great Clouds sects in his previous life, but never Woyun Sect. Unlike the magnificent entrances that the other two sported, Woyun Sect didn’t have a plaque carved out of high-quality white jade or a giant sword sculpted from black crystal. All they had was a round rock, ten feet across, inscribed with the words Woyun Sect. Behind it, a path of stone steps stretched deep into the mountain mists.
It was practically a given for first-time visitors to ridicule this shabby decoration. A few young men who’d come here to join were pointing at the unsightly stone and whispering among themselves.
“This sect looks so poor…”
Mo Tianliao glanced at the ten-foot-tall Rebound Rock and wondered how they’d react if they learned that a piece of it the size of a fist was worth a hundred high-grade spiritual stones.
A commotion suddenly broke out behind him. Mo Tianliao instinctively stepped aside as a fiery red blur shot past him through the gate and leaped up the stone steps in a panic.
“Stop right there!” Several cultivators with swords on their backs followed in hot pursuit.
A loud hum rang out. That big, unassuming rock began to glow faintly. The cultivators were violently repelled in an instant, sent crashing to the ground. The little red fox stopped running and perched smugly on the stone steps, swishing its tail as it watched the show.
The cultivators scrambled to their feet and summoned their flying swords to continue their chase, but the same invisible force threw them back again.
“Who’s stirring up trouble here?!” a deep voice boomed, and three cultivators in different colored robes approached. The speaker was the man in the lead. One of the other two, a lovely young girl, picked up the fox in her arms.
“That spirit beast belongs to us!” the sword-wielding cultivators protested.
“The Rebound Rock reacts to killing intent. So, pray tell, what do you mean by drawing weapons at our gate?” said the first speaker, a man with narrow eyes. His voice was imbued with the powerful aura of his vital force, and it was clear that his cultivation surpassed the pursuers’.
The overzealous cultivators finally realized they’d somehow managed to chase the fox all the way to the entrance of Woyun Sect. Spirit beasts were valuable and highly coveted by all, but as disciples of a small sect, they couldn’t afford to offend Woyun Sect, so they gritted their teeth and apologized. “Forgive us for our offense, but please return that fox to us.”
“The law in Taixuan is that whoever catches a spirit beast owns it. It’s mine now.” The girl cradled the fox in her arms and grinned. The little fox, understanding her words, cooed in agreement.
The pursuers hesitated, clenching their jaws, but eventually left in resentment, putting an end to this brief interlude.
The three Woyun Sect cultivators were actually here to gauge the spiritual attributes of the hopeful applicants. There were no complicated procedures. The man with narrow eyes briefly explained the rules, then had the crowd queue up to be tested by his junior. The girl, meanwhile, paid no attention to proceedings and played with her fox.
Cultivators began as mortal folks, so they came in all shapes and sizes, but these three from Woyun Sect were strikingly attractive. Between that and the distinguished aura that came with cultivating the orthodox arts, they looked positively divine. A few boys’ eyes bulged out of their heads as they gawked at the girl.
Mo Tianliao was at the end of the line, so by the time it was his turn, four hours had passed.
“Hand out, please,” the third sect member, a gentle-looking man, said to him. Mo Tianliao complied and extended his left hand, and the man produced a beautiful three-inch-long crystalline ruler.
Mo Tianliao’s pupils contracted. This ruler was his handiwork. He’d made it out of boredom as a toy for Pawpaw. It could detect the spiritual attributes of humans, as well as those of spirit beasts.
“Dual attributes of wood and fire,” the man announced. As expected—an ordinary attribute detector would only be able to make out his wood attribute, but this ruler could also discern his woodfire.
If Pawpaw’s toy was out here in the wild, though, his demon palace must have been raided clean… Mo Tianliao sulked for a moment before he went to stand with the candidates who had superior spiritual attributes.
Spiritual attributes were sorted into the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Typically, a person possessed one or more attributes. Dual and single attributes were considered to be superior, and single attributes that were substantial and stable were termed heaven attributes.
Those with superior and ordinary attributes were soon separated into several groups. The little girl with the fox then stood up. “You, you, you, and you—eliminated.”
“Huh? Why?” The ones she pointed out were shocked.
She ignored them and went on pointing out more people, this time eliminating two-thirds of the candidates.
“Why, though?” A stir rose among the confused crowd.
“My apologies, everyone,” the man with the narrow eyes said, smiling. “Woyun Sect only accepts those with exceptional looks. You all have excellent aptitude, though, so you can try your luck at the other sects.”
Without waiting for their reaction, he waved the rejects away, sending them flying thirty feet out. Then, he turned and led the chosen disciples up the stone steps.
The corner of Mo Tianliao’s lips twitched. He really couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Woyun Sect chose their disciples based on appearance. They weren’t some unorthodox sect that practiced some kind of shady dual cultivation technique, were they?
✦ ✦ ✦
MINI EXTRA
Pawpaw: What about me?
A little bird: You’ll debut in the next chapter, I promise!
Pawpaw: *raises claw, swats away birdy*
Woodworker: Serves you right!