Just as the sky was beginning to darken, Cheng Hao appeared atop a Teleportation Hexagram in a vast courtyard. The precinct was located in the large ring of land in between the Sixth and Seventh Walls: off in the distance were many small huts made of stone.
Looking around, Cheng Hao noticed an old man sitting on a chair just a few measures at the front.
The child stepped off of the now faded Teleportation Hexagram and towards this unknown elderly, whom had his arms crossed in front of his chest and his head dangling off to one side, as if he were sleeping. In front of the old man was a small desk, much like the Vacant Elder that Cheng Hao had met before when he was travelling together with Liu Biao. Unlike the Vacant Elder, this old man wore a set of simple and even somewhat worn out robes, which Cheng Hao recognized were neither a Sect Elder's nor a Disciple's robes.
Seeing how behind the sleeping old man was small carts full of black robes and from which hung hundreds, if not thousands, of keys, Cheng Hao came to the conclusion that this person was probably some sort of groundkeeper of the Sect.
Suddenly, almost as if he had sensed the other's gaze, the old man opened his eyes and raised his head to look back at the staring child. As the figure of the youth was registered in his golden-colored eyes, the elderly man raised an eyebrow in surprise at the boy's age. Immediately afterwards, the face full of wrinkles arranged into a thoughtful frown.
Seemingly not taking notice to the other side's concern, Cheng Hao had slowly approached the stall the man owned. Then, as soon as he had gotten close enough, he bowed: although the other had purposefully hid his cultivation from prying eyes through some sort of technique, the reborn Evil Saint had seen through it at a first glance; that seemingly insignificant, almost shoddy, old man… was actually a peak Reverend stage expert!
What about it? Well, to make a comparison...
Liu Biao's 'awesome' Advanced stage? Even if a dozen, no, a hundred of Liu Biao were to come charging forward, a single wave of a sleeve from this ordinary-looking old man would be able to blast them all away! After all, the Advanced was but the third Stage of cultivation, only above the initial Inferior Stage and the subsequent Basic Stage and below many others: even when counting the Mortal Realm alone, after the Advanced Stage would come the Superior Stage, followed by the Sung Stage, before finally coming to the very Peak of the Mortal Realm with the old man's Reverend Stage!
Although in higher planes of existence, Mortal Realm cultivators such as Liu Biao and this old man would be the trashiest amongst trash, in a lowly plane of existence such as the one Cheng Hao currently found himself in, the Reverend stage was most likely the very peak of existence! Therefore, befriending such a cultivator was bound to bring him benefits later on.
As for why such a powerful person acted as a mere groundkeeper... the child had no idea. Still he had no intentions of prying further. Instead, he chose to let his tongue, vocal chords and skills in the art of flattery do the work!
"Hello, Senior! This Junior is called Cheng Hao! Junior offers his respects to his Senior!" He smiled, his tone fawning, but not to the point it reached the extreme flattering he had shown towards the arrogant Liu Biao.
Listening to the child speak, the old man was baffled: very few people would be polite to him, since at the moment, his identity was that of a 'weak and poor old man', as could easily be discerned by the ragged robes he was wearing and by the absence of a cultivation base on him. Just based on those two facts alone, most would choose to treat him as nothing more than some kind of receptionist, urging him to hand over the sect robes in a rather rude manner. They would barely spare him an hurried nod, before hurrying away soon after.
Few, very few would ever show any more respect to him. The old man could only see two reasons why one would do that: firstly, it could simply be that their nature was that of a polite or well-educated person. The other would however be in order to flatter him so as to curry favor with him!
And a child so young, would his parents even have had enough time to impart him with such amount of politeness towards the older generation? Or, the much scarier part… could it be that his real strength had just got seen through by a cultivationless child? The old man had frowned exactly because he had reached this sort of conclusion, and having realized this, he knew that he absolutely had to check it! As such, he slightly lifted the seal on his cultivation; just enough for him to be able to send a strand of Reverend Will to examine the young boy.
Seeing the old man's actions, Cheng Hao laughed in his mind but kept his outward expression as still as a pond of clear water, devoid of the slightest ripple. He completely ignored the Strand: had he reacted to the Strand in any way, such as resisting or even acknowledging with the slight change in his heart rate, the old man would have definitely found out that Cheng Hao had actually seen through his real cultivation!
That would have meant mean that a child had actually been able to see through the ability of a Reverend stage cultivator! Had that got out, it would have brought countless problems to himself in the long run, together with an off-chance of offending that same cultivator…
A Strand of Will was a strand of spiritual energy imbued with one's consciousness. Being in the Reverend stage, only those on the same stage or above should be able to sense it. Of course, a few exceptions could be found everywhere, but for a child so small to be able to see through the power of a man having a cultivation of the Reverend stage... it was just unthinkable! For that reason, seeing no reaction from the boy in front of him after checking out once, the old man did not even bother trying it out again. Instead, he smiled kindly as he felt his heart warm.
Such a polite young boy...
Being fooled by Cheng Hao's methods, in his heart the old man had already begun thinking of Cheng Hao as an exemplary youth!
The child's expression suddenly shifted as he inquired, "Is Elder alright? Why did Elder's expression suddenly turn dark? Did this Junior offend you in any way? If so this Junior will definitely try his hardest to amend!" Cheng Hao said that though 'clenched teeth', 'determined' to take responsibility for his 'wrongdoings';
The old man's heart warmed seeing such dedication and respect towards the older generation. He quickly stood up and walked to the boy's side, patting his shoulder, "Worry not, child; you have done nothing wrong! It was just this old man suddenly remembered something unpleasant..."
Seeing that his deception had worked, Cheng Hao smiled in his mind. The small, golden snake hiding some distance away also shook his head with a sigh: "Cultivators in this plane of existence so easy to fool..."
The old man, of course, couldn't be aware of either of the things, and his good impression towards Cheng Hao kept getting better.
"Young child, you said your name was... Cheng Hao?" he inquired. Seeing that the child nodded, the old man waved his hand dismissively, "You do not have to call me Elder, boy. For starters, I am no Elder. I am just a gatekeeper. Everyone calls me simply Old Lao, so you should too!" The old man chuckled.
"No! Junior Cheng Hao believes that respect towards the older generation should be given unconditionally from Senior's identity! Furthermore..." Cheng Hao trailed off, as if he were pondering whether he should continue. Seeing that the old man was nodding amiably, the child 'beamed' and continued, "Furthermore... I also have a strong feeling that there's more than it meets the eye to Senior's strength! Is Senior… truly just a gatekeeper?"
Back behind the small crack Goldy was hiding in, the small snake was nodding, "Bringing it up and exposing it myself should actually achieve the opposite effect! With that, all suspicion should be gone! At times, having too much information can actually be detrimental!"
Just as expected, Old Lao was thrown off by the youth's words.
So this is the true reason! But to somehow have a hint of my strength… could this young boy possibly be connected to me by karma? But how, how is he connected to me? In this place, nobody should... especially a simple human! Could he be…
The old man looked at Cheng Hao again, seemingly pained by an internal conflict, but in the end decided to wait a bit before making his decision. He coughed once to clear his voice, smiled, and then began to speak. "Well, little Junior Cheng Hao, I formally congratulate you on joining the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect! Unfortunately, this is but the beginning! You joined the Sect, sure, but you are now only a Vacant Disciple, even lower than a measly Outer Sect disciple! Every year, there will be a contest between Vacant disciples to enter the Outer Sect. Fortunately for you, it will be in just a month from now! Seeing that you cleared the trial, your strength must be more than it meets the eye, so you might just be able to use this chance to rise up further in the Sect!" Old Lao explained.
At the man's words, Cheng Hao first feigned happiness, then confusion, then anxiety and then happiness again. Of course, nothing the old man had told him had been news to him: obviously, he had already thoroughly investigated many of the details regarding the Sect he had chose to join beforehand, during his travels. However, the old man could not read his mind, and truly believed the expression the child was showing were genuine. Old Lao nodded and resumed his explanation.
"Youth, remember that, although the castle housing our sect might be enormous, you can only go to certain places: a Vacant Disciple can freely walk inside the area located between the Seventh and Sixth Wall. This area is also referred to as the Sixth Ring, and you are free to explore it as you wish, but you can't go any further than the Sixth Wall. Penalty: Decapitation! There are very few resources and cultivation techniques that you can acquire with your current status, so I suggest you climb higher as quickly as you can!"
Cheng Hao nodded, but in his head he was rolling his eyes.
No shit buddy! I was just planning on staying here and feed on some dog crap here even though there is an all-you-can-eat banquet right there! Just get on with it, my legs hurt!
The old man opened his mouth and spoke once again. "Similarly to how a Vacant Disciple can go anywhere in between the Seventh and Sixth Wall, an Outer Disciple can freely explore both the Sixth AND Fifth Rings; from the Seventh Wall, all the way to the Fifth, but not any deeper. The penalty for infringing that rule is the crippling of one's cultivation base. A higher tier of resources and techniques are acquirable in the Outer Sect, as well as the possibility to form and join an Alliance. The Sect will benefit the Alliances that complete requests by increasing the resources granted periodically to each member. You will be able to learn more about the details later."
"Next, an Inner Disciple can go anywhere from the Sixth to the Fourth Ring. The penalty from going any deeper is slightly more forgiving; just the inability to cultivate for ten to twenty years. With the status of an Inner Disciple, even better resources can be acquired, and the first few higher grade scriptures can be found and cultivated here!"
"Even higher status than Inner Disciples are Core Disciples! They can roam pretty much anywhere in the castle, except for the innermost First and Second Rings, which are reserved solely for the Core Elders and the leading positions. Inner and Core Disciples, the latter in particular, can also search for a master to get them under his wing..." At that, the old man's eyes gleamed strangely as he looked at Cheng Hao.
"Finally, we have reached the highest status that a disciple can reach; the two Twin Star Disciples!" The old man's expression turned serious. "They can only be two, the Light star and the Shadow star, and have never appeared in the whole history of the Sect except for once, around seven hundred years ago, because the requirements are incredibly strict: not only do they depend on effort, they also rely a great deal on luck!"
"First off, the two must have both joined the Sect before their tenth birthday. Secondly, they must have reached the Superior stage before their fifteenth and must be able to stand on equal ground as a Core Elder of the peak Sung stage before their seventeenth. In the sect, as of now, there are no Twin Star disciples…"
At that even Cheng Hao frowned: Superior stage before one's fifteenth birthday? Be a match to a peak Sung stage cultivator by seventeen years old? Plus, they had to have roughly the same age? If it were him, Cheng Hao could probably achieve the first two requirements without too much of a problem. However, his situation was extremely special. If others were to try their hands at it... it would already be great if they could appear even once every few thousand years! Plus, two of such talented people have to appear at the same time!
These requirements are way too strict! No shit they have only appeared once! What kind of madman would impose such conditions?
"However," the old man continued as he pointed his finger upwards admonishingly, "the benefits are worth the efforts! Complete assistance from the school for even the most trivial of things! Neigh-unlimited resources from the school treasury! And even the right to accept one of the top two School Protectors, who rank only below the Sect Head in both status and strength, as a personal Master! And most importantly, once both Twin Stars have reached thirty-three years of age, they shall duel: the victor shall become the Sect Head, while the loser would take up the spot as the Sect's First ranked Protector until they die, step down themselves! In short, as long as one successfully becomes a Twin Star Disciple, his future is bound to be full of nothing but success and excellence!"