"T-there are so many people here!" Sofie exclaimed in amazement, while looking at the giant crowd of people gathered in front of the gathering hall. This was by far the largest amount of people gathered in one place Sofie had ever seen, even the dining hall was not so packed with people.
"Of course! Today is the day where new disciples get accepted, so some show up to see the new disciples while others are interested and want to see whether anything interesting would happen." Ling Yue answered happily, as she quickly moved to stand besides Sofie.
Looking at the surrounding crowd, Sofie had no idea what she was going to do not. Should she just enter the gathering hall? Maybe wait outside and wait for the crowd to scatter?
"You can just enter the gathering hall. Most of the disciples standing directly in front of the gathering hall is senior disciples, who wants to see if there will be any talented disciples after the lesson on cultivation." Likely seeing the troubled look on Sofie's face, Ling Yue explained the reason for the wall of senior disciples in front of the gathering hall's entrance.
Sofie listened attentively to her explanation, as she remembered to nod her head from time to time in understanding.
New disciples arrived from time to time and entered the gathering hall by squeezing through the wall of senior disciples in front of the entrance. But Sofie discovered something important while observing the new disciples entering the gathering hall.
There was way too many of them!
From what Sofie could remember, there were not that many children chosen from her village entering the scorching sun sect.
"W-why is there so many disciples entering the gathering hall? Are they all new disciples? B-but there was not that many children entering the sect… R-right?" Giving life to her doubts, Sofie asked Ling Yue with a questioning look.
"Indeed, all the disciples entering the gathering hall are new disciples. The reason there is so many, is because our sect takes in new disciples from all the villages and towns on the scorching sun island! We even take in disciples from some nearby islands as well. You might not know this, but the group we came with was the last one." With a triumphant look etched onto her face, Ling Yue explained the reason for there being so many new disciples entering the gathering hall.
All this without forgetting to brag about how the scorching sun sect could recruit new disciples from nearby islands!
Being able to recruit disciples from other islands than the one where the sect was located meant the sect had a certain amount of power. Sofie of course had no idea about this and mostly ignored the part about picking up disciples from other islands nearby.
Both Sofie and Ling Yue stood in front of the crowd of disciples for a moment, before Sofie finally said goodbye to Ling Yue and squeezed her way through the senior disciples blocking the entrance to the gathering hall.
*****
The first thing Sofie saw the moment she entered the gathering hall, was a crowd of new disciples moving towards somewhere in the back of the gathering.
Curious about where they were going, Sofie asked a few of the new disciples close to her and found out, that the lecture on cultivation for new disciples would be held inside a big courtyard behind the gathering hall.
With her information gathering being successful, Sofie proudly moved towards the courtyard along with the crowd of new disciples, wondering how they managed to find out where to go for the lecture today.
Following behind the new disciples, Sofie and the other new disciples like her made it to the courtyard behind the gathering hall.
The courtyard was mostly empty except an open spot in the middle, that was filled with benches. Most likely to make space for the new disciples to sit and listen to the lecture about cultivation. Other than the open spot filled with benches for the lecture, Sofie saw a pond off to the side filled with fish in all sorts of colours.
The courtyard was in Sofie's eyes, quite boring. The only thing that managed to catch her attention was the pond filled with colourful fish.
So, with that in mind, Sofie sat down at the bench closest to the pond filled with the colourful fish.
Time passed, as Sofie enjoyed observing the colourful fishes in the pond swimming back and forth, sometimes jumping up into the air, before landing back down into the water with a splash.
New disciples slowly stopped entering the courtyard and soon most of the benches were filled with children ranging from 10 to 15 years of age, all excited about the prospect of becoming a cultivator.
"Attention!" An elderly voice came from a small opening in front of the benches filled with new disciples.
The new disciples were startled and quickly quieted down, Sofie did the same and reluctantly turned towards the direction the elderly voice came from.
An elderly woman, who looked like she was in her late eighties. Stood in the small opening in front of the benches, while carefully inspecting the new disciples of the sect, slightly narrowing her eyes in the process.
"Today, I am going to give you new disciples a lecture about cultivation and a little about the world we live in. My name is Mei Yue and I'm a long time elder of the scorching sun sect, so if you have any questions to ask, do feel free to ask." The elderly lady, by the name of Mei Yue introduced, as she kindly smiled at the new disciples in front of her.
Sofie felt something familiar from her, but decided to ignore it, as she focused all her attention at the lecture. Maybe she could find out more information about all the things her big sister talked about when she came home from time to time.
"First of all, let's start off with talking a little about this world. The world we live in is called Hidden Tempest. The place we live in is called The South Islands and is a few thousand miles away from the mainland. Any questions so far?" Mei Yue asked, as she finished talking a little about the world.
It was indeed just a little about the world, as most of the children present had a thousand and one questions to ask, so the moment she asked whether there was anyone with questions to ask, a forest of hands appeared almost instantaneously in front of her.
"You in the front." Mei Yue said with a smile on her lips, as she pointed at a petite girl sitting in the front row of benches.
"You talked about Mainland and said the place we lived is called The South Islands. What is the difference between the two?" The petite girl asked with a questioning look on her face.
"The main difference would be size. The size of The South Islands territory spans for a few hundred miles, maybe a thousand. The Mainland on the other hand is millions of times bigger, with territory stretching on for millions of miles, a distance way too far for us to even imagine. The other big difference is the level of experts in that place is way above that of people here. Those are the two main points, I will answer one more question before I start my lecture about cultivation!" Mei Yue said, as she looked at the shocked group of children before her.
Sofie was also shocked when she heard about the sheer size of the Mainland. Millions of miles? And that was only one territory on the mainland… How big was that place? And just how fast were cultivators, if they could travel such distances?
The more Sofie thought about it, the more determined to become a splendid cultivator she became.
"You in the back."
The voice from elder Mei Yue woke Sofie up from her day dream, as she realized the elder was pointing at her.
Looking confusedly to the side, she saw her hand was still raised into the air. Not knowing when she raised her hand or simply forgot to put it down again, Sofie decided to just ask a question.
"C-can we go to the Mainland in the future?" Sofie asked nervously.
"Yes, you can, but it is hard to travel there, so most people will not get there… But if you can get into the top 10 in the demon beast hunt you will get there." Mei Yue said, as she looked around at the confused children in front of her.
"The top 10 in the demon beast hunt will get to join a sect at the Mainland, so they will send someone to get the person back to the sect."
Hearing this, Sofie was happy, but then immediately turned sad. Was her big sister not the winner of the last demon beast hunt? Would her big sister be leaving soon?
Saddened by the discovery, Sofie resolved herself to get into the top 10 in the next demon beast hunt, so she could be together with her big sister again.
"Well, no more questions for now. The lecture about cultivation will begin now!" Ming Yue said, as the lecture about cultivation slowly began.