Ju Feng, together with the rest of his family, arrived at the entrance of the Last Sages sect in good spirits. It was the day the Last Sages sect officially set for their admission of new disciples. Teaching and learning process was to start the following day. There were two sect's acolytes standing in front of the two metal golems, welcoming and directing the paths of the new disciples.
After conversing with his mother and grandparents for several long minutes, he finally bade farewell to them and turned towards the sect's entrance. Upon setting foot on the sect's premises, Ju Feng noticed the monolith noticed had vanished which enabled him to take-in the sheer size of the area.
Heavens tears!
How did he forget about the utter size of the premises of this sect? Probably due to the fact that he had only entered once before, and that was the day of the trial when he had been too anxious to notice everything. But now, he actually had the chance to observe it keenly, and it was beautifully big. Tens of miles in size, covering mountains, hills and valleys.
Entering the premises, he was directed towards the main hall by the acolytes who were having a good, but busy day. He was very apprehensive by the time he reached the main hall since it was the first time he would be living away from home. He was feeling the anxiety of missing his family, but was acting relaxed on the outside. Ju Feng knew he had to maintain his inner peace after remembering the words of his grandfather,
"Who was not everyday conquering some fear had not learned the secret of life."
He quickly pretended it was something he'd been doing this since his birth. Since he was born? That didn't really sounded sane, but still sounded good.
When he reached the main hall, he was sent in the direction of the scribe who was scribbling on a thick parchment.
"Your token."
"Yes, senior."
Ju Feng presented his identification token and quickly had his identity confirmed.
"You'll need to swear the oath of allegiance. It's of justly fair actions, good conducts and behaviour. If this bode well with you, we will proceed. If not, you may turn back now, and forget about this."
"The blood oath? Hmm...okay. If those are the words involved, I think I can live with that. I accept."
"Place your hands on the stone of oath, and repeat after me."
Subsequent to the swearing of the oath, he paid his twenty five gold coins for admission. He received a welcome holding sac before being sent to the male dormitory. The holding sac contained two sect robes and a manual of conduct. More robes could be purchased directly from the sect, but at a more higher price. The reason for that? Disciples would be able to appreciate what they had in life and maintain it.
Fair enough, Ju Feng thought. He wouldn't need more than two anyway. He could even live with one.
On his way to the male disciples' dormitory, he checked the manual of conduct and was satisfied with what he saw. It was a reminder of the oath of allegiance he swore. He could definitely live with this. No problem for him at all. Trust and truthfulness, as long as one had them, life would be much easier and better. He sighed, and continued towards the dormitory.
He came to the oak desk of the senior acolyte in charge of the general dormitory.
"Your badge, disciple."
"Yes, senior. Here."
Ju Feng replied, giving the acolyte the token in his hand.
"Ju Feng. Section two, room sixty eight. Welcome, young disciple."
"Thank you senior."
The male disciples dormitory was divided into four sections with huge corridors. Each section contained one hundred rooms. Acolytes were assigned the supervision of each section, to maintain its orderliness and cleanliness. The acolytes would also be dealing with the issues and problems of the disciples directly before informing the savants, and then the elders if it was too big to handle.
Ju Feng saw an acolyte on the corridor who directed him towards the section two of the male's dormitory. It only took him a few minutes to locate his room which greatly delighted him.
In the world of cultivation and mythical arts, the foundations stage was the root of true immortality. The manifested elements combined with Chi and life-force in the dantian to form the soul pillars. There were four soul pillars a cultivator could form in the dantian which represented the four phases of existence. Hence, a cultivator could only manifest the maximum of four major elements which was even impossible to do. The power of four elements based pillars was simply enormous, they were the epitome of eternal foundations. But only if they could cultivate the pillars. The pillars were the basis for the levels of power a cultivator could manifest in the future.
In the Last Sages sect, only disciples with three elements were given their own personal rooms. But there were fewer of them that year. Hence, the rooms were allocated to disciples who had two elements with one of them being a tier one at the least.
As a disciple of lightning and light affinities, he would be having the room all to himself. He quickly entered the room, closed the door behind him and lay on the bed to relax his apprehensive mind.
At long last, he was here. Here! Happy, yet a bit sad. Life away from home, but he knew it was something he had to do. If he truly wanted to be strong enough to have a chance at survival, then, he would have to live with these minor incoveniences.
After resting for a time, Ju Feng slowly gathered his thoughts and lifted himself up to a sitting position. If it was about his body, not much things could make him tire-out easily. He looked around the room, and could see the whole place clearly. Apart from the bamboo bed, it had only a single chair and a single table. That was all. Well, that would do just fine by him.
He removed the new sect robes from the bag, and folded them before putting them to the sides by the corner of the room. Afterwards, he sat in a lotus position to meditate. By the time he opened his eyes few hours later, it was already leaning towards late afternoon.
Heading towards the sect library, Ju Feng decided to see if he could find any manual to study. The libraries in the sect were divided into two. The opened library was for the general disciples while the closed section of the library was meant for the sect elders and core disciples. Although there were good technique manuals for martial arts and cultivation in the general library, the most powerful manuscripts were inside the closed section.
Only for the chosen ones.
Ju Feng arrived at the opened library an hour before the library's opening time was over, and quickly went to the book shelves. He was only trying to see if he could find anything to study that night. And if not, he would come back another day, probably the following day. However, he didn't want to just leave empty handed.
As he was glancing through the books, he saw the one captioned, "ANCIENT WEAPONS". That would be a general knowledge to most young cultivators, but for him, he didn't know much about that history. Hence, he was interested in reading it. He quickly informed the library acolyte who made a copy for him.
That night, as he had plans to read the book on weapons, Ju Feng swiftly sat in a lotus position before opening the book in front him. He was about to start reading when he remembered his blue crystalline, and quickly put one in his mouth. Since his dantian and meridians had been expanding rapidly although painfully, he had to circulate the Chi quickly. While performing that act, Ju Feng could have sworn he saw something he knew wasn't there. He looked around but couldn't find anything.
After moving the Chi back to his dantian through the meridians, he settled down to meditate. Deep in meditation, his mind became lost in trance, making him sleep in the lotus position.