Fu Lin had taken them to show the common dorm for the new joinees of the year. There was a separation between the buildings for girl's rooms and boy's rooms. Each of them had been assigned a simple looking room with essentials like a bed, a few mats, cushions for seated cultivation.
The building had a huge courtyard that had koi ponds and bamboo fountains making the atmosphere calm and relaxed. Luo, Hua, Zhong Bai and Zhong Gui went into their rooms to get settled. Xun'er followed Hao Qi and Cai MingZhu went after both of them had already made a move on. They were all instructed by Fu Lin to get settled and rest and that she would take them for a tour of the sect come sunrise.
'I finally made it into a sect. It all feels a bit unreal if I look back at all the things that have happened till now.' 'What are you counting your stars for already. You just got in here and if I'm not wrong that Xiao Wu and the Heavenly dragon sect elder were not pleased with your results. This is just the beginning, boy. Remember what you promised me when you asked me to teach you how to cultivate?'
Luo smiled 'Yes Master. I promised that I will become the strongest in this world. Kind of cheeky , I know. Do you think I can do it, master?'
'It's not whether you can do it or not, it's whether you will do it or not. A bit different, no?'
Luo went to sleep with dreams of becoming an immortal master and doing all sorts of ridiculous things with that power.
Xun came to Luo's room just before sunrise, dressed up in a red robe that she had bought for herself with money that Luo had given her. With her black hair pinned in a bun and held in place with her Snake and clover jade hairpin, she looked very pretty. "WAKE UPPPPP!!"
Luo awoke with a start "HUHH, what...what?" and then looked at Xun and threw his pillow on her face and went back to bed again. Her hair had gotten messed up and she got pissed and started beating him with the pillow until all thoughts of sleep had gone from him.
He washed up and got ready and donned a clean set of robes. He wore a brown robe with red lining at the edges and tried to tie his medium length black hair but in vain as it was too short to look any good when it was tied; so he just left it like that.
With lean muscles rippling under the robes, Luo had a relaxed expression and it showed nicely with his wheatish complexion. They made their way to Hua's room to see if he had woken up or not.
Hua was not in his room but when they heard "Hup...huaaaaaa...hup." noises like this , they went into the backyard of his room and saw that he was already up and about and was practicing his morning routine with his sword.
On seeing them both Hua completed his steps and then sheathed his sword. He was donning a form-fitting white shirt and a white robe over that, with his sword in a sheath attached to his back.
He swished his ponytail as he was dripping with sweat from his workout and then before starting his conversation, donned his red ribbon to his forehead. "Hey there guys. I was about to come out and wait for Master Fu Lin with you guys as well. Did you just wake up Luo?"
"You can tell?" Luo then proceeded to yawn.
The 3 of them then went to the courtyard and saw that the rest of the disciples Cai, Hao Qi, Zhong twins were all ready and waiting for them as Fu Lin had arrived already a few moments earlier. "Good morning to all of you. Now that we are all gathered here, I will first give you all maps of all the areas in our sect."
She proceeded to give them scrolls containing painted symbols for different areas in the sect and their general directions with respect to each other.
"Now, you can go through that later. But the main centers that we will visit today are the Requisition and Missions center ; the general classrooms ; common grounds and finally the Library where we will also get your identity jade slips."
They got outside their residential area and made their way to the Requisition and Missions center. It was a huge building with a massive wooden arc and a huge board with the letters "Mission and Requisitions center" on it. They made their way inside and on the desk there was a sleeping figure happily snoring away and muttering in his sleep "Ehehehe. Noo~~ Miss Fu Lin, that tickles~~"
Fu Lin blushed a little but then folded her fan and smacked the receptionist on his head and he awoke with a start and Luo was surprised to see that it was none other than the receptionist that he had met earlier in the administration office, Pan Hua.
Pan Hua immediately straightened and then asked Fu Lin what she needed from him. "Sleeping again on the job and that too while dreaming of me. If I catch you again doing these things I will skin you aliveeee."
She then saw that she was acting inappropriately in front of the disciples( some were even giggling) and then cleared her throat and explained the matter at hand "Hmm Hmm.. Please give them all the monthly quota of the Qi and blood pills and give them the music instruments that they pot for. After this I will be taking them to get registered at the Library and get them their identity slips."
" Okay Miss..master Fu Lin." he scrambled around and then gave each of them 3 bottles of lesser Qi and blood pills.
Then he approached each of them and asked them which instrument they preferred, starting with the Zhong twins. They suddenly broke out into perfectly synchronized high pitched singing. After stopping they said "Our voices are our instruments. We don't need anything else."
Pan Hua looked at them with slight irritation "uhhh..huhh" and then moved on to ask Hao Qi who then just silently showed him her flute and then nodded no to select any other instrument.
He shook these bizarre answers off and then moved on to ask Cai MingZhu who selected a zither and so did Xun'er and Luo as well. When he came to ask Hua what he wanted, he was deep in thought and there was a heavy silence for a few moments.
He finally spoke up and asked "Do you have small bells that can be attached to my sword?" Fu Lin was puzzled. "Hua, You're supposed to take a musical instrument. Bells are not exactly used in a very straightforward way to produce music you know."
"I know, master. I was thinking about it from the moment you mentioned that it is mandatory to select an instrument and this is what I decided on. I will put a few bells on my sword and then practice sword arts. With each sequence of moves, the sounds produced will be different and I think it would perhaps sound musical."
"Hmmm...Very well. You can ask for those bells" Fu Lin relented and then thought with anticipation on how Hua's sword techniques would sound when these bells are attached to the sword. Pan Hua noted his request and then went into the store room. He then got all of them the instruments that they had requested.
Fu Lin explained to them while they were packing their instruments that this was the place that they could come to see the notice boards for missions that the sect was issuing or to come to exchange items for contribution points. Contribution points would be used for getting better equipment, buying pills or getting better cultivation manuals from the library.
They all made their ways to the Library next and Fu Lin introduced them to Ren Cho, the librarian. He was an old, chubby man with a huge white mane. Fu Lin greeted the elder and introduced them to him. She then waited as he slowly made their identity jade slips and handed it over to them. He smiled warmly as they waved goodbye and headed to the common grounds.
The common grounds was in the center of the sect where they had been received by the sect members on the day before when they arrived. It had huge wooden esplanade under which a babbling brook was flowing by. A lot of the disciples spent their free time here and there were even a few food stalls spread out in choice locations.
There were grassy lawns and nooks for people to sit everywhere. They could see that the trees here were planted in such a way as to create a kind of flow while also allowing for privacy for small groups of members, so it wouldn't feel like a huge open ground.
They walked around for a long time and then rested while Fu Lin treated them to some dumplings.
"All right, I have shown you around a few places in the sect now. As for the rest you can explore for yourself using the map that I gave you. Now as you know I am the teacher who has been assigned to you primarily. But you will be attending classes under other masters as well and that's where we are going next. Onto the classrooms."