At that moment, Lin Bai saw a golden light flying toward him and instinctively took a step back.
He saw the golden light suddenly land in front of him and realized it was a stunningly beautiful woman with an ethereal aura and outstanding demeanor.
"Greetings, Sect Master!" Lin Bai recognized the person at a glance as the sect master.
Yue Xiyun carefully sized up Lin Bai before nodding and asking him directly, "Are you willing to become my disciple?"
Lin Bai was taken aback by her directness.
Just as he was hesitating, he saw a few more golden lights descend. They were a few old men, and all of them looked travel-worn.
In order to catch up with Yue Xiyun, these few elders expended much effort.
Upon seeing that Yue Xiyun had already arrived and was speaking with Lin Bai, the elders were disappointed.
If they had arrived earlier, it would have been better. They could directly let Lin Bai take them as their master. And Yue Xiyun, who arrived later, naturally was not good to say anything. After all, they were all from the same sect.
But they were late.
"If you accept me as your master, I can even give you an abode in the inner sect," said Yue Xiyun. She noticed that Lin Bai seemed hesitant.
The elders did not say anything, but they could tell that the Sect Master had already made up her mind to take Lin Bai as her disciple. Therefore, the elders had given up their plan to compete with Yue Xiyun for a disciple.
There was also another talented person, Chen Xiaojie, whom they planned to take in as a disciple.
However, he was currently stuck at the last 100 steps before reaching 10,000 steps. He had been unable to make any further progress for a long time. Compared to Lin Bai, his talent and physique were inferior.
"Greetings, Master!" Lin Bai quickly agreed. The Sect Master had even offered him an abode, which saved him a lot of spirit stones. The abode in the inner sect area was many times better than his current one.
Yue Xiyun nodded at Lin Bai. Although her expression remained calm, she was secretly pleased to have such a talented disciple.
The inner sect assessment lasted for three days, and these cultivators had spent the same amount of time climbing here. Many of them were unwilling to leave until the last moment, hoping to make even more progress.
After all, climbing one more level of the Path-chasing Stairway meant being rewarded with more spirit stones.
There were also people who fainted because they could not withstand the pressure and were carried away by the sect.
Chen Xiaojie ultimately stopped at a place thirty steps away from 10,000 levels and never climbed up to 10,000 levels to reach the Path-chasing Stairway. He was filled with anger and frustration that he couldn't make it to the top. He watched as Lin Bai swayed back and forth on the 10,000 levels of the Path-chasing Stairway, but Chen Xiaojie just couldn't climb up.
In the end, because Zhao Fei'er was encouraged by Lin Bai, she actually climbed to the 3,000 levels and had the chance to enter the inner sect. However, she still needed to undergo further assessments.
Zhao Fei'er's improvement was mainly due to her dual cultivation with Lin Bai. Otherwise, it would have been very difficult for her to climb to the 3,000 levels.
Ouyang Ruoxue finally stopped at the 3,500 levels.
Since Lin Bai had already reached the 10,000 levels of Path-chasing Stairway, he was guaranteed entry into the inner sect and didn't need to participate in any further assessments.
There were only a few dozen cultivators who could pass the 3,000 levels, but in the end, only half of these people passed the subsequent tests. This was because the sect had relaxed some of the requirements.
After entering the inner sect, if some elders took on disciples, then they would have a master. If no one took an interest in them, then even though they were in the inner sect, they wouldn't have a master.
Some people who entered the inner sect could only follow the skill-imparting elder for their cultivation and did not have a dedicated master to guide them.
There were very few people like Lin Bai who directly became disciples of the Sect Master.
Surprisingly, Zhao Fei'er had also passed the inner sect assessment and entered the inner sect. It could be said that Lin Bai and Zhao Fei'er participated in the inner sect assessment and achieved great success.
Compared to a few years ago, Lin Bai's current status could be said to be like the difference between heaven and earth.
In the past, he was the most inconspicuous disciple in the outer sect, comparable to a servant. But now, he was an inner sect disciple and even a disciple of the Sect Master.
Lin Bai now felt that everyone was very enthusiastic about him.
However, he was a little confused. He felt that many people knew him, but he did not know those people.
Eventually, he learned from Zhao Fei'er's explanation that a cloud projection had appeared on the Path-chasing Stairway that day. It could be said that Lin Bai was the person who had the most attention in this inner sect assessment.
The sect was always generous with outstanding disciples. This inner sect assessment aimed to sharpen the disciples and distribute a large number of spirit stones.
When Lin Bai received his inner sect assessment reward, he first received an abode token given to him by Yue Xiyun.
This token looked like it was made of jade and was very valuable. It was completely different from the token in his previous abode.
Lin Bai's mind sank as he immediately sensed his abode location. He was overjoyed as it seemed that he could move to a new place.
The second was to collect the reward of spiritual stones.
"How many spirit stones did you say?" Lin Bai asked in surprise as he looked at the deacon who distributed the spirit stones.
"200,000 spirit stones!" The sect's deacon who distributed the rewards handed Lin Bai a storage bag.
The spiritual stones even came with a storage bag!
Lin Bai received the storage bag and was amazed that he now had a storage bag too. In the past, he used to envy others who had one, but he never had enough spiritual stones to buy it.
According to the rules, the reward for reaching the 1,000 levels was 10,000 spiritual stones. Reaching the 10,000 levels should give a reward of 100,000 spiritual stones, but his reward was 200,000 spiritual stones.
This meant that he had received an additional reward for climbing the 10,000 levels of Path-chasing Stairway.
In addition to the spiritual stones, the sect also rewarded many pills that aided in cultivation.
Lin Bai and Zhao Fei'er went to the sect's identity registration office to receive their inner sect token.
Now, he, Zhao Fei'er, and little junior sister Li Yueling were all disciples of the inner sect.
After Li Yueling learned that the two of them had entered the inner sect, she was very happy. When she heard that Lin Bai had also been granted an abode in the inner sect area, she was even more excited and gave Lin Bai a kiss.
For Lin Bai's sake, she had always lived with him. Although she had her abode in the inner sect area, she could not bear to leave Lin Bai.
Now, she could return to the inner sect area with Lin Bai.
However, Li Yueling's abode in the inner sect area was very simple, as it was given to her by her master.
Lin Bai was also curious about the abode that the Sect Master had given him.
The few of them spent several days packing up their belongings from their old abode in the outer sect before they finally finished. Lin Bai did not expect moving to be so troublesome. He had originally thought that they did not have many things, but after packing, they still had quite a lot.
Fortunately, he now had a storage bag, which allowed him to store many of his belongings.
Lin Bai did not use the ornamental spiritual value points that he had originally bought for Li Yueling.
He also decided not to sell his old abode because he thought that if his future children entered the sect and could not immediately enter the inner sect area, they would need a place to stay in the outer sect.