With his communication skills, this scorpion is definitely not a joke, and what are those? Yang Xiu thought.
"No need for a long speech, get ready to fight!" yelled Yang Xiu as she unsheathed her sword, running towards the beast to strike.
Mount Hua Sect.
"Yang Hua! Wake up!" said the voice, bringing me back from my sleep, only to open my eyes and see Feifei, Mimi, and Muyang surrounding my bed.
"Arrrrgh!!" I screamed in surprise at the sight of them.
"What are you all doing here?" I asked curiously.
"It's time!"
"Time for what?" I asked, looking confused.
"Get up! Everyone is already on the training ground with the three chiefs present. How dare a new disciple delay them?" said Muyang sarcastically.
"The third trial has ended, I'm finally going to become a disciple!" I yelled excitedly, jumping out of bed to get ready.
Feifei and Mimi helped me get ready, after we had already chased Muyang outside.
"Why did you sleep in?" Fei Fei asked while the others were already ahead of us.
"I don't know, I had a weird dream and slept late."
The four of us finally arrived at the training ground with the three chiefs before us. There were three groups of colors: white, red, and blue. I went forward to join the white group while Fei Fei and Mimi joined the red group, and Muyang joined the blue group.
"This is the second time we're meeting after our first encounter," said Sect leader Taiyuan.
"Yes, we are glad to announce that twenty participants have passed this third trial without giving up," said the master of the sword.
Woah! We started with thirty, and now we're down to twenty. Just woah, I thought with my hand placed on my chin.
"The new disciples should please step forward with their name plates," instructed the master of earth. With this, all the new disciples stepped forward, leaving the senior disciples behind, except for Zhang Han, Wang Lei, and Qui Kong, who followed us.
Our plates were collected from us by our senior disciples, Zhang Han, Wang Lei, and Qui Kong, as they marked the name plates with a stroke of blue before giving them back to us.
"You can all go back now," said the master of earth, and with this, we all went back to the group.
"That one mark on your name plate represents that you're a level one disciple, a junior disciple," said the master of the sword.
"Having one mark on your name plate doesn't give you the right to be proud now, as it usually takes more than ten years for some disciples to obtain a second mark," said Sect leader Taiyuan with a serious tone, leaving all of us in shock.
Ten years?? What the heck, I thought with a serious gaze.
"Yes, as a master of swords, I specialize mainly in your sword training," said the sword master.
"And as a master of earth, I specialize mainly in alchemy."
"And as the sect leader, my duty is to teach you spells."
"Sword fighting, alchemy, and spells. These are the three things that will be taught to all disciples," said the master of the sword.
"Each of you is under one of the three masters, meaning you will know more about the group you are in, the master you're under, and just a little about the other groups," said the sect leader.
"Oh, I can only know a little about sword and alchemy, but I have to know all about the group I'm under, i.e spells," I said with my hand raised up.
"Exactly! We teach you three things - sword, alchemy, and spells - just for safety purposes," said the master of earth.
This is getting interesting, I thought with a face full of happiness.
"The senior disciple Wang Lie will show you all around the Mount Hua Sect, as you are all disciples now."
"We did it!" exclaimed the new disciples with faces full of happiness.
"I wish you the best of luck," said the master of the sword.
"Meet me at the alchemy studio after your tour," the master of earth said before we dispersed.
"Yes, sire!" we chorused happily, after which we departed, following senior disciple Wang Lie steadily.
"This is the profound library, which has ancient records about myths, legends, and scrolls containing profound cultivation techniques. We have it all here," said senior disciple Wang Lie, as we all stopped at the sight of the big building and entered.
The scrolls were neatly organized on shelves, with each shelf containing different scrolls, just as senior disciple Wang Lei said.
"Woah, this is amazing!" I exclaimed at the sight of a scroll containing drawings of swordsmanship.
Feifei, gorgeously dressed in red, also showed her interest as she accompanied me in studying the scroll.
"This one is about different herbs and roots," said Muyang, with a scroll in his hand.
"And this one is about magical treasures. I'm just so excited to be here," said Mimi.
"Alright, we have to leave now as we still have other places to go. You can all come here anytime as long as you have your name plate with you," said Wang Lie with a smile.
"Yes, senior disciple," we chorused and followed him until we reached another place.
"This is the artifact and magical items stall. You can exchange them with spirit stones," said senior disciple Wang Lei.
"What are spirit stones?" asked one of the new disciples.
"You earn them after every mission you have accomplished or as rewards from seniors," said Senior disciple Wang Lie.
"We can't earn them if we don't do one of these you stated," asked Mimi.
"Yes, considering the fact that you're just a new disciple, it takes hard work to even go on missions of slaying demons. Haha! That reminds me, for every spirit animal you catch at the spirit forest, you can exchange it for spirit stones," explained senior disciple Wang Lei.
"Spirit forest? Where is that?" asked Fei Fei curiously.
"It's right here inside the sect, but since you don't have any skills and haven't mastered any spells yet, you might encounter an animal that is higher in rank than you, and you know what can happen?" replied Senior disciple Wang Lie.
"We can't buy any artifacts or magical items if we don't have spirit stones," said one of the new disciples with a sad expression.
"Actually, you can, as you've all been rewarded with ten spirit stones each for your patience during the last trial. But to buy anything or request any service, the currency is spirit stones," he replied, leaving us all in awe.