Chapter 239: Chapter 73: First Meeting with Core Disciples

There was only one area labeled ’Registration Office,’ and he saw quite a few people coming and going from it.

Zhang Deming took it all in and said, "So just like the Turtle Water Secret Realm, all the arrays in here are functioning normally?"

Li Shifan nodded. "Yes. At least, from what I’ve seen, nothing is broken. Everything is operating as it should."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Deming paused and said, "That’s strange. By the way, why did the Five Elements Blessed Land fall back then?"

Li Shifan shook his head. "Because of our ancestor, the family has paid close attention to information about this.

But over the past few hundred years, our Li Family hasn’t found a single clue.

There’s only one thing we’re absolutely certain of."

Zhang Deming asked, "What’s that?"

Li Shifan began, "The Five Elements Blessed Land is a Grotto Heaven composed of the Five Great Secret Realms.

In the four that have appeared so far, there has been no sign of a single disciple from the Blessed Land.

It’s as if all the people from the Blessed Land vanished into thin air."

Hearing this, Zhang Deming said, "Back in the ruined Turtle Water Secret Realm, and now here, I’ve had the same suspicion.

Speaking of the Turtle Water Secret Realm, the reason that rundown place was still operating was because some old monster had forcibly taken it over.

He only partially influenced the Secret Realm to keep it running so he could lure people in.

So, this place now..."

Li Shifan paused. "I don’t know. I’ve been observing for most of the day and haven’t noticed anything unusual."

Zhang Deming turned and looked at the various Light Screens around them.

They were all lit up, but most of them were just hazy gray, and it was impossible to tell what they were supposed to be monitoring.

Zhang Deming touched several, but they all displayed a ’Permission Required’ message.

Only a small few showed an image and didn’t require permission.

But when Zhang Deming looked, they either showed the state of the Flower Demon Elf Forest or the situation outside.

After a long while, Zhang Deming had explored the entire area and arrived at the main counter in the hall, looking at the small Light Curtain there.

Li Shifan said, "I was thinking of trying my luck with that earlier. I thought it might be the so-called ’permission assignment terminal’.

But you need permission to operate this thing too.

Without operating permissions, you can’t add other permissions. And without other permissions, you can’t view any of the monitoring arrays.

So it’s a complete dead end."

Zhang Deming tried a few operations, then shook his head. "Let’s go. We’ll head outside and take a look. We can’t just wait around in here.

We’re not getting anywhere in here anyway. It’s better to go out and see what’s happening."

Li Shifan nodded and walked toward the main entrance with Zhang Deming.

The entrance was an invisible wall, an isolating Light Curtain. Zhang Deming reached out and passed through it without any resistance.

Zhang Deming pulled his hand back and looked at Li Shifan.

At that moment, Li Shifan was also looking at him. Their eyes met, and just as Zhang Deming was about to step out, he paused. "Wait!"

Li Shifan looked at Zhang Deming in confusion. "Is there something else, Senior Brother?"

Zhang Deming pointed to his clothes. "These are too conspicuous. Let’s change!"

A confused expression appeared on Li Shifan’s face. How were their Outer Disciple uniforms conspicuous?

"Aren’t most of the people outside who passed the trial also Sect disciples?" Li Shifan asked, puzzled.

Zhang Deming nodded. "Exactly. That’s precisely why these outfits are so conspicuous.

Look at them. Most are Inner Sect Disciples with Tai Chi Cultivation, and they’re all wearing the Purple Cloud Inner Sect disciple uniform.

If we go out like this, should we hide our cultivation or not?

If we hide it, our Apprentice-level cultivation will stand out.

If we don’t, our status as Outer Disciples will stand out.

Either way, wearing these White Cloud Cyan Shirt Outer Disciple uniforms will make us stick out like sore thumbs and attract too much attention."

Li Shifan nodded in realization. The two of them took out spare sets of ordinary clothes, found a corner to change, and only then did they step through the Light Curtain together.

...

"Look, someone’s coming out of there!"

The moment Zhang Deming and Li Shifan stepped out of the Light Curtain, they heard a surprised shout.

In the blink of an eye, a crowd gathered at the entrance of the Celestial Eye Yuya Pavilion, and more people were hurrying over.

"Their clothes... they don’t look like Ancient Cultivators, do they?"

"Are you blind? Those clothes are obviously the most common, standard-issue casual wear distributed by the Sect."

"Exactly! Who else but the Clothes and Hat Pavilion of the Miscellaneous Affairs Department could make such ugly standard-issue clothes?"

"So they came in with the rest of us?"

"Then why didn’t they appear on the Array Platform in the square? Why did they come out of this... this ’Celestial Eye Yuya Pavilion’? What is this place?"

"Celestial Eye? Going by how Ancient Cultivators named things, that would be a surveillance department building, right?"

"Surveillance department? Why did they come out of there? Did they just go in? Can you even get inside?"

"I don’t think so. At least, I couldn’t. I tried earlier."

"Could it be because of a different Command Token? I mean, we already have three ratings for those of us who got in: ’Excellent,’ ’Medium,’ and ’Qualified,’ right?"

"No way. We’ve tried all three types of Rating Tokens. None of the key buildings with Light Curtains will let us in."

"So they cleared the trial directly from this location?"

"Does that mean there’s another rating grade above ’Excellent’ or outside of ’Qualified’?"

"Why can’t it be ’Medium’?"

"Are you an idiot, or do you just like to argue for the sake of it? Spent too much time chopping bamboo, have you?" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"..."

The moment Zhang Deming and his companion came out, their feet had barely touched the steps at the entrance before a crowd swarmed below.

A babble of voices erupted as everyone started discussing them.

Seeing the situation, Zhang Deming and Li Shifan looked at each other, dismayed.

’Great!’

’Now we’re really the center of attention!’

’Good thing we changed. Otherwise, we’d stand out even more. At least this way, everyone will subconsciously assume we’re Inner Sect Disciples in ordinary clothes.’

"Senior Brother Zhou is here!"

"Senior Brother Dang is here too!"

Just then, the crowd automatically parted to form a path. Two young masters, one in white and one in black, walked through together.

The young man in white held a folding fan in one hand, with his other hand behind his back. A small scented sachet and a jade-green Jade Flute hung from his waist as he ambled over.

He wore a faint smile, giving off a gentle, jade-like warmth, as pleasant as a spring breeze.

’A man like jade on the path, a peerless young master in this world.’

This line surfaced in Zhang Deming’s mind as he watched the man.

The other young man, dressed in black, was a stark contrast to the one in white. He reminded Zhang Deming of Li Shifan’s former persona.

He wore dark robes with a Long Sword at his waist, his face was expressionless, and he exuded a sharp, frosty aura.

His entire being practically screamed four words: ’Do not get close!’

Despite being polar opposites, the two of them arrived side-by-side, yet there was nothing disharmonious about it. It was as if they were one and the same.

The Celestial Spirit Sect was huge. The Outer Sect had hundreds of thousands of disciples, and the Inner Sect had over one hundred thousand as well.

The entire Celestial Spirit Sect was not much smaller than a city from his previous life, albeit one with an ancient, scholarly feel.

Forget the Inner Sect; Zhang Deming didn’t even fully know his way around a single mountain peak in the Outer Sect.

It was just like in his past life. You might live in a city, but unless you worked in a specific industry, how much did you really know about the other people living there?

If you lived on the fifth ring road, how much did you know about the people on the third ring, or the first? How much did you even know about your own neighborhood?

It was like that in his past life, even with the internet explosion. It was even more so in the Hongmeng Realm today.

Therefore, Zhang Deming actually knew very little about the people of the Inner Sect.

But that didn’t include these two. They were ranked fifth and sixth on the Hundred Talents List of Inner Sect Core Disciples. They were basically celebrities of the Celestial Spirit Sect.

During his half-year of secluded cultivation, Zhang Deming had crammed a great deal of basic knowledge, including information about them.

The flamboyant one in white was Dang Ruyu, from the Direct Lineage of the Dang Family, which held major influence in the Dharma Transmission Hall.

The iceberg in black was Zhou Zhixin, from the Direct Lineage of the Zhou Family, which was primarily active in the Law Enforcement Team.