Yao Dai understood a bit more after hearing this explanation. She whispered softly to Wen Li, “The Wuji Sect is still the best. One of our rules is to never separate inner and outer disciples—everyone is treated equally.”
Hearing this, Xie Tinglan just wanted to say, “Then guess who does the work that outer disciples usually do? And what do you think the tenth sect rule says?”
However, under the shadow of Wen Li’s terrifying authority, he just sniffled and remained silent.
Wen Li smiled and said nothing.
Walking up front, Li Yangtian turned back. “Ah, what’s wrong? Is there something you want to ask?”
“Nothing. I just think the scenery of the Zhaixing Sect is really nice and grand.” Yao Dai shook her head with a bright smile. “It truly lives up to being a major sect—so much better than being a rogue cultivator.”
“Of course.” Li Yangtian nodded in agreement and chuckled softly. “Although the Zhaixing Sect is just one of the three major sects of Cangling Kingdom, our resources are far beyond what small, minor sects can match.”
Li Yangtian led the three of them to the outer disciples' logistics office to collect their sect robes.
As soon as they arrived, Wen Li heard the disciple distributing the sect robes complaining to Li Yangtian.
“Sigh, so many new disciples have suddenly arrived recently. It’s only been three months since the last recruitment, so we didn’t have enough supplies ready at all. A few of us were up late sewing clothes yesterday.”
Li Yangtian patted the man’s shoulder. “I’ll mention it to Elder Qingyuan one of these days. You guys have worked hard lately.”
“Sigh, such is the fate of us outer disciples.” The man asked, “By the way, what are you here for?”
“...” Li Yangtian gave a cheeky grin. “Ah, isn’t this a coincidence? More new disciples have arrived. Give me two sets of sect robes, and I’ll sew new ones with you tonight.”
“You said it!”
After much coaxing, Li Yangtian managed to take away two sets of sect robes. Resolving Wen Li’s and Yao Dai’s sizes was easy enough.
Looking down at Xie Tinglan, he found himself in a dilemma. “Your size, on the other hand...”
With a dark expression, Xie Tinglan said, “Don’t worry about me. I have my own clothes.”
Li Yangtian nodded. “Alright then. Wear the sect token for now so you won’t be mistaken for an outsider. Once I report your measurements and your new clothes arrive, we’ll talk.”
Xie Tinglan nodded indifferently.
Li Yangtian then brought Wen Li and Yao Dai to the female disciples' quarters.
“You two can stay in this courtyard. Tidy up a bit, and I’ll take you to the dining hall to eat in a little while.”
As for Xie Tinglan, even though he allegedly suffered from dwarfism, he was still male, so he went to stay with Li Yangtian, who happened to have a vacant room in his courtyard.
Wen Li and Yao Dai nodded.
Entering the courtyard, they found four rooms inside, two of which were already occupied by female disciples.
Normally, they should have been in morning classes at this time. Li Yangtian probably hadn’t expected anyone to be around, so he hadn't warned them beforehand.
The two female disciples, dressed in pale yellow sect robes, looked at the two newcomers in surprise.
Taking the initiative, Yao Dai walked over with a bright smile. “Hello, Senior Sisters! My sister and I are new disciples who just joined. We’ll all be living in this courtyard from now on, so let’s look out for each other. My name is Yao Dai, and this is my sister, Wen Li.”
Wen Li had already instructed Yao Dai beforehand to simply call her “Sister” along with Xie Tinglan after entering the sect.
This avoided drawing unwanted attention by constantly calling her “Master.”
Hearing this, the two female cultivators put down what they were doing and offered polite, friendly greetings.
“Hello! No need to call us Senior Sisters. We only joined three months ago ourselves, so just call us by our names. I’m Li Yudi.”
“I’m Shuangyuan.”
“Li Yudi... Are you and Li Yangtian siblings?” Yao Dai looked at the first female cultivator, who appeared to be around nineteen years old. Aside from cultivators above Golden Core whose age couldn’t usually be judged by appearance, it was fairly easy to tell the age of others.
The delicate-looking female cultivator named Li Yudi smiled faintly. “Mm, he’s my older brother.”
“Oh, your names make that pretty easy to tell.” Yao Dai walked over, acting familiar right away. “What are you working on? Do you need our help?”
“It’s fine. These are medicinal herbs Elder Qingyuan asked us to sort through—we just need to pick out the flawed ones.” The other, cuter-looking female cultivator, Shuangyuan, shook her head. She seemed slightly younger than Li Yudi and couldn’t help asking curiously,
“Are you mortals?”
“Oh, Elder Qingyuan saw that we had a bit of cultivation experience. The sect is probably short-handed while preparing for the competition to enter Cangling Kingdom’s Trial Realm, so seeing our sincere devotion to the Dao, he made an exception and accepted us.”
Yao Dai felt embarrassed using Li Yangtian’s life-saving debt as an excuse, so she casually shifted the topic.
Hearing that she actually knew about the Trial Realm, the two female cultivators believed her words and nodded in agreement.
“That makes sense. Lately, more inner disciples have been going out, and even our morning classes have been reduced. The elders are prioritizing the improvement of the inner disciples.”
Wen Li walked over to help sort the herbs, sighing with emotion as she spoke.
“I really envy those inner disciples. To be able to go to the Trial Realm to raise their cultivation... I heard there are many treasures inside.”
“Yeah! Every disciple who comes out alive gets incredible opportunities.” Li Yudi tilted her head, her young eyes full of longing. “However, the inner disciples must first hold a competition to select representative disciples before they can represent the sect in the Trial Realm. I heard the other sects are very formidable too—the Wulei Sect and Ziyang Sect each have an impressive figure at Late-Stage Foundation Establishment.”
Yao Dai asked curiously, “Does our sect not have anyone at Late-Stage Foundation Establishment?”
“How could that be?” Shuangyuan said, her tone carrying a slight local accent. “It’s just that all competitors must be under a hundred years old. The strongest in our sect is Wang Xianlin, who is already at Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment—he’s very impressive!”
“Oh, that really is impressive.” Yao Dai nodded and glanced at Wen Li.
Having gathered enough news through their idle chat, the two went into their room to unpack, which was really just making their beds and changing into their sect robes.
“Huh? Why are you two here? Don’t you have morning classes?”
Before long, Li Yangtian’s voice drifted in from outside.
“Brother, our morning classes have been temporarily canceled. The sect tournament is in just half a month, so the inner disciples have all been taken back by their respective elders to cultivate diligently.”
“Oh, then don’t worry about it. We just need to focus on preparing for the sect tournament assembly.” He had always been the one leading outer disciples in handling these logistics.
“Mm.”
Not wanting to get too close to the inner room, Li Yangtian asked Li Yudi to call Wen Li and Yao Dai out to go to the dining hall for a meal.
Together with Shuangyuan and Xie Tinglan, the group of six boarded a skyship and arrived at a spot halfway up the mountain.
Li Yangtian pointed. “That one over there is the dining hall for inner disciples. Ours is over here—don’t go to the wrong place.”
Wen Li looked over. One was grand and luxurious like a high-end restaurant, while the other looked like a small side kitchen attached to that restaurant.
The contrast was stark. Since it was mealtime, some disciples wore sect robes with auspicious cloud patterns, while others wore plain, solid colors—it was obvious at a glance who was an inner disciple.
What’s more, a large crowd of outer disciples was squeezed into the small dining hall, while only a few inner disciples lazily entered and exited the grand restaurant.
As the group of six walked over,
several inner disciples walking toward them suddenly stopped in their tracks, looking curiously at Xie Tinglan.
“Since when does our sect accept toddlers? Have you even been weaned off milk yet before coming to our Zhaixing Sect?” Glancing over and seeing Li Yangtian, the leader, Zhang Yuguang, mocked, “Li Yangtian, this isn’t your illegitimate son, is it? You can’t raise him yourself so you brought him to the sect? What, did you beg Elder Qingyuan bitterly just like you did back then to let him in?”
“Hahaha!” The three inner disciples beside him burst into laughter.
“...”
At those words, the usually cheerful Li Yangtian’s expression darkened slightly. However, he merely clenched his fists, and in less than three seconds, he regained control of his expression, putting on a smile.
“Senior Brother Zhang, please don’t joke like that. This is a new junior brother, Xie Tinglan. I still need to take the new disciples to eat, so I won’t bother Senior Brother Zhang any further.”
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