Outer Sect Forces (Two-in-One)

Mist like a thin veil had not yet fully dispersed, carrying a cool, crisp scent of damp soil and fresh vegetation.

Eighty or ninety youths stood in several slightly stiff rows, their gazes, curious or nervous, cast toward the front of the procession.

"Li Yao, Bing-23; Liu Yi, Bing-24... Wang Da Fu, Yi-33..." A young man wearing Outer Sect attire, yet with a much steadier bearing, held a bamboo scroll. His voice was not loud, yet it carried clearly through the valley as he read the names and corresponding room numbers.

He was the Senior Brother Qian in charge of this matter.

Behind him, row after row of crude stone houses were built into the contour of the mountainside.

The lower the number of these stone houses, the closer their locations were to the spiritual-Qi-drenched mountainside above, and the denser and purer the stray spiritual Qi between heaven and earth became. As for the cloud-shrouded mountainside above that, it was where Inner Sect Disciples opened up cave dwellings and practiced in seclusion, with spiritual mists overflowing and intoxicating the heart.

"Senior Brother Qian!"

A voice carrying distinct dissatisfaction rang out abruptly, breaking the reading of the assignment roster.

Everyone followed the sound, only to see a rather powerfully built youth wearing coarse cloth garments washed to a whitish hue, his thick brows locked, gazing intently at Senior Brother Qian.

"We are all newly entered outer sect disciples. Why are we assigned stone houses of the Bing category, while that Wang Da Fu gets to move directly into Yi-33?"

Senior Brother Qian's chanting voice stopped abruptly.

He slowly put away the bamboo scroll in his hand, his eyelids lifting slightly, and his gaze swept toward the vocal, powerfully built youth like cold electricity.

The next instant, he lightly tapped the ground