"First rank below the True Disciples? Tell me more."
"Didn't you come with Senior Brother Luo? Why do you need me to explain?"
"You said yourself that Senior Brother Luo was a first-rank figure. Why would he tell me about these things?"
"True enough... but I don't dare say much more to you, either. You might slap some accusation on me."
"Oh? Then the next time I see Senior Brother Luo, I'll have to say a few words. Tell him no one along the way even introduced our Azure Mystic Sect to me..."
"All right, all right! Why do you have to be so particular?" Zhang Erguo's plump face scrunched up. "Then let me explain... let me think where to begin... let's start with Senior Brother Luo!"
"I'm all ears."
Zhang Erguo cleared his throat and began his formal introduction:
"Senior Brother Luo is indeed a Main Gate disciple, but even among Main Gate disciples, there are differences. Ordinary Main Gate disciples either stay in the sect to work or are sent elsewhere to serve as stewards and the like. They're treated well, but they can't compare with someone like Senior Brother Luo, who has a chance to become a True Disciple."
"He's on good terms with Senior Brother Yu Cheng of Jingxiao Peak. With a True Disciple as the great tree sheltering his back, his standing is entirely different."
"Jingxiao Peak? A True Disciple?"
"True Person Jingxiao, one of our Azure Mystic Sect's four great True Persons, expounds the Dao on Jingxiao Peak. Senior Brother Yu Cheng studies under Elder Ji Wen of Jingxiao Peak. In the entire Azure Mystic Sect, only those personally favored by a Foundation Establishment elder deserve the title of 'True Disciple' and can inherit a Daoist name."
"Senior Brother Luo also cultivates on Jingxiao Peak year-round. Who knows when one of its Foundation Establishment elders might take him on as a True Disciple? Naturally, his standing isn't the same as an ordinary Main Gate disciple's. He's someone who might attain the Dao and reach Foundation Establishment!"
As he spoke, he grinned self-mockingly. "People like us should give up that daydream early. If we can keep our heads down, grind our way to Qi Refining, and land ourselves a place among the Main Gate disciples, that'll be blue smoke rising from our ancestral graves!"
Jiang Che offered no opinion and prompted him again. "Then may I ask what these registered disciples, the Verdant Mist Hall, and the lower court are?"
"For that, I'll have to start from the beginning."
"The prospective disciples at the very bottom of our Azure Mystic Sect aren't worth mentioning. They haven't even entered the sect. At most, they're odd-job helpers."
"Above them are the outer disciples. They've barely crossed the threshold, but their prospects are worrying indeed. They do receive cultivation methods, but opportunities are few, and they have to earn their keep doing chores. It's extremely hard to get ahead. If they're truly lucky and have good root bones, they might grind their way to Qi Refining and gain exceptional admission to the Main Gate, but the chances are vanishingly small! Reaching Qi Refining is already fraught with a thousand hardships. Outer disciples receive only ordinary provisions, lacking pills, medicines, cultivation methods, and guidance. Even one success in a hundred would be generous."
"Above them, registered disciples like us are on the proper path! We're all promising seedlings recommended by the various prefectures and counties. Once admitted and registered, we study the sect's orthodox methods, with boundless prospects ahead! The Azure Mystic Mountains, where the sect stands, have the richest spiritual energy in all Great Wu. Even cultivating in the worst spot halfway up the mountain is far better than the cave abodes ordinary rogue cultivators rack their brains to find!"
"As for the Verdant Mist Hall, it oversees registered disciples like us, with lower courts, branch courts, and upper courts beneath it. Some of us registered disciples have contributed to the sect, some have outstanding talent, some have someone promoting them, and some pass assessments... all these differences determine which courts we're assigned to, with increasingly generous treatment."
"To say nothing of anything else, the spiritual energy varies in strength depending on where each court is located. The upper courts can't compare with the cave abodes advanced cultivators establish for themselves, but they're the best places someone at the Embryonic Breath stage can enjoy. The branch courts come next, and the lower courts last. But even the lower courts are better than the prefectures and counties down below, or those little mountains and little abodes."
"Registration does have a time limit, though. If you haven't reached Qi Refining within fifteen years of registering, you'll be relegated to an outer disciple."
By this point, Jiang Che understood.
Those fifteen years of registration were essentially fifteen years of focused nurturing. If someone failed to reach Qi Refining, they lacked talent and could go sit at the same table as the outer disciples.
Seen this way, the Azure Mystic Sect's structure was quite clear.
Prospective disciples, outer disciples, registered disciples, Main Gate disciples, True Disciples-each successive tier stood clearly apart.
Jiang Che had effectively leaped straight from prospective disciple to registered disciple, but according to Zhang Erguo, advancing to the Main Gate would be much harder. He had to succeed in reaching Qi Refining first.
Only after meeting that minimum could he discuss distinctions among Main Gate disciples, let alone becoming a True Disciple.
At this thought, Jiang Che casually took ten spirit stone fragments from his storage pouch and tossed them to Zhang Erguo.
Zhang Erguo caught them in a fluster, then asked, "You... I... oh, take them back, take them back! Consider the explanation free."
He was still afraid Jiang Che would report him.
Jiang Che laughed. "You didn't solicit these, Senior Brother Zhang. I'm giving them to you as a small token of thanks because you explained everything so well."
"Oh, oh... so that's it." Zhang Erguo pondered for a moment, then brightened again. "What a fine way to put it! That's what I'll say from now on!"
Jiang Che was speechless.
As they continued downward, the mountain path gradually leveled out, and the scenery on either side changed with it.
The lofty immortal grandeur of palaces and temples faded somewhat, replaced by plain, blue-tiled houses scattered through the mountain hollows.
"This is the lower court. It can't match the grandeur up above, so you'll have to make do, Junior Brother. Newly admitted registered disciples like us spend our first few years here tempering our foundations. Only once we've made something of ourselves do we get a chance to move to a branch court or an upper court."
Jiang Che nodded slightly, then saw a young woman approaching from around a bend in the mountain path ahead.
She was about sixteen or seventeen, dressed in a plain blue-cloth skirt and top, her black hair loosely pinned up with a wooden hairpin. When she saw Zhang Erguo, she smiled and nodded from a distance.
The moment Zhang Erguo saw her, his face filled with smiles again. "Junior Sister Yan! What luck running into you. This is Junior Brother Jiang. He's just joined, and I was taking him to the lower court."
He turned back. "Junior Brother Jiang, this is Junior Sister Yan. Just call her that as I do."
Jiang Che cupped his hands as instructed and called her "Senior Sister Yan," only to hear Zhang Erguo say, "No, no, just call her Junior Sister like I do."
"Hm?"
By the order in which they had joined, he ought to call her "Senior Sister." Why was he being told to call her "Junior Sister" instead?
Besides... the aura around this young woman was unremarkable, without the slightest trace of circulating inner force. She was clearly a mortal who had never cultivated.
Still, he asked no further questions. He had only just arrived, and much remained unclear. Whenever something puzzled him, he need only watch and listen more. Asking too eagerly would only betray his inexperience.
Junior Sister Yan first acknowledged Jiang Che, then said to Zhang Erguo, "If you have other errands, Senior Brother Erguo, go ahead and see to them. I can take Senior Brother Jiang through the rest."
"That would be wonderful! With Junior Sister Yan guiding him, I can rest easy."
Then he lowered his voice and leaned toward Jiang Che, offering a kindly reminder. "Let me tell you, this Junior Sister Yan is the daughter of our lower court's Instructor Yan. Don't offend her."
Having delivered that reminder, Zhang Erguo cheerfully cupped his hands in farewell and vanished like a wisp of smoke.
Only after he had gone some distance did Junior Sister Yan turn back and say with easy poise, "Senior Brother Jiang, follow me. I'll take you to see your quarters first."
Before you continue