As the four approached, they received a few nods and smiles, but more people did not recognize them. They sat down at the back of the group. Before long, the middle-aged man in Daoist robes from earlier entered the Sword Field with a register.
There was an indescribably easy, carefree air about him, the bearing of a mountain recluse.
"Then everyone is here." He spoke slowly, glancing down at the register. "Apart from Jiang Yiner, who will arrive two months late, all twenty-five Sword Talents due in Chang'an this year are present. Greetings, everyone. It is a pleasure to meet such fine talents."
"My Daoist name is Duan Yu. I am of Shangqing's lineage. Counting from True Person Jihua, currently our sect's most senior member, I would be his junior martial nephew." Duan Yu closed the register. "But I haven't returned to the sect in seventeen years. I have been here all this time, serving as a Dao Enlightened instructor for Sword Talents. I will be teaching Daoist Sword, so we will see each other often."
"As customary, there are some necessary matters to explain upon your first entry into the academy."
He paused. The field was quiet, everyone listening attentively.
"First, why enter the Sword Academy?"
"The Sword Cultivation Academy has many labels outside: the Immortal Platform's means of governing the Jianghu; the Thirty-Three Sword Sects' monopoly over the Sword Dao; a sacred ground where swordsmen refine their swordsmanship. Leave all these to others to say."
"The Great Tang Thirty-Three Swords Sword-Wielder Dao Initiation Assembly," Duan Yu said slowly. "Whatever means brought you here, whatever purpose you harbor, here there is only one thing."
"Not cultivating the sword, but seeking the Dao."
"Most of your recommendation letters end with 'I wish to seek the utmost truth of the sword.'