Lin Feng merely flicked his sleeve without a care, rose on the wind, and left with Elder Tie.
The sight of the two riding away on the wind filled countless people in Iron Ox Village with envy and yearning.
Once their figures vanished from view, the crowd turned toward the burly woman and began preparing to divide up the wealth the Tie family had accumulated over so many years of blacksmithing.
Inside the main hall of the Evergreen Sect.
"Disciple Tie Dali pays his respects to the sect master."
Elder Tie's original name was Tie Dali, and he was forty-seven years old.
After Lin Feng brought him back to the Evergreen Sect on the wind, Tie Dali was completely convinced.
Given that Tie Dali had six entry slots, Lin Feng directly accepted him as the Evergreen Sect's first inner disciple and taught him the Evergreen Art, a low-grade yellow-tier sect cultivation technique that had come with the sect upon awakening.
Tie Dali officially began his journey of cultivation.
However, his blue equipment-forging entry, Spirit Tempering and Weapon Forging, was of no use for the time being.
It would only have a chance to shine again once the sect advanced and established an Equipment Hall.
With Tie Dali officially joining, the Evergreen Sect's ranking on the first week's disciple recruitment competition leaderboard also changed.
Originally, the Evergreen Sect had zero points and ranked outside the top 80%.
Now, however, its points had broken through from zero to one, and its ranking instantly entered the top 80%!
This also indirectly showed that, among all the sects on Server 999 that day, 20% still had not found a single disciple with cultivation talent.
The cafeteria reserved for third-year students at Spirit City High School.
It was already evening, and most of the third-year students had emerged from their private cave abodes to have dinner.
Time flowed at almost the same rate in the real world and the sect world. If you spent a day in the sect world, a day would also pass in the real world.
Hunger also forced Lin Feng to leave the sect world and return to reality.
On the first day of awakening his sect, which was also the first day of the disciple aptitude recruitment competition in the sect world, Lin Feng had recruited only one disciple with a Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root, even with his Entry System.
After leaving Iron Ox Village, Lin Feng had visited two more villages but had not discovered another mortal with cultivation talent.
Even so, Lin Feng had recruited two more mortal disciples with four entries each as the sect's menial disciples, placing them at Tie Dali's disposal.
After searching three villages, Lin Feng also realized that mortals with four or more entries were already extremely rare. Most ordinary people had only one or two entries.
The probability of four entries appearing was only one in a thousand.
Tie Dali, born with six entries, was a genuine entry genius!
Although the first day's recruitment results had been rather miserable, Lin Feng still had not fallen out of the top 80%. It seemed quite a few sects had gained nothing that day.
Lin Feng looked at the disciple recruitment points leaderboard:
[First place: Daoxuan Sect: 531 points. Second place: Supreme Purity Sect: 460 points. Third place: Azure Luan Sect: 436 points. ... Ninth place: Dao Inquiry Sect: 363 points. Tenth place: Limitless Sect: 337 points.
Nearly all the top ten sects on the leaderboard had gained over 100 points that day, each recruiting at least two disciples with high-grade spiritual roots.
Fortunately, no one had recruited a disciple with a Heavenly Spiritual Root or the legendary Immortal Spiritual Root yet.
A few Heavenly Spiritual Roots had appeared in previous years, but disciples with Immortal Spiritual Roots had always existed only in legend.
This also showed, from another angle, that the higher a sect's awakening grade, the more highly talented disciples there were within its sphere of influence.
The more ordinary a sect's rating, the fewer talented disciples there were around it. The strong grew stronger, and the weak grew weaker.
Such were the rules of the cultivation world.
"Hey, boys, guess how many qualified disciples my Supreme Strength Sect recruited today?"
Lin Feng had only just stepped through the cafeteria doors when he heard Lin Daqiang's boastful voice.
"Brother Qiang, I'm guessing you recruited at least five disciples today, with at least two mid-grade spiritual roots!"
Lin Daqiang gave a surprised exclamation. "You've got a few tricks up your sleeve, huh! That's pretty close. Today, your Brother Qiang recruited two disciples with mid-grade spiritual roots, two with low-grade spiritual roots, and one with a Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root."
"Now I've reached 116th place on the leaderboard, up more than twenty places!"
"As long as nothing goes wrong over the next few days, my Supreme Strength Sect will have absolutely no trouble entering the top hundred!"
The moment Lin Daqiang finished speaking, the lackeys around him began congratulating him one after another.
"With Brother Qiang's abilities, getting into the top hundred won't be any problem at all. In my opinion, you could even make a run at the top fifty!"
"Exactly! Let us congratulate Brother Qiang in advance on fighting his way out ahead of countless third-year students to enter the top hundred. Once you get to the Capital or Demon City University, don't forget to give us a helping hand!"
"Brother Qiang, once we find where your Supreme Strength Sect is in the sect world, we'll come join you right away. From then on, just leave all the dirty, tiring work like gathering resources to us!"
The stream of flattery made Lin Daqiang somewhat lose himself.
Compared with previous years' third-year students at Spirit City High School, Lin Daqiang's first-week performance could be considered among the best. Unfortunately, their school had also produced Lin Wan'er this year, who stood firmly in the top three on the first week's competition leaderboard.
Otherwise, he could have rightfully become the leading voice of Spirit City High School's graduating class.
An offhand glance happened to bring Lin Feng, who was entering the cafeteria, into Lin Daqiang's sight, and he gave the lackeys beside him a look.
The lackeys instantly took the hint.
"Oh, isn't this Lin Feng, the genius from our Spirit City High School's Aspirations Class? I wonder how many disciples you recruited in the sect world today?"
"Recruit disciples? He awakened an E-grade sect! Resources and qualified mortals around him are probably few and far between. I'm guessing our Spirit City High School's great genius didn't recruit a single qualified disciple today!"
"Lin Feng, don't tell me you couldn't even make the top 80% on the leaderboard?"
At those words, the whole group instantly burst into laughter.
The other students eating in the cafeteria could not help laughing along, waiting with a hint of anticipation for Lin Feng's answer.
Faced with their mockery, Lin Feng was somewhat annoyed. After all, what young man wasn't hot-blooded?
But his ranking had only just entered the top 80%, so he could not slap these fuckers in the face yet.
Still, Lin Feng snorted coldly and replied, "Damn dogs, looking down on everyone! This genius successfully entered the top 80% on the leaderboard today!"
At those words, the sneering crowd grew even louder.
"Oh, so our genius made the top 80% on the leaderboard! Doesn't that mean he'll receive a whole five hundred low-grade spirit stones?"
"Boys, even the lowest-ranked among us is in the top 50%, right? That's a whopping thirty-percentage-point gap between us and our genius!"