Chương 117: Chapter 116: Yunhuo Peak

Senior Sister Shen Yue and Senior Brother Liu Te are both Senior brother Lin Yi's friends. Yang met them in chapter 88 at Jiang Zhen Hao's banquet. Liu Te is a cultivator on the alchemist path. Yang stood behind Senior Brother Lin Yi on the flying sword as it rose from the outer sect peak and flew toward the inner sect. The sky around them was busy. Swords cut through the air in mostly the same direction, some carrying single cultivators and others two or three, all moving toward the same general destination.

A few boats also drifted past overhead, crowded with disciples in white robes. Here and there a flying beast moved among them, with its passenger sitting on its back. Yang had ventured into the inner sect before, to tend Senior Brother Xu Wei's herb garden. But Senior Brother Xu Wei's cave residence had been close to the outer edges of the inner sect boundary and a walkable distance from the outer sect peak. Today Senior Brother Lin Yi was carrying them in considerably deeper.

He had thought the outer sect beautiful. He had spent months on its stone pathways and sky bridges, watched its floating peaks at dawn and at night, and had concluded that nothing in the mortal world could rival what he had already seen. He had been wrong. Very wrong. He felt it before he saw it. A sudden richness of qi in the air. He drew a breath without thinking and felt the difference immediately, he was almost tempted to drop right on the sword and begin cultivating. Then the inner sect opened up beneath them.

White buildings caught the afternoon light, their curved rooftops gleaming pale and clean. Pavilions rose from every vantage point, some perched at the edges of cliffs with nothing beneath them but open air, others nestled between enormous trees whose canopies swallowed entire courtyards whole. Covered walkways wound between structures. He noticed there were considerably fewer sky bridges connecting the floating peaks than in the outer sect, which made sense when he thought about it.

Foundation Establishment was the threshold for flying swords. Inner sect disciples had no need of bridges to move between peaks. And water. Water was everywhere. Deep jade-green lakes sat on the peaks, fed by streams that threaded through the inner sect like veins of liquid silver, gathering into rivers that wound between the cliffs before dropping away. Smaller ponds caught the light between pavilions. Gardens terraced down hillsides, their spirit herbs visible even from this height. Then he heard it.

A low continuous sound like distant thunder that did not stop. Senior Brother Lin Yi lowered the sword slightly. Below them, three waterfalls cascaded from different elevations of the mountain. The lowest fed into a great river. The highest emerged from a floating peak half-hidden in cloud, dropping so far before the next ledge caught it that the bottom was lost in mist. Yang's mouth was open.

"Close your mouth, Junior Brother Yang," Senior Brother Lin Yi said with a smile.

"We have not even reached the deeper sections yet." Yang clamped his mouth. Then realised it had not actually been open. Senior Brother Lin Yi let out a short laugh. They rose higher than before, considerably higher, the structures below shrinking to specks.

"Formations," Senior Brother Lin Yi said, raising his voice over the wind.

"Those peaks are wrapped from base to hundreds of meters above the crown. The boundaries extend far higher than most." He paused.

"Those are the beast peaks. The sect's beast masters reside there. It is one of the most secure and sparsely populated areas in the sect. Only beast cultivators live there." Yang looked at the formations shimmering faintly around those peaks and understood the reason. You did not fly low over a mountain filled with spirit beasts. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. They cleared the beast peaks and descended again deeper into the inner sect.

It was there that Yang also began noticing spirit beasts moving through the landscape below. One enormous creature wound along a ridge path, its rider small against its back. Several smaller ones circled a training ground. They were simply part of the scenery here. The inner sect was larger than he had appreciated from the outer peak. Even on a flying sword it took considerable time to cross.

They flew over arenas, fountains, open-air classrooms visible from above, a complex of structures that had to be a community building given the steady stream of disciples moving in and out of it.

"Are most of these residences of the inner sect disciples?" Yang asked"Junior Brother," Senior Brother Lin Yi said, "most cultivators prefer cave residences. The buildings you are seeing are mostly classrooms, practice spaces for alchemy, tool refining and other crafts. The sect also rents out rooms with protective formations and qi-concentrated cultivation chambers to help disciples with breakthroughs. All these require points, of course." Yang looked where he pointed and thought about it.

Then thought about his spirit stones draining in under two minutes and wondered what would happen if he sat in a qi-concentrated chamber.

"Senior Brother," he said, keeping his tone casual, "can outer sect disciples rent those cultivation chambers?" Senior Brother Lin Yi's expression shifted to something sympathetic.

"No, Junior Brother. Only inner sect members. This is one of the real reasons disciples work so hard to join the inner sect. It is not merely the difference in rank or residence. The gap in resources is considerable as well." Yang accepted this without complaint. The sect was generous to its outer disciples. It was reasonable that the best would be reserved for those who had proven themselves.

"What are the other advantages of being in the inner sect?" Yang asked.

"Too many to name fully. But with the advantages come duties. Outer sect disciples are treated like students with freedom to leave if they choose. Once you become an inner sect disciple you remain so for life. The sect can deploy inner sect disciples in wars or other conflicts when needed."

"Is that common?"

"Not often. Wars among cultivators are rare. The higher you reach the more carefully you guard your life. The sect releases missions and there are always disciples willing to take them in exchange for points or other rewards. More commonly your own master assigns tasks rather than the sect deploying you officially." He paused.

"But back to your question. Beyond better residence and the ability to rent cultivation chambers and craft rooms, the most important advantage is the chance to gain a master. Having an experienced cultivator guiding you in cultivation makes a difference that cannot be overstated. The sect provides general support but no elder can give individual attention to every disciple. Most of the disciples participating today are there to showcase their talent to the elders as much as they are there to win."

"What are the winnings?" Yang asked. Senior Brother Lin Yi almost gapes at him. The sword veered slightly before he corrected it.

"Junior Brother," he said after a moment, "how did you not wonder about this before today?" Yang smiled in a way that conveyed mild embarrassment.

"I was focused on practicing. I did not think there would be prizes." Senior Brother Lin Yi stared at him for a second and then let out a surprised laugh.

"Junior Brother, your dedication to your craft is something. I must say you could rival Brother Liu Te." Before Yang could respond, "We are here," Senior Brother Lin Yi said. He lowered the sword toward a broad flat area at the edge of a peak and they stepped off. He sent the sword back with a gesture. Around them other arrivals were landing and dismounting as well, swords being dismissed, passengers stepping off boats, a couple of flying beasts settling at the edge of the platform with their riders.

All of them moving in the same direction.

"Welcome to Yunhuo Peak," Senior Brother Lin Yi said.

"Come, Brother Liu Te arranged a good place for us to watch." They joined the stream of white robes moving through the peak. The crowd grew denser the further in they went, the pathways filling with disciples from what appeared to be the entire inner sect. Yang stayed close to Senior Brother Lin Yi's shoulder.

"Will you be competing today, Senior Brother?" Yang asked.

"Not today. I am only participating in one event and it is not scheduled until later in the competition." Yang nodded and kept moving. The venue announced itself before they arrived. An enormous open arena of white stone, seats rising in tiers around a stage that had been lowered into the centre, accessible from all sides. A long central table dominated the stage floor, and around it were arranged many smaller tables each bearing a cauldron. The seats along the lower tiers were already mostly full.

Higher up they thinned, and further up still there were rows that remained entirely empty. As they came closer Yang noticed the crowd had thinned considerably in the section Senior Brother Lin Yi was leading him toward, the lower seats sparsely filled and the upper rows still empty.

"This is where the elders and core disciples sit," Senior Brother Lin Yi said, reading his expression.

"Along with senior sect members and special guests." Good seats. The best in the arena by the look of it. Senior Sister Shen Yue and Senior Brother Liu Te were already there. Yang greeted them both as he sat down.

"Junior Brother," Senior Sister Shen Yue said, "excited to watch your first competition?"

"Very," Yang said honestly.

"I have never seen alchemy performed in person." Below them the stage was still being prepared, the cauldrons being checked and the table at the centre set with materials. Around the arena the crowd continued to fill in, the noise rising steadily.

"Senior brother, you didn't tell me what the prize is for winning the competition?"