31 Masters and Disciples
Actually, Wei Gaoyuan cared little about which peak to enter or which Elder to teach him as he knew long ago that the highest peak and the supreme teacher was in his dream, his dream space.
The mysterious opponent in the dream space, who'd been offering him one-on-one combat training, and also a three-man-high stone stele occasionally floating and revolving high over his head to correct the patterns and methods in his cultivation, which was carved with a large number of unknown words and patterns.
The mysterious virtual opponent never talked, and the stone stele couldn't speak, either. So he knew nothing about why he could enter into her dream to learn and cultivate. He did ask a few people indirectly and subtly, but no one told the same experience as him.
It was weird, truly, hard to explain.
In just a few minutes, the remaining new disciples all got selected: Hu Xiaoshu and Lin entered the Scarlet-Feather Peak; Li Xiaochun, who'd been silent in the whole selection, went to the Golden-Feather Peak; and another disciple, Yan Shifei, from the Family of Yan in Qizhou City entered the Blue-Feather Peak. They greeted with each other and then followed their respective Elders to leave the central hall.
The elders of Dark-Feather Peak had always got a sullen face and never laughed from the beginning to the end of the selection. Thus, Wei Gaoyuan and the fat kept their mouths closed tightly on the way to Dark-Feather Peak.
Until arriving in Palace of Dark-Feather, the sullen-faced Elder seemed to think of them two, he asked, "Your names? And where are you from?"
The fat replied first, "Master, I'm Zhu Qinglong, from the Family of Zhu in Lingzhou City."
Wei Gaoyuan followed with a bow, "Master, I'm Wei Gaoyuan, from the East Mountain Sword Club in Qizhou City."
"Well," the Elder nodded subconsciously. Suddenly, his voice doubled in volume, louder than it was in the central hall, "You say it again! What's your name?! Where're you from?!"
"I'm Wei Gaoyuan, from the East Mountain Sword Club in Qizhou City," Wei Gaoyuan repeated.
"You? Wei Gaoyuan? From Qizhou City? Then what's that Wei Gaoyuan?" a complicated expression showed on the Elder's gloomy face.
Wei Gaoyuan had already known the Elder must ask it. He said truthfully, "I've got no idea about it, it might be same name as me."
"Why didn't you stand up… or clear it up at that time?" asked the Elder.
"That brother, brother WEI, stood up just a step ahead of me, and at first I was not so sure if I was the right one. And later…I had no proper chance to get my words in discussion of the Elders, actually I supposed I shouldn't interrupt," Wei Gaoyuan said respectfully.
The elder's eyes blinked somehow before he asked, "Have you ever tested your spiritual root?"
Upon hearing such question, Wei Gaoyuan's look turned as gloomy as his master, "Report to the master, I've done it in the East Mountain Sword Club. It's just a fake spiritual root, I was told that I've got no attribute to cultivate Taoism Arts."
The atmosphere turned silent after his words, so repressed that Wei Gaoyuan and Zhu Qinglong could only heard their breathing. The two disciples daren't to speak anything, because now their master's look seemed really strange.
After quite a while, the Elder suddenly burst into laughter, "Ha ha ha ha..."
The Elder stared at Wei Gaoyuan after laughing for a while, "It turns out that you are that real Wei Gaoyuan! I wonder… how Elder Xu would be feeling and thinking while knowing the truth…" he found himself want to laugh again.
Standing aside, Zhu Qinglong knew little about what had happened, he only knew that his master seemed to change his face in a blink of an eye. Wait, wait, what did Wei Gaoyuan say just now? he'd got a fake spiritual root?!
...
When Elder Xu of Cyan-Feather Peak returned Palace of Cyan-Feather with two new disciples, like a hero's return in victory, he called one disciple, "Help your two younger brothers to register."
"Yes! Master!" the disciple bowed then turned to the two of WEI Gaoyuan, "Welcome, I'm Lu Yisheng."
"I'm WEI Gaoyuan!"
"Wu Haofeng, greeting brother Lu. I'd appreciate your kind consideration for us."
Younger brother Wu seemed kind of cuter than younger brother WEI, Lu Yisheng thought, glancing at the two new comer.
Not very long after that, the three disciples returned to Palace of Cyan-Feather. Each of WEI Gaoyuan and Wu Haofeng was distributed an identity tag—a small delicate wooden plate with his name on it, uniforms and an ordinary long sword.
Elder Xu, who was sitting in the middle fauteuil in the main hall of the palace, held a long sword in his right hand, which seemed not to be a ordinary one because of its exquisite scabbard.
Seeing WEI Gaoyuan coming with an ordinary long sword, he waved Wu Haofeng away, "You can leave. Wei Gaoyuan stay."
"See you later, master," Wu Haofeng bowed and withdrew respectfully.
Elder Xu led WEI Gaoyuan to the back hall and handed him the long sword, "It's a sword of Ren-level, I hope you won't let it down…"
"Thank you, master! I promise I won't!" WEI Gaoyuan took over the sword.
Then he undid the ordinary long sword at his waist, and Elder Xu glanced at his identity tag hanging on his waist, with the clear three characters "WEI Gaoyuan" carved on it.
"WEI Gaoyuan?" Elder Xu frowned. "Show me your identity tag."
WEI Gaoyuan untied the identity tag and handed it to his master.
Elder Xu stared at the name on the tag for a while and asked seriously, "Are you sure the name on it was correct?"
"Yes, master. Exactly, WEI Gaoyuan is my name." WEI Gaoyuan replied.
"Where are you from?" Elder Xu added.
"I'm from the Family of WEI in Mengzhou City. My grandfather used to learn the Martial Arts…also in the outer section of the East Mountain Sword Clan," WEI Gaoyuan respectfully responded.
"Mengzhou City? The Family of WEI??" Elder Xu's face turned gloomy immediately. Before the selection he'd got some information about that boy with the fake spiritual root, who was actually from the Qizhou City. There was another new disciple with the same name as that boy? His crying need made a terrible mistake?
"Have you ever tested your root?" Elder Xu Chang's heart sank— the spiritual root became his last hope…
"Master, I did when I was a child, but it's just the sub-common spiritual root, " WEI Gao looked a little depressed and embarrassed.
(sub-common spiritual root: a lower level spiritual root than a common spiritual root.)
"The sub-common spiritual root? Not the fake spiritual root?" Elder Xu confirmed it again, suddenly standing up from the fauteuil.
"I couldn't make it wrong, indeed the sub-common spiritual roots," WEI Gaoyuan said seriously.
Elder Xu couldn't control himself to sit down again. His mind turned blank, a slight chill spreading from the top of his head to his sole. To select a sub-common spiritual root at such a high price! The desperate killed the sensible!!
No way to withdraw, the disciple had been here at the moment, and the promises had been made. Like the dumb man eating the bitter herb, Elder Xu had to suffer in silence.
"Well! WEI Gaoyuan!" Elder Xu nodded, stared at his disciple and said loudly, "I believe you're a promising young martial artist! Practice hard and strive to be the prominent among all the disciples! Do not let me down!"
He'd made his mind while speaking to give much attention and guidance to this unexpected disciple in the future — if this kid with the sub-common spiritual root had a good comprehension in the Martial Arts, plus careful guidance himself could offer, there wasn't much difficult for him to enter into the stage of the Nature, and that might earn himself much recognition among Elders, as a compensation to himself for the big loss of face this time.
"Master! I won't let you down!" certainly, WEI Gaoyuan didn't know what Elder Xu was thinking at the moment. He made the promise confidently, proposing the plan in mind for his bright future.
...
As other sects and outer sections, the outer section of the East Mountain Sword Clan had its own library, which collected all kinds of books and secret scrolls in various categories.
The new disciple was allowed to pick up one scroll of Martial Arts for cultivation in the scrolls of the Gui-level Martial Arts in the first floor.
Rather than those scrolls of Martial Arts, Wei Gaoyuan cared more about finding some useful information about the Universe in Bag in the sea of books.
He'd once heard the song in the stories by the storyteller in tea houses:
Universes in my bag,
worlds in my bag;
I'm gonna put Mount Meru in my bag;
I'm gonna invite Sun and Moon in my bag;
…
(Mount Meru: a sacred mountain with five peaks in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.)
Having heard of various amazing Taoism Arts bewitched by those earth-shaking Land Taoists, he, as a little martial artist, had got a Universe in Bag, but found no way to open it!
Fortunately, the books in historical and informational category could be consulted at will. It didn't take him a long time to find a book called SOURCE OF ARMORS AND WEAPONS, which recorded plentiful official and unofficial history, and general information about some magic items.
Wei Gaoyuan found himself quickly immersed in some stories and information in this book, which were extremely impressive and interesting.
