Ethan stepped into the grand archives of the logistics hall, his massive fra naturally casting a long shadow across the reception desk. He presented his golden entry token to the elderly disciple in charge.
Without a word, the administrator slid a heavy, lacquered wooden tray across the counter. Atop it sat a neatly folded set of immaculate white robes embroidered with deep blue dragons, a dark leather belt, and a standard-issue weapon wrapped in oiled cloth.
"Your official attire and your sect blade," said the administrator, his voice flat and chanical. "Be aware, disciple: while you are permitted to keep any personal weapons inside your storage ring, you are strictly prohibited from drawing or utilizing any unauthorized steel on the sect grounds. All official training and sanctioned duels must be conducted using a pavilion-approved blade."
Ethan didn’t argue. He picked up the weapon and unwrapped the cloth, revealing a sleek, single-edged katana with a flawlessly polished tsuba.
The design was identical to the one Roy currently carried on his hip. It beca instantly clear to Ethan that the mysterious weapon Roy’s family had passed down to him had originated directly from the vaults of this very pavilion. Now, Roy proudly carried two identical katanas on his belt—a silent, defiant declaration to anyone watching that soone in his lineage had once walked these halls as an official disciple.
Instead of waiting to return to his quarters, Ethan casually stepped away from the counter and unclasped his heavy frontier cloak. He pulled off his worn tunic, exposing his heavily muscled, battle-scarred torso to the open room.
The young female clerk standing at the adjacent counter completely froze, her breath catching in her throat. Her eyes glued themselves to the raw, powerful contours of his physique, her face flushing a deep crimson as she watched him effortlessly slide his broad shoulders into the crisp, heavy fabric of the official white pavilion robes.
Ethan ignored her completely, storing his old clothes and his notched steel blade into his spatial ring. He tied the dark leather belt around his waist, the deep blue dragons on his shoulders instantly gleaming under the hall’s spirit stones. Wrapped in the pristine uniform of the first rank, he finally looked like a true, formidable cultivator of the inner mountain.
The clerk suddenly snapped out of her daze, letting out a sharp, embarrassed cough as she hurriedly adjusted her posture.
"A-Ah, excuse , Senior Brother Brightsword," said the clerk, her voice trembling slightly as she held up a small object. "Please, I still need to hand you your official identity plaque."
She placed a slender, rectangular tablet of pure white jade onto the counter. It looked completely blank and unblemished, lacking any carved letters or decorative symbols, yet it possessed a completely flawless, polished luster.
Ethan picked up the cold stone. The mont his fingers made contact, Crul’s sinister voice imdiately echoed deep within his consciousness.
[Master, do not be fooled by its smooth surface,] said Crul, his voice laced with a dark, cautious amusent. [That jade tablet contains thousands of microscopic, interlocking spiritual arrays hidden deep within the stone. It is entirely unique. The mont you bind it to your bloodline, the pavilion will be able to track your exact coordinates anywhere on the mountain. More importantly, they will instantly know the exact mont of your demise—just like the tracking seal that triggered when you slaughtered that trash from the Crimson Sect.]
"You must drop a single flake of your blood onto the surface to officially bind your soul-line to the registry," said the clerk. She held out a small silver needle, her eyes still locked onto his sharp profile.
Ethan didn’t hesitate. He took the needle, pricked the tip of his thumb, and let a single, dark crimson drop fall onto the flawless white jade.
Buzz.
The tablet violently absorbed the blood, a faint sapphire light rippling across the stone as the hidden arrays activated. Imdiately, a strange, faint spiritual connection established itself between the jade and Ethan’s consciousness. In his mind’s eye, the blank surface of the tablet seed to shift, revealing neat lines of glowing information:
Na: Ethan Brightsword
Age: 18
Status: Official Outer Disciple
Achievents: 1st Place (Entrance Examination)
Sect Rank: 1,650
Ethan’s athyst eyes narrowed slightly as he read the final line. One thousand, six hundred and fifty. It was a massive, daunting number, but considering there were thousands of brutal cultivators who had been stagnating in the outer peaks for years, being placed straight into the top two thousand as a brand-new rookie wasn’t a bad starting position at all.
He turned his head toward Roy, who was currently staring at his own newly activated jade plaque with a thoroughly confused expression.
"What does your rank say?" said Ethan.
"I don’t have one, Master," said Roy. He held up the stone, showing the blank space where the numbers should be. "My status page just shows three empty dashes. There is absolutely no ranking number listed for ."
"The special exemptions do not get a standard rank upon entry," said the elderly administrator from behind the desk, his voice echoing with a cold, dismissive tone. "You bypassed the trial system to sneak through the side door, brat. Until you formally challenge and defeat an official ranked disciple in the public arena, your na remains at the very bottom of the unranked pile. On this mountain, if you do not fight for your number, you simply do not exist."
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From this mont forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks ntioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinent Realm
Skin Refinent / Bone Refinent / Organ Refinent
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Pri Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
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