At the outer gate of Mount Hua, the characters for "Mount Hua Immortal Sect" stood firmly, seemingly unassuming, yet imbued with hidden vitality.

This time, it wasn't just the North Peak recruiting disciples. All five peaks of Mount Hua—East Peak Sun-Greeting Peak, South Peak Wild Goose Peak, Central Peak Maiden Desire Peak, West Peak Lotus Peak, and North Peak Cloud Terrace Peak—were taking in new members. Elder Wu, Lu Yuan, and Ye Fang were naturally responsible for overseeing the North Peak's recruitment process.

"There really are a lot of people wanting to join," Lu Yuan remarked with a sigh.

At that moment, Lu Yuan rubbed his eyes, and a girl in green appeared before him. This green-clad girl possessed an innocent countenance, her eyes exceedingly clear, with a slight baby fat suggesting a younger girl, and a dimple on each cheek. Lu Yuan rubbed his eyes again: "Oh, Junior Sister Liu Ye'er."

The green-clad girl turned her head, momentarily stunned. After a long pause, she recognized him: "Oh, right, you're that senior brother who likes to drink at Senior Uncle Yuan Yuan's five-hundredth birthday celebration." The young man in white walking with the green-clad girl froze slightly. This young man in white was Liu Ming, the third direct disciple of the Sword Sect's East Peak, and Liu Ye'er's biological brother. He knew his sister's temperament—her forgetfulness was legendary—so it was rare that she still remembered a fellow disciple from another peak. It seemed this drinking-loving junior brother had left quite an impression on his little sister for her to recall him.

Since they were all direct disciples, they quickly became acquainted through conversation.

Representing the Sword Sect's East Peak this time were the third direct disciple, Liu Ming, and the ninth direct disciple, Liu Ye'er, this brother and sister pair.

The South Peak of the Sword Sect also brought familiar faces: the fourth direct disciple Wei Bei and the fifth direct disciple Shen Luo. These two practiced the Myriad Changes Cloud Sword and the Thousand Illusions Mist Sword, respectively. They jointly attacked Lu Yuan using the Thousand Three Hundred Forms of Myriad Changes Thousand Illusions Cloud Mist, only to be defeated by him.

The contingent from the Qi Sect's West Peak included the third direct disciple Zhao Nan—whom Lu Yuan knew—as he had previously used Earth-elemental magic which Lu Yuan had countered. The other person was unfamiliar.

The two direct disciples arriving from the Qi Sect's Central Peak were also new faces to Lu Yuan.

Before the formal recruitment began, everyone exchanged a few pleasantries.

During their conversation, Lu Yuan realized Liu Ye'er was as endearingly scatterbrained as ever, often forgetting what she was talking about mid-sentence—a truly adorably muddled girl.

Zhao Nan, the third direct disciple from the Qi Sect's West Peak, tried hard to project an aura of killing intent, naturally directed at Lu Yuan. He had been defeated by Lu Yuan's sword-breaking technique at the North Peak last time. He had wanted to challenge Lu Yuan again, but considering he hadn't improved much since the last encounter, a challenge would be futile. So, he settled for radiating killing intent. Alas, no matter how much killing intent he projected, Lu Yuan completely ignored him, filling Zhao Nan with profound melancholy. Why, after trying so hard to emit menace, was he still being utterly disregarded? Heavens above, Earth below, how cruel!

As for Wei Bei and Shen Luo of the Sword Sect's South Peak, they were unconcerned; both planned to challenge Lu Yuan once their swordsmanship had advanced significantly. However, they were still far from that milestone.

Liu Ming, the third direct disciple of the Sword Sect's East Peak, scrutinized Lu Yuan with curiosity. He knew his sister’s naturally forgetful nature, so he was intrigued as to how she remembered Lu Yuan.

...

The task of recruiting disciples finally commenced.

The direct disciples who had been chatting all returned to their designated posts.

The requirements for recruitment weren't particularly high: one’s temperament shouldn't be poor, and one's root aptitude needed to be acceptable to be accepted into the sect. These standards were far lower than those for direct disciples. Yet, even so, nearly half of the applicants failed to qualify as ordinary disciples. Considering that most people present for the ordinary disciple selection already had connections or backing, this fact alone showed how excessively high the so-called low standards of the Mount Hua Immortal Sect were for those coming from smaller or medium-sized factions.

The principle of voluntary affiliation applied to all five peaks, but the rules were strict: each applicant had only one chance. For example, if you wished to join the Sword Sect's East Peak and failed, you could not then apply to any of the other four peaks; you were immediately disqualified.

...

As the recruitment began, the distinctions between the five peaks became immediately apparent.

The largest crowds surged toward the East Peak Sun-Greeting Peak, the South Peak Wild Goose Peak, and the West Peak Lotus Peak.

The East Peak Sun-Greeting Peak ranked first among the five peaks, and its strength indeed led them all. Its signature peak-guarding sword technique, the Sun-Greeting One Qi Sword, was a rare supreme skill in the world.

The South Peak Wild Goose Peak ranked quite high in strength among the five. Its peak-guarding sword technique, the Thousand Three Hundred Forms of Myriad Changes Thousand Illusions Cloud Mist, was reputed to have the most moves in the entire Great Jin Kingdom's immortal cultivation world, naturally drawing considerable attention.

And the West Peak Lotus Peak, being the stronger of the two Qi Sect peaks, did not boast an outstanding sword technique. Instead, it possessed the Purple Qi Coming From The East Heart Method, heralded as the strongest mental cultivation method among the five peaks of Mount Hua. The Purple Qi Coming From The East Heart Method, when activated, could transform the scenery for a thousand li, truly an ultimate heart method, far surpassing the foundational heart methods of the other five peaks.

These three peaks attracted the majority of applicants registering.

In contrast, fewer people flooded toward the Central Peak and the North Peak.

The current structure of the Mount Hua Immortal Sect was that the Sword Sect held supremacy, the Qi Sect was slightly weaker, and the Sword-Qi Sect was the weakest, naturally making the Sword-Qi Sect the least noticeable.

Since few people applied to the North Peak, Lu Yuan was contentedly at leisure. He processed about a dozen entry applications himself, testing temperament and root aptitude, passing about half of them. The rest of the administrative work was largely pushed onto Elder Wu and Ye Fang. Lu Yuan sat to the side, savoring his wine with gusto.

Fewer applicants for the North Peak meant less work for him; he preferred it that way.

Lu Yuan downed a mouthful of wine, thinking to himself.

——————

Recruiting disciples required handling them one by one, involving tests of temperament and root aptitude during the process, meaning the whole procedure took a considerable amount of time.

One full day was clearly not enough.

As night fell, the recruitment work paused.

Everyone settled down to rest. Lu Yuan was not an industrious person to begin with; having recruited people all day, he was quite tired. While Elder Wu was organizing the roster of new recruits for the day, Lu Yuan was already fast asleep. Of course, Ye Fang had also retired long ago. It was only while Lu Yuan was drifting in and out of sleep that he was abruptly jolted awake by a shove.

Waking up to find Ye Fang shaking him, Lu Yuan was surprised: "What's going on?"

Ye Fang said, "There was a ruckus outside just now. I heard it was Tian Zhong the Lone Walker, who came to steal flying swords." Tian Zhong the Lone Walker was a well-known figure among rogue cultivators. This rogue cultivator possessed incredibly swift movement techniques; some claimed he was the fastest runner in the Qi Refining Stage. Unless one could fly, he was impossible to stop. Tian Zhong the Lone Walker had a habit of stealing, and he only stole flying swords, nothing else. According to him, he was a sword appraisal master. He was active in various regions, famous because on two separate occasions, cultivators in the Body Tempering Stage who pursued him ended up failing to catch him. Escaping cultivators in the Body Tempering Stage brought him widespread renown.

When Lu Yuan heard that Tian Zhong the Lone Walker had arrived, he flipped over, his hand finding the hilt of the Yang Wu Sword: "Let's go see."

At this hour, everyone should have been nearly asleep. Both those recruiting and those being recruited were mentally exhausted from the day's activities. This weariness was largely psychological, but the news of Tian Zhong the Lone Walker's arrival among the rogue cultivators had roused everyone. Tian Zhong the Lone Walker was indeed a famous figure, known for stealing various flying swords and, notably, for surviving confrontations with Body Tempering Stage cultivators.

Lu Yuan placed his hand on the hilt of the Yang Wu Sword and leaped up. He was too lazy to bother with someone like Tian Zhong the Lone Walker. According to sect rules, dealing with underground demons or rogue cultivators with utterly vile reputations required acting without regard for good or evil—draw the sword and kill. This made things much simpler.

Lu Yuan reached the outside of the temporary encampment and immediately saw several other direct disciples.

Liu Ming and Liu Ye'er from the Sword Sect's East Peak, Wei Bei and Shen Luo from the South Peak, Zhao Nan from the West Peak, the unfamiliar disciple, and the two direct disciples from the Central Peak—these eight direct disciples had all drawn their swords.

Surrounded was a middle-aged man wielding a short sword. This man was laughing heartily, his sword movements incredibly swift. He had a short beard and looked rather lean; this was Tian Zhong the Lone Walker himself.

His short sword was like the wind, his blade movements relentless. Even facing the combined efforts of the eight direct disciples from the East, South, Central, and West Peaks, they couldn't manage him. Instead, Tian Zhong forced their coordinated attacks into disarray, leaving them looking utterly miserable and battered. Tian Zhong laughed: "This lord only steals flying swords. I didn't expect you young direct disciples to be so vigilant; you made me fail for once."

Tian Zhong's failure this time was unexpected. If it were only eight direct disciples, he wouldn't have feared facing them all at once. However, Tian Zhong was aware that several elders were present, and more importantly, this location was the outer gate of the Mount Hua Immortal Sect. While security here wasn't extremely tight, it was too close to Mount Hua itself, so retreating first was the wisest choice.

Tian Zhong was typically audacious, but being at the Mount Hua outer gate, so near the main peak, made him fearful.

At this moment, Elder Wu took action, thrusting his sword forward. The thrust was executed with exquisite precision. Without hesitation, Tian Zhong countered with a rapid sword strike, shattering Elder Wu's offensive momentum and swiftly breaking through the encirclement. His true strength was indeed slightly superior to Elder Wu's, and his combat experience was vast; that quick strike had landed precisely where Elder Wu's sword momentum was weakest: "This lord departs!"

He was just about to bolt away. Although he couldn't fly, he possessed a unique Lone Walker movement technique that granted incredible speed.

Just as he seemed certain to escape, he saw a green-clad youth standing sideways, sword held ready, directly blocking the narrow path necessary for his fastest retreat.

A slight smirk played on the corners of the green-clad youth's lips.

Tian Zhong paid him no mind, assuming this youth was merely a direct disciple. What was there to fear from a mere direct disciple?

(What do you all think if Liu Ye'er were the female lead? This chapter also served to lay out the situation for the other four peaks; it's time for the protagonist to step off his small stage onto the larger arena of the five peaks. Incidentally, Tian Zhong the Lone Walker was genuinely inspired by someone I wrote about.) V

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