Chapter 27: Wanting to Enter Qingcheng

“Esteemed Daoist, I wish to join Qingcheng Sect, could you please introduce me?”

Ye Rong circled around once, twice, three times, and finally found the Qingcheng base in a remote alley. It was a garden landscape courtyard. Inside the garden, there was a clear small lake, delicate pavilions and winding corridors, and all around were planted green trees so thick that several people could barely wrap their arms around them.

Qiu Yuan, Qingcheng Disciple, Level ???

The level difference between them was too great, so the only information Ye Rong could see was a long string of question marks.

The Qingcheng recruitment requirement was that the total of the five Innate Attributes must be above 95 points, and among them, Bone Foundation and Fortune Affinity both must reach 25 points. If you didn’t meet this requirement, sorry, you had to walk to the Qingcheng Sect yourself and do the initiation trial quest.

In NPC terms, it meant your bone foundation was average, your aptitude was mediocre, and your immortal fate was insufficient, so you weren’t worth the great effort to bring you in. But if your desire to seek the Dao was very firm, it wasn’t impossible to give you a chance, allowing you the possibility of becoming a Qingcheng disciple.

“Young brother, your bone foundation is exceptional, your aptitude is supreme, you should meet our Qingcheng Sect’s recruitment requirements. As long as you pass the initiation trial, you can become a Formal Disciple of Qingcheng.”

Qiu Yuan looked excited, inspected Ye Rong up and down several times, and said happily.

Of course my aptitude is supreme, my total five Innate Attributes are 98 points, and my Bone Foundation and Fortune Affinity exceed your requirements, Ye Rong muttered to himself.

Meeting the basic requirement, the next step was simple. Qiu Yuan directly gave Ye Rong a Green Leaf Bamboo Talisman. Using it would instantly teleport him to the Qingcheng Sect.

This Green Leaf Bamboo Talisman was a special sect Teleportation Talisman. As long as you used this talisman outside of combat and weren’t trapped in a special space preventing departure, you would instantly return to the Qingcheng Sect from tens of thousands of miles away.

Ye Rong felt countless scenes flash before his eyes in quick succession, like a slideshow, too fast to see the details clearly. When things returned to normal, the world had changed again. He had gone from Lin’an City to the land of Sichuan, tens of thousands of miles away.

On both sides were green mountains and jade peaks, range upon range of mountains. Underfoot were ten thousand stone steps, looking up he couldn’t see the end, as if they went straight into the clouds.

Beyond the thousand stone steps, a platform was built, several dozen acres in size, with over a dozen people moving about on it.

Ye Rong glanced back; it was the Endless Forest Sea, with no visible path. He knew that without the Green Leaf Bamboo Talisman, even if he reached the foot of Mount Qingcheng, finding the sect’s location wouldn’t be easy. Moreover, monsters frequently appeared around Qingcheng, spirits and demons were endless, and big monsters over Level 100 were common. Ordinary Players would probably fall victim to monsters before even finding the Qingcheng Sect.

Ye Rong climbed the stone steps one by one. As he got closer, he discovered that everyone on the platform was a Player, not an NPC.

The simplest way to tell was that there couldn’t be such low-level NPCs in Qingcheng; even the servants and errand boys were around Levels 40 or 50.

These dozen or so people were scattered around the platform, grouped in several clusters, with two others alone like Ye Rong.

“Qingcheng already has over a dozen Players teleported here, not counting those who might have already been accepted as Formal Disciples. Then how many Players are doing the initiation trial quest at Emei? And how many in the entire Far Shore?”

Ye Rong frowned. He originally thought his progress was quite fast, but now it seemed just average. He really couldn’t underestimate others.

“Brother, my name is Bapi Choujin, what should I call you?”

Ye Rong had just found a stone stool to sit on when a sallow-faced youth came up to him.

“Yijian Kurong.”

“Yijian Kurong? Great name! Then I’ll call you Brother Yijian, if you don’t mind.” The sallow-faced youth plopped down on the stone stool next to Ye Rong. “Brother Yijian, you just arrived at Qingcheng, right? You can ask me anything. After all, I’ve been here for half a day!”

“Oh, that’s excellent then.”

Bapi Choujin wasn’t just boasting. Naturally, he didn’t know secret insider information, but he was clear about the general public news. Hearing it from him saved at least a few hours of investigation and searching effort.

“Every day at a fixed time, Qingcheng Daoists come to this platform to select and accept disciples. All of us here have met the Innate Attributes requirement, so we can directly receive the trial mission for Registered Disciples from them. After completing it, we become Qingcheng Registered Disciples.”

“Registered Disciples, not Formal Disciples?”

“It’s not that easy. The trial mission for Registered Disciples is just more tedious and difficult, with more effort it’s always doable. But the Initiation Task for Formal Disciples is extremely difficult; only the top experts can complete it.”

Bapi Choujin talked animatedly, very enthused. From him, Ye Rong also figured out the relationship between Registered Disciples and Formal Disciples, as well as the various initiation trial quests.

The Qingcheng NPCs who came here daily were two or three people, changing randomly, and the trial missions for Registered Disciples they issued were also different, some hard, some easy.

Whose trial mission for Registered Disciples you received determined who you would later study under. Players always wanted their master to be stronger, so they could receive more and better Magic Treasures in the future. But in the current situation, becoming a Registered Disciple first was the priority; Formal Disciple was still far off, so they couldn’t afford to be so picky.

After becoming a Registered Disciple, although you couldn’t learn Qingcheng Dao Spells yet, you would be granted the Qingcheng Sword Art, which would at least add some power to your Flying Sword, and your Dao Scrolls cultivation slot wouldn’t be idle with nothing to do.

“Brother Yijian, you’re in luck. Soon it will be the time for today’s NPCs to come choose disciples and issue missions. If you miss this moment, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

Bapi Choujin, like Ye Rong, was a newbie in the Open Beta Test, having not participated in the Closed Beta. So he couldn’t mingle with those nearby Players who had Closed Beta experience and could only be alone.

“Darn it, I heard yesterday there was a lucky guy directly accepted as a Registered Disciple by Lv Linggu, skipping the initial trial mission and going straight to the Initiation Task. So lucky! That Lv Linggu is famously rich in treasures among this generation of Qingcheng disciples. Though far from comparable to characters like the lucky war god Qi Jinchan from Emei, within Qingcheng she’s still a pretty good tree to lean on.”

Unexpectedly, this Bapi Choujin was also so knowledgeable about the Shushan Sword Heroes storyline. However, although Far Shore was designed following the Shushan Sword Heroes framework, how much content was truly retained and followed, Players were all in the dark. If you tried to copy everything step by step, you would definitely die miserably.

Ye Rong and Bapi Choujin chatted idly, talking about some knowledge and interesting news in the game, as well as things like which master they wanted to study under. Back and forth, the two quickly became familiar and chatted quite happily.

“They’re here, they’re here! The Qingcheng Daoists are finally here!”

Bapi Choujin suddenly started dancing and jumping for joy, leaping up from the stone stool, his eyes shining with excitement.