In a daze, everyone found themselves in the inner courtyard, leaping off the back of the Wind-Riding Eagle. Their feet touched the solid ground, and the rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth surrounded them, causing some students to exclaim in amazement.
Before the group could even stand up straight, an elderly man and several middle-aged men approached them.
Qin Xin's gaze swept over the group, noticing that they were all dressed very casually and none of them wore the uniform academy robes of the outer academy. However, each of them wore a badge with a Bagua (Eight Trigrams) pattern on their chest.
"Hehe, Han Sui, you've finally arrived. I've had to wait a few extra days this time."
At this moment, the old man who was leading the group glanced at the group of people who had landed on the Wind-Riding Eagle, and said with a smile to Han Sui, who was in charge.
"Old Wu, it seems the food in the inner courtyard is quite good. You've gained a lot of weight in the three years I haven't seen you." Han Sui smiled, put away the teapot in his hand, and said, "All of you, come here. This is Elder Wu Yi of the inner courtyard. You can ask him if you have any questions about anything in the inner courtyard."
"This year's freshmen look really good."
Wu Yi smiled and nodded, then looked at Han Sui and said, "You've finally made it back to the inner courtyard, why don't you come over to my place for a couple of drinks? You haven't seen your younger brother for quite some time."
"No, I'll have to trouble Elder Wu to take good care of my younger brother."
After Han Sui finished speaking, he turned around and jumped onto the Wind-Riding Eagle without pausing, and in an instant, he left the inner courtyard.
"Sigh, Han Sui is still the same as always, he hasn't changed even after all these years in the outer courtyard." Wu Yi pursed his lips.
After glancing at Qin Xin and the others who were waiting in front of him, Wu Yi cleared his throat and slowly spoke.
"Now that we've arrived at the inner courtyard, let me tell you about its rules."
"The biggest difference between the inner and outer courtyards is that there are no rules, because in the inner courtyard, strength is the biggest rule."
"The layout of the inner courtyard is based on the eight trigrams of the I Ching: Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, and Dui, which is why it is divided into eight mountain gates."
"Although you have already entered the inner courtyard, if you cannot gain the approval of one of the eight mountain gates to join, you may very well be expelled from the inner courtyard."
Upon hearing this, Qin Xin was slightly taken aback. The spiritual sense of a Spiritual Realm cultivator is extremely powerful, allowing them to detach from their body to investigate their surroundings. However, just as Qin Xin was mobilizing his spiritual sense, he discovered that the inner courtyard seemed to be completely covered by an array. Before he could even mobilize his spiritual sense, it would be forcibly forced back. Qin Xin had no choice but to give up.
However, as far as Qin Xin could see, he could see that the inner courtyard was indeed constructed in a Bagua pattern according to the distribution of the eight mountain ranges, like a natural formation.
"Qin Xin, have you decided which mountain gate you want to enter in this inner courtyard?" Sanjie asked softly from the side.
"Are there any differences between these eight mountain gates?"
Hearing Sanjie speak, Qin Xin asked with some doubt because he was not familiar with the situation in the inner courtyard.
"Of course there is a difference. There are eight spiritual veins in the inner courtyard. The better the spiritual vein, the richer the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the mountain gate, which is more beneficial to the cultivation of martial artists. Among them, the Qian sect has the strongest spiritual vein, and the Kun sect has the weakest."
"Moreover, the ownership of spiritual veins is also allocated according to the strength of the disciples of the mountain sect. Every year, the eight sects will hold a competition, and the strongest one will be able to obtain the strongest spiritual vein."
Listening to Sanjie's introduction, Qin Xin gained a better understanding of the inner courtyard. However, what he was more concerned about now was the location of the strange fire within the inner courtyard.
"Alright, I won't waste any more words. You all come with me to participate in the entrance examinations for each sect."
After Wu Yi finished speaking about the inner courtyard, he waved his hand and led the group to the location of the entrance examination.
On a rather grand square, eight white marble pillars stand tall, with some inscriptions engraved on them.
"Heaven and earth are positioned, and mountains and lakes communicate with each other."
"Thunder and wind clash, but water and fire do not interact."
"The eight trigrams are intertwined, and the order of things follows."
"Knowing what comes next is going against the grain; therefore, the method of change is to reverse the numbers."
Wu Yi stood in the center of the square, slowly closed his eyes, and threw out a low-grade spirit stone. Suddenly, patterns (?), (?), (?), (?), (?), (?), (?), (?) appeared on the eight white marble pillars. These patterns seemed to be randomly distributed. After a while, ten pitch-black stone crystals fell into the hands of the group.
Qin Xin wiped the jet-black stone crystal in his hand. After a pattern (?) flashed on the surface, a large "five" appeared on it.
"The pattern represents your sect, and the numbers behind it represent the amount of spiritual energy. The function of that spiritual energy is similar to the points in your outer courtyard," Wu Yi said with a smile.
"Hahaha! Great! I've entered the Gan Gate!"
A loud laugh rang out, and everyone looked toward the source of the laughter.
The person holding the (?) symbol crystal was a young man. Qin Xin glanced at him briefly, as he hadn't had much interaction with this person. It was only after Sanjie and Shishan introduced him that Qin Xin learned that this person came from the Earth Martial Academy and was named Weng Yushu.
"Thump!"
Suddenly, the laughter ceased abruptly. The young man named Weng Yushu was blasted away by a burst of bloody light, and the stone crystal representing his entry into the Thousand Gates was snatched away by the same light.
"Lin Jinglei!"
Lying on the ground, Weng Yushu angrily pointed at the figure in front of him, his fingers trembling uncontrollably.
Lin Jinglei sneered, then clashed the Kanmen stone with the (?) pattern in his hand with the stone crystal he had taken from Weng Yushu. The number five on the (?) patterned stone crystal turned into six, while the number on the (?) patterned stone crystal turned into four.
He then threw the (?) patterned crystal directly to Weng Yushu, who was half-lying on the ground.
"I forgot to remind everyone that if you want to change your sect, you just need to steal someone else's stone crystal. However, once you officially enter the sect, you can't do that."
Seeing this, Wu Yi did not stop him, but simply watched from the sidelines. However, he was somewhat surprised by Lin Jinglei's decisive action.
Seeing this, Shi Shan and the others felt disgusted by Lin Jinglei's behavior. As freshmen who entered the inner courtyard in the same batch, they should have helped each other. Even if they didn't help, it was still too unethical of them to take action like this.
"Qin Xin, if you want to enter that gate, I'll help you snatch that stone crystal."
Long Mu, who had been sullen since entering the inner courtyard, suddenly brightened up when he saw Lin Jinglei make a move. He even waved his little fist and showed off his neat row of small tiger teeth.
"You can't give the stone crystal to anyone else. Longmu, it's useless for you to have it. You should go to your master."
When Wu Yi heard that Long Mu was about to snatch it, he said nothing, his face expressionless as he looked at Long Mu.
"It's alright, there's nothing wrong with the Kunmen sect."
Qin Xin didn't care about these mountain gates or anything like that, because his main purpose in coming to this inner courtyard was the strange fire that Dan Qing had mentioned.
"Since you are no longer competing, then please enter the mountain gate. Someone will arrange accommodations for you."
Seeing that none of them made any further moves, Wu Yi instructed several middle-aged men behind him to escort Qin Xin to the appropriate mountain gate.
To facilitate communication, Qin Xin specifically asked Jiang Xinghai and the others. Jiang Xinghai and Shi Shan entered the Xun Gate at the same time, while San Jie entered the Dui Gate. These two gates are second only to the Qian Gate. As for Qin Xin, he entered the worst Kun Gate.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com