Chapter 3: Entering the Sect

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Passing through a gatehouse built between two mountain cliffs marked the entrance to Mingguang Palace’s inner sect.

The female attendant leading the group explained that this gatehouse originally had no name. The people in the palace jokingly called it "Second Gate", and eventually, that became its official name.

Dong Wan asked, “Since it’s called Second Gate, does that mean there’s a First Gate?”

Zhong Yunyi looked at her as if she were a fool. “The First Gate is, of course, the main entrance at the front mountain. We just passed through it.”

Dong Wan scratched her head and grinned. “Oh, that makes sense.”

Zhong Yunyi didn’t respond. Unlike her usual talkative self, she seemed unusually tense. She didn’t even notice that Zhuang Yue, who had originally been right behind her, was gradually falling behind until he was at the very end of the group. 

Inside the Second Gate, a winding mountain path spiraled through the cliffs.

Zhuang Yue’s body was frail. After walking for twenty minutes, he was already exhausted. Still, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to keep up with the main group.

After walking for more than an hour, they finally arrived at an open area where there were palaces and buildings. White jade-paved roads branched off in all directions, leading to deeper and more distant parts of the sect.

“We finally made it,” Zhuang Yue muttered, feeling completely drained. His body was weak and aching, drenched in cold sweat.

Even without comparing himself to his past life’s body, his current physique was terribly weaker compared with other people of the same age.

Once he officially entered the inner sect, he decided he needed to find someone knowledgeable in medicine to check if his body had some kind of congenital defect that made him so fragile.

The group leader brought them to a palace courtyard on the outskirts. The female attendants took the few people under their charge and dispersed to rest.

Zhong Yunyi searched around for a while before spotting Zhuang Yue slumped over on a round stool, completely exhausted.

She stared at his pale, almost bluish face. “Are you going to faint? You look terrible.”

The female attendant also frowned. “You don’t look well. Do you need someone to take a look at you?”

“No, I’m fine. Just too tired. I’ll be fine after resting a bit,” Zhuang Yue insisted. Seeing his determination, they stopped persuading him. They didn't have the extra energy to worry about him at the moment.

After drinking the tea provided and eating a few snacks, Zhuang Yue gradually regained some strength in his limbs.

In the distance, near the open palace doors, several groups were already being split up under supervision, entering in orderly lines.

Zhong Yunyi bit her lower lip and looked over there anxiously.

Zhuang Yue said, “You don’t have to wait for me. Go ahead. I’ll rest a bit more and join the line later.”

Zhong Yunyi hesitated, then said, “We’ve made it this far already. A little sooner or later won’t make a difference. We’ll wait here with you.”

Saying that, her tense expression relaxed, and she no longer seemed as restless.

Zhuang Yue remained silent. This girl might be a little scheming, but her nature wasn’t bad.

Dong Wan, unable to sit still, wandered off to gather information. She came back after a while and said, “Turns out, we have to bathe and cleanse ourselves before entering. Lucky for me, I was too lazy to heat water yesterday, otherwise, I would’ve bathed for nothing.”

Zhuang Yue’s expression tensed. “What? So many people going in... don’t tell me we’re all bathing together?”

The female attendant, who was responsible for ensuring they got inside, said, “This Cloud-entering Hall (入雲殿 Ruo Yun hall—direct translation) isn’t a bathhouse. It can’t fit that many people at once. Naturally, the process is done in batches. Each person gets a wooden tub, and after an inspection, they pass straight through.”

With the female attendant's explanation, Zhuang Yue finally understood that the last examination before entering the inner sect was, to put it bluntly, just a physical examination!

In his previous life, Zhuang Yue had undergone many physical examinations. In the modern world, various important life stages required them—before the college entrance exam, before starting a job, before getting married or having children.

Entering an immortal sect and seeking longevity, it was only natural that they would require a physical examination as well.

But physical examinations were also the easiest way to expose problems.

Suddenly, Zhuang Yue had serious doubts about whether he could slip through unnoticed. He raised his head, covered his forehead, and weakly said, “My head… suddenly feels a bit dizzy.”

The three girls all looked dazed, unable to figure out what kind of act he was putting on this time.

The female attendant, however, remained composed. “Your foundation is too weak. After walking such a long distance, it’s normal that you can’t recover quickly. I’ll have someone prepare some food for you and arrange a room for you to rest in.”

The three girls were all helpless having such a teammate. Since they had agreed to advance and retreat together, they had no choice but to follow the female attendant to a nearby room.

By feigning illness, Zhuang Yue forcibly delayed their entire group until the very end.

With over a hundred people going in groups of ten, even if each person took the fastest bath possible, it still took at least ten to twenty minutes per group. Those at the front of the line were fine, but those at the back had to stand and wait for so long that their legs were practically going numb.

By the time it was finally their turn, it was already three or four in the afternoon. Dong Wan and Liu Xiangru were both grateful that, thanks to Zhuang Yue’s “illness,” they had been able to sit and wait until now.

The four of them entered the main hall and were each assigned a separate bathing compartment.

Zhuang Yue removed his clothes and stepped into the bath barrel, soaking briefly before getting up. He was not allowed to wear the robe he had worn before, and could only change into the white shorts and tube top that were placed in the compartment.

The shorts were fine, but the tube top was downright embarrassing. Zhuang Yue could only deceive himself, pretending it was just a tank top with the straps and lower half cut off.

“Miss, are you done?”

A voice came from the neighboring compartment, startling Zhuang Yue.

Only then did he realize that one of the partitions on the wall was actually a door.

“I—I’m done,” he forced himself to respond.

An older-looking woman pushed the door open and entered, her face showing a hint of surprise upon seeing Zhuang Yue.

Zhuang Yue felt extremely uneasy, his heart pounding with anxiety, afraid that she would notice anything unusual.

“You’re way too thin. Haven’t you had enough to eat before?” The woman walked over and grasped his wrist for a moment before commenting, “You don’t have any congenital weaknesses, just a lack of vital energy and blood.”

Mingguang Palace frequently took in people with such weak constitutions, so she had long grown accustomed to it.

Zhuang Yue tensed up, but the woman soon let go of his wrist and began pressing his shoulders, inspecting him up and down. “Mhm, aside from weak vital energy, you don’t have any other issues.”

The medical examination at Mingguang Palace was primarily meant to check whether the prospective disciples had any serious illnesses or infectious diseases. Aside from diseases that manifested on the skin, the bathwater Zhuang Yue had soaked in earlier would also trigger any hidden illnesses within the body, causing the skin to flush red.

Zhuang Yue hadn’t expected that the most dangerous part of the examination, which was the easiest to reveal one's gender, would be passed so easily under the old man’s methods.

The woman returned to the neighboring compartment, carrying a stack of clothing and fabric.

“You’re not very tall, so this size should fit you well. This set is for training, and this one is for daily classes. Additionally, these two pieces of fabric are also issued to you. If you know how to sew, you can make them yourself. If not, take them to the tailoring room at Cloud Robe Hall (裳雲殿 Shangyun Hall).”

Zhuang Yue took the everyday outfit, put it on, and seeing that the woman had no further instructions, he picked up the rest of the clothing and fabric and walked out.

He was the last one to finish. The others who had shared the same hall had already passed through and gone to the back.

Dong Wan waved at him. “Zhuang Yue, we were just waiting for you. We’ve been assigned to Building B of Graceful Moon Residence (月貌居 Yuemao Residence).”

Liu Xiangru looked troubled. “I’m not in the same building as you guys…”

Since they were the last group and the total number of people was odd, Liu Xiangru had been assigned to a different building when accommodations were distributed.

Zhong Yunyi reassured her, “We’re still in the same place, just not in the same building, that’s all.”

Carrying his belongings, Zhuang Yue followed the others as they left Cloud-entering Hall and walked along the main road for a while before turning onto a smaller path.

About half an hour later, after passing through dense and varied green vegetation on either side of the path, a cluster of two-story buildings appeared.

By the roadside stood a stone tablet engraved with the words Graceful Moon Residence. A short distance along the side path, six small buildings were arranged around a courtyard.

Liu Xiangruo said goodbye to the three people and went to the small building marked with the letter A. A little deeper inside was the building marked with the letter B.

Each building was divided into east and west sections, with a total of four rooms—two upstairs and two downstairs. Each was a single-person room. The advantage was that no one had to share a bathroom; the only inconvenience was that they had to boil their own water and clean their own space.

For Zhuang Yue, this wasn’t inconvenient at all. It was a blessing to avoid living under the same roof with others.

Just as he was feeling relieved, he heard Zhong Yunyi say, “Back at home, my bedroom was on the second floor, so I’ll stick with the second floor. I’ll take the east room. What about you guys?”

Dong Wan said excitedly, "I'm the opposite of you. I've never lived on the second floor before. I want the room on the west side!"

Zhuang Yue naturally wouldn’t compete with them. Indifferently, he said, "Then I'll take the first floor."

Zhong Yunyi and Dong Wan went upstairs, while Zhuang Yue pushed open the door of the east room.

The room was quite spacious and fully furnished. He put down his belongings, but before he could even familiarize himself with the surroundings, there was a knock at the door.

"Zhuang Yue, we're going to the dining hall. Come with us."

This girl hardly left people with a choice. With no other option, Zhuang Yue stepped out.

Perhaps being reclusive and gloomy could serve as a good disguise, but unfortunately, that was too far from his nature. His only option was to find a good position within the small group to better protect his secrets.

On the way to the dining hall, Zhuang Yue observed his surroundings. He couldn't shake the feeling that his cheap master was hiding somewhere, waiting for an opportunity to pop out when no one was looking.

Perhaps because it was much harder to enter the inner sect, that old man had yet to appear.

The next day, Zhong Yunyi was the first to wake up again. Zhuang Yue yawned. With her around, he didn’t have to worry about being late.

The new disciples were gathered in one place. After the rules were explained, the training schedule was announced.

The first requirement for inner sect disciples was reading through to the Foundation Establishment Chapter of the sect's cultivation method. Zhuang Yue held the booklet handed to him and realized he couldn’t recognize a single word.

Fortunately, the instructor read through it line by line, explaining the meaning of the characters and the overall content of each sentence.

This method of teaching allowed those from wealthy backgrounds, who were already literate, to follow along immediately, while also accommodating those who had never received an education. First, they would read and understand the text. Then, they would memorize it. Once they fully grasped the technique, they could begin cultivating.

With such an intensive teaching approach, those with high comprehension and talent would gradually stand out. Those with lower comprehension didn’t need to worry either, there was no graduation or dropout system for learning inner sect techniques.

The direct disciple senior sisters(嫡傳師姐 direct disciples senior sister—disciples personally taught by an elder or senior figure of a sect) took turns teaching them, giving lectures every five days. On the first day, they only read through the 300 character ten times and explained the meaning of the first two sentences. After that, the class came to an end.

Zhuang Yue felt his head spinning as he numbly packed up his things. He wasn’t the only one, Zhong Yunyi, despite her wealthy background and education at a private girls' school, also looked utterly confused.

This foundation- building chapter wasn’t long, its structure was simple, and its wording was refined and precise. It had been revised and compiled by several generations of Mingguang Palace successors, making it the least likely version to cause misunderstandings that could lead to cultivation mishaps.

But precisely because of this, a few characters were exceptionally profound, tied to an intricate conceptual system.

"It seems that rote memorization alone is not enough. I need to read more related scriptures to be able to gain a thorough understanding." As someone who had once passed the entrance exam of a key university, Zhuang Yue's study methods and techniques were far more advanced than those of this world.

Even though he was stuck here against his will, Mingguang Palace was, after all, a first-rate sect in the cultivation world. Since he had entered this treasure trove, he couldn’t leave empty-handed. Zhuang Yue wanted to take this rare opportunity to gain some skills.

As the group exited the classroom, Dong Wan suddenly jabbed Zhuang Yue excitedly. "Look! A fairy! (仙子 refers to a fairy or celestial being, often used to describe a woman with divine or ethereal beauty.)