Chapter 339 (1/2)
Boats, many boats riddled the sky like flies around the fireplace they circled around a large stormy mountain. On one of these small vessels was Zhang Dong, his eyes glued to the strange structure in the middle.
The tower that he saw from afar stretched all the way up into the clouds and pierced them. There were many lightning bolts connecting with this tower. The stormy clouds circled around it while this tower absorbed these energies with what looked to be many lightning rods.
These rods were sticking out from this tower and glowing red each time the electricity made contact with them. This long tower went down and connected to a castle-like structure right on top of a snowy mountain.
Even from here, he could tell that this storm would be a good power source. If he was allowed to enter it and cultivate, he felt like he could be able to jump right into the core formation level. For this, he would have to make his way up to the very top.
'Is it worth the trouble…'
Was the thought on his mind. He felt like he already overstayed his welcome here. The best thing to do was to just remove himself from the equation. He could already feel that there were some people above his cultivation level and he had to hope that his disguising technique would not be seen through. It was theoretically core formation proof but that didn't account for special detection devices or skills that the people in this empire had developed.
”Is this the last batch of disciples?”
”Yes, elder Jingyi!”
While Zhang Dong was on the little dinghy that they called a flying ship he took a note of this Elder Jingyi. He was an older gentleman with long red hair and a well kept beard that was somewhat trimmed to pronounce his jawline.
He was clearly above the Martial Grandmaster realm, somewhere on the onset of the next Martial Saint realm. Zhang Dong did not feel comfortable facing somewhat of that caliber, at least not yet.
His spatial ring was filled with all sorts of treasures that he needed to absorb. Would he have a quiet spot to take in all the weapons to advance his body refinement to the next level? The spirit stones would grant him some system points that he could also directly spend on his cultivation.
”You have all been chosen to be trial disciples for our Thunderball Hall. This does not mean that you are part of our Hall just yet!”
This old red-haired man started talking. He gave the disciple candidates the rundown while they listened.
”You all will be tested on your potential, if you can successfully persevere through the coming weeks, you will be able to join the other outer disciples! If you show talent, you might even be able to join the inner disciples and be invited directly into the hall building!”
At the finish of the sentence, the thunderstorm in the background started to rumble. It was clear that the inner disciples were allowed to go into that tower and cultivate with that lightning energy.
Zhang Dong theorized that those lightning rods were some kind of filtering treasures. They probably contained the chaotic electric energy and pushed them into the tower. There the cultivators could use it to cultivate the lightning that was now more controllable.
There was a long-winded speech about how everyone needed to behave and how they were not allowed to leave the sect grounds for now. This is what he had feared, that leaving this sect at this moment would become hard.
Without any means of fast transportation, if one of those Martial Saint's decided to go after him he would not be able to outrun them. There were not many places to hide around here, they were high in the mountains with only snow and rocks. On foot, he might not be able to make it down this mountain top before someone noticed his escape.
'I should relax… It's only been a day since I've come here. No one knows that I'm not this young master and don't think anyone will care unless I start sticking out.'
For now, he decided to reorganize and keep himself hidden. Maybe during the coming days, an opportunity to flee would show itself. There was also the possibility of becoming an inner disciple. Which he would probably not have much of a problem with.
He had lost his old spatial ring but there were some leftover items in his crafting abode that might still be there. Though he was not sure about his old items still being stored in his crafting abode. When the system got rebooted they might have been destroyed or used up to help him pass the barrier between the worlds.
”Show the trial disciples their new quarters, then tomorrow we will start the training!”
The long-winded speech was finally over and the red-haired elder flew away on his sword. The rest of them started descending down to the ground.
The main sect building was composed of that large tower with the castle-like structure in the middle. There were also many other smaller structures and houses around it going down from the mountain top. It made it look like there was a city on this large mountain but all the people living here were cultivators.
”You will remain here! An outer hall elder will come and instruct you at sunrise, rest well as you might not have an opportunity later!”
Lin Qiao and Zhou Dongmei were quick to leave after they dumped him onto the ground. Some other elder gave everyone an announcement while pointing to a large wooden shack. It seemed that this would be the place where these trial disciples would be staying.
While paying close attention to the surroundings he slowly followed after the youths. The doors to this large shack were quite squeaky and the inside looked quite minimalistic.