The next day.
Ling Xu left his room and returned the token as he set off to the inner area, where the selection of disciples would take place.
Entering the main street, he saw it full of young man and women who were headed in the same direction as him.
Ling Xu walked for a while as he started seeing the size and quality of the buildings increase.
Up until now, he had only been in the outer area as he didn't have the need to go further inside the town because that was where the stores were located.
The market Ling Xu had been at was the closest to the inner area he had ever been, while the library and tavern he slept at for the last three days was more in the middle.
"What is that sound?"
Looking at the high walls of a villa, Ling Xu heard the metallic sound of swords clashing.
Even though he couldn't see from the inside, it was clear that the people in there where having an intense training.
"Is this the villa from the Yu family?"
"Yes, this is the normal sound you will hear when approaching one of the three families in this town."
"They are so disciplined, are they training like this since morning?"
"Not only in the morning, you can hear this sound every time of the day, the training they go through is the reason why so many members of their families have a higher cultivation stage than the normal folk like us."
Ling Xu heard the pair of people who were in the third and fourth stage of Blood Qi talking.
"And don't make me talk about the young lady of the Yu family."
"What happens with her, is there something wrong?"
"All the opposite, you could say she is a monster. Although she isn't the most talented, rumor has it that she is the strongest of her generation, except for the young master of the Xie family of course."
"Why do you say that?"
"I only heard that Yu Wenqian doesn't rest and trains every day, she is now in the ninth stage of Blood Qi and is about to advance to the Qi Refining Realm. It's a shame that for such a hard working girl with such a high status she will have to become first an unofficial disciple when entering Formless Sword Sect."
"Wow, she is so incredible!"
Hearing the thirty year old man explain to the young cultivator in the third stage of Blood Qi, Ling Xu was surprised.
"I can't believe people are working so hard in this world, it seems I still have a long way to go."
He felt after realizing that there were people working so hard even though they came from the highest status in the town.
Although Ling Xu had a unique ability that no one else had, he couldn't become complacent and lose his discipline and hard work.
"Then why did you say that she is below the second son of the patriarch of the Xie family? Does he work even harder than her?"
"On the contrary, although young master Xie is quite diligent I heard that he is the strongest of his generation because of his talent. After all he is the first at Lesser Crimson Town to have undergone two blood exchanges in the last ten years."
"Hisss! Is talent so important that the difference between her and him is so big? After all she has only gone through one blood exchange from what I heard."
"Yes, but his talent in cultivation is not what makes him so strong, it is his talent in alchemy. After finding a master capable of refining Foundation Building pills he got enough resources to increase his blood qi purity as much as the pills' effect could go."
"So he not only is the second young master of the Xie family but he also has such an incredible master? Damn, I curse myself for not being born with such fortune."
"Don't worry so much, even though your status is low, with your current realm you are already qualified to become a member of Formless Sword Sect. I on the other hand didn't train hard enough when I was young and lost my opportunity."
…
After walking for an hour, Ling Xu finally arrived at the inner area of the town where the young cultivators who lived here or came from smaller towns gathered.
He was surprised as he saw himself in a space big enough to have a thousand people without a problem.
Looking at how the town's square was almost completely occupied, there must be almost a thousand people coming to the selection of disciples.
And the number was still increasing as there were still a few people who hadn't arrived yet.
…
All of a sudden, everyone turned around as they observed the entrance of the square which seemed to have something worth the attention.
Ling Xu also looked at the entrance as he saw a young woman with a sword between her arms.
"Yu Wenqian has arrived!"
"She is so beautiful, I wonder if I would ever have a chance to be with someone like her."
"Dream on, she is the dream of every man here."
"Yeah, you are right. Only the second young master of the Xie family and the eldest young master of the Ma family deserve her, but they have yet to arrive."
Ling Xu heard the people around talking about the woman who entered as if she was a goddess. He never thought that he would see such a reaction as if she was a celebrity like those on Earth.
"Look, the young masters of the Xie and Ma families are entering!"
A few meters behind her, Xie Lan and a man with an impressive physique were entering as if they were of lower status.
"The man who is next to Xie Lan must be Ma Dongpil, the eldest young master of the Ma family."
Ling Xu observed that both Yu Wenqian and Ma Dongpil were in the ninth stage of Blood Qi, just like Xie Lan…
"Wait, I can't sense any aura on him anymore! Is it possible that in the last day since I encountered him he managed to breakthrough?"
The people around Ling Xu were in a stupor when they saw the young masters of their respective families enter, but Ling Xu felt anxious on the inside.
The second young master of the Xie family, Xie Lan, had actually broken through the first stage of Qi Refining. Now he was assured that he would directly enter as an outer disciple.
Ling Xu felt the sound of a needle dropping as he realized that he had entered the bad side of a Qi Refining cultivator already.
"I hope he isn't the type to hold grudges or I may have a problem. I don't know how the system in Formless Sword Sect is, but if he is planning to suppress he should be capable with his higher status as an outer disciple."
Ling Xu felt a bit of pressure and hoped that Xie Lan wouldn't remember him, or that at least he would consider it just a minor thing and would forget how he looked so he couldn't recognize him. After all he barely looked at him in the eyes and just walked to the exit.
A few minutes passed and suddenly everyone was looking into the sky.
From Ling Xu's perspective, three small figures jumped from a floating boat that looked very different form the planes he knew on Earth.
"Something is falling!"
"They are people!"
An old man and two male cultivators who looked to be in their thirties fell from a hundred meters of height without getting a single scratch.
"Impressive! They must have a very high realm to be able to fall from such a height."
Ling Xu took his attention off the flying boat which looked extremely magical, as he heard the elder talking.
"Hello everyone, my name is Zhao Liu and I'm an elder from the inner hall of Formless Sword Sect."
"What? Such a high figure actually came to make the selection of disciples?"
From their perspective, the person that would preside the selection would be an outer elder, as that was what normally happened every year. So after hearing that the person that was presiding the selection of disciples was an inner elder, everyone was shocked as they all started talking about it.
"Please keep silent while I explain."
The elder seemed to be talking very calm, but the audience felt extreme pain in their ears as the elder seemed to fuse energy into his voice.
"Every year, we accept around five hundred disciples from every town that is subordinate to our sect, but this year is different."
Everyone remained silent even though they were in shock of what they were hearing from the elder on the platform. They didn't dare to speak with the risk of being heard by him.
"This year, the standards to enter our Formless Sword Sect have increased and only those who reach the minimum requirement will enter the sect."
"Am I hearing it right?"
Ling Xu heard a person whispering as he couldn't withstand the anxiety from the words of the high figure from the sect he dreamed his entire life to enter.
"Now we won't care about age unless you are above twenty five years old."
"Phew, I thought he would say something about the cultivation level."
"But… those who are below fifteen years old have to be at least in the third stage of Blood Qi, and those who are older need to have a cultivation of the fifth stage to be qualified."
The face of the man who was whispering to himself suddenly changed.
He was eighteen years old this year and he had barely reached the fourth stage of Blood Qi. Thinking that he had already qualified, he didn't train as hard as he should have, or else he would have been able to reach the fifth stage of Blood Qi without any problem.
Ling Xu felt the cultivation stages of the people around himself and realized that the man that was whispering wasn't the only that had fallen into this predicament.
There were people who had it even worse as they had trained even less and weren't as talented, barely reaching the third stage of Blood Qi with an age surpassing fifteen years old.
Fortunately for them, the majority were still young enough to refine their bodies and reach the fifth stage of Blood Qi before they were fifteen years old.
But there were also a few cases of people who had little talent and had made no effort at cultivating their blood qi.
Thinking that they could enjoy their time before entering Formless Sword Sect, they decided to go through the disciples selection when they were just a year away from failing the age requirement.
Also, almost every kid under fifteen years old had to wait for at least another year.
Not reaching the minimum cultivation level and being fourteen years old this year, they would have to wait a few years before reaching the fifth stage of Blood Qi.
And even those under fifteen years old who passed the requirement felt frustrated, having lost their opportunity to directly enter as outer disciples.
"Now that the new requirements have been said, make three lines to test your bone age and see if you are eligible to enter the sect."
Entering the left line, Ling Xu was going to be tested by the thirty years old disciple that was accompanying the inner elder, Zhao Liu.
"You are already fifteen years old, your third stage cultivation level doesn't reach the minimum cultivation requirement."
The thirty years old disciple was testing the age of the young man's bones, barely touching the wrist with one hand as he gently pressed it.
"Next!"