Chapter 191 — The Gate of the Weakest Sect

CHAPTER 191

The Gate of the Weakest Sect

The outer workshops appeared before Artificer Hall's main gate.

Shi Feng saw water wheels, stone yards and rows of sheds with their doors open to the morning. Men hauled ore while apprentices carried baskets of charcoal. One boy chased a rolling barrel downhill and shouted for everyone to save the barrel before saving him.

The boy reached the flat road first. The barrel struck a post and stopped. His master hit him on the back of the head, then hurried over to inspect the hoops.

Sima Lan leaned over the boat's rail.

“Is that part of the sect?” Sima Lan asked.

“Outer workshops,” He Zhen said. “Families, hired workers, disciples learning the ordinary trades.”

A bell rang from farther up the slope. Several apprentices immediately began walking faster. Their master pointed at the unfinished charcoal baskets until they returned to collect them.

Shi Feng felt more curious than disappointed. He had never expected a sect to consist only of experts seated above clouds. Someone had to carry the charcoal before somebody else refined an artifact.

The old boat passed above the last sheds and settled beside a broad stone stair.

At the top stood Artificer Hall's gate.

One roof corner had fresh tiles. The other still wore moss. A split wooden panel was held straight by two iron bands, and the great characters above it had faded unevenly in the sun.

The name was grand. The entrance badly needed work.

Gongsun Ce looked at the bands.

“They repaired the hinge properly,” Gongsun Ce said.

“You notice that before the roof?” Sima Lan asked.

“The roof isn't holding the door,” Gongsun Ce said.

Li Changyuan stepped onto the landing with his shabby bundle. He looked at the gate for a long moment, then began climbing without comment.

Cui Hong met them halfway up the stairs.

The gate supervisor was at mid Foundation Establishment. He wore a plain robe with a burn mark near the hem and carried a board covered in arrival notes. A younger disciple, Zheng Yu, followed with a brush tucked behind each ear.

“Elder He Zhen,” Cui Hong said, bowing. “The rooms are ready.”

“All of them?” He Zhen asked.

“The rooms,” Cui Hong said. “One bed still needs a leg.”

He Zhen closed his eyes briefly.

Zheng Yu hurried to explain. He was in Qi Condensation and looked more frightened of an unfinished bed than of the three tournament recruits.

“The carpenter's replacing it now,” Zheng Yu said. “Nobody will sleep on the floor.”

Shi Feng looked at the open gate. He had spent enough nights on a floor to know a bed leg could become an important sect matter very quickly.

Before He Zhen replied, the courier Liu Cheng came down from the gate carrying an empty delivery case. He wore Martial Palace's badge. His Bone Refinement cultivation was ordinary, but he polished the badge often enough that it caught every scrap of light. Shi Feng recognized the man who had delivered Wei Chengyuan's warning. The faster Martial Palace transport had brought him ahead of them.

“So these are the new recruits,” Liu Cheng said. “We heard the champion chose this mountain. Our outer court was surprised.”

His gaze moved from the patched boat to the iron bands on the gate. He smiled with obvious contempt.

“They expected him to choose somewhere with a roof,” Liu Cheng said.

Cui Hong's face darkened. Zheng Yu opened his mouth, looked at He Zhen, and held his tongue.

He Zhen took the signed delivery receipt from Cui Hong.

“Your goods arrived. Your case is empty. You can go,” He Zhen said.

The courier hesitated. He'd hoped somebody would shout so he could carry back a story about Artificer Hall losing its temper. Instead, an early Golden Core elder was calmly telling him his errand had ended.

He bowed stiffly and continued down the stairs.

Shi Feng didn't chase him. A courier's joke wasn't an attempt to kill him, and the man had already spent more attention on a gate than it deserved.

Li Changyuan watched him leave.

“He nearly tripped while looking at the roof,” Li Changyuan said. “His Palace should train the feet as well.”

Zheng Yu laughed, then straightened when Cui Hong looked at him. Sima Lan hid her smile poorly. The old man's face remained quite serious, which made it worse.

Inside the gate, the main court was swept clean.

The paving stones were old but level. Workshop signs stood along one side, a practice ground along the other. From a distant hall came the steady ring of metal meeting metal.

Two disciples stopped sparring when they saw He Zhen's guests. One recognized Shi Feng and elbowed his partner so hard the man dropped his practice sword.

“The champion!”

“He really came?”

“Which one is the prince?”

“The one carrying the wooden man!”

Gongsun Ce looked down at the puppet beneath his arm. Sima Lan finally laughed aloud.

Cui Hong sent the watching disciples back to their work. Zheng Yu brought three room tokens and checked the names carefully. Inner court for Shi Feng. Inner court for Gongsun Ce, under the sect's own offer. Outer court for Sima Lan.

Nobody changed her token because she was a princess. She examined the mark, nodded and put it away.

He Zhen pointed out the dining hall and the practice court. The work schedules were posted openly. Sect resources would follow their rules, and expensive materials needed permission. He explained the essentials without promising that joining made any of them rich overnight.

Shi Feng thought, Good. I'll see what the rules are before deciding which are useful.

His alchemy could still earn money. His cultivation still needed pills, and his swordsmanship needed better weapons and more practice. A new token hadn't completed any of those things for him.

At the far end of the court, the tall bronze-bound doors of the reception hall stood open. Six inner-court elders waited inside beside an empty high-backed chair on the central dais.

Li Changyuan slung his shabby bundle over one shoulder and walked through the doors first.

He Zhen motioned for the three recruits to follow, and Shi Feng stepped across the threshold into Artificer Hall.