Meeting Before the Road

The Dao Sword Sect holds the Dao Knocking Ceremony once every fifty years. Three years before the Dao Knocking Ceremony, the Dao Sword Sect recruits outer disciples, which is called the Grand Dao Questioning Ceremony.

So the date of the Dao Knocking Ceremony is the first day of the fifth lunar month. Therefore, the date of the Grand Dao Questioning Ceremony recruiting event is also the first day of the fifth lunar month.

You see it now, right? The key point is the Dao Knocking Ceremony. The batch of disciples recruited at the Grand Dao Questioning Ceremony is just for show, to make up the numbers.

So what exactly is the Dao Knocking Ceremony?

On the surface, the Dao Knocking Ceremony is just an elegant name for a sect assessment. It evaluates the newly joined disciples to see if they can walk far on the path of cultivation and asking the Dao.

But in reality, behind the literal meaning of "knocking the Dao door", there is an actual door inside the Dao Sword Sect, a Dao Door.

The Dao Knocking Ceremony means knocking on this Dao Door literally.

If one can knock open this door and enter it to cultivate, it represents the greatest opportunity the Dao Sword Sect can provide to its disciples.

And the number of people who can enter the Dao Door to cultivate per Dao Knocking Ceremony is ten! From a certain perspective, they are the top ten on the Pride Ranking.

Of course, nothing is set in stone. So anyone could be a dark horse. Therefore, the people who can actually enter the Dao Door are the top ten ranked disciples in the sect assessment of the Dao Knocking Ceremony.

These ten people may not necessarily be the top ten on the Pride Ranking.

Anyway, this Dao Knocking Ceremony is about finding real talents. Even if someone doesn't enter the Dao Door, achieving outstanding results in the assessment will allow them to obtain some of the sect’s top cultivation resources in their future path of cultivation.

On April 20 this year, the Sect Leader notified the Chiefs and Elders of the various Peaks and Lineages to come to the Grand Dao Questioning Hall for planning and arrangements.

Qin Ran naturally also received the notice and went there on time.

For occasions like this, no matter arriving early or late, it would attract attention. So in order not to stand out, Qin Ran always times it to enter at the same time when most people enter.

However, despite doing so again today, he still attracted attention.

Liu Boxian, the Sword Peak Chief, saw him from afar and came over directly.

"Apprentice-nephew Qin?" Liu Boxian called out.

Qin Ran gave an appropriate bow and greeted politely, "Uncle-master Liu."

"I heard that your disciple is quite remarkable!" Liu Boxian laughed and said.

Qin Ran replied, "No, just normal cultivation progress."

"Normal cultivation progress?" Liu Boxian shook his head. He knew all about Li Shiyin's accomplishments like the back of his hand, "Awakened Sword Qi, created her own sword techniques, squeezed out disciples under Elder He, made the Pride Ranking, and even made an out-of-boundary challenge. As such an attention grabbing rising star in the sect, how is this normal?"

It seems that he had been keeping an eye on Li Shiyin's progress all this time! So it was clear that the more outstanding Li Shiyin showed herself to be, the more Liu Boxian would regret it. By now, his intestines were probably all green... Why didn't he insist more back then? She was supposed to be a disciple of Sword Peak!

"My troublesome disciple is indeed quite diligent in her cultivation..." Qin Ran said.

In fact, from Qin Ran's perspective, if Li Shiyin ended up going to Sword Peak, she might not have achieved as much as she had today. Just look at Tian Wenjin. He was as talented as Li Shiyin, but how much adversity did he face after entering Sword Peak?

...Luckily he understood clearly back then that if Li Shiyin went to Sword Peak, she would be fighting over those limited resources together with all the other top talents. But with Li Shiyin in Dan Peak, Qin Ran could use all his ability to nurture her.

"Apprentice-nephew Qin really is too modest." Liu Boxian could only laugh.

"I heard..." Just then, a voice suddenly came from behind. Qin Ran looked back and saw it was He Daoguang, the Qi Peak Chief. Smiling, he said, "Currently on the Pride Ranking, there are a total of four sword cultivators, but among them only two are disciples of Sword Peak. Is this true?"

Qin Ran simply nodded at He Daoguang, then maintained his silence.

Liu Boxian looked at He Daoguang, a sharp glint flashing through his eyes. But in the end he still smiled and said, "My useless disciples are not diligent in cultivation, so only two of them could make the ranking. They have only themselves to blame."

But his tone suddenly changed as he continued, "But I also heard about Qi Peak's Song Ze being cut down from the Pride Ranking by Dan Peak's Li Shiyin with a single sword move. I even heard that Qi Peak's Ye Qingxuan was defeated by Dan Peak's Li Shiyin. Of course, winning and losing is common in fights, that is no big deal. But I heard they were defeated by someone who challenged them out of boundary. This does reflect poorly."

"You!" He Daoguang pointed at Liu Boxian, then glanced at Qin Ran. Fuming, he walked up angrily.

While the two were arguing, Qin Ran kept his head down, pretending not to hear any of it. When He Daoguang finally stormed off, only then did he look up. In his heart he thought, how narrow-minded. No wonder Shiyin dislikes you.

"Hmph! Let's go!" Liu Boxian patted Qin Ran's shoulder and said, "Let's go. This Elder He has always been like this."

Qin Ran looked at him. In his heart he thought, you're also no saint. You deliberately pushed him out to confront He Daoguang.

When mixing into the Grand Dao Questioning Ceremony, Qin Ran found the Dan Peak seating location and sat in the least conspicuous place.

He looked up to observe Gu Yueming the Sect Leader. Even now, the Sect Leader still had an unhealthy complexion and unstable aura.

The Sect Leader Gu Yueming was at the heart of the battlefield during the Devouring Demon Willow incident. Facing the Core Formation stage Devilish Willow directly, he suffered extremely heavy injuries. After the incident ended, he had been in secluded meditation to heal his wounds. Only recently was the unavoidable Dao Knocking Ceremony coming up, so he was forced to emerge from closed door cultivation to handle sect affairs.

Seeing the Sect Leader's condition, Qin Ran grew even more worried, feeling that with external forces would likely take this chance to strike at the Dao Sword Sect all at once...

When all Peak and Lineage personnel had arrived, Gu Yueming sat cross-legged at the center of the great hall and said,

"As per the rules left behind by our predecessors, the Dao Sword Sect will select the most outstanding ten individuals from within the sect once every fifty years, allowing them to enter the Dao Door to cultivate."

Although he used a technique to ensure everyone could hear his voice, Qin Ran could clearly discern the feeble weakness within it, as well as the instability.

Looking at the Sect Leader, Qin Ran the villain suddenly started wondering, perhaps the Sect Leader had already discovered the internal chaos and was pretending to be weak as bait?

"...The fifty year limit is almost up again soon. We will be holding a grand ceremony..."

As per tradition, although he was already so weak that he could hardly speak anymore, Gu Yueming still rambled on and on from ancient history to the present. He first talked about what the Dao Knocking Ceremony was, then past Dao Knocking Ceremonies and the geniuses they revealed, followed by awards for this generation, and finally selection rules, before finally at the end assigning tasks to the various Elders and Chiefs at the end.

A whole leader's speech, talking for over two hours straight. This let Qin Ran further confirm that earlier guess of his. Otherwise, just look at how the Sect Leader looked like he was going to die at any moment the entire time from the strain of talking for so long, yet still hadn't died by the end, maintaining that half dead appearance...

After the meeting ended, Qin Ran received the assignment of being a judge.

As for the selection mechanism for the Dao Knocking Ceremony, it was simply to fight it out!

Moreover, a single elimination tournament system!

That meant the names of all disciples taken in over the last fifty years, whether servant disciples, regular inner sect disciples, or even personal disciples, would all be mixed together randomly for drawing of lots for pairings. Winners proceed to the next round, losers get eliminated directly.

Continuing in this way until the final candidates are selected.

Not caring if Road Junxing and Liu Baiyun get matched against each other in the very first round, or if the final top ten includes servant disciples. The Dao Knocking Ceremony played out true and cruel.

In order to tell the disciples, there is no fairness. Coincidences can happen, luck can happen, but... this is the cultivation world.

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