When they finally arrived near the sect, Yugong saw a tall mountain in the distance.
It rose high into the sky, like a pillar holding it.
Upon closer inspection, it looked more like a sword than a pillar.
He stood up, looking respectfully at this mountain.
No matter how childish he liked to act when it came to incompetent people, he still had the necessary respect for important matters.
Yiye stood up the moment he saw Yugong doing so.
He was extremely curious and wanted to jump around the mountain like a monkey if he could.
Yugong let him move around a bit before he put his hand on his shoulder, forcing him to calm down.
The two then carefully looked at the sword mountain.
From their observation, they saw several pavilions spread around the mountain, they were semi-caves, standing inside the sword mountain partially.
At the top, there was a palace, this palace seemed like the tip of a sword – the murderous intent coming from it made it difficult to even look at it.
Liyuan on the boat said proudly "This is the High Sword Mountain, the territory of our Great Sword Sect!"
Yugong wasn't surprised at the cliché name.
All children looked deeply at the mountain until the boat flew downward.
From below, the mountain looked like a giant that was walking the world.
"Alright, we have arrived."
Liyuan threw the children out when he arrived above a platform.
Then he walked down, putting the shrunken boat into his sleeves.
At first, Yugong thought this was the magical power "World in the sleeves", until he saw that the uncle just had a bag in his sleeves.
The two brothers followed Liyuan down a path.
Left and right, there were more platforms with people, all walking to the central platform where cultivators with the great sword sect symbol on their robes waited.
Yugong counted casually while walking.
When they arrived at the main platform, he finally counted a total of over three hundred people.
In shock, he only realised now how low of a position this uncle master Liyuan had.
He was sure they must be one of the last batches of recruitment, which was likely the least amount of people, as they arrived only five weeks after the recruitment.
Even so, there were three hundred people and more than a dozen cultivators who brought them – this was testament to the cultivator's unimportance.
Yugong and Yiye stood together, in the frist row at the front.
Liyuan had pushed them slightly when they came here.
He was now standing in front of them, quiet, waiting for something or someone.
The sect disciples who were on the platform beforehand made sure everything was orderly.
A few minutes passed until a cultivator came down on a sword with mighty aura around him.
His pressure made most disciples bow down, but there were quite a few that refused to do that.
Yugong and Yiye were among them.
'It seems a sword sect's reputation is not artificial. At least the disciples are unwilling to bow to a higher power.'
Unlike the others that were withstanding the power with sheer will, Yugong moved around his feet a bit, then moved his body slightly lower, with his hand on his bow.
He didn't look like a swordsman at all, rather, he looked like a hunter facing an extremely strong prey, readying himself to shoot it down.
After a moment, the aura receded. The cultivator stood on the sword, looking curiously at Yugong, then with satisfaction at the other who kept standing.
He announced on the spot "I am He Yunli, you can call me Elder He.
The disciples that stood still," as he said so, several people saw a bright light above their heads "will be promoted to core disciples.
The rest will be a normal inner disciple.
Alright, everyone but the core disciples, disperse!"
A few people that heard this were unwilling, even if they bowed in the end, they were still proud of their achievements and didn't think they should start as inner disciple while others were core disciples.
Of course this was only a minority.
Most accepted the judgement of the elder and thought they had a lot to learn.
After all, they were still children, barely knowing a think or two.
They just knew they were now official disciples of the great sword sect!
The cultivators that stood by before now came and took them away, while the foundation building cultivators who brought the immortal seedlings stood still.
After the scene was cleaned, elder He jumped down from his sword.
"Greetings to Elder He!" the foundation building cultivators called out.
"Um" he didn't care about this, then said "Well, give me your report on this recruitment."
One stepped forward after another, giving a number for disciples of different stages.
What Yugong realised soon, was that they counted even those in the branch.
Only now did he realise that a lot more were actually recruited than he saw.
'They must be people who have been recruited over the years, the batch that tested with me was probably the last batch of lower cultivators.
As for inner disciples, well, they were probably send here directly.
Living in a town is still better in the end – you can be tested at all times, your talent will not be wasted and even with lower roots, you might achieve great things.'
After several people talked, Yugong didn't hear a any of them say "single root", two roots was the limit, and the cultivators already looked prideful when they said this.
Finally, it was Liyuan's turn "I have brought nine cultivators…
Seven three roots, one double root… and one single root!" he said, with great enthusiasm.
Elder He was also curious and asked "Who is it?" he wanted to know whether the single root was a core disciple.
Liyuan pointed behind him, where three people stood.
He pointed to Yugong "This one… he's a single Wind root!"
Among all roots, the wind root is definitely the most suitable for the weapon dao, so naturally he was the happiest!
Just like how an alchemy or refining sect would be extremely happy to gain a fire root immortal seedling, the wind root had great meaning for the sword sect.
Then he thought of something and looked wry, but he introduced the other two "This one is Lin Xinyun, he has double roots of wind and water."
When he said this, he looked happier, because he knew this person was not only talented, he also had a heart for swords.
Finally, he pointed to Yiye, with a complicated expression.
Although Yiye had a heart for sword and good talent for it too, he was a bit worried the influence of Yugong would change his mind.
"This one has three roots of Earth, Water… and a mutated Gold element!"
"Hahaha, you really brought us good talents this time!" Elder He was happy when he saw Yugong and Yiye, no one else had a mutated gold root this time, not to mention a single wind root.
As for Xinyun, well, they had a few other double roots with the wind root.
"Tell me, what do you pursue?" Elder He suddenly asked Yugong.
On the other hand, Yugong already expected this when he saw the curious look on the elders' face during the pressure test.
"I seek the dao of the bow, I wish is to be an archer!" he said proudly.
Elder He didn't seem surprised and said "You have the heart of a hunter, the bow is very suitable for you.
Although we are called the sword sect, every weapon dharma sect has different inheritances.
We might not have a specific bow dharma inheritance, but we have enough general ones."