When I first heard of this heavenly city or something I imagined that outside of all the stuff related to cultivation, knowledge and the history of the world, I could at least enjoy my time as I could step into the world of cultivators clearly inspired by Chinese culture. Even if I came here with nefarious aims, it didn"t change the fact that after having those thoughts and reinforcing them with the sight of the sects buildings located at the tops of the mountains that lay the foundation of the city, I hoped to finally get transported to the dreamy world of cultivators.And just like I didn"t notice any such thing back in the first city I have seen in this world, as soon as I crossed the gate and the sight of the mountains got blocked by all sorts of small houses, multistorey buildings, shops and training grounds, all my hopes laid down with their hands on the back on their head before the reality unloaded the entire magazine in their back before throwing them to the pit that my hopes dug themselves.
Even if here and there I could see some signs of what I hoped to find here, most of the stuff that surrounded me as I followed the elder appraiser, looked exactly the same as what I could see in any slum of slightly backward city.
Heck! After my aunt that lived her life in the big, central city of Poland, shown the photos of how the streets near her home looked like, I could even argue whether this place wasn"t nicer!
"You must be full of questions, but please, bear with me for now. There are proper procedures for everything here."
As if my silence bothered the guy leading me, he leaned his head to the side as if wanting to confirm that I was still there, hiding it behind the words of rea.s.surance.
"Don"t worry. After everything that I went through in the last few days, just seeing a civilised place like this calms me down."
After a few minutes of walking through the main street that extended from the very gate, I pa.s.sed to get to the city, my guide finally took a turn, leading me through a big arch decorated with the painting of a red goose hanging from its central point.
"This place is the initiation stage for the goose sect. I guess the distinctive colouring didn"t escape your attention."
Just like the elder said, as soon as I moved through the arch, the entire surroundings changed. From the building in all sorts of styles and people in all sorts of clothing, everything turned uniform. No matter where I looked, all the constructions were based on a circle at a base and pointy top, with all the walls painted in the bright tone of red, while the crowd around us wore only one type of red clothes.
Simple red pants and reds.h.i.+rt for men, and something along the lines of a red qipao for women. The only thing that allowed me to differentiate between two people was the number of white strips they were wearing on their right arm.
"Is that some sort of… identification? Lower disciples, middle disciples and the sort?"
Even if neither the guard nor the appraiser asked for where did I even came from to end up as a survivor of a s.h.i.+pwreck on their island, I still had to adhere my words to the fake backstory I came up with. In the Overlord"s island I could come up with any random bulls.h.i.+t I wanted, but here, in the local centre of culture filled with people that actually knew a lot about other countries and cultures that existed, I had to at least hint at coming from a place familiar to them!
"You are right. All disciples start their journey in the red goose with five white strips, and as they progress on the dao of cultivation, for every advancement they make, they are allowed to take one strip off their arm. When one get rids of the last strip, he or she will become a true red goose, earning the right to become either a real disciple or take the test that would allow them to advance to the white goose."
With how those people placed the great emphasis on the colouring, it wasn"t that hard to deduce that while one could stop their path of progress at the red goose, if one really wanted to climb higher in the hierarchy, then changing the colours was the only way to go. With how the max of what one could achieve without shedding the red from his clothes was the level of a true disciple, I could already tell that only by reaching for the blue robes, one could gain the position of an elder like the guy in front of me!
But contrary to my guess, his robes were violet! Not red, not white, not even blue as my guess was what would the colour of the highest rank of the sect be, considering the name of this city! It seemed that either some part of my guessing was wrong, or the structures of this sect were actually a bit more complicated than what I wanted them to be!
"Forgive me my rudeness, but if such process repeats in the white goose, does that mean that Elder is a member of a violet goose? Is that a level above the white one?"
Since this guy already recognised my talent, it would be stupid of me to act… stupidly. It was something I deduced after spending quite a lot of time in this world already, that was actually in opposition to what most of the cultivation novel attempted to make its readers believe.
With the growth of one"s strength, his wisdom, wits and pure intelligence has to grow as well. Harsher tribulations, more complicated cultivation and fighting techniques, more developed philosophy… The further one went on the road of cultivation, the greater its demands of the wholesome growth of a human were! That"s why it always puzzled me why people that achieved great levels of strength, could still act as stupidly as most of the novels made the side villans act in order to make them slap their own face for the sake of cheap comedic effect!
"Not exactly. Violet goose is an auxiliary unit of the united goose sect, placing me above red, white and blue gooses, yet under the heavenly gooses, residing at the top of the mountain of our sect. But let"s push this matter aside for now, your trial is about to begin."
As we crossed the entire, big square of the internal courtyard, the elder appraiser finally pushed the doors of one of the bigger building, before leading me to its insides. Once again, contrary to my expectations, instead of a big opening hall where various disciples would cultivate… We entered a long corridor, with the set of doors placed every four meters on both of its sides.
Stopping before one of the doors that didn"t have the red hue around them, the elder knocked on the door, causing them to open in an instant, revealing a simple interior with red mats filling the floor, and only a single stool in the middle with a piece of what looked like bread on top of it.
"This is penguin"s bread, made by the mystic sect of the city. When I will close the doors behind you, just eat as much of it as you can. When the test will be over, I will come to pick you up!"