At a nearby table, a woman wearing a veiled hat glanced at the bustling crowd outside. She adjusted her hat, pulling it lower to hide her face even more. Sipping her tea, she muttered under her breath, "Hmph, I'm here. You better watch out…"
Today in Xiushui Village, it was destined to be a day that many would never forget.
As the morning sun rose in full splendor, Liu Yunan, Sun Yigao, and Qin Jianghe appeared at the entrance of the Heart-Testing Path and announced to the gathered crowd that the Lingxian Sect's disciple recruitment had officially begun!
The people gathered at the foot of North Mountain were eager and ready. All they needed to do was successfully pass through the beautiful and legendary Peach Blossom Path behind them, and they could join Lingxian Sect, becoming disciples under immortal masters and embarking on a path they had never before dreamed of!
"Due to the large number of participants today, please do not rush or push. Rest assured, everyone will have a chance to enter the Heart-Testing Path for the assessment. Alright, without further ado, the Lingxian Sect's disciple recruitment assessment begins now!"
"We will be waiting for you at the end of the Heart-Testing Path."
Liu Yunan's voice echoed throughout every corner of Xiushui Village.
Upon hearing this, the initially restless crowd immediately settled down.
As Liu Yunan and his companions returned to the sect, the seal on the Heart-Testing Path was lifted, and those eager to join Lingxian Sect began to enter in an orderly manner.
Back inside the sect, Liu Yunan and the others finally let out a sigh of relief as they casually sat under the Ten-Mile Peach Blossom Tree.
"Ah, we've finally made it to this point!" Liu Yunan tilted his head back, gazing at the clear sky and exhaling deeply.
Qin Jianghe smiled and patted his shoulder. "Our dear Liu Hall Master has really been worked hard these past few days. Good job!"
Sun Yigao, smiling, nodded in agreement. "Indeed, you've done a lot. Now you can take a good rest for the next few days. We'll handle everything with the Heart-Testing Path from here."
"Yeah, leave it to us for the next few days. You can take it easy," Qin Jianghe added.
"Aww, I've been waiting for you to say that!" Liu Yunan jumped up with renewed energy. "Alright then, I'll leave it to you guys! I'm off!"
"Go on, go on," they waved him off.
However, before Liu Yunan could get far, the identity token on his waist began to glow.
He slowed his pace and glanced at the token, noticing that it was an alert from the main control room. "Strange... isn't it just me and Brother Xiao who have access to the control room? Could it be that Brother Xiao has come out of seclusion?"
Muttering to himself, Liu Yunan quickly changed course from heading to the Miscellaneous Hall and made his way to the Yaoguang Floating Island.
Before Lin Xiao went into seclusion, he had anticipated that if the sect was recruiting disciples while he was still closed off, there might be problems that required immediate attention. To prepare for this, Lin Xiao had transferred part of the system's main control authority to a newly built control room on the Yaoguang Floating Island, granting Liu Yunan sole access to operate it during the recruitment process.
When Liu Yunan arrived outside the control room, he saw that the door was tightly shut, and it didn't seem like anyone was inside.
Puzzled, he used his identity token to unlock the door and stepped inside. As soon as he entered, a series of text appeared on the white jade control platform.
[Detected that the current capacity of the Heart-Testing Path is at three-quarters, and the remaining capacity is steadily decreasing. The capacity of the Heart-Testing Path is about to reach its limit. Would you like to proceed with an upgrade? Kindly note: Each upgrade increases the capacity by 1,000 individuals, and upgrading will not affect the ongoing entry process.]
Below the message were the options [Yes] and [No].
Since the system had detected that Lin Xiao, the main user, was in seclusion, the upgrade notification had been directed to the control room as a failsafe.
Seeing the message displayed on the control platform, Liu Yunan thought about the massive crowd in Xiushui Village earlier and remembered that Lin Xiao had told him to make bold decisions and not be overly cautious. Without hesitation, he chose [Yes].
[This upgrade will consume 1,000 standard spirit stones from the sect's spirit stone mine. Do you confirm the upgrade?]
Seeing the amount of spirit stones required, Liu Yunan exhaled in relief. "1,000 spirit stones, that's manageable. Even if something goes wrong, my salary can cover it."
So, he clicked [Yes] again.
In the blink of an eye, the message on the control platform changed to:
[Upgrade to Heart-Testing Path completed.]
After the message disappeared, the platform went quiet.
Satisfied, Liu Yunan planned to head back to the Miscellaneous Hall to handle some remaining tasks. However, just as he stepped through the door, his identity token glowed again.
It was another alert from the control room.
Sighing, he turned back.
Once again, the same message appeared on the control platform:
[Detected that the current capacity of the Heart-Testing Path is at three-quarters, and the remaining capacity is steadily decreasing. Would you like to proceed with an upgrade?]
"Didn't I just upgrade it?" Liu Yunan muttered, but seeing how quickly the new capacity had been filled, he felt a sense of pride. So many people wanted to join their sect—it was something to be proud of!
Without hesitation, he clicked [Yes] again.
[This upgrade will consume 1,500 standard spirit stones from the sect's spirit stone mine. Do you confirm the upgrade?]
He noticed that the number of required spirit stones had increased by 500 this time. Shrugging, he thought, "Another 500 stones… still manageable. The sect's savings should cover it." So, he confirmed the upgrade again.
[Upgrade to Heart-Testing Path completed.]
This time, Liu Yunan decided to wait in the room. Sure enough, a new upgrade notification appeared after a short while. He clicked [Yes] again.
And, as expected, the required number of spirit stones had increased by another 500, totaling 2,000.
As he hit the confirmation button once more, he reassured himself, "It's fine. Even if we need more stones, Jianghe's savings should be enough to cover the shortfall. After all, we don't really spend much apart from cultivation."
After several rounds of repeatedly confirming upgrades and mentally calculating how to pool together the sect's salaries to cover any potential deficits, the control platform finally stopped displaying upgrade prompts.
Relieved, Liu Yunan let out a long breath. "Finally, it's over. If it had continued, we'd run out of the sect's savings!"
Each time the upgrade consumed an additional 500 spirit stones, and although they had earned quite a bit over the years, even their income wouldn't be able to keep up with this rate of increase indefinitely.
Thankfully, the disciple recruitment event would only last for one day. There was a limit to how many people could show up in that time.
With peace of mind, Liu Yunan left the control room and returned to the Miscellaneous Hall to finish his remaining work.