"Huh. So there is a rain protection formation," mumbled Wei Zian as he watched raindrops splashing against an invisible barrier in front of him. He stuck his hand beyond the edge of the barrier, and it passed through without any resistance. He pulled his suddenly wet hand back into the safety of the barrier and looked as far as he could see. From what he could tell, the barrier surrounded the entire inner courtyard area (no small feat, as the inner courtyards were quite large) in a protective dome that stopped rain, and only rain, from coming through. Apparently the sect had upgraded its formation array again, because they didn't have this feature the last time it rained.
Shrugging, he turned and continued toward the administration building. Too bad the barrier didn't also dry you off when you passed through it, because he was soaking wet. Thankfully, his qiankun bag was waterproof, so his clothes and cultivation manuals weren't in danger of getting ruined. Walking at a leisurely pace now, he studied the collection of buildings that made up the inner courtyards. The formation arrays weren't the only thing that had been upgraded; the whole place looked... prettier, for lack of a better word. Every building had fresh paint, the old stone paths were replaced by more colorful ones, the spirit flower gardens were in full bloom, and the small spirit spring that hadn't worked for years was suddenly flowing again.
"Wonder what that's all about," he mumbled.
After a bit of thought, he decided he didn't really care. He would find out sooner or later, if it was important.
The administration building was, as expected, mostly empty of disciples. Most had taken shelter from the rain instead of pressing on like Wei Zian, and those that didn't often didn't live in the inner courtyards and thus had no reason to come here today. That was perfect as far as Wei Zian was concerned, since it meant he could finish his business quickly.
'Quickly' turned out to be relative, it took two hours of dealing with the jade maiden at the administration desk before he had taken care of all the necessary paperwork. He asked about his class schedule, but was told it wasn't finalized yet and that he would have to wait until Monday morning. Come to think of it, Yun Xia had mentioned the same thing. Before he left, the jade maiden gave him a jade slip containing the rules that third-tier disciples were expected to know before sending him on his way. Wei Zian casually scanned the jade slip while looking for courtyard room 115, before stuffing it into one of the deepest pockets of his qiankun bag, never to be looked at again.
Sect-provided housing was pretty terrible, and Wei Zian had had very bad experiences with it, but it was free and private courtyard space was ridiculously expensive in Celestial Peak Sect. Even children of noble families often lived in sect housing rather than in their own courtyards, so who was he to complain? Besides, living so close to the cultivation halls saved travel time each morning and put him near the biggest scripture library in the region, so there were definitely good points to it.
An hour later, he smiled to himself as he entered a fairly spacious room. He was even more pleased when he realized he had his own washroom. With a spirit water basin, no less! It was a welcome change from sharing a cramped little room with an inconsiderate roommate and using a single communal washroom with the whole floor. As for furniture, the room had a bed, a closet, a set of drawers, a writing desk, and a chair. Everything Wei Zian needed, really.
Dropping his luggage on the floor, Wei Zian changed out of his wet clothes before collapsing on the bed with relief. He had two whole days before classes started, so he decided to put off unpacking until tomorrow. Instead, he lay motionless on the bed, wondering for a moment why he couldn't hear raindrops hitting the window beside his bed before remembering the rain barrier.
"I've got to learn that technique," he mumbled.
His collection of techniques was extremely limited at the moment, consisting of about 20 simple techniques, but he had plans to change that this year. As a certified ninth level Qi Condensation disciple, he had access to parts of the sect library he didn't before, and he planned on studying as many techniques as possible. Besides, this year's classes were supposed to focus much more on practical techniques now that they'd proven themselves capable, so he should learn plenty of interesting things in class too.
Tired from the long journey, Wei Zian closed his eyes, intending to take a short nap. He wouldn't wake up until the next morning.