Chapter 4

After Miss Zhao left, the inspector brought Qian Yu to the camp with the other picked-up villagers and he soon recognized two of them.

Waving to them, he greeted, "Hello Chen Ya, hello Wu Jing."

"Greetings Doctor Yu," they joked and smiled.

Over the years, although Qian Yu didn't have many friends, he had a pretty good reputation in the town as a smart and responsible boy. Additionally, due to his circumstances, people probably pitied him and were generally friendly towards him.

Chen Ya was the daughter of a small merchant in the village. She was 15, had short brown hair and was a little over 5 feet tall, but still slightly shorter than Qian Yu. Mr. Chen had some lucky encounters in his early life and was able to forge some connections with some business tycoons in Yellow River City and hence, his family was pretty rich from a villager's viewpoint.

On the other hand, Wu Jing was the son of the guard captain protecting the village and as such, his parents always put a heavy emphasis on his cultivation since he was born. He had short cut hair like all the other villagers including Qian Yu. Currently 15 as well ,he was just a little taller than Qian Yu. Respectively, he was at body refinement rank 6 while Chen Ya was a rank below him.

'They were brought up so well, I'm jealous. They are only a year older than me but one is a rank higher than me while the other is two ranks higher than me,' Qian Yu sighed as he looked at them.

After chatting about some things with the two, Qian Yu learned a lot of things and proceeded to look around at the other dozen faces from other villages. Wu Jing had already asked around earlier and learned that their village was the 3rd village that the Zhao family were recruiting from. There would be one more village that they would pass through before they reached the Ice Arts Sect.

As for the strengths of the others, they were similar to Wu Jing. They were all at least body refinement rank 5 or stronger and were generally 14 to 16 years old. The strongest was 16 and rank 9 and he had a super confidence smirk on his face. Other than that, there were 4 other girls besides Chen Ya while the rest were males.

'I am completely not meant to be here,' Qian Yu knew that he was only here because of his medical knowledge. Once again, he thought about his grandpa.

Before long, the Zhao family finished all their preparations as they set off.

'I'll be leaving now Grandpa,' Qian Yu took one last look at the village before they left. Memories of his childhood quickly played through his brain as the village slowly disappeared from his vision.

It took a whole five days for the band of people to reach their destination. The Ice Arts Sect was a pretty dominant force within the Xia Empire and was located in the northern part of the country about 250 miles northeast from the capital of the empire.

Upon arriving near the territory of the Ice Arts Sect, there was a man with white robes. He looked elegant, refined, and mysterious.

'He's a cultivator!' Qian Yu guessed. While he looked like a regular middle-aged person, Qian Yu knew he could be totally wrong. He had heard from many others that cultivators had longer lifespans, hence he could only guess what that man's real age was.

His voice was apathetic as he spoke to them, "My name is Elder Li, an outer court sect elder. Disciples, follow me, I will lead you to the sect." Towards these new villager disciples that didn't enter the sect normally through the disciple entrance exams, he wasn't really expecting much from them. Rather, he was only here to give face to those of the Zhao family.

"Thank you Elder, we will take our leave," Once the guards and inspectors saw this, they soon split off and headed in a different direction.

While they did arrive at the Ice Arts Sect territory, it didn't mean they reached the sect yet. The sect was a massive area that was situated on a plateau. An extremely large area with mountains and valleys, it was the home for thousands of disciples.

Over time, people started building their homes around the sect and a community was created around the sect.

Usually, there would be two outcomes for this. First off, the city that was developed would usually be referred to as the outer territory, while the Ice Arts Sect itself would be the inner territory. However, if the settle became large, containing millions of inhabitants, it could be named something like "Ice Arts City".

As for the Ice Arts Sect, it fell under the first category as there were tens of thousands of people living in the outer territory of the Ice Arts Sect.

After about half an hour, Elder Li finally brought all the new recruits to another large gate. The walls were tall with no elegant design. Additionally, there was a large sign on the gate. "Ice Arts Sect," it wrote.

"Alright disciples, we have arrived at the entrance of the Ice Arts Sect. I will now hand you guys your disciple robes and you guys will officially be outer court disciples of our sect. Afterwards, we will go to your living quarters which were arranged by the Zhao family. Since you guys are a special case, you guys will need to go meet with them as they need to talk with you," Elder Li finally spoke up after being quiet the whole way.

"Alright, come get your robes," he waved at them. Some helpers that he previously arranged came by and quickly helped pick what robe sizes were needed for each person.

'This robe is awesome, I've never worn such expensive clothing,' Qian Yu loved the new white robe. He didn't know what type of material the robe was made from but he knew it was of high quality and it was very warm.

It was a simple white robe with a very light blue snowflake on the back of the robe. Other than that, it had no extra details or markings which would show his status as an outer court disciple. As one gained a higher status in the sect, they could get a new robe more fitting of their status.

They soon reached their living quarters, which were a couple of one storey buildings and each disciple was given their own room. It was very small but it reminded Qian Yu of his own small room that his grandpa built for him. Looking around, he saw a small bed, table, some drawers, a closet, and the restroom. After putting down his belongings and locking the door and met up with the 19 other people.

It was time to meet his employers.