Dongting City

After a few days of traveling, Qiu have arrived at Dongting City.

Although on the way he has met some bandits, Qiu was able the either fend them off or run away. And was surviving of hunting for animals, berries and herbs.

Despite the same architecture, Dongting City was much different from Qinghai City, unlike the scorching, dry dessert feeling that Qinghai City brings to its people, streams of cool breeze can be felt on the streets of the city and greenery is seen everywhere. Dongting City felt like the oasis in a desolate dessert.

Unlike in Qinghai City, you could rarely see people wearing sand scarfs that is common amongst the citizens of Qinghai, instead they are wearing the clothing that those in the Central region would wear, silky long eastern gowns.

Not only that the people here felt much more lively that the ones in Qinghai City, maybe it is the result of the environment that shaped the nature of it's citizens.

Everything feels so different, Qiu has been in Qinghai for his entire life and did not know what the outside world feels like, he is pretty lost by this new feeling and world.

"Enough wondering around, it's time to get to business." Qiu reminded himself that he is not here to play.

Cruising through the streets of the city, Qiu is trying to find his way to the gates of the sect.

"Disciple recruitment ceremony, disciple recruitment ceremony, today is the last day to register for the disciple recruitment ceremony."

Following the sound, Qiu made his way to the registration table and found a lady in black and white there.

"Hello, are you here for the registration, if so write down your particulars here and place your hand on the scaling ball."

Name: Qiu

Age: 12

Gender: Male

Stage: Sapling Second Growth

Power scale: 406

"Sapling Second Growth and a power scale of 406 pretty good, and you're only twelve, that is pretty young for a Dao cultivator, you must have been through a lot."

It is not surprising when the registration lady made the remarks, due to the nature of the Dao, it is more often to see people at an older age finding their Dao, as they have been through more in their lives to manifest their Dao.

Looking around him, Qiu sees mainly people in their twenties and thirties registering for the disciple recruitment. And amongst the people there was someone cloaked in black giving Qiu a feeling of familiarity.

After the registration, the lady asked all those who have registered to wait until noon to come back for the recruitment ceremony.

With some time to kill, Qiu decided to look around the city, he visited the Dongting Lake, like people said, the lake was enormous, around one-third of the city is the lake and the water of the lake is crystal clear.

Along the sides of the lake are ginkgo trees, golden brown leaves, as ginkgo leaves falls, golden flakes falls, as golden flakes falls, those in love falls. It is the saying that people here says.

There were many pavilions situated near, beside and within the lake with many boats rowing in the lake.

With the scenery and a legend, Dongting City became a hot spot for couples from a long time ago.

At the center of the lake was the widely knowned Black Crane Tower, one of the most famous towers in the lands, knowned as the greatest of the four famous towers, the Black Crane Tower became famous from the poem, Tower of the Black Cranes.

Flaps heard from a far,

As the sun falls west,

Like a flash of black,

The cranes flew from east,

Settling on the tower,

A scene like a painting,

Painted like calligraphy,

Nature's greatest painting.

Since there is time, Qiu made his way to the Black Crane Tower, taking one of the boats, he made his way there.

"Ayo, little here by yourself? It is rare to see someone here alone nowadays, normally you would see couples coming here. You know especially after the legend that was spreaded wide, the legend goes..."

'This guy is too talkative, can he just shut.'

With no other choice, Qiu had to listen to the boat rower talk on the way to the tower, it was not a very pleasant trip, after giving the rower some crystals, Qiu made his way into the tower.

As they approaches the tower, Qiu could see streams of water flowing from the sky in the the lake around the tower.

As he stepped into the tower, just like how he has imagined it, the tower was grand, and filled with seas of people. Hanging on the walls were poems made by poets that the tower manager thinks is good. There was a scholarly atmosphere that in within the air.

The place was asymmetrical, within the tower, scholars gather to admire the poems or try to be those that are admired, while outside the atmosphere was filled with love.

After touring the tower and the lake, Qiu decided to get something to eat, when in Dongting City there is a saying you can't say you have been here without having the famous Dongting noodles.

And the most famous place that makes it is the Cai family restaurant, but it is too expensive for Qiu, so he settled for a more affordable place near the registration area.

Dongting noodles is a dry noodle make up of sesame sauce and a special braised sauce which differs by the restaurant. For foreigners the cooks will add some water to make the dish less dry, as some people can not take the texture of the food.

The noodles had a strong aroma of sesame and customers can choose to add in side dishes to elevate the taste or to add a crunch to the dish. Qiu decided to a sour long beans to the dish to add a tang and crunch to the dish.

The taste of the noodles was on another level, with the taste of the sesame sauce, braised sauce and sourness from the long beans, it is something that Qiu has never had before.