Chapter 38: Shu Line

Chapter 38: Shu Line

Not many lines could boast having an inner disciple attending an annual meet, let alone two. And they arrived in such a grandiose fashion, everyone in the sect would here word of it.

"Don't look at me, all this was his idea." The youngest of the two inner disciples defended himself as they stepped on the top floor and faced the young shu family members.

"HAHAHA, little brother Dai Chao, inner disciples shouldn't act low key! It's important to honor the shu family ancestors by impressing the young ones.

Take a seat everyone, I am Xiong Hui, a member of the shu family for 11 years now. Ah it's great that our line hasn't been interrupted, I'm in a fine mood today!

You there with the zither, play something more exciting, will you?"

With a glance, Dai Chao and Xiong Hui knew what year each disciple was from, and that was not just by their appearance. In fact, all of the members of the Shu Line had slightly different robes. That was because the number of stripes on the left shoulder corresponded to their time in the school. 2nd years only had two parallel stripes; 3rd years had three etc. Of course, 1st years didn't even have a white robe yet.

Everyone started presenting themselves shortly to the inner disciples and the atmosphere turned cheerful, and Xiong Hui played an important role in that. Rather than acting bossy he was extremely approachable and encouraging to his younger fellow disciples.

Lan Ruoxi didn't show her inner disappointment that Xiong Hui was indeed another man. She would still have to wait to meet a third girl in the Shu family. What she noticed first was that he had the altitude and the makings of a leader.

Dai Chao, the youngest inner disciple of the family, sat on the opposite side of the table of Xiong Hui to "discuss with his new members rather than have to listen to this old guy about himself."

His comment caused another explosive laugh from Xiong Hu.

When Lan Ruoxi compared the two, Dai Chao appeared a lot milder and slightly introverted.

Wonderful and exotic dishes were brought one after the other, accompanied by fine wine for those older than 16, which meant the inner disciples.

The younger ones still had a sip though, which was enough to relax considerably the atmosphere as they had previously remained relatively restrained in front of those inner disciples.

Without a doubt, an entire glass would be enough to render them completely drunk! Only those at the foundation establishment stage could enjoy a lot more of this wine fermented with various medicinal plants.

Gao Fengge had dutifully described all the medicinal herbs he sensed in the wine.

Around the table, only the two inner disciples had reached foundation establishment but it was expected that Xu Wei would soon breakthrough as well.

Amazingly, Han Lingyun could feel his own cultivation make great strides by just eating some of the delicious fruits and that magic beast's meet of such tenderness that it melted in one's mouth.

This night, he would eat more than he ever had in 3 days.

Everyone started to exchange their own stories. The young were especially curious about the inner disciples and the inner disciples enjoyed to remember and compare their own experiences with their young friends.

Xiong Hu caught everyone's attention again when he described the level of the sect leader and the sect's "Protector's". They were at the cultivation level above core foundation. It was named the Nascent Soul realm and those cultivators could live up to 500 years! Some have been in the sect nearly since its foundation!

Han Lingyun was even more shocked when he learned that he should have already met a Nascent Soul cultivator. There were 3 stationed at White Tiger School. One at Market Road, one near the inner disciples' caves, and one at the library right next to the 1st years village.

Han Lingyun vaguely remembered a middle-aged man introducing them to the library. Well apparently, he was a 300 years old Nascent Soul cultivator!

After another sip of wine, the discussion moved more toward disciple gossip. Because of Lan Ruoxi, Han Lingyun recounted how he had won a couple hundred Ps with a bet against and Elder. The true gain was a lot higher and his relationship with Elder Wen more substantial but Han Lingyun didn't mention any of that.

Zhang Fang had the funniest stories of all. It was incredible how he managed to experience so much in 3 years.

Everyone had a great time and a good laugh. The older ones were thrilled to see that their shu legacy was faring well. The younger ones marveled at their elders' experiences. They all had 4th grade talent and could relate well with each other's doings.

Lan Ruoxi raised another topic to the inner disciples. "Oh! I always wondered; do you know how old is our shu family? Does it date back to the sect foundation?"

Xiong Hu put his glass down and let the silent fall on the table for dramatic effect. "Finding the history of a family is quite hard as it is only passed by word of mouth from generation to generation of disciple. You see, it is more of a school tradition and isn't really continued when disciples enter the true sect. Dai Chao and I just had a sudden urge to reminisce about the past, that's why we joined for that meal, but we are the exceptions. These many new generations with only access to direct testimony from a 6-year gap makes going back in time more difficult.

Well, when at your age, I heard from my elders at the time that the shu family was more than 300 years old. However not too long ago, I was very lucky to be able to get closer to the truth."

Everyone perked up.

Xiong Hu with the disciple full attention continued his story. "Last year, I met an elder that was in the shu family line when he first entered the school, and that was 150 years ago. He was very surprised to learn that the shu family hadn't become discontinued to this day! At the time, he entered the sect at the 315th rank.

Back in the day, word was that the line dated from 30 years prior, originating from a low ranked disciple that took pride in his rat-like face."

"Wow, so our family does date back from long ago."

"If it's only 180 years old, it's far from what the rumors said though."

"The beginning didn't sound very glorious."

"I hoped we were older."

All expressed their thoughts on this news.

The rule of accepting 800 disciples per year was very quickly used at the White Tiger School, and the family line tradition could be traced back to its foundation. Every time a 1st year died his line would stop. Because then two low ranked disciples share a common major, one of the two would branch out to name his own line. This is why the lines are not fixed to a rank but accept disciples of higher and higher rank as long as the line lives on, and when higher ranked newcomers don't survive the year.

"I don't think that any line dates back from the sect foundation." Xiong Hu continued.

"Only 15 lines could be older than the shu family and the absolute oldest one should be the line that welcomed the 1st ranked at the entry. But you know, every now and then, even the one arriving at rank 1 dies before reaching 2nd year. And all lines that don't date back from the school foundation were started by low ranked newcomers. So, you should be proud of our more than 180 ancestors that all managed to consecutively pass on the torch in 2nd year. Cheers!"