Of Hunters and Immortals

"Unfortunately, the number of contribution points you gathered was insufficient. The Azure Sky Sect will not welcome you into its halls at this time. Should the Heavens favour you, you may try again when the next entrance exams are held."

Elder Shen did not enjoy this aspect of his job. In truth, there were many aspects of being an Elder that he did not enjoy, but this was particularly difficult – after all, he could well remember standing in front of the Elders as an aspirant himself, nervously awaiting word of his fate.

Granted, he was actually accepted into the Azure Sky Sect, but he still remembered the sinking feeling in his stomach, the certainty that he wasn't going to make it. Sitting here now, decades later, telling hopeful aspirants that they hadn't made the cut was never a pleasure.

Elder Shen waited until the young woman bowed and left the chamber, her expression carefully neutral. Only once the door clicked shut behind her did he allow himself to exhale.

"That makes, what, seventy-five?" Elder Ren Li asked, voice dry. "And not a single standout yet."

"Give it time," Shen said. "Some cultivators develop later. The Azure Sky Sect has accepted worse candidates in the past."

"Almost always to our detriment," muttered Elder Yan Zhihao. He sat straight-backed in his chair, arms folded into his sleeves. "We lower the standards any further and we may as well start dragging in village children with strong legs."

A short bark of a laugh came from Elder Hu, the former weapons instructor, whose grey beard was knotted close to his jaw. "Might do better than the last one."

Elder Shen glanced toward the side of the hall, where a stack of polished jade tokens sat arranged by order. He picked up the next one.

"Jiang Tian," he read. "Gathered thirty-one contribution points over the course of the trials. First… first stage of the Qi Condensation realm? Really? How was he even accepted at all?"

"That, I think you'll find, is due to Elder Lu," Elder Yan remarked with a distinctly satisfied tone.

Shen wasn't entirely sure why Elder Yan and Elder Lu were at odds like this – and, truthfully, he didn't much care. Elders were expected to present a unified front to the world at large, but that didn't mean they actually had to get along behind closed doors. Thus, it was hardly surprising that Elder Yan would jump at the chance to discredit Elder Lu in any way.

That said, accepting an aspirant who was only at the first stage of the Qi Condensation realm was… irregular. It made the Azure Sky Sect, as a whole, look weaker.

Shen turned a politely inquiring gaze on Elder Lu.

The man in question gave him a faint smile in return. "Indeed, I chose to sponsor the boy. I believe that he may be an asset to our Sect in years to come. Oh, and incidentally, the boy's token is out of date – he broke through to the second stage just last night."

Shen blinked. "That's… commendable," he said diplomatically. "But even at the second stage, he would still be the weakest disciple in the Sect. I don't believe we've ever accepted anyone at such a low stage of cultivation, though I could be wrong." He turned to the Head Archivist. "Elder Han, are you aware of any precedents in our history?"

Elder Han shifted in his seat and hummed thoughtfully. "I believe there may have been one incident where an aspirant at the second stage was accepted – the son of an Elder, I believe." The man glanced apologetically over at Elder Lu. "From what I remember, the disciple only made it to the third stage before encountering a bottleneck that he couldn't surmount. Since then, we traditionally have only accepted aspirants at the third stage and above, though, admittedly, the charter laid down by our Honoured Founders only requires aspirants to be at the first stage."

Yan scoffed before Shen could continue. "Why are we wasting time on this one? Even if we ignore the fact that the boy's advancement is paltry, thirty-one points? We've turned away aspirants with ten times that."

Shen gave a slight shrug. "His token is still active. If an aspirant is eligible, then the process must be followed. Besides, we've always awarded breakthroughs with contribution points, so from that perspective, he would have passed the minimum threshold."

Contrary to what the aspirants were told, there wasn't actually a strict number of contribution points that had to be reached. Even the minimum threshold was more of a guideline than anything else – the Sect wasn't interested in freeloaders, after all – but it was specifically meant to be easy to accomplish. The truth of the matter was that the aspirants were watched for several other qualities during the week-long exams. How would they go about striving for points? Would they work with their fellow aspirants? Would they betray or sabotage in an effort to get ahead? Would they give up when it looked like they weren't going to make it?

Even the richer aspirants who donated money to the Sect in exchange for points were watched. While an entirely valid form of contribution – the Sect needed money to operate, after all – the idea that any random noble's son could pay their way into being a cultivator was preposterous. Any aspirant who donated a lump sum of money and then tried to laze around for the rest of the week would quickly find themselves failing.

"Still, it must be said that his advancement is… lacking. While the fact that he broke through indicates he has not yet hit a bottleneck, how long would we need to wait for him to become a contributing member of the Sect?" Shen asked Elder Lu pointedly. "The tasks we make available for the entrance exams aside, a cultivator at the second stage of the Qi Condensation realm would struggle to complete any of even the most basic tasks we usually assign. Can we really trust such a cultivator to carry the name of the Azure Sky Sect into the world if they would be slain by the first lot of bandits they run across?"

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"Besides," Elder Yan interjected, "Is this not the same aspirant who outright refused to duel a fellow cultivator? Do we really need such cowardice in our hallowed Sect?"

Shen sent the man an irritated glare for the interruption. It didn't escape his notice that Elder Yan only ever seemed to care about the reputation of the Sect when it benefited him. Still… that didn't make him wrong.

"Indeed, Jiang refused a duel the first time he was challenged – but I assure you, it was not cowardice, but practicality." Elder Lu turned to address the rest of the elders in the room. "As I'm sure you are all aware, we occasionally get aspirants at our fine Sect that are… not completely aware of what it means to be a cultivator. They do not understand the intricacies of face and honour as we do. Since I explained the situation to young Jiang, he has accepted every challenge – and from what I understand, there have been quite a few of them."

"An easy claim to make," Elder Yan interjected again.

Shen would have been more annoyed at the interruption if he couldn't see that the man was turning the rest of the elders against himself with his comments. The Elders of the Azure Sky Sect could afford to be more casual when behind closed doors, but that didn't mean they could afford to be rude – and while Elder Yan had yet to fully cross that line, he was edging up to it.

"It's true," came a voice from an unexpected source.

"Elder Yiaolin?" Shen asked politely, raising an eyebrow in surprise. The woman in charge of the halls of healing was generally content to keep to herself during these meetings, often acerbically saying that they were a waste of time she could be using more productively.

"I'm the one who has to patch him up after every challenge. He's been in and out of my halls at least twice a day, every day. He's polite, follows instructions, doesn't make a fuss, and isn't full of himself like most of the idiots I treat. I like him."

Elder Ren Li turned to Shen. "Alright, now I'm listening. She doesn't even like us."

"I like Elder Han," Yiaolin said.

"You like Elder Han's silence."

"Same thing."

Shen let out a slow breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. This really should have been a quick decision – but then, hasty decisions were often wrong. "I'm going to take that as a vote in favour of induction, then?" Elder Yiaolin nodded. "Fine then. Elder Lu, while you clearly think the boy has promise, what will you do if it takes him years to advance further? Years during which he will be using Sect resources, a drain the rest of us have to shoulder?"

Elder Lu leaned back in his seat and smiled, a slow, satisfied expression he usually only wore when winning at cards. Shen resisted the urge to narrow his eyes suspiciously.

"Oh, did I not mention? When I met the boy for the first time a month ago, he hadn't even ignited his dantian. He didn't even know what Qi was."

Elder Han adjusted his glasses slightly. "Began cultivating… four weeks ago," he repeated, voice even. "You're quite sure of that?"

"Indeed," Elder Lu said happily. "In fact, I believe Elder Yan can confirm my words – when you met the boy in Wúyè, was he a cultivator?"

The gathered elders turned their attention to Elder Yan, who gritted his teeth. "He… was a mortal," the man confirmed begrudgingly.

Shen blinked. "That's—" he cut himself off, brows furrowing slightly as he recalculated the timeline. "So he ignited his dantian and broke through to the second stage within a month?"

"Yes."

"What resources did you give him?" Shen asked suspiciously. It… wasn't impossible for a talented cultivator to advance that quickly, but it was rare.

"A single fire lotus elixir. Which he has yet to use." Elder Lu smiled smugly at the looks on his fellow Elder's faces.

"That's…" Elder Hu began, then trailed off, rubbing at his beard with a low whistle. "Alright. I'll admit it. That's fast."

Elder Ren Li hummed thoughtfully. "Natural talent, then. Or maybe good instincts. Most people hit a wall just trying to find their dantian, let alone ignite it."

Elder Yan didn't speak right away. His eyes flicked from one face to the next, watching the tide shift against him, before he leaned forward in his seat, resting his forearms on the table. "Regardless of the boy's rate of advancement, there is something else that renders him ineligible. Sixteen is the minimum age for all forms of admission. The boy is not sixteen."

Shen frowned. "Are you certain?"

"I spoke to him myself in Wúyè," Yan said. "He claimed to be sixteen. It was an obvious lie. Look at the boy. He's no older than fourteen. Maybe fifteen if we're being generous."

A quiet murmur ran around the table, several of the Elders shifting in their seats. Shen didn't miss the way Ren Li's expression turned more thoughtful than concerned. Elder Han simply adjusted his sleeves.

"He told me he was sixteen years old," Elder Lu said simply. "I chose to believe him."

"And you expect us to accept that?" Yan demanded, addressing the room at large. "That's it? On your word alone?"

Lu turned his head slightly, just enough to look directly at him. "This is the second time you've almost called me a liar on this matter. I'm starting to take it personally."

The air in the room stilled, a flicker of Qi rising from Elder Yan as he gritted his teeth. The rest of the Elder's attention sharpened. None were worried, but there was a particular alertness now. And in that moment, Shen knew Yan had overplayed his hand.

If he'd been less combative earlier. If he hadn't interrupted repeatedly. If he hadn't mocked Elder Lu so openly, so often. Maybe then, the other Elders would have stood behind him. But not now. Not after making himself the least sympathetic man in the room.

Lu didn't smile. He didn't need to.

Shen cleared his throat. "Well. If Elder Lu is prepared to vouch for the aspirant's age, then the matter is settled. While it hasn't been done in some time, our charter allows any mortal who reaches the first stage of the Qi Condensation realm and has reached the age of sixteen to be considered. By those requirements, he qualifies."

He let the silence hang for a moment. "All in favour of granting aspirant…" he glanced at the jade token again, "…Jiang official induction into the Azure Sky Sect as an outer disciple?"

"Why are we pretending this is a debate?" Ren Li asked. "Boy's underage, undertrained, underqualified—and still broke through twice under in a month. Works hard, doesn't complain, and somehow got Yiaolin to say something nice. If that doesn't count as a recommendation, I don't know what does."

Shen tapped two fingers against the table pointedly, a hint of impatience entering his tone. "All in favour?" he repeated.

Hands rose, one by one. Lu. Hu. Ren. Han. Yiaolin. Shen himself.

All eyes turned to Elder Yan. The man clenched his jaw and flicked his sleeve, but didn't raise his hand.

"…Majority carries," Shen said. He rose from his seat, smoothing his robes with practised ease. "Let's not keep the boy waiting."

He gestured toward the door. A waiting disciple slipped inside and bowed.

"Send in aspirant Jiang."