NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Angor
It took us a couple of days to reach the capital city, Angor. It was around 300 km away from our residence in the valley.
Along the way, we four camped, hunted and spent time travelling together. Therefore, our bond got a bit stronger, and we were a bit closer than acquaintances; that’s what I would have believed if not for Alice being extra chummy with the Luna sisters.
It was her first time spending time with anyone, especially a girl, outside our residence. Hence, they talked about literally everything. As long as Alice was happy, I didn’t mind it a bit.
Through our conversation, I got to know that Elfie was at the 10th stage, whereas Seline was at the 7th stage of Body Tempering. To remain lowkey about our abilities, we told them that my and my sister's ages were 14 and 16, respectively. I also told them our fake cultivation level and explained my past heroic performance was due to the presence of a strength-boosting elixir. I was a little exhausted in answering their questions to maintain the credibility of the lies.
(Creating a perfect alibi is definitely challenging.)
By the time we reached Angor, the sun was setting down on the horizon. The city of Angor was the capital of the Vangan Empire, which covered the whole Northern Continent. There were another two continents separated from the Northern Continent by ocean. These two continents were on a single landmass, which was smaller than the whole Northern Continent.
Thus, Angor was regarded as the most important city on the entire planet. It should also be noted that the Vangan Empire was a subsidiary of the Highland Origin sect. Hence, when we reached the entrance of Angor, we found a fortified city with high raised walls surrounding it; it was like a castle but on a much larger scale.
As the set had set, we decided to rest the night at an inn and look around the city the next day. We, brother and sister, took a double bedroom, while the Luna sisters took another similar room. Although we had two beds, Alice jumped straight into the bed I was on and demanded to cuddle and sleep. And giving in to my sister’s wish, we had a good rest for the first time in a few days.
The next day, we first registered for the admission exam, which we were informed would be happening after two days. After the registration, we checked the various stalls and halls, like the weapon hall, etc. and tasted the local cuisine. After roaming around, we checked in the inn again and slept our exhaustion off.
The next day, we separated into two groups and went shopping according to our needs. As Alice and I were fully prepared, we just roamed around in the marketplace and bought anything that looked interesting as a souvenir for our mother and the maids.
It had to be mentioned that Alice caught a lot of attention from the others, as she was definitely a beautiful girl who would bloom into a stunning woman. As her companion, I got the looks of some admiration, but most of the faces were full of hatred and jealousy.
Mentioning this to Alice, she just laughed innocently and said that whoever dared bully me she would beat him to dust, so I should just focus on having fun with her. After having fun, we returned to the inn and rested for the upcoming day of the admission exam.
On the day of the examination, the applicants were first asked to hit a strength measuring device, and only the ones who could exert 300 kg weight of force were allowed to the next stage. Thus, only the applicants with the cultivation of the 7th stage of Body Tempering and above were promoted to the next stage. Alice and I completed the test with a portion of our strength to barely pass the test.
The following examination stage was sparring, in which we were to compete with each other in the respective bracket of the cultivation stage. Then, the top ten applicants of each cultivation bracket were selected as the inner sect disciples, whereas the following top 90 of each cultivation bracket were selected as outer sect disciples. The remaining applicants failed the admission and were sent back.
Both Alice and I were in the 3rd rank in our respective cultivation brackets. What was surprising was that Elfie ranked 2nd, just a rank above Alice, and Seline was 1st in my cultivation bracket.
We, inner disciples, were given our own courtyard to live in and practise. We were free to do whatever we wished, but we had to always appear in the quarterly ranking exams in which the inner and outer disciples’ rankings were shuffled. This prevented the stagnation of progress among the cultivators on both sides.
The only issue was that the courtyards of the females were on the opposite end of that of the males. Thus, Alice and I could not meet each other regularly. So, we decided to spend time with each other during the quarterly exams.