Chapter 1: The Recruitment of Mount Tai Sect

  Mount Tai rises abruptly from the hills of Qi and Lu, its main peak towering above, with steep slopes and layered ridges forming a majestic atmosphere of "one mountain overlooking all others" and "many peaks paying homage to the grandeur". The other peaks are also numerous, stretching for thousands of miles, with high mountains and beautiful waters, layered ridges and winding paths, presenting a kaleidoscope of scenery.

  However, what makes Mount Tai most famous is not its scenery, but the White Silver Grade Martial Arts School standing at the summit of Mount Tai - the Mount Tai School.

  The Daqi Empire, excluding the imperial court, is roughly divided into several levels: the Golden Gate faction, the Silver Gate faction, and the Bronze Gate faction, the Black Iron family, the middle-class families, and the lower-class families. These six major levels are like a pyramid, with each level weakening in turn, the Golden Gate faction standing at the top and strongest, while the lower-class families are the weakest but the foundation of the pyramid. Each faction and tribe is stacked on top of each other, forming an unbreakable upper-level system of the Daqi Empire. Whether it's the evil forces within the country or those hostile forces outside, they find it difficult to infiltrate and cause fatal damage to the national strength and people's livelihood of Daqi.

  As one of the prestigious schools of the Great Qi Empire, although the Taishan Sect is not as powerful as the Jixia Academy and other top-tier sects, it has still reached the silver rank. The sect was founded by Dongling Zushi and has a history spanning over 2,000 years with more than 20 generations of inheritance. Despite facing four major crises that nearly led to its downfall since its establishment, the sect has persevered through all of them, continuing to thrive as before, with its mountain gate unchanged, and emerging even more precious after weathering the storms.

  When it comes to inheritance, the long history of Mount Tai Sect has a wide reputation in the Great Qi Empire, and its own white silver-level sect - although it is only a mid-to-low-end standard among the white silver-level sects, but after all, it also belongs to the second-tier forces in the six-layer pyramid, close to the top of the pyramid, as a relatively important member of the upper-middle building of the Great Qi Empire.

  So every two years, Mount Tai Sect recruits outer door disciples and conducts entrance exams, which have always been widely welcomed and followed by the people...

  The wind was high and the clouds were light, with no clouds for thousands of miles. The warm morning sunlight shone on the mountain gate of Mount Tai Sect.

  The mountain gate is built magnificently, with eight pillars of Han white jade supporting it straight up to a height of about three zhang. On the gate tower supported by the eight pillars of Han white jade, there are three purple characters "Tai Shan Sect" that seem to be flying and dancing in the air, each character containing a majestic and powerful aura, as if a heroic mountain is rushing towards you.

  On both sides of the mountain gate, a pair of Han Baiyu lions, each as tall as a zhang, crouched with majestic and unmatched postures. And in front of the twin lions, on the spacious mountain gate square, it was no longer the usual tranquility, but instead, there was endless excitement. Because today was the first day that the Taishan Sect openly recruited outer sect disciples this year.

  The disciples of the Taishan Sect are divided into two categories. One is that they have exceptional innate talent, and the sect focuses on cultivating them, with a clear teacher providing one-on-one guidance, assigning various high-level tasks within the sect, and providing all kinds of precious resources, including the strongest martial arts secrets, to the inner disciples.

  The latter are outer disciples with inferior masters, resources, treatment and skills compared to the former.

  But don't think that the latter is just a mediocre disciple, the outer disciples of the Taishan Sect are not as good as the inner disciples of the sect. However, they are also the outer disciples of the second-tier White Silver Sect in the six-layered golden pyramid, and their treatment, such as resources, masters, and martial arts, is roughly equivalent to that of the fourth-tier Black Iron family or even the third-tier Bronze Sect's inner disciples nationwide. Compared to the fifth-tier middle-class families and sixth-tier lower-class families' inner disciples, their treatment is much better!

  In addition, due to the large number of outer door disciples, the Tai Shan Sect will regularly select a small number of outstanding performers after entering the door and convert them into inner door disciples with great potential, becoming the core strength of the sect.

  There were five or six hundred people participating in this Mount Tai Sect outer disciple recruitment, all of whom were either sitting or standing.

  ……

  Among them, there was a boy of eleven or twelve years old wearing a blue robe, with an ordinary appearance, holding a three-foot-five-inch fine steel long knife, standing at the edge of the crowd circle, practicing his knife skills as if no one else existed, completely different from everyone else.

  Only to see this blue-clad youth suddenly slash out with one knife from top to bottom on the left, and then suddenly slash out with one knife horizontally on the right.

  Suddenly a knife slashed forward with great force, and then suddenly struck the ground with another slash.

  The blue-clad youth was practicing his knife skills, using extremely simple techniques that were obviously taught at an ordinary martial arts school.

  But what good moves can ordinary martial arts halls teach? In the six-tiered power environment of this world, the Golden Gate School, the Silver Gate School, the Bronze Gate School, the Black Iron Family, the Middle-ranking Family, and the Lower-ranking Family are all weakening one by one. Ordinary martial arts halls aren't even in the running, far lower than the lowest-ranked Lower-ranking Family, only satisfying some amateur enthusiasts among the common people.

  So the blue-clothed youth's simple knife technique instantly triggered all sorts of big and small discussions around him.

  "Hmph, this guy is probably from a common non-martial family and just learned a few moves at a martial arts school. What a novice." He said disdainfully. Coming from a martial family himself, he looked down on these ordinary families that didn't have a strong martial background. In this world, the strong were revered, and martial artists held a high position, making martial families even more noble.

  "Looks like a non-martial family that has never seen the world, a rural bumpkin." Discrimination is everywhere, and martial families discriminate against those from non-martial families.

  "What's even weirder is that his strength looks so weak, yet he still dares to come sign up for the Tai Shan Sect?" Another person said with a strange expression.

  "But the most ridiculous thing is that this little blue-clothed guy still practices his knife skills when things are about to happen, I guess this is what they call 'whetting one's sword on the eve of battle' or 'clinging to Buddha's feet at the last moment'? Hahaha..."

  "Hahaha, indeed the funniest."

  "It's only now that I realize having a Buddha's leg is useless! This should have been prepared long ago, right? Who would have thought that the outer door disciple recruitment would start immediately and we'd be rushing to prepare?"

  "Either he's here to show off his ugly skills, or he's just short of singing a few lines from an opera." The crowd around the blue-clothed youth either jeered, found it funny, or looked at him with disdain.

  Listening to the discussions of so many people around him, Gu Chao's old face turned red with rage, but in his heart he was secretly cursing: "Damn it, you guys think I want to show off? Who would normally want to sharpen their sword at the last minute, who would want to resort to desperate measures? And especially not in such a public setting... If only I had time to prepare earlier, I would have done so long ago, but I never had the chance!!!!

  It all started two days ago.

  He was originally a good otaku living in the 21st century on Earth, where all sorts of entertainment were well-developed. Every day he would fantasize about unrealistic martial arts dreams or romantic dreams. As a result, two days ago, he inexplicably crossed over into this ancient world through a strange dream. In this world, people basically walked on horseback, sent messages by carrier pigeon, and entertained themselves with playing cards, gambling, or producing the next generation. Occasionally going to the garden to listen to old-fashioned slow-paced opera, flying kites in spring, or admiring chrysanthemums and writing poetry in autumn were already considered high-class luxury lifestyles that only upper-class people could enjoy.

  The 12-year-old boy who had just been possessed by Gu Chao was a sturdy young man from a wealthy merchant family. However, before he could even get used to his new body physically and mentally, he was forced by his father to take up a fine steel long sword, and was driven by two middle-aged grooms in shifts for a day and night, directly to the inn at the foot of Mount Tai. After resting for a night to recharge, he followed the crowd to the waist of the small mountain, where he signed up to participate in the outer disciple qualification examination of the Wudang Sect's Mount Tai branch.

  That's also the reason why Father didn't come, because he is old and his body isn't good, can't stand the horse carriage rushing day and night. But even so, he repeatedly instructed me, saying things like don't be nervous during the exam, if there's a fight pay attention to protecting yourself, if it doesn't work out this time don't worry about it.

  At this point, Gu Chao finally realized that the body he had crossed into had actually learned martial arts in a martial arts school in the city for some time! The process of learning martial arts in the school was quite simple, following the impressions in his mind, basically just breathing exercises, punching and kicking, standing postures and so on. The physical martial arts ability seemed to be around the second layer of the acquired realm - the impression that the first major boundary of martial arts is the acquired realm, and this major boundary is further divided into ten smaller boundaries, ranging from the first layer of the acquired realm to the tenth layer of the acquired realm, with the first layer being the weakest, gradually increasing in strength, and the tenth layer being the strongest...

  The recruitment of Tai Shan Sect's outer door disciples is about to begin, and Gu Chao is completely ignorant of his own inner strength and the martial arts knife skills he has learned. He doesn't understand anything about internal energy and martial arts, but coincidentally, they will be used immediately in the upcoming Tai Shan Sect outer door disciple recruitment exam. It's okay if it's just a physical test like high jump, long jump, or 100-meter dash, but what if various martial arts competitions are required?

  So, in desperation, Gu Chao would thickly paste his face, and at this critical moment when the exam is about to start, he would suddenly come up with a last-ditch effort, sharpening his gun at the last minute, and then be surrounded by so many people, either stomping their feet, loudly jeering, or showing various contempt, it's really a tragic life, full of all sorts of tragedies.

  Of course, although his old face was slightly red, Gu Chao didn't really put the mockery and disdain of these little kids to heart. With the excellent otaku-like mental quality he had honed in his previous life on Earth, what kind of storms hadn't he seen online? How could he be intimidated by this level of disdain and ridicule?

  Forget it, I'll continue!

  After all, it's better to have ground something than nothing at all; it's better to have hugged someone than no one at all.

  And Gu Chao also had a hint of wild ambition, this time's outer door disciple recruitment exam, he must win!

  We absolutely cannot lose here!

  Qiansheng Gutou was an extremely intelligent person, with an IQ that ordinary people generally ranged from 90 to 110, and those above 120 or 130 were rare. Qiansheng's IQ was as high as 142. In any exam or assessment in his previous life, he always emerged victorious, leaving the second place far behind from a young age.

  After crossing over into this Eastern world, I naturally don't want to lose either.

  This time the assessment must be won.

  In this world, one must strive for victory in every encounter.

  As the ancient super practice knife, the sun in the sky was getting higher and higher, also getting closer to the time of the outer door disciple recruitment of the Tai Shan sect. The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and the atmosphere was slowly becoming more intense.