Chapter 254: “Cloudy Peaks (1)”
The fifteenth of every month was the busiest time the Cloudy Peaks of the Qing Yun Clan were most lively, always bustling with activity. The Cloudy Peaks bordered a few countries but belonged to none and was independent. The Cloudy Peaks were steep and treacherous, and had a total of twelve peaks. However, there was only one lone path from the foot to the summit.
The Cloudy Peaks were revered not for their majestic peaks, but for the Qing Yun Clan occupying the entire twelve peaks!
Famed for their medical skills, the mightiest clan across the lands opened their doors to the mountains, to recruit talents who were medically inclined through a series of tests. For those who passed, they stand a chance to be admitted into the Qing Yun Clan as a disciple.
The Qing Yun Clan sat upon vast tracts of lands, had centuries of history behind them, and had exceptionally skilled Elders overseeing each peak.
There were countless sacred medical writings and records hidden within the Qing Yun Clan, and was a sacred haven for any in their pursuit of medicine. Anyone accepted into the Qing Yun Clan, had their status quickly escalated, and if they were admitted into the Inner House, their status immediately shot into the skies.
Countless people would give anything to secure a position within the Qing Yun Clan, and on the days they opened their doors for recruitment, the wide road leading towards the summit was always jam packed with people from all across the lands.
A nondescript horse carriage stopped at the foot of the mountain and a scholarly looking youth with delicate features dressed in plain and simple clothes stepped out. After a few words with the coachman, the little youth set off towards the Cloudy Peaks.
The main thoroughfare towards the Cloudy Peaks was packed with people heading into the mountains. There were all not too old in age, eighteen years of age at the most, and fourteen years at least.
The Qing Yun Clan had a hard and fast rule in their recruitment. They would only accept youths between the ages of fourteen to eighteen years. Anyone who were older than eighteen years or younger than fourteen years, no matter how prodigious, would be turned away firmly.
The rule did not seem like much to others, but Jun Wu Xie looked at it differently.
From the age of fourteen to eighteen, it was when a person underwent the most critical four years after their ring spirits are awoken. It was also the period that the youth were the muddled in consciousness and thinking on their path to maturity and adulthood. The Qing Yun Clan had wanted to recruit disciples of that age to better manage them by brainwashing and easily instilling in them the principles and philosophies of the Qing Yun Clan.
Within the bustling crowd, many youths confidently assured their family members and strode onwards, putting up a brave front.
Only the youths who were applicants themselves can go up towards to Cloudy Peaks, and their family members could only wait at the foot for news. If anyone were to breach the rule, they would be promptly thrown out by the Qing Yun Clan disciples who stood guard at the mountain’s foot.
Many were also spotted pulling at their hair, their heads buried deep into medical books at the mountain’s foot in a last minute’s futile attempt to cram every single word in the books into their brains.
Jun Wu Xie looked indifferently, observing the various hilarious sights around her. She could not figure out why, a clan with such mediocre skills in medicine, would attract so many people to clamour and fight just to be granted admission into the clan.
Jun Wu Xie’s unperturbed calm, had also attracted the stares from many of the other nervous hopefuls. They cast their eyes upon the small youth who stood apart from the others, noticed that she was dressed in plain clothes without any adornments, and scoffed at her young age. They all then broke in sneering laughter.
“A young brat like you wants to get into the Qing Yun Clan?”
“No, he’s just here to see the world. Look! Don’t you see he came empty handed?”
“That’s right, after you get rejected by the Qing Yun Clan, you would have at least opened your eyes to the might of the largest clan….. Sigh, I must say, the Qing Yun Clan’s threshold for new recruits are too low, even the stray cats and rabid dogs have come to join in the fun.” The several finely dressed youth who boasted from having come from a lineage of medical practitioners put down their books and started mocking and pointing their fingers at Jun Wu Xie, who had stuck out conspicuously.
Little did they know, the youth that they mocked at, would soon have their highly revered mightiest clan throughout the lands, smashed into oblivion.