Chapter 25: Registration
"Hey, let's count.
I will count. You clap.
One, two, three, four. [Clap, clap, clap, clap].
One! [clap]
Two! [clap, clap]
Three! [clap, clap, clap]
Four [clap, clap, clap, clap]"
A Circle of children sang on the roadside as they danced to their own clapping. They looked happy and carefree, which made Jiang Yue smile in nostalgia.
He had also learned that clapping song when he was in kindergarten.
At that time, he was part of the group that sang, clapped, and danced, while Yu Nianzhen was the black face that sat to the side to watch them play.
He looked like a little adult, and when Jiang Yue remembered it, he couldn't help but laugh happily.
On impulse, he turned to Yu Nianzhen and pinched his cheek, causing the other boy's face to darken in mock anger.
Jiang Yue chuckled and rushed forward to escape any retaliatory actions.
"Step aside." A gruff voice shouted, and Jiang Yue was pushed to the side.
His happy mood dissipated right away, and he kicked out on reflex.
He had never been one to suffer any losses, and he was angry that he had almost fallen to the ground.
"Bastard…" The gruff voice yelled, and Jiang Yue saw that the speaker was a rough-looking man who was currently on the ground after his kick.
The man looked angry, but Jiang Yue was not a vegetarian, and his eyes narrowed in anger and arrogance.
He wouldn't randomly pick a fight, but that didn't mean that he was willing to be bullied.
"Another fight is about to break out." Someone whispered, and another sighed in frustration.
"It's always like this every time that the recruitment comes around."
"What do you expect? It's inevitable for fights to break out with all these newcomers from neighbouring towns and small cities."
The crowd agreed, and they weren't too bothered about it.
In the worst-case scenario, the city guard would arrive, and the troublemakers would be dragged to the city prison.
"Father…" A soft voice called, and Jiang Yue turned to see that a young girl had appeared next to the man.
The man stood up and glared at Jiang Yue before walking away with the young girl.
"Let's go." Yu Nianzhen said with a sigh of resignation.
They had been holed up in their room at the Three Boars inn for the past few weeks and had been unaware that Fengying city had become so rough.
Jiang Yue hummed in agreement, and no longer ran ahead.
"Don't care about it." Yu Nianzhen said when he saw that the other was still in low spirits.
Jiang Yue nodded and continued to walk alongside Yu Nianazhen.
The recruitment for the Sea Cloud Sect was held in a martial arena in the West district and the two had chosen to walk rather than take a cart.
"It's good that we decided to walk." Yu Nianzhen said when he saw the carts and carriages that were stuck in traffic on the main street.
Jiang Yue chuckled in good humour when he thought about it.
Neither were the patient kind, but they reacted differently to annoyances like traffic jams.
Jiang Yue would become restless but would somehow find something to amuse himself and Yu Nianzhen would turn gloomier with every second that passed.
He fondly remembered an instance when they got stuck in a jam due to a car pileup. At that time, Yu Nianzhen had resolutely abandoned the car and let his subordinate pick them up in a helicopter.
With his good mood restored, Jiang Yue walked happily and half a shichen later, they arrived outside the martial arena.
"Let's register."
Although they hadn't left their room in several weeks, the two had a basic idea of how the recruitment worked from talking to Bai Zheng.
They squeezed their way through the crowd, and a quarter of an hour later, they managed to find a registration booth.
There was a line in front of the booth, and the two took their place behind several hundred people.
Luckily, the line moved quickly and barely an hour later, they arrived in front of the registration person.
The person wore pale green robes with off white cloud patterns on the sleeves, and collar.
'An outer sect disciple.' Yu Nianzhen thought as he observed the person.
Disciples in the Sea Cloud sect were divided into four categories.
The lowest rank was odd job disciples who wore dark blue robes without cloud patterns.
The next rank was the outer sect disciples followed by inner sect disciples, and finally, core disciples.
"One gold coin. The fee is not refundable." A voice said, and Yu Nianzhen was drawn from his thoughts.
He handed over two gold coins and was given two wooden tablets with numbers on them.
"You will take the test when your number is called. Next…"
Yu Nianzhen gave one tablet to Jiang Yue, and they left the area in search of an entrance into the arena.
"682." Jiang Yue frowned when he looked at the number on his wooden tablet.
He had thought that they had arrived early enough, but evidently, others had come even earlier.
"Bai Zheng said that each test takes less than a minute so we won't have to wait for too long."
Although he said it, a frown marred Yu Nianzhen's face.
It wasn't because of their test position, but because of some of the things that he had heard from Bai Zheng.
According to her, the recruitment used to be comprised of three sections.
The first section was an age test to determine that all the participants met the age requirement of sixteen or lower.
The second part was an origin and aptitude test, while the last part was a martial tournament.
This sort of comprehensive test was able to unearth all talents within a cohort, which made it easier for the sect.
Normally, this would be a good thing, but a mysterious organisation had emerged in the Cangxing world. For whatever reason, this organisation began to assassinate genius talents en route from recruitment centres to the sects.
The sects had formed an alliance to root out the organisation, but after many years, the organisation was still in the dark, and the loss of talents was beginning to affect the orthodox sects and families.
Without an option, the sects revised their recruitment tests.
The martial tournament was removed from the recruitment, and the origin test was made into a crude 'pass-fail' test.
In this way, the origin and aptitudes of the participants were concealed from the mysterious organisation, which made it difficult to pinpoint assassination targets.
However, this method was not foolproof.
It was still very common for groups of new recruits to be attacked and killed on their way to the sect.
"We can only do our best to take care of ourselves." Yu Nianzhen said, and Jiang Yue looked at him in question.
"It's nothing." Yu Nianzhen rubbed Jiang Yue's head, and the other snorted in displeasure.
'Was he being treated like a child?'
However, he didn't have a chance to complain because they had finally arrived at the arena entrance.
They entered the arena, but didn't go to the audience stands. Instead, they followed a tunnel and entered the ground.
The ground was about one hundred square metres and, in the middle, a fifty-metre square platform with a height of five metres had been erected.
On each side of the platform was a set of stairs that participants could use to climb when their number was called. Otherwise, everyone waited on the ground below the platform.
"It's amazing that so many people came to watch even though there won't be a martial tournament." Jiang Yue said as he looked around.
The arena looked like a modern-day stadium, and Jiang Yue couldn't help but be impressed.
From what he remembered, the largest stadium in the modern world had a capacity of less than one hundred and fifty thousand people.
However, a random arena in a third-rate city like Fengying city had a capacity of close to two hundred thousand.
"This world is really different." He said in admiration, and Yu Nianzhen nodded.
The world was not only several times larger than the earth, but the population was also many times more.
"Joining the Sea Cloud sect isn't a simple matter."
As the former president of the Yu group, Yu Nianzhen could detect the undercurrents in the city.
From what he had deduced, the power of clans and families in Fengying city was directly related to the number of their descendants in the Sea Cloud Sect.
With more descendants in the sect, the more powerful a clan was. More people would be willing to deal with them, which translated to better business opportunities and connections.
A family without descendants in the Sea Cloud sect could forget about rising in Fengying city or most other cities in the Sea Cloud region.
"Look, it's about to start." An excited voice shouted.
The two looked up, and their jaws dropped in amazement.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Muthoni_Murira
Muthoni_Murira Hello everyone,
Chapter 25 is up and I hope that you liked it.
As always, thanks for your support and see you in the next chapter.
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