The Primordial Law

Chapter 543 New Recruit Ranking
Mount Ling is thousands of feet high, and its top appears to have been flattened by a sword, forming a huge rocky platform.

The mountaintop platform features towering pavilions and a solemn black hall, planted with ancient spiritual trees, exuding a rich historical atmosphere and clearly not newly built. A thirteen-story ancient pagoda hangs suspended in the clouds, appearing and disappearing, blending seamlessly with the celestial and terrestrial springs; it is unknown whether it is a magical artifact or the residence of some mysterious powerful figure.

On the square paved with jade stones, newly enlisted junior soldiers patrolled and stood guard. Upon seeing Qin Lao, they all saluted.

Li Weiyi spotted a familiar face among the lower-ranking sentries on duty.

Bai Yinchun Immortal Body, Tuoba Butuo.

Tuoba Butuo's face lit up with joy. He waved to him from afar and called out, "Brother Weiyi, that's wonderful! You've come too? I heard you've become the Grand Palace Master's disciple?"

Li Weiyi wasn't too surprised to see Tuoba, after all, that old sentry Tuoba Tao was one of the ancestors of the Tuoba clan, how could he not cultivate his outstanding descendants?

Although the tasks undertaken by the Spirit Sentinels are dangerous, they are funded by various regions, and as long as one possesses genuine skills, one can acquire cultivation resources that cannot be purchased elsewhere. Diligent cultivation can further unleash potential, allowing for rapid advancement in the face of competition.

After exchanging pleasantries, Li Weiyi said, "I'll go pay my respects to the deputy sentry first. You stay here and do your best to keep watch, and don't get caught."

The Sentinel Army has strict discipline. As soon as Li Weiyi finished speaking, a serious mental voice came from somewhere above Tuoba Butuo's head: "Making noise while on guard duty will result in a deduction of three days' merit points."

Tuoba Butuo looked like he was about to cry but had no tears, and dared not say another word.

Walking in the square, Li Weiyi said in a low voice, "Isn't the Sentinel Army too strict? It's just a casual chat."

“If you’re not strict with the new recruits, won’t the whole Dongxu Camp become a mess? Anyone can easily break the rules, what’s the difference between that and a vegetable market?” Old Qin said in a stern and upright manner.

Li Weiyi always felt something was off when he said those words.

The deputy hall master, Liu Tianchen, comes from the Liu tribe, the head of the eight tribes in the rainforest habitat. He has lived for 2,800 years and has a willow wood clone that sits in charge of the Dongxu Camp Hall.

Legend has it that Liu Tianchen cultivated five clones, and had mastered five of the Eight Arts. Each clone possessed unfathomable combat power, earning him the title of "Six Lives Transcendent" in southern Yingzhou.

He appeared to be around fifty years old, with a square face, thick eyebrows, and sharp eyes. He was wearing black armor and sat beside a bronze table, reviewing files.

Every day, a large amount of intelligence is sent from the outposts and camps in various habitats and ethereal realms. This intelligence is then processed by the Ling Shu group and delivered to him in batches.

"come in!"

Hearing the summons from inside, Li Weiyi followed behind Elder Qin and entered the camp in a proper manner.

Inside the deep black hall, thirty feet in depth, there was a small teleportation array, used only for emergency intelligence transmission. On both sides of the hall sat sixteen figures, all experts from the Spirit Pivot Group, with piles of files stacked before their desks.

"Greetings, Deputy Chief of Staff."

The two bowed.

Li Weiyi was unaware that the deputy sentry before him was merely an avatar. He only sensed the heavy aura and immense life force emanating from the other. Upon approaching, it was as if he had entered another world, where he could hear flowing water and birdsong, and smell the fragrance of grass and trees.

This creates its own unique atmosphere!

On the wall behind Yanagida Chen, there hangs a panoramic map of the East China Sea.

The surrounding sea areas are marked with the names of the undead and evil forces.

Clearly, the area surrounding the East China Sea is the key region that Dongxu Camp is currently monitoring.

Liu Tianchen put down the talisman in his hand, his eyes deep, and looked at Elder Qin: "The space teleportation array of the Forbidden Palace Mountain has been destroyed. If you want to go to the Cave Ruins Ghost City in the future, you will have to take a detour of 80,000 miles."

"Mo Qin, go and investigate to see who did it. Be careful. Recently, too many things have happened due to the return of the Mist Emperor and the revival of the Immortal Dragon Vein. The Netherworld of the Dead has become extremely active."

The area south of the Hundred Realms of Life is within the surveillance range of the Cave Ruins Camp.

"The Taiyin Cult has arrived too!"

Qin Lao handed over the whistle, and the war corpse was also taken out.

Li Weiyi discovered that white mist was rising around him, and he could no longer see the sixteen members of the Ling Shu group in the camp.

"Xie Wumian and Luo Pingdan are both outstanding young talents of the Taiyin Sect. Now that they have come to the territory of Dongxu Camp, we cannot let them leave."

Liu Tianchen looked thoughtful, picked up his pen, and wrote down the mission against the Taiyin Sect on the leather scroll.

Qin Lao said, "If we can capture them alive, we can uncover a lot of the truth. The Twelve Taiyin Envoys are still young, but I'm afraid some of the older guys have also gone to the East Sea."

"Since Luo Pingdan was able to mobilize the army of fierce spirits and corpse spirits, it's clear that Chu Yutian has already visited the Transcendent Realm of the Dead here. Even without the old guys from the Taiyin Sect coming, this matter is already extremely troublesome."

……

After the two finished their discussion, Liu Tianchen's gaze finally fell on Li Weiyi: "Since the Sentinel Lord has personally approved it, you take him to complete the entry procedures first."

An hour later.

Li Weiyi received a large amount of supplies.

Whistles, swords, blood crystals, armor, waist tokens, talismans, Blood Valley Pills...

The Whistle Sword is a foot-long, thin sword of the ninth rank, with a hilt.

Every martial arts practitioner has their own preferred weapon, and sentries are not required to use the sentry sword.

The whistle sword is only required when training a combined sword formation. This is because the whistle sword is inscribed with formation runes, which are essential to unleashing the full power of the sword formation.

You received three Blood Valley Pills; each one can provide a superior Sentinel with ten days' worth of blood and qi nourishment.

Outside the Hall of Merit, a jade wall three zhang high was covered with countless bamboo plaques, which rustled melodiously in the wind. Li Weiyi walked over curiously.

The bamboo plaques bear names and rankings.

“Yuanzhen Weixiaowei, Yuanzhen.”

"Jade Sword Guardian, Valiant Guardian, Changyu Sword."

"Lu Qingwei, the valiant guard, Lu Qing."

“Yan Xuewei Xiaowei, Tong Yan Xue.”

……

Qin Lao walked behind Li Weiyi with his hands behind his back and grinned, saying, "This year's recruits include five mid-level sentry guards and five low-level sentry guards, with about a hundred men in each guard."

"The top five in the new recruit assessment and training can be given guard titles based on their names until the end of the three-year recruit training period."

"The learning, training, trials, assessments, quarterly exams, and annual exams for the next three years will all be conducted separately for each guard."

Li Weiyi said, "You're recruiting so many new soldiers? Didn't you say you were only recruiting a dozen or so people in Lingxiao Realm?"

Qin Lao said, "The Cave Ruins Camp recruits new soldiers according to the population ratio of the living realm. The Lingxiao Living Realm has been plagued by war for more than ten years, as well as by demonic calamities and the great calamity of the Yin Corpse Rice Planting, resulting in a sharp decline in population. Some prefectures are now almost empty. Therefore, only ten sentries were recruited, and two sentry spirits were recruited... no, there was one uninvited guest, so it counts as three."

"Actually, we don't recruit too many Sentinel Spirits in previous years! It's because a batch of Sentinel Spirits were lost in the East China Sea and we urgently need to replenish them, otherwise there would be no one available. That's why we recruited a large number this time."

"You should know that sentinels at the Dao Seed Realm are mainly trained and learn. Only when they reach the Longevity Realm and become sentinel spirits will they be sent into the Netherworld of the Dead to carry out some dangerous missions."

Li Weiyi observed the ranking of the intermediate sentries and found that "Chang Yujian" was ranked second.

In the East Sea, he was an assistant invited by the Du'e Temple, not a disciple of the temple.

The Changhu Habitat, ruled by the Chang family, is a small to medium-sized habitat with a population of two to three hundred million. Like Cangtu, it is an affiliated habitat of the Demon Kingdom.

Qin Lao said, "The Changyu Sword is no ordinary weapon. It is said that a transcendent being from the Demon Kingdom in the Du'e Temple helped him obtain the Longevity Flower and has been in seclusion recently, cultivating the Longevity Body."

"Instead of taking this opportunity to join the Du'e Temple, he came to such a dangerous place as Dongxu Camp."

Li Weiyi was somewhat surprised, knowing that the Chang family was an extremely powerful clan with influence not only in the Changhu habitat but also in the Demon Kingdom.

Qin Lao said, "First of all, to be selected by the Sentinel Spirit Army, this person's character over the past few decades must be impeccable. Secondly, the Yi Clan invests in multiple areas to ensure the continuity of their lineage, and it's impossible to put all their talented disciples in one place. The Du'e Temple already has a Chang Yuqing, so Chang Yujian will naturally choose another path."

Li Weiyi asked, "Is the Demon Kingdom also one of the twenty habitats surrounding the Cave Ruins Ghost City? The Demon Kingdom's population is said to exceed 10 billion, not even counting its subsidiary habitats like Changhu Habitat and Cangtu Habitat. How many sentinels must they have recruited?"

Qin Lao said, "The Demon Kingdom is the largest habitat in the southern part of the Hundred Realms. How could the Cave Ruins Camp possibly escape its influence? The stronger the habitat, the more supplies will be sent to the Sentinel Army."

"Don't worry too much! Although there are many sentinels from the Demon Kingdom, they have all been screened and there are ways to divide them so that they won't stick together."

"Furthermore, the Demon Kingdom is also riddled with factions that are fiercely fighting each other."

Li Weiyi secretly marveled at the terror of the Demon Kingdom; it was simply a behemoth. No wonder a mere prince possessed the power to nearly overturn the Lingxiao Realm.

Qin Lao stared at the bamboo plaque on the jade disc: "Yuan Zhen, Lu Qing, Tong Yanxue, Yu Zheng, these people are all extraordinary, each with exceptional talent."

“That Yuanzhen is a transcendent being in the Transcending Calamity Realm, a woman of transcendence. His physical body is extremely strong, and his bones and skin contain innate transcendent scriptures, making him even stronger than Changyu Sword.”

"Let's see if the Changyu Sword can be transformed into an immortal being."

"Lu Qing is the number one expert below the Longevity Realm in the Crimson Bright Realm. Of course, this number one expert changes every few years. Once you reach his level, you will soon break through to the Longevity Realm."

"Yu Zheng was born into the royal family of the Demon Kingdom and is the great-grandson of the emperor."

"Sixth to tenth are all deputy guards."

Li Weiyi couldn't find Tang Zhan and Liu Ye's names, so it's very likely they had already reached the Longevity Realm before the trial and were participating in the Sentinel Spirit assessment. Besides, Liu Ye wasn't a new recruit; she seemed more like someone with connections.

“The five mid-level sentry guards have all been assigned. What do I do?” Li Weiyi asked.

"You can join any of the guards," said Elder Qin.

Li Weiyi said, "Then wouldn't I have to take orders from the Valiant Guard and the Deputy Valiant Guard?"

"Who told you to be late? Why don't you join the Mind Master Guard? There are many beautiful women there, and it's said that there's one who's particularly stunning, the most beautiful woman of this generation in a certain realm. Anyway, everyone thinks your martial arts path is cut off now, so you can take this opportunity to cultivate your mind power to the level of a Holy Spirit Mind Master. I wanted to join back then, but unfortunately, I didn't get the bonus." Old Qin sighed.

"Can I be a valiant guard?"

"No."

Li Weiyi sighed softly, having grown accustomed to living in seclusion, and found it difficult to obey the orders of his fellow martial artists. He asked, "What does the number after the top ten recruits mean?"

Qin Lao pulled Li Weiyi to the other side of the jade wall: "New Recruit Merit List! The top ten in the new recruit assessment for intermediate sentries will be awarded one hundred to five hundred merit points."

"For new recruits, merit points are hard to earn. You can only get one point if you study and train all day without making any mistakes."

"Only those who make it into the top 100 of new recruits can be featured on the merit list."

Li Weiyi saw that the first place winner had 506 merit points, while many of the lower-ranked players had only single digits.

So he couldn't help but ask, "Is accumulating merit points just for getting on the honor roll? There are no real benefits, like becoming a Valiant Guard directly?"

(End of this chapter)