"Who are you talking about?" Zheng Xiang was confused about who Ye Tian Yun was referring to.
"Just an old friend whom I haven't met for quite some time now." Ye Tian then stared at the ranking board for a few seconds and said, "Let's head to our cultivation abodes. Do you know the way inside?"
Zheng Xiang nodded, "Yes, I do." And then he raised his finger and pointed towards the small building not far away on the peak and continued, "See those buildings? We need to enter through those buildings. Each building is numbered corresponding to the floor level of our cultivation abodes."
Ye Tian turned his head and found nine buildings, each built at a considerable distance higher than the other.
The lowest and closest building was numbered 'One', signifying itself as the entrance to the Inner Court's first level. A little higher and in some distance was a similar structure. It was not situated far from the first building and was numbered 'Two'. And following these were seven other buildings, at a few distances above each other. These buildings were the entrances to the Inner Court.
Ye Tian Yun stared at them for a second before he asked, "Imagine if the sect is ambushed and the peaks are destroyed, none of the Inner Court disciples present inside the peak will be able to survive, let alone have a chance of fighting back against the enemies."
Zheng Xiang shook his head in response, "Actually, things are much more complicated than they look. I heard from other disciples that this scenario is impossible, not because of the impenetrable defense of our sect, but rather the Array Mechanism present inside the peaks."
"Oh?" Ye Tian Yun was surprised at this. To be able to prevent such incidents, the arrays which are in use must be highly advanced. Even in the Middle Heavens, the Array Mechanisms are hard to establish, and only peak powers had them to safeguard their most important places, and here the sect was using it in the Inner Court for disciples.
After thinking for a moment, Ye Yian Yun said, "Let's go," and started heading upwards towards the building on the Sixth Level.
…
The Inner Court of all peaks in the Gracious Sword Sect had a similar structure. Unlike other sects of the surrounding region, here, the Inner Court was situated inside the Peaks.
The Inner Court was also surrounded by dense Array Mechanism and had an exquisite look. Divided into nine different levels depending on the cultivation and battle prowess of the disciples, the Inner Court also followed the law of the jungle, like the Outer Court.
The only difference was that in the Outer Court, disciples strived to cultivate as high as possible for good Qi density while the Inner Court disciples, who cultivated inside the peak, fought for cultivation abodes as close to the base as possible.
However, the lowest Qi density in the Inner Court was still at least two times denser than the Outer Court's Qi density. This disparity alone was enough for the Outer Court disciples to cultivate harder to promote themselves to the Inner Court.
The Inner Court was divided into nine levels based on the cultivation realm and battle prowess of disciples. Only the newly promoted disciples were exempted from this rule and were divided as per their rank in the Inner Court Entrance Hunt. Then they were given a three-month cultivation period to settle down in the Inner Court and were expected to make use of the time to break through at least into the Ninth Level of Qi Refining Realm, if not in the Qi Condensation Realm.
This period was mainly for the disciples ranked at the top in the Inner Court Entrance Hunt to give them enough time to prepare for the challenges from the older Inner Court disciples, who will then challenge them for their cultivation abodes.
The Inner Court was inside the peak because of the presence of the Spirit Veins under the Peaks. Spirit Veins were similar to a tree, but instead of giving out oxygen to breathe, they produce Qi, thus helping disciples to cultivate faster. The closer we cultivate to the Spirit Vein, the faster and easier it is to cultivate.
The organization of cultivation abodes for the new inner court disciples were as follows, on the Ninth level were the weakest Inner Court disciples and also the disciples who were ranked between Fifty to Hundred, and below it on the Eighth level were the disciples who were in the Top Fifty except the Top ten disciples.
One floor lower to them, the Seventh level, was the cultivation abodes for the top ten disciples of the Entrance Hunt.
And as for the disciple was ranked first in the Entrance Hunt, he was given a cultivation abode on the Sixth level, and compared to the Ninth Level, this floor had about five to six times higher Qi density.
Since these cultivation abodes were given to the new disciples based on their rank in the Inner Court Entrance Hunt, in the eyes of the older disciples, these new disciples were the easiest targets and the best way to acquire a cultivation abode at lower region because they can easily crush the new disciples with their experience and cultivation.
On the floors below the Sixth level were the cream of the crop disciples of the Seventh Peak. The fifth level was a benchmark in itself. The minimum cultivation of disciples here was the Fifth level of Qi Condensation. And on the floors below this one, the people who cultivated were either the Elders of the peak or rank holders on the Gracious Sword Rankings. In fact, in the lowest two floors, level 1 and level 2, where the Qi Density was highest, only those disciples who were ranked in the Gracious Sword Ranking were qualified to cultivate. Even elders were not allowed on those floors.
…
As Ye Tian Yun and Zheng Xiang closed down to the entrance buildings of the Inner Court, Zheng Xiang said, "Brother Fang, I will go ahead to the Seventh level's entrance, let's meet after some time near the chain bridge and head to the Heaven's Grace banquet."