Unlike the magnificent inner gate, the outer gate is simple and orderly, with bluestone walls, gray tiles for the roof, and white wood beams. Everything is built according to uniform specifications, showing no individuality.
The inspection area is located in a mountain valley at the outermost edge of the outer gate. It consists of dozens of simple stone houses, each with a number engraved on its door.
The people assigned here generally have low cultivation levels, mostly between the first and third ranks of Immortal Lord. Their auras are flat and similar, and their faces have a numbness that comes from having their edges smoothed out.
David and the other four were assigned to five adjacent stone houses.
The interior of the stone house was extremely simple, containing only a bed, a table, a stool, and a lamp; nothing else.
The wall was covered with densely packed orthodox Taoist mantras, the handwriting so neat it looked like it had been machine-printed, with even the thickness of the strokes being completely consistent.
Ling Xiyue walked into the stone house, glanced at the incantations on the wall, and frowned: “These incantations are so stiff. They’re full of ‘must,’ ‘must not,’ and ‘prohibited,’ just repeating the same few phrases over and over again.”
This is not a cultivation method; it’s clearly a code of conduct.
David noticed this as well. There was no explanation of the Dao or any guidance on enlightenment in those incantations; there was only an extremely rigid and inflexible path for the circulation of spiritual energy.
If you just follow the instructions, you’ll pass.
Whether you gain insights, make breakthroughs, or find your own path in this process is not something the Border Patrol Division cares about.
He reached out and touched the incantation on the wall. When his fingertips touched the stone surface, he felt an extremely faint probing force spreading up his fingertips.
The stone house itself is also under surveillance.
He withdrew his hand, sat down calmly by the bed, and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.
As night fell, the outer gate gradually quieted down.
The spirit lamp went out, and the flow of spiritual energy also subsided.
But David’s divine sense quietly spread out at this moment, like an invisible spider web, spreading towards the entire outer gate of the Tian Shu Sect.
He sensed many things.
More than 300 cultivators lived in the observation area. Each of them was quietly meditating and regulating their breathing in their own stone house. There was no conversation, no interaction, and no laughter.
Their spiritual energy flow remained highly regular even at night, as if it were a pre-programmed sequence.
Beneath this deathly stillness, David detected some extremely subtle anomalies.
The spiritual energy fluctuations within some stone houses would occasionally experience brief disturbances, like a calm heart suddenly fluttering.
Some monks would toss and turn at night, their hearts racing and their breathing rapid, as if they were having a nightmare;
Some people will suddenly open their eyes in the early hours of the morning, a flash of extremely clear light in their pupils, which is then suppressed by exhaustion.
They are afraid.
They were suppressed.
But they are not completely numb yet.
David also sensed the residence of the outer sect steward.
The spiritual energy of those deacons was much stronger than that of the cultivators under investigation. Their cultivation levels were mostly between the third and fourth ranks of Immortal Lord, and their auras were calm and cold.
They lived in several independent courtyards on the outskirts of the observation area, taking turns to keep watch every night and monitor the actions of the monks under observation.
Further away—in the direction of the inner sect of the Tian Shu Sect—several extremely powerful auras lurked deep within, like sleeping behemoths.
The weakest among them possessed the cultivation of a fifth-grade Immortal Lord, while the strongest was vaguely approaching the threshold of a sixth-grade Immortal Lord.
David withdrew his divine sense, and in his heart he had a clearer understanding of the structure of the Twenty-Six Heavens.
He opened his eyes and looked out at the night sky. There were no stars in the night sky, only a layer of even silvery-white light covering the entire sky, which was the residual light emitted by the Heavenly Dao Monitoring Array of the Border Patrol Division when it was in operation.
The entire sky is like a giant silver screen, firmly covering the twenty-six heavens.
The next morning, just as dawn broke, the deep, rhythmic tolling of bells echoed through the outer sect’s training grounds.
After the three bells rang, more than three hundred cultivators in the observation area pushed open the door and walked silently toward the dojo.
Their steps were synchronized and mechanical, like those of puppets programmed with a set routine.
David led the four men into the crowd, observing everyone discreetly.
Most of these monks had lost their sharp features, their eyes were indifferent, their expressions were wooden, and their breathing was even.