Chapter 30: Life 58, Age 17, Martial Disciple Peak
The outer sect disciple exam took place a few days later, but I did not attend. There was no point.
I was waiting.
It wasn’t until six days after the exam that I was finally contacted. This suggested a level of secrecy and paranoia that I hadn’t expected, but it didn’t completely take me by surprise.
An older-looking man wearing the robes of a servant disciple met me as I was leaving my apartment. I didn’t recognize him, but that didn’t mean too much. I could only hope that I had been successful in attracting the attention of an unaligned sect elder.
He led me to one of the buildings at the entrance to my apartment block. It was completely nondescript. It looked like every other building on the block. The only giveaway that something was different was that there were a few people loitering nearby. As we approached, they looked at us briefly before turning back to their conversation.
After entering, we walked to the stairs, but we were stopped by a man in a deacon’s robe.
“Disciple?” he asked simply, forcing my guide to interpret his meaning.
“Deacon,” the guide said, cupping his fists in salute, “I have brought another nominal disciple to see Elder Mu.”
“Oh? Is he the last then?” the deacon asked with a raised eyebrow.