Having started her journey to the city, Jun Li looked to the sky to figure out how much time she had left before the selection.

  The sun was slowly rising in the sky, and it would take a few hours still before it reached its zenith. 'Plenty of time then.'

  Jun Li sped up as she traveled, despite having a surplus of time. It was her first time going to the city, and she wanted to make the most of it.

  Having heard a few stories about the city from her Auntie, she had always wanted to see it with her own eyes, and despite her expectations being tempered somewhat by her new memories, she still felt excited about seeing it for the first time.

  On the path, Jun Li practiced her Qinggong Breathing, both as a form of training and as a tool to increase her speed and shorten her journey.

  By her estimate, it would only take another half an hour to reach the distant city gates.

  The shanty town she lived near was flanked by a forest on the south and the towering walls of the city on the north. Jun Li simply had to follow the wall until she found the gate.

  ...

  Finally catching sight of the city's gate, embedded in its rather grand stone wall, Jun Li started to slow down.

  Having run for over forty minutes, Jun Li was somewhat surprised to find herself yet to run out of breath; it seemed her Qinggong Breathing had reduced the strain of movement much more significantly than she had anticipated.

  Approaching the gate to the city, Jun Li spotted what looked to be guards stationed outside.

  Despite being clad in some rather heavy-looking armor, they didn't seem to be on particularly high alert. They were seated at a small table, playing some sort of dice game while keeping an eye on the road.

  As Jun Li got closer, the guards slowly stood up, grabbed their spears off a small rack, and made to present themselves in a more official capacity.

  "Hold." One of the guards held a palm in front of Jun Li. "What's your business in the city?" The guard questioned Jun Li as a matter of standard procedure, but looked her over with some genuine suspicion, seeing her raggedy appearance and patchwork hat.

  "I'm here to take the entrance test for the Glass Cloud Sect!" Jun Li spoke with more confidence than she intended, and hid herself under her hat.

  "Ah, right. We usually get a few prospective disciples in from outside the city. Noble kids, mostly." The guard looked to his partner for a moment to make sure they were on the same page. "Well, head on through. But make sure to go back home when you're done."

  "Thank you!" Jun Li was overjoyed to gain entrance so quickly, even if that permission was bookended by the assumption that she would fail.

  Slipping into her Qinggong Breathing again, Jun Li stepped through the gates and dashed deeper into the city, eager to take in the sights before the entrance test.

  Seeing the speed she took off with after passing the gates, the guard sucked in a breath of cold air and turned to his partner, a bit pale. "Ugh... That kid was a cultivator…? I hope I don't get yelled at for talking to her like that, but I should probably let the captain know."

  As Jun Li made her way up the road leading from the gate, she found herself spinning around as she tried to take in all the sights.

  The cleanly cut stones that paved the streets in decorative patterns, the imposing, brightly painted buildings, with their elaborate paper windows gazing into the streets, the crowds of city folk garbed with brightly colored clothes in styles Jun Li had never seen.

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  She didn't think she would have been so affected by this sight, as her memories told her that far greater sights existed, but those vague memories couldn't compare to what she saw with her own eyes.

  Moving further into the city, Jun Li eventually found a large, paved clearing in the middle of the city.

  Inside this square, many people were working on getting some sort of stage set up, laying stone blocks in a wide area, and hauling wheelbarrows full of pebbles into place to prepare for some project.

  Above all of this was an old man, seated at a wooden table on an elevated stage, waiting for the preparations to conclude.

  Jun Li assumed this clearing was being prepared for use in the entrance test. At that thought, she regretted she hadn't asked the guards at the entrance for directions to the test.

  "Hey, is this the place where the Glass Cloud Sect is holding the entrance test?" Jun Li approached a worker to make sure.

  ...

  Overlooking the square, an old man found his mind drifting from his meditation. Looking down to seek the disturbance, he noted a crudely garbed child talking with some of the workers before wandering into the city.

  'A destitute child from outside the city?' Looking closer, the old man couldn't help but smile.

  To the old man, assessing the child's Cultivation was as trivial as breathing. 'Hah, so disadvantaged, and yet a proper Cultivator at her age. It's a good year then, with disciples like these.' Mulling over the prospective disciples he had seen today, the old man felt quite pleased indeed.

  ...

  Having confirmed the site of the entrance test, Jun Li decided to continue her sightseeing, eventually finding herself gazing into a number of storefronts on the roadside.

  She had never worn anything worth more than a decent meal or a tool before, only simple garb often sewn together from some salvaged cloth. To see clothing made of fine silk on display in these stores was a reminder of her inferior status.

  Jun Li turned from the store, but kept it in mind, hopeful for the future.

  The next sight that caught her eye was a grand pagoda, the largest building she had seen in the city by far. Opulent in every sense of the word, it had nine tiers, bright red walls, and prominently upturned eaves on its many-tiered roofing.

  Seeing the sign outside of the building, Jun Li was thankful for her inherited memories, as she otherwise would not have the literacy to read what it read.

  "Alchemist's Association?" She mused to herself, realizing she was already familiar with the name. It was something her Auntie told her about when talking about the city.

  Supposedly, this was just a branch of a much larger organization, one that had a strong presence in numerous kingdoms and empires across the world.

  Jun Li, seeing this building, noted something from her memories. She had inherited some level of knowledge of Alchemy and should be able to make use of a Pill Furnace if she could get her hands on one.

  Looking up at the dignified pagoda, Jun Li noticed the sun climbing further in the sky. 'Ah, it's been that long…?'

  Seeing the morning coming to an end faster than expected, Jun Li made a mental note to return to the Alchemist's Association and began to make her way back to the square where the test was to be held, getting more and more nervous with each step.

  Before Jun Li even caught sight of the square, she could hear that a crowd had gathered around it.

  It seemed that as the grounds were prepared for the testing, more and more onlookers had been gathering. When Jun Li could finally see the square, she was surprised to see how drastically it had transformed from its meager state just a few hours ago.

  What was a collection of stones this morning had become a rather grand stage, large enough for dozens of people to stand upon without crowding together.

  To the side of the stage was an odd pit, filled with innumerable pebbles and stone shards of various shapes and sizes.

  Anxious, Jun Li started making her way to the front of the crowd, hoping to confirm she hadn't made herself late.

  At the front, Jun Li saw easily over fifty children her age crowded about, here to take the test, judging by how close they had gathered to the stage.

  A number of them stood out with a rather sharp contrast. Despite her lack of experience, Jun Li could immediately tell they were nobility; it wasn't something as simple as their clothing, immaculate and expensive though it must have been.

  It was their proud, contemptuous eyes, the way they looked out into the crowd like one would look out on an empty field. Jun Li couldn't help but hide her face under her hat, in the hopes of not seeing the way they would look at her.

  From a seat on the stage above, a voice rang out. Quiet, yet clear to an uncanny degree, evenly reaching everyone in the bustling square.

  "The entrance examination for prospective disciples of the Glass Cloud Sect will now begin."