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Chapter 10 - Team Formation
"When righteousness endures, our Way flourishes!"
After the probationary disciples' final sermon ended, everyone left one by one.
If nothing unexpected happened, they would never come to this place again.
Walking along the path, Fang Yu was both excited and nervous: "Hanfeng, do you think we can be assigned to the same team? Being familiar with each other would make executing tasks easier, right?"
Over the past two months, their relationship had grown much closer, so naturally their forms of address became more intimate.
Hearing this, Li Hanfeng couldn't help but smile: "You should know that although it's team assessment, it's actually testing individuals. Maybe the sect will deliberately separate people who know each other!"
"Ah, really?"
"I'm just guessing."
How could Li Hanfeng possibly know the sect's thinking?
Of course, if possible, he'd also like to team up with people he knew.
"Ugh, don't jinx it. I still want to team up with you and ride your coattails!" Fang Yu spoke in a joking tone, but was also sincere.
Others might not know clearly, but he had a vague idea of Li Hanfeng's strength. Forget about other things, but crushing him would be effortless.
Li Hanfeng also joked: "Haha, if we can be assigned together, I wouldn't mind."
The two chatted and laughed, which somewhat eased their tension.
Facing the assessment that would determine whether they could become formal disciples, none of the 3,600 probationary disciples could be completely unconcerned.
On the way back, Wang Mingyue came looking for him as usual and had dinner with Li Hanfeng.
"Brother Hanfeng, I'm a bit nervous. What if I don't pass?" 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝒐𝒎
"Don't worry, you won't fail."
Although Li Hanfeng hadn't discovered anything special about Wang Mingyue, being favored by the Spiritual Sword Peak Master was basically equivalent to being pre-selected.
Of course, he couldn't say these things directly. Who knew what the Spiritual Sword Peak Master was thinking? If he ruined Wang Mingyue's opportunity, that would be a sin. He could only gently comfort her.
Fortunately, Wang Mingyue wasn't truly fragile - she just wanted comfort from someone close to her, and quickly recovered.
"Mingyue, what's your cultivation level now?"
Wang Mingyue wouldn't hide anything from Li Hanfeng: "Brother Hanfeng, I've reached the fifth layer of Qi Refining. I just broke through a few days ago."
Hearing this, Li Hanfeng raised his eyebrows slightly. This cultivation level wasn't low at all. But thinking about Wang Mingyue having suspected resource support from the Spiritual Sword Peak Master, it wasn't too surprising. He praised: "Your cultivation is quite good. Also, there are three more days until the assessment. Let me give you some advice - during the assessment task execution, you must prioritize your own safety above all else. Don't be reckless, don't easily trust strangers' words, think three times before acting..."
"Mm-hmm!" Wang Mingyue nodded happily. She didn't dislike these lectures - as long as she could stay by Brother Hanfeng's side, that was fine.
But she needed to take these words to heart, or Brother Hanfeng would be unhappy.
...
While Li Hanfeng and Wang Mingyue were talking, a more important discussion was taking place in a massive palace within the Shushan Sect.
If Li Hanfeng and the other probationary disciples were here, they could recognize that all their teaching elders were present. Besides them, over three hundred other figures had also gathered - they were also teaching elders, just former ones.
The three hundred-plus teaching elders all sat at small tables.
They all looked toward the front, where three figures sat - two men and one woman. The eldest among them sat in the center, with crane-like hair but a youthful face. This person was the Shushan Sect's Heritage Elder, Zhou Xuantong.
The Heritage Elder commanded all teaching elders and was specifically responsible for probationary and formal disciple matters.
Seeing that all teaching elders had arrived, Zhou Xuantong slowly spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but everyone in the palace could hear him clearly: "The probationary disciple assessment will begin, and you teaching elders also have important duties."
"Each of you will be responsible for one probationary disciple team, recording and evaluating all disciples' behavior. I hope you all follow your hearts and make fair judgments."
"We will certainly uphold fairness!" The teaching elders' voices were serious, not daring to show any hint of jest.
The Shushan Sect pursued the "Righteous Way," and fairness was the most basic requirement.
Seeing this, Zhou Xuantong nodded and continued: "The evaluation standards for this assessment have been transmitted to your identity tokens - you can review them yourselves. Next, we'll proceed with probationary disciple team assignments..."
...
Three days passed in a flash, and when daylight appeared again, it was time for the probationary disciples to face their assessment.
Li Hanfeng had already received the sect's team assignment information and saw the names of the other nine people who would execute tasks with him.
Sitting on his meditation cushion and seeing several of those names, he was immediately stunned.
[Li Hanfeng, Wang Mingyue, Fang Yu, Xie Qingfeng, Chen Jianghe...]
"Well, this is getting what I wished for!"
The sect had not only arranged for acquaintances to execute tasks together, but seemed to have put all his acquaintances together.
Among his nine teammates, besides Wang Mingyue and Fang Yu, Xie Qingfeng and Chen Jianghe were also from his same courtyard.
The remaining five, if nothing unexpected happened, were either acquaintances of Xie Qingfeng and Chen Jianghe, or probationary disciples from Wang Mingyue's courtyard.
At worst, these five knew each other, and the grouping principle was most likely that there had to be acquaintances within each team.
He was naturally very happy to see this arrangement.
Cooperating with acquaintances was always better than cooperating with strangers.
"The specific tasks haven't been assigned yet, but I can meet with the other nine teammates."
Thinking of this, Li Hanfeng got up from his meditation cushion and opened his door.
Obviously, three others had the same idea.
As he opened his door, three other doors in Courtyard 22 opened simultaneously.
The four looked at each other and all smiled.
Fang Yu spoke first, his face showing joy: "Hanfeng, looks like I can ride your coattails after all!"
Hearing this, both Xie Qingfeng and Chen Jianghe were startled.
They could understand the meaning in Fang Yu's words.
Li Hanfeng's strength far exceeded Fang Yu's, otherwise Fang Yu wouldn't say such things, even jokingly.
"Well, you got your wish." Li Hanfeng also smiled in response. With their relationship, some jokes were harmless.
Of course, they didn't ignore Xie Qingfeng and Chen Jianghe.
After brief exchanges, the four quickly became familiar.
Fang Yu said: "Brother Xie, Brother Chen, do you know the other people on the team? If you do, we could get together and get acquainted."
Xie Qingfeng immediately replied: "Xie Wen and Xie Chuan are from my village."
Chen Jianghe also answered: "Wu Jue and Chen Yang are people I know."
Fang Yu nodded and said: "That leaves two people..."
But before he finished speaking, a clear voice came: "Brother Hanfeng, I'm here to find you!"
Seeing the people on her team, Wang Mingyue immediately hurried over, with another person following behind her.
Fang Yu knew Wang Mingyue, and seeing this, immediately understood: "Great, looks like our people are all here. We just need to find Brother Xie and Brother Chen's friends."
