Two days passed by quickly and it was time for the opening ceremony. The new entrance exam ended yesterday afternoon and Qian Yu heard that there were about 400 new disciples entering the sect. Qian Yu initially thought that this was a lot but after remembering that there would only be new disciples every 5 to 10 years, it wasn't that much.
Besides working out and getting to know some other disciples, and occasionally seeing some inner court disciples, nothing eventful happened. Perhaps, the most exciting thing everyday was breakfast and dinner. The sect had way higher standards than the low quality village food that Qian Yu had.
Well, it wasn’t much about the taste as Qian Yu enjoyed his village food, but the quality of the meat. It was spiritual beast meat! Qian Yu never had such a luxury as spiritual beast food was very expensive and hard to get for normal villagers.
One had to know that talent really didn’t matter in body refinement. It just came down to a matter of what you ate and the amount of training you had. If you were rich and could afford high quality meat, you would naturally grow faster. You could be a complete fatass and do nothing and reach the qi gathering stage if you ate a crap ton of high quality spiritual beast meat every meal. On the other hand, if you worked hard and exercised a lot to push your body and expand your potential, you would also get stronger. Of course, the best method was to combine both these factors.
As for Qian Yu, he was naturally inclined towards the latter. He always had a healthy lifestyle and woke up early since he started looking for herbs and plants with his grandpa. Ever since he committed to the decision of entering the cultivating world, he started working out more and more. He knew he had a late start and it could only catch up by putting in more effort than his peers. Now, with the spiritual beast meat, it made Qian Yu extremely happy as he would be able to ascend faster.
Qian Yu was currently standing next to Chen Ya and Wu Jing as they waited for the opening ceremony to start. All the new disciples had gathered at one of the entrances to the inner court where it would be held.
A few minutes passed and two elders appeared. Qian Yu instantly recognized that Elder Wu was one of them. As for the other elder, he had never seen her.
“Quiet disciples!” the unknown elder said loudly. “Hello new disciples, we welcome you to the Ice Arts Sect. I’m Elder Su and many of you have already met me or Elder Wu. We are going to give you a short explanation of what you guys should know for now. We will go over all the details of cultivation and what not in the first lecture next week. Elder Wu, please go ahead,” she finished as she let Elder Wu take over.
“As almost every single one of you guys are still in the body refinement stage, we urge you guys to enter the qi gathering stage as soon as possible. The sect provides two meals every day for you guys and even though it comes from only common ranked spiritual beasts, it is still extremely helpful. For now, get used to the sect and learn the locations of some important places. For example, there are three medical halls in the outer court area and you should familiarize yourself with where the one closest to you is. Now for the rules…” Elder Wu continued on about the rules such as prohibiting murder, curfews, etc. and the history of the Ice Arts Sect for another 20 minutes before finishing.
With nothing to do, Qian Yu heeded Elder Wu’s words. It was pretty important to learn the layout of the area as soon as possible since he’ll be living here for a long time. Furthermore, there was another reason and he wanted to find the medical hall and see if he could find any opportunities for himself.
Qian Yu was astonished as he roamed through the sect and learned of the important locations. When he had found the mission center he asked them for a piece of parchment and an ink pen so he could mark down some locations and sketch a map. The elder in charge was surprisingly Elder Li who had brought them into the sect and he nodded at Qian Yu’s decision. He knew that most disciples would be too lazy to do such a thing so he respected Qian Yu’s seriousness. On the other hand, Qian Yu didn’t know that such simple actions could garner respect.
Finally, he eventually ended up at the medical hall which was a two storey building. Entering it, he saw an outer court disciple that was working as a receptionist.
“Hello, do you have any pains or problems,” the guy said monotonously.
“Uhh, I…” Qian Yu had the thought of slowly talking to whoever was in charge and see if he could find any opportunities for himself. However, after realizing that this guy was also a disciple with a job here, he quickly decided to be straightforward, “I want to see if there are any opportunities here.”
He didn’t mention the word “job” as he wasn’t expecting to easily get a job. Maybe an intern or assistant would be good already as he didn’t know how much his medical skills were compared to normal people who had professional education.
“Ahh, alright follow me,” the guy raised his brow and said as he got off his chair and walked towards the stairs to the second floor. Noticing it, Qian Yu thought he said something weird but the guy didn’t say anything so he could only hope it wasn’t something weird.
After reaching the second floor, the receptionist pointed to a door and said, “Elder Bai is currently talking with a guest in her office.”
“Just wait here until she is done,” he said as he left and went back down to the first floor.
“Thanks,” Qian Yu was about to sit down and open the parchment paper to add in the location of the medical hall when the office door opened.
He looked up and stared in shock as he recognized the person that he had met just over a week ago. Similarly, the other person had recognized him as well.
Patreon
The constant use of "guys" is incredibly jarring to me. Everytime that it's unnecessarily used just rips me out of the immersion. Take for example one of the paragraphs where an elder is speaking:
“As almost every single one of you guys are still in the body refinement stage, we urge you guys to enter the qi gathering stage as soon as possible. The sect provides two meals every day for you guys and even though it comes from only common ranked spiritual beasts, it is still extremely helpful. For now, get used to the sect and learn the locations of some important places. For example, there are three medical halls in the outer court area and you should familiarize yourself with where the one closest to you is. Now for the rules…” Elder Wu continued on about the rules such as prohibiting murder, curfews, etc. and the history of the Ice Arts Sect for another 20 minutes before finishing.
By removing all of the instances of "guys" nothing in the message is lost at all.
“As almost every single one of you are still in the body refinement stage, we urge you to enter the qi gathering stage as soon as possible. The sect provides two meals every day for you and even though it comes from only common ranked spiritual beasts, it is still extremely helpful. For now, get used to the sect and learn the locations of some important places. For example, there are three medical halls in the outer court area and you should familiarize yourself with where the one closest to you is. Now for the rules…” Elder Wu continued on about the rules such as prohibiting murder, curfews, etc. and the history of the Ice Arts Sect for another 20 minutes before finishing.
As interesting as this story has started off being, it's hard to force myself to continue reading it through the various suspension of disbelief shattering dialogues.
What exactly is the problem with guys as an address? It is pretty normal.
@Randomeusersarereal in a formal speech "guys" is very casual. With a high ranking member of a political group or something. Using "guys" is seen as very bad because it isn't something you'd use in an official formal speech. It's along with "like" for instance "it's like, Not good." When talking to a person personally or a small group you're decently familiar with it's fine. It's a filler in the speech that shouldn't be there in such an official/formal setting.
Hope this answered your question. I took speech classes in college and the one thing that they hate in any speech is filler. (ex. Um, annnnnnnnd/and, guys, like.) That's IF it's filler which it is here as the speech doesn't need it. "Um" pretty much is always filler in a speech.
@En4cer1244 I think you misunderstood something. yes it is informal speech but that has absolutely zero to do with what you wrote. There is absolutely no reason for them to use formal language here as they are talking to people way below them in social standing. This isn't a Modern Western world where you treat everyone with respect. So using guys as a condescending tone defiantly makes sense in this context especially considering that modern englisch doesn't really have terms to determine social standing like they exist in Chinese.
and even if it didn't make sense in the context (which it does) how can a single word brake your immersion? I personally care about worldbuilding, characters being realistic, no excessive plot armor, etc.. I don't really care about trivial stuff like that.
And, as I already stated bevor, it is there making the address informal. It is not a filler world as it serves a clear purpose.
And even if it was It would still not be an issue, as you might have noticed when you ever spoke to a human, humans aren't perfect and will use filler words all the time. Only people with a lot of rhetoric Training don't use them. Which the people talking here clearly don't have. So them using none would be pretty unrealistic. This in fact is something that makes a novel a lot better as it is an easy way to make characters feel alive instead of just being background noise.
And what it got to do with speech classes? That is basic stuff you learn in englisch class (even if it isn't your primary language)
@Randomeusersarereal Just because people are lower than you doesn't mean you talk to them condescendingly. In this case he wanted to build up there respect for the elders. These people aren't forced to be in that sect. There are 3 other sects that would gladly poach them. You attempt to get respect in that case with professionalism. That is why "guys" ruins it. It's very casual for a person of authority to use it on the first speech with thousands. Those thousands aren't slaves or peasants, they're disciples/students with other sects they can try. You want respect from a group so they don't think "this guy here is kinda an asshole. Maybe I'll go check out that sword sect instead..." They may be below social standing, but you want seriousness and professionalism. Plus he had other sect elders there too. They probably aren't going to take too kindly about the first impression of students being "these elders are laid back and don't seem too serious..." Then the students might also think "he's talking casually with us maybe it's alright to talk casually with them." Or they might cause trouble in other ways. You still want respect from people below you. Many governments/institutions have fallen because they didn't.
@En4cer1244 Yea you clearly haven't understood how wuxia worlds work. All you said is true for realty but has absolutely nothing to do with a cultivation world.
Power differences here are absolut so all that doesn't apply. and they haven't even startet they are pretty useless. If they leave they don't give a f*ck. If they are disrespectful they are Just gona die.
Again you seem to confuse a modern world with a very small powerdelta with one that has a giant power delta and that only values strength.
That is Just not how cultivation worlds. Except for some extrem super Talents none gives a f*ck about fresh desipels.
@Randomeusersarereal You may be right about my stance on it being more based in reality. I kinda forgot that a single slight against an elder (or son) instantly made them try to kill you. But usually when part of a sect it appears others inside the sect tend to be nicer to those people. Pissing off some dudes kid is a one way ticket to getting killed or hunted. But elders seem to be more respectful to people in there sect. It's the younger "talented" ones who usually are assholes. Elders tend to try and keep a sorta respectable air about them. Then they plan assassinations and revenge for humiliation in private. At least from what I've seen of wuxia. It's a world of strength makes right, I agree with that whole aspect. However, elders usually do their attacks in private/secret (like planting a trap or ambush.) But remain as respectable as possible cause a strong elder is good, but a strong elder with strong allies/friends is better even in wuxia. (Only to be betrayed by said ally/allies like 10 chapters later when MC is proved too powerful for them...)
Once again I see your side of it as accurate. But elders remain professional and/or regal. Until someone actually does something to piss them off or they look for more power. Not saying "might doesn't make right." Just putting the perspective of how elders usually act when they are smart elders/villains. Cause of the "might makes right" usually elders won't do anything. Unless completely infuriated or facing an enemy of the sect.
@En4cer1244 I mean overall you are right. But elders also have different personality and there are also some that are just sloppy/ don't care either because the are extremely powerful, simply dont give a f*ck or have given up. So I think this elder is supposed to be a sloppy one by the way he talks. but could also be it is just written inaccurate. Again it is kind of hard to inherently portray a difference in status in modern englisch as this differentiation simply doesn't exist.
And again I get your point and "guys" defiantly doesn't fit perfectly here, but I think it is a decent Approximation of what the author wants to say. and it is not like you can expect literary masterpieces from a wuxia webnoovel.
I agree that it isn't the best writing, but I have seen a lot worse too. and the fact that he trys to convoy speak with a status difference already shows him putting in more effort then most.