The heavy stone doors of the upper summit terrace swung inward with a dull, echoing grind, admitting the seventy surviving recruits into the rugged lower service wards of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
Led by two junior proctors carrying wooden tally boards, the line of exhausted commoners and humbled nobles marched down a winding staircase carved straight into the basalt core of the mountain.
The grandeur of the marble terraces and floating pavilions faded rapidly, replaced by soot-stained granite corridors, damp limestone walls, and the constant, low-frequency rumble of heavy industrial machinery operating deep within the mountain's foundations.
This was the service underbelly of the grand martial pillar, where thousands of low-tier retainers, disqualified applicants, and penalized outer di
