Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 125 This is how immortals should be
After Huang Wu, I never encountered a gold card again.

In fact, upon hearing that their lives might be in danger after entering the trial, more than half of the tens of thousands of people who had gathered at the foot of White Stone Mountain backed out.

Of the remaining people, most couldn't even get past the first trial, "Asking Sincerity." Many were so frightened by the sight of the Ice Crystal Banshee or the Snake Demon that they nearly fainted, and even fewer dared to risk their lives.

The "difficulty" or "combat power" of the Ice Crystal Banshee and the Snake Demon designed by Zhang Chengdao varies depending on the highest level of martial artist in the secret realm. So if it really comes down to fighting, everyone has a chance, but unfortunately not everyone has the courage.

If a participant in the trial realm makes no progress after half an hour, Zhang Chengdao will send them out of the realm.

He also needs to free up "server space" to "open" more save files!

Fortunately, not all of these participants rushed into the trial realm at once. Instead, some hesitated, gave up, or made up their minds before entering the realm one after another. This allowed Zhang Chengdao to manage his "multi-threaded work" with relative ease, such as keeping an eye on the situation in a dozen or so realms while personally participating in the "storyline" of recruiting disciples.

However, apart from Tang Xiaoyu and the Ye family members and the students from the Imperial Academy and the National Academy, among the thousands of people who finally made it through the first trial realm, not a single one had a gold card!

Not one!
There were about ten purple cards and more than thirty blue cards, all of which Zhang Chengdao instructed Xu Ying to accept as outer disciples.

By the time the last group of people had also perished and were escorted down the mountain from the secret realm by Zhang Chengdao, the sun was already high in the sky.

Xu Ying glanced at the sky subconsciously, then hurriedly went with Chang Ping'an, Murong Ruyan, Ye Shuyun and others to invite the people watching the ceremony in the tower to come down and sit in the square.

Zhang Chengdao laid out the tables he had prepared in his backpack one by one. These tables were very simple and had no decorations whatsoever. However, in the White Stone Immortal Sect, where the floor tiles were made of gold sand and green jade and the roof beasts and eaves were cast in pure gold, no one would think that these tables were really ordinary...

It might be made of some kind of divine wood or spirit wood!

More than one person had this guess. Master Xu even secretly scratched the table leg with his fingernail and found that not a single speck of powder could be scraped off—not even a scratch!
It really is a fairy table!

Zhang Chengdao forced himself to ignore Master Xu's little tricks, but when no one was paying attention, the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.

These tables were indeed made from the most ordinary wood from Baishi Mountain, and the finished products were all gray, the lowest grade kind.

The problem is that the items produced by the Golden Finger don't follow any rules. Even the most ordinary items are displayed based on attributes like "durability." And with thousands of points of durability, a scratch from a fingernail does less damage than a raccoon scratch! At least the latter can actually reduce durability by a little!
Therefore, before the defenses are breached, this ordinary small wooden table will not show any external damage, and it looks as if it is "invulnerable to knives and spears", which is very intimidating.

Furthermore, the equally simple bamboo mat was also considered a divine treasure—Zhang Chengdao didn't even provide a chair for the table, but simply laid a bamboo mat in front of the table to make do!

However, in the eyes of others, this behavior means that this "old immortal" who has lived for countless years does not like the Hu chair that has only become popular in the last few hundred years, but prefers the custom of sitting with legs spread out at the table thousands of years ago!

He really is an ancient immortal who has lived for who knows how long!
Of course, Zhang Chengdao's "sitting with legs spread wide" is not like the posture Jing Ke deliberately adopted after his failed assassination attempt on the King of Qin, where he sat with his legs wide open and bare to mock the king. Rather, it is a posture with one leg propped up and the other crossed, with his hands resting on them. The reason for sitting like this instead of kneeling is mainly because... his legs won't go numb quickly.

Even so, you still need to change your sitting posture from time to time and alternate between sitting and sitting.

Although he could choose to secretly use his spiritual power to ignore the sitting posture and limb compression and maintain blood circulation, isn't he already using spiritual power to maintain the illusion? Even a little spiritual power shouldn't be wasted!

Therefore, compared to the upright sitting postures of Chang Ping'an, Murong Ruyan, and Ye Shuyun, Zhang Chengdao's sitting posture made everyone sigh: Such a free and unrestrained sitting posture is truly worthy of the demeanor of an immortal!

Isn't that exactly what's depicted in the famous painting "The Recluse's Tale" from the previous dynasty?
That's how immortals should be!

Even Murong Zhen, the emperor of Xiao Kingdom who was used to sitting on the dragon throne, did not find the bamboo mats disgusting. Instead, he carefully sat down and then, imitating Zhang Chengdao, pretended to relax and sat with his legs spread apart.

Apart from Murong Zhen, no one else dared to act recklessly. Master Xu was eager to try, but after being glared at by Madam Ye, he immediately became serious and stopped testing the tables and bamboo mats.

Ye Lingying, despite her advanced age, sat down at the table and immediately squinted, looking as if she was about to fall asleep.

Chang Ping'an gave the blank invitation to the Sword Forging Manor, but the young master, Wan Qizhang, did not come. Instead, the old master, Wan Qi Boyan, and his wife, Wan Qi Zhongqiu, who were also Wan Qi Zhongqiu and Bai Henshui, the master of the Hidden Sword Garden, came.

Unfortunately, after much effort, the old master of the manor, Wanqi Boyan, finally made up his mind to order all the disciples in the manor to come and try the trial formation, but unexpectedly, none of them made it through - except for Wanqi Zhang, they were all stuck in the first trial secret realm and were sent down the mountain by Zhang Chengdao.

Although Wan Qizhang passed the first trial realm, he failed in the Heart Demon Realm of Questioning the Heart, which made the three people from the Sword Casting Manor feel sorry for him.

After everyone was seated, and the newly initiated inner and outer disciples were also seated, Zhang Chengdao raised his hand and laid out the various "pre-made dishes" that had been prepared in his backpack one by one, and the "Immortal Fate Feast" officially began.

The newly initiated outer disciples were arranged behind Chang Ping'an and his personal disciples, sharing a table with each other, but the food was of the same quality.

However, what attracted everyone's attention the most was not the dazzling array of dishes, but a teapot that floated in the air as if it were being manipulated!
The teapot seemed to contain an endless supply of tea, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

Each time it appeared, the teapot would refill everyone's tea at the table. The tea leaves were not some rare delicacy, but rather ordinary flower tea. The tea soup was pink, with a fragrant aroma that could clear one's mind.

Murong Zhen took a small sip and found that strange energy reappeared in her body as the tea entered her stomach!
However, this time, the energy was not as effective as when Murong Zhen first ate the immortal peach. It only circulated within Murong Zhen's body for a short while before dissipating from his palms, soles, and head.

(End of this chapter)