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

Chapter 286 The So-Called Inner Disciple

The first lesson for this batch of new disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect in the first year of the Immortal Era was taught by Murong Ruyan.

In fact, this was not the first lesson, but a magic class that Murong Ruyan specially announced to recruit personal disciples. All new disciples were allowed to attend, and whoever learned it first would have priority to join her and Ye Shuyun's school and become an inner disciple.

Indeed, although these "second-generation direct disciples" were not Zhang Chengdao's direct disciples, they were still "direct disciples" of his direct disciples. Therefore, Zhang Chengdao classified them as inner disciples, slightly different from ordinary outer disciples.

There is no difference between inner and outer disciples in terms of access to basic resources, the courses they take, and the treatment they enjoy is the same, except for a slight difference in the monthly spirit stone subsidy. However, the only difference is that inner disciples have a "personal master"—equivalent to a "mentor" in a modern university.

This means that, depending on the level of care and responsibility the mentors provide, the additional resources that students—the inner disciples—receive will vary.

A good mentor not only teaches students new knowledge systems, but also gives them a share of the profits based on the projects they handle, or takes them to various conferences to grab tea breaks.

Just like Ye Shuyun and Tang Xiaoyu, their main purpose in taking on disciples was to recruit new people as their assistants, essentially cheap laborers. However, they would certainly provide guidance during this process; otherwise, incompetent laborers would be of little use.

Murong Ruyan's true intentions were more subtle. She actually wanted to start cultivating her own loyal clique to facilitate seizing the throne in the future—oh, don't misunderstand, she wasn't seizing Zhang Chengdao's throne, but the throne of the Bohai Kingdom.

In any case, such an opportunity is extremely rare for outer disciples. Just look at how many disciples from the previous year are asking all sorts of questions about whether they can participate in this competition, and you can see the clue. Even the most foolish person would realize that as an inner disciple, especially the sect leader's own grand-disciple, one must be several times stronger than an ordinary outer disciple!
Therefore, when Murong Ruyan attended the class this time, she found that the quality of this year's disciples was surprisingly high. At least they listened to the lectures very attentively, which was much better than the outer disciples of the previous year who always huddled together like a bunch of little quails!

"The competition for the inner sect admission this time is a technique that none of you have studied before. It is the 'Messenger' chapter of the Paper Puppet Technique."

With a stern face, Murong Ruyan surveyed the square where no one dared to be absent and said, "However, if one does not draw qi into the body, the paper puppet technique cannot 'awaken the spirit'—this is not the so-called 'awakening' of mountain spirits, but a kind of 'enlightenment' of inanimate objects."

"Without drawing qi into the body and being able to control spiritual power, it is impossible to do this. Therefore, the 'Messenger' chapter has an even simpler method that can be practiced even by ordinary mortals who know nothing about immortality."

"It's about using a formation with the effect of gathering spirits instead of 'spirit awakening.' Although the effect is far inferior to that of a paper puppet actually made using the 'spirit awakening' method, it's still usable."

"Therefore, since you have not yet formally begun to cultivate the immortal path, I will teach you this technique so that even if you later draw qi into your body, you can still use the old knowledge in a new way."

"Remember this, this technique is very practical. Even if you are not my personal disciples, you should still learn it. It will make it easier for fellow disciples to communicate with each other in the future."

Murong Ruyan's words made everyone even more nervous.

In the past few days, although everyone has officially become disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect, they have not actually started learning anything yet. The sect's headmaster, Manager Xu, said that this is because everyone has been given some time to arrange their family affairs. It will take a month before classes officially begin.

During this month, as long as an application is submitted to the sect and there is a guarantor, one can directly use the teleportation array of the White Stone Immortal Sect to teleport to the Chang'an City passenger teleportation station, and then go from the Chang'an City passenger teleportation array to various main cities under the jurisdiction of the White Stone Immortal Sect. It can be said to be very humane.

Among them, more than one disciple temporarily left the White Stone Immortal Sect in this way to go back and arrange family affairs.

Some bid farewell with tears in their eyes, as if they were about to become monks.

Some held grand banquets, with congratulations no less enthusiastic than those bestowed upon a top scholar. Others...

They came back with their families.

"Madam Yang, what's wrong with you...?"

Xu Ying, who happened to be passing by the teleportation array, stared at Yang Muqing in disbelief, speechless.

Behind the woman was a male cultivator who looked very familiar. He seemed to be the first person in the entire Chang'an City to cultivate Qi into the body, and he was also a Hanlin scholar.

But what's with the child that the male cultivator is holding?!
Yang Muqing hurriedly said apologetically, "Manager Xu, please don't misunderstand. They've all come to see me off and will be returning to Chang'an soon."

Because of the "Mountain-Protecting Array," Pei Xiaoman had been separated from her mother for several days. When they met again, she refused to let Yang Muqing leave.

It took Pei Zhao a lot of persuasion, swearing oaths, and even giving Xiaoman two strings of candied hawthorns and a string of candied yams to appease her. He also discussed with Yang Muqing that they would take turns, with Yang Muqing either returning to Chang'an City each day or Pei Zhao bringing Xiaoman to the White Stone Immortal Sect to meet Yang Muqing.

The three of them came here not only to familiarize themselves with the route, but also to ask the White Stone Immortal Sect for a "favor".

At least allow the disciples' "family members" to visit, right?

Upon hearing this question, Xu Ying readily agreed, "Of course!"

As he spoke, he led the two through the welcoming hall on the east side to a courtyard. In the courtyard were two smaller buildings, which were inscribed with "Sect Affairs Office" and "External Affairs Office" respectively.

Compared to the "Lingxiao Palace" I'd seen before, these two names are much more straightforward.

"Fill out a registration form here, and we will produce a 'family token' for you within five working days. Holders of the token can move around in the open areas of Lingxiao Peak of Baishi Immortal Sect."

"In addition, you can also go to the dining hall, but it uses spirit stones and does not accept gold or silver. So in the future, you will only be able to buy food in the dining hall through some other means or by having Madam Yang pay for it."

Xu Ying had already discussed the issue of "disciple's family members" with Zhang Chengdao and had devised a corresponding solution.

Although there are no facial recognition registrations or QR code scanning for entry in this era, Zhang Chengdao can still manually manipulate the contents of various books!

The Bamboo Fence created by the Golden Finger is even more useful than any barrier he can currently build!

(End of this chapter)