Holy Maiden, wait a minute. Why are you asking me to cultivate again?

Thump, thump!

Before long, the six disciples were beaten senseless and seeing stars by the puppet soldiers.

Song Zhaosheng possessed the Golden Elixir Eye, which allowed him to predict the movements of the puppet soldiers. After becoming familiar with it, he was able to dodge and block them quite skillfully.

"He's a skilled fighter?"

Cui Yu was somewhat surprised, and based on the principle that the capable should do more, he arranged for him to be a puppet soldier.

"Elder, this doesn't make sense, does it?"

Song Zhao dodged and parried, barely managing to avoid one puppet soldier's attack before another soldier's attack arrived instantly.

Sometimes, two puppets attack at the same time, and there's no way to dodge them; you can only take the hits.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Those who leave my school will either become true disciples or serve as outer sect elders."

"Even if things don't go well, after leaving the sect, he'll still be someone who guards a city."

Cui Yu walked gracefully from the chair, saying with great pride, "I only teach the strong here, not the weak."

"They were all recommended by the elders of each peak. You were recommended by the sect leader, so it's normal for you to fight two puppets."

"And if you want to complete your studies here, you must be able to easily handle the attacks of six puppets during the morning classes."

After taking a sweeping blow to the shin, Song Zhao immediately rolled over to dodge an elbow strike, complaining bitterly, "You have to take it slow..."

"Heh, you can still talk under two armored soldiers. It seems you still have energy to spare. I'll add another one for you." Cui Yu said with a straight face, about to add another puppet.

Song Zhao repeatedly said, "No need, no need, both are fine..."

An hour later, the morning class ended.

The group had injuries on all of them, but the one who was in the worst condition was the secret cultivator, who was so badly beaten that he vomited because he couldn't use his protective aura.

After the armored puppets were pushed into two rows, a group of medicine servants and handymen rushed over and carried the seven people to the medicinal bath area.

"Sigh, you know what, although getting beaten during morning lessons is painful, the herbs here are quite good. A bucket must cost over a hundred spirit stones, right? The Grand Elder is really rich."

Li Xubing, the burly man who had previously asked Song Zhao for a fee to become his apprentice, fished out a medicinal herb from the bucket and sniffed it carefully.

"Brother Li, you're overthinking it. These herbs were all allocated by the sect; why would the elders need to spend money on them?"

Sword cultivator Zhang Xing covered his face with a bath towel: "With the elder's character, he'd stuff all the spirit stones he had into his mouth. Where would he get any spirit stones to give us as compensation?"

"You're not allowed to speak ill of Elder Cui Yu anymore, or I'll report you!"

The only female disciple hiding behind the screen, Huai Xiaoxiao, spoke up to warn him.

"Alright, alright, Junior Sister Huai, you're the most protective of the Elder."

Song Zhao listened silently, circulating the Nine Yin Nine Yang Technique within his body, absorbing the yin and yang properties of the medicine in the medicine barrel.

In just a short while, the bruises and wounds on his body were completely healed.

After that, I just treated it as a relaxing bath to unwind.

An hour later, the medicinal bath ended.

The seven students began their second lesson of the day, a course that Cui Yu had developed on his own.

"Come, let me ask you, how many feet can a sword aura released at the eighth level of Qi Refining still have power?"

"Okay, do you know what the ancestor of the venomous spider was?"

"Here, this is a Qingling Flower, one of the ingredients for the Qingling Pill. Can anyone tell me whether the female flower or the male flower is more effective?"

......

An hour later, the seven continued with the next lesson, which was to go to the mountain.

As the name suggests, it means running around the outer perimeter of the Tianwu Sect mountain range. No matter what method you use, you cannot rely on any external objects. You run until your internal mana is exhausted, and then you run one more lap.

According to Cui Yu, when cultivators are locked in a life-or-death struggle and their magical power is exhausted, it becomes a matter of close-quarters combat, at which point the cultivator's physical strength becomes crucial.

Incredibly, Song Zhao broke his previous record of being at the ninth level of Qi Refining on his first run of the mountain, managing to run twelve laps.

"Okay, that concludes today's lesson."

Cui Yu sat on the treetop outside the mountain gate and stuffed a piece of fried dough into his mouth.

The seven of them had seen her do this move countless times.

"Holy crap, it's finally over."

Li Xubing lay on the ground, panting heavily with sweat streaming down his face, as exhausted as an old dog.

The others were in no better shape, each meditating to recover their magical power and physical strength.

"Song Xiao... old brother, how come your magic power and physical strength are both so good?"

Sword cultivator Zhang Xing glanced at Song Zhao, feeling a little envious.

Song Zhao scratched his head: "Maybe it's because I used to do odd jobs, and I did too much manual labor."

"oh oh."

The group suddenly realized that the old man was just teasing them.

After everyone had rested enough, Zhou Zhaoxi, the disciple of the secret sect, suggested, "Today is the day Brother Song Zhao enters the sect, why don't we go out to Juxiang Restaurant for a meal?"

"Consider this our apology to Brother Song."

"Okay, okay, I want to eat the osmanthus honey cake inside!" Huai Xiaoxiao was overjoyed.

Li Xubing and Zhang Xing also nodded, agreeing with Zhou Zhaoxi's suggestion.

The other two had nothing to say and followed along.

Song Zhao then realized that the others didn't mean him any harm; it was just a bet with Cui Yu, something they were just joking around with.

"Okay, it's my treat today!" he said generously.

"Hey, how can that be?" Zhou Zhaoxi put his arm around your shoulder and said, "We were just teasing you, so we'll treat you."

"That works too, hahaha."

The group chatted and laughed as they descended the mountain.

Tianwu Market is the closest market to Tianwu Sect, and one of the eight markets under the sect's jurisdiction.

Because they were disciples of a sect, the group had no trouble getting into a private room on the third floor of Juxianglou.

"Here, have a taste. This is a good thing. The Grand Elder packs up a portion for himself to eat every three days."

"This wine is good stuff too, I heard it's especially good for male enhancement, hehehe, Brother Song, want some?"

"Brother Song, try this triangular ibex meat, it's so tender and not gamey at all..."

Before long, Song Zhao was surrounded by everyone's enthusiasm. The last time he felt this way was seventy years ago, during the New Year's Eve dinner, when he was a child and his parents gave him lucky money.

Now that I've entered the path of immortality, worldly matters are no longer relevant...

After several rounds of drinks...

The esoteric practitioner Zhou Zhaoxi suddenly burst into tears, leaving the others puzzled.

"What's wrong, Junior Brother Zhou?" Huai Xiaoxiao stepped forward to ask, kindly handing over a handkerchief.

"Thanks."

Zhou Zhaoxi wiped away her tears, her eyes red, and said, "I miss home."

"If you miss home, just go back and visit," Li Xubing said casually, lying back in his chair.

"But I have no home anymore..."

Zhou Zhaoxi burst into tears again, the kind that she couldn't stop crying.

It took a while for everyone to learn his family's story.

He was born into a poor family with nine children. He was the eldest. Because his family was poor, his parents sold him to an old man in a pharmacy to become his apprentice.

Later, the old man who ran the apothecary died. His old friend, a rogue cultivator, discovered that Zhou Zhaoxi had talent for cultivation, so he sent him to the Tianwu Sect.

But when Zhou Zhaoxi officially became a disciple of the Tianwu Sect and was preparing to send money home, he discovered that everyone in his family had died of illness, including his eight younger siblings.

The child wishes to care for his parents, but they are no longer there...

After hearing this, Song Zhao sighed and realized that there were people whose backgrounds were even worse than his.

"From now on, Tianwu Sect will be your home, and we will be your brothers and sisters."

"Yes, don't be sad, there's more good news to come."

"Come on, have some more wine, and you'll forget all your sorrows."

After offering them some words of comfort, the group prepared to return to their sect.

Song Zhao parted ways with the others, saying, "I plan to stroll around the market a bit longer and head back later."

He was thinking of finding a cultivator who could break the restrictions, and then unlocking Du Lingfeng's storage bag and that demonic cultivation manual.

He had been thinking about this for a long time.

"Okay, be careful not to stay out too late, or the Elder will scold you."

Huai Xiaoxiao kindly offered a reminder.

Suddenly, a deafening explosion rang out in the distance, and bursts of fire lit up half of the night.

The men sobered up instantly.

"Enemy attack!"