The Long Journey to Immortality

Ordinary cultivators would have to overcome numerous obstacles to barely complete a narrow, winding path.

Han Lu, on the other hand, was facing a vast plain, practicing her skills on a blank sheet of paper.

For various reasons, Han Lu was able to more easily establish a spiritual energy channel within her physical body that was far wider than the channels within the bodies of other cultivators.

Sitting on the throne, Han Lu's eyes closed and opened, and nearly ten hours passed in a flash.

By channeling her spiritual energy into her inner vision, Han Lu was quite satisfied with the results of her cultivation over the past ten hours.

"The passage opened smoothly, and spiritual energy circulates within it very easily."

"We are about two-thirds of the way to the next acupoint. If all goes well, we can try to break through to the next acupoint the day after tomorrow."

After a moment of self-satisfaction, Han Lu sounded a warning in his heart to avoid becoming complacent and turning into the kind of cultivator he used to dislike.

"However, opening up a spiritual vein channel is like rowing against the current."

"We still need to work diligently and cannot afford to be lazy in the slightest."

For the next two weeks, Han Lu stayed home and ate only one meal a day.

He spent all the rest of his time on the Dharma throne.

Han Lu's diligent practice, combined with her exceptional talent, enabled her to make astonishing progress in the past two weeks.

In just half a month, she successfully opened six acupoints, and the spiritual power in her body was at least three times more abundant than when she first started cultivating.

The day Zhengyi Sect accepted disciples arrived, and Han Lu's peaceful cultivation life was slightly disturbed.

That day, Han Lu finished her cultivation early, ate breakfast, and headed to the outer gate of Zhengyi Gate, which was not far from the inn, to prepare for her "second" entry test.

As the most prestigious sect in the Southern Dynasties and the second most prestigious sect in the Central Plains, the Zhengyi Sect was naturally very popular among ordinary people.

Twice a year, the apprentice recruitment conferences held at various city branches attract at least a hundred eligible individuals to participate in the tests.

This time, the apprenticeship ceremony held in Moyu City was no exception.

Two long lines, each consisting of four or five hundred people, formed in front of the outer gate.

Among them were many young men and women, led by their parents, who had come from Moyu City or nearby villages to seek their destiny with immortals.

Many vendors, seeing the business opportunity, carried boxes and weaved through the queue to sell their goods and earn money.

Seeing this scene, Han Lu couldn't help but exclaim, "Moyu City is indeed the largest city in the north of the Southern Dynasty."

Back then, the small mountain town where Feng Bailu lived was near a spirit stone mine, so the Zhengyi Sect had a small outpost there.

When Feng Bailu turned fifteen, only seven of his peers participated in the test with him.

That scene was nothing compared to the scene now.

Han Lu hadn't expected this.

There was nothing I could do; if I arrived late, I could only obediently stand alone at the very back of one of the queues and wait patiently.

Fortunately, the Zhengyi Sect does not only consider spiritual talent when accepting disciples, but also has certain requirements regarding the age and education level of new disciples.

Twelve years old is the golden age to begin cultivating immortality.

But a twelve-year-old child can't really settle down and practice spiritual cultivation.

The requirement for educational level is easier to understand.

How can one understand the mysteries of martial arts manuals if one cannot read and write?

After all, the Zhengyi Sect is a cultivation sect, not an ordinary school. They don't have the time or inclination to work on the most basic aspects. So they simply set requirements when accepting disciples to avoid trouble later.

Only young people aged 15 and above are eligible to participate in the test and assessment to join the Zhengyi sect.

It's fortunate that this is the case; otherwise, having a bunch of twelve-year-olds together would definitely be torture for Han Lu, who prefers quiet.

The procession moved slowly forward, and Han Lu passed the time with two strange tales she had bought from a vendor, which kept her from getting too bored.

Every so often, ten young men and women with dreams of cultivating immortality would leave the outpost.

Most of the time it's ten people coming in and ten coming out, occasionally nine people come out, and only once was it eight.

The boys leaving the camp didn't look too good; many of them were crying.

The boy who passed the test was left at the outpost, waiting for the guiding disciple who had set off from the Zhengyi Sect's mountain gate to patrol the Southern Dynasty to lead him back to the mountain gate.

Those who emerge are naturally the failures who did not pass the test.

After an hour and a half, the line in front of Han Lu had shrunk by nearly three-quarters. She was finally able to see the Zhengyi Gate outer gate post that she had seen half a month ago, through the heads of the people in front of her.

Raising her head and rubbing her slightly sore neck, Han Lu turned another page of her book, muttering to herself, "At this rate, it'll definitely be my turn in half an hour."

Just then, a luxuriously decorated carriage arrived outside the Zhengyi Gate stronghold.

There were no special markings on the carriage, but when the two young men with their hair tied up got off and, accompanied by four servants, "cut in line" to enter the gate, Han Lu still learned the approximate identities of these two "distinguished guests" from the conversations of the people around her.

After summarizing the fragmented information, she muttered to herself.

"He's probably a member of some cultivation family in the city."

"Having received several years of cultivation education in the clan, I am talented and have already established connections. I am just here to go through the motions."

Behind this carriage, several more "connected" individuals, having had a good night's sleep and breakfast, leisurely rode in their carriages, cutting in line, avoiding the sweltering summer heat.

Seeing this, Han Lu felt a little unhappy, and the expressions of the others who, like her, had been basking in the sun for an hour and a half in July also changed.

But they didn't foolishly complain to the air or to the Zhengyi Sect disciples maintaining order outside the outpost.

Such things are extremely common in the cultivation world.

Bai Chi, who could barely speak to Feng Bailu, came from a cultivation family.

Back then, after three years of cultivation within the clan, he entered the sect as a second-level Qi Refining cultivator, already possessing some skills.

Yuan Xin is the same.

This is a common practice among cultivation families active in the secular world.

This ensures that the younger members of the family can receive cultivation education early on, so that they don't lose at the starting line.

This also avoids supporting too many cultivators within the family, which could lead to a shortage of resources within the family.

Cultivation sects can also use this method to acquire many talented young people as disciples.

This is much easier than finding a needle in a haystack, or searching for talented children among millions of others.

Such win-win transactions have existed for thousands of years and have continued successfully to this day.

With these few people cutting in line and vying for attention, the speed at which the line shortened has slowed considerably.

But in the end, Han Lu, who bought another picture book about "True Spirit Monsters" to pass the time before lunch, still managed to enter the Zhengyi Sect outpost smoothly with nine other children around the age of fifteen.

Ten people.

Eight men and two women.

Girls develop early, and Han Lu's biological age after reincarnation is obviously higher than fifteen years old, not to mention that her appearance is different from that of ordinary girls.

Ordinary people have never seen a "rich young lady" like Han Lu who wears expensive clothes, has an above-average appearance, but has casual makeup and likes to read books of strange tales.

Therefore, Han Lu stood out among these ten people.

In the past, this would certainly have been considered "odd".

But now, the word others use to describe Han Lu is "unique".

An outer disciple of the Zhengyi Sect simply helped arrange the ten people into a certain order.

Because of her height and age, Han Lu was placed at the end of the ten-person team.

The line began another wait in front of a house with its door half open.

"Enter the room in order to be tested."

This outer disciple had said this sentence countless times that morning, and he spoke with a weak and listless tone.

The cultivation resources of outer disciples like him, who are sent to cultivate outside the mountain gate, are closely related to the results of the semi-annual disciple recruitment.

Judging from his performance, the situation this time was clearly not satisfactory.

Chapter Twenty: The Passerby (Bonus Chapter)

Once inside the courtyard, although there was a strange outer disciple of the Zhengyi Sect watching over him, he was finally free from the constraints of his family.

Several teenagers who had exchanged glances while queuing began to chat freely, exchanging hushed conversations without disrupting the order of the queue.

The order was maintained, and the Zhengyi Sect disciple had no interest in causing trouble, focusing his attention on the tightly closed door in front of the line.

As a result, the noise in the line increased by three points, and even the girl in front of Han Lu turned around and took the initiative to talk to Han Lu, this "unique" stranger.

"Sister, do you know what kind of test we'll have once we get inside?"

Han Lu, who was idly gazing at the scenery in the courtyard, was slightly surprised.

Unexpectedly, the girl in front of her took the initiative to talk to her.

Surprisingly, the girl in front of him was unaware of the general content of the Zhengyi Sect's apprenticeship examination.

Not only when Han Lu saw the girl's simple clothes, Han Lu thought to herself.

"They're probably villagers from nearby mountain villages..."

But then I thought back to when Feng Bailu was also a rough countryman who wasn't good with words, but he still managed to find out the content of the Zhengyi Sect's assessment by talking to someone.

"Is it just nervousness, or maybe you just want to talk to someone?"

This was the first time Han Lu had seriously considered a young girl's thoughts.

"I know."

Han Lu, who had no intention of showing off her "knowledge," was about to say a few words when a young man in front of her turned around and interrupted.

"In the room ahead, there is a set of magical tools that are a hundred times more precise than a loom. A senior from the Zhengyi Sect will teach you how to use them."

"That instrument will test whether we have spiritual roots."

"Only test takers with three or more spiritual roots can pass the test and join the Zhengyi Sect."

"Only about one-tenth of the people who come here to take the test will pass."

“Like me, I was tested at the Moyu Sect before. I have a mid-grade spiritual root of the three attributes of metal, wood and earth, which meets the entry requirements of the Zhengyi Sect.”