The Long Journey to Immortality

The monk took out a book called "The Rules of the Zhengyi Sect" and randomly pointed to a few rules for Han Lu to read and write, as a test of her literacy level.

This was naturally no challenge for Han Lu.

Having passed the test successfully, Han Lu was soon led by a servant to a small courtyard in the outpost specifically for newlyweds.

There are quite a few rooms in the courtyard, one for each person, and the environment is much better than the inn where Han Lu stayed before.

After the apprenticeship ceremony concluded, a cultivator dressed in a blue robe, responsible for the daily management of the Moyu City outpost, arrived at the campus.

Including Lu Yao, a total of seventeen young people with spiritual roots were gathered together to listen to his speech.

If we include the few "distinguished guests" who took leave to go home, Mo Yucheng helped the sect recruit twenty-two new members this time.

Han Lu saw Xue Ding in the crowd, and Xue Ding saw him too.

Xue Ding was not at all surprised that Han Lu was able to pass the test smoothly.

Unlike Mu Banxiang, he was completely ignorant about cultivation. When he noticed the storage bag on Han Lu's waist while queuing, he knew that Han Lu was "on the same path" as him.

This Foundation Establishment cultivator is named Cheng Jie, and he is the second-in-command of the Moyu City stronghold.

After briefly announcing a few rules for the stronghold, the "Zhengyi Sect Rules" printed by the stronghold were distributed, with one copy for each person.

"Take some time these next few days to review and memorize the sect rules, so you won't be punished for violating them after you arrive at the sect."

"It will take three to five days at the earliest, and soon the sect will send a disciple to Moyu City to take you all away and send you to the sect."

Next, several teenagers living in Moyu City were granted two hours of "family visit leave" and were allowed to leave temporarily after receiving their waist tokens.

Han Lu, who had nowhere else to go, settled down in the small courtyard and waited for the arrival of her disciples in a few days.

[Author's Note] After a 20-day vacation, I'm back at work.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Preschool, Flying Boat

In order to help newly initiated disciples adapt to the cultivation life they will face after joining the Zhengyi Sect.

During the period of waiting for the disciples to go to the Zhengyimen outposts in various cities to pick up the newcomers, the managers at each outpost would make some special arrangements for newcomers like Han Lu.

Although Moyu City is the largest city in the north of the Southern Dynasty, there don't seem to be many Zhengyi Sect disciples stationed here.

Therefore, Cheng Jie, the deputy steward in charge of managing these twenty-odd newcomers, did not make any major changes. He simply made some arrangements for the newcomers' daily lives in accordance with the requirements of the Zhengyi Sect disciples.

There is a morning class scheduled for half an hour, which is led by three Foundation Establishment cultivators, including Cheng Jie.

Because of limited ability and fear of taking responsibility for misleading students, the morning classes at the outpost only answer questions about general cultivation issues, and do not answer very specific questions about the cultivation and application of techniques and secret arts.

Similar to the daily morning lessons in the sect, there are no requirements for attendance.

After all, cultivators are not like students of the Imperial Academy. Even cultivators in the Qi Refining stage often spend one or two days in deep meditation.

After the morning lessons, the outpost will activate a medium-sized spirit-gathering array set up by a Golden Core stage array master, allowing outer disciples and non-entry disciples like Han Lu and Xue Ding, who have already opened at least one acupoint, to enter and cultivate.

It increases the density of spiritual energy in the environment, aiding in further improvement of cultivation.

The effects of this formation are similar to, or even slightly inferior to, the spirit-gathering formation on the throne that Han Lu possesses, but it has the advantage of being able to be used by a hundred people at the same time.

Although the array was meticulously designed by this Golden Core stage array master, its power consumption was low, requiring only ten low-grade spirit stones to operate for one hour.

However, this daily "benefit" period still only lasts for a short two hours.

Within the Zhengyi Gate, each branch academy has a similar arrangement, though there are slight differences in the details.

The cultivation resources provided by those stationed in major cities were far inferior to those within the sect, let alone compared to those of the inner disciples of the Zhengyi Sect.

Like the inner gate of Xishan Courtyard where Fengbai Road used to be, there was also a quiet room with a high-level spirit-gathering array set up for people to use.

This treatment is far superior to that of the stronghold in Moyu City.

In order to facilitate the cultivators' practice and to distinguish themselves from ordinary mortals, there are no special arrangements or regulations for trivial matters such as meals.

Within the Zhengyi Sect, there is also an evening class held once a month, presided over by Golden Core cultivators from various mountain academies.

Since the outposts didn't have the necessary resources, Cheng Jie simply arranged for a Qi Refining stage cultivator to act as a teacher. The cultivator would read and teach Han Lu and the others the "Rules of the Zhengyi Sect," giving them a "preschool education class."

Han Lu had long been used to this arrangement, so she didn't find anything wrong with it.

Such a free environment excited several teenagers who had never been exposed to spiritual practice and were strictly controlled at home.

For them, becoming a powerful cultivator with the ability to move mountains and fill seas is a blessing.

But this is only happiness in the future.

The freedom to arrange one's eating and sleeping times at will is the happiness that is right before one's eyes.

Although she possessed a Dharma seat and had a large number of spirit stones in her storage bag, Han Lu did not do anything foolish like standing out from the crowd and skipping the "great cultivation" after the morning class.

Han Lu quite enjoyed this kind of life. However, Xue Ding's constant attempts to strike up a conversation with her were somewhat of annoyance.

He still had the heart of a child, and developed some inexplicable feelings for Han Lu, who was a year older than him and had a good appearance.

He always wanted to show off in front of Han Lu, say a few words, make his presence known, and tell the other boys.

"See? I'm pretty good, aren't I? I have a good relationship with the only female cultivator here, and she's quite beautiful."

Han Lu had never encountered such a situation before.

At first, Han Lu thought Xue Ding wanted to show off his cultivation and talent in front of her.

So she came up with a little idea. During the second "great cultivation", she asked a resident cultivator to say that Xue Ding had "excellent Qi perception, single water spiritual root, and superior spiritual root quality", hoping to give Xue Ding a slight blow and stop him from showing up in front of her.

Unexpectedly, Xue Ding had no such idea at all. When he learned that Han Lu's talent surpassed his own but she had only opened six acupoints, he became even more eager to teach her, saying that he would use his three years of cultivation experience to answer Han Lu's questions.

Whenever Han Lu listened to Xue Ding recount his experiences and insights that had already been thoroughly digested or were simply wrong, she always felt a sense of powerlessness.

He wanted to point out the mistakes in Xue Ding's words, but he was also afraid that he would be pestered again by this seemingly inexhaustible young man under the pretext of "becoming an apprentice".

Over two days, Xue Ding exhausted Han Lu's patience, causing her to give up her idea that "my mental age is six hundred years old, and I don't bother arguing with teenagers."

He made up his mind that if Xue Ding continued to pester him, he would give him a straightforward scolding and tell him to get lost.

Just then, Li Yiran, Xue Ding's sworn enemy, finished his family visit leave on the third day after everyone settled in and moved into the small courtyard.

This finally brought some peace to Han Lu, who had been putting on a frosty facade.

During her few days at the camp, Han Lu's cultivation progress was slightly slower than when she cultivated alone in the inn, but she still managed to open her seventh acupoint quite smoothly, which greatly improved her cultivation level.

According to Han Lu's judgment, at this rate, barring any unforeseen circumstances, in another four to five months, she will be able to shed the less-than-pleasant title of "Daoist Boy" and become a true cultivator once again.

The cultivation world was peaceful and tranquil, and no major events occurred in the secular world of the Southern Dynasty. The disciples of the Zhengyi Sect responsible for receiving new disciples set off on time without any delays on their journey.

On the fifth day after Han Lu and the others moved into the courtyard, three Foundation Establishment disciples of the Zhengyi Sect, who had accepted the mission of guiding them, arrived in Moyu City on time in their flying boat.

Although this flying boat was much slower than the one that Feng Bailu had been controlling half a month ago, it was twenty times larger and could accommodate a hundred people.

The enormous flying boat descended from the sky and finally landed on the open space of the small courtyard.

This scene drew gasps of surprise from several of the young men in the crowd who had no cultivation whatsoever.

They couldn't wait to board the ark and head to the Zhengyi Sect to learn the spells and secret techniques that they believed only immortals could possess, and like the three cultivators who disembarked from the flying boat, to soar freely through the air with their magical artifacts.

Han Lu has also done the job of guiding disciples.

After obtaining a flying boat from the inner treasury, he and two other disciples piloted the flying boat to three nearby cities in a certain direction of the Southern Dynasty. They loaded all the new recruits recruited at the outposts in these three cities onto the flying boat and sent them back to their sect, thus declaring their mission accomplished.

This task wasn't particularly troublesome, but because it involved contributing to the sect and earning a considerable amount of contribution points to exchange for resources, it was always a highly sought-after task for older Foundation Establishment cultivators like Feng Bailu.

This time, the Zhengyi Sect cultivators who went to Moyu City and the other two cities to be responsible for the reception mission came from Beishan Academy. Han Lu did not know them, but they were acquaintances of Cheng Jie.

The three chatted with Cheng Jie in the courtyard for a while before taking Han Lu and the others' files from the cultivator in charge of registering new recruits.

Following the names on the files, roll call was conducted one by one. After the number of people was counted, all the uninitiated newcomers living in the courtyard took their prepared bags and luggage and boarded the ark in turn.

Because Moyu City is located in the northernmost part of the Southern Dynasty, these three Zhengyi Sect cultivators had already met nearly sixty newcomers who had not yet entered the sect in two other cities before arriving in Moyu City.

Compared to the other two cities, Moyu City, despite being a large city, recruited fewer newcomers, which explains the worried expressions on the faces of the cultivators stationed there.

Besides Han Lu, there were seven other girls on the airship.

The three Zheng Yi Sect cultivators were quite considerate, allowing Han Lu and the other seven girls to sit in a relatively spacious area, while the other Mo Yu City youths who boarded the flying boat formed a square formation, squeezing together with the youths from the other two cities.

After settling everyone in, the flying boat set off again, carrying nearly a hundred young people with dreams of cultivating immortality, heading towards the Zhengyi Sect, the holy land of cultivation in the Southern Dynasty.

[Author's Note] A reader once told me that I always made mistakes with terms like "teenager" and "girl," and hoped I could correct them. As it turns out, my skills are limited, and I probably can't change them.

The items the protagonist carries are only what Xiaoyaozi prepared for himself during the Qi Refining stage; the treasures for the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core stages are stored elsewhere. This is mentioned in Chapter Ten.

Chapter Twenty-Three: On the Flying Boat, Arrival at Zhengyi Gate

Such a massive flying boat requires two Foundation Establishment stage cultivators to operate simultaneously for it to fly stably.

Therefore, of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators responsible for guiding the newcomers from the three cities including Moyu City, two piloted the boat, while one sat in the cabin with Han Lu and nearly a hundred others to maintain order.

The monk in charge of maintaining order had a rather fierce look on his face and said sternly.

"Please be patient. The flying boat will take about two days and two nights to reach the Zhengyi Mountain Gate."

"Three meals a day, and all rules and regulations shall be followed in accordance with the 'Zhengyimen Rules'."

"Do not make noise or disturbances."

After speaking, the monk sat cross-legged, slowly entered a meditative state, and began his daily cultivation.

Many new disciples, upon hearing this, followed suit, thinking of entering meditation to pass the somewhat boring free time on the flying boat.

Han Lu is the same.

However, most new disciples with some cultivation, even when in deep meditation, would find it difficult to sense the presence of spiritual energy on a rapidly flying airship.

Cultivating on a flying boat is not an easy task for the many new disciples of the Zhengyi Sect who are only at the first or second level of Qi Refining, let alone so many people gathered together to share the already limited spiritual energy for cultivation.

Only a cultivator with exceptional Qi perception like Han Lu could sense the thin spiritual energy in the air at an altitude of nearly a thousand meters and attract it using his own physique.

Even for Han Lu, in this environment, her cultivation efficiency was less than half of what it was usually.

Fortunately, Han Lu opened her seventh acupoint before boarding the flying boat. All she needs to do in the near future is to stabilize her realm and open up new spiritual energy channels.

Otherwise, even Han Lu would find it difficult to make progress in such a terrible training environment.

Sure enough, when the young men and women who originally intended to focus on cultivation discovered this, they all temporarily put their cultivation aside.

With so many peers gathered together on the flying boat, chatting quietly with their fellow villagers became their only form of entertainment.

With that monk's words in place, no one made a loud noise; they just whispered among themselves and occasionally let out a few soft laughs.