The Long Journey to Immortality

Unlike Liu Yibo, who was unaware of what was going to happen and simply followed the fierce-looking cultivator with his head down, Han Lu knew exactly where Liu Yibo was going and what good things were going to happen to her.

Newcomers with exceptional talent like Han Lu and Liu Yibo were given special markings during their registration. After arriving at Zhengyi Sect, they would be assigned to the inner sect of a certain mountain academy, where they would receive more support in terms of cultivation resources.

Now, the fierce-looking cultivator was going to lead the two of them to meet the Golden Core cultivators who had come here to accept disciples, to see if the two of them had enough good fortune to be valued by a Golden Core cultivator and become his inner disciple or even his closed disciple, and be vigorously cultivated.

Even if they are not accepted as disciples by a Golden Core cultivator, the two will still be mentored by a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Zhengyi Sect and incorporated into the inner sect, beginning their cultivation as inner disciples of a certain mountain academy of the Zhengyi Sect.

Upon arriving at the rooms behind the hall, the fierce-looking cultivator pointed to a door not far away and shoved Han Lu's file into her hands, saying, "Han Lu, you have a high-grade water-attribute spiritual root, so go to this room."

"Liu Yibo, you have dual spiritual roots of wood and fire, with a superior-grade wood attribute and a mid-grade fire attribute. Which type of cultivation technique do you wish to learn?" the fierce-faced cultivator asked.

Liu Yibo had only a superficial understanding of cultivation. He asked around on the way and originally planned to use the "wood generates fire" principle to cultivate fire-attribute techniques. However, after the fierce-looking cultivator asked him a question, he suddenly became conflicted.

Looking at Liu Yibo, the fierce-faced cultivator said helplessly, "Alright, since we haven't decided yet, let's try both."

"This room belongs to Xishan Academy, and this room belongs to Nanshan Academy."

After giving directions, the fierce-looking cultivator added a special reminder, "The cultivators in the room are all seniors at the Golden Core stage, so please show them some respect."

Han Lu nodded, and Liu Yibo solemnly replied, "Yes."

After watching the two stand in front of their respective rooms and politely knock on the doors, the fierce-looking cultivator's expression finally relaxed.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Misty Child, Nominal Disciple

There are many cultivators in the Zhengyi Sect, and naturally there are many cultivators with high magical power and profound realm.

Just like the former Fengbai Road, there are more than a hundred cultivators with the early stage of Foundation Establishment cultivation in just one Xishan Academy.

Such cultivation level would be extremely rare even among small sects and clans.

After all, the vast majority of cultivation resources in the Central Plains region are now occupied by the two major sects.

In other minor sects, as long as there is a Golden Core cultivator, one can secure a place on the "Sect Ranking".

Even if there is only one Foundation Establishment cultivator with high combat power, it can still be considered a local force with a name and a reputation.

Even so, the Zhengyi Sect, with its many high-level cultivators, could only barely manage to have one Golden Core cultivator from each mountain academy appear at every disciple recruitment ceremony to recruit new disciples.

Since the path of cultivation is long and arduous, most cultivators prefer to spend their time and effort on themselves.

Unless one's lifespan is nearing its end, or a prodigy with exceptional talent joins the sect.

Only then will these Golden Core stage cultivators develop a slight desire to take on disciples and devote their time to their newly acquired "closed-door disciples".

Han Lu knew about these things.

Therefore, she didn't expect the Golden Core cultivator behind the door to take notice of her, accept him as her closed-door disciple, and provide him with a large amount of cultivation resources for careful nurturing.

Extending her hand, Han Lu thought to herself, "It would be good enough if they could accept me as a disciple."

"But this is what I hoped for."

Han Lu felt that she had too many secrets and her identity could not withstand close scrutiny. If a Golden Core cultivator were to be too enthusiastic towards her, she would actually feel a little annoyed.

Thinking this, Han Lu gently knocked on the door.

A gentle male voice came from inside the door, saying, "Come in, make yourself at home."

She then pushed the door open and entered.

The room was small and simply furnished.

Several futons for people to sit on were casually placed in the room, with only a short-haired man in a purple robe sitting in the seat of honor.

He is holding a wolf-hair brush and writing intently on the paper.

The man's appearance and his voice were a perfect match.

Looking at the face of this Golden Core cultivator, Han Lu associated him with the image of a gentle and refined gentleman described in the classics.

Both his appearance and temperament perfectly match the image of an "immortal" in the minds of ordinary people.

After advancing to the Golden Core stage, a cultivator's skin, flesh, and bones will undergo slight changes, and their facial features will develop in a direction that is considered handsome and beautiful by the average person.

However, it cannot be ruled out that this purple-robed cultivator valued his appearance highly and used a transformation technique at this moment.

After a moment of random thoughts, Han Lu realized that staring at the other person's face like that was extremely impolite. She quickly lowered her head, took a few steps, and found a futon located to the side of the purple-robed cultivator, where she sat down cross-legged.

After a while, when the purple-robed cultivator had written nearly a hundred words of various sizes on the white paper, he casually reached out and took the "file" that Han Lu had placed beside him.

Holding the paper, the purple-robed cultivator examined it for a moment, his expression remaining calm.

Slightly raising her head, Han Lu carefully observed the changes in the purple-robed cultivator's expression, pondering how to make the outcome of this "interview" satisfactory to her.

Once inside this room, Han Lu is probably the only one single-mindedly focused on becoming a "regular disciple."

After all, Han Lu's file, which she deliberately concealed, was outstanding among the thousand new disciples in the hall, but it didn't stand out much among the newcomers who were "interviewing" with Golden Core cultivators.

Okay, but not to the point where people would immediately take him as a disciple just because they see him, or even have other Golden Core cultivators rushing to compete for him.

Sure enough, after examining Han Lu for a moment, the purple-robed cultivator did not have the idea of ​​continuing to investigate her, and spoke directly.

"Han Lu, you have good aptitude and are very suitable to enter Dongshan Academy to cultivate Taoist arts."

“In the past, given your talent, several Golden Core cultivators, including myself, would have taken you in as their personal disciple and carefully nurtured you.”

Hearing this, Han Lu knew that there must be a twist in what followed.

really.

"However, I have many disciples, and I have already accepted one as my inner disciple. If I accept you as well, I will inevitably neglect your management, which will make your future cultivation more difficult."

"How about this: I will take you as a disciple in name only, and then arrange for a Foundation Establishment cultivator suitable for teaching and guiding you daily. What do you think?"

The fact that a Golden Core cultivator spoke so much to the young disciple, explaining why he only accepted her as a nominal disciple and offering a path that suited Han Lu's tastes greatly increased her goodwill towards this purple-robed cultivator whose Daoist name and title she did not know.

"I will follow Master's arrangements." Influenced by Xiaoyaozi's memories, Han Lu had developed the ability to adapt to any situation, so she called him Master.

“My Daoist name is Piaomiaozi. In private, you may call me Master, or whatever you prefer,” Piaomiaozi, dressed in purple robes, was not a cultivator who valued etiquette or hierarchy. “What are your thoughts on the senior brothers and sisters who I arrange to guide your daily cultivation?”

"I will follow Master's arrangements." Han Lu repeated the same words, but changed her form of address, adding a touch of respect.

Without any formal apprenticeship ceremony, Piaomiaozi accepted Han Lu as his disciple. It must be said that Piaomiaozi is indeed as unconventional and casual as his Taoist name suggests.

After pondering for a moment, Piaomiaozi took out a palm-sized piece of paper from his storage bag, wrote a few words on it with a brush, and then casually crumpled it up.

The paper, which should have been crumpled up, turned into the shape of a "sword".

Piaomiaozi flicked the "paper sword" in his hand, and the paper sword seemed to be manipulated by someone. After spinning in the air, it flew straight out of the crack in the door.

This is a common short-distance communication method among cultivators after they have reached the fifth level of Qi Refining.

Han Lu was already used to it and didn't show any surprise like a typical new Taoist disciple.

Each time a Golden Core cultivator recruits disciples at the Five Elements Mountain Academy, they will select a few Foundation Establishment disciples from their respective inner sects to come along and wait by their side, ready to be ordered around.

Most of these Foundation Establishment disciples are at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, but with their own cultivation knowledge and experience, they are more than capable of teaching the newly initiated junior brothers and sisters in addition to the morning and evening classes.

As a former inner disciple of the Zhengyi Sect, Feng Bailu was assigned by Golden Core cultivators to tutor newcomers who had just entered the inner sect. He had done this job before.

Unfortunately, due to his personality, he didn't get along very well with that junior brother.

That junior brother, however, was entangled in worldly affairs and lacked a certain passion for the Dao. In the end, he was stuck at the seventh level of Qi Refining for three years as an inner disciple and was expelled from the sect according to the sect rules.

This made Feng Bailu feel somewhat guilty, and it also made his already mediocre reputation within the sect even worse.

Several Golden Core cultivators who had met him a few times stopped assigning him the task of mentoring newcomers.

Less than half a cup of tea's time after the paper sword flew out, a cultivator dressed in a blue robe from the Zhengyi Sect pushed open the door and entered.

The monk was dressed rather slovenly, his hair was messy and he had just tied it into a bun. His blue robe was clean but wrinkled, probably something he had kept hidden away and had only taken out to wear for this disciple-acceptance ceremony.

Upon entering the room, the cultivator first gave a clean bow to Piaomiaozi and greeted him, "Elder Piaomiao."

Piaomiaozi nodded and pointed to Han Lu sitting to the side, "Take her there, the rest is up to you."

“Yes,” the cultivator said, then looked at Han Lu and smiled, “Let’s go, junior sister.”

Han Lu followed suit, politely bidding farewell to Piaomiaozi before leaving with the disheveled cultivator to attend to other trivial matters after entering the Zhengyi Sect.

[Author's Note] Do you have any recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, or free razor blades to give away?

Chapter Twenty-Six: Just a Pretense? The Thirteenth Princess

They left the back room where several Golden Core cultivators were temporarily residing.

The slightly disheveled senior then gave Lu Yao a brief self-introduction.

"Fu Chen, if Junior Sister Han doesn't mind, you can call me Senior Brother Fu or Little Master."

Perhaps it was because the combination of "Fu" and "Shi" sounded awkward, or perhaps it was because Fu Chen had the heart of a teacher, he was more looking forward to Han Lu using the latter, slightly awkward but pleasant-sounding title to address him.

"Supporting the Master, Floating Corpse?"

Han Lu initially failed to grasp Fu Chen's implied meaning and called him "Senior Brother Fu" twice. After realizing that it didn't sound good, she started calling Fu Chen "Little Master".

With just a few words, Fu Chen, who had only been in contact with Han Lu for a short while, felt that his trip had not been in vain. He readily agreed, saying, "Junior Sister Han, feel free to ask me any questions you may have about cultivation in the future. Don't underestimate me just because my cultivation level is not high. My theoretical knowledge is very solid. I dare say that even those senior brothers who are in the late Foundation Establishment stage may not know as much or have as much experience as I do."

This sounded like boasting, but Han Lu's impression of Fu Chen didn't suffer because of it.

After all, she had no intention of learning anything from Fu Chen.

Even if she was exaggerating, Fu Chen was only comparing herself to a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Even if a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator taught her everything they knew, it would still not be as helpful as Xiaoyaozi's hundred years of experience.

So she simply replied politely, "Is that so? It seems that Master really made the right choice in sending Little Master to tutor me."

Having a pleasant conversation, as soon as they stepped out of the Five Elements Mountain Academy, Fu Chen took the initiative to cast a lightness spell on Han Lu.

"The distance between the sect's various mountain retreats is quite far, and only elders at the Golden Core stage and Grand Elders at the Nascent Soul stage are allowed to ride flying swords and magical artifacts to fly through the air. Therefore, all of us disciples must master one or two lightness techniques to facilitate our travels."

After saying that, Fu Chen took the initiative to give Han Lu her first lesson.

"Treading on water without leaving a trace is a lightness technique commonly used by cultivators of our Dongshan Academy. I will teach you it after things settle down. With Junior Sister Han's aptitude, I'm sure you'll be able to learn it in no time."

Despite their brief encounter, Fu Chen left a very good impression on Han Lu.

She bowed and thanked him, saying, "Then I thank you in advance, young master."

Fu Chen laughed and said, "It's a small matter. Even if I don't teach it, the cultivator in charge of the morning class tomorrow will definitely show you this skill and teach it to you disciples who have just started."

"Alright, let's hurry up and go. Don't waste time here. We still have a lot to do today," Fu Chen said, rubbing his already messy hair. "Let's go back to the inner gate of Dongshan Academy first."

Although he had been cultivating at Zhengyi Sect for nearly thirty years under the identity of Feng Bailu, Feng Bailu, who was devoted to cultivation, was only active in the Five Elements Mountain Academy and the West Mountain Academy, and had never set foot in the other four academies.