The Long Journey to Immortality

After washing her eyes, Han Lu sat cross-legged on the Dharma seat and gently touched a few spirit stones on the seat to activate the small spirit-gathering array engraved on it.

Sitting upright on the Dharma seat, she recalled everything Wen Erya had mentioned to her before, while also savoring the difference between the density of spiritual energy around her and the density of spiritual energy during her great cultivation that morning.

The Spirit Gathering Array was activated, consuming the spiritual power in the spirit stones to gather the sparse spiritual energy in the surrounding air around Han Lu's seat for her cultivation.

However, when Han Lu was cultivating, she still felt that she was lacking something compared to during the day.

She could only use a vivid metaphor to describe this situation that was both laughable and frustrating.

"So it turns out I not only have good digestion, but I also have a big appetite."

After a night of arduous cultivation, Han Lu's cultivation level improved slightly. Opening up a complete spiritual vein before the competition and advancing to the first level of Qi Refining seemed increasingly within reach.

Han Lu was quite enjoying the feeling of her cultivation level improving by leaps and bounds.

In the following days, Han Lu's life was exceptionally regular and stable.

Aside from successfully opening the ninth acupoint after several days of arduous training, only the occasional visits from Wen Erya and Fu Chen added a few minor ripples to her peaceful life.

As for Piaomiaozi, he is a Golden Core cultivator. Besides Han Lu and Wen Erya, he has nearly twenty disciples. He doesn't have much time to devote to Han Lu, his most inconspicuous little disciple.

Han Lu was happy to accept this.

However, this period of immense enjoyment for Han Lu did not last long before it was interrupted by external forces. Han Lu's status as a disciple of the Misty Child Sect was the main reason for this external force intervening in her life.

[Author's Note] The author's voting assistant will remind you seven times a week to remember to vote! (If there is only one chapter updated, it means that chapter has 4000 words.)

Chapter Thirty-Four: The Target, The Challenge

There are a total of 56 Golden Core cultivators in the Zhengyi Sect.

Some of them were lazy and disliked dealing with the daily affairs of the sect, so they were just nominally affiliated with the Five Elements Mountain Academy.

Even if we temporarily exclude the names of these Golden Core cultivators, the Zhengyi Sect still has nearly forty Golden Core cultivators active in the other five mountain academies.

Among them, the Dongshan Academy, where Han Lu is located, has eight Golden Core cultivators.

In terms of cultivation level, seniority, and other aspects, Han Lu's cheap master, Piaomiaozi, is the least noticeable among these eight Golden Core cultivators.

But after all, he was a Golden Core cultivator, holding the title of elder in the sect, and a senior figure whom countless Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples looked up to.

At this disciple-acceptance ceremony, a certain cultivator took charge and accepted two disciples.

These two disciples naturally became the talk of the town among the new disciples. They were also scrutinized by the frustrated newcomers who had no chance to become disciples of Golden Core cultivators, who used themselves or those around them as benchmarks to compare with Han Lu and Wen Erya.

The impetuousness of youth is a minor flaw that most young people cannot escape, and arrogance is a bad habit that many self-proclaimed geniuses also have.

There used to be a Fengbai Road as well.

These geniuses might wonder, why are these two disciples able to become disciples of a Golden Core Elder, while they can only cultivate in the Zhengyi Sect as ordinary disciples?

This became the reason why these disciples harbored unwarranted resentment towards Han Lu and Wen Erya.

Among the new disciples, there are many who enjoy gossip and many who are well-informed.

With these two types of people together, in less than seven days, almost all the new disciples knew the true identities of the two disciples who had gotten lucky enough to join Piaomiaozi's sect.

Although Wen Erya's name is not well-known, the series of accolades she possesses are enough to prevent her from being criticized.

The title of Thirteenth Princess was even a burden to Wen Erya, but to many of her new disciples who had only been out of the secular world for half a year or a year, the royal title made them more willing to sing praises to Wen Erya rather than swear at her.

Even setting aside this title, Wen Er Ya's achievements in cultivation are enough to shut up the gossips.

Top-grade spiritual root, Qi Refining Level 5.

With such exceptional talent in cultivation, and possessing such a high level of cultivation at such a young age, the other newcomers of Dongshan Academy would no longer have any thoughts of taking his place, simply because they saw these two points.

With less firepower directed at Wen Erya, naturally, more artillery fire shifted its focus to Han Lu.

Even Han Lu's "Senior Sister Wen" was used as a weapon to attack Han Lu, and was compared to Han Lu.

Although Han Lu's water-attribute superior spiritual root talent, as recorded in her file, is outstanding, it is still not at the level of being extremely rare.

She was far inferior to Wen Erya, and among the new disciples in the same batch, there were at least several others with talent at this level.

As for her cultivation level, which was only that of a novice Daoist, it became the point of most criticism from her fellow disciples and newcomers.

It should be noted that even Xue Ding, whom Han Lu considered not even mediocre, had already reached the first level of Qi Refining when he joined the Zhengyi Sect.

Many new disciples who aspire to join the inner sect and become disciples of Golden Core cultivators have a cultivation level of at least Qi Refining Level 3.

These fellow disciples who criticized Han Lu were unaware that Han Lu's cultivation method required opening 56 acupoints at the first level of Qi Refining, and they also didn't know that Han Lu had been cultivating from scratch for less than a month.

Han Lu's decent talent combined with her extremely low cultivation level easily leads people to label her as "lazy" and "wasting her talent."

Even after learning that Han Lu was actually quite good-looking, the nickname "pretty face with no substance" was still attached to her.

Not to mention, the information about Han Lu's background that she learned from her fellow townsmen in Moyu City could only be described as unremarkable.

Any disciple from a cultivation family has the right to say to Han Lu, "My family background is better than yours."

With such a tall, upright target that looks perfect for shooting right there, it's natural that people would have some ideas.

Some people are just jealous of Han Lu and will say a few bad things about her behind her back, making sarcastic remarks.

Many people also think of using Han Lu as a stepping stone, trying to make a name for themselves by using Han Lu.

Therefore, on the seventh day after Han Lu joined the Zhengyi Sect East Mountain Academy, the first challenge letter was found by Han Lu under the stone in front of the No. 17 gate of the Seventh Academy.

This challenge letter had actually been lying under that rock for two days, but because it was so inconspicuous, it was only two days late that Han Lu saw it.

It wasn't that the disciple who wanted to challenge Han Lu didn't want to use a "cool" and eye-catching paper sword to issue the challenge; it was simply because his cultivation level hadn't reached the fifth level of Qi Refining, and the paper sword he issued simply couldn't fly.

The rules of the Zhengyi Sect encourage open competition between disciples, which made many people unhappy. In the first few years after joining the sect, Feng Bailu received many challenge letters.

But after he proved his superior combat skills, the challenge letters he used to receive every few days completely disappeared.

Han Lu was quite surprised when she saw the challenge letter.

Looking at the completely unfamiliar name in the challenge letter, Han Lu muttered, "What? Why would a fellow disciple I don't even know send me a challenge letter for no reason?"

"I guess I'm not annoying now?"

Holding the letter, Han Lu stood in front of the courtyard gate for a moment, still not understanding the situation. After a moment of contemplation, she decided to ignore it and casually tossed the letter aside.

She is currently focused on cultivation and has no interest in magical combat for the time being.

The fighting between Daoist disciples was like a three-year-old child's brawl, and the "Nascent Soul stage cultivator" Xiaoyao Hanlu had no interest in it.

This attempt to appease Han Lu only fueled further misunderstandings among those who were dissatisfied with her, especially the fellow disciple who was the first to challenge her and "dare to be the first in the world," who exaggerated the matter within his own circle.

In an instant, Han Lu became a figure who was "both outwardly and inwardly hostile" in the eyes of the new disciples who were intentionally targeting her.

Kindness is often taken advantage of.

The challenge letters that were originally just one letter became ten, then twenty, and on the busiest day, as many as twenty-seven challenge letters with different names appeared in front of Gate 17 of the Seventh Academy.

Even more surprisingly, several older Qi Refining cultivators blocked the entrance to Han Lu's courtyard before the start of their major cultivation practice, directly challenging her.

These older cultivators are different from those who entered the Zhengyi Sect in the same batch as Han Lu.

Their challenge to Han Lu was simply a case of "bullying the weak and fearing the strong." They wanted to use Han Lu's current minor fame to make themselves famous, so that after leaving the Zhengyi Sect, they would have more to talk about as "having defeated a certain Golden Core Elder's disciple," which would help them find a good job.

Therefore, the reasons they gave for challenging Han Lu were even more bizarre and varied.

Some say that he and people with the surname "Han" are inherently at odds, which is why he challenged Han Lu.

Some say that Han Lu reminded him of his first love, a first love he couldn't bear to look back on, which is why he came to challenge Han Lu to a contest to heal his heartbreak.

Some even claimed they coveted the martial arts manuals Han Lu had exchanged at the Transmission Hall and wanted to have a duel with Han Lu.

Some people also said they became interested in the stone that was placed on top of the many challenge letters in front of Han Lu's house, and they were determined to fight Han Lu and win the stone.

……

These bizarre excuses only made Han Lu, who already had no idea what had happened, even more confused.

Fortunately, Piaomiaozi was unaware of such a trivial matter, but Han Lu's junior master, Fuchen, had heard about it.

When Fu Chen came to No. 17 of the Seventh Hospital for the third time, he had already found out everything and told Han Lu the whole story.

"I see."

"It's understandable that some people are dissatisfied that someone with only the cultivation level of a Daoist novice has become a disciple of a Golden Core cultivator."

"It's understandable that older cultivators who are already planning their lives after leaving the Zhengyi Sect come to me in order to stand out."

"but……"

While she could understand the situation, it was undeniable that these repeated challenges and invitations were disrupting her daily life.

Not to mention, Han Lu was worried that if she continued to be passive in the face of such a commotion, someone would dig deeper into her flimsy background, which would inevitably cause her even more trouble.

It's not a big deal for a disciple with a mysterious and suspicious background to cultivate in the Zhengyi Sect, but if this disciple with a mysterious and suspicious background were to become a disciple of a Golden Core cultivator, then even if the person in charge of the Zhengyi Sect didn't say anything, Piaomiaozi would at least react.

He wouldn't necessarily expel Han Lu outright, but he would inevitably have to make her explain herself in front of him.

Could Han Lu really tell her master, whom she had only known for ten days, everything that had happened to her in the past month?

No, that's impossible.

Seeing Han Lu stroking her chin in deep thought, Fu Chen offered his suggestion, "Junior Sister Han, why don't you choose a few challengers who are also at the Daoist Child level, accept their invitations, and fight them on the arena? That should definitely solve the problem."

Fu Chen trusted Piao Miao Zi's judgment and did not doubt Han Lu's abilities, which is why he gave the suggestion to face the challenge head-on.

Han Lu nodded, then shook her head, "How about this..."

Han Lu assessed her current strength and how long it would take to open her tenth acupoint. After a moment, she continued, "Little Master, please spread some word that I'm willing to accept challenges, but there are certain requirements regarding the challenger's cultivation level..."

Fu Chen nodded slightly, indicating that he was listening.

"Because my cultivation level is still shallow, I only accept challenges from cultivators at the second level of Qi Refining or below."

"Those senior and junior brothers who wish to challenge me and meet the requirements can wait at the entrance of Room 17, Seventh Academy, after the Great Cultivation ends in three days."

"At that time, I will select five people to compete."

"If I can win all five matches, I hope everyone will stop bothering me for the sake of us being from the same school."

Han Lu estimated that she would be able to open her tenth acupoint in three days. At that time, the total amount of spiritual power in her body should be about the same as that of an ordinary Qi Refining Level 1 cultivator.

Relying on Feng Bailu and Xiaoyaozi's combat experience, he felt confident that bullying five insignificant cultivators wouldn't pose too much of a problem.

If she weren't afraid of being too amazing or dazzling, she would even have thought of crossing three levels to fight against a Qi Refining Level 3 cultivator.

Hearing Han Lu's demands, Fu Chen said worriedly, "Junior Sister, cultivating the Dao is a matter that takes decades or even centuries. There's no need to rush things. You've only opened seven acupoints yet. Isn't it a bit much to fight against a cultivator at the second level of Qi Refining..."