The Long Journey to Immortality

"If there were no wine around, I would definitely toast Elder Zhenfeng."

Xuan Chengzi didn't take Han Lu's promise too seriously. He judged based on Han Lu's series of deeds and his way of dealing with people that Han Lu was not an ungrateful person, and that making his words clear was enough.

In any case, under Xuan Chengzi's guidance, the two cultivators spoke frankly and openly, which quickly pushed this troublesome matter, which would have been difficult to discuss, to a satisfactory point.

Having revealed the truth, and with Xuan Chengzi's supportive attitude, Han Lu naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity to openly and legitimately seek support and resources.

In a casual, friendly tone, she recounted many trivial details about taking on apprentices over the past few days. A few complaints from Han Lu, mixed in with her conversation, naturally reached Xuan Chengzi's ears.

Xuan Chengzi was quite straightforward. He first cited Han Lu's "great achievements" in cultivating juniors in the sect when she was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He then expressed his optimism about Han Lu's ability to be a good teacher. Finally, he "generously" allocated some supplies that were not even a drop in the ocean for the Zhengyi Sect, which were intended for Qi Refining disciples, to Han Lu's name, thus making a substantial support move.

Spirit stones, pills, magic weapons, and cultivation techniques may only be worth two or three thousand spirit stones in total, but for Han Lu, who is so wealthy that she lacks spare change, they can save her a lot of trouble.

As for the matter of "student enrollment," Xuan Chengzi couldn't make the decision either, but he instructed Han Lu to seek help from the Dean of Dongshan Academy.

"Elder Zhenfeng, I remember that Dean Qingxu was acquainted with you, and the Dongshan Academy was under the management of your master, Elder Piaomiao."

"If you're willing, you'll likely be the Golden Core Elder presiding over the next few disciple-acceptance ceremonies."

"Why worry about not being able to find good apprentices?"

Han Lu knew this method, of course. She brought it up through Xuan Chengzi mainly to avoid suspicion and prevent people from accusing her of using connections.

Going with the flow, Han Lu said, "This isn't quite right. Why don't you, Sect Leader, write a few letters to smooth things over for me, so that others won't gossip?"

At Han Lu's request, Xuan Chengzi agreed to take the "official" route, issuing an official letter to explain the matter, instead of using Han Lu's personal connections.

After the matter was settled, Xuan Chengzi hinted that he had an important task for Han Lu in the future. After receiving Han Lu's assurance, he exchanged a few more casual words before letting Han Lu leave.

The official letter hadn't been sent out yet, and things were only just beginning, but Han Lu felt that everything was in place and they were just waiting for the Battle of Red Cliffs to begin.

After leaving the Five Elements Mountain Academy, Han Lu made another trip to the inner treasury. Not only did she receive the supplies promised by Xuan Chengzi, but she also pocketed the resources that the sect had been allocating to the elders monthly over the past three years.

Only with abundant resources can the great cause of teaching and educating people proceed smoothly.

Chapter 726 A Great Teacher Produces Outstanding Students

April passed in the blink of an eye.

In mid-April, Han Lu intensively trained her disciples for a month, and then allowed them to develop freely for three months in a semi-free-range manner.

Although they weren't constantly monitoring their disciples' growth like a strict teacher, everything was proceeding almost exactly as Han Lu had envisioned, following the cultivation plan she had set for each of them.

After obtaining a large amount of spirit stones and pills, and being able to occasionally ascend to the auspicious mountainside of Cold Cicada Peak to cultivate, the four disciples' cultivation speed advanced by leaps and bounds.

Yu Hetong, in particular, performed even better than Han Lu had imagined.

Despite experiencing setbacks in modifying his cultivation method, he advanced rapidly because of his compatibility with the new method.

Under Han Lu's careful guidance and his diligent efforts, Yu Hetong was close to the second level of Qi Refining before he opened up the second spiritual vein in just four months.

It should be noted that the new cultivation method was a high-level method specially selected for him by Han Lu, and opening a spiritual meridian requires opening a total of eighteen acupoints.

Such speed can only be described as "lightning fast".

In the future, when Yu Hetong advances to a higher realm, the speed will definitely slow down, but it won't be much slower.

Han Lu could even imagine that Yu Hetong could overtake the other three senior brothers and sisters and be the first to advance to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The other three were in similar situations.

Both sisters successfully advanced to the fifth level of Qi Refining. The elder sister, He Lanyan, even has a chance to advance to the sixth level of Qi Refining before the minor competition. With Han Lu's help, she will achieve the remarkable feat of opening three spiritual veins in a year, which is considered a great achievement by ordinary cultivators.

Her younger sister, Helan Wei, was slightly inferior, but she excelled in the use of magical artifacts and the execution of spells.

With guidance from Han Lu, a Golden Core cultivator skilled in combat techniques, Han Lu believed that even if He Lanyan advanced to the sixth level of Qi Refining, she would still be no match for He Lanwei, who was only one level below her in cultivation.

Judging solely from the younger sister's performance, He Lanwei clearly has a better chance of achieving a satisfactory result than her older sister.

Shen Xingsheng, who was the least favored among the four by Han Lu, did not disappoint her.

Shen Xingsheng, who is rather introverted and taciturn, is a perfect example of the saying "diligence can make up for lack of talent".

Shen Xingsheng, who spends eleven out of twelve hours a day cultivating, is like a tiger with wings after receiving "sponsorship" and "guidance" from Han Lu.

As Shen Xingsheng successfully advanced to the sixth level of Qi Refining in just three and a half months, Han Lu also discovered that her least talented disciple possessed a quality that ordinary cultivators did not have.

Perhaps because he is a bit slow-witted and has a slightly dull reaction, Shen Xingsheng can contrarianly keep his mind in a clear state, even though he spends a lot of time on cultivation, which can easily lead to restlessness and instability.

This is why his diligence allowed him to "squeeze out" more time for spiritual practice.

With both goals in mind, Han Lu even felt that she could further explore among the outer disciples. Perhaps she wouldn't need to look for any exceptionally talented individuals at the disciple recruitment ceremony to achieve her goal of cultivating a large number of Foundation Establishment disciples for the sect within thirty years.

The four outer disciples performed well, and Nian Haoge, the eldest disciple who had been staying at Han Lu's house since mid-April, was also quite good.

After Nian Haoge truly became Han Lu's student, his behavior was not much different from a few years ago.

Those with high cultivation levels won't see any concrete results in a short period of time.

The only improvement Han Lu could see was in her sword intent and her increasingly skillful use of sword formations.

Among Han Lu's six disciples, the eldest disciple Qiu Peng was the only unexpected figure.

Although his cultivation level was higher than that of the nominal disciples, his foundation was not as solid. He spent about two months of the past four months working with Han Lu and his senior sister Nian Haoge to solidify his foundation.

Not only that, many of these techniques require further practice.

The magical treasures that Han Lu gave us must also be mastered.

Furthermore, following Han Lu's suggestion, Qiu Peng changed his main cultivation method to a secondary one, and obtained a profound classic text from Han Lu, which he had acquired at great expense from the academy, to start cultivating again.

This choice is undoubtedly correct, but it is also destined to be full of twists and turns.

There are many trivial matters related to spiritual practice, and Qiu Peng feels that twenty-four hours is simply not enough.

Qiu Peng wished he could grow three heads and six arms, and three more dantian (energy centers).

In the back and forth, judging solely from the level of cultivation and the amount of spiritual power, Qiu Peng's progress was not obvious at all.

However, Qiu Peng's strength has increased many times over since he left the ancient cultivation secret realm.

Originally, Qiu Peng, who had just heard about the competition, was worried about how he, with his "weak" strength, would pass the competition after becoming a disciple of the Zhengyi Sect.

After four months, Qiu Peng became frustrated because Foundation Establishment disciples couldn't participate in the minor competition, causing him to miss a great opportunity to show off his skills in front of unfamiliar fellow disciples.

Each of her six apprentices was different, so Han Lu naturally treated them differently, teaching them according to their individual needs.

Despite her best efforts and some gains, Han Lu's own cultivation was somewhat delayed.

After experiencing this incident, Han Lu understood why many Golden Core elders liked to "subcontract" their disciples layer by layer, or simply adopt a semi-free-range approach to their training.

It's simply because cultivators have limited energy.

Seven days before the start of the minor competition, Han Lu once again used a paper sword to summon all her disciples to her side. She planned to follow her usual practice and conduct so-called "pre-exam special training" for the four registered disciples, so that these four disciples, who had only experienced the minor competition twice at most, could have more experience and insights in dealing with the minor competition.

Qiu Peng, who usually struggles with a lack of practical experience, was also pulled into this "pre-exam training" by Han Lu.

Even during special training, Qiu Peng, whose cultivation level was significantly higher than that of his junior brothers and sisters, was arranged by Han Lu to be used as a "sandbag," ostensibly to cultivate Qiu Peng's defense and ability to withstand blows.

This arrangement is quite appropriate. It avoids making Qiu Peng, who has never fought anyone before, feel intimidated when he sees spells or magical treasures coming at him, while also allowing He Lanwei and the others to fully unleash their skills and practice various combat techniques that they can use in the small competition.

This method is like making new recruits hide in trenches and listen to the sound of bullets.

Of course, the four of them also sparred with each other quite a few times over the seven days.

In this setting, Shen Xingsheng, who was usually a lagging student, finally found an opportunity to shine in front of his junior classmates.

He was undefeated in every battle against He Lanyan, who had also just advanced to the sixth level of Qi Refining.

At Han Lu's "encouragement," he tried to fight two opponents at once and was able to fight He Lanwei and Yu Hetong to a standstill.

With such a performance, Shen Xingsheng was like a god of war during training.

Seeing her disciple's outstanding performance, Han Lu was overjoyed and promised him a lot of good things.

Once Shen Xingsheng advances to the top four in the Dongshan Academy competition, they will stuff them all into Shen Xingsheng's storage bag in one go.

The other three also received rewards; everyone who advanced to the final four would receive one.

With Han Lu providing guidance, the four disciples, all of whom were relatively mild-mannered, naturally engaged in healthy competition, which greatly promoted their cultivation.

Although the seven days of cultivation did not greatly improve their cultivation level, their combat strength was significantly enhanced.

On the final day, the matchups for the five preliminary rounds of the competition were announced. Han Lu then presented the detailed intelligence she had prepared in advance, analyzing the opponents' situations for each of her disciples and explaining how to use existing methods to deliver a fatal blow to their weaknesses in battle.

With thorough preparation, the apprentices also showed promise.

Han Lu felt confident that everything was going perfectly and only hoped that the four-day competition would end quickly, so that her four disciples could successfully make her name known throughout the East Mountain Academy with their excellent results.

Chapter 727 Battle Records and Results

Although Xuan Chengzi made some reforms to the competition after taking office as the sect leader, making the originally compact and short competition more meaningful.

The timeframe changed from three days to four days.

The preliminary selection rounds have been increased from three to five.

Originally, even winning the minor competition would only yield a reward of fifty or sixty spirit stones, but this has been increased to over a hundred spirit stones.

But the smaller competition ultimately couldn't compare to the larger one in every aspect.

The event was small-scale, with limited prizes, and participants were divided into different departments.

Naturally, no Golden Core cultivator would specifically go to the arena areas of each branch academy to watch the battles during the first half of the "preliminary selection" phase.

Although Han Lu really wanted to accompany her four disciples through this small competition, she still needed to consider the face of Golden Core cultivators in front of the many disciples and elders of the Zhengyi Sect. At this time, she had to keep in mind the word "restraint".

While they could attend the competition in person, Han Lu could not, so she could only arrange for her two senior disciples, Qiu Peng and Nian Haoge, to keep an eye on the matter.

Nian Haoge, who was familiar with sect affairs, was in charge of leading the team, while Qiu Peng went to the venue of the small competition to just observe, get a feel for the atmosphere, and broaden his horizons, so that he could absorb more of the flavor of the Central Plains cultivators.

This arrangement was quite reasonable, and the four disciples had no objections. Nian Haoge and Qiu Peng were also willing to sacrifice some of their time to contribute to the "master's sect".

However, in this respect, Han Lu spent several times more effort on the four initial disciples she accepted than on the other Golden Core elders.

Effort will naturally be rewarded, and the reward is the excellent results achieved by the four disciples in the small competition.

Han Lu spent two days in seclusion practicing meditation, and when she came out of seclusion to tutor Nian Haoge in his practice, she received good news from Nian Haoge.

A total of twenty matches, played by four people in five rounds.

Except for He Lanyan, who lost a match because she had only recently advanced to the sixth level of Qi Refining and encountered a tough opponent, the other four won all nineteen matches and advanced to the round of 32 elimination matches in the following two days.

Shen Xingsheng and Yu Hetong, in particular, are strong and have good luck in the draw. After receiving Han Lu's analysis and guidance on their opponents, they are unstoppable in the ring.