The Long Journey to Immortality

After receiving assurances from his three disciples, Piaomiaozi chatted for a few more minutes, briefly explaining the sect's possible next steps.

Of course, the part about the calamity was still deleted.

Chapter 81 Preliminary Selection (Part 1)

After listening to Piaomiaozi's words, the three of them gained a deeper understanding of why they were on the list.

When Wen Erya learned that being on the list, even being officially selected by the Zhengyi Sect and becoming a promising talent to be nurtured, did not guarantee entry into the secret realm to search for the treasures left behind by ancient cultivators, her interest waned considerably.

She was the wealthiest Qi Refining cultivator in Dongshan Academy and had no shortage of cultivation resources. Whether she was on the list or not was irrelevant to her.

Han Lu and Yu Hongfei, on the other hand, were even more interested in this matter.

Han Lu was hoping to use this incident to gain more time from the sect to cultivate and train on Hanchan Peak.

Yu Hongfei, due to family reasons and financial constraints, had been cultivating at the tenth level of Qi Refining for a long time, making slow progress in opening his eleventh spiritual meridian. He hoped to rely on his status as a "potential star" to obtain more resources from the sect, helping him to advance to the twelfth level of Qi Refining, and ultimately, with this pinnacle of Qi Refining cultivation, advance to the Foundation Establishment stage, laying a solid foundation for achieving the Golden Core stage in the future.

After explaining this most important matter for Golden Core cultivators, Piaomiaozi generously rewarded the three with some pills and spirit stones before sending them away, telling them to patiently wait for further news.

Similar stories unfolded one after another at the residences of various Golden Core elders.

Meanwhile, the guest elders who were mentioned separately were not idle either.

They began to frequent their respective mountain courtyards during intensive cultivation and morning classes, selecting Qi Refining disciples they deemed suitable to take under their wing, trying to play the role of talent scouts and find exceptional individuals among many inferior ones.

The names of many promising Qi Refining stage cultivators were recorded and sent to the deans of various mountain academies, awaiting the first round of selection.

This matter concerns the status of the Zhengyi Sect in the Central Plains region a hundred or even a thousand years from now, and none of the deans of the five major academies had the slightest intention to be careless or perfunctory.

After receiving the lists submitted by the Golden Core cultivators, the five deans held another meeting to develop more detailed screening criteria. Then, they returned to their respective academies and formed four-person groups with the chief cultivators from their respective schools' academies, inner treasuries, and transmission halls to conduct the first round of screening on the lists.

There are many reasons why the heads of the academy, the Hall of Transmission of Skills, and the Imperial Treasury were brought together to review the list.

This can avoid accusations of behind-the-scenes manipulation and ensure that the truly deserving cultivators are selected from the list in a fair, just, and transparent manner.

After all, the five deans don't fully understand the information of each inner disciple. With three assistants by their side, this first round of selection is worthwhile.

Otherwise, they could just draw a line, select disciples at the tenth level of Qi Refining and above, and send them up; there's no need for such a fuss.

The lists were submitted one after another. Five days after the second meeting of Golden Core cultivators, the four cultivators in charge of the daily management of Dongshan Academy got together and began to review the list of cultivators one by one in order.

The four sat around a table. The dean of Dongshan Academy, Wuhu Jushi, held a list compiled from the Golden Core cultivators, while the other three supervisors held information gathered from various places, so that when the dean announced the surname of a disciple, they could immediately provide the relevant information about that Qi Refining disciple.

“Sheng Miaofu,” the Hermit of the Five Lakes announced the first name.

Ding Li, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator who was assigned to participate in this four-person group and was in charge of the daily management of Dongshan Academy, immediately found Sheng Miaofu's file.

These files were prepared well in advance.

He introduced himself to everyone.

"Sheng Miaofu joined the Zhengyi Sect three years ago. When she first joined the sect, she became an apprentice of Elder Liaoran because of her exceptional talent."

"When she entered the sect, Sheng Miaofu was only at the fourth level of Qi Refining. In the past three years, she has now become a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining."

After Ding Li reported the information he had gathered, Si Xing'er, the chief disciple of the Transmission Hall, continued, "Sheng Miaofu is quite diligent in her cultivation. She participates in the major cultivation almost every day, and she never misses her evening class."

"Judging from the last small competition, her fighting skills are not weak, and she is expected to perform even better in this year's big competition."

Fan Hua, an older monk who worked in the inner treasury and became its head steward, was the third to speak.

"Sheng Miaofu was not particularly enthusiastic about participating in the sect's daily affairs, but she did leave behind quite a few task records in the internal treasury."

"There is no record of her violating sect rules in the internal archives."

Compared to the reports from the Transmission Hall and the Academy, the reports from the Inner Treasury seemed to focus more on the daily cultivation life of the disciples being assessed.

After listening to the reports from his three assistants, the Hermit of Five Lakes understood the situation. He picked up the compass and simply circled Sheng Miaofu's name.

"Then let's consider her a shortlisted candidate for now."

Sheng Miaofu meets all the criteria that Wuhu Jushi (a Buddhist monk) considers for selecting disciples.

Talented and hardworking, with a strong sense of belonging to the school.

When the Five Lakes Hermit says his name, his three assistants bring him the materials, occasionally offering a few comments. Finally, the Five Lakes Hermit makes the decision. If the decision is ambiguous, the four of them will discuss it before making a judgment.

One by one, the names sent up by the Golden Elixir Elder of Dongshan Temple were spoken by the lay Buddhists of the Five Lakes. Only 30% of them passed the preliminary selection and were circled.

Soon, the three names reported by Piaomiaozi came into the view of Wuhu Jushi.

"Yu Hongfei".

Piaomiaozi arranged the three disciples in order of their cultivation levels.

Ding Li said, "Yu Hongfei joined the Zhengyi Sect five years ago and was placed under Elder Piaomiao. He was at the fourth level of Qi Refining when he entered the sect."

Five years have passed, and Yu Hongfei is now at the tenth level of Qi Refining.

"However, he has always wanted to break through to the twelfth level of Qi Refining, but for some reason, he has been stuck at the tenth level of Qi Refining for a long time and has not been able to break through."

"If there is no mistake in the records, he has been at the tenth level of Qi Refining for almost a year and a half."

Hearing this, Fan Hua interjected, "I know Yu Hongfei. I know why he has difficulty breaking through to the tenth level of Qi Refining."

"Tell me about it." The Five Lakes Hermit was very concerned about every disciple who reported that their cultivation had reached the tenth level of Qi Refining.

Fan Hua told him everything he knew.

“Yu Hongfei has a family history of illness and a congenital deficiency in his foundation. His spiritual meridians are slightly narrower than those of other cultivators.”

"Two years ago, his younger brother also fell ill. Yu Hongfei spent a lot of spirit stones to cure his brother."

“Yu Hongfei’s family was just an ordinary family. Without the help of spirit stones, his cultivation speed naturally slowed down.”

"Given his physical ailments, it's understandable that he couldn't advance to the eleventh level of Qi Refining in a year and a half."

The Hermit of the Five Lakes nodded slightly. "If we give him more spirit stones, so that he has extra spirit stones and pills to use for cultivation while helping his brother seek medical treatment, will he be able to maintain his original cultivation speed?"

"Well," Fan Hua, being an older cultivator himself, dared not make any rash pronouncements about cultivation. "Dean, as you know, cultivators with weakened foundations often encounter problems during cultivation. I am not knowledgeable in cultivation, so how could I dare to make any guarantees?"

The Five Lakes Hermit's fingers gently stroked the pen, and then he looked at Si Xing'er.

Si Xing'er took out the records from the Transmission Hall and said, "Perhaps because Yu Hongfei has been frequently traveling between home and the sect in the past two years, he has participated in fewer major cultivation sessions and evening classes compared to his fellow disciples."

"His performance in the annual competitions was generally average. His best result was the year before last, when he ranked thirty-second in the ninth level of Qi Refining at Dongshan Academy."

Fan Hua was acquainted with Yu Hongfei, so he naturally used the available information to speak well of Yu Hongfei.

"Yu Hongfei has 137 task records in the inner treasury, ranking third in the number of tasks completed among disciples of the same rank."

In order to earn resources to exchange for medicine and support his own cultivation, Yu Hongfei naturally set his sights on the inner treasury, hoping to complete more tasks and earn more resources.

Upon hearing this, Wuhu Jushi pondered for a moment before finally deciding, "Yu Hongfei is good, but he definitely won't make it into the top ten."

"The inner treasury will give Yu Hongfei an extra spirit stone as a subsidy next month, just to give him a little help."

After saying that, he crossed out Yu Hongfei's name.

I'm not sure if it's available for purchase yet, so I'll post one chapter for now. The remaining chapters will be released after 4 PM.

Chapter 82 Preliminary Selection (Part 2)

"Gentle and elegant".

Wen Erya was already at the sixth level of Qi Refining, so naturally she was ranked ahead of Han Lu in the list of three people reported by Piaomiaozi.

Despite being the abbot of Dongshan Temple, the recluse of Wuhu was extremely busy, but he had still heard of Wen Erya's name.

"Oh, is that the Southern Dynasty princess who joined the sect this year? I heard she has quite a talent for cultivation?"

The Five Lakes Hermit still vividly remembers the scene when those Golden Core cultivators vied to participate in the disciple-acceptance ceremony that ended a few months ago.

“That’s right,” Ding Li replied. “Wen Erya is the thirteenth princess of the Jin Kingdom in the Southern Dynasty. She only joined the sect three months ago.”

"She is exceptionally talented, not only possessing excellent Qi perception but also having a top-grade single water-attribute spiritual root. After joining the sect, she immediately became a disciple of Elder Piaomiao."

"At that time, she was at the fifth level of Qi Refining."

"Currently, I am at the sixth level of Qi Refining."

"According to my inside information, Wen Erya only advanced to the fifth level of Qi Refining a month before she entered the sect. Therefore, in terms of cultivation speed, she is much faster than many of her fellow cultivators on the previous list."

Si Xing'er chimed in, "That's quite normal. After all, Wen Erya was considered a disciple of a Golden Core Elder after joining the sect, so her cultivation environment within the sect was already quite good."

"And she is also a princess of the Jin Kingdom. It is said that the emperor of Jin Kingdom dotes on her, so there must be a lot of spirit stones and pills in her storage bag."

"With such favorable conditions, it's only natural that the cultivation speed will be faster."

Si Xing'er was born into poverty, and deep down she harbored a sense of disgust and resentment towards the rich who relied on their family's resources to quickly advance their cultivation.

These words were reasonable and well-founded, but they also gave her a strange sense of comfort.

Wu Hu Jushi nodded slightly, agreeing with Si Xing'er's statement.

Si Xing'er continued, "Although she is just starting out and has no results from major or minor competitions to refer to, Wen Erya still spends a lot of time on the arena in the mountain academy looking for opponents to compete against."

"His record is quite good. When he was at the fifth level of Qi Refining, he even defeated a cultivator at the seventh level of Qi Refining."

"However, I asked the doctor in charge of the arena that day, and Wen Erya won entirely by relying on the advantage of her magical artifacts."

Si Xing'er was telling the truth, but it was the kind of truth that would be detrimental to Wen Erya's selection.

Ding Li chimed in, "Having more magical artifacts is a good thing. There shouldn't be any restrictions in the ancient cultivation secret realm that forbid cultivators from using magical artifacts, right? The more magical artifacts a cultivator has in their storage bag when entering the secret realm, the higher their combat power will be inside, and the easier it will be for them to gain benefits from it."

"Moreover, Wen Erya has no shortage of spirit stones and pills. If she is selected, it will save the sect a lot of trouble."

Before the secret realm opens, the Zhengyi Sect will definitely prepare a lot of useful magical items to reward the cultivators who enter the secret realm, which is also a considerable expense.

Finally, Fan Hua said, "Perhaps because the Thirteenth Princess has no shortage of pills and spirit stones, she carried out a mission after arriving at the sect, which was the earthquake relief mission a few days ago."

Fan Hua didn't comment much on this information. In fact, when he learned that Wen Erya was only at the sixth level of Qi Refining, he had already removed her from his list.

The Five Lakes Hermit's ideas are similar to Fan Hua's.

There was some controversy surrounding whether Wen Erya was selected, so Wuhu Jushi said a few more words.

"Wen Erya is good, but her cultivation level is too low. Even if she has outstanding talent and a lot of resources to help her cultivate, allowing her to become a cultivator at the tenth or even eleventh level of Qi Refining in two years, how can she compare to other fellow cultivators who have been stuck at the twelfth level of Qi Refining for several years?"

"This nomination process considers both potential and ability."

"No matter how you look at it, Wen Er Ya doesn't deserve to be in the top 10."

"If the secret realm had appeared two or even a year later, I would definitely have circled Wen Erya's name without hesitation."