Cheng Yi was standing guard at the exit of the Path to Seek Immortality. When he heard the musical melody sound, he suddenly turned to look in the direction of Qiyue Peak. The disciples following beside him saw Cheng Yi’s strong reaction and were all somewhat puzzled: “Senior Martial Brother Cheng Yi, what happened?”
“You all stay here. I’ll go and come right back.” With a tap of his toes, Cheng Yi rushed toward the direction of Qiyue Peak.
Several disciples were completely bewildered: “What matter could make Senior Martial Brother Cheng Yi so anxious?”
“Could it be that Junior Martial Sister Kong Hou has come out of seclusion?” one disciple said. “Two years ago, after Junior Martial Sister Kong Hou obtained her life-bound magical artifact, she’s been in continuous seclusion. I wonder how she’s doing.”
The two were still talking when a young man in tattered clothes walked out from the Path to Seek Immortality. His hair was disheveled, and he climbed upward staggering and stumbling. His ten fingers were covered with mud and congealed blood. His face was frozen blue-green by the winter snow, but his pair of eyes were frighteningly bright.
Stepping onto the last step, a smile appeared on his face. He swayed and sat down in the snow.
He had climbed up. Finally climbed up.
Qiyue Peak.
Kong Hou walked out the cave door and looked at the snowflakes drifting outside, exhaling a puff of white breath: “It’s winter again.”
“Junior Martial Sister, you’ve come out?” Cheng Yi flew over. Seeing her relaxed expression, he asked with a smile: “Did everything go smoothly?”
“Mm?” Kong Hou nodded, pointing to the Path to Seek Immortality in the distance. “There seem to be many people over there. Has something major happened within the sect?”
“The sect recruits disciples once every ten years. Those are all ordinary people planning to join the Yunhua Sect.” Seeing that Kong Hou seemed somewhat curious about this matter, Cheng Yi said, “Want to go take a look?”
“Mm.” Kong Hou nodded, gathered her energy, jumped down, and flew toward the location of the Path to Seek Immortality.
At the exit of the Path to Seek Immortality, besides Yunhua Sect disciples, there also stood several people with weary expressions and no cultivation whatsoever—ordinary people. Regardless of whether the clothes on their bodies were luxurious or shabby, no one dared to make loud noises, striving to show their best selves before the Yunhua Sect.
“There’s a fairy flying over.” A teenage boy looked up at the sky and exclaimed softly.
The others also looked up, only to see a young girl wearing a jade-green dress and skirt walking through the snow, her head of black hair dancing in the wind, stunning these ordinary people who rarely came into contact with cultivators.
The young man in tattered clothes looked up for a glance. Learning from the others’ appearance, he also showed an expression of admiration, reached up to straighten his shabby clothes, and brushed aside the hair on his forehead, completely revealing that handsome face.
However, that young girl didn’t approach them. She only smiled and looked at them a few times from mid-air, performing a peer-level bow toward them from afar. Then she summoned a flying sword from her sleeve, stepped onto the flying sword, and departed into the distance.
“That female immortal just now was really beautiful.” A slightly plump young man wearing brocade robes finally came back to his senses after a long while.
“That’s a direct disciple from our sect. If you all perform well, perhaps you’ll have the opportunity to call her Senior Martial Sister or Master Uncle in the future.” The Yunhua Sect disciple smiled. “There’s still one shichen of time. After one shichen, the Path to Seek Immortality will close and proceed to the next assessment.”
“Direct disciple…” The young man in tattered clothes murmured in a low voice, silently clenching his fists.
“Why didn’t you go down to look?” Cheng Yi asked Kong Hou. “Weren’t you curious?”
“I was afraid that if I went, it would affect their performance.” Kong Hou jumped down from the flying sword and stood steady on the martial arts training ground. She had been directly brought back by her master. Watching those disciples who could only enter the sect through desperate effort made her feel somewhat guilty.
“Each year is truly different from the last. Your thinking is becoming more and more considerate.” Cheng Yi saw several fellow disciples walking toward them and knew they were coming to find Kong Hou. He quickly said: “I’ll go to the assessment area to see if there’s anything I can help with. Your Second Senior Martial Brother has been in seclusion recently. Go see Master later.” Having said this, without waiting for Kong Hou’s response, he turned and left.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to chat more with Kong Hou. It was really that Linghui and her group of female disciples were too talkative. Just looking at them gave him a headache. If he couldn’t provoke them, he could only hide far away. Having stayed at the Yunhua Sect for over a hundred years, he could never figure out why, when women got together, they could chat spiritedly about any random topic. What puzzled him even more was that even though they clearly spent so much energy on jewelry, hair, chatting, and such, their cultivation didn’t fall behind at all.
Although most of the time, Cheng Yi had an indescribable psychological fear of this group of women, he also hoped his little junior martial sister could be like them—able to happily beautify herself and walk through the cultivation world with no one daring to bully her.
“Junior Martial Sister Kong Hou.” Linghui and several martial sisters gathered around Kong Hou. “You’ve become even more radiant.”
When one’s own people looked at their own people, they always carried several parts of the mindset that their sect’s junior martial sister was the most beautiful. When Linghui looked at Kong Hou, she also had several parts of this psychology. In her eyes, Kong Hou’s fair skin was called tender enough to be broken by a breath, her almond eyes were called limpid autumn waters, her jet-black hair was called ink-dyed silk threads—in short, everything about her was good.
“Junior Martial Sister’s cultivation has grown again?” Another female disciple exclaimed in surprise. “It’s only been two years, yet Junior Martial Sister has already reached the fifth level of Foundation Establishment?” Even for someone naturally suited for cultivation, this cultivation speed was too fast.
“Junior Martial Sister Kong Hou,” one senior martial sister said hesitantly, “although cultivation certainly requires effort, you also can’t make yourself suffer too much. Though we pursue the great Dao of longevity, if we only pursue living, then what meaning does longevity have?” She feared Kong Hou would only focus on cultivation, making herself lose her five senses and even lacking normal emotions. How could one pursue the great Dao of becoming an immortal that way?
Those who become gods show mercy to heaven and earth. If being emotionless and heartless could achieve the great Dao, then the stones by the roadside would have long since ascended on the spot. How would it be the turn of people like them to cultivate body and mind? Throughout history, all those who cultivated the Heartless Dao—not one ever came to a good end.
“Senior Martial Sisters, don’t worry. I know.” Kong Hou smiled. These past two months, her cultivation had not progressed at all. After thinking for a long time, she finally found the reason. From birth, she had lived within high palace walls, never having contact with the outside world. Later, after being brought to the Yunhua Sect by her master, always pampered by her senior martial brothers and sisters, she only occasionally went down the mountain for walks and had never truly come into contact with the “outside.”
Never having seen it, never having contacted it—how could she broaden her horizons?
Being able to smoothly establish her Foundation was already good fortune. But if she continued to stay within the Yunhua Sect, being a little junior martial sister pampered by her senior martial brothers and sisters, then she would never have the opportunity to grow up, much less become even stronger.
“Senior Martial Sister Linghui, have you ever traveled outside alone?” Kong Hou asked.
“Of course I have. Every one of us direct disciples goes out alone to gain experience during the Foundation Establishment stage.” Speaking of this, Linghui paused. “Junior Martial Sister, do you want to go out?” When she went out back then, she had already lived for thirty or forty years. Although Junior Martial Sister’s cultivation was similar to hers at that time, she was still young in age. Master Uncle Wang Tong would probably not agree.
Kong Hou smiled and said nothing.
To dispel this thought of hers, Linghui said: “Come, let’s go to Huiying Hall to see how many disciples can be recruited this year.”
In Huiying Hall, the disciples who passed the assessment stood in two rows. To be considerate of these ordinary people without cultivation, several large bronze lotus-carved warming braziers were placed in the hall, heating the entire great hall very warmly.
The Sect Leader, Peak Masters, and stewards were all in the hall, looking at the twenty disciples with neither sorrow nor joy on their faces. The disciples who passed the assessment this year, though they didn’t make them feel surprised, also didn’t disappoint them too much. The real surprise had already been brought back by Wang Tong six years ago.
“What is your name?” Qingyuan pointed at the young man in shabby clothes standing second from the left.
“This disciple is Gui Lin.” The young man knelt down, raised both hands to his forehead, and bowed down respectfully.
“Gui Lin.” Qingyuan nodded. “A single spiritual root cultivator. Not bad.”
“Is Junior Martial Brother Qingyuan planning to take him as an inner sect disciple of Chenxia Peak?” Pei Huai asked curiously.
The young man kneeling on the ground moved his eyelids but knelt steadily, as if having no reaction at all to Pei Huai’s words.
“No need. Let’s follow the rules.” Qingyuan shook his head slightly. “After the assessment in a year, we’ll discuss these matters again.” Although single spiritual roots were rare, among the twenty newly admitted disciples present, making special treatment wouldn’t be good for the other nineteen disciples.
Pei Huai breathed a sigh of relief. He also felt this way was better.
“Then let’s do it this way.” Heng Yan, sitting in the middle, took a sip of tea and said to the steward of Wuxing Hall: “Take these disciples down to rest. Let them rest well for two days first, familiarize themselves with the environment within the sect, and then teach them the basics of cultivation.”
“Yes.” The steward of Wuxing Hall stood up and said gently to the twenty disciples: “Follow me.”
The twenty disciples hurriedly followed behind the steward, carefully observing their surroundings all along the way. For them, the spotlessly white floor beneath their feet amazed them, and the flying beasts in the sky and fellow disciples riding swords all made them unable to resist wanting to look a few more times.
“Wow!” The plump youngster in luxurious clothes couldn’t help but exclaim. “So many beautiful fairies.”
The new disciples all turned their heads. In a white jade pavilion not far away stood several beautiful female disciples who were also looking in their direction at this moment.
“Everyone, follow me. Don’t linger here.” The steward led them around stone steps and walked in another direction. “They are all direct disciples of each peak. When you see them in the future, you must not be rude.”
“This disciple will remember.”
The young man in tattered clothes looked back toward the pavilion once. In his dark pupils reflected the pale white snowy ground.
Author has something to say: Newcomers looking at seniors: Senior is truly amazing!
After becoming familiar: Hmph~~