Green Leaf Disciple Recruitment Season

That inflated notion had barely surfaced when Chen Ganliu remembered that his senior sister had reached the peak of Qi Refining before she was twenty, advanced to the Golden Core before she was thirty, and perfected her Golden Core within sixty years. If she had not failed to break through to the Spirit Embryo Realm, she would have become a great cultivator of that realm before turning one hundred. He immediately recognized reality once more.

The path of cultivation had always grown harder with every step. Even in the Qi Refining Realm, the first and second layers were easy to enter, the third and fourth somewhat harder, and the fifth and sixth harder still. Most Immortal Encounter Sect disciples stopped at the sixth or seventh layer. Those who could break beyond the seventh layer, achieve Essence and Qi Integration, and soar through the skies on a sword numbered fewer than one in a hundred.

The Immortal Encounter Sect disciples who had fought Jiang Ningxue and Xie Zhanrou back then had all been above the Seventh Layer of Qi Condensation. Yet even they would find it difficult to advance to the Golden Core within another thirty or fifty years.

Chen Ganliu had lived three lifetimes and cultivated through two of them. His wisdom ran deeper than that of anyone his age, his comprehension was stronger, and he possessed decades of cultivation experience. Even so, his cultivation speed was only mediocre at best.

He came back to himself, his heart filled with every conceivable emotion, and sighed inwardly. My aptitude is too poor. This is a barrier I ultimately cannot overcome.

"I remember that Senior Sister reached the First Layer of Qi Condensation in just over a month, and the Second Layer of Qi Condensation in only a few months. I still can't compare myself to her."

Although he had regained his clarity and knew that he was still a cultivator with the same poor aptitude—one who possessed only half a Severed Vein—Chen Ganliu was nonetheless rather delighted that he had broken through to the Second Layer of Qi Condensation.

A martial artist's true qi was born from the flesh, transformed from their own vital essence. But a human body's vital essence was limited, so the true qi produced was sparse and weak. If one practiced martial arts for many years and consumed too much of it, one could even suffer a loss of lifespan.

Cultivator techniques sought to turn the human body into a treasure of cultivation, allowing it to draw an inexhaustible stream of energy from heaven and earth, transform it into one's own essence, and then refine that essence—tempered and gathered from the energies of heaven and earth—into true qi.

The First Layer of Qi Condensation was the Golden Essence Jade Liquid stage. The more one cultivated, the richer one's vital essence became and the longer one's lifespan grew. Compared with the pinnacle of martial arts, one's true qi was also several times more powerful.

At the Second Layer of Qi Condensation, Boiling Liquid into Qi, one could easily transform the refined essence into true qi. One could even force it several feet beyond the body. Such wondrous methods were already beyond the reach of martial artists.

As for the Third Layer of Qi Condensation, it had no barrier. Once one had cultivated the Second Layer of Qi Condensation, Boiling Liquid into Qi, and accumulated true qi for a period of time, one could use that abundant true qi to open the apertures throughout the body. Once all the hundreds of apertures had been opened, one would have reached the Third Layer of Qi Condensation, Condensing Qi into Apertures.

In his previous life, Chen Ganliu had never accumulated true qi that was sufficiently vigorous. He had opened only five or six apertures before running out of strength, remaining stuck at the Second Layer of Qi Condensation until he died in frustration.

In this life, after cultivating the second layer of the Azure Emperor Jia Yi Art, he had taken advantage of the momentum to break through the two apertures in his nose, putting him far ahead of his previous life.

After breaking through, Chen Ganliu did not dare grow careless. He spent several days nourishing and consolidating his cultivation before pondering whether he should focus his efforts on opening more apertures or on refining the Wood Demon Core.

The former was, of course, the proper path. But the latter was also a case of sharpening one's blade without delaying the chopping of wood. If he could refine several spirit veins, his cultivation would advance by leaps and bounds, and success would be practically within reach.

Chen Ganliu pondered for a long time before suddenly gritting his teeth and deciding to devote himself wholeheartedly to refining the Wood Demon Core. He had suffered enough from his poor aptitude. Now that he had a chance to overturn fate, how could he willingly let it slip away?

He had been in secluded cultivation for too long, and Chen Ganliu could not help wanting to relax for a few days and ease his mood. For several days in a row, he did nothing but wander around the immortal market.

After all, the path of cultivation required both tension and relaxation. If one cultivated bitterly without pause, one might instead develop a cultivation deviation!

During this period, Chen Ganliu had buried himself in cultivation and paid no attention to the changes in the Talisman Collection Immortal Market. Now that his cultivation had broken through and he had temporarily relaxed, he discovered that something was strange about the Talisman Collection Immortal Market.

The Green Leaf Sect Daoists who had once been everywhere had now become much fewer in number. But in his previous life, he had never heard of the Green Leaf Sect suffering any crisis. He wondered inwardly, What happened to the Green Leaf Sect during this period?

He pondered for a long time but still could not remember what had happened to the Green Leaf Sect at this time.

Curious, Chen Ganliu could not help finding a good-natured Green Leaf Sect Daoist and asking, "Fellow Daoist, why have there been so many fewer people from your sect around lately?"

Seeing that he was "young," the Green Leaf Sect Daoist felt a faint sense of closeness toward him, though he also knew that Chen Ganliu might not truly be young. Smiling, he said, "This is the time when our sect accepts new disciples!"

"Our Green Leaf Sect does not accept outsiders. Those fellow disciples who are older and have made little progress are sent down the mountain to marry and start families. Every five years, we have these disciples send their descendants of suitable age back to the sect, where we select new disciples."

"Those with truly poor aptitude are sent back down the mountain. Those with passable aptitude remain on the mountain and are taught the Dao. When they grow older, if their cultivation remains limited, they are once again sent down the mountain to marry. It goes on in a cycle, generation after generation, flourishing without end."

Chen Ganliu immediately understood and exclaimed inwardly, "So that's how it is. I'd forgotten—it's the Green Leaf Disciple Recruitment Season again."

"This is the Green Leaf Sect's old rule. I thought something unexpected had happened and was searching in the wrong direction. No wonder I couldn't remember."

Wait! I remember that when the Green Leaf Sect accepts disciples, it only checks the token and never investigates the family records.

In my previous life, I never had the good fortune to become anyone's disciple. If I could sneak into the Green Leaf Sect, wouldn't that be tremendously beneficial to my cultivation?

Because so many Green Leaf Sect disciples had gone down the mountain to marry, their descendants were scattered throughout Great Qian. Some had even moved to other countries. Since it was difficult to distinguish their origins, the sect simply gave every disciple who descended the mountain a batch of Green Leaf Talismans, allowing their descendants to return to the mountain with a Green Leaf Talisman and become disciples.

The Green Leaf Disciple Recruitment Season lasted for an entire month.

During that month, anyone could register. Hundreds of young men and women came from prefectures and counties throughout Great Qian. Some descendants of the Green Leaf Sect who had long since established branches of the family in other countries even came to acknowledge their ancestry and return to their roots.

Every time the Green Leaf Sect accepted disciples, some outsiders' disciples would infiltrate the ranks. The Green Leaf Sect simply pretended not to see it. Even when those outsiders' disciples bore traces of cultivating other sects' techniques, the Green Leaf Sect acted as though it knew nothing, accepting them alongside the others and treating them equally without ever investigating their origins.

For hundreds of years, nothing had ever gone wrong. These disciples of impure origin were deeply attached to the Green Leaf Sect, and very few had ever betrayed the sect.

Chen Ganliu had a Green Leaf Talisman in his possession. It was one of the twelve treasures he carried with him, though he had no idea which act of merit had included it.

In any case, if he claimed that he was also a descendant of a Green Leaf Sect disciple several generations removed, then took this Green Leaf Talisman to seek admission, there was an eighty or ninety percent chance he would succeed.

Chen Ganliu pondered back and forth for a long time before his heart finally grew heated. His obsession with finding a good master suppressed all his misgivings. He no longer bothered with that tent, merely checking the Mad Meditation bound around his waist before leaving the Talisman Collection Immortal Market and heading straight for the nearby Green Leaf Mountain. Holding the Green Leaf Spirit Talisman he had obtained at the Suiyang Immortal Market—whose origins even he did not know—he mingled among the young men and women without standing out.

The Green Leaf Sect only verified the Green Leaf Talismans held by the young men and women who came to seek admission. It also had a Heart-Questioning trial to examine their character, but conducted no other inspections—not even an interrogation.

I'm crying. I missed the update by half an hour and couldn't post before midnight...

I have to work hard and strive today. I'll definitely update more than three chapters. This chapter doesn't count.

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