So You Really Mean to Gamble on an Uncertain Future? At Last, He Joined Fangcun Mountain!

"Joining Fangcun Mountain and becoming my teacher's disciple is nowhere near as simple as you imagine."

"If you truly want to study the Dao under him, you must first spend three years doing chores on the mountain, three years serving your senior and junior fellow disciples, and another three years reading the Dao Scripture. That's nine years already."

"After nine years, your fellow disciples on the mountain will assess whether you're qualified to cultivate here and decide whether to recommend you for admission. All told, it will probably take more than ten years."

"Ten years, just to gamble on an uncertain future. Why bother?"

Bai Shan said calmly, "You'd be better off becoming an Outer Disciple. That's easy enough."

"Pay a little tuition, and the sect will teach you some skills. If you earn money outside the mountain after learning them, you should remember to give something back to the sect."

"Of course, the sect doesn't ask for much. A small token of appreciation will do."

At those words,

the woodcutter beside them saw nothing unusual about it.

After all, plenty of Outer Disciples had gone through the same thing. It was no different for anyone.

"Why do I have to pay to study the Dao?" Monkey asked in surprise. He had always thought he only needed to join an immortal sect and cultivate.

"As the saying goes, the Dao is not passed on lightly, nor are its arts sold cheaply."

"Setting foot on the path of cultivation is hard, and learning real skills is no easier."

"The path of cultivation is a system of methods and rules our teacher worked out for himself over hundreds of millions of years. Knowledge comes at a price. Nothing in this world is free. If it seems to be, it's either a worthless