I'll Teach You Immortal Cultivation

The Azure Cloud Seven Sons looked at one another. Carry forward and glorify?

Better to destroy it completely!

Azure Cloud Master shot Third Junior Brother a fierce glare. If not for that fellow being lazy, there would not have been a mishap this time.

What reform?

They could simply maintain the status quo. Once they were gone and only Zhang Yang remained, he could reform however he pleased. By then, they would not have to worry about it.

But right now, every burden rested on their shoulders!

Zhang Yang was brimming with passion. He strode up to Azure Cloud Master and looked him in the eye. "Master, I know your Dao Heart in seeking the Dao is unwavering. Ascending to the Immortal Realm has always been your goal.

Even if Master set aside all sect affairs, you have only reached the Nascent Soul Realm after all these years.

Why?

Because no matter how extraordinary Master's talent may be or how firm your Dao Heart, you lack sufficient resources for cultivation.

If you had enough Spirit Stones and spiritual pills to consume, Master would probably have already reached the Dao Integration Realm by now, wouldn't you?

If reform could provide Master with enough spiritual pills and Spirit Stones for cultivation, along with an endless stream of other cultivation resources, would Master still be willing to reform?"

Azure Cloud Master's Dao Heart, tranquil for many years, could not help but stir. Yet he said nothing.

He had lived for several centuries. How could he so easily shatter the life he had lived in the past?

Zhang Yang turned toward the man in blue robes seated first on the right and asked, "Uncle-Master Ling Yun, you are a sword cultivator. For a sword cultivator, the most important thing is practicing with the sword. Usually, you treasure that Flying Sword of yours so dearly that you practically treat it like a wife. But these past years, your 'Second Mistress' has truly suffered terribly following you. She has not gotten to 'eat' a single heavenly treasure or earthly material, living on nothing but thin gruel and plain water. Doesn't that pain your heart?"

The blue-robed man rubbed his fingers together, expressionless.

"Third Uncle-Master, do you want an endless supply of spirit herbs for pill refinement?" Zhang Yang asked Third Uncle-Master with a smile.

Third Uncle-Master grinned. He cultivated the Alchemy Dao and was utterly devoted to refining pills... otherwise, he would not have let Zhang Yang open the mountain gates this time.

"Fourth Uncle-Master, I heard there is a kind of Beauty-Nourishing Pill that lets one retain youth forever after taking it. But Beauty-Nourishing Pills are outrageously expensive—one costs over a hundred thousand Spirit Stones." Zhang Yang looked at the woman in green and shook his head with a sigh.

The woman in green sighed, casting a resentful look toward Azure Cloud Master.

Azure Cloud Master's brows twitched incessantly. The Azure Cloud Sect was so poor—where could they get over a hundred thousand Spirit Stones to buy Beauty-Nourishing Pills?

He glared viciously at Zhang Yang. Had he known, he would never have taken this brat as a disciple.

Zhang Yang walked up to the man in black, slapped the table, and asked, "Fifth Uncle, you spend all day using grass paper so stiff you would not even want to wipe your ass with it to draw talismans. Does that do justice to your Spirit Artifact-grade talisman brush?"

From his manner, it was clear that he had long been accustomed to being so informal with Fifth Uncle.

Fifth Uncle chuckled and held out his hand toward Zhang Yang. "Then give me something good, why don't you? You brat, it is easy for you to talk while standing. Even the worst talisman paper at Azure Cloud Market costs a hundred Spirit Stones a sheet. How many sheets of grass paper would I have to draw on before I could buy one sheet of the worst talisman paper?"

Even talismans drawn on grass paper were somewhat useful to ordinary people.

They could only be sold for a little money, however.

Zhang Yang shook his head. He knew Fifth Uncle was responsible for earning money. With so many people relying on just one person to make money, how could they possibly avoid poverty?

"That is why we need reform!" Zhang Yang nodded heavily. His gaze swept over the final two people before returning to Azure Cloud Master. "Master, the Azure Cloud Sect's problems have become urgent. Reform is imperative."

Everyone else fixed their eyes on Azure Cloud Master.

Azure Cloud Master stroked his chin in silence. He neither denied it nor agreed.

Zhang Yang spoke with deep anguish. "Master, if you cultivate to the end and successfully ascend to the Immortal Realm, where you meet the patriarchs of the Immortal Realm, what will you say when they ask how the Azure Cloud Sect is doing now? Will you tell them that the younger generation has become so poor they cannot even afford to accept disciples? That the Azure Cloud Sect, passed down for thousands of years, has been reduced to only a handful of people?"

"Could you even bring yourself to say that?"

"Even if you do not ascend to the Immortal Realm and instead die of old age, then meet those patriarchs who never ascended in the Underworld, what do you plan to tell them?"

"As the School Leader of this generation, you bear the greatest responsibility for the Azure Cloud Sect ending up in such a state."

"Now this disciple is willing to take Master's place and save the Azure Cloud Sect through reform, yet Master still refuses to agree?"

Standing on the moral high ground, Zhang Yang unleashed a torrent of words right in his master's face.

Because he had been driven to desperation as well.

He cultivated Qi Refining all day, but his cultivation progressed as slowly as a turtle crawling. The more he cultivated, the angrier he became.

At this pace, even if he practiced Qi Refining for several more centuries, he probably would not achieve anything. He would grow old and die before attaining the Dao.

More importantly, Azure Cloud Master and the other elders had clearly intended for Zhang Yang to become the next School Leader.

Once those old fellows ascended or died, the entire Azure Cloud Sect would be left with only one person... Zhang Yang shuddered at the thought of such desolation.

By then, reform would naturally be Zhang Yang's decision alone, but would these several centuries simply be wasted?

Besides, it would be such a pity if those old fellows, each with their own skills, did not contribute something to the reform.

Seeing Zhang Yang bombard Azure Cloud Master so fiercely, the other senior brothers and junior brothers were all rather shocked. They carefully watched Azure Cloud Master's expression.

They knew best what their School Leader and Eldest Senior Brother was capable of. If he truly turned hostile, none of them could handle him.

Although Azure Cloud Master remained expressionless, the veins bulging on his clenched fist revealed exactly how turbulent his heart was.

He cursed inwardly, That damned brat! If I had not suddenly been seized by a whim back then, how could I have taken him up the mountain?

I took in a cursed son!

Only after a long while did Azure Cloud Master squeeze out a sentence through clenched teeth. "This reform..."

Zhang Yang decisively waved his hand. "Master, you do not need to worry about anything. Just go into seclusion. When you emerge next time, you will see the results."

"Heh heh, fine. Then I will enter seclusion for one year!" Azure Cloud Master gritted his teeth. "If I do not see results after one year, just see how I deal with you!"

Zhang Yang raised a brow. "One year? In half a year, Master will know the results of the reform!"

"I'll enter seclusion for half a year!" Azure Cloud Master turned to leave.

"Wait!" Zhang Yang hurriedly called out.

"What now?" Azure Cloud Master asked, glaring fiercely at Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang smiled and held out his hand toward Azure Cloud Master. "Master, for the reform to succeed, please give me the School Leader's token! I need the greatest authority in the Azure Cloud Sect!"

Though the Azure Cloud Sect was poor, its foundation still remained.

Accessing that foundation required the Sect Master Token.

Azure Cloud Master snorted coldly and casually tossed him a token before vanishing in a flash.

He had directly handed the Sect Master Token to Zhang Yang.

The others looked at one another. Was this an early transfer of the position?

Zhang Yang did not hesitate. He calmly put away the token, then smiled at the woman in white seated at the very end. "Seventh Uncle-Master, I would like to see the Azure Cloud Sect's income and expenditure records."

The Azure Cloud Sect's account books were kept by Seventh Uncle-Master, who normally managed the accounts as well.

Seventh Uncle-Master laughed heartily. As if throwing away a scalding hot potato, she tossed several account books to Zhang Yang. "Here, take them. I never wanted to manage this rotten nonsense anyway. I cannot squeeze out more than a few Spirit Stones all day, and everyone still complains!"

Just then, a clamor rose from outside the main hall.

The group paused. The Azure Cloud Sect had long been so quiet that they were unaccustomed to suddenly having visitors.

Then they remembered the disciples they had just recruited. They must have run from the mountain gate to the main hall.

"You recruited them, you deal with them!"

The six of them spoke in unison, tossed those words at Zhang Yang, and swiftly drifted away.

Zhang Yang walked out of the sect's main hall and looked at the few people who had already reached the plaza ahead of the others.

A strange smile appeared on his face. "Ten years! I have waited a full ten years! My great undertaking of Immortal Cultivation is finally truly about to begin!

"Living rough in the open and sitting in meditation to practice Qi Refining—does that count as Immortal Cultivation?

"That is the life of savages!

"Let me teach you what Immortal Cultivation is really supposed to be!"