First

After all, a fixation on prestigious schools was one thing; actually being able to get in was the foundation for applying.

"Of course, there's another crucial reason I chose Yonglu Mountain."

Wen Xu was somewhat curious. "What reason?"

"Rumors from the streets say that the Five Major Sects recruit new disciples once every six years. Yonglu Mountain takes the fewest, but its Outer Sect disciples receive the best treatment. Their monthly allowance is a full two hundred low-grade Spirit Stones, and they're also issued twenty Qi-Replenishing Pills and twenty Blood-Recovery Pills each."

"Outer Sect disciples?" The jade slip had not mentioned how sect disciples were treated.

"Right. Every sect is divided into an Outer Sect and an Inner Sect. Cultivation resources aren't so plentiful that everyone who sees them gets a share. Naturally, sects devote better resources to Inner Sect disciples with superior talent, perseverance, and character."

Wen Xu understood. Cultivation Realm sects did not sound all that different from academies. Academies took in many students, but the teachers naturally focused on those who wrote the finest essays in the class.

There had never been fairness in this world. He had known that long ago.

"Then if I enter Yonglu Mountain, can I return to my homeland after my cultivation succeeds?" Wen Xu asked the question that concerned him most. He was not someone who let a grudge go unavenged.

Scholars were the pettiest sort—perhaps that saying was not quite right, but it fit him well enough. He truly was rather petty. Since he had possessed so little since childhood, whenever anyone tried to snatch something from him, he remembered it deeply.

Including those who had tried to take his life.

Bian Chunchou thought that Wen Xu-Xu truly was someone who cherished the past. If he could, he too wanted to return to the modern world for a look. "Yonglu Mountain—or rather, the entire Cultivation Realm—has a clear rule: cultivators below the Golden Core Realm may not enter the Mortal Realm."

"Why is there such a rule?"

"I don't know. I heard that the Boundary Sea separating the two realms is extremely dangerous to Foundation Establishment cultivators."

"Then what is the shortest time needed to reach the Golden Core Realm?"

"I knew you'd ask that. The youngest person in the Cultivation Realm to form a Golden Core did so at twenty-five. He is now Sword Venerable Mei Xi, the youngest Spirit Transformation Venerable of the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect."

"Then what is the longest it can take?"

"According to information released by the Golden Cauldron Pavilion, it seems there was an elder from some remote Aristocratic Clan. Foundation Establishment cultivators live for two hundred years, and he achieved enlightenment and broke through just before dying of old age."

Wen Xu thought, That doesn't sound good at all. Forget two hundred years—even if it took a hundred years to reach Golden Core, that enemy of mine would have long been dead and buried. What would I go back for then? To dig up his grave and scatter his ashes?

What kind of underworld joke is this? Wen Xu had not expected things to take such a turn. Steady as his emotions were, he could not help growing anxious now.

"What kind of talent does Sword Venerable Mei Xi have?"

At that, Bian Chunchou's eyes began to redden again. "A Mutated Thunder Spirit Root that might not appear once in a million people, and an Innate Sword Body besides. When Nuwa molded him, she must have bathed and fasted for seven days and seven nights before she started."

Wen Xu was twenty this year. After thinking it over, he could only hope that his enemy was a little younger and lived a little longer.

From childhood until now, few things had ever unfolded as he wished. Most had even been things he fought desperately to obtain. The old saying went that forcibly twisted melons were not sweet, but Wen Xu believed that was merely the sour talk of people who could not twist melons off themselves.

No matter what kind of melon it was, he would twist it off and have a taste.

"I didn't participate in Yonglu Mountain's Preliminary Trial. Can I still register?" As Bian Chunchou had said, among the four sects, Yonglu Mountain was the first choice, and it should be the same for him. The Hehe Sect was good, but he had no connections there. With so many favored geniuses gathered within it, his chances of fighting his way through were too low.

"Of course you can! You're the man who picked the Fragrant Elixir King Grass!" In truth, Bian Chunchou had come at Elder Zhan's request to persuade Wen Xu to take the Mountain Examination. Of course, he also hoped Wen Xu-Xu would take it with him.

"Then I'll have to trouble you to be my eyes from now on, Chunchou."

Bian Chunchou immediately brightened. He reached out and patted his new friend on the shoulder. "Come on, come on! I'll take you to collect your Mountain Examination token, then we can stroll around the market in the city. How does that sound?"

Elder Zhan had long been waiting outside. Seeing Wen Xu smile and bow to him, he knew the young man was willing to join Yonglu Mountain. Unfortunately, Yonglu Mountain had its rules: Preliminary Trial, Mountain Examination, Mind-Question Trial. Any disciple who remained after passing all three trials could enter Yonglu Mountain, regardless of talent. Only after the Mind-Question Trial did they test one's Spiritual Root.

Watching the two lads walk out side by side in such high spirits, Elder Zhan vaguely seemed to see himself when he had first entered the mountain gate—equally dashing, equally full of youthful fire.

The actual situation, however, was that Bian Chunchou was waving his arms about as he tried to persuade Wen Xu-Xu to change out of his tattered, bloodstained clothes. Even wearing only his inner garments would be better than entering the city drenched in blood.

The respectable household man, Little Wen Xu, said, "No, that won't do. Absolutely not!"

"Oh, don't be shy. You can't see anyway."

"Even if I can't see, it still won't do!"

"..."

One could only say that Elder Zhan's eyes came with a rather strong nostalgia filter.

Yonglu Mountain lay deep within the heart of the Yonglu Mountain Range. This was merely the recruitment office, naturally not the sect itself.

In truth, the entire Yonglu Mountain Range was vast. Aside from Yonglu Mountain, many large and small sects sheltered under its protection. Langyuan City outside the mountains was the same.

"Look, follow this road down and you'll reach Langyuan City. Doesn't it look lively?"

Wen Xu had ultimately preserved the dignity of keeping his clothes on. But just now, his emotions had been too taut for him to care. Now that Bian Chunchou had reminded him, he found it unbearable as well. Come to think of it, he had not changed this outfit for more than ten days. Now, with bloodstains and sweat added to the mix, it was truly hard on Bian Chunchou that he had endured it until now.

But making him strip down and wear only his inner garments—how was that any different from running naked?

"Still agonizing over it? Didn't we agree already? We'll first go down the mountain and buy a cloak from villagers in a nearby village. I'll lend you the money for now, and you can pay me back later."

Spirit Stones were naturally the common currency of the Cultivation Realm, but that was only among cultivators. There were so many humans on the Hengze Continent, while cultivators made up only a small portion. Most ordinary people had no Spiritual Roots and could not cultivate, so they lived under cultivators' protection. Compared with the Mortal Realm, cultivation Aristocratic Clans and sects stood thick here, and there was no imperial rule.