First

After all, a preference for prestigious schools was still founded on being able to get in.

"Of course, I chose Yonglu Mountain for another crucial reason."

Wen Xu was somewhat curious. "What reason?"

"Rumor has it that the five great sects recruit new disciples once every six years. Yonglu Mountain takes the fewest, but its outer disciples receive the best treatment. Their monthly stipend is a full two hundred low-grade spirit stones, and they are also given twenty Qi-Replenishing Pills and twenty Blood-Recovery Pills."

"Outer disciples?" The jade slip had not mentioned the treatment sect disciples received.

"Exactly. Every sect has outer and inner disciples. Cultivation resources are not so abundant that everyone gets a share, after all. Naturally, sects devote better resources to inner disciples with greater talent, perseverance, and character."

Wen Xu understood. The cultivation world's sects did not sound all that different from academies. An academy might admit many students, but the teacher would naturally focus on instructing the one 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 get into Yonglu Mountain, can I return to my homeland after achieving success in cultivation?" Wen Xu asked the question that concerned him most. He was not someone who let a grudge go unavenged.

They said scholars were the pettiest people. That was not entirely true, but it did not feel out of place when applied to him. He truly was rather petty. Because he had possessed so little since childhood, he bore deep grudges against anyone who tried to take something from him.

That included anyone who tried to take his life.

Bian Chunchou thought that Wen Xu truly was someone who cherished the past. If possible, he too wanted to return to the modern world for a look. "Yonglu Mountain—or rather, the entire cultivation world—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 for Foundation Establishment cultivators."

"How long would it take at the fastest to reach the Golden Core Realm?"

"I knew you would ask that. The youngest person in the cultivation world to form a Golden Core was twenty-five. He is now Mei Xi Sword Venerable, the youngest Spirit Transformation venerable of the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect."

"Then how long could it take at the slowest?"

"According to information released by the Golden Cauldron Pavilion, it seems there was an elder from some remote aristocratic family. Foundation Establishment cultivators live for two hundred years, and he achieved enlightenment and broke through just before his lifespan ran out."

Wen Xu thought, That doesn't sound good at all. Let alone two hundred years—even if it took him a hundred years to form a Golden Core, his enemy would already be dead and buried. What would be the point of going back then? To dig up the grave and scatter the ashes?

What sort of underworld joke was this? Wen Xu had not expected things to take such a turn. Even with his steady emotions, he could not help feeling agitated now.

"What is Mei Xi Sword Venerable's talent like?"

At this, Bian Chunchou's eyes began to redden again. "A Mutated Thunder Spirit Root that might not appear even 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 starting."

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

Since childhood, few things had ever developed as he wished. Most had even been things he had forcibly demanded for himself. The old saying went that forcibly twisted melons were not sweet, but Wen Xu believed that was merely the sour talk of those who could not twist melons 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?" Just as Bian Chunchou had said, Yonglu Mountain was the first choice among the four sects, and it should be the same for him. The Hehe Sect was good, but he had no connections there. With heaven's favored children gathered like clouds, his chances of fighting his way through the encirclement were too slim.

"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 part in the Mountain Examination. Naturally, he also hoped Wen Xu would take the examination with him.

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

Bian Chunchou immediately brightened. He reached out and patted his new friend on the shoulder. "Come on, come on! I'll take you to get 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. When he saw Wen Xu smiling as he bowed to him, he knew the other man was willing to join Yonglu Mountain. Unfortunately, Yonglu Mountain had its rules: the Preliminary Trial, the Mountain Examination, and the Mind-Question Trial. Any disciple who remained after passing all three stages could join Yonglu Mountain regardless of talent. Only after the Mind-Question Trial would their Spiritual Roots be tested.

As Elder Zhan watched the two boys walk out side by side amid lively chatter, he seemed, in a daze, to see himself when he had first entered the mountain gate—equally heroic and high-spirited in the vigor of youth.

The actual situation, however, was that Bian Chunchou was gesticulating wildly as he urged Wen Xu to change out of his tattered bloody clothes. Even wearing only his inner robe would be better than entering the city covered in blood.

The respectable young man Wen Xu said, "That won't do. Absolutely not!"

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

"It won't do even if I can't see!"

"..."

All that could be said was that Elder Zhan's eyes came with a rather heavy nostalgia filter.

Chapter 7: First

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

In fact, the entire Yonglu Mountain Range was immensely vast. Aside from Yonglu Mountain, many sects large and small lived 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 he had been tense just now and had not cared about such things. Now that Bian Chunchou had pointed it out, he found it hard to endure as well. Come to think of it, he had not changed these clothes for over ten days. Now, with bloodstains and sweat added to the mix, it was truly impressive that Bian Chunchou had endured it until now.

But asking him to take them off and wear only his inner robe—how was that any different from streaking?

"Still agonizing over it? Didn't we agree? We'll first go down the mountain and buy a cloak from the villagers nearby. 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 world, but that was only for cultivators. There were so many humans on the Hengze Continent, while cultivators made up only a small fraction. Most ordinary people had no Spiritual Roots and could not cultivate, so they lived under cultivators' protection. Compared with the Mortal Realm, cultivation clans and sects stood everywhere here, and there was no imperial authority ruling the land.