True Person Luo

The Feathered Immortal Cult?

Chen Zhuo was bewildered. The name was completely unfamiliar to him.

But unfamiliar as it was, he had studied history in the Mortal Class.

It had to be some kind of Evil Cult!

According to official textbooks, the Evil Cult could be said to commit every crime under the sun, their atrocities too numerous to record even if every bamboo slip were exhausted. Countless cultivators had suffered at its hands. Anyone had the right to destroy it. But...

Except...

Seeing Chen Zhuo's confusion, Liang Ningwan explained quietly, "The Feathered Immortal Cult was a sect from Five Thousand Years Ago. During the Sect War Era, it opposed turning sects into corporations, so the Immortal Estate and the Taiqing Group joined forces to wipe it out."

"After that, the Feathered Immortal Cult's remnants lay low in the shadows, beguiling people and plotting a return. They spread twisted doctrines, incited cultivators to oppose the existing order, and sought illicit gains..."

Liang Ningwan said, "In Taiqing City, quite a few frustrated cultivators have been beguiled by them. They secretly support their activities, sow chaos in the city, and carry out terrorist attacks."

To be fair...

After hearing the Feathered Immortal Cult's program, even Chen Zhuo felt a little tempted.

Propaganda that sounded so enticing really could draw people in.

If someone had said this to the old Chen Zhuo in private, he might already have joined.

But now...

"They're just slogans, really."

"Actually, it's all just slogans." Liang Ningwan warned him, "Put bluntly, they dangle resources in front of lower-level cultivators like us to trick us into causing trouble."

"And they aren't even real resources. Most of it is flesh-and-blood technology! The Feathered Immortal Cult used to be a Devil Dao Sect. You know how it is—those primitive Devil Dao methods were much crueler than the corporate ones. Corporate Devil Dao organizations aren't even allowed to kill people casually anymore. They've fallen far behind the primitive Devil Dao when it comes to flesh and blood..."

"That's why the only Devil Dao companies doing well these days are ones like Joyful Union Entertainment."

"Meng Yan's progressing this fast. There has to be something wrong!"

With that, Liang Ningwan looked at Chen Zhuo, her expression turning peculiar. "You seem a little suspicious too..."

She had a point.

Meng Yan had gone from the First Layer of Qi Refining to the peak of the Qi Refining Second Layer in just four or five months.

Liang Ningwan herself was only at the Qi Refining Second Layer.

As for Chen Zhuo...

He was already heading for the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.

Liang Ningwan came from a Foundation Establishment lineage, yet she couldn't keep up with either Meng Yan or Chen Zhuo!

If Meng Yan had a secret, what about Chen Zhuo?

Chen Zhuo froze for a moment at that. Then he straightened his back and declared proudly, "Every bit of my cultivation came from tireless effort. I've taken no shortcuts!"

"Have you ever seen the sun over Taiqing City at four in the morning? Have you ever felt the pain of sticking yourself with two Needles at once?"

Righteous and impassioned, Chen Zhuo went on, "Sword cultivators don't have rearview mirrors, and Talismans don't have eyes. I've been hit by a Magical Artifact. Have you?"

Liang Ningwan found his words baffling.

She hadn't seen Taiqing City at four in the morning? She hadn't stuck herself with two Needles at once?

Come on. I may be a junior college student, but you don't have to insult me like that!

We junior college students stay awake cultivating too, just like undergraduates. Only mortals sleep, right?

Still, Chen Zhuo apparently had a way to sell physical Spirit Stones. She had also heard people in their circle say that Senior Sijing had taken him under her wing. If anyone dared provoke Chen Zhuo from now on, Senior Sijing would damage their scales.

Senior Sijing was a prodigy of the Alchemy College!

She was the most promising candidate in the university's second stage to advance from Junior College-to-University Transfer!

In many respects, five years counted as one stage.

University years one through five made up the first stage, and so on; years sixteen through twenty made up the fourth.

Skills and Knowledge Competitions, along with other contests, were grouped by those stages rather than by specific academic year.

After all, in immortal cultivation, one or two years made little difference.

So Liang Ningwan bit her lip and asked softly, "Zhuo... do you have any more physical Spirit Stones? Could you sell me a few? I'll pay fifteen Spirit Coins each this time."

Spirit Stones were rich in Spiritual Qi. Absorbing that energy directly made them valuable Cultivation resources in this age of depleted spiritual energy under the Immortal Estate—more valuable, at least, than the resources fifteen Spirit Coins could buy at the same level.

And Spirit Stones could do more than that. Ground into powder and used to refine pills or make enhancement agents, they could greatly improve the success rate and remove impurities.

As for Artifact Refining, their uses went without saying.

Chen Zhuo, meanwhile, began calculating.

He had originally had seventy-five Spirit Stones, along with some Spirit Sand.

Twenty Spirit Stones had gone toward collecting his goods, thirteen toward renting a Cave Abode in the Market, thirty toward buying an electronic cigarette, and six toward buying six sheets of Talisman Paper over the past half month to exchange for Talismans.

That left him just six Spirit Stones for emergencies.

After thinking it over, Chen Zhuo decided it would be wise to maintain his relationship with Liang Ningwan.

Her family had a good background, after all. Her father was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator at the Law Enforcement Bureau, and he had access to information Chen Zhuo did not.

Chen Zhuo might have ranked third in the Mortal Class, but that had only been a matter of writing formulaic exam answers.

Concepts like the Evil Cult and Pill Toxin weren't on the test.

"I can sell you three more Spirit Stones," Chen Zhuo said. "But I don't have them on me. We can trade after class."

How could Chen Zhuo possibly carry a Storage Bag around?

What if someone with powerful Divine Sense noticed it?

So apart from when he was in the Ancient Immortal Realm, Chen Zhuo generally left it in his Cave Abode.

But now that Liang Ningwan had brought it up, his home did not seem all that safe either.

What if they find my Storage Bag while investigating the Evil Cult?

Chen Zhuo hesitated, then decided to move his things to the Ancient Immortal Realm in a few days. He was nearly out of Spirit Stones anyway. All he had left was the Black Net Magical Artifact.

"All right."

Liang Ningwan nodded and was about to say more when the lecturer from before arrived!

But he no longer wore that lifeless, insincere smile he had during the last class.

This time, the lecturer's face glowed with excitement, and he looked more than twice as energetic as before. "Students, I have some good news to announce!"

"We are honored to welcome True Person Luo from the Taiqing City Law Enforcement Department to our classroom to speak to our class about guarding against the Evil Cult!"

"Please give him a warm welcome!"

True Person Luo?

Chen Zhuo paused. The next instant, a warm voice reached everyone's ears.

"There's no need for such fanfare. I've only come to show some care for the future flowers of our Immortal Estate."

Startled, Chen Zhuo turned his head.

Only then did he notice that, at some point, a figure had appeared in the seat of honor.

The man looked no older than twenty-seven or twenty-eight. His hair was tied in a Daoist topknot, and he wore cloud-stepping shoes. Though he wore neither Daoist robes nor feathered garments, he still gave the impression of an Ancient Cultivator.

In an instant, Chen Zhuo felt as though a towering mountain had pressed down on him. He understood at once.

A True Person!

Whether in the Immortal Estate or the Ancient Immortal Realm, only one who had attained the great Dao of the Golden Core could be called a True Person!

The man before him was a Golden Core True Person!

What else was there to say?

P.S. Calculating virtual Spirit Stones is too cumbersome, and I'm worried readers will confuse physical ones with virtual ones. So starting this chapter, I'll call the virtual ones Spirit Coins instead~