Heaven-Questioning Stairway

"Are you preparing to enter seclusion cultivation? But we are leaving right away, and your time probably won't be enough at this moment," Gu Nian said.

Xue Fuyao shook her head and said, "It's not seclusion; I just want to cultivate inside my room, and you can just come and call me on the day we leave, Senior Sister."

Gu Nian thought that Xue Fuyao had high aptitude, and entering seclusion now perhaps meant she had gained some enlightenment, so she did not say anything further, nodding in agreement.

"However, if you want to cultivate, you can completely cultivate in the Wang Household. The spiritual qi here is still relatively dense; why go back to that small courtyard of yours?"

"It's quiet in the small courtyard, and besides, I always feel strange cultivating here."

During the few days staying at the Wang Household, Xue Fuyao truly experienced the phrase that wealthy families have many rights and wrongs, which was simply even more extreme than what she had seen inside the Imperial Palace.

Seeing that Xue Fuyao insisted, Gu Nian could ultimately only agree to her request.

"You mustn't run around blindly, oh. I've already reported your existence to the Elder, and the sect attaches great importance to you."

This sentence was both telling Xue Fuyao that the sect already knew of her existence, and also warning her not to want to escape, otherwise it would mean offending the Yuanji Sect.

Xue Fuyao nodded, "Don't worry, Senior Sister, I won't run around blindly."

After returning to her dwelling, she did not leave immediately, but only on the evening of the next day did she turn into the appearance of a sparrow and directly fly out taking advantage of the night.

According to the location mentioned previously by that stall owner and the induction of the broken jade inside her body, Xue Fuyao quickly found that place amidst a patch of woods.

Landing, she changed back to her original appearance.

Xue Fuyao squatted down and flipped open the ground covered by weeds. Under the illumination of the torch, the soil below indeed emitted a faint glow.

Seeing this, Xue Fuyao took an iron shovel out from her storage bag, and then began to shovel the soil all around here into the storage bag shovel by shovel.

Until she could no longer perceive broken jade fragments in the surroundings, she then stopped the action in her hands.

At this time the sky was already growing faintly bright, and looking at the surroundings again, the soil skin of a radius of more than ten meters had almost all been shoveled away by her.

Xue Fuyao lowered her head to look at her clothes that had already been dirtied, but her mood was extremely pleasant.

Changing back into a sparrow to fly back to her dwelling, she first changed off the dirty clothes on her body, and she was not in a rush to deal with the soil inside the spatial space. After all, with so much soil, dealing with it was truly a major project.

Moreover, she was also unsure when Gu Nian would come over, and if it were seen by her, it would not be easy for her to explain either. Anyway, the things were already in her hands, and they definitely couldn't run away.

Thinking thus, Xue Fuyao simply went straight out to look for Gu Nian.

Arriving at the location where spiritual roots were tested, looking at that long, snaking queue, she couldn't help sighing that there really were a lot of people.

It was just that among these people, the ones who could possess spiritual roots were not even one-tenth of the total number, and the majority of people were ordinary people without aptitude.

Upon the high platform, quite a few people went up full of confidence, but the result was that they went down with faces full of disappointment, while the people whose spiritual roots were successfully tested were full of joy on their faces, and even the adults below cheered along.

When ordinary people had their spiritual roots tested and entered the sect, many of them would almost never see their families again for a lifetime.

This was not because they didn't want to, but rather because for those who cultivated immortality, their time was different from the time of ordinary people.

For some cultivators, a single seclusion was a period of several years, several decades, or even a hundred years, yet that was an ordinary person's lifetime.

As for those disciples who originally had no family background, if they wanted to cultivate, they needed to pay even more effort than others, and in this way, naturally they had no way to go home and take a look.

Moreover, after these people were taken away by the sect, their parents would also receive a large amount of money provided by the sect.

To put it nicely, this money was a reward; to put it harshly, it was a one-time buyout, and could also be said to be severing mortal ties and karma.

Gu Nian saw Xue Fuyao from afar and waved at her cheerfully.

"Fuyao, come over quickly."

Xue Fuyao trotted over to Gu Nian's side, discovering that a middle-aged man was also standing by her side.

"This is Steward Chen. Steward Chen, this is Xue Fuyao," Gu Nian introduced mutually.

The middle-aged man who was called Steward Chen sized up Xue Fuyao. At the age of seven or eight, her cultivation had reached the Qi Refinement Third Layer without anyone teaching her, and she was even a wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root.

"Not bad. However, the procedures that must be walked through still have to be walked through; even if the aptitude is better, there can be no exceptions."

"Of course I know this, Steward Chen."

Naturally, Xue Fuyao also knew about the rules of the Yuanji Sect; she was merely pretending not to know right now.

She had already walked the Heaven-Questioning Stairway once in her previous life, and had almost failed to pass.

Once Steward Chen left, Gu Nian began to talk to Xue Fuyao about the rules of the Yuanji Sect.

"Fuyao, we are leaving Cloud City tomorrow. Before setting off, I need to tell you first about the rules for our Yuanji Sect selecting disciples.

Besides aptitude, all disciples who join the Yuanji Sect need to walk the Heaven-Questioning Stairway. The Heaven-Questioning Stairway has three thousand steps in total; if one is unable to pass the height of one thousand steps, regardless of what the aptitude is like, one must start from being an Outer Sect Disciple. However, I believe you will definitely have no problem.

After passing the trial of the Heaven-Questioning Stairway, next is acknowledging a master. You are a Heavenly Spiritual Root, and there are definitely quite a few elders inside the sect scrambling to take you as a disciple. If I were not Master's Final Disciple, I reckon my Master would also be tempted.

Choosing a master-choosing a master who suits oneself is very important. You are a wood-element Heavenly Spiritual Root; I suggest you choose Elder Lingmu to be your master, because Elder Lingmu is also a wood-element Single Spiritual Root, and his spiritual root purity reaches ninety-nine percent, just shy of being a Heavenly Spiritual Root.

Moreover, Elder Lingmu's cultivation is also extremely high, and even my Master is not Elder Lingmu's match.

It's just that Elder Lingmu hasn't taken in disciples all these years; if he still doesn't take disciples this time, you should choose Elder Cloud Dragon to be your master..."

Gu Nian spoke a whole bunch more words.

"Of course, ultimately you still have to look at your own choice. Aside from choosing someone who suits yourself when choosing a master, you also have to see if there is a mutual affinity between each other. In short, remember this: a good master can let you avoid taking many detours on the path of cultivation."

Hearing this, Xue Fuyao nodded heavily. "Rest assured, Senior Sister, I have already remembered all these things you said."

Elder Lingmu of the Yuanji Sect-this truly was her first choice, and also the best choice.

It was just that until the time she died in her previous life, the other party had never taken any disciples. She wondered whether he would choose her this time.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next day. Xue Fuyao was led by Gu Nian to board the returning Spirit Boat. Apart from the disciples of the Four Great Clans, there were only fifteen people in total traveling with them this time, among whom the majority were Quad Spiritual Roots and Five Spiritual Roots, only two were Dual Spiritual Roots, and there was also one person who was a Triple Spiritual Root.

These people and the disciples of the Four Great Clans respectively occupied the two sides of the Spirit Boat, as if a Milky Way was partitioned right down the middle.