Jin Shilun

Kang Dabao entered the inner room and took a close look at the person on the bed. He couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. What a handsome young man!

Of Kang Dabao's two disciples, Han Yundao could also be considered handsome, but he was still young and had yet to grow into his looks. His features were also considerably more rugged, so the young man in white had thoroughly outshone him today.

Kang Dabao used his old trick again, casting the same Clear Qi Incantation he had used to treat the woman.

Mr. Zhang's "Spirit-Intoxicating Powder" had an impressive name, but it was nothing more than a mortal trick. The Clear Qi Incantation naturally dispelled it with ease.

"This is bad!" The young man sprang up as soon as he woke, only to find the scabbard at his waist empty. His heart went cold.

The next moment, however, he heard the old man in the scholar's kerchief beside him offer reassurance. "Don't panic, young hero Jin. This immortal master has slain the bandits. We're safe!"

"Jin Shilun thanks you for saving his life, immortal master." The young man was taken aback. After straightening his clothes, he bowed to Kang Dabao. He also reflected that this immortal master did not have the otherworldly bearing of the ones he had seen before.

"You were just lucky." Kang Dabao waved a hand. "Young man, don't try to play the hero when trouble comes. Remember to act within your means."

Kang Dabao sighed as well. If he hadn't asked around on a whim and learned that a village woman here had a special talent for braising pork knuckles, why would he have come to such an impoverished village?

If he hadn't come, the young man would surely have met a cruel end.

"Shilun will remember your teachings, immortal master." Jin Shilun's tone grew even more respectful.

"What are your plans now? Would you be willing to follow me and cultivate the Dao?"

Kang Dabao asked the question out of the blue. For so many years, the sect's numbers had remained low, and it had been years since a disciple had joined. No, wait, Mo'er had joined recently.

Kang Dabao saw that the young man had a heroic bearing. If he had Spirit Roots, he might make a promising talent, and taking him back to the sect to cultivate the Dao properly would be a fine thing.

As for the young man's saber skills, which the old man in the scholar's kerchief beside him praised endlessly and held up as a model, Kang Dabao didn't much care.

That was because the prospects for martial artists in this small world were truly limited.

Even if one spent an entire lifetime enduring hardship to reach the Martial Ancestor realm, revered as a god by ordinary people, one still couldn't withstand a single Fireball Technique from a beginner Qi Refinement cultivator.

The difference between the two was qualitative; they could not be mentioned in the same breath.

"This disciple is willing!" Jin Shilun's heart surged with excitement when he heard the offer.

His background was respectable enough, so how could he not know what a stroke of fortune it was to gain a chance to cultivate immortality and pursue the Dao?

Despite his great joy, he maintained a composed appearance and firmly suppressed his delight. Under the envious gaze of the old man in the scholar's kerchief, he bowed and knelt.

"Good. Then let us see whether you have an affinity with my Dao." Kang Dabao showed neither joy nor sorrow. Throughout the journey, whenever he encountered a youth or child who caught his eye, he would test them on the spot.

By his reckoning, he had tested nearly a hundred people, yet hadn't picked up a single overlooked talent.

He had handed out quite a few martial arts manuals and gold leaves, so he didn't hold out much hope.

He took the Spirit-Testing Ruler from his Storage Bag and tapped the young man lightly. "Four Spirit Roots." Kang Dabao sighed, both pleased and regretful.

By ordinary reckoning, such aptitude was already one in ten thousand among mortals, but Kang Dabao still held on to a sliver of hope that he might happen upon an unparalleled genius.

But anyone drawing a prize always hoped to win the grand prize. This was probably what it meant to conquer Long and then covet Shu.

"Your master is Kang Dabao, the seventh-generation sect master of the Chongming Sect. From now on, you are my third disciple. Our Chongming Sect is not an orthodox Daoist lineage, merely a small eclectic sect, so we do not confer Daoist names or ordination certificates. You may simply continue cultivating under your secular name. The sect has no rules or doctrines. You need only remember four words in your conduct and cultivation: have a clear conscience. These are your two senior brothers, Han Yundao and Duan Anle. You also have two martial uncles in the sect; you can pay your respects when you meet them later."

"Congratulations, junior brother." Han Yundao and Duan Anle stood to the side and offered their congratulations, clasping their little hands with an air of proper formality.

Jin Shilun didn't know whether Four Spirit Roots were good or bad, nor could he make out the difference between an orthodox Daoist lineage and a small eclectic sect.

He understood only that Kang Dabao had accepted him as a disciple and that he could join an immortal sect. At last, he could no longer suppress himself. Joy spread across his face, and he grinned as he answered respectfully.

He then respectfully greeted his two senior brothers, who were a head shorter than him. Delighted, the two little ones puffed out their chests and planted their hands on their hips, looking immensely pleased with themselves.

"Time passes unnoticed in the mountains. Should you return first and make arrangements with your family?"

Kang Dabao asked another question, looking his new disciple over carefully again. With a martial artist's physique and Pan An's looks, he was almost cheating.

What a graceful, handsome young gentleman! Kang Dabao couldn't help praising him inwardly, and his appreciation grew.

"I am the eldest son in my family, so I should ask Master's leave to return home for a visit," Jin Shilun said.

"Junior brother, we have not yet entered the Dao, so we cannot call him 'Master' yet. We must call him 'Honored Master,'" Duan Anle corrected him from the side.

Seeing the puzzlement on Jin Shilun's face, Han Yundao explained, "The word 'Master' means both teacher and father. Until we cross the threshold into the Dao, we can only call him 'Honored Master.'"

Only then did Jin Shilun understand. He immediately admitted his mistake and corrected himself.

Then Duan Anle asked, "Junior brother, where are you from?"

"My home is in Gongxing Stockade, within a hundred li of here." Jin Shilun, who towered over Han and Duan, bent down to answer, showing not the slightest impatience.

"Who else is in your family, junior brother?" Duan Anle continued in an affected tone, thoroughly enjoying being a senior brother.

"The Jin Household is a prominent clan in Gongxing Stockade. At home I have a great-uncle, my aged father, more than a dozen concubine mothers, dozens of younger brothers and sisters, and nearly a thousand blood relatives in the clan."

Duan Anle, who came from a modest family, was stunned when Jin Shilun mentioned dozens of younger brothers and sisters.

The immortal ancestor of his Duan Household had struggled to produce descendants. By the time his generation came around, three branches had been reduced to a single male heir, a tragedy in the mortal world. The entire Duan Household put together had fewer people than Jin Shilun had younger siblings.

Han Yundao had no reaction. The Han Household was also a prominent clan in the Chongming Sect.

Though he couldn't match Jin Shilun in younger siblings, he was far ahead in concubine mothers, so he didn't find it strange.

"Honored Master, we have nothing else to do anyway. What do you think?" Hope showed on Han Yundao's face, and Duan Anle watched expectantly as well.

"Since you've said we have nothing else to do, let's all go and visit Shilun's home. If Shilun's relatives are willing, we can take them to the Chongming Sect and settle them there as well."

Kang Dabao could see that his two disciples hadn't had their fill of being senior brothers, and he was happy to indulge them. But if they slacked off in their cultivation again after returning to the sect, the ruler in his hand could beat the flowers right out of them.

As for whether the Jin Household would be willing to move with him and his disciples, that was hard to say.

From Jin Shilun's speech and manner, Kang Dabao could tell that the Jin Household was most likely a local tyrant in Gongxing Stockade. They might not be willing to follow him to the Chongming Sect and humble themselves.

Some large stockades and towns had no shortage of Martial Ancestors, and ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators would not go out of their way to provoke them.

Unless their luck was truly terrible and they ran into vicious Evil Cultivators like the Four Ghosts of the Liu Household, as Wild Horse Village had, the prominent clans in such large stockades would not fare too badly.

Hearing Kang Dabao's promise, all three disciples were overjoyed. The old man in the scholar's kerchief tactfully concealed the grief in his heart and joined them with an apologetic smile.

"I see that this stockade is in ruins, and nearly half of its able-bodied people have perished. The masters behind those vile bandits presumably won't let the matter rest. With only the old and weak left here, I'm afraid it will be hard for you to live in peace. What are your plans, old sir?" On a sudden impulse, Kang Dabao decided he might as well see the Buddha all the way to the Western Paradise.

"Our plans?" The old man in the scholar's kerchief shook his head with a bitter smile, the wrinkles between his brows deepening further.

"To tell you the truth, immortal master, we were rootless commoners who fled oppressive rule and built a stockade here to protect ourselves and find a way to survive. How could we have any plans? Even if Yizhenfeng hadn't come, we wouldn't dare stay here any longer. We can only look for somewhere else to build a stockade and live one day at a time."

"Several hundred li west of here is the Chongming Sect's home. If you're interested, old sir, gather the stockade's supplies, money, and grain and take your people there first. My disciples and I will come and join you once we've finished our business."

There were still tens of thousands of mortals under the Chongming Sect's jurisdiction. Most were descendants of the mortal relatives of Chongming Sect cultivators from generations past, though naturally some other mortals had also come seeking protection.

That was the number left after his martial uncles had each moved away with many of their mortal relatives following his master's death. Otherwise, there would have been even more.

After all, mortals under cultivators' protection had no taxes to worry about, no fear of floods or fires, and no trouble from bandits. Their lives were wonderfully carefree, so naturally they were happy to have children and grandchildren.

Thus, moving the several hundred desperate mortals before him to the sect now would be easy enough to absorb among the mortals already under its jurisdiction, with no harm to be feared.

Of course, people without roots or backing wouldn't have an easy life there either. It wasn't a paradise; there were still exploiting classes, and local bullies and corrupt gentry were in no short supply anywhere.

But that was unavoidable. For most people, being able to live on peacefully without fear for their lives was already enough to satisfy them.

"Kou Yunsheng thanks you for your immense kindness, immortal master!" Tears and snot streamed down the old man's face in his delight. He immediately paid his deepest respects, kowtowing over and over.

For rural commoners like them to gain a cultivator's protection and a place to live without paying any price, who knew how many lifetimes of good fortune they must have accumulated?

Kang Dabao thought little of Kou Yunsheng's reaction. He had merely made the offer in passing, and it didn't matter to him whether it worked out.

He then took out three little jade-green swords and handed them to Kou Yunsheng. "Gather your things first, then. These three Talisman Artifacts will have no trouble dealing with ordinary mortals. Before using one, you need only spray blood from the tip of a virgin boy's tongue onto the blade. Keep them for protection in case of trouble, old sir. If you really do run into some blind brigands, you can also invoke the Chongming Sect's name to cow those petty villains."

An ordinary Qi Refinement cultivator could make Talisman Artifacts like these with little effort, and the materials weren't particularly valuable. They had some power even in mortal hands, which was why he gave them away so casually.

Of course, to a stockade chief like Kou Yunsheng, they were worth a thousand gold pieces.

Any force in Pingrong County capable of standing up to the three Talisman Artifacts should at least have heard a little of the Chongming Sect's reputation.

But what if the people of Niuli Stockade ran into villains who had no fear at all of the Chongming Sect's name?

What else could they do? Kang Dabao himself probably couldn't afford to provoke people like that. If the villagers ran into them, those people would naturally do as they pleased, and whatever Kang Dabao thought would be of no use.

Even Kang Dabao himself couldn't be sure that he wouldn't step outside tomorrow and run into some monstrous fiend of the Demon Race that had slept for ten thousand years, only for it to sneeze in his face and blast him dead.

In this world, no one could make an absolute promise, not even a Nascent Soul ancestor.

Before Kou Yunsheng could bow again, Kang Dabao called his three disciples onto the donkey cart and had Jin Shilun drive it toward Gongxing Stockade.

I'm back in my hometown, so today's post was a little late. Thank you all for your recommendation votes.