Immortal Cultivation and Life-Saving Guide

Chapter 2: The Noble and the Weird
The term "cultivation of immortality" was unfamiliar to Wei Xi.

She was often ostracized by the children in the village. However, Wei Dong was more interested in climbing trees to pick birds than listening to stories told by the village elders.

So Wei Xi had no idea that the stone he was pressing was called the Immortal Fate Stone: when the tester pressed the Immortal Fate Stone and it lit up, it meant he had a Qi Palace and could cultivate immortality; the brighter the stone, the higher his talent.

Wei Xi, unfortunately, is like the lemon seed in the cup of fruit tea in the world of cultivation: useless to eat, but too tiring to spit out.

Wei Xi stared at his cousin with a look of surprise, his thick eyebrows knitted together. Liu Hu covered his arm and stepped back.

"Little girl, you can take your hands off now and come with me."

Next to the Immortal Fate Stone stood a young man in a red robe. He glanced at the rat skull Wei Xi was clutching and continued, "We'll use the Image Stone to record your information."

"After the test is over, you can go home and stay overnight. Someone will take you back to the sect tomorrow."

The red-robed boy was met with silence, and he felt somewhat puzzled.

Seeing Wei Xi staring at him with her scary black eyes again, he began to feel something was strange.

Recalling the drought doll he met during a training session, the red-robed boy began to make hand gestures behind his back.

"She's a mute from the next village, Immortal Master," Liu Hu said in a rare respectful tone, apparently having been threatened by his mother with a broom. "Can a mute also cultivate immortality?"

It would be better if it wasn’t the drought doll that liked to burrow into children’s bones. The boy extinguished the spell.

"Once you enter the immortal gate, you will not be bound by external things." He smiled at Wei Xi, "Little girl, I am Chen Zhou from the Wanfa Sect. Please follow me."

After saying that, Chen Zhou took Wei Xi's hand and walked towards the southwest corner of the venue - and snatched the rat bone from her hand.

Wei Xi turned around to look for his father, but found that he was no longer there.

I remembered my father telling me to be selected.

Wei Xi turned his head back and thought: Does this mean I was selected?

Chen Zhou led Wei Xi to a tattered table. A young man with bright red chicken feathers in his hair sat at the back, legs crossed, his face covered by a cookbook.

Chen Zhou knocked on the table, and the boy was woken up and wiped the menu off his hand.

"Zhao Dazui! Someone has been sent to your Qingcheng Sect!"

Zhao Dazui, as his name suggests, has a wide mouth.

He was still a little dazed, and Chen Zhou knocked on the table twice again, and he finally came to his senses. He put down the recipe in a hurry and rummaged around on the table before he found a palm-sized light blue stone.

"Thank God, this is the last village in Xizhou. If I don't recruit enough people, my master will definitely nag me when he gets back." Zhao Dazui stood up and looked at Wei Xi with shining eyes. "Is this for me?"

"This girl just lit up the Immortal Fate Stone," Chen Zhou pushed Wei Xi forward, "Write down the information!"

Wei Xi drank half a bowl of water and chewed two handfuls of tree leaves in the morning. She was already seeing stars and let Chen Zhou push her out.

"It's just that other sects aren't very suitable, but I do have some affinity with your Qingcheng Sect."

"I know," Zhao Dazui touched the chicken feathers stuck on his head. Chen Zhou's mouth twitched. "Your talent can't reach the level of other sects. Are the stones gray?"

"Dark." Chen Zhou said in a low voice. Wei Xi was so hungry that he didn't want to look up at him.

"It's barely an entry-level level..." Zhao Dazui pursed his lips and frowned.

Chen Zhou glanced at the unsteady Wei Xi and her withered hair and said, "It's not like your Qingcheng Sect has never accepted a disciple like this before!"

"You know what I saw and heard this time when I came down the mountain. This little girl will most likely not survive if she stays in the mortal world. Since you have a destiny with her, you should accept her," Chen Zhou said to Zhao Dazui in a low voice. "And let's talk about your master's instructions!"

"From what I've seen and heard, Chen Tiedan, has the Wanfa Sect smoked you?" Zhao Dazui looked troubled. He looked at Wei Xi and sighed, "Forget it, it's not like I haven't taken something like this before. Little girl, what's your name?"

"She's mute. Just record her face and go to the next village to pick her up tomorrow."

"Mute? Not you."

"The Qingcheng Sect has profound immortal techniques, so they're sure to have a way to cure her," Chen Zhou interrupted Zhao Dazui. "She can't speak, so her mind is naturally more resolute than her peers. She's a good candidate for immortal cultivation."

"You have explained all the principles of the world," Zhao Dazui raised his hand, "I am convinced. We in Qingcheng Sect have accepted this girl. You should go back quickly." Chen Zhou watched Zhao Dazui record Wei Xi's face and fingertip blood on the photo stone, and then told Wei Xi to wait for someone to pick him up at the entrance of Tianshui Village at 3:30 am the next morning. He was relieved only after Wei Xi nodded.

Chen Zhou sent Wei Xi to Wei Lao San, who was standing on tiptoe outside with a nervous look on his face, and told him the same thing.

When Wei Laosan heard that his daughter was chosen, he immediately knelt down to Chen Zhou.

Chen Zhou stopped him, touched the top of Wei Xi's head, said, "It's Wei Xi's own fault," and left.

……

Wei Li sat at the door, feeling uneasy. Her slender brows were furrowed as she sewed the child's clothes, and from time to time she stood up to go into the house to check on her swollen eldest son.

The sun was about to set, and the father and son who had gone to borrow grain had not returned yet. Worried, Wei Li bit the thread and picked up another piece of clothing.

Finally, she saw her husband and her angry daughter, and without even putting down her clothes, she hurried over to greet them.

Wei Xi walked into the house without even raising his head.

Wei Li couldn't feel her daughter's pulse, "What's wrong? Was she bullied by Hu Zi?"

"How's Dongzi? Come inside and tell me."

Wei Li closed the door and caught a glimpse of Wei Xi sitting next to Wei Dong on the kang.

"Erya has been chosen by the Immortal Sect and will be leaving tomorrow morning. Please pack her things."

Wei Li was so frightened that the clothes in her arms fell to the ground.

"What did you say, headmaster? No, Erya? She was chosen by the Immortal Sect?"

"Kushui Village kept this a secret, and we only discovered it today... It's a good thing that Erya was chosen." Wei Lao San opened his shirt, revealing a bag of coarse noodles that was less than half full. "This is the noodles his aunt lent us. How's Dongzi?"

Without waiting for Wei Li to say anything, Wei Xi slid off the kang angrily and rushed out in his straw sandals.

After all, he is a child, and no matter how big his temper is, he has to go home and sleep.

Wei Xi ate some hot soup with noodles in it at night and lay down next to her brother, unable to sleep.

"Master, can Erya not go?" Wei Li lowered her voice, and the kerosene lamp that she usually didn't want to light emitted a dim halo.

Wei Xi turned his back to his parents and wondered why Wei Dong was still not getting up.

"I heard that most of the immortal cultivators have completed the formation. At least Erya can live well if she stays at home."

"Hey, this is something no one else can even hope for! It's a blessing that those people in Kushui Village hid so well and finally got."

"I don't care about luck or bad luck. I just want my girl to be safe!"

"What a horrible world! My leg will take another two weeks to heal, and the two acres of land at home have been completely destroyed by locusts."

"If those starving people rush in in a few days, will we be able to save Arya? The evil of cannibalism has begun and there's no stopping it!"

As if afraid of waking the child, Wei Laosan stopped and Wei Li covered her mouth and said nothing.

"Dongzi is okay, but Erya is mute and hasn't learned any skills... Even if she stays, she'll marry a disabled bachelor when she grows up. It's better to go to the Immortal Sect. I heard that the formation only opens once every few decades. Erya will have her own destiny in the future."

There was only silence behind Wei Xi. She looked at the swaying halo on the wall, which looked like the rippling water surface when catching fish.

After a long while, Wei Li stopped sobbing and uttered a low voice, "Master, did those people from Kushui Village give you any trouble?"

"It's okay. Since Erya was chosen, they will be much more polite to me."

"Make two pancakes for Erya and take them... Oh! When my leg is healed, I'll go up the mountain to get something and bring this half bag of flour. After the winter is over, we can plant some crops and slowly get through it."

On Weixi's last night at home, her parents gradually became silent. Her brother's breathing became fainter, and eventually, Weixi fell asleep too.

(End of this chapter)