A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

"All new disciples, assemble at the Transmission Hall in fifteen minutes!"

As dawn broke, deep shouts echoed throughout the Hsinchu compound.

Zhou Ping had already gotten up and finished washing up. After hearing the noise, he looked at the sky outside the window and walked out the door.

His habit of waking up early, which he developed from helping his father for many years, means that he naturally wakes up before dawn every day.

Zhou Ping followed the crowd toward the Transmission Hall. Along the way, everyone was yawning and complaining.

"Aren't outer disciples human? Can't they eat breakfast first?"

"It's only the first day, and I'm already feeling homesick. How am I going to get through the rest of the day..."

Zhou Ping saw some children who were two or three years younger than him, with tear stains in the corners of their eyes.

"Hurry up and let's go. You'll only be allowed to eat after the tasks are assigned. You'll get used to it. We don't support idlers in our outer sect!"

The senior brothers leading the way seemed to see their former selves in them, and urged them on with a touch of emotion.

Inside the main hall of the Transmission Hall, there were about a hundred people standing there.

An obese middle-aged man sat alone in the hall, casually flipping through a booklet, a satisfied look occasionally appearing on his lips.

This obese man was Gao De, the chief steward of the Transmission Pavilion.

The booklet he was flipping through was a list of gifts compiled by his disciples yesterday.

The document records various forms of greetings from newly initiated disciples, some of which are extremely rare even within the Green Bamboo Sect, which delighted him.

"Liu Haoyu, a century-old Ganoderma lucidum."

"Han Lijun, one box of Lao Long Tea."

"Huang Tianhua, thirty taels of silver."

......

The crowd waited quietly below the stage, all focused and not daring to make a sound.

They knew that whether they could get the daily tasks they wanted today depended entirely on the chief steward on the platform.

Zhou Ping disappeared into the crowd, curiously observing his surroundings and the middle-aged fat man on the stage.

This person is the one in charge today, but his appearance is somewhat comical, and he doesn't look like someone who practices martial arts at all.

Gao De finally finished reading the booklet in his hand and nodded in satisfaction. Seeing this, the disciple next to him took the booklet from his hand and stood respectfully to the side.

"Just assign them according to the order in this book. Those whose names are not on the book can be assigned according to the rules."

He whispered something to the disciple beside him, emphasizing the word "according to the rules".

"Disciple understands!"

The disciple beside him bowed in response, appearing to understand perfectly.

Seeing that he understood immediately, Gao De nodded in satisfaction and casually picked up the tea on the table to sip.

Seeing Gao De's satisfied expression, the disciple was delighted, bowed again, and walked down the steps.

Holding the booklet, he stood with another disciple in the audience who was responsible for taking notes. After exchanging a few words, he called out loudly.

"Liu Haoyu!"

"Han Lijun!"

"Huang Tianhua!"

......

Upon hearing their names called, each outer disciple stepped forward to receive their daily task.

Seeing their overjoyed expressions, Zhou Ping felt secretly anxious, thinking that these people must have been assigned quite good tasks.

But as each name was called out, Zhou Ping's heart sank little by little.

More than half of the disciples have already received their missions, but his name has yet to be called.

At this moment, the last shred of hope in Zhou Ping's heart vanished completely.

Just as he had expected, all of these people achieved the results they wanted through their own means.

It's not hard to imagine that in the end, those who will remain are the poor people with no background or family wealth.

Zhou Ping sighed inwardly. Fortunately, he had already come up with a solution. Although it was not as lucrative as those "lucrative positions," it was the best choice for him.

Fewer and fewer people remained in the main hall. All the disciples who had received their missions left the Transmission Hall.

They need to hurry up and eat, then report to the mission location. Once everything is arranged, they can come to the Transmission Pavilion to begin their martial arts journey.

"Zhou Ping!"

A soft chuckle reached his ears, and Zhou Ping snapped out of his thoughts and quickly walked over.

The disciple of the Transmission Pavilion glanced at the newcomer in front of him. He was dressed in coarse linen clothes, dark-skinned and thin, with a sturdy build. His eyes were exceptionally bright. Although his appearance was not outstanding, he gave off a feeling of being full of energy.

Unfortunately, he came from a poor background.

Zhou Ping stood calmly to the side, unaware of what the other person was thinking. He was simply curious about what kind of daily tasks the other person would assign him.

"Junior Brother Zhou, your assigned task is to chop wood and start a fire in the kitchen. It's a good job; aside from taking up a lot of time for the three daily meals, there are almost no other drawbacks, and you're guaranteed to eat better than anyone else!"

This senior brother had a look on his face as if Zhou Ping had gotten a great deal.

Zhou Ping was somewhat stunned after hearing this. This task was unexpected and differed from what he knew.

"Senior brother, as far as I know, the task of chopping wood and starting fires in the kitchen is handled by the sect's general servants, right?"

Seeing that the other party was quite familiar with these daily tasks, the senior brother from the Transmission Pavilion said awkwardly, "Junior brother, you may not know this, but these tasks were indeed handled by the sect's handymen before."

"But this time is slightly different. As you know, there are so many new outer disciples this time, there aren't enough tasks to assign within the sect. This is a last resort!"

"I just need my senior brother to assign me tasks that are normal for disciples, even if they are a bit tough or tiring, I don't mind!"

Zhou Ping stared intently at the other person with a serious expression.

Seeing his solemn expression, the disciple from the Transmission Pavilion's eyes darted around, and a sudden surge of joy filled his heart, as if he had just thought of something.

"Junior brother, is it true?"

"really!"

......

Zhou Ping was in a good mood as he walked towards the weapons pavilion.

Although things went through a lot of twists and turns at the Transmission Hall, I finally got the daily task I had been looking forward to.

Weaponry Pavilion Forging Boy!

In the Green Bamboo Sect, this task is undoubtedly the least popular, with no one else coming close.

This is because it not only requires a long time to learn the basics of forging, but also a strong physique to withstand the hardships of forging over the years.

Therefore, this task is almost never taken on by newcomers, and even forced assignment is of no use.

Those who are forced to do so, even at the risk of secretly leaving the sect, are unwilling to become blacksmithing apprentices in the weapon pavilion.

In the end, the higher-ups of the Green Bamboo Sect had no choice but to send some of those who had violated the sect rules to the Weapon Pavilion for punishment, in order to make amends for their mistakes.

Over time, this has led to a shortage of personnel in the Weaponry Pavilion, creating a situation where they are desperately seeking talent.

It is said that if someone can successfully assign a new recruit to the Weapon Pavilion, the Weapon Pavilion will give them a special reward.

Recalling the overjoyed look on that senior brother's face when he left the Transmission Pavilion, Zhou Ping secretly found it somewhat amusing.

The way the other person looked at him was as if they were looking at a fool.

He not only helped him successfully complete the task assigned by the Transmission Pavilion, but also gave him an extra reward from the Weapon Pavilion for no reason.

I'll probably wake up laughing tonight.

But Zhou Ping was no saint; to others, the forging boy was like a snake or a scorpion.

But for him, who grew up in a blacksmith shop, it was a different story.

For many years, the Weapon Pavilion has been sparsely populated, and the speed at which weapons are forged naturally cannot keep up with the sect's rate of attrition.

Therefore, at least half of the forging tasks in the Weaponry Pavilion are assigned to the various blacksmith shops within the territory.

Zhou Ping's blacksmith shop was naturally among them.

Therefore, he knew the weapons and tools forged by the Armory like the back of his hand and could use them immediately.

Therefore, Zhou Ping becoming a blacksmith's apprentice will not hinder his martial arts cultivation as others might imagine.

On the contrary, he can complete the task at the fastest speed, saving himself as much cultivation time as possible.