Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

Chapter 53 Primordial Qi

Seeing that they had not been chosen, the other boys all looked disappointed and dispersed.

Their parents were waiting outside. Some of them took out copper coins and went to find a younger Taoist priest nearby, seemingly intending to pay money so that their children could go up the mountain to learn a skill and come back.

Other families, under the village chief's arrangement, entered the courtyard, and those who were interested lined up with their children.

Because Zhuang Xing's family and Yunling were delayed outside, they couldn't squeeze to the front of the line and could only stand at the back.

They looked ahead, but after checking, they found that apart from Da Chun at the beginning, no one else could make the spirit talisman move.

It seems that people with talent for cultivation are still a minority.

There were about thirty or forty children who participated in the testing, but in the end, only one child, Da Chun, was found to be positive.

However, the Taoist priests did not show any dissatisfaction. It seemed that it was normal for one or two children to be selected from a village. Zhuang Xing estimated that a child like Da Chun was probably one in a hundred.

However, Da Chun looks to be eleven or twelve years old. If he started training with the old hunter at the age of six, it means that he had been training for five or six years but had not been able to condense true qi in his body. In the end, he had to go up the mountain to be trained by professional Taoist priests before he could be considered to have truly entered the world of cultivators.

Looking at it this way, Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling seem to be exceptionally gifted?

They've only been training for six months, and they're already able to project their true qi outwards.

However, it is possible that the training methods they have mastered are extremely advanced. After all, the White Lotus Hermit, who could create such a mysterious jade slip, is no ordinary cultivator; he is definitely a top figure in the cultivation world.

Furthermore, the two were fortunate enough to find a spiritual fruit to nourish their blood and qi at the beginning of spring.

Moreover, thanks to Yunling's keen senses, they often caught fish and ate meat separately, never coming home empty-handed.

These are extremely rare and advantageous conditions. Even the children who train with the old hunters cannot eat meat often. They probably don't have much time to train. On weekdays, they probably have to help with farm work at home before they can find time to train with the old hunters.

They might not even have a unified and orderly time plan at all; the old hunter would just demonstrate it for them a few times and then let them go home and figure it out on their own.

In this way, Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling naturally widened the gap between themselves and the others.

Zhuang Xing thought to himself, silently queuing up. The villagers who had come to watch the excitement didn't leave and stayed by the courtyard.

Some villagers were asking the Taoist priest for help, and even patients with sprained ankles and fevers came to him. The Taoist priest accepted all comers. Zhuang Xing saw a young Taoist priest who stretched out his palm and twisted the bone, thus setting the sprained ankle of the man.

Finally, most of the people in front had left, and it was their turn.

Master Qingxu squinted and smiled at Zhuang Xing.

"Come on, child, put your hands here."

Zhuang Xing shook his head and said, "Daoist Master, I came here with her, not to be tested."

He didn't plan to become a disciple of the Taoist temple right now; his plan was to pay money to go up the mountain as his parents wished.

Becoming a disciple is actually similar to becoming a monk. His parents couldn't bear to part with him, so they only wanted him to study on the mountain for a year or two before returning home.

He himself couldn't bear to part with his mother and father. The reason he had the idea of ​​cultivating was because the tiger demon almost ate his mother that day.

If one were to sever all ties with family for the sake of spiritual practice, and then cultivate some kind of supreme path of detachment, that would be putting the cart before the horse.

He knew his own limitations perfectly well; he was just an ordinary person who craved all sorts of things in the world. He planned to travel and see the world in the future, but after he had seen it all, he would definitely return to this home.

Upon hearing this, Master Qingxuzi shifted his gaze to Yunling.

The Taoist priest smiled and waved to Yunling.

"Then you go first, child."

"Mmm." Yunling nodded and took a deep breath.

Zhuang Xing gave her a thumbs up as encouragement.

Yunling's breathing gradually calmed down, and Zhuang Xing knew that she had begun to circulate her Qi.

She slowly placed her hand on the spirit talisman. At this moment, Daoist Qingxuzi was still talking to Zhuang Xing.

"Child, look, this lady is already trying it, why don't you try it too..."

Before he finished speaking, the spiritual talisman burst into flames of azure, the flames flashing and rising a foot high, startling the surrounding Taoist priests.

“This…” Even the oldest Daoist priest, Qingxuzi, was stunned, staring blankly at the rising flames.

The villagers who had been watching the spectacle all turned their attention to it, and the noisy environment suddenly became extremely quiet. A few seconds later, the flames went out, and only then could one hear the faint whispers of discussion outside.

Master Qingxuzi finally turned his attention to Yunling.

"Uncle-Master Qingxuzi... this is just a low-grade spiritual talisman, how could it cause such a commotion?" the young Taoist priest beside him asked in confusion.

“Lingwei, when a low-grade spiritual energy talisman is fully activated, it can only ignite a flame about one finger's height at most. This is what I taught you,” said Daoist Qingxuzi. “However, there is one situation that is too rare to be covered in the classroom.”

"The flame when the Spirit Qi Talisman burns is not determined by the quantity of True Qi, but by the quality of True Qi. The Spirit Qi Talisman is like a fuse; it simply helps you ignite your True Qi, thereby making your True Qi more vigorous in a short period of time."

"True Qi is like firewood, but there are many kinds of firewood. There is a kind of firewood that is the best kind. It is the kind of firewood that gathers the Qi of heaven and earth and is accumulated in the body of a living being at birth. It is extremely rare."

"Primordial Qi!" The young Taoist priest suddenly realized.

"Child, what is your name?" Master Qingxu stood up and took Yunling's hand.

"Replying to the Daoist Master, my name is Yunling," Yunling said, bowing her head.

"Yunling, you are now a disciple of my temple," said Daoist Qingxuzi.

"Master...I heard that if I become your disciple, will my family receive a sum of money?" Yunling looked up at him.

"Lingwei, go and get the money," said Master Qingxuzi.

"Yes." Daoist Lingwei cupped his hands, stepped aside, and opened a wooden box containing money.

The room was full of strung-together copper coins. He first took five strings of coins, but Master Qingxu shook his head. He continued until he took twenty strings of coins before Master Qingxu gestured for him to come over.

Zhuang Xing thought this amount was just right. Too little would seem stingy, and too much would arouse the villagers' jealousy.

"If you are willing to become a disciple, I will find a way to send money back to your family."

Master Qingxuzi piled the twenty strings of coins on the table. The copper coins reflected a metallic luster under the sunlight. The surrounding villagers craned their necks to look, their faces full of envy, and whispered among themselves, wondering whose daughter that was and why they had never seen her before.

"If you have any other ideas, just tell me." Master Qingxu patted Yunling's head. "I can make this decision for the temple."

Yunling glanced at Zhuang Xing, who nodded, and she readily agreed: "Yunling is willing to become the Daoist Master's disciple."

"Good, good, good!" Master Qingxuzi said "good" three times in a row.

Zhuang Xing finally understood something: why, even though he was not suited to the White Lotus Hermit's life-giving magic, he and Yunling could both see the lotus phantom that appeared when the jade slip was triggered.

So that's how it is. The threshold set by the layman is actually quite high. To obtain the jade slip, one doesn't just need to have talent for cultivation; one must, like the layman, be born with innate Qi.

At the same time, Zhuang Xing had another idea. Judging from the Taoist priests' performance, people with innate Qi are extremely rare. Even if Taoist Qingxuzi had to negotiate with Yunling, he would still want to take her as his disciple.

From this perspective, perhaps he can negotiate some terms with Daoist Qingxuzi.

Then Mom and Dad won't have to pay anymore, right? That money is all their hard-earned money.

Seeing the slight envy in his father's and mother's eyes, he felt he couldn't afford to be outdone here.

Know that in your youth you had lofty ambitions and vowed to be the best in the world!

When he left his hometown, he also wanted to make his parents the center of attention.

Chapter 54 A Gentleman Should Dwell Among Trees and Wild Geese

Master Qingxuzi seemed very pleased to have found a disciple with innate Qi. He put two pieces of candy in Yunling's hand and inquired about Yunling's life details.

Yunling omitted the details of how she met Zhuang Xing and how they cultivated together, and instead recounted her own background.

As the old Taoist listened, his joyful expression gradually faded. Yunling's life story was truly tragic. Her mother died in childbirth, and her father was killed by a tiger demon when she was three years old. She had grown up all alone and miserable.

The old Taoist priest sighed softly, patted Yunling's head, and gave her a piece of malt candy.

His way of comforting others seems to be by giving them candy.

The Taoist priests around her also comforted Yunling. Some of them even shared their own experiences. Many of the Taoist priests had encountered monsters when they were young, or even been harmed by them.

No wonder they care so much about those young orphans. Many of them have had their loved ones harmed by monsters, so they naturally understand that feeling of helplessness and despair.

However, Yunling didn't seem to like being the center of attention. Zhuang Xing knew that she was discriminated against by the villagers and lived under someone else's roof, so she had already built a high wall around her heart.

She finds it almost impossible to develop trust or closeness with people she has just met.

It took Zhuang Xing quite a bit of effort to gradually become familiar with her.

Surrounded by so many people, she couldn't help but shrink back and stand next to Zhuang Xing.

Although many things have made her much more mature than her peers, in the end, she is just a nine-year-old child.

In such situations, she still can't help but want to rely on the person she trusts most.

Even when Master Qingxu gave her candy, she looked at it for a while and then put all three pieces of candy into Zhuang Xing's hand.

"You two have a very good relationship." Master Qingxu stroked his beard and smiled at Yunling and Zhuang Xing.

Yunling didn't reply, but simply nodded gently.

Zhuang Xing smiled at Daoist Qingxuzi and took Yunling's hand.

He felt Yunling's hands trembling slightly, perhaps because she felt she had messed things up.

Zhuang Xing had originally instructed her to "show a little" of her skills, but she had caused such a commotion. She looked at Zhuang Xing with pitiful eyes, as if she was afraid of doing something wrong and being abandoned by him.

Zhuang Xing thought she was like a delicate little rabbit, a bit silly, yet also pitiful and adorable.

With so many people watching, Zhuang Xing couldn't comfort her loudly; he could only hold her little hand tightly.

“Master Qingxuzi,” the mother began, “we came here because we wanted our son to come up the mountain with you.”

The father handed over the prepared "entry fee" and said, "Master, I'll have to trouble you to take good care of him on the mountain."

Master Qingxu pushed the money away and said, "No rush, let this child try the spirit talisman first."

"Master, we just want Zhuang'er to go up the mountain to learn a trade," the mother quickly said.

Children who are accepted as disciples must live and eat at the Taoist temple. Without three to five years of foundational training, it is impossible for them to go down the mountain and return home.

Moreover, since they are disciples of the Taoist temple, they will naturally have to accept the temple's missions in the future, and cannot act on their own.

These mothers and fathers had all spoken to Zhuang Xing.

Their concern was that if Zhuang Xing had a talent for learning Taoism, he would be tied to the mountain after becoming a disciple, and they would never see him again.

Even a fool could tell that there are many rules in a Taoist temple. University dormitories have curfews. In a world where someone could die from carelessness, the rules must be even stricter. Zhuang Xing was worried that if he became a disciple, even his movements would be strictly controlled. That's why he didn't want to become a disciple and just went up the mountain to check things out.