Chapter 2 Local Specialties from Hometown

  Wang Lu's performance made him the focus of everyone, and for a time, there were all sorts of discussions, but without exception, they all showed extremely deep admiration for his performance.

  Wang Lu's performance would have been scolded as crazy if it were in an ordinary place, but under the sacred mountain of Lingxi Town, that accommodation voucher seemed particularly subtle.

  "You say, isn't Wang Lu related to someone in Lingjian Mountain?"

  This speculation has been endorsed by some people and soon extended to infer astonishing conclusions such as Wang Lu being the illegitimate child of a senior elder of the Tianjian Hall.

  Behind the counter, the boss's wife watched with a cold eye, and after a while, she chuckled in a barely audible voice: "A group of idiots."

  A moment later, he muttered to himself: "Might as well just raise the rent by another double...just looking at it makes me angry..."

  Just then, a shout came from outside the inn.

  "Master! Master!"

  The lobby of the Rujia Inn was not large, but there were dozens of young masters sitting inside. Everyone turned their heads in unison, and saw a slender teenager around ten years old stumble into the room with a shout.

  Everyone's eyes lit up at the sight of the young man.

  It wasn't that the young man had an exceptionally stunning appearance, but rather the long robe he wore on his body was clearly of the same style as Wang Lu's, only with slightly inferior material, probably due to his status as a book boy.

  Wang Lu himself looks a bit tough, but this book boy is dressed up tenderly. If you want to understand this eye-catching competitor, this is the opportunity.

  "This little brother..."

  A knowledgeable and interesting servant coughed, attracting the attention of the book boy.

  "Have you seen our young master at home? He's about my age..."

  "Hey, little brother, come over and tell me in detail. It's crowded here, I don't know which one you're referring to."

  Shu Tong was taken aback for a moment and nodded his head.

  But apparently someone didn't want to give these princelings a chance to chat, the boss's wife tapped on the counter: "Your young master is called Wang Lu, right? He's already gone upstairs, third room on the left on the second floor. And remember, don't make too much noise here."

  Shu Tong was stunned again, hastily bowed his head to thank the boss's wife, then flew up the stairs with joyful footsteps.

  "Master! Master~! I'm here!"

  The boss's wife was furious and slapped the counter: "Didn't you hear me telling you not to make noise!?"

  Then everyone in the hall saw a jar of girl's red flying out from behind the counter and smashing at the foot of the stairs. The little book boy was so frightened that he almost fainted, and no longer dared to make a loud noise, and slunk away upstairs.

  However, the boss's wife was clearly still angry, her eyes scanned the hall and soon picked out a certain country's Taishi's son from the crowd.

  "Hey, it's you! You're the one I kicked away earlier. You just ordered a jar of niang hong, right? Come and settle the bill quickly, 1,000 yuan for a jar, thank you."

  Wen Bao was shocked: "When did I order a daughter red!?"

  "Just now I threw it away and hit someone, how about you want to add another one?"

  The mistress had already lifted a large wine jar over two feet high with one hand, and Wen Bao's face changed: "I'll do it, I'll do it right away!"

  Putting away the ill-gotten gains, the boss's wife didn't have a few parts of joy on her face, and her gaze swept over the hall again, sighing in a voice that many people could hear.

  "A bunch of losers."

  ——

  On the second floor, Shu Tong pushed open Young Master's door with great enthusiasm.

  "Master, I'm here!"

  Wang Lu looked up from his desk in surprise: "Huh, how did you get here!? Hurry back!"

  The young servant stood at the door, wanting to cry but unable to shed tears, pitifully looking at the young master inside.

  Wang Lu also felt helpless: "I remember I told you all not to come."

  Shu Tong frowned: "The old master sent me here, he said it's very unsafe for you to come alone to this Ascension Conference."

  "Will you be safe with him? You're not even a Du... Alas, Father has always been muddled, and he told you early on not to follow in his footsteps."

  "The young servant emphasized: 'It was the old master who told me to come.'"

  Wang Lu sighed: "He let you come, can't you just break your own leg and ask for sick leave?"

  Shu Tong: "I..."

  "I don't want to make it so miserable, drinking bitter melon juice is also okay, anyway..." Wang Lu said up to here, looking at Shu Tong's innocent and pitiful expression, shook his head helplessly, "Forget it, come in."

  Shu Tong let out a cheer and ran into the house with big and small bags on his back.

  Although foolish, after accompanying him for many years, he had long known that the young master was always tough on the outside but soft on the inside.

  ——

  Unlike the imagination of many princes, Shu Tong and Shaoye are neither royal nobles nor immortals.

  They were just a pair of ordinary farmers from Wangjia Village in the northeast corner of Gou'ershan, Wuhou County, Dongdao Prefecture, Daming State, Cangxi Province.

  Young Master Wang's full name is Wang Lu, the son of the richest man in Wangjia Village, Old Man Wang. Before he was nine years old, he had a name that was full of rustic natural charm - Wang Tudi. Later, after consulting with scholars, "Tudi" was simplified to "Lu", and only then did it have a bit of an elegant and refined flavor.

  Shu Tong also surnamed Wang, the son of a merchant in Wang's village. After his parents died in an accident, kind-hearted Old Man Wang took him in and had him study with Young Master Wang Lu for seven years.

  Seven years have passed, and the young master in Shu Tong's eyes is still full of mystery, always so unbelievable and incomprehensible. More than two years ago, the old master invited a scholar from Han Zong Book House in Dongdao Prefecture at a high price to teach the young master to read books. The old scholar with a goat beard was said to have taught seven or eight jinshi, and was also a famous figure in the Ming Dynasty. Soon after entering the village, he changed the young master's name, but then he only taught the young master for two years before sighing that there are indeed people born with knowledge, and he had nothing left to teach, so he bid farewell and left.

  The old scholar evaluated the young master as a top talent when they parted ways, and it's not impossible for him to hold a high position in the imperial court in the future. Mr. Wang was delighted that his family's only descendant had a bright future ahead of him, bringing glory to their ancestors soon. On the other hand, he felt sorry for the old scholar whose salary had been paid ten years in advance, but refused to return the remaining eight years' worth.

  Unfortunately, heaven doesn't follow human wishes. Although the young master is a genius, he has no interest in poetry and classics, nor does he intend to be an official. After the old scholar left, he buried all the books in the courtyard, saying that he wanted to provide energy for future generations billions of years later, and spoke even more extravagantly.

  "Carnivores despise, disdain to conspire with."

  Alright, the imperial court of the Great Ming Dynasty was no longer in his eyes, and when the old master asked the young master what he wanted to do with a puzzled mind.

  Cultivate immortality.

  Cultivate immortality!?! Wang Lao Ye was shocked to the point of almost losing control of his life.

  The Taoist way is not that easy to cultivate! The distinction between the sacred and the mundane has been a saying passed down since ancient times. It's not easy for ordinary people to catch a glimpse of the subtleties of the Taoist way! Just the mere entrance to the Taoist way, which involves guiding energy into the body, leaves the vast majority of people outside the door in dismay.

  Only those who have obtained the aura of heaven and earth, the auspicious fate of the immortal family, can have the qualification for cultivating immortality, this qualification is called spiritual root.

  People with spiritual roots on the continent of Jiuzhou are as rare as one in ten thousand, and it's even more difficult to see them in the past hundred years, they are almost extinct. It is said that only ten generations of merit can be exchanged for a low-grade spiritual root. Mr. Wang has accumulated virtue and done good deeds throughout his life, and now he is the richest man in Wangjia Village, but it's estimated that he still lacks seven or eight generations of merit to qualify for the immortal Tao.

  But when his son spoke up, what could the father do except use all his strength to push him onto the path of immortality? For a whole month, Wang Lao Ye couldn't eat or sleep, losing ten kilograms in weight, until he finally found a solution.

  Everyone knows that cultivating immortality is difficult, but fortunately, heaven does not cut off the path for people. It is said that there are spiritual elixirs and wonderful medicines in the world, which can be taken by ordinary people to gain a thread of immortal fate, that is, to open up their spiritual roots. These elixirs can now be bought with silver money, and Wang Dafu, the second richest man in Wangjia Village, spent 100,000 Snowflake Silver to send his son Wang Xiaohu into the Seven Star Gate to cultivate immortality.

  Wang Lao Ye lived a frugal life, couldn't bear to part with his silver, but even more so, he couldn't bear to disappoint his son. So the silver flowed out like water, for Peigen Ling, Liu He Dan, Qi Xing Tu Na Fa... Old Master Wang put all the resources he could gather in front of his son.

  But Wang Lu didn't care at all.

  "Dad, you don't understand cultivation, these things are useless."

  Wang Lao Ye puffed out his chest and glared: "Having spent tens of thousands of taels, how could it be useless?"

  Wang Lu was silent for a moment, nodded emotionally, but the next day he added 50% to the price of that pile of goods and sold it to Wang Da Fu and Wang Xiao Hu from next door who were eager to make a profit, which was considered as defending his father's reputation.

  Months later, Wang Lu never mentioned the matter of Xian Dao again. The whole family thought that things had come to an end and that Wang Lu's enthusiasm for cultivation had faded. However, a month ago, news of the Ling Jian Mountain Ascension Conference spread into the village, stirring up waves once more.

  "Dad, I'm going to the Ascension Conference, lend me some travel expenses."

  "What is Fresh Conference?"

  "It's not about fresh produce, it's a recruitment meeting for the Lingjian Sect."

  "You want to cultivate immortality again!?"

  "I never gave up!"

  For his son's sake, Old Master Wang chose to take in a new concubine - no choice, it seems the family business can't rely on Wang Lu, so they'll just have to produce a new one.

  Of course, for Wang Lu, Master Wang still gave his full support. Xiao Shu Tong rushed to Ling Jian Mountain a day after Wang Lu, with the large and small packages on his back worth no less than 200,000 silver taels, which was enough to make even the wealthy Wang family feel a pinch.

  In order for Wang Lu to ascend to immortality smoothly, Old Master Wang had indeed gone all out, his affection for him was deep and sincere, causing Xiao Shu Tong to feel both envious and moved.

  ——

  In the room, Wang Lu looked suspiciously at Shu Tong's package: "What is this?"

  The young servant smiled and unpacked a porcelain bottle, saying "Master, look! Top-grade Cultivated Root Spirit!"

  Wang Lu slapped his hand on the table and stood up: "Again, it's that pile of junk? Get rid of it quickly, just looking at it is annoying!"

  "Shu Tong was shocked: 'How can we throw it away! This is what Master spent a high price to buy! And it's different from last time, it's top-grade, top-grade! Young Master, you also know that ordinary people want to cultivate immortality, they must take the Ascension Powder, and after 45 days of warm nourishment, the spiritual root will come out. But if assisted by Pei Gen Ling, the process can be greatly shortened, and the quality of the spiritual root is more stable. Now there's only one week left before the Ascension Conference, only top-grade Pei Gen Ling can make it in time for Young Master to have a spiritual root! Ah, right, here's also the complete book of Seven Stars Inhalation Method, which Master got from Seven Stars Gate...'"

  Wang Lu sighed: "Alright, no need to take out that pile of wild chicken qigong and Great Strength Pills, just bring them back the way they came."

  The young boy was stunned for a long time, and then cried again with a sad face: "Young master, since you want to cultivate immortality, why don't you eat these elixirs? Mortals who want to cultivate immortality only have this one path..."

  Wang Lu sighed: "Yes, why did you say that?"

  The young servant tilted his head, blinked his eyes, and wanted to say "Perhaps Young Master Mo should take his medicine?" But as a servant, he didn't dare speak out loud, and instead quietly used warm water to open the package of Peigenling, instantly filling the room with the fragrance of medicine. The young servant praised, "It's indeed top-grade!"

  Then continued to look at Wang Lu with full of expectation.

  When in the village, Little Book Boy used this trick to tease the big yellow dog in the neighbor's yard, and it worked every time, except that at the time he was using bones.

  King Lu finally spoke up: "Wang Zhong..."

  The young servant hastily nodded: "Yes, Master."

  "Mortals cultivating immortality indeed have only one path, but when did I ever say I was a mortal?"