Chapter 3: Master, please accept your disciple's bow!

  Unconsciously, Wang Lu has been in Lingjian Mountain for two years. The life during this period seems ordinary and unremarkable, but the so-called ordinariness is already a novelty that he had not experienced in the past twelve years due to the different paths of immortals and mortals.

  Too many new things flooded into his mind, so that Wang Lu's proud memory could no longer hold too much of the past. The leisurely life in Wangjiacun was left with only a few symbolic signs... Even the Ascension Conference, which he relied on to become famous, gradually faded away.

  But two years ago, in Lingxi Town, the agricultural handicrafts that cost 3,500 yuan to buy are still lingering in my mind today, like a handful of dazzling flowers - just like the bright smile of the girl in front of me, never fading.

  "Hey, boss lady good afternoon~"

  Wang Lu smiled warmly and greeted him with a smile full of enthusiasm on his face.

  Speaking of this boss, she is a strange person in the mountains, with an identity that is not ordinary. Specifically, there are three aspects.

  First, entering and exiting the Lingjian Mountain is as smooth as entering and exiting one's own backyard. Although there are hundreds of townspeople in Lingxi Town, only one person has been seen by Wang Lu to enter the mountain through the mountain gate - the boss lady. Two years ago, the boss lady jokingly said she would meet Wang Lu again on the mountain, and now they indeed often meet in the mountains, truly not an empty promise!

  Secondly, the boss's wife is extremely popular in the mountain, and she can get along with most of her disciples. Even those elders would smile when they see her... What's even more unthinkable is that her own master, Elder Wu, affectionately calls her Xiao Ling'er and claims to have a deep sisterly bond!

  However, when asked in detail about the boss's identity, everyone was evasive. The elders obviously knew the truth but didn't say it, while the disciples' answers perfectly highlighted the Lingjian Sect's straightforward and unpretentious spirit: "I see that the elders are all polite to her, how dare we juniors be presumptuous?"

  Third, and most crucially, the trump card that Wang Lu used to turn the tables at the Ascension Conference two years ago - the ancient coin of Xiāo Yún - was personally handed to him by the old boss lady! The value of that ancient coin had already been made clear to Wang Lu after he entered the mountain. According to common sense, unless the old boss lady was the sect leader's illegitimate daughter, there was no way to explain the origin of the ancient coin. However, looking at it from another perspective, there were two points that didn't add up. Firstly, why would the sect leader's daughter be running an inn in Lingxi Town? This was too unusual, and Wang Lu had already figured out after knowing her for two years that the old boss lady didn't have even a hint of spiritual energy on her, she was completely ordinary, and not at all related to the Starlight Spiritual Root sect leader. Secondly... his master, Fifth Elder, addressed her as "sister", if the old boss lady was indeed the sect leader's illegitimate daughter, wouldn't that mean Fifth Elder was lowering himself in seniority? Based on Wang Lu's understanding of his master, that was absolutely impossible.

  The boss's wife thus became a mysterious and extraordinary person. Fortunately, although her origins were strange, she was a kind person, and in the two years of ordinary cultivation life, this boss from Xiangshan Town's Rujia Inn was a rare highlight. Every now and then, she would climb up the mountain alone, bringing with her a full box of homemade delicacies to improve Wang Lu's diet, which had been ruined by the culinary disasters of the Starry Sky Sect's chef.

  So when he saw the boss's wife, Wang Lu's melancholy about lunch disappeared, and he quickly walked to the tree, looking at the food box in the girl's hand, and smiled slyly.

  The girl sighed: "Your smile is likely to cause rumors."

  After all, he still invited Wang Lu to sit under the tree and opened the food box, just like two years ago, with some ordinary farm-made dishes.

  In the Lingjian Mountain, a place filled with immortal vegetables and spiritual meats, any delicacy that is unimaginable in the mortal world can be savored - of course, it's the cafeteria on the Carefree Peak or some elder's private kitchen. But at this moment, Wang Lu really felt that the boss lady's farmhouse stir-fry was unbeatable under heaven.

  "Alright, you can praise me again, but I won't be able to come up with new tricks... and it's not possible for you to get a free meal either... By the way, that's also why I came to find you today..."

  Wang Lu didn't wait for the other party to finish speaking and had already subconsciously taken out a few stalks of spiritual grass from his pocket and handed them over.

  The boss's wife smiled: "Alright, I'll come find you in two days after I've exchanged the silver... By the way, you really have a knack for this. The mid-grade spiritual grass on Wuxiang Peak is almost all gone thanks to you."

  Wang Lu said with a bad temper: "My damned master brought me for two years, not a single penny was given to me as pocket money, and even the subsidy from the sect for true disciples was deducted from me. Can't I only rely on myself? And these spiritual herbs, if I don't take them, will they be taken by that stupid b*tch? The beautiful scenery of Wuyue Peak is almost all ruined by her! Anyway, when she dies, Wuyue Peak will also be mine, so taking some of the inheritance in advance is only logical."

  "...You and your master are indeed deeply affectionate as a mentor and apprentice." The boss's wife sincerely exclaimed while gnawing on a pig's trotter.

  "Wang Lu said: 'Alas, fortunately, boss lady, you also do sales, otherwise I would have dug up so many treasures on Wuxiang Peak but couldn't sell them at a good price.'"

  The boss's wife chuckled: "Nonsense, the Lingjian Sect is one of the Five Absolutes of the Wanshen Alliance, and there's no circulating gold and silver currency within the sect. It's all about spiritual stones and sect points."

  Wang Lu said: "The problem is that even if you give me top-grade spirit stones during the Body Tempering stage, it's still useless. It's better to get some silver and buy some ordinary equipment when going down the mountain..."

  The boss's wife threw away the gnawed-clean bones and casually asked: "Speaking of which, how's your recent cultivation going?"

  Wang Lu immediately asked back: "May I ask, madam boss, how's your inn business lately?"

  "...... We're really in the same boat, aren't we?" The boss's wife sighed. "Two years ago, I was still a business elite making thousands of yuan every day, no, tens of millions of yuan. Who would have thought that now the shop is deserted and my fortunes have fallen to rock bottom!"

  Nonsense, two years ago was a once-in-a-century gathering of idiots, you used 100 pots of boiling water to cook radishes and caught all the idiots in one net, earning millions a day, do you still want to drain the pond to catch all the fish?

  "By the way, are you still in touch with your ex?"

  Wang Lu really wanted to spit the rice grains in his mouth onto Boss Lady's face: "Where did I get a gay friend? Don't randomly tarnish people's reputations. Xiao Hai and I are just pen pals! That kid dumped me and ran off to Wanjian Sect to become a heavenly master, he started cultivating a year ago, and yesterday he sent a letter saying he broke through to the 7th rank realm, his smug face is especially detestable!"

  The boss nodded in agreement: "In two years, the Qi has reached seven levels, and the Wan Fa Xian Men is indeed a place of spiritual roots. It specializes in treating all kinds of difficult and miscellaneous roots. The potential of Hai Yunfan's soft wind and weak water spiritual root has been tapped to the limit. In comparison, our inner door disciples are far behind. Even Zhu Qin, who made the fastest progress, has only just guided the Qi into his body, and he is also a three-product spiritual root. It's really a problem of system! The Ling Jian Sect is indeed one of the five most shameful sects, highly reflecting the current situation of the sect leader being muddle-headed and incompetent, with a decadent private life."

  Wang Lu was shocked by the boss's wife: "Your tone and everything else seems familiar to me, as if I've heard it before."

  The boss's wife pouted: "However, no matter what, compared to your empty and hollow roots that have only been growing for two years, they are still quite spirited..."

  "Hey, I'm a top student, okay? Please show some respect."

  But even Wang Lu himself said it with a lack of energy.

  The Xianmen sect emphasizes quality education, but the foundation is still the cultivation of the immortal way. Wang Lu's cultivation progress is simply pitiful.

  Now let's talk about it in detail.

  According to Wang Lu's initial expectations, as a true disciple of the five major sects, he should have had heavenly materials and earthly treasures for every meal. After dinner, senior elders would help him open up his meridians and transmit their powers, then he would study top-level secret manuals, cultivate first-rate or even superior ancient immortal techniques, and after three years of practicing Qi, three years of building foundation, and three years of refining the Void Elixir... ten years later, he would become a Golden Dan True Person. But in reality, that was just a pipe dream.

  First and foremost, the first step is completely wrong. In the first two years of entering the Lingjian Sect, it's all about basic skills, nothing but basic skills. As a well-known ancient sect in the cultivation world, the Lingjian Sect has extremely strict requirements for its disciples' basic skills. Generally, cultivators from other sects start their practice directly from the Qi Refining stage, drawing in air, circulating it through the meridians... until they achieve great success in Qi Refining and then attempt to lay their foundation. However, the Lingjian Sect adds an additional Body Tempering stage before the Qi Refining stage. As the name suggests, this is a stage for tempering one's physical body. New cultivators must refine their bodies to the level of a pre-heavenly martial artist before they can begin absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and formally start their cultivation. The reason is simple - to solidify their foundation.

  This is not unusual in the ancient sects, such as Kunlun Xianshan, and some profound sects are doing this. Anyway, it won't take long. In the mortal world, even the top martial arts schools can train a first-rate disciple to become a pre-heavenly warrior in ten years. However, the cultivation of immortality is naturally much faster, and the Five Absolutes of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance are even faster. The black and white ones on the Xuanmi Peak usually take two or three years to complete.

  Wang Lu, as the true heir of the Ling Jian Sect's Red and White, should have had a faster cultivation speed than ordinary Black and Whites. However, two years had passed, and apart from having superhuman endurance that allowed him to run without getting tired, Wang Lu didn't seem to have made any significant progress. He couldn't shatter rocks with his fists or leave no footprints in the snow, nor could he cross a river on a single reed.

  This is also nonsense, who's martial arts master is born from long-distance running? At least do a hundred push-ups and sit-ups, and maybe after three years you can become a superman with one punch? But the ridiculous thing is that the other black and white ones, at least they can still accept the teachings of the sect's senior disciples, occasionally there are also elders who come to teach a public class, what demon-subduing arhat fist, eight desolate six harmony skill... The martial arts that people in the mortal world dream of are simply as common as potatoes and cabbage on Lingjian Mountain.

  It's just that Wang Lu is not good enough, he is a true disciple of the identity, except for cultural courses, the cultivation part is completely taken care of by his master, the Fifth Elder! And the Fifth Elder is diligent in teaching and actively cultivating people... That is absolutely impossible.

  For two years, Wang Lu has witnessed his peers, the Blue White Black Five, evolve from juvenile A B C to juvenile Fang Shiyu. Recently, Zhu Qin made the fastest progress and even mastered the Dragon Subduing Eighty-eight Palms, with combat power surpassing that of ordinary innate masters! As for Wang Lu himself, his best achievement was relying on his unparalleled endurance and mountain running ability to outrun a wild monkey in Wuyue Peak...

  No matter what the gap is, whether it's because of Master Wu Changlao's foolishness or not, the current situation is that among the disciples who entered the mountain in the 634th year of the Jiuzhou calendar, Wang Lu became the most bizarre existence. His status is the highest, his cultivation is the lowest, and he just happens to be a learning tyrant. Due to various reasons such as admiration, jealousy, and hatred, it's inevitable that they would often clash with each other. With Zhu Qin as the leader of a small gang, they ridiculed Wang Lu as a waste in cultivating immortality, while Wang Lu bluntly criticized them for having insufficient brain capacity, saying that in the future, they would only be suitable for being cauldrons or... In short, it's just mutual verbal sparring. Of course, when it comes to verbal sparring and scolding, Wang Lu's achievements are far ahead, but he really doesn't think this is fun at all.

  "By the way, has Zhu Qin been bothering you lately?"

  "The dog who was sprayed with blood on his head by me last time, shouldn't be coming to ask for abuse again before the psychological shadow disappears?" Wang Lu held a chopstick and looked up at the sky, recalling the magnificent scene of not long ago when he eloquently scolded Zhu Qin and many others, causing them to spit blood and faint.

  The boss's wife put down her rice bowl: "It's really funny to say, it's clear that the result of provoking the true transmission of the inner door is just a broken head and bleeding. What are they doing? Just because of this difference in robe color, no matter how fast their cultivation progresses, it's all meaningless. If they provoke you to report to the elder in charge of punishment, they will end up suffering greatly."

  Wang Lu shook his head: "It's not a deep-seated grudge, just that we can't stand each other and exchange blows with our mouths. However... every time I rely on my mouth to win, it makes me look incompetent in my cultivation. And as for reporting to the authorities, don't even get me started. If this goes on for too long, my reputation will be ruined. In the future, if I really do get beaten up, I'll just have to admit defeat. After all, the Dao of Immortals is about winning through cultivation, and no matter how skilled one's verbal sparring is, it can't withstand a single strike from heavenly lightning."

  The boss's wife was slightly surprised: "You're still quite understanding, I thought you'd feel invincible and awesome after getting the true transmission identity."

  "...it depends on whose true heritage it is? If it's the true heritage of the sect leader, then that's fine. But if I were to get stuck with a master like her, honestly, I'm worried about being implicated in the future... To be honest, I already feel that Liu Xian Shibo's attitude towards me has been discounted by several points."

  The boss's wife nodded: "Yes, Liu Xian and Fang He are deeply resentful of your master, and it's hard to avoid hating the house and the crow."

  "Wow, aren't those two the most powerful elders in the sect, aside from the leader? Turning them into lifelong enemies, my revered master, you're really too awesome."

  After sighing in admiration, Wang Lu said repeatedly: "These days are really hard to get through."

  The boss's wife also heard this and was somewhat worried about Wang Lu's future. Two years ago, when they met, the young man was full of vigor and ambition, which made her, who was used to seeing talented young men in the cultivation world, take notice of him. However, two years had passed, and Wang Lu's encounters were truly dismal...

  "Sigh, why don't you just follow me and learn martial arts?"

  "Practicing martial arts?" Wang Lu also put down his rice bowl and furrowed his brow, "What does that mean?"

  The boss's wife patiently explained: "Anyway, you're still in the tempering period now and haven't officially entered the door of cultivating immortality. Learning worldly martial arts from me can strengthen your physique and speed up your cultivation during the tempering period. It can also give you a few more tricks to save your life. Next time Zhu Qin and his gang come to bother you, you'll be able to fight back openly and fairly - don't look at Zhu Qin who has already guided the energy into his body, when encountering a truly powerful martial arts master, beating him is like stepping on an ant!"

  For the boss's wife's grand words, Wang Lu didn't have a single doubt - that year this young girl transformed into a black-clothed ah fight, powder fist breaking the law treasure's unparalleled elegance, Wang Lu still can't forget it to this day! In their two years of acquaintance, although they tacitly avoided some sensitive topics, the boss's wife having an ultimate skill was beyond doubt.

  But Wang Lu hesitated slightly: "This, won't it interfere with other aspects of cultivation?"

  The boss's wife patted her chest and guaranteed: "Don't worry, nothing will happen. The martial arts I taught you are absolutely free of any toxic side effects. Just practice with confidence and become a supreme master to trample Zhu Qin! If you can really trample him, it will also be a victory for Wuxiang Peak over Xianyun Peak, and it will be considered as giving your master some face."

  "Alas, I've practiced the ultimate martial arts just to trample dog shit for Master? But... anyway, I'm idle either way. Oh, not the lady boss, but Master is above, take a bow from your disciple!"

  Wang Lu said, with a serious expression, he inserted a pair of chopsticks into his rice bowl and bowed his head to pray!

  "My god! Don't burn incense for me!"

  "The Legend of the Sword Mountain" latest chapter is released by Yunqi Book Club, the fastest and most popular online novel platform! (This site provides: traditional pagination, waterfall two modes, can be selected in settings)