Chapter 5 Outer Disciples

  Another beautiful morning, the gatekeeper outside the Water Spirit Gate stretched his waist and looked at the busy disciples of the outer gate in the courtyard, feeling extremely comfortable.

  This outer sect attendant surnamed Hong is a disciple of the Hong family, an affiliated family of the Water Spirit Sect. His talent was average, and he relied on the spiritual pills within his family to barely break through to the 9th layer of the Qi Refining stage. However, he couldn't touch the threshold of the 10th layer no matter what, so he donated a position as an outer sect attendant to take care of these almost forgotten outer sect disciples.

  Inside the Water Spirit Gate, there are two types of disciples: inner gate disciples and outer gate disciples. Inner gate disciples receive a large amount of spiritual stones and elixirs every month, as long as they cultivate diligently and complete a certain number of sect tasks. They also have elder attendants who regularly lecture on the Dao. Outer gate disciples, on the other hand, are responsible for miscellaneous chores, in short, serving inner gate disciples. Every month, they receive one or two low-grade elixirs, while spiritual stones can only be obtained through their own hard work.

  A disciple of the 9th layer of Qi training has a relatively high status among inner door disciples, not to mention Hong Paozi who also holds an outer door executive position.

  So Hong Baozi lived a very comfortable life, and it's not an exaggeration to say that he was the master of this place.

  "Little Sanzi, why isn't the water bucket full yet? You're punished and won't be allowed to eat breakfast today."

  "Golden dog, lazy again, no lunch today, let me find out next time, you don't need to eat for a whole month."

  Just as Hong Paozi was gesturing and commanding, he suddenly felt a wave of pressure coming from above, which almost made him unable to breathe.

  He looked up and found it was Elder Executor, and behind him were four Foundation Period Elders.

  "See the five elders!" Hong Paozi hastily knelt down and paid his respects, thinking to himself: "Could it be that the elders have discovered my embezzlement of the elixir? No, this small matter wouldn't warrant the five elders coming in person..."

  "Hong Baozi, what about those few disciples from Shijiazhuang who came yesterday?" the elder asked coldly.

  "In... they're resting. I'll hurry and call them out." Hong Zhi ran over, rolling and crawling, but in his heart he was secretly relieved, yet at the same time he couldn't help but think: what's the background of these new disciples, why do the five elders attach so much importance to them?

  Before long, Ishikawa and several others arrived in the courtyard, also bowing like everyone else.

  It is obvious that these old men floating in the sky are all extremely profound in their immortal arts.

  Yan Lao took out a copper mirror and shone it on each of them in turn. After a moment, he nodded his head, moved his lips slightly, as if saying something to the other elders.

  The other elders nodded in agreement.

  "This girl is now my junior apprentice." Suddenly, Yan Changlao threw out a flying sword and stepped on it. He grabbed Qingchuan with one hand, and in an instant, they flew out more than 100 zhang away.

  "Enough!" Elder Sun shook his head helplessly. He couldn't afford to lose face in front of these younger generations for the sake of a newly admitted disciple.

  The remaining four people started sizing up Ishikawa.

  Even Ishikawa could feel it, several scorching gazes were scanning his body back and forth.

  "Your name is Ishikawa, isn't it." A hoarse voice sounded.

  "It is indeed my disciple." Ishikawa replied respectfully.

  Yun Lao's sleeve waved, and a huge light ball enveloped Ishikawa and several elders.

  "Your qualifications are not bad, I intend to take you as my apprentice. However, the ancients said that those who achieve great things must first suffer in their hearts and labor in their bodies. So, I will first teach you some skills, but you need to temper yourself in this outer gate for several years. During this period, you must be like other outer gate disciples, not having a single bit of arrogance, otherwise, I will expel you from the mountain gate, never allowing you to cultivate immortality."

  "Junior brother obeys." Ishikawa happily bowed and said. It was obvious that these five elders were extremely respected people in the Water Spirit Gate, and this elder was apparently the leader of the five. If he could be accepted as a disciple by him, his future would naturally be boundless.

  "You go to the back mountain of Menpai on the first day of each month, and I will be there waiting for you to pass on your skills."

  The disciples outside the light sphere had no idea what was happening inside the light sphere.

  "Hong Paozi, the remaining few disciples will be yours to take care of in the outer sect." The Elder-in-charge instructed a few more sentences before leaving with several other Elders on their swords.

  After several elders had left for a long time, the outer disciples finally got up from the ground, all of whom were drenched in sweat, and began to discuss one after another. No one expected that the five elders would collectively appear in the sky above the outer gate.

  ………

  "Cloud Senior Brother, I just felt like someone was spying on us, and their cultivation is far beyond ours."

  "I also have this feeling, it's strange. Outside the outer gate are all ordinary outer disciples, and the highest cultivation of Hong Paozi is only at the 9th level of Qi Refining. Even if he had ten times more courage, he wouldn't dare to spy on us." The Elder in charge said thoughtfully.

  "Was it that kid named Ishikawa?"

  Yun Lao said faintly, "He doesn't have the slightest bit of spiritual energy, not even reaching the first layer of Qi Refining. How can he spy on us? However, this feeling is indeed very strange. When I return to preside over the Mountain Protection Array, you few people carefully patrol around. Absolutely cannot let other sects discover Shi Chuan, especially the Earth Spirit Sect."

  ………

  Unconsciously, Ishikawa had been at Mizu no Mon for a month already, and the storm brewing in secret hadn't brought any impact to this small outer sect disciple.

  Ishikawa quickly blended into the life of an outer disciple. Every day, he did some chopping firewood, carrying water and cooking. This was not much different from his previous life.

  However, at night, Ishikawa transformed into another appearance. Under the guidance of the old beggar, Ishikawa began to learn the authentic Qi-gathering technique "Tuna Jue".

  As Laojun said, this gongfa is the first thing that every cultivator must learn when they start practicing. This is also the first step in condensing the primordial energy of heaven and earth.

  Ishikawa spent almost every night sleepless, passing the time in meditation and breathing exercises. In a month's time, Ishikawa was able to vaguely sense the location of the primordial energy of heaven and earth.

  The second day of the first month was the day when Ishikawa went to meet with Unryō in the back mountain.

  "Ishikawa pays his respects." Ishikawa respectfully performs a master-disciple ritual.

  "Get up." Yun Lao sat upright on a green stone, saying: "This month, you've performed quite well. Today, I'll first teach you our sect's main cultivation technique, the 'Water Dragon Decision'".

  " Qi enters the fields and seas, roaming in all directions... receiving the heavenly and earthly water spirits' energy..."

  Ishikawa carefully listened and followed Yun Lao's guidance to circulate his Qi, but he indeed couldn't feel even a hint of the Water Spirit's energy.

  Half an hour later, a set of exercises came down, and Yun Lao's body was actually somewhat wet, wrapped in some small dew drops, and his skin was exceptionally ruddy and radiant.

  "Can you feel a cool breeze?" Yun Lao looked at Ishikawa with some doubt, normally speaking, even if it's an ordinary person without spiritual roots practicing the Water Dragon Scripture, they should be able to feel a hint of dewy air.

  But having five spiritual roots, how can Ishikawa not feel anything at all?

  "My disciple is so clumsy, I really didn't feel anything." Ishikawa said with some embarrassment. Every time Ishikawa followed the incantation to operate the technique, it seemed that the yellow stone on his chest was blocked, not to mention the moisture, even if the dew attached to Ishikawa's body would evaporate immediately.

  "What's strange!" Yun Lao said to himself, grabbing Ishikawa's arm and closing his eyes slightly. After a moment, he said: "No way, the meridians are unobstructed, it's impossible that there's no reaction to our sect's techniques at all."

  "That's for helping me out." Yun Lao's face changed, and a bone-chilling icy air instantly entered Ishikawa's body.

  "Ah! So cold!" Ishikawa's face turned pale, his hands clutching his abdomen as he rolled around on the ground.

  "Alright, go back now. I'll infuse you with a strand of Water Spirit Energy. You can use this strand to slowly nourish your meridians. This technique must be practiced on schedule, understand?"

  "Disciple knows." Ishikawa endured the icy pain and crawled up from the ground. "Disciple takes leave!"

  ………

  "This old scoundrel is really heartless." A voice echoed in Ishikawa's mind, which was of course the old beggar.

  "Senior, what do you mean by this?" Ishikawa asked in puzzlement.

  "Do you still remember what I told you, that the cultivation of truth must start from 'Tu Na Jue', but this person didn't teach you 'Tu Na Jue' at first, instead directly taught you 'Shui Long Jue', isn't this strange?"

  "Perhaps this master has other arrangements."

  "An arrangement?" The old beggar laughed maniacally, "You have the Five Elements Earth Spirit Root, a talent that's hard to come by in a hundred years. He actually taught you water-based techniques. Is this really an arrangement for a foundation-building cultivator? Just now, he even forcibly infused you with a strand of Water Spirit Energy, enough to make you go crazy when cultivating earth-based techniques. If this person didn't intend to harm you, I'd be surprised."

  "How is this possible?" Ishikawa couldn't believe it was true, after all he had no grudge against Yun Changlao. Yun Changlao had no reason to harm him.

  "Believe it or not, it's up to you." The old beggar said: "If you listen to me, I guarantee that within three years, you will successfully build your foundation and have the power to fight him. If not, you will become someone else's prey. The weak are eaten by the strong, this is the law of the cultivation world. Also, today we owe it to this earth mother stone, which can hide the earth spirit energy on your body, making him think that you haven't cultivated any skills. Otherwise, today's matter wouldn't be so simple."

  "Thank you for your guidance, elder. What is this earth mother stone?"

  "Some things are better left unasked," said the old beggar somewhat evasively.

  Every time he encountered the old beggar's life and things about this stone, the old beggar never said more than half a sentence.

  Ishikawa sat on the tatami mat, thinking about what had happened today while fiddling with the warm yellow stone in his pocket, and his thoughts became jumbled.

  Currently being at the bottom of Shuiling Gate, if one can't improve their strength, they can only be manipulated by others. And this old beggar on the jade stone, although seemingly thinking for himself, but Stone River doesn't know his true intentions, maybe he also has some ulterior motive. Just as the old beggar said, to survive in the Cultivation World, one must be cautious and careful, only improving one's strength is the right path.