Chapter 3: The Miscellaneous Disciple of Qingdan Gate

  Standing at the foot of Qingdan Gate Mountain, there are actually many people. Some are here to become disciples of Qingdan Gate, even if they can't become alchemy disciples, becoming an ordinary inner door disciple is also not bad, because Qingdan Gate is one of the seven major cultivation sects, with many skills and a relatively high salary for its disciples.

  In addition, many others, mostly cultivators from other sects who came to trade, the Qingdan Sect's spiritual medicine is unparalleled in the world, so people come to trade every day without end. The sects, families and even individual cultivators within a radius of thousands of miles are all regular customers here.

  The disciples of Qingdan Gate kept coming down from the mountain, completing transactions with people at the foot of the mountain, and then hurried back up the mountain. Everyone looked very busy. In order to improve their own realm, most cultivators in the cultivation world were like this.

  Lin Feng watched for a while with nothing to do, preparing to turn around and leave. He wanted to go somewhere else to take a stroll, and in the process of traveling, he might have some opportunities that would allow his physique to make a breakthrough. Although this possibility was very slim, on the path of cultivating immortality, ultimate success was often closely related to certain unique encounters.

  But just as Lin Feng was about to leave, several Qingdanmen disciples ran down from the mountain and posted a notice on the bulletin board at the foot of the mountain. Many people gathered around, and Lin Feng also followed curiously.

  Only the notice was written: "Three months later, Qingdan Gate will hold a grand ceremony of alchemy, at that time, all major sects, families, powerful scattered cultivators, and fellow Taoists who are good at alchemy in the Southern Yue Xiu Zhen world will gather on the Alchemy Peak of Qingdan Gate to exchange their experiences.

  Due to the large number of participants in the grand ceremony, and the upcoming Spirit Medicine Trading Convention, Qingdan Gate urgently needs to recruit a large number of miscellaneous disciples to handle the massive amount of miscellaneous tasks from now on.

  The monthly salary of a miscellaneous disciple is 10 spirit stones. After the three-month probationary period, if you do well, you can continue to stay in Qingdanmen as a miscellaneous disciple, but the monthly salary will be adjusted to the normal level of a miscellaneous disciple, which is 3 spirit stones.

  As soon as the notice was posted, people began to discuss it heatedly.

  Master Jia: "The 60-year-old Lantan Grand Ceremony is about to be held? The Qingdan Gate will make a big profit again!"

  Master Yi: "No wonder all the disciples of Qingdanmen have been so busy lately, it's for this grand ceremony! At that time, the disciples of Qingdanmen can trade out the spiritual pills in their hands and exchange them for spiritual stones that belong to themselves!"

  Master Bing: "Earning 30 spirit stones in three months is quite a good deal, it's almost equivalent to the salary of a foundation stage cultivator!"

  Master Ding: "30 spirit stones may not be a small amount, but it would take three months of hard work in the Qingdan Gate. Everyone's time is already very tight, and apart from cultivating their own main skills, they also need to search for various materials everywhere. Wasting three months here really isn't worth it."

  Everyone discussed in hushed tones for half a day, but the number of people who signed up was extremely small. Because most cultivators knew that these three months in Qingdan Gate would not only be very hard, but also that the identity of miscellaneous disciples would be discriminated against by others. Except for some poor and destitute loose cultivators, generally no one would suffer for 30 spirit stones.

  Lin Feng thought to himself that staying in the Qingdan Sect for three months wouldn't be bad after all. After all, this was a major cultivation sect, and he didn't believe he would learn nothing inside. As for suffering hardships and being looked down upon, he had already experienced that when he was in the Lin family, often facing discrimination from the Taizhen Gate, so he was long used to it.

  So, Lin Feng puffed out his chest and walked forward, saying to the disciple in charge of recruitment: "To become a miscellaneous disciple of Qingdanmen, are there any special requirements for spiritual roots and talent?"

  No one expected that Lin Feng's words would trigger a burst of laughter from the crowd, and the disciple in charge couldn't help but say with a smile: "Haha, this Taoist friend is really good at joking, miscellaneous disciples are just doing miscellaneous tasks, not letting you enter the inner gate to cultivate skills, what spiritual roots do you need?"

  Lin Feng finally said with a sigh of relief: "That's good, I'll sign up."

  The servant disciple hastily registered Lin Feng's name and had him stand with the other applicants. Once they had gathered ten people, another disciple took them to the mountain and began assigning tasks.

  Every now and then, someone would apply to be a miscellaneous disciple of Qingdan Gate, but Lin Feng didn't recognize the later ones because he was taken up the mountain among the first batch of ten people.

  The ten people who were hired with Lin Feng all had cultivation levels of the Revolving Light Phase, and compared to them, Lin Feng's sixth layer of the Revolving Light Phase was actually relatively high. In fact, even among the Qingdan Gate disciples who had been brought along, only one had a first-layer Qi Refining Phase cultivation level. This situation wasn't hard to understand, because those who were willing to serve as miscellaneous disciples all had the lowest levels of Revolving Light Phase cultivation.

  Actually, not just anyone can be a miscellaneous disciple. At least those who have not yet entered the Xuanzhao period and possess spiritual roots are unable to take on this role, because the heavy miscellaneous work still requires a certain foundation of magical power; otherwise, physically it would be unbearable.

  But for a cultivator like Lin Feng who had reached the sixth level of the Rotation Period, no one would doubt that he didn't have spiritual roots, because if he didn't have spiritual roots, it would be impossible to cultivate to this level.

  If others were to find out that Lin Feng's spiritual root had been destroyed, Qing Dan Men would never recruit him. Because a major sect like Qing Dan Men, if they were to take in someone without a spiritual root as a disciple, it would definitely be laughed at by other sects.

  Anyway, Lin Feng successfully became a miscellaneous disciple of Qingdanmen. He first went to the Executive Hall of Qingdanmen under the guidance of the reception disciples to handle his own identity registration, received the attire of Qingdanmen's miscellaneous disciples, and also got an identity jade card.

  Then, the ten people who were with Lin Feng each received their own tasks and the others were taken to their respective task locations to serve. The task assigned to Lin Feng was to go to the Qingdan Gate's D-grade Medicine Garden as a helper.

  The Qingdan Gate has its own spiritual medicine cultivation base, also known as the Medicine Garden. The Medicine Garden is also divided into grades, according to the years of growth and rarity of the spiritual medicines. The best Medicine Garden is Grade A, and the worst is Grade D.

  A-grade medicine gardens are generally established on the most concentrated spiritual veins, and there are strict personnel guarding them. The spiritual medicines planted inside are often thousands of years old, some even tens of thousands of years! And they are all extremely rare and precious varieties, these spiritual medicines belong to the Qingdanmen's life root.

  Second-rate and third-rate medicine gardens, the years of planting spiritual herbs are shorter, and the varieties are not as precious as those in first-rate medicine gardens, but it's only relative. If a spiritual herb is casually taken out, even if an ordinary cultivator goes bankrupt, they still can't afford to buy one!

  The lowest grade is the Ding-class Spirit Garden, where the spirit medicine has a short year and the medicinal materials are ordinary. They are the main ingredients needed to refine ordinary spirit pills. However, even for general foundation-building cultivators, they often sigh in admiration when faced with such spirit medicines, because some of their prices are still unaffordable for ordinary cultivators.

  In the Qingdan Gate, the number of Ding-class medicine gardens is the largest and the area is also the widest. As a result, many hands are needed. However, for a miscellaneous disciple like Lin Feng, it is impossible to come into contact with those precious mature spiritual medicines in the medicine garden. His main task is to weed, loosen soil, ventilate, etc.

  When Lin Feng arrived at the Medicine Garden, he saw that the cultivators here were divided into three parts. The first part had the highest status, they were the medicine gathering disciples of Qingdan Gate, responsible for collecting and harvesting mature medicinal materials. It is said that when a certain level is reached, the medicine gathering disciple can be promoted to the alchemy disciple, but it is unknown how many years of tempering are needed.

  The second part is the ordinary disciples of Qingdan Gate, who are responsible for assisting the medicine-collecting disciples in corresponding picking and harvesting, completing each task according to the instructions of the medicine-collecting disciples, while supervising and guiding the miscellaneous work disciples to do corresponding physical labor.

  The third type is Lin Feng and other miscellaneous disciples, who have no rights except to work according to the rules and requirements, and sometimes even suffer from ridicule and cold shoulders.

  After sending Lin Feng to the Medicine Garden, he brought Lin Feng in front of a short and stout bald monk, then smiled and said: "Yu Shixiong, isn't it that you're lacking manpower here? This is one of the new miscellaneous disciples I just recruited, I'm bringing him over for you!"

  The bald-headed monk known as Yu Shixiong, who was bent over doing something in the medicine garden, straightened up and said with arrogance and disrespect: "What's this, just sending one person? I'm so busy here, what can one person do?"

  Jieying hastily accompanied him, smiling and saying: "This... Yu Shixiong should understand that our Qingdan Gate is about to hold the Dan Conference, and all the major medicine gardens in the sect are short-handed. I am also acting on orders, otherwise, I would have sent several more to Yu Shixiong!"

  Yu Xiu Shi's face showed dissatisfaction: "Heavens, I'm a top-notch apprentice of Qingdanmen after all. How can it be that I'm stuck in this broken courtyard every day, exhausted to the point of back pain? You people responsible for recruiting miscellaneous apprentices, are you slacking off or something? Otherwise, why would Qingdanmen's miscellaneous apprentices be so scarce?"

  "Brother Yu, how could you say that? We disciples who receive guests wouldn't dare to be lazy! After sending this miscellaneous disciple over, I still have to hurry back and report, preparing to continue recruiting more miscellaneous disciples!"

  Yu Xiu Shi glared at him and grumbled, "Hmph, you ordinary disciples are all so glib, speaking so eloquently in front of us medicine-collecting disciples, but who knows how you curse behind our backs?! Alright, hurry up and leave, I'm busy here and don't have time to chat with you!"

  The apprentice with a flattering smile on his face walked away, and the surname Yu repairman glanced at Lin Feng before saying disdainfully: "You go to that mountain ditch over there, check all the spiritual herbs, as long as you find any yellow leaves, pluck them all for me!

  "Remember, if you pluck the healthy leaves that shouldn't be plucked or break the stem, your life will definitely be forfeit! And if it's not done before dark, I'll skin you alive!"