Chapter 2: Quiet Reflections on a Rainy Night

  Another rainy night!

  Kong Zuo didn't like rainy nights, because eight years ago on a similar day, he and his parents encountered misfortune on their way home, and both of his parents were killed. Although it has been eight years, the events of that night are still deeply etched in his mind and hard to forget.

  So every rainy night, he can't sleep. Every time, like now, he sits in front of the small table by the window of his little hut, gazing out the window until dawn.

  In Luofu, he is also considered a small privileged person because he is an inner disciple of Luofu.

  Today, there are many sects, and even more people cultivating immortality, as numerous as the fish crossing the river, endless. Almost every day, someone comes to the mountain to ask these sects to accept them as disciples, in order to fulfill their own dreams of immortal cultivation.

  But isn't cultivating immortality a difficult thing to do? If it were as easy as they imagine, wouldn't the world be full of flying immortals and not a single ordinary person left?

  Cultivation is a matter of fate, what is fate? To put it bluntly, it's luck. If you're lucky, you can ascend to heaven in one or two years of practice. If you're unlucky, even if you live as an ordinary person for a hundred years, you won't meet a single cultivator.

  Furthermore, although there are many sects of cultivation, it is not easy to find them. Take the Luofu Sect as an example, their mountain gate is built deep in the mountains of Luofu, and ordinary people who want to approach must climb over several peaks, then bypass several waterfalls, and at least walk hundreds of miles before they can arrive.

  However, within a year, there are always a few people who are lucky enough to find the mountain gate. Those who find the mountain gate are not all accepted, and if their qualifications are too poor, the Luo Fu Sect will not accept them. However, these cultivators also have a sense of human feelings. Those who are kicked out are not allowed to walk back on their own, but instead, there are special disciples who will send them back, which can be considered as showing kindness and justice.

  Although this first pass is also considered strict, it can't withstand the large number of people. In a year or two, ten or twenty years, one hundred or two hundred years?

  Luojian built the sect for four thousand years, and the lifespan of practitioners is extremely long. Living to be one or two hundred years old is considered middle-aged, and the longest record is a super centenarian who lived to be 1,358 years old. Think about it, over these four thousand years, how many people must have accumulated in this sect?

  Among these people, although their qualifications are not bad, it is impossible for the sect to pass on the cultivation methods to so many people. Once there are too many people, things will go wrong. Who knows when you'll suddenly get a fever and betray the sect? If I teach you the most profound cultivation method in the sect, and you just take it and leave, one or two people might be okay, but what if there are ten, twenty, a hundred, or two hundred people? Can I control that many?

  So, lucky ones are always in the minority.

  Most people are only taught the basic exercises for cultivating internal energy, and they do some physical training to build up their strength. Occasionally, they may take in a few inner disciples and teach them some sword techniques or martial arts skills. These people are considered outer disciples, and most sects have a time limit set for this. For example, if an outer disciple has not been promoted to inner disciple within twenty years, they will be asked to leave the mountain and fend for themselves. No matter how large a sect is, it's impossible for them to support that many idle people.

  But the inner disciples are different, they are the real cultivators.

  Every year, the major sects select those with superior qualifications and rapid progress from among their outer disciples to promote them as inner disciples, passing on more profound cultivation methods. The number of such people is not large, and even if they really betray the sect and escape, they will not be able to run away.

  Of course, inner disciples are also divided into three six nine grades.

  Someone like Kong Zhan is considered a high-level inner disciple because he has a master, so he is the core disciple of the inner sect.

  In a large sect like this, there would be no more than twenty disciples of his level, and now the Luo Fu Sect has ten core inner door disciples, and he is one of them.

  So he has his own small cottage, while the ordinary inner door disciples are in collective dormitories, several people per room, and the outer door disciples are in large open rooms.

  In this generation, there were ten people of his peers, and he was the fifth in line. The other nine were all disciples of Luo Fu Wu Jian.

  From all these, it can be seen very clearly that he is a person with good fate and also a person with extremely good luck.

  The rain gradually subsided and fell in a patter for half the night, finally showing signs of stopping.

  Faintly, through the thick clouds, a round moon appears and disappears, emitting a hazy moonlight. Under the evaporation of water vapor, a lunar halo slowly forms, crystal clear like jade.

  "Hoo—!"

  Kong Zhan let out a long sigh and sat up from his desk, all sleepiness gone.

  He gently pushed open the small wooden door, and a refreshing air with mist blew in from outside, clearing his mind.

  Slowly, he walked out the door, still being pelted by raindrops on his body. Kong Zhuo took a deep breath, and with a slight movement of his body, he had already leaped onto the rooftop, shooting towards the green pine forest.

  In the night sky, his stout body didn't show a bit of clumsiness, but instead had an air of refreshing liveliness that was disproportionate to his figure.

  In terms of cultivation, among the ten inner door core disciples, he belongs to the middle and lower ranks. However, in terms of physical skills and light body techniques, among the ten disciples, if not ranked first, at least he is among the top three.

  He's afraid of death!

  In his heart, this light body skill was equal to the skill of escaping with his life. Having narrowly escaped death once when he was young, although small at that time, had already left a psychological shadow on him. He never wanted to experience such a scene again. Therefore, among all the cultivation methods, it was this one that he practiced most diligently. As for the others, thinking about it, this kid spent his days eating and sleeping, besides sleeping was eating, and often showed off his cooking skills. The little time left over, apart from practicing light body skill, what else could there be?

  It was also his cleverness that after reading through other skills and listening to the cultivation methods, he could remember them, so this body's cultivation was still passable.

  So, although his physique is not great, in terms of qualifications, he is one of the top two among these ten core disciples. His master also knows this. If it were someone else, they would be like a supervisor, staying by his side every day to supervise his practice. But this guy is also a lazy person, who focuses on drinking all day and only occasionally teaches Kong Zhao some sword techniques and passes on the cultivation methods to him.

  In his words, it's like a master leading his disciples into the door of cultivation, but each person is responsible for their own practice, and even if he spends a lot of time teaching his disciples, it's still not worth it.

  This is also cheaper for Kong Zhuan, with a lot of spare time.

  Alive and carefree, free and easy.

  Kong Zhan's figure glided through the night rain, flying towards the green pine forest like a large bird.

  Qing Song Ping is located behind the Luofu Gate, but it is not within the Luofu Sect. It is tens of miles away from the large backyard of Luofu. Normally, Luofu disciples are busy practicing their skills and few people come here. The place is densely covered with pine trees, stretching for several miles, and the terrain is flat, hence the name Qing Song Ping. There are many wild chickens and animals in the forest, making it an ideal place for him to hunt for food. Over time, he even chose this place to practice his skills.

  After practicing, he would catch some wild game and cook it. In the pine forest, there was a unique flavor to it, so his weight also increased in direct proportion to the number of times he practiced.

  Gently, in mid-air, his stout body slowly fell onto a clearing on the green pine ground like a withered leaf.

  Looking up at the sky, under the cover of dark clouds, the blue sky appears more serene and peaceful.

  "When will I be able to fly with my sword like Master Big Brother?" he thought to himself.

  The way of flying sword, Luo Fu Mountain has it, he also learned it, but although he is a core disciple of the inner door, after all, the day of entering the door is too short, and in just eight years, where is the cultivation of flying sword? Moreover, to fly with a sword, not only does one need high self-cultivation, but also needs to refine a flying sword, and this flying sword's sword embryo is not something he can easily get. Like Luo Fu Gate, generally speaking, when your cultivation reaches a certain level, the sect will naturally give you a sword embryo, letting you use your own essence to nourish the sword, finally refining it into a flying sword, only this requirement for disciples' cultivation is still very high.

  To obtain the sword embryo, one must cultivate the primordial purple energy of the Luo Fu Gate to the third layer. However, Kong Zhuan has only just reached the peak of the first layer and has not yet broken through to the second layer, so how can he possibly obtain the sword embryo?

  In the half-empty sky, a bright moon squeezed out of the clouds, and the rain had completely stopped. The dense black clouds in the sky also gradually dispersed, and for a time, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, with silver light spreading everywhere.

  Kong Zhui, who had only come out to get some fresh air, suddenly thought, "Anyway, I have nothing else to do, so why not take advantage of this moonlight and cultivate a bit? Who knows, maybe I'll even break through the first layer of the Pre-Heaven Purple Qi and enter the second layer!"