Once Upon A Time, There Was A Spirit Sword Mountain

Before he realized it, Wang Lu had entered the Spirit Sword Sect for two years. During which, his daily life seemed dull. But a dull life in the Immortal Cultivation World was way different than a dull life for a mortal. In these two years, he had experienced more novelties than his previous twelve years combined.

Too many fresh things entered his mind, so much that his amazing memory, which he was previously immensely proud of, had been quite taxed. His past idyllic life at the Wang Village had been just that, the past… Even his famous feat in completing the Immortal Gathering with flying colors had gradually faded from his memory.

However, the food box that he bought with three thousand and five hundred taels of silver from the Spirit Creek Town two years ago was still fresh in his mind and never faded, just like the sunny smile of the girl before him.

“Good afternoon, Lady Boss…”

Wang Lu greeted her with a warm smile on his face.

Speaking of this Lady Boss, she was a person of extraordinary talent, and her identity was no small matter. There were three important things about her.

First, she got an impeded backyard access to the Spirit Sword Mountain. Of all the hundred citizens of Spirit Creek Town, so far, in Wang Lu’s observation, Lady Boss was the only one that could pass through the entrance of the Spirit Sword Mountain. Two years ago, the Lady Boss had joked with him that she would meet him on the mountain. She was actually telling the truth!

Second, the Lady Boss’s had fabulous relations with the people on the mountain. Most of the disciples had good impressions of her, even the Elders, when they saw her, would involuntarily smile… Even more incredible was his Master! The Fifth Elder affectionately called her little Ling’Er and even claimed they have deep sisterhood relationship!

However, when asked about the details of the Lady Boss’s identity, all of the answers were vague. The Elders obviously knew about the truth, but they withheld their answer. The answer from the disciples perfectly and clearly highlighted the outspoken mentality of the Spirit Sword Sect’s people: “I saw that even the Elders here are polite to her, who are we to dare to be discourteous towards her?”

Third, which was also the most crucial point, Wang Lu’s secret trump card that enabled him to bypass the decision of the Immortal Gathering two years ago, the Firmament Cloud Ancient Coin, was given to him by her! Wang Lu became clear of the value of that coin when he entered the mountain. According to reason and common sense, unless the Lady Boss was the illegitimate daughter of the Sect Leader, there was no other way to explain the origin of this coin. However, there were two arguments that were against this explanation. First, how could the grand Sect Leader of the Spirit Sword Sect let his daughter ran an inn at the Spirit Creek Town? Did she just want to seek novelties? Furthermore, after being an acquaintance for two years, Wang Lu could clearly tell that the Lady Boss didn’t have any cultivation, and she even lacked the Stellar Spirit Root of the Sect Leader; she was a completely an ordinary person. Secondly… his Master, Fifth Elder, always claimed to be the Lady Boss’s sister. If the Lady Boss was the illegitimate daughter of the Sect Leader, wouldn’t that sisterhood claim drop the Fifth Elder’s seniority? Knowing his Master’s character, that would simply be impossible.

Thus, the Lady Boss had become the most enigmatic person in the Spirit Sword Mountain. Fortunately, although her origin was a mystery, she was actually a good person. In his two years of dull cultivation life, this Lady Boss, the owner of the Ru Family Inn in Spirit Creek Town, would often go up the mountain every few days to bring a box filled with food to help Wang Lu improve his food choice. Otherwise, Wang Lu would have long been ruined under the tyranny of this “starry sky” chef.

Thus, upon seeing the Lady Boss, Wang Lu’s sorrowful thought about his afternoon meal immediately vanished into thin air as he briskly walked to her who stood under a tree. Watching the food box on her hand, his smile involuntarily grew wider.

The girl sighed and said, “It’s easy to invite a gossip about us with that kind of smile you know.”

Although her mouth said that, she still invited Wang Lu to sit near her under a tree, then she opened the food box similar to two years ago.

The Spirit Sword Mountain was covered with all kinds of immortal vegetables and spirit meat which was unimaginably tasty. Of course, that was true only if they were served at the Carefree Peak dining hall, or possibly some private kitchen of the Elders. But at this time, Wang Lu thought that the Lady Boss’s simple meal was simply unmatched.

“Come on, if you praise me again, I won’t be able to improve my craft, then I won’t be able to find an excuse to get your meal money… Today, I look for you also because of this…”

Before she finished, Wang Lu had already fished out a bunch of spirit grass from his pocket and handed them over to her.

A smile appeared on Lady Boss’s face. “Great, in two days, I will exchange them for silver and give to you… Speaking of which, don’t you worry that if you keep doing this, you will waste all the spirit grass on the Non-Phase Peak?”

Wang Lu snappily said, “In two years, my scoundrel Master never gave me any allowance. She even deducted the Sect’s Successor Disciple’s subsidy that was intended for me. She forced me to rely on myself to survive! Moreover, if I didn’t take this spirit grass for myself, that retard would take them for herself for sure. Wasn’t all the beautiful natural scenery on the Non-Phase Peak wasted by her? In any case, once she dies, that Non-Phase Peak will be mine, so it’s only logical if I take some of my inheritance in advance.”

“… The two of you, Master and Disciple, really have deep feelings for each other.” The Lady Boss sighed as she gnawed the pig’s trotters.

Wang Lu said, “Ai, luckily you also run this fence business, or I won’t be able to sell anything.”

The Lady Boss laughed. “Nonsense, no matter what, the Spirit Sword Sect is one of the top five sects, so they should have their own internal circulation of currency, no? It’s those spirit stones or sect’s credit.”

Wang Lu replied, “I have no use of those things. Even if you give me top grade spirit stones. So, I might as well get me some mortal money and buy some mortal things…”

The Lady Boss stopped chewing the bones and casually asked, “By the way, how is your training?”

Wang Lu replied with another question, “May I ask how is your inn business?”

“…We really are in the same boat.” The Lady Boss sighed, “To think that I have a thriving business two years ago, but now, no one wants to come to my inn. Alas, what a disaster!”

“Nonsense, two years ago, it was a rare moment when many retards gather in one place. That’s why you can sell more than one hundred plates of radish for millions tael of silver, how could you expect it to be like that forever?”

“So, do you still get in touch with your gay partner?”

Wang Lu nearly sprayed the rice in his mouth toward the Lady Boss. “I don’t have any gay partner! Don’t spout nonsense okay? I am just a pen pal with Little Hai now! That turtle left me for the Ten Thousand Arts Sect and became a disciple there. One year ago, he said he has successfully drawn the spiritual energy into his body. But in his letter yesterday, he said he had broken through the seven level of the Qi Cultivating Stage, what a show-off!”

The Lady Boss was deeply in thought for a while and then nodded. “In two years he has reached the seven level of the Qi Cultivating Stage, the Ten Thousand Arts Sect is really a place for persons with rare spirit root. Hai Yunfan’s potential will be pushed to the limit there. In contrast, the progress of the few new inner court disciples on our side is really slow. The fastest one is that Zhu Qin who has the third rank spirit root and just recently able to draw the spirit energy into his body. This is a systemic problem! Spirit Sword Sect are not worthy of the title one of the top five sects anymore. This current decaying situation is all because of the incompetence and muddle-headedness of that retard sect leader and his private life.”

Her words scared the life out of Wang Lu, “Hey, you always seem to put the blame on the system.”

The Lady Boss pursed her mouth. “No matter what, in two years, they still haven’t figure out how to train your Void Spirit Root…”

“Damn, I am really good at studying, don’t you forget that.”

However, Wang Lu didn’t have the vigor to say that out loud and only said those words feebly.

No matter how much the Immortal Cultivation Sect emphasized on the overall education, their foundation would always be Immortal Cultivation. But Wang Lu’s Immortal Cultivation progress was simply too horrible to look.

The details were as below.

According to Wang Lu’s initial expectation, as a Successor Disciple of one of the top five sects, it was reasonable to say that precious ingredients would be used in his every meal, and after that, there would be a senior Elder who opens his meridians and transmit power to him from his back. And then, he would thumb through various first rated rare books. Finally, he would practice the superb cultivation method that even exceeds those ancient cultivation methods in the past. In three years he would reach the Qi Cultivating Stage, five years after that he would enter the Foundation Establishment Stage, then, three years after, he would break through the Xudan Stage… Finally, ten years after that, he would enter the Jindan Stage and become a Daoist Master. But in reality, he was just indulging himself in wishful thinking there.

First of all, the first step was completely wrong. In his two years since he entered the Spirit Sword Sect, all he got was basic training after basic training. As a famous ancient sect in the Immortal Cultivation world, the Spirit Sword Sect was extremely strict in the requirement of their disciples’ basic skill. This policy was completely the opposite of the other sects of the same caliber. All of them began their training with the practice of drawing the spiritual energy into their body and circulating it through their meridian in a loop… This routine would continue until they successfully completed the Qi Cultivating Stage, and then they would continue to the next stage, Foundation Establishment Stage. In contrast, in the Spirit Sword Sect, before the disciples tried to draw the spiritual energy into their bodies, they first have to train their bodies. As the name suggest, it was to temper their mortal bodies. The new disciples have to temper their bodies until they reach the realm of Xiantian stage martial arts master. Then they could begin their formal Immortal Cultivation training of absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy. And the reason for that? It was simply in order to lay a solid foundation.

This order of training was not uncommon amongst the ancient sects. For example, the Kunlun Immortal Sect, as well as some deeply profound sects also did this. In any case, the period of physical training was not that long. In the world of mortals, even the most talented disciples in the top martial arts sects needed, at least, ten years to reach the martial arts master of the Xiantian stage. But in the Immortal Cultivation sects, the training speed was naturally much faster, and the top five sects among the Union of Ten Thousands Immortals had even faster speed. The black and white disciples of the Misty Peak generally completed this training in two or three years.

As a red and white disciple, it stands to reason that Wang Lu’s training speed should be faster than those black and white disciples. But after two years, besides gaining a super endurance where he could run without getting tired, there didn’t seem to be any big change in Wang Lu. He didn’t know any martial arts, he couldn’t split open a rock, he couldn’t walk on the snow without leaving a trace, and he couldn’t run across the river.

The most unbearable thing was, the other black and white disciples could still receive guidance from their senior martial brothers, and once in awhile, the Elders would come and instruct them in public courses; All kinds of exotic martial arts for the mortal world were dime a dozen in the Spirit Sword Sect.

But Wang Lu, in his status as a Successor Disciple, besides attending the cultural education, his immortal cultivation training was completely in the hands of his Master! But even with his master’s best effort… He was still far behind the others.

Over the past two years, Wang Lu had witnessed the blue and white and black and white disciples, step by step, turned into a young Fong Sai Yuk [1]. The one with the fastest progress was Zhu Qin, who had already mastered the eighteen dragon subduing palms [2] and had fighting prowess comparable to the average martial arts master of the Xiantian stage! As for Wang Lu himself, his best feat was his unrivaled endurance in running away from the wild monkeys on the Non-Phase Peak…

Whether this disparity was because of his master, the Fifth Elder, was too idiot or because of his master, the Fifth Elder was basically a retard. In short, currently, Wang Lu had become the most exotic existence in the 6343 years of Nine Region history. His disciple status was the highest, but his cultivation was the lowest; yet, he was a monster in overall education. Thus, he became the source of envy and jealousy from the other disciples. During the day, Wang Lu and they would unavoidably bump into each other. Their leader was none other than Zhu Qin. He would lead his small gang to mock Wang Lu as a loser immortal cultivator. But Wang Lu would shot back by questioning their mental capability and predicting that, in the future, they would become meat toilet…In short, it was a cursing match. Of course, speaking of cursing match, Wang Lu’s record was far ahead of the rest. But, he didn’t think that there was any fun in that.

“So, did Zhu Qin come looking for trouble recently?”

“He probably still suffers from psychological trauma after last time I rained him with curses.” Wang Lu put down the chopsticks, looked up at the sky and recalled, not long ago, how spectacular was his stream of insults on Zhu Qin and his minions.

The Lady Boss put down her bowl. “Yeah, it was funny. They know they couldn’t beat you in insult match, so why would they even try it in the first place? Just by relying on the difference in the robe’s color, no matter how fast their training progress is, if they anger you, you could simply report them to the Disciplinary Elder, and they would suffer heavy losses.”

Wang Lu shook his head. “It’s not that big of a hatred actually. We just can’t wait to slap each other’s face…If instead of trying to win the cursing match, I become a snitch, my reputation would be ruined. To really win against them, I have to show that my cultivation level is higher than them, after all, no matter how high my skill in shouting abuse is, I still won’t be able to stand against them in a real fight.”

The Lady Boss was caught in surprise. “You actually understand this clearly. I thought you would feel invincible after you gained the Successor Disciple status.”

“…That depends on who’s successor disciple I am. If I am the successor disciple of the Sect Leader, what you say would be true. But to be honest, I am worried that later on I would be weighed down by my Master…Honestly, I now think that martial uncle Liu Xian has a somewhat negative sentiment toward me.”

The Lady Boss nodded her head. “Yes, Liu Xian and Fang He deeply abhors your Master. So naturally, some of their hatred would spill on you.”

“Damn, aren’t those two Elders wield the most power in the sect after the Sect Leader? Wow, to be able to be black-listed by these two people, my dear Master is too awesome.”

After praising her, Wang Lu repeatedly clicked his tongue. “Alas, I am going to be in a lot of trouble in the future because of that.”

Upon hearing this, the Lady Boss became somewhat worried about Wang Lu’s future. Two years ago when they first met, he was a spirited youth with limitless potential. So at the time, she expected him to have an amazing progress. However, two years later, Wang Lu’s luck was truly abysmal…

“How about this, why don’t you train martial arts with me?”

“Train martial arts?” Wang Lu put down his bowl and knitted his brows. “What do you mean?”

Lady Boss patiently explained, “In any case, you are still in the physical training period, you haven’t formally started cultivating yet. So, I want you to learn mortal world’s martial arts with me. First, it can enhance your physical fitness and thus speed up your physical training period. Secondly, you can learn many life-saving skills. Later on, if Zhu Qin and his gang look for trouble again, you can openly fight them back. Don’t be disheartened that Zhu Qin has already started drawing spiritual energy into his body; If he runs into a genuine martial arts master, he would be beaten just like stepping on an ant!”

Wang Lu did not doubt the words of the Lady Boss. Two years ago, this young girl covered herself up in black clothing and became “Papapapa” in the Peach Blossom Village. Wang Lu still remembered clearly how her peerless fist broke those magical treasures! Although in these two years, they had a tacit agreement of not to talk about some sensitive topics, but the Lady Boss’ exceptional skill was without a doubt.

However, Wang Lu still had some misgivings. “This will not interfere with the other aspects of Immortal Cultivation right?”

The Lady Boss patted her chest and gave her reassurance, “Rest assured. It will be fine. There will be absolutely no negative side effect when I teach you martial arts. If you become a peerless martial arts master, you can easily stomp Zhu Qin and his gang! If you can really beat him, it will also count as the victory of Non-Phase Peak against the Misty Peak, it would bring glory to your master.”

“The hell! I want to learn peerless martial arts to shut Zhu Qin and his gang’s dog mouth for good, why would it bring glory to my master? But… I don’t have much to do anyway. Lady Boss, oh, wrong! Master, please accept my respect!”

With a solemn face, Wang Lu stuck two incense on a rice in a bowl and prepared to bow his head in a formal obeisance posture. [3]

“Damn! Are you trying to worship me as a master or wishing me to die!?”

[1] A martial arts master. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fong_Sai-yuk

[2] A fictional martial arts in Jin Yong novels. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteen_Subduing_Dragon_Palms

[3] Similar to how one worship one’s ancestor; i.e., people who are already dead.