Pursuing Immortality

Gu Yu was no saint, nor was he that altruistic.

He was merely following his heart, and tried to give ordinary people a little better chance in this new world. Maybe the slimmest chance was enough to change the life of a lot of people, saving them from an otherwise mediocre, unambitious, and unaccomplished one.

When the standard was set, everything became rather straightforward. They didn’t have to rack their brains to design the trials any more. As long as the candidate was not abominable and had a natural endowment of the average level of ordinary people, they could be accepted.

Gu Yu set the deadline at one year, after which they would decide who was to stay and who to leave.

This was in stark contrast to the monastery, which adopted the standard college system, with Tianzhu being the highest seat of learning and the local temples the primary ones. The candidates were examined carefully, and there was an age limit. They mostly only took in those with excellent endowment or standing out in certain aspect.

The pupils were trained in the local temples for three years first before being tested by the monastery at the abbots’ recommendation. Those that passed the test could continue their cultivation in the monastery.

An evaluation would be carried out at the end of their studies. The mediocre ones would either remain in the monastery to run errands, or be relocated back to the local temples, where they would be promoted gradually in order of seniority, and wait for their turn to become the abbot one day.

Those with excellent results would form the future core strength of the entire Taoist community. All resources would be focused on them, and they’d claim precedence over all others when education was concerned.

Of course, the previous year was the first year when the local temples recruited new students. It would be another two years before the first batch of pupils took their tests.

One had to admit that the education system of the monastery was quite reasonable. Not only did it allow the pupils to improve their capability to the greatest extent, it would also guarantee a constant supply of talented people. Phoenix Mountain, on the other hand, was an experimental plot standing out from the conventional education system.

Gu Yu did not think the way ancient cultivators did. What he wanted to convey was not his way of thinking. Instead, he was trying to teach his pupils how to understand their nature and how to pursue a Taoist heart of their own.

***

One year after its launch, the app New Classic of Mountains and Rivers had attracted an unfathomable number of users. Luckily, it was developed by the state, which could afford to throw limitless technology and money into its development—that kept the load of the server within a normal range, preventing it from collapsing.

Social medias such as wechat or weibo had long gone out of fashion. This app was the only thing that was on now. Each discovery of a new creature or each post with a novel idea would start another wave of heated discussions.

The developing institution responded accordingly, and was gradually making improvements. Just the other day, a new function was added: a subscription service provided by individual companies. It might sound funny, but that was how the recovery of spiritual essence fitted into a modern society—a lot of modern tools were there to make life easier.

The first batch of official account users were the sub-bureaus of the BIMAUP, followed by the local temples. After that, Phoenix Mountain and the monastery also joined in. Phoenix Mountain had the most followers, but they had one post, which announced that the lecture would take place on June 8th.

June 1st arrived in no time. The heat was merciless.

Ever since the construction of the market town began, Bai Town felt like it had been closed inside a steam pot, which was reflected in both the temperature and the atmosphere. The town was getting hotter and more crowded by the day as if it was going to burst at any moment.

Several hundred thousand people used to live here, but the number had been at least doubled now, and the capacity of the town was reaching its limits. The downtown area had been filled up already, and even the surrounding villages and townships were completely occupied.

Ten grown men would squeeze into one big kang (i.e. the brick bed) to sleep—God knew what could happen during the night.

And that was already a controlled result from the government’s intervention.

Phoenix Mountain did not set a limit to the number of candidates, but the authorities had to make sure everyone would come out of this in one piece. Hence, those that had arrived early were elated with their good luck, while those that came late could not even get into Shengtian. They were stopped outside, crying their eyes out and cursing everyone that came to their head.

Beep! Beep!

It was noon when a fleet of vehicles slowly drove near along the road on the northern slope, then came to a stop outside the dense fog. The doors opened, and over forty people filed out.

They belonged to different parties.

First of all, there were Lu Yuanqing and his fellow 34 monastery members. This was the second time that the entire monastery had come out together; the last time was during the competition in Celestial Master Temple.

There was then the boss of the BIMAUP, and a few officials of the Shengtian sub-bureau.

Lastly, there were also a few sectless cultivators recruited by the government. Surprisingly, apart from Li Suchun and Li Daoyu, there were two others, who seemed to be brothers, both very young.

“I didn’t expect the Northeast to be this hot. This is almost as bad as Qian Zhou.”

“You had that Cooling Talisman sticking on you the entire time, so stop complaining. My ice toad is the one suffering.”

“Are you kidding me? You call that suffering? Did you see Young Priest Li’s iron corpse? I think it’s melting… Hey, someone’s coming.”

A moment later, the fog rolled and parted, then Old Shui and Li Dong walked out. As the representatives of Phoenix Mountain, they behaved very appropriately. “Sorry for keeping you waiting. This way, please!”

With that, they opened a passageway with their jade tablets, standing on either end of the team and letting the others enter in turn.

The fog turned and tumbled in the air, leaving out a path in the middle. Lu Yuanqing even sent out his mental force, which made a circle in the fog. Surprisingly, he sensed a strange response.

It had an ignorance to it, which reminded him of an infant.

‘Hm? This fog is alive?’ Lu Yuanqing winced, then shook his head. ‘No, that’s not it. Whoever running this formation is very unusual.’

Chao Kongtu was the most relaxed one. He even walked deliberately into the fog, but ran back out a moment later, shouting, “That was remarkable! It can deprive all of the five senses. A moment longer in there, and I’m turning into a walking corpse!”

“That won’t be a problem. We’ll have you refined by Young Priest Li; you’ll be much capable than you are now.”

While they chatted with ease, the officials looked very tense. They followed the path precisely, and dared not cross the line even in the slightest.

They walked for a while before the fog gradually grew thinner, revealing the rolling northern slopes and the big manor. It went without saying, but this was where they were going to stay.

They had just entered the living room and took their seats when loud laughter came from outside. “Old Chao, Old Chao, where are you?”

‘Gosh!’

Chao Kongtu lowered his head, and wanted to bang his head on the table. His fellow priests were very curious, though, and watched Xiaojin caper in, followed by a graceful Long Qiu.

So, these were the two princesses.

Xiaojin ran happily towards them, wanting to greet Chao Kongtu with her habitual mocking remarks, but was interrupted by an official, who stood up and asked, “Excuse me. Is Perfected Man Gu not available at the moment?”

“He is, but not for you lot.” Xiaojin changed her demeanor right away, and bowed properly. “Priest Lu, Priest Shi, Priest Zhang, Priest Chao, Priest Sikong…” She called out ten names. “Please follow me up the mountain.”

“May I ask what this is about?”

“To discuss the agenda of the lecture.”

“Of course!” Lu Yuanqing rose to his feet, paused a little, then said, “Senior Brother Mo, Senior Brother Wu, please come with us.”

“Yes!” two middle-aged men replied.

Gu Yu was not constantly in touch with the monastery, and did not have the most updated information. Two more priests of the monastery had reached the innate state recently. One was that Old Priest Mo, and the other was Wu Yiming of the Wudang Sect.

Here were some facts about Wudang.

Wudang Sect was associated with two concepts: the Taoist sect and the martial arts sect. The Taoist Wudang Sect belonged to Yinxian ¹ Sect, which was established by Yin Xi, then passed down in turn onto Mayizi, Patriarch Chen Tuan, Priest Fire Dragon, and Zhang Sanfeng.

However, most of the skills of the sect were lost, and the sect merged with Quanzhen and began to practice the Dan method.

So far, the monastery had seven innate state priests—Lu Yuanqing, Shi Yunlai, Zhang Wumeng, Sikong Chan, Mo Haofeng, Wu Yiming, and Bai Yunsheng—and sat on the White Crane Underground Palace, whose relics had yet to be unearthed. With its teachings in Dan and Talismans, and ample talented people, a solid foundation was taking shape.

Apart from the seven names mentioned, Wang Ruoxu, Li Suchun, Zhang Shouyang, Chao Kongtu, and Zhong Lingyu were also invited. The twelve men then followed Long Qiu and Xiaojin onto the mountain.