Bu Wei

“…Thirty thousand years ago, the cultivation world had not yet been divided into seventeen states. Races such as demons, ghosts, monsters, spirits, and rakshasas had not yet become extinct and coexisted with the human race. At that time, the world was abundant with spiritual energy, countless rare and exotic beasts had not yet been recorded in the treasure mirror, cultivators with golden cores were everywhere, and those with nascent souls were as common as ducks. Only when one reached the stage of god transformation or union could they be considered to have achieved something. The stages of Hinayana and Mahayana were not uncommon. The founder of the Wushi Sect was Chu Xin!”

The elder who was lecturing had a stern look on his face as he glared at the disciple who was sleeping in the last row.

Someone next to him gave him a hard nudge.

Chu Xin suddenly stood up and saluted, his eyes barely open. The lecturing elder was so angry that he threw the scroll in his hand and said, “You continue!”

Half of Chu Xin’s face still had a red mark on it, and a junior brother next to him quietly reminded him, “Foun—der–”

Chu Xin cleared his throat and said, “The Wushi Sect was established 35,961 years ago by the founder, Chu Ye Zhenren, along with elders Qiao Gong and Yun Cheng. The three of them personally passed down their teachings to Sang Panfeng. Later, elder Cui Sheng joined the sect…..The Wushi Sect was once in its prime, with cultivators flocking to it. Then, the demon and rakshasa races joined forces to slaughter the human race, causing chaos in the cultivation world and depleting all spiritual energy. Sang Panfeng and Cui Sheng joined forces to set up the Eight Trigrams Formation using the earth as the array…”

“From then on, the cultivation world was divided into four corners and four sides, forming eight prefectures. Each prefecture had two states to guard it, and the heart of the Eight Trigrams Formation had a central state divided into yin and yang. From then on, the source of spiritual energy was inexhaustible, and the seventeen states were thus formed.”

Chu Xin stumbled through his recitation, glanced up at the elder whose face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and was so scared that he immediately lowered his head.

“How is cultivation divided now?” the elder asked again.

“Qi refining, foundation building, golden core, nascent soul, god transformation…” Chu Xin stuttered, glanced at the book that his junior brother had pushed to the edge of the table, took a look, and continued, “Union, Hinayana, crossing of tribulation, Mahayana.”

The elder saw their little movement and snorted coldly, “If you dare to sleep in my class next time, I’ll have you roll to the spirit beast garden to feed the cranes!”

Chu Xin hung his head in a manner that showed he knew he was wrong.

“Now that you’ve entered the inner gate, you should cherish this hard-won opportunity. You have no idea how many people outside just want to enter the Wushi Sect!” The elder took the opportunity to lecture the others as well, “Today is the first day of the Wushi Sect’s centennial election. After class, you should go down the mountain and take a look! Many people’s aptitude and comprehension may not be worse than yours, don’t be unaware of your blessings while you’re in the midst of them…”

The elder droned on and on for a long time, and finally, the bell signaling the end of class rang outside. The old man left in a huff.

Chu Xin, who had been standing all this time, let out a sigh of relief. He picked up the scrolls on the desk and walked out, with his junior brother Chu Zhi also picking up his books and quickly following. The two of them chatted as they walked.

“…That’s why I hate studying the history of cultivation the most.” Chu Xin complained, “It’s always the same stuff over and over again. I’ve heard the uncles talk about it since I was little. Is it necessary to go over it again? I’d rather take a pill class and refine a pill, at least I could eat it.”

“It’s okay, we only have this class once every ten days anyway.” Chu Zhi comforted him, “Senior brother, we don’t have class this afternoon, shall we go down the mountain and take a look?”

“Go down the mountain for what?” Chu Xin was puzzled.

“Didn’t you hear what the elder said just now? Today is the first day of the grand selection, it must be lively down the mountain.” Chu Zhi said, “And the master also sent us down to buy things, did you forget?”

“Oh right.” Chu Xin finally remembered, “We need it for the ceremony of Venerable Jinghe coming out of seclusion on the fifteenth of next month.”

Chu Zhi asked, “Is Venerable Jinghe an old man? I heard from others that he has been in seclusion for five hundred years.”

“Of course, he’s over a thousand years old—” Chu Xin almost got caught up in his junior brother’s words, and gave him a knock on the head, “Are you tired of living! Our master has to bow and call him uncle when he sees Venerable Jinghe, you dare to call him an old man, maybe the venerable can hear you.”

Upon hearing this, Chu Zhi quickly apologized in the direction of the main peak, “Venerable, please forgive me, Venerable, please forgive me, this disciple did not mean to offend.”

The two of them put away their books, went to the Merit Department to log their attendance, then took their shopping list and flew down to Huiyuan City on their swords.

“Wow, so many people?” Chu Zhi was startled by the crowd.

Both of them were only fourteen or fifteen years old, and had only seen the small selection on their own peak with their master. This was their first time seeing the grand selection that only happened once every hundred years. They bought half of the items on the list according to the instructions, and their attention was then drawn to the bustling crowd.

“Senior brother, the registration point for the sect’s grand selection is up ahead, shall we go and take a look?” Chu Zhi pointed to the crowded square in front of them.

Chu Xin was somewhat interested, and looked at the half-finished shopping list in his hand, “Let’s go, we won’t be able to finish buying these things in a while anyway.”

On the square.

Feng Zizhang was panting and fanning himself with the map, looking at Ning Buwei who was as unmoved as the eight winds, “Senior, I still haven’t found the registration place for Yijian Peak. I asked several disciples of the Wushi Sect, and they didn’t even know about this peak.”

Ning Buwei squinted his eyes and looked at the bustling crowd.

If he could use his spiritual power, he wouldn’t have to make things so complicated, he could just fly to Yijian Peak to find someone. But the other party had “reminded” him in the letter that he could not use his spiritual power for half a year, and he could also sense the changes in his dantian and meridians. It was lucky that it could be repaired after breaking once or twice, but if he continued to be so reckless, he might not be so lucky next time.

So ever since he woke up, he hadn’t used his spiritual power once, and had to return to the days of washing diapers for his son by hand.

And because his son ate too much rice paste, things had progressed to more than just changing diapers. Every time, the great demon was on the verge of rage, bearing the humiliation and washing diapers for his son who couldn’t take care of himself.

He just wanted to quickly shove his son to that female cultivator, and then live a carefree life by himself, without even having to remember to lean back when he fainted.

Yijian Peak was in sight, but he was stuck at the entrance to the mountain.

Ning Xiu was sleeping soundly in his arms, completely unaware that his heartless father was planning to send him to his mother.

“The people in the sect don’t know?” Ning Buwei frowned.

“Ouch!” A young voice rang out, “How do you walk?”

“Sorry——” Jiang Yizheng was rushing over and accidentally bumped into someone. She quickly apologized, but when she looked up, she saw a familiar face, “Chu Xin!?”

“Jiang Yizheng!” Chu Xin was equally surprised, then delighted, “Didn’t you and the senior go with Feng Zizhang to Yunzhong Sect? How did you get to Huiyuan City? Did the senior and Feng Zizhang come too?”

“We came together.” Jiang Yizheng said happily, “It’s great, I didn’t expect to meet you here, the senior and Feng Zizhang are over there.”

She pulled Chu Xin through the crowd and walked a few steps to a porch, shouting to Ning Buwei, “Senior! Look who I ran into!”

Reuniting with friends was always a joy, especially when it’s your lifesaver. As soon as Chu Xin saw Ning Buwei, he saluted him as a junior, and excitedly said when he looked up, “Senior! You’ve come to Wushi Sect!”

Ning Buwei nodded slightly in return.

Chu Xin then greeted Feng Zizhang, who saw him as if he had seen a savior, and quickly asked, “Chu Xin, do you know where your sect’s Yijian Peak is?”

Chu Xin was surprised, “Yijian Peak? I don’t think I’ve heard of it…Could it be in Jiazhou?”

At this time, Chu Zhi, who had caught up, happened to hear and joined in the fun, “Hey, I know this peak!”

As soon as he finished speaking, four pairs of eyes were staring at him.

Especially those narrow and cold eyes, which were particularly oppressive.

“Last time I helped the senior brother of the Lishang Pavilion draw a map, I went there once. This peak is small and remote, with sparse spiritual energy, hardly any grass, and full of rugged strange rocks.” Chu Zhi scratched his head, “There’s no one living there at all.”

Ning Buwei frowned at his words.

No one lives there?

Feng Zizhang asked in confusion, “No one lives there? Then why recruit menial workers?”

“What?”

Feng Zizhang took out the recruitment notice from the Wushi Sect and showed them, pointing to the two lines on the page, “Look, it says here, recruiting two menial workers.”

“Could it be that the people from the Lishang Pavilion got it wrong?” Chu Xin took the recruitment notice and looked it over, “This isn’t right, if no one lives there, why recruit menial workers?”

“Maybe they’re specifically recruiting people to clear the rocks.” Chu Zhi, who was familiar with the people from the Lishang Pavilion, guessed, “Sometimes some abandoned peaks are prepared to be cleared for the elders to put some things, and some poorer disciples will specifically choose peaks with sparse spiritual energy to cultivate, if they don’t have enough spirit stones, they have no choice.”

With his explanation, everyone suddenly found it reasonable.

Even Ning Buwei nodded silently, his child’s mother really seemed to be struggling, not even able to pick a peak with spiritual power.

“Do you want to go to Yijian Peak?” Chu Xin thought for a moment, “Since there is no recruitment point for Yijian Peak here, why don’t I go to the Lishang Pavilion and ask for you?”

Feng Zizhang was overjoyed, “That would be great.”

While the three youngsters were catching up, Ning Buwei’s gaze fell on Chu Zhi, “Little friend, can you tell me the exact location of Yijian Peak?”

****

Night fell.

In the guest room of Sangyun Inn.

Feng Zizhang infused all his spiritual power into the Suzaku broken knife, thinking it over and over again, he was still a bit uneasy, “Senior, are you really going to do this?”

Jiang Yizheng formed her own spiritual power into a ball and stuffed it into the Suzaku broken knife in her hand, “Senior, what if the people of the Wushi Sect discover us?”

Such questions had been repeated more than a dozen times.

Ning Buwei held the pitifully small amount of spiritual power he had borrowed and locked onto the location. He couldn’t use his spiritual power, so he could only guide the two of them to draw the formation with the Suzaku broken knife. Only after the two of them finished the last stroke did he speak, “I’ll go take a look first.”

Although the other party had always been very kind and friendly, even healing him twice, Ning Buwei was still somewhat uneasy about handing Ning Xiu over to a complete stranger, so he decided to go and investigate the other party’s background privately first.

Although he complained about his son every day, when it came to Ning Xiu’s future safety, Ning Buwei decided it was better to be cautious.

He added a talisman to the sleeping Ning Xiu, and said to Feng Zizhang and Jiang Yizheng, “Guard the formation, I’ll be back soon.”

“Be careful, senior!”

“If anything goes wrong, run immediately!”

Before the two of them could finish speaking, Ning Buwei slapped the ground with one hand and instantly disappeared in the center of the teleportation formation.