Ten Mile Slope.
Before a dilapidated temple to the mountain god.
"Master... is this really the grand entrance of the number one immortal sect under heaven?"
A striking girl of eighteen, her twin braids swaying gently, looked up at the crumbling shrine, hesitating to finish her sentence.
The young man in worn Daoist robes turned his head toward the promising young talent he had finally managed to coax into apprenticeship.
With a face as handsome as it was composed, Chu Xingchen spoke with a touch of sage-like grace:"A mountain need not be high—if the immortal dwells within, it is divine."
"You're still young. Don't be blinded by appearances."
The girl in a flowing pink fairy dress suddenly looked enlightened."I see, Master! So the inside must be some kind of hidden realm, right?"
"I've read stories in Chronicles of Cultivation on Mount Qi—one push of a broken door and inside lies a palace of golden splendor!"
Full of excitement, Li Yingling dashed forward and pushed open the decaying, drafty wooden door.
Her eyes sparkled with anticipation, awaiting the grandeur within.
Instead, what greeted her was...
Half of a broken statue, cobwebs still clinging to the rafters.
A former offering table had been dragged in front of a splintering board and was now clearly serving as a makeshift desk.
One corner of the table was propped up with a rock to keep it steady.
Nearby stood a rough stone stove, haphazardly stacked together, with a tiny iron pot resting on top.
To Li Yingling, this wasn't a sacred place—it was a shack. A shack that looked like a beggar's den.
Chu Xingchen stepped inside as well, completely unbothered, his expression calm, as if the ruin around him were the halls of heaven."Stop reading those tales written by commoners," he said lightly. "They'll rot your brain."
"I'll take down the side panel of the statue later for you to use as a bed. The temple's spacious enough—you can sleep wherever you want."
Li Yingling felt her vision dim."Master... cultivation isn't supposed to be like this, is it?"
Chu Xingchen replied with conviction,"This is exactly what cultivation is."
"But don't other sects float above cloud-piercing peaks, with dazzling palaces shining like the sun?"
"Have you seen that with your own eyes, or did some fellow cultivator tell you that?"
"...The storybooks said so..."
"You said it yourself—storybooks. Nobody cultivates like that anymore. As long as you ascend to immortality, how you do it doesn't matter."
Chu Xingchen's gaze sharpened."What do mortals know of the Dao? Do they understand that the grandest truths are often the simplest?"
Li Yingling muttered timidly,"But... isn't this too simple?"
"Enough nonsense. Are you cultivating or not?"
"...I am."
Chu Xingchen sat down on the wooden board, cleared his throat, and smiled faintly."Then come. Kneel and take me as your master."
Li Yingling shuffled forward, clearly reluctant.
But there was no going back now.
Returning home would mean being married off by her father to that imbecile son of the Minister.
That fool couldn't even feed himself.
And every time he saw a woman on the street, he'd babble incoherently.
Fine. A broken temple is still better than feeding that idiot porridge.
Li Yingling knelt with a loud thump, her voice ringing out:"Master above, this disciple, Li Yingling, pays her respects!"
[Newbie mission complete: Recruit one disciple.][Reward granted: Flawless Golden Core!][Detecting disciple Li Yingling: Single-attribute Water Spirit Root.][Textbook granted: Supreme Taiyin True Mystic Water Sutra.][Item delivered to inventory.]
At that moment, joy surged through Chu Xingchen's heart.
Three years.Three whole years just to recruit one system-approved disciple with suitable aptitude!
The system's requirement? The disciple must possess the potential for immortality.What kind of nonsense is that?
A minimum of second-grade spirit root to even count as a potential immortal? Ridiculous.
Forget how rare such talents are—even if one appears, they're snapped up by the major sects in a heartbeat.
And here he was, a lowly Foundation Establishment cultivator. Where was he supposed to find a prodigy like that?
He had wandered the entire Xuanwu Kingdom in survival mode for three years.
Finally, he had conned—ahem, recruited—his first disciple!
He glanced at Li Yingling through the system panel:
[First Disciple: Li Yingling][Cultivation: None][Gold Trait: Cultivation Prodigy][Purple Trait: Fortunate Destiny][Blue Trait: Striking Beauty]
Sure, the girl was clearly using him as an escape route.
Sure, she only agreed to become his disciple to avoid marrying that minister's idiot son.
But with talents like these, who was he to complain?
This broken temple was chosen for a reason—it kept him off the radar.
For thirty miles around Ten Mile Slope, there wasn't a soul in sight. He'd scoured the area just to find this abandoned shrine.
Who the hell wants to live here?
It had taken him three full days of scheming to lure Li Yingling out.
At last—the novice mission was done!
As the notification rang out, a stream of spiritual energy poured into him. His cultivation soared.
A golden core slowly formed in his dantian.
Li Yingling, gifted with a single-element spirit root, was naturally sensitive to spiritual fluctuations.
Though not yet initiated in the Dao, she could clearly sense her master's aura climbing to new heights.
"Master... what just happened?"
Chu Xingchen replied casually,"Accepting a disciple as talented as you filled me with such joy, I accidentally let some of my suppressed cultivation slip."
"Alright, you can stop kneeling and stand up."
Li Yingling nodded in awe and rose to her feet, though her face still held a hint of doubt.
"What about the other disciples, Master? As the number one sect in the Xuanwu Kingdom, surely you've taken in quite a few?"
"At the moment, you're the only one."
"...Huh? Master, you—"
Chu Xingchen answered with serene composure:"I walk the path of excellence. I only take fated prodigies—never riffraff."
"And this is still the number one sect?"
"Your master alone can crush the entire Xuanwu Kingdom. Why wouldn't this be the number one sect?"
It was over. She should've listened to her mother.Good-looking men really are liars!
If not for the fact that Chu Xingchen had publicly opposed the Minister's family for her sake, she'd be convinced she'd fallen into the hands of a scammer—or a lunatic.
"Master... please don't lie to me."
Chu Xingchen pulled an old, yellowed manual from his system inventory:Supreme Taiyin True Mystic Water Sutra.
The cover was so worn the first few words had blurred into smudges.
Only three characters were still clearly legible.
He tossed it to Li Yingling.
"Train with this. You'll know soon enough whether your master's lying or not."
His tone was so certain—surely this was some ancient divine technique!
Li Yingling looked down at the cover with hope shining in her eyes...
...and froze.
Only three words were still visible: Water Heart Sutra?!
She looked up at Chu Xingchen, her expression full of disbelief.
What kind of legendary cultivation technique had a name like Water Heart Sutra?
It sounded so... lame!
Even the cover was a mess—what horrors lay within?
Was this some knockoff he picked up from a street vendor?
What if training with it led to going mad?
In the stories, the ultimate techniques always came with radiant light and a divine aura!
This one looked like it belonged in a public latrine.
Holding the tattered manual with both hands, Li Yingling asked meekly:"Master... could I maybe... get a different one?"