After breakfast, urged on by Lin Donglai, the whole family locked up the house and set off for the town to test for spiritual roots.
Before reaching the town, they ran into Lin Kai on the way, who had set out even earlier than them. His home was right next door to Lin Donglai's, so the two had been childhood friends.
"Kaizi! What are you thinking about?"
Lin Donglai clapped him on the shoulder, startling him. "You walk without making a sound!"
"That's how immortals walk." Lin Kai chuckled. "Why the furrowed brow?"
Lin Kai glanced left and right, then said in a low voice, "I heard the town mayor's son found a meteorite and presented it to the immortals."
"But the mayor's son never even went up the mountain. Someone else who was up there must have found it! What rotten luck!"
"I was thinking, if I don't have spiritual roots, I'll go back up the mountain and search some more. If I happen to find a meteorite, I'll bring it to the immortals and ask them for a cultivation manual!"
Lin Donglai was curious. "Without spiritual roots, what good would a cultivation manual do you?"
"It would be enormously useful! Later, when I marry and have sons, and have lots of descendants, sooner or later one of them will have spiritual roots. With spiritual roots, they can cultivate, join an immortal sect. Even if I can't cultivate to immortality myself, I'd be an immortal's father, an immortal's grandfather—I'd get to enjoy the benefits along with them!"
"Even if they don't join an immortal sect, with a manual, our family could become some kind of immortal clan."
Lin Donglai burst out laughing, thinking he was daydreaming, but his attention stayed on the matter of the mayor's son finding the meteorite.
"Since the mayor's son found the meteorite, then what was the treasure the two immortals were fighting over yesterday?"
"And what about this seed in my mind—is that a treasure or not?"
While he pondered, they arrived at the town without realizing it.
It was only a quarter past the hour of Mao, yet the empty grassland in the town was already crowded with people. The town's only bluestone-paved street had been cordoned off, and a long line had formed. Clerks from the county yamen were registering names and handing out number tokens.
Seeing this, Lin Donglai squeezed into the queue to wait for registration and the spiritual root test.
Everyone in line was a boy or girl, the youngest perhaps seven or eight, the oldest around seventeen or eighteen.
The Qingmu Immortal Sect tested spiritual roots in the county every five years, so the older ones had mostly already been screened once.
Presiding over the spirit testing were a man and a woman, two immortals dressed in fresh bamboo-green Daoist robes—Li Yunze and Jiang Biling, inner disciples of the Qingmu Sect.
The spirit testing had not officially begun yet. Li Yunze was toying with the meteorite fragment the mayor had presented, saying, "Junior Sister Jiang, though this meteoric iron carries a trace of stellar spirituality, having been tempered by heavenly fire as star iron from beyond the skies, and could be forged into a magical artifact, it's merely a finger-sized fragment—hardly the great opportunity of legend."
"When the meteorite fell, it clearly came with extraordinary phenomena. Never mind the heavenly fire and the Tiangang pure qi it carried—even that phantom image in space, where a towering giant tree could faintly be glimpsed... I fear a Golden Core cave abode has emerged from the world!"
On the very day the meteorite fell, two of the Qingmu Sect's three Supreme Elders emerged from seclusion. After that, the sect master, the elders, and even the inner disciples all poured out of the sect in search of treasure!
The Supreme Elders seemed to have discovered something and had already gone to seize the great opportunity.
As for these inner disciples, they were responsible for searching the areas where the meteorite might have fallen, looking for meteorite fragments.
Yesterday, the Supreme Elders returned injured. Before entering seclusion to heal, one of them had given an order: the place where the meteorite fell must be blessed by fortune. Anyone with spiritual roots, regardless of aptitude, was to be brought into the Qingmu Sect and not allowed to slip away elsewhere.
That was why this spirit testing was being held today.
"To seize a great opportunity, one must have great fortune as well. Otherwise, the slightest carelessness means a death with no burial ground. Senior Brother, let's begin the spirit testing!"
Thereupon Li Yunze and Jiang Biling each took an intricate instrument disc, one conducting the testing, the other recording.
The disc resembled the Eight Trigrams, with a yin-yang Taiji diagram at its center. On the trigrams were written: Kan, Li, Zhen, Xun, Qian, Kun, Gen, Dui.
Compared to the traditional Five Elements spirit-testing disc, this Eight Trigrams disc was more precise—besides testing spiritual roots, it could even detect cultivation physiques.
"No spiritual root. Next."
"No spiritual root. Next."
...
Jiang Biling's voice was very pleasant, like the tinkling of spring water, but the boys and girls who came to test for spiritual roots were all bitterly disappointed.
Eventually one young man couldn't help asking, "Immortal maiden, is it true that without spiritual roots, one really cannot cultivate?"
Jiang Biling scoffed. "Of course not. Even the rumors of heavenly and earthly treasures, or manuals specially designed to unearth hidden spiritual roots, or pills that awaken spiritual roots—they're all fantasies, hearsay!"
"Only those born with spiritual roots may step onto the path of immortality!"
After thirty or forty people tested without spiritual roots, at last a young man was found to have them.
"Five spiritual roots, dominant Fire among the five elements, low-grade spiritual roots, one inch two fen long, ordinary meridian width and resilience, no special physique, Grade Ding aptitude."
Seeing spiritual roots of this quality, Li Yunze couldn't muster any enthusiasm. Grade Ding aptitude, low-grade Five spiritual roots.
With this aptitude, he wouldn't even qualify to be a menial servant of the Qingmu Sect.
The servant boys and maids in Li Yunze's own cave abode—those who served as slaves—all had low-grade Four spiritual roots.
How could he be in a good mood?
Even if someone with such low-grade Five spiritual roots cultivated, their limit in this lifetime would be the third layer of Qi Refining, and only very rarely would they break through to the fourth layer.
Jiang Biling, however, noted down his name and said gently, "Young brother, go wait over there. When the spirit testing is complete, we will take you back to the immortal sect."
After all, it was the Supreme Elder's order—anyone with spiritual roots was to be brought back to the sect for screening.
The young man, unaware of his fate, was beaming with excitement and joy.
"No spiritual root. Next!"
"No spiritual root. Next!"
After who knew how long, when it was the turn of the person right in front of Lin Donglai, Li Yunze raised his voice slightly.
"Three spiritual roots—Wind, Fire, Lightning! Wind-Fire-Surging Lightning, mid-grade spiritual roots, two inches seven fen long, broad and thick meridians, physique is a mid-grade Xun Wood Lightning-Fire Body, aptitude Grade Yi-upper!"
He said at once, "Young friend, this senior brother is Li Yunze of the Purple Lightning Peak lineage, an inner disciple of the Qingmu Sect. What is your name?"
Compared to his attitude toward the Five spiritual roots boy earlier, Li Yunze now regarded the youth before him with considerable importance.
Not every disciple of an immortal sect could cultivate the arts of combat. Most had mediocre aptitude, or preferred peace and were unwilling to fight and kill, and had no destiny with the Great Dao. For these, the sect would guide them to learn a craft, handle logistics, and help manage the sect's properties.
These disciples were called administrative disciples. They didn't need high cultivation or great combat strength, but they needed to be skilled and proficient in some art, or excel at managing personnel.
The other kind of disciple was the combat disciple—raised specifically to fight and kill outside, to compete against other sects for resources, or to protect the mountain gate's security, garrison the market towns, and suppress rogue cultivators.
Whether it was the Wind-Fire-Lightning spiritual roots or the Xun Wood Lightning-Fire Body, both were the finest aptitudes for a combat disciple—and here they were combined in a single person.
With just some training in combat arts, he would be formidable throughout Qi Refining and into Foundation Establishment! He could win even more resources for the Qingmu Sect!
Li Yunze had already decided: this junior brother he would claim back for his own lineage, present to his master as an excellent disciple, and cultivate into the foremost combat disciple of their lineage in the future.
The young man showed no surprise, as if he had long known his own spiritual roots, speaking only with a self-satisfied air: "Greetings, Senior Brother Li. My name is Xue Hong. My father is Xue Peng, an executive steward of the Qingmu Sect's outer sect."
Li Yunze had never heard of any Xue Peng, but Jiang Biling, who had risen from the administrative disciples, reminded him, "That would be Steward Xue of the Spirit Talisman Manor at Washing Brush Lake. There's a minor spiritual vein beneath the lake, with spirit reeds and spirit thatch planted along the shore, and a manor on an island in the lake—it's the sect's talisman paper production estate."
"So he's Steward Xue's son. Why didn't your father recommend you into the sect himself? Why did he let you come here for testing?"
"My father is away at the manor most of the year and doesn't move about within the sect. He doesn't know which elder I should take as master—or which elder not to—and he couldn't bear the responsibility for such a decision. When he heard this year's spirit testing was moved up, he had me come on my own."
"I see." Li Yunze instantly understood Steward Xue's thinking: the man was waiting to sell at the best price. Besides, his own standing was too low to reach any higher-ranked elders, and he feared ruining his son's path on the Dao.
"Junior Brother Xue, wait nearby. Once I finish the spirit testing, we'll speak in detail—otherwise this testing will drag on forever and never get done."
The one after Xue Hong was Lin Donglai. He was slightly nervous. Seeing that the person before him had spiritual roots—and by the looks of it was a "genius"—he felt a faint unease in his heart.