One of the factions consisted mostly of rogue cultivators:
"Thank goodness! I was worried the grand initiation ceremony wouldn't be for another three years and I'd be too old, but I never expected them to move it up."
"Me too! I almost joined a minor sect a few days ago, but when I heard the sacred land was taking disciples, I rushed right over to try my luck."
Someone curled their lip in disdain: "If you want to enter the sacred land, you need to look at your own talent. Have some self-awareness."
"Not necessarily. Maybe I have some hidden talent that hasn't been detected yet?"
Not far away, a group of disciples from prominent clans gathered together. Hearing this exchange among the rogue cultivators, they sneered:
"Bunch of peasants. They actually think they can join the sacred land?"
"I was tested at home already. Dual spiritual roots—getting into the sacred land is a sure thing. What do they have to compare with us?"
"Exactly. We have our own testing stones at home; testing again is just a formality. How could they possibly compete?"
"Don't speak too soon," another chimed in. "There are a lot of clan disciples here too. Competition's going to be fierce."
"Don't say that. Now you're making me nervous."
"Damn it, I just worked up some confidence looking at those peasants, and now you've got me nervous."
Another faction was made up of pure mortals who had never touched any cultivation knowledge.
They didn't know what joining the sacred land meant; they only knew that if they passed the test, they would become cultivators, never have to worry about food or drink, and gain immense wealth and status.
High upon the mountain peak in the distance, the seven peak masters had gathered, pointing and chatting as they looked down at the disciples below.
Wanyin spoke up: "I think that kid from the Li family looks promising. Medium fire spiritual root, a perfect fit for our Alchemy Peak's heritage. When he passes the Heart Inquiry Trial later, none of you better try to snatch him from me."
Li Buzheng, master of the Heavenly Mechanism Peak, flicked his horsetail whisk: "Just because you're willing to take him doesn't mean he's willing to apprentice under you. I think he'd fit in just fine at Heavenly Mechanism Peak."
Wanyin snapped: "You stinking fortuneteller, are you deliberately picking a fight with me?"
Wang Wudi, master of the Undefeated Peak, said coldly: "Who gets to take whom as a disciple depends entirely on our own abilities. If he's willing to apprentice to me, I won't yield him to you."
Wanyin rolled up his sleeves: "My temper is flaring. Damn it, let's fight it out right now! Whoever wins gets him!"
At their level, they didn't need testing stones; as long as no magical treasure was concealing it, a single glance could pierce through and reveal anyone's spiritual roots.
The only things that could not be seen through were the ethereal qualities of comprehension and state of mind.
That was why they were already squabbling over disciples in advance.
Lü Qingmei massaged her temples: "Stop arguing, will you? The people haven't even all arrived yet. There might be someone with even better talent showing up."
"Look at Junior Uncle—he remains calm and unfazed no matter the situation. Look at you lot, old enough to be grandparents and still talking about fighting and killing every day."
The peak masters glanced over at Guliang Yuan, who was calmly observing the scene below. They exchanged cold snorts and fell silent.
Down below, hundreds of thousands of people appeared as individual system interface panels in Guliang Yuan's field of vision.
The dense array of stats left him dizzy.
As his gaze swept halfway across the crowd, his eyes suddenly lit up!
*Oh, a gold-tier legendary find!*
Name: Mochen
Infatuation Value: 100 (Peerless Simp)
Cultivation: Qi Condensation Level 8
Spiritual Roots: Metal, Fire, Water (Three-element)
Comprehension: One-in-an-eternity (Unactivated)
Talent Activation Method: Shatter the shackles of romance, achieve total enlightenment!
Fortune: Prosperous Dao path
Destiny: Sovereign of a Dao!
Summary: A one-in-a-million peerless simp, trapped by romance and unable to achieve realization. The moment he breaks through his romantic obsession, his comprehension will be unlocked, granting him the ability to pioneer a brand-new cultivation system!
Guliang Yuan was shocked. What a freakish set of attributes!
A three-element spiritual root talent might look decent at a glance, but judging a person's spiritual root wasn't just about quantity; you had to look at generation and restriction among the elements.
Generating elements made a good combination; restricting ones made it subpar.
For instance, a combination of Metal, Water, and Wood was quite good. Metal generates Water, and Water generates Wood; he would only need to absorb the ambient Metal Qi of heaven and earth to drive the Water and Wood Qi. With a suitable cultivation manual, his training speed wouldn't be much slower than someone with dual roots.
Mochen, however, had Metal, Fire, and Water. Fire restricts Metal, and Water restricts Fire. Cultivating with such roots would take far longer than for an ordinary three-element practitioner—it was a terrible combination.
Back then, Qianqiu had attained gold status because of her comprehensive overall traits.
Yet Mochen, with such lousy talent, had achieved gold-tier legendary status purely on the strength of his comprehension!
And he was a max-score ultimate simp!
*Hehehe, little disciple, where do you think you're going?*
Just as Guliang Yuan was about to withdraw his gaze and send someone to investigate Mochen's background, a casual sweep of his eyes caught a flash of purple light.
*Purple?*
Name: Song Xian'er
Infatuation Value: 90
Cultivation: Mortal
Spiritual Roots: Water, Wood
Comprehension: Immortal bearing (Unactivated)
Physique: Glazed Immortal Body (Unactivated)
Activation Method: Glazed Immortal Crystal
Summary: In her past life, she was an immortal in the heavens. At the moment of her death, she gathered her remaining consciousness and cast a wisp of her lingering soul into the womb of a mortal woman. Unfortunately, she encountered an accident during reincarnation, and her memories of past lives were temporarily sealed. Once she refines the Glazed Immortal Crystal, she will activate the Glazed Immortal Body and completely awaken her past-life memories.
Guliang Yuan looked at this system panel in contemplation.
*So purple panels correspond to special physiques...*
In the world of cultivation, people usually took spiritual roots as the standard for testing talent. This wasn't wrong, but there was always a tiny fraction of people in this world who fell outside this standard.
These people possessed special physiques.
For example, the Taotie Physique could devour spiritual objects of the world to increase one's cultivation. Even with mixed five-element roots, as long as one devoured enough, they could forcibly elevate their cultivation speed.
Another example was the Barbaric Elephant Physique, born with immense strength; even with substandard spiritual roots, one could embark on the path of body refinement.
Of course, if the spiritual roots were also strong, having the two complement each other was best.
As far as Guliang Yuan knew, the cultivation world maintained a ranked list of known special physiques, numbering one hundred and sixty-eight in total.
And this Glazed Immortal Body was in the top ten!
The reason it ranked so high was because this physique would alter the host's spiritual roots—and even their comprehension—as their cultivation increased!
No matter how poor the initial aptitude, it would eventually evolve into the physique best suited for attaining immortality, leaving the entire body flawless and translucent like glazed crystal!
To call it heaven-defying would be an understatement.
Guliang Yuan had originally thought getting even one disciple out of this grand ceremony would be a good haul, but he never expected to land two!
Amidst his delight, he turned his head slightly and spotted a golden radiance not far from Song Xian'er.
*Huh?*
*There's another expert?*
Name: Zhang Yang
Infatuation Value: 0 (Loves everyone he meets, but ultimately only loves himself.)
Cultivation: Qi Condensation Level 3
Spiritual Roots: Metal, Wood, Fire, Earth (Four-element)
Comprehension: Once-in-a-thousand-years
Physique: Heaven-Defying Saintly Physique (Unactivated)
Fortune: Infinite Plunder (Can plunder enemies' fortune to fortify himself.)
Destiny: World-class Child of Fortune
Ever-Resilient (The greater the blows he suffers, the stronger his subsequent explosive rebound.)
Undefeated in a Hundred Battles (Bound to win first place in every sect grand tournament and various competitions.)
IQ-Lowering Aura (Once anyone becomes his enemy, their intelligence unconsciously plummets.)
Scorn-Magnet Physique (Wherever he goes, he is bound to provoke scorn from onlookers.)
Misfortune Linked with Fortune (Every major disaster is bound to be followed by a fortuitous encounter.)
Peach Blossom Array (Wherever he travels, he is bound to be favored by beauties!)
Summary: The previous Ye Fan could only be considered a Dongzhou-level Child of Fortune; even if he wasn't killed by the host, the height he could reach would merely be invincibility within Dongzhou.
Zhang Yang, however, is a world-class Child of Fortune. Once he matures, he will be invincible in this realm.
*Hiss!*
Guliang Yuan gazed at Zhang Yang's dense list of destiny attributes and couldn't help drawing a sharp breath!
*A Child of Fortune is truly terrifying!*
With all these destiny traits backing him, who could possibly beat him?
If he could take him as a disciple, that would be wonderful, but this infatuation value clearly didn't meet the requirement...
Guliang Yuan suddenly understood why a single initiation ceremony had brought him two suitable disciples.
It was because a Child of Fortune was present.
Guliang Yuan's intuition told him that Mochen and Song Xian'er were bound to be entangled with Zhang Yang.
With that thought in mind, he immediately instructed Song Rentou behind him:
"Go and find out about those people."
Following the direction of Guliang Yuan's finger, Song Rentou nodded in acknowledgment, his figure slowly fading into the void.
Guliang Yuan's actions immediately caught the attention of the other peak masters present, who promptly used their divine sense to meticulously probe the spiritual roots of the three individuals.
After finishing their probes, several of them frowned slightly. One had three roots, another had four, and only the dual-root girl was passable.
Wanyin asked: "Junior Uncle, do you have your eye on those three?"
Guliang Yuan smiled: "A little interested. Let's watch and see. What, are you going to fight me, your uncle, for them?"
Wanyin curled his lip in disgust: "Just those three? Are they even worth me fighting for?"The rest of them also looked indifferent, and some even advised Guliang Yuan to be more prudent when taking on disciples.
At this, Guliang Yuan merely smiled it off.
Only Lü Qingmei looked at Guliang Yuan thoughtfully. She knew that back then, Guliang Yuan had spotted Qianqiu at a single glance. It stood to reason that these three must also possess some extraordinary qualities.
Yet no matter how hard she probed, she could not detect the slightest trace of anything out of the ordinary.
Before long, Song Rentou returned.
"Reporting to Uncle-Master, I have found out about these three. Come to think of it, there is quite an interesting story between them."
Hearing this, Guliang Yuan thought to himself that it was just as he had expected. He gave a soft hum, signaling Song Rentou to continue.
Song Rentou went on:
"Beneath our Taishang Sacred Land, there is an affiliated sect called the Xuanjian Sect."
"The Xuanjian Sect Master has a daughter named Liu Shuang, whose beauty is peerless and capable of toppling states."
"Eighteen years ago, that arrogant Zhang Yang's father was also a proud figure of his generation. During a trial, he saved the Xuanjian Sect Master's life, though his own dantian was destroyed in the process, leaving him unable to cultivate."
Hearing this, Guliang Yuan interrupted:
"And so, out of guilt and a desire to make amends for Zhang Yang's father, the Xuanjian Sect Master made an agreement with him: if their future children were both boys, they would become sworn brothers; if one was a boy and one a girl, they would become husband and wife!"
Song Rentou gave a thumbs-up. "Uncle-Master is brilliant! Every word is spot on."
Guliang Yuan lacked the energy to complain. In his past life, he had grown sick of reading cliché engagement tropes in web novels!
Could they not come up with something original?
Guliang Yuan waved a hand. "Alright, start from the part where Liu Shuang is unwilling to honor the engagement."
Admiration welled up even stronger in Song Rentou's eyes!
Uncle-Master had even guessed that Liu Shuang was unwilling!
He cleared his throat and continued, "Just as Uncle-Master anticipated, Liu Shuang was unwilling to take a mixed-spirit-root cultivator as her cultivation partner. However, pressured by her father, she found herself in a difficult spot."
"Right at that moment, Mochen appeared!"
"Speaking of this Mochen, he is truly a devoted lover. He and Liu Shuang are first cousins, and he has been infatuated with her to the marrow of his bones since childhood!"
"When he was five years old, a group of children were playing together in the dead of winter. Liu Shuang's shoe fell into the river, and without batting an eye, he jumped right in and nearly froze to death.""At thirteen, when he had just begun his cultivation, Liu Shuang said she liked men who slew demons and subdued devils. Mochen, that fool, crossed the Rakshasa Sea all by himself to kill a member of the demon race and bring them back. When his family finally found him, he was down to his last breath."
"At fourteen, Liu Shuang caused a disaster by releasing a great demon suppressed by the sect. Mochen took the blame upon himself entirely, enduring three years of agonizing heart-burning fire poison inside a volcanic crater on Liu Shuang's behalf!"
"There are many similar incidents, so I won't go into detail."
"This time, when Mochen saw Zhang Yang pestering Liu Shuang, naturally he couldn't stand for it. He gave chase all the way, vowing to kill Zhang Yang and relieve Liu Shuang's worries."
"Zhang Yang also had a bit of luck. Fleeing all the way, he blundered right into our mountain gate."
"Mochen knew that during the disciple recruitment ceremony, the Sacred Land wouldn't allow him to act recklessly. So he lay low, waiting for an opportunity, planning to find a way to kill Zhang Yang after the recruitment ceremony concluded."
Hearing this, Lü Qingmei sighed with emotion:
"He truly is a deeply devoted soul. That Liu Shuang must love him very much, right?"
Song Rentou looked at Guliang Yuan, then back at Lü Qingmei, wearing a strange expression."On the contrary, Liu Shuang detests Mochen, this clingy pest, and is ungrateful for everything he does for her. She even publicly declared her wish to become cultivation partners with the top disciple of the sect leader's lineage."
Hearing this, Guliang Yuan slapped his thigh hard.
"What a dedicated simp! He belongs in my Heartless Path!"
Guliang Yuan's sudden outburst startled the others.
But then they realized the truth in his words.
Indeed!
The core of the Heartless Path lies in finding disciples with deep roots of affection.
Thinking of Mochen's present situation, how similar it was to their Junior Uncle's past!
The only difference was that Junior Uncle had only simped for Meng Yao for three years, while Mochen had simped for a full eighteen years straight!
He was even more exceptional.
If Junior Uncle was already that formidable after three years, wouldn't Mochen be even more ferocious once he achieved enlightenment?
That logic seemed completely sound.
Song Rentou wasn't quite as optimistic. "Junior Uncle, the Sword Sect is an affiliated sect of ours, so asking them for a disciple with mediocre talent is no big deal. But Mochen is so infatuated with Liu Shuang, he might not be willing to leave the Sword Sect."
Before Guliang Yuan could speak, Wanyan glared fiercely from the side.
"How dare he be picky when a Holy Land is taking him in? Has he lost his mind?!"Guliang Yuan raised a hand. "You don't need to worry about that. I have my own ways."
"Old Song, go on. What's the story with that Song Xian'er?"
Song Rentou replied, "That Song Xian'er is just an ostentatious maid. Aside from being somewhat exceptionally good-looking, there's nothing special about her."
"From what I've observed, Zhang Yang must be aware of his maid's innate talent, which is why he has always kept her by his side."
"However, I checked, and it seems this Song Xian'er hasn't even registered for this grand disciple-recruitment ceremony."
Hearing this, the masters of the seven peaks felt a growing dislike for Zhang Yang in their hearts.
Having lived for thousands of years, these old monsters usually appeared rough and carefree, but when it came to human scheming, they had studied it through and through. At a single glance, they saw right through Zhang Yang's intentions.
Since his own maid possessed such talent, why hadn't he allowed her to cultivate earlier?
And why hadn't he taken the opportunity to send her into the sacred land?
Was it not out of fear that his own talent was lacking, and once Song Xian'er began cultivating, he, as her young master, would no longer be able to keep her under control?
Or perhaps it was simply to protect his own pathetic pride.
Guliang Yuan had also pieced things through. Song Xian'er's infatuation value was directed at Zhang Yang. Mochen's infatuation value was directed at Liu Shuang.
Taking Zhang Yang's enemy Mochen as a disciple, while also taking away the maid Zhang Yang refused to let go of—
Seen this way, he was inevitably bound to stand on the opposite side of Zhang Yang's hostility.
Yet, thinking of Zhang Yang's series of destiny traits, Guliang Yuan felt a fluttering of doubt in his heart.
With so many destiny traits stacked together, could he actually manage to kill him?
Otherwise, once Zhang Yang grew stronger, wouldn't he himself become the boss monster waiting to be slain?
"System, do you think I can kill Zhang Yang?"
"Ding. A solo kill by the host is impossible. However, if you kill him the way you did Ye Fan, there might be a chance."
"Additionally, as the Son of Destiny's fortune is plundered and the host's own fortune increases, the probability of the host killing him will also rise accordingly."
"How do I check his fortune value?"
"Ding. If the host clicks on the Fortune section, detailed information will be displayed."
Guliang Yuan looked at Zhang Yang once more and successfully located the Fortune column.
With a shift of his divine sense, the detailed description popped up:
Name: Zhang Yang
Fortune Talent: Infinite Plunder
Current Total Fortune: 800,000
Probability of Killing: 5 percent
(Note: The lower the fortune value of a Son of Destiny, the easier it is to kill him. When a Son of Destiny's fortune drops below zero, he can be killed with 100 percent certainty.)
Having read this, Guliang Yuan felt completely reassured.
No matter what, as long as there was a way to kill him, that was enough.
Perhaps Zhang Yang wouldn't hold a grudge against Guliang Yuan because of this, but Guliang Yuan's consistent credo was that he would never gamble on another person's conscience. The initiative had to remain in his own hands!
Having finished all this, Guliang Yuan glanced around once more. Certain that there were no other suitable disciples left, a thought suddenly stirred in his mind, and he looked toward Lü Qingmei beside him.
"Qingmei, didn't you say the other major sacred lands are also holding their recruitment today?"
Hearing this long-unused form of address, Lü Qingmei looked momentarily dazed.
Ever since her master's lifespan had been exhausted, hundreds of years had passed since anyone had called her that.
Although it felt a bit overly intimate, given Guliang Yuan's seniority, addressing her this way didn't seem entirely inappropriate either.
Yet she had no time to dwell on the form of address; as she listened to what Guliang Yuan said next, a sudden shock jolted through her heart!
By the sound of Guliang Yuan's intent, he actually wanted to go to the other sacred lands and poach their disciples!
Seeing the slightly gleaming eyes of the other peak masters around them as well, Lü Qingmei firmly refused:
"Absolutely not!"
"The matter of supporting the dragon throne is of paramount importance. The moment we go snatch disciples, we will undoubtedly become the joint target of the other three sacred lands!"
"This wouldn't be helping the sacred land increase its strength—it would be destroying it!"
Guliang Yuan smacked his lips, thinking it a pity to himself.
The gazes of the other peak masters dimmed accordingly.
Indeed, if another sacred land were to come right to Taishang's mountain gates to poach disciples, they wouldn't let the matter rest easily either.
What a pity.
Seeing this, Lü Qingmei felt a surge of relief while casting a reproachful, sidelong glare at Guliang Yuan.
This junior grand-uncle of hers was truly impossible to worry about.
The conversation among the group atop the peak did nothing to affect the grand disciple-recruitment ceremony unfolding below.
By this time, the outer disciples had already brought out the testing stones, and the line of waiting disciples began their tests one by one.
Yet Guliang Yuan had no mood to wait any longer, his mind entirely set on quickly completing the system quests to activate the supreme comprehension and cultivation rebate functions.