"Do you know why only you are still left here?"
Gu Langhuai, the Sect Master, couldn't help wanting to tease Leng Zhuxin when he saw her little face set in such a serious expression.
He had expected to see fear, panic, or bewilderment on the little girl's face, but to his surprise, she maintained a completely calm expression.
She only gently shook her head. "I don't know, but the Sect Master must have his reasons for keeping me in the hall."
Though Leng Zhuxin said this out loud, she was well aware in her heart that Gu Langhuai intended to take her as his disciple.
Sure enough, the next moment Gu Langhuai burst into hearty laughter. "You little girl must have guessed that I would take you as my disciple, right? From today onward, you will enter my sect and become my personal disciple. However, none of our sect's elders, including myself, possess an Ice Spiritual Root, so we can only provide you with cultivation techniques and resources. What achievements you attain in the future will depend entirely on yourself."
Gu Langhuai's words did not disappoint Leng Zhuxin. To her, cultivating immortality was just like practicing the Dao; whatever achievements one made depended fundamentally on one's own hard work and comprehension. Having cultivation techniques and resources was already more than enough for her.
She immediately bowed respectfully. "Disciple Leng Zhuxin greets Master."
Taking the Sect Master as her master was far better than being an elder's personal disciple as she had previously imagined. From now on, whether within the Qingxuan Sect or outside of it, no one—including Shangguan Heng's four disciples—would dare to casually make a move against her.
Since she was still growing, such a strong background would provide Leng Zhuxin with quite a substantial amount of assistance.
Watching Leng Zhuxin bow with her head lowered, Gu Langhuai felt that although this female disciple he had taken looked somewhat cold by nature, she was also quite sensible. He personally reached out to help Leng Zhuxin up, and led her toward the Sect Master's Peak.
In the original plot, because the original host and Leng Yueyao had essentially lived continuously on Changheng Mountain ever since joining the Qingxuan Sect, there were not many descriptions of the Sect Master's Peak.
It was only mentioned during certain key plot points that Gu Langhuai had a total of five disciples: two with Fire Spiritual Roots, one with a Gold Spiritual Root, one with a Wind Spiritual Root, and another with a dual Wood-Fire Spiritual Root.
As the Sect Master of the Qingxuan Sect, Gu Langhuai was busy with sect affairs and mostly took a hands-off approach with them. Three of them had been away honing their skills through external trials for years and had not returned to the Qingxuan Sect for a long time; the plot never even mentioned their ultimate fates.
The two disciples who remained within the sect were both captivated by Leng Yueyao in the later stages of the story, yet they consistently stood on the side of the righteous path and perished in the great war between humans and demons.
As for Gu Langhuai, the sect master, fifty years later during the Immortal Dao Grand Tournament, he was ambushed by a Demon Cultivator, causing his cultivation to plummet drastically. He voluntarily abdicated his position as Sect Master to Shangguan Heng—that is, Immortal Lord Changheng—and entered permanent seclusion.
When trouble struck the Xuanling Continent, it was unknown whether he had emerged from seclusion or not, but Leng Zhuxin guessed that he likely perished alongside the rest of the Qingxuan Sect.
These six master and disciples had absolutely no problems regarding their character. Leng Zhuxin could tell that although Gu Langhuai seemed somewhat unorthodox, he was actually extremely upright.
However, Leng Zhuxin had skipped a large portion of the plot concerning the Xuanling Continent, so she now had no idea when the human-demon war would begin, nor did she know why Gu Langhuai's other three disciples had never appeared in the story.
Standing on Gu Langhuai's flying sword and answering his questions from time to time, the two of them quickly arrived at the Sect Master's Peak.
Gu Langhuai loved green bamboo, so the Sect Master's Peak was filled with it. Unlike the other six peaks, which were crowded with disciples, the Sect Master's Peak had no one except Gu Langhuai, his few disciples, and a mute servant responsible for cleaning.
The Sect Master's Hall was quite grand, with its white jade hall doors remaining open year-round.
Passing through the hall doors and heading toward the back were the living quarters for Gu Langhuai and the others.
Gu Langhuai led Leng Zhuxin into his room and tossed her a storage bag. "This storage bag contains spirit stones, some defensive magic artifacts and garments, and a few basic medicinal pills. Because I didn't know I would be taking a disciple today, I haven't prepared an Ice Spiritual Root cultivation technique suited for you yet. But there's no need to rush; you cannot learn techniques before achieving Qi Guidance. Your master has sect affairs to handle, so the matter of your cultivation technique will be left to your eldest apprentice-brother to resolve. I have already sent a message to him, asking him to retrieve an ice-attribute technique from the scripture pavilion and bring it to you. If you have any urgent matters in the future and cannot find me, you can consult your apprentice-brother first. This is a messaging jade slip; my aura has already been recorded inside it. Later, you and your apprentice-brother can record each other's as well for easier communication."
As he spoke, Gu Langhuai tossed out another messaging jade slip. He then drew two drops of blood from Leng Zhuxin's fingertips and dripped them onto the storage bag and the messaging jade slip respectively, before glancing at the storage bag hanging at Leng Zhuxin's waist.
"Do not use the storage bag you have on you anymore. It's just a low-grade storage bag; anyone with cultivation even slightly higher than yours could rob you of your treasures."
Leng Zhuxin obediently nodded, though she didn't throw away her own storage bag, tucking it inside her sleeve instead.
This was the storage bag left behind by Ning Mi, and at the bottom, there was even a pattern of a green bamboo piercing the moon. Fearing it might be some kind of identifying mark, Leng Zhuxin felt it was better to put it away first.
Seeing this, Gu Langhuai didn't say anything further. He simply told Leng Zhuxin to wait in the outer chamber while he entered the inner chamber and brought out a lamp.
"Every peak lights a destiny lamp for their personal disciples and places it within our sect's Destiny Hall. Only the destiny lamps of our Sect Master's Peak are kept in my personal custody. You only need to drip a drop of blood onto it to ignite it. That way, if you encounter danger while traveling and training in the outside world, your master will be able to know in a timely manner."
Leng Zhuxin knew that once this lamp was lit, as long as the person lived, the lamp remained; if the person perished, the lamp went out. If anything happened that threatened the life of the person connected to the destiny lamp, the flame would fluctuate. As long as it was discovered in time, the Qingxuan Sect might step in to save them.
However, short of a life-or-death crisis, the destiny lamp could not guide others to find its owner, so Leng Zhuxin did not hesitate to extend her hand over the lamp.
Only when Gu Langhuai saw her extend her hand did he use a technique to draw a drop of blood from her fingertip, once again without harming her skin.
The droplet of blood fell into the destiny lamp and ignited it. Carefully putting the destiny lamp away, Gu Langhuai introduced further: "Beneath your master, aside from you, there are five other disciples. Three of them have descended the mountain for training and have yet to return, and another one has just entered seclusion to break through to the Golden Core realm, so you can only be introduced to them later. Only your eldest apprentice-brother remains permanently in the sect to help me handle affairs; he is at the Early Nascent Soul cultivation stage. Later on, don't forget to ask him for a welcoming gift—he has plenty of good things in his possession."