From the family treasure tree to build an eternal family

Chapter 46 Accepting a Disciple
"Okay. Then I'll take a look at other young men and introduce you to the right ones. Xia'er is so obedient and sensible, I will definitely find her a good husband."

Seeing that Xu Fugui didn't like Pan Wenbin, Wang Qian had to look for someone else.

"Thank you, Sister Qian. My family doesn't have such high standards and we don't want to climb up the social ladder. As long as the person has good character, it doesn't matter if their family background is poor."

Xu Fugui values ​​the character of his future son-in-law more.

"Okay, I'll pick one for Xia'er."

Wang Qian really liked Xu Xiaoxia and decided to be her matchmaker. Xu Xiaoxia had always been sweet-talking and always praised her to the point of being overjoyed.

After chatting for a few more minutes, she said goodbye and left.

----

a few days later.

Early morning, at the forest farm at the entrance of the village.

Xu Xiaogou was practicing the standing meditation, very seriously. Ever since his elder brother joined the army, he seemed like a different person, no longer as arrogant and ostentatious as before.

His current short-term goal is to reach the third level of standing meditation and become a high-level warrior.

The long-term goal is: to become an innate warrior!
Becoming an innate warrior would allow one to earn a lot of money and protect their family. Or becoming a military officer would allow their family to be exempted from corvée service.

In addition to Xu Xiaogou, there were more than a dozen other children present who followed Du Hai to practice standing meditation.

Most of the children present were under fifteen years old, so conscription did not affect them.

Many of Xu Xiaogou's older friends had been drafted. When ordinary families were drafted, they would often choose to send the child who practiced martial arts to increase their chances of survival.

After an hour and a half of morning exercise, Xu Xiaogou stopped.

Du Hai also finished his own standing practice. He didn't practice the bear and tiger standing practice, but a new standing practice he had learned that could strengthen the kidneys and enhance yang.

"Morning exercise is over, dismissed."

A dozen or so children dispersed and went home in groups of three or four, arm in arm.

"Hey, have you heard that there's an immortal in the neighboring Xiaoye Village who's recruiting disciples?"

"I know, I know. I went to Xiaoye Village yesterday to join in the fun. There were so many people lining up. I waited in line for two hours before it was my turn. Unfortunately, the immortal just touched me and said I had no spiritual roots."

Xu Xiaogou and Zhao Shuai were walking together. When they heard someone talking nearby, they went over and asked, "What immortal?"

"Brother Gou, don't you know? A few days ago, an immortal came to Xiaoye Village and said he wanted to recruit disciples and give people free spiritual root tests."

Free spiritual root test?
Xu Xiaogou and Zhao Shuai became interested instantly.

"Where is it?" "Does it test everyone?"

"Anyone under the age of twenty will be tested for free. If you have spiritual roots, you can be accepted as a disciple by the immortal. People from several nearby villages have gone."

Xu Xiaogou and Zhao Shuai looked at each other and saw what the other was thinking.

"Go and have a look."

"Okay, it would be best if I could queue up and have my spiritual roots tested."

The two people who were originally planning to go home for dinner turned around and walked towards the outside of Baihe Village.

Xu Xiaogou had never had his spiritual roots tested. He had heard that people with spiritual roots were one in a million and extremely rare.

There is a place in the county town that tests spiritual roots, but you have to pay. It costs one or two taels of silver to test one person.

"The immortal accepts a disciple" is an anecdote circulating among the people, but they have never seen it anyway.

When the two arrived at Xiaoye Village, they saw a long queue without asking anyone.

At a glance, the team was two miles long.

At the end of the team is a huge house, which is the home of the village chief of Xiaoye Village.

"Let's take a seat first."

Seeing that people kept coming from afar to line up, Xu Xiaogou pulled Zhao Shuai to line up first to reserve a seat.

Because there were too many people and it was too noisy, they couldn't see the situation ahead clearly, so the two could only follow the team.

The people in the team were talking. "I heard that someone with spiritual roots was detected the day before yesterday."

"You have spiritual roots? Which village are you from?"

"It's from Xinyue Village."

"Xinyue Village is so far away, and everyone has come here to test their spiritual roots?"

"Of course not. How can you get such a good thing as testing your spiritual roots for free, and even get the chance to be accepted as a disciple?"

"What happened next? Did the immortal take him in?"

"No, it seems that they said that the person's spiritual roots were not high enough and the immortals would not accept him."

"Spiritual roots are divided into different levels?"

"..."

There seemed to be a lot of people queuing up, but the immortals were very fast at testing spiritual roots. It only took a few breaths to complete the test for one person, so the line was moving forward very quickly.

In less than half an hour, there were only a few dozen people left in front of Xu Xiaogou and Zhao Shuai.

The two of them saw an old man in a blue robe and with white hair sitting on a throne outside the gate of the house, with a tea table beside him.

The old man stretched out his hand and felt around a few times on the bodies of the people in line, then shook his head expressionlessly, motioning the next person to come forward.

Near the old man's group, someone shouted, "We told you only those under twenty are welcome. If you're over twenty, be more self-disciplined and don't waste the immortal's time!"

"Hey, Zhang Mazi, you're already in your twenties and have two kids. What are you doing here?"

"Don't make the immortal angry, or no one will be able to test it."

As a result, more than a dozen people among the dozens of people in the team in front of Xu Xiaogou and Zhao Shuai voluntarily left.

Some people were unwilling to leave and were pulled out by people they knew.

Seeing that it was almost his turn, Xu Xiaogou became a little nervous: "What if I have spiritual roots? Wouldn't that mean I can become an immortal?"

"Immortals" are the beings with the highest status in the hearts of the people, above everything else.

"Brother Gou, if you become an immortal, don't forget me."

Zhao Shuai put his arm on Xu Xiaogou's shoulder and said casually.

"Of course, we are brothers. We share the good and the bad."

While the two were talking, a man came from a distance.

This person did not queue up and walked straight towards the old man who was testing his spiritual roots.

The people in the queue stared at the man, especially Xu Xiaogou and Zhao Shuai, whose turn was almost up. When they were about to ask how he had the nerve to cut in line, the man glanced at them coldly.

This glance made Xu Xiaogou and Zhao Shuai feel cold all over.

This person's name is Li Mang. He is a casual cultivator with five pseudo spiritual roots and is at the second level of Qi training.

He walked up to the old man and bowed respectfully, "I am Li Mang, a junior cultivator. I pay my respects to you, Senior. May I ask your name?"

The old man sat on the armchair without getting up. He looked at Li Mang with a cold expression and said, "Shi Zheng."

"Senior Shi Zheng, I have been on the path of cultivating immortality for twenty years now, yet I have never had a master. If you do not mind, I am willing to accept you as my master, serve you, and provide for your old age."

As he said this, Li Mang knelt down with a thud, bent over, lowered his head, and raised his hands above his head.

There are three crystal clear spirit stones in the palm of his hand!

Xu Xiaogou stood close, his heart racing as he gazed at the spirit stone, which shone brighter than a gem. He didn't know the value of the spirit stone, but the fact that a great immortal had only produced three was enough to prove its rarity.

Shi Zheng remained expressionless, speaking coldly, "I am weak and cannot afford to delay you as my disciple. Please leave."

He knew what Li Mang was planning.

The path to immortal cultivation is most difficult for independent cultivators, especially those with poor spiritual roots. A life of mediocrity might make it difficult for them to even reach the middle stage of Qi training.

Individual cultivators are extremely short of resources and have to use every broken spirit crystal sparingly.

(End of this chapter)