Chapter 12 – Immortal Talisman
This month, almost all of the honorary disciples came to know Wang Lin. All of them carried arrogant looks on their faces and talked viciously to him.
Wang Lin ignored them. He knew that all these honorary disciples’ minds were twisted. Before he came, all the honorary disciples were at the bottom. They had nowhere to vent their anger and frustration. However, now that he, who entered the sect by attempting suicide was here, they viewed him as someone even lower than them and vented by bullying him.
He laughed coldly to himself. He knew that this was not something he could do anything about. In the sect, the strong were always right. Some of the honorary disciples had been here for a long time, and their bodies were all very strong. Some had even learned some immortal technique. If he were to fight back, he was bound to lose.
However, Wang Lin wasn’t a complete pushover. He remembered the faces of all those disciples that looked down upon him and planned to take revenge when he becomes strong enough.
With this mindset, he acted like he was blind and deaf, and continued to fetch water every day, while secretly studying the stone bead.
He experimented by soaking the beads in various liquids. He tried mixing the dew and dipping the bead in spring water, sweat, and even blood. In the end, he found that the dew was the best by far.
But there were different types of dew. The dew that appeared on the bead in the morning was the best, followed by the dew that appeared on the bead at night. If the dew was collected anywhere else, it was not as effective.
Next best was when it was mixed with spring water. Blood and sweat were the worst, they had almost no effect at all.
In order to not attract any attention, he found some small gourds in the wild and hollowed them to hold some of the dew.
He did not carry these gourds with him. Instead, he would hide them separately in remote locations. He would only take them out when he was fetching water and never took them back to the sect.
He carried a gourd with him when he worked. Whenever he became tired, he would take a drink and instantly feel refreshed.
In addition, Wang Lin found out about a strange phenomenon. Whenever the night or early morning dew appeared on the stone bead, it would look like there were many drops of dew on the bead, but when collecting them, he could only get about one tenth of that amount. The rest disappeared.
As for this strange phenomenon, Wang Lin could only say that the dew was absorbed by the bead. Although his explanation was a bit absurd, he really couldn’t think of anything else.
Today at dusk, Wang Lin filled the remaining three vats and said to the yellow clothed discipling while he was meditating, “Brother Liu, I’m going to take a trip home so I won’t be coming tomorrow.”
The youth Liu opened his eyes and looked at Wang Lin, then snorted.
Wang Lin didn’t care. He learned from Zhang Hu that an honorary disciple can return home to visit relatives three times a year. All he had to do was ask elder Sun for permission.
Wang Lin remembered that his father’s birthday was coming up. No matter what, he must go back. After finishing his chore, he walked toward the elder in charge of the honorary disciples.
Heng Yue Sect was split into six academies that were split into five subdivisions. They were metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, each with their own honorary disciples. The inner disciples and elders all lived in the main courtyard. He would often pass by them when he fetched water. He always looked at them with eyes filled with envy. After arriving there, he took a good look around, then yelled, “Honorary disciple Wang Lin requests for elder Sun.”
A young man dressed in white casually walked forward. He looked at Wang Lin once and said proudly, “You are Wang Lin?”
Seeing the youth dressed in white, Wang Lin’s heart tightened as he nodded.
He already knew all the Heng Yue Sect disciples were ranked by the color they wore. Honorary disciples were divided into gray and yellow. The yellows were given the right to start cultivating immortal technique. Inner disciples were ranked based on their strength. From high to low are purple, black, white and red.
The youth in white’s mouth twitched and he gave Wang Lin a cold look before turning around and walking back into the courtyard. Wang Lin followed behind him with a deadpan face.
After walking through the courtyard for a while, he arrived at a house surrounded by flowers. The youth in white lazily said, “Teacher Sun, an honorary disciple is here to see you.”
After he finished speaking, he stood off to the side.
A hoarse voice came from the garden. “You may leave, honorary disciple come in.”
The youth in white chuckled and left.
Wang Lin was very nervous inside. He pushed open the gate to the garden. The moment he entered the garden, he was hit by the aroma of various medicines. He turned around and looked at the gate, wondering why he couldn’t smell it outside.
A voice with discontent came from a corner room in the garden saying, “What are you doing standing there? Hurry up and say your name.”
Wang Lin quickly said, “Disciple Wang Lin here to meet elder Sun. My dad’s birthday is tomorrow, this disciple wishes to return home for a visit.”
The voice scolded, “You are Wang Lin? So it was you. Hmph, a person training to be an immortal caring about worldly affairs? In your lifetime, you will never become an immortal!”
Wang Lin frowned and couldn’t help but say, “Disciple hasn’t even cultivated any immortal technique, how could disciple be on the path to an immortal?”
The elder paused for a while and impatiently said, “You have three days, so return quickly. This is an thousand mile immortal talisman that can be used twice. It will increase your speed greatly.” Then, an ordinary looking piece of dull yellow paper floated out from the window and landed next to Wang Lin.
Wang Lin picked up the immortal talisman. He knew from Zhang Hu that all the disciples that visit home receive this. The goal of the sect was very simple: show off the sect’s immortal technique and treasures to attract more youths to apply.
This immortal talisman was in fact of very poor quality, however, the upside was that it was very easy to use. All you had to do was stick it on your leg. For normal people, it increased their speed.
However, there were many honorary disciple that collected them because they heard they could be traded for other things in the outside world. Many disciples used the excuse of going back home just to collect the talismans.
After walking out of the courtyard, Wang Lin headed back to his room. After saying goodbye to Zhang Hu, he started to descend from the mountain.
At this time, the stars were shining in the sky. Wang Lin wanted to head home tomorrow, but he didn’t want to use the talisman and was afraid he’d miss his dad’s birthday, so he headed out at night.
Shortly after Wang Lin left, elder Sun came out from his room to gather some herbs, but was abruptly stunned. He stared at the gate entrance. All the blue grass that had been growing there had withered.