Seeking Immortality - Chapter 2

That night, I cried so hard that I blew the kind of snot bubble I hated most.

Xu Ping’an woke up because of me. Rubbing his eyes, he asked if I was crying from hunger.

The day the steward said I had five spiritual roots, Xu Ping’an had laughed louder than anyone.

Afraid he would laugh at me again, I turned my back and wiped my tears away.

“I am not.”

Since entering the sect, I ate a fasting pill every day and had never felt hungry again.

Still, I could not stop myself from crying.

I sniffled, my mouth drooping.

“I miss home.”

I missed my parents, my brothers, Erdan, and the big yellow dog at the entrance to our village.

Xu Ping’an was silent for a moment. Then he suddenly burst into a piercing wail.

He woke every other disciple in the room.

“Waaah! I miss my mother too.”

We were all under ten. Only a few months ago, we had still been playing at our parents’ knees.

Soon, our cries joined together.

I was the oldest, so I swallowed my sobs.

I comforted them.

“It’s not as if we’ll never see our parents again. If we cultivate hard, we can fly home on our swords once we reach Foundation Establishment.”

Xu Ping’an’s eyes were red and swollen from crying.

“But the steward said even the fastest person in the outer court needed forty years to reach Foundation Establishment. By the time you can go home, your parents will have died of old age.”

I argued, “My parents will live to a hundred.”

They were still waiting for me to bring them pills of immortality.

I patted Xu Ping’an on the shoulder.

“My mother had my fortune told. The fortune-teller said I’m a one-in-ten-thousand genius, so I’ll definitely reach Foundation Establishment early. Then I’ll take you to see your mother.”

One young disciple said I was boasting. “Who do you think you are, Li Zhengyang? He entered Qi Refining in a single month.”

I was stunned. “Li Zhengyang is that impressive?”

“Of course. The elders all say he’s heaven’s chosen genius. They think he can reach Foundation Establishment within ten years.”

I decided the elders simply had not met me yet.

That fortune-teller had bowed the moment he saw me. He had not even taken Mother’s fee, all because he wanted to form a fortunate connection with me.

I thumped my chest. “I know Li Zhengyang. He even wanted to become my follower.”

Xu Ping’an stopped crying. “Really?”

I nodded. “Really. We came here on the same flying vessel. We agreed to cultivate into immortals together, and I even gave him half of the flatbread my mother made.”

Xu Ping’an licked his lips. “I want flatbread too. Fasting pills don’t taste like anything.”

He propped his head up in both hands. Something glistened at the corner of his mouth.

“Our cook makes the best flatbread. She mixes eggs and white flour into dough and fries it in oil. Whenever I smelled it, I couldn’t keep my mind on practicing my characters.”

“Is your mother’s flatbread good too?”

I swallowed.

Mother only knew how to make sorghum flatbread. It scratched your throat, and if you ate too fast, it made you choke.

When Li Zhengyang tried it, he thought it was made of hay.

But I refused to admit that. Stubbornly, I said, “It’s even better than yours. Li Zhengyang wanted more.”

Once we began talking about food, no one cried anymore.

Candied hawthorn, sour jujube cakes, pear-blossom candy, iced yogurt, pea cakes, longan soup.

I had never even heard of most of them.

For the first time, fasting pills did not seem so wonderful.

Cultivation was terribly dull.

Many of the disciples were too young to sit still. After meditating for a little while, they began fidgeting and scratching.

The teacher would become so angry that he struck their palms with his ruler.

He never struck me.

He always stroked my head and praised me. “If every one of you were like Lin Qiang, none of you would have to worry about failing to draw qi into your bodies.”

I puffed out my chest beneath my fellow disciples’ envious gazes.

After class, they crowded around me and asked me to teach them my secret.

“You must keep righteous thoughts in your heart, think of nothing else, and work hard to become an immortal.”

Yu Hai snorted. “If you’re so good at talking, why haven’t you managed to draw qi into your body?”

He was the most annoying person of all.

He was always picking fights with me just because his clansman was a steward of the outer court.

“I asked my uncle. You have five spiritual roots, the worst aptitude there is. You might never draw in a wisp of qi in your entire life.”

My face reddened with anger. “You have five spiritual roots too. Does that mean you can’t become an immortal either?”

Humiliated and furious, he knocked me to the ground.

“Nonsense! My uncle is a steward. He’ll teach me.”

Xu Ping’an ran over and helped me up.

“Hurry and tell him you know Li Zhengyang. They’re all afraid of inner-sect disciples.”

I could not beat him, so I had to call on my follower for support.

That felt rather shameful.

Yu Hai remained where he was and asked uncertainly, “Do you really know Li Zhengyang?”

I gritted my teeth. “Yes. He’s my good friend. We came to the sect together.”

The outer-court steward came out of his room, ordered us to stop fighting, and dragged Yu Hai away.

The young disciples in the courtyard swarmed around me and asked about Li Zhengyang.

Their flattery made the corners of my mouth curl upward. “That’s right. We agreed to spend time together.”

“I even gave him some flatbread.”

Of the seventy or eighty young disciples in the courtyard, I was the first to sense qi.

No matter how hard I tried, however, I could not absorb it into my body.

One fellow disciple after another sensed qi, then began breathing it in and refining it.

For the first time, my resolve wavered.

Did aptitude truly matter that much?

Everyone had told me diligence could make up for clumsiness, and that a cultivator’s character mattered above all else.

I shook my head and cast those muddled thoughts away.

If one day was not enough, I would try for a hundred. If a hundred were not enough, I would try for a thousand.

The other disciples meditated by day and slept by night. I would practice through both day and night.

The heroes in storybooks were always that diligent.

At least I could read many characters now. That already made me more impressive than the children back home.

Yu Hai learned to move spiritual power.

After class, he plucked a green leaf and turned his palm.

Spiritual power wrapped around the leaf and carried it lightly onto my head.

The courtyard erupted in laughter.

I snatched the leaf from my head, furious, and tried to throw it at Yu Hai.

But it was too light. It spiraled down and landed on my foot.