Chapter 50

“I… I didn’t mean to hide it—I wanted to enter the Immortal Sect through the Immortal Product Assembly, and you don’t need it.” The Seventh Young Master flushed red as he defended himself: “You’re favored by a Great Immortal—how could any Immortal Sect be entered so easily?”

Zheng Fa blinked, finally realizing the Seventh Young Master had likely convinced himself that Zheng Fa had some mysterious Great Immortal behind him—in the context of the Xuanwei Realm, this seemed almost reasonable; there were plenty of novels about such things.

The kind of story where a poor boy is noticed by a passing Immortal and instantly becomes immortal.

“So what exactly is the Immortal Product Assembly?”

Zheng Fa felt he’d probably still have to rely on it to enter the Immortal Sect.

“You don’t know?” The Seventh Young Master looked at Zheng Fa with mild confusion: “Oh, right, you don’t need to know.”

He no longer concealed it: “There are only two ways to enter an Immortal Sect—one is like you, Zheng Fa, a lucky bastard who caught the attention of a Great Immortal and was taken as a disciple.”

Zheng Fa: … I didn’t, I’m not, you’re insulting the wrong person.

“The other is the Immortal Product Assembly—your spiritual root quality is assessed, then your proficiency in elixirs, arrays, talismans, or artifact forging is evaluated, and you’re given a rank. Those with high ranks may enter the Immortal Sect.”

Zheng Fa slowly understood: being favored by a Great Immortal was like independent admission—essentially the traditional master-apprentice model.

The Immortal Product Assembly sounded a bit like the imperial examinations.

“So… why is the Immortal Product Assembly being held early?”

The Seventh Young Master sighed: “In past years, it was held once every ten years—my sister entered the Immortal Sect through the last one. Normally, this year’s assembly should be held after the New Year, but my sister suddenly wrote to say it will be held two months from now.”

Zheng Fa finally understood why the Seventh Young Master had suddenly started working hard.

This Immortal Product Assembly, the Seventh Young Master had waited ten years for—he was lazy, but he’d always taken talisman arts seriously.

Talisman diagrams looked chaotic and dizzying; stare too long and everything seemed twisted.

Yet for the past ten years, he had studied them nearly every day.

He claimed he was slightly lax, but that was only compared to someone like Gao Yuan—a true grindmaster. For someone with his personality, sticking to this for ten years was no small feat; his desire to enter the Immortal Sect was clear.

“Actually, if you hadn’t been noticed by someone, you wouldn’t need to join the Immortal Product Assembly—I was going to give you one of our Zhao family’s two slots.”

The Seventh Young Master suddenly said.

“Slots? There are limits?”

The Seventh Young Master looked surprised: “Of course—otherwise, anyone could go?”

Zheng Fa nodded. This was probably why the Zhao family had stood for a thousand years.

…

“I still need to warn you—this book won’t improve your understanding of talisman arts anytime soon. It’s just the most basic of basics.” Hearing that the Seventh Young Master would take the Immortal Product Assembly in two months, Zheng Fa figured “Elementary Mathematics” wouldn’t help him much.

“I know.” The Seventh Young Master nodded, his expression calm: “If Immortal secrets could be understood so easily, would they still be Immortal secrets? The Linghe Body Art is already hard to master—how much harder must this secret method given to you be?”

“And what about you, Young Master?”

“I’ve hit a bottleneck in talisman arts…” The Seventh Young Master smiled bitterly: “For years now, I’ve kept reading ‘Complete Explanation of Talisman Diagrams,’ but I’ve made almost no progress.”

In this world, interpreting Yuan Fu—at least by the Seventh Young Master’s method—came down to two words: intuition.

The high-EQ term was enlightenment; the low-EQ term was guessing.

For true geniuses, guessing was a valid method—but for ordinary people like the Seventh Young Master, this path always led to a dead end.

“So, let’s try anything, even if it’s desperate.” The Seventh Young Master pointed at Zheng Fa’s table where the Yuan Fu diagram lay: “At least, your secret method has given me a glimmer of hope.”

“But two months…”

“If two months aren’t enough, then ten years. If ten years aren’t enough, then twenty…” The Seventh Young Master looked up at Zheng Fa, his gaze filled with a determination Zheng Fa had never seen in him before: “I’m not afraid to wait!”

Seeing Zheng Fa and the others stunned, the Seventh Young Master suddenly laughed: “I was just saying that—I don’t plan to enter the Immortal Sect through your book. Ten years ago, if my Zhao family hadn’t been short one slot, my dual-spirit-root talent alone would’ve gotten me in. Talisman arts were just to increase my chances—learning them was preparation for after I entered.”

His expression was full of confidence.

“Actually, I learned talisman arts because my sister demanded it—she seemed quite urgent about it.” The Seventh Young Master frowned, puzzled: “Never mind that—tell me about this secret method.”

Zheng Fa was about to begin explaining when his peripheral vision caught Gao Yuan standing far off in the corner of the study, watching them—but his gaze was unfocused, his face tinged with melancholy.

“Gao Yuan.”

“Hmm?”

Gao Yuan snapped back to attention.

“Do you want to learn?”

“I…” Gao Yuan glanced at the Seventh Young Master: “I have no talent for talisman arts.”

The Seventh Young Master treated Zheng Fa and Gao Yuan very differently—Zheng Fa had talisman talent, so he studied ‘Complete Explanation of Talisman Diagrams’ with him.

Gao Yuan mainly read with Master Shen and learned accounting from the bookkeeper.

Clearly, their training paths were different.

“This book has nothing to do with talisman arts—it’s a form of mathematics.” Zheng Fa said to him: “If you want to learn, come over.”

Gao Yuan glanced at the Seventh Young Master.

The Seventh Young Master showed no expression; seeing Gao Yuan look at him, he sneered: “This secret method belongs to Zheng Fa—why are you looking at me?”

Gao Yuan hurried over.

Evening.

Zheng Fa stepped out of the Seventh Young Master’s study, Gao Yuan following behind him. Only when they reached the courtyard gate did Gao Yuan suddenly speak: “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you willing to teach me?”

Because I want to see if your brain can even function…

Zheng Fa thought for a moment, then gave another reason: “If I can teach it to the Seventh Young Master, I can teach it to you too. It’s not really some divine secret, as he claimed.”

“How can I be the same as the Seventh Young Master?”

“How aren’t you the same?”

“He can learn things I can’t.”

Zheng Fa stopped walking and looked at Gao Yuan’s unreadable face: “What difference does it make? You both have one nose and two eyes—if he can learn it, you can too.”

“That’s not what I mean. The difference I’m talking about is…” Gao Yuan’s gaze settled on Zheng Fa’s face, and he spoke slowly: “He’s the Young Master, I’m the servant. He’s master, I’m slave.”

“Hmm.”

“That’s all you say?” Seeing Zheng Fa silent, Gao Yuan pressed.

“In my eyes, there’s no difference.” Zheng Fa turned and walked on.

“No difference…” Gao Yuan fell silent, watching him walk ahead for a while before breaking into a light run to catch up, his tone complex: “Who taught you this? Have you always been like this?”

“Not always—since five years ago, maybe.”

Another silence followed. Zheng Fa heard Gao Yuan mutter quietly: “Full of rebellion—don’t you fear I’ll report you?”

Zheng Fa smiled but said nothing. The Seventh Young Master probably understands this better than you do.

They walked in silence until just before parting, when Gao Yuan suddenly said: “Actually, there is a difference.”

“Hmm?”

“When he scolds me, I dare not scold him back.”

Hearing this, Zheng Fa gave him a sincere suggestion: “When he scolds you once, scold him ten times in your mind.”

“That… I find it hard.” Gao Yuan slowly frowned, looking troubled: “I usually scold him a hundred times—ten times won’t even satisfy me.”

Zheng Fa glanced sideways at Gao Yuan.

You’re the one who says I’m full of rebellion?

“Now you can report me too—we’re both too afraid to report each other.” Gao Yuan grinned at Zheng Fa.

…

That night, the Zheng family ate dinner together when someone suddenly knocked on the courtyard gate.

Zheng Fa opened the gate and saw Gao the steward and Gao Yuan standing outside.

“Uncle Gao, you’re here to… beg a meal?”