Chapter 9: Named Disciple

"... Pine tree? A pine tree isn't bad, we can give it a try!" Tai Chong twirled his beard and said.

Wei Yuning saw Tai Chong's casual attitude and asked anxiously, "Master, is it really possible? What if it fails? Will I lose the chance to establish a foundation?"

Tai Chong rolled his eyes and said impatiently, "Removing the mundane Qi from the body is the foundation stage. The criterion is that the flesh can contain spiritual energy without dispersing, so you can condense Qi into liquid, refine liquid into a pill, refine the pill into… never mind, it's too early to tell you that now. Let's talk about the immediate foundation method: visualization relies on intention first, emphasizing comprehension, but it isn't the only path. There is also the bodily cultivation route, which puts the body first, but that's the 'dumb person' method—high talent requirement, time‑ and labor‑intensive, extremely hard to succeed. If you truly are a dumb person, I don't mind forcing a bodily foundation for you, but once you reach that stage, I won't be responsible for your later cultivation."

"Got it, got it, now I'm much more at ease!" Wei Yuning felt no embarrassment. The foundation stage grants a solid one‑hundred‑and‑twenty years of lifespan; for such a perk, who cares about dignity? On Earth that would be considered a long life, so as long as I establish a foundation, it's a win.

Tai Chong actually had no particular opinion on Wei Yuning's performance; having lived over two hundred years, he had seen countless people—humble, arrogant, clumsy, clever, generous, stingy, and so on—but those outward traits are not the key to how far a cultivator can go. In fact, as cultivation deepens, Tai Chong becomes increasingly puzzled about what truly constitutes talent.

"What specific requirements do you have for the pine tree? I can create a magical illusion for you," Tai Chong asked.

"Whatever, as long as it's made according to a real pine tree, it'll do," Wei Yuning said.

"What? A real pine tree—that's a high bar! But since you said 'whatever,' I'll make a tiny pine tree. How about this?" Tai Chong pointed to a bonsai on the corner table—a stone‑styled bonsai about the size of a basin, with a pine growing halfway up the rock, miniature, only a finger's length.

The whole bonsai featured mountains, water, trees, and grass; the water flowed, the leaves fluttered in the wind, and the scene bathed in golden light, brimming with vitality. Wei Yuning had noticed this odd object as soon as he entered.

"Is the pine inside a real pine tree?"

"This is a magical artifact; it contains its own tiny world. Though entirely made of spiritual energy, it's indistinguishable from the real world. It was crafted by the sect's first‑generation ancestor, and calling it the sect's greatest secret isn't an exaggeration," Tai Chong said, his tone full of loneliness.

"The greatest secret? Then why is it here?" Wei Yuning pointed at the modest room and asked curiously. At first glance, the room is just an ordinary inner chamber of the Transmission Hall's Pill Peak station; the only unusual feature is that the inner wall is solid mountain rock.

"The secret is the biggest secret, but… I'll say no more. For now just treat it as a bonsai to look at, and there are actually multiple copies. As for safety, this is the Transmission Hall; every day high‑level masters above the fusion stage are stationed here, and there aren't many places in the sect safer than this!"

Tai Chong snapped his free hand in the void, and a tiny pine tree flew out of the bonsai. Though small, upon close inspection every needle was distinct, indistinguishable from a real pine.

Wei Yuning looked back at the bonsai; the pine inside remained, but perhaps an illusion, the golden glow enveloping the bonsai dimmed slightly.

Tai Chong placed the "pine tree" into a cultivation manual, then taught Wei Yuning how to use consciousness to activate the magical illusion.

The two taught and learned, asked and answered, and before they knew it half a day had passed.

"That's all I can teach you; though many of your questions were quite foolish, your eagerness to learn is commendable. If you have any issues, come find me directly; I usually cultivate in the Transmission Hall on Lotus Peak." Tai Chong said. Lotus Peak is the highest of the nine peaks, its summit perpetually snow‑capped, serving as the sect's headquarters.

"Do you acknowledge me as your disciple?" Wei Yuning asked excitedly.

Tai Chong frowned, his face constipated, thought for a while, then said, "I can first accept you as a named disciple, but don't be overly flamboyant, or else… I'll expel you from the sect." After speaking, he stood up, ending today's lesson.

Wei Yuning also stood and followed Tai Chong out of the room.

They part ways at the Transmission Hall's doorway. Wei Yuning kept watching Tai Chong disappear around the bend ahead before finally preparing to leave.

"Yuning boy, wait!" a voice called from inside. A slightly plump, kindly‑faced old man rushed out; he was the overseer of the Transmission Hall's Pill Peak station, Elder Xu Ye, a senior of the Hong generation, with cultivation at the early fusion stage. If Tai Chong hadn't happened to arrive, he would have been the one to give Yuning his first cultivation lesson.

"Xu Ye… senior, what is it?" Wei Yuning, now officially a menial disciple, would address someone of the Qing generation as 'Shifu Uncle', so he was unsure how to address an elder of the Xu generation, and simply called him 'senior'.

"The Uncle Tai Chong really accepted you as a disciple?" the old man asked with a smile.

"Yes, but only as a named disciple!" Wei Yuning replied honestly.

"Named disciples are still disciples; it's been years since Uncle Tai Chong took a disciple, so don't disappoint him! Here, you have a wood‑type spirit root, take this!" Xu Ye said, handing Wei Yuning a strange pendant sword—its handle a dark wooden grip, its blade green, looking at first glance like a small tree.

"Fine sword!" Wei Yuning praised, not because he could judge its quality, but because this seemingly petite sword was surprisingly heavy—heavier than the sect's standard pendant swords, whose size is more than twice that of this small blade.

"This is Sister Xu Rou's pendant sword; she's my…friend. Back then a few of us brothers roamed the Extreme Sky Sea together, having a great time, but… by the way, she also holds a position just like you, she's also Tai Chong's disciple." Xu Ye remained smiling, though his tone grew heavier. After speaking, he patted Wei Yuning's shoulder and returned indoors.

Wei Yuning was stunned for a moment, then left.

In the afternoon, Wei Yuning received his work assignment from Senior Qing Yun, tasked by Hong Le to tend a patch of Sun‑lit grass beside the "Medicine Hoe Stone" on the summit.

Sun‑lit grass is an extremely resilient spirit herb that loves sun and wind, thriving perfectly on the sunny, windy, arid summit.

Man Niu envied Wei Yuning's new job. Besides weeding, pest control, and fertilizing, the heaviest task was hauling water daily from the Pill Peak valley to the herb garden for irrigation. Sun‑lit grass, a rare drought‑loving plant, needs watering only once every seven days. Though the garden sits at the highest spot, overall it's far more worthwhile.

Settled in, Wei Yuning felt the days flew by—watering, fertilizing, pest control, weeding, harvesting, plus daily cultivation, his schedule was jam‑packed.

Unnoticed, a month passed.

Wei Yuning's cultivation talent was fairly good, ranking above average among the novice disciples; though he hadn't yet established a foundation, he was already a qualified cultivator. Techniques such as visualization, channeling spell lines, absorbing spiritual energy into the flesh, and the wood‑type spirit‑root's innate plant‑growth art, among others, which once seemed mysterious, began to reveal their true forms.

At this moment, the sect faced a major event: the quinquennial alliance marriage summit between the Azure Luan Sect and the Cloud‑Hidden Sect was about to commence.

Originally this had nothing to do with menial disciples, but the alliance summit required a few junior servants for miscellaneous tasks, each hall had to contribute some slots. For such non‑cultivation chores, disciples avoided them whenever possible, let alone serving people.

Thus the newly arrived Wei Yuning and the long‑unestablished Man Niu were selected by Qing Yun.

To safeguard the selected menial disciples' morale and prevent a repeat of the last summit's incident where a junior servant spat on the food, after the slots were set, Qing Yun announced this year's benefit.

Junior servants could eat the same food as the matchmaking disciples.

Hearing this, Man Niu grinned broadly. Wei Yuning asked and learned that the summit's provisions were mainly spiritual food, no wonder Man Niu was so pleased.