Chapter 12: I Wish to Become an Immortal

After pondering for a long time, Cao Sheng wrote on his draft paper: "I Wish to Become an Immortal."

As he wrote these four characters, he had already decided in his heart what kind of story he wanted to write.

He felt that as the first cultivation novel in the web literature world, it should be written in a standard and conventional way, serving as a template for those who would come after.

As for how "standard and conventional"?

He planned for the male protagonist to go to a certain cultivation sect to apprentice and learn skills as soon as he appeared.

To increase the readers' sense of immersion, he also planned to set the protagonist as a transmigrator who had traveled from modern society to the world of Xianxia, inhabiting the body of a child.

The child's identity meant the protagonist could not freely determine his own fate and had to follow his parents' arrangements, and his parents decided to send him to a cultivation sect to apprentice.

In this way, the veil of this Xianxia world could be lifted bit by bit during the protagonist's process of learning, including cultivation levels, various heavenly treasures, magical artifacts, and so on.

Cao Sheng felt that this standard, conventional writing style would allow readers who had never read cultivation novels to gradually immerse themselves in this Xianxia world.

Simply put, he was consciously lowering the reading threshold for this book.

Writing an outline is a very brain-draining task.

Because every single setting in the outline requires mental effort to think through; sometimes, one suddenly wants to change a setting that was already finalized.

The more detailed the outline, the more exhausting it is to write.

Unless you just scribble nonsense.

Time flowed slowly. Immersed in his inner world, Cao Sheng did not notice the passage of time. He kept his brow furrowed, looking down at the draft paper in front of him, writing down whatever came to mind as it occurred to him.

Because he didn't intend for anyone else to see this outline, he wrote very sloppily, almost like flying dragons and dancing phoenixes.

Although the handwriting was difficult to decipher, others might find his way of writing quite dashing.

For example: Wu Can.

She had feelings for Cao Sheng, and during evening self-study, she would glance at him from time to time.

Tonight, she glanced at Cao Sheng several times and saw that he kept his head down writing the whole time without looking at her once, which made her a bit unhappy.

Fortunately, she had an "Ah Q" spirit and could regulate her own mood, thinking: Although he didn't look at me, he didn't look at any other girls either, and he has been writing with his head down, clearly doing something important, so there is no need for me to be angry.

Thinking this way, when she looked at Cao Sheng writing with his head down again, she felt that the way he focused on his writing was very handsome.

As she watched, she couldn't help but want to go over and see what he was writing.

The atmosphere of university evening self-study is very free.

As long as you don't deliberately make a scene, generally no one bothers you.

And so, Wu Can, acting on her impulse, scanned the others in the classroom, suddenly packed her things, stood up, hunched over, tiptoed, and quickly trotted over to sit gently beside Cao Sheng.

When she sat down, there was still a hint of an excited smile on her face.

As soon as she sat down, she leaned over to look at what Cao Sheng was writing.

Cao Sheng sensed the movement beside him, frowned, and turned his head to look.

Seeing it was Wu Can, his brow furrowed even tighter; he only felt that this girl was distracting him.

Wu Can looked at the book title on his draft paper and read it with a puzzled expression: "'I Wish to Become an Immortal'? What is that? Are you planning to become a monk?"

Cao Sheng looked at her speechlessly.

Wu Can turned to look at him, frowning, "Cao Sheng, you don't really want to become a monk, do you? Let me tell you, I heard that even if an ordinary person wants to become a monk nowadays, they aren't qualified. I heard that to be a monk now, you need at least an undergraduate degree from a Buddhist academy. Haven't you heard of that?"

Cao Sheng frowned and looked at the draft paper in front of him, discovering that of the thousands of words on his paper, only the title "I Wish to Become an Immortal" was written somewhat neatly; all the other words were very sloppy and difficult to decipher.

So, it seemed he couldn't blame Wu Can for only recognizing those four characters?

"Why did you suddenly sit over here?"

Cao Sheng asked instead of answering.

Wu Can frowned, "Can't I sit over here?"

Cao Sheng looked at her without answering.

But the meaning was already very clear—he did not welcome her sudden arrival.

He didn't know if others liked having someone watch them while they wrote, but for himself, he was not used to having someone watching when he wanted to write something.

As long as someone was watching, he couldn't concentrate his thoughts and found it difficult to think.

Let's put it this way! With Wu Can suddenly sitting next to him, he couldn't continue writing his outline; if he couldn't concentrate, how could he write?

"You... you..."

Wu Can said "you" twice with an ugly expression. Seeing that Cao Sheng's expression remained unchanged and he still didn't say a word, she suddenly stood up, gathered her things, and trotted straight out of the classroom, not even continuing with her evening self-study.

In their kind of school and vocational major, evening self-study was not mandatory.

Every night, most of the students in their class wouldn't come to the classroom for self-study, and the teachers didn't care.

However, Wu Can suddenly running out of the classroom in a huff still drew side-glances from some students, and then these gazes subconsciously turned toward Cao Sheng.

The students had various expressions.

But no one said anything.

After the scene caused by Wu Can, Cao Sheng also felt a bit annoyed. Looking at the draft notebook in front of him and the various settings written on the paper, he couldn't reconnect with his previous train of thought for a moment.

Coupled with the fact that some students in the classroom were still looking at him with strange gazes, it was even harder for him to find his previous state.

Thus, after sitting silently for a moment, he also packed his things and left the classroom.

Walking out of the teaching building and being blown by the cold night wind outside, he gradually calmed down, and the bit of irritability in his heart seemed to drift away with the wind.

The study atmosphere at their school was not very strong.

Cao Sheng walked through the campus in the night. Through the windows of the teaching building with lights on, he could see that there weren't many people in each classroom for evening self-study.

On the sidewalk outside the teaching building, people were coming and going; some young couples were holding hands, hugging waists, and touching buttocks as if no one else was around.

On the basketball court not far away, some people were playing, and others were watching from the sidelines.

In some dim corners, one could vaguely see people hugging and kissing each other, and at the entrance of the small shop not far away, several boys and girls were gathered, flirting and laughing.

Compared to the high school he once attended, the air here seemed to be filled with an atmosphere of freedom.

Very few people were studying seriously.

A great many people were completely relaxing.

But as a transmigrator, Cao Sheng could no longer let himself waste time like that.

He carried his things and walked unhurriedly to the Adult Education Building.

The Adult Education Building was over a hundred meters away from the teaching building.

But the atmosphere in the two buildings was completely different.

The teaching building was six stories high and covered a large area, while the Adult Education Building was only three stories high, covered a small area, and was just a small building.

The Adult Education Building was for adult education and generally accepted correspondence students, so it was empty most of the time.

But the classrooms in the Adult Education Building were kept open every day.

The water and electricity were also connected.

Therefore, the few students in the school who wanted peace and quiet would come here to study at night.

But the number of people was really small; at night, there were often only three or five students in each classroom in the Adult Education Building, and sometimes, some classrooms were completely empty.

Cao Sheng brought his draft notebook into a classroom on the first floor. There were only four people in the whole classroom, and with him, only five.

When he sat down in an empty corner, Cao Sheng decided that he would come here to write his manuscript every night from now on.

He believed that no one would disturb him here.