Chapter 19

Gan Tian is a second-generation cultivator; from the moment she was born, no one doubted that she would cultivate immortality. However, to be 'on the safe side', Gan Cheng personally cast a spell to test... her body could retain spiritual energy.

In the world of cultivators, every major immortal abode has its own 'school district'; ordinary people within a school district who have cultivation talent enroll in the corresponding immortal abode. This is to relieve the burden on the major immortal abodes of screening disciples, with each taking responsibility for a school district, avoiding duplicate testing and wasting resources.

Furthermore, in earlier years—long, long ago—before the school district system existed, the major immortal abodes were powerful and all vied for disciples with outstanding talent. This practice often led to 'overstepping boundaries' between immortal abodes, recruiting within each other's spheres of influence... As such incidents increased, conflicts naturally increased as well.

Moreover, this recruitment method could make 'the strong stronger and the weak weaker', which overall is unfavorable for nurturing new forces in the cultivation world.

Anyway, now recruitment is confined to fixed areas, and overstepping boundaries is not allowed.

But if new disciples have 'immortal registration', it's another matter—at least they cannot be sorted into school districts by their mortal realm domicile. Moreover, forcing these second-generation immortals to practice egalitarianism seems unworkable; everyone wants to send their children to better immortal abodes, unlike ordinary people who can only accept assignment.

In view of this, the 'double-selection' method was born.

In short, children with immortal registration can apply to any immortal abode they like, but each immortal abode has a limited quota. According to the proportion of non-immortal-registered disciples admitted each year, each immortal abode may admit an equal proportion of immortal-registered disciples.

If the number of applicants exceeds the available quota, only some can be rejected. And if an immortal abode has insufficient quota, it can simply wait to be assigned the rejected immortal-registered disciples.

Generally speaking, immortal-registered disciples have higher aptitude and quality on average; for an immortal abode they are a 'high-quality source', so everyone is willing to accept immortal-registered disciples.

The immortal abode that Gan Tian wishes to enter, 'Clear Void Heaven', is one of the top two in the cultivation world; more importantly, Gan Cheng and Mi Taiyin are both alumni of Clear Void Heaven... She also counts as a 'legacy student', so attending her parents' alma mater is completely justified.

For an immortal abode like Clear Void Heaven, the number of immortal-registered applicants each year exceeds the quota, but when conditions are comparable, they will certainly take care of legacy students.

Nevertheless, the required procedures must still be followed, such as drawing blood to test for spiritual energy, to confirm that the child has cultivation talent. Although it is rare for parents who are cultivators to have a child lacking cultivation talent, it does happen.

At this time, the immortals in charge of reception at the immortal abode will draw blood and test spiritual energy everywhere, conducting the final test; the results of this test will also be 'archived'—once the blood droplets leave the body, the spiritual energy will gradually dissipate, and eventually they will inevitably merge with the crystal bead into liquid, only the amount of spiritual energy differs, so the dissipation time differs as well.

Some blood droplets last only a moment, while others can persist for several days.

Using the crystal bead for testing also has an advantage: after the blood droplet finally merges with the crystal bead, it becomes unusable—in the cultivation world, a drop of blood is extremely useful, and if it falls into the hands of someone with ill intent, it brings endless trouble. People allow their blood to be taken because they trust the immortal abode, but they always feel uneasy about their blood being kept by others.

Liu Chang chuckled as he put away the crystal bead and took out a white jade tablet: 'Little fairy, keep this safe; this will be your credential for later going to the Clear Void Heaven immortal abode.'

The white jade tablet is about three inches long and less than a finger thick, with warm, smooth jade quality. But that's nothing—there are plenty of good things in the immortal realm! The key is that the back of the tablet bears the three ancient, plain characters 'Clear Void Heaven', along with some special symbols through which spiritual light faintly flows.

And the front of the white jade tablet bears the two characters 'Gan Tian'.

Gan Tian has seen this before; Gan Cheng and Mi Taiyin each have one.

Before leaving, Liu Chang cautioned: 'The jade tablet has not yet been refined; new disciples cannot refine it themselves, only with the help of a reception disciple. However, little fairy, you have Jiang Jun and Fairy Mi, so you save me the trouble.'

The white jade tablet is equivalent to an 'identity card' used while cultivating in the immortal abode; many things are bound to it, and it certainly needs to be refined to be useful. However, refining it is impossible for those who have not yet stepped onto the path of immortality—only a receptionist can help.

But this carries risk, as it amounts to completely exposing oneself to the receptionist, even allowing them to control one's life and death. Reception disciples generally would not take this opportunity to harm new disciples, but one cannot be too careful—immortal-registered disciples usually have a senior family member help them refine the jade tablet, rather than relying on others.

The great immortal lady of the household helped Gan Tian refine the jade tablet; after refinement was complete, special symbols appeared around the front characters 'Gan Tian'. They were not carved, but hidden within the jade itself, as if naturally formed.

Gan Tian was like she had gotten a new toy, overjoyed, fiddling with the small jade tablet, raising her little hands: 'I'll have Xiao Bai tie a knot for me, so it's easier to carry!'

There is a small hole left on the white jade tablet, obviously reserved for this purpose.

Mi Taiyin looked at her own child, took out a pink-white knot from her sleeve; the knot itself is not overly complicated, but it also has fluffy thread balls, metal bells, and colorful stone strings... a whole lot of flashy trinkets. Clearly this is not Mi Taiyin's aesthetic, but made according to Gan Tian's preferences.

Gan Tian held it in her hand, face full of surprise, eyes sparkling: 'Is this for me? Is this for me?'

She isn't happy just because of this little thing; it's because the household's great immortal lady made it herself—if she hadn't made it herself, why would she specially take it out?

Gan Cheng remarked sourly on the side: 'Back then I never got a pouch or a knot...'

Mi Taiyin gave him a cold glance; he dared not speak further, instead saying encouragingly: 'Sweetie, come here, Dad will tie it on for you!'

The knot was tied onto the white jade tablet, and then fastened onto Gan Tian's collar.

Gan Tian extended her fingers to fiddle a few times with the pink-white knot; her fingertip brushed over the knot's woven outline, and she exclaimed 'Huh': 'It feels like spiritual energy is flowing inside the knot...'

Mi Taiyin seemed a little surprised that Gan Tian noticed so quickly, then nodded slightly: '... This is a special knot-tying method of the Great Wilderness; their shamans use 'knots' as writing.'

Below Kunlun are many academies, each occupying a mountain peak; the academy she belongs to has recently been organizing these knot-tying methods. Although the development level of Great Wilderness immortal arts seems extremely primitive and crude to them, the direction is different, so there is still much to learn from.

A stone from another mountain can be used to polish jade.

'Knot-tying records...' Gan Tian muttered, not finding it too puzzling. Knot-tying records have appeared in ancient times in many regions, but they usually record numbers-related matters; recording more complex affairs is rare.

Thus 'knot-tying records' are practically equal to 'knot-tying counting'.

But she knows that some peoples have played around with knot-tying, developing a set of knot script—so it's hard to say what path humanity will take in the long river of history; often the initial choice of path isn't the best, merely because they found this path at the time, and it happened to be sufficient.

As for later, this actually became a shackle on ethnic development—but that's a story for another time. At present, those who haven't even found such a path are eliminated in tribal competitions, with nothing thereafter.

The family of three sat neatly on the white jade steps; Gan Tian cupped her face and looked at the household's great immortal lady: 'Mother, this time you've come back—how long can you stay?'

Under Gan Cheng's gaze of suppressed anger, Mi Taiyin undid Gan Tian's overly simple double low ponytail, gently combing her hair with a small comb. As her fingers moved nimbly, she wove a simple, beautiful bun suitable for Gan Tian's age, finally taking a hairpin from her own bun to secure it.

'Wait until you go to Clear Void Heaven before I leave.' Mi Taiyin's voice unconsciously grew softer.

Gan Cheng immediately felt downcast again because of Mi Taiyin's words: 'It seems Sweetie was only that big yesterday, able to grab just one of Dad's fingers, and now she has to go to the immortal abode? Once she goes to the immortal abode, she can only return home once a year, and after leaving the immortal abode, Sweetie will also have to embark on her own cultivation path... then perhaps we won't even see each other once a year...'

Whenever he thinks of the future of empty-nest elders, Gan Cheng wants to hug his little fairy and cry 'waaa'.

"Jiang Jun, the Lord of the Han River requests an audience." The false sobbing was interrupted by a report from an assistant official.

Seeing her father instantly revert to that distant, imperceptible 'Lord Jiang', Gan Tian felt a bit moved: 'Dad is really impressive; he's completely different in public and private... how can he act so well?'

Mi Taiyin unnaturally turned her face: 'Your dad... he's accustomed to putting on airs.'

Um... it feels like there's a story behind it! However, Gan Tian quietly inquired about the background story, but the household's great immortal lady wouldn't utter a word; no matter how she pressed, it was useless.

Looking at her daughter, truly as bright and soft as a peach blossom, Mi Taiyin steadfastly refused to reveal the so-called 'story'—it isn't a pleasant tale; speaking it would bring destruction. If she could, she only hopes this child will never, ever know that story.

"Right, Mom! I still haven't received a gift for my birthday this year!" Having said that, Gan Tian looked at Mi Taiyin with bright, sparkling eyes.

"Who let you run out on your birthday?" Speaking thus, Mi Taiyin still raised her hand and took out a tiny crystal from her sleeve.

The crystal is shaped like a little house, unlike the current house—it has two floors, about seven or eight rooms, and is completely enclosed.

Inside the rooms there is everything, from the tiny teacup on the table to the small bed and cabinet—everything is complete.

"You don't want a 'crystal palace', do you?" Mi Taiyin poked Gan Tian's forehead with her finger: 'This is it—throw it into water and it becomes a crystal palace fit for habitation.'

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Thanks to the little angels who cast tyrant votes or poured nutrient solution for me during the period 2020-04-23 08:59:12 to 2020-04-24 02:45:09~

Thanks to the little angels who threw grenades: Mumu You 1;

Thanks to the little angels who poured nutrient solution: Qin Xin 10 bottles; Fenghuang Hua Youkai 1 bottle;

Thank you very much for everyone's support; I will continue to work hard!