It was Li Jian and a beautiful girl in her late teens who greeted Wei Ren when Emperor Yan dropped him off at the Serpent Valley Sect.
The girl was named Mei Rong. She was also a disciple of Grand Healer Lu Sheng.
"Junior brother Li need not worry about anything. Master is very kind and gentle with everyone." She said to Wei Ren.
He had decided to use the name Feng Li which he had used previously while buying white grass pills.
Li Jian silently listened to their chatter. Mei Rong was a very talkative girl. Her appearance suggested that she was a shy girl but once she opened her mouth, it all became clear.
This was the first time Wei Ren had talked to a girl for so long. Usually, the tent formation would interrupt his conversation with a girl. But he didn't feel jittery while talking with Mei Rong.
She explained to him a few things about the sect. There were some rules and some common knowledge about the sect.
First was that age didn't matter in the sect. All that matters is cultivation. As long as someone has a higher cultivation base than you, you have to pay respect to that person.
For example, the current Sect master is younger than Grand Healer Lu Sheng but he still has higher status than Lu Sheng.
Another thing she told Wei Ren was that there are four types of disciples. Outer disciples, inner disciples, core disciples and Valley disciples.
Outer disciples have the lowest rank, and Valley disciples have the highest rank. Some say that Valley disciples have the same rank as the sect elders. There are only five Valley disciples in the whole sect. They are the most treasured disciples.
Inner and core disciples are several hundred in number and there are almost two thousand outer disciples. A sect as large as Serpent Valley Sect can only be managed with the help of so many disciples. Even though these outer sect disciples have the lowest status, they still do their job very well.
Wei Ren has a special rank. He is an honorary inner disciple. Emperor Yan made sure that his son wouldn't have to do common chores, so that he could fully focus on his cultivation.
"Are we going to see master?" Wei Ren asked.
Grand Healer Lu Sheng agreed to take him as his disciple. Even though he was a little skeptical while making this decision. Li Jian assured him about Wei Ren's talent and told him all about the Celestial Star Essence test.
"No. Master has gone away. He went searching for some medicinal plants. He does that a lot. But I am sure he will be back in a few days." Mei Rong answered.
This was the reason Li Jian brought her with him. He didn't like to speak too much. So he deliberately brought a talking parrot for his use.
"We are taking you to our Green Python Peak. All of master's disciples share this mountain peak. We have opened an immortal cave just for Junior brother Li." Mei Rong spoke in her sweet voice.
"How many disciples does master have?" Wei Ren asked politely.
"Including you, Junior brother Li, there are now twelve. But we don't see them so often. Three of them have already left the sect to gain experience in the outer world. Rest stay in their immortal caves and practice their alchemy skills."
"So all of master's disciples are alchemists?" Wei Ren enquired.
"No. Third Elder brother, Fifth Elder sister and Ninth Junior brother are only Healers. They focus on anatomy, healing potions and other stuff." She said with her finger on her lips.
The way she pouted was truly enticing.
Wei Ren gulped down his saliva and tried not to focus on her actions.
After walking for a few minutes they reached a thick forest. This forest was at the base of the mountains where the disciples lived. It was like a huge snake that circled around the peaks. One of the peaks of this huge man made mountain range is called Green Python Peak.
"So all eleven of master's disciples live here." He looked up. Mountains were so tall that the peaks stabbed into the clouds.
"Are we going to climb them?" Wei Ren asked. He couldn't fly yet. His body didn't even have that much qi. So even climbing a mountain would be very difficult for him.
"Why would we do that? We are not mortals. Junior brother Li can just fly with me to the top." Mei Rong pulled a flying sword out of her void ring and climbed on it.
Standing so close to a female could be disastrous for Wei Ren. But before he could say something, Mei Rong pulled him by the arm and made him stand behind her.
Wei Ren's face turned red in an instant. Li Jian noticed what was happening. He wryly smiled at him and climbed on his own sword and flew into the air. He didn't want to deal with anything like this. He was familiar with Mei Rong. This girl truly lacked the knowledge about boundaries between men and women.
But this was not all. She grabbed Wei Ren's arms and wrapped them around her thin waist. His chest was basically pressed into her back and his head in her fragrant hair. Perfume on her neck entered his eyes and nose.
"Oh no, the tent is going to form." He wanted to reach with his hand and stop the tent formation but he was too late.
Mei Rong channelled qi into her sword and launched into the sky. If he were to loosen his grip on her waist, he would surely fall.
It took them about two minutes to reach the Green Python Peak. It was a beautiful mountain peak. There was a huge garden of medical plants on the mountain. Several doors to immortal caves could also be seen.
Mei Rong slowed the speed of her sword and gently landed on the mountain.
Wei Ren jumped off the sword and covered his crotch with his long sleeves.
Mei Rong collected her sword and turned to look at Wei Ren's face.
"Junior brother Li, can I ask you something?" Mei Rong said with an honest face.
"I am dead. She is going to kill me. She is an immortal cultivator. I'm going to die….ahhhhh" He screamed in his heart.
"Why are you carrying a knife? Why don't you store it inside your void ring?"
"What knife?" Wei Ren asked with a blank face.
"The one that kept poking me in the back while we were flying." She said with a finger on her pink lips.
Silence.
Wei Ren stared at her. His face had lost all its colour.
"Junior brother Li, are you okay?" Mei Rong grabbed his shoulder with her soft hand and asked with a worried face.
Even his long sleeves couldn't cover the tent formation anymore. This was a breakthrough for him. His first achievement at the Serpent Valley Sect was that his tent formation became bigger.
"Elder sister Rong. Please take me to my cave. I just need a rest and I will be okay." He bowed and prevented her eyes from falling on his 'breakthrough'.
"Uhh...okay. just follow me." She didn't say anything and innocently believed him.
He followed her up the mountain path with his back bent over. If someone saw him walking like this they would think his back is hunched.
At the back of the mountain peak, behind some green bushes was a newly opened cave. It looked like someone had used a giant spoon to scoop a part of the mountain. It was not very deep. About a few meters in length and diameter.
"This is the cave we made for you, Junior brother Li." She smiled and looked at the amateurly made cave. Judging from her proud face it looked like she was the one who opened this cave in the mountain.
Wei Ren's tent had fallen by now. He looked at the cave. He stepped inside and looked at the dark cave.
"Do all immortal cultivators live like this?" He would have preferred a small house. This way of living was too primitive.
"Junior brother Li, you just have to bind the cave gate and you will be able to close the entrance. If you want to, you can also set up the inbuilt sound sealing formation. There are fire crystals in the ceiling for lighting the cave during the night." She explained to him the features of the cave.
He immediately bound the cave gate, which was just a large rock. With just a single thought of his mind it moved and closed the entrance. This was easier than he thought. A hidden formation controlled this giant rock. Otherwise moving a rock as big as this one would have used up all his qi.
"Elder sister Rong, please excuse me. I will feel better after taking a rest. I will find you tomorrow." He wanted to scream in pillow. So he came up with a way to send her off.
"Oh. Don't worry about anything. Take a rest. I will come find you tomorrow. I still have to teach you some things about the sect and the customs we follow here." She smiled with kindness and left.
Wei Ren watched her leave. Only after she was out of his sight did he enter the cave. He closed the entrance. The fire crystals lighted up on their own and light spread into every corner of the cave.
Thap!
Wei Ren slapped himself hard and almost hit his head on the wall. Today's event was a very close call. He felt like crying with embarrassment.
"The first medicine I create will cure this problem." He swore an oath.
Normally men take aphrodisiacs to enhance their capabilities but this boy wanted the opposite effect. Some men would vomit blood if they were to listen to his thoughts.
He looked around. The cave was much cleaner and spacious than he previously thought. There was even a stone bed and a small table.
He sat on the stone bed and calmed his mind.
His mother had given him the Arcane Climate Art. The cultivation technique of this technique was useless for him. The only thing he could use were the magical spells recorded in it. But his cultivation was too low right now. The first spell required at least the second stage of Qi Streams. In terms of Earth law, he had to reach the third stage before he could even think of casting the first spell.
"I can do nothing about the Arcane Climate Art right now. I should just focus on Starmist Law and master the first stage of Earth Law." He made up his mind and started with the breathing exercises of Earth Law.
"Earth Law has ten stages. At each stage I have to make ten new meridians. Even though these are minor meridians, final stages are not so simple. I have made only two meridians right now. So I haven't even finished the first stage."
He waved his hand and a pill bottle appeared in his hand. This bottle contained the White Grass Pills. So far, he has only used five out of the two hundred pills he bought. He used two pills to make the two meridians and three to replenish his qi before coming to the Serpent Valley Sect. It turns out he used up qi too fast. Even pulling things out of the void ring cost him too much qi. The only way to counter this problem was to create more meridians. Then he would be able to store even more qi and even purify the qi he absorbed from the atmosphere.
He opened the pill bottle and two White Grass Pills dropped in his hand.
"I have one hundred and ninety five pills left. I wonder how many meridians I can make with these many pills."
He popped one of the pills into his mouth. It melted into a liquid and then turned into pure qi. Earth Law guided the qi into his qi cloud. Under his father's guidance he had turned his loose qi cloud into a compact sphere of elemental qi. This way, the scary aura he excluded also vanished. Starmist Law had some secrets he still wasn't familiar with. It would be wise to call his qi cloud, a qi sphere now.
New elemental qi was welcomed by his meridians. His navel qi meridian turned bright and churned like a happy snake.
"Next step is to make an arm meridian. This is going to be just as difficult as the navel qi meridian."
This was true. His navel qi meridian was the first meridian he made. So the difficulty of successfully making it was very high. But the arm meridian he was going to make now was equally hard. Because it is a very long meridian. It would connect his qi sphere to his left arm. Then there would be a right arm meridian and so on.
Starmist Law was a heaven defying cultivation technique but it was still hard to practice.
A part of the qi cloud turned into a long thread. Wei Ren guided the meridian and moved it towards his left shoulder. Just before it reached his shoulder, the meridian collapsed and turned into smoke.
Wei Ren didn't let this qi to go to waste. He pulled it back into the qi sphere.
After eight more tries he finally succeeded. But he ended up using seven White Grass Pills. He used the same strategy he had used while making his navel qi meridian.
A shiny silver meridian shined in his left arm. It went all the way from his palm to his qi sphere.
Happiness shined on his face. Every little success was one step closer to becoming stronger. He couldn't wait to see the look on Wei Yu's face when he would see Wei Ren's cultivation base.
"Too bad I can't continue to just cultivate in peace. I have to learn alchemy and meet with so many people. Especially her."
Mei Rong's beautiful and innocent face appeared in his mind. His heart started to palpitate.
"Is this love?" He asked himself.