Air as fresh as newly born water from gentle rain, that was what he felt when his surroundings began to resemble another place, they successfully got transported to the outside world.
Superficially, it didn't seem much different to Yang Wu's eyes, but he could feel the immense vitality flowing from the lush leaves and trees around him, he was in a mountainous forest. The trees were bigger than he ever imagined they could be, but they brought no sense of oppression to Yang Wu.
"Beautiful?" Yu Jing asked with a smile, his hand massaging his beard.
Yang Wu took a deep breath, enjoying the refreshing feeling of the air washing his lungs, it was pure bliss to him.
"This feeling will soon pass," Yu Jing saw through him and explained, "It's just your body adapting to a better environment, the Yuan Qi here is hundreds of times denser than that Secret Realm."
"Yuan Qi?" Yang Wu noticed another strange term.
"Just as we have our own bodily energy, this world has its own energy as well," Yu Jing patiently explained, "We cultivate and grow stronger by absorbing this energy, which we call Yuan Qi."
Yang Wu suddenly felt a great shock, as if thousands of thunderbolts hit his head, "You... I mean, is Master saying immortal cultivators use the energy of the world to increase their Realms? Can they actually sense such high-level energy!?"
"Well, not just it," Yu Jing shook his head, "We sometimes need specific insights and enlightenment to break through to the next Realm. But the Yuan Qi is indeed essential to everything in cultivation, and there were three known ways to sense it, according to my limited knowledge, I will explain more later."
He waved both of his hands towards the surroundings and explained further, "Look at those trees, they can't grow this large without the help of enough Yuan Qi, it is the foundation of all power."
'...I was terribly wrong,' Yang Wu contained his emotions, 'This 'immortal cultivation' is completely different from martial arts! What kind of path is it? And can I... really adventure into it?'
Yang Wu's old soul, for the first time in ages, began to tremble in profound, uncontrollable excitement, it was the feeling of being young again.
"Kekeke!" Yu Jing laughed after seeing Yang Wu's fiery eyes, "Don't worry, you will have plenty of time to uncover more about cultivation, let's first head back to the sect."
Yu Jing pointed with his finger and drew a circle in the air, which suddenly became a portal and expanded to allow the passage of a person, "That's just another formation, I'm yet to reach the level of power necessary to create a space portal."
Yang Wu contained the curiosity deep in his heart, he had never seen such wondrous methods before.
"Oh, that's right!" Yu Jing remembered something and took a white jade pendant from somewhere, "Put it somewhere close to your body, this will hide your soul fluctuations which are not in line with your current strength."
Yang Wu simply tied it to his waist and understood that his Martial Sage Soul was quite obvious to those with enough skill. He suddenly felt something strange covering his being as a cloak.
"Let's go!" Yu Jing controlled the flying spear and both of them entered the portal, it was as dark as the darkest thing, but just after traversing it, everything became colorful, as a mixture of numerous nebulas.
Just a couple of seconds later, their surroundings normalized, and Yang Wu saw himself inside an empty hall, full of markings on the ground and walls.
"This is the Transportation Hall of the Mountain Peak I currently hold the jurisdiction of, it is called Wonder Jade Peak," Yu Jing explained, "It's one of the seventeen Peaks of the Broad Sky Sect, and its specialty is Divination."
"Divination?" Yang Wu was surprised, "Can one really read the future?"
"More or less," Yu Jing smirked, "But not without a price.
"Let's first register you as a disciple of the sect," he took him to outside the building.
Yang Wu finally saw what the sect he was joining looked like, the buildings are not as tall as he imagined but all of them carried a mysterious aura full of vitality, numerous disciples walked or flew on weapons with multiple kinds of expressions, some sad, some nervous, some hurried.
Moreover, even though it was inside the sect, there were many trees everywhere, some buildings were actually built inside trees.
"Although it seems to be an ordinary mountain peak, we are at least hundreds of miles above sea level," Yu Jing suddenly said, "But the formation covering the whole mountain range alters the atmosphere inside, allowing people without enough cultivation to survive.
"Look there, do you see that higher mountain? That's the Main Peak, it's visible from any Peak, and it's where the Sect Master stays."
Yang Wu looked over and saw a mountain peak piercing much higher in the sky, but dense clouds were covering it, even though clouds weren't meant to exist so far from the earth.
"The other peaks weren't visible from here unless you have enough cultivation," Yu Jing laughed, "It's a strange feature the Sect Protecting Formation has."
"There are two formations covering this place?" Yang Wu asked, even though he didn't even know what a formation was.
"Yes, each peak has its own formation," Yu Jing explained, "And a bigger and stronger formation covers the whole sect.
"Let's go to the Registration Pavillion."
On their way, no one looked at them, as if they couldn't see them, Yang Wu thought that Yu Jing was hiding their presence for some reason.
The Registration Pavillion was rather small, it looked like an ordinary house.
"Normally, all disciples don't begin their journey in the sect here," Yu Jing explained, "They normally begin as outer disciples, and were registered in the Outer Sect, which is located in a valley.
"You are lucky to have caught my eye, understand?"
"Hehe," Yang Wu laughed but thought it was yet to be seen if he was truly lucky.
"Peak Master!" a middle-aged man in colored clothing greeted them after both entered the building, "What brings you to this humble place?" He looked curiously at Yang Wu.
"Is this some kind of rare Mystical Beast?" he asked.
Yang Wu twitched his eyebrows but said nothing.
"No! He is as human as us!" Yu Jing smirked, "Interesting, right?"
"Human?" the middle-aged man was dumbfounded, "With such strong bodily energy even though he has no cultivation?"
"He has a special constitution, isn't it obvious?" Yu Jing explained with insatisfaction, "I expected you to see through the truth with more ease."
"I'm sorry," the man bowed in apology, "I just didn't expect to see such a rare kind of physical constitution, are you going to register him as an Inner Disciple directly?"
"Why would I bring him here otherwise?" Yu Jing narrowed his eyes, emanating ominous aura for some reason.
The man began to sweat all over, "I'm sorry for being stupid!"
"Kekekekkeke!" Yu Jing began to laugh foolishly, "You guys are really easy to scare! Am I that kind of person?"
'Yes! You eccentric bastard!' the middle-aged man cursed in his heart, 'Your reputation scares others more than your own cultivation!'
"His name is Yang Wu!" Yu Jing patted the man's shoulder gently, "Just do your job and register him."
"Yes!" the man looked at Yang Wu, "My name is Xu Cai, I'm the elder in charge of this pavilion.
"Show me your hand."
Yang Wu showed his right hand with the palm open.
Xu Cai held his hand for a second and said, "It's done, I already registered you, take those things." He made a gesture and a ring appeared in Yang Wu's hand.
"A couple of disciple robes and Inner Disciple Token are inside."
"You idiot!" Yu Jing suddenly slapped Xu Cai's head, "Have you forgotten he has no cultivation?"
"Oh!" Xu Cai suddenly changed his expression and hurriedly tried to explain his mistake, "It's just rare for someone without cultivation to become an inner disciple, so I didn't pay enough attention to this detail."
"Stop making excuses," Yu Jing clicked his tongue, "Give him a 'Storage Bag' instead."
Xu Cai looked even more pained after hearing it, "But it's too valuable!" But he still took it after seeing the growing ominous aura surrounding Yu Jing.
'You bastard!' he cursed in his heart and gave a small bag to Yang Wu, taking the ring back.
"As you heard, it's called a Storage Bag, it also contains the same things as the ring, and a few pills as well, you can use it even without cultivation," Xu Cai patiently explained.
"It's normally given to an inner disciple with very high cultivation because it can attract the coveting of ill-intentioned people, it is a higher level treasure than an ordinary Storage Ring."
"..." Yang Wu was silent for a moment before asking, "How can there be so many things inside this little bag?"
Xu Cai stuttered for a moment and looked at Yu Jing, "Doesn't he know even such basic common sense?"
"Explain to him," Yu Jing ordered.
Xu Cai sighed and said, "Both Storage Rings and Storage Bags are artifacts with a sealed space inside them. Although they are small, they can contain thousands of cubic meters of volume and even more!"
"Like a Secret Realm?" Yang Wu understood.
"Not exactly, but you got the hang of it," Xu Cai nodded, "Storage Rings need someone with cultivation to use them and normally contain small spaces, but Storage Bags not only don't need cultivation but can contain much bigger volumes, they are very expensive so be careful!"
"How can I take and see what's inside?" Yang Wu asked and looked curiously at the storage bag in his right hand, it had the same size as a duck egg.
"Since it's a storage bag, you only need to will it," Xu Cai explained, "When you start your cultivation, you will be able to place restrictions so only you can use it."
Yang Wu concentrated on the bag and suddenly found an extra vision inside his mind, it was the inner space of the bag, there were robes, pills, and a token inside.
He willed it and a golden token appeared in his left hand, it was the Inner Disciple Token.
"Oh!" Xu Cai suddenly seemed to panic and quickly took the token from Yang Wu's hand and gave it back in the same second.
Yang Wu twitched the corners of his mouth and looked at the coldly sweating Xu Cai and the gloomy Yu Jing.
Yang Wu wisely decided to not ask what it was about and asked, "How can I prove this token is truly mine?"
"A good question!" Xu Cai coughed, ignoring the sharp glances from Yu Jing, "I already took a bit of your Aura and injected it into the token. When someone with cultivation examines it, he/she can see it has your aura."
"Oh..." Yang Wu twitched his eyebrows but didn't continue the topic, "Is this all I need to do here?"
"Well, for now!" Xu Cai nodded, "If you manage to get promoted in the future, you should come here!"
Yang Wu was about to say something but Yu Jing was faster to say, "I'm taking him as my personal disciple."
Xu Cai blinked his eyes a few times and asked, "Did I hear it right?"
Yu Jing gave two short laughs.
Xu Cai slapped his mouth and hurriedly said, "Of course, of course! I will register him as your personal disciple!"
Xu Cai took a deep look at Yang Wu and wrote something in the air with a golden pen he took from his storage bag, it was the word 'Lineage.'
The word floated for a while before dividing into two smaller 'lineage' words. One of them merged with Yang Wu, and the other shone bright and disappeared as if merging with the world.
"The Main Stele should have received it, but I need a bit of his blood essence, can I?" Xu Cai asked with caution.
"Hurry!" Yu Jing shouted, scaring him shitless.
"Excuse me, little friend," Xu Cai politely held Yang Wu's hand again, with a polite expression and voice, "I need to draw some of your blood essence, it will hurt just a little!"
Yang Wu nodded, he wasn't a fool to refuse it at that moment. He quickly felt a tiny bit of his blood essence gathering in his hand and a tiny wound opening there to allow it to exit.
Xu Cai handled the blood essence by making it float above his palm, he held the golden pen and used the blood essence as the ink to draw the same word as before, but also two more words, 'Yang' and 'Wu', they quickly disappeared as well.
"The Main Stele accepted the register, he is officially your first Lineage Disciple, congratulations!" Xu Cai bowed deeply to Yu Jing.
"What are you doing?" Yu Jing asked Yang Wu with meaningful eyes.
Yang Wu sighed in his heart but still kneeled on the ground and bowed until his forehead touched the ground, "Yang Wu greets his Master, thank you for accepting me as your disciple!"
"Hehehe!" Yu Jing laughed foolishly for a while before making both of them to get up and stop bowing to him, "Don't rush to tell anyone I accepted a disciple, little Cai."
"I won't dare!" Xu Cai shook his head with all his might, "But the Sect Master should be aware of it since he is the guardian of the Main Stele."
"That's fine!" Yu Jing waved his hand, "I will bring little Wu to my Cave Paradise, he will be living with me from now on!"
'So protective?' Xu Cai wondered in his heart but didn't show anything in his face.
"Be careful on your way!" Xu Cai smiled and sent them off, as if in a hurry.
"Bah!" Yu Jing sneered, "This Peak is under my feet, why should I be careful?"
"Now that you have been accepted as a Lineage Disciple, some things will be more convenient!" Yu Jing said and grabbed Yang Wu's shoulder, "You can use the formation's power to transport yourself anywhere except forbidden grounds, but only when you gain some cultivation."
The space around them began to distort and both of them were transported to a place resembling a cave, but it was well-decorated and full of good aroma.
"Now, now, are you anxious to start cultivation?" Yu Jing laughed, "But first let me show you everything. This is my Cave Paradise, the place where I live daily, and is the best place for cultivation in the whole peak!"
Yang Wu was marveled by the beauty of the cave, although it wasn't too big, it had wondrous decorations and even small ponds and streams with fish and plants.
"I have no maids, so you should be careful to not let this place mess up, understood?" Yu Jing said while showing him everything, "This will be your room, it is small, but comfortable and full of Yuan Qi, it has a sound-proofing and defensive formation, and is as good as my room!"
"Thank you, master," Yang Wu had a complex expression, "Can I take some time to arrange my thoughts?"
"You should!" Yu Jing agreed, "Your mind needs to be calm before you cultivate, otherwise you might die!"
Yang Wu entered his room and closed the door, he took a deep breath and looked around. The room had no bed but had a cushion in its center, it also had a short table so one had to sit on the ground, and a few decorations. It was simple, so simple Yang Wu was surprised.
'Is this the style of cultivators?' he asked himself, 'Or is it just Yu Jing?
'Moreover, am I really going to accept him as my master? But do I have a choice anyway?'
He sat on the cushion and began to control his breathing, entering a session of meditation. After sorting his thoughts for a while, he began to notice his Qi Blood was a bit unsettled.
After a few rounds of Qi Blood circulation, Yang Wu noticed his practice was much faster than before. His Qi Blood seemed to have taken drugs as it grew much faster than before, although it was still slow.
"...So that's how it is!" Yang Wu suddenly understood many things, "It was Yuan Qi all along, the reason my practice was smoother than I expected back then."
He calculated he would at most need a year to advance to the Martial Zealot Realm with his current progress rate, when before at the Secret Realm he needed decades.
"...Yuan Qi, what is it? And why am I in a world with it?" he suddenly got many more questions than before, but he sighed and laid down on the hard ground, quickly falling into a deep sleep.