"Senior," Yujin made the right ritual proper to a disciple accepting a master, kotowing to her, "No, Master! Disciple Yujin greets Master!"
"My name is Li Ming, but I was titled Zhen Ren Ming by the sect after I bloomed my nascent soul, I am the one in charge of this sect's branch," the woman smiled and began to introduce herself properly.
"Master Li Ming, accept this ritual of obeisance," Yujin kotowed more two times and stopped.
"Since you have no surname, I will give you one," Li Ming approached him and put her hand on his head, "From this day onwards, your full name will be Ao Yujin, with Ao meaning prideful...
"What is the meaning of your name? Yujin can mean different things."
Yujin was surprised by the turn of events but still answered, "My brother once liked a river close to the village very much, the name of the river was Yujin, meaning Lustrous River.
"My parents... My brother decided to give me this name, the reason I don't know."
"Lustrous River?" Li Ming pondered with a smile, she put her hand on her chin and said, "The name rests fine with the surname, Prideful (Ao) Lustrous River (Yujin)."
"Thanks for giving me a surname, master," Yujin didn't kotow again, since he already did it three times, the normal limit of a disciple's obseisance in a single day, but still bowed to her.
At the same time, Yujin felt it was strange. Although he was forced to accept her as his master to avoid a possible bad fate, they just met after all, and she was already giving him a surname.
"Our sect is an orthodox line, and we give great importance to titles and names," Li Ming said as if she knew what he was thinking, "A person without a surname is considered an outcast in some places, and we would rather avoid awkward situations by simply giving surnames to those who lack them.
"Of course, we would only care enough to give a surname if it is an inner disciple or someone of equal or higher status. If an outer disciple doesn't have a surname, that's just his problem until he gets promoted."
"I understand," Yujin nodded and was silent.
After a short awkward silence between them, Li Ming broke the ice, "Since you are my disciple, I will give you a better place to live."
She flicked her fingers and Yujin felt his surroundings change in a blink, he was transported to another place.
"This is a cave abode close to my own, it has an independent spiritual qi gathering formation and is quite luxurious, don't waste it," Li Ming said with a grin.
"...Master, can I ask you something?" Yujin said after a short sigh, "Please pardon if it turns out to be a rude question."
"Say," Li Ming looked at him with a playful expression.
"I am not particularly talented, so why did you choose me as your disciple?"
"Just because I felt you have an interesting fate," Li Ming said nonchalantly, "I have a rather acute sense for this kind of thing."
Yujin sighed in his heart and knew it was pointless to ask her to elaborate.
"You are practicing the small abyss formation technique, right?" Li Ming changed the topic, "It's a good technique and was tailor-made to be compatible with anyone regardless of their spirit root.
"However, it's unavoidable to choose a cultivation technique with elemental characteristics after reaching the late stage of the Qi Refining Realm.
"Have you ever thought about your future path?"
Yujim nodded and said, "I planned to choose a lightning cultivation technique since it is the most powerful element of the seven elements in my spirit root."
"You are not wrong to think like that, but you need to be more ambitious now that you have a big shot like me backing you up," Li Ming chuckled softly and shook her head, "It would be a waste of your... rare spirit root to only chose a single element."
"Does the master have a cultivation technique that encompasses all the seven elements?" Yujin's eyes shone.
"You have a strangely quick brain," Li Ming was surprised but shook her head, "No, but I have a cultivation technique that encompasses the basic five elements."
Yujin wasn't dissatisfied, since it was already very good in his opinion.
"Although the more elements one cultivates, the slower the cultivation speed... I believe your so-called fortuitous encounter will give you enough fate to surpass this difficulty, right?"
Yujin was embarrassed and smiled awkwardly.
"Moreover, because you not only have all the five basic elements but also two branch elements on your spirit root, you will eventually be able to evolve this cultivation technique to encompass both wind and lightning as well.
"After all, both wind and lighting were bred from the five most basic elements."
Li Ming took a book from her storage space and gave it to Yujin, "It's not a valuable cultivation technique, and is considered rather useless to those who lack enough resources... But I believe you will be able to use it properly."
"Thank you, master," Yujin bowed to her respectfully, but only he knew his true emotions.
"Oh, I almost forgot," Li Ming suddenly realized something and took a multi-colored root from her storage space, "Take this thing and refine it carefully, it will make you advance at least another layer in no time."
Yujin was shocked and could sense seven familiar elements in that small root, "What is this?"
"It's normally an ingredient used in the refinement of a powerful kind of pill, but it's useless for me," Li Ming explained nonchalantly, "It is called harmonious sky root, it contains seven elements and is quite rare."
"Thank you, master!" Yujin bowed again, showing sincerity. But again, only he knew his true feelings.
Li Ming smiled and gave him a space ring, "There were a few things inside it, make good use!"
Yujin didn't say much and quickly put the ring on his finger.
"After you refine the root, come find me," she said and disappeared, but her words still sounded in his ears, "Right, forget about menial tasks and just focus on cultivation, you aren't a registered disciple anymore, but a personal disciple of a Real Person!"
Yujin was silent for a while and finally sighed with a tired look. He massaged his temples and sat helplessly on the ground.
'What is she trying? Why is she being so good? I don't believe it was just because she found me interesting.'
Yujin shook his head and began to explore his new cave abode. He also wore the new robe he received along with the space ring, they were very similar to the robe Long Xue wore after becoming a disciple of Long Meng. After a few hours, he left the cave abode and found himself at the top of the main peak, he could see the whole sect's branch from up there.
He hung a token he received from his master on his waist, which clarified his identity and began to descend the peak.
Many people noticed him and soon the whole sect would know that Li Ming accepted him as her disciple.
Yujin ignored the many whispers around him and walked towards the living place of Long Xue, her cave abode.
Before he was able to call for her, he sensed something and heard a sobbing sound coming from inside the cave abode, it could only mean that the formation isolating it was opened.
Before Yujin entered to see what happened, he heard a few more voices coming from inside and was shocked by what he heard.
A few minutes later, he sighed and smiled at the sky, he was glad that Long Xue wouldn't need to be an orphan like him.
He shook his head and left, he didn't want to interrupt the reunion between parents and daughter.
After taking a few steps, however, he saw Long Meng appearing suddenly beside him.
"Happy?" she asked.
"Certainly," Yujing grinned, "I didn't expect her parents would survive, though."
"I'm also surprised, but it's certainly a joyous happening," Long Meng smiled brightly, "I'm glad you didn't interrupt their reunion, although I believe Long Xue wouldn't have cared."
"I got a master," Yujin suddenly revealed.
"The token on your waist is the dream of many disciples, of course, I would recognize it," Long Meng giggled, "Congratulations."
"You don't sound surprised," Yujin's eyebrow twitched.
"You are right, but I have nothing else to say," Ling Meng chuckled again and tapped his head, "I always knew your fate was unordinary."
Long Meng then disappeared as if having nothing else to say.
Yujin shook his head helplessly and returned to his cave abode while ignoring the many strange glances he was receiving.
He then took a warm bath and wore the new clothes he received along the space ring, it was a plain grey martial robe with long sleeves and no adorns, a pair of black shoes with no apparent special characteristics, and a jade pendant.
Although the set of clothing seemed ordinary, everything was a treasure. The robe was capable of protecting him from the blows of someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm, the shoes could tremendously boost his speed for a short period, and the jade pendant gave him resistance to both poison and mental attacks.
He first meditated using the heart sutra for a few hours and then prepared to refine the harmonious sky root. He urged the formation covering his cave abode to close and protect him from intrusions and interruptions, he gained control over it by using the token he received from Li Ming.
Although it was small, it was still too big to be simply swallowed, so Yujin held it with his hands and began to refine it with his true qi.
Perhaps because they shared the same seven elements, his true qi was quick to refine it. After a few minutes, the root was melted into a medicinal vapor by it and arrested to his Dantian through his meridians.
Yujin didn't use the Furnace and simply used his spirit root and cultivation technique to refine the medicinal vapor into pure energy.
It took him three full days and nights to finally refine it thoroughly, a large amount of pure energy was being constantly absorbed by spirit root and transformed into true qi.
In instants, his bottleneck shattered and his spirit root entered a frenzy again, quickly absorbing all the pure energy available and transforming it into true qi.
It was much faster than refining spiritual qi, so Yujin only took another day to finish his breakthrough and stabilize his Realm. But it took his body a few days to adapt and get strengthened by the stronger true qi.
Yujin slowly opened his eyes and sensed his increased physical power. It was just about a 15% increase overall, but it could be decisive in a fight.
He didn't use the Furnace to refine his cultivation, since he believed he was being monitored, but began to try and adapt to his new power level.
After a few days, not only he mastered his strength but his heart sutra also reached the level of comprehensive mastery as well.
The heart sutra was a very difficult secret technique, so it confirmed Yujin's perception that his comprehension capacity was somehow increasing.
Nevertheless, he was happy with it and decided to switch his practice for a while.
He already thoroughly mastered the sound transmission technique he received from the sect, it was a very easy technique. He was going to focus on a technique he received from Li Ming.
It was a long-distance attack technique, something he urgently lacked, it was named "Sharp Water Blades."
It condensed the water vapor in the air to form water blades that attacked the enemy from afar. It was a simple technique befitting the Qi Refining Realm.
"Have you already forgotten what I told you," Li Ming's voice interrupted his practice with a sound transmission, "You already refined the root, come to my place."
"I'm sorry, I was just too anxious," Yujin said and stopped his practice, "My last fights made me realize I was lacking methods, so I was hurried to fix it."
"Being hurried won't solve it, just come here, I have something to show you," Li Ming snorted and commanded.