But fortunately, Ranran is not the only novice disciple in Lingxi Palace.
Although XiShan's Lingxi Palace had not accepted disciples for a long time, with the reputation of the immortal physician Su Yishui, it was very easy to gather disciples.
The rowdy applicants created quite the bustling occasion, but in the end, only three disciples were accepted.
Among them, the two young men were older than Ranran. The senior brother was named Gao Cang, said to have a background in martial arts. Tall and upright, he is a young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes.
The second senior brother, surnamed Bai, was called Bai Baishan. Although he was thin, he exuded an air of scholarly elegance.
In addition to the two senior brothers, Ranran also gained a third senior sister named Qiu Xier, who, like Ranran, was an incurable sickly child. Her family couldn't afford the medical expenses and she was originally left to die, but was taken in by Shifu for treatment.
It was said that Qiu Xier suffered from chronic chest pain, but she was fair, plump and cute.
Ranran originally had doubts why Master Su would take in a sickly child like her. Now it seems that Shifu has an unusual hobby of collecting sickly children, probably to improve his medical skills?
The three of them were ranked by age, not by the order in which they arrived at the mountain. However, they were a bit puzzled about how to address Yu Chen and Yu Tong.
Su Yishui said, "They are also cultivating together with me, so they are considered as your elders, you will refer to them as Great Uncle Masters."
The Yu siblings insisted that that was out of the question. Even if they became immortals one day, they would still be serving Su Yishui. How could they disrupt the hierarchy and call their Master as their brother?
After some debate, Su Yishui, becoming somewhat tired of these worldly matters, waved his sleeve and went to meditate at the top of the mountain.
After discussing among themselves, the younger disciples decided to call Yu Chen and Yu Tong "Great Uncle Master" and "Second Uncle Master"; the Yu siblings will still call Su Yishui "Master."
They chose a day and the four young disciples knelt down together to offer tea and performed the ceremony of acknowledging the portrait of the Founding Master of Lingxi Palace.
Although Lingxi Palace had changed hands, the portrait of the former Grand Master had not been removed.
During the ceremony, Ranran sneaked a peek at the portrait of the demonic Grand Master hanging high in the hall. It was actually of a woman with beauty that exudes a bright aura. She was dressed in fiery red, riding a white tiger, with her jade feet raised high, an embroidered shoe hanging off her foot, and holding a large wine gourd. Her entire demeanor seemed frivolous and licentious.
How did such a female drunkard produce a disciple like Su Yishui, who is so strict and disciplined?
Xue Ranran privately thinks that her Shifu, Su Yishui, is pure of heart with no earthly desires, that he seems more like a monk in meditation. He does not seem to fit in with the old rules and style of Lingxi Palace.
Having produced such an unsatisfactory disciple and the Founding Master falling early to demonic ways, it's no wonder that the Lingxi Palace has been on the decline year by year,
The three senior brothers and sister are all new to the Sect. Although Xue Ranran is the youngest, she has arrived a few days earlier than them, so she confidently led them to familiarize themselves with every corner of Lingxi Palace. She also introduced the ridiculous old rules on the walls, warning her senior brothers and sister to take heed and not to follow them at all.
The third senior sister, Qiu Xier, looked at the old rules with a face full of regret and muttered, "Alas, I wasn't here for the good times…"
The second senior brother, Bai Baishan, is quite learned. He has family members who have practiced Taoism and is familiar with the past stories of Xishan. At this time, he vividly told his junior brothers and sisters about the history of their Sect.
It is said that the female demon possessed great power but was insatiable in her desires, and fantasized about dominating the Three Realms. She opened the gateway of the Demon Realm to usher in the Demon Lord to destroy the world.
This act was condemned by the righteous path, and the battle at Xishan at the time sent shockwaves throughout the world. The three major sects, together with many righteous fighters, exerted all their power to finally subdue the female demon.
Nowadays, Lingxi Palace is only a name from the past. Its already changed fundamentally, returning to the righteous path.
Qiu Xier sighed after hearing this, "It's already been twenty years. Mu Qingge was also our Grandmaster. Even if she commit wrongs, we should not disrespect her in our words."
The reticent eldest senior brother, Gao Cang, also nodded, "My mother said that we should not criticize our elders recklessly. We are here to learn skills, no matter what path of righteousness or demonic, we are on whatever path our Shifu is on."
Xue Ranran also nodded quickly in agreement, although she, like Qiu Xier, felt that the old rules were better.
But when Ranran had accompanied the Second Uncle Master, Yu Tong, down the mountain to buy groceries a few days ago, she saw her haggling with the vegetable vendor for a difference of three cents for a long time.
From this, she could tell that the Sect rules have been set.
The first rule of Lingxi Palace today is: Be frugal whenever you can.
For this reason, she dared not eat too much at the dining table, fearing that she would be kicked out for being too wasteful. At the same time, for the sake of her own sensitive taste buds, she volunteered to take on the task of cooking three meals a day.
Yu Tong originally didn't like these kitchen chores. In the past, she would just eat some coarse cakes with wild fruits to stave off hunger.
After all, to get rid of the mortal flesh, how could she indulge her appetite?
Since Ranran likes to cook, let her make what she loves to eat. In a few years, the children will probably start practicing fasting and cultivating.
As for food, make what you love to eat while you can!
After the new disciples entered the sect, they naturally had to choose the direction of their cultivation.
Generally speaking, whether on the path of immortality or demonic cultivation, there is no difference when they start out as beginners, it all depends on the eventual path of cultivation.
Most people practice the inner cultivation path of building foundation, forming the golden core, nurturing the Nascent Soul and ascending through tribulations, but this requires innate physique and serendipity.
If you have a natural talent and extraordinary physique, like Su Yishui, the cultivation progress can be rapid and ascension will not be far off.
But if you have an ordinary mortal physique like Yu Chen, forcibly cultivating will only extend your lifespan for a while, but in the end, you can't escape the cycle of life, old age, sickness, and death.
Therefore, a small number of people take a different path, practicing refining and taking pills, refining immortal pills to help themselves ascend to immortality.
This path is not dependent on physique, but the failure rate is very high. The cultivators often toil until they are old and white-haired, just barely entering the beginner stage. There are also examples like Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who practiced until death without seeing any results.
The last is the crooked path similar to demonic path. For example, supplementing one's spiritual form with the spiritual form of others, relying on absorbing the foundation building and golden core of others to supplement one's own cultivation. The so-called yin-yang replenishment in the folk is mostly this kind.
However, there are also righteous people who practice this third method, capturing demonic cultivators who cause harm to the world, absorbing their spiritual power to enhance their own cultivation, which can be considered a righteous method.
Su Yishui adopted a laissez-faire approach to the four newly accepted disciples, letting them decide what they want to learn.
Among them, the two male disciples quickly identified the path of cultivating Qi and building foundation, as their talents are relatively good, this path is also easier for them.
The third senior sister, Qiu Xier, has a slightly worse physique, but she is also considered to have potential.
Only Xue Ranran is incompatible with the path of immortality, with an inner emptiness so vast that it echoes. Even Yu Tong was surprised to note that there are even worse physiques than her brother for cultivating immortality.
Yu Tong was very disappointed because of this – after all, Ranran was born from the spiritual fruit, but her physique is even worse than that of her previous life's Mu Ranwu. It seems that she will continue to be mediocre in this life. Since she had been pushed off the tree early, this deficiency is permanent and can't be rectified.
After some research, the two young girls Ranran and Xier, decided to take the path of refining and taking pills.
At the very least, Xue Ranran felt that it was quite cozy to be fanning the hot cauldron while refining pills and can even doze off a little. It's much better than meditating and fasting or fighting and killing.
Since they decided to take the path of pill refining, they had to claim their cauldron. Qiu Xier received a brand new copper cauldron with a three-clawed golden lid with a copper turtle on top, which was very imposing.
As for Xue Ranran, it seemed that Shifu had ran out of money, so she was only given a black metal cauldon from long ago.
Ranran suspected that this cauldron had been damaged by fire before, as there was obvious repair marks on the bottom.
As for their Shifu's partiality, Qiu Xier felt quite embarrassed and offered to exchange with Ranran. However, Ranran felt that it didn't matter if it was old or new. After all, she had already been determined to be useless, and it was not good to hold onto a new cauldron and not put it to proper use.
When it came to test their cauldrons, the two of them refined the entry-level Qingxin ( Mind Cleansing ) Pill.
This type of pill is very effective in removing the irritability generated during meditation. The formula is simple, one just needs to match the medical ingredients according to the prescription and control the fire.
After three days and three nights, Qiu Xi er refined two shiny pills.
Xue Ranran also put in a lot of effort. She stared at the cauldron fire for three nights with wide eyes, until her eyes were red. When dawn came, it was finally time to open the cauldron and take out the pills.
However, when opening her cauldron, Qiu Xier took a sniff and asked with a surprised tone, "What a nice fragrance, how come it smells different from mine?"
Xue Ranran affectionately looked at the two pills she refined for the first time and eagerly said, "Our pills are just right for our two senior brothers to take to help them relieve the fatigue of meditation."
The path of cultivating Qi and building foundation is a tough one, and the two senior brothers have been meditating in the Grass hall for three days with Great Uncle Master Yu Chen, so they could really use these pills.
Qiu Xier, taking advantage of her longer legs, ran to the refined second senior brother first and handed her pill to him solicitously.
Bai Baishan thanked the third senior sister, took the pill and swallowed it with water.
Ranran, who arrived later, handed one of the pills from her medicine box to their senior brother Gao Cang.
Unlike the second senior brother who swallowed the pill in one gulp, Gao Cang chewed the pill for a long time, seemingly reluctant to swallow it. Xue Ranran asked a little impatiently, "How is it? What do you feel?"
Gao Cang finally swallowed it reluctantly and said, "It has a seasoned taste… somewhat like soup-filled meat buns…"
Xue Ranran's little face fell slightly – the Qingxin Pill should have a calming effect when taken, aiding in fasting. Why did the senior brother find it appetizing?
Could it be… because she was hungry while fanning the fire and had juicy meat buns on her mind, that caused the change in the taste of the pills?
At dinner time, the second senior brother who just came back from meditating in the Grass hall only drank a bowl of thin porridge to settle his stomach.
But the eldest senior brother, like a hungry tiger, ate up all the dishes on the table and still shouted that he was hungry. Later on, he even sneaked up in the middle of the night and started gnawing on the air-dried raw ham in the corridor where food was stored.
If Shifu hadn't realized it in time and pressed his sleep acupoint, the eldest senior brother might have died from intestinal swelling due to insatiable eating.
And Gao Cang's insatiable greed, is obviously related to the Qingxin Pill with the taste of meat buns.
The three days of meditation were completely ruined by the meat buns. Gao Cang not only failed to still his worldly desires, but his appetite was stimulated, and he couldn't control himself.
When Su Yishui asked Yu Chen to carry Gao Cang away, Xue Ranran came forward to Shifu with a drooping head and admitted that it was her fault.
Su Yishui asked for the remaining pill, pinched off a small piece, sniffed it slightly, and put it in his mouth. The fragment melted immediately. Su Yishui's body suddenly stiffened slightly, and he threw the remaining pill far away.
Even though his facial features were not clear, it seemed that his forehead was protruding high, probably… frowning?