“Those are the only description of the Void Spirit Root that we have. As far as we know, no one else knows more about this type of spirit root than us. After all, no one has ever seen this spirit root in thousands of years.”
After she finished explaining all the available information about the Void Spirit Root, the girl went silent, quietly waiting for the participants to digest it.
“But, considering that you came out on top in this Immortal Path, according to the rules, you indeed can enter the sect. However, you can’t train the Immortal Cultivation Method, because you will meet challenging situations in the future. Therefore, you should think this over carefully. At best, you could become a theoretical researcher. But without the ability to practice, even if you have a gargantuan comprehension, you will only achieve the highest academic attainment in theory of Immortal Cultivation Method which is good, but I don’t think you would be satisfied with that.”
“Of course, we also can issue a letter of recommendation for you. I believe that the Ten Thousand Arts Sect, Kunlun Immortal Sect, and even Shengjing Sect would be interested in a talent like you. However, the things that we are unable to solve, they would also find them difficult to solve.”
“Oh, by the way, Ninth Martial Uncle just added that, you could also choose to become the Spirit Sword Sect’s mascot. In any case, you have the same spirit root as the two revered ancient Immortal Emperors. If you become the Sect’s mascot, the Spirit Sword Sect’s grandeur could overwhelm the Shengjing Sect.”
After saying that, even the girl found that her Ninth Martial Uncle’s advice was wrong. But, when she was ready to say something, she heard Wang Lu suddenly clapped his hands.
“Okay, we have a deal!”
“What?”
“Long Live to me, the Mascot! Spirit Sword Sect, here I come!”
Wang Lu, who set the record in the Cloud Wave Map, had rapidly changed his position. His decisiveness in choosing this option nearly scared the girl to death.
“How, how, how… How can you do this!”
This answer totally floored the girl. Wang Lu’s reaction was completely the opposite of what her Master predicted! Her Master had said that Wang Lu might fly into a rage, become hysterical, or even argue back. But her Master never said that there was a possibility that Wang Lu might gleefully accept the job of becoming the sect’s Mascot!
Even the nearby Hai Yunfan gawked until he almost dislocated his jaw. He endured the pain from slapping his jaw back into place, but deep inside his heart, he couldn’t help but roar crazily, “Is this your so-called tragic beginning? Why did you accept this offer? Oh, Brother Wang Lu, your image in my heart has collapsed!”
Even the Elders in the Hall were stunned by this. Then, a somewhat panicked voice of a young woman came out, “Brave hero, that was just a joke from me, don’t take it seriously.”
However, Wang Lu’s only reply to that was to cheerfully ask, “Does your Sect provide board and lodging for the sect’s mascot?”
“Bo-Board and Lodging…?”
“Do you provide them or not? Is there a commission? Do you give paid annual leave?”
That Elder couldn’t understand what he was talking about, but she felt that it was significant and was tongue-tied.
She then heard Wang Lu said, “Since your noble sect has offered me to become the sect’s mascot, how could you take back your own words? If the Spirit Sword Sect, one of the magnificent top five sects, renege on their words, people would scold them for not having a credibility, and for being shameless and inferior to evil cults. That would be bad.”
Upon hearing this, the young girl seemed frightened; her eyes widened as she nervously looked back and asked, “Ninth Martial Aunt, going back on our words is not good.”
“You fool, why did you pick his side!?”
The girl hugged her head in pain again and shouted, “It hurts, ah…” She seemed to be forcefully pulled back into the hall.
A long silence ensued… The Elders in the Mystical Cloud Hall found themselves in a very awkward situation. The Spirit Sword Sect was a righteous ancient sect that attached great importance in their reputation and integrity, which couldn’t even be comprehended by the newer sects. However, the mascot was too much of a joke, but they couldn’t just possibly muddle through this thing...
After a long time, another female voice came out from the hall, but compared to the Ninth Elder’s voice, this voice was somewhat more mature, and her tone of voice was also frivolous.
“Interesting, so you want to be the Spirit Sword Sect’s mascot?”
Wang Lu laughed. “Even if I want to be the Sect Leader, you ought to comply.”
“Absolutely not, because I also want to be… Ahem, although I don’t know why these group of retards fail to include you on the list, being a mascot is not too bad either. We, the Spirit Sword Sect, are one of the top five sects, so our sect’s mascot would certainly receive countless benefits. Even if you can’t practice cultivation, with the Spirit Sword Sect’s reputation behind you, you can indeed easily oppress the people and commit outrages! Not to mention that those princes and kings in the mortal world wouldn’t dare to oppose you. Later on, if you go to a brothel to visit prostitutes, you don’t even need to pay them money! ... Hey, why are you guys trying to stop me? I’m just telling it as it is, I am not charging you for it!”
A burst of fighting sound came from the inner hall, and then the woman loudly coughed. “All in all, being a mascot has all kind of benefits. Moreover, you will be treated better than the sect’s disciples. But since you can’t train any cultivation method, you can't return any benefit back to the sect. Making you a mascot would just waste the Sect’s resources, and there’s no advantage to the sect at all.”
Upon hearing this, Wang Lu burst out laughing.
This woman’s words left an indescribable feeling in him… It was like he was listening to himself. Although those words were like a jest, Wang Lu easily figured out the meaning behind it.
She was reminding him of something crucial.
But she actually didn’t need to; as a professional adventurer, Wang Lu, of course, knew that he held a trump card that could reverse all of those previous decisions from the Elders.
“Oh, I understand. To be a mascot, I must first pay the union fee, right? The Spirit Sword Sect is an Immortal Cultivation Sect, so mortal’s gold and silver are meaningless. Which means you want me to pay using the mountain money right? It just so happens that I have it in me, here, I give you five cents!”
Wang Lu sneered, took out something from his pocket, and threw it towards the white light that shrouded the inner hall of the Mystical Cloud Hall.
As soon as the Elders saw that thing, the inner hall immediately went into chaos.
“The hell, it’s that thing!”
“How did he get this thing?”
“It’s actually the Firmament Cloud Ancient Coin! Senior Martial Brother, is he your illegitimate son?”
The mouths of the nine Elders were wide opened as they stare in shock at that copper coin.
Firmament Cloud Ancient Coin!
This copper coin was actually just an ordinary copper coin. It was neither a magical treasure nor did it contain priceless materials, yet it was more priceless than any treasures!
This was the fxcking Firmament Cloud Ancient Coin… The legendary Patriarch of the Spirit Sword Sect, Daoist Master Xiao Yun [1], had left behind several karmic debts while he was still among mortals. To pay for that, he had bestowed several coins to the people that he owed big favors to. Whoever held that coin could put forward a request.
Such stories were not uncommon in the Immortal Cultivation World. Many other sects have similar props that spread outside. Now, after thousands of years had passed, the real Firmament Cloud Ancient Coins had long disappeared, unable to withstand the passage of time. Now, this Firmament Cloud Ancient Coin was nothing more than an imitation made by the later generation to commemorate the Spirit Sword Sect’s Patriarch.
However, the effect was still the same. Whoever held this ancient coin would be able to demand any request from the Spirit Sword Sect; this was guaranteed by the Sect Leader Daoist Immortal Feng Yin. So far, no one had ever used it before, but with Daoist Immortal Feng Yin’s reputation, nobody doubted its efficacy.
For Wang Lu to hold this ancient coin, not only could he demand to become the sect’s mascot, in theory, he could even demand for one of the Elders of the Heavenly Sword Hall to be the sect’s mascot! Of course, if someone indeed put forward such an unreasonable demand, the Sect Leader would be forced to abandon his face and firmly renege on his words… Of course, that’s unless the Elder in question was the Fifth Elder, then the Sect Leader would happily oblige.
Of course, the key question now was not the efficacy of this ancient coin, but rather how could this coin fall into Wang Lu’s hands; there was only one Firmament Cloud Ancient Coin that was still in circulation, and that coin was in the hands of the Sect Leader. Apart from this...
The Fifth Martial Sister seemed puzzled. “Sect Leader Martial Brother, is he your bastard?”
The Sect Leader was also wondering. He clearly remembered that three years ago, he had personally handed that Firmament Cloud Ancient Coin to someone. However, he couldn’t figure out how did it suddenly appear in Wang Lu’s hand?
However, it didn’t matter if he couldn’t figure it out, as long as he asked that someone, he would certainly have the answer.
Thinking of this, the Sect Leader immediately pulled a certain inactive-Elder, who was happily watching the scene from nearby, back towards the Stellar Peak.
“Hey, what is going on here?”
Suddenly being brought by the Sect Leader to the Stellar Peak, the Fifth Martial Sister was also confused. “What, what just happened!?”
The Sect Leader asked again, “It’s that Wang Lu. How did he get ahold of Ling’Er’s coin?”
The Fifth Martial Sister chuckled. “Of course it was Ling’Er who gave it to him, or do you think he could grab it from her?”
“Little Ling’Er gave it to him!? This… How could she do that?” The Sect Leader was clearly perplexed. “Even if she still hates me, she wouldn’t go as far as…”
The Fifth Martial Sister continued to chuckle. “Do you remember your bet with little Ling’Er before the Immortal Gathering began? If she can earn five million taels of silver before the gathering begins, then you will not interfere her work as the innkeeper in the Spirit Creek Town. If she lose, she would have to live up here on the mountain. We both know that she won the bet… But the reason why she could win that bet was because of the help from that kid. Therefore, she has a favorable impression of him, and wish that she could meet him again on the mountain. Plus, you know that she hates you, so what’s a piece of ancient money to her?”
“This…” The Sect Leader was suddenly at a loss for words. After a long while, he asked, “Then what about you? Didn’t you observe the gathering? How could you just stand there and do nothing about it…”
The Fifth Martial Sister immediately interrupted him, “You dare to ask me that!? You are the retard who impeded my plan! What do you think the reason was for me to create that Peach Blossom Village in the first place? I was trying to recover the ancient money from that kid! But not only did you fxcking stop me, you even cut my salary!”
“... Alas, who would’ve thought that you would do something really serious. But no matter how nicely you put your words, in the end, you were just trying to cheat the ancient money away from little Ling’Er for your personal use.”
The Fifth Martial Sister flew into a rage. “Fxck, how did you know me so well… Eh, no, don’t try to put your fault on someone else!”
This matter was indeed partially the Sect Leader’s fault, so he was embarrassed to argue back. Finally, he tried to change the topic. “Speaking of which, that Wang Lu is indeed too fierce. Compared to him, that Wang Zhong simply doesn’t have the making of the Chosen One.”
Initially, he brought this up just to change the topic, but before he could continue, the Fifth Martial Sister immediately glowered at him with exceptionally terrifying eyes.
Despite Daoist Master Feng Yin’s high cultivation level, which almost reached the Deity Stage, he still couldn’t help but feel uneasy. “Em, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Did… you just say that the Chosen One is Wang Zhong?”
“What? Wasn’t it you who said that?”
“Nonsense! When did I ever say that Wang Zhong is the Chosen One? Just by looking at his appearance, you would know that he couldn’t possibly be the Chosen One. What kind of tragedy would happen if you groom him as the Chosen One? How could you be so silly, that after watching them for so long, to think that Wang Zhong is the Chosen One!?”
The Sect Leader became nervous. “Don’t joke with me. Didn’t you previously say that only the Chosen One can break your impossible to break chain of quests in the Spirit Creek Town…”
The Fifth Martial Sister grew more and more irritated. “Yeah, yeah, but it was not broken by that idiot!”
The Sect Leader’s Eyes widened. “What? The one who broke your chain of quests was not Wang Zhong?”
The Fifth Martial Sister pounded the table in anger. “What kind of nonsense is that! Who are you? Where did you hide the real Sect Leader?”
At this time, the Sect Leader instead calmed down. He hastily searched through his memory again and quickly found the problem.
“I am ashamed to say this, but I indeed didn’t look through them carefully. At that time, I just gave them a cursory glance… I also wondered how could such a legendary figure only have a third rank Spirit Root… But at that time, the Stellar power suddenly shifted to somewhere else, and I didn’t have enough time to open my Spirit Eyes. So, I didn’t see that Wang Lu has the Void Spirit Root and thought that he was just an ordinary mortal. Thus, I mistakenly thought that Wang Zhong…”
“You idiot! You know that you’re nearsighted, but you still use your eyes foolishly! You even dared to open your Spirit Eyes without wearing your glasses! You must be doing it on purpose, right? I am going to impeach you! Then, I am going to impeach the next leader, and also the next one until it’s my turn!”
“…”
…
[1] Xiao Yun - Firmament Cloud