Wang Lu’s performance made him the center of attention of all the people in the lobby. He suddenly became the main topic of everyone’s discussion. No one was really sure which views about him were right, but nevertheless, everyone was in awe of him.
If this had happened in a regular inn, most people would call Wang Lu an idiot. However, a best room ticket at the foot of the Spirit Sword Mountain was worth a lot.
“Do you guys think he has connections with the Spirit Sword Sect?”
This kind of question was raised by some people, which then spread throughout the crowd. Soon, some of them even bizarrely claimed that Wang Lu was the bastard child of one of the elders in the Heavenly Sword Hall.
The Lady Boss coldly looked at the crowd from behind the counter and quietly muttered, “A bunch of idiots.”
After thinking for a moment, she said to herself, “I should just raise the room rate again, these idiots make me angry just by looking at them...”
At this time, a voice came from outside the inn.
“Young Master, Young Master!”
Although Ru Family Inn’s lobby was not very large, there were dozens of “young masters” sitting inside. Everyone turned around and saw a handsome ten years old boy come running and stumbling as he shouted.
Seeing this boy, everyone’s eyes lit up.
This was not because the youth looked handsome or anything, but because the robe he wore clearly had the same style as Wang Lu’s; there was only a little bit difference in the pattern. He seemed to be an errand boy.
Although Wang Lu looked a bit tricky, this errand boy looked much softer and more naïve. If they wanted to get some information about their competitor, then this boy would be the perfect opportunity.
“Hi, little brother…”
One person, who seemed to have this idea in mind, lightly coughed, attracting the errand boy’s attention.
“Have you seen my young master? He’s almost the same age as me…”
“Oh, how about little brother come over here and talk about it in more details with me. There are a lot of people coming and going, I do not know which one of them is your young master.”
The errand boy paused for a moment and then nodded his head.
But obviously, some people did not wish for these princes to have the opportunity to begin talking again. The Lady Boss knocked on the counter and said, “Your young master is called Wang Lu right? He’s already upstairs on the second floor, the third room on the left. But remember, you need to keep quiet in here.”
The errand boy paused again and quickly bowed to the Lady Boss to show his thanks. He then swiftly ran upstairs, his footsteps full of joy.
“Young Master, Young Master~! I’m coming!”
The Lady Boss became enraged and slammed the counter with her fist, “Didn’t you hear what I just said!?”
Everyone in the lobby saw a jar of “Daughter Red Wine” fly across the lobby, smashing right in front of the feet of the errand boy. The errand boy was scared out of his wits; he did not dare to make a noise anymore as he quietly tiptoed up the stairs.
However, the Lady Boss’s anger had clearly not subsided. Her eyes swept around to find a target to bully. Soon, from this crowd of princes and sons of officials, she finally found a target.
“Hey, you, yeah you, the one who previously received my kick. You ordered a jar of Daughter Red Wine just now, right? Come here and pay your account, it is one thousand liang per jar, thank you.”
Wen Bao was taken by surprise. “When did I order a Daughter Red Wine!?”
“Just now when I threw out that jar near the kid. What, do you want to order another jar?”
Seeing the Lady Boss starting to pick up another seventy centimeters tall wine jar with one hand, Wen Bao immediately looked aghast, “I’ll pay, I’ll pay for it!”
Getting her ill-gotten gains, the Lady Boss was pleased. Her eyes swept across the lobby and said with a voice that could be heard by most people, “A bunch of waste.”
---
On the second floor, the errand boy enthusiastically opened the young master’s door.
“Young Master, I’m here!”
Sitting at the desk, Wang Lu raised his head in surprise. “Hey, why did you come here?! Quickly go back!”
At the entrance of the room, the errand boy wanted to cry but had no tears; he piteously looked at his young master sitting inside the room.
Wang Lu helplessly said, “I believe that I have told you not to come.”
The errand boy said with a bitter face, “The Master ordered me to come here. He said that it wasn’t safe for you to come and attend the Immortal Gathering by yourself.”
“And you here will make me safe? Your surname isn’t Du… Oh, my Father is definitely confused, I should’ve told you not to be confused like him.”
The errand boy was quite stubborn. “The Master asked me to come.”
Wang Lu sighed, “Even though he asked you to come, you could have broken your legs or just told him you were sick.”
The errand boy was speechless, “I…”
“If you didn’t want to make it too tragic, you could’ve drank some croton liquid, in short…” Wang Lu said, but when he saw the errand boy’s innocent yet pitiful look, he could only helplessly shook his head. “Forget it, just come in.”
The errand boy gave out a shout of joy and carried his large bag into the room.
Even if he was stupid, but after many years following his young master, he knew that his young master has a sharp mouth but a soft heart.
---
Contrary to what most of the crowd had believed, the young master and his errand boy were neither royalty nor nobility, and they weren’t people of the Immortal Cultivator’s families either.
They were just a couple of villagers who had come from the Wang Family Village. This village northeast of the Dog Ear Mountain is part of the Marquis County of the Eastern Way Prefecture in the Great Ming Kingdom of the Blue River Region.
The young master’s surname was Wang, and his name was Lu. He was the son of the richest man in the Wang Family Village. Before the age of nine, his name had been Wang Tudi, a local specialty name. Afterwards, a kind scholar had changed his name from “Tudi” to “Lu” [1], making it seem a bit more elegant.
The errand boy was also surnamed Wang; he was the son of a merchant in the Wang Village. However, after both of his parents died in an accident, the kind-hearted Wang Family Master had taken him in to become the Wang Lu’s errand boy. It had already been seven years since then.
It had already been seven years, and yet in the errand boy’s eyes, his young master was still full of mystery. His actions and thoughts were always so incredible and incomprehensible. Two years ago, the Wang Family Master had invited a scholar from the Han Zong private school in Eastern Way Prefecture to teach the young master literature for an exorbitant price. That old scholar with a goatee had seven or eight former students who had become prominent figures in the Great Ming Kingdom. Not long after he arrived, he had modified the young master’s name into a much more sophisticated one. However, after only teaching the Young Master for two years, he discovered that there were indeed people who were born with both outstanding talent and innate knowledge. Knowing that he has nothing left to teach the kid, he quickly left, afraid that he would waste the young master’s potential.
Before parting, the old scholar had evaluated the young master to be an outstanding talent that could easily be ranked as number 1 in the entire Nine Regions, and in the future, it would be possible for Wang Lu to become a high ranking official. Although the Wang Family Master was unquestionably happy that the sole heir of the Wang family had such limitless potential and would bring much glory to the family’s ancestors, his heart also ached; he had paid the old scholar for ten years, but the old scholar refused to refund the remaining eight years.
Unfortunately, things were not always played out according to plans. Although the young master was a rare genius, he just wasn’t interested in poetry and other literature. He did not even have any interest in becoming an official. After the old scholar had left, he had buried all of the books in the yard, saying that he was providing an energy source for the people far into the future, something that was even more nonsense.
“Those who covet power and riches are all shallow and short-sighted; it is not even worth considering.”
Okay, so he didn’t even put the Great Ming Country in his eyes. At that time, the Wang Family Master had curiously asked the young master what he wanted to do.
“To become an Immortal Cultivator.”
Immortal Cultivator!? The young master had nearly scared the life out of him.
Was it easy to become an Immortal Cultivator? Most certainly not! There was an ancient saying that says, “The Immortal Path is different to the path of a mortal”. It was nearly impossible for a mere mortal to even step onto the Immortal Path! Even just the basic qi gathering technique of Immortal Cultivation was impossible for almost everyone.
Only those extremely few people who were blessed by the heaven and earth, as well as those with extreme luck who could manipulate the spiritual energy of the heaven and earth, had the right to enter the Immortal Cultivation World. This qualification was called a spirit root.
In the Nine Regions, only about one in ten thousand people had a spirit root. According to hearsay, only after being benevolent for ten lives would one be able to be born with a low grade spirit root. Although the Wang Family Master has always been benevolent, and he had even become the richest person in the Wang Family Village, based on the legend, he would still fall short from the Immortal Path by seven or eight lives of benevolence.
However, once his son had opened his mouth, as his father, apart from giving him all the support he could give to push him onto the Immortal Path, what else could he do? After many months of thinking and innumerable sleepless night that costed him 5 kilograms of weight, he finally had a solution.
Everyone knew that becoming an Immortal Cultivator was incredibly difficult. However, it was said that there were elixirs that could be used to develop one’s spirit root. Those elixir could be bought with silver. That was the reason why the second richest man in the Wang Family Village, Wang Dafu, spent over a hundred thousand liang of silver in order to send his son, Wang Xiaohu, to the Seven Star Sect.
The Wang Family Master has always been prudent with money his entire life. He had never wasted any money before, but in order to fulfil his son’s dream, he started to pour out money to buy Spirit Root Development Pill, Six Mixtures Pellet, Seven Stars Vomit… He bought everything he could find, and he put it all in front of his son.
Who knew that Wang Lu would actually look down on all of these things.
“Father, you don’t understand Immortal Cultivator; these things are useless.”
The Wang Family Master was stunned. “These things cost tens of thousands liang of silver, how can they be useless?”
Wang Lu was silent for a while before nodding his head in gratitude. The next day, he sold all of the things to Wang Xiaohu next door for one and a half times the price his father had bought all the things for. At least that way, his father wouldn’t have bought all those things in vain.
For the next several months, Wang Lu never mentioned anything about Immortal Cultivation, so the whole family thought that it was the end of his aspirations for Immortal Cultivation. But one month ago, when the news of the Spirit Sword Sect’s Immortal Gathering came into the village, Wang Lu’s determination was once again aroused.
“Father, I’m going to the Immortal Gathering, please lend me some money for my travel expenses.”
“What’s a raw and fresh gathering assembly?” [2]
“It’s not ‘raw’ and ‘fresh’, it’s the Spirit Sword Sect’s event for choosing disciples.”
“You want to be an Immortal Cultivator again!?”
“I never gave up!”
Facing his son’s determination, the Wang Family Master’s decision was to find a new concubine. If he couldn’t make Wang Lu the inheritor of his huge family business, then he would just have to make a new one.
Of course, the Wang Family Master still gave Wang Lu all of the support he could give. He sent the little errand boy to rush after Wang Lu, arriving on the Spirit Creek Town only one day after Wang Lu. The things inside the large bag he was carrying were more than 200,000 liang of silver. Although the Wang Family was quite rich, it was still a significant amount of money to them.
In order to help Wang Lu become an Immortal Cultivator, the Wang Family Master sold many valuable assets, showing his deep love toward his child. The young errand boy was moved, and at the same time, he envied and admired Wang Lu from the bottom of his heart.
——
In the room, Wang Lu looked at the large bag the errand boy was carrying with a look of suspicion. “What is that?”
The errand boy smiled and opened the bag. He lifted up a bottle like he was showing off. “Look, Young Master, high quality Spirit Root Development Pills!”
Wang Lu pounded the table and stood up. “The hell? Who wants that pile of junk? Throw all of it out. Just looking at it is annoying!”
The errand boy was greatly shocked. “How can we just throw it away! These are things bought by the Master using a lot of money! These are different to the ones from before. They’re high quality, high quality! Young Master, you should know that if a mortal wants to become an Immortal Cultivator, they must consume Immortal Pills. After forty-five days, they will develop a spirit root. However, if complemented with the Spirit Root Development Pill, the process will be much faster, and the spirit root will be much more stable. There’s only one week until the Immortal Gathering, so using the Spirit Root Development Pill is the best way for young master to develop a spirit root! Ah, and also, here’s the Seven Stars Breathing Technique book, the Master acquired it from the Seven Stars Sect…”
Wang Lu sighed, “Enough, you don’t need to throw away all those flowery but trash qi gathering books and useless pills. Take them back the same way they were brought here.”
The errand boy paused for a while, then he once again cried out, “Young Master, since you want to become an Immortal Cultivator, why won’t you eat these things? If a mortal wants to become an Immortal Cultivator, there’s only one way…”
Wang Lu sighed again, “Yes, so why do you think I don’t want those?”
The errand boy cocked his head and blinked. He really wanted to say “Young Master, it’s time for your to take your medicine”. [3] But after all, he was required to show the respect an errand boy should show to a young master. In the end, he did not say anything; he just used warm water to dissolve the Spirit Root Development Pills. Immediately, the room was filled with a pleasant fragrant of medicinal herbs. “This is indeed a high quality medicine,” the errand boy said in awe.
He continued to look at Wang Lu with a hopeful look on his face.
In the village, the errand boy used this technique on the neighbour’s Da Huang with 100% success rate. Except that Da Huang was a dog, and the technique was usually accompanied by a bone.
In the end, Wang Lu indeed opened his mouth as expected, “Ah, Wang Zhong…”
The errand boy eagerly nodded his head. “Yes, Young Master?”
“For a mortal to become an Immortal Cultivator, there’s only one way. However, when did I ever say that I was an ordinary mortal?”
…
[1] Tudi = [Soil/Dirt] to Lu = [Land]
[2] See prologue
[3] Implies medicine for people with mental illness