Research-Style Cultivation, Starting by Refusing to Be a Furnace – Chapter 15

Ch 15: Taking a Master

A few days later, the Qingyuan Temple apprenticeship ceremony began. The ceremony was not a gathering in one hall, but each mountain peak accepting disciples on its own. They just agreed on the same day, and each mountain peak conducted its own apprenticeship ceremony. Some mountain peaks did not lack disciples, and did not recruit new disciples, so they seemed a bit deserted.

Wei Xing stood in front of the main hall on the peak. The scorching temperature was unbearable for him. Fortunately, Dan Qi cast a spell to isolate most of the heat waves, which made Wei Xing feel better. Wei Xing said with sweat all over his face, “Thank you Seventh Senior Brother, but why is this mountain top so hot?”

Dan Qi replied, “That’s for sure. Our Dan Peak is connected to the Earth Fire, but our mountain peaks are suspended in the air. The Earth Fire is only transmitted through the formation on the top of the mountain, and then diverted into the pill refining rooms of our disciples. The temperature here is naturally high. Generally, only Master himself cultivates here.”

Just as the two were talking, three more Taoists arrived one after another. One was thin, one was burly, and one was younger. When Dan Qi saw the three arriving, he took Wei Xing and said to the three, “Senior Brothers, let me introduce you. This is our new Junior Brother Dan Jiu. From now on, we are his Senior Brothers, so we need to take care of him more.”

Then he turned his head to introduce to Wei Xing, “Come, let me introduce you. This one is called Dan Wu, this one is called Dan Liu, and this one is Dan Ba. They came a few years earlier than you. You can ask them if you don’t understand anything.” Dan Qi introduced Wei Xing to them one by one.

“Greetings, Senior Brothers,” Wei Xing saluted and said to everyone.

“He’s quite clever and handsome,” Dan Wu smiled.

Wei Xing was surrounded by several people asking questions. Wei Xing thought, “Since there are Dan Wu, Dan Liu, Dan Qi, Dan Ba, and Dan Jiu, then there must be Dan Yi, Dan Er, Dan San, and Dan Si.” But he didn’t see the others come in for a long time, so he whispered to Dan Qi, “Seventh Senior Brother, what about the Senior Brothers ranked in front? Are they not coming?”

Dan Qi smiled awkwardly, “I’ve only seen them a few times, and then I haven’t seen them since. They are all experts in the Qi Refining Realm, different from us. Besides, our Pill Refiners are different from others. We often have to travel around to find materials. I guess they are all out traveling.”

“Master doesn’t even ask, so we naturally don’t need to worry about it,” Dan Qi said nonchalantly.

Wei Xing was a little puzzled after hearing this, but he didn’t continue the topic after hearing what Dan Qi said.

A coughing sound came from above the main hall. An old man with a slightly hunched waist and a pale complexion, whose Taoist robe was covered with red flame patterns, slowly turned around and sat on the main hall, and then said to the people below, “Are you all here?”

“Master, we are all here,” everyone said in unison.

This old man had a pair of sharp, eagle-like eyes, staring straight at Wei Xing, and then said with some disgust, “Are you Dan Jiu?”

“Replying to Master, I am Dan Jiu,” Wei Xing said respectfully, imitating the appearance of the other Senior Brothers.

“Hmm,” the figure above simply replied, and then said to Wei Xing, “I don’t know how you got the Abbot to agree to let you stay and come to Dan Peak. You still need to cultivate well and never be unenterprising.” After the old man finished speaking, he directly looked sharply at Dan Wu.

The thin man, being stared at by this gaze, suddenly felt a chill all over his body, and his legs couldn’t help but tremble. He couldn’t support himself and knelt down.

“Useless thing,” the old man said to Dan Wu with disgust, and then looked at the other three, his face slightly better, “The three of you must continue to hone your cultivation and strive to break through Qi Refining as soon as possible.”

“Yes,” the three saluted and replied.

“As for you, follow Dan Qi and the others to cultivate from now on,” the old man’s cold tone was a bit eerie.

After hearing this, Wei Xing didn’t know why, but he remembered the bizarre dream he had when he first came to this world, the feeling of being stared at by a snake-like woman.

Wei Xing answered tremblingly, “Yes.”

Dan Qi then quickly urged, “Xiao Jiu, why are you still standing there? Quickly kowtow and perform the apprenticeship ceremony.”

Under his guidance, Wei Xing quickly knelt on the ground and performed three great salutes. After Wei Xing finished the great salutes, the old man waved his hand, signaling everyone to go out. He stayed in the room alone, wondering what he was recalling.

After a long time, he muttered to himself, “It’s also rare. The Abbot personally spoke. Does he have any background that even the Abbot is a little afraid of? The time is not yet right, so we can’t startle the snake.”

“A bunch of trash, just one more is needed to complete it. Let’s see what his innate attribute is.”

On the mountainside, inside Dan Qi’s cave abode, Wei Xing had many questions in his heart that he wanted to ask him, so he followed Dan Qi back to his cave abode.

Dan Qi’s cave abode was much more spacious, obviously much better than Wei Xing’s. The courtyard had a small bridge and flowing water, surrounded by bamboo forests, which was very pleasant.

Dan Qi suddenly remembered that Wei Xing’s cave abode was not like this, and he was afraid that he would misunderstand, so he scratched his head awkwardly and said to Wei Xing, “Xiao Jiu, the living conditions for newcomers are not very good. In a few years, when you have the ability, you can live better.”

“That’s natural, but Seventh Senior Brother has a lot of artistic talent,” Wei Xing joked.

Dan Qi smiled and did not continue the topic, but changed the subject and said to Wei Xing, “I know your doubts, but this is a taboo and cannot be said. When you perform better in front of Master later, you may be able to find out.”

Wei Xing nodded. He was just about to ask why Master felt a little disgusted with him? He was not a fool, and he naturally felt it from the cold tone of the conversation just now.

“I’ve never seen this Master before, why do I feel like he has some hostility towards me? Could it be because I am Dan Jiu? Also, Seventh Senior Brother seems to know something, able to guess what I want to ask, but he doesn’t tell me the truth. What is he afraid of? And that thin Fifth Senior Brother, why is Master so strict and mean to him? There is an unspeakable sense of weirdness revealed everywhere here.” Wei Xing sat opposite Dan Qi, thinking quickly in his mind, trying to find the reason from these details.

“Seventh Senior Brother, Xiao Jiu still has a question, and I hope Seventh Senior Brother can answer it for me,” Wei Xing said sincerely, looking at Dan Qi.

“Please speak. Apart from what happened just now, I will naturally tell you what I know,” Dan Qi still smiled gently.

“Seventh Senior Brother, our Qingyuan Temple should be a Daoist temple in theory, but why do I feel like it is a cultivation sect, not like a Daoist temple?” Wei Xing said his doubts. This was also where he couldn’t figure it out. Here, as a Taoist, he had neither a Daoist name nor a decent place for chanting scriptures. Instead, everyone performed their duties, like a running machine, without any human touch. Even the apprenticeship ceremony was hastily concluded, just going through the motions.

“Is this really a Daoist temple?” Wei Xing’s doubts in his heart grew heavier and heavier, but he was troubled by the limited information he had, and he couldn’t deduce any answers. He felt no sense of security about the unknown around him, and he wanted to get the answer as soon as possible.

After hearing this, Dan Qi’s expression did not change, as if it was commonplace. He explained to Wei Xing, “In the eyes of mortals, this is a Daoist temple. In fact, it is not wrong for you to understand it as a sect. Rather than a sect, it is actually more appropriate to say that it is a preparatory branch sect of the Myriad Desires Sect. Many things here are sent down by the sect, and we also listen to the sect’s command. There are a total of ten Daoist temples like ours in the territory of the Wei Kingdom, distributed throughout the entire Wei Kingdom. The specifications of each Daoist temple are not much different. You will know later.”

Dan Qi patiently explained, as if he was talking about a trivial matter that everyone knew, but these words sounded like a bolt from the blue to Wei Xing, exploding in his ears, “Myriad Desires Sect, branch sect,” “branch sect,” “branch sect.” Although Dan Qi only said it once, these keywords lingered in Wei Xing’s ears for a long time.

Wei Xing’s face was a little pale, and his breathing became heavy. He had experienced the torment of that evil woman from the Myriad Desires Sect, and he roughly knew what kind of sect the Myriad Desires Sect was.

“I thought it was the path of cultivating immortality, but I didn’t expect it to be like this. Could it be that I will have to engage in that kind of improper thing to cultivate in the future?” Thinking of this, Wei Xing suddenly felt suffocated and couldn’t react for a long time.

Seeing him like this, Dan Qi knew that he was probably thinking too much, and then explained, “Although we are a branch of the Myriad Desires Sect, the cultivation methods are very different from those of the sect. We mainly cultivate Daoist methods. It’s just that there are only men in the temple, and there are mostly women in the sect. At a certain time, the Fairies from the sect will come to the temple to find people for dual cultivation. Our Daoist temples do not prohibit love affairs. Those who want to go for dual cultivation can naturally follow the Fairies back to the sect, leave the Daoist temple, and become that pair of mandarin duck immortals.” After saying that, his envious and longing expression was self-evident.

Wei Xing suddenly understood after hearing this. As long as he didn’t practice that kind of cultivation method, he could accept it. The heart that was hanging in his throat fell down, and he complained in his heart, “So these Daoist temples are the Myriad Desires Sect’s breeding stock!”