Cultivation: Being Immortal

Chapter 374:

Wilderness

Lin Jiang slowly stopped his practice, and once the energy of the Soul Fragment was depleted, his focus returned.

"Hey, how’s it going?"

"I don’t know the outcome yet, but based on Yang Luo’s words, I have successfully implanted the Heart Demon inside her. If she doesn’t catch me, she won’t be able to achieve Tao."

"Then let’s count it as a success."

"Okay, but now Yang Luo will launch a full-scale attack. She knows I am in the Wilderness, and she surely knows about you too. Are you prepared for the danger?"

"Of course, your enemy is my enemy. If she dares to come to the Wilderness, I’ll take care of her."

Small Shadiao wasn’t afraid of Yang Luo in the cultivation world, but in the Wilderness, where he was in control, he wasn’t scared at all.

"Alright, then I’ll leave in a few days. You find a way to convince the Demon God Temple."

Little Shadiao said, Lin Jiang already knew about his genius plan. Lin Jiang wants to find a genius cultivator, train them, and let the genius confront Yang Luo, with genius against genius, magic against magic.

"I’m not confident either, but I can’t think of any other way, so I can only give it a try."

Lin Jiang said that with his own talent, he truly couldn’t defeat Yang Luo. Neither could Little Shadiao. They could only rely on other exceptional geniuses and see if they could find one.

"Brother, I think you’re lacking confidence."

"Nonsense, if I had confidence, why would I hide here? I would just go in guns blazing. The only advantage of doing it this way is that I can stay behind the scenes, be the puppet master, and have the time to make mistakes."

Lin Jiang said that as long as he didn’t show himself and didn’t get caught, then he wouldn’t be afraid. He could simply find a few more geniuses if needed.

········

Zhongzhou, the most powerful place for the human race, is also the most densely populated. There are over a dozen large cities with a million or more cultivators, not to mention the countless smaller cities.

The number of ordinary people is even more enormous, but hardly anyone pays attention to them. After all, for cultivators above Nascent Soul, ordinary people are really not worth mentioning. Even if 90% of them die, they can easily be replenished, since their lifespans are so long. With a hundred or even a hundred and eighty years, they can recover no matter what.

On this day, in a small town of ordinary people, several thousand children aged twelve to fifteen were lining up. At the front of the line, there were two cultivators in the Qi Refining Period who were testing their Spiritual Roots, while a dozen cultivators were maintaining order.

These cultivators were brought by Lin Jiang. Being a lazy old man, Lin Jiang preferred to spend a little money to get things done. He found a restaurant and quietly enjoyed his drink.

"Congratulations, seniors. We have detected twelve children with Spiritual Roots this morning."

"How good are they?"

"We have five children with Five Spiritual Roots, three with Four Spiritual Roots, three with Three Spiritual Roots, and one with Dual Spiritual Roots. We haven’t found any children with Single Spiritual Roots or Strange Spiritual Roots yet."@@novelbin@@

"According to the rules, those with Dual Spiritual Roots can stay, and we’ll give money to the others to leave."

Lin Jiang nodded. If he wanted to deal with Yang Luo, the threshold had to be high. It was possible for experts to come from children with Three Spiritual Roots, Four Spiritual Roots, or Five Spiritual Roots, but the probability was too low and the resources needed were too many. Lin Jiang directly rejected it, only Dual Spiritual Roots would meet the threshold.

In the afternoon, two cultivators in the Building Foundation Period landed in the town and stopped the testing of Spiritual Roots because, theoretically, the town belonged to a second-rate sect. Lin Jiang quickly stepped forward.

Lin Jiang, appearing as an elderly cultivator in the Building Foundation Period, first handed the two people a spirit stone, and then tearfully explained that he had limited lifespan and no one to inherit his legacy, which was why he had come to select one or two disciples.

With the help of a special stone called spirit stone, and considering Lin Jiang’s old and weak appearance, they didn’t pursue it further. These ordinary people, though considered as resources of the sect in theory, are rarely relied upon by the disciples from most sects. The majority of disciples are descendants from within the sect or provided by their dependents. In fact, this monopoly has controlled the path of cultivation.

If disciples from other sects came to recruit, they wouldn’t agree. Who knows if there might be any talent among the ordinary people? However, if they were independent cultivators, then it wouldn’t be a problem as they believe independent cultivators are not capable of causing any trouble.

Watching the two leave, Lin Jiang let the cultivators continue. He had seen this kind of situation before. If someone refused to accept money or show any leniency, Lin Jiang would just leave. After all, there were too many ordinary people in Zhongzhou. If Zhongzhou wasn’t enough, there were Qing State, Bing State, and Liu State, among others. With billions of ordinary people, Lin Jiang believed he could find a few qualified geniuses.

Two days later, Lin Jiang took four children from this small town and headed to the next place. Like this, one region after another, half a year later, Lin Jiang had over a hundred children following him.

Dear taoist friends, we have been cooperating for over half a year now. You know my reputation. I desire to create a sect and I need a large number of talented disciples.

So this is our agreement: you will continue to help me find disciples. They should come from ordinary people or be ordinary independent cultivators. Their Spiritual Root should be at least two Spiritual Roots or higher. For a disciple with two Spiritual Roots, I will give you ten spirit stones. For a disciple with a Heavenly Spiritual Root, I will give you one thousand spirit stones. And for a disciple with a rare Spiritual Root, I will give you one thousand two hundred spirit stones. How does that sound?

Lin Jiang said to the group of Qi Refining independent cultivators, searching for disciples is a very tedious task. Among ordinary people, it is extremely rare to find someone with a Spiritual Root, and among those with a Spiritual Root, the probability of having a double Spiritual Root is very low.

The group of Qi Refining independent cultivators immediately agreed. Though this task was tedious, it was not dangerous, and Lin Jiang had established his reputation over the past six months. They naturally would not refuse.

Lin Jiang sent the group of Qi Refining independent cultivators away, then settled in an area of Bing State. This time, Lin Jiang didn’t hesitate and directly claimed a piece of land, and later settled these children.

Lin Jiang personally taught them, and half of these children couldn’t read, so they had to start with basic education. But that’s also good because it makes it easier for Lin Jiang to influence them.

Lin Jiang started brainwashing them from a loyal perspective, using the ideas of loyalty between rulers and subjects and between parents and children. The target of loyalty naturally became Lin Jiang himself. It was also a way of selecting disciples. Those with deep thoughts and strong personalities would be filtered out, as they couldn’t be the focus of Lin Jiang’s training in the future.

Afterwards, independent cultivators started sending children over continually. The number of children under Lin Jiang’s command was increasing. Fortunately, these children were inexpensive to take care of, so Lin Jiang could handle it for now.

Lin Jiang couldn’t personally take care of the children that were sent later, so he had to rely on the older ones to look after the new ones. Anyway, those 14 or 15-year-old children were already quite grown up.

"The two hundred of you have completed basic education, learned how to read, and have gained a basic understanding of the human body and meridians. Starting from tomorrow, I will teach you cultivation.

But remember, tomorrow is not the beginning of a good life for you. It’s the beginning of a miserable life. It will take me ten years to select you. Only one person will become my personal disciple, and nine others can continue to follow me closely. The remaining one hundred and ninety people will be dismissed and become independent cultivators after ten years."

Lin Jiang said to the two hundred people, this is the first batch, and new children will continue to be sent. But out of this group of two hundred, Lin Jiang will only keep one person. The ratio of two hundred to one is extremely harsh.

Even if they eventually succeed, there will still be new competition. They will compete with the ones who come later. Perhaps within one or two hundred years, Lin Jiang will only choose two or three people for true training. This is the only way to truly select one in a million talents.

The elimination competition started on the third day. Those who hadn’t absorbed Qi into their bodies within three days were directly eliminated. Perhaps among them, there will be late-bloomers, or maybe it will be due to certain reasons. But Lin Jiang didn’t care about any of that. If they couldn’t absorb Qi within three days, it meant they lacked comprehension.

In this level, more than half of the two hundred people were gone, leaving only about eighty people. Lin Jiang selected a few of them who looked pleasing and kept them as apprentice servants. The rest were all sent away, given a manual and twenty pieces of spirit stone, to fend for themselves.

Lin Jiang felt that it was a waste to send away the disciples who had been trained with a lot of manpower and resources. Even if they were to go to a major sect, they were still potential talents worth nurturing. However, Lin Jiang had to make a tough decision because he didn’t have enough resources to train so many people.

The children who were going to be sent away were all crying loudly. They were truly scared because the youngest of them was not even fourteen yet, and going out meant facing life-and-death challenges.

As for the children who were left behind, they looked at Lin Jiang with fear. Although Lin Jiang had been strict with them before, he also had a gentle side. But now, all they felt towards him was fear. They were afraid of being sent away.

After witnessing this scene, the remaining eighty-plus people had become extremely obedient and worked hard. They exceeded Lin Jiang’s instructions because they feared being eliminated by him.

Congratulations to all of you for passing my first test, but don’t relax because the days ahead will only get tougher.

Starting today, I will examine your progress every month. The last person will be eliminated. At the same time, I will assign you many tasks during regular time. Completing them won’t give you extra points, but not completing them will result in deduction. Once the score reaches a certain amount, elimination…

Lin Jiang continued, saying that their cultivation level was definitely top-notch, but he would continue to reinforce their obedience. So, Lin Jiang would subject them to brutal training to completely make them submissive to him, to the extent that even if he commanded them to commit suicide, they wouldn’t hesitate.