Ninth In the World

“How can we join an immortal sect?” Di Jiu knew all about this.

In the Cultivation World, when cultivation sects were recruiting disciples, they would open their sects to the public. Any ordinary disciples who wished to enter a cultivation sect had to pass a test. Only the disciples who were chosen were considered successful.

The ugly woman glanced at Di Jiu coolly as she explained, “Many immortal sects in the northern province are currently recruiting. The entire northern province will be participating. Otherwise, I would not have been able to take you away from here.”

It made sense that a commoner like Di Jiu would not know about immortal sect recruitment. The woman was telling the truth. If the northern province’s immortal sects had not been recruiting, she would have had no reason or excuse to leave her family. Even if she did leave though, she could not let Di Jiu leave without prior consent.

The woman found Zhong Hetian’s small trick laughable.

Di Jiu could guess what had put them in this predicament. Zhong Hetian, who had been supposed to enter the Jing Family as a son-in-law by marrying this ugly woman, had not wanted to, so he had found a replacement instead. His failed attempt to escape obviously did not bother the ugly woman, which implied that she had not taken this marriage seriously either.

Fortunately, the woman had a kind heart. She did not blame Di Jiu and was even prepared to let him go as soon as they left the Jing Family three days later.

Di Jiu had a vague idea about how he had reached the Zhong Family and been used as a replacement by Zhong Hetian.

Back when he had used the kitchen knife to break through the killing array engravings on the pillars of the Big Dipper Palace, he had heard the woman in the jade coffin shout at him to stop. However, he had been unable to do so at the time.

The woman in the jade coffin had been sleeping deeply for an unknown number of years, so the fact that she had been able to wake up implied that she was an extremely powerful being. This was most likely her doing. Di Jiu was definitely not on the Fairy Planet, yet to his knowledge, the best way to travel from one planet to another was teleportation.

Perhaps that woman had performed a unidirectional teleportation and teleported him to the Zhong Family by accident. In the end, the Zhong Family had mistaken him for a thief.

Although Di Jiu was a level-four Array Great-Master, he had not been exposed to the true Cultivation World. If he had really experienced a unidirectional teleportation, given his cultivation level and lack of protection, there was a 90 percent chance that he would have been fragmented by space.

“Thank you for not exposing me. My name is Di Jiu.” As soon as Di Jiu understood what was going on, he quickly bowed with cupped fists and thanked the woman.

“It was nothing,” the ugly woman said calmly. “You actually helped me too. If Zhong Hetian had been here instead of you, things would have been more difficult for me.”

As expected, the ugly woman shared the same mindset as Zhong Hetian. She had been just as unwilling to marry him. “How may I address you?” Di Jiu asked hurriedly.

“I am Jing Moshuang.” Afraid that Di Jiu would fail to understand, the woman explained, “Shuang means ‘pair’, not ‘snow’ as in the phrase ‘a world covered in snow and ice’.”

“I need to ask you a favor, Sister Shuang. Could you take me to the immortal sect so I can take a look?” Di Jiu did not understand why Jing Moshuang had explained what ‘shuang’ meant, but he was not concerned about it. He was more concerned about whether he would be able to visit an immortal sect, regardless of where he was.

Based on his understanding of the Cultivation World, if one did not enter an immortal sect, they could only become an Itinerant Cultivator. In the entire history of cultivation, the majority of Itinerant Cultivators had not been able to accomplish much, barring a few exceptional Itinerant Cultivators who had come across huge opportunities.

“You wish to visit the immortal sect?” Jing Moshuang looked at Di Jiu questioningly.

Di Jiu rubbed his hands together in embarrassment. “Yes, I would like to try my luck. If that is impossible, then I shall see what I can do.”

Jing Moshuang, who was a straightforward person, stood up and said, “Alright, we will go our separate ways when we reach the immortal sect’s square. You can call me by my name instead of calling me Sister Shuang.”

As he watched Jing Moshuang stand up, Di Jiu sighed silently. She had the best female figure he had ever seen. Even ordinary clothes complimented her perfect proportions. Zhen Man, who Di Jiu had been obsessed with in the past, could not even compare to her.

She had such a perfect figure, yet the heavens had cursed her. Thanks to his medical skills, Di Jiu could naturally tell that someone had destroyed Jing Moshuang’s face. Poison had obviously been used to corrode her skin.

However, despite his medical expertise, Di Jiu could not help Jing Moshuang recover her original appearance.

Although he was technically able to, he did not possess the necessary medicinal herbs. He had once read in a book that a medicinal herb known as the Buddha Rue Fruit could be combined with several other herbs to form a medicine. When applied evenly on the face, that medicine could remove any scars. However, Di Jiu had never actually seen this herb in real life.

“You can sleep on the bed. I will rest on the other side of the room,” Jing Moshuang said before she lifted her hand and pressed a button. A screen was automatically pulled down.

Jing Moshuang walked around the screen and made no more sounds.

This woman has a good self-cultivation, Di Jiu thought silently. Given his current position, it was impressive enough that she would want to take him away. She obviously did not view or treat Di Jiu as an inferior human being. She had even offered him the bed.

Di Jiu tried practising for a while, yet his meridians were shattered and thus unable to complete a Qi Circulation. In the end, he sighed. It seemed like his body needed to heal before he could do anything else.

Three days passed by in a flash. During those three days, Jing Moshuang and Di Jiu did not leave the newlywed courtyard. Jing Moshuang was a person of few words. Other than the few sentences she had exchanged with Di Jiu on the night of their wedding, they had not said a word to each other.

Most people would consider this a sign that the newlyweds were really close. Only Di Jiu knew that he had done nothing but try to heal his broken meridians for three days straight.

Di Jiu was pleased when his meridians finally started to heal three days later. This was a self-healing process that had nothing to do with his other attempts. The gray stone was indeed a heaven-defying object. Even broken meridians did not need any treatment in order to self-heal.

As a medical grandmaster, Di Jiu knew very well the difficulties of trying to heal meridians.

Three days later, Jing Moshuang told him that she would be leaving for a while. Di Jiu did not know what methods she used, but when she came back, she took him and left her family.

Di Jiu had been worried that someone would realize that he was not Zhong Hetian, but he soon discovered that he had been worrying too much. When Jing Moshuang left, no one came to see her off or check on him. It seemed as though the extravagantly lively wedding that had taken place a few days earlier had not been hers.

…

As soon as they left the Jing Family home far behind them, Di Jiu finally relaxed. When he and Jing Moshuang boarded a beast carriage, he could not help but ask, “Where will the Immortal Sect Test take place? How long do we still have to travel for?”

Before Jing Moshuang could reply this time, a slighter older man on the beast carriage answered, “The northern province’s Immortal Sect Test will take place in the Lonely River City. It will take us a day to get there by beast carriage.”

“That’s right. I heard that the test used to be held in the Desolate City in the past. If it had been taking place in the Desolate City again, we would have needed to leave a month earlier in order to get there in time,” someone else added in agreement.

As this group of people sat together, their topic of conversation revolved around the recruitment of the immortal sects.

Di Jiu learned quite a few useful things as he listened. He now knew that more than 10 immortal sects would be coming to the Lonely River City, including two large-scale sects.

The beast carriage Di Jiu was in reached the Lonely River City at twilight.

Despite the dark sky above it, the Lonely River City looked very lively. The various lights made the entire city look like it had just woken up. Every street was crowded with people, and every store seemed to be bustling with business.

Under the light of the beast carriage, Jing Moshuang took out a black money pouch and gave it to Di Jiu. “Let’s go our own ways now,” she said. “The Immortal Sect Test will last three days. I wish you good luck in joining a sect.”

Di Jiu, who was penniless, had been wondering where he would get some money, when Jing Moshuang gave him the money pouch. He took it without any courtesy. “Thank you, Moshuang. Good luck to you too.”

Thanks to what he had heard during the beast carriage ride, as well as his own knowledge, Di Jiu was not worried about joining an immortal sect. When an immortal sect recruited, what they cared about the most was the quality of the recruits’ Spirit Roots. Ever since he had obtained the gray stone, Di Jiu believed that his Spirit Roots had become very good. Otherwise, his cultivation speed would not have been so fast.

Jing Moshuang stopped speaking, squeezed swiftly into the crowd and disappeared quickly.