Chapter 28
Early the next day, Lyu Liang sent a message through the jade token to the founding father of Sword Character, explaining to him the problem Giant Tiger encountered during cultivation. Lyu Liang’s intention was to request for a few demon stones so Giant Tiger could use them for cultivation. Later on when opportunity arose, he would like Giant Tiger to continue its cultivation in the trial field where there was the presence of some Demon Qi.
However, the founding father of Sword Character showed such generosity that Lyu Liang was taken by surprise. The founding father of Sword Character said he already went to survey the mine and realized that it was a mine range full of upper grade demon stones. The entire underground area for mining was considerably large that he could assign a small area of the mine for Giant Tiger to enter for cultivation. At the same time, he suggested for Giant Tiger to be in charge of managing the other demon beasts in the trial field. After all, the Early-stage of Great Demon beast was a substantial level of cultivation which should not be overlooked. As for the two demon beasts which had reached the Peak Great Demon Level, there were guards who took turns to watch over them and Giant Tiger need not be involved.
Both Lyu Liang and Giant Tiger were elated to hear this news and on the same day they received the news, Giant Tiger went to the designated area at the mine for cultivation. At this instant, it totally did not feel the restraint of being subservient to Lyu Liang. In fact, it was filled with gratitude towards Lyu Liang.
Another day passed and it was finally the day which the second test came to an end. At midday, Lyu Liang was summoned by Hunyuan Sword Immortal to go to the main hall of the Sword Character Immortal Palace.
Lyu Liang followed Hunyuan Sword Immortal into the main hall and came face to face with two other groups of people. One of which was a group of ten cultivators led by Saint Tianfang. Observing them carefully, Lyu Liang realized that each of them possessed a murderous aura, which betrayed the fact that they had just been through a fierce battle of life and death. With a jerk, Lyu Liang could now fully comprehend the callousness of the genius disciples Zhang Ran talked about. Starting with a few tens of thousands of people and eventually only ten were left. This was too cruel! Lyu Liang wondered how many had given up before the battle? He could almost guess the extent of casualties.
As expected, and to Lyu Liang’s relief, Zhao Tianding who was wearing a black coat and a straw hat, was among the ten. Coincidentally, Zhao Tianding also spotted Lyu Liang looking at him and as their eyes met, they gave each other a smile.
On the other hand, the other group was led by a middle-aged man cladded in a long black robe. Lyu Liang could vaguely remember that this middle-age man should be Immortal Zhenyuan, whom Hunyuan Sword Immortal mentioned. All five people following behind him were cultivators possessing special bodily constitutions.
Thereafter, the crowd gradually moved into the main hall where incense tables and ancestral tablets were set up.
"These tablets were inscribed with the names of the powerful figures in the history of the Sword Character Immortal Palace. Some of them had ascended to Heaven Realm, while others who had died had contributed greatly to the suzerain in one way or other. It’s my hope that one day, your names will also be inscribed on these tablets!" Hunyuan Sword Immortal said loud and clear and his voice rang throughout the hall.
While Lyu Liang did not recognize any of the names, Lyu Liang and the rest were filled with admiration and greatly encouraged by looking at those names. After this, an image of a green scroll appeared in Lyu Liang’s mind and written on the scroll were the house rules of the Immortal Palace.
"These are the house rules of Sword Character Immortal Palace. As disciples of the palace, all of you ought to know them by heart and abide strictly by them, especially the three iron rules. If any of these three were broken, your soul would be destroyed!" the voice of Saint Tianfang sounded as a warning to the new disciples.
Thereafter, Saint Tianfang allocated the residences to the new disciples and they dispersed to go to the designated places. The disciples did not have to worry about the allocation of masters either because there would be someone to help each of them choose a suitable master according to their Mind Mantra after a few days.
From Lyu Liang’s chats with the old man in charge of the herb garden earlier on, he knew that a disciple with special bodily constitution would directly become the Immortal Lord’s disciple. While those with varying or multiple Spiritual Roots would become temporary disciples of seniors who were at cultivation levels of Void Return stage and Nascent Soul stage. Until these disciples reached the Gold Core stage, they would then be assessed to see if they could become the Immortal Lord’s direct disciples.
Under normal circumstances, there would still be a considerable number of disciples under the Immortal Lord. However, there would only be a few pro-disciples. These would be the exceptionally talented disciples with excellent
After Lyu Liang returned to his cave residence in the back hills, he began studying the house rules of the Immortal Palace carefully. He knew it was reasonable for him to abide the rules since he was under the roof of the Immortal Palace. Although there were numerous items on the list of house rules, they were more or less those often mentioned by the long-time disciples. Some examples included showing respect for the masters as well as rules against fighting and killing among disciples.
Lyu Liang took special care to remember the three iron rules.
First iron rule: The disciples of the Immortal Palace should never harm a mortal man under any circumstance.
Second iron rule: The disciples of the Immortal Palace should never kill any innocent disciples from the same sect or from Xuan Nyu Sect.
Third iron rule: The disciples of the Immortal Palace should never practice any evil Cultivation Method that might harm or kill any creature.
Apart from these, the house rules also included instructions on the disciple’s apparels. In concrete terms, the respective colors of the disciples’ apparels would reflect their different levels of cultivation.
Disciples in the Qi Refining stage would put on green clothes, disciples in the Foundation Establishment stage would put on white clothes, disciples in the Hascent Soul stage would put on blue clothes, while disciples in the Void Return stage would put on purple clothes.
When Lyu Liang was in the midst of studying the house rules, Zhang Ran came to pass a message to him. He said a man named Zhao Tianding wanted to see Lyu Liang and was waiting for him at the entrance to the back hills. After receiving the news, Lyu Liang got up immediately to go to fetch Zhao Tianding back to the valley into his cave residence.
When Zhao Tianding entered his cave residence, he bowed to Lyu Liang respectfully and said, "Boss, you’ve also entered the Immortal Palace! I have heard that you were the one who broke the Great Demon Beast’s ploy at the trail field! You are formidable!"
"The credit should go to the Shanggong Fairy of Xuan Nyu Sect instead. In fact, I didn’t do much. Let’s talk about you now. Did you get hurt?" Lyu Liang was very concerned about Zhao Tianding, because just like himself, Zhao Tianding was a young man carrying a heavy burden.
"It’s nothing really, just a minor injury! I managed to get in here, being number five in the ranking. The other four who came in before me were a little luckier than me! From tomorrow onwards, I will be going to Zhifu Hall under the jurisdiction of Ancestor Fuyuan to be a handyman. With regard the allocation of masters, I will likely become a disciple of seniors in the Nascent Soul stage in a few days’ time, just as Ancestor Tianfang mentioned a moment ago." Zhao Tianding was apparently very excited about this because this was one step closer to his journey towards revenge.
While the two were chatting, Zhang Ran came once again to inform Lyu Liang that he had more visitors. In fact, there were three visitors who came this time.
Assessing the situation, Zhao Tianding decided to take his leave first. In fact, Zhang Ran first hid Zhao Tianding in his own cave residence and subsequently secretly let him out after the three visitors entered Lyu Liang’s cave residence. After all, Lyu Liang and Zhao Tianding thought it would be wise to keep their relationship a secret for the time being.
As the three guests entered, Lyu Liang realized that they were in fact three of the five disciples who possessed special bodily constitutions. Among these three, one of them was the green-robed man whom Lyu Liang had an acquintance with. By now, this man had already changed his clothes into a green robe with a mark of Immortal Palace and was holding on to a small hand, smiling at Lyu Liang.
The other two were the burly man with a stature of a bear, and the tall, dark-faced young man, whose smiles somewhat resembled that of Lyu Liang’s. The last of them was a petite young lady whose mannerism so demure, as if she came from a respectable family. Lyu Liang felt that the aura exuberated by the girl was rather familiar.
"You must be Brother Lyu Liang? I am Yu Jun and these two are my very good friends, Qi Lin and Lyu Xinyun. All three of us came from Sishui Country. Earlier on, we happen to hear about the great achievements of Brother Lyu and had been looking forward to meeting you. Finally we get to meet you!" The man called Yu Jun clasp his hands together in greeting and the burly man called Qi Lin and the beautiful lady Lyu Xinyun followed suit.
"There is not need to stand on ceremony! It was actually the doings of the seniors from Xuan Nyu Fairy sect. I was just taking their credit for it! All three of you are the ones we admire, given that you possess special bodily constitutions!" Although Lyu Liang was very excited to see them, he did not betray his excitement.
Their surnames were Yu, Qi and Lyu respectively and all three came from Sishui Country. What was more was that they were good friends! Could there be such coincidence in the world? They must be the most excellent cultivators from the three most well known sects in Sishui Country!
It was no wonder that Lyu Liang felt a sense of familiarity towards Lyu Xinyun, she was a relative of his! Lyu Liang tried to suppress the overwhelming excitement in him and greeted the three one after another. Thereafter, they sat down around a table to drink tea and chat with one another.
Through their converstion, Lyu Liang get to know that Yu Jun was the oldest of them all, being 20 years old. Qi Lin came next, being 19 years old and the youngest was Lyu Xinyun, who was just 16 years old.
Yu Jun was apparently the most talkative among the three, while Qi Lin would laugh from time to time. Lyu Xinyun was the quietest who usually just listened to them and speak some words once in a while and would cover her mouth when she smiled.
During the conversation, Yu Jun even jokingly commented that Lyu Liang and Lyu Xinyun could be relatives because they exuberated similar auras. During those moment, Lyu Liang would instantly divert their attention by changing the topic.
Although all three of them originated from well-known sects and possessed special bodily constitutions, so they were considered geniuses, there was no a bit of arrogance in them. For this reason, Lyu Liang formed a very postive impression of them.
In fact on a few occasions, Lyu Liang had wanted to ask about the situation of the Lyu family in Sishui, but could not find the right time to do it. Although Lyu Liang had not really stayed in the Lyu Family since the time he had any memories, he was after all flowing with the Lyu Family’s blood in him!
For this reason, Lyu Liang could not help but felt his eyes welling up with tears when he saw Lyu Xinyun. He had to keep reminding himself of the important mission he was yet to accomplish, otherwise, he would have acknowledged Lyu Xinyun and be crying with tears there and then.
Eventually the topics of their conversations revolved around their experiences in the Immortal Palace and Lyu Liang was able to understand all that had happened.
The cultivators with special bodily constitutions would always be the best of the lot no matter where they were. There was no exception when they were in the Sword Character Immortal Palace. Without any doubt, all five of them were directly put under the instruction of the Immortal Lord.
Among them, Yu Jun was the one with the bodily constitution of Immortal symbol. He was as good as a demon who could produce the best talisman, and one that was born with this ability. True enough, Yu Jun had always shown great interest in Talismans since he was a child. When he was eight years old, he first entered into the Qi Refining stage. He managed to produce a Middle-stage Qi Refining talisman under the fire system just by secretly looking through a book in his home, introducing talismans and thinking it through what he read. If not for the limitation in his cultivation, he was able to produce any talisman below the Nascent Soul stage.
Qi Lin, on the other hand, possessed the bodily constitution of the heavenly thunder. He was born with the ability to master the Golden Series Cultivation Method. Just like the Dreamless Heavenly Lord, who possessed the bodily constitution of a Sword Immortal, he was able to grasp the principles of the Way of Sword when he was at the Middle-stage of Void Return. In the same way, Qi Lin could breakthrough the principles of Thunder and Lightning more easily than others.
Lastly, Lyu Xinyun had a rather interesting bodily constitution, which was that of an Alluring constitution. When Hunyuan Sword Immortal first found her, he had promised to let her become a disciple in Xuan Nyu Sect if nothing unexpected happened. This was because her bodily constitution was perfectly suited to practise "The Great Manual of Heavenly Charm" of Xuan Nyu Sect.
The master Xuan Nyu Fairy had only achieved the eighth level of "The Great Manual of Heavenly Charm" because she did not possess an Alluring bodily constitution. It was said that if one were to completely grasp the "The Great Manual of Heavenly Charm", even the Almighty Immortal would be wary of her.