Chapter 35 - Back Mountain

More than 40 inner disciples stood inside the hall. There were disciples of black, white, and red rank, but no purple. All of these disciples had serious expressions. Among them, Wang Lin could see many faces that he knew, like Wang Zhuo, the girl named Xu, the girl name Zhou, apprentice-brother Zhang, and such.

Right in front of them sat two rows of more than 10 elders, all with cold expressions. Right in the middle sat a person, about 40 years old, wearing a blue gown, with eyes like lightning. He said, “Junior brother Sun, this is your disciple?”

Sun Dazhu quickly put up a smiling face and said, “Elder apprentice-brother, this is my disciple, Wang Lin. He entered the sect late, so he doesn’t know the meaning behind the bell ringing 5 times.”

A red faced man sitting on the right sneered, “The disciple is really like his master. He’s kinda dumb, just like you were back then.”

A man on his side laughed. “Apprentice-brother isn’t correct. Junior brother Sun at least had some talent, so he was much stronger than his disciple.”

Sun Dazhu’s face changed between red and white for a while. He gave Wang Lin a hard look. He snorted and ignored Wang Lin and went to sit down.

The man in the blue gown frowned. He looked at Wang Lin one more time before forgetting about him and said, “As said before, these 4 years of intense training must provide results. We must win in the competition against Xuan Dao Zong. Starting today, you will be entering the back mountain. Everyone will be provided with their own cultivation place. This time, the sect will provide 10,000 qi gathering pills for you all to use. None of you may leave the mountain during this time.”

All of the inner disciples replied in unison.

The man in the blue gown nodded and continued to say, “I hope that in four years, one of you will become a purple clothed disciple. Purple clothed disciple means a core disciple far more important than inner disciples. Forget it, experience it for yourself. Now, all of you, go to the back mountain and someone will lead to you the cultivation ground.”

After he finished speaking, he waved his sleeves and a white light shot out from them. After circling the hall once, he growled, “Open!”

The white light suddenly expanded and soon engulfed all of the inner disciples.

“Go!” Following the growl from the man in the blue gown, the white light sparkled and disappeared from the main hall.

Wang Lin felt a warm sensation in his body. After the blink of an eye, he found himself inside a valley. This place had much more spiritual energy than the other places. Sounds of water could be heard from all sides. He scanned the area and found the other inner disciples chatting with each other.

This valley had no plants. It was a cliff with many holes carved into it, like a bee hive. Some of the holes were sealed with giant rocks.

Suddenly Wang Lin noticed that someone was watching him. He turned around and saw Wang Zhuo smiling at him coldly.

At that moment, a youth came out from one of the holes in the cliff. He was wearing purple clothes and coldly looked at everyone. He said, “Fellow apprentice-brothers and sisters, this is the back mountains of the Heng Yue Sect. As for back mountain, it’s not really the back of the Heng Yue Sect, but a cultivation ground for inner disciples built by several Soul Transformation stage experts 500 years ago. This place has much thicker spiritual energy than normal. Since you are here, you must concentrate on cultivating, or else don’t blame us seniors for kicking you out of the back mountain.”

Wang Lin recognized this purple clothed youth. He was the person that bought Wang Lin’s spiritual energy liquid . It was rumored that he was already at the 6th layer of Qi Condensation and that he was very unpredictable.

Wang Lin lowered his head. This kind of scheming he understood well because he put him into a dangerous situation before.

“I have the chants for the 7th layer and below. If you reach that level, but don’t have the chant, come to me. Once I check you, I’ll give it to you. As for where you will be practicing, any one of these caves that isn’t sealed can be chosen. Here are bottles of Qi Gathering pills. Each bottle contains 50 pills and will be refilled once a year.” After he finished speaking, he waved his hand and 50 white bottles appeared on the ground.

Some of the inner disciples stepped forward and took a bottle, then started to look for the entrance to the cultivation area.

Wang Lin took a deep breath. Because he took a disguise pill back then, that person didn’t know his identity, so he went up and took a bottle. Zhang Kuang stood at the side, looking at the inner disciples take the bottles one by one, when he suddenly saw Wang Lin. He had a strange look on his face and said, “Whats your name? How come you haven’t even reached the first layer of Qi Condensation? Who is your master?” [E/N: Apparently, his name changed from Can Jie to Zhang Kuang. Whatever.]

Wang Lin stopped and turned around. He respectfully said, “Senior brother, my name is Wang Lin. My master is Sun Dazhu. My talent is lacking, that’s why I haven’t reached the first layer yet.”

Zhang Kuang was stunned. He smiled. “You are Wang Lin? I heard about you before. Although talent is important, perseverance is also key. Since your talent is lacking, you must work even harder!”

Wang Lin quickly promised.

“This cliff is too high for you since you’re not even at the first layer. I’ll give you a lift.” Zhang Kuang waved his sleeves. An invisible force appeared under Wang Lin’s feet and pushed him until he was in front of a cave.

Wang Lin respectfully thanked Zhang Kuang. After he turned around and entered the cave, his face quickly darkened. If he hadn’t met this apprentice-brother before, he would have been thankful, but after seeing his true nature, he would, of course, not take this small favor to heart.

The cave wasn’t large. There was only a stone bed and a lever on the wall. Wang Lin walked over and pulled the lever. Suddenly, a roaring sound could be heard as a giant rock fell down and completely sealed the cave.

After carefully examining the cave again and finding nothing wrong, Wang Lin was very satisfied with the place. When he looked for Sun Dazhu, he wanted to look for a place to cultivate outside of the sect. Although he was rejected, the current situation lead him to a place that was pretty close to his original plans.

The only downside was that there was no source of water inside the cave. Wang Lin’s cultivation mainly relied on the spiritual energy liquid. But in his bag of holding, he had collected a lot of snow water, so it should be enough for him to use for a while.

He also heard sounds of water inside the valley. As long as he was a bit cautious, water shouldn’t be an issue.