To be an immortal is to be above and beyond what humans can ever be.

  To be an immortal is to walk the same path the gods walked before us hundreds of thousands of years ago.

  Of course, that’s not the case for everyone, as there are always people like me.

  But that’s why immortals are usually hidden from the public. Does a human care for the affairs of the ants beneath his feet?

  The answer is no; they don’t even look down.

  Why, then, should the immortals care for the affairs of humans beneath their feet?

  For immortals or even new cultivators, the sky isn’t even the limit anymore, as they say, and that’s why they couldn’t care less what happens to the ordinary man.

  Even if they mingle with them, they don’t reveal the fact that they are immortal.

  They don’t hide out of fear; they hide out of pure disdain for the fragility of human life.

  They can’t get too close because anyone they become close to will eventually die, as death is the only true thing in life.

  Generations will die while the immortal continues his heavenly path.

  I have to say though; they do love their women, and that’s why once in a hundred years one of them descends to the mortal plain and takes a wife, raising his child for a while before disappearing without a trace.

  They can’t stop this habit like some rumored gods of legends and all their demigod sons and daughters, even though I doubt those tales and think they are all made up by temple high priests who try to complicate the story of those they worship all the time, to give them more depth and more credibility over generations.

  Omitting the old stories that might weaken the faith of the people and adding fresh stories that will strengthen the faith of the people.

  Changing the narrative and the overall message as the years pass. If slavery gets abolished, then the god doesn’t encourage slavery anymore, even though he definitely did for hundreds of years.

  What’s important for us, though, in this book is the cultivators. All the minor religions in Jianghu talk about cultivators extensively and teach cultivation methods that mostly don’t work.

  That will definitely change one of these days if cultivators cease to exist or they stop being so prominent in our society like they are now. After all, the empire has an entire battalion of fighting cultivators.

  Some of the emperor’s sons are cultivators in their own right.

  The children of the cultivators who disappear, though are future cultivators themselves.

  While there are always established cultivation families and clans, most of the new cultivators are indeed from these flings.

  The fascinating world of cultivation

  Zhi Zixin

  ***

  “I don’t understand where this sect is; I see nothing inside this enormous cave but darkness.” Seph asked Lilith, who was leading him toward the sect.

  She answered clearly exasperated, “Stop complaining and follow me. I think they are using an illusion array or something similar to hide where they are for safety reasons.”

  Seph had been asking her the same question for a while.

  After walking inside the cave for some time, they came face to face with the huge ornate door.

  “See? I told you if you weren’t just so impatient.” She sighed after saying that.

  “I am sorry; once you started getting annoyed, I thought it was fun to tease you more. After all, you are always teasing me. This is revenge.” He said with a mischievous smile and a glint in his eye.

  She looked at him incredulously and said, “You little shit! I am thousands of years older than you. How can you treat me this way? I will show you; it’s on. You will be down on your knees begging for my forgiveness soon.”

  Seph and Sun laughed at her, high fiving each other. Meanwhile, Baby just yawned like she wasn’t amused by their shenanigans; she was the most serious member of this group.

  Lilith huffed and puffed but went to the door and used its huge handle to knock.

  A minute later the door opened, and the inner sect cultivator behind the door said, “Oh, it’s you two. Come in quickly; the elder has been waiting for you for ages.”

  Seph went over what he would say to the elder in his head. He didn’t want to screw this up. After all, it’s Lilith’s life that was on the line.

  Once inside, the inner sect cultivator called in an outer sect disciple and let him take his place, and told him, “If anyone knocks, you come and call me. You never know; we might get attacked. Better someone strong like me who opens the door; at least we will have a chance of fighting back.”

  The outer sect disciple replied, “Understood, senior brother, you don’t have to worry. Go on with your business, and I’ll be here.”

  The inner sect disciple then led the duo into the sect. After they walked for a few minutes, they saw the bell of the great tower of Amoria.

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  Seph freaked out. “That’s... I know what this is; I saw it in all its former glory. This is the bell of Amoria!”

  The inner sect disciple dampened his excitement by saying, “Don’t feel so special for seeing that vision. It seems like over half of the legacy takers saw this vision.”

  Seph said, “I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just a piece of history, a history I have become familiar with in the past months inside the legacy trials.”

  “Don’t rub that in my face, you lucky bastard. I wish it were us inner sect disciples who could get into the trials. We would have made significant gains. Oh, well, I guess some things can’t be helped, at least you are on our side.”

  The inner-sect disciples seemed to be really jealous of the legacy takers; especially after so many of them made it into the inner sect and kicked out many of their friends.

  It was like a competition between the old guard and the new blood of the sect.

  They weren’t happy, and many unpleasant situations occurred between the two groups already in Seph’s absence.

  The duo also saw many entrances to what looked like fancy tombs, but they couldn’t see what was inside as each one had its own stone door.

  A little further ahead, they saw many unique buildings with many signboards on top of them.

  Seph browsed them as they went, the library, the alchemy workshop, the blacksmith & armory had a joint sign since they were in the same building, and then there was the treasure house where a cultivator was inside behind the counter, and he stared at them curiously as they passed him by.

  The duo was super interested in all these buildings, and they couldn’t wait to visit every one of them. After all, they really wanted to use every advantage they could get out of this sect.

  They eventually reached a large building that didn’t have a sign outside.

  The inner sect disciple said, “The elder is within this building; be respectful. Answer all his questions. He is in the core formation stage, so don’t even think about offending him. You can’t even imagine how hard it is to reach that stage.”

  Seph just nodded and followed the inner sect disciple inside.

  Once in front of the elder, the three of them bowed slightly, as the inner sect disciple said, “Greetings, venerable elder, Seph and his companion finally made it here. I brought them immediately to you.”

  “At ease, disciple. Come, take your place beside your brothers and sisters.” The elder said as he signaled to both his flanks.

  The elder was sitting in the middle of the room on a throne, flanked by inner sect disciples on both sides.

  Surprisingly, none of the disciples were from the legacy contestants.

  The elder eyed Seph and Lilith the entire time his disciple was taking his place, and then he said, “Welcome back, Seph. May I ask you who is beside you? They told me that another disciple went with you, but she is definitely not of the disciples I sent inside that tree.”

  Seph thought, Alright, this wasn’t how I expected the conversation to go. I thought he would ask me if I won the trial first or something, and then I would reveal Lilith’s identity. I can’t do that at this point; I hope they are prepared.

  “This is the legacy of Scorn in the flesh, honorable elder. She is Lilith, daughter of Scorn.” The elder’s eyes went wide at that, but Seph wasn’t done talking. “I believe she was the target of the entire trial. I reached her only after passing through all the challenges. Her father, Scorn, told me she was his legacy.”

  The elder looked to one disciple beside him and pointed with his head towards Lilith surreptitiously. The disciple looked like he had activated some kind of skill and then looked at the elder and nodded in approval.

  The elder immediately dropped to the ground and kowtowed to Lilith.

  It took the inner disciples a few seconds, but they started doing the same and following his lead.

  Seph looked at them extremely surprised, and was about to do the same, but Lilith stopped him. Refusing to let him kneel for her, the oldest inner sect disciples, and the four core disciples and the elder were kowtowing to both of them.

  The disciples noticed that, and the fire of jealousy burned in their hearts.

  They were already jealous of Seph when he said that he had won the trials, even though in the beginning they suspected he didn’t, as he didn’t look any stronger than the other legacy takers they saw so far.

  But now their jealousy was through the roof, they were forced to kowtow to a cultivator who they viewed as inferior to them.

  This prick thinks he can just stand there and watch us kowtow to her and not join us?

  Not only did he win the trials, but he possibly won the friendship or even love of the most important woman in the sect. This is unfair.

  I’ll teach him a lesson for standing while I kowtowed like this; he needs to learn some humility. Just because he got to know her first doesn’t mean that he is special.

  The audacity of this guy! What happened between them that made her like him to the point of stopping him from kowtowing? The elder must know that he is still standing, and it doesn’t seem to bother him at all.

  These were the thoughts going through the heads of most of the inner sect cultivators.

  But one of them in particular thought, I’m the best disciple this sect has ever known. I am superior to this man, who got the affection of a foolish woman. This is unacceptable. I’ll beat him within an inch of his life for this humiliation, or I am not Qian Mian.

  Qian Mian was the first to raise his head from the ground, and on his face was a mask with no eyes, and no mouth. It was like the face of someone who grew up without either of them.

  Seph and Lilith were really surprised and didn’t know how to interpret the mask. They were pretty sure they had glanced at this inner sect disciple before the kowtow started, and he had a different mask on.

  Only their memories of what happened were different, because they both glanced at him at different times, and he had a different mask each time.

  The elder finally rose from his kowtow, and he noticed Qian Mian sitting on his knees, he thought he had just gotten up with him and thought nothing of it.

  He then rose to a standing position and took his place on his throne; he didn’t let his eyes down from Lilith the entire time.

  After he sat down, the other disciples got up, and each took his place beside him.

  They all had distinct looks on their faces, but most of them tried to hide their clear hostility towards Seph, even though they were extremely jealous of him.

  “Welcome, daughter of the great one. Our sect is honored to receive you. We will strive to make your stay most comfortable here; I’ll give you your own lodgings immediately, one of our finest cultivation tombs.” The elder said as he bowed lightly to her with his head; he couldn’t help himself. He finally got his wish, and his sect was now blessed with the legacy of Scorn.

  Lilith said, “Thanks great elder, you honor me. You didn’t have to kowtow to me at all. I am just a humble cultivator compared to you. You also don’t have to go to any extreme measures to make me comfortable here; I am good with being treated like everyone else.”

  He quickly said as if he was insulted, “Nonsense, I’ll redirect a lot of our resources to see you advance as fast as possible.”

  Lilith smiled sheepishly. “Please, no need to do that. I just have one request.”

  The elder replied fast, “Anything you require will happen; you just say it and we will make it happen.”

  “Thank you, I want Seph to live with me in my cultivation tomb.”

  One of the inner sect disciples was sitting in a very relaxed way. He sat with one leg folded in a half-lotus position, while the other was propped up in front of him, knee raised. One arm braced behind him, supporting his weight with a casual lean.

  He fell on his face dramatically after he heard her request to have another man live with her.

  Many other disciples’ mouths dropped open in disbelief.

  The elder coughed as he choked before he said, “Seph was the winner of the legacy trial. He will get his very own cultivation tomb too and immediately be considered an inner sect disciple. Same as you. In fact, it would be better for each of you to have your own cultivation tomb because it will raise your cultivation speed significantly.”

  Lilith thought about it for just a second before she said, “Then I want my cultivation tomb to be right beside his.”

  “Hum, I mean I guess we could do this; we will move some things around and have you both next to each other.” The elder said before he thought, I wonder what made them this close.