: The arduous path to success and enlightenment

After casually exchanging a few words, Senior Sister Zhu closed her eyes, which had never looked directly at Yan Chen from beginning to end. She gently raised her hand, her jade fingers slightly lifting, and as the sedan curtain fluttered down, a refreshing breeze seemed to surge forth, its fragrance mingling with the wind.

They watched the carriage gradually move away until it disappeared at the end of the road.

Then a middle-aged Taoist priest slowly walked out; he was a disciple of the Melting Gold Valley.

"Junior brother, please come with me!"

"Thank you for your trouble, senior brother!"

Yan Chen bowed respectfully, still savoring the profound meaning in Senior Sister Zhu's words.

The Grinding Institute, the Quarrying Institute, and the Forging Institute are the three institutes under the jurisdiction of the Gold Melting Valley, each with its own supervisor.

If the description in the [Immortal Official Jade Pendant] is true, then one of the two people seen earlier who committed murder and robbery was Qu Ying, the supervisor of the Forging Institute, and the other person was Yan Mo, the supervisor of the Quarrying Institute.

"Truly a wealth of talent!"

In the blink of an eye, Yan Chen followed the middle-aged Taoist priest, leaving the main road of the market and heading towards the foot of the mountain.

The mountain path was slippery, and it took the two of them about half an hour to finally arrive at a small courtyard with white walls and black tiles at the foot of the mountain.

That was the recruitment site set up by the Three Valleys at the foot of the mountain.

Its name is—Elite Academy!

Two stone-carved auspicious beasts squatted in front of the gate, and a plaque hung on the gate wall with the two powerful characters "Jade Sleeve".

Another couplet was engraved on the doorposts, which Yan Chen recited softly.

"Jade slips and painted portraits preserve the names of sages; official documents and edicts in hand highlight outstanding talents!"

The two entered the courtyard one after the other and arrived at the main hall, where the steward of the Gold Melting Valley, who was in charge of the liaison, was already waiting.

"Old Wang, it's nice to see you again. How have you been lately?"

The middle-aged Taoist priest had barely stepped one foot across the threshold when a smile spread across his face as he greeted the other party in a familiar manner.

The person in charge of recruiting new members was named Wang Gui'an. He joined the Jade Sleeve Sect at the age of nineteen and worked his way up from a mortal servant to a supervisor. He had struggled for half his life and was now sixty-nine years old, suffering from a hostage situation.

In recent years, based on his seniority, he was given a sinecure by the Gold Mine Valley, which can be considered to make the best use of his talents and give full play to his remaining abilities.

"What's so great about it? The Ninth Hospital has been recruiting a lot of new staff lately, and this old man has been exhausted all morning!"

"Doesn't this show that you're very dedicated?"

After exchanging pleasantries, Wang Guian finally turned his gaze to Yan Chen and asked:

"These must be newly recruited mortal servants? Which valley and which courtyard have they been assigned to?"

"Gold Melting Valley, Forging Academy"

The middle-aged Taoist priest gave a brief reply, then jokingly said to Yan Chen:

"Elder Wang is a senior figure in our Jade Sleeve Sect. His knowledge and vision surpass those of many disciples from the Three Valleys. You should cultivate a good relationship with him, young man. A few wise words from him will greatly benefit you in the future!"

"You're flattering this old man again!"

Wang Guian feigned displeasure, but couldn't help but smile.

After exchanging pleasantries, the middle-aged Taoist priest said he had something to attend to and left first.

Wang Guian slowly sat back down, smoothed out the thread-bound register spread out on the table, picked up his brush and filled it with ink, and asked several questions without looking up.

What is your name?

Place of origin/birthplace?

Is there any proof?

Do you have any letters of introduction?

The barrage of questions came like a machine gun, one sentence after another. If Yan Chen hadn't already prepared his answers and knew them by heart, he might have made a mistake in his haste.

"So it's the Yan family of Shangyang. They were considered a middle-class clan a few decades ago, but now... tsk tsk tsk!"

Wang Guian glanced at the identity information he had just recorded, casually flipped open a large book, examined and compared it, and after confirming that there were no errors or omissions, he opened a table box next to him, took out a small token, and placed it on the table.

"This is your identification for a mortal servant in the Forging Academy. You can use this token to find the academy's supervisor later, who will arrange the rest of the trivial matters."

Wang Gui'an's voice was weary, his eyes were slightly closed, and he felt that he had explained enough, so he had the idea of ​​waving his hand to send people away.

But the next moment, a bright red bill flashed past Wang Guian's cloudy eyes, and in the blink of an eye, it landed precisely in the brochure on the desk.

"Manager Wang, you've lost your money."

Yan Chen didn't mince words. On the surface, he was a member of the Yan family from the Lianqi clan, but in reality, he was just an ordinary person who had studied some rudimentary Taoism for a few years and had very limited understanding of the land beneath his feet.

Therefore, I wanted to get some useful information out of this "veteran".

Wang Guian glanced at the denomination of the banknotes, then casually put them away without showing any emotion. He merely glanced at Yan Chen's tattered cotton robe and said indifferently:

"He's supposed to be from a respectable clan, so why is he in such a sorry state?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Chen sighed and recounted his ordeal of encountering a cultivator who had been robbed.

As if he had expected this, Wang Guian leaned back in his chair and said calmly:

"Those cultivators, though filthy, crude, and lawless, are, in a sense, a 'litmus test' for our Jade Sleeve Sect. If they can't even pass this test, how can they be expected to join the lineage and inherit the Dharma?"

Yan Chen's lips curled into a bitter smile. Feigning resentment, he sighed and said:

"If I had learned one or two martial arts techniques before leaving home, I wouldn't have suffered at the hands of these petty thieves in the mountains..."

"How dare a junior speak such nonsense?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Guian's expression suddenly turned stern.

But then he remembered something and patiently explained earnestly:

"Since the eight [Celestial Officials] descended to earth, ending the era of 'Dao Extinction', and established the Dao lineage in the Great Wilderness State, the lineage has been passed down for more than 90,000 years."

"The legal system is strict and the boundaries are difficult to cross; this is true in all four continents of the Great Wilderness!"

"In my Southern Immortal Continent, only those clans and Taoist schools under the rule of the Dao, possessing imperial edicts and seals, are qualified to recommend their disciples to join the Daoist lineage and inherit the Dharma lineage."

"This is the right path to success and enlightenment! It has been so since ancient times, how can it be changed?"

Although Yan Chen only wanted to provoke Wang Laodeng into talking, he couldn't help but sigh after hearing these words repeatedly.

The so-called "Daoist lineage" is extremely domineering. Not only does it hold all the lineages of a state in its palm, but it also manipulates the local people as if they were children. If one wants to cultivate one's own lineage, one must even join the Daoist lineage before one is qualified to cultivate.

If one wishes to join the Taoist lineage, there is no other way unless one is born into a local clan or is recommended by a Taoist scholar.

Wouldn't this extinguish the desire of nine out of ten people in the world to cultivate Taoism?

Thinking of this, Yan Chen felt a slight chill and couldn't help but ask again:

"If someone is neither from a local clan nor recommended by a Confucian school, is there any chance for them to attain enlightenment?"

"Isn't that just a rogue cultivator? They neither inherit the Daoist lineage nor the Dharma lineage. What they cultivate and practice is mostly the dregs filtered out by the Daoist lineage, mostly from those long-extinct unorthodox paths, not worth a second glance."

Wang Guian's tone was quite disdainful, as if he was afraid that these words would sully his own tongue.

"It's laughable that some of them are fools who actually regard these heretical doctrines as gospel, fantasizing that they can form a clan or community in a hundred years and have the opportunity to be accepted into the orthodox lineage. It's utterly delusional!"

Yan Chen understood. Putting aside his own mortal ways, those cultivators outside the market should also belong to the "unorthodox paths" mentioned by the other party.

It's no wonder that the Jade Sleeve Sect doesn't pay much attention to these beings.

The mosquitoes, flies, and insects kept outside the door are not worth my effort; let them bump into the walls and die on their own.

Wang Guian talked for a long time, but his enthusiasm eventually waned, and he rubbed his temples wearily.

After a short while, he turned around again, his cloudy old eyes looking at the tall bookshelf, as if searching for something.

After a brief pause, Wang Guian slowly reached out and, under Yan Chen's slightly ardent gaze, took a thread-bound book.

"Originally, you were supposed to meet the supervisor before you could return here to receive your clan's teachings."

"However, I've long felt that this is too troublesome. With the supervisors involved, there's bound to be more buck-passing and extortion. It's better to just hand it over to you directly. You'll save on the ritual fees, and I'll be happy to have some peace and quiet!"

Yan Chen paid no attention to Old Man Wang's rambling; his attention was now completely drawn to the small thread-bound book.

The cover is blue, with a line of simple, ancient-style regular script written on it.

The Crimson Cloud Bright Light Chasing Technique!

Is this the clan-inherited martial art of the Shangyang Yan family?

Unexpectedly, I actually have the opportunity to become a cultivator!

Yan Chen was momentarily lost in thought, and subconsciously reached out to gently touch the precious Taoist book.

Wang Guian slapped Yan Chen's hand away, raised two fingers, and said bluntly:

"The Crimson Cloud Bright Fire Control Technique, a clan-inherited skill of the Shangyang Yan family, belonging to the Bing Fire Dao, is priced at two thousand magic coins!"