Chapter 2 Outsiders from the Mountains

On this day, the peaceful life was shattered.

Orion Zhang Dayuan went to Sifang Town outside the mountains to sell prey and brought back a notice.

Mr. Su explained to everyone that in a month, the time for the gods to choose people has come, and children about ten years old in nearby villages and towns can go to the local big city of Hongwu City to candidates.

Hearing this, the village boiled. Some people are happy, some are worried, envious, jealous, and all kinds of emotions are mixed. After a short time, Zhang Dayuan, Li Bin, and Aunt Ju in the village came to the door one after another, congratulations, flattering, hoping to help their children, each with their own purpose, and the three families who were busy hit the back of their heads with their heels.

At night, the small village, which had been noisy for a day, gradually calmed down, and Xiaotian lay on the bed, looking at the roof, silently thinking about his thoughts.

With a "squeak", the door opened, and Mr. Su walked in.

"Xiaotian, do you want to go to Hongwu City?"

"Dad, I ......" Xiao Tian wanted to speak and stopped.

"You can go if you want, and just go out to see the world. Mr. Su said gently.

"Dad, but I ......"

"Okay, Dad knows what you're going to say, there are some things, how can you know if you don't try? Okay, it's not early, go to sleep, Dad will go to your Uncle Zhang tomorrow, and we'll go together when the time comes." After Mr. Su finished speaking, he stood up, walked out of the room, and closed the door. I was left behind a little day full of joy and sorrow, and this night my heart was full of mixed feelings, how could I sleep? It was not until it was almost dawn that I fell asleep in a daze.

The days passed in anticipation, and within a few days, the village organized more than a dozen capable men to go out with the children. After all, this place is remote, there are four or five hundred miles to Hongwu City, and most of them are mountain roads, and you can't walk fast with children, so you have to set off in advance. Mr. Su also wanted to go with the team, Zhang Dayuan thought that he was a weak scholar and couldn't walk the mountain road, so it would be cumbersome to take him, and after discussion, he felt that Mr. Su was literate after all, and he went to Hongwu City, the big guys were hillbillies who had never seen the world in the city, and Mr. Su might be able to help, and he was an adult after all, could he be more dragged down than the children? So in the end, Mr. Su also went on the road with everyone. After walking for two days, Zhang Dayuan found that his worries were superfluous, although Mr. Su was handsome, he was not weak, and although he was not as neat as them when he walked the mountain road, it was not necessarily very difficult. It's too much stronger than the children, but it surprises the big guys.

After more than 20 days of arduous trekking, on this day, the tall and solid walls of Hongwu City gradually appeared in front of everyone.

Dongqing Longzhou is based on cultivation, and the folk customs are good at martial arts, and it is named after "martial arts" in major cities. The jurisdiction over the inhabitants is led by the city, and each city has dozens to hundreds of towns, and each town has countless villages. At the top of the city, there are various cultivation sects, divided by the strength of the sect, the strong sects naturally occupy those first-class cities with superior locations, rich resources and large populations, and the weak sects can only retreat to the second. The way of cultivation is easier to get started, and the cultivation in the future will gradually become more difficult, especially after the cultivation reaches a certain realm, it is like climbing the ladder to the sky, step by step, each step is extremely difficult, and the difference in the realm of each step is also very great. If a sect wants to survive and grow, it is very important to discover good cultivation seedlings. Once a good seedling is dug up, carefully cultivated, and after it grows, if it can go further on the basis of this sect, it will be a huge improvement for the entire sect, if it can take three or four steps, it will be tantamount to driving the entire sect to produce a qualitative leap, from a low-level sect to a top-level sect, and the sparrow will become a phoenix immediately. Therefore, each sect attaches great importance to the selection of cultivators every time, the so-called "education without class", as long as you are of qualified age and willing to participate in the selection test, you can come, in line with the principle of "rather kill mistakes than let go", to avoid the loss of good seedlings. Of course, the population base of mortals is too huge, so huge that even the immortals can't be counted, so if you don't test it, the immortals will have no problem. But cultivation has such huge benefits, who would not want to come? Therefore, the chance of missing out on good seedlings is also very rare, and it is one in billions less than the probability of winning the lottery such as the Super Lotto in later generations.

A small Hongwu City cultivation selection, as far as the eye can see, is densely packed, crowded, not to mention tens of millions of people have come. The villagers of Zhenguan Village had also brought their children to run for election before, and knew that there were too many people to enter the city, so Hongwucheng had already set up a large pergola tent outside the city early in the morning for the candidates to use. The villagers took their children and walked to the camp in Sifang Town. For each selection, the location of each town is fixed, which is convenient for people to find, and it is also convenient to maintain order and avoid unnecessary chaos.

Where have the children of Zhenguan Village seen such a scene, they have already been shocked one by one, and Xiaotian is also stunned. Mr. Su had a calm and breezy expression, and seemed to have really seen the world.

When I arrived at the stationing place, I came early because Zhenguan Village was far away, and the children from the nearby villages had not yet arrived, and the selection would take two days to start.

After a little washing and simply eating some dry food brought by themselves, the adults were tired all the way and went to rest, but the children had no intention of sleeping, chattering non-stop, exclamations and excitement one after another.

Zhang Xiaotong, Li Daniu, and Xiaoni have the experience of vitality entering the body, and they know that they can be selected nine times out of ten, so they are just a little apprehensive in their hearts, not very nervous. And those children who don't know if they are hidden spirit roots, after the initial surprise and excitement have passed, their mood is gradually low, immersed in the longing and anticipation of their future fate and confusion.

Xiaotian was calm on the surface, but he was also nervous and inexplicable in his heart, with a trace of expectation, but more of an uneasiness and sadness for the helplessness of fate.

Unconsciously, he clenched his fists, and his palms were full of cold sweat.

Suddenly, a tender little hand reached out from behind and held his hand, "Brother Xiaotian, what do you want?" She saw Xiaotian's depressed expression, and couldn't help but come over to comfort her.

Xiao Tianqiang smiled: "No, I didn't think about anything. ”

Xiao Ni said: "Brother Xiaotian, if you work so hard, you will definitely be chosen by the gods." ”

"That's not necessarily, the immortals will only choose children with spiritual roots to cultivate. ”

"Brother Xiaotian, don't worry, when the gods choose me, I will ask him to bring you with me, otherwise, I won't go. ”

"Hey, what nonsense are you talking about, being chosen by the gods, that's a great thing, how can you do it if you don't go?"

"I don't care, I just think it's interesting to practice with Brother Xiaotian, if you only let me go alone, then I won't go. ”

"It's not just you, there are also Xiaotong and Da Niu. ”

"The two of them, I don't know if I can be favored by the gods, so I can't coax them first, and their eyes are about to grow to the sky, so I don't want to cultivate with them. ”

The two of them talked again, after all, they were children, and they couldn't stop the sleepiness from coming, and they fell asleep one after another.

The two days passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the day of the gods' selection of people had arrived.

On this day, the sky was only slightly bright, and the guards in Hongwu City went out of the city gate in batches, came to the crowd, and instructed everyone to dismantle the tent pergola. As soon as the day is bright, Hongwu City will hang the colorful flags high, the gongs and drums are noisy, the firecrackers are ringing in unison, the city gate is wide open, and the big red carpet is laid from the door hole, which extends to the city lord's mansion. The tents in Sifang Town are on the side of the main city gate, and the scene at the main city gate cannot be seen, only the voices of people can be heard, and the noise is extraordinary, which arouses the hearts of adults and children as if there are seven or eight cats scratching their paws, and they are anxious. In fact, it was only a short while, but in people's hearts, time seemed to be as long as a century, and suddenly I heard a commotion, and someone shouted excitedly: "Here, the gods are here!"

I saw a five-colored glow appear in the sky, the speed was extremely fast, just in the blink of an eye, the glow landed at the gate of the city, immediately, the crowd in the music and music, a tall old man in gorgeous clothes, led a group of brightly dressed men and women, bowed down, and chanted: "The city lord of Hongwu City, the disciple of the outer gate of Luoxia Valley, Ding Ennian, led his subordinates to welcome the immortal master!"

The glow of the sun dissipated, revealing a group of people, only to see these people, there are men and women, some old and some young, or with swords, or holding the dust, the young ones are handsome, the older ones have crane hair and childish faces, and the clothes they are wearing flashed from time to time The glow of the glow is unspeakably beautiful. One by one, their expressions were serene, and their bearings were calm, only to let the mortals next to them look straight: "It's really a fairy! It's exactly the same as the fairy in the painting!"

Among the gods and immortals, an old man with crane hair and a childish face walked out and said, "That's it, get up." The sound was not loud, but no matter how noisy the noisy music was, everyone only felt as if the gods had spoken a word in their ears, and they could hear it clearly. With a flick of the sleeves of his robe, the crowd of people who bowed down involuntarily stood up.

"The disciple welcomes all the senior immortal masters into the mansion to drink tea. Butene Nian also stood up, didn't dare to make a mistake at this time, bent down and bowed, and said respectfully.

A young man among the gods and immortals, Xu is not idle to talk to these people, at this time he opened his mouth and said: "No need, I will wait for something to do, and I will leave after selecting the child, and I will be free from drinking tea." When Butene Nian heard this, his face suddenly showed an unspeakable look of disappointment. The immortal who led the team is old in the world, but he knows that such people as butene years, although they are the lord of a city in the mortal world, and they enjoy endless glory and wealth, but in the sect, they are not a disciple of the outer sect, not a person with poor qualifications, and will not be sent here to serve as the lord of the city. Cultivation resources and other items, just waiting for the moment when the sect comes to select people, they will be presented to the elders and seniors in charge, hoping to win the favor of these people, and if they go back and say a few good words, they can be recalled by the sect to cultivate, and another person will be sent to take charge of all affairs. Looking at the look of the butene year, it seemed that there was something to offer, so he said with a smile: "Although there are important things to do, I can't stay for a long time, it is rare for the city lord of Ding to have a heart, and it is not easy to refuse, that is, Ouyang Senior and nephew can take the young disciples to choose good seedlings, and I will wait for the old age and weakness, so I will go to the city lord's mansion to disturb for a while." As soon as these words came out, Na Butene Nian's eyes lit up, his whole body trembled, and he was overjoyed, and said: "The elders and seniors are willing to go to the Mansion for a while, which is the blessing that I have cultivated in my previous life, and it will make Peng Shen shine!" After saying that, he turned around and greeted the guests, and accompanied a dozen or a dozen slightly older people to walk respectfully towards the City Lord's Mansion.

As soon as the group of old men left, those young immortals were obviously active, and a sweet-looking girl who was no more than eighteen or nineteen years old said: "It's noisy, Senior Brother Ouyang, let them stop." Where do we start first?" the gods who listened to the welcome were so frightened that they immediately stopped playing. Senior Brother Ouyang smiled slightly: "There are a total of twelve of us, and we will take the four directions of east, west, south, north and south of this city as the boundary, and go to three people in each direction, pick out the children with spiritual roots, and bring them to the city lord's mansion in a unified manner, and then the seniors can discuss and make the decision." The people had no objection and went their separate ways.

I saw these people walk to the dense, can't see the end of the crowd, each of them took out a jade plate, this plate is called the spirit plate, it is a treasure specially refined by the sect of cultivating immortals, this thing has no other effect, it can identify whether a person has a spiritual root, if it is next to a mortal, stimulate this disk, if the person has a spiritual root, then this disk can emit the corresponding glow, a better spirit disk can also determine the strength of the person's spiritual root. The immortals acted differently than mortals, and they saw that they held the spirit plate in their hands, and they did not make a gesture, and they were already shuttling through the crowd. The dense crowd of people, as if they did not exist in their eyes, did whatever they wanted, and shuttled freely. Once the spirit disc glowed, these people waved their hands, and the child was instantly sent to the main city gate.

Not long after, the sweet woman who was talking to Senior Brother Ouyang happened to come to the crowd where Zhenguan Village was located. Originally, this mortal had a spiritual root, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was one in a hundred thousand or a million, and she searched all the way, but she picked two or three. She had heard these things talk about before, and she didn't think it was strange, but after passing through the group of people in Zhenguan Village, suddenly the glow shone brightly, and four rays of light came out at once, which were golden, red, cyan and green, colorful, reflecting the four colors of this area, which was extremely beautiful.

She was surprised and delighted at this time, and hurriedly stopped to take a closer look, only to see the three children standing in front of a group of children, the glow on the treasure plate flickering, and the swallowing continued, which obviously stimulated a reaction from the three children. This time, she was even more pleasantly surprised: "Three children, four rays of light, is it possible that there is also a child with a double spirit root here?" As soon as she thought of this, she hurriedly pulled the three children over to check them separately.

These three children are naturally Zhang Xiaotong, Li Daniu and Xiaoni. When the treasure plate was beside Zhang Xiaotong, the red glow was extremely dazzling, and she became more and more happy in her heart: "This child of the fire spirit root, the glow of the treasure plate is so dazzling, and the quality of the spirit root cannot be low." When he was by Li Daniu's side, the golden glow was also dazzling, "This Jin Linggen's child has rare attributes, and his quality is not bad." When she was beside Xiao Ni, the treasure plate suddenly shone with blue and green light, reflecting each other, which was more beautiful than the monochrome light of Zhang Xiaotong and Li Daniu.

At this time, she was so happy in her heart that she was about to explode: "This is really a treasure, these two boys' spiritual roots are of good quality, this little girl is not only a rare double spiritual root, but also the quality of the two spiritual roots is excellent, and they are complementary water and wood spiritual roots, what is even more rare is that the quality of the two spiritual roots is not much different, and the cultivation will only promote each other's improvement, and will not be a bottleneck and obstacle to each other, the qualifications are outrageously good, the sect is really a treasure this time!" Thinking of this, she didn't continue to pick the children anymore, and together with Xiaguang, she flew towards the Hongwu City Lord's Mansion with the three children. The other immortal cultivators who were picking children all wondered in their hearts: "Miss Luo, what happened to her, she acted in such a hurry, and fell into the eyes of these mortals, wouldn't it be a loss of face for me?"

The atmosphere in the City Lord's Mansion was a little strange at this time. It turns out that this Hongwu City is located in the middle of nowhere, but it is the edge of Qinglong Prefecture, with scarce resources and barren land, and there is really nothing good to get hold of. Although Butene Nian had the intention to curry favor with him, he tried his best, but he did not find the best natural treasures and cultivation materials, and some ordinary treasures were in the eyes of cultivators, in addition to looking good, they were no different from stones, so they naturally would not be taken into account. Therefore, the efforts of the butene year naturally failed. The crane-haired old man and the others were naturally a little disappointed, but first, they also knew that this Hongwu City was indeed a poor place where birds don't, and secondly, they couldn't put on a secular face that would show you their faces without filial piety, and the face of the immortal cultivator still had to be maintained, so it was not easy to turn his face, but there was some gossip without a match, and the guests and hosts were slightly embarrassed.

At this time, the sweet woman rushed in with her three children in a hurry, shouting in her mouth: "Uncle Lu, Uncle Lu ......." The old man with a childish face is Lu Zhengping, the person in charge of the selection of Hongwu City, and he is the deacon elder of the outer gate of Luoxia Valley, the backing sect behind Hongwu City. At this moment, he was slightly displeased in his heart, and when he heard this sweet woman calling so loudly, he couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed, and asked, "Senior nephew Wenyu, what's the alarm?" There was already a slight displeasure on his face, once this sweet woman, who was also his senior nephew, Luo Wenyu, did not answer properly, he would be reprimanded.

Luo Wenyu didn't save these at this time, so he hurriedly ran over with the three children, and shouted in a stack of voices: "Uncle Lu, this child, this child, is... Be... It's the Twin Spirit Roots!" but he was so excited that he couldn't even speak.

Hearing this, this group of immortal cultivators was stunned at first, and then, as if they had stabbed a hornet's nest, they surrounded Luo Wenyu and the three children in the middle with a hula, and more than a dozen pairs of eyes swirled on the three children.

Lu Zhengping's eyes just swept over the three children, he already knew it in his chest, and the surprise in his heart was inexplicable, as if he was a little suspicious, his thoughts swept around Xiao Ni, and he held Xiao Ni's hands, and a stream of aura traveled through the meridians on her body, he was already convinced, and couldn't help but be overjoyed, and shouted in his mouth: "Indeed, it is indeed a double spirit root, Wen Yuxian's niece, where did you find this child? This is a great contribution to this door!", but he was also a little carried away with excitement.

The other immortal cultivators had already used their minds to carefully inspect the three children several times at this time, and suddenly everyone had joy and sorrow, hatred and annoyance, envy, jealousy and hatred, but this accounted for the majority. It turns out that this Luoxia Valley is the strongest immortal cultivation sect in the area of Hongwu City, and it has a total of three cities under its rule, in addition to Hongwu City, there are still Shangwu City and Yangwu City. In addition to Luoxia Valley, there are two sects that are slightly inferior to Luoxia Valley, but they are not weak, and they have the power to compete with Luoxia Valley. These two sects are called Daoyuanguan and Yujianmen, although they are also in harmony with Luoxia Valley in ordinary times, they are also competing secretly, hoping to surpass Luoxia Valley one day and occupy the title of the strongest sect in this area. The three major sects compete with each other, so they are also extra interested in the cultivation of disciples and the selection of talents, and they all hope that there will be a few outstanding people among the disciples under the sect, and if they can cultivate their minds and practice hard, they will grow up in the future, and they will be able to beat the two sects. Luoxia Valley came to appease Daoyuanguan and Yujianmen, and on the other hand, it was also to divide the two sects, so that they would not unite against themselves, so they did not monopolize these three cities, but assigned Shangwu City to Daoyuanguan, but Yangwu City was handed over to Yujianmen to govern. It was also agreed that when selecting cultivation seedlings, each sect and faction could go to these three cities to choose, but the ruling sect of the city had the right of priority in the city. In addition to these three major sects, the rest of the smaller sects can only be ranked behind, others eat meat, and they drink soup.

This Hongwu City is the main city of Luoxia Valley, so this Xiao Ni is destined to become a disciple of Luoxia Valley, in addition to the ecstasy of the people of Luoxia Valley, other sects, especially Daoyuanguan and Jade Sword Sect, in addition to secretly jealous of how this Luoxia Valley handed over such good luck, and selected a good seedling of a double spirit root, but more of them secretly complained in their hearts:" Originally, this door is even slightly inferior to Luoxia Valley, but it is not far away, the sect is united, diligent cultivation, and then select a few good seedlings to cultivate carefully, one hundred and ten years later, it is not possible to compete with Luoxia Valley, but this Luoxia Valley has picked such a beautiful and good talent, as long as there is no accident, this child's future cultivation will inevitably be higher than that of his peers, and the height that can be reached in the future is beyond the reach of others, so that the gap between the sect and Luoxia Valley will only get bigger and bigger, not to mention that it can compete with Luoxia Valley in the future, and thank God for not being swallowed up by Luoxia Valley。

At this time, they couldn't express their thoughts, and everyone congratulated Luoxia Valley one after another, and the distribution of Zhang Xiaotong and Li Daniu, Daoyuanguan and Yujianmen also quickly reached an agreement. The Jade Sword Gate focuses on sword cultivation, pays attention to perseverance, and is deeply immersed in the gold system exercises, so it is natural to choose the metallic Li Daniu, and the cultivation of the Dao Yuan Guan Gong is to pay attention to the nature of the Dao Law, and there are no special requirements for the spiritual root attribute, so Zhang Xiaotong, who chose the fire attribute, was also very satisfied.

After a lively commotion, Lu Zhengping remembered the question just now, so he asked: "Wen Yuxian's niece, Uncle Fang asked you, you haven't answered yet, how did you find these three children?" Luo Wenyu replied: "Uncle Hui, the disciple was walking in the crowd at will, and suddenly he met these three children. So I went back to what I had just done.

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw that all the immortal cultivators were looking at each other, Lu Zhengping and Qingsong Daoren, the head of the Dao Yuan Temple, and Fang Hongjin, the head of the Jade Sword Gate, glanced at each other, knowing what was in everyone's minds, and then asked: "You said that these three children are together and from the same place?" Luo Wenyu replied: "At that time, these three children were in a group of children, but they stood in front of the crowd, and they looked at the situation from the same place. ”

Before Lu Zhengping could speak, Fang Hongjin couldn't help but say: "This matter is strange. Senior Brother Lu and Brother Qingsong Dao, you two have also cultivated for many years, and you have not only selected disciples once or twice, have you ever encountered such a good seedling gathering in one place?" Qingsong Daoist shook his head: "Not to mention that I have never encountered it myself, and I have never heard of such a thing from the elders and senior brothers of the sect. The three of them were all moved in their hearts: "There must be something strange about this matter, since there are these three good seedlings, do you know if there are other good seedlings in this group of children, but the spirit plate is not noticed?" As soon as he thought of this, Lu Zhengping immediately said: "Wenyu quickly take us to the place where these three children were found." "But I was in a hurry, and I didn't even have time to say it.