At the foot of a mountain, a crowd of people gathered. What was strange was that, of those present, over half were children under the age of ten. Even stranger was that this group of people ranged wildly in attire. Most wore coarse clothing, while a select few donned soft silk. The only similarity was that all of them were looking respectfully at the small group standing directly at the base of the mountain.

  That small group was composed of cultivators, while everyone else was mortal.

  The mountain was part of the Dragon Spine Mountain Range, and it was the headquarters of the Rising Dragon Sect. And today was their quinquennial disciple selection. Should any of these mortals possess spiritual roots, the Rising Dragon Sect would accept them as outer disciples. Of course, only those with decent qualifications would be eligible for this treatment. Those with poor qualifications would not be accepted.

  The leader of the group was a man in his late twenties. Behind him were other cultivators, male and female and ranging wildly in age. From women in their prime to elderly men, they all stood respectfully behind him. The only exception was a child of similar age to the children in the crowd.

  The child’s name was Gu Longyu, and his father was an immortal elder of the Rising Dragon Sect, the most powerful force in the region. It would not be wrong to say Gu Longyu was born with a diamond-studded golden spoon in his mouth.

  Originally, Gu Longyu wouldn’t have participated in the disciple selection, but his father had pulled him aside, telling him to scout out the future disciples and find anyone with good potential. Ostensibly, it was to get a leg up on the other immortal elders in choosing disciples.

  However, Gu Longyu was not a na?ve child. His true identity was that of the reborn Dragon Emperor, who once caused all the major forces in the Huang Realm to unite against him.

  Or rather, he was one of the many clones, but Gu Longyu did not think so. He had awakened his first life’s memory, and thanks to those memories, he knew his situation more clearly than the other ignorant clones.

  With his adult mind, Gu Longyu knew that his father wasn’t just an immortal elder of the Rising Dragon Sect. His father had the reputation of a tyrant, with his overbearing attitude causing the other elders to avoid him. It wasn’t to the point of ostracization, but if the other elders could pretend not to see him, they would.

  Gu Longyu felt that his father’s overbearing attitude was three parts genuine and seven parts purposeful. His father hadn’t told him anything, but Gu Longyu felt like his father was hiding a big secret.

  He didn’t know what the secret was, but it definitely wasn’t something a member of the orthodox forces would approve of.

  Gu Longyu sneered. These forces were all the same. They decried the devilish cultivators, but who knew how many crimes they committed in secret.

  “Junior Brother, did these mortals upset you?” the leading disciple asked. His name was Weisheng.

  Unlike Gu Longyu, he was just an ordinary mortal who managed to make it to the Rising Dragon Sect’s quinquennial disciple selection. He was tested to have a heavenly wood spiritual root and accepted as the disciple of the sect master.

  That was twenty years ago, and now Weisheng had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm. The other cultivators behind him were also Foundation Establishment disciples, but they took over a hundred years, and their masters were venerables at most.

  So even though all of them were in the Foundation Establishment Realm and Gu Longyu was a Qi Gathering pupil, none of them dared to address him as junior brother. Quite the reverse, they had to address him as senior brother.

  They didn’t really have to, but recalling the overbearing nature of Dragon Horn Peak’s master, they felt it would be safer to avoid trouble. After all, not everyone had an immortal master, much less a master who was an immortal monarch like Weisheng.

  “It’s nothing. I just feel bored and want to get the disciple selection over with,” Gu Longyu said, not letting his true thoughts leak.

  “In that case, let’s start the selection ahead of time,” Weisheng said. He glanced at the disciples behind him. They nodded and stepped forward, announcing the start of the selection.

  All the mortals lined up. It didn’t matter their status; in front of the Rising Dragon Sect, even a prince was no different from a commoner. Those who made trouble, thinking they were nobler, would be kicked out. Still, many commoners made way for those of higher status.

  These commoners had to think about the future. They were here only to try their luck. If their child failed, they would have to worry about the aristocrats making trouble or killing them.

  As the children placed their hands on the testing stone and the Rising Dragon Sect disciple listed out their potential, Gu Longyu looked on with disinterest. Of the mortals, the vast majority had shattered spiritual roots, and even after a thousand tests, the best was only a flawless spiritual root.

  Finally, the testing disciple called out, “Perfect water single spiritual roots!”

  At this, Weisheng discreetly glanced at Gu Longyu. Although he was the son of an immortal, Gu Longyu only possessed flawless earth, wood, and fire triple spiritual roots. He was afraid that Gu Longyu would become jealous and try to ruin the promising disciple.

  When he saw that Gu Longyu was staring at the girl but otherwise doing nothing, he sighed in relief. However, Weisheng did not let his guard down.

  The reason Gu Longyu stared at the girl was not because of jealousy or anything of the sort, but because his father had told him to keep an eye out for disciples with water spiritual roots.

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  Others might not know about his father’s intention, but Gu Longyu had some inkling. He was searching for materials for living pills, and the primary material was girls with single water spiritual roots.

  Gu Longyu had long realized that this wasn’t the Huang Realm he had known during his days as the Dragon Emperor. It wasn’t even a realm. According to his father, this world was known as Dragonsleep Planet because there was a rumor that a dragon had perished on this world.

  This information shocked and energized him. Energized because he could use the fallen dragon’s corpse as resources to help him return to his peak much faster. Shocked because this was his first time learning about planets. This world did not possess the Vast Void—just endless space.

  The former Dragon Emperor knew that he should have been reborn in the Huang Realm or the adjacent Numinous Realm, but he found himself in this strange world. Was this a secret world connected to the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System?

  This world was both strange and familiar to him. Many things appeared exactly the same as during his time in the Huang Realm, but many minor details were different. Compounded together, it felt like a different world altogether. The lack of knowledge about living pills was just one of many differences.

  Gu Longyu was brought out of his thoughts by an exclamation from the testing disciple.

  “H-Heaven—Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Roots!”

  He stared at the child holding his hand on the testing orb, which glowed a brilliant purple. Although both Weisheng and the mortal possessed heavenly spiritual roots, there was a vast difference. Most spiritual roots were of the five elements: fire, water, earth, wood, and metal, but lightning was not among them. That meant the heavenly lightning spiritual root was a mutated spiritual root. Compared to other heavenly spiritual roots, they were stronger.

  Weisheng felt a pang of jealousy. Ever since he was accepted into the Rising Dragon Sect, he was publicly vaulted as the number one genius. Even scions of immortal elders dared not treat him lightly. And now, a boy with greater potential than he appeared.

  However, Weisheng quickly reined in his jealousy. His master had told him that spiritual roots were but one aspect of cultivation. A heavenly spiritual root was not guaranteed to grant the possessor a one-hundred-percent chance of success in becoming an immortal. Equally, a cultivator with a fractured spiritual root was not without a chance of reaching the Immortal Realm. So engrossed was Weisheng in his thoughts that he did not notice Gu Longyu’s stare.

  Gu Longyu felt a familiarity with the boy with heavenly lightning spiritual roots. Although this was the first time he had experienced it, he knew what it meant. The boy was one of his clones. Strangely, the boy looked remarkably similar to him, except for those pair of eyes. Those eyes were so bedeviling that they made onlookers ignore the rest of the boy’s features and overlook the similarities between the two.

  He clenched his fist. Not because he was jealous or anything of the sort. In Gu Longyu’s eyes, even if he was born with shattered spiritual roots, he could still return to his peak. Once he became a true immortal, whether having a mutated or heavenly spiritual root did not matter as much.

  No, Gu Longyu was excited. He had always worried that he would not become complete because he had appeared in an unknown world. The boy’s presence proved that there were other clones. As long as he reaped them, he could improve himself. Returning to his peak was a sure thing, but improving his former realm still required a lot of consideration. The more clones he absorbed back into himself, the greater his talents would become.

  To prevent anyone from noticing anything, Gu Longyu returned to his aloof and confident demeanor.

  After the boy with heavenly lightning spiritual roots appeared, the rest of the testees became ordinary, or ordinary at best.

  After testing ended, Weisheng gathered everyone onto the immortal boat. It was fine for Foundation Establishment disciples like himself, but the newly tested children could not reach Dragon Head Peak just by walking. It would take them a few years even if they walked straight. Even a Qi Gathering pupil like Gu Longyu would need several months.

  Disregarding the pleading mortals who failed the tests, the immortal boat flew off into the distance. The more astute mortals immediately began to associate with the parents of the children who passed the selection. However, this had nothing to do with Gu Longyu.

  Once at Dragon Head Peak, the center of authority for the Rising Dragon Sect, Weisheng had the newly accepted disciples file out. Before they officially became outer disciples, the various elders would have a chance to accept the new disciples as personal disciples, allowing them to skip the process of an outer disciple becoming an inner disciple.

  In most disciple selections, only elders who had not reached the Immortal Realm would appear, with an immortal appearing only during rare instances. The last time that happened was when Weisheng passed the disciple selection process.

  This time, Weisheng saw his master appear, but he wasn’t the only one. Countless other peak masters had appeared. The Rising Dragon Sect was not like the Buzhou Immortal Sect, and an immortal lord was sufficient to become a peak master.

  The reason for all of them coming was naturally the boy with heavenly lightning spiritual roots.

  “Sect Master, you’ve already accepted a good disciple with a heavenly spiritual root less than a hundred years ago. You can’t take all the good seeds for yourself. You have to leave some for the rest of us,” the Dragon Whisker Peak Master said.

  The sect master, also known as the Dragon Head Peak Master, snorted. “And what? Let you ruin a good seedling? I’ll say this straight. None of you can compete with me—in terms of realm nor resources. It’s better for him to become my disciple.”

  Weisheng watched as these usually high and lofty immortals argued over a disciple.

  “That remains to be seen. I know that the Sect Master mastered the Law of Wood, but I major in the Law of Lightning. Although I haven’t mastered a complete worldly law, I’m still an immortal lord. Having someone who majors in the Law of Lightning would be more beneficial for the boy’s growth,” the Dragon Roar Peak Master said while stroking his long beard, which resembled a stretched thundercloud.

  After much back and forth, the sect master relented. After all, his strength as an immortal monarch exceeded most of the other peak masters. He had already taken a disciple with a heavenly spiritual root, and if he took another one, it would cause displeasure among the other peak masters.

  Although he was an immortal monarch, he had only become one in the last ten thousand years. He was still only a first-step monarch. If things came to blows, he wouldn’t be able to withstand the assault of the other peak masters. Granted, coming to blows was almost impossible.

  Weisheng secretly sighed in relief. If he had a junior brother with a mutated heavenly spiritual root, the resources he would receive would be split, which would delay his growth.

  The Dragon Roar Peak Master appeared in front of the boy and gave a genial smile. “Child, do you want to become my disciple?”

  “Can my friend become your disciple too?” the boy asked, not showing any nervousness.

  Despite the boy asking for a condition, the immortal lord showed no signs of anger. “Oh? Who’s your friend?”

  The boy grabbed a girl’s hand. It was the one who had a perfect water spiritual root.

  The immortal nodded. All of them present had already received information on the most outstanding candidates. “I can’t accept her, but an elder under me can accept her. This way, the two of you can still see each other whenever you want. What do you think?”

  Instead of answering, the boy looked at the girl. When the girl nodded, the boy agreed.

  “Child, do you have a name?”

  “It’s Tianyi.”

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