The immortal visits the village

The middle-aged woman had just finished serving the customer when she heard a familiar voice; she saw Gu Lingxin making his way toward her.

Gu Lingxin was walking towards the only person he considered family in this world; he promised himself that once he got stronger, he'd help her out in the future, as long as it didn't put his life at risk.

Walking towards his aunt, he ordered breakfast with some of his remaining savings; he sat down and listened to the people around him, trying to find some information about the sect recruitment that'd happen soon.

"Last night was wild; I went to a bro..."

"You lose this round of cards; pay up, Old Shu."

"Have you guys heard that the shoemaker's daughter is getting married next week?"

"Mo Zhen hasn't been seen for nearly a week. Do you guys think something bad happened to him?"

"The immortal cultivator is meant to arrive in this village in two days; it's said that he might take people back to his sect to become immortals in the future, this is our chance!"

Having heard what he wanted, he no longer needed to eavesdrop; he only really needed to know when the immortal would come; after all, nobody from this village would know what the test to join the sect would be.

"Here are your dumplings, little Gu."

Turning his head, he saw the middle-aged woman walking towards him with dumplings on a plate.

"How have you been, I haven't seen you around for the past few days little Gu, has anything happened to you?"

Turning towards her, "No, I was just feeling a bit sick, I was adventuring into the entrance of the woods, and I saw a herb like the ones from the legends about immortality; I thought I could eat it and become an immortal, but after I ate it I felt hot all over, and I sweated a lot and felt like I was a bit sick for the past few days."

With this, he more or less had a reason for why he hadn't left his house for the last few days and why he suddenly had cultivation; this more or less cleared him of Mo Zhen's disappearance; he also doubted that anyone would spend over a week searching for an orphan even if someone did try to find out what happened which is something he doubts, but if someone did try it wouldn't matter too much since he believes he's more or less cleared his name, even if he didn't it didn't really matter when he'd joined the immortal sect, he'd forever be out of the villagers reach.

Well, truth be told, nobody in the village could do anything to him since he was the only cultivator in this village, or so he believed; however, he wanted to avoid killing them all; if he did, he'd get all sorts of nasty names attached to him which would affect his reputation, if the immortal cultivators that came this time were from a righteous sect then he would be screwed.

He knew how important reputation was; it could get you out of lots of troublesome situations; he knew an example of this was that if someone died and there were two suspects, and they were someone who once had killed someone in the past, and an innocent person and both were suspects, the killer would be suspected just based off that he was once a killer of that, so keeping a clean reputation was vital at the same time not being blinded by reputation was also important, if he had to let go of his reputation to survive then so be it he can always change faces or anything of the sort.

"Oh dear, I hope you're feeling better; wait for me to bring you a herb tea to help you feel better little Gu," said Lin Shui as she looked towards him with deep worry evident on her face.

He ate all the dumplings slowly while waiting for Lin Shui to come back with the tea; although it wouldn't do anything to him as he wasn't genuinely sick, he appreciated such kindness; he knew that if he was in her position, he wouldn't have helped anybody.

After she came back, they talked for a while before he left; he decided to go back home and wait until the day when the immortal cultivators came.

*****

Two days later...

Having been waiting for two days now, he was thrilled as one of his wishes was about to be fulfilled; after all, every man had imagined themselves fighting to the death against an army of thousands with only a sword in his hand or becoming some overpowered swordmaster at least once or twice.

As for how he knew that he'd get picked up, well, it was just due to him having medium-grade cultivation roots; although not the best, they're not the worst either; in a regular sect, he'd be classified to be an inner disciple after a few years of hard work, even low-grade cultivation roots would be accepted into most sects since the chance for a human to have cultivation roots is around one in a hundred thousand so even if they were the worst kind of roots they're still somewhat rare.

He liked having medium-grade roots; although he wouldn't stand out and get a lot of resources, he preferred it that way since the tallest trees catch the most wind.

As he kept thinking to himself, he suddenly saw a middle-aged man flying towards them while riding on a sword; just being near him, you could feel a faint pressure crushing down even if he didn't intend to do so; that was merely the difference between a mortal and a cultivator.

The man slowly landed in the village's central square and said in a loud voice that echoed to each corner of the village.

"All those who wish to attempt to become immortals come and test for your spiritual roots, all those that test must be bellow fifteen; if anyone tries to test themselves even if they're over fifteen, I won't hold back for wasting my time," he stated as a vicious glint passed through his eyes.

Just from hearing the man's statement, Gu Lingxin was sure he'd made the right choice by killing Mo Zhen and getting as far ahead into his cultivation as he could; this truly was a ruthless world where one could die just because of wasting a few minutes of the other party.