Eternal Life: I Have the Favor System

Chu Lingguang, Yan Zhen, and Qin Yu all released their Spiritual Sense simultaneously, blanketing the mountaintop in search of any clues.

All three of them possessed a Qi Refining cultivation.

The three of them knew better than anyone that the scene before them was no illusion.

But as time passed and the Spiritual Spring Water still hadn’t appeared, they grew confused. ’What is Yuanchu Mountain up to?’

「Ten hours passed like this.」

By the time the mountaintop was packed with people.

The Yuanchu Mountain experts Zhang Xuan and Li Mao, and even the terrifyingly powerful Kou Han—whose Telekinesis was formidable and whose cultivation had reached the twelfth layer of Qi Refining—finally appeared on the summit, along with a group of other Yuanchu Mountain disciples.

The once-noisy environment instantly fell silent.

"Congratulations on reaching the summit."

Kou Han gave the crowd a slight smile.

Then, with a wave of his sleeve,

The ground began to tremble.

Panic flickered across everyone’s faces.

Chu Lingguang watched as the center of the mountaintop cracked open. A stone platform emerged from the earth, rising like a fountain into everyone’s view.

A dense wave of Spiritual Qi washed over the crowd.

The Star System within Chu Lingguang’s body began to circulate uncontrollably. He could feel that this Spiritual Qi was many times denser than the Spiritual Qi in Wolf Valley Mountain.

’Could the water emerging from the stone platform really be the Spiritual Spring Water?’

"The Spiritual Spring Water is right before you. Everyone who has reached the summit can have some. Please, enjoy it to your heart’s content!" Zhang Xuan announced to the crowd.

"There really is Spiritual Spring Water!"

"Let me drink!"

"Get out of the way!"

"Don’t block me!"

"Give me a ladleful!"

Hearing this, the crowd surged forward in a frenzy, cupping the water in their hands and gulping it down.

Xuanyuan Jinkang also tried to push through the crowd to have a few sips, but Chu Lingguang held him back.

Beside them, Yang Shaorong was eager to move but managed to restrain himself. The same went for Yan Zhen and Qin Yu.

"Before you’ve mastered a Cultivation Technique to refine Spiritual Spring Water, drinking too much of it will burden your Dantian if you can’t absorb it, and you may even show signs of your power declining," Li Mao warned.

At his words, the crowd’s frenzy cooled considerably. A few who had practically shoved their entire heads into the stone basin quickly pulled back.

Others began to store the Spiritual Spring Water instead.

In this way, most people were able to get a drink of the Spiritual Spring Water.

Chu Lingguang observed the crowd. For the moment, he didn’t notice any problems.

’Is Yuanchu Mountain really planning to recruit everyone?’

’I’ll have a sip first.’

He walked up to the stone platform, cupped some Spiritual Spring Water, and swallowed a mouthful. He carefully sensed the changes within his body as the Star System automatically began to circulate, his Spiritual Power completely absorbing the energy within the water.

Chu Lingguang opened his eyes.

He was just about to breathe a silent sigh of relief and tell Yan Zhen and Qin Yu to go have a drink as well.

Suddenly, a green halo flashed through his Star System.

Chu Lingguang’s heart lurched.

He hastily enveloped the halo with his Spiritual Power.

He examined it closely.

"This is..."

He discovered that this green halo was a foreign power hidden within the Spiritual Spring Water, one that seemed capable of triggering some kind of response within the body.

Unfortunately, it seemed he had nothing in his body for it to trigger, so the green halo vanished in a flash. If he hadn’t reacted so quickly, he would have missed the change entirely.

"AHHH!"

Just then, a scream erupted from the crowd.

The powerful, golden-haired old man who had been one of the first to reach the summit suddenly let out a wretched scream and collapsed to his knees. He roared at the sky, his hands clawing at his throat.

He opened his mouth in a pained, cavernous gape.

A thick vine erupted from his body. His life force was completely drained by the vine, turning him into a desiccated corpse as the vine itself rapidly withered before everyone’s eyes.

The crowd heard a heartbeat.

They watched as a heart, shaped like a peach, leaped from the golden-haired old man’s body and hung from the vine. It beat a few times—THUMP, THUMP—before falling silent and shriveling completely.

The golden-haired old man was dead.

He died on the spot!

"AH! AHHH!"

Immediately after, four more people suffered the same horrific fate as the golden-haired man.

Thick vines grew from their mouths, and some even had vines that thrust from their chests, burrowing into the ground and draining all their life force, killing them instantly.

"What the..."

"What the hell?"

"What’s going on?"

"How terrifying!"

The crowd was thrown into a panic.

The expressions on Yan Zhen and Qin Yu’s faces changed drastically.

Chu Lingguang also had a bad feeling about this.

He finally understood what kind of response the power hidden in the Spiritual Spring Water was meant to awaken: the strange objects within their bodies.

It was obvious that the golden-haired old man and the other four had, by some twist of fate, found strange objects that matched them and had successfully merged with them.

They had blended into the crowd, hoping to enter Yuanchu Mountain to cultivate and obtain more profound cultivation Skills. They never expected Yuanchu Mountain to have a trick like this up its sleeve.

They could actually use the Spiritual Spring Water to trigger the strange objects within them, forcing them to reveal themselves in the crowd.

’Then what about Yan Zhen and the others?’

Chu Lingguang worried about their situation.

’If they’re really discovered, what should I do?’

"Why haven’t you people drunk yet?"

Zhang Xuan’s gaze fell on Yang Shaorong, Xuanyuan Jinkang, Yan Zhen, and the others.

Seeing that Chu Lingguang was perfectly fine after drinking the Spiritual Spring Water, he was a little surprised. ’Maybe I was overthinking things,’ he thought.

Hearing the question, Yang Shaorong clapped Chu Lingguang on the shoulder, strode to the stone platform, cupped the Spiritual Spring Water in both hands, and took a large gulp.

"The Spiritual Spring Water is a sacred healing elixir with the power to expel evil and avert disaster. Those people just now were demons in human form who tried to infiltrate Yuanchu Mountain. The Spiritual Spring Water forced them to reveal their true forms."

"As long as you are not demons, you have nothing to worry about," Zhang Xuan explained.

After drinking, Yang Shaorong stepped back to Chu Lingguang’s side.

Xuanyuan Jinkang quickly followed, also taking a large gulp.

The remaining people exchanged glances before cautiously stepping forward one by one to take a sip.

THUD!

One person tried to get away with just touching the water to their lips, but Zhang Xuan saw through the deception instantly. With a blast of Spiritual Power, he sent the man flying off the mountain, where he was torn to shreds in mid-air by the longsword that had been plunged into the mountainside, pulsing with Spiritual Power.

Chu Lingguang’s heart leaped into his throat.

’So that sword is Zhang Xuan’s Magical Treasure!’

Seeing this, no one else dared to try any tricks.

Yan Zhen and Qin Yu exchanged a look, then also walked to the platform. They cupped the Spiritual Spring Water at the same time, tilted their heads back, and swallowed.

’Yan!’ Chu Lingguang cried out in his heart.

The fate of the golden-haired old man and the others who had merged with strange objects was still vivid in his mind. If Yan Zhen and Qin Yu met the same end, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from starting a massacre right then and there.

Thankfully, Yun Hong, who was standing among the Yuanchu Mountain disciples, looked completely normal. He had also merged with a strange object, but he had mentioned before that he had a way to conceal it.

’Perhaps Yan Zhen and Qin Yu also made preparations beforehand; otherwise, they wouldn’t have acted so rashly.’

Sure enough, a long time passed after Yan Zhen and Qin Yu drank the Spiritual Spring Water, and nothing happened. Chu Lingguang breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"Congratulations. From this moment on, you are all Outer Disciples of Yuanchu Mountain. Yuanchu Mountain will bestow upon you Cultivation Techniques. We hope you will abide by the rules of Yuanchu Mountain, share in its glory and shame, and live and die by its side!" Kou Han announced after his Telekinesis swept over the crowd and found no further issues.

"We’ve become Yuanchu Mountain disciples!"

"We succeeded!"

"We really became disciples of Yuanchu Mountain?"

...

The crowd was in disbelief.

Even Chu Lingguang stood frozen in place. Just like that, he had become a disciple of Yuanchu Mountain. The arduous journey, the countless trials, and the heavy sacrifices he had imagined never happened.

’Did I really become a Yuanchu Mountain disciple this easily?’

"Master, I made it into Yuanchu Mountain!"

Xuanyuan Jinkang wept with joy, kowtowing and praying in the direction of Eunuch Liu’s grave.

Everyone was cheering.

Many embraced each other, weeping.

Chu Lingguang couldn’t help but scan the crowd.

Tuoba Yunhong, Hu Yanlin, and even Yan Zhen’s master, Wei Yongguang, and Lin Longde’s master, Bao Zhenhai, were in the crowd. Tears streamed down their faces, as they clearly hadn’t expected to become disciples of Yuanchu Mountain so smoothly.

"I will lead you up Yuanchu Mountain. There are many rules on the mountain, which I will explain on the way. You must remember them all!" Yun Hong said as he came before the crowd.

Kou Han had already left with Zhang Xuan and Li Mao, flying away on their swords via Sword Control.

The other Outer Disciples of Yuanchu Mountain also flew back toward Yuanchu Mountain one after another, leaving only a small group behind to guide the newcomers.