IRBTCI CH5

Manager Dai was silent for a moment before blankly repeating his words, “Before meals or after meals?”

As soon as Bai Lu saw the name and appearance of the item, he figured it was some kind of medicine. Since it was medicine, wasn’t it perfectly normal to ask whether it should be taken before or after meals? Then why did Senior Brother Dai look so stunned?

Fortunately, the senior sister, knowing Bai Lu came from a remote place and couldn’t be judged by common sense, explained patiently: “Once you take this Fasting Pill, there’s no need to eat anymore. It also strengthens your foundation and helps in building your core. Once your cultivation progresses, you won’t need the pill anymore. Cultivators don’t eat regular food.”

“Ohh, so you just take this instead of meals.” Bai Lu looked at the pill in his hand—so this was part of the Eastern system, huh? No meals… but why??

Manager Dai added, “It might be hard to get used to at first. It can be uncomfortable, so you can ease into it—take the fasting pill one day, eat regular food the next.”

Finally, something he understood. Bai Lu nodded solemnly: “I know this—intermittent fasting.”

Looking at his confident expression, Manager Dai: “?”

What kind of odd term was that…? Though admittedly, it wasn’t a bad comparison.

Manager Dai decided to start using this new term to describe the early stages of the Foundation Establishment realm—a realm with several sub-stages. The stage before total fasting: light fasting.

Sigh, but looking at this top-ranking sword cultivator hopeful, it was clear he had no interest in alchemy—he even asked a question like that.

“I’ll try it next time,” Bai Lu said casually, pocketing the Fasting Pill without a second thought—and proceeded to serve himself a big bowl of rice.

Manager Dai and Ning Yantu exchanged a subtle glance. Both looked like they had something to say but held back.

This trial was actually designed for disciples outside the top three. But generally speaking, those who scored in the top three were very self-disciplined.

Some had even begun building a foundation themselves and were trying out fasting by only consuming spiritual dew.

No one had ever seen someone like Bai Lu being this… shamelessly relaxed about it.

Liang Manggu scratched his cheek. This won’t do—Bai Lu, the number one, is eating. If I don’t eat, I’ll just look like I’m putting on airs.

“I’ll join you,” he said, sitting down and piling rice into his bowl.

Meng Caiqing hesitated for a while. Watching them eat so happily, she scooped herself two spoonfuls of rice and a bowl of soup, then dropped her Fasting Pill into the soup, muttering, “I’ll take it with food then…”

Ning Yantu couldn’t help but question herself—Did this year’s top three… somehow go astray?!

While she was still deep in thought, a message light landed in her palm. She tapped to open it and after glancing through, quickly said, “If anything comes up, talk to Manager Dai,” and left in a rush.

Meng Caiqing was too absorbed in her delicious meal to notice Ning Yantu’s worried expression.

After the meal, Manager Dai handed out personal supplies, including clothing in a few styles, all in varying shades of green.

Bai Lu: Uniforms. Nice.

Each person also received a name tag made of jujube wood, carved with runes. It was the official identification of disciples from Xuanshan Immortal Sect and would be required for access to various places and for exchanging materials.

Bai Lu: Got it. Campus card.

Manager Dai explained the buildings in the area: “If visiting students come to Xuanshan, they usually stay here.” There were still many empty houses around. “Xuanshan has alliance agreements with sects like Xuandu Dao Sect of Huanhuazhou, Fuxin Island of Xingjiezou, and others. We regularly exchange students to copy scriptures and share knowledge.”

Bai Lu understood: So… foreign exchange students?

This was nothing difficult for him.

Come to think of it, Bai Lu mused, Aren’t I a kind of foreign exchange student myself…?

In the following days, Bai Lu attended classes with the others in the temporary dorms. Manager Dai taught them the rules of Xuanshan Sect, the resource map, and even “campus card” tips and tricks. He especially emphasized:

The Xuanshan mountain range was vast, with countless valleys and peaks. No one lived on the outer edges, and the trial paths were specially designated. In reality, the mountains were filled with wild beasts and various affiliated cultivator clans. Some elders were also in seclusion or practicing their arts.

So for new disciples, it was important not to wander too far. If anything unexpected happened, they must remain calm and send out a signal.

Every year, they had to go rescue a few careless new disciples.

“There are mostly demon cultivators on the outskirts of Xuanshan, some tree and water tribes too.” Liang Manggu, who came from a human-dominated region, had only rarely seen other races. After all, travel was still difficult for mortals, and there were a full twelve continents in this world.

From their conversations, Bai Lu could tell that many races existed here—just like the magical world he came from, which had fairies, elves, and so on. But he couldn’t yet get a full picture of this new world.

The most fascinating tidbit came from a junior disciple who casually mentioned that there was also a “Wu clan” (巫族) here—but it seemed unrelated to his kind of wizard (巫師), just the same name. Moreover, the Wu clan here had become almost legendary, as they now lived in deep seclusion.

After learning about Xuanshan, Bai Lu began to make plans.

Manager Dai said the sect was rich in resources and had designated areas for growing herbs and materials. But many rare plants also grew wild in the mountains. The other clans affiliated with Xuanshan would gather from them too. As long as it wasn’t excessive, Xuanshan didn’t stop them.

Bai Lu had arrived wearing only pajamas, and his broom was broken. He’d tossed it into his storage ring—enchanted with space magic—but aside from the broom, the ring only held some daily-use items and a pair of ritual knives.

None of his magical scrolls, staffs, or crystals were with him, which made him feel anxious.

And while he could still use magic in this cultivation world, he couldn’t connect to the natural elements as easily. He suspected it was due to a language barrier—the elements simply didn’t understand him…

So he had to rely on converting elements through his own body, which was much more troublesome.

All fear comes from lack of firepower.

That night, under a full moon, Bai Lu quietly slipped out of the dorm. He couldn’t just wait around for someone to hand him supplies—he needed to search the mountains himself for materials to repair his broom.

Although calling it a repair was generous—his broom was so broken it might as well be built from scratch.

He kept sneaking out for several nights in a row.

Xuanshan really did have a lot of treasures. He didn’t know their names, but he saw trees that chimed like jade when the wind blew through them, and bamboo stalks so tall they looked like mountains.

On the first night, when Bai Lu returned, Liang Manggu caught him. Liang was a chronic night owl and, spotting him, asked excitedly, “What were you doing? Gathering firewood at night? Planning to roast some free-range chicken?”

“…” Bai Lu glanced at the twigs in his arms—samples he’d picked up to study the wood’s qualities and check if it could be used in crafting. “Uh… yeah. I couldn’t sleep, so I figured I might as well do something.”

Liang Manggu totally got that—he suffered from insomnia too. He immediately invited Bai Lu to meditate with him.

Bai Lu had no way to refuse and reluctantly joined him cross-legged. But he couldn’t get used to the posture at all. As Liang chattered about “gathering your mind,” Bai Lu slumped sideways and fell sound asleep…

Liang Manggu was so jealous.

The next morning, Bai Lu completely forgot about it. When Liang asked, “Want to roast chicken again tonight?” it took Bai Lu a few seconds to recall he’d said something like that last night.

But sure—why not eat?

Not only did he eat, he also cheerfully invited everyone to join the feast.

He’d already finished examining the wood samples, and they weren’t even good enough for firewood. So he and the others hauled some more wood back and asked Manager Dai to give them a chicken to roast.

Manager Dai, completely baffled, caught a chicken for them. In all his years, he had never seen disciples like this. Are you guys even trying to do light fasting…?

True to its reputation, the free-range chicken raised by an immortal sect was excellent. Bai Lu had already noticed the quality when they had stew—but roasted, it was even better. The skin was golden and crispy, the meat tender and juicy, and every bite with skin and cartilage was fragrant and full of flavor.

One female disciple, surnamed Ding, knew how to cook and prepared a special dish for everyone called Chicken Tofu Custard. She finely minced chicken breast until it was unrecognizable, mixed it with egg white, and cooked it in a broth with fresh mushrooms until it solidified into a soft, silky curd—like tofu.

Proudly, she declared, “Back home, I trained my blade skills by dicing chicken breast. If it’s not fine enough, you can’t get this texture.”

This dish was completely different in flavor from the roasted chicken—you couldn’t even tell it was made of chicken. It melted in the mouth like soft tofu, fresh and sweet. It was the ultimate “two dishes from one chicken.” Thanks to this, the junior sister earned herself the nickname “Ding Tofu.”

I really am a lucky exchange student, Bai Lu thought. If my mom knew, she’d be so happy for me.

Bai Lu was overjoyed. Not even a single fasting pill would ever go into his mouth, but chicken? He’d go to Manager Dai daily to request more…

Manager Dai nearly had a breakdown. These free-range chickens were going to get eaten into extinction! It wasn’t that Xuanshan couldn’t afford to raise more—it was that this year’s disciples from Kaiyang Peak might not produce a single serious cultivator at this rate.

In light of the roasted chicken incident, Bai Lu became more cautious on later nights. He found the thin veil hat that had been distributed to new students and cast a spell on it to obscure the wearer’s face. Anyone who looked at him would either forget what he looked like or fail to register it.

“One with berries too…” One night, while foraging, Bai Lu strayed a little off-track and filled two pouches with berries and chestnuts. He thought these would go great with roast chicken to cut the greasiness.

Under the moonlight, something shiny in the bushes caught his eye.

Bai Lu quickly tied up his pouches and stepped forward to part the leaves. Inside was a single grass-like plant, growing much like a rice seedling. What made it special was that its dew wasn’t transparent—it shimmered with rainbow colors, gleaming like gemstones. That was what had caught Bai Lu’s attention.

What is this? Bai Lu pulled out a black-handled ritual blade from his storage ring and moved closer to examine it.

Suddenly, seemingly by chance, Bai Lu bent down just in time.

A shadow whooshed right over his head as if the two had rehearsed it.

Bai Lu turned and saw a strange bird with an oversized beak. Its expression was odd, and when it opened its mouth, it spoke in a raspy voice:
“Dororooo~ Pretty lucky there, huh? Dodged that one. But that’s mine, kid!”

The fact that it could speak wasn’t surprising—many magical beasts could—but Bai Lu wasn’t familiar with Eastern beasts. His mind went blank for a few seconds before he cautiously guessed one of the few bird species he knew:

“Are you a phoenix?”

The bird froze for a second, then was overwhelmed with joy.

Though rare to find someone who truly understood, it couldn’t help letting out a few proud “Dororo” cries. Yet it still tried to maintain a composed tone:
“Shameful to say, merely a descendant of the phoenix, little gentleman. But the mountains are cold at night—are you a rogue cultivator or an outer-sect disciple?”

To be wandering freely in Xuanshan’s territory, this boy couldn’t be an outsider.

Bai Lu didn’t answer, instead asking, “Did you plant this?”

“Nope,” the bird said. “I was trying to snatch it from you, kid.”

“…,” Bai Lu stared.

What the heck? A robber bird? A campus bully? Ugh…

The bird fluffed up its feathers, which shimmered faintly with metallic luster. Many native demon cultivators in Xuanshan attached themselves to the Immortal Sect—if lucky, they could be accepted even as a named disciple.

Looking at this boy, the bird sensed a weak presence. It even tested him just now and didn’t detect any backing. Seemed like easy pickings.

The bird was currently stuck at the late Foundation Establishment stage and had been for ten years. To break through, it spent its days fighting, meditating, or foraging for rare herbs.

Its eyes now landed on the blue-glowing dagger in the boy’s hand. Though it wasn’t sharpened, the crystal blade had an interesting gleam. The bird stared intently and croaked, “Hey, what’s that? Looks nice—is it a dagger?”

Bai Lu was, at that moment, staring back at the bird’s tail feathers. His gaze made the bird feel uneasy. While answering, Bai Lu commented, “Mm. You look nice too. Those tail feathers of yours… are they real?”

The bird: “…”

Though not a high-level cultivator, the bird had lived in Xuanshan its whole life and was not something a weakling could covet. Seeing the look in Bai Lu’s eyes, it got annoyed:
“Hey kid, what’s that supposed to mean?!”

But Bai Lu reacted even faster. With a flick of his ritual blade, he summoned three deep-blue streams of magic, which coiled around the bird like a cage.

Only then did the bird realize that Bai Lu dodging its earlier lunge wasn’t just luck.

It hadn’t even had time to react, nor had it sensed any spike in spiritual power. The boy had already made his move. The unfamiliar spell was expertly controlled and danced around the bird like liquid chains.

Unbelievable—this was supposed to be a quick snatch-and-go. Did I just try to rob a hidden master in disguise?

The bird panicked. “I’ve never seen you before… wait, this isn’t a Xuanshan technique. Are you some rogue cultivator who snuck in? What do you want?!”

Bai Lu ignored the questions. Holding the dagger in his mouth, he reached out and plucked a few tail feathers from the bird.

The bird let out a tragic screech.

Hmm. Judging by its agility, these feathers probably helped with speed.
Much better being the bully than getting bullied.

“Oh right,” Bai Lu asked while putting away the feathers. “Do you have any parents? Siblings?”

He pulled the dagger from his mouth and tilted his head, sounding almost friendly.

The bird: “…”

The bird let out a horrified squawk, “What?! You going after my whole family now?!”

Bai Lu blinked. “Huh? What do you mean… going after your whole family?”

—He didn’t even know the phrase “guilt by association.”

“??” The bird flushed in rage. This kid was clearly mocking its voice. “Stop copying how I talk!”

Bai Lu couldn’t help but reply, “I’m not, wahh.”

The bird: “……”

Fuming, it gathered all its spiritual energy and lunged at Bai Lu’s head and face.

But Bai Lu, whose cultivation level remained unreadable, had already summoned a water shield without it even noticing. The shield blocked the strike effortlessly.

Then he calmly pressed a hand on the bird’s head.

“Who exactly are you?!” the bird demanded, its voice uneasy. As it stared at Bai Lu, it realized something strange. Though they’d been talking a while, it still couldn’t remember his face. In fact, it couldn’t even get a clear look at it now. Where had this guy come from?

“You tell me what bird you are first.” Bai Lu was ready to write it down in his notebook so he wouldn’t forget later.

The bird’s earlier tantrum made Bai Lu doubt whether the feathers were actually useful. He’d have to test them later.

“I… I’m a Luoluo bird, okay?” it muttered, shrinking back. “You can call me Lord Luo.”

Recently, disciples of the Xuanshan inner sect had started using such titles, so the bird had picked up the trend.

Lord Luo, huh? That “lord” title really was the classic cultivation world flex.

Bai Lu, entirely unaware that he was the cause of this fad, suddenly remembered one of his own jokes and decided to make it real. He grandly introduced himself:
“Then you can call me Demon Lord.”

The bird sucked in a breath. As absurd as it sounded—especially since everyone in Xuanshan lately had been calling themselves “Lords”—the mystery and unpredictability of this guy’s powers made the bird nervous.

Cautiously, it asked, “Are you… connected to Yan Wuji?”

“Who?” Bai Lu asked.

The bird: “…”

Yep. Totally mocking me.
Demon Lord, huh? More like “Torment Lord.”