I Idle in the World of Immortal Cultivation
Chapter 17: The First Person She Could Fully Trust
When Yue Long opened her eyes, she thought she was still dreaming.
Glowing spirit stones were embedded in the rock ceiling above her, their warm yellow light like fragments of the moon. She reached out and touched the nearest stone – hard, cold, the edges sharp enough to cut. Not a dream.
She sat up, rubbed her eyes, then froze.
The rock walls around her were covered with spirit stones – wild ones, unprocessed, their light glowing from within the stone. In the future, all spirit stones were processed – polished, cut, set into magical tools, shining bright but lifeless to the touch. These stones here were still alive. Their light pulsed like breathing, brightening and dimming.
Yue Long crouched and stared for a long time. If a mortal saw this, they'd definitely say – "Guess what? In the founder's time, those were real spirit stones. The ones in our time – can you even call them spirit stones? They're stone scraps coated with a layer of glowing powder."
She broke off one of the stones and stuffed it into a hidden pocket in her sleeve. She would take it back and place it by the mortal's grave.
Suddenly, her rabbit ears perked up. A noise.
She turned.
Moonlight streamed in through a crack in the ceiling, falling on a young man in gray Chores Hall robes. He held a sword in his hand, its tip pointed in her direction.
Moonlight fell on his face. Exactly as the mortal had described it. Exactly as in the portraits. Exactly as the face she had imagined ten thousand times.
She dropped to her knees with a thud, raised both hands above her head, and held out the black sect token in her palm.
"Don't kill me! I'm on your side!"
Lin Luo didn't move his sword.
Yue Long held the token higher. "Look – the Idle Sect's sect token."
Lin Luo glanced at the token, then at her.
"You came back from ten thousand years in the future?"
"Yes."
"The last disciple?"
"Yes. His surname was Chen. He had no spiritual root, couldn't cultivate, and only knew the Spirit Eye Technique that you left behind. He guarded the Idle Sect's mine shaft for thirty years, telling your story until his voice went hoarse. He found me, saved me, taught me to cultivate. On his deathbed, he gave me this token and told me to come find you."
Lin Luo was silent for a moment. He sheathed his sword and pulled out his phone.
He opened an interface Yue Long had never seen – a scanning frame aimed at the token.
[Scanning…]
[Confirmed. Idle Sect product. Serial number: Idle-0001.]
[Register new disciple?]
[Yes / No]
Lin Luo tapped [Yes].
[Please collect a blood sample from the new disciple to complete life binding.]
Lin Luo looked up at Yue Long. "Give me your hand."
Yue Long was startled, then held out her right index finger. Lin Luo gently pricked her fingertip with the tip of the Greenwind Sword. A drop of bright red blood seeped out and fell onto the phone screen.
The blood drop seemed to be swallowed by the screen, vanishing instantly.
[Blood sample collected. Life binding complete.]
[Disciple recruitment successful.]
[New disciple: Yue Long (Pureblood Jade Rabbit Race · Ancient Bloodline)]
[Joined Idle Sect. Cannot withdraw. Please recruit carefully.]
A new interface popped up on the phone – a brand new phone, its screen lit, identical to Lin Luo's phone in the distance. In the center of the screen stood a chibi figure – silver-white hair, red eyes, a pair of long rabbit ears on her head. Above the figure's head floated four characters: Yue Long (Idle Sect Disciple).
[Reward issued: Disciple-dedicated phone ×1.]
[Features: Idle Cultivation, Mission Receiving, Sect Messaging, Long-Distance Teleport (requires Spirit Stones to activate).]
[Current cultivation synchronized: Foundation Establishment Layer 1 (traditional system · Foundation Establishment)]
[Idle Cultivation automatically started.]
Yue Long stared at the phone that had appeared in her hand out of nowhere, frozen for a full five seconds.
"Master… what is this?"
"The Idle Sect's initiation gift." Lin Luo put his own phone away. "Use this from now on. Don't lose it. Sect messaging depends on it."
Yue Long held the phone, her hands trembling. She tapped the chibi figure in the center of the screen, and a status panel popped up.
[Character: Yue Long (Idle Sect Disciple)]
[Race: Pureblood Jade Rabbit Race · Ancient Bloodline]
[Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 1 (traditional system · Foundation Establishment)]
[Attack: ???]
[Defense: ???]
[HP: ???]
[Spirit Stones: 0]
[Idle Cultivation started. Cultivation increases automatically while offline. Estimated breakthrough to Foundation Establishment Layer 2 in 48 hours.]
Yue Long stared at the "Idle Cultivation" button for a long time, then looked up at Lin Luo.
"Master… this really lets you get stronger without training?"
"Just let it idle," Lin Luo said. "The Idle Sect's principle is to idle."
Yue Long pressed the phone to her chest and lowered her head.
The mortal was right. Founder Lin Luo had a magical artifact that let him get stronger without training. The mortal said it was the Idle Sect's greatest treasure, more powerful than any immortal tool.
She carefully tucked the phone into the hidden pocket in her sleeve, next to the spirit stone.
"Get up. Doesn't kneeling get tiring?"
Yue Long stood. She was half a head shorter than Lin Luo, but with her rabbit ears up, they almost reached his nose. She brushed the dust off her dress, picked up the spirit stone that had fallen, and stuffed it back into her sleeve. Her red eyes stole a glance at Lin Luo, then quickly looked away.
"You said you know how to chop wood?" Lin Luo asked.
Yue Long blinked. "…Yes."
"Go chop. There's an axe in the woodshed."
"…Master, I just got here."
"The Idle Sect doesn't keep idle hands."
Yue Long opened her mouth, then closed it. She turned and walked toward the woodshed. After a few steps, Lin Luo's voice came from behind.
"Come back for dinner when you're done. Glow Mushroom soup."
Yue Long didn't look back. She was afraid she would give herself away if she did.
Not crying. Smiling.
In the mortal's stories, Founder Lin Luo never took disciples. If he did, he never taught them. If he taught them, he never looked after them. But he would make Glow Mushroom soup for his disciples. The mortal remembered that bowl of soup for his entire life.
Deep in the mine was a spirit field. Glow Mushrooms grew in the glowing soil – white stems, golden caps – dozens of them. Beside the field, curled up in a nest of grass, was a small gray mouse, its round belly rising and falling as it slept.
Yue Long finished chopping wood and passed the spirit field on her way back. She crouched and poked Rat One's back. He didn't wake up.
Lin Luo's voice came from behind. "Stop poking. He's grumpy when he wakes up. He'll bite you."
"The mortal's Patriarch Rat One?"
"He's just a mouse, not some patriarch."
Yue Long smiled, stood up, and walked into the main hall deeper in the mine. Lin Luo sat at the stone table. Two bowls of soup were on the table. The soup was pale gold, with a few chopped Glow Mushrooms floating in it.
Yue Long sat down, picked up a bowl, and took a sip. Not too salty, not too bland – a faint mushroom taste, with a hint of spiritual energy's sweetness. Not delicious, but very warm. It tasted exactly like the mortal's.
The mortal said he had searched through every scripture in the Idle Sect's library to find the recipe for Glow Mushroom soup – in a handwritten note from Founder Lin Luo that said, "Chop the Glow Mushrooms, add water, add salt, cook until the soup turns gold." The mortal tried for three years before he got the soup to turn gold.
Yue Long finished the soup and put down the bowl.
"Master."
"Yes."
"The mortal asked me to ask you a question."
"Go ahead."
"Can the Idle Sect live another ten thousand years?"
Lin Luo picked up the bowls and stood. "Keep idling."
Yue Long smiled.
She lowered her head and looked at the soup stains left in her bowl, then spoke again, her voice much quieter than before.
"Master, aren't you going to ask me how I've lived so long? The Jade Rabbit race's lifespan isn't that long."
Lin Luo looked at her. "Go ahead."
Yue Long was silent for a moment, then rolled up her sleeve.
On the inside of her left arm was a faint black marking, like something had corroded it, spreading along her veins – stark and ugly against her pale skin.
"I was a slave." Her tone was calm, as if she were talking about someone else. "A slave of the Demon Race. I mined ore in the mines of the Demon Crystal Blood Ember Domain. Every day I ate blood food and drank water mixed with demonic energy. The blood food was made from demon beast blood and flesh – eating it slowly changed my body. If I didn't eat, I would die. If I ate, I would become a demon creature."
She paused.
"I ate for three years. My body changed completely. The dust from the demon crystal mines got into my lungs, mixing with my blood and flesh. The Jade Rabbit bloodline was corrupted by demonic energy, turning me into a demonic pureblood Jade Rabbit – it sounds nice, but really, I was just a demonized demon beast. Even the demon race looked down on me. The demons saw me as a demon beast. The demon beasts saw me as a demon creature. Neither side wanted me."
Lin Luo said nothing.
Yue Long rolled up her right sleeve.
On the inside of her right arm was a pale gold marking, symmetrical to the black one on her left – as if deliberately painted.
"The mortal helped me break a seal. But he was too weak to completely purify the demonic energy in my body. He searched through every book in the Idle Sect's library and found a Buddhist technique – Diamond Body. He said Buddha's light could suppress demonic energy, but not eradicate it – only suppress it."
She touched the gold marking on her right arm.
"He told me to create a balance between the two forces inside my body. Demonic energy on the left, Buddha's light on the right. Neither would have the upper hand. He taught me for three years before I learned to keep them from fighting."
Yue Long pulled her sleeves back down and retied them.
"So now I can cultivate demonic arts, Buddhist arts, human arts, and demon beast arts. The mortal said that with my constitution, ten thousand years ago, I would have been a rare 'four-cultivation body.' But in the future, I'm just an abomination."
She finished speaking, drank the last of her soup, then looked up at Lin Luo with a hint of testing in her red eyes, as if waiting for his reaction.
Lin Luo glanced at her.
"Do you know how to chop wood?"
"…Yes."
"Do you know how to carry water?"
"…Yes."
"Do you know how to sweep?"
"…Yes."
"That's enough." Lin Luo took the bowls away. "The Idle Sect doesn't judge disciples by their constitution. Just know how to work."
Yue Long froze for a moment, then lowered her head, the corner of her mouth twitching. She didn't speak.
The mortal was right. Founder Lin Luo didn't look at talent when taking disciples – he looked at whether they could work. The mortal said the founder's only criterion for choosing disciples was – "As long as you don't make this founder worry."
---
That night, Yue Long couldn't sleep.
She lay on the bedding in the stone chamber, staring at the glowing spirit stones above her, unable to close her eyes.
Not because she wasn't tired – because she was afraid to sleep. Afraid that if she fell asleep, she would wake up in a strange place again, mining demon crystals in a dark mine, eating that stinking blood food, suffering under a demon's whip.
She turned over and pulled the blanket over her head.
The images in her mind wouldn't stop.
The mines of the Demon Crystal Blood Ember Domain. Pitch black, lit only by the dark red glow of demon crystals. Blood on her hands, her nails torn off, wrapped in cloth as she kept digging. The demon overseers with their whips – if you were slow, you got whipped. After the whip, they'd laugh – "Jade Rabbit meat is so tender. One whip and it leaves a mark."
Eating blood food. A bucket of dark red paste. Stinking. Filthy. Bits of unground bone in it. If you didn't eat, you had no strength to work, and if you had no strength, you'd be killed. She closed her eyes and swallowed every time. Swallowed, threw up, threw up, swallowed. Three years. She survived, but she didn't know what kind of survival it was.
Then the mortal saved her from the seal.
She still remembered the moment the seal was broken. The white light was blinding. She thought she was going to die. When she opened her eyes, she didn't see a demon – she saw a mortal in worn-out robes, standing in front of her, trembling all over, clutching a black token in his hand.
The mortal's first words were – "Don't be afraid. I'm a disciple of the Idle Sect."
She didn't know what the Idle Sect was. But she remembered that person's eyes. Not fierce, not cold, not the way people looked at a slave, a monster, an abomination. Just like an ordinary person.
The mortal taught her to cultivate. The mortal had no spiritual root, couldn't cultivate himself, but he went through every scripture in the Idle Sect's library to find the one most suitable for her. He turned pages until his hands shook, until his eyes were nearly blind, until his hair turned white.
On his deathbed, the mortal pressed the token into her hand.
"Go find him. Find Founder Lin Luo, ten thousand years ago. Tell him – the last disciple of the Idle Sect didn't let him down."
Yue Long pulled the blanket down and looked outside the stone chamber.
Lin Luo was leaning against the rock wall beside the spirit field, eyes closed, as if asleep. His phone rested on his knee, its screen still lit, Bone One's and Blood One's idle interfaces flashing on and off.
She remembered the mortal's words.
"The founder doesn't sleep. He idles."
Yue Long's lips curved slightly. She closed her eyes.
---
When she came, traveling through the time rift, she had seen many things.
Countless images unfolded around her like screens all playing at once. She only had time for a glance – the rough layout of the Five Regions, a few fragments of the Idle Sect's decline. Finally, one image fixed itself in her mind.
Zixiao Sect. Zi Mei.
A purple robe, its hem embroidered with gold patterns.
Lin Luo was chained up.
Zi Mei stood in front of him. The moment Yue Long saw that scene, her heart felt like it was being crushed – no, not crushed, shredded.
It was the future. Her master was chained up like a criminal, his limbs bound with iron chains, unable to move.
"Zi Mei of the Zixiao Sect, under orders to kill Lin Luo."
Zi Mei's voice wasn't loud, but every word stabbed into Yue Long's ears like a needle.
"Lin Luo has stolen the inherited technique of our sect, the Nine Cycles Mystic Art…"
Zi Mei smiled. Yue Long didn't know her, but that smile made her whole body go cold. It wasn't about whether it was beautiful – it was the sick, twisted, nauseating thing hidden beneath that smile.
She walked up to Lin Luo, leaned close to his ear, and lowered her voice.
"The phone that lets you revive – I'm the one who can steal it, right? The legendary Child of Prophecy… it's actually me."
Her hand reached into Lin Luo's clothes and pulled out the phone. Yue Long recognized it – identical to the one her master had given her, identical to the one her master used. The screen was still lit, the idle progress bar still moving. A disciple of the Idle Sect keeps idling even after death – her master had said that.
"Crack."
Zi Mei crushed it with the heel of her high heel. The phone split in half. The screen's light flickered and went out.
Yue Long's tears burst out instantly, but she couldn't make a sound. She was in the time rift. There was nothing she could do – she could only watch.
"To make sure the sect leaves no loose ends, your body has been granted to me."
Zi Mei pulled a seven-inch poison needle from her sleeve, along with a black talisman thick with baleful energy. The runes on the talisman seemed alive, squirming across the paper.
"And one more thing – I killed my master, the founder of the Zixiao Sect, Zi Ling."
She laughed. A sick laugh. Then she drove the needle and the talisman together into Lin Luo's spine.
Yue Long saw her master's body tense violently, veins bulging on his forehead, but he was chained – he couldn't move, couldn't even make a sound.
"Does it hurt? It won't hurt for much longer."
Zi Mei pressed herself against his back, her chin on his shoulder, her lips almost touching his ear. She activated the blood pool's formation. Blood-colored light rose from the bottom of the pool, like a giant hand seizing Lin Luo's body.
"Goodbye, Lin Luo… no, soon you'll be mine. Ah ha ha ha ha."
She threw him into the blood pool.
Yue Long strained her eyes, desperately trying to see what happened in the pool, but the scene cut. Days later. Lin Luo walked out of the blood pool, his skin dark gray, his eyes empty – a shell without a soul.
He knelt on one knee before Zi Mei, his head bowed. Zi Mei looked down at him, her eyes full of satisfaction.
"Not bad. This one's a rare, upgradeable immortal-level corpse puppet."
---
Yue Long's eyes snapped open.
She was drenched – she didn't know if it was sweat or tears. She gasped for breath, her fingers gripping the bedding, her knuckles white.
She sat up and looked outside the stone chamber.
Lin Luo was still leaning against the rock wall beside the spirit field. His phone was still lit.
He was still alive. He was still himself. No one had chained him yet, no one had stolen his phone, no one had thrown him into a blood pool.
Yue Long clutched the blanket tighter.
Zi Mei. Zixiao Sect. Zi Ling's disciple. Killed her own master, stole the sect, and wanted to kill the Child of Prophecy – wanted to kill the Idle Sect's founder, kill her master.
She would carve that name into her bones.
Yue Long lay back down, pulled the blanket up, and closed her eyes. She reached into her sleeve, found the new phone, and clutched it in her palm. Tight.
Mortal – you were right.
The Idle Sect still has hope.
---
(End of Chapter 17)
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Current Status
Main Account · Lin Luo (Immortal Cultivation · Special System)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 2 (Displayed: Qi Refining Layer 1)
Nine Cycles Mystic Art: Second Cycle (Mastered)
Defense: 650
Attack: 350 (Greenwind Sword lent to Yue Long)
HP: 1650/1650
Spirit Stones: 850
Possessions: Spirit Recovery Pill ×8, Life Extension Pill ×1, Antidote Pill ×3, Light Talisman ×4, Mountain Pass Token ×1
Skill: Spirit Eye Technique
Disciple: Yue Long (Jade Rabbit Race, Foundation Establishment Layer 1, officially joined Idle Sect, life binding complete)
Alt Account · Bone One (Demon Cultivation · Special System)
Cultivation: Qi Gathering, Layer 8
Status: Standing by · Demon Abyss second layer
Alt Account · Blood One (Demon Cultivation · Blood Clan)
Cultivation: Qi Gathering, Layer 4
Status: Hidden · Demon Abyss second layer (mistaken for a clan member by the Blood Clan Elder)
Alt Account · Rat One (Beast Cultivation · Treasure-Seeking Rat Race)
Cultivation: Spirit Gathering, Layer 4
Status: Hosting · Idle Sect land (farming)
Spirit Field: Glow Mushrooms ×32
Special discovery: Spirit Vein Fragment ×1 beneath the mine shaft
Sect · Idle Sect
Sect Leader: Lin Luo
Formal Disciples: Yue Long (life binding, cannot withdraw)
Members: Bone One, Rat One, Blood One (alt accounts, independent)
Level: 2
Idle Bonus: +15%
Sect Warehouse Capacity: 200 slots
Sect Warehouse Contents: Common Soul Essence ×9, Blue Soul Essence ×2, Essence Blood ×3, Blood Essence Crystal ×5, various Glow Mushrooms
New Idle Sect Disciple · Yue Long
Race: Pureblood Jade Rabbit Race · Demonic Mutation (Ancient Bloodline)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 1 (traditional system · Foundation Establishment)
Special Constitution: Four-Cultivation Body – can cultivate demonic arts, Buddhist arts, human arts, demon beast arts
Left Arm: Residual demonic energy (from demon crystal mines and blood food erosion – now balanced with Buddha's light on right arm)
Right Arm: Diamond Body Buddha's light seal (taught by the mortal, used to suppress demonic energy)
Special Trait: Body of both Buddha and demon – the two forces maintain a delicate balance in her body
Origin: Traveled through time from ten thousand years in the future, carrying the last will of the Idle Sect's final leader
Talent: Jade Rabbit speed boost (extremely fast running speed)
Possessions: Disciple-dedicated phone (idle cultivation activated), Greenwind Sword (temporarily lent by Lin Luo)
Special State: Future visions seen in the time rift stored in her mind
Ten-Thousand-Year Future Vision · Warning
Zi Mei (Zixiao Sect) will kill her master Zi Ling and seize the sect.
Zi Mei will target Lin Luo as the "Child of Prophecy" and steal his phone and techniques.
Zi Mei will turn Lin Luo into an immortal-level corpse puppet.
Trigger condition: After Lin Luo obtains the complete Nine Cycles Mystic Art inheritance.
Source: Seen firsthand in the time rift.
---
Appendix: Special Cultivation Systems for Lin Luo and His Alt Accounts
Immortal Cultivation (Main Account · Lin Luo):
Qi Refining → Foundation Establishment → Core Opening → Fusion → Heart Movement → Golden Core → Nascent Soul → Soul Departure → Spirit Separation → Body Integration → Cave Void → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Demon Cultivation (Alt Accounts · Bone One, Blood One):
Qi Gathering → Body Refining → Core Condensation → Desire Embodiment → Devouring → Demon Infant → Soul Departure → Sense Separation → Body Fusion → Void Break → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Beast Cultivation (Alt Account · Rat One):
Spirit Gathering → Intelligence Awakening → Body Tempering → Bone Refining → Beast Core → Transformation → Soul Condensation → Spirit Roaming → Body Purification → Void Training → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Note: The above are the exclusive cultivation systems for Lin Luo and his alt accounts. Everyone else (side characters, enemies, etc.) uses the traditional system: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, Void Training, Body Integration, Great Ascension, Tribulation Transcendence.
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(End of Chapter 17)