Novitiates only receive simple advice, although they are permitted to ask questions. Personal Apprentices follow the Master by his side. They receive instruction verbally and by example. Personal skills are passed down, including some secret techniques.
Legacy Apprentices are the most important of all. They receive a lifetime of knowledge; they are the hope for the future, the hope to pass on everything. Nothing will be held back from such an apprentice. Such an apprentice is even more important than a son!
***
In the deepest corner of the Violet Fate Sect, within the East Pill Division, is a squat mountain. The mountains which surround it are much higher than it; however, this mountain seemed to be embodied with a profound air of dignity, as if it were the most senior of all the mountains.
This mountain was actually the pinnacle of all the mountains of the East Pill Division!
Located on this peak of mountains was a building, which Pill Demon led Meng Hao to. The instant Meng Hao saw it, he gaped. The building looked exactly like his Master’s house from the world of illusion.
Pill Demon pushed the doorway open and walked inside, back facing Meng Hao. As he walked, he explained, “You experienced the kowtow of Innocence. You walked the kowtow of Roaming. In the end, you chose to perform the kowtow of Sunset Gazing. With these three kowtows, you took me as your Master.”
Meng Hao followed, watching the old man’s back as he walked along. Suddenly, he realized that this man didn’t seem like a stranger at all. The life he had lived in the world of illusions was overlapping with reality. Meng Hao suddenly clasped hands and bowed deeply toward Pill Demon.
“Apprentice greets Master,” he said.
“In the Celestial Land, Master told you that you would only need to perform two kowtows. The first kowtow was broken up into three parts. Master has sown Karma, and because you did not break it, neither shall I! As for the second kowtow, I didn’t explain it back then.
“Now the time has come for you to understand. The second kowtow will come if the day ever arrives in which I return to the dust. Then you must kowtow to break our Karma, so that our fates are no longer intertwined. I will give you a lifetime of favor as your Master; all you must give me, is the ability to smile before I die. That smile will be because I know that my legacy from this life will be passed on.
“If in the course of being my apprentice you choose the same path as my first Legacy Apprentice, Liu Rufeng, and leave me, then there will be no need for the second kowtow.
“Your feet belong to you, and the path lays beneath your feet. The choice will be yours to make in the future.” Pill Demon suddenly turned to look at Meng Hao.
“However,” he continued slowly, “if I were to tell you that I am unable to dispel the poison of the Resurrection Lily, would you still be willing to take me as your Master