[Traveled to another world, and even entered the Daoist holy land, the Celestial Master’s Mansion, to cultivate.]

Jason Reed: "This is a pretty good start."

[Entered late, started cultivating late, mediocre aptitude, slow progress.]

Jason Reed: "That’s a bit troubling."

[Foresee fortune and misfortune, draw lots to predict the future, choices determine one’s life.]

Jason Reed: "My golden finger is really powerful."

[Best lot: ...Obtain a fifth-grade opportunity, move in secret, no worries behind, auspicious.]

Jason Reed: "This is good, are there any others?"

[Worst lot: ...Suffer a great calamity before gaining any reward, fall into danger, life and death uncertain, inauspicious.]

Jason Reed: "Very well, I choose the best lot."

From then on, he never missed out on benefits, and trouble never stuck to him.

Life entered easy mode, calmly watching others’ thrilling ups and downs.

Volume One: The Ancestral Court of Daoist Arts

Chapter 1: The Celestial Master’s Mansion

The Celestial Master’s Mansion on Mount Longhu, at the foot of the mountain, Sixth Branch of the Daoist Novice Courtyard.

Jason Reed, dressed in a gray standard Daoist robe, sat in the main hall, reciting Daoist scriptures with the other gray-robed novices, swaying their heads in rhythm.

As a transmigrator, he had arrived in a world completely different from Blue Star.

A world where immortals and monsters rose together, gods and spirits appeared everywhere; here, cultivators could fly through the sky and burrow through the earth, move mountains and part seas.

It should be said that Jason Reed was quite lucky.

Not long after he transmigrated, he entered the gates of the Celestial Master’s Mansion.

The Celestial Master’s Mansion had always ranked among the three great Daoist holy lands of the current age, the ancestral court of the talisman lineage, and the current Celestial Master was one of the top Daoist experts, a leader among his peers.

But this was only the beginning.

Because at present, Jason Reed was still just a novice who had only recently entered, not yet undergone the formal initiation, not yet received the talisman scriptures, and could not be considered a true disciple of the Celestial Master’s Mansion.

In this world, the Celestial Master’s Mansion had eight outer novice branches at the foot of Mount Longhu. New novices like Jason Reed spent most of their time here.

At this stage, everyone had two group lessons daily, morning and evening.

Morning lessons involved reciting Daoist scriptures and various precepts and rules together.

In the late morning, instructors would guide them in basic cultivation.

Afternoons were for personal activities; most chose to go to the Steward Hall to take on tasks and accumulate merit.

Evening lessons were for group study of foundational Daoist texts.

Fortunately, although Jason Reed and the others could only be called novices and not Daoists for now, as one of the world’s top Daoist holy lands, the Novice Courtyard of the Celestial Master’s Mansion already taught basic Daoist arts to lay the foundation for the novices.

On this day, after finishing morning cultivation and lunch, Jason Reed and several other novices went to the Talisman Paper Building on the east side.

The task they received from the Steward Hall today was to help cut talisman paper.

The Daoist talisman lineage often used spirit talismans. Besides the maker’s own cultivation and the talisman scriptures, materials like talisman brushes, ink, and paper also affected the talisman’s power.

The talisman paper used by disciples of the Celestial Master’s Mansion, even the most basic yellow paper, was specially ordered.

Not only did the earlier steps like preparing materials and papermaking require dedicated workshops, but even the cutting and dividing had to be done by novices like Jason Reed, not handed over to ordinary people.

"It’s a pity that the talisman paper we cut, we can’t use ourselves," someone kept sighing.

Jason Reed said nothing upon hearing this, focusing intently and neatly cutting the yellow paper without a single error.

Another novice sighed, "Let’s cultivate diligently and accumulate merit. Once we undergo the formal initiation and become disciples, we’ll be able to make talismans ourselves."

The Daoist talisman lineage emphasized dual cultivation of life and nature, with life (the body) coming before nature (the spirit). In short, life referred to the physical body, nature to the soul and spirit, so cultivation at the Celestial Master’s Mansion began with strengthening the body.

Although Jason Reed had only recently entered, his body was already filled with true qi, his flesh strong and healthy, and with diligent practice of Daoist martial arts, neither ordinary people nor monsters could easily approach him.

If he had spirit talismans passed down from senior disciples, he could even activate and use them.

However, without formal initiation and the true transmission of talisman scriptures, Jason Reed and the others could not make talismans themselves, nor did they know higher-level Daoist arts.

Was this considered a temporary apprentice job?

Even after transmigrating to a world of cultivation and entering the ancestral court of Daoism, he still had to work hard to pass the exams and get a proper position, and eventually get certified for the job... Jason Reed shook his head and stacked the cut talisman paper neatly.

From his experience reading novels in his previous life, he figured he was only considered an outer disciple or miscellaneous disciple for now.

The distance between a novice and a Daoist was the distance between the Novice Courtyard at the foot of the mountain and the main Celestial Master’s Mansion halfway up the main peak.

One day, when he entered the main mansion for formal initiation, gained a master, a Daoist name, and a generation name, only then would a novice officially become a Daoist and a true disciple of the Celestial Master’s Mansion.

In other words, what Jason Reed often read about in novels on Blue Star as an inner disciple or direct disciple.

As for the even higher level of receiving the talisman scriptures, that was not something the little novices needed to think about yet.

Halfway through their work, a thin, gray-robed youth rushed into the Talisman Paper Building.

Everyone was curious: "Senior Brother Bolton, didn’t you take a task to go down the mountain and gain merit? Why are you back so soon..."

The thin novice also started cutting talisman paper. "Don’t mention it, my luck was terrible!"

Though he said not to mention it, he couldn’t help but say, "I went to the area around Qingxi, fifty li outside the mountain. I heard there were monsters causing trouble, so I hurried over, wanting to subdue the demon and help the people!"