Yong City was one of the regional districts of the Lingyou Realm. The only cultivation sect that completely belonged to Yong City’s local forces was Yunhua Sect. Although other sects and factions appeared in Yong City and even opened various shops, their main forces were not located here.

Yong City had fertile land with distinct seasonal climate characteristics, making it one of the blessed lands in the Lingyou Realm. Perhaps precisely because the water and soil here nurtured people, the citizens here had slow-paced personalities, did things slowly, and even the cultivators lacked the ambition of cultivators from other cities. Several thousand years ago, when the cultivation world was still relatively closed and backward, Yong City was once called the City of Degeneracy, because many cultivators who came here began to become “unambitious,” only wanting to live leisurely days.

As time passed and the various exchange systems in the cultivation world became increasingly clear, with cultivators interacting more and more, Yong City finally shed the title of “City of Degeneracy.” However, for young people harboring cultivation dreams, when joining a cultivation sect, the first choice could never be Yunhua Sect. Yunhua Sect felt very helpless about this and made considerable efforts in external promotion, but unfortunately the results were not obvious. Over time, Yunhua Sect gradually became calm as still water, emphasizing that everything followed fate.

However, the Yunhua Sect Master, who had always been calm as still water, was not at all peaceful in his mood today. Even less peaceful than him was the Peak Master of Chenxia Peak sitting below him.

Under Yunhua Sect, there were five Peak Masters and three Elders in seclusion. These three Elders were elder relatives who only ate and drank without managing affairs. Unless it was a moment of life and death, no one expected these three Elders to help with anything.

“Sect Master, is Wang Tong really… coming back?” The Peak Master of Chenxia Peak held onto a thread of faint hope, attempting a final struggle.

“Just now, Junior Martial Brother Wang Tong’s eldest disciple sent a message saying Wang Tong has returned from the mortal realm.” Seeing Qingyuan’s appearance, the Sect Master couldn’t help but say, “Why did you provoke him back then? Now that he’s returning, he’ll either fight you or demolish half of your Chenxia Peak’s cave dwellings. When word of this gets out, the entire Lingyou Realm will laugh at us.”

“The Lingyou Realm has been laughing at us for thousands of years anyway, one more incident won’t make a difference.” The Peak Master of Wuyang Peak, Pei Huai, said quietly from the side, “What’s the big deal? Look on the bright side.”

“If you don’t speak, my mood will be better, and it will be easier to look on the bright side.” Sect Master Heng Yan glared at Pei Huai. What immoral deeds had he committed in his past life to become the sect master of such a sect?! Each one was incompetent at everything, ate everything without leaving anything, and none of them gave him peace of mind.

Pei Huai and Qingyun exchanged glances, not daring to speak further. The other two Peak Masters maintained an attitude of detachment as if none of this concerned them, as if their only purpose for sitting there was to make up the numbers.

Dong dong dong.

The sect’s great bell rang three times. This was the ceremony for when important figures of the sect returned from distant travels, showing the disciples’ longing and respect for their elders.

After the bell finished ringing, Qingyuan changed his sitting position several times in succession, using his actual actions to demonstrate what it meant to be restless.

Yunhua Sect stood atop a high mountain. The stone steps below the mountain led directly to the immortal gate. Stepping onto this path represented separation from the mortal world and embarking on the great path of cultivation.

Kong Hou stood on a flying sword, her hand being held by Cheng Yi. She looked at the winding stone steps below her feet, ascending upward and covered in white snow, almost endless, her eyes full of curiosity. She had never seen such long stairs before.

“This is called the Path to Ask the Immortals. Every sect has such a path. Ordinary people who want to join the sect and embark on the immortal cultivation path must walk this road before they’re qualified to stay.” Cheng Yi introduced Kong Hou to Yunhua Sect’s architecture. “Over there is Qiyue Peak where Master and we reside.”

Looking in the direction Cheng Yi pointed, to the west stood a mountain peak, surrounded by swirling clouds and mist, full of mystery. However, she didn’t dare speak now, afraid that Master and Senior Martial Brother would suddenly remember she hadn’t walked that Path to Ask the Immortals and throw her to the mountain’s foot to let her walk up by herself.

Cheng Yi thought Kong Hou was just not accustomed to arriving at the Lingyou Realm for the first time. He didn’t think much of it and brought Kong Hou down to the martial arts training field outside the main hall. The disciples on the training field wore uniform blue outer robes. Seeing Cheng Yi arrive, they put away their weapons one after another and saluted Cheng Yi. As the eldest personal disciple of Qiyue Peak, Cheng Yi had considerable status within the sect.

“Fellow junior martial brothers and sisters need not be overly courteous.” Cheng Yi corrected the errors in several disciples’ swordsmanship and stood to the side with Kong Hou, watching.

Kong Hou didn’t really understand swordsmanship. She only felt that these people’s sword techniques were better-looking than the sword performances in the palace, and moreover, they weren’t afraid of the cold. In such cold weather, they actually wore brocade clothes. They looked good, but weren’t very warm.

She looked up at the sky. Where had Master and Second Senior Martial Brother gone?

Just as she was thinking this, she saw red clouds suddenly churning in the sky, a great wind stirring up snowflakes. Her Master, dressed in white surpassing snow, stood on the back of a singing crane, slowly approaching.

Kong Hou was stunned by Master’s transcendent bearing as a superior person, staring foolishly at the crane spreading its wings in flight. She felt that at this moment, Master was truly an immortal.

Chi.

She seemed to hear Eldest Senior Martial Brother’s light laughter. However, when she turned her head back, she only saw Eldest Senior Martial Brother’s serious and solemn face.

Could she have heard wrong?

Seeing Wang Tong stepping on the crane and entering the main hall directly, Cheng Yi said to Kong Hou, “Let’s go, we’ll go inside.”

“Oh.” Kong Hou vaguely felt that in the depths of the clouds, there seemed to be human figures, and moreover, Second Senior Martial Brother had also disappeared.

“Eldest Senior Martial Brother, where is Second Senior Martial Brother?”

“Your Second Senior Martial Brother…” Cheng Yi looked up at the sky. “He’s helping Master handle a very important matter.”

Kong Hou looked at Eldest Senior Martial Brother’s face and inexplicably felt that this expression of Eldest Senior Martial Brother’s was full of stories. Perhaps these were the troubles of the adult world. After following Cheng Yi for a while, Kong Hou said quietly to Cheng Yi, “Eldest Senior Martial Brother, those senior martial brothers and sisters practicing swords seem to be secretly watching us.”

“No need to mind them.” Cheng Yi touched Kong Hou’s hair tied with fuzzy balls. “Young people are curious by nature; their cultivation isn’t sufficient yet.”

Kong Hou turned her head to look at those senior martial brothers and sisters. They withdrew their gazes one after another, exactly like those former dynasty old ministers who stole glances at Emperor Jing Hong. They were clearly secretly watching her, yet still had to pretend as if nothing had happened.

As expected, the adult world was always full of self-deception.

In the main hall, the Sect Master and four Peak Masters were blown full of snow by the strong wind. Qingyuan’s temper was somewhat violent, and he almost slapped the table and stood up to curse. But thinking that the person who had arrived was Wang Tong, he forcibly swallowed this breath back down.

The crane cried out once, landing in the great hall. Wang Tong unhurriedly descended from the crane, flicked his wide sleeves, and saluted Heng Yan, saying, “I greet Senior Martial Brother Sect Master.”

Heng Yan looked at the snowflakes, fresh flowers, and crane feathers that had fallen to the ground, and laughed dryly, “Junior Martial Brother need not be overly courteous. You and I haven’t seen each other for many years. Why don’t we sit down and talk?”

“Thank you, Senior Martial Brother.” Wang Tong stroked his smooth beard and sat in the first empty seat on the left, happening to meet eyes with Qingyuan sitting opposite him.

“Heh.” Wang Tong patted the non-existent dust on his robe, as if he wanted to flick Qingyuan away.

Qingyuan couldn’t bear it any longer and said, “Wang Tong, don’t start causing trouble as soon as you return!”

Wang Tong raised an eyebrow. “Seeing that I didn’t die, are you very disappointed?”

Over these years, Wang Tong had been constantly looking for ways to break through his heart tribulation. Ten years ago, he happened to hear Qingyuan mocking him behind his back, saying he came from a poor background, had no insight, and even his heart tribulation was so laughable that it made the entire cultivation world laugh at him, and so on.

At that time, the two of them had a match. Because Wang Tong hadn’t passed his heart tribulation, he lost by half a point. Later he went to the mortal realm and hadn’t appeared at Yunhua Sect again in all these years.

Over these years, Qingyuan had also worried that if Wang Tong’s heart tribulation hadn’t passed and he died outside, then he would truly have made enemies with Wang Tong’s two disciples. Feeling guilty, he had been much more well-behaved these past few years. However, this guilt, upon seeing Wang Tong’s high-profile entrance, immediately dissipated like smoke.

Seeing that the two were about to engage in a verbal dispute again, Sect Master Heng Yan spoke to interrupt their conversation. “Wang Tong, I observe that your cultivation has returned to simplicity and truth. Has there been great progress?”

“Thank you for Sect Master’s concern. I have already broken through the major stage of Nascent Soul and reached the late stage of Out-of-Body.” Wang Tong said, “All these years I’ve been stuck at the Core Formation stage. I’ve troubled everyone with worry.”

Everyone present breathed a sigh of relief. Even Qingyuan only muttered a few sentences and didn’t say anything unpleasant.

“Congratulations to Senior Martial Brother Wang Tong. Such a great joyous occasion should also be celebrated with an advancement ceremony.” Pei Huai happily patted the armrest of his chair repeatedly. “Breaking through Nascent Soul so easily, Senior Martial Brother’s advancement to the Divine Transformation stage is just around the corner.”

“Junior Martial Brother jests. However, there is indeed a grand ceremony that needs to be held recently, not my advancement ceremony, but a disciple acceptance ceremony.” Wang Tong looked toward the main hall’s entrance. “I took in a disciple in the mortal realm and plan to make her my last personal disciple.”

“The mortal realm?” Qingyuan couldn’t help but say, “Most people from the mortal realm don’t have spiritual roots for cultivation. Why would you…”

Wang Tong ignored him and called toward outside the door, “Cheng Yi, bring your junior martial sister inside.”

From his tone, he had already tacitly accepted this child from the mortal realm as his disciple; only a disciple acceptance ceremony was missing.

At the entrance to the hall, Cheng Yi led in a little girl who appeared to be about nine years old. The little girl had hair like black silk, and most rare were those eyes, both round and bright. Even these old fellows who had lived for hundreds of years couldn’t help but feel several portions of fondness.

The Peak Masters present exchanged glances with each other. If not for this little girl being truly too good-looking, they would almost think this was Wang Tong running off to the mortal realm and having a child with some woman.

“Kong Hou greets all the uncles.” Kong Hou walked to the center of the hall and steadily performed a grand palace courtesy, her small face tightly drawn, looking somewhat serious.

Although Sect Master Heng Yan felt it was improper to take a child from the mortal realm as a personal disciple, facing Kong Hou, he couldn’t help but reveal three portions of a smile before even speaking. “No need for excessive courtesy. Everyone present is your Master’s martial brothers, so you needn’t be constrained.”

When one was old, one liked this kind of extremely cute child.

“Eh?” Qingyuan discovered that Kong Hou had imperial dragon energy on her body. “You’re a member of the imperial family from the mortal realm. Could it be that you helped Wang Tong break through the great barrier of his heart tribulation?”

Kong Hou didn’t understand what a heart tribulation great barrier was. She only selected questions she understood to answer. “My father was the previous dynasty’s emperor.”

“Previous dynasty’s emperor?”

Kong Hou nodded. “Because he couldn’t be a good emperor, he was overthrown by others.”

Qingyuan: “…”

Other Peak Masters: “…”

This child was truly honest. However, being able to speak of matters like dynasties changing hands with such calm detachment showed she had several portions of Yunhua Sect’s style.

—

Author’s Note: Yunhua Sect, a cultivation world sect with a Buddhist-style approach.