Chapter 400: Time Immortal Grants Peace

"A trip to the Barren State might not be a bad idea; there ought to be a solution there." The Third Elder nodded, feeling that his disciple’s head was screwed on right after all.

"I'll go with you." Lu Yang felt that since he had been dutifully cultivating on Heaven’s Gate Peak for so long, it was high time he went out for a stroll, lest his brain begin to atrophy.

The Fourth Elder kindly offered his advice: "If you are heading to the Barren State, you can seek assistance from the Corpse-Driving Sect. Their relationship with our Dao-Inquiring Sect is quite good, and generations of our Sect Masters have shared deep bonds. Even if you ask to learn the art of corpse-driving, they won't refuse.

As a renowned, first-rank powerhouse in the Barren State, their aid will undoubtedly make things go much smoother."

When he had traveled through the Barren State in the past, he had received help from the Corpse-Driving Sect.

The Fourth Elder immediately penned a letter of recommendation, folded it, slid it into an envelope, and handed it to Meng Jingzhou.

Taking the envelope, Meng Jingzhou suddenly realized the situation and froze. "Just Lu Yang and me? Master, you and the others aren't going?"

You all were brainstorming for me so fervently just now—and though not a single idea was useful, it still showed you cared deeply about me. So why, looking at this setup, does it seem like only Lu Yang and I are going to the Barren State?

The Third Elder waved his hand dismissively. "We're not going. If word of this gets out, it would be far too embarrassing."

Taking Meng Jingzhou across the Barren State to seek a cure for a curse—how was that any different from taking him around to find medical treatment for impotence?

If this were to spread, how could he ever show his face in the cultivation world again in the future?

Meng Jingzhou: "……"

Lu Yang: "……"

The Immortal Fairy, however, was brimming with confidence regarding the journey to the Barren State. "What are you two afraid of? With this Immortal here, could anything possibly go wrong?"

The Elders' consultation had concluded, and the verdict was that the patient needed to save himself.

Meng Jingzhou let out a faint, melancholic sigh and returned to his cave dwelling to pack his things.

As a matter of course, he didn't encounter a single senior sister along the way.

Lu Yang was also packing his belongings.

"Shamanistic voodoo and corpse-driving are local specialties of the Barren State, with tombs to be seen everywhere, alongside all kinds of miasma and venomous creatures."

"I need to exchange for some detoxification pills from the Mission Hall."

"There are also many who practice the art of cursing. I've never encountered anyone skilled in curses before; a first meeting could easily result in a heavy loss. Do I need to purchase something to counter curses?"

"This Immortal is shielding you, yet you still fear curses?" The Immortal Fairy patted her chest proudly, asserting her presence. As the leader of the Five Ancient Immortals, what curse could possibly work against her?

Lu Yang cast a glance at the Immortal Fairy. True enough, the greatest curse in the world was right here with him; what other curse did he have to fear?

Leaving the matter of being cursed aside, the journey to the Barren State would be much lighter.

"Your conditions are excellent now. With this Immortal around, you don't have to worry about curses. Back when this Immortal hadn't yet achieved immortality, I often fought with others to compete for the qualification of godhood. Those fellows were all young geniuses of their generation, possessing a bit of skill and acting quite amiable within their tribes. But when they crossed paths with this Immortal, no amount of genius mattered!

Those fellows weren't even worthy of being called young geniuses. Beaten once by this Immortal, they would never recover from the setback. Look at the Heavenly Accord Immortal and the Qilin Immortal—they were demoralized by this Immortal every single day, yet you never saw them sink into despondency.

Seeing that they couldn't defeat this Immortal out in the open, they resorted to underhanded tactics and cast curses, laying death curses upon this Immortal.

Fortunately, this Immortal's talent is peerless, and I endured through it all."

Lu Yang remembered that the art of cursing originated from ancient times, and ancient curses were far more vicious and terrifying than those of today. For the Fairy to withstand ancient curses and successfully achieve immortality showed just how powerful she truly was.

He marveled inwardly. As expected of the Immortal Fairy—though she was usually eccentric and unreliable, her reputation in the ancient era was forged through genuine, hard-fought battles.

The Immortal Fairy huffed, pouting her lips.

"What's most despicable is those Holy Virgins of certain Sacred Grounds. They couldn't beat this Immortal and grew envious of my looks, fearing that the men they fancied would fall for me instead, so they also cast curses upon this Immortal, cursing me with disfigurement."

It was evident that even after the passage of vast eons, she remained deeply aggrieved by the actions of those Holy Virgins.

"Although this Immortal possessed no small fame before ascending, with cultivation, appearance, and wisdom that were all exceptionally outstanding, I lacked a background. I was frequently ostracized, and some even publicly mocked me, saying so what if this Immortal was strong? Without a background, I would never smoothly achieve immortality.

Bullying this Immortal for having no background? Then this Immortal shall become the greatest background herself!" The Immortal Fairy laughed triumphantly. In the past, she had been infuriated, but now she merely found those rivals childish.

"The Fairy is truly formidable."

"Right?"

Lu Yang quickly finished packing, stowing away everything he could think of, and then went to the Mission Hall to exchange for many items that might prove useful.

"Detoxification pills are a must-buy, as well as these herbs, which can be used to concoct temporary antidotes at critical moments."

Lu Yang had studied the basic knowledge of poisons on Cauldron Peak. This was a mandatory course for disciples of the Dao-Inquiring Sect; common poisons were ineffective against him.

When traveling abroad, one must not harbor intentions to harm others, but one must always maintain a mind to guard against others—this was the ancestral maxim of the Five Elements Sect.

Later on, Daoist Buyu and the eight elders felt that Qiu Jin'an's words made sense, so they adopted the phrase to teach their own disciples, ensuring they kept their guard up.

"Let's buy a few more books introducing the Barren State.

'The Culture and Customs of the Barren State', 'Legends of Corpse-Driving'

'The Scourge of Shamanic Voodoo'..."

"Since battles might be encountered, I need to buy talismans for combat, Soul-Returning Pills... these should be about enough."

Having completed his purchases, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou converged at the mountain gate.

Meng Jingzhou had arrived a step ahead of Lu Yang and was already waiting inside the carriage.

"You're too slow."

"What's the rush? It's not as if leaving early means we can return early."

Lu Yang climbed into the carriage, and the two cross-checked the items they carried to ensure nothing was missing before finally setting off.

Along the way, the Immortal Fairy said with utter boredom, "If only we could find the Longevity Immortal. His Divine Wood body possesses the power of blessing; plucking a single leaf or snapping off a single branch could break the karmic backlash on that Meng boy."

"The Divine Wood actually has such an effect? How come I've never heard of it?" Lu Yang was puzzled, though descriptions of the Divine Wood in ancient texts were exceedingly rare, so it was normal for there to be things he didn't know.

"You know about celebrating the New Year, right? The day of transition between the old and the new, crossing over bad luck to gain good fortune in the coming year—that is the New Year. The very concept of the New Year was created by him."

"During the New Year, isn't there a custom of stepping over tree branches? Originating from the source, what should be stepped over are branches of the Divine Wood. It's just that later generations couldn't find the Divine Wood, so they used ordinary branches instead.

Come to think of it, I didn't know the Divine Wood had the effect of blessing at first either; it was the Qilin Immortal and the others who told me."

"The Qilin Immortal and the others said that the Longevity Immortal had a chance of predicting when I would host a dinner or when I would drop by their cave dwellings for a visit, allowing them to prepare early. That, indeed, is a monumental blessing."

Lu Yang felt the profound truth in this, thoroughly agreeing with the perspective of the Qilin Immortal and the others, and nodded.

"The Longevity Immortal truly does possess the effect of praying for blessings and ensuring peace."