Chapter 626: A Tie

“And you, Junior Brother Meng—no, Vice Palace Master Meng—the Mission Palace shall be left to the care of you two.”

Dai Bufan felt he could no longer keep pace with the shifting times; having reached the age of retirement, it was time to step down, abdicate his position to the worthy, and let the capable step forward.

Two years ago, before he had ever crossed paths with Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, he had deemed himself a stellar talent, a grand figure in the early stage of the Body Integration Realm despite his youth, possessed of a radiant and boundless future.

During his tenure overseeing the Mission Palace, he had been capable of deducing hidden intelligence from the minutest of subtleties and unraveling the truth from the most tangled of webs; the missions he issued not only punished evil and promoted good, but also served to temper and forge his junior brothers and sisters, making it no exaggeration to call him a foundational pillar of the Dao Sect.

Now, he felt he was not a foundational pillar at all, but rather a mere nothing, utterly incapable of containing the sheer chaos generated by these two!

On your very first excursion, you joined the Immortal Sect, and then the Immortal Sect was utterly annihilated.

On your second excursion, you discovered that your fellow disciple, Li Haoran, was the reincarnation of the former leader of the Nine Underworlds Sect.

On your third excursion, you fabricated the Heavenly Court Sect out of thin air and forged a deep, collaborative alliance with the Nine Underworlds Sect.

On your fourth excursion, you attended the Qingzhou Grand Ceremony, where you crossed paths with a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator from the ancient Great Yu era, prompting the Eldest Senior Sister to personally intervene.

On your fifth excursion, you encountered three Tribulation Transcendence cultivators from Great Yu in Hanshui City, and all three were subsequently captured and hauled back.

By the time of your sixth excursion, you went ahead and directly resurrected the legendary Ancient Ancestor of the Phoenix Clan, throwing the founding ceremony of the Demon Grand Kingdom into absolute chaos.

I distinctly heard that you two were merely assisting Junior Sister Gan Tian with some archeological work; how on earth did your excavating lead to digging up the Ancient Ancestor of the Phoenix Clan?

I dare not even fathom what you two might accomplish on your next journey!

A legendary ancient Half-Immortal, no less; in the mere span of a brief trip abroad, you actually managed to resurrect such a being, and even triggered a clash of Half-Immortal proportions?!

A battle featuring six Tribulation Transcendence cultivators and two Half-Immoxrtals was a spectacle Dai Bufan had never witnessed in all his life, yet you two had not only witnessed it, but were the primary catalysts behind the entire conflagration!

“No, no, no, this absolutely will not do!” Lu Yang waved his hands frantically, declining Dai Bufan’s proposal.

“Sit back down; I will speak to Master about this myself, and he will undoubtedly agree!”

“It cannot be, it cannot be. My status is lowly, and my cultivation is too unsightly to behold; I am utterly incapable of shoulder such a heavy responsibility!”

Meng Jingzhou chimed in from the side to support Lu Yang’s refusal: “Indeed, indeed, he cannot possibly become the Palace Master of the Mission Palace. He is the Young Sect Master of the Heavenly Court Sect, and the Senior Brother of Senior Lianyi. Senior Lianyi is currently within our very sect; if her venerable self were to discover this, she would definitely not give her assent.”

Dai Bufan snapped his head toward Meng Jingzhou, his gaze brimming with astonishment and utter bewilderment, as though he were listening to a myth.

Just what in the world did you two do in the Demon Realm?

He pressed his hands firmly upon Lu Yang’s shoulders, forcing him down into his seat with sheer physical weight.

Senior Brother Dai’s face bloomed with a forced smile, his demeanor turning exceedingly warm, his tone shifting to a gentle cadence as he personally poured and served tea to Lu Yang.

“Come, Palace Master Lu, tell me all about your experiences in the Demon Realm.”

With one asking and the other supplementing, the two recounted their exploits in the Demon Realm, naturally omitting the existence of the Immortal Fairy, presenting it instead as a stroke of sheer fortune where Lu Yang chanced to pass through the Ancient Realm of Creation and happened to awaken Jiang Lianyi.

Dai Bufan massaged his temples in sheer agony; the experiences of these two were simply far too bizarre to comprehend.

“In other words, the Demon Grand Kingdom, in essence, already belongs to the estate of the Heavenly Court Sect?”

“It is not incorrect to understand it that way.”

“……”

“Senior Brother Dai, if there is nothing else, the two of us shall take our leave first,” Lu Yang murmured cautiously, taking advantage of the moment Senior Brother Dai was nursing his aching head to quickly slip out of the Mission Palace alongside Meng Jingzhou.

Meanwhile, Senior Brother Dai had still not entirely recovered from the shattering impact of the intelligence he had just received.

The two parted ways at the entrance of the Mission Palace, returning to their respective mountain peaks.

Upon his return, Meng Jingzhou intended to prepare for his breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Realm.

Arriving back at his cave dwelling, he found Old Ma standing by the entrance, leisurely and contentedly nibbling on blades of grass, completely at peace.

“Old Ma, I have returned from the Demon Realm! It is a true shame you did not join us this time; our journey to the Demon Realm yielded immense rewards!”

Regardless of whether Old Ma wished to listen or not, Meng Jingzhou launched directly into a grand retelling of his half-year spent in the Demon Realm.

Upon hearing the tale, Old Ma was consumed by absolute regret, cursing its own timid and fearful nature for missing the chance to witness a battle of Half-Immormtals with its own eyes.

Had it known that the Ancient Ancestor of the Phoenix Clan was backing them, what would it have had to fear? It could have swept across the entire Demon Realm with absolute impunity.

This could not happen again; next time, next time it would absolutely follow this brat out to see the wider world!

……

“I wonder if Senior Lianyi has met Eldest Senior Sister yet,” Lu Yang mused with a trace of anxiety.

Lu Yang ascended the mountain, arriving at the summit via a well-trodden path, only to find the deeply worried Third Senior Sister sitting there alone, with no sign of either Eldest Senior Sister or Jiang Lianyi.

Third Senior Sister sat beside a stone table, her hands clasped together, her thumbs twirling around one another in restless agitation, her brow thoroughly furrowed with profound concern.

“Third Senior Sister, where are Eldest Senior Sister and Senior Lianyi?”

“Ah, Junior Brother. I am not entirely certain what transpired just now, but the moment Senior Lianyi laid eyes on Eldest Senior Sister, she proposed to test Eldest Senior Sister’s skills, and Eldest Senior Sister readily agreed.”

“Considering that the commotion of their clash would be far too immense, the two of them departed for the pocket dimension created by Eldest Senior Sister to conduct their battle, and I have been waiting here ever since.”

Lu Yang drew a sharp breath; Senior Lianyi truly possessed an unyielding stubbornness, challenging Eldest Senior Sister right from the very outset.

“Third Senior Sister, are you worried that Eldest Senior Sister might suffer a defeat?”

Third Senior Sister sighed, gesturing for Lu Yang to take a seat as well, before revealing the true source of her anxiety: “I am worried that Senior Lianyi, having only just emerged into this world, will have her Dao heart utterly shattered by the beating.”

“In the past, Eldest Senior Sister never knew how to hold back. From what I know alone, several ancient seniors have had their Dao hearts completely crushed by her, requiring hundreds of years just to piece them back together.”

“How did they piece them back together?” Lu Yang inquired out of curiosity, hearing for the very first time that a shattered Dao heart could actually be healed, even if the cost was so immense as to require centuries.

“By suppressing their own cultivation realms, disguising themselves as members of the younger generation, and parading their might among the youths. The common practice involves first allowing others to mock them—saying their cultivation is low, their talent is wretched, and that they have no hope in this life—before they rise up in fierce defiance, unsealing a portion of their true strength to strike back at their detractors.”

“They begin anew from the Qi Refining Stage, first joining a minor sect. Once their realm rises to the Foundation Establishment Stage and the minor sect begins to restrict their growth, they move on to cultivate within a mid-tier sect, followed by the Golden Core Stage, the Nascent Soul Stage… throughout their cultivation, they continuously repeat the process I just described.”

“And yet, strange as it sounds, this method is remarkably effective. A few ancient seniors even managed to meet their fateful maidens during this process, resulting in an old cow grazing on tender grass, tying the knot, and kindling a second youth; their mindsets became far younger than before, and some, bolstered by the power of love, even saw their strength reach unprecedented heights.”

Lu Yang: “……”

So it turned out these ancient seniors spent centuries merely indulging in the art of slapping faces while feigning weakness.

As the two conversed, the space directly above them suddenly warped violently, and Jiang Lianyi, in her human form, plummeted from the high heavens, crashing into the ground and kicking up a dense cloud of dust.

Lu Yang and Third Senior Sister rushed forward in haste to inspect her condition.

They found Jiang Lianyi completely devoid of breath, with every single sign of life entirely extinguished; she was, to all appearances, as dead as could possibly be.

“Senior Lianyi, are you alright?”

Hearing Lu Yang’s voice of concern, Jiang Lianyi resurrected once more, snapping upright in a sudden motion, her heart still pounding with lingering terror.

“How perilous, how exceedingly perilous! To think that the later generations could produce a descendant of such terrifying might.”

“Fortunately, before my defeat could be sealed, I took the initiative to commit suicide and terminate the battle, which can be considered a hard-fought draw!”

The second chapter will be at eleven o'clock.

(End of this chapter)