Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It seemed that Yanxu’s Free Form Incarnation came from the old Daoist. With this deduction, when Yanxu was spreading tragedy in Qing Xuan, it explained why the old Daoist did not take action. It was probably not because he was stuck in a trial.
As he was now gone, only Yanxu would know the truth.
Shen Lian kept all of these in his heart. Regardless, before the old Daoist passed away, he had helped to block against Guangqing. This had helped him to get rid of a potential worry and hence he was enlightened successfully. For Chen Jianmei to be here was also under the order of the old Daoist.
Ruoxi also had benefited from the old Daoist. From all of these, it seemed that the old Daoist did not have the intention to bring tragedy to Qing Xuan.
When he thought about the seniors of Qing Xuan who died in vain, the City of Vain Deaths hidden in Taiwei Pavilion, and the death of Zhang Ruoxu, Shen Lian did not feel too comfortable.
He did not reveal his emotions. He was multitasking as he explained the tadpole writing to Ruoxi.
Ruoxi realized Shen Lian was not in the mood, but she did not know why.
Suddenly Shen Lian looked up, and he flicked his finger. A stroke of sword aura went through the sky and broke the restriction of Qing Xuan. A clear Qi soon fell from the sky and Shen Lian had grappled it.
After Shen Lian got hold of the clear Qi, he was silent for a while, then he continued explaining to Ruoxi about the tadpole writing like nothing had happened.
The next day, a bell rang on Taiyi Peak. It was apparent that the Chief had something on. He gathered all the doyens and students.
Since Shen Lian returned and when everyone knew he had achieved Daoist’s immortality, nobody dared to have any second thought.
Immortal Zhenren was considered an unreachable existence of most cultivators. Qing Xuan had a history of ten thousand years and there were only forty immortal Zhenrens. Among the four main Daoist sects, Qing Xuan had the most number of immortal Zhenren. One could imagine how difficult it was to achieve Daoist’s immortality.
Outsiders knew that Shen Lian was not even a hundred years old, but the people at Qing Xuan knew since Shen Lian entered the sect, it had not even been thirty years. Not even Lu Jiuyuan could achieve a similar height – by using only thirty years to achieve immortality.
Nobody would deny the claim that Shen Lian was the first genius in ten thousand years of the cultivation community in Yuan Continent.
After all, for three thousand years, only Lu Jiuyuan achieved Daoist immortality within a hundred years.
Now not only did they respect Shen Lian, they too admired Zhang Ruoxu’s foresight. He could tell the great potential Shen Lian had and hence he passed on the headmaster position to him.
If not, with Shen Lian’s personality, he would be spending his time leisurely somewhere, like Fairy Ziling and the Grand Ancestor Master who asked for nothing about the sect. As such, they were only a symbol of status, but they could not help develop the sect further.
One would know just by thinking about Chen Jianmei. Since he achieved Huandan, he was out on a journey and he had never even returned once.
The cultivators entered the hall one by one. For now, Bai Suhuan’s seat was empty and nobody was going to replace him. Some people lamented about Bai Suhuan. He had entered Powang for a few hundred years, but he went against the Chief. As such he was now imprisoned in the mountain and nobody knew whether he was dead or alive. For now, the Chief had already achieved immortality and had a long life ahead. One could only say comparison was the root of unhappiness.
“Elder Lu, this is your new student.”
As other doyens saw Lu Shouyi with another person. From their eyes, this person was not young but his cultivation experience was low. He would not go any further, but they acknowledged his presence because of Lu Shouyi.
Lu Shouyi too exchanged greetings with the other doyens.
Most cultivators had a photographic memory. After a while, they then remembered the student of Lu Shouyi was indeed the mortal that was brought in during one of the classes of the headmaster previously.
Nobody expected the headmaster to hand this person to Lu Shouyi.
Some people felt it was a pity. Since Lu Shouyi had an odd encounter and had entered Huandan, while he was not as good as the headmaster, he was a rare talent. A lot of doyens had the intention to send someone to cultivate under Lu Shouyi, but they had no means to.
Since Shen Lian achieved immortality. But it was not necessarily for him to be the chief for long. Lu Shouyi had the huge potential to be the next chief.
As Qing Xuan was on the rise, even if cultivators were known to not care too much about fame or status, it did not mean they did not care at all.
Young students were good as they mostly still had hopes to achieve immortality like Shen Lian. For older doyens or students, they most knew that they had no hope. They just wanted to gain more power or techniques to live longer. They wanted to form relationships with the powerful people in the sect, even if they had no hope to achieve Dao, they could still venture out to the mortal world and spread their wings.
The cultivation community was not extremely calm, and there were almost always difficulties. Techniques, instruments and good relationships within the sect became even more important. After a while, Gu Caiwei entered and a lot of people greeted her in a polite way. This was because Gu Caiwei had been handling the matters in the sect in place of Shen Lian. Furthermore, Gu Caiwei was practicing under Taixu Strategy, once she achieved Huandan, she would be one of the top within the sect. No one could underestimate her.
Some of the doyens realized that the core power of Qing Xuan nowadays were all in the hands of Shen Lian’s generation.
Chen Jianmei, Gu Caiwei, Yan Bugui and Lu Shouyi, the four combined could form a force against the rest of the doyens.
Every one of them belonged to the clique of Shen Lian. Even there were another immortal Zhenren in Qing Xuan within a hundred years, it was most likely to be one of the four. If they could work slightly harder, in a few hundred years, perhaps Qing Xuan would have four to five immortal Zhenren all at the same time. It was an inspiring thought.
After the doyens and students exchanged greetings, they all spoke together, “May the Headmaster live through ten thousand years.”
After they finished greeting, they then took their seat.
Shen Lian was sitting on the stone couch. Jing Qing and Ruoxi were standing next to him.
He took a glance at everyone. His deep eyes had a piercing look. Everyone was afraid of the Headmaster’s power which was not measurable. As he evaluated them, they all felt that nothing could escape from his eyes in the Boundless Universe.
As Shen Lian spoke, his voice was soothing like the spring breeze. It eased everyone’s heart.
“Since I took on the position of the chief, I feel like I’ve contributed little to the sect. I feel sorry to the previous Chief, Zhenren Zhang.”
“Since Headmaster you took over, Qing Xuan is on the rise. Everyone can see that.”
Immediately some students responded sincerely, as Shen Lian had a mild temper, even the lowest ranked student had received his guidance. He did not have favoritism because of their talent.
Shen Lian put his hand down and everyone turned silent. What he said was sincere, he had not been paying too much attention to the work within the sect.
He continued, “Now I am approaching the states of celestial and hence I have some time now. I decide to open up the Heavenly Cauldron again to forge some treasures and to fill up the treasure chest. You can exchange it with your merits.”
The Heavenly Cauldron, by its name, implied that it was made in heaven. It used the spiritual opportunity of heaven and earth as the fuel, Taiyi Peak as the cauldron, and the mana of immortal Zhenren as a catalyst to activate creation and to forge treasure. Every treasure was extremely precious.
The first thing was that the spiritual materials were hard to come by, and the spiritual opportunities needed to be accumulated. The second thing was that for the past few hundred years, as Fairy Ziling was reacquiring immortality, and the Grand Ancestor Master was going through the Daoist trials, there were no immortal Zhenren available to unseal the cauldron for the forging of treasure.
As now Shen Lian decided to unseal the Heavenly Cauldron, all the doyens were glad, and as the students found out, they were all looking forward.
