A few days later, the Lin family’s convoy arrived at Profound City.
Profound City was bustling with noise and excitement recently. The pupils who planned to join the sect entrance competition were all gathered here, eager to show their skills in the grand competition.
Lin Xuanzhi looked at the familiar Profound City and gazed at Profound Sky Sect’s main mountain, which was tall enough to reach the clouds. His mood, however, was incomparably calm.
When he left, his heart was filled with resentment and hatred. He dearly wished to uproot the entire Profound Sky Sect, but when he returned, he felt tranquil and calm. Even the matter of revenge wasn’t treated the same; he felt that if there was an opportunity, he would take revenge in passing but didn’t need to put in too much effort.
Once a person has found love and receives love in kind, they will become much more serene.
“Dage, it’s so lively!” Yan Tianhen pressed his hands and face against the window. Enraptured, his eyes didn’t blink at all as they watched those cultivators spew fire and create water dragons as they fought.
“It will be even more lively in a few days.” Lin Xuanzhi looked at Yan Tianhen’s back, the tenderness in his eyes apparent.
It was precisely because this person had returned to his side, filling in the missing piece in his heart, that he was able to control the source of his irritable restless and sleepless nights so that they wouldn’t be able to easily stir up trouble for him.
Profound Sky Sect — I, Lin Xuanzhi, have returned!
This time, he chose an entirely different road compared to that of his previous life, but at this moment, his heart was incomparably clear — it was difficult to walk on the main road, and all paths would eventually converge into one; one day, he would still inevitably walk the path he walked in his last life: the Nine Lands.
Not long after entering Profound City, Lin Xuanzhi and Yan Tianhen, along with the other Lin family pupils and twenty shadow guards, parted ways. The Yuan family had already made living arrangements.
“Zezhi, you can take them directly to the Flowing Moon Pavilion.” Lin Xuanzhi told Lin Zezhi.
Lin Zezhi nodded. Even though he could skip over the entrance exam and directly enter the sect, it was still quite different from Lin Xuanzhi, this appointed inner disciple. For Lin Xuanzhi, skipping was out of the question, so he let Lin Zezhi take charge of the Lin family for this sect entrance competition in advance. It wouldn’t be too late for Lin Zezhi to report to the inner mountain after waiting until everything on the competition’s side was on the right track.
As for the shadow guards, he naturally couldn’t take them into Profound Sky Sect, so Lin Xuanzhi and Yan Tianhen took Ah Bai and Hu Po with them as they headed for Profound Sky Sect.
The main gate of Profound Sky Sect was a gigantic array that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye. One wouldn’t be able to discern anything strange observing from the outside, but if someone wanted to break in, then the situation of “ghost hitting the wall” would appear — that person would clearly see themselves walk in, but those mountains and trees would still be in their original locations.
To enter Profound Sky Sect, you had to either have the mountain entrance token or possess a cultivation level so high that you wouldn’t even put the great array in your eyes, which was the so-called “challenge the mountain“.
Lin Xuanzhi entered with the mountain entrance token.
He threw a palm-sized black square card at the mountain gate. Waves of air shook from the mountain gate, which flickered with a gorgeous multi-colored luster under the sunlight. Yan Tianhen had never ascended the mountain before, so his eyes widened upon witnessing this scene.
Lin Xuanzhi took his hand. “Let’s go.”
Before his voice fell, two tiger cubs were attracted by the spiritual Qi and joyfully rushed in.
Feng Jingyu also felt the rich spiritual Qi in the air, but he wasn’t very interested. After all, he had seen more of the world. He wouldn’t lose his dignity over this little spiritual Qi like those two silly tiger cubs.
Thus, Feng Jingyu rolled over and continued to sleep on Yan Tianhen’s chest.
After entering the main gate, one had to step over the tens of thousands of stairs reaching straight to the heavens in order to reach a resting spot in Profound Sky Sect. Yan Tianhen didn’t cultivate any magic techniques that allowed him to ride a sword and fly, so he still had to climb up the mountain on two legs. Lin Xuanzhi did learn to fly using his sword a long time ago, but he didn’t have a sword right now.
Fortunately, before Lin Xuanzhi and Ji Yunwei parted ways, he procured a Piercing Clouds Shuttle, treating it as part of the reward for helping Ji Yunwei resolve the matter with that fox cub.
Just as he was about to take out the Piercing Clouds Shuttle, a figure in cyan descended from the sky and landed in front of them.
A young man with gentle facial features jumped down from the floating sword.
Lin Xuanzhi naturally recognized this person. He gave a salute, “Young Peak Master Zhan.”
This was the Young Peak Master of Sinking Sword Peak, the eldest disciple under Esteemed Lan Yue, Zhan Fengting.
Zhan Fengting immediately returned the gesture. “Junior Martial Brother Lin need not be so polite.”
Lin Xuanzhi smiled as he introduced, “This is my younger brother, Yan Tianhen.”
Zhan Fengting’s eyes contained smiles. He looked at Yan Tianhen, “I’ve heard Ah Hen’s great name for a long time. My name is Zhan Fengting. Zhan, as in beaming with joy, Feng, as in maple leaves, and Ting, as in pavilion.”
Yan Tianhen felt that Zhan Fengting gave people the feeling of a spring breeze, very comfortable. When he saw Zhan Fengting’s face, he felt close to him, as if he had seen a big brother next door.
“Ah Hen greets Fengting Gege. Little brother is new here, so I’ll have to ask Gege to pardon me if I make any mistakes.” Yan Tianhen laughed playfully.
Zhan Fengting couldn’t help smiling, “Ah Hen Didi is indeed a lively child. It seems that Lin Shidi will not be too bored or lonely during this period of time.”
Lin Xuanzhi rubbed Yan Tianhen’s head and also smiled, “Naturally. However, my younger brother is naughty. If he offends someone, I really have to ask everyone to pardon him.”
“Naturally.” Zhan Fengting chuckled. “We haven’t had such a small child on Sinking Sword Peak for many years. The last time Master accepted an apprentice was more than ten years ago.”
As he said that, Zhan Fengting felt that a small plump thing was rubbing against his leg.
His gaze turned downwards, landing on the fluffy little cutie that was rubbing against one of his calves.
Ah Bai originally thought that there was a good smell coming from Zhan Fengting’s person, so he kept rubbing against him nonstop. Suddenly, his four legs met only air when he was picked up by the scruff.
Ah Bai’s dumbfounded face stared at Zhan Fengting’s handsome one.
“Ao ao ao!” Ah Bai messily waved his four legs around and even made a super fierce expression at Zhan Fengting.
Zhan Fengting wasn’t threatened at all, as though he’d seen through how this tiger cub was only pretending to be fierce. With a well-practiced motion, he took out a demonic delight fruit from his storage bag and held it in his other hand, waving it in front of Ah Bai’s face. Ah Bai, who was in the middle of threatening Zhan Fengting with his expression, suddenly stiffened his four paws. His small face also took on a pitiful expression. He clasped his two front paws together as he bowed to Zhan Fengting with a fawning expression.
Zhan Fengting thought this novelty was quite interesting and couldn’t help asking, “Your tiger cub is a spiritual beast?”
Yan Tianhen facepalmed, finding it very embarrassing. He truly didn’t want to admit that Ah Bai, this embarrassment of a child, was a distinguished spiritual beast, but lying wasn’t good, so he nodded with difficulty.
Seeing this, Lin Xuanzhi smiled. “These two tiger cubs are demonic pets Ah Hen raised. The lively one is Ah Bai, the glum-looking one is Hu Po. Although they’re naughty and mischievous, they won’t bite people if you don’t tease them too much.”
Ah Bai was one who became hyped up in front of audiences. When he heard Lin Xuanzhi say that he didn’t bite people, he immediately bit Zhan Fengting’s hand with an “Ao wu!” However, just when he wanted to leave behind a bite mark, Ah Bai suddenly felt a powerful oppressive pressure, so, under the watch of Zhan Fengting’s warm smile and gentle eyes, Ah Bai carefully stuck out his tongue and gave Zhan Fengting’s hand a quick lick. He hurriedly put away his pointed teeth and sharp claws, innocently looking at Zhan Fengting with his purple eyes, pretending to be cute and harmless.
Zhan Fengting smiled and didn’t bother to settle the score with this little tiger cub.
Yan Tianhen, however, was startled. He patted his chest. “Fengting Gege, you’d better throw this little bastard down. Ah Bai has a lively temper. It won’t be good if he accidentally bites you.”
Zhan Fengting, on the other hand, didn’t mind it. “This is nothing; he’s just a tiny cub. I’ve seen lots of powerful demonic beasts, but none of them are as interesting as Ah Bai.”
Zhan Fengting threw that demonic delight fruit to Hu Po and, while he was at it, took out another one and threw it to Ah Bai.
He hugged Ah Bai with his arms and told Lin Xuanzhi, “It’ll probably be lively on the mountain from now on.”
Lin Xuanzhi intended to cultivate on Sinking Sword Peak. No one knew the name of Sinking Sword Peak’s Peak Master, but everyone addressed him as “Esteemed Lan Yue”. In the entire Five Continents, only Esteemed Lan Yue’s divination skills were the most reliable and powerful. There were also rumors that he was the direct bloodline descendant of the prophet family from the Upper Realms, but for unknown reasons, he wandered about and ended up here.
Of course, there were countless rumors and conjectures about Esteemed Lan Yue. Nobody knew whether those rumors were true or not.
Zhan Fengting came primarily to welcome Lin Xuanzhi. He had already sensed them when Lin Xuanzhi’s mountain entrance token entered the Profound City’s boundary.
He knew that it wasn’t easy to climb up the mountain, so Zhan Fengting considerately came down to the foot of the mountain in-person to bring them up to the top on his sword.
Yan Tianhen stood behind Lin Xuanzhi, tightly hugging his waist for fear of falling from the sword.
Hu Po, who was lying on Yan Tianhen’s head, tightly clung to his head as he shook with fear.
Yan Tianhen didn’t use swords very much. Although Lin Zhan used swords, he never used them for flight. In the past, Lin Xuanzhi seldom had any close interactions with Yan Tianhen, so he naturally didn’t take him around flying on his sword. Therefore, this was actually the first time Yan Tianhen flew around on a sword.
At first, the violently fierce winds scraping Yan Tianhen hurt his face, which made him bury his face in Lin Xuanzhi’s back, unwilling to leave the warmth. Before long, Yan Tianhen sensed that the winds had stopped, and the surrounding was tranquil.
Yan Tianhen raised his head and understood what had happened.
It turned out that Lin Xuanzhi took out a magic tool to defend against the wind and covered the entire sword within its area of effect.
Zhan Fengting’s cultivation was excellent. Naturally, even if he didn’t have a defensive weapon, he could still maintain a state of not having a single hair blown out of place. When he suddenly found an obstacle pop up in his surroundings, he immediately understood. He couldn’t help looking back at Lin Xuanzhi apologetically, “I didn’t pay attention to this; I’m truly sorry.”
Lin Xuanzhi hurriedly responded, “Senior Martial Brother Zhan need not be so polite, it’s us whose cultivation levels aren’t high enough.”
Zhan Fengting thoroughly changed his impression of Lin Xuanzhi.
In the past, the Lin Xuanzhi he knew was a proud, noble, and aloof soul; a haughty person who had never understood the ways of the world. Although his extraordinary strength was undeniable, he truly made people feel a sense of alienation, like he was difficult to approach. Often, people involuntarily felt a sense of inferiority in front of him.
Sinking Sword Peak and Broken Sword Peak didn’t have many interactions in the first place, and their relationship wasn’t considered very good. Sinking Sword Peak had two of the Four Swords of Profound Sky, so these inner disciples of Sinking Sword Peak naturally didn’t have a favorable impression of Lin Xuanzhi.
However, in light of today’s interaction, Zhan Fengting felt that Lin Xuanzhi was a person who could easily obtain the favor of others.
They pierced through the clouds and broke through the fog. Not long after, a broad and long sword landed on a flat stretch of ground on the mountain peak.
Lin Xuanzhi stepped down from the sword and looked up at the top of the mountain — in the tall mountain, he could make out the sound of a waterfall. He saw a waterfall as wide as the Milky Way descending from the sky; the flying stream fell straight into a gigantic lake, smashing into thousands of fine silver beads.
In the midst of layer upon layer of foliage superimposed upon each other in a profusion of color, one could faintly make out the Taoist temple and pavilions. Looking from afar, though the image wasn’t very clear, one could still see its boundless and majestic atmosphere.
Yan Tianhen took a deep breath and sighed with emotion, “The spiritual Qi here is truly rich.”
Zhan Fengting nodded and smiled. “That’s right. There is a spiritual vein underneath the entire Profound Sky Sect that cuts across Profound Sky Sect’s four main peaks.”
Profound Sky Sect’s four main peaks were Sinking Sword Peak, Broken Sword Peak, Breaking Sword Peak, and Apex Sun Peak.
Among them, Apex Sun Peak was divided into two sub-peaks. The one on the left was called Thousand Hammer Peak and was Profound City’s equipment crafting peak, while the one on the right was Hundred Refinement Peak, which was Profound Sky Sect’s alchemist peak.
And the centermost Apex Sun Peak was situated in the sect’s core position, which also had the most concentrated spiritual Qi.
