Chapter 331: Chapter 11: Convergence at Dragon Tiger Mountain

After returning to Sanqing Temple, Lu Xuan remained silent.

The Ancient Immortals exchanged bewildered glances, confusion flashing across their faces. After a long moment, Yang Erlang couldn’t help but ask,

“Martial Uncle, did you… see her?”

Lu Xuan nodded heavily, his heart still aching with sorrow.

After a while, he lifted his head and asked softly,

“Why is it like this?”

Yang Erlang shook his head.

“We don’t know either. She disappeared for a million years. When she reappeared…”

He paused, then continued,

“There is much we cannot say. During the unspeakable calamity that severed the flow of time, it was she who sheltered us, allowing us to establish Gouxian Town and survive to this day.”

Lu Xuan didn’t speak, a look of grief flashing in his eyes as he lapsed back into silence.

There were too many things he didn’t understand. What kind of place was it, beneath that Stone Stele? The Lady was trapped there, the Celestial Emperor was nailed and killed there, and even the Lamp Buddha had met his end there in the past…

The most crucial part was that, through his Innate Spiritual Sense as a human, Lu Xuan could feel that the Lady was indeed the Lady, the mother of the Human Race.

But it seemed that even a deceased Dao Fruit like the Celestial Emperor’s corpse refused to recognize the Lady as Nuwa.

Moreover, Lu Xuan had keenly sensed that something was terribly wrong with the Lady. Mentally, she behaved like a three-year-old child!

Thinking back on what the stunningly beautiful woman had said—that she was once a Dao Fruit but now possessed no cultivation—made Lu Xuan’s heart grow even heavier.

’What on earth happened here?’

Recalling the anticipation and joy in the beautiful woman’s eyes, Lu Xuan just felt a heavy weight in his chest.

After a while, he shook his head, stood up, and said wearily,

“Alright, I’ll figure all this out later. For now, you will accompany me to Dragon Tiger Mountain first. Then, we’ll pay a visit to the Upper Palace to settle some scores with certain people and matters.”

The Ancient Immortals were taken aback. Nezha subconsciously asked,

“Settle scores…? Settle what scores?”

Lu Xuan smiled but didn’t explain. He forced himself to calm his aching heart, and a dark light flickered in his eyes.

According to the Lady, the force behind the Evil Cult wasn’t the Life Tower, but the Upper Palace.

The tragedy in Qianlong City eight years ago also originated from the Upper Palace.

Lu Xuan clenched his fists. After pondering with his head down for a long time, he waved his hand.

“Let’s not talk about this for now. I’m a bit tired…”

As he spoke, a Great Sun traversed the sky. A moment later, Xiaoyan hurried in from outside the Daoist Temple.

“Xiaolu! Xiaolu!”

She was holding a bag of roasted sweet potatoes, her smile as bright as a blooming flower.

“You’re back! I got you some sweet potatoes from Gouxian Town. I tried one, and they’re just as good as the ones Uncle Li makes in the shantytown! They’re delicious!”

Lu Xuan suppressed the gloom on his face and forced a smile.

“I’ve finished my business. Next, I’m preparing to visit Dragon Tiger Mountain…”

As he spoke, he took the bag of roasted sweet potatoes from Xiaoyan. Recalling what the Lady had said before he left, he added,

“I just went to see an elder. She knows about you and told me to bring you along next time… I’m planning to visit her every month, if nothing important comes up.”

The expressions of the Ancient Immortals beside them changed drastically, and a look of alarm flashed in their eyes.

’The Existence under the Stone Stele actually allowed him to visit again?!’

When they fled before the severing of time, they had entered the realm beneath the Stone Stele by a stroke of luck, and that Lady had not been very kind to them…

Xiaoyan asked curiously,

“An elder? What elder?”

“Actually, you could consider her your elder as well.”

Lu Xuan smiled.

“I’ll take you next time, and you’ll see.”

“Okay!” Xiaoyan’s eyelashes fluttered as she nodded firmly. A sense of anticipation bloomed in her heart. ’Is… is he taking me to meet his family?’

Although she and Xiaolu had never said it out loud, they were already no different from lovers.

The Ancient Immortals looked at each other. After a long moment, Nezha couldn’t resist asking tentatively,

“Martial Uncle, what exactly happened after you went past the Stone Stele?”

“Nothing much.”

Lu Xuan shook his head. Knowing it wasn’t wise to say the Lady’s name directly, he said,

“I met an elder, who then introduced me to two great figures. They gifted me two Magical Treasures, that’s all.”

The Ancient Immortals first nodded subconsciously, then their eyes went wide, and they let out irrepressible gasps of shock.

“Gifted treasures?!”

“Great figures?!”

Yang Jian was stunned speechless.

“There are other people beneath the Stone Stele?”

This time, it was Lu Xuan’s turn to be stunned.

“You didn’t know?”

He said with a strange expression,

“The corpse on the cliff… you didn’t see it?”

’That corpse is the remains of the Celestial Emperor. Aren’t these guys all Immortal Ministers of the Central Celestial Court?’

The Ancient Immortals stared at each other. After a moment, Li Changgeng said in astonishment,

“You’re saying that corpse nailed to the cliff is alive?!”

Lu Xuan’s expression grew even stranger.

“Not exactly alive. But you really don’t recognize the owner of the corpse?”

“Who is it?” Zhu Wuneng asked curiously.

Lu Xuan was silent for a long time. After a moment of consideration, he said cryptically,

“Well, from the Ancient Times… the one who was above you.”

The Ancient Immortals were even more baffled. Although Xiaoyan was confused by the conversation, she didn’t ask any questions and just listened quietly.

Lu Xuan coughed twice.

“In Ancient Times, weren’t you all Immortal Ministers? In that case, who else could have been above you? Alright, let’s head to Dragon Tiger Mountain first.”

The Ancient Immortals were stunned. ’We were all Immortal Ministers, so who was above us?’

’Immortal Ministers… above us…’

’The… the Celestial Emperor?’

A chill ran down the spines of the Ancient Immortals.

’The Celestial Emperor… is dead?!’

’How is that possible!’

***

Dragon Tiger Mountain was a place of extreme serenity, the oldest Daoist Lineage in the Current World. An unending stream of people came to the mountain to seek the Dao and further their studies.

However, whether they were pilgrims coming to offer incense, aspiring disciples seeking a master, or simply tourists wanting to see the world-renowned mountain, they could only go as far as the halfway point.

The lower half of Dragon Tiger Mountain was open to the public, while the upper half was where the Great Daoists practiced their cultivation and was naturally off-limits to outsiders.

「At the foot of the mountain.」

Li Nanguo, the vice-principal of Langya University, stood with his hands behind his back, gazing worriedly at the packed crowd. There was… no room to even set foot!

Beside him, Zhang Jifeng said with a smile,

“Looks like we won’t be getting up the mountain anytime soon. How about it, Brother Zhang? Why don’t you open a back door for us and take us up?”

On the other side, Zhang Huatian, the direct son of an Earth Immortal Daoist from Dragon Tiger Mountain, rolled his eyes and said listlessly,

“Don’t even think about it. If I’d known we were coming to Dragon Tiger Mountain, I wouldn’t have come.”

Li Nanguo gave a bitter laugh.

“Alright, now. The principal was supposed to lead this trip, but something came up at the last minute, so I got stuck with it… I didn’t want to come either. Last time I took you all to Taishan…”

As he spoke, he patted his chest with lingering fear.

Chen Ye asked curiously,

“Mr. Li, you mentioned there was a great opportunity, but after all that, how did we end up at Dragon Tiger Mountain? Is there some kind of opportunity here?”

Li Nanguo shrugged.

“We weren’t originally coming to Dragon Tiger Mountain, but the principal sent a last-minute message saying they’re holding a great sacrificial ceremony here these next few days, and the opportunity is even bigger…”

Everyone looked thoughtful. Zhang Jifeng narrowed his eyes and said,

“A great sacrificial ceremony? Is it to worship the Supreme Emperor Profound Yellow? The timing is about right. Dragon Tiger Mountain holds a ceremony every year at the beginning of spring… But what does that have to do with an opportunity? How strange.”

Saying this, he looked at Zhang Huatian beside him and asked with a smile,

“You’re the young master of Dragon Tiger Mountain. Do you have any inside information?”

Zhang Huatian spread his hands and shrugged, indicating he was clueless. Then he asked doubtfully,

“What was the principal thinking? Where did he hear about an opportunity on Dragon Tiger Mountain?”

Li Nanguo said,

“I know a little about that. Didn’t that girl, Zhuge Ke, have an accident? The Patriarch of the Celestial Shu Zhuge Family came to pick her up personally. He spoke with the principal for a moment and told him…”

He paused, then continued,

“As you know, the Zhuge Family is unparalleled in the art of Divination and Calculation. No one in the world can match them.”

Zhang Huatian looked around thoughtfully.

“It’s true. While there are always a lot of people coming to Dragon Tiger Mountain to offer incense and seek the Dao, there have never been this many… Huh? Is that Wang Zhiyao?”

Everyone turned to look and saw Wang Zhiyao in a wheelchair. Although she was covered in bandages and slathered with Spiritual Medicine, her beautiful face still stood out in the crowd.

“Zhiyao is here too? And the Wang Family brought her personally. It seems a real opportunity is about to manifest on Dragon Tiger Mountain.”

Zhang Jifeng’s expression tensed slightly.

“The Langya Wang Family is also extremely skilled in the art of divination. Zhiyao had her limbs broken by a demon spawn and was seriously injured, yet the Wang Family still brought her here. It seems the opportunity these divination families have calculated is no small matter…”

With that, he waved his hand and said,

“Alright, I’m going to go say hello to Zhiyao and see if I can find out what’s really happening on Dragon Tiger Mountain.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Jifeng walked quickly toward the group from the Langya Wang Family.

Meanwhile, Zhang Huatian scanned the crowd and said with narrowed eyes,

“There are quite a few familiar faces in this crowd. People from the Zhuge Family are here, and so is that Zhong Pongzi whose eyes were gouged out by a demon spawn…”

As he spoke, the sky suddenly dimmed slightly. Everyone looked up instinctively, their expressions tensing.

They saw several battleships flying through the air—the vessels of several Super Conglomerates.

Li Nanguo’s heart began to pound in his chest.

“What in the world is going on? Don’t tell me something is about to happen again?”

He swallowed, trembling with fear.

“After that trip to Taishan, I couldn’t sleep well for days… I can’t be that unlucky, can I? Does a major incident have to happen every time I take you guys on a trip?!”

“It… it probably won’t happen, right?” Zhang Huatian had a bad feeling as well, but he still said, “If it’s really something major, *he* should show up.”

“Who?”

“Who else?”

As he spoke, Zhang Huatian’s expression grew solemn.

“But it’s hard to say. He didn’t show up during the Shengjing incident… It’s been a long time since there’s been any news of him, right?”

Chen Ye understood then and said thoughtfully,

“You’re talking about Junior Lu… Lu Zi? You’re right. We haven’t heard anything about him in a long time.”

「Meanwhile, on Dragon Tiger Mountain.」

The Old Celestial Master’s gaze was profound as he stared at the surging crowd at the foot of the mountain, muttering to himself,

“Interesting. An opportunity? How come I don’t know about any opportunity on my Dragon Tiger Mountain?”

He performed a divination with a flip of his hand and observed the celestial phenomena. To his surprise, he truly saw the workings of fate indicating that a world-shaking opportunity was present here!

’Now this is getting more interesting…’

The Old Celestial Master’s expression grew even more profound as he murmured,

“An opportunity? What event or object could it be? The celestial phenomena don’t feel right…”

He reached out, his hand probing the void, manipulating the celestial phenomena and the workings of fate. Under the shroud of his Immortal power, he finally detected a clue.

“Wait, this is…”

“Traces of an Ancient Immortal or Buddha?”

The Old Celestial Master’s expression suddenly hardened. Amidst the chaotic workings of fate, he saw the aura of Ancient Times and his heart shuddered.

’Today’s changes are related to a certain Immortal or Buddha from Ancient Times?’

’An Immortal or Buddha… has returned ahead of schedule?!’

’What does he want to do now?’

“Interesting.” The Old Celestial Master paused for a moment, then walked out of the Celestial Master’s Mansion and took a single step to the mountain’s peak.

“Old Ancestor.”

He bowed in respect. The two peach trees—one withered, one flourishing—swayed gently.

“Hm?”

The Old Celestial Master sensed something was wrong. He looked up and saw the small, withered peach tree was now blooming with a brilliant, clear light.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep