Chongming Xianzong

Chapter 320: Ascension Conference (Part )

On September 15th of the 439th year of Qianfeng in the reign of David, the god of destiny was on duty and it was appropriate to take an examination and offer sacrifices.

"The Xiaohuan Mountain is in front of us," Xiuming turned his head and looked at the two younger generations of the Xiu family behind him, with a hint of envy in his eyes. It was a pity that he had attained enlightenment too early, and the blessing of the Xiu family's return to the Chongming clan could only fall on these two younger generations.

However, Sect Master Kang was a kind-hearted person. Due to the rules he set for the Chongming Sect's Ascension Conference, Xiuming could no longer be admitted into the Chongming Sect.

But Xiuming's contribution in offering the Breaking Formation Pearl at Laoniu Mountain was real, and Kang Dabao could not possibly turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to it.

The formation-breaking bead has been in the Xiu family for nearly two hundred years. It was passed down from the generation of the founding disciple of their family's ancestor, Zhang Zushi, the founder of the Chongming Sect. It is a genuine treasure that is a treasured heirloom.

If Kang Dabao really dared not to express any opinion, although Uncle Xiu's cultivation was low, he still had the courage to run to the archway of Chongming Sect and scold Master Kang for three days and three nights.

Therefore, after the battle at Laoniu Mountain, Xiuming was introduced by Kang Dabao to Mo Wen, a cultivator of the foundation-building technique at Qiaogong Fort.

After all, in Kang Dabao's opinion, Xiuming is indeed talented in refining puppets. If he can be guided by a famous teacher, his future achievements may not be much worse than if he were to join the Chongming Sect.

After being recruited in the last battle of Xiaowu Mountain, Tiejiaoshan Qiaogongbao was split into two.

The branch that lived in Pingrong County was under the leadership of Mo Wen and was subject to the control and jurisdiction of the Pingrong County Magistrate; the other branch moved to Butai Mountain in Wang County and was led by the former master of Qiaogong Fort, the only foundation-building cultivator besides Mo Wen.

As the saying goes, a craftsman will never starve to death. With puppetry skills that are well-known in Shannan Road, the two branches of Qiaogong Fort were originally quite prosperous.

But the good times didn't last long. Just half a year ago, when the master of Qiaogong Fort was refining a high-level puppet, a fire thunderstorm occurred. The aftermath of the explosion blew up his meridians and made him unable to breathe. After that, he spent an unknown amount of resources, but it was difficult to cure. Many alchemists said that it was difficult to determine his life span.

So naturally, the burden on Mo Wen became heavier.

Just a month ago, Mo Wen had been promoted to the position of deputy fortress lord. It is thought that he will be the only candidate to lead the entire Qiaogong Fort in the future. In other words, given time, Xiuming will be the fortress lord's disciple and a personal disciple of foundation building. It is not bad for the head of Kangda to arrange such a future for him.

But Xiuming couldn't hide the envy in his eyes when he looked at his two fellow clansmen. Although Qiaogongbao could be regarded as a well-established and large sect, it had suffered a series of blows after all and was already showing signs of declining.

But the situation was different for the Chongming Sect, which was at its peak.

One only needs to look at the types of people who came to the Chongming Sect's Immortality Ascension Conference this time to understand that not only small families flocked to it, but also direct disciples of large foundation-building clans from other states came.

Today, outside the Chongming Sect's Six-Star Gangyan Formation, there are at least a hundred families gathered. These families have brought at least one immortal seedling with slightly better qualifications, and among them there are sometimes disciples with three spiritual roots.

Such a grand occasion was rare even when the Shujian Sect, which dominated Wang County, was recruiting disciples.

Among them, there are small clans like the Lu family and the Kuai family that are attached to the Chongming Sect; there are also in-laws like the Shan family and the Ming family that are on good terms with the Chongming Sect; and there are also families that want to curry favor with the Fei family's legitimate son-in-law and the favorite of the Nan'an Earl.

But the vast majority of the remaining people were summoned by the reputation of benevolence of Master Kang.

In a few years, the changes in Ping and Jin counties are obvious. It is impossible to say that Kangda County has made the two counties a peaceful place where people do not pick up things on the road and do not lock their doors at night. But good and bad are never absolute, but relative.

Although Ping and Jin counties can only be described as peaceful and without troubles, but if compared with other counties where evil cultivators are rampant, they can be called paradise in the world.

It seems that the sincere confessions made by Kang Dabao and Nan'anbo earlier did not attract the attention of the officials in the state court.

Big figures like Zhu the governor, Fei the general, and Tie the commander focused more of their energy on the major issue of the conflict between the natives and the Hakkas.

In their view, whether the lord can marry the daughter of Yue family as his principal wife, or even as a concubine, is much more important than the life and death of the ignorant and common people in the state.

The millions of ordinary people are the crops that can exhale, and the small Qigong practitioners are the pigs and dogs that are fattened by the crops. The hearts of these big men have long been filled with the beautiful world, and it is difficult to make room for these people.

Although Master Kang is not considered a big shot in Yunjiao Province nowadays, he has drawn a clear line between himself and words like pigs, dogs, and crops.

What is even more rare is that he can treat people as human beings, which can greatly win the favor of small families.

Kang Dabao has done a lot of "stupid things" in the eyes of big shots over the years, and has brought about the current situation at the expense of the ridicule and mockery of meat eaters. It is hard to say whether he has made a profit or a loss.

This is because people's hearts and reputation are two things that cannot be seen or touched, but they do have a silent and subtle power.

Today's Ping and Jin counties are no longer what they used to be where no one knew who the county magistrate was.

For many small families in the two counties, the kindness shown to them by County Master Kang is almost like a rebirth, and they cannot help but feel grateful.

This point did not change their minds even after the reputation of Kangda's leader as a "womanizer" spread further to other states.

As a descendant of Chongming's disciple, Xiuming has witnessed the changes that have taken place in Ping and Jin counties, and feels proud of them.

With the token given by Jin Shilun when he passed through Chongming City before, Xiuming did not have to squeeze into the crowded crowd and compete with other people who had no connections. Instead, he walked in through the shortcut guarded by Mo Ku and Zhang Le.

Although the small families below were jealous, they did not dare to say a word. After all, there was more to Chong Ming Zong than just his good reputation.

There are only a few large sects in the entire Yunjiao Province that do not collect tuition fees from their disciples and provide sufficient annual salaries to their disciples.

If you ruin your children's future because of momentary anger, it would be a loss, but no one would do such an unwise thing.

Xiuming took a shortcut and arrived at the newly built training ground of Chongming Sect. At this time, many immortal seedlings sent by families had gathered here, and there were also three or four immortal seedlings selected in advance from the mortal children of Chongming City by Duan Anle and others.

The population of Chongming City has grown rapidly in recent years. One of the reasons is that the nephew of Sect Leader Kang has done much better than his grandfather. Jin Shilun, who is familiar with worldly affairs and was born as the young master of a large village, also contributed to his assistance.

If we can gather vagrants, organize militia, expel evil practitioners, and guard against monsters, and if we do a good job in implementing these systems, how can we not have a prosperous population? !

In the past, all the immortal seedlings discovered by the Chongming Sect in Chongming City, its base, were accepted without any regard.

But this time there are exceptions.

A fairy seedling with four spiritual roots from the Jiang family was rejected by the Chongming Sect due to his poor qualifications and character. He had no choice but to live as a casual cultivator in Chongming City and protect the descendants of mortals.

In other words, the Immortal Ascension Conference held by Chongming Sect has further changed from the style of teaching all to the style of preferring to have nothing rather than to have something of poor quality.

The immortal seedlings in front of Xiuming can be regarded as the elite selected from the Chongming Sect. Once they pass the final test, they will be officially included in the Chongming sect.

The fact that Xiuming was able to bring two of his fellow tribesmen here safely meant that they had already stepped half a foot into the threshold of this foundation-building sect.

After all, Kang Dabao would have to repay the favor of the Breaking Formation Bead to Master Xiu just by introducing Xiu Ming to Mo Wen. Therefore, as long as the two immortal seedlings recommended by the Xiu family were not too bad, Master Kang would definitely not refuse them.

After Xiuming came in and exchanged greetings with Duan Anle, who was in charge of the final round of selection, the latter counted the number of people with a yellow silk cloth. After confirming that everything was clear, he said to Wei Guyan who was waiting beside him: "Brother Wei, let's start."

Duan Anle's prestige among the disciples of Chongming Sect was obviously not low. Although he was polite, Wei Gu did not dare to neglect him in the slightest. After Chongming Formation Master responded in a low voice, he pinched his fingers, and a green formation plate in the center of the training ground suddenly shook and emitted a faint light. Then, eight formation flags as thick as sea bowls around the training ground lit up one after another, emitting eight colors of mysterious light: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, indigo, and purple, shining in the field.

A six-leaf green lotus rune array gradually appeared in the center of the training ground. A few drops of sweat appeared on Wei Gu's forehead. He shouted softly, "The heart-searching array has been opened. Second and third sons, quickly enter."

Xiuming had been in Qiaogong Castle for several years, but he had never seen such a scene. Without giving it much thought, he rushed two immortal seedlings of the same clan into the magic circle at the urging of Mingzhe, Ye Pingshui and others.

Until the last immortal seedling entered the formation, Wei Gu consulted Duan Anle's opinion with his eyes, and then his spiritual spell changed. An eight-diagram light curtain appeared in the center of the formation, covering all the immortal seedlings.

Pei Que stared closely at the immortal seedlings of various families in the formation. With his most outstanding pupil technique among his peers, he became one of the few people outside the formation who could see some clues.

Even though the immortal seedlings from the family are much more experienced and mature than those from ordinary people, most of them have not yet practiced cultivation and are just babies. Their minds are not yet fully developed. With such a big change happening suddenly around them, how many people in the formation would not be afraid at all?
After just a few breaths, Pei Que recorded the performance of all the immortal seedlings one by one.

At this time, the Heart-Searching Array was finally activated. Master Kang spent a lot of resources to invite the Fei family array master to bring Wei Gu to build this first-class trial array. Its purpose was to test the character and qualifications of these immortal seedlings.

No matter how good Kang Dabao's reputation is, the current Chongming Sect cannot compare to those big sects with fake elixir masters and golden elixir masters in charge.

Even if the other families were willing to get close to the Chongming Sect, once true geniuses such as those with double spiritual roots or single spiritual roots appeared, they would send them to the Liangyi Sect, Hongyi Sect and the like without a second thought.

Therefore, Sect Leader Kang could only settle for the second best. When the spiritual root qualifications were roughly equal, he would try his best to pick out some immortal seedlings with strong wills to be accepted into the sect for training.

This heart-searching formation was designed by the Fei family's formation master in a simplified way based on the third-level medium-grade formation of the Fei family in Yingzhou. That formation was used by the Fei family to assess the golden elixir seeds and to determine the ownership of the golden elixir spirit objects based on the assessment results.

The heart-searching formation set up by the Fei family's formation master for the Chongming Sect is not even one-tenth as effective as the original one, but it is more than enough to test some immortal seedlings who have not yet entered the Tao.

According to the Fei family's formation master, if you can persist in the formation for five breaths, you will be considered qualified, if you can persist for ten breaths, you will be considered good, and if you can persist for twenty breaths, you will be the focus.

The fact was just as the Fei family formation master had expected. Most of the thirty young seedlings in the formation fainted within five or six breaths.

There were even four people who couldn't hold on within three breaths, and one of them was even the immortal seedling sent by Feiyue Shan's family this year. Pei Que carefully recorded it, but as for whether to really not record it, it would cause a lot of trouble, and he had to report it to his master for the decision.

However, what surprised the disciples of Chongming present was that the last immortal seedling who could still stand in the formation was a short and thin girl in tattered clothes.

"Junior Brother Ye, is this child the one we brought from Chongming City?" Duan Anle asked Ye Pingshui with surprise in his eyes.

Chongming City had not summoned many immortal seedlings this time. Ye Pingshui had already known everyone's information by heart, and he answered fluently without even looking at the list: "Brother, you are right. They are immortal seedlings we selected from Chongming City. They have good aptitude and are three spiritual roots. But this child just moved here and is not a local."

"Oh?"

Seeing that Duan Anle was interested in the girl, Ye Pingshui continued, "This child was sold to Chongming City by the mortal caravan of Liu Linwu's family. I heard that she seems to be from Gaomudong.

She was harmed by a group of evil cultivators who had taken over there, leaving her without a father or mother, unable to speak, and with a withdrawn personality, so she suffered a lot. It was the owner of a silk shop in Chongming City who was kindhearted and pitied her, so he spent some money to buy her back and raised her, and also sent her here for this Ascension Conference."

"Nineteen, twenty, two one twenty eight!" The girl with the best temperament finally fainted. As Wei Gu, who was in charge of the formation, dispersed his fingers, the glow of the eight formation flags faded, and the light curtain of the Heart-Searching Formation gradually dissipated.

Kang Rongquan produced a handful of colorful grass seeds in his hand, and a flash of light appeared in his palm lines, and the colorful grass seeds turned into emerald spiritual liquid. Kang Rongquan blew again, and the spiritual liquid produced steam, which floated down to the sky above the thirty unconscious immortal seedlings with the wind.

After just a few breaths, all the immortal seedlings woke up, which made the protectors from various families who were waiting there feel relieved.

Duan Anle's eyes were still on the ragged girl, and he asked softly, "What's the name of this child?" Ye Pingshui answered without hesitation, "The silk shop owner said that although this child can't speak, she can write the word 'ke', so they call her Keke."

"Keke? It's a good name, just add a surname." Duan Anle felt a sense of appreciation for talent, and then said, "Junior Brother Laoye, you and Junior Brother Jin should write a letter to the silk shop owner who took in Keke. He wants to ask the Lord of Chongming City for a big reward, so you must not treat her badly."

As for horse bones, Duan Anle would also buy them.

"Junior Brother Duan, Uncle Sun sent a letter saying that we need to start selecting the cultivators from outside and we can't delay any longer." Wei Gu approached Duan Anle and said.

"Got it, I'll go right away." Duan Anle finished speaking and gave Kang Rongquan instructions, asking him to take good care of the immortal seedlings in the field. When he stood up, he asked Wei Gu, "Brother Wei, did Uncle Sun tell me what kind of spiritual roots Brother Yi has?!"

Duan Anle's question drew the attention of all the fellow disciples to Wei Gu's long face. Wei Gu looked pleased and said, "Uncle Sun said that Brother Yi is..."

————Master's Courtyard

"Haha, my son is really amazing. Your Chongming Sect has been established for 200 years. Apart from the founder Zhang, who founded the sect, how can you count another cultivator with second spiritual roots?!"

Fei Shuhe laughed happily, hugged the plump Kang Changyi in his arms and loved and kissed him again and again. Huo Ying, who was standing by, burst into tears of joy, and even plucked up the courage to come to Fei Shuhe and caress him for a while.

But in the face of this hospitality, the eldest son of the head sect was a little impatient: "Mother, little mother, please stop kissing me, it will make me drool."

Nanny Sun raised her eyebrows, but Fei Shuhe didn't care. Instead, she made a gesture to stop the dowry nanny's action. After generously letting Kang Changyi pass Huo Ying, the headmaster's wife stood up and sat across from the chess table of the headmaster Kang, looking at him with her head tilted.

The noble lady of the Fei family, in a good mood, seemed to have lost some of the dignity of a lady, but gained some of the innocence of a girl, which gave her a different color.

"Actually, even my uncle-master is a fool." Kang Dabao was halfway through his words when he saw the expression on his wife's face and stopped talking.

"Forget it, whatever you say is fine." After Master Kang had been mumbling for a while, Fei Shuhe's face turned from cloudy to bright, and she said excitedly:
"That's good now. In the past, I was worried that you, as a father, were not blessed enough, and that my son would not have spiritual roots. Fortunately, with the blessing of the Taoist Ancestor, my son actually has two spiritual roots.

When I go home to visit my parents in a few days, I will talk to my aunt and see if she can marry a legitimate daughter of the Yukun Han family to my son."

After hearing this, Huo Ying's pupils widened. She was so excited that she could not be described as ecstatic. She knelt down with a plop and bowed deeply, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, Madam! I will be grateful to you forever!"

Fei Shuhe smiled and helped her up, saying softly, "Brother Yi is your flesh and blood, and also my son, so why should you be polite to me? Don't cry, this is a happy occasion.

Hurry up and stop being so shabby that you learned from someone. You will be laughed at by outsiders. You are just a daughter-in-law of the Yukun Han family. What's so great about you? When Brother Yi becomes a Dan-Jie and an Infant in the future, you will have plenty of blessings to enjoy."

For a moment, Huo Ying was crying and laughing, Fei Shuhe was smiling and talking, Kang Changyi helped his mother wipe her tears, and then wiped his mother's breath with some anger. It was a scene of a loving mother and a filial son.

Master Kang didn't feel that he was out of tune with the family, he just felt that he, as the head of the family, was somewhat dispensable.

In order not to break this warm atmosphere, Kang Dabao watched Fei Shuhe's empty promises to Huo Ying, the stupid girl, without exposing them. What kind of family is the Yukun Han family? It is a prominent family in the capital with a real person, and they also marry a legitimate daughter. Fei Shuhe can only bully Huo Ying, who has never seen the world.

As he watched, Master Kang began to laugh. As he laughed, he became a little proud: "My type is good!"

My son is occupied by his beautiful wife and concubines, and since I can't hold him, I'd better go to the front and take care of some important things first.

When Kang Dabao arrived at the foot of Xiaohuan Mountain, the Ascension Conference was almost over. Duan Anle and other disciples were sorting out the roster, and when they saw the headmaster Kang coming, they immediately handed it over.

The children have grown up and can take on the responsibility, which makes Kang Dabao feel relieved. He took the book in a good mood and counted the harvest this year.
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(End of this chapter)