Immortality and cultivation begin with full comprehension.

Chapter 7 Before the Mountain Gate
The mountain path lies within the sphere of influence of the "Shenxiao Dao Sect".

Disciples of the "Shenxiao Dao Sect" often patrol the mountains here, making it far safer than any place in the Ming Dynasty.

Nobody dares to cause trouble here!

This is the unwritten rule of the entire cultivation world of the Southern Continent.

That's why Steward Li wasn't too worried when he came here. Even experts at the Golden Core stage wouldn't dare to cause trouble within the "Divine Firmament Dao Sect" territory!

This is the majesty of a major immortal sect; those who touch it will die!

On the first mountain peak, in some places in the mountains, there are many flower gardens and medicinal herb gardens. Li Yunjing saw a ginseng garden hundreds of feet away, and the rich fragrance of herbs came with the wind.

Li Yunjing felt invigorated after just one whiff.

"I didn't expect there to be a medicinal herb garden here?"

With his eyes wide open, Li Yunjing couldn't help but ask.

If it weren't for the wrong location, Li Yunjing would have loved to climb over hills and ditches, cut through vegetation, enter the herb garden, and pick a good amount of herbs.

If all these ginseng were given to Li Yunjing, he wouldn't believe how much his martial arts cultivation could be improved, even his Qi Refining stage cultivation would see a significant boost.

"Hehe! These ginsengs have a growth cycle of at least a hundred years. In the mortal world, they would be treasures that the powerful and wealthy would fight tooth and nail to fight for."

Steward Li gave Li Yunjing a meaningful look, smiled, and said, "However, these things are worthless in the 'Shenxiao Dao Sect'; they are just the most common items."

"If you were to join the sect and become a true disciple, you wouldn't care about these things anymore."

Finally, Steward Li said with a smile.

"So that's how it is! I never imagined that a major immortal sect would have such a grand scheme! If I were still in the mortal realm, I probably wouldn't even dream of such a thing!"

Li Yunjing nodded in admiration; he had truly learned something new this time.

Such things were treated like trash and planted outside the mountain gate. Just as Steward Li said, they were worthless to the "Shenxiao Dao Sect".

So this is the aura of a great immortal sect!

"Let's go! If you can join the 'Divine Firmament Dao Sect,' you'll be set for life."

Steward Li looked at Li Yunjing with an extremely complicated expression.

I wonder if this nobody in front of me has the fate to live up to it!
You should know that he had tried before, but failed because of his spiritual root.

The three mountain peaks are ten miles apart.

However, the mountain road was winding and not easy to travel.

"Looking at the mountain makes your horse run itself to death"—this is Li Yunjing's true feeling.

Whether it's Yu Yunyi, Steward Li, or even the weakest Ling'er and Li Yunjing, they are all cultivators or martial arts masters. Among the four, there is no weakling.

Even such a master took more than an hour to reach his destination.

This shows just how far the outside of the mountain is from the "Welcoming Peak"!

Furthermore, considering the "Welcoming Peak" and the entire Shenxiao Mountain Range, one can see just how enormous this famous immortal mountain is.

As the sun sets, the sky is filled with crimson clouds.

Li Yunjing and his three companions finally arrived at the foot of a mountain peak that was thousands of feet high.

Everywhere you look, there are ancient pines and cypresses, and cascading waterfalls and flowing springs. One pavilion after another stands tall on the mountainside and mountaintop.

At the very top of that towering mountain peak, there is a shimmering, azure-blue Heavenly Lake, and beside the Heavenly Lake stands an even more magnificent, towering building, as white as jade.

The building was shrouded in mist, making it impossible to see clearly what it was.

As you climb toward "Welcoming Peak," you often see mythical birds and beasts such as cranes, golden eagles, white deer, white tigers, jade rabbits, and peacocks soaring and leaping on the mountain.

These spirit birds and beasts did not attack Li Yunjing and his companions, seemingly because they had been raised by the "Shenxiao Dao Sect" and had lost their wild nature.

All of this left Li Yunjing dumbfounded.

"Stop looking! This is merely the 'Welcoming Peak' of the Divine Firmament Dao Sect! It's just the mountain gate!"

Yu Yunyi couldn't help but chuckle when she saw Li Yunjing's naive and unworldly demeanor.

"Just a mountain gate?"

Li Yunjing was somewhat dazed. Looking around, he saw countless medicinal fields of Ganoderma lucidum, Polygonatum sibiricum, ginseng, and Polygonum multiflorum arranged on the mountain, producing hundreds of thousands of medicinal herbs.

The air was filled with the strong aroma of medicine, and this was merely the entrance to a mountain gate?
You should know that such a rare and precious plant, if placed in the secular world, would cause a bloodbath, and countless people would be willing to pay with their lives for it!

And now, this place seems endless!
Li Yunjing swallowed hard. At this moment, he no longer cared about Yu Yunyi's mockery. He truly felt like a frog in a well.

The "Divine Firmament Dao Sect" repeatedly challenged Li Yunjing's worldview!
"Ah! I never imagined this was the true path to immortality!"

"No wonder everyone says immortals are wonderful! They'd do anything to join a sect and cultivate here in order to achieve immortality."

Even if Li Yunjing returned to the secular world and shared this scene with others, they would still think it was bragging and fabrication.

This has gone beyond conventional understanding.

At this moment, Li Yunjing knew that he had to say goodbye to the mortal world. No matter what, he had to join the Shenxiao Dao Sect!

Only Yu Yunyi and Steward Li seemed to be relatively normal. It was clear that these two had seen such a medicinal field within their families and had some resistance to it.

Following the mountain path, we arrived at the summit of "Welcoming Peak". Apart from a stone-paved mountain path, there was only a huge white jade gate standing on the summit.

"So the tallest building we saw earlier wasn't some celestial palace, but a gate!"

At this moment, Li Yunjing realized that he had misread it.

Above the stone gate were four large, gilded characters: “Shenxiao Daozong”.

Li Yunjing glanced at it and felt that the four characters were incredibly magical, drawing his consciousness firmly into them.

Just as Li Yunjing was deeply engrossed in this, a purple-robed Taoist appeared in his sea of ​​consciousness, holding a celestial sword and floating in the void, chanting incantations. Instantly, thunderclouds filled the sky, and a bolt of lightning, drawn down by the celestial sword, struck and collapsed a mountain peak on the ground.

The scene disappeared from Li Yunjing's consciousness upon reaching this point.

He then returned to normal.

At this moment, Li Yunjing looked at the three-zhang-high gate and immediately showed a look of awe.

Li Yunjing knew that the large characters on the mountain gate of "Shenxiao Daozong" contained Daoist rhyme, and if someone could comprehend it, they could see something extraordinary within it.

What Li Yunjing didn't know was that everyone's understanding was different, and therefore what they saw was also different.

Yu Yunyi, like him, also sensed the Daoist essence contained within, only it wasn't lightning magic...

(End of this chapter)