The Long Journey to Immortality

Therefore, Piaomiaozi hoped that she could show her face and set an example for her junior brothers and sisters, and Han Lu was still very willing to do her part.

Han Lu quickly picked up a pen to reply, explaining that she would be there in the afternoon, expressing her interest in attending the ceremony in half a month and accepting the invitation, while also thanking Piaomiaozi.

That afternoon, Han Lu arrived on time.

This was the first time she had shown her face in front of the many Qi Refining disciples of Piaomiaozi since she returned to her sect from the Great Yu Dynasty.

Besides her, her senior brother Li Haoqiong, whom she had only heard of but never met in person, was also present that day.

Li Haoqiong had only heard of Han Lu's name.

Although they are fellow disciples, Li Haoqiong is not as friendly to Han Lu as she is to Li Haoqiong.

When they first met, Han Lu took the initiative to greet him, but Li Haoqiong only nodded and did not return the greeting verbally.

On this day, when Piaomiaozi was imparting his teachings, he specially introduced Han Lu to all the Qi Refining disciples.

Han Lu had also made preparations in advance, and as the senior sister, she gave each of the junior brothers and sisters present a small gift.

Having obtained spirit stones and pills, and hearing many junior brothers calling Han Lu "Senior Sister" repeatedly, Li Haoqiong's expression grew increasingly unpleasant.

Chapter 460 Li Haoqiong's Challenge

Piaomiaozi noticed Li Haoqiong's behavior.

Piaomiaozi had an incredibly accurate grasp of his disciple's mindset.

On this day, Han Lu was specially invited to appear, partly out of a desire to "provoke" Li Haoqiong.

Hoping that Han Lu's performance would make his highly regarded disciple, who always valued the title of "senior brother," see Han Lu as a competitor, strive harder, and make more progress on the path of cultivation.

This will allow this promising disciple to spend less time on trivial matters outside of his spiritual practice.

Han Lu, who was focused on interacting with her junior brothers and sisters, had no idea that she was being used as a pawn this time. Not only was she being made a role model for her junior brothers and sisters, but she was also chosen as Li Haoqiong's "formidable rival".

With Han Lu and Li Haoqiong present, Piaomiaozi's teaching task can be made a little easier, and the seventeen Qi Refining disciples present can also receive better cultivation guidance.

After a simple grouping process, the five female students present were all assigned to Han Lu's class, with Han Lu temporarily serving as their mentors and teachers.

Having experienced teaching Daoist children cultivation in the southern borderlands, Han Lu naturally completed the task assigned by Piaomiaozi with exceptional skill.

Of the five, three learned and mastered a practical technique for the Qi Refining Realm from Han Lu, while the other two even made a small breakthrough, opening up an acupoint on the way to the mountainside of Hanchan Peak, a place rich in spiritual energy, thus taking a small step forward on their cultivation path.

Such outstanding performance not only earned Han Lu many praises from Piaomiaozi, but also gave rise to all sorts of thoughts among her fellow disciples.

The five junior sisters, who had gained a lot from Han Lu in just two hours, naturally called her "senior sister" even more enthusiastically. They also hoped to have more exchanges with this generous, beautiful and highly skilled senior sister on a regular basis.

Those disciples who followed Li Haoqiong in their cultivation during those two hours were "sour grapes".

Because of Han Lu's arrival, Li Haoqiong, who was usually enthusiastic about guiding his junior brothers and sisters, was somewhat absent-minded today. He even swore a few times and cursed for no reason over some trivial matters.

Having had a poor experience, these disciples who followed Li Haoqiong in their training naturally hoped that they could practice with Han Lu next time, and see if this senior sister, who was somewhat famous in the sect, could help them improve a little.

The competition is just around the corner, and these new disciples, who have only been in the program for a year or two, are having a real headache over it.

Seeing that Han Lu, who had only appeared once at such an event, had stolen the respect of many of his junior brothers and sisters and taken his place, Li Haoqiong felt a surge of anger rising in his chest.

After Piaomiaozi's "master class" ended, he kept Han Lu behind for a few more words of advice.

They were talking about the ceremony to be held in half a month.

They talked for about 15 minutes.

When Han Lu left Piaomiaozi's residence, she found that Li Haoqiong, who had left earlier, was waiting for her on a small path at the foot of Hanchan Peak.

"Senior Brother, what's wrong?" Han Lu asked politely, maintaining a respectful attitude towards Li Haoqiong.

Li Haoqiong's face turned ugly, and he said in a deep voice, "Han Lu, let's have a fight."

"Huh?" Han Lu was quite surprised. "Senior Brother, what's wrong? Why do you suddenly want to spar with me?"

Han Lu had been busy interacting and communicating with her junior brothers and sisters, so she didn't notice Li Haoqiong's change.

Li Haoqiong still thought Han Lu was just pretending to be innocent and didn't take him seriously. His tone became even more stern, "Don't pretend you don't know anything. You just want to be the senior sister, right? If you beat me today, I'll go directly to Master and let you be the senior sister."

Han Lu was completely confused by what he said.

"Senior Brother...you..." Han Lu was stunned for a moment before she understood why Li Haoqiong was so hostile towards her and why he would seek her out for a battle at this time.

She recalled that this time, Piaomiaozi decided to lead her and Wen Erya instead of Li Haoqiong to the ceremony.

Based on this, and combined with Li Haoqiong's "challenge words," she understood the crux of the matter.

Although Senior Brother Li Haoqiong also crossed the early stage of Foundation Establishment a year ago and became the first disciple of Piaomiaozi Sect to advance to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, Han Lu's advancement to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment and her return made his position in Piaomiaozi Sect less stable.

This time, the arrangement of the people to attend the ceremony clearly gave him a strong sense of crisis.

Having fallen out of favor with his master, it would be strange if Li Haoqiong, who was quite concerned about this matter, gave Han Lu, his rival, a friendly look.

Not to mention that Han Lu's series of actions were misunderstood by Li Haoqiong.

It's not hard to understand why Li Haoqiong, whose mentality is out of balance, is being so straightforward now, hoping to quickly determine who is better than his rival Han Lu by using "strength".

This is similar to the ulterior motives Guan Yu developed towards Huang Zhong after entering Shu.

If even a great hero like Guan Yu had such thoughts, it's not so surprising that Li Haoqiong, who cared so much about this mere title, disliked Han Lu.

Not to mention, in Li Haoqiong's eyes, Han Lu is far inferior to Huang Zhong.

Having been a disciple of Xiaoyaozi for less than five years and having accomplished nothing, how could he compare to his senior brother, who had worked so hard and made great contributions under Piaomiaozi's tutelage?

Han Lu felt somewhat helpless because of Li Haoqiong's obsession with something that Han Lu considered trivial.

"Senior Brother," Han Lu called out again to show her attitude, "I don't care whether Senior Sister is a disciple of Master or not, and I have no intention of competing with you."

"But if you want to spar with me, I don't mind. We can fight today, it's fine."

"However, this is just a friendly spar between you and me, not a bet on the position of senior brother or senior sister."

Han Lu tried her best to make things clear so that Li Haoqiong wouldn't cause her any more trouble with this matter, no matter what the final outcome of the competition was.

After all, they were all disciples of Piaomiaozi and Zhengyi Sect. Han Lu couldn't just "kill" this somewhat stubborn and inflexible senior brother once and for all.

The best approach would be to offer words of comfort and help him understand that Han Lu and he are not on the same path, thus resolving this conflict that should never have existed in the first place.

To his surprise, Han Lu's "contemptuous" attitude towards the things he had always cared about only made Li Haoqiong angrier.

Li Haoqiong's fighting spirit against Han Lu has not diminished but rather increased.

"Alright, Han Lu, let's go. Today I'm going to have a big fight with you and teach you, my junior sister who just entered the sect, some principles of cultivation."

These words were arrogant, but Han Lu didn't take them to heart.

"Let's go, senior brother."

With just one sentence, Han Lu accepted the challenge initiated by Li Haoqiong.

Since advancing to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, Han Lu has never sparred with a cultivator of the same level.

A little over a year later, it will be the grand competition that all Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Zhengyi Sect must participate in. She also wants to use the opportunity of sparring with Li Haoqiong to see how much stronger she is than other mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators.

As for the outcome...

Although Han Lu knew from Shui Bingxin that Li Haoqiong's performance in the sect's competitions was quite good.

Having experienced several challenges beyond her level, and even fought against a True Spirit in the early stages of Transformation, Han Lu had built up sufficient self-confidence and did not think that Li Haoqiong had any chance of defeating her.

Friendship comes first, competition second; resolving this unnecessary little conflict is what Han Lu values ​​most.

The two left Hanchan Peak one after the other and arrived at the Dongshan Academy's arena area in the blink of an eye, standing on the same arena as opponents.

[Author's Note] Happy Lunar New Year's Eve to everyone.

Chapter 461 Battle Power Stone

Han Lu could hardly remember the last time she had a one-on-one duel with a cultivator of the same realm.

During the Great Yu Dynasty, she always fought against multiple opponents of the same or even higher cultivation level with her early or mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation. In the Deep Blue Desert, she even fought against Xiao Ran, the Heart Demon who had just advanced to the Golden Core stage and possessed 50% of the combat power of a Golden Core cultivator, with her early Foundation Establishment cultivation.

The challenge of overcoming superiors was the theme of Han Lu's spiritual practice during that period.

On her way back from leaving the Great Yu Dynasty, thanks to the protection of her parents, who were at the late Nascent Soul stage, Han Lu only fought a battle with her fellow Prison Phoenix at the Transformation Realm in the Phoenix Perch Forest.

It was the same case of the inferior overthrowing the superior, only that time, her cultivation was at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, and she used many True Spirit techniques.

The most recent one was the competition between him and Yi Qiyan in the southern border region.

Although Yi Qiyan was a saintess of the Five Poisons Sect, she was only at the early stage of Foundation Establishment. This was one of the few times that Han Lu had won a battle against someone stronger.

This is the first time in recent times that Han Lu has encountered a situation where her opponent, standing not far from her, is a cultivator of the same cultivation level.

Naturally, she had a greater sense of anticipation for this chance encounter.

With less than two months to go before the start of the competition, many Qi Refining disciples were practicing in the arena area of ​​Dongshan Academy.

They might team up to rent a ring to practice their magic, or they might take turns fighting in the ring area to hone their combat skills and accumulate fighting experience.

Since Foundation Establishment cultivators do not need to participate in the minor competition, when Han Lu and Li Haoqiong, two Foundation Establishment cultivators who are considered celebrities in Dongshan Academy, appeared in the arena area and stood on the arena in a pose as if they were sparring, many Qi Refining disciples surrounded them.

These Qi Refining disciples were partly driven by curiosity, wanting to get a closer look at Han Lu and Li Haoqiong, two well-known senior brothers and sisters in the East Mountain Academy.

On the other hand, the two's outstanding performance in both the major and minor competitions was also the reason why the Qi Refining cultivators chose to watch from the sidelines.

Seeing the virtuous, one should think of emulating them; most of the Qi Refining disciples who come here to cultivate diligently have a strong desire to improve themselves.

They naturally wanted to learn some useful skills from the two "academic stars" by watching Han Lu and Li Haoqiong's match, skills that could be applied in the small competition.

With so many unfamiliar junior brothers and sisters watching, Li Haoqiong naturally couldn't keep this petty reason for "declaring war" on his lips.

In addition, in just a short while, he realized that he had acted impulsively and lost his composure. So, on the stage, he simply followed Han Lu's words and redefined the nature of this sparring match.

"Junior Sister Han," Li Haoqiong said, becoming more polite, "I've heard from Master that you're a master of magic. Today I'll test your skills myself, so please don't hold back."

Li Haoqiong's words relieved Han Lu. She smiled and said, "I had already heard about Senior Brother's deeds from Senior Sister Shui Bingxin. I know that Senior Brother is one of the top genius cultivators in our Dongshan Academy."

"It just so happens that I have always wanted to meet my senior brother. Today, I would like to take this opportunity to ask him for a few pointers."

Immediately afterwards, Han Lu casually tossed out a shimmering ball of spiritual energy.

The sphere of light hovered in the air, its light gradually dimming.

Han Lu said, "Once this ball of light goes out, we will have a great battle."

"How about the loser has to pay for renting the ring?"