The Long Journey to Immortality

I feel like these past four years have passed in a dream, it feels unreal.

"It's like being under a spell, experiencing an incredibly beautiful dream."

"I was actually a little scared that I would wake up and find that everything was fake, an illusion."

"No wonder the most powerful illusions are those that can weave beautiful illusions."

"If it is truly beautiful enough, even if the person under the spell knows that it is all an illusion, they will not want to wake up from it and will try to grasp this illusory beauty."

Thinking of this, Han Lu involuntarily closed and opened her eyes several times, and even pinched her thigh. Only after feeling the pain did she feel completely at ease.

Han Lu's life remained as monotonous and peaceful as ever, filled with spiritual practice and tutoring her fellow disciples.

That's just how spiritual practice is. Before you spend time breaking through key bottlenecks, there's always a tedious and lengthy period of accumulation.

Han Lu, on the other hand, remained calm and unhurried.

In her view, she would remain at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage for at least three to five years before she could barely accumulate enough liquid spiritual energy in her dantian to attempt a breakthrough.

Thanks to Han Lu's own talent and the abundant cultivation resources in her storage bag, this time was already much faster than that of other cultivators, so there was no need to rush.

In the entire Central Plains, there might not be a single cultivator who can eat Spirit Gathering Pills like candy, and use Spirit Gathering Arrays to assist in every cultivation session, just like Han Lu.

As for Hanchan Peak, Han Lu had been there a few times.

However, the effect of the Cold Cicada Peak was far less impressive than that of the Qi Refining Mirror stage.

During the Qi Refining Stage, the unique environment of Cold Cicada Peak allowed her to quickly open acupoints and spiritual veins.

But for Han Lu now, Han Chan Peak is just a place with richer spiritual energy, a good place to go when breaking through, but sitting on the Dharma seat at home is enough for her on ordinary days.

In the future, if a suitable place for Core Formation cannot be found, Cold Cicada Peak may be a good choice.

A month passed in the blink of an eye. Just one day before the competition began, Piaomiaozi brought good news to Han Lu and Wen Erya, who had previously attended the ceremony to witness the tribulation.

"Elder Haoge's golden core has formed a Dao embryo. If nothing unexpected happens, the Dao embryo should be able to nurture an infant child."

Although they were not familiar with Elder Haoge, Han Lu and Wen Erya had reason to be happy for him for a moment, since he had no children and would have a successor after his death.

As for whether the unborn child will live in this world as a mortal or a cultivator, that is not something that Han Lu and Wen Erya, the two juniors in the sect, can concern themselves with.

Han Lu believed that Daoist Yunmin must have been extremely conflicted when he learned of this news.

During the preliminary rounds, Han Lu and Wen Erya made a special trip to watch the matches live.

This idea was proposed by Wen Erya.

Compared to Han Lu, who is skilled at regulating her mood, Wen Erya does indeed have more recreational activities that make her mind clear.

The scale of the smaller competition is much smaller than that of the larger competition.

Each branch school holds its own arena competitions or written tests, and there are usually only three or four hundred Qi Refining cultivators participating in a small competition at a certain level.

However, this also made the atmosphere in the smaller competition more enthusiastic than that in the larger competition.

Most participants are familiar with each other or know each other's names, which makes the competition more interesting, even if the participants are slightly less skilled.

At least, that's how Han Lu felt while watching the game from the stands.

The feeling of supporting an acquaintance to achieve good results is much more exciting than simply admiring them.

In the small competition arena, Han Lu only paid attention to a few cultivators.

Hu Jian, who presented the sword.

The brother and sister who received special treatment from her.

There's also Zhan Yujun and her young boyfriend.

It must be said that the level of these five cultivators is above average, and their performance on the arena is quite good.

This allowed Han Lu to occasionally clap and shout a few words of encouragement from the stands.

The brother and sister pair whom Han Lu personally trained also did not disappoint her.

Both of them made it into the top eight at the fifth level of Qi Refining, which brought great honor to Han Lu and Piaomiaozi.

Zhan Yujun and her partner's scores could only be described as passing, as they both won one round.

Such results were neither good nor bad; they simply allowed them to continue cultivating peacefully within the sect without facing any punishment.

The most powerful of the five is Hu Jian, who possesses the twin swords Han Lu and Lei Zhu.

Although he possessed the Battle Power Stone, he couldn't know what moves his opponent would use, whether they were skilled in magic or external martial arts, or what strange magical treasures they possessed.

However, he can rely on the Battle Stone to know the approximate strength of his opponent, and thus decide on his own fighting style.

He used his own strength and the magical treasures he obtained from his family and Han Lu as a second-generation immortal.

Hu Jian surprisingly won repeatedly in the two-day mini-competition and eventually made it into the top four.

When Hu Jian used Han Lu's Thunder Bamboo Twin Swords, Wen Erya jokingly referred to it as a "token of love," implying that Hu Jian was Han Lu's "beloved."

The competition has ended, with everyone experiencing joy and sorrow; the New Year is not far away.

[Author's Note] A new month has begun, everyone hurry up and vote with your monthly tickets and swords!

Chapter 477 Going Home

As the old faces depart and the new ones arrive, many new faces will come to Zhengyi Gate after the New Year.

Similarly, many familiar faces lacking talent will be either sent away or stripped of their status according to the sect's rules, becoming independent cultivators temporarily without the sect's support.

A door to immortality, power, and superiority opens briefly before you and then closes quickly.

This moment may be the only cruel moment in the peaceful and harmonious cultivation world of the Central Plains.

However, there have been cultivators who were expelled from top-tier sects like Zhengyi Sect and Xuanyang Valley, only to find a second spring in smaller sects.

In fact, many cultivators, after leaving the Zhengyi Sect, found better lives in the secular world or in smaller sects.

This is why this harsh and inhumane rule has been able to persist for so long.

However, this has nothing to do with Han Lu, and even the upcoming New Year has little to do with her.

Of the more than 23,000 cultivators in the Zhengyi Sect, even if we exclude the more than 1,000 cultivators who were "driven out," a full two-thirds of the cultivators chose to return home this winter, before the New Year.

Ninety-nine percent of these cultivators are Qi Refining cultivators, whose cultivation period is relatively short and who have deep connections with the mortal world.

Most of the other Foundation Establishment cultivators who left the sect had reasons that forced them to leave.

In the autumn, a plague broke out in the southwestern region of the Southern Dynasty. By the time the New Year approached, the plague had spread far and wide, and it could not be resolved by ordinary means alone.

At least twenty Foundation Establishment cultivators skilled in medical arts were dispatched by the sect to provide support.

It is said that this is only the first batch. If these twenty Foundation Establishment cultivators are not enough to completely suppress the spread of the plague, more Zhengyi Sect cultivators will be assigned to missions from the academy and sent to provide support.

The Zhengyi Sect, rooted in the Southern Dynasties, would not be negligent in the slightest when it came to a calamity like a plague that could greatly reduce the population.

Even members of the royal family like Wen Erya have to return home for the New Year to make an appearance and have a meal.

The same is true for the scions of many large families.

Even before the new year, the Zhengyi Sect sent a team to the Northern Dynasty to conduct friendly visits with some sects in the Northern Dynasty that were friendly to the Zhengyi Sect.

This series of actions resulted in only about two thousand cultivators remaining in the entire Zhengyi Sect when the New Year arrived. The so-called New Year's banquet held by the Dongshan Academy, which had fewer than fifty tables, was already full.

This is the first time in fifty years that such a situation has occurred.

Thanks to this, Han Lu, who was participating in the event, was also arranged to sit at the main table with several Golden Core cultivators from Dongshan Academy.

On this day of celebrating the New Year with their disciples, the Golden Core cultivators were not as aloof as they usually were.

Several Golden Core cultivators who were unaware of the situation and had interacted with Han Lu before even asked her to talk about her return to the Central Plains from the East Sea.

So, Piaomiaozi, who was originally worried about this matter, listened to Han Lu say about a hundred "lies" at the dinner table, making up a story that he almost believed.

It must be said that Han Lu, who has honed her skills as a "storyteller," is quite adept at creating and telling stories.

The story is interesting, and although it's not entirely flawless, no one would think too much about it in this kind of situation.

Listening to Han Lu tell her fabricated story, Piaomiaozi, who knew the truth, kept raising her glass to hide her embarrassment and her own laughter. She recalled what her mother had told her more than a hundred years ago: "Indeed, the more beautiful a woman is, the more likely she is to lie."

However, this was just a joke in his mind. The better Han Lu made up the story, the better it would be for keeping the matter a secret.

Over time, Han Lu became the main character at the Dongshan Academy's New Year's Eve banquet, bringing some joy to the many Dongshan Academy cultivators who remained in the Zhengyi Sect.

After the meal, having eaten and drunk their fill, and with no one specifically waiting for the New Year to arrive, the cultivators dispersed on their own.

For cultivators who are truly dedicated to the path of cultivation, the New Year ultimately holds less significance.

The only New Year celebrations within the Zhengyi Sect are the banquets held by each of the various branch schools.

After the banquet, apart from the fact that there were fewer cultivators in the sect, everything seemed no different from usual.

However, Han Lu's New Year this year was slightly different from previous years.

Because she reunited with her father in the wilderness, she naturally thought of her mother, who was buried on a desolate mountain.

Ten years later, visiting her mother's grave on the anniversary of her death to remember the time she spent with her mother became Han Lu's New Year's wish.

Although Feng You, who had come to the Central Plains, did not specifically instruct Han Lu to do this, she felt it was necessary to meet her mother at the tombstone, tell her the story of the past ten years, and then tell her mother, who had waited for Feng You for fourteen years, about this irresponsible husband and father.

Taking leave from the sect is not difficult for Han Lu, who now holds a certain position among the disciples of the Zhengyi Sect.

Just submit a report.

Furthermore, because it was New Year's Day, Piaomiaozi didn't even inquire about Han Lu's specific whereabouts.

From Zhengyi Gate to the remote and impoverished village where Han Lu had lived for fourteen years, Han Lu arrived at her destination in less than two hours.

Han Lu and her mother once lived in seclusion in the deep mountains and forests of the southwestern part of the Southern Dynasties.

It was a hiding place that Feng You specifically chose when he fled from the Northern Dynasty to the Southern Dynasty.

On the hillside of a small mountain in that forest, there is a relatively flat area where a small courtyard is built mainly of wood and stone.

This is where Fengyou and Hanlu's mother once lived.

The place was extremely remote and deserted, with the nearest village a half-hour walk away.

The outer gate where Feng Bailu once temporarily resided when he joined the Zhengyi Sect was a five-day walk from that mountain hut.

However, even in such a remote place, the Xuan Yang Valley cultivators relentlessly pursued them and found them.

Han Lu could imagine the expression and feelings of Feng You when he was surprised to find traces of Northern Dynasty cultivators nearby and had to leave quietly to avoid implicating his wife.