The Long Journey to Immortality

For the first time, the inner disciples experienced the disadvantages of living alone in a room.

The outer disciples could gather in small groups in the courtyard, chatting and discussing the cause of the strange phenomenon that had just occurred.

But the inner disciples could only sit alone in their rooms, muttering to themselves, letting their imaginations run wild, guessing what earth-shattering event had happened in the world.

Han Lu had an extra task: she needed to coax A Xiao, who had jumped onto the roof beam in fright from the earthquake, down to prevent the raccoon demon from making its home on the roof beam of her bedroom.

Chapter Seventy-Four: The Secret Realm

The inner disciples sat idly in their small courtyards, completely oblivious to what was going on. For Han Lu, who disliked gossip, this was nothing unusual.

She sat in the courtyard, sipping tea, recalling the strange phenomena she had witnessed that day. She offered a few guesses, but then lost interest in further speculation and returned to her seat, devoting this precious time of tranquility to her cultivation.

However, a small group of people who loved gossip and were usually known as well-informed people in the sect couldn't stand it anymore.

In this special situation, being alone is extremely uncomfortable for them.

These people wished they could immediately swallow some kind of elixir to raise their cultivation to the Golden Core stage in a moment, and become elders of the Zhengyi Sect, just so they could follow the several streaks of light that had just streaked across the sky to the Five Elements Mountain Academy, sneak into the elders' meeting, and find out exactly what had happened.

The disciples were discussing animatedly, wondering what the senior masters in the sect were discussing and what troubled them as they gathered together.

Having just received the sect leader's order, the Golden Core cultivators gathered in a council hall of the Five Elements Mountain Academy were all sitting in their respective places meditating, including Gu Shaoqing, the current sect leader of the Zhengyi Sect who had summoned everyone together.

This time, a total of twenty-seven Golden Core cultivators gathered together. Nearly half of all the Golden Core cultivators under the Zhengyi Sect came here.

Han Lu's master, Piaomiaozi, was also among them.

He sat beside the headmaster of the Higashiyama Institute, Shimizu Masato, with his eyes closed, making not a sound.

Although Daoist Yunmin Gu Shaoqing appears to be only thirty-four or thirty-five years old, his actual age is over three hundred years old. Among the Golden Core cultivators in the Zhengyi Sect, he is a veteran, regardless of his cultivation level.

Thirty years ago, after breaking through to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm and advancing to the late-stage, he entered the candidate list for the rotating sect leader of the Zhengyi Sect.

Five years ago, when the grand competition ended, the still-living Daoist Yunmin voluntarily took over the position of the head of the Zhengyi Sect.

Due to the lifespan of cultivators, the leader of the Zhengyi Sect has always served a term of thirty years, only overseeing the sect's daily work and acting as a representative of the sect as they travel across the Central Plains.

Over the past five years, he has spent a lot of time and energy on the daily operation of the Zhengyi Sect, but as the sect leader, he has also received a lot of cultivation resources.

He had assumed that during his thirty years as sect leader, everything would be as peaceful and uneventful as it had been for the past hundred or nearly a thousand years.

However, the strange phenomenon that shook the entire Central Plains today gave even this late-stage Golden Core cultivator an ominous premonition.

Therefore, he immediately issued a sect leader's order to gather as many elders as possible who were currently cultivating within the sect, so that they could pool their wisdom and efforts.

Then, in his capacity as sect leader, he invited several senior elders who were cultivating in the Five Elements Mountain Academy to act as decision-makers, provide guidance, and resolve the matter.

The Golden Core cultivators waited in the council hall for about a quarter of an hour. Suddenly, Daoist Yunmin, who was originally sitting in the superior position, stood up and looked at the empty space in the center of the council hall.

Immediately afterwards, a golden beam of light entered the council hall, and a cultivator who looked a few years younger than Daoist Yunmin appeared in the hall.

Having sensed the other party's arrival long ago, Daoist Yunmin immediately bowed and greeted, "Venerable Nanyang."

This sound made several relatively junior Golden Core elders, including Piaomiaozi, realize the identity of the newcomer.

All the Golden Core cultivators rose and bowed, addressing him as "Elder Nanyang," "Venerable Nanyang," or "Senior Nanyang."

Without any hesitation, Venerable Nanyang sat down in the seat offered by Daoist Yunmin.

He looked at Yun Min Daoist who had just taken his seat beside him and asked, "Shaoqing, what is the purpose of summoning me out of seclusion this time? Is it because of the strange phenomenon in the heavens and earth just now?"

When Daoist Yunmin achieved the Golden Core stage, Venerable Nanyang, who was only at the late stage of the Golden Core stage, was sitting in the position of the sect leader of the Zhengyi Sect.

Yunmin Daoist and Venerable Nanyang had met a few times more than two hundred years ago, which is why Venerable Nanyang knew Gu Shaoqing's name.

"That's exactly what it's about," replied Daoist Yunmin.

Venerable Nanyang looked out the window at the sky, which had returned to its normal color, and continued to ask, "Has the cause of this incident been investigated?"

"I've roughly figured it out."

At the very first moment the strange phenomenon occurred, Daoist Yunmin asked a Golden Core cultivator from his sect who was skilled in divination to help him figure out what major event had taken place in the Central Plains.

“At the source of the Yuanshui River, a secret realm has been created.”

"Within the territory of the Southern Dynasties."

A simple sentence caused a change in the previously calm expressions of many Golden Core elders present.

A secret realm that changes the world just by being born must be extraordinary.

Such a magnificent secret realm naturally contains a great deal of opportunity, the kind of opportunity that can benefit these Golden Core cultivators.

"A secret realm?" In comparison, Venerable Nanyang, a Nascent Soul cultivator, was much calmer.

Sitting in the head seat, Venerable Nanyang pondered for a long time before speaking, "How about this, Shaoqing?"

"exist."

Gu Shaoqing, the leader of the Zhengyi Sect, stood up and walked to the Venerable Nanyang to pay his respects.

"You should first arrange for a few elders to go out of the secret realm to investigate and ascertain its general situation."

“After figuring out the truth about the secret realm, let the two deputy sect leaders,” Venerable Nanyang said, looking at the other two Golden Core cultivators, “have one of them make a trip to Xuan Yang Valley, and the other go to the Seven Mountains Alliance.”

"The three of us get together to exchange intelligence and then decide on our next steps based on the intelligence we have."

The Zhengyi Sect is not the true leader of the Central Plains and cannot dominate the cultivation world.

The source of the water is not far from the Seven Mountains Alliance.

The Zhengyi Sect, Xuanyang Valley, and Qiyue Alliance jointly discussed and concluded that the best solution was to ensure that the benefits brought by the secret realm remained in the Central Plains.

After explaining his arrangements, Daoist Nanyang exchanged a few pleasantries with several familiar Golden Core elders before transforming into a streak of light and departing.

With the guidance of the Supreme Elder, Daoist Yunmin, the sect leader, finally felt like he had a backbone and knew how to act.

"The grand competition is just two months away. Before we figure out the truth about the secret realm, it is not advisable to make a big fuss at this time."

Immediately afterward, Daoist Yunmin named five Golden Core cultivators and instructed them, "The five of you will go to the secret realm together, primarily to investigate. You must find out within seven days what kind of secret realm this is, and whether the incident occurred because it was opened to the public or simply revealed its location..."

Yunmin Daoist made several points, and the five Golden Core cultivators whose names were mentioned all nodded in agreement and wrote down the key points.

Of these five elders, two were at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, two were at the middle stage, and one was at the late stage.

However, the main reason why Daoist Yunmin chose them to take action was because two of the five had powerful souls, two were skilled in combat, and the last one, a beautiful female cultivator, was quite accomplished in formations.

This configuration is perfect for completing this reconnaissance mission.

Immediately afterwards, Daoist Yunmin announced the adjournment of the meeting, leaving only the two vice sect leaders and the five deans of the Five Directions Mountain Academy for a detailed discussion.

After all, this matter has nothing to do with the disciples in the sect for the time being. They not only need to discuss how to reduce the impact of this change in the world, but also take this opportunity to discuss matters related to the Grand Competition.

[Author's Note] Faze up. This book is probably the second to last among the books I've written on Bookke, but it seems to be the one I updated the most on the day it was released.

Chapter Seventy-Five Earthquake Relief

The martial law order was declared to be over two hours after it was issued.

The administrative bodies of the various mountain academies organized their disciples to begin "disaster relief and rescue."

The academies and the Hall of Transmission of Skills dispatched their disciples to take stock of the losses within their sects and repair and rebuild the few collapsed buildings and walls.

Numerous tasks to assist in post-disaster reconstruction in various parts of the Southern Dynasty were issued from the outer and inner treasuries.

With so many tasks being dispatched out at once, the lower-level cultivators of the Zhengyi Sect realized that this celestial phenomenon was not limited to the Zhengyi Mountain Range area, but had a significant impact on the entire Central Plains region.

Such unusual celestial phenomena naturally led to much speculation about what had happened.

However, with the task in place, many cultivators shifted their attention from the celestial phenomena to the more tangible rewards and mission.

The vast majority of cultivators eager to earn contribution points volunteered to carry out missions at the inner and outer treasuries.

The ark-shaped magical artifacts that were originally stored in the inner treasury were all taken out. Groups of seventeen or eighteen Qi Refining cultivators, each led by two Foundation Establishment cultivators, piloted the arks to various cities in the Southern Dynasty to carry out earthquake relief and disaster relief.

It was November, just as winter was beginning. Lacking food and clothing and without shelter from the wind and rain, millions of people were likely to perish in the howling winter winds.

If cultivators don't help mortals resolve disasters in time, they will also create considerable trouble for themselves.

In the near term, with a declining population and widespread chaos, the daily operations of the Zhengyi Sect will certainly be affected.

Looking ahead, in the next few years, it is likely that fewer young people of the right age will join the Zhengyi Sect and become its most fundamental force.

The cultivation world needs to rely on the mortal world to be established and developed.

Helping the mortals of the Southern Dynasty resolve a series of post-disaster problems is also an undeniable responsibility of the Zhengyi Sect, the leader of the Southern Dynasty's cultivation world.

The Zhengyi Sect naturally took a very positive stance on this relatively easy and mutually beneficial endeavor.

Although Han Lu and Wen Erya did not take the initiative to go to the inner treasury to accept the mission, they were still arranged by Piaomiaozi to leave the sect under the pretext of going out for training and go to a severely affected village near the Righteousness Mountains to help the villagers rebuild their homes.

Han Lu and Wen Erya didn't have any particular objections to this, and didn't use excuses such as cultivation or preparing for the competition to make excuses or avoid it.

Firstly, since the two had only been practicing for a few months and still had some connection with the common people, helping out wouldn't take up too much of their time; it was a small favor they were happy to do.

Secondly, according to legend, doing good deeds is of great benefit to cultivators. Both of them were cultivators aiming to achieve the Golden Core or even the Nascent Soul stage, so they naturally wanted to accumulate more "good fortune" to avoid dying under the heavenly tribulation in the future.

Generally, cultivators will encounter an initial tribulation after advancing to the Golden Core stage, and another heavenly tribulation when advancing to the Nascent Soul stage in the later Golden Core stage.

If a virtuous cultivator performs many good deeds, the tribulation at the early stage of the Golden Core realm is often more bark than bite, and even a ninth-grade Golden Core cultivator can easily overcome it.

However, for the evil and demonic cultivators from the Southern Barbarian and Western Regions who have committed countless murders and heinous acts, the power of these two tribulations will be greatly increased, making it even more difficult to overcome them.

The day after the earthquake, Han Lu, Wen Erya, and eight other cultivators, accompanied by a Foundation Establishment cultivator piloting an ark, arrived at Bosi Village, which was about fifty miles away from Zhengyi Gate.

Boxi Village had only about four hundred people, which wouldn't be considered a large village in the Southern Dynasties.

There is a spirit stone mine next to Bosi Village. Almost all the adult men in the village work as miners in the spirit stone mine to earn money and make a living.

After the earthquake, the protected spirit stone mine was not greatly affected and was able to continue operating.

The reason why Zheng Yi Sect arranged for Han Lu and others to be stationed here was so that the survivors in the village would not have to spend their energy rebuilding their homes, but could continue to work hard in the spirit stone mine to extract spirit stones and ensure the supply of spirit stones.

After arriving at their destination, the group of nine did not spend time on publicity or chanting slogans, but immediately began to help the villagers of Boxi Village with post-disaster reconstruction.

Han Lu and another slightly overweight cultivator with only the second level of Qi Refining were responsible for distributing the food.

The food was brought in a storage bag.

One-quarter of them were cooked food and dry rations, and the other three-quarters were millet and rice.

As for daily necessities and other supplies, they were distributed by another cultivator with a lower level of cultivation.

Wen Erya was in charge of rescuing the small number of wounded.