The Long Journey to Immortality

“I remember he also happened to be cultivating in the Zixiao Sect,” Feng You hadn’t seen his old friend for some time. “He called himself Linghu Daoren. He used to be a true spirit of the fox clan in the wilderness. Later, he joined the Jitian Palace and became a Supreme Elder in the Zixiao Palace. Legend has it that he has some blood ties with my Huanfeng clan. It was for this reason that I met him back then.”

"In recent years, the Dragon and Phoenix clans of the wilderness have had dealings with the Extreme Heaven Palace because of the affairs of the Eastern Land."

"I want to catch up with this old friend and, by the way, ask him for some news."

Feng You's words were both clear and vague, indicating that some of the information he had gathered was not suitable to be shared with Han Lu, an elder of the Zhengyi Sect.

Although she was his daughter, Feng You prioritized the interests of the barbarians in this matter and insisted on separating public and private matters.

Han Lu understood, so she didn't ask any more questions and simply put the jade pendant into her storage bag.

“Father, I will deliver your letter.”

Since Feng You mentioned the Eastern Land, Han Lu couldn't help but think of Feng Ruyi, who had been staying in the Three Phoenix Forest for many years.

In the past six months, she hasn't even caught a glimpse of Feng Ruyi.

When asked casually about the whereabouts of this phoenix from the East, Feng You gave Han Lu an unexpected answer.

"Feng Ruyi's lifespan ended, and she passed away three years ago."

"Ru Bing and I buried her in the Sanfeng Forest. If you want, you can go and see her."

Feng Ruyi was an "outsider" and it was not appropriate for her to be buried in the sacred place of Fengqi Forest, so Fengyou made this arrangement.

Upon hearing this news, Han Lu felt a pang of sadness.

"That's true... there must be a reason why the Eastern World arranged for us to come to the Central Plains."

"Sigh, I was hoping to meet her and chat for a bit."

"What a pity, I'll go and see it before I leave."

After saying goodbye to her parents, Han Lu came to the Sanfenglin cemetery and stood silently for a long time in front of Feng Ruyi's tombstone.

Although Han Lu's time with Feng Ruyi was brief, she and this ethereal phoenix from the East got along quite well.

Now that the two are separated forever, it's normal for Han Lu to be heartbroken for a while.

Following the Phoenix Clan's simple rituals, Han Lu offered a brief prayer and commemorated the occasion before transforming into a phoenix and flying westward once more.

The wilderness was vast, and so was the Great Yu Dynasty.

The journey from the wilderness to the Great Yu Dynasty was long, and even though Han Lu flew discreetly the whole way, she still encountered some accidents.

In the wilderness, they encountered a playful peacock who had run away and was in trouble. They kindly helped him and took him home.

In the Western Prefecture, they encountered three severely injured cultivators who were being robbed on their way back to the city.

Although she didn't know whether the other party was a good person or not, Han Lu still helped mediate, knocking out both the ambus and the ambus and sending them back to the city.

In a county town called "Xiangshan", Han Lu encountered a small-scale epidemic.

The most powerful cultivator among the sects surrounding the county town is only at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.

Faced with the pandemic, although they tried their best to help ordinary people, it was just a drop in the ocean.

Thanks to Han Lu's appearance, she spent some resources and spiritual energy to send down a shower of sweet dew in the Xiangshan County area, mimicking the style of the "Xuanyang Valley Nascent Soul Realm cultivator" from back then, which resolved this crisis and the plague that had plagued the entire city.

……

Han Lu does good deeds along the way.

Thus, nine-tenths of it is due to their inherent nature, and one-tenth is for the purpose of accumulating more good karma.

No cultivator would ever complain about having too much good karma.

Two months later, Han Lu finally crossed most of the territory of the Great Yu Dynasty and arrived at the territory of Jitian Prefecture.

Just as it had been thirty years ago, the Jitian Palace in Jitian Prefecture still presented a harmonious scene that was completely different from the atmosphere of the Dayu Dynasty.

However, due to the impending calamity, many disciples of the Jitian Palace have left the "high tower" to train outside the Jitian Mansion.

Although the vast majority of these disciples are unlikely to advance to the Nascent Soul realm.

But this atmosphere is exactly what the administrators of the Celestial Palace are happy to see.

Han Lu, who was flying through the air, passed by several groups of disciples from the Jitian Palace who were heading to the outside of Jitian Palace to cultivate their strength on their arks. However, she encountered an acquaintance halfway through her journey.

"Fairy Han?" A slightly plump Golden Core cultivator stepped off the ark and greeted Han Lu warmly.

"Who are you?" Han Lu looked at the other person and found them familiar, but she couldn't immediately recall which of her friends from the Extreme Heaven Palace they were.

"I am Wenren Ou," the other party introduced himself. "What, after all these years, you don't recognize me even though I've reached the Golden Core realm?"

Upon hearing this name, Han Lu immediately thought of the "second-generation immortal" she had met by chance years ago.

"Oh, Wenren Ou, what's wrong? Your cultivation level has improved over the years, and your face has gotten fatter too?" Han Lu joked with him to ease the awkward atmosphere caused by not recognizing him earlier.

Wenren Ou's personality was no different from when he was still a Qi Refining cultivator; he was straightforward and didn't think that Han Lu was nitpicking or making him uncomfortable by saying that he was fat.

"It makes me sad to talk about this. There was a little mishap when I was advancing to the Golden Core Realm. I successfully formed the second grade of the Golden Core, but my face became more and more swollen."

“My father said that perhaps I will be able to return to normal when I advance to the middle stage of the Golden Core realm.”

"What a pity. I had my eye on a fairy and was thinking of getting together with her," Wenren Ou sighed. "Now it seems that I will only have a chance after I advance to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm and my swollen face recovers."

Han Lu chatted for a long time with Wenren Ou, who was accompanying her disciple on his training trip, before finally saying goodbye.

It's been a long time since we last met. The Qi Refining cultivator from back then has now reached the Golden Core realm.

For some reason, the gloom that had been hanging over Han Lu's heart because of Feng Ruyi's death turned into sunshine.

Upon arriving at the Zixiao Sect, Han Lu attempted to use her connections, but ultimately had to reveal the names of Linghu Daoren and Mo Qiongzi before she could successfully enter the number one sect under the Jitian Palace.

Just then, Linghu Daoren was free, while Mo Zhehan was busy, so Han Lu went to deliver the message first.

Although it had been nearly two or three hundred years since he last saw Feng You, the Spirit Fox Taoist still remembered this old friend.

Upon hearing that it was the daughter of an old friend who was visiting, he naturally treated her well to show the demeanor of an elder.

He chatted with Han Lu for a long time, and before parting, he gave Han Lu a tuft of fox fur as a gift.

“Wearing this item can conceal your aura. I don’t know if my dear niece will need it, but I’ll give it to you as a gift. Please accept it.”

Han Lu accepted the small but exquisite magic weapon without any hesitation.

Immediately afterwards, she spent ten days in quiet meditation in her guest room at the Zixiao Sect, filled with trepidation, before finally receiving a "summons" from Mo Zhehan.

Upon arriving at the courtyard where Mo Zhehan lived, Han Lu noticed a rocking horse toy placed outside the gate. She raised an eyebrow, feeling a great weight lifted from her shoulders.

Chapter 1174

The discovery of a child's toy rocking horse at Mo Zhehan's doorstep was undoubtedly a clue, a signal, in Han Lu's eyes.

Although she stayed at the Zixiao Sect during her stay without leaving the house, she did not learn a single thing about Mo Zhehan's recent situation.

But based on the wooden horse I saw in front of me, Han Lu still managed to deduce a conclusion that was similar to Feng You's joke back then.

"I hope so," Han Lu said, letting go of the last bit of burden in her heart and praying silently, "so that I can easily understand this matter completely."

Han Lu gently knocked on the door, and a servant who had been waiting behind the door hurriedly opened it and led Han Lu, who had made an appointment to meet his "master," into the courtyard.

Although she was curious about whether her guess was correct, Han Lu did not speak to the servants in front of her or ask for information.

As Han Lu followed the servants to the reception room, while she was enjoying her tea and waiting, she noticed a child peering at her through the window.

Han Lu sensed the other person's gaze and turned her head to look out the window. The little girl, who was only four or five years old, quickly shrank back, thinking she had hidden perfectly and had not been discovered by Han Lu.

This childish behavior made Han Lu chuckle to herself when she noticed it.

She recalled the scene when she first met Lü Feiyan in the East China Sea, and couldn't help but feel a bit of goodwill towards this child who might be Mo Zhehan's daughter.

"Don't hide it, I saw everything," Han Lu said softly, jokingly towards the window. "Sneaking around like this, could it be a thief sneaking in?"

Upon hearing this, the little girl didn't hide. Instead, she nimbly climbed through the window and entered the room, protesting, "No, this is my home."

"Then why were you sneaking around there spying on me?" Han Lu pretended not to know.

The little girl explained, "I was curious whether my older sister was here to steal my father from my mother."

These words don't sound like they came from a little girl at all.

However, this statement also confirmed to Han Lu that the little girl in front of her was Mo Zhehan's daughter.

"Who is your father?" Han Lu asked again.

"My father's name is Mo Zhehan, and he is an elder of the Zixiao Sect. I am his daughter, and my name is Mo Xin." The little girl spoke in a childish voice, revealing some of the air of a "second-generation immortal."

Upon hearing this, Han Lu thought to herself, "Just as I expected."

With the huge weight lifted from her heart, Han Lu, who had already found the perfect way to deal with children during her time with young Lü Feiyan, was completely at ease when facing Mo Zhehan's daughter, Mo Xin.

"Oh, so you're Fellow Daoist Mo's daughter," Han Lu addressed Mo Zhehan by this title. "Your sister and your father are old friends, and she's here to catch up."

"What is 'reminiscing'?" Mo Xin didn't understand the word.

Han Lu patiently explained, "It's just about talking to your dad about the past, not about trying to take your dad away from your mom."

These words made Han Lu feel a little uncomfortable. To avoid getting bogged down in explaining the meaning of each word to a child, Han Lu quickly changed the subject, hoping to get some useful information from Mo Xin.

"Your sister and your father are friends. Mo Xin, can you tell your sister who your mother is?"

Han Lu was curious about who Mo Zhehan had fallen for.

To everyone's surprise, Mo Xin was quite wary and unwilling to answer Han Lu's question.

Han Lu chuckled, "If Mo Xin doesn't want to talk about it, then I'll have to compete with Mo Xin's mother for Mo Xin's father."

Upon hearing this, Mo Xincai anxiously said, "My mother and sister know each other. She told me that my sister and mother are friends. My mother's name is Qiu Xing."

"Autumn journey?" Han Lu was quite surprised by this result.

But upon closer reflection, it seems quite reasonable.

"Could it be that Qiu Xing always liked to pester Mo Zhehan to fight and spar because he was interested in Mo Zhehan and had taken a liking to him?" Han Lu secretly wondered. "If that's the case, it's quite possible."

Just as Han Lu was trying to get closer to Mo Xin and extract more useful information from the little girl, Mo Zhehan and Qiu Xing walked hand in hand into the reception room.

Mo Zhehan bent down and picked up his daughter, Mo Xin, who was rushing towards him seeking affection. At the same time, he confronted Han Lu, saying, "Han Lu, you finally came all this way to see me, and you're here to bully my daughter?"

"I was just playing around with the kids," Han Lu said casually, knowing that Mo Zhehan didn't mean to blame her. She then greeted her two old friends, "Mo Zhehan, Qiu Xing, it's been a long time."

"You are..." Han Lu's gaze swept over the two of them, "Why didn't you invite me to your wedding?"

Before Mo Zhehan could speak, Qiu Xing answered, "I did send an invitation to Fairy Zhenfeng. I thought you were too busy with affairs in the Central Plains to come, but it seems the invitation encountered some trouble on its way."