One person: Lu Jin, do I look like your master?

He turned his head with difficulty to look at Zhang Zhiwei, his lips trembling, his voice shaking noticeably with excitement, even somewhat incoherent:

"Ox... Ox-nose... I just... I think I just... I think I saw my master!"

These words were like a faint clap of thunder; though not loud, they were clearly heard by the several bigwigs on the high platform with their excellent hearing!

Upon hearing this, Zhang Zhiwei's snow-white brows furrowed instantly. He looked closely at Lu Jin's face, as if trying to find any trace of a joke, but all he saw was utmost seriousness and excitement.

The old master remained silent for a moment, a complex expression appearing on his face. There was regret, concern, and a hint of... understanding in that expression.

He sighed softly and said slowly in an almost pitying tone:

"Old Lu...sigh, it seems...your time is finally coming for you too?"

The tone was as if to say that Lu Jin's time was coming to an end and that he was beginning to hallucinate.

The other members of the Ten Elders, such as Wang Ai and Lü Ci, also heard Lu Jin's words, but only their eyelids twitched slightly. They did not react much, as the matter sounded too absurd.

Feng Zhenghao maintained a polite smile, his gaze slightly lowered, as if he hadn't heard anything.

Lu Jin was immersed in an indescribable mix of excitement and sorrow, tears welling up in her eyes.

But the old celestial master's sudden, completely off-topic remark left him speechless!

It's like a surge of emotions about to erupt, only to have your mouth suddenly covered!

Lu Jin's face instantly flushed red. He abruptly raised his head, glaring at Zhang Zhiwei with a mixture of amusement and exasperation, his voice rising several decibels:

"You old fox! Zhang Zhiwei! What nonsense are you spouting?! Who said it's your turn?! You're the one whose turn is coming!"

His reaction actually dispelled much of the somber atmosphere from before.

Zhang Zhiwei, however, maintained an expression of "I understand, I understand everything," and leisurely stroked his beard, saying:

"If you hadn't been about to leave and started talking nonsense, how could you have seen Master Zuo in broad daylight?"

"How many years has it been since the Left Gate Master passed away?"

His tone was teasing, yet it also carried a hint of nostalgia for his deceased friend.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Tian Jinzhong couldn't help but make a muffled sound when he heard his senior brother teasing Lu Jin like that, his tone carrying a hint of amusement and exasperation.

He knew that his senior brother was deliberately making jokes to ease Lu Jin's mood.

"Haha, Master, you really are... humorous."

Seeing this, Feng Zhenghao, the leader of the Tianxia Society, quickly laughed heartily, trying to smooth things over and avoid embarrassment.

His gaze swept over the crowd below who had already begun drawing lots, and he skillfully changed the subject:

"It seems the young people are already eager to get started; they are truly formidable."

Meanwhile, the two old men, Wang Ai and Lü Ci, who had remained silent throughout, exchanged another subtle glance, their meaning unclear.

They didn't care whether Lu Jin actually saw anything; they only cared about the final outcome of the conference and the benefits their families could gain from it.

To them, Lu Jin's loss of composure was nothing more than a trivial incident.

After being interrupted by Zhang Zhiwei, Lu Jin's turbulent emotions did indeed calm down considerably.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his heart, and turned his head again to look at the area under the big tree—

However, the place was already empty.

That figure, dressed in white like snow and possessing an extraordinary aura, had quietly departed sometime earlier.

It was as if everything that had just happened was merely a fleeting dream in his mind.

But Lu Jin knew that it wasn't a dream.

That fleeting glimpse of a figure, that familiar yet unfamiliar aura, especially the kind that only comes from cultivating the Three Ones Sect's core technique, the Reverse Rebirth Triple Cultivation, to an extremely high level.

The unique resonance of "Qi"... although extremely faint and almost imperceptible, he would never misperceive it!

"Could it be... that there really are people in the world who look so alike? Or..."

Lu Jin was filled with doubts and a thousand thoughts swirling in her mind, but there was no one left to confide in.

He could only bury his shock and doubt deep in his heart, turning his gaze back to the noisy scene below, but his mind had already wandered far away.

Wang Xuan had just seen that the contestants had started drawing lots, so he planned to enter the venue to watch the competition.

So I left from where I had just been.

Therefore, when Grandpa Lu Jin looked, Wang Xuan was no longer there.

Wang Xuan was unaware that because of him, the Celestial Master thought that Lu Jin was nearing his end!

Chapter 36 Quan Xing: so?

Inside the huge arena temporarily converted into a fighting arena on the back of Longhu Mountain, the noise of people and the swirling energy of qi filled the air.

The selection competition for the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony is in full swing.

In order to efficiently eliminate a large number of "casual participants" who are not good enough or are just there for fun or to try their luck, the Celestial Master's Mansion adopted a four-person free-for-all competition system.

In an instant, shouts, collisions, and bursts of supernatural power rose and fell on the various arenas, creating a lively and extraordinary scene.

However, in Wang Xuan's eyes, the first day of the competition was rather unremarkable.

Most of the participants had shallow cultivation, immature moves, and worrying combat awareness. It was more like a street thug fight with a little bit of Qi added, with no technical content or entertainment value whatsoever.

Occasionally, one or two who seemed decent enough would quickly be eliminated in the chaotic onslaught, either by accident or by winning easily, failing to reveal their true strength.

The remaining strong opponents were even less interesting to watch; the matches were over as easily as cutting vegetables and bullying children.

Wang Xuan stood on the periphery of the crowd and watched quietly for a few rounds before losing interest.

He knew that the truly worthwhile showdown between masters, those hidden talents, would not truly erupt until tomorrow, when the number of participants had dwindled and the strongest contenders met.

He came here to wait for Xia Liuqing and Balun, and to observe as well, not to truly engage with them.

Since there was nothing much to see in front of him, he stopped and quietly turned around, going against the flow of people entering the venue, and silently left this noisy place.

As an uninvited person who had not registered for the competition, the Celestial Master's Mansion naturally would not prepare a room for him to rest in.

But this was not a problem for Wang Xuan at all.

Sleeping in the mountains and fields was already commonplace for him; during his five years of seclusion, he had spent time in places with far more difficult conditions.

He strolled into the more secluded primeval forest area next to the arena.

The trees here are much taller and thicker than those on the outskirts, their branches and leaves blocking out the sun and isolating the noise from below, leaving only the clear chirping of birds and the rustling of the wind through the forest.

He set his sights on a huge ancient tree that required several people to encircle, with a gnarled and vigorous trunk and lush, canopy-like branches and leaves.

He lightly touched the ground with his toes, and his body floated up like a weightless feather, landing steadily on a thick, gently sloping horizontal branch several feet off the ground.

The branches and leaves swayed slightly before returning to stillness. Wang Xuan brushed off his robes and entered this natural, quiet chamber where heaven and earth served as his mat and ancient trees as his bed.

He sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes again, and entered a state of meditation where he was completely absorbed in the world around him.

Meanwhile, near the high platform on the other side of the arena.

Grandpa Lu Jin was distracted and unable to concentrate on the competition.

His gaze, like a searchlight, anxiously and meticulously scanned every corner of the venue, from the bustling crowd to the quiet edges, leaving no possibility unchecked.

However, no matter how hard he searched, the fleeting white figure seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace whatsoever.

"Hmm? Could it be... that I really saw it wrong?"

After repeated fruitless searches, a sense of self-doubt inevitably welled up in Lu Jin's heart.

He even began to wonder if Zhang Zhiwei, that old Taoist priest, had really been right, that he was too old and nearing his end, which was causing him to be delirious and have such vivid hallucinations.

But as soon as the thought arose, he immediately suppressed it!

"No! Impossible!"

Lu Jin roared inwardly, "That feeling... there's no mistake! Especially that fleeting, unique 'charm' that belongs to the extremely high level of the Reverse Life Realm! Although it was extremely faint, I could never have misperceived it!"

He kept the legacy of the San Yi Sect and his master's teachings in his heart throughout his life, and was extremely sensitive to the aura of the Reverse Life Triple Realm. That was definitely not an illusion!

"If it's not a hallucination... then what could it be?"

Lu Jin's brows furrowed tightly, her thoughts racing.

"Could it be... that those lawless bastards from the Quanxing Sect are behind this?!"

He suddenly remembered that, according to some rumors in the martial arts world, there seemed to be a master in the Quanxing sect who was extremely skilled in disguise, named Yu Huadu!

Their craftsmanship is so exquisite that it can be mistaken for the real thing, and they can even imitate the temperament!

"That's it! That must be it!"

Lu Jin seemed to have found a reasonable explanation, and his eyes instantly sharpened.

"It must be that the Quanxing demons somehow learned about my master's appearance back then, and sent Yu Huadu to impersonate my master and infiltrate Longhu Mountain with malicious intent!"

Quanxing: so?

They're trying to confuse me, or perhaps they have a bigger conspiracy!

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed, and a surge of anger mixed with resentment at being desecrated rose in his chest.

That scoundrel from the Quanxing sect dared to use the image of his deceased mentor to make a story; he deserves to die!

"It seems... we need to pay closer attention to what's happening in the venue, especially those suspicious-looking strangers!"

Lu Jin made up her mind, her gaze becoming even more vigilant.

He decided to secretly increase vigilance, but did not intend to make a fuss for the time being, so as not to alert the enemy. He wanted to see what tricks these demons were up to!

However, what Lu Jin didn't know was that his angry and "reasonable" speculation had inexplicably put the Quanxing members lurking in the shadows into a state of high alert ahead of time.

Their original plan was more meticulous, and it was only discovered after Bai Shixue fought Hu Jie, who was controlled by the Four Madmen. However, due to the unexpected variable of Wang Xuan, Lu Jin became suspicious in advance.

Of course, all of this is currently just Lu Jin's speculation and vigilance.

"How's it going, Lao Lu?"

A gentle, smiling voice sounded from the side.

Old Master Zhang Zhiwei had wandered over again at some point. Seeing his old friend still frowning and looking around, he chuckled and joked:

Have you found your mentor yet?

Lu Jin was pulled back from her thoughts, glared at Zhang Zhiwei with annoyance, and said in a sullen voice:

"did not find!"

Although he suspected that Quanxing was behind it, the shock of that fleeting glimpse and the faint sense of familiarity still lingered deep in his heart, leaving him feeling uneasy.

Thinking of his mentor Zuo Ruotong's earnest teachings, the past glory and the tragic end of the Sanyi School, and then thinking of himself as the only surviving legitimate successor.

However, they failed to bring glory to the sect, and now even their master's remains might be used by demons...

An indescribable sense of sorrow and guilt welled up in Lu Jin's heart. He gazed at the undulating mountains in the distance, his eyes becoming somewhat dazed and sad.

"Bull nose..."

Lu Jin's voice suddenly lowered, carrying a rare hint of weariness and confusion.

"You know... if one day I really go down to the underworld and see my master again... how am I supposed to explain this to him? The Sanyi Sect... in my hands, it has become like this..."

This old man, who had been strong and stoic throughout his life and was known as "flawless in his life," was now showing such a vulnerable side, which shows the enormous mental and emotional impact that Wang Xuan's appearance had on him.

Chapter 37 The Sadness of Chu Lan

Time is like sand slipping through your fingers, always flying by unnoticed.

The noisy daytime gradually quieted down, the blazing sun slowly sank in the west, dyeing the horizon a brilliant orange-red, and then, twilight descended like a soft veil.

It began to envelop the earth layer by layer, gradually blending the strange peaks and rocks, ancient trees and Taoist temples of Longhu Mountain into a tranquil gloom.

The arena, bustling with activity and brimming with energy during the day, is now deserted, leaving only the lonely arena and empty stands, which appear somewhat desolate in the deepening night.

The day's fierce competition came to a temporary end. The joy of advancing and the disappointment of being eliminated were all turned into whispers and sleepless nights in the mountains.

Wang Xuan, sitting cross-legged on a high branch of an ancient tree, paid no attention to any of the commotion, victories, defeats, joys, or sorrows that were taking place down the mountain.

His mind remained immersed in the tempering of his own cultivation and the fusion of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The passage of time outside was nothing more than a long breath to him.

However, just as all was quiet except for the sounds of the wind and insects, a very faint rustling sound, completely out of sync with the natural rhythm, came from the depths of the dense forest not far away.