"I've read your mission report. You used your wits to eliminate a painted-skin demon. You did very well."
Lu Yang's heart leapt with joy. It wasn't easy to earn a word of praise from his eldest senior sister, so the trip to Taiping Village had been worth it.
After Yun Zhi offered a brief, calm assessment, she thought of what the painted-skin demon's existence implied, and a shadow crossed her brow.
"For the past hundred years, ever since the great age began, the various forces lurking in the shadows have been stirring. Ghosts and demons run rampant. The Great Xia Dynasty may seem peaceful, but who knows how many calamities lie beneath the surface? The Great Xia Dynasty cares too much about saving face and refuses to seek help from the Five Great Immortal Sects." Yun Zhi let out a soft sigh. Naturally, she hadn't meant those words for Lu Yang.
Lu Yang picked up on one word in her speech. "The great age began?"
He'd never heard the term before, nor had he come across it in any book.
Yun Zhi's voice seemed to drift from another world. "A hundred years ago, the Supreme Elder of the Heavenly Strategy Sect emerged from a death seclusion. He shed blood across the Qing River and wagered his life to question the heavens. No one knows what he divined."
The Heavenly Strategy Sect claimed they could measure all things and understand everything. They believed in the inexorable laws of heaven and the retribution of cause and effect. They were the ones who had questioned the insurance offered by the Grounded Gold Bank.
"The Supreme Elder then announced to the world that the great age had arrived, heralding a return to the splendor of ancient cultivation."
"By the usual standards, the Five Great Immortal Sects would consider themselves fortunate to recruit even one single-spirit-root cultivator in a generation. Your generation has produced the Ancient Barbarian Tribe, three single-spirit-root cultivators, and an immortal physique, rarer still than a single spirit root. I've heard that the other sects have also recruited many prodigies no less gifted than single-spirit-root cultivators over the past hundred years. That gives you a glimpse of the ancient golden age."
A faint, rare smile tugged at Yun Zhi's lips. It was almost imperceptible, and seemed to hold a note of scorn. "They call the ancient golden age an era of splendor, but in truth, it was chaos to the extreme. A golden age was also a time of turmoil. Countless forces and interests were tangled together. Demons, monsters, ghosts, and fiends schemed against one another. Human hearts were unfathomable, and life and death were left to fate. Countless innocents died before a single great cultivator emerged. It was nowhere near as peaceful or stable as the world is now."
Lu Yang thought his eldest senior sister's smile was cold.
Lu Yang had read descriptions of the ancient golden age in books. Strength had been paramount then, and the victor had been king. There had been no distinction between righteous and demonic paths, and humanity had been merely one of many powerful races, far from the position of supremacy it held over the continent today.
Demons and fiends had emerged, dragons and tigers had battled, and prodigies had roamed the world, forging their reputations in blood and bone. They'd struck decisively, and countless great cultivators had become legends revered by the masses—goals that cultivators spent their lives striving for, yet could never reach. The stories were so stirring that one could hardly help wishing to travel back to that age and show off one's own talents.
It was precisely in such a time of chaos that heroes and champions had a chance to rise to prominence.
But seeing his eldest senior sister's expression, Lu Yang finally realized that the ancient golden age might have been a boon for prodigies, but for ordinary people, it was a nightmare straight out of hell.
People lived from dawn to dusk, never knowing if they'd see the next day. One ordinary clash between the powerful could turn your kin into slaves and prisoners, to be abused and slaughtered at their masters' whim. There was no peace to be found.
Books painted the ancient golden age as a grand, tumultuous spectacle because the authors themselves were high-ranking cultivators who yearned for that era.
Seen through the eyes of ordinary people, it would have been an entirely different picture.
Lu Yang realized that after becoming a cultivator, he seemed to have forgotten that he'd once been a mortal.
That wasn't right.
Yun Zhi didn't dwell on the subject. It was too soon for Lu Yang to worry about it. "Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"
"Um, eldest senior sister, do you know any spells that would help me travel faster?"
"Of course. What do you need one for?"
The Ask Dao Sect had an agreement with the Grounded Gold Bank: whenever its disciples traveled, the sect would cover their lodging and transportation expenses at the bank. Lu Yang could ride an airship without spending a single spirit stone, so what use would he have for a travel spell?
Lu Yang scratched his head, wearing an unusually sheepish expression. "It's nothing. I just thought I'd learn one and save our Ask Dao Sect some money."
Yun Zhi didn't doubt him. "Since you have the right spirit, I can't let you down as your senior sister. You've only just reached Foundation Establishment, so there aren't many spells you can use yet."
Lu Yang chuckled and rubbed his hands together. "Anything I can use will do."
"I've watched you cultivate over the past year. You've lived up to the name of a Sword Spirit Root. I have a Flying Sword Art that lets you stand on a flying sword and travel freely across the land."
"There's also a Levitation Art that tempers your spiritual sense until it's strong enough to move your body, letting you fly wherever you please. It's slower than the Flying Sword Art, but takes less effort. And tempering your spiritual sense will help you in battle later on."
"Transformation is another option. Once you've mastered it, you can turn into a bird and soar through the skies, free as the wind."
"Little junior brother, which one will you choose?" Yun Zhi casually listed a few spells for Lu Yang to pick from.
"...Um, do you have a spell that doesn't involve flying?"
Yun Zhi looked at the blushing Lu Yang with interest. "Oh? Why do you want to learn a travel spell that doesn't involve flying?"
Lu Yang stammered, unable to get a word out for a long while.
Yun Zhi didn't press him further. "There is a spell that doesn't involve flying, but it requires exceptional comprehension of the Dao and a certain level of magical power. It might be a little too soon for you to learn it."
"It's fine. I'll give it a try. If I can't learn it, so be it."
"This spell is called Shrinking the Earth to an Inch. It's extremely difficult to master. Here's the incantation. Once you've memorized it, I'll teach you the rest."
Yun Zhi raised her jade hand and casually parted a patch of space. She took out a sheet of golden paper, neatly covered in elegant writing.
Lu Yang carefully accepted the golden sheet. It looked incredibly valuable. It'd be a disaster if he accidentally tore it.
After Lu Yang left, Yun Zhi closed her eyes and resumed cultivating. A gust of cold wind blew past, and an old, plaintive voice sounded by her ear, chilling her to the bone.
"My dear disciple, how much longer do you intend to keep your master locked up?"
The voice seemed to rise from the deepest pits of hell. It made one's hair stand on end and sent a chill crawling down one's spine!
"I didn't teach you often, yet you've managed to reach your current level of cultivation. It couldn't have been easy. I'm proud of you."
"As the saying goes, 'A teacher for a day, a father for a lifetime.' You can't ignore my teachings and kindness by keeping me imprisoned here."
"The Ask Dao Sect has gone ten years without a Sect Master. You've been acting in my place and wielding the Sect Master's authority. Aren't you afraid of gossip tarnishing the glorious image of your eldest senior sister?"
"You took a disciple on my behalf and accepted such a gifted swordsman for me. I won't hold that against you."
"But at least let me out so I can meet my disciple. What would people say if he paid his respects to my portrait instead of a True Person? Wouldn't they laugh at us?"
The voice held a strange kind of magic. It tugged at the heartstrings and made one want to believe it, break the seal, and release its owner.
Yun Zhi focused on her cultivation and paid it no mind.
Seeing that Yun Zhi remained unmoved, the old voice turned a thousand words into a long sigh, then vanished without a trace, as if it had never appeared.
Yun Zhi sat with her hands and feet turned upward, and everything remained as it was.
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