Ancestor's Gift (Part 1)

Whether or not one can gain the Ancestor's favor is the most direct display of a disciple's talent. However, Wei Yuan stood for a long time, watching five or six groups of people enter, and only one person received a bestowal.

At this moment, Zhang Sheng stood in the distance, talking with Sun Yu. According to regulations, he could only stand ten zhang away from the main hall, alongside the elders of the new disciples.

Zhang Sheng glanced at the number of new disciples and said, "The number of new disciples this year has indeed increased."

"A total of one hundred and fifty people were accepted from seventeen prefectures, less than ten per prefecture, so it's not that many."

"My cohort only had eighty-four people," Zhang Sheng said.

Sun Yu replied, "True Monarch Yanshi's stance is to open the mountain gates widely and teach all beings without discrimination. In my opinion, accepting more disciples may not be a bad thing."

"I hope so."

Just then, a new batch of disciples entered. The Ancestor statue changed again, and a beam of light flew out from the jade crown binding the Ancestor's hair, entering a young girl. Not far away, an old man was instantly overjoyed and laughed heartily, "Excellent, excellent, excellent! This bestowal is supreme! My Jiao family's resurgence is hopeful! Our ancestors are watching, our ancestors are watching!"

The old man cried and laughed, drawing the attention of the crowd. Immediately, someone spoke sarcastically to their companion, "Do you know what this crown represents?"

The other person replied, "Naturally, I do not!"

"Although the crown is a treasure, it is neither the Ancestor's true body nor a powerful weapon like an immortal sword. This thing is like clothing, a daily necessity, focusing on exquisiteness. Generally, those who receive this bestowal will find it easier to advance in artifact refining, treasures, and auxiliary Dao methods. In other words, when fellow disciples charge into battle in the future, she can assist from the rear, repairing magic treasures or something similar."

After the man finished speaking sarcastically, the old man's face turned red and then green. He said loudly, "No matter what it is, it is the Ancestor's grace! It is better than nothing!"

The sarcastic man was instantly angered and shouted, "What did you say? My child hasn't even entered yet, how dare you say there's nothing?"

The old man pointed to the main hall and said, "Isn't that them entering now?"

One of the children in this batch was the son of the sarcastic man. However, until the worship was complete, the Ancestor statue remained completely still. The sarcastic man was both ashamed and angry. Coupled with the old man's continuous taunts, he lost face and hurried away.

At this moment, a distant voice of a officiating Daoist priest could be heard chanting: "From Yongzhou's Fengyuan Commandery, Wei Yuan, Fengyuan Commandery's Bao Yun, Fengyuan Commandery's Xiao Yu, ... Fengyuan Commandery's Yan Ming."

As this string of names was read out, a stir immediately arose in the crowd.

"How can there be so many from Fengyuan Commandery?"

"Exactly. Our Ganzhou only accepted five new disciples per prefecture, yet one commandery has six!"

A plain-clothed old man suddenly stepped forward and shouted, "Our Chuzhou is a great prefecture of the world, yet we only have eight spots. Yongzhou, a desolate land, has six people from one commandery. If you say there's no foul play, I'll be the first to disbelieve! Taichu Palace, as an Immortal Sect, acts so unfairly, how can it win over the masses?! I am not convinced!"

The old man's shout immediately drew many responses. Even some from Yongzhou said, "Yongzhou has nine commanderies, and the other eight commanderies combined only accepted one person. What right does Fengyuan Commandery have to six spots?"

The officiating Daoist priest called for quiet several times, but the crowd's commotion grew louder. The leading old man jumped up and down, crying injustice, constantly saying that his good grandson was just barely not accepted. If Taichu Palace truly acted fairly, it should have allocated Fengyuan Commandery's spots to Chuzhou, allowing his grandson to enter Taichu Palace as well.

Zhang Sheng looked around and saw the burly strong man and the old man from the Bao family. The old man's expression was indifferent, as if nothing in the world could change his demeanor. The burly strong man, however, crossed his arms and sneered. Seeing Zhang Sheng look over, he walked over and said, "Why don't you go and argue?"

Zhang Sheng said calmly, "This person is targeting you high-ranking noble families. What does it have to do with me? And how can your Xiao family tolerate such arrogance?"

The burly strong man grinned and said, "This is Taichu Palace's business. If he specifically named my Xiao family, I would act. But I doubt he would dare."

While the burly strong man remained unmoved, several officiating Daoist priests, who were very young and lacked experience, were now somewhat flustered, trying to persuade and block at the same time. However, seeing this, the old man escalated his disturbance, only clamoring for fairness. The few young Daoist priests broke out in a sweat, at a loss for what to do.

Just then, a Daoist priest suddenly appeared in the square. As soon as he appeared, a huge, ferocious Qilin dragon materialized above his head, and an invisible pressure instantly enveloped the entire square. Everyone below the Dharma Idol realm was immobilized, and the chaos was suppressed.

All the officiating Daoist priests immediately bowed and said, "Greetings, True Monarch Tengqiu!"

The Daoist priest said coldly, "Why the commotion?"

Immediately, a young officiating Daoist priest explained the situation. The True Monarch's expression turned displeased upon hearing this, and the invisible pressure increased by three points. The old man froze in place, as if crushed by a mountain, unable to move or speak, his face filled with panic.

True Monarch Tengqiu reprimanded, "The number of disciples accepted by each prefecture is decided by the True Monarchs, how can you commoners discuss it! To dare cause trouble in front of the Ancestor Hall, punishment is inevitable."

The Daoist priest reached out and grabbed, and a long whip of lightning appeared in his hand. He whipped it down towards the old man's head!

A screen immediately appeared above the old man's head, with a plum tree in full bloom on it. With this whip, the screen instantly cracked, and plum blossoms rained down, leaving only a few within moments. After taking the whip, the old man immediately slumped to the ground. His hair turned more than half white in an instant, and the wrinkles on his face deepened, as if he had aged more than a dozen years.

Many of the onlookers gasped. With this whip from True Monarch Tengqiu, a significant portion of the old man's Dao Foundation was scattered, at least wasting decades of his cultivation.

True Monarch Tengqiu retracted the lightning whip and said, "This whip is but a small punishment. Considering your child is young and ignorant, he will not be expelled for now but will be demoted to a registered disciple, to cultivate with the others in the palace and await further evaluation."

The old man, unable to speak, could only spit blood and was carried away by his family and disciples.

After resolving this disturbance, True Monarch Tengqiu did not leave. He stood in the square, watching the new disciples enter the hall to worship the Ancestor.

Sun Yu suddenly sighed and said softly, "That person was merely trying to fight for opportunities for his descendant, but he used the wrong methods and ended up sacrificing his own future. He originally had a slim chance of cultivating to the Dharma Idol realm."

Someone nearby said, "These cultivators from humble backgrounds have little resources and have to fight for everything. They fight constantly, everywhere. As they fight, they get used to it, and then they end up fighting against Taichu Palace. In reality, having one descendant enter Taichu Palace is like a carp leaping over the dragon gate for such families. Yet, they are still not satisfied, truly greedy."

At this moment, Wei Yuan followed the guidance of the officiating Daoist priest into the Ancestor Hall. Before the dozens of zhang tall Ancestor statue, both the new disciples and the officiating Daoist priests were as small as ants.

Under the guidance of the officiating Daoist priest, Wei Yuan knelt on the prayer mat before the Ancestor statue and began his worship. After seven bows, Wei Yuan silently recited the sacrificial text. At this moment, he felt as if a gaze fell from an infinite height, instantly seeing through him, inside and out.

In an instant, Wei Yuan felt as if his consciousness was ripped from his body and ascended to an infinite height. The Ancestor Hall below became palm-sized. And that gaze was still looking down at Wei Yuan from an even higher place; Wei Yuan couldn't sense where the gaze was coming from at all.

Wei Yuan suddenly felt a bit flustered. He looked around, only to see empty void.

As the gaze from above fell upon him, the fortune within Wei Yuan seemed to be stimulated and began to sprout. Then, Wei Yuan felt an intangible object appear at a high place, standing in opposition to the source of the gaze.

The intangible object was indescribably vast, ancient, and desolate. Its end could not be perceived at all. It seemed to have some connection to Wei Yuan's fortune, but this connection felt extremely vague, and Wei Yuan was unsure if it was real.

At this moment, Wei Yuan's consciousness was left alone in the high place, caught between two unknown existences, like an ant standing between two great mountains, crushed without anyone noticing.

No matter how much Wei Yuan struggled, he could not move. He could only watch the figures in the hall below kowtow, as if the reality of the world had nothing to do with him.

At this moment, faint music suddenly sounded in the hall. A pillar of light descended from the sky, illuminating the Ancestor statue. Within the pillar of light, countless flower petals rained down.