Peach Blossoms

"Protector Zhan, you have truly disappointed me!"

A cold voice drifted down from the seat of honor.

The gorgeously dressed woman in palace robes slowly rose, a faint fragrance wafting around her.

Yet Zhan Li never dared raise his head.

There was an exceptionally sacred aura about the beautiful woman in palace dress. She wore a mask, yet she seemed like a deity walking among mortals.

In truth, she was indeed an emissary of a deity in this world.

She was the temple attendant personally chosen by Goddess Red Flower, as well as the chief presider of the Red Flower Society. Her cultivation was profound.

At that moment, she seemed to resonate with the enormous golden statue of the eight-armed Gods and Devils in the center of the temple.

To Zhan Li, she looked even more like a true deity descending into the world.

Zhan Li naturally did not dare utter a word of resentment.

Seeing him endure the pain, a dim light flashed across the eight-armed Gods and Devils statue before gradually receding.

"Since you cannot handle this matter, you need not concern yourself with it any longer. I will send someone else to deal with it!"

"But mistakes must be punished. From this day forth, you are stripped of your position as Protector and demoted to an ordinary informant! You will no longer enjoy the empowerment of divine power!"

Zhan Li did not dare look up. He merely said, "Thank you, Chief Presider, for your forgiveness!"

The Chief Presider snorted coldly, clearly far from satisfied.

At that moment, a dense, sinister chill emerged around her. With a wave of her hand, a mass of murky black qi could be seen swirling deep within the temple.

A moment later, a shadowy figure silently emerged from the darkness in the depths of the temple.

The shadow seemed to walk out from the wall itself, dark and obscure spiritual fluctuations flowing around it.

The instant this figure appeared, Zhan Li felt a chill run through his heart.

When those strange, eerie eyes turned toward him, he felt the blood and qi within his body freeze, as though his heart had stopped beating.

"Shadow Demon, you will make this trip."

"Yes!"

The darkness in Shadow Demon's eyes was like an ancient well, yet dense resentment churned within. A moment later, its figure vanished from the room.

As she watched Shadow Demon leave,

a faint smile surfaced in the eyes of the beautiful woman in palace robes. Then her fox-like gaze turned toward the goddess within the main hall.

"Goddess, everything I have done has been for the sake of our foundation. You need faith and incense offerings, while what I need is destiny and a thread of opportunity!"

"If I do not reach Foundation Establishment, then how can you, Goddess, expand your incense offerings and continue enjoying such worship?"

Beneath Lock Dragon Pass, in a crude little courtyard.

Rumble!

That day, a muffled clap of thunder slowly rose within the courtyard. A crimson bolt of lightning streaked through the air.

An abandoned millstone in the distance was instantly reduced to powder!

Watching this scene, strands of crimson light appeared in Zhang Jian's eyes. A spark of lightning also danced in his hand. After a month of refinement, he had finally imprinted the Thunder-Walking Formula even more deeply into his divine sense.

Though he had yet to completely free himself from the influence of the talismanic medium, he had gradually touched the threshold.

How could Zhang Jian not be delighted?

All that remained was to completely stabilize the talisman within his divine sense, imprinting it into reality. Then he could finally achieve his modest goal of crafting heavenly lightning with his own hands.

His progress so far had been remarkably fast.

Within a month, he had gradually gained minute control over heavenly lightning through the perception of his divine sense. Zhang Jian estimated that his lightning spiritual root was probably exceptionally outstanding.

Even ordinarily, his divine sense could faintly perceive the omnipresent power of heaven-and-earth lightning.

Not many cultivators likely possessed such a special perception.

Aside from that, he had also found a direction for using the Dragon Pearl. This month had truly been richly rewarding.

With a smile on his face, Zhang Jian liked this feeling.

It was like first entering a field of study and finally beginning to delve from the shallow to the profound.

He glanced around.

A month ago, he had specifically found another residence here before Lock Dragon Pass. For many commoners, this was probably the least desirable sort of place to live.

The noise was simply too great.

The sound of flood discharge was far too deafening.

Yet to him, it was a treasured place. Not only could he use it to temper his state of mind, but it also concealed the thunderous sounds produced when cultivating lightning arts.

Zhang Jian looked around, reluctance in his eyes. If possible, he would have liked to remain here for a while longer, but Qi Yi's birthday was drawing near, and he still needed to put some thought into it.

The reason was that Zhang Yi and Madam Zhang Qi had sent word some time ago.

They asked him to find a more "thoughtful" birthday gift by some other means.

The cause was that Zhang Yi had received news: for this birthday celebration at the Qi residence, his several concubine-aunts and uncles-by-marriage had abandoned all restraint and were preparing to compete against one another. Naturally, the Zhang family had no choice but to prepare a little more as well.

Otherwise, relying solely on antique curios and jade artifacts found in ancient tombs, they likely could not outdo the others.

The Zhang family currently needed the Qi family's strength to open the situation. Even if they did not need the Qi family's help by then, they at least could not allow the Qi family to become an obstacle. Thus, Zhang Yi had temporarily asked him to be more attentive.

Zhang Jian planned to stroll through several old streets in Fengyang Commandery.

Zhang Jian had only just returned to the Qi residence when he saw a beautiful young girl with a delicate figure approaching him. She was not very old and wore her hair in twin flat buns. The moment she spotted Zhang Jian, her lovely eyes lit up, and she greeted him first.

"Brother Zhang!"

"Little Sister Linlang?"

Zhang Jian had long noticed this cousin of his. A faint smile appeared on his face, though there was something strange in his eyes. Still, he nodded and smiled.

"Is Little Sister Gu planning to visit the flower garden to admire the blossoms?"

Gu Linlang gazed at Zhang Jian with clear eyes. "Brother Zhang, I heard that the golden-thread imperial chrysanthemums in the flower garden are blooming especially brilliantly. I want to go see them. Brother Zhang, how about we admire the flowers together?"

She did not avoid Zhang Jian's gaze in the slightest, and her eyes held a trace of longing.

Zhang Jian shook his head with a smile. "I fear I must disappoint Little Sister Linlang's kind intentions. Today, I have already arranged with several fellow graduates from the commandery to burn incense together at Iron Immortal Abbey in the eastern part of the city. I'm afraid..."

Zhang Jian declined tactfully.

Gu Linlang muttered, "That is a pity!"

Zhang Jian smiled when he saw this. "We can make plans another time."

Zhang Jian felt rather helpless.

Ever since their first meeting at the family banquet, this cousin from the Gu family had intentionally or unintentionally invited him out. Zhang Jian more or less understood what she was aiming for, but he was not interested.

Although Gu Linlang herself was not the sort of noble young lady driven by profit, and it might merely be the request of her Gu family elders, he currently had no desire to become entangled with her.

Still, he had not expected the Gu family to truly entertain thoughts of a marriage alliance with the Zhang family.

Zhang Jian found it somewhat amusing. Since when had he become such a sought-after prize, worthy of a daughter from such a prestigious commandery clan taking the initiative to show him favor?

Yet if the Gu family formed a marriage alliance with the Zhang family, they would indeed profit greatly.

Leaving aside the Zhang family's current power and influence, the mere existence of two cultivators within the Zhang family was probably like sending charcoal in the snow to the present-day Gu family.

But for the Zhang family, the Gu family was not their only choice.

And the "chance encounter" in the flower garden soon reached the ears of interested parties.

In the second branch,

Qi Wanshi frowned. Gu Linlang's repeated approaches toward Zhang Jian naturally had not escaped her notice, nor the notice of certain interested people within the Qi family.

Qi Wanshi found it difficult to understand. The Gu family had disregarded the difference in family status so completely that they had directly allowed one of their noble daughters to lower herself and approach an unrelated man. It was truly unbelievable.

As a prestigious commandery clan, the Gu family's power was no less than that of the Qi family.

Though Zhang Jian could be considered outstanding, with the status of a Gu family noble daughter, she could have set her sights on princes, dukes, or the great aristocratic clans.

As for a local prominent clan like the Zhang family, even if it possessed some wealth and influence, its appeal should have been limited.

"A young provincial graduate may have a promising future, but he would need at least ten or even several decades before he could establish any influence..."

Qi Wanshi lowered her head in thought, but no matter what, she still had to stop this to some extent.

Zhang Jian had always been the "ideal son-in-law candidate" in her mind.

Even if she were to yield him to the Gu family, it would have to wait until her own two daughters had made their decision.

She absolutely could not allow anyone else to overstep them!