第1章 三位仙子,你们这是来拜师的?

Three Fairies, Did You Come Here to Become My Disciples?

The boundless East Sea stretched out endlessly, its jade-blue surface stretching beyond the horizon. Dense Innate spiritual qi, so thick it was almost impossible to melt away, swept across billions of miles of maritime territory with the sea breeze.

A streak of seven-colored flowing light suddenly swept across the horizon with astonishing speed, scattering large, crystalline motes of light wherever it passed. It was shockingly an extremely rare Innate Colored Cloud Butterfly.

"Second Sister, hurry and block it! It's running forward again!"

A pretty, crisp voice came from behind. Immediately following, three streaks of celestial light pierced through the void and arrived. The leading woman wore a white cloud-patterned immortal dress; her appearance was gentle and peerlessly beautiful, though her brows carried a trace of helplessness.

Beside her, a woman in green held a cold expression. With a lift of her hand, a streak of celestial light intercepted the path ahead of the Colored Cloud Butterfly. Meanwhile, the youngest girl in green appeared the liveliest, stepping on a cluster of auspicious clouds and chasing after the creature in high spirits.

These three women were none other than Yunxiao, Qiongxiao, and Bixiao, who had taken human form in the East Sea not long ago.

The three sisters were originally born from three strands of Innate cloud qi between heaven and earth with extraordinary innate roots. After taking human form, they traveled the East Sea together, preparing to find an immortal mountain blessed land with abundant spiritual qi and sufficient peace to serve as their Daoist sanctuary.

Yet, although immortal islands in the East Sea were by no means few, the places truly worthy of being top-tier grotto-heavens had long since been claimed by others. The three sisters wandered for several hundred years without finding a satisfactory spot. Today, they encountered an Innate Colored Cloud Butterfly, and Bixiao's playful nature flared up, prompting her to drag her two sisters along in pursuit.

"Bixiao, it's just a spiritual butterfly. If you like it, once we find our sanctuary, Sister will find a few more for you."

Though Yunxiao tried to persuade her with her words, her speed did not slow down by even half, clearly having truly little recourse against her youngest sister.

"How can that be the same? This one delivered itself right to my door, and I was just about to catch it."

Bixiao retorted righteously. Seeing that the Colored Cloud Butterfly had suddenly darted into a patch of thick, unyielding white fog ahead, she dove straight in without a second thought.

"Bixiao!"

Yunxiao's expression changed slightly. Exchanging a glance with Qiongxiao, she immediately gave chase, but the moment they stepped into the white fog's perimeter, the surrounding heaven and earth abruptly shifted.

The deafening sound of ocean waves vanished suddenly, and the mighty East Sea was as if completely cut off, leaving only endless rolling white fog. Even the three sisters' divine sense was compressed to a range of less than a hundred miles.

"An Innate grand formation!"

An immortal sword instantly materialized in Qiongxiao's hand, and clear, obvious solemnity surfaced on her previously cold face for the first time.

Although their cultivation levels could not be considered the absolute peak of the Primordial World, they were still at the Golden Immortal level; ordinary formations could never seal their divine sense without a sound.

To achieve this extent, it had to be at least a naturally formed, top-tier Innate grand formation.

"Don't move around rashly. There shouldn't be any killing intent here."

Yunxiao was the most sensitive to formations. After closing her eyes to sense their surroundings for a moment, she shook her head gently. Yet just as her words fell, the rolling clouds ahead parted slowly to both sides as if they understood.

A stream of celestial light, dazzling enough to make all three sisters freeze simultaneously, shone out from behind the clouds without warning.

Beneath their feet were white stone steps paved entirely with Innate spiritual jade. On both sides grew patches upon patches of spiritual herbs and immortal medicines, both recognizable and unknown. Even a patch of purple orchids no larger than the palm of a hand exuded the spiritual essence belonging only to top-grade acquired spiritual roots.

Bixiao looked down at the spiritual herb she had almost stepped on, and the corners of her mouth twitched uncontrollably.

"Sister, did I just almost crush a Purple Cloud Immortal Orchid with my foot?"

"It would appear so."

"I remember that in the East Sea markets, a single stalk of this stuff can be traded for several decent acquired spiritual treasures, right?"

"That should also be correct."

Bixiao fell silent for a moment, her walking posture instantly changing from carefree to tiptoeing, terrified that if she lifted her foot carelessly, she would trample away the family fortune of some hidden tycoon.

However, the three sisters soon realized that they had still severely underestimated how absurd the immortal island before them truly was.

The further inward they traveled, the denser the surrounding Innate spiritual qi became. Eventually, it even turned into wisps of visible spiritual mist; a single breath was worth a long period of meditation and cultivation in the outside world.

A stream gleaming with three-color divine light—gold, silver, and purple—flowed down from between the mountains, its surface rippling with an aura of creation so dense it was almost tangible.

Yunxiao took only a single look before her footsteps came to a halt.

"Three Lights Divine Water?"

Qiongxiao, who had always been calm, finally broke her composure as well. Her gaze followed the stream all the way up, immediately spotting the three-colored lake at the end of the valley that stretched endlessly beyond the reach of sight.

Bixiao parted her small mouth, and it was a good long while before she spoke quietly.

"Mighty figures outside would fight to the death over a single drop, so why is this measured by the lake here?"

No one answered her, for the three sisters all suspected at that moment whether they had accidentally stumbled into the lair left behind by some Chaotic God and Devil.

Continuing forward for barely a hundred miles, Innate spiritual roots appeared one after another. There was even a Nine-Leaf Immortal Ganoderma that had just matured, sending nine streaks of celestial light soaring into the sky without so much as a protective barrier around it.

The most exaggerated sight was a pond not far away, where several white lotus flowers swayed in the breeze. The largest among them reached a full nine grades, and the rich dao rhythm of world-cleansing caused the three sisters' eyelids to twitch wildly.

In this day and age, Innate spiritual treasures were hard to come by, Innate spiritual roots were precious, and even the many Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals listening to the Dao in Purple Cloud Palace might not possess such a foundation. Yet the treasures on this island were so abundant they seemed worthless.

"Perhaps we should just head out."

After a long silence, Yunxiao made the most rational decision.

The more treasures such a place held, the less one should touch them blindly, for no one knew what kind of terrifying existence resided here.

For once, Bixiao did not argue. She merely looked back with lingering reluctance at the lake of Three Lights Divine Water before leaving, her expression extremely similar to someone entering a treasury only to be told they could only look and take nothing away.

As the three sisters turned and prepared to retrace their steps, a long, drawn-out dao chime suddenly resounded from deep within the immortal island.

Hum—

The sound was not deafening, but the moment it rang out, the clouds across the sky froze simultaneously, spiritual roots bowed their heads, and thousands of Dao laws converged into a brilliant pillar of light shooting straight into the nine heavens at the center of the immortal island, as if guided by some force.

Beneath the sky-shielding Enlightenment Ancient Tree, a young Daoist who had slept for an unknown number of epochs slowly opened his eyes.

Luxuan looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar heaven and earth before him, feeling the boundless magical power accumulated over countless epochs within his body. A hint of a smile finally crossed the depths of his eyes.

When he first transmigrated to the Primordial World, he neither became the Three Purities nor Di Jun and Taiyi; he wasn't even considered a person, but rather was nurtured alongside Penglai Immortal Island as the very first strand of Innate Dao breath within it.

As countless epochs passed, he nourished himself with the origin of Penglai, and only today could he be considered to have completely perfected his human form.

Almost the exact moment Luxuan opened his eyes, information visible only to himself quietly emerged within his Primordial Spirit.

[The Daoist sect master system has unlocked.]
[For every true growth achieved by disciples under the sect, the host will receive a hundredfold homologous return.]

It was simple enough for Luxuan to understand how to use it at a glance.

"A disciple's growth yields a hundredfold return?"

Luxuan raised an eyebrow slightly, pondering which figures in the Primordial World were suited to take as disciples when an unfamiliar aura suddenly transmitted into his senses through the origin of Penglai.

Three women.

All of them possessed innate sacred-level roots.

Luxuan took a single step, and the space before him folded soundlessly. When he reappeared, he had already arrived not far from the three Xiao sisters.

Yunxiao and the others only felt their vision blur before a young Daoist in dark robes appeared on the empty mountain path ahead.

There was no astonishing momentum, no mighty pressure, and not even a trace of magical power fluctuation could be sensed. Yet the more it was like this, the more vigilant the three sisters became, for this was the immortal island whose treasures made one doubt existence itself.

Furthermore, since the other party could appear before them without a sound, his cultivation level could by no means be simple, no matter how one looked at it.

Luxuan's gaze swept across the faces of the three sisters one by one, and his mood suddenly turned quite pleasant.

Yunxiao.

Qiongxiao.

Bixiao.

In the future, each would be fiercer than the last. The Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation directly stripped away the top three flowers of the Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect, leaving a group of saintly disciples questioning their immortal lives.

Yunxiao, in particular, possessed comprehension, innate roots, and disposition of the absolute highest tier. Looking across the entire Primordial World, she firmly belonged to the batch of disciples most worthy of cultivation.

This was no accidental intrusion into Penglai.

It was clearly three walking parcels of hundredfold returns delivering themselves to his doorstep.

Yunxiao stepped forward half a step and bowed respectfully, saying, "We three junior sisters unintentionally intruded into this place. If we have caused any offense, we hope Senior will forgive us."

Luxuan collected his thoughts, a gentle smile blooming on his face.

"It is no matter."

"This place is named Penglai, and this poor Daoist is Luxuan. Since the three of you were able to pass through the Innate restriction and arrive here, it means you share some affinity with this poor Daoist."

The three Xiao sisters were slightly startled upon hearing this.

Penglai?

The head of the legendary three overseas immortal islands?

Bixiao subconsciously glanced around at the absurdly abundant heavenly treasures, suddenly feeling that everything had become a lot more reasonable.

Luxuan had no intention of beating around the bush with them. He simply looked at the three Innate sacred beings before him—destined to shake the Primordial World in the future—and asked quite directly:

"Would the three of you be willing to take this poor Daoist as your master?"