The speaker was an old man with a head of white hair and a full beard.
When everyone looked over, he grinned.
His name was Yuan Quan. An outer disciple responsible for the Kongtong Mountain sect's worldly holdings in Hedong, he had, according to the sect's introduction, reached the Dao Foundation Realm. He was eighty-three years old.
In terms of seniority, though, he belonged to the same generation as Lingya and the others. The two fellow disciples had not met him during their earlier travels through Hedong, but he had arranged much of what they needed for food, lodging, and travel.
"Indeed." Hearing this, Long Xu nodded with a smile. "Who among the Eight Sects doesn't know Master Soaring's name now? Forget the Eight Sects—even among the lesser sects across All Under Heaven, quite a few must have heard of him."
Chen Jiao and Lingya could not help smiling at his words.
Ling Mei glanced at her senior sister and said, "I heard Chen Kingdom sent people to our Kongtong Mountain half a year ago to invite Junior Martial Uncle home for a family visit. I imagine Master Soaring... I mean, Martial Uncle, had people sent to him too."
"Plenty of people want to curry favor with Master Soaring. He came from the mortal world and bears the name of Chen Kingdom's Imperial Clan; who knows how many people are waiting eagerly for a chance? But Great Hua Mountain isn't so easy to reach."
Yuan Quan gave a derisive laugh. Seeing their puzzled faces, he explained, "Great Hua Mountain lies deep in Zhou Kingdom's heartland, right beside Chang'an. It isn't like our Kongtong, far away on a frontier where Qiang, Hu, and Han peoples live side by side. Yet even our Kongtong isn't easy for officials from the Chen Kingdom