Hou Niao returned to the hall and came up beside the little girl, who was still battling the fruit on her plate. He sighed inwardly. Simple happiness was true happiness.
He was deeply troubled, about the Quanzhen Sect and about Li Chuping.
After everything he had experienced, he found that his judgment of this sect and this man kept wavering. No sooner had he reached a conclusion than it was overturned, leaving him at a loss.
There were too many inside stories, too much history, too much of the past and the greater currents at work. He had barely touched one tiny piece of ice on the iceberg. How could he dare leap to conclusions?
He must not draw conclusions lightly, not before he truly saw this world of cultivation clearly.
...The birthday banquet finally began, grand without being elaborate, lively without being noisy. Most of those present were well-mannered cultivators, so there was no urging one another to drink or playing drinking games, no red faces and bulging necks;
The food was sampled sparingly; the wine was taken in moderation.
In the mundane world, people shied away from celebrating a hundredth birthday, fearing Heaven's jealousy. Couldn't you simply go on living quietly? Why insist on coming out to show off? Wasn't that inviting Heaven's wrath and others' resentment?
But in the cultivation world, a hundred years was far from the end. It could even be called the first step on the road to longevity, so cultivators had none of those mortal concerns.
Yet cultivators had concerns of their own. For Immortal Guan, for instance, there was that big mouth of his that exposed Heaven's secrets!
He had only recently entered the Profound Connection realm, and his heart was full of eagerness and hope for the future. Thus, he was