"I've heard a little about Miss Hongyan's fierce temperament. I imagine training her as a maid would take considerable effort. Besides, you only have one maid at your side right now, Hall Master. What do you think of me?"
Luo Qingxu volunteered herself, repeatedly blinking her bright eyes at Lin Yu.
There was actually something else she had not mentioned: after climbing the mountain earlier, she had lain sprawled before the Primordial Hall, panting heavily, and had felt Lin Yu's gaze on her.
Even then, Luo Qingxu had sensed that Lin Yu was somewhat interested in her!
Lin Yu neither agreed nor disagreed. Judging by Luo Qingxu's looks alone, she would absolutely have been a goddess in his former world. With someone like her throwing herself at him, he had no intention of refusing.
"The information you want is in here. Remember my conditions!" Lin Yu beckoned, and a scroll appeared out of thin air, flying toward Ancestor Qingyan.
Ancestor Qingyan received it as though it were a priceless treasure, carefully taking the scroll with both hands trembling nonstop.
On it lay his opportunity to achieve Sainthood!
The path he had failed to find through years of secluded cultivation was now actually within reach.
"Thank you, Hall Master! As for the materials, the moment I leave the mountain gates, I'll arrange for the disciples of Qingyan Mountain Manor to devote all their efforts to the task." Ancestor Qingyan cupped his fists.
"Hall Master, I'll take my leave!" With that, Ancestor Qingyan hurried away as though his backside were on fire, seemingly afraid that Lin Yu would call him back.
Lin Yu glanced at Luo Qingxu, who stood obediently beside him, and immediately understood Ancestor Qingyan's intentions. The old man was probably afraid he would return his grand-disciple.
Seeing the ancestor turn and leave, Luo Qingxu showed no intention of following him and remained beside Lin Yu.
The instant Ancestor Qingyan passed through the mountain gates, Lin Yu felt a pair of soft little hands settle on his shoulders.
Luo Qingxu, the holy maiden of a sect, began massaging his shoulders with a cautious expression!
"Rest assured, Hall Master. I'm much more obedient than Miss Hongyan," Luo Qingxu said softly.
The pressure on Lin Yu's shoulders was just right. Looking at Luo Qingxu's pitiful eyes, he could not help nodding.
"In that case, you can stay. You certainly seem much more reliable than the other one!" Lin Yu remarked.
With Yu Hongyan's temper, she would glare straight at him. Compared with the Luo Qingxu before him now, the difference was like heaven and earth.
Only after receiving Lin Yu's approval did Luo Qingxu finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The pitiful look and nervousness in her eyes had not been an act. Her heart really had been tumbling up and down.
As for Ancestor Qingyan, just as he had previously agreed with Lin Yu, the moment he left Hongmeng Mountain's gates and regained contact with the outside world, he hurriedly instructed Manor Lord Luo Feizhou to gather the materials.
Only after giving Luo Feizhou his instructions did Ancestor Qingyan turn into a streak of light and race toward the location recorded in the scroll.
Two hours later, Ancestor Qingyan arrived before an utterly unremarkable mountain range.
The mountains looked ordinary. Even with Ancestor Qingyan's cultivation, he could discern nothing unusual about them, yet this was precisely the location recorded in the scroll.
Following the scroll's instructions, Ancestor Qingyan entered a cave. With a flash of white light, he found himself inside a mysterious domain.
"This is... a Saint-grade formation!" Ancestor Qingyan was, after all, an expert at the peak of the Radiant Body Realm. Older and more knowledgeable than Cui Ranqing, he could naturally sense the different fluctuations of spiritual power within the formation.
Cui Ranqing had been fearless in her ignorance and had actually dared to probe a Saint-grade formation, but Ancestor Qingyan was different.
He had been stuck at Peak Radiant Body for many years. Of course he knew that, although Radiant Body and Sainthood were only one step apart, that single step marked a gulf between heaven and earth.
If he rashly entered the formation, the slightest carelessness could plunge him beyond all redemption.
At that thought, Ancestor Qingyan carefully opened the scroll Lin Yu had given him. It contained detailed instructions for breaking the formation.
"That Hall Master's strength is far too terrifying. He can even calculate all of this." Ancestor Qingyan's hands trembled as he compared the formation on the scroll with the one before him.
They were exactly the same, without the slightest difference!
"With such precise deductions, any rare treasure anywhere in the Eastern Wasteland would surely be as easy for him to take as something from his own pocket!"
"If he can casually hand out an opportunity for Sainthood like this, these things must hold no attraction for him."
"Wait! If he doesn't even value a Saint's inheritance, doesn't that mean the Hall Master's strength surpasses that of a Saint?" Ancestor Qingyan was shocked by his own thought.
But upon further consideration, that really did seem to be the case!
Forging a Half-Step Saint Artifact barehanded was probably beyond even an ordinary Saint. This Hall Master's strength had already surpassed that of a Saint long before.
"Ah, the Hall Master looks so young. He must have achieved Sainthood at an early age. It seems I need to hurry as well!" Ancestor Qingyan put away his dejection and shock, turning his gaze back to the Saint-grade formation before him.
Three days later, an enormous pillar of light shot into the heavens. Its vast radiance scattered every cloud over the Eastern Wasteland, but within just a few blinks, countless dark clouds gathered.
Two astonishing presences soared into the sky in succession. Lightning interlaced above the dark clouds, its crackling audible for a hundred miles.
Countless cultivators faced this extraordinary phenomenon without understanding what was happening.
"What's going on?"
"What exactly happened?"
Soon, a sharp-eyed cultivator recognized the situation and shouted, "This is the Sainthood Tribulation! Legend has it that achieving Sainthood requires undergoing heaven and earth's trial. Only by passing it can one's cultivation advance another step and become a Saint."
"Then does that mean someone in our Eastern Wasteland is about to achieve Sainthood?"
With such a tremendous phenomenon, most cultivators had already uncovered its cause, but the major powers of the Eastern Wasteland could only have realized it even sooner.
The most pressing question now was exactly which cultivator was achieving Sainthood, and which faction they belonged to.
The ramifications were incomparably complex. If a relatively weak faction had obtained an opportunity for Sainthood through a chance coincidence, it would likely reshuffle the distribution of power throughout the entire Eastern Wasteland.
Every cultivator looked tense. Achieving Sainthood was no small matter, certainly not something easily accomplished through one person's strength alone.
Beyond the various factions, it also implicated the fortune of the land within a hundred-mile radius.
Achieving Sainthood required not only Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, but also the fortune of the Eastern Wasteland's land itself. If that fortune proved insufficient and the tribulation failed, it would plunge all living beings across the Eastern Wasteland into devastation.
Moreover, the land's fortune could not be replenished by human effort. Once consumed, it would be difficult for a second Saint to arise.