Immortal Cultivators of the Land of Wu
The great sun hung high overhead.
On a mountain peak lush with greenery, rows of houses stood in an orderly arrangement.
Though it was past noon, clouds and mist still wreathed the peak, and immortal cranes flew together through the air. It was a scene befitting immortals.
This was Shushui Peak, home of the Foundation Establishment Aristocratic Clan, the Lu Household.
In a courtyard at the summit.
Xu Fan's figure abruptly appeared before a stone table in the courtyard. He found his surroundings exceptionally comfortable.
"I can really transmigrate to another world?"
With the Taiji Dao Evolution Diagram fully revived, information flooded into his mind, revealing its functions.
The first was travel between other worlds.
With a single thought, he had arrived in this world.
He had dared to enter this unfamiliar world directly because, in any world he entered through the Taiji Dao Evolution Diagram, he could not truly be killed unless his lifespan ran out. Otherwise, he would simply return early.
The price of an early return caused by an unnatural death was the need to consume more spiritual objects and the essence of the sun and moon to recharge.
The second was its ability to evolve the Dao.
As its name suggested, it could record any spell or Divine Ability and deduce it by consuming the corresponding spiritual objects.
"This world... is no ordinary place."
When he paid closer attention, every breath he took brought him an intoxicating sense of comfort.
The first time he had felt this way was when he had just transmigrated to Peach Blossom Spring Lake, but the feeling was even stronger now!
"Hm?"
He looked around and found himself in an unfamiliar courtyard. Two identical, brand-new books lay on the stone table before him.
"Plain Luminary Supreme Yin Wondrous Instruction?"
He opened one but couldn't read the characters. The Taiji Dao Evolution Diagram turned slightly in the depths of his eyes, and as it recorded the book, he found he could understand its writing.
"A fifth-grade Supreme Yin Cultivation Method?"
The contents of the book shook him and filled him with delight. It was actually an immortal cultivation method.
Ever since becoming a fisherman on Peach Blossom Spring Lake, he had wanted at every moment to practice martial arts and leave his life as a fisherman behind.
But fishermen belonged to the lowly households and were forbidden from entering the city for life. Practicing martial arts was a distant dream, and he could only endure the fish market's merciless exploitation!
At one point, he had even considered joining the river bandits for a chance to learn martial arts.
"At last, I don't have to fish so cautiously anymore."
Xu Fan's hands trembled slightly, and he nearly shed tears.
As a modern man who had suddenly transmigrated into a lowborn wretch who made a living fishing, he hadn't known how to catch fish at all at first. He had gone hungry for nine meals in three days and had nearly failed to survive.
Before his emotions could settle, a voice from the neighboring courtyard startled him.
"Father, elder brother died after failing to break through to the Purple Mansion, and our household has already handed over the Plain Luminary Supreme Yin Wondrous Instruction. Does the Red Pine Sect still intend to wipe us out?"
In the courtyard next door, the speaker was a middle-aged man in a pale blue brocade robe: Lu Qinghe, one of the Lu Household's current Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Across the stone table sat an old man with white hair and a white beard, dressed in blue-and-white hemp robes. He was the household head, Lu Shifeng.
As they spoke, both glanced toward the courtyard where Xu Fan stood, their expressions uncertain as they pondered something.
After a moment's thought, Lu Shifeng spoke.
"Although we've handed over the Plain Luminary Supreme Yin Wondrous Instruction, the Emperor Flow Serum and Moonlight Yin Qi obtained from the undersea cave abode have already been used up."
"Our household is too weak. If Qingyun had become a Purple Mansion True Person of the Supreme Yin path, how would the three sects and four schools of the Land of Wu dare bully our Lu Household?"
Lu Qinghe's expression shifted, and he put on an angry look.
"Father, we've already made more than ten thousand copies of the Plain Luminary Supreme Yin Wondrous Instruction. If anything happens to our household, copies of this fifth-grade Supreme Yin Cultivation Method will appear throughout the surrounding commanderies."
"Even mortals can try cultivating this fifth-grade method, as long as they obtain a copy!"
Lu Shifeng sighed. "I hope it doesn't come to that."
Then he murmured to himself, "It's only been a hundred and twenty years since our Lu Household rose to prominence, and Qingyun stumbled into that undersea cave abode through the Unseen, obtaining Great Yin Spiritual Qi and a Cultivation Method that had long since vanished."
"Now the Supreme Yang Dao Lineage is declining by the day. Since Qingyun was a pawn of some great personage, why did they stand by and watch him fail his breakthrough?"
As Lu Qingyun's father and the head of the Lu Household, he had in fact long suspected that Qingyun was a pawn.
But the Lu Household could not resist, nor could it resist the temptation of producing a Purple Mansion True Person, or even a True Lord!
After all, the Lu Household's best Cultivation Method was only seventh-grade, with no possibility of reaching the Purple Mansion. Under the Red Pine Sect's rule, it was also difficult to obtain any other Purple Mansion Cultivation Method.
If some great personage really was pulling strings behind the scenes, that meant the Lu Household was of use, and Qingyun's attainment of the Purple Mansion should have followed as naturally as water flowing into a channel.
Why had things come to this?
The phenomenon caused by the failed Purple Mansion breakthrough could not possibly have escaped the notice of the Red Pine Sect's True Persons, and that was what had brought about the present situation.
For now, their only plan was to invoke that supposedly great personage. Only then might the Lu Household get through this crisis safely.
"Father, could it be that the great personage had other matters to attend to at the time and was unable to intervene?"
Lu Qinghe followed up, likewise hinting that an important figure was watching over the Lu Household, hoping to protect themselves.
"Now that elder brother's breakthrough has failed, the Red Pine Sect's True Persons aren't the only ones who can sense the phenomenon. I imagine that great personage is watching too."
They had already sensed an unfamiliar presence appear in the neighboring courtyard.
It seemed to belong to a mortal, with no cultivation whatsoever.
But how could a mortal with no cultivation appear so abruptly in the courtyard?
Their strength had to far surpass the two men's, and they disdained to conceal it. They might be one of the Red Pine Sect's two True Persons.
Or... perhaps some great personage really had come.
"So it seems you knew I was here, and said all that for my benefit?"
A calm voice rang out. A young man in a gold-trimmed azure Daoist robe had appeared before the stone table without their knowing when.
"Greetings, True Person Qingsong."
Though Lu Shifeng and Lu Qinghe had anticipated this, facing a True Person in person still left them drenched in cold sweat. They hurriedly bowed.
"There's no need for you to drag some nonexistent great personage into this. If a great personage of the Supreme Yin path really had been pulling strings in secret,
Lu Qingyun should have died while proving his Golden Dao, not failed to break through even to the Purple Mansion."
True Person Qingsong's expression was indifferent. These two from the Lu Household were merely Foundation Establishment cultivators; they stood too low, and naturally what they had seen and knew was limited.
However, if another force had intervened, that possibility did indeed exist.
He raised a hand and waved it, and the Lu father and son perished in an instant.
His gaze fell on the neighboring courtyard. That unconcealed presence had naturally not escaped his notice either.
A mortal with no cultivation had appeared out of nowhere right under his nose?
Of course he didn't believe it.
"Fellow Daoist, which member of the Supreme Yang Dao Lineage are you?"
Lu Qingyun's failed Purple Mansion breakthrough, combined with the sudden appearance of this mysterious person, was very likely the result of a contest between the Supreme Yin path and the Supreme Yang Dao Lineage.
Someone able to appear here could only belong to the winning side, and was very likely a True Person of the Supreme Yang Dao Lineage.
"Huh? Me?"
As the voice fell, Xu Fan instantly felt someone's gaze upon him.
His thoughts raced, and he quickly understood. He had no cultivation, so he certainly couldn't hide that from these accomplished cultivators.
Especially this True Person Qingsong, who sounded like a formidable figure.
He suppressed his panic. In any case, he couldn't truly die in this world, so what was there to fear?
"Since he's taken me for a cultivator of the Supreme Yang Dao Lineage, I'll reluctantly play the part."
The Taiji Dao Evolution Diagram emerged in the depths of Xu Fan's eyes. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and he chuckled softly.
"You'll find out in time."
Before his words had died away, his figure abruptly vanished!
True Person Qingsong's pupils contracted as he stared at the empty courtyard in disbelief.
He had departed right in front of him, yet there had been no fluctuation whatsoever in the surrounding void, nor had he left the slightest trace of his presence?
"I can't divine it? Could he be a Great True Person?"