Lu Yang had weathered countless storms and narrowly survived battles of immortals more than once or twice, but he had never faced a scene where he was mobbed by a crowd of female cultivators.
Half the reason he was so popular lay in how legendary his deeds truly were. Accomplishing even one of them in a lifetime was rare for a cultivator, let alone experiencing so many.
The other half lay in Daoist Buyu's tireless publicity, using subtle distortions or outright fabrication to craft Lu Yang into an utterly perfect figure.
Even though everyone knew Daoist Buyu's words couldn't be trusted, with *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect: Lu Yang Chapter* buzzing in their ears over and over, their subconscious minds inevitably overlapped the Lu Yang in the stories with the real Lu Yang.
"Don't know what to do? Leave it to this Immortal!" the Immortal Fairy volunteered grandly, radiating the swagger of a big boss.
Naturally, Lu Yang wasn't fooled by her demeanor. He calmly asked, "Fairy, have you ever encountered a scene like this?"
"Of course! What scene hasn't this Immortal seen?"
"Back when this Immortal created the Child-and-Mother River, lots of female cultivators came to pay homage, begging for river water and praying for me to grant them children. It was pretty much like this."
*That's nowhere near the same, all right?!*
Lu Yang rejoiced that he hadn't rashly handed over control of his body to the Fairy. Otherwise, heaven only knew what sort of mess she would have stirred up.
Since he didn't know what to do, Lu Yang thought there was no harm in taking out an image-recording orb to record the scene. It was a pity Old Meng couldn't come to the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace, so letting him watch the recording when he got back would make up for it.
Lu Yang felt he was quite considerate as a good brother.
Though Lu Yang was unreliable and the Immortal Fairy was unreliable, Lan Ting was very dependable.
"All right, all right, calm down, everyone! Senior Brother Lu Yang will be staying in the palace for quite a while, so there will be plenty of time to interact with him later. There's no need to crowd around all at once and put Senior Brother Lu Yang on the spot!"
Lan Ting shouted a few more persuasive remarks before the palace disciples finally dispersed in scattered groups.
Lu Yang was bewildered. Hadn't they said he would just stay for a few days? How did it suddenly turn into staying for quite a while?
Lan Ting pressed her palms together in a hurried apology. "I'm sorry. In the heat of the moment, that was all I could say, or they wouldn't have left."
She looked up, sneaking a peek at Lu Yang's expression, and said sheepishly, "Could I trouble Senior Brother Lu Yang to stay in the palace for a bit longer? I've already said those words out loud. If you leave after two days, my credibility will be..."
"Don't worry, Senior Brother! Our palace lacks no cultivation resources. Whatever you need to cultivate, I... we will provide it."
With things said to this point, Lu Yang had no choice but to agree.
After all, he could cultivate anywhere and wasn't picky about places.
"Let me take you to your quarters first," Lan Ting quickly said, seeing her scheme succeed.
Soon, Lan Ting led Lu Yang to a cluster of connected courtyards. These were guest quarters used by the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace to entertain visitors. A moon laurel tree was planted in every courtyard, so that whenever a guest pushed open the doors or windows, they could gaze upon the wondrous, treasure-like tree.
There were no other guests at the moment, so Lan Ting arranged for Lu Yang to stay in the first courtyard.
The courtyard had a quaint, antique charm, with a thick layer of snow blanketing the grounds and roof tiles, lending it a unique aesthetic appeal.
The room even featured a Spirit Gathering Formation, sufficient for the cultivation of even a Body Integration stage cultivator.
The only flaw was that the room was furnished with bronze mirrors, rouge, and cosmetics—things entirely out of place with Lu Yang's gender... This was a guest room meant for female cultivators.
The Moon Laurel Immortal Palace had simply never considered the prospect of hosting male cultivators.
"I'll tidy it up right away!" Lan Ting said, flustered. She had only thought about inviting Lu Yang to the palace, never considering that the palace had no guest rooms suitable for him.
"It's fine, it's fine. Just leave them there." Lu Yang felt bad troubling Lan Ting. Leaving the bronze mirror and rouge on the dressing table was fine. He wouldn't be using them anyway, and having them there wouldn't get in his way, so there was no need to fuss over it.
It wasn't his first day living in a place resembling a boudoir anyway. Back when the Immortal Fairy had commandeered his spiritual space and decorated it in a delicate pink style, it had been far more excessive. Compared to her boudoir, this guest room was practically tame.
It was only because the Immortal Fairy now wanted to establish the Great Bean Dynasty and had remodeled his spiritual space toward an imperial palace design that it wasn't pink anymore.
As they spoke, Lu Yang noticed goose-feather snowflakes beginning to drift through his spiritual space. They quickly blanketed the ground, even piling up on the imperial throne.
"Woohoo, it's snowing!" The Immortal Fairy leaped right off the imperial throne, flopped onto the snow, and rolled back and forth, giggling incessantly.
He didn't even need to ask to know this was the Immortal Fairy's doing again, simply wanting a change of scenery.
"Little Yang, come play!" The Immortal Fairy lay sprawled on the ground, kicking her raised feet back and forth as she tilted her head back to invite him.
Lu Yang refused without a second thought. "No, I still have to tour the immortal palace."
***
"This is the Pill Refinement Chamber." Lan Ting led Lu Yang next door. Lu Yang could feel steady waves of heat radiating from the chamber, astonishingly stable.
"Beneath this lies an Earth-Core Fire. The Pill Refinement Chamber channels the Earth-Core Fire up to serve as the fire vent, supplementing it with various True Fires to raise the flame's temperature and impart various properties for concocting pills."
"Legend has it that this is no natural fire, but an immortal fire passed down from the ancient era, burning continuously to this day!" Lan Ting wore a look of yearning. An immortal fire that had burned for three hundred thousand years—just how mighty must the ancient immortals have been?
Inside the spiritual space, the Immortal Fairy was scooping up an armful of snow and tossing it into the air when she suddenly sensed something and remarked in pleasant surprise,
"Huh? Isn't that the fire this Immortal left behind when I had a barbecue on the moon?"
"Back then, Immortal Ying Tian was too lazy to keep moving moon laurel trees back and forth, so he suggested just building a bonfire on the moon to eat."
"We ate so heartily that Immortal Ying Tian and the others passed out from being so stuffed. It was this Immortal who carried them all back one by one."
"Could it be that this Immortal was so busy hauling people back that I forgot to put out the fire?"
Quick to correct her mistake, the Immortal Fairy made a move to extinguish the immortal fire, only for Lu Yang to hastily stop her.
"Your Majesty's willingness to correct your faults is truly gratifying; you are a wise ruler rare in history. However, the common folk still rely on this immortal fire for their livelihood, so there is no need to extinguish it."
"Oh, all right then." The Immortal Fairy was truly a wise ruler of a generation. To be stopped from an absurd act by a trusted confidant without flying into a rage was exceptionally rare throughout history.
"To the right is a restricted area. Senior Brother Lu Yang, please by all means do not approach it, lest you endanger your life." Lan Ting pointed to the right side of the Pill Refinement Chamber, where a lavishly decorated palace stood, its entrance supported by wooden pillars over ten meters high.
"What is that place?"
"The hot spring pool. There was a surplus of Earth-Core Fire, so our predecessors built that hot spring pool as well when constructing the palace."
Lan Ting then pointed to the left. "The Artifact Crafting Chamber on the left operates on a similar principle to the Pill Refinement Chamber, also utilizing the Earth-Core Fire."
Helping the palace preserve the Earth-Core Fire so that the Pill Refinement Chamber, hot spring pool, and Artifact Crafting Chamber could continue to exist was a great deed of merit. Lu Yang felt that if merit power could be used for cultivation, he would have reached the Tribulation Transcendence stage on merit power long ago.
Chapter 1012