Grand Elder

Lu Yang was thoroughly alarmed, his heart pounding wildly against his ribs. The coffin in the main burial chamber was a stone sarcophagus carved with intricate, archaic patterns of the sun, moon, and stars. There was no telling what era it had been crafted in, but its extraordinary caliber signaled beyond doubt that an illustrious figure was entombed here! And the Grand Elder of the Dao Seeking Sect definitely fit the definition of an "illustrious figure." *Could the Grand Elder of the Dao Seeking Sect really be buried inside?!* Lu Yang tensed as if facing a formidable foe. Had he tripped some mechanism that brought the dead back to life, had the Immortal Fairy's Dao fruit resurrected a corpse, or was some other unknown cause at play? The coffin lid slowly floated upward. An elderly man with a long beard sat up inside the stone sarcophagus. Lu Yang's pupils contracted slightly at the sight—it truly was the Grand Elder of the Dao Seeking Sect! The Grand Elder occasionally visited Tianmen Peak to consult Eldest Senior Sister on certain matters, so Lu Yang was familiar with his appearance. Lu Yang debated whether he should perform a set of Eldest Senior Sister Imitation Fist to summon her, or cast Inches to the Ends of the Earth to teleport himself back out over the chasm. The Grand Elder's voice was weathered, his eyes filled with disorientation as he looked at Lu Yang. "Lu Yang? Why are you here?" Lu Yang was startled. By his conjecture, an impostor Grand Elder was running loose in the Dao Seeking Sect, while the true Grand Elder lay dead in this coffin. Since Lu Yang had only ever seen the "impostor," how could the man in front of him recognize him? "Grand Elder, you... know me?" Lu Yang asked cautiously. Inside his spiritual space, the Immortal Fairy pouted. Lu Yang had never been this respectful toward her. She was an immortal, yet this brat showed her not a single shred of reverence! Lu Yang's question puzzled the Grand Elder even more. "Of course I know you. Aren't you Old Ninth's disciple, the Sword Spiritual Root Lu Yang? When you took the Dao Seeking Sect's entrance trial, I watched you through a water mirror." "I should be asking you, though—what are you doing barging in here for no reason and disturbing my sleep?" "Sl-sleeping?" Lu Yang's mind failed to make the turn. Who in their right mind slept in a coffin for fun? The Grand Elder let out an enormous yawn, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. He genuinely looked as if he had just woken from a nap. "I got too exhausted while building the tomb just now, so I dozed off for a bit. Old... I really am getting old. In the past, this kind of work wouldn't have tired me out at all. One has to accept aging; after all, I've already reached three thousand years old." "Building a tomb?" Lu Yang's eyes went wide. He had heard that cultivators could sense when their mortal limit drew near, prompting them to leave wills in advance, arrange their posthumous affairs, and construct their own graves. Recalling the Grand Elder's contributions to the Dao Seeking Sect, Lu Yang felt a sharp pang of sorrow. "Could it be that you are about to... about to..." Whatever followed, Lu Yang simply could not bring himself to say aloud. The Grand Elder nodded. "Indeed. It's time to figure out what to do after retiring. Dai Bufan told me I could still live another five thousand years after stepping down, and suggested I find a hobby. I thought it over and figured building tombs was a fine choice. It'll come in handy sooner or later anyway." Lu Yang: "..." Caught up in the somber atmosphere, his brain had briefly short-circuited. Only now did he remember that cultivators in the Body Integration stage lived for at least eight thousand years. Someone with cultivation as profound as the Grand Elder's was certain to live even longer. *Give me back the grief I just wasted!* "You're building your tomb this early?" Lu Yang thought to himself that this was quite the eccentric hobby. "Why not? I hear that in some places, mortals borrow massive sums of money from banks to buy a house, spending an entire lifetime of toil to pay off their debts." "If mortals can toil a lifetime for a house, there's naturally nothing wrong with me toiling through the latter half of my life for a tomb." The Grand Elder's logic left Lu Yang utterly speechless. "And this isn't the only burial chamber I've built. I've finished others elsewhere. This place is just a rough prototype—I haven't even prepared proper zombies yet, so I tossed in a few white-haired zombies at the last minute just to set the mood." "By the way, I specifically chose a cliffside within our Dao Seeking Sect to build this tomb. How did you find your way here?" Lu Yang fell silent. He wasn't particularly keen on recalling the ordeal. So this place was still within the Dao Seeking Sect. It seemed his teleportation hadn't sent him that far after all. The Immortal Fairy spoke up lazily, "Of course you couldn't teleport far. Teleportation range is closely tied to cultivation realm. You're only in the Foundation Establishment stage—how far did you expect to go? Did you really think you could ascend straight to heaven?" The Grand Elder could not perceive the Immortal Fairy's existence. "So the reason you're often absent from the Mission Hall is..." "I handed matters over to Little Dai so I could ease into retirement early." Entirely reasonable. Seeing that Lu Yang was reluctant to elaborate on how he had arrived at the tomb, the Grand Elder asked, "Do you need me to take you back?" Lu Yang nodded vigorously; that was more than he could have hoped for. Stepping out of the coffin, the Grand Elder gave Lu Yang a gentle tap. Instantly, an enormous bubble encased Lu Yang. With hands clasped behind his back, the Grand Elder flew out of the tomb, and Lu Yang followed behind inside the bubble. The Grand Elder moved as swift as a bolt of lightning, clearing the cliff in the blink of an eye. Only then did Lu Yang understand why he had been enveloped in a bubble: his body could never have withstood the Grand Elder's velocity. Once they cleared the chasm, an endless expanse of grassland came into view, lush and verdant. Sheep grazed on tender shoots alongside an assortment of savage demon beasts. The terrifying emanations rippling from those beasts made Lu Yang's heart shudder. This had to be one of the "perilous grounds where insufficient cultivation spells certain death" that Eldest Senior Sister had mentioned when he first joined the sect. With his cultivation, it would have been impossible to fall safely from the cliff... Why did that thought sound so bizarre? As the Grand Elder carried Lu Yang along in flight, the sheer speed rendered the scenery below a blur, completely eliminating any fear of heights. During the flight, Lu Yang grew secretly astonished. At the Grand Elder's flying speed, they had flown for quite some time without reaching Tianmen Peak. Just how far had he been teleported? While Lu Yang's thoughts ran wild, the Grand Elder came to a halt. Lu Yang realized they had already arrived at Tianmen Peak. The Grand Elder set Lu Yang down and departed immediately. While dozing in the coffin, the Grand Elder had encountered a tricky dilemma in his cultivation and wanted to ask his junior brothers for their thoughts. He went to the Herb Garden, but Second Elder was not there. He went to Body Tempering Peak, but Third Elder was not there. He went to Gentleman Peak, and Fourth Elder was missing as well. "Where is everyone?" The Grand Elder was thoroughly bewildered. He did not recall his second, third, or fourth junior brothers being the sort who wandered about; usually, finding them took a single trip. How was it that not one could be found today? Seeing the Grand Elder looking for his master, Fourth Elder's eldest disciple, Ji Hongwen, spoke up: "It seems Master discovered the Sect Master's whereabouts and headed to Tianmen Peak together with Second Elder." "Old Ninth's whereabouts? Tianmen Peak?" The Grand Elder hadn't expected he would need to return to Tianmen Peak so soon. Returning to Tianmen Peak, he asked Lu Yang if he knew where Daoist Buyu was. Lu Yang pointed the way, and the Grand Elder smoothly made his way to the pine forest, where he found six junior brothers, one junior sister, and Daoist Buyu all gathered around a bubbling hotpot. Catching sight of the Grand Elder standing outside the abode, Daoist Buyu waved enthusiastically. "We martial brothers haven't gathered like this in ages! We were just getting ready to dig into hotpot together, and here you come, Eldest Senior Brother!" "Eldest Senior Brother, come on in, quickly! You're the only one we're waiting for!" The Grand Elder eyed the enthusiastically welcoming Daoist Buyu with deep suspicion.