The Immortal Fairy felt the Five Elements Sect had truly been wronged in their defeat. She knew better than anyone what caliber Yun Zhi was.
Once she fully regained her power, Yun Zhi would be qualified to be her opponent—it might even be a fifty-fifty match where either could win.
For someone like that to fight the Five Elements Sect, wouldn't she beat them like unruly grandchildren? It would be a miracle if the Five Elements Sect took it lying down.
Lu Yang thought to himself, *Fairy, stop bragging. Immortal Ying Tian was qualified to be your opponent, Immortal Jiuchong was qualified to be your opponent... If you were so capable, how did you die in the first place?*
The Immortal Fairy was thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being Sect Master and didn't notice Lu Yang's expression in the spiritual space.
She wanted to ease everyone's tension as much as possible. "They say the Five Great Immortal Sects are as close as hands and feet. I don't think there's any need for us to treat the Five Elements Sect like this."
The Second Elder gave a cold sneer. "Indeed. We are the hands, and the Five Elements Sect is the feet. Hands and feet don't intersect, so where does friendship come into it?"
The Immortal Fairy quietly asked the Sixth Elder, Feng Ya, "Does the Second Elder have some history with the Five Elements Sect?"
The Sixth Elder was attending as an illusory projection, so there was no issue with holding one's breath to communicate via mental transmission.
The Sixth Elder thought for a moment. While this was technically an unspoken matter, there was no reason to conceal it from the Acting Sect Master. "In his youth, Second Senior Brother fell in love with a woman named Shangguan Yu and even confessed his feelings, but Shangguan Yu didn't agree and flatly rejected his love.
"By chance, Second Senior Brother also discovered Shangguan Yu whispering intimately with Qiu Jin'an, looking as if they were pledging their lives to each other."
Qiu Jin'an was the current Sect Master of the Five Elements Sect.
"From that day on, whatever the Five Elements Sect did rubbed Second Senior Brother the wrong way."
The Immortal Fairy furrowed her brows. Matters of the heart were indeed tricky to resolve.
She cleared her throat and said, "After all, we are the hosts and the Five Elements Sect are guests. When dealing with them, we still need proper etiquette and procedure.
"I've put together a simple event plan, and I'll need all the elders' cooperation.
"The welcoming ceremony will be held at the Martial Arts Square. It's spacious, offers plenty of room to stand, and is close to our peaks."
The core area of the Dao Seeking Sect consisted of nine peaks—one for the Sect Master and eight for the elders. Arranged in the shape of a lotus flower, the bustling center of the lotus was the liveliest hub, featuring large commercial establishments like restaurants, bookstores, and clothing shops for disciples to relax and unwind, alongside trial grounds, puppet arenas, and other facilities for physical training. The largest among them was the Martial Arts Square.
The Martial Arts Square was most commonly used for sparring between disciples. The entire platform had been refined into an exceptionally hard material, difficult to destroy, and was shielded by layered formations. It would not be damaged by violent impacts, and even if it suffered damage, it could automatically repair itself. The formations also ensured that clashes between disciples would not affect bystanders—it was practically flawless.
"Fourth Elder, you are the most meticulous and have a good grasp of formations. Go inspect the Martial Arts Square's formations to see if there are any loopholes or flaws, and whether they can withstand sustained, high-intensity collisions."
"Understood."
"Once both sides finish their speeches, it will be around noon, which will be the perfect time to build rapport over a meal. I recently chanced upon an immortal's manual recording culinary recipes of world-renowned rarity. While the Five Elements Sect is here, I shall give a public demonstration."
The Immortal Fairy took the initiative to shoulder the cooking duties.
"Next comes the tournament. My initial plan is to divide the sparring into four tiers according to cultivation stages: Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Soul Formation."
The Immortal Fairy's division was quite reasonable, avoiding a situation where Yun Zhi would ruthlessly massacre the entire field.
"Grand Elder, with the Five Elements Sect visiting, customer traffic will surge at commercial establishments like restaurants, which might lead to price gouging. Please send patrols to keep that from happening.
"Also, some disciples like to gamble and might take this opportunity to set up underground dens. You must keep an eye on that as well, Grand Elder. Shut down what needs shutting down, and punish those who need punishing.
"Third Elder, with the heavy foot traffic during the exchange, conflicts will inevitably arise. I'll need you to assign disciples to maintain order on the grounds.
"Fifth Elder, refine four display tablets to broadcast the matches on the Martial Arts Square in real time so everyone can watch."
The elders nodded, feeling the Immortal Fairy's arrangements were fairly reasonable and thorough.
The Immortal Fairy's methodical delegation of tasks owed entirely to her hard work the previous night—mainly her hard work begging Lu Yang to lend a hand.
Left with no choice, Lu Yang had acted as the Acting Sect Master's external brain, offering plans and strategies.
Lu Yang truly lived up to being Huang Doudou's golden finger, always capable of providing aid at critical moments.
The Immortal Fairy continued handing out assignments: "Seventh Elder, concoct some extra pills, mainly the kind that save lives, heal wounds, and neutralize poison."
The Seventh Elder hesitated, then nodded. "Of course I can, but the disciples exercise restraint when sparring and won't strike with lethal force. There shouldn't be any need for that sort of pill."
The Immortal Fairy thought about it and realized he had a point. She asked Lu Yang in the spiritual space, "Why did you have him refine those pills?"
"Afraid of food poisoning."
"Oh," the Immortal Fairy acknowledged. Her consciousness withdrew from the spiritual space, and she said to the Seventh Elder, "Afraid of food poi—wait..."
The Immortal Fairy caught herself and glared fiercely at Lu Yang within the spiritual space. Lu Yang innocently spread his hands.
"After the disciples finish their exchange, according to plan, the Immortal Cult will launch a sneak attack on us."
The elders froze. *What do you mean, "according to plan"? Did you draw up the plan?*
The Immortal Fairy said with a straight face, "Our Dao Seeking Sect has planted a covert agent in the Immortal Cult who holds a fairly high status, and we've learned part of their plan."
Lu Yang thought to himself, *You bet. The covert agent has climbed all the way to becoming the object of their faith.*
"According to reliable intelligence, the Immortal Cult will dispatch two Vice Cult Masters and five senior figures for this operation."
The Immortal Cult's Vice Cult Masters were at the Body Integration stage, but without immortal treasures, the two of them couldn't stir up any real waves in the Dao Seeking Sect.
Naturally, the Sect Master and the eight elders were not the only Body Integration stage cultivators in the Dao Seeking Sect.
The "Nine Scions of the Dao Seeking Sect" referred to the nine most outstanding individuals of that generation, not that there were only nine people in total.
Among the rest, some were away on missions, some guarded sacred grounds elsewhere within the Dao Seeking Sect, and others simply didn't want to work and were semi-retired, rarely showing their faces on ordinary days.
"When the time comes, I'll arrange for someone to watch the Immortal Cult's movements. If someone shouts 'strike,' we will all strike together and capture the Immortal Cult members. Don't hit too hard; try to take them alive," the Immortal Fairy concluded.
...
After the meeting adjourned, the elders set out to carry out their assigned tasks.
Carrying the event plan, Lu Yang left the Dao Seeking Sect and once again met with Tang Yunsheng.
"Inspecting Emissary Tang, I've brought the Dao Seeking Sect's event plan. All of this is public information and very easy to obtain."
Tang Yunsheng was overjoyed. However, after reading through the event plan, he felt a bit puzzled.
"Why is this almost identical to the event plan I imagined?"
"That just shows how accurate your predictions are!"
Tang Yunsheng didn't think too deeply on it, assuming it was merely a coincidence.
Lu Yang continued, "I think we should set a signal for our operation. For instance, when the Vice Cult Master shouts 'strike,' everyone moves at once to catch the Dao Seeking Sect completely off guard!"
Tang Yunsheng nodded, agreeing to Lu Yang's proposal.
Chapter 158