Artistic Embellishment

Early the next morning, the three met at the agreed rendezvous point. Li Haoran had arrived the earliest and looked somewhat nervous. With the old horse around, Lu Yang didn't need to nervously board a flying boat. "Who would've thought? You keep such a low profile, yet you actually have a fiancée?" Meng Jingzhou winked at Li Haoran, teasing him. As the eldest legitimate son of the Meng Family, even before he was born, dignitaries and nobles from the imperial city had called at their door, hoping to build ties with the Meng Family through him. After Meng Jingzhou was born, matchmakers had practically worn down their threshold. "If I hadn't left to cultivate, I'd be making quite a splash back in the imperial city right now," Meng Jingzhou remarked with a touch of melancholy and wistfulness. Li Haoran consoled him, "As the saying goes, whenever you gain something, you lose something in return. Though you lost the chance to become an idle playboy in the imperial city, what you got in exchange is the Pure Yang Spiritual Root so many people can only dream of." Lu Yang chipped in from the side, "Yeah, look on the bright side. Cherish the time you still have left to talk with female cultivators. Once you form your Bachelor Golden Core, it will naturally generate a repulsive force pushing away any woman near you. You won't even get the chance to speak to them." Meng Jingzhou fumed, "You dog of a scoundrel, stop messing with my Dao heart! I've never heard of a Bachelor Golden Core having a function like that!" Lu Yang said calmly, "This is an ancient secret, never handed down to outsiders. I wouldn't tell just anyone!" Meng Jingzhou eyed Lu Yang suspiciously, suddenly recalling the terrifying ancient True Immortal inside his body. With a backer like that, it wouldn't be surprising if he knew some ancient secrets. "Wait, no! The Bachelor Spiritual Root first appeared in the Great Yu Dynasty—there was no such thing as a Bachelor Spiritual Root back in ancient times! You're lying to me!" Meng Jingzhou quickly caught on. "Take a beating from my flailing turtle fist!" The two broke into a fierce scuffle in the cramped space, and only stopped when Li Haoran stepped in to mediate. "Junior Brother Li, what is your fiancée's background?" Lu Yang recalled Li Haoran's origins. His parents were ordinary rogue cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage with no special skills or standing. Li Haoran possessing a Fire Spiritual Root was purely a stroke of luck, just like Lu Yang's own case. At the mention of his fiancée, Li Haoran's brow furrowed, and he sighed. "I don't know." "You don't know?" Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou were astounded. How could someone not know his own fiancée's identity? "According to my parents, they ran into a life-or-death crisis while out adventuring. It just so happened that an expert was passing by and saved them. At the time, my mother was already three months pregnant with me. Seeing she was expecting, the expert said that our meeting was destiny, and suggested our families become in-laws. So, a prenatal betrothal was arranged, settling my marriage on the spot." "Afterward, that expert departed and was never seen again." "Since they could fly through the air, that expert was at least in the Golden Core stage, though their exact cultivation is unknown." "As for the expert's name, title, where they came from, or where they went, my parents have no idea whatsoever." "...That betrothal was arranged pretty haphazardly." "Tell me about it," Li Haoran said with a helpless smile. "Mainly, my parents thought that since they were merely in the Foundation Establishment stage, what could a mighty expert possibly want from them? Even if I turned out to have some talent, at most it would be enough to reach the Golden Core stage. And as you can see, I turned out to have a Fire Spiritual Root." Unless they died prematurely, a single spiritual root cultivator was destined to become a powerhouse of the cultivation world. This was a peerless talent worthy of every major clan's greatest efforts to win over. For instance, when Lu Yang's Sword Spiritual Root was discovered during testing, plenty of myriad-year-old clans were tempted, hoping to marry one of their daughters to him. It was just that Lu Yang subsequently became Daoist Buyu's disciple and stayed on Tianmen Peak the whole time, giving those clans no opportunity to raise the matter. "Could it be that the expert could already tell you had a Fire Spiritual Root back then?" Meng Jingzhou racked his brains. "No, that doesn't make sense either. I've never heard of a spell that can do that." If such a spell existed, the Meng Family would have mastered it long ago and wouldn't have waited until Meng Jingzhou was four years old to test his spiritual root. "Strange indeed." "Forget it, no point in overthinking. Once we meet your fiancée, all will be revealed." Having pondered it for a long time to no avail, the three simply gave up trying to figure it out. The old horse pulled the carriage for an entire day before they finally reached Li Haoran's home. Li Haoran's home was in Luofeng Commandery. It was said that a pure-blooded phoenix had passed away in meditation here, bestowing blessings upon all living things, which was how it got the name Luofeng—Fallen Phoenix—Commandery. "This place looks quite a bit grander than Yanjiang Commandery!" Lu Yang poked his head out of the carriage. Seeing the magnificent city walls, the bustling traffic of carriages and people, and the faint, sweeping gazes falling upon them, he knew Luofeng Commandery was no ordinary place in terms of strength. "Halt! Step down for inspection." The guards stationed at the city gates stopped the carriage. The three candidly produced the credentials issued by the Dao Seeking Sect and let them inspect the documents. "Ah, Daoists from the Dao Seeking Sect! Please enter." Seeing they were from the Dao Seeking Sect, the guards were instantly filled with reverent respect. Regardless of whether the Dao Seeking Sect's conduct was upright or eccentric, every disciple from it was a dragon or phoenix among men, achieving remarkable feats. Moreover, as one of the Five Great Immortal Sects, the Dao Seeking Sect possessed numerous privileges that commanded caution and awe from local government offices. For instance, the most troublesome and terrifying privilege was their enforcement authority. If the Five Great Immortal Sects discovered illegal conduct or collusion with the demonic path within a local government office, they had the authority to execute first and report later. Of course, the Five Great Immortal Sects generally gave face to the Great Xia Dynasty, handing offenders over to Great Xia to handle internally. Only in sudden emergencies or unavoidable circumstances would the Five Great Immortal Sects resort to this ultimate measure. Once their identity as Dao Seeking Sect disciples was revealed, those faint, sweeping gazes vanished. Those were secret guards keeping watch to prevent petty scoundrels from sneaking into Luofeng Commandery to stir up trouble. As for the Dao Seeking Sect stirring up trouble—well, that exceeded their pay grade. "Our house is this way." Li Haoran directed the old horse. Along the way, the three heard a storyteller's voice drifting from a teahouse, narrating none other than the *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect*. "...Now, speaking of that Daoist Buyu, he bore an aura of transcendent grace and bone-deep Daoist majesty. In order to experience the hardships of the mortal world, he had himself thrown into prison multiple times, eating and living alongside the inmates, chatting warmly with them and asking with deep care how they had fallen into such a state..." "At times, Daoist Buyu would learn from the prisoners of places where monsters and demons lurked, whereupon he would venture forth to slay demons and subjugate fiends." "Today's tale begins with the intelligence Daoist Buyu obtained from within prison..." "...Daoist Buyu heard from a prisoner that the An Family Village had taken on a bizarre air. Anyone who left the village appeared listless and beside themselves, their souls seemingly lost. Even so, those who departed still yearned to return to the An Family Village..." "...Daoist Buyu saw through the village master's sinister plot, fighting his way seven times in and seven times out, beating the demons until they begged for mercy and swore never to commit evil again..." Lu Yang wore an odd expression, feeling his master had indulged in a bit too much artistic embellishment. "How come I remember the An Family Village was run by a bunch of flower demons who sucked men's vital essence? It was actually a brothel disguised as a village to evade taxes, and later the Great Xia Dynasty caught the tax loophole and shut it down?" Li Haoran was surprised. "That really happened? Still, if the Sect Master spun the story this way, he must have had his reasons. Maybe he played an important role in it!" "A patron. He was locked up for fifteen days."