The Dao Seeking Sect boasted numerous businesses offering everything one could want to eat, drink, and make merry. Cultivation was not meant to be spent behind closed doors in endless isolation, nor could dull, monotonous training alone produce an immortal, so every imaginable entertainment industry flourished here.
Take the Chuanshu hotpot mentioned before, for instance, or Baixiang Restaurant, where the trio was headed now.
Lu Yang had heard that the Dao Seeking Sect had not always been like this. In the past, cultivation was strictly cultivation—none of these frivolous distractions were allowed to corrupt one's dedication to the Dao.
Later, after the old sect master and the former elders retired, the current Sect Master and the eight elders took over. The Dao Seeking Sect immediately took on a fresh new atmosphere, encouraging everyone to cultivate when it was time to cultivate and relax when it was time to relax, striking a balance between labor and rest.
In their words: if nonsense like this can shake your pursuit of the Dao, what the hell are you even cultivating for?
Lu Yang felt the Dao Seeking Sect's current atmosphere had gone astray; once he rose to the sect's higher-ups, he would definitely set things straight.
Inside Baixiang Restaurant, the hubbub of voices was deafening. Many Dao Seeking Sect disciples liked to gather here for a meal after completing missions or enduring hard cultivation, exchanging insights and mission experiences.
If nothing else, the food tasted far better than the dining hall's.
"Waiter, Table Nine, reserved earlier. Three sets of bowls and chopsticks, and bring out the dishes I ordered in advance."
"Right away, leave it to me!"
Heading up to the second floor, the aroma of dishes from other tables wafted toward them—a fragrance so rich it whetted the appetite and made mouths water involuntarily.
Lu Yang stared at the waiter for a good while, only looking away once the man vanished down the stairwell. He had realized he couldn't even see through the waiter's cultivation level.
Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye looked around, both curious about the place.
Lu Yang had meals provided on Tianmen Peak, while Tao Yaoye knew how to cook for herself, so neither of them ever needed to visit.
Meng Jingzhou was thoroughly familiar with such establishments. "Never been here before, have you? Let me tell you, there are tons of delicacies here. If you can dream it, you can eat it. Take a look at the menu."
Lu Yang took the menu and turned to the first page, quickly drawn in by what he saw.
There were no dishes on the first page, only an eye-catching notice: *This establishment sells only prepared dishes, not raw ingredients. We appreciate your understanding.*
The real content began on the second page, where the dishes were priced in both contribution points and spirit stones.
"Steamed Heavenly Tribulation Liquid: the essence of lightning tribulation left behind when cultivators undergo Tribulation Transcendence. Highly beneficial for comprehending the Dao of Lightning."
"Braised Ice Abyss Mammoth: Ice Abyss Mammoths dwell in the frigid Extreme North and rule as the dominant species of the region. An adult Ice Abyss Mammoth can shatter a glacier with a single stomp and withstand an avalanche without yielding."
"Tomato Scrambled Eggs: our restaurant offers an assortment of eggs, including ordinary chicken eggs, Eight Treasures Chicken eggs, and Golden-Winged Peng eggs."
Seeing the prices, Lu Yang clicked his tongue. These dishes clearly weren't meant for Foundation Establishment stage cultivators like them, nor could Foundation Establishment cultivators afford them.
However, there were also things he could afford, such as Stir-Fried Fasting Pills and the like.
Seeing Lu Yang's brows gradually furrow, Tao Yaoye assumed the prices had frightened him, so she asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Did you run into a problem?"
"Look, the meaning of fasting is to consume the spiritual energy of heaven and earth instead of eating food, and taking a Fasting Pill allows one to fast."
"Right," Tao Yaoye nodded.
"Then tell me: if you eat stir-fried Fasting Pills, does that count as eating a meal or fasting?"
Tao Yaoye and Meng Jingzhou both froze. At first, the question seemed utterly bizarre, but after pondering it closely, it struck them as oddly profound.
The three called the waiter over and asked if he knew the answer, and the waiter was stumped as well.
In all his time working here, this was the first time a customer had ever asked such a question.
Were they so bored by how slowly the food was coming that they resorted to this?
"The dishes here aren't cheap. Do you have enough contribution points?" Lu Yang didn't dwell on the Fasting Pill dilemma, growing slightly worried instead that they might not have enough to pay for the meal.
Meng Jingzhou had only completed three missions, which couldn't have earned him many contribution points in total.
Inviting him and Tao Yaoye out for a feast in name, only for the three of them to end up washing dishes together to work off the bill, seemed entirely within Meng Jingzhou's character.
"Why use contribution points? Spirit stones, obviously!" Meng Jingzhou spoke with the voice of the wealthy.
Tao Yaoye cast a slightly astonished look at Lu Yang, puzzled as to why he would ever worry about someone from the Meng family lacking money. "Haven't you heard of the Meng family?"
Lu Yang was confused. "Is Meng Jingzhou's Meng family famous?"
The Central Continent was vast beyond measure; a cultivator could spend an entire lifetime without exploring all of it. Countless families bore the surname Meng within it, so how was Lu Yang supposed to know which one was Meng Jingzhou's?
In all the time he had known Meng Jingzhou, he had never heard him speak of his clan.
Back when Meng Jingzhou came to the Dao Seeking Sect to take the trials, he didn't even have a single elder accompanying him. Lu Yang had assumed his clan had fallen on hard times and was relying on Meng Jingzhou and his Bachelor Spiritual Root to restore its fortunes.
"The most famous one."
Lu Yang's pupils contracted in sheer astonishment. He understood which Meng family it was.
There were many Meng families, but when it came to the most famous, it was naturally the Imperial City Meng Family.
"You mean *that* Imperial City Meng Family—the one whose ancestor fought alongside Emperor Xia's ancestor to conquer the world and establish the Great Xia Dynasty?!"
Lu Yang was genuinely stunned. The Imperial City Meng Family boasted an extraordinary background. A hundred thousand years ago, the world was plunged into turmoil. As the saying goes, troubled times produce heroes: the Meng family's ancestor and Emperor Xia's ancestor rose up in arms and fought across the land, giving birth to a legendary tale known to all.
Even today, that story remained alive in the recitations of teahouse storytellers and on theatrical stages, its popularity never waning.
A hundred thousand years ago, the previous dynasty collapsed from internal strife and foreign threats, ushering in an era of chaos. Demon barbarians and sea beasts left their respective domains, seeking a share of the Central Continent, a land teeming with spiritual vitality and exceptional talent.
Rising from the clan's ancestral grounds in the east, the Meng family's ancestor waged campaigns east and west, fighting across hundreds of millions of li. He slaughtered until the demon barbarians fled in panic to the Demon Domain, the sea beasts retreated into the East Sea, and treacherous subjects and rogue heroes alike bowed their heads in submission.
Leading his armies over the course of a thousand years, the Meng family's ancestor conquered half of the Central Continent, standing as one of the world's only two hegemons.
The other hegemon was Emperor Xia's ancestor, who had conquered the other half.
Emperor Xia's ancestor had likewise expelled the barbarians and demonic beasts, brought an end to the chaotic era, and ruled half the realm. The merits of the two men were impossible to rank above or below each other.
At the time, the world assumed that the two hegemons would either each rule half of the Central Continent or wage an all-out war for total supremacy over the world.
Thus, military strategists of every school began running war simulations, calculating which side held the greater advantage and how the other could overcome strength with weakness.
What took the world by surprise was that both the Meng ancestor and Emperor Xia's ancestor believed the continent had already suffered a thousand years of chaos. The common folk had been plunged into misery, and rivers of blood had floated shields—a scene of pure purgatory. If they fought any longer, who knew how many more years the turmoil would drag on, and how many more lives would be lost?
They had fought across the world to restore peace to the realm, not for a dynastic throne.
Therefore, the Meng ancestor and Emperor Xia's ancestor set aside their armies and clashed as fellow cultivators beneath the vast starry sky. In that decisive battle, the heavens shattered and the earth fractured; the sun and moon lost their light, and great stars fell. In the end, Emperor Xia's ancestor proved a step superior, emerging as the final victor.
The Meng ancestor accepted defeat gracefully and yielded the position with folded hands.
At that time, Emperor Xia's ancestor publicly declared that as long as Great Xia endured for even a single day, the Meng family would never perish.
And so it was. After the founding of Great Xia, the Meng family settled in the Imperial City and never faced suppression.
Chapter 26