"A trip to Huangzhou sounds good too. There should be a solution there." Third Elder nodded, thinking his disciple's head was quite sharp after all.
"I'll go with you," Lu Yang offered. He felt he had been diligently cultivating on Tianmen Peak for so long that it was about time he got out and looked around, or his brain might atrophy.
Fourth Elder kindly gave them some advice. "If you're heading to Huangzhou, you can seek help from the Corpse Driving Sect. The Corpse Driving Sect is on good terms with our Dao Seeking Sect, and past sect masters have always been friends. Even if you asked to learn their corpse-driving arts, the Corpse Driving Sect wouldn't turn you down."
As a renowned, first-rank major faction in Huangzhou, having their help would make things go much smoother.
Back when Fourth Elder traveled through Huangzhou, he had received assistance from the Corpse Driving Sect.
Fourth Elder immediately penned a letter of recommendation, folded it into an envelope, and handed it to Meng Jingzhou.
Meng Jingzhou took the envelope, realized what was happening, and stared blankly. "Just Lu Yang and me? Master, you guys aren't coming?"
*A moment ago, you were all fervently brainstorming solutions for me. Even if none of them worked, it showed you cared about me. So why does it look like only Lu Yang and I are heading to Huangzhou?*
Third Elder waved a hand. "Not going. It's too humiliating to talk about what happened to you."
Taking Meng Jingzhou all over Huangzhou to seek a curse cure—how was that any different from dragging him around to find doctors for erectile dysfunction?
If word got out, how could he show his face in the martial world again?
Meng Jingzhou: "..."
Lu Yang: "..."
The Immortal Fairy, however, was brimming with confidence about the journey to Huangzhou. "What are you two afraid of? With this celestial here, could anything possibly go wrong?"
The elders' consultation concluded, and the diagnosis was that the patient had to save himself.
Meng Jingzhou sighed faintly and returned to his cave abode to pack his things.
Naturally, he did not run into a single senior sister along the way.
Lu Yang packed his belongings as well.
"Gu sorcery and corpse driving are Huangzhou specialties, alongside graves scattered everywhere and all kinds of miasmas and venoms."
"I need to exchange for some Detoxification Pills from the Mission Hall."
"There are many people skilled in curses too. I've never dealt with curse practitioners before, so it'll be easy to suffer a big loss on the first encounter. Should I buy some items to ward off curses?"
"This celestial is shielding you, and you're still afraid of curses?" the Immortal Fairy said, thumping her chest to assert her presence. As the leader of the Five Ancient Celestials, what curse could possibly affect her?
Lu Yang glanced at the Immortal Fairy. True enough—the greatest curse under the heavens was right here with him. What other curses did he need to fear?
Without having to worry about being cursed, the trip to Huangzhou would be much easier.
"You have it so good now. With this celestial around, curses are no concern. Back when I had yet to become an immortal, I frequently clashed with others competing for immortal ascension. Those fellows were all young prodigies with real skill, fairly famous in their tribes and localities. But once they ran into this celestial, none of their prodigy status mattered!"
"Those fellows didn't deserve to be called young prodigies anyway. Defeated by this celestial just once, they fell into a slump and never recovered! Look at Immortal Ying Tian and Immortal Kirin—knocked down by this celestial day in and day out, yet you never saw them get discouraged."
"When they realized they couldn't defeat this celestial in the open, they resorted to underhanded curses, hitting me with death curses."
"Luckily, this celestial possessed peerless talent and weathered them all."
Lu Yang recalled that curse arts originated in the ancient era, and ancient curses were far more vicious and horrifying than modern ones. That the fairy could withstand ancient curses and smoothly achieve immortality proved just how powerful she was.
He marveled inwardly. She truly lived up to the name of Immortal Fairy. Although she was normally unreliable, her ancient reputation had been hard-won through real combat.
"What was most detestable were some saintesses from the sacred grounds. Unable to beat this celestial and jealous of my looks, fearing the men they fancied would fall for me, they cursed me too—cursing this celestial with disfigurement!"
The Immortal Fairy huffed and pouted.
It was clear that even after countless eras, she still harbored a grudge against those saintesses.
"Even though this celestial was quite famous before ascending, with exceptional cultivation, beauty, and intellect, I had no background. People often ostracized me, and some even publicly mocked me, saying so what if I was strong—without a background, I'd never successfully become an immortal."
"Bully this celestial for having no background? Then this celestial became the greatest background of all!" The Immortal Fairy grinned proudly. In the past, she had been furious, but now she merely saw those rivals as childish.
"You're incredible, Fairy."
"Right?"
Lu Yang quickly packed his gear, stuffing in everything he could think of, and then visited the Mission Hall to exchange for supplies that might prove useful.
"Detoxification Pills are a must-buy, as well as these herbs, which can be used to concoct emergency antidotes if necessary."
Lu Yang had studied the basics of poisons at Pill Cauldron Peak—a compulsory subject for Dao Seeking Sect disciples—so common poisons had no effect on him.
*When venturing out, never harbor the intent to harm others, but always maintain the vigilance to defend against them*—this was the ancestral creed of the Five Elements Sect.
Later, Daoist Buyu and the eight elders felt Qiu Jin'an's words made good sense, so they borrowed the adage to preach to their disciples and keep them alert.
"A few more books introducing Huangzhou: *Cultures and Customs of Huangzhou*, *Legends of Corpse Driving*, *The Calamity of Gu Sorcery*..."
"Combat is likely, so I should purchase battle talismans, Soul Returning Pills... that should about cover it."
With his purchases complete, Lu Yang met up with Meng Jingzhou at the sect entrance.
Meng Jingzhou had arrived ahead of him and was already waiting inside a carriage.
"You took too long."
"What's the rush? It's not like getting there sooner means we can come back sooner."
Lu Yang boarded the carriage. The two checked over their respective gear to ensure nothing had been missed, and only then did they set off.
Along the way, the Immortal Fairy remarked in utter boredom, "If only we could find Immortal Suiyue. His Jianmu body possesses the power to bestow blessings. Plucking a single leaf or snapping off a single branch could clear that Meng kid's karmic backlash."
"The Jianmu has an effect like that? How come I've never heard of it?" Lu Yang wondered aloud. Still, ancient records had scarce mention of the Jianmu, so it was only natural there were things he did not know.
"You know about celebrating the New Year, right? The transition between the old and the new, stepping over bad luck to receive good fortune in the coming year—that's the New Year. The very concept of celebrating the New Year was created by him."
"Isn't there a tradition of stepping over tree branches during the New Year? At its origin, what people were supposed to step over was a branch of the Jianmu. It's just that later generations couldn't find Jianmu branches, so they substituted ordinary branches."
"Speaking of which, I didn't know the Jianmu had blessing powers at first either. Immortal Kirin and the others told me."
"Immortal Kirin and the rest said that Immortal Suiyue had a chance of predicting when I was going to treat them to a meal or drop by their cave abodes for a visit, allowing them to prepare in advance. Now that was an immense blessing."
Lu Yang found himself in profound agreement, wholeheartedly endorsing Immortal Kirin's point of view. He nodded.
"Immortal Suiyue truly does have the power to bestow blessings and keep people safe."
Chapter 400