Lu Yang politely declined the Sword Tower's Hongmen banquet. Just as she had said, Eldest Senior Sister penned a letter at a side table, suggesting that Daoist Buyu take a stroll around Jizhou.
"Eldest Senior Sister, can you find Master?" Lu Yang suddenly remembered that the old man had enemies across the world and adhered strictly to having multiple burrows like a cunning hare; his whereabouts were notoriously elusive.
"Yes."
In the brief time it took to speak, the letter to Daoist Buyu was already finished. Eldest Senior Sister quietly folded the paper into the shape of a crane.
Cupping the paper crane in her hands, she gave it a gentle blow. Life sparkled in the crane's eyes, its wings fluttered, and it flew out of the cave dwelling.
"This is..." Lu Yang had never seen a spell like this.
"A minor spell I created in my leisure time to pass the hours. I named it the Origami Art," Eldest Senior Sister said casually.
Lu Yang sucked in a breath of cold air. Creating a spell just to pass the time—how did one even do that?
Was the gap between people really this immense? Why was his way of passing time listening to the Immortal Fairy spill ancient scandalous history?
If previously Lu Yang hadn't dared to listen too much to the Fairy's ancient dark secrets for fear that the ancient immortals would join forces to finish him off, the current Lu Yang was entirely fearless.
No need to merely fear it—if this stuff ever leaked, he was a dead man for sure anyway.
Dead either way, so why fear hearing a few more stories?
"Just creating a spell, no big deal!" The Immortal Fairy felt Lu Yang was utterly lacking in worldly experience. What was so hard about creating a spell?
"This Immortal could create spells back in the Golden Core stage! The Art of Playing Dead was invented back then. Study hard under me, and you'll be able to create spells too!"
Faced with the pie in the sky drawn by the Immortal Fairy, Lu Yang kept a respectful distance, not in the least tempted.
What use was the Art of Playing Dead? Couldn't she have at least created a Water Avoidance Art?
Lu Yang went back to perusing the documents.
Various elders were crying poor, demanding larger allocations of spirit stones. The Grand Elder claimed the Mission Hall needed spirit stones for quest rewards; the Second Elder said spirit stones were insufficient to maintain the Herb Garden's formations; the Third Elder complained that as a master, he wasn't even as wealthy as Meng Jingzhou...
They all seemed like perfectly respectable reasons, leaving Lu Yang unsure of how to decide—whether to reject them or disburse the funds.
"Leave this matter to me." Eldest Senior Sister took the initiative to gather the documents from the elders crying poverty. Dealing with this sort of thing was still too early for Lu Yang.
Lu Yang thought to himself that maneuvering between the elders clearly required a certain degree of finesse. He was still too young and hadn't figured out the relationships between them and how to handle them; he needed to learn more from Eldest Senior Sister.
Then, Lu Yang watched helplessly as Eldest Senior Sister wrote two words on the conclusion line of each document: Denied.
Eldest Senior Sister had simply worried that Lu Yang was too thin-skinned to refuse them outright.
Piece by piece, on and on and on, Lu Yang finally finished processing all the paperwork. Letting out a long breath, he leaned back against his chair.
"Phew—finally done with everything."
While handling the documents, he hadn't felt the slightest lightheaded thrill of holding supreme power; instead, he felt that an immortal's trial was indeed arduous.
Fortunately, he had weathered this test without major mishap.
"My turn, swap with me!" Seeing that the great task was accomplished, the Immortal Fairy took over Lu Yang's body, eager to head back out and flaunt her authority.
"Just in time. With the documents handled, it is time to sort out the guest list for the sect celebration." Eldest Senior Sister stared expressionlessly at the Immortal Fairy, who had just acquired the body.
The Immortal Fairy: "..."
"I just worked for so long, and I don't even get a break!" The Immortal Fairy glared sullenly at Eldest Senior Sister, though making that expression with Lu Yang's face looked rather bizarre.
Eldest Senior Sister remained unmoved, seeing right through her little trick. "The one processing documents just now was Lu Yang. Now, it's you."
The Immortal Fairy's face broke into a broad, flattering smile as she beamed at Lu Yang. "Lu Yang, shall I give the body back to you?"
Lu Yang remained completely unmoved, seeing right through the Immortal Fairy's hypocritical smile.
Left with no alternative, a dejected Immortal Fairy could only obediently begin screening the list.
"These are all the super-rank sects and first-rank sects registered with the imperial court."
Eldest Senior Sister had already compiled a roster.
The imperial court and the Four Great Immortal Sects were naturally given must-invites.
The Immortal Fairy counted the sects on the list: "Eight super-rank sects, and one hundred and sixteen first-rank sects."
This meant that besides the Five Great Immortal Sects, there were eight other sects overseen by Tribulation Transcendence figures.
"No, wait, nine now. The Corpse Driving Sect also counts as a super-rank sect."
The Sect Master of the Corpse Driving Sect barely clung to the threshold, scraping his sect into the super-rank category.
The number of super-rank sects rarely changed even over centuries. The list Eldest Senior Sister provided had been compiled just last month, making it theoretically the newest version.
The Sect Master of the Corpse Driving Sect had happened to be forced into a breakthrough right after that.
Lu Yang calculated the known number of Tribulation Transcendence cultivators in the present day: a guaranteed baseline of five from the Five Great Immortal Sects, and eight from the eight super-rank sects.
The imperial court certainly had quite a few: four Tribulation Transcendence generals guarding the borders, one of whom he had seen at the conclusion of the Hanshui City incident.
Moreover, when wiping out the Immortal Cult's headquarters, the imperial court had dispatched another Tribulation Transcendence expert.
As for the court's Luoshui Guards, who were specifically tasked with handling ancient cultivators, since they could handle ancient cultivators, they certainly had Tribulation Transcendence figures—and definitely more than one.
And these were just the ones out in the open. There were surely others hidden in the shadows. Aside from the Sect Master of the Corpse Driving Sect, anyone who cultivated to Tribulation Transcendence possessed immense seniority and rarely made a move under ordinary circumstances.
"The nine super-rank sects must be invited, but these one hundred and sixteen first-rank sects require screening..." Eldest Senior Sister patiently taught the Immortal Fairy how to screen them.
Being exceedingly clever, the Immortal Fairy quickly came up with a screening criterion: "Should we weed out everyone who has a grudge against Daoist Buyu?"
Her reasoning was sound: if they invited a bunch of people who harbored grudges against Daoist Buyu, the celebration would hardly be able to proceed.
"Then there would be no sects left to invite."
"All right then." The Immortal Fairy fell at the very first hurdle.
With Eldest Senior Sister guiding her step by step, the Immortal Fairy quickly compiled an invitation list according to Eldest Senior Sister's wishes.
"Ask Eldest Senior Sister how to handle this matter with Second Senior Brother," Lu Yang suddenly remembered. While Eldest Senior Sister had been away, an official complaint had arrived from the Golden Buddhist Kingdom regarding Second Senior Brother, and he hadn't known how to reply.
Flustered, the Immortal Fairy pulled out an official document from the very bottom of the pile.
Eldest Senior Sister opened it, swept her eyes over it, and understood immediately. "Ah, Second Junior Brother's antics again."
"What should we do?"
"It doesn't matter. This isn't the first time Second Junior Brother has done something like this; the Buddhist Kingdom complained in the past too. Pay it no heed."
The Immortal Fairy let out an "Oh," and on the reply to the Buddhist Kingdom, she wrote: *Pay him no heed.*
Regaining control of his body, Lu Yang felt deeply envious seeing how imposing the sixteen-foot golden body was described in the document. "By the way, Eldest Senior Sister, can I learn the sixteen-foot golden body?"
Letting out a great shout in battle as a sixteen-foot golden body rose from the ground—majestic as a deity, solemn as a great Buddha, sweeping through thousands of soldiers!
Just imagining it felt so cool!
"You can give it a try."
Chapter 460