Lu Yang was currently pretending to be the Immortal Fairy's "golden finger," exercising the authority of the Acting Sect Master to plan the itinerary for the sect celebration.
After all, they couldn't just invite everyone over to eat and drink, have the Fairy deliver an opening address and a closing remark, and call it a day.
For a hundred-and-twenty-thousandth anniversary, that would simply be too underwhelming. Setting aside whether it could pass Eldest Senior Sister's scrutiny, Lu Yang himself couldn't bear to look at it.
The only person whose standards it could satisfy was the Immortal Fairy.
"It's just a celebration, meant for everyone to enjoy themselves. Why make it so complicated?"
Using her own past as an example, the Immortal Fairy advised Lu Yang to cast aside this decadent modern notion that celebrations had to be complex: "Even our gatherings of ancient immortals weren't as complicated as yours. Whenever I offered to cook, Immortal Kirin and the others would always tell me not to tire myself out and insisted I didn't need to make anything."
A so-called ancient immortals' gathering simply meant the Immortal Fairy using her personal charm to round up the other four unlucky bastards, occasionally joined by Immortal Kirin's two wives.
"Then what did you all do at your gatherings?"
"Shared cultivation insights, of course! As you know, there were only five immortals in the world back then, so finding fellow Daoists to converse with was extraordinarily difficult. Everyone cherished every single gathering."
"During the gatherings, everyone spoke freely, delving into the wondrous applications of Dao fruits. Bouncing ideas off each other made it easy to spark new insights, or to leave behind trials for future generations."
Lu Yang nodded. This time, it actually sounded like the real deal—just like the immortals of popular imagination, discussing the immortal Dao and testing posterity.
"Specifically?"
"Specifically, I researched how to make a self-detonation pack the greatest punch."
"Immortal Ying Tian asked everyone if they could brainstorm some particularly tricky tribulations."
"Immortal Suiyue said he'd figured out a new use for the Suiyue Dao fruit. He created a mysterious space where time flowed differently from the outside world: if you cultivated inside for one day, a whole year would pass on the outside."
Lu Yang: "..."
*Please, stop terrorizing the world.*
"Otherwise, we wrote stories—things like the Heavenly Court, Buddhism, and so forth. Don't look down on those stories; they were meticulously crafted by the five of us! Behind every tale lay thought-provoking wisdom meant to enlighten the minds of future generations."
"Immortal Ying Tian said this would also conveniently prevent later generations from figuring out ancient history, so whenever any of us made a fool of ourselves, it could easily be covered up."
Lu Yang felt that Immortal Ying Tian had truly been quite the character. With a hindrance like the Immortal Fairy dragging him down, he had pulled off so much just to maintain an air of transcendent grandeur. One could only wonder whether he knew that in the eyes of posterity, his image had already devolved into someone obsessed with other men's wives, impregnating countless female cultivators along the way.
Lu Yang sympathized with Immortal Ying Tian and sincerely hoped the man would return the favor—perhaps by showing a little mercy and sparing his life if he ever came hunting for blood.
"Sometimes we'd also play with planets, tossing them back and forth. Mortal creatures called that a meteor shower, treating it like some miraculous spectacle and making wishes whenever they saw us hurling planets."
Lu Yang proved to be an excellent listener. He quietly heard out the Immortal Fairy's accounts of ancient history, chiming in as a straight man and tossing out questions, listening for a good half hour.
People often said that history repeated itself, and that one could draw lessons from the past. He thoughtfully pondered the experiences of the ancient immortals' gatherings that she had shared, searching for anything worth borrowing. In the end, he reached a conclusion:
He had wasted half an hour.
At that moment, Eldest Senior Sister stepped into the cave dwelling. Although her expression was unchanged from usual—as blank and emotionless as ever—as her junior brother, Lu Yang boasted a fifty-percent success rate when reading her micro-expressions.
He was certain she had come for a reason.
Though the Immortal Fairy didn't possess as high a success rate as Lu Yang, she reached the exact same conclusion.
After all, she was doing a splendid job as Acting Sect Master; Little Zhi wouldn't come to the cave dwelling without a good reason.
The Immortal Fairy felt thoroughly pleased with herself at the sight. Now that she had become the Acting Sect Master, Lu Yang and Little Zhi were her left and right hands, assisting her with affairs.
"Eldest Senior Sister, is something the matter?" Lu Yang was currently still in control of his body.
"I just received word. Emperor Xia has an idea that requires implementation, and he wishes for the masters of the Five Great Immortal Sects to convene at the Imperial Palace for a meeting."
Lu Yang stared at Eldest Senior Sister for several seconds, then pointed at himself in disbelief, suspecting he had misheard: "Me?"
"Not you. Senior Fairy," Eldest Senior Sister corrected him earnestly.
"Oh, that's better... wait, what's the difference?!"
"How could there be no difference? This Immortal is attending the meeting, not you!" The Immortal Fairy glared at Lu Yang with puffed cheeks, suspecting this scoundrel harbored treacherous ambitions to usurp her throne!
Lu Yang treated the Immortal Fairy's indignant shouts as wind past his ears.
Granted, he held a string of identities that would let him strut about arrogantly in the outside world: youngest disciple of Daoist Buyu, junior brother to Yun Zhi, Second-in-Command of the Immortal Lineage, Cult Founder of the Immortal Cult, Young Cult Master of the Heavenly Court Cult, host to the Immortal Fairy, the strongest Golden Core stage cultivator, creator of records for leapfrog combat, and more.
Even so, having to sit alongside Emperor Xia and the leaders of the Five Great Immortal Sects to discuss monumental affairs of the righteous path still filled him with no small amount of trepidation.
"I will accompany you," Eldest Senior Sister finally delivered a piece of good news.
Lu Yang let out a slight breath of relief. He was merely an insignificant Golden Core stage cultivator; what right did he have to sit alongside the masters of the other four great immortal sects? With Eldest Senior Sister backing him up, the pressure would be vastly reduced.
"Let us depart."
There was nothing to prepare for the meeting; they merely had to show up. Eldest Senior Sister stepped out of the cave dwelling, looked toward the sky, and pinched her thumb and index finger together. A patch of cloud vanished from the horizon, and an auspicious cloud materialized beneath her feet.
"Acting Sect Master, please."
Lu Yang's body was seized, and the Immortal Fairy shamelessly used his physique to step onto the cloud.
Standing upon the cloud, the Immortal Fairy crossed her arms over her chest, gazed forward, and adopted an aloof, indifferent expression.
"Little Zhi, set forth."
*Whoosh!*
The auspicious cloud accelerated violently. Taken completely off guard, the Immortal Fairy lost her footing and tumbled heels over head from the front of the cloud all the way to the back. Clinging desperately to the cloud's edge, more than half of her body dangled in empty air.
It took an immense effort before she managed to scramble back onto the cloud, looking thoroughly disheveled.
"Little Zhi, you did that on purpose!" She pouted, glaring at Yun Zhi.
Yun Zhi replied impassively, "I did not. It was an accident."
"It was on purpose!"
"An accident."
"On purpose!"
"Accident."
Lu Yang surfaced, intervening before a clash between ancient and modern cultivators could erupt: "By the way, Eldest Senior Sister, did Emperor Xia mention the purpose of this meeting?"
"He said a competition for young cultivators will be held to screen for those who dispersed their cultivation to start anew."
"What?"
...
The Imperial Preceptor looked up, his eyes narrowing as he watched the auspicious cloud streak overhead.
"Lord Imperial Preceptor, what is the matter?" his subordinate asked, eager to handle whatever had caught his attention.
"The one riding that auspicious cloud just now was Lu Yang."
The subordinate was startled. "What?! Should we make our move, then?"
They had come to the vicinity of the Dao Seeking Sect to survey the surrounding layout, looking for a way to infiltrate the sect and scout the terrain in advance to formulate a plan.
Never had they anticipated running into their target the moment they arrived.
The Imperial Preceptor shook his head, having his own agenda: "No need for now. Killing Lu Yang right now would be letting him off too easily. We will wait until the grand celebration commences and execute him before the eyes of the entire world!"
He intended not only to slay Lu Yang, but to annihilate the Dao Seeking Sect entirely!
Chapter 467