Lu Yang watched the departing Body Integration cultivators with deep concern, his brow furrowed and his mind uneasy.
"What's wrong? Sad to see them go? Wishing they'd stay and propose marriage?" Meng Jingzhou teased with a chuckle. Ever since the celebration ended, an endless stream of parties had come knocking on Lu Yang's door to propose marriage alliances. Meng Jingzhou had watched it all, his heart brimming with envy.
Now, seeing Lu Yang staring longingly after the departing suitors, Meng Jingzhou could barely suppress the grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Lu Yang slowly shook his head and voiced his true worry. "I'm worried that once they realize coming to propose to me lets them camp out for Master, even more people will come to propose."
Meng Jingzhou: "..."
*Serves me right for running my mouth!*
With the memory of a Body Integration cultivator, being unable to recall just what he had done to offend them spoke volumes about the sheer number of people he had crossed.
Considering his master's terrifying knack for drawing aggro, Lu Yang felt it wouldn't be surprising in the least if word arrived one day that the old man had suffered a sudden, violent death out in the world.
To prepare for such an eventuality, Lu Yang offered some well-meaning advice: "Master, have you considered drafting your will in advance? I'm afraid that when your time comes, you won't have a chance to write it."
Daoist Buyu gave his youngest disciple a profound look, feeling that Lu Yang's conversational tact had already captured a good measure of his second disciple's flair from back when he formed his Yin-Yang Golden Core.
"Have you seen your Second Senior Brother?"
"Second Senior Brother? No. Isn't he in the Golden Buddhist Kingdom?" Lu Yang couldn't fathom why his master would ask such a thing.
"Never mind, then."
Quite a crowd of disciples had gathered to gawk at Daoist Buyu. Back then, Daoist Buyu had been forced into secluded cultivation for ten years without ever showing his face. Eldest Senior Sister had fallen for Lu Yang's slanderous advice and released him, sending him out into the world to perform pingshu storytelling to promote the Dao Seeking Sect. Since then, Daoist Buyu had never once returned.
The disciples from the previous two batches had merely heard that the sect possessed such a Sect Master, but none had ever laid eyes on him.
Even in Lu Yang's cohort, only Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou had ever seen Daoist Buyu. Tao Yao, Man Gu, and Li Haoran had never met him either.
"I heard the Sect Master is back! Let me see, let me see!"
"Wait, isn't the Sect Master Yun Zhi?"
"I've finally gotten to see the real Sect Master! Whenever I go out on missions and introduce myself as someone from the Dao Seeking Sect, people always ask first if I'm Daoist Buyu's disciple. They only let me in after making sure I'm not!"
"None of you have seen the Sect Master before?"
"Have you?"
"Of course."
"We're all from the same batch. Where did you see him?"
"On a wanted poster."
The disciples jostled forward, straining for a look at what a living Daoist Buyu looked like. If an outsider witnessed this spectacle, they might easily come away with the mistaken impression that Daoist Buyu was deeply beloved by his disciples.
"Junior Brother, you're back."
The Grand Elder arrived late—or rather, he only showed his face once the beating had concluded.
Even Lu Yang had managed to rush over at the first sign of trouble; how could the Grand Elder possibly be slower than him?
He recognized the Body Integration cultivators who had just pummeled Daoist Buyu. In the past, when he and Daoist Buyu were building tombs, their prospecting skills had been rather unrefined, and they had accidentally dug into someone's ancestral grave. The family noticed the disturbance and, suspecting grave robbers, came down to investigate. By then, it was too late for the two of them to run, so they slipped into the coffin and slept with the old ancestor for a night.
Once the truth came to light, the family went searching far and wide for Daoist Buyu.
Since they were clearly in the wrong, it was awkward for the Grand Elder to intervene. Letting Daoist Buyu take a beating seemed like the best course of action.
The other elders had stayed away for similar reasons.
Among the Body Integration experts who had just thrashed Daoist Buyu, several were people that Buyu and the elders had provoked together, making it inconvenient for any of them to step forward.
"I was passing by the sect and decided to drop in," Daoist Buyu sighed. In just one year, the acting Sect Master had rotated through four terms.
First, Yun Zhi had served as acting Sect Master, then Lu Yang took over for three days, followed by Yun Zhi again, then Lu Yang took charge for another two months, and now it was back to Yun Zhi.
With the authority of the acting Sect Master changing hands so frequently, one could only imagine how chaotic the sect's administration truly was.
"I thought you'd provoked another enemy and come running back to the sect to take refuge."
Daoist Buyu took offense at that. "What kind of talk is that? I've always taken full responsibility for my actions! When have I ever run away?"
The Grand Elder remarked cryptically with a dark expression, "Then what about the time you imitated a woman and wrote love letters to Fourth Brother, leaving him utterly infatuated, laughing foolishly all day like a man who'd lost his soul? And when the truth came out, how did those unfinished love letters end up tucked under my pillow?"
In his youth, the Fourth Elder had possessed a pen pal named Ye Qianqian. The two had never met in person, conversing entirely through correspondence. In her letters, Ye Qianqian wrote that she had witnessed the Fourth Elder slaying demonic cultivators with brush and ink between lighthearted laughs, which filled her with admiration and prompted her to write.
Finding her words delightful, her handwriting delicate, and her affection subtly evident, the Fourth Elder had quickly taken the bait.
Later, Ye Qianqian claimed that her hometown had suffered a flood that inundated all their crops. Without hesitation, the Fourth Elder mailed back letters along with spirit stones.
Alas, even the most meticulous scheme eventually runs into unforeseen snags. One day, the truth was exposed. The Fourth Elder discovered that someone among his martial brothers had been impersonating Ye Qianqian, and he stormed through their quarters to search everyone one by one.
Seeing that the situation looked dire, Daoist Buyu had immediately shoved the unfinished letters under the Grand Elder's pillow.
Predictably, the Fourth Elder came to blows with the Grand Elder, and only after the dust settled was it revealed to be Daoist Buyu's doing.
*"Fourth Senior Brother is a Confucian cultivator who practices the gentleman's way. He is rigid in his conduct and not very flexible in the head. Wandering the outside world, he could easily be swindled by women. Rather than letting outside women swindle him, it was better that I swindled him first—keep the fertile water in our own fields... ah, no, I mean, that way he would learn to be vigilant."* That was how Daoist Buyu had explained himself right before his beating.
Even now, the Grand Elder felt a lingering dread at the memory. When scholars lost their tempers, they were truly ruthless.
"Since you're back, it's just the right time for a meeting. There's something we need to discuss with you."
The Grand Elder convened everyone: Yun Zhi, the eight elders, Daoist Buyu, Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou, Tao Yao, Man Gu, Li Haoran, and Qin Yanyan.
Eldest Senior Sister had been in the sect the entire time. She had watched her master get beaten with her own eyes, showing no intention of stepping in.
Her reasoning was also perfectly sound—*I'm not at the Body Integration stage; I can't beat them.*
It was plain to see that Eldest Senior Sister genuinely had no desire to intervene.
With all members of the Heavenly Court Cult present, everyone looked at one another in solemn, heavy silence, giving the gathering a momentous atmosphere.
In reality, it was simply because the Sixth Elder was present, making it inconvenient for anyone to speak aloud.
After listening to the Grand Elder's explanation via divine sense, even Daoist Buyu, renowned for his deceit, was left somewhat dumbfounded.
"So that Heavenly Court Cult that's been causing such a stir recently is you guys?"
"It's *us*," the Grand Elder corrected.
"...Setting aside the fact that you roped me into the Heavenly Court Cult as a Guardian Heavenly King without my consent—and being a Guardian Heavenly King wouldn't be so bad—why on earth did you name me the Growth Heavenly King just because I modified the 'Size Manipulation' technique?!"
Old Ba spread his hands, his tone utterly reasonable. "You weren't around, so we had no choice. Besides, our Heavenly Court Cult values democracy. Your title received the unanimous approval of everyone except you."
Daoist Buyu flared up in fury, veins bulging on his forehead. "Democracy, my ass! Who is the Cult Master? Is it Eldest Senior Brother or you? I demand to speak with them!"
"Your eldest disciple."
"...Growth Heavenly King is quite a nice name, actually."
Chapter 509