A thousand clouds drifted past as the Great Elder looked at the Dao Seeking Sect growing ever closer and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally, safely back at the Dao Seeking Sect."
Although the journey from being captured by the Hanging Temple to safely returning had taken a few twists and turns, getting back was all that mattered.
***
"Junior Brother Shi Chan, I don't think you'll be needing travel expenses after all."
"Huh? Why?" Shi Chan wondered how Senior Brother Dai, who seemed like such a kind person, could bear to make him walk all the way back.
"Your sect is here." Dai Bufan's face was devoid of expression as his gaze drifted past Shi Chan to a group of monks approaching in the distance.
Shi Chan turned to look. Sure enough, it was his master, his martial uncles, and his senior brothers. Their Buddhist light radiated with blinding brilliance, and in the hand of his martial uncle Jiechen, the Prior, dangled a person.
The monks of the Hanging Temple possessed profound cultivation; covering a hundred meters in a single stride, they arrived at the Dao Seeking Sect's mountain gate in the blink of an eye.
"Martial Uncle Jiechen, why are you here?" Shi Chan asked in astonishment. He hadn't heard any news that the sect was coming to pick him up.
His master, Jiesha, was present as well, but considering he hadn't spoken in a very long time, asking him would be futile, so it was better to ask his martial uncle.
"Performing my daily good deed by releasing a captive." Master Jiechen shoved the person in his grip forward, sending him obediently back to the Dao Seeking Sect.
"Master, are you all right?" Dai Bufan looked with a strange expression at the Great Elder, who had just been released by the Hanging Temple.
The Great Elder waved a hand to signal that Dai Bufan need not worry. "It was merely an exchange between the senior leaders of our sects. What could possibly happen?"
Dai Bufan said nothing.
Master Jiechen gestured for Shi Chan to come over.
"Thank you, Nephew Dai, for looking after him this past month." Master Jiechen nodded in thanks.
"Martial Uncle is too polite," Dai Bufan replied with a bow.
***
The contingent from the Hanging Temple escorted Shi Chan home. On the road, Shi Chan kept his head bowed, looking utterly dejected.
By the looks of it, he wouldn't be able to keep working at the slaughterhouse.
"Shi Chan, what did you gain during your time at the Dao Seeking Sect?" Master Jiechen asked warmly. "Jiechen" meant refraining from anger, and he had always worn an amicable smile.
"I gained an immense amount! There are masters everywhere in the Dao Seeking Sect, and I met many people who share my philosophy!"
"Most importantly, though, I confirmed that Master was right: Daoist Buyu's eldest disciple is indeed hard to deal with."
"Naturally. How could your master lie to you? Daoist Buyu's eldest disciple is indeed not to be tri—wait a minute, what did you say?" Master Jiechen suddenly realized something was amiss. How did this kid know Yun Zhi was hard to deal with?
"Master said Daoist Buyu's eldest disciple is terrifying and must never be provoked. I figured that what is learned on paper is always shallow, and to truly understand a matter, one must test it firsthand. So I went to Tianmen Peak and challenged Senior Yun Zhi. And wouldn't you know it, I really couldn't beat her." Remembering the scene, Shi Chan felt a phantom ache in his body and a lingering shudder of terror. Senior Yun Zhi was truly formidable.
Hearing that his beloved disciple had pulled such a stunt, Master Jiesha wobbled mid-flight, nearly plunging headfirst from the sky.
He wanted desperately to unleash a torrent of curses, but remembering that he was still cultivating Silent Chan, he could only scream internally.
***
"We're back!" Lu Yang and his companions returned to the Dao Seeking Sect. There was truly nothing like the warmth of their own people—look, Senior Brother Dai and the Great Elder were personally greeting them at the mountain gate!
"Thank you for your hard work, Great Elder, Senior Brother Dai! I have urgent business with Eldest Senior Sister, so I'll be taking my leave!"
Tossing out these words, Lu Yang swiftly vanished from everyone's sight, leaving them bewildered.
"What's that kid in such a rush for?"
"Who knows?"
Of course Lu Yang was in a rush. Setting aside how much he had learned during this trip to the Five Elements Sect, what to do about the ancient secrets he had uncovered alone required Eldest Senior Sister's decision.
When Lu Yang arrived at Tianmen Peak, Eldest Senior Sister was seated in a half-lotus posture, one foot touching the ground and the other resting upon the opposite thigh. Her hands formed a flower-pinching mudra, clasping two Golden Cores. Her breath was slow and deep, seemingly blending into nature itself, her presence extraordinarily faint.
Before Lu Yang could speak, Eldest Senior Sister slowly opened her eyes and asked, "Little Junior Brother, what brings you to me in such a hurry?"
As she spoke, she concluded her meditation and stood up. With a flick of her finger, the Golden Cores pinched between her fingertips shot into the sky like shooting stars, coming to hang high in the heavens.
Lu Yang was left dumbfounded.
Seeing his astonishment, Eldest Senior Sister casually explained, "A month ago, someone came to challenge me, requesting that I suppress my realm to the late Golden Core stage. I agreed to his condition, plucked two Golden Cores from the sky, and temporarily suppressed my cultivation. Afterward, thinking it a rare opportunity, I decided to refine and temper them. Only just now did I finish refining them and send them back to their original places."
The corner of Lu Yang's eye twitched slightly. He thought to himself that she might as well not have explained.
"Where did you get that wooden pendant?" Eldest Senior Sister hooked her index finger, and the Jianmu fragment hanging around Lu Yang's neck floated up, dragging Lu Yang along with it until he stood right before her.
She took the Jianmu fragment between her fingers and examined it closely. Lu Yang had never been this close to Eldest Senior Sister before; an inexplicable panic seized him, and he could even feel the gentle rhythm of her breath.
"A fragment of immortal wood?" Eldest Senior Sister raised an eyebrow and released Lu Yang. This object was extraordinarily precious. Where had Lu Yang gotten it?
"That's precisely what I came to report! It's a piece of Jianmu, given to me by Sister Shangguan!"
"A piece of Jianmu? Immortal Suiyue?"
Eldest Senior Sister was mildly surprised. Senior Shangguan actually held a clue regarding Immortal Suiyue?
Or perhaps Senior Shangguan hadn't known it was Jianmu, only that it was immensely precious, and had given it away to curry favor and form a karmic bond with Lu Yang ahead of time?
"Allow this immortal to explain," the Immortal Fairy popped up, as she knew the most.
"When this immortal went to the Five Elements Sect's Wood Vein with Lu Yang, I noticed the Wood Vein was brimming with life and terrifying vitality. Then I saw the protective talisman that girl Shangguan gave Lu Yang, so I swept the entire Wood Vein with my immortal sense and found this!"
With a shift of her immortal sense, the Immortal Fairy projected an illusion recreating Immortal Suiyue's corpse buried beneath the Wood Vein.
"This is..."
"Immortal Suiyue's corpse."
Yun Zhi's eyes widened slightly. She had never expected such news. She had visited the Five Elements Sect before, but out of courtesy, she had never scanned what lay beneath their Wood Vein with her divine sense.
Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that an immortal corpse lay buried beneath the Five Elements Sect!
"Immortal Suiyue has perished? No, a single immortal corpse alone isn't enough to make that determination."
"Senior, there is one matter I would like to confirm with you. Ancient texts state that the Nian beast is a dependent of Immortal Suiyue. Is that true?"
"Yes, the Nian beast is a demon beast Immortal Suiyue nurtured using his Suiyue Dao fruit."
"Then that confirms it. Every New Year, the Nian beast becomes active and subsequently vanishes. Once, I intervened in an attempt to see where it went, but I used too much force and spooked it. Ever since, the Nian beast flees on sight whenever it encounters me."
Mortals had lifespans of merely a century, so they treasured time and celebrated the New Year once every year. For cultivators blessed with vast lifespans, a single year was nothing more than the snap of a finger.
In the cultivation world, the custom was to celebrate the New Year once every ten years, and the Nian beast likewise appeared only once a decade. Since reviving, the Immortal Fairy had yet to experience a New Year in the cultivation world.
"What I can confirm is that every New Year, the Nian beast comes from the east and returns to the west. Because of this, I suspected that clues regarding Immortal Suiyue lay either in the East Sea or the Buddhist Kingdom, which is why I instructed Second Junior Brother to travel west more often."
Chapter 555