The old horse pulled the two of them to their third destination: Yanshan City in Quanzhou, named for resting against Mount Yan.
"The third candidate is named Tao Tingfeng. Fifteen years old, a native of Yanshan City, Quanzhou. Uh, Junior Brother Man Gu discovered him when he came down from Mount Yan after slaying monsters and passed through Yanshan City."
"What was Junior Brother Man's evaluation?" Lu Yang asked curiously.
Meng Jingzhou looked at the words in the booklet with a bizarre expression. "He said Tao Tingfeng is timid, fears trouble, and doesn't dare stir up mischief. His moral character is far inferior to that of Brother Lu and Brother Meng."
"...Is Junior Brother Man complimenting us?"
Meng Jingzhou wasn't sure either. "Judging by the overall context, he should be complimenting the two of us."
Tao Tingfeng hailed from a Nascent Soul clan—a locally renowned family of stature. Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou easily found the Tao estate.
The Tao family had hired their own private tutors, sparing the clan's younger generation the need to attend the city's private academies.
Moreover, unlike most private academies, the Tao family not only had their disciples study the Sayings of the Sage, but also taught knowledge of cultivation.
When Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou stealthily slipped into the Tao residence, Tao Tingfeng and the other young disciples were listening to a lecture by a clan uncle.
The Tao family disciples all regarded this clan uncle as their idol. He was quite talented on the path of cultivation, having already reached middle Foundation Establishment at just thirty years of age. Everyone in the family said he had the potential to strive for the Nascent Soul stage and become the clan's second Nascent Soul ancestor.
"On the path of cultivation, impatience is the greatest taboo. Before cultivating, one must cultivate the mind. Those who cultivate with a flighty, impetuous heart often fall into qi deviation...
"Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul... Each stage is a major threshold. Stepping across one brings earth-shattering changes to your status and standing.
"Don't be fooled by our Tao family being a Nascent Soul clan with some say in our one-acre-and-a-third corner of Yanshan City. If you step outside and see a Soul Formation clan, you'll realize that our proud Nascent Soul heritage is really nothing special.
"When I traveled Quanzhou in my youth, I once witnessed a mighty expert at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage take action. Truly, it was like roaring mountains and surging seas, sweeping everything before him—a sight that left one yearning with admiration."
The Tao family's ancestor was merely at early Nascent Soul.
"Take, for instance, the great battle that occurred in Yanshan City half a month ago. Demons secretly infiltrated Great Xia and hid in Mount Yan. Fortunately, an expert of the righteous path intervened and slew them; otherwise, heaven knows what catastrophe would have unfolded.
"If my guess is correct, that was likely a legendary mighty expert of the Soul Formation stage."
Hearing the words "Soul Formation stage," the Tao disciples gasped in unison.
"This Tao family Nascent Soul..." Bored of listening to the lecture, Lu Yang sent out a thread of divine sense to inspect the condition of the Tao family ancestor.
Although both the ancestor and Lu Yang were at early Nascent Soul, and by logic cultivators of the same level could not probe each other with divine sense, Lu Yang was clearly an exception to common logic.
"What about the Tao family ancestor?" Meng Jingzhou was unlike Lu Yang; he had been listening attentively to the lesson.
"Rather than true Nascent Soul, he's more like a half-step Nascent Soul. It's likely a lingering sequela from forcing a breakthrough. He has the strength of the Nascent Soul stage, but there's a limit to how many times he can take action. He can't fight repeatedly."
*Isn't calling yourself a 'Nascent Soul clan' stretching things a bit thin?*
"What of it?" Meng Jingzhou waved a hand dismissively. As the young master of the greatest clan in the realm, he had seen clans of every stripe. "I've even seen a Golden Core cultivator consult a fortune-teller. The fortune-teller told him he was destined to reach the Nascent Soul stage, so he immediately began advertising his family to the world as a Nascent Soul clan."
After all, prominent clans were not imperial-certified organizations subject to annual inspections. Whether a clan was formidable or not depended entirely on local hearsay, leaving vast room for exaggeration.
Of course, the Meng family was completely free of exaggeration. If the Meng family had even the slightest hint of inflation, they wouldn't have survived and thrived in the Imperial City to this day.
"Class dismissed!"
"Come on, let's go play!" Children of this age loved to play, and Tao Tingfeng was no exception.
Chapter 714