“What? Me, Sect Master?”

Now it was Daoist Xiantian's turn to be stunned. He had assumed modern sects were like those back in the Great Yu era, stopping at nothing in their scramble for the position of sect master. He had even worried that when he returned to the Dao Seeking Sect, its members wouldn't want a "retired emperor" over their heads and would make things difficult for him in every possible way, or even move to eliminate him. He hadn't expected this junior to want to make him Sect Master outright. "No, no, that won't do at all." Daoist Xiantian waved his hands again and again. "Never mind that I'm nothing but a mortal right now—even if I recovered my Body Integration stage cultivation, I wouldn't have the ability to manage a sect this size." The Dao Seeking Sect of today was a far cry in scale from what it had been at its founding. How could he possibly oversee all of it? "It's no problem. Little Junior Brother was Sect Master for three months too, and running the Dao Seeking Sect is easy." Daoist Xiantian was even more astonished. Were the standards for being Sect Master this low now? Even a Nascent Soul cultivator could hold the post? No—he shouldn't think that way. This junior had been able to defeat Soul Formation cultivators while still at the Foundation Establishment stage. Now that he had cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage, wouldn't his true fighting strength be on par with the Body Integration stage? "I really can't be Sect Master. You don't need to treat me like this—just treat me as an ordinary disciple of the sect." Daoist Xiantian only wanted to focus on cultivation, cast aside the past, and return to the Body Integration stage. "Oh, right, Eldest Senior Sister—the Patriarch's Golden Cicada Slough is in the imperial court's hands now. Do you think you could help get it back?" Lu Yang took the chance to bring it up. "What happened with the Golden Cicada Slough?" Lu Yang recounted everything the Patriarch had been through since waking up—naturally, leaving out the part where he and Old Meng had strung the Patriarch up. That memory was surely not a pleasant one for the Patriarch, and since the Patriarch was right there, he didn't mention it. Yun Zhi nodded. "So that's how it is. That won't be difficult." "Does the Patriarch want to meet the sect's higher-ups?" Yun Zhi asked again. Something as momentous as the Patriarch still being alive should, by any measure of feeling or propriety, be made known to the sect's higher-ups. Daoist Xiantian happily agreed. Meeting the sect's outstanding juniors would be good. … Before long, the eight elders of the Dao Seeking Sect had all gathered in the Discussion Hall—all except the Sixth Elder, whose beauty defied description; if she had come in person, she would have suffocated Daoist Xiantian. She sent only a projection. The eight elders were, as befitted people who had seen great things, not only higher in cultivation than Dai Bufan, but also his superiors in their ability to take things in stride. "So this is our Patriarch?" "He really is young." "He doesn't look like the statue at all." "Of course not, idiot—he dispersed his cultivation to start anew. How could he look the same?" "Should we replace the Patriarch's statue? The one we have looks pretty old." "Look at you, First Elder—you dig up graves all day long and never dug the Patriarch out, and then look at Little Lu and Little Meng. One trip out and they found him." "Who's digging up graves? I call it field research and study. The tomb owners all gave their tacit approval." "If the tomb owners could talk, you'd be the one lying in the coffin, First Elder." Suddenly the Eighth Elder seemed to remember something. He quietly sidled up to Daoist Xiantian and asked in a low voice, "By the way, Patriarch, are you still taking disciples?" "Huh?" Before Daoist Xiantian could react, the Eighth Elder was already enthusiastically advertising himself. "Don't let my low ranking among the elders fool you, Patriarch—that's only because I joined the sect late. I'm a Body Integration stage expert now, no matter how you look at it, and I'm well versed in the way of talismans. You only have to nod, and you'll have yourself a disciple at the late Body Integration stage right this moment, with the whole teaching process skipped." "What do you think of me?"