The excitement Lu Yang felt from just breaking through to the late Nascent Soul stage was thoroughly drenched and extinguished by the Immortal Fairy pouring a bucket of cold water over it.
Seeing this, the Immortal Fairy hurried to comfort him. "Aiya, the late Nascent Soul stage is already very impressive! Think about it, it's not like every single enemy you run into when you go out is in the Body Integration stage."
Lu Yang recalled the enemies he had encountered: Emperor Yu Wu Youdao, the Void Supreme, the Nightmare Supreme, Hui Doudou... Indeed, none of them were in the Body Integration stage.
Just as Lu Yang was reminiscing about his past record, he suddenly felt a token against his chest grow warm. He pulled it out to look; the Shining Sun Cult was contacting him.
The message on the token stated that the Shining Sun Cult had recently developed some research findings regarding solar energy and hoped Young Cult Master Lu would grace them with a visit to offer some guidance. The location was the same old place: the barbecue restaurant in Yanjiang Commandery, which served as the barbecue chain's headquarters.
They also mentioned that they wished to present the barbecue restaurant's annual dividends to the Heavenly Court Cult. Having nothing else to do, Lu Yang agreed. Holy Son Long Jingzhou was still in secluded cultivation, with no telling when he would emerge.
There was no need to trouble Eldest Senior Sister to show up and hold the fort for such a trivial matter. Lu Yang brought it up with several Protector Heavenly Kings, and they all readily agreed.
The Heavenly Court Cult set off in grand fashion.
At the barbecue headquarters, Cult Master Chi of the Shining Sun Cult and Mu Baiyi of the Nine Nether Cult were both on edge. Rather than welcoming peers, they seemed more like subordinates bracing for an inspection from their superiors.
The two cult masters' fear was entirely reasonable. The immortal battle in the East Sea had made too great an impact; it meant that even among immortals, there were degrees of strength, and Cult Master Yun's power clearly surpassed that of the other immortal.
Add to that Ao Ling displaying her prowess in the East Sea and Dou Celestial Venerable's fame spreading far and wide—each and every event pointed to a single fact: the Heavenly Court Cult was the greatest power in the world.
"Haha, Cult Masters, long time no see!" Lu Yang greeted them with a genial laugh.
Seeing that Cult Master Yun, Dou Celestial Venerable, and the two Dragon and Phoenix Ancestors were not present, Cult Master Chi and Mu Baiyi both breathed a quiet sigh of relief, the psychological pressure easing considerably. Even so, facing Young Cult Master Lu, the heir to the Heavenly Court Cult, they did not dare be careless.
Young Cult Master Lu took his seat while the five Protector Heavenly Kings stood behind him with impassive expressions. The two cult masters personally bent forward to pour tea.
"Young Cult Master, this is the barbecue restaurant's revenue over the past year, along with the income and expenditure ledger." Mu Baiyi gingerly pushed a storage ring toward Lu Yang. The spirit stones stored inside amounted to an astronomical sum, and giving away so many spirit stones caused Mu Baiyi an ache of reluctance in his heart.
Lu Yang cast a glance. The Fifth Elder, the Heavenly King of Many Treasures, accepted the storage ring, swept it with his divine sense, and bowed respectfully to Lu Yang. "Young Cult Master, the ledger checks out."
Lu Yang gave an utterly bored yawn. "Then take it."
Mu Baiyi marveled inward: *As expected of the Heavenly Court Cult. They don't even care about petty sums like this—he didn't even bother asking how many spirit stones were inside.*
"Cult Master Mu didn't ask to see me just for trivial matters like spirit stones, did you?" Lu Yang took a sip of tea and spoke with a smiling gaze, looking as though he had seen right through Mu Baiyi's thoughts.
Mu Baiyi gave an ingratiating smile. "Young Cult Master is truly perceptive. In truth, there is a matter I don't understand, and I would like to trouble Young Cult Master to enlighten me."
"What is it?"
Mu Baiyi weighed his words, watching Lu Yang's reaction closely as he spoke, deeply afraid of stepping on some taboo. "I heard that Ancient Ancestor Ao Ling of your esteemed cult once mentioned at the Old Dragon Emperor's birthday banquet that 'the world no longer knows of the Heavenly Court and the Underworld.' I wonder, what exactly is this 'Underworld'..."
Lu Yang had long anticipated that Mu Baiyi would ask this. A faint smile touched his eyes. "What, have you forgotten what I told you? I said long ago that the bond between our Heavenly Court Cult and your Nine Nether Cult originates from ancient times."
Hearing this, Mu Baiyi's heart nearly skipped a beat, and his face flushed with uncontainable excitement. "Then this Underworld is indeed..."
"The ancient place in charge of nether affairs and reincarnation. All living things under heaven and earth have their souls enter the Underworld after death to undergo the Six Paths of Reincarnation."
Lu Yang wasn't deceiving Mu Baiyi; that truly was what the Underworld was, exactly as Ao Ling had explained to him.
Not only Mu Baiyi, but even Cult Master Chi, who had always been at odds with the Nine Nether Cult, widened his eyes. It was not just the two of them who had noticed Ao Ling's mention of the "Underworld"; many in the cultivation world had been speculating on what the Underworld meant.
Yet no one could say for certain what it was.
Now, they finally had confirmation from Young Cult Master Lu: the Underworld was the ancient Nine Nether!
It was also the first time the five Protector Heavenly Kings had heard this claim. However, knowing Lu Yang was just making things up, they showed little reaction.
Mu Baiyi's face turned red with excitement. Thank goodness the Heavenly Court Cult remembered old ties, or this lucrative barbecue gig would never have fallen into the Nine Nether Cult's lap.
Furthermore, Young Cult Master Lu had once said that if the Nine Nether Cult wished to make its mark in the struggle of the Golden Age, it had to proceed step by step and "forge ties abroad with the Demon Domain and the East Sea"!
Now, as the Dragon Clan unified the East Sea, those words were soon to be realized!
Everything Young Cult Master Lu had said back then was coming to pass one after another. Was it peerless foresight, or a plot long in the making?
Whichever it was, it was more than enough to prove how terrifying Young Cult Master Lu truly was!
"Cult Master Chi, let me see what your cult has cooked up," Lu Yang said with great interest.
Producing results after a little over a year was not slow at all. Things like solar lights and solar water heaters had never existed in the cultivation world. The Shining Sun Cult not only had to invent them, but also needed to bring down costs to promote them among mortals—all of which were formidable challenges.
Under Lu Yang's expectant gaze, Cult Master Chi retrieved a scroll from his storage ring.
The scroll unfurled to reveal a depiction of a sun. Surrounding the sun were several panels made of an unknown material; considering the sheer size of the sun, the surface area of these panels was terrifyingly vast.
The panels were inscribed with many intricate formations. Lu Yang knew nothing about formations and had no idea what they were for.
Old Ba, the Hundred Herb Heavenly King, who was well versed in formations, seemed to discern something and let out a soft exclamation of surprise.
"Cult Master Chi, this is..." There was no need for Lu Yang to pretend he understood; a formation this complex would probably require a Body Integration stage cultivator just to decipher.
Asked about his area of expertise, Cult Master Chi grew very excited. "Ever since Young Cult Master Lu told me about solar energy, the entire cult was profoundly stirred. Everyone began researching how to make full use of solar energy.
"However, halfway through our research, we ran into a problem. The continent has six sides in total, and our Central Continent is just one of them.
"In other words, no matter how fully we utilize solar energy, we can only ever capture one-sixth of it. The remaining five-sixths is completely wasted!"
"And so?" Lu Yang faintly guessed what the drawing on the scroll depicted.
"And so, we planned to assemble a formation capable of harvesting solar energy around the sun's surface—ideally wrapping up the entire sun so not a bit of solar energy goes to waste!
"Then, the solar energy gathered by the formation will be transmitted down below.
"Developing this formation was rather difficult, but fortunately our cult united as one and finally broke through the technical bottleneck.
"The formation on this scroll is our research result."
Lu Yang: "..."
*Aren't you guys taking way too giant a leap forward?*
Chapter 884