"Eldest Senior Sister, we're back!"
The moment Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou returned to the Dao Seeking Sect, they immediately went to report their safe arrival to Eldest Senior Sister.
More importantly, they were reporting the Patriarch's safe arrival, proving that they had accomplished the task she had entrusted to them.
"You returned ten days later than I estimated. Did some mishap occur along the way?"
Yun Zhi was slightly puzzled. Master had told her that the matter regarding the Patriarch had already been settled with the Ye City yamen, and he had been released long ago. Why, then, did it take ten more days for her two junior brothers to safely deliver the Patriarch back to the Dao Seeking Sect?
Lu Yang felt too sheepish to admit that while the Patriarch had indeed been set free, the two of them had remained locked up. "Y-yes, a small mishap happened along the way."
Yun Zhi nodded and did not dwell on the matter. After all, having an accident happen on the road was perfectly in keeping with her youngest junior brother's usual luck.
"Your timing is just right. Senior Fairy, please come out for a moment."
"What is it?" The Immortal Fairy poked her head out, which happened to rest right on Lu Yang's shoulder, making it look as though Lu Yang had sprouted two heads.
Yun Zhi opened a wooden box. Inside lay a green peach, attached to a short branch. Rather than calling it a peach, it looked more like a flawless work of art.
"Is this peach the fruit borne by the peach-tree-shaped heaven-and-earth spiritual root that you mentioned before, Fairy?"
The Immortal Fairy was astonished when she saw the peach. "You actually managed to find it? I thought nobody would be able to track it down for at least eight hundred to a thousand years."
"What is that?" Meng Jingzhou asked in a low voice. Judging from Lu Yang's expression, his friend seemed to know the backstory.
"You could call it a top-tier natural treasure," Lu Yang whispered back. "As you know, His Majesty only has a few years of lifespan left. Eldest Senior Sister asked the Fairy if there was any way to extend it, and the Fairy said that in ancient times, there was a peach tree that was a heaven-and-earth spiritual root. The peaches it bore were innate life-extending treasures capable of saving His Majesty's life."
"Such a thing actually exists?" Even with the vast background of the Meng Family, Meng Jingzhou had never heard of a treasure like this in the world. "Does that mean His Majesty can be saved?"
Meng Jingzhou felt a surge of relief. Although the First Prince could make a qualified emperor, it was still best to avoid replacing the monarch if possible, so as not to destabilize the realm.
"It's definitely the right thing, but it doesn't seem ripe yet, does it?" The Immortal Fairy remembered that ripe peaches were pink.
"I thought so as well." Having received confirmation, Yun Zhi closed the box. The peach had not been completely plucked from the branch, and the nutrients remaining in the wood would be enough to let it ripen.
In that case, they would wait until it ripened before delivering it to the Imperial City.
"Speaking of which, where did you find this heaven-and-earth spiritual root?" the Immortal Fairy asked, full of curiosity.
At this question, Yun Zhi's expression turned unnatural for a brief instant. She had never expected that the peach grove in her old hometown truly harbored that heaven-and-earth spiritual root. No wonder the spiritual energy back home was absurdly abundant—it seemed that wasn't solely due to the Child-and-Mother River.
"I stumbled upon it by chance. The peach tree has already run off."
"All right." The Immortal Fairy sighed with regret. It wasn't the first time that spiritual root had sprouted legs and sprinted away.
"There is one more matter, Junior Brother Meng. Here is a letter sent from your family. They also asked me to pass along a verbal message: they want you to take a trip home."
"Telling me to go home again..." Meng Jingzhou rolled his eyes. He had stirred up so much trouble that there was no way his father had forgiven him. As long as his father didn't explicitly say he was forgiven, he absolutely would not return!
Meng Jingzhou tore open the envelope and skimmed the letter. As he read on, his face grew paler and paler, and his hands began to tremble.
"What's wrong?" Lu Yang asked inquisitively.
"The letter says that if I don't go home, my dad will personally come to the Dao Seeking Sect."
Lu Yang: "..."
"Rather than getting beaten at the Dao Seeking Sect, I recommend you go home and get beaten there."
"Eldest Senior Sister, can we ban my dad from entering the Dao Seeking Sect?"
Yun Zhi shook her head. "Our Dao Seeking Sect does not prohibit family members from visiting disciples."
Meng Jingzhou agonized over it, scratching his head with a guilty conscience. It looked like he had no choice but to go back.
"Old Lu, come with me. If an outsider is present, my dad probably won't beat me too hard."
"Will that even work?"
"Of course it will! My dad thinks so highly of you that he even wanted you to marry my sister. He'll definitely give you some face." Regardless of whether it would actually work, Meng Jingzhou was determined to drag Old Lu along first.
"Is that true or not?" Lu Yang felt that this grandson's words weren't entirely trustworthy.
"Would I ever lie to you?"
Lu Yang answered in all seriousness, "Considering how often I lie to you, it would be pretty normal for you to lie to me once or twice."
"Why do you sound so proud of that?! Just tell me, are you coming or not?"
"I'm coming." It was rare to get a chance to visit the Imperial City; of course Lu Yang wanted to go. The last time he went was when he served as Acting Sect Master, and he had gone straight into the Imperial Palace to meet Emperor Xia and the sect leaders of the other four immortal sects. He had never even seen what lay outside the palace walls.
It was no exaggeration to call the Imperial City a holy land of cultivation. All sorts of cultivators gathered there in a spectacular spectacle. The strongest cultivators in the cultivation world, the finest weapon refiners, and the most skilled alchemists were all in the Imperial... wait, no, they all seemed to be in the Dao Seeking Sect.
"Should the two of us put on a disguise, though?"
"Why disguise ourselves?"
"Think about it. You're a member of the Meng Family, and I'm Daoist Buyu's disciple. If the two of us go to the Imperial City together, I'm worried we'll get intercepted before we even reach the city gates."
The two looked at each other, quietly pulled out masks, and transformed into completely different appearances.
Old Horse had long since returned to the Dao Seeking Sect after finishing his trip to visit family in the East Sea. Hearing that Meng Jingzhou was going back to the Imperial City, he was very pleased.
Soon, however, the horse realized something was off. It was fine for Meng Jingzhou to go back alone, but why was Lu Yang tagging along?
Could something terrible happen to the Imperial City?
Old Horse gave a self-deprecating laugh, thinking he was overthinking things. How could that be possible? That was the Imperial City—impregnable and teeming with experts. What could possibly go wrong?
"Yay! Let's go to the Imperial City, overthrow Emperor Xia, and establish the Great Soybean Dynasty!" The Immortal Fairy was thrilled to hear they were heading to the Imperial City.
To celebrate the impending founding of the Great Soybean Dynasty, the Immortal Fairy stripped off her prison clothes, washed up, and changed into a bright yellow imperial robe. She wore a crown adorned with beaded tassels, her small face tensed as she strove to look solemn and majestic.
At the same time, with a grand wave of her hand, she removed the prison cage in the spiritual space and replaced it with a palace built from immortal stones. Sitting demurely on the imperial throne, she looked as though she were perched high above the nine heavens, gazing down upon her sole subject—Lu Yang.
Lu Yang felt that King Goujian sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall hadn't risen in power as quickly as the Immortal Fairy.
"Your subject Lu Yang greets Your Majesty."
"Address me as Sovereign," the Immortal Fairy commanded.
Lu Yang complied readily. "Sovereign Lu Yang greets Your Majesty."
"I feel like something should be embroidered on this robe," the Immortal Fairy muttered. But embroidering dragons, phoenixes, or qilins wouldn't properly convey her status.
Ao Ling, Lianyi, and Immortal Kirin combined weren't enough for her to beat up, so embroidering them onto her imperial robe would only demean it.
"Second-in-Command, what do you think this immortal should embroider onto this imperial robe?" the Founding Bean Emperor asked her Grand Chief Steward, Lu Yang.
"Your Majesty, imperial robes have traditionally been embroidered with the strongest figures," Lu Yang pointed out.
A light went off in the Immortal Fairy's mind. She immediately used her divine will to begin embroidering upon the imperial robe.
"Done!"
Lu Yang looked over and discovered that the figures embroidered upon the robe were the Immortal Fairy herself and Eldest Senior Sister.
Chapter 903