Lu Yang started to speak, then held back. He wanted to say the imperial robe looked bizarre.
"Fairy, are you sure the two people you embroidered on the imperial robe are you and Eldest Senior Sister?" Lu Yang looked at the robe, truly unable to tell who the figures were supposed to be.
"Of course! Aren't their names written right there?" The Immortal Fairy looked down and pointed at two spots on the fabric.
Lu Yang thought to himself, *Thank goodness you wrote the names. Otherwise, if you told me they were me and Old Meng, I'd believe you.*
"Didn't you say, Little Yangzi, that imperial robes have always depicted the strongest? When it comes to who's strongest in the cultivation world today, naturally it's me and Girl Yun!" The Immortal Fairy puffed out her chest, every inch of her expression and tone brimming with pride.
"Why are you calling me Little Yangzi?"
The Immortal Fairy looked thoroughly baffled. "Is there a problem? I heard that's how emperors address the people around them."
Lu Yang: "..."
Forget it. There was no need to explain something so complicated to her.
"How about I touch up the portraits of you and Eldest Senior Sister a little?" Lu Yang could barely stand to look at the two figures on the robe.
"Sure!" The Immortal Fairy immediately took off the imperial robe, tossed it to him, and pattered around the hall running laps on bare little feet.
With a thought, Lu Yang conjured gold and silver thread, then guided the needle through the cloth. Soon, the Immortal Fairy's exquisite, delicate countenance leaped onto the imperial robe.
"Hmph, indeed a sliver better than this immortal's skill." It was rare for the Immortal Fairy to admit Lu Yang surpassed her.
Remaining unperturbed by praise or blame, Lu Yang moved on to Eldest Senior Sister. Before long, her likeness also took shape on the robe.
Just as Lu Yang was about to offer a few more compliments to solidify his position as chief steward, a rift opened in the spiritual space. It was Eldest Senior Sister.
Her gaze fell on Lu Yang holding needle and thread, and then on the imperial robe draped over his lap. Her eyelid twitched in a rare display of emotion.
"Junior Brother, you..."
Terrified, Lu Yang scrambled to his feet to clear his name. "It had nothing to do with me! Fairy made me do it!"
"Eh? Weren't you the one who suggested embroidering me and Girl Yun on the imperial robe?"
"Don't talk nonsense, Fairy! I didn't say anything of the sort!"
Listening to her junior brother and the senior fairy trade excuses back and forth, Yun Zhi roughly grasped what had happened. "Senior Fairy, have you considered a different style for the imperial robe?" she suggested kindly, tactfully hinting that the garment did not look much like an imperial robe at all.
"A different style?" The Immortal Fairy pondered for a moment, then came to a sudden realization. "Are you saying that since this immortal is the number one expert in the world, embroidering only me on the robe is enough?!"
Yun Zhi let out a soft sigh. "Never mind. Leave it as it is, then."
In any case, no one else frequented the spiritual space. Fairy could wear whatever she liked.
Once Yun Zhi left, the Immortal Fairy excitedly donned the imperial robe, twirled with glee, and showed it off to Little Yangzi. "How about it? How about it? Doesn't it look great?"
Little Yangzi bowed low. "Your Majesty possesses natural, peerless beauty. This imperial robe serves merely to complement Your Majesty's countenance."
***
In the past, traveling to the Demon Domain or the East Sea required finding someone who had been there before to ask about local conditions. This time, accompanied by a local like Meng Jingzhou, Lu Yang had no need to ask around.
"Too bad Junior Sister Tao and the others all went off to eradicate the Emotionless Cult."
Lu Yang had originally planned to invite Tao Tianye and Man Gu along to the Buddhist Kingdom, but after inquiring, he learned that a massive upheaval had struck the cult. Practically no one in the Dao Seeking Sect was idle right now; every single person who could be spared had been dragged off to mop up the remnants of the Emotionless Cult.
Li Haoran had not gone out, but he was fully immersed in comprehending artifact refining, making it inconvenient to disturb him.
Pulled along by the old horse, they arrived at the Imperial City in just two days.
As the largest city in Great Xia—and indeed in the entire cultivation world—the Imperial City was vast beyond imagination. From far away, Lu Yang could already spot several massive, dark silhouettes: mountains located inside the city itself.
A river hundreds of zhang wide split the Imperial City in two, dividing it into the South City and the North City.
This was Lu Yang's second visit to the Imperial City, yet the sight still took his breath away.
At the city gates, Lu Yang noticed many cultivators from the demon race, the Sea Race, and the Buddhist Kingdom. Their clothing and appearances differed drastically from those of the Central Continent, making them recognizable at a glance. Cultivators like them were rare in other cities, but they were everywhere in the Imperial City.
To cross over from other continents to Great Xia, these cultivators had to be at least at the Nascent Soul stage.
When the guards at the gate checked Meng Jingzhou's identity talisman, their eyes went wide.
That Eldest Young Master Meng had actually returned to the Imperial City?!
The guards watched the carriage pass through into the city. Bound by professional ethics, they did not report Meng Jingzhou's entry to their superiors. Meng Jingzhou was not a wanted criminal, so there was no need to make a report.
Was the person accompanying Eldest Young Master Meng into the Imperial City the legendary disciple of Daoist Buyu?
The carriage came to a stop before a plaque inscribed with the words "Meng Residence."
In the lower right corner of the plaque was a name: Jiang Ping'an.
For the founding Emperor Xia to personally inscribe the Meng Residence's plaque made it the equivalent of a death-exemption medallion.
"We're here. This is my home." Meng Jingzhou leaped down from the carriage. Looking at the long-unseen main gate, he felt overwhelmed with emotion.
In the blink of an eye, nearly six years had passed since he ran away from home. He was finally back.
"This is your home?!" Lu Yang climbed out and saw that the front gates of the Meng Residence stood as tall as the legendary Southern Heavenly Gate. Intricate, exquisite patterns were carved into the vermilion doors. Two stone lions stood by the entrance holding stone balls in their jaws, looking practically alive. The steps were carved from top-grade spirit stones, their edges adorned with reliefs of auspicious clouds and auspicious beasts.
Even the gates of the Imperial Palace could hardly surpass this.
In fact, one of the mountains he had spotted from afar was located right inside the Meng Residence grounds.
"The founding Emperor Xia wrote this plaque?" Lu Yang noticed the signature. The Meng family certainly possessed the stature for it; after all, they were once the rival faction that had contended with Emperor Xia for the world.
"What's so special about that? The plaque on the Imperial Palace was written by my family's Old Ancestor."
When the two guards at the gate saw Meng Jingzhou step down from the carriage, they were so excited they began to stammer. One of them immediately bolted inside to report to the patriarch: "Y-Young Master is back!"
"Yo, it's still you two watching the gate?" Meng Jingzhou clearly recognized them.
Back then, he had not been able to tell their cultivation levels, but now he could see clearly: both were late-stage Soul Formation cultivators.
The remaining guard offered a bashful smile. "Young Master jests. Only a few years have passed; how could everyone advance as swiftly as you?"
Before Meng Jingzhou could say anything more, his expression shifted as he felt a terrifying pressure sweep out from deep within the residence.
"You little rascal, you're finally back!"
A middle-aged man suddenly materialized before Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou. Lu Yang could not even track how he had appeared.
"D-Dad, I'm back." Feeling thoroughly guilty, Meng Jingzhou dared not look his father in the eye.
Seeing his long-absent son, Meng Potian let out a hearty laugh and clapped Meng Jingzhou on the shoulder.
"Good. It's good that you're back."
Hearing his father speak in a normal tone, Meng Jingzhou figured he had truly been forgiven. He finally dared to look up and meet his father's gaze, calling out with genuine feeling, "Dad."
"Family scandals should not be aired in public. That you came back to take your beating brings your father immense comfort."
Chapter 904