Hearing that, Meng Jingzhou's face changed drastically. He tried to defuse the crisis with words.
"Dad, we're still outside!"
"Minor detail."
With a broad wave of his hand, Meng Potian swept both Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou into the Meng Residence.
The old horse snorted, had two guards unhitch the carriage, and leisurely ambled into the residence to catch up with his second brother, Xu You.
"Haven't been back to the Meng Residence in a while. Where does Second Brother live again?"
Meng Potian brought Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou to the main courtyard of the Meng Residence. As a boy, besides climbing mountains, this was Meng Jingzhou's favorite place.
Now, he felt there was really no need to reminisce about his childhood here.
"Dad, there are still guests present!" Meng Jingzhou tried once more to reason with his father. Back then, he had simply been young and foolish, making plenty of intentional mistakes. But so many years had passed, and even he, the culprit, had forgotten about them—why did his father have to keep obsessing over it?
"You must be Lu Yang. What an impressive-looking young man," Meng Potian said, his tone softening slightly as he turned to Lu Yang. "I've long heard Xiao Zhou praise you for having the making of Daoist Buyu, capable of stirring up a whole string of trouble every time you go out."
Lu Yang: "..."
*Old Meng, so that's how you badmouth me behind my back? Whenever I ran into trouble, which time were you not standing right beside me?*
"The struggle of the Golden Age needs remarkable talents like you!"
"I heard you don't have a Dao companion yet. Since your master is Daoist Buyu, surely no one would dare become Dao companions with you. As it happens, my daughter is sweet sixteen, pure and lovely—a perfect match for you. I say our two families can arrange a marriage!"
Before Lu Yang could object, Meng Potian's face hardened, and he turned toward Meng Jingzhou, his tone turning chilling and sinister.
"All right. Now, there are no outsiders."
Seeing Meng Potian raise an iron ruler to discipline Meng Jingzhou, Lu Yang could not bear to see his good brother take a beating. He stepped forward. "Uncle Meng, please wait a moment!"
Meng Jingzhou was deeply moved. As expected of a true brother, adversity revealed true friendship!
Meng Potian turned his head, puzzled as to why Lu Yang had called out to him.
"For Old Meng to earn your discipline, he must have done something that angered heaven and earth. But there's only one of him. If you discipline him, I'm afraid it won't be satisfying enough."
"As it happens, I know a technique called One Meng Into Ten Thousand Mengs. I can produce ten thousand Meng Jingzhous, guaranteeing that you'll have your fill of disciplining him, Uncle Meng!"
Executing One Meng Into Ten Thousand Mengs was far more difficult than One Sword Into Ten Thousand Swords, demanding extraordinarily high levels of spiritual energy and divine sense strength. But that was fine—Lu Yang could temporarily boost his spiritual energy by taking pills, and as for divine sense strength, he could briefly borrow some from the Immortal Fairy.
Upon hearing this, Meng Potian was overjoyed. He had never expected Lu Yang to know such a technique and told him outright to unleash it without hesitation.
Lu Yang did not stand on ceremony either. Grabbing Meng Jingzhou by the ankle, he unleashed his sword art.
"Holy crap, Old Lu, your mo—"
"One Meng Into Ten Thousand Mengs!" Lu Yang bellowed, cutting off Meng Jingzhou's dying words.
Meng Potian looked up, sensing the shift, and saw the sky packed with a dense swarm of his sons. Grabbing his iron ruler, he soared into the air to start thrashing them.
Meng Jingzhou's miserable shrieks echoed over the Meng Residence, quite melodious to the ear. Seeing this, Lu Yang quickly pulled out an image-recording orb to capture the scene.
Before long, Meng Jingzhou fell back down, rubbing his buttocks and limping heavily.
"Exhilarating!" The more Meng Potian looked at Lu Yang, the more he liked him. Truly a disciple of Daoist Buyu—he had mastered real skills!
Meng Jingzhou's return had caused quite a commotion, and soon, direct members of the Meng family flocked to the courtyard to watch the excitement.
"Jingzhou, you're finally back! You have no idea how much your mother missed you. She stayed home all day without going out, terrified she wouldn't see you when you returned!" The first to arrive in the courtyard was a man in his thirties.
"Then where is my mom now?"
"She's been at the Imperial Palace for several days."
Meng Jingzhou sighed and introduced him to Lu Yang. "This is my second uncle, Meng Poli."
"Greetings, Second Uncle Meng."
Second Uncle Meng Poli said, "Hey, this kid is way more polite than you, Jingzhou. You've never addressed me like that!"
Meng Jingzhou rolled his eyes. "Second Uncle, did you forget that time you drank too much, insisted on hugging the stone lions at the entrance to swear brotherhood, claimed you were the eldest brother while the pair of stone lions were the second and third brothers, and declared that from then on I should call the stone lion Second Uncle and couldn't call you that anymore?"
Meng Poli's face flushed, and he cleared his throat guiltily. "Ahem, drunken words don't count!"
"Jingzhou is back?" A gentle, refined voice rang out. The newcomer looked identical to Second Uncle Meng Poli, but his demeanor was starkly different—at a glance, he was clearly a scholar steeped in poetry and classic texts.
"This is my third uncle, Meng Poci. He's my second uncle's twin."
"Do you remember me telling you that I had an uncle stationed at the Demon Locking Pass? That's him."
Lu Yang had some recollection of that. Back when he and Old Meng had been thrown by Eldest Senior Sister into the dense forest bordering the Demon Domain at the Great Xia border, they had gone to the Demon Quelling Pass.
At the time, Meng Jingzhou had lamented with deep regret that he had an uncle at the Demon Locking Pass, saying how wonderful it would have been if they had been thrown there instead.
"Third Uncle, how come you're back from the Demon Locking Pass?"
Meng Poci showed none of the iron-blooded aura typical of a frontier general; instead, he seemed more like a Great Confucian lecturing at an academy.
Meng Poci gave a tranquil smile. "I guarded the Demon Locking Pass for fifty years. Last year, the imperial court issued an order and sent someone to relieve me."
"That's great news," Meng Jingzhou chuckled, guessing that after Great Xia established diplomatic ties with the Demon Domain, they had reassigned his exceptionally formidable third uncle to ease bilateral relations.
"Brother, you're finally back!" A graceful figure darted out from who knew where, bounding enthusiastically over to Meng Jingzhou.
"Little Sister!" Meng Jingzhou beamed with delight. He patted her head, mussing up her hair.
When it came to who treated him best in the Meng family, it was definitely his little sister. Back when he ran away from home without a single coin, she had kindly given him a storage ring filled with treasures, which he had been squandering ever since without ever exhausting them.
"This is my sister, Meng Jingyu."
"Hello, Brother Lu Yang!" Meng Jingyu smiled sweetly. True to Meng Potian's words, she was pure and adorable.
"Aw, so well-behaved."
"Here, this is a gift from Brother Lu Yang." This was the first time someone had ever called Lu Yang "brother." In the past, those he encountered were either peers or cultivators of astonishingly advanced age.
From his identity jade pendant, Lu Yang retrieved a wooden sword. He had carved it in the likeness of the Green Blade Sword while practicing the Sword Dao, and it possessed enough power to pierce through a Soul Formation cultivator.
"Thank you, Brother!" Meng Jingyu accepted it with solemn care. She was exceedingly polite—so polite that Lu Yang could not help feeling she and Old Meng belonged to two completely different species.
"Everything my brother wrote in his letters was about the things that happened while traveling with you. Brother Lu Yang, are your journeys in the outside world always so thrilling?" Meng Jingyu looked at Lu Yang with admiration. Having never stepped foot outside the Imperial City in her life, she was intensely curious about all of Lu Yang's adventures.
"What did he say, exactly?"
"Brother said you're always stirring up trouble. Like how you strayed from the righteous path, willingly joined the Immortal Cult, and forced him to destroy the cult just to rescue you! And that during the Golden Core stage, you made a habit of challenging Foundation Establishment cultivators for fun! He also said you have non-stop romantic luck, but since you're untainted by worldly attachments, none of it works on you."
Lu Yang's expression did not waver. He simply chuckled twice. "Heh, heh."
Chapter 905