The Immortal Fairy called the Invincible Nascent Soul back into the spiritual space.
After being thoroughly thrashed by the Immortal Fairy, the Invincible Nascent Soul no longer attacked Lu Yang on sight and was noticeably far more well-behaved.
"Little Yingzi, listen to Little Yangzi for now. Do whatever he tells you to do."
"Little Yangzi, spar with the Invincible Nascent Soul often. After all, this is tied to your advancement to the Soul Formation stage."
"It's best not to order the Invincible Nascent Soul to throw the match to you. When it comes to cultivation, taking shortcuts is a bad idea. It's better to stay grounded on solid footing, lest hidden flaws crop up when you cultivate to higher realms down the road."
For a majestic founding emperor to care so deeply about a subject's cultivation showed just how important this subject was in the founding emperor's heart.
Lu Yang nodded to show he understood.
Seeing Lu Yang so obedient, the Immortal Fairy felt a swell of satisfaction, like a proper teacher.
Having sorted things out on Lu Yang's end, the Immortal Fairy prepared to experience life in the Imperial City.
Meng Jingzhou was the first to rush over to Lu Yang. He gave Lu Yang an odd look, hesitating for a moment before trying a tentative call: "Immortal Senior?"
The Immortal Fairy started. "How did you tell?!"
Her disguise had been practically flawless! How had this brat of the Meng family seen right through it?
Immediately after, she lowered her voice and warned him, "Keep it to yourself! This immortal is currently the Acting Sect Master. Exercising the authority of the Acting Sect Master, I temporarily seized Lu Yang's body because I wanted to come out and have some fun."
Meng Jingzhou felt an immense wave of vindication. *Lu Yang, you little bastard, when you were Acting Sect Master you acted all mighty and rode high—did you ever imagine you'd see a day like this?!*
"Junior understands. I won't breathe a word."
"Brother Lu Yang, are you alright?!" Meng Jingyu rushed over in a flurry and tugged at Lu Yang's sleeve, looking thoroughly worried.
"Brother Lu Yang, the way you fought off everyone just now was so handsome!"
"Who knew this little girl had such good taste!" Hearing Meng Jingyu praise her for being handsome, the Immortal Fairy beamed with joy.
"If you run into trouble in the future, this... I've got your back!" The Immortal Fairy had originally started to say "this immortal," but caught herself in time. Externally, she was using Lu Yang's identity; she had to be careful not to blow her cover.
If Girl Yun found out she had exposed herself, there would be no end to her nagging.
After several rounds of combat, the ancient trees of Luotian Forest leaned every which way, and the ground was churned up as though an earth dragon had turned in its sleep, utterly filthy and wrecked. Upon returning to the Meng Residence, Meng Jingzhou asked elders of the clan to step in and restore Luotian Forest to its original state.
***
"Father, I really couldn't beat that Lu Yang," a noble scion confessed after returning home and reporting the battle's outcome to his father.
"And it wasn't just me fighting alone! Several dozen of us were ganging up on him, yet none of us could beat him! His Nascent Soul was absurdly strong—even an exceptionally gifted Soul Formation cultivator couldn't slash out sword qi like that!"
"I don't know whether Lu Yang can multitask with two minds at once or if his Nascent Soul has some special property, but it was just like a second Lu Yang, and its fighting style was wicked to the bone—it kept ambushing us!"
"There's actually a Nascent Soul like that?"
"Yes! I've never even heard of a Nascent Soul like Lu Yang's. It's probably one he created himself!"
Hearing this, the scion's father stroked his beard in thought. "Old Buyu's youngest disciple truly has quite the skill, creating his own Nascent Soul from scratch."
Though he hadn't managed to beat Lu Yang, having beaten up Meng Jingzhou made the scion feel that the battle in Luotian Forest had been well worth it.
Still, that kind of satisfying harvest was something the older generation would never appreciate, so there was no need to mention it aloud.
***
"What on earth?! Lu Yang beat a whole crowd of you?" The Minister of Works gasped in astonishment. His son was renowned for martial prowess; even if he wasn't invincible among his peers, he shouldn't have been far from it. How could the gap be so enormous?
Disappointed that his son had failed to live up to expectations, the Minister of Works poked Sun Chuanxian on the forehead. "Look at you! You always brag about how strong you are, but when it actually counts, you're utterly useless!"
Sun Chuanxian wore a bitter grimace. "Father, you don't know how strong Lu Yang is. His sword arts are extraordinary, his fist techniques are even more powerful than his swordsmanship, he's proficient in all sorts of spells, and his Nascent Soul is insanely tough. I couldn't match him in a single aspect!"
"Father, why don't you suppress your cultivation realm and fight him yourself?"
The Minister of Works rolled his eyes. He wasn't stupid. Hearing Lu Yang's track record, he knew that suppressing his realm would mean a thrashing; only by fighting without suppressing his realm would he stand a chance.
***
Following the battle in Luotian Forest, the world once again felt Lu Yang's terrifying might. Here was someone with the caliber to become an immortal—a figure bound to claim a place in the struggle of the Golden Age.
Of course, Lu Yang himself felt nothing of the sort. After all, he was currently getting beaten up by the Invincible Nascent Soul and had no time to care about how the outside world evaluated him.
"Pant, pant..." Lu Yang breathed heavily, watching the Invincible Nascent Soul warily.
He could now be considered in indirect control of the Invincible Nascent Soul; otherwise, he would have been beaten even more brutally.
"As expected of my theoretically strongest state. It really isn't easy to catch up to."
The Invincible Nascent Soul represented Lu Yang's peak potential at the Nascent Soul stage. If Lu Yang wanted to defeat it, he had no choice but to hone his own skills to perfection.
Exchanging blows with the Invincible Nascent Soul brought tremendous improvement to Lu Yang.
In reality, while the Immortal Fairy had temporarily seized Lu Yang's body, she didn't just spend all her time fooling around. In her spare moments, she also helped Lu Yang cultivate.
In the blink of an eye, the Shangyuan Festival arrived.
Meng Jingyu excitedly clamored to go out and play, insisting on dragging both Meng Jingzhou and the Immortal Fairy along.
"Brother Lu Yang, let's go out and have fun!"
"Let's go!" The moment the Immortal Fairy heard about going out to play, she bounded up from the bed, cutting short her cultivation.
The Imperial City was exceptionally lively during the Shangyuan Festival. Every household was festooned with lanterns and colored streamers, and the pedestrians on the streets brimmed with festive joy, gladdening the heart of anyone who looked upon them.
"What is that place?" The Immortal Fairy suddenly pointed toward a multi-story restaurant hung with red lanterns and asked, sensing a dense aura of the mortal world gathered there.
Meng Jingyu shook her head, having no idea what it was. She had never been to such a place.
Meng Jingzhou explained with a strange look, "That's the Lotus Tower. It's the Charm Sect's stronghold in the Imperial City."
The Immortal Fairy had some impression of the Charm Sect. She had met their Supreme Elder, Venerable Qianjiao—though she didn't know whether Qianjiao had returned to the Charm Sect by now or was still playing the pig to eat the tiger.
"And what does the Lotus Tower do?" the Immortal Fairy pressed.
"The Lotus Tower is different from ordinary brothels. Everyone in the Lotus Tower is a disciple of the Charm Sect; they sell their art, not their bodies. The disciples of the Charm Sect are thoroughly versed in the zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and song. Is Brother Lu interested in going inside to take a look?"
The one offering this explanation was not Meng Jingzhou, but someone else entirely.
Meng Jingzhou turned his head and saw Zhong Yi standing beside them, lightly swaying a paper fan with refined elegance.
Meng Jingzhou's expression darkened. "If I remember correctly, the people who frequent the Lotus Tower are all Confucian cultivators, aren't they?"
Without a decent amount of ink in one's chest, going into the Lotus Tower made it all too easy to make a fool of oneself.
Zhong Yi chuckled softly, looking at Meng Jingzhou and Lu Yang with a faintly provocative gaze.
"What? Daoist Buyu is proficient in poetry and songs—as his disciple, have you failed to pick up even a scrap of it?"
"That sounds pretty fun." The Immortal Fairy grew interested. A place like this had never existed in the ancient era. "Little Sister Yu, shall we go take a look?"
Meng Jingyu rarely had a chance to visit such places and was equally curious.
"I want to go!"
"Then let's go!" The Immortal Fairy excitedly took Meng Jingyu's small hand, causing Meng Jingyu's face to flush pink.
The Immortal Fairy didn't think anything of it; she had often held hands with Ao Ling and Jiang Lianyi like this in the past.
The smile froze on Zhong Yi's face. *How did I get completely ignored?!*
*To completely disregard my provocation... what terrifying depth of scheming!*
Chapter 916