Chapter 84: Sutian

Did the face-slap have to come this quickly?!

Who was it? How were they so well-informed even aboard the flying vessel? Did they have a death wish? Oh, it was the Sect Master. Never mind, then.

Yonglu Mountain was, after all, one of the Five Great Sects, so they naturally had to maintain appearances when setting out for the Five Sects Conference. The flying vessel they rode was incredibly spacious; it could easily accommodate five hundred people, let alone fifty.

Not only did everyone have their own private cultivation room, but the vessel was also equipped with dedicated rooms for sword practice, saber training, meditation, talisman drawing, and more. Furthermore, because they were representing the sect, all expenses on board were charged to the public account. In other words, this was undeniably a company-funded vacation.

As for the nine Qi Refining disciples, although they were only there to make up the numbers, the resources required for the Qi Refining Stage were minimal. Since the sect had brought them along, they naturally wouldn’t treat them any differently.

Thus, for the entire day, everyone had been trying their best to take advantage of the sect’s generosity. Some cultivated, others practiced their saber skills. It was only now, as dusk approached, that they gathered to watch the sunset. In fact, the flying vessel was an excellent place to cultivate while watching the sun, especially during sunset. Consequently, a large crowd had already gathered at the bow.

Who could have guessed that before the sunset even arrived, news would come that Sword Venerable Meixi’s record had been broken?

With this, all interest in watching the sunset vanished. Gossip was, after all, human nature. Whether one was at the Golden Core or Foundation Establishment stage, they were still human, and humans could never truly rise above base curiosity.

One had to realize that Sword Venerable Meixi was nearly six hundred years old. His Foundation Establishment had occurred over five hundred years ago. In these five hundred years, countless exceptionally gifted geniuses had emerged, yet none of them had achieved Foundation Establishment before the age of twenty.

“Who is it? Is it someone from our Yonglu Mountain?”

The messenger shook his head.

“Then is it the number one sect, the Hehe Sect?”

He shook his head again.

“Could it be the Suitian Sword Sect?”

He kept shaking his head.

“…Kudu Temple? No way. Isn’t Buddhist cultivation supposed to be the hardest?”

The messenger finally nodded, wearing a look that said he knew they wouldn’t guess it. “It is indeed a Buddhist cultivator from Kudu Temple. And you will absolutely never guess who it is.”

“Impossible! Let me guess first. Kudu Temple doesn’t have a Buddhist Heir, so… Master Jianan’s personal disciple, Miaozhen?”

He shook his head.

“Then it must be Master Yicheng’s…”

They went through every somewhat famous genius of Kudu Temple, but not a single guess was correct. “No, no, all wrong. Because before today, even I had never heard his name.”

“Huh? Then spit it out! Stop keeping us in suspense, or I’ll challenge you to a duel!”

“Alright, alright, Senior Brother, don’t be so impatient. I’ll tell you,” the Foundation Establishment disciple said, placating him. “It’s True Monarch Siren, who ranks fourth on the Heaven’s Pride List…”

“Isn’t True Monarch Siren famous for achieving Foundation Establishment late? I recall he reached Foundation Establishment at fifty, Golden Core at seventy, and advanced to Nascent Soul at ninety-five. Last year, at ninety-eight, he leaped to fourth place.”

“I wasn’t finished yet. It’s the disciple True Monarch Siren took in, and his Buddhist name is Bushi^[1].”

Kudu Temple’s Buddhist cultivation system was slightly different from Daoist cultivation. In places like Yonglu Mountain, a cultivator could take disciples and teach once they reached the Nascent Soul stage. Kudu Temple, however, only looked at karmic affinity, which, in other words, meant they did whatever they felt like.

At Kudu Temple’s most ridiculous extreme, a rogue cultivator who had self-studied all the way to the Soul Transformation stage once took a Foundation Establishment monk, who had cultivated for less than ten years, as his master. The oath was witnessed by heaven and earth, completely unalterable. The absolute most absurd part was that this Soul Transformation rogue cultivator actually attained a Buddhist affinity through this, cultivated alongside his Foundation Establishment master, and in the end, both ascended.

To put it in perspective, it was like a university professor taking a primary school student as their mentor, only to end up being carried to success by that student. Was it ridiculous enough? Was it sci-fi enough? That was the kind of style Kudu Temple had always operated on.

Did Kudu Temple produce geniuses? Yes, they did. Furthermore, Buddhist cultivators were notoriously unreasonable. They could achieve sudden enlightenment whenever they pleased, often catching veterans completely off guard. However, Kudu Temple’s geniuses usually accumulated their strength slowly before bursting forth. In everyone’s memory, there were rarely any who dared to be the first to lead.

So, this freshly minted number one cultivator to reach Foundation Establishment, just from his Buddhist name, sounded like…

“What’s going on? I feel like this Five Sects Conference is going to be super interesting.”

“Is True Monarch Siren preparing to leave the Heaven’s Pride List himself, so he trained a reserve genius to take his place? Kudu Temple certainly has a worthy successor.”

“Our Yonglu Mountain isn’t bad either, okay? Just think about the Sect Tournament…”

That was true. Everyone’s gaze couldn’t help but drift toward the southeast corner. Having secured a top-three spot in the Sect Tournament within just one year of joining the sect, Yonglu Mountain was still keeping pace. Never mind, then.

In the world of cultivation, while a culture of excessive rivalry was certainly bad, not a single one of them would agree to being completely overshadowed!

Gu Wufang thought so too. Yonglu Mountain was not an aggressive cultivation sect that would darkly curse another sect’s genius to die young the moment they heard of a promising talent. After all, their own sect wasn’t lacking either. Setting aside that monstrous kid Shi Yijian finally breaking through his mental barrier to enter Foundation Establishment, even the newly admitted disciples were of exceptional quality.

A Mutated Wind Spiritual Root naturally sounded illustrious and impressive, but as a sect master, he could not afford to focus his attention on just one person. Aside from Wen Xu, Chen Zui and Huo Shengyin were also highly eye-catching. He even felt that the disciple with the Water-Fire Spiritual Root might have an extraordinary future ahead of him.

And at this moment, what was the disciple surnamed Bian with the Water-Fire Spiritual Root, whom Sect Master Gu was thinking of, currently doing?

He was racking his brains to comfort his two overachieving friends.

“Don’t cultivate so frantically, you two! I’m scared!”

“Watch the saber, the saber, the saber, the saber! It almost poked me!”

“Actually, it’s not that bad. Twenty-four and twenty-five, that’s only a one-year difference, right?”

“Look at you, you’re only twenty this year. The possibilities are endless!”

Chen Zui finally turned his head, his eyes shining brightly. “Do you really think so?”

“Of course!”

Chen Zui was satisfied, then picked up his saber to continue training.

Bian Chunzhou: …So everything I just said was completely in vain, wasn’t it?

He looked at the other one. Great, he was pushing himself just as hard. Although Wen Xuxu’s emotional fluctuations were always stable, as a close friend, Bian Chunzhou still had enough discernment to notice.

Bian Chunzhou had always known that Wen Xuxu was desperate to return to the Mortal Realm for revenge. But to return to the Mortal Realm, one either had to become a mortal or reach the Golden Core stage to travel there alone.

Given Wen Xuxu’s pride, he undoubtedly wanted to go all out to form his Golden Core and return to humiliate his enemies. But cultivation had a way of teaching every smart person a lesson in humility. Bian Chunzhou had once fought his way across the narrow bridge of the college entrance exam himself. He was the type of student who had to work hard and study diligently just to get into a good university, but the high school he attended was ranked first in the province. The entire school was full of hyper-competitive overachievers: competition kids, early admission students, national second-class athletes… In short, the sheer diversity of elite high schoolers could be found right there in his school.

He had gone through a period of intense anxiety in high school, because chasing after geniuses was a painful process. Just when you finally managed to master the high school curriculum, you would find that the classmates around you had already set their sights on calculus, TOEFL, and IELTS. Some absolute monsters had even begun publishing papers in domestic journals.

Chasing after others, or even chasing a better version of oneself, became a deeply draining process once it crossed a certain line. Wen Xu was not like Chen Zui. Although both were hyper-competitive, the latter only pushed himself and never wore himself down with self-doubt.

And Wen Xuxu was likely well aware of this himself. That was precisely why Bian Chunzhou couldn’t find the right words to comfort his friend, though he still felt he had to say something.

Before he could even open his mouth, Wen Xuxu spoke first. “I’m fine. I know what you want to say, but I don’t care about breaking the speed record for Foundation Establishment.”

“I know that, of course. But you want to break the record for the youngest Golden Core, don’t you?”

Bullseye. Right to the point.

Wen Xu smiled. “As expected, nothing gets past you. It seems my thoughts are written all over my face.”

“Not really. Other people can’t tell. They all think the Little Grand-Uncle Master is noble and pure.” Bian Chunzhou grinned. “But we’re friends. You rarely hide your true feelings in front of us anymore.”

Wen Xu paused, not having realized this himself.

“So, don’t stress over it. Maybe when you finally figure it out, I’ll be the first to notice. After all, I’m your best friend, and I’m watching you very closely. Scared yet?”

Bian Chunzhou felt his attempt at comfort was rather weak, but to Wen Xu, it felt as though no one understood him better than Chunzhou. “Thank you. I’m not scared.”

“Really?”

Wen Xu nodded. “If it’s you, I don’t mind.”

Bian Chunzhou felt a sudden wave of embarrassment. Hearing that was enough to make a person blush.

*

The distance from Yonglu Mountain to the Suitian Sword Sect was a hundred million kilometers, but the flying boat traveled at an astonishing speed. In just seven days, they arrived at the main gates of the Suitian Sword Sect.

Having traveled the greatest distance, Yonglu Mountain was the last of the Five Great Sects to arrive.

Standing in the middle of the group, Bian Chunzhou and his friends looked out at the harsh, biting scenery, which was vastly different from Yonglu Mountain. Compared to the delicate beauty of Langyuan City in the south, the Suitian Sword Sect practically radiated martial dominance from top to bottom.

While most other sects used archways or tall stone tablets for their mountain gates, the Suitian Sword Sect simply had a massive sword towering into the clouds. It shimmered with brilliant spiritual light, and any cultivator in the know would recognize it as a semi-immortal artifact.

The Suitian Sword Sect was the only one of the Five Great Sects without a Mountain-Protecting Grand Array, but this semi-immortal artifact alone was enough to keep evil cultivators from daring to take a single step near the sect.

The name of this semi-immortal spiritual sword was simple and direct: the Sutian Sword. Rumor had it that it was the personal weapon of the Suitian Sword Sect’s founder. When the founder ascended to immortality, he left his sword behind to protect his descendants.

“They say that when a cultivator passes beneath the Sutian Sword for the first time, if they are bathed in the Sutian Divine Light, it means they are a natural-born sword cultivator.”

“Is it really that mystical?”

“Not really,” a disciple whispered to his friend. “See the Little Martial Uncle of the Refining Peak up ahead? The Five Sects Conference four sessions ago was also held at the Suitian Sword Sect. Back then… well, you know.”

“Keep your voice down, Junior Brother. Your senior brother can hear you, you know~”

Zheng Jin was prone to appearing out of nowhere. Even when the Foundation Establishment disciples were whispering among themselves, he had to butt in. Fortunately, he only managed one sentence before Elder Zhao Qi of the Discipline Hall dragged him away.

“Behave yourself, or the Suitian Sword Sect might drag you off to repair swords.”

“Oh, I’m so terrified.” Having recently broken through to the Nascent Soul realm, he clearly wasn’t afraid at all.

Just as Zheng Jin was about to retort, a sudden clamor erupted from beneath the Sutian Sword. Listening closely, he heard a Suitian disciple cry out in shock, “It’s the Suitian Spiritual Light! Who? Who stole my opportunity?!”

…As expected, it was the same old Suitian Sword Sect :).

Zheng Jin casually looked into the distance. A silver sword-light was pouring down, clearing a wide circle around it. Beneath the silver light, a tall, upright figure came into view.

Unsure, he took another look. Why did those robes look so familiar?

“Stop rubbing your eyes. It’s the Little Grand-Uncle Master,” the good-natured Zhi Lianshan said considerately from beside him.

Zheng Jin realized and immediately turned to Zhao Qi, retorting, “Now you should worry about the Suitian Sword Sect dragging the Little Grand-Uncle Master off to repair swords.”

Zhao Qi rolled up his sleeves and pushed his way forward. …Bah! In their dreams!