The Immortal Lord and the Demon Venerable Are Both My Vests - Chapter 3

The vast Taihua Mountain stretched for thousands of miles, with several thousand spiritual energy peaks encircling the cloud-piercing highest peak at the very center. Where clouds and mist swirled, a magnificent palace stood high above, with a plaque hanging in the center that read ‘Huayuan Hall’.

Inside the hall sat more than ten people. In the center of the great hall, a massive water mirror floated in mid-air, clearly displaying the disciple selection taking place at the foot of the mountain.

Those in the Tribulation stage typically didn’t deign to come in person. Only those great powers in the Mahayana stage were qualified to sit here and select disciples. Those in the Integration stage, Soul Separation stage, and Spirit Transformation stage all had to wait obediently in the plaza halfway up the mountain.

As for those below Spirit Transformation? Sorry, but in Taihua Immortal Sect’s view, those who hadn’t even cultivated their divine soul didn’t have the qualifications to take disciples.

——By this standard, ninety-nine percent of sects across the entire continent would weep in despair.

——Only you all could treat Spirit Transformation stage cultivators like cabbages!

Currently, the water mirror still showed the stage of screening for spiritual roots. With nothing else to do, the various great powers of the immortal sect inside the hall could only chat idly with each other.

Someone with sharp eyes noticed the two people seated beside the Sect Master and teased: “Impressive, Tianquan Daojun! You actually managed to ‘invite’ Tianji Daojun out this time?”

Everyone in Taihua Immortal Sect knew that Tianji Daojun Shen Muxuan had never been interested in taking disciples. Eighty percent of the time, he was out wandering and enjoying himself, calling it ‘traveling’. This left them with no opportunity to pull strings and place their own disciples under him.

The two senior and junior brothers both wore long swords at their waists. Though the styles were quite different, both had two ancient seal script characters engraved near the hilts.

Facing the elders’ teasing, Gu Fuxuan merely nodded slightly. He was slender in build, clad in black martial attire. When he wasn’t smiling, he looked exactly like what the world imagined a sword cultivator should be.

Yin Lang, however, said, “These elders speak incorrectly. This one has always wanted to accept more talented disciples, but you elders guard your disciples like Tribulation pills. This lord truly has nowhere to start!”

He held a folding fan, lightly tapping it against his palm. The smile on his face made it clear this was entirely a joke, and they all laughed knowingly.

Tianji Daojun was recognized within Taihua Immortal Sect as having a good temperament. Mischievous tendencies aside, no one had ever seen him truly angry.

Even when people joked about him and Gu Fuxuan, he would play along.

“Tianshu Daojun’s eldest disciple also possesses an extremely rare Sword Body. He often appears before Tianji Daojun—is the daojun not tempted?”

“Naturally tempted, but this one doesn’t yet wish to experience senior brother’s natal sword’s blade…”

After a few rounds of banter, the atmosphere in the hall became harmonious.

In the water mirror, the light of the spiritual root detection spell had already enveloped all the people at the foot of the mountain.

This revealed the domineering nature of Taihua Immortal Sect as the first immortal sect. Whether the participants were mortals or cultivators, descendants of first-rank sects or the dregs of bottom-tier sects, all were treated equally, standing honestly on the ground with their feet, participating in the selection together with everyone else.

Lin Xinqiao naturally couldn’t enjoy special treatment either. Her luxurious palanquin and all the servants who attended her were expelled beyond the boundary. The young miss stood there prettily in a goose-yellow dress, while those around her unconsciously kept their distance, staying at least five meters away.

Xu Rong stood not far from her, but given Lin Xinqiao’s haughty attitude, even if he stood right in front of her, she probably wouldn’t remember him.

But Xu Rong didn’t even notice the person who had beaten him bloody just days ago. He kept his head raised, gazing at that mountain range hidden in clouds and mist, and beyond the clouds, the thousands of miles of jade palaces and towers that mortal eyes couldn’t see.

——That was Taihua Immortal Sect.

The first immortal sect he had joined in his previous life, and where he had ultimately died.

He didn’t know why he had returned to a hundred years ago, to when nothing had yet happened. But since he had the chance to start over, Xu Rong would never allow those misfortunes to occur again!

He remembered the ‘immortal’ he had encountered outside Dieyun City before returning. The young Xu Rong only knew to gape and call out ‘immortal’, but Xu Rong who had returned after a hundred years knew all too well the other’s identity——

One of the Seven Sons of Taihua, Tianji Daojun Shen Muxuan.

A great power clearly in the Mahayana stage, yet who loved traveling mountains and waters, with no interest in power struggles—an anomaly within the immortal sect.

He didn’t care much about most things, yet as the wielder of the Tianji Sword, he possessed absolute authority within Taihua Immortal Sect.

This was precisely the kind of master Xu Rong needed most in this life.

The light representing spiritual roots lit up on his body. Xu Rong took one step forward, stepping onto the first tier of the Heavenly Ascension Path.

The first step in changing the past—start by becoming a disciple under Tianji Daojun!

Taihua Immortal Sect’s entrance trials had five stages. Passing three allowed entry to the outer sect, passing four to the inner sect, and passing all five made one a peak master’s personal disciple.

Xu Rong had already walked this trial path once in his previous life. The trials seemingly had only five stages, but were actually seven. Two trials were hidden beneath the other five. Only by passing all seven trials could one enter the Huayuan Hall at the mountain peak and have the qualification to take a Dao Integration stage elder as master.

“What do you all think—in this opening ceremony, how many will be able to pass the complete seven trials and ascend to this hall?” Inside Huayuan Hall, the Sect Master asked with interest.

A plump elder shook his head. “Hard to say, hard to say.”

Those from sects and clans easily got stuck on perseverance and willpower, while mortals had unavoidable deficiencies in their foundation. And talents who had both qualities were like finding a grain of millet in the ocean—how difficult to find!

In comparison, the quality of spiritual roots was actually what Taihua Immortal Sect cared about least.

Only small sects haggled over spiritual roots, because small sects didn’t have enough resources to waste on those with poor talent. But for major sects with deep foundations, the qualities aside from spiritual roots were what they valued most, because these determined how far you could ultimately go on this path of seeking immortality!

“I think that girl in the yellow dress is quite good.” Someone pointed at Lin Xinqiao in the water mirror.

She was in the second batch of the entire trial group, having already passed three trials—not too conspicuous, yet not mediocre either. When this elder noticed her, Lin Xinqiao had just nimbly sidestepped an attack launched by outer sect disciples from the sides of the stairs. Her footwork was so agile it made one’s eyes light up.

“She knows both to conserve strength and control her pace, and can remain coldly observant of her surroundings under ten times gravity. Just these two points alone surpass ninety-nine percent of this year’s trialists.” This elder stroked his beard with a chuckle, claiming her in advance. “If this girl can walk into this Huayuan Hall, you all mustn’t compete with this old man—eh?”

In the time it took to say two sentences, the situation in the water mirror suddenly changed.

The yellow-dressed girl who had just been praised as ‘calm and meticulous, with superior talent’ somehow inexplicably misstep by half a pace. She was hit by three attacks in succession and fell to the ground, covered in dust and mud.

Such filth was hard for even wealthier mortals to bear. The pampered young miss erupted on the spot, completely forgetting her father’s instructions before departure. She suddenly grabbed the weapon whip coiled at her waist and lashed down viciously at a plainly-dressed youth who was climbing.

“Lowly mortal, you dare scheme against this young miss?!”

Hearing the ‘whooshing’ sound of wind behind him, the youth instinctively ducked and rolled on the ground. Looking back, he revealed a face that remained handsome despite being covered in dust. He exclaimed in shock. “What are you doing!”

The youth’s temperament and face were completely mismatched with the clothes he wore. One look told you he must have some tragic past beyond ordinary imagination.

Beyond the initial surprise, his movements dodging the whip were extremely nimble, and his judgment was quite sharp. Time and again, he earned approving nods from the great powers watching through the crystal.

This youth was only at the third layer of Qi Refining, while the yellow-dressed girl had Foundation Establishment cultivation. No matter how fierce the fight, in the eyes of those in Huayuan Hall it was just chickens pecking at each other. They never cared about who won or lost, but rather what both sides displayed during the struggle.

Xu Rong appeared extremely disheveled, but the dirt was all from dodging—he hadn’t actually taken any real damage. Moreover, he consistently led the whip toward places where there were no people.

Quick-witted and principled, he naturally earned the great powers’ favorable impression first. Looking again, he even had a fire-element Heavenly Spiritual Root. Immediately, more than one person in the hall developed interest in examining him further.

Don’t think it’s easy for Mahayana stage cultivators to take disciples—Mahayana stage cultivators have even more exacting standards when selecting disciples. Without the tempering of a hundred years in his previous life, Xu Rong’s acting skills couldn’t possibly be refined enough that even great powers couldn’t see through them.

The Sect Master suddenly said, “Tianji Daojun, please go save him.”

“Mm… you want me to go?” The person who seemed to have been spacing out the whole time without watching the water mirror expressed mild surprise.

Facing the astonished gazes cast from all directions throughout the hall, the Sect Master acted as if he hadn’t noticed. “All of you, put away your little schemes. No matter how interested you are, if he can’t walk up to Huayuan Hall, it’s all for nothing.”

“……”

We weren’t even thinking of showing favoritism.

Someone muttered quietly. “To stop a bunch of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment kids, where’s the need for Tianji Daojun to act personally?”

The white-robed daojun rose with a smile, looking as if he had no objection whatsoever to this suddenly capricious order. He casually saluted the Sect Master with a raised hand, then his body transformed into flowing light and disappeared.

The middle section of the Heavenly Ascension Path had already descended into chaos. Xu Rong struggled to dodge Lin Xinqiao’s rain of whip strikes, while still having the mental capacity to think about how to perform to make himself more conspicuous.

Compared to this year’s trialists, he had two advantages: First, he knew what type of disciple personality Tianji Daojun favored most; second, outside Dieyun City, ‘he’ had successfully aroused Tianji Daojun’s curiosity.

This destined that among trialists of the same level, the other would certainly notice him first.

Most of the trialists around Lin Xinqiao dodged in panic. The few capable of stopping her were unwilling to expend their already limited stamina on this, avoiding her when possible. This made Lin Xinqiao appear all the more arrogant and rampant.

Weng——

A clear sword cry rang out from nowhere.

The sound wasn’t harsh, resonating directly in everyone’s minds. Lin Xinqiao instinctively stopped whipping and, along with everyone else, turned her head to look.

She froze.

At the edge of the heavenly stairs, an immortal stood holding a fan.

Snow-white robes, ink-black hair, smiling eyes and brows—he should have been an immortal lord as distant as clouds, yet a single point of crimson between his brows pulled him back down into the mortal realm.

From his wide sleeves emerged a slender, pale right hand, gripping the folding fan and pointing lightly in their direction. Lin Xinqiao only felt a breeze brush past her ear. When she came back to her senses, the spirit whip in her hand had automatically coiled back at her waist, and her clothes were clean and neat again.

Her face suddenly flushed red.

The instant the sword cry sounded, Xu Rong realized who had come. Though quite surprised he would appear at such a time, he still perfectly controlled his expression, completing the external transformation from longing——to shock——to suddenly lowering his head.

The moment he lowered his head, he noticed Lin Xinqiao’s left hand unconsciously reaching into her sleeve to feel for something.

What was she looking for?

“…Above the Heavenly Stairs, mutual combat between trialists is forbidden. The first offense results in being sent back to the mountain foot to restart the trial as a warning. If there is a second offense, it will be viewed as provocation against this sect, and the offender will be killed on the spot.”

After speaking, he tapped his palm with the folding fan and smiled. “Ah… all are clever children. Surely you won’t make things difficult for this lord.”

From the moment Yin Lang appeared, Lin Xinqiao had never moved her gaze away. Only when the punishment came down did she raise a smile, gracefully curtsying. “This girl accepts the punishment. May the daojun escort this girl down.”

The daojun smiled at her and pointed again with his fan.

A gentle spiritual energy vortex swirled around Lin Xinqiao’s feet, its subtle amplitude stirring her sleeves and skirt. A point of crimson flickered in and out of view within her sleeve.

Before Xu Rong could focus his spirit to clearly see the somewhat familiar object’s specific form, Lin Xinqiao’s figure had already departed into the distance.

Looking up again, the casual and carefree white-robed daojun had also disappeared from sight.

The leisurely walking Yin Lang’s mood was not at all as pleasant as he had just appeared.

One piece of good news, one piece of bad news.

The good news was that the Heaven-Concealing Stone was indeed on Lin Xinqiao.

The bad news was that even though he knew the Heaven-Concealing Stone was there, he still couldn’t get it back.

When he had just cast the spell to send Lin Xinqiao to the mountain foot, he had activated the connection between the Heaven-Concealing Stone and his heart’s blood. The sensing was still there, but the connection channel seemed to be cut off by something out of nowhere. No matter how he called, the Heaven-Concealing Stone showed no response.

The water mirror displayed every move from that side. He couldn’t directly snatch it in front of a group of Mahayana stage cultivators. Moreover…

Yin Lang ground his teeth slightly.

…Given these bizarre circumstances that had occurred, whether he could even successfully snatch it by going directly was still unknown!

Just who was playing tricks on him from the shadows? And hitting his vital points so accurately?

Yin Lang pondered with a heavy heart, even temporarily setting aside the strange youth he had encountered a few days ago.