Chapter 3: Exploring the Mysterious Little Dragon Aotian

With the gatekeeper gone for so long, the initially tense crowd gradually relaxed and began to whisper among themselves. Of course, the topic revolved around Yin Lisheng, since the explosion of the Heavenly Stone was truly shocking.

Yin Lisheng, the center of attention, remained silent. He simply stood there quietly, his eyes vacant, his attention completely elsewhere, and he paid no heed to the pointing and whispering of the crowd.

"Who caused the Sky-Gazing Stone to explode?" A gruff male voice came from afar.

Fu Yunshu looked up and saw Elder Huang, who was in charge of the entrance examination, the gatekeeper disciple from before, and... Ye Xiuzhu.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, not expecting Ye Xiuzhu to join in the fun.

Their eyes met briefly before quickly looking away, but Fu Yunshu knew that Ye Xiuzhu recognized him.

After all, this was just a small spell he cast casually. It might fool Elder Huang and the group of young people, but it was impossible to fool Ye Xiuzhu, the master of a peak.

Ye Xiuzhu naturally recognized Fu Yunshu, and it was precisely because he recognized him that he was surprised.

Why is this reclusive patriarch, who's even more elusive than him, suddenly appearing here disguised as a teenager? And isn't that the little beggar next to him the one who caused the Heavenly Stone to explode? What's the relationship between these two?

"Greetings, Elder Huang. Greetings, Peak Master Ye."

All the disciples bowed to the two, and the other disciples who had not yet entered the sect followed suit. For a moment, only Fu Yunshu, Yin Lisheng, and Qiu Nan remained motionless. Ye Xiuzhu also breathed a sigh of relief. If Fu Yunshu had really bowed to him, he wouldn't have dared to accept it even if he had a hundred lives!

"Tell me, what happened?" Elder Huang asked, inquiring about the situation.

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Xiuzhu interrupted him: "Elder Huang, I have already reported this matter to the sect leader, so you don't need to worry about it. I will take the three of them to the main peak."

Elder Huang glanced at Ye Xiuzhu suspiciously, but since the other party had already said so much, he couldn't say anything more and could only let Ye Xiuzhu take the three of them away.

"What are you all looking at? Have you finished your tests? If you're just chatting here, those who haven't been tested, hurry up and line up. And those who have been tested, don't gather here. Go back to your rooms and rest. Are you trying to hold a temple fair by gathering here one by one?" Elder Huang cursed.

The disciples who had gathered around quickly dispersed, not daring to approach at this moment and risk bad luck.

To take care of the three ordinary people who had not yet stepped into the threshold of cultivation, Ye Xiuzhu took out his spirit boat, which he had not used for ten thousand years. This was the first high-grade magic weapon he had refined back then.

With a flick of his sleeve, a delicate little boat flew out from his Qiankun sleeve, gradually growing larger until it could just accommodate four people.

"Come on up."

The airship sailed smoothly toward the main peak of Qingyuanzong.

As the largest sect in the cultivation world, Qingyuan Sect also has the largest area. Entering from the mountain gate, the peaks are in order: Beast Taming Peak, Weapon Peak, Talisman Peak, Pill Peak, Sword Peak, Main Peak, and Listening Snow Peak.

Although the other six peaks are called peaks, they are actually six mountain ranges, each containing a spiritual vein. This is one of the reasons why Qingyuan Sect has been able to prosper for so many years. After all, spiritual energy is what cultivators cannot lack. The reason why spirit stones can be used as the common currency in the cultivation world is because they contain spiritual energy.

The seventh peak, Tingxue Peak, is the most unique peak in Qingyuan Sect, not only because it is the only one that truly deserves the name "peak," but also because only one person lives there—Immortal Venerable Huaiwei, Fu Yunshu.

Back then, Fu Yunshu's last surviving senior brother, Master Liushuang, also passed away due to his impending death, and his grand-disciple Song Wenzhu succeeded him as the sect leader of Qingyuan Sect. From then on, there were no more peers of Immortal Venerable Huaiwei in the world. Fu Yunshu felt that he was no longer suitable to live on the main peak, so he carved out a mountain peak and named it Tingxue (Listening to Snow).

Because of this incident, Song Wenzhuo expressed his resentment towards Fu Yunshu for the first and only time that year, feeling that Fu Yunshu did not trust him at all.

This was the first time Fu Yunshu had encountered such a situation. In order not to cause Song Wenzhuo any resentment, he went to great lengths to resolve it, but fortunately, he managed to do so in the end.

As memories surfaced little by little, a smile unconsciously crept into Fu Yunshu's eyes.

In his previous dozens of lifetimes, he had been obsessed with cultivation, and Song Wenzhuo and the others had managed the Qingyuan Sect in an orderly manner. On the contrary, he had neglected these juniors, which showed how derelict he had been as a grandmaster uncle. In this life, since he had decided to enjoy life, he should also pay more attention to these juniors.

Thinking of this, he looked up at Ye Xiuzhu.

Let him think about it, about his memories of Xiao Ye from the previous dozens of lifetimes, think about it...

I can't remember...

Fu Yunshu turned his head awkwardly, realizing he really couldn't remember.

In his previous several lifetimes, the person he interacted with most was Song Wenzhuo, since Song Wenzhuo was the current head of the Qingyuan Sect, and there were occasional matters he needed to report. The person he interacted with the least was Ye Xiuzhu, who, like him, didn't like going out.

He did it because he was dedicated to cultivation and pursuing the Great Dao, while Ye Xiuzhu did it because...

Thinking of that reason, Fu Yunshu couldn't help but sigh. He was a child with a hard life. Xiao Ye loved refining weapons, right? He would send the deep rhinoceros beast he had hunted earlier to him later.

As my thoughts drifted, we arrived at the main peak of the Qingyuan Sect.

Amidst surging clouds, a towering palace stands in the center, seemingly suspended in mid-air. The palace, constructed of an unknown material, is a striking mix of gold and white, and in the sunlight, it appears as if surrounded by auspicious beasts.

The three followed Ye Xiuzhu into the main hall. The hall was decorated with carved beams and painted rafters, and the ceiling was carved with various mythical beasts and immortals. The walls on both sides were also covered with murals, creating a solemn and dignified atmosphere.

Qiu Nan seemed very interested in these murals, glancing at them curiously from time to time. Even Fu Yunshu, who usually didn't react much to the outside world, would occasionally look up at them.

Ye Xiuzhu was very satisfied with this. Just now on the flying boat, the two children were so calm that it made him extremely depressed. Was it that the flying boat he, Ye Xiuzhu, hadn't made was cool enough, or that the scenery of their Qingyuan Sect wasn't good enough? Why were these two children like blocks of wood?

"They've arrived." Song Wenzhuo stood tall and straight, watching them approach quietly, as if he had been waiting for a while.

"Sect Leader, Senior Brother." Ye Xiuzhu bowed to Song Wenzhuo.

Song Wenzhu waved his hand, indicating that there was no need for such formalities.

“This child is the one who caused the explosion of the Heavenly Stone.” Ye Xiuzhu gestured for Song Wenzhuo to look at Yin Lisheng.

Song Wenzhu beckoned, "Kid, come here for a moment."

Yin Lisheng pursed her lips, subconsciously taking two steps back, not daring to step forward.

Fu Yunshu pulled the child into his arms and patted his back reassuringly: "Don't be afraid, Sect Leader Song means no harm."

The gentle, clear voice gradually relaxed Yin Lisheng's tense body. Led by Fu Yunshu, he slowly moved in front of Song Wenzhuo and looked up at the sect leader of the number one sect in the cultivation world.

Song Wenzhuo gently patted his shoulder to comfort him, "I want to check your body. You haven't stepped into the threshold of cultivation yet, so it may hurt a little when spiritual energy enters your body. Just bear with it for a bit, it will be over soon."

Yin Lisheng nodded slightly.

Seeing this, Song Wenzhuo made a hand seal with his right hand, lightly touched Yin Lisheng's Baihui acupoint with his fingertip, and poured in spiritual power.

Yin Lisheng felt a surge of heat coming from the top of his head. At first, he didn't feel anything, but gradually, the heat slowly flowed to his limbs and bones, bringing a dense, tingling pain.

Yin Lisheng kept telling himself not to shout, to hold back. Although he didn't know why the Heavenly Stone had broken, the Qingyuan Sect had clearly taken an interest in him. If he could survive this ordeal, he might be able to become a disciple of Song Wenzhuo, or even the Immortal Venerable Huaiwei.

Having traveled across most of the cultivation world from the northern border to Qingyuan Sect, wasn't it all for the sake of seeking that sliver of the truth? We absolutely cannot give up halfway at this moment.

He gritted his teeth, fine beads of sweat dripping down his hair and cheeks, but he still stood straight, and didn't cry out even though the pain was so bad that he couldn't open his eyes.

A pang of heartache flashed in Fu Yunshu's eyes; this child was too resilient.

The incense stick in the incense burner burned out quietly, and just as Yin Lisheng was about to give up, Song Wenzhuo stopped what he was doing.

Qiu Nan rushed forward to support the swaying Yin Lisheng, "Sect Leader Song, what's wrong with him?"

“It’s alright, they’re just exhausted,” Song Wenzhuo then called out to the outside, “Take them down to rest.”

A disciple entered and respectfully led the three away.

Fu Yunshu and Qiu Nan settled Yin Lisheng in a room on the main peak to rest, and then he made up an excuse to leave and quietly returned to the main hall of the main peak.

Before Song Wenzhuo and Ye Xiuzhuo had left the hall, Fu Yunshu dispelled his magic, revealing his original handsome appearance.

"Greetings, Grandmaster Uncle." Song Wenzhuo and Ye Xiuzhu bowed to Fu Yunshu.

"How is it?" Fu Yunshu asked.

Song Wenzhuo replied, "There is nothing abnormal about this child's body. He seems to be just an ordinary person with extraordinary talent."

“If he is so gifted, how could he be ordinary?” Fu Yunshu sighed.

After a moment of silence, Ye Xiuzhu asked, "His surname is Yin. Could he be related to the Yin family of the Northern Border?"

Song Wenzhu thought for a moment, then shook his head, rejecting the possibility: "The Yin family patriarch, Yin Tianhe, only has one fifteen-year-old son. That child's age is clearly wrong, and besides..."

He sighed deeply: "Before you arrived, Du Zhun sent word that all the names on the Yin family genealogy had disappeared, all the soul lamps in the ancestral hall had been extinguished, and not a single one of the thousands of members of the Yin family survived."

The atmosphere in the hall became stagnant and heavy. The Yin family, one of the five great families in the cultivation world, which was once glorious, was gone just like that, and the murderer is still unknown. Even the knowledgeable Fu Yunshu couldn't help but sigh.

After a long pause, Ye Xiuzhu broke the deadlock:

"Grandmaster Uncle, what do you think we should do with this child?"

Ye Xiuzhu looked at Fu Yunshu. In the past thousand years, before Yin Lisheng, only one person had caused the Heavenly Stone to explode, and that was Immortal Venerable Huaiwei, Fu Yunshu.

However, because Fu Yunshu was brought back to Qingyuan Sect directly by the previous sect leader and did not undergo the entrance examination, few people know about this.

Ye Xiuzhu knew about this, which is why he went to join in the fun when he heard that someone else could make the Sky-Gazing Stone explode. He originally wanted to take the initiative and recruit Yin Lisheng as his disciple before the others found out about this.

Unfortunately, his grandmaster uncle somehow got involved in the matter. Naturally, he couldn't do such a shameless thing in front of his grandmaster uncle, so he had no choice but to tell Song Wenzhuo the news as well. Alas, what a missed opportunity!

“Yin Lisheng has come to become an apprentice,” Fu Yunshu said calmly.

"You want to take him as your apprentice?" Song Wenzhuo asked in a light tone, a hint of expectation unconsciously appearing in his eyes.

Fu Yunshu neither agreed nor denied, only saying, "Isn't there still an entrance exam? Let him participate. Besides, becoming a disciple is a two-way selection process, and he may already have someone he likes."

Song Wenzhuo didn't take his second half of the sentence seriously. After all, if Fu Yunshu spoke up, he believed that no one in the entire cultivation world would refuse to be the disciple of Immortal Venerable Huaiwei.

“In that case, let him take the entrance exam just like everyone else,” Song Wenzhuo decided.

With that matter concluded, Song Wenzhuo recalled Fu Yunshu's earlier attire and asked cautiously, "Grandmaster Uncle, do you... still wish to continue disguising yourself as a new disciple?"

Fu Yunshu then used magic to transform himself back into the boy's attire, saying, "Don't worry about it, I was just looking for some fun when I had nothing else to do."

Song Wenzhuo and Ye Xiuzhu both twitched their lips. Looking for fun? That phrase is completely unsuitable for you, old man.

Fu Yunshu ignored what his two good grand-disciples were thinking, said hello, and left directly. He wanted to go see Yin Lisheng as soon as possible.

What Song Wenzhuo and the others didn't know was that although he had also caused the Observation Stone to explode due to his exceptional talent, the circumstances between the two were different.

What secrets does Yin Lisheng hold?

A note from the author:

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