Chapter 227 Gathering of Immortals
Facing the evening sky, Ji You followed the people from Tianshuyuan out of Rusheng Garden, walked through the white marble road, bypassed the island in the middle of the lake, and arrived at Yongqing Garden.
It was not yet dark, but the huge courtyard was already brightly lit.
Through the gate, Ji You saw a scene full of people.
There were immortal practitioners coming and going among the ponds, arch bridges, pavilions and gardens, chatting and laughing with each other.
Because of the cultivators' self-breathing, the spiritual energy surrounding the Sages Garden now gathered in the sky above this place, flashing a silver-blue color under the reflection of the dim sky.
In this environment, the differences between factions become extremely clear.
Some people were obviously gathered in groups, very different from the people around them, but there were also people who were connected with many forces and kept toasting here.
Ji You followed the crowd through the Moon Gate and walked into this noisy environment. After taking a few glances, he found that He Lingxiu, Shi Junhao and others around him had dispersed one by one.
They all have their own families, and their families have connections with each other, so it is natural for them to attend such banquets together.
Ji You walked through the front yard and saw old people often bringing their children to greet each other by the pond. He also saw men and women dressed in costumes of different families walking in elegant bamboo forests, fragrant gardens and other scenes.
Only he was wandering around aimlessly, like a tourist who didn't fit in.
This was not just his own feeling. In fact, the people around him also looked at him in the same way, with suspicion and scrutiny.
"Who...is this person?"
"I've never seen him before. He looks very unfamiliar."
"He seems somewhat similar to the second son of the Zhao family."
"The second son of the Zhao family is already thirty-five years old. Mr. Huang is joking a little bit. Hahahaha."
"Thirty-five? I never thought that during this period of seclusion, the world would have changed so much..."
Immortal cultivators rely on family elders to make friends and make introductions.
If a family has outstanding younger generations and grandchildren and brings them to such banquets, they will be remembered by other families and either become relatives with them or be compared with them.
A lone outlier like Ji You naturally couldn't fit in.
But this did not make him depressed. What made him depressed was that there was no one here and there were very few opportunities to develop customers.
As for those who come in groups, Ji You doesn't like them very much, fearing that the service will be poor.
He passed through the archway of the front garden and entered the right garden, continuing to look for potential customers, but unexpectedly ran into two familiar figures.
Princess Changle Zhao Yunyue, Kuang Cheng's sweetheart Wei Rui, and the other two women, judging by their attire, should also be royal relatives.
"Master Ji, here!" Wei Rui suddenly raised her hand.
Seeing this, Ji You walked over and asked, "Why is Miss Wei here? Where is my life-long friend, Scholar Kuang?"
"The Immortal Gathering Banquet is in charge of the Immortal Supervisor. He is the Director of the Reception Office and is still busy with the dispatch. He will probably be here later. Oh, by the way, let me introduce him to you."
Wei Rui looked at the two women next to her: "This is Princess Jiaren and Princess Changjing."
Jiaren and Changjing are the two daughters of the previous emperor of Daxia, but they are not from the emperor's bloodline. Strictly speaking, they are idle princesses who eat the emperor's food and their cultivation is only at the level of Wei Zhao.
Zhao Yunyue, the only one who had known Ji You for a long time, looked at him at this time and couldn't help but ask: "Master Ji, you are wandering around alone, can't you find anyone you know?"
"Isn't it?"
Ji You replied softly, thinking that there was no one left alone, and they really didn't give him any chance.
Zhao Yunyue actually noticed Ji You earlier than Wei Rui, and saw him being silent, lonely, depressed, and wandering alone.
Ji You was indeed famous for defeating Chu He, establishing a noble family, and being sent as an envoy to the Snow Region. He also refused the request to become a Taoist partner with himself, and seemed to be arrogant and self-important.
But what happened when he attended the banquet where all the immortal families gathered? Wasn't his rural private cultivation completely exposed?
No one knows him, and there is no way he can fit in, like an outsider who accidentally gets in.
It was as if he was lucky enough to be admitted to the Heavenly Academy through private study, and he was out of tune with his surroundings.
In fact, although Zhao Yunyue's situation here is better than Ji You's, it is not much better.
It is true that she is a princess, but she is not considered high-ranking among the aristocratic families.
In addition, Prince Chong cannot interfere with taxes now, and Yunzhou Spiritual Stone is no longer the first choice of cultivators because of the impact of the Snow Demon Stone, so the influence of their Prince Chong's Palace is even weaker.
But she has another identity, a disciple of Lingjian Mountain.
But because he is a foreigner and has never practiced in the mountains, he is not very familiar with the people in Lingjian Mountain.
The only familiar people were Liu Junchi and his group who had come to Shengjing earlier to intercept the spare elixir. The two of them had agreed to meet here, but they had not waited for them yet.
But in Zhao Yunyue's opinion, he is stronger than him after all.
Seeing this, Wei Rui couldn't help but ask, "Then Mr. Ji, do you want to go sightseeing with us?"
What she actually wanted to ask was when Master Ji would go to see Sister Yan. I also wanted to go with him, but she knew that she couldn't say this.
Ji You thought for a moment and looked at Wei Rui: "Forget it, I'll go around first and come back to find you later. If you meet Kuang Cheng, remember to ask him to wait for me."
He also had to develop clients, and it would be difficult to do so with a woman.
Especially since the two princesses were only at the Wei Zhao realm, and Wei Rui had no cultivation at all, it would be dangerous for her to just stand by and applaud.
Princess Jiaren watched him go away and couldn't help looking at Zhao Yunyue: "Ji You is famous in Shengjing, and it can be said that everyone knows him. Why can't he even meet a friend now?"
Zhao Yunyue came back to his senses and patiently explained: "Qingyun Tianxia has always looked at people with noble family backgrounds. No matter how much he stirs up trouble and how famous he is, he is ultimately not worthy of attention here."
"Just like the maids in my house, no matter how good they are at sewing, they can only be maids after all?"
"Your analogy... is actually quite appropriate."
At this time, Ji You didn't know that she had been compared to a maid, but continued to walk towards the depths of the Right Garden. Although she didn't find anyone who was alone, she met some familiar people.
The first ones came were the disciples of the Wendao Sect. There should be about thirty of them, all wearing indigo-blue robes. When they saw Ji You, their eyes were filled with murderous intent.
Ji You killed many of their fellow disciples in Qiling at that time, and many people still remembered this old grudge.
Among them was Min Cheng, who had used silver to lure Ji You and was nearly killed by Ji You.
There are too many people and the service is bad, forget it.
Ji You avoided their provocative looks and continued walking westward. He found that there were actually quite a lot of people he knew, such as Jiang Chenfeng, Jiang Yan, Jiang Yuerou, and Huo Hong, the younger brother of the Holy Son of Shanhai Pavilion.
Ji You and they had all been on diplomatic missions to the Snow Region together, and could barely be considered to have been through life and death together, so when they met they couldn't help but chat for a while.
"Master Ji's arm is healed?"
"I'm fine now. Thank you for your concern, fairy."
Jiang Yan and Jiang Yuerou still remembered his heroic appearance in the wilderness and had a good impression of him, so their attitude was very good.
Jiang Chenfeng, Huo Hong and others felt a little relieved when they saw that he was still in the Tongxuan realm.
The combat power that Ji You displayed during his mission to the Snow Region was too terrifying. To them, if his cultivation speed was as exaggerated as his combat power, their Taoism would actually be affected.
But fortunately, he still understands the mystery.
In fact, many people who know Ji You probably have this idea, even the people in Tianshu Academy themselves.
He is just Tongxuan, which is really great.
In addition to these people, Ji You also met people from the Lu family in Yunzhou.
The Lu family is considered a wealthy family in Yunzhou, but in a place like this where all the immortal cultivators in the world gather, they are not actually ranked among the top.
Lu Xiong, the head of the Lu family, took the initiative to step forward and greet Ji You. He did not mention the matter of the Snow Demon Stone, but expressed his gratitude to Ji You for teaching Lu Hanyan the swordsmanship.
Ji You didn't have a good impression of these Lingshi families because of the foster house incident, but he didn't lose face for Lu Xiong in this situation and responded simply with a few words.
However, what puzzled Ji You was that the lady following the head of the Lu family looked at him in a very strange way.
The strange thing about that look was that she was examining and sizing him up with a condescending attitude, as if an elder were meeting a younger person. She was picking and choosing him, and no one knew what she was looking at.
"Young Master!"
"?"
When they reached the edge of a clear lake, Ji You heard a call and turned around to see Ding Yao and Zhuo Wanqiu.
One of them was wearing a moon-white narcissus skirt, and the other was wearing a small shirt with auspicious cloud patterns. They bowed to Ji You, and then Zhuo Wanqiu added in a low voice, "Son-in-law."
Ji You turned to look at them: "Where is your little master?"
Zhuo Wanqiu heard the voice and said, "Master Jian is in the garden at the back meeting with a few noble families that we didn't get to meet on the day we came here. We have some free time now, so we thought we'd go out for a walk."
In fact, they didn't know where to go after leaving the back garden, so they just wandered along the roads they could see. When they saw Ji You at this moment, they suddenly felt like they had seen their backbone.
The master is the master, and the son-in-law is also the master.
This is actually a very subtle feeling, especially for Ding Yao.
She had been serving Yan Shuyi since she was a child, and had never humbled herself to serve others. Even in Lingjian Mountain, she was the one who ordered others around.
But as her master and Ji You became closer and closer, and even bit their lips like that, she also subconsciously obeyed Ji You.
In contrast is her relationship with the Wendao Sect.
There were many disciples of the Wendao Sect at this dinner.
If it were an ordinary time, Ding Yao would definitely hang out with them, but as the Master of Inspection made his attitude clear, she also knew that there shouldn't be much possibility for a conflict between Lingjian Mountain and Wendao Sect.
Therefore, there is not much point in continuing the relationship with the Wendao Sect.
Ding Yao suddenly remembered something and couldn't help but look at him and said, "Master Jian told us before that if we meet you when we come out, we will take you to meet some people. Are you free now?"
"Know some people?"
"This is the opponent you need to pay attention to this time."
Ding Yao and Zhuo Wanqiu then took him around and pointed out some Tongxuan realms.
One is a new Taoist genius from the Wendao Sect, named Zhu Yao. He is one of the contestants in this contest. It is said that he once fought against a senior brother in the Rongdao realm in the sect and did not lose.
There was also a young man from an aristocratic family who was not a disciple of the Immortal Sect. His name was Wei Bo. He had been hidden by the Wei family in Yongzhou for many years. With one move, he defeated all the disciples of the clan.
In addition, Zhuang You, the chief disciple of Tianjian Peak, and his younger brother, Zhuang Zixin, are also on the special attention list.
After that came Wei Yingmeng, daughter of the branch leader of Shanhai Pavilion, Murong Yu, daughter of the Murong family of Yuzhou, and Li Yunlang from the Li family, an old royal family in Zhongzhou.
Each of these people has a prominent background, and behind them is a huge force, which is awe-inspiring to talk about.
Precisely because of their powerful background, the fighting power of these people is also extraordinary.
So it wasn't just Ji You and the other two who were staring at them. There were also many people coming and going who were secretly looking at this person, especially some contestants who were also in the Tongxuan realm.
These contestants also have sources of information. Although they do not know as much as the Little Master Jian of Lingjian Mountain, who can even find out what Taoist methods the contestants usually use, they at least know that these people are the popular figures in the Tongxuan realm competition of this Tiandao Association.
As for Ji You, he received less attention.
After all, many of them had just come out of long-term seclusion, and as mentioned before, few people knew what he looked like.
Ji You looked at Ding Yao and Zhuo Wanqiu at this time: "Is there nothing to worry about in the Tongxuan realm of my Tianshu Academy?"
Zhuo Wanqiu opened her mouth and said, "All the Tongxuan realm masters in Tianshu Academy are very strong, but there are no outstanding ones. Young Master is a disciple of Tianshu Academy, so he naturally knows more than us."
"The Heavenly Academy is really shameless..."
"Well, you are really outspoken..."
The three of them then moved and walked towards the southwest side of the right garden, where they met the last opponent that needed attention under a tall rockery made of thousands of stones.
He was a young man standing under a crabapple tree, wearing a moon-white brocade robe with auspicious patterns of beasts embroidered on it. He had a wide black jade belt around his waist. When the corners of his robe fluttered in the wind, his inner shirt embroidered with river cliff patterns was faintly visible.
Ding Yao hesitated when she pointed him out, but she finally spoke: "This man's name is Yan Hao, the grandson of the master of Tianjian Peak, he is at the Tongxuan upper realm, good at using heavy swords, and has a great talent for swordsmanship..."
Ji You looked at Yan Hao carefully and nodded slightly.
Seeing this scene, Ding Yao's heart was actually a little complicated, because no matter what, Yan Hao's participation in this battle also represented the face of Lingjian Mountain.
Her own master sold Yan Hao for her lover. In her opinion, this was a bit too much for the personal interests of her children. This should not have been done by the former master of strategizing, because the former head of the family had always put Lingjian Mountain first.
This was also the reason why she hesitated before, but she had no choice but to obey the Lord's order.
Ji Youci stared at Yan Hao for a long time and then said, "Go back and tell Yan Shuyi that this matter is left to me."
Ding Yao was startled when she heard the voice: "Leave it to the young master...what?"
"What the arrogant guy wants most now is to weaken the influence of Tianjian Peak in your mountain sect. This is what happened when Xin Yuanshi forcibly took 20% of the pills. So if Yan Hao loses, and loses miserably, it will probably shake a large number of Tianjian Peak disciples."
Ji You rolled up his sleeves and said, "If even the grandson of the peak master is so weak, then their resources are not as good as his. What's the point of staying in Tianjian Peak? Don't worry, leave this matter to me. This is all I can do now."
As Ding Yao listened, her eyes gradually became stunned.
Then she thought for a moment, opened her mouth again, and looked at Yan Hao who was chatting and laughing with his friends.
How could she understand it this way? She never thought that this was what the judge meant.
But after Ji You said this, she suddenly realized that compared to the appearance of Lingjian Mountain, the most urgent issue to be resolved in their sect was actually the internal troubles between Tianjian Peak and Xuanjian Peak.
Master Jian has actually not been in power for long, and Tianjian Peak still has the deepest foundation.
Every year, the disciples who enter the mountain always choose Tianjian Peak first, because there are many elders in Tianjian Peak, which means more opportunities.
But if the peak master's grandson really lost, and lost in an undignified way, it would definitely affect the disciples' thoughts when choosing a mountain.
But most people wouldn't think so, Ding Yao turned to look at Ji You. If it were someone else, they might just think that having a wife in a high position is too comfortable or something like that...
Zhuo Wanqiu was different from Ding Yao. She paid more attention to the second half of the sentence: "Sir, this Yan Hao cannot be underestimated. You must not be careless and treat him with caution."
Ding Yao also came back to her senses at this time: "Junior Sister Zhuo is right, Yan Hao is indeed very strong."
In fact, except for some disciples of Tianshu Academy, few people knew that Ji You got the quota because he defeated two people of the same level with his four swords and forced the Elders' Pavilion to give up the quota.
This was different from the time when he broke through the sword forest of Tianjian Peak and went on a mission to the Snow Region. Those things would bring honor to Tianshu Academy when they were publicized, but if this matter were to be spread, it would hurt the reputation of the Tianshu Academy's elders.
Therefore, Ding Yao and Zhuo Wanqiu are not very clear about Ji You’s current strength. Without any idea, they tend to worry.
Ji You nodded when he heard that. "I will go to watch a few games first. I won't be too arrogant. You guys go back first. If others see you two following me, your little master and I won't be able to explain ourselves."
Zhuo Wanqiu couldn't help but cough, thinking to herself, hasn't it been unclear a long time ago?
Tsundere...
Her scalp couldn't help but feel numb, and she thought to herself, apart from you, who else in the world would dare to use these three words and call you the master of appraisal like that?
"Sir, will you go to the back garden to meet the master later?"
"Can anyone go to the backyard?"
"The various clans are all in the backyard, so we need to pass on a note, but you don't need that, you just need to call us."
After listening to it, Ji You thought for a while and said, "If I can find a suitable reason, I will go. If not, forget it. After all, the relationship between Tianshuyuan and Lingjian Mountain is not good."
After hearing this, Zhuo Wanqiu bowed and said goodbye to Ji You.
Ding Yao followed her and left, but her expression was still a little complicated. Halfway through the journey, she couldn't help but speak: "I thought that the Master had already valued the young master more than Lingjian Mountain..."
Zhuo Wanqiu looked at Ding Yao: "Lingjian Mountain is always the most important in Master Jian's heart. We should not question it, but we should be glad that Master thinks the same way."
"But...how does the Master know that the Master will understand as soon as he hears it?"
"Maybe the judge really just wants her lover to win? Maybe the son-in-law really wants to do something for her."
(End of this chapter)
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