Chapter 346: The Qingzhou Festival

Translator: yikaii Editor: yikaii

Everlasting Fairy was flicked away by Eldest Senior Sister’s finger, landing upside down on a nearby tree branch, her body swaying back and forth.

“Lu Yang, you’re disrespecting immortals!” Everlasting Fairy shouted angrily, having suffered misfortune for no reason—this was truly an unprovoked disaster.

Thinking back to the ancient times when she dominated the world, who would dare treat her like this?

Lu Yang respectfully said, “It’s not that I disrespect you, Fairy. I have just formed the Invincible Core and am not yet familiar with it. I was hoping you could demonstrate how to use the Invincible Core.”

“Thanks to your demonstration earlier, I have learned how to use the Invincible Core.”

“Really?” Everlasting Fairy looked at Lu Yang suspiciously, feeling something was off.

“I’m just a mere mortal; how could I possibly deceive the Fairy?”

“That’s true.”

Everlasting Fairy, thinking herself magnanimous, decided not to pursue the matter further.

(TL Note: Unrelated, I just wanna say that I love our girlfailure Yellow Bean so much lmao)

A puppet leapt up and took Lu Yang down from the tree branch, holding him by the collar like a mischievous cat.

Eldest Senior Sister placed two fingers on Lu Yang’s wrist, as if diagnosing him like a doctor. She nodded almost imperceptibly. “I see now. I didn’t consider this when I wrote the technique; I forgot that the Invincible Core has a trait that makes you blindly confident. The technique makes you overly self-assured, causing you to lose your normal ability to think, and your body becomes uncontrollable.”

She picked up the technique manual that had fallen to the ground. It spontaneously combusted, burning to ashes, as if it had never existed.

“I’ll revise it; just wait a moment.”

Eldest Senior Sister sat by a stone table, tore open space, and retrieved a blank book from it.

She thought for a moment and immediately knew how to modify it, writing swiftly.

Before long, a new edition of the Enlightenment of Heart and Nature Technique Golden Core chapter was completed.

“Here, try it again.”

Lu Yang took the revised manual, noticing that compared to the previous version, only some phrases had been altered.

Would this really suppress the urges of the Invincible Core?

Lu Yang practiced a complete circulation as usual, then sneaked a glance at Eldest Senior Sister, who was meditating with her eyes closed, and breathed a sigh of relief.

This time, there was no reckless urge to challenge Eldest Senior Sister.

Lu Yang sat down in place and meditated, feeling the changes brought by the technique.

The most significant change was a newfound clarity in his mind. The technique pointed out the path forward, and all he had to do was follow the route laid out by the technique.

Previously, his cultivation had been merely accumulating spiritual qi, without any real advancement in realm. Now, with the new technique, the previously stored spiritual qi became useful, allowing him to advance from the early stage of the Golden Core to… still the early stage of the Golden Core.

It seemed like no progress, but in reality, the change was substantial.

Additionally, his divine sense and mental space had expanded slightly. Everlasting Fairy’s bed, which used to be against the wall—the edge of the mental space—was now two feet away from the boundary.

Everlasting Fairy noticed this as well and pushed her bed back to the mental space boundary.

She liked having her back against the bed, kicking her little feet against the wall—she found this position quite comfortable.

“Is Lu Yang here?” Meng Jingzhou called softly as he climbed the mountain.

Given his usual boisterous personality, he would typically shout to find someone.

But this was Heaven’s Gate Peak, where besides Lu Yang, there was also the terrifying Eldest Senior Sister. Even with eight lives, Meng Jingzhou wouldn’t dare make a ruckus here.

“Eldest Senior Sister, are you here?” Meng Jingzhou, seeing Eldest Senior Sister resting with her eyes closed by the tree, greeted her with a bow.

Eldest Senior Sister softly acknowledged him. From the moment Meng Jingzhou stepped onto Heaven’s Gate Peak, she was already aware of his presence.

“What do you want?”

Meng Jingzhou spoke mysteriously, “Of course, it’s good news! Have you heard of the Qingzhou Festival? It’s about to start.”

“For common events in the Great Xia Dynasty, I don’t know much,” Lu Yang said. “What is the Qingzhou Festival?”

“It’s a grand event held for cultivators, organized by the Qingzhou government with the participation of several first-rank sects. It takes place every year in early August, featuring battles, auctions, and other lively activities. The main goal is to attract young cultivators to stay in Qingzhou, so many participants are around our age.”

Lu Yang’s eyes lit up; he rarely interacted with his peers, so this was a great opportunity.

“Let’s go! By the way, is Qingzhou the same place the Fifth Elder mentioned, where two ten thousand years ago, the Qingzhou Governor at the Tribulation Crossing Stage moved a neighboring city there under the guise of a duel?”

“That’s the same Qingzhou.”

(TL Note: Qingzhou was the county that helped with the Commoner Town incident mentioned in chapter 143 and moving the city was mentioned in chapter 334)

Eldest Senior Sister, who had been resting with her eyes closed, slowly opened them, showing a hint of curiosity. “Did the Fifth Elder tell you about the Qingzhou Governor?”

“Eldest Senior Sister, you know about it too?”

“Of course, I know. After all, that Qingzhou Governor was our sect’s founder.”

Lu Yang: “…”

Meng Jingzhou: “…”

For some reason, the two were not surprised by this fact.

It did fit the usual style of the Dao Seeking Sect—logical yet absurd.

“You know about the Qingzhou Governor’s story, but don’t spread it around. It would damage our Dao Seeking Sect’s reputation,” Eldest Senior Sister, the de facto head of the Dao Seeking Sect, said, clearly cherishing the sect’s name.

Though she wasn’t exactly sure what the outside world thought of the Dao Seeking Sect.

Meng Jingzhou asked curiously, “Eldest Senior Sister, what happened to the Governor afterward?”

“He continued to develop Qingzhou step by step. The Qingzhou Festival you mentioned was his idea. The event attracted many talented cultivators and was highly effective, prompting other governors to follow suit. Qingzhou became increasingly prosperous under his governance. When he had achieved fame and success, he retired and returned to the sect.”

Lu Yang realized something. “Wait a minute, can people from the Five Great Immortal Sects actually become government officials?”

He had assumed that the Five Great Immortal Sects, being highly influential, would be barred from holding office due to the Great Xia’s fears and suspicions.

“They certainly can.”

Meng Jingzhou explained to Lu Yang, “The court is always seeking talent. Where are the most sages found? Naturally, within the Five Great Immortal Sects. The court even invited the Abbot of the Hanging Temple to join as an official; if he had agreed, he would have become the Prime Minister, but he declined.”

“They also invited the Sect Leader of the Prison-Suppressing Sect, but he refused as well.”

“Talents like me and you are very welcome as officials, but unlike the Abbot of Hanging Temple, we would need to pass the imperial exams to qualify.”

Eldest Senior Sister reminded, “Lu Yang, you cannot take the imperial exams, nor can you become an official.”

Lu Yang was stunned. “Why?”

He had no desire to become an official, but to be barred from even having the chance felt unfair.

“Because of our master.”

Lu Yang, being sharp-witted, quickly grasped the reasoning: Two ten thousand years ago, the Dao Seeking Sect was not yet the leading sect among the Five Great Immortal Sects. But now, the Dao Seeking Sect had risen to become the indisputable number one immortal sect.

The court fears the growing dominance of the Dao Seeking Sect and does not dare allow its disciples, especially the direct disciples of its sect master, to become officials, lest they conspire with the government and threaten the rule of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Eldest Senior Sister continued, “Our master committed numerous crimes, and because of that, his disciples, and even our grandmaster, are all prohibited from becoming officials.”

(TL Note: Their grandmaster is mentioned in chapter 146 as the person guarding Prison Peak)

(End of the chapter)