An Qinghe was sitting on a chair overlooking his courtyard, peach blossoms waving in the light breeze. He seemed to be doing what he normally did, intaking the sounds and beautiful fragrance of his peaceful courtyard, but he was actually cultivating!
Reading the cultivation technique that Yue Bingluo gave him, he was greatly surprised. This can actually also be considered a cultivation technique? Such thoughts went through his head. This is because the technique was literally him… living his normal life! Of course, there were demerits to such a technique, in that it was a very slow cultivation method and required an immense amount of patience and someone with a gentle and stable personality - but this was especially suited for An Qinghe. His body was one that couldn’t stand those more violent cultivation methods anyways, so peacefully cultivating like this was good too.
That being said, the pros still exceeded the cons. Only, there was no cultivator willing to patiently gain strength this way, thus leaving this cultivation method almost completely undesired!
It had already been a month since the immortal had left, and An Qinghe had only cultivated to the first level of Body Refinement. This was actually very good considering he was using the slow moving Observing the Hundred Worlds Cultivation Technique. As for the Spirit Eyes, he had come to the point where he could somewhat vaguely sense strong condensations of Qi… but like Yue Bingluo had said, it was truly a difficult technique to cultivate, improving at a snail’s pace, even worse than Observing the Hundred Worlds. That being said, he could truly feel the two techniques resonating with each other and enhancing their effects, speeding up - what Yue Bingluo had told him had not been a lie. At the moment though, he had yet to cultivate the eyes to the point where it could be said that he had already overcome his previous style of sensing movement in the air and the flow of blood and heartbeat to tell the locations of things.
He stood up, stretching lazily as he yawned. His grandfather and father were both in closed door cultivation, pondering on the mysterious of the sword and cultivation technique that Yue Bingluo had given them. On the other hand, it was only An Qinghe who was still as leisurely as before. Even his mother, Xue Mingyue, was busy, handling the family affairs in place of the two who had closed themselves off from the world. Even if An Qinghe wanted to help, he knew that it was inconvenient for him to do so and as a result, was the only one left idling about (though, he was technically cultivating).
These days, aside from pondering the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, he had also been thinking about the identity of that all powerful immortal. He felt that someone with such aura and power must be a high figure of the cultivation world, but he knew that in the eyes of a mortal, even a Qi Gathering expert was someone to be worshipped, let alone Heavenly or Divine realm experts, who were practically gods. Grandfather had agreed with him, though, that the man was certainly, at the very least, beyond Qi Manipulation realm and must be in the Heavenly realms. To top it off, casually handing out a life saving pill that could heal injuries inflicted by those below Heavenly Lord realm… he definitely couldn’t be any ordinary cultivator.
Is he from one of the nine great sects? An Qinghe thought. In this world, there were a total of nine great sects who fought for dominance. Amongst them, the Heavenly Sword Sect was unquestionably number one, but the Celestial Azure Dragon Sect came in a close second. The others were the Fragrant Jade Pavilion Sect, the Seven Colored Cloud Sect, the Underwater Palace Sect, the Painting Pavilion Sect, the Great Thunder Pavilion Sect, the Yang Divine Fire Sect, and the Thousand Travelling Wind Sect. Aside from these sects, there were also the five great demonic sects, of which the Nine Realms Sect ruled supreme, followed by the Thousand Venoms Sect, Ice Heart Sect, Netherworld Flames Sect, and Thousand Demons Palace Sect. These sects composed up of the strongest forces in their world, the Empty Sky World, one of the more powerful worlds amongst the hundred worlds known to be in existence. This ranking of powers had actually not changed for the past ten thousand years, and the era was currently said to be the Golden Era of Cultivation!
Even An Qinghe, who could be said to be relatively clueless about the cultivating world’s state of affairs, knew this. To be honest, one would be hard pressed to find someone who couldn’t at least recite the nine great sects by heart, or at least know one of the big demonic sects. Even if information of the cultivating world was a bit harder for mortals to get their hands on, it was not like they were completely ignorant.
“Young Master, Young Master. It seems that the information you wanted has arrived.” A maid said excitedly, in such a rush that she even forgot to announce herself.
“Calm down,” An Qinghe answered with a warm smile, standing up as she realized how improper she had been, immediately bowing respectfully.
“Apologies to the Young Master,” she said in a humble manner as An Qinghe quickly helped her up.
“No need, no need,” he said, before turning his attention back to what the girl had said previously. “The information?” He asked, his face brightening. The information that he had been desiring was precisely that of the immortal. To be exact, the results of the auction that they had told the immortal of.
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“It seems that the tier 7 pill had gone to the Heavenly Gate Sect, the tier 6 pill to a mysterious man of unknown background, and the tier 5 pills to a few smaller middle-sized sects.” The Heavenly Gate Sect, though sounding as impressive as the Soaring Qilin Sect, was only a second rate sect and not something that An Qinghe felt the immortal could considered to be a part of. It was the “mysterious man of unknown background” that caught his ear. He was certain, this was the immortal that they had encountered a month ago.
“So he disguised his identity…” An Qinghe murmured, the gears in his head proceeding to slowly turn as he puzzled it out. Two mysterious immortals… He sighed. In the end, he was not part of the cultivation world, so what he knew was truly too limited to find out the identity of the man.
But, An Qinghe knew that if he went through the trouble of disguising his identity… he must be too high profile of a figure, not desiring others to know his identity, especially the fact that he is currently injured. “We can come to the conclusion that he is a well known character, powerful, presumably a figure from one of the great sects…?” He muttered, sitting back down and tapping the bamboo staff on the ground repeatedly in deep thought.
“... Could he have been fighting a demonic sect member?” He then said, his eyes briefly fluttering open, the milky pupils staring blankly at the ground. That aura of the man who had faced off against Yue Bingluo was both ice cold, extremely tyrannical, and very much demonic. He had never encountered a demonic cultivator before, but he felt that this would certainly be the feel they gave him - he really couldn’t be sure though. He pursed his lips together. “Two high profile characters facing off, one seemingly a demonic sect member?”
For many people, the first thing that would come to mind would be several famed rivalries known throughout the Empty Sky World. Of course, the most famous would be that between Yue Bingluo and Ye Ying, these two geniuses of the younger generation. But, at the same time, this thought was immediately discarded… simply because they were too high profile! Just imagine, was there anyone who would think that a world famous superstar would suddenly appear in their backyard? Obviously there weren’t any! That would simply be too delusional, if a person really believed this could happen, then An Qinghe would, out of the kindness of his heart, guide them straight to the nearest doctor!
“Sigh, how great would it be if it was really Yue Bingluo?” He said, slightly wistful. Even if a superstar like that appearing in his backyard was too unbelievable, that didn’t mean people couldn’t wish for it to happen.
The little maid girl, Xin’er, seemed to pause in thought before speaking. “Young Master, it seems that the recruitment time for the nine great sects is coming up…” She finally couldn’t help but say. Although she knew that the Master and Grandmaster were against the Young Master entering the cultivating world, ever since she heard the words of the great immortal, she had been secretly proud, and wanted the world to acknowledge that her Young Master was not a blind and useless wastrel, but a person of great talents!
Of course, everyone who served the An family knew the greatness of their Young Master, but they had always felt unsatisfied with the rumors that flew about outside. It couldn’t be helped though, since their Young Master was not only blind, but he also didn’t cultivate and had been born weak. So, even though they knew in their hearts the kindness and intelligence of their Young Master, they couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied, wanting to prove to those people outside, the ones who were really blind, that they were wrong! Obviously, what would be the better way than to see their Young Master entering one of the great sects?
The servants, most of them being relatively simple common people, didn’t really understand why the Master and Grandmaster were so against the Young Master entering a sect and cultivating. Of course, there were many more intelligent or older servants who understood the worries that the Master and Grandmaster had, but for the young servants like Xin’er, their train of thought was very simple and couldn’t understand the deeper thoughts of their masters.
An Qinghe blinked. Even if Xin’er couldn’t understand the deeper thoughts of An Guang and An Yun, how could An Qinghe not? But, when thinking of that immortal, he couldn’t help but feel extremely curious, wanting to meet him again - to know his true identity. Of course, he still had no particular interest in entering the cultivation world. Actually cultivating the two techniques he was right now was already his limit, as for joining a big sect or clan? Such thought never went through his head, not even when the immortal had briefly mentioned how sects would fight over it. In fact, he could only think of that as bothersome!
Yet, yet, in spite of all that… I wonder if I’ll be able to meet the immortal again…? He had on a slightly wistful expression, gazing into the distance. Xin’er didn’t interrupt her Young Master, but was inwardly happy that he was actually thinking about it. Who didn’t know that previously the Young Master had no interest in cultivation? She thought it was a big improvement know that he was actually considering it.
An Qinghe, at this moment, suddenly realized something. “I haven’t even thanked him,” he said, his eyes slightly widening. He himself didn’t even know if he had simply been searching for an excuse to see the man again, but at this time, he had already solidified his will, coming to a decision. “I’ll just go to take a look…” He, of course, knew that the immortal probably wouldn’t be there, simply being wishful thinking on his part. But, he held onto this little hope and had decided to go anyways.
Soaring Cloud Kingdom’s Royal Capital, approximately a two week travel by carriage from Silent Jade City. For the first time in five years, the recruitment of the great sects would once again happen here. People arrived in droves, bringing with them hope, determined to change their fates and become the great immortals that they could only once dream of. Amongst them was a single young man whose goal was different from all the rest, but who knew that his arrival, his meeting, would bring about the start of a new age...