Tianyi glanced one last time at the gathering of hopeful disciples standing outside the mountain gate. He had never seen the trials that the Buzhou Immortal Sect use to select their disciples. “Mother, are we not going to stay and watch the Disciple Acceptance Ceremony?”
Mengfei didn’t even look back as she controlled the immortal boat to directly fly to Jade Peak. “There is no point. If they are fated to embark upon the Immortal path, then we will meet eventually. However, for Daoyi, it would be best to complete her Disciple Acceptance Ceremony as quickly as possible. She has already wasted her early years, and to rise above the rest, she must put in more effort than her peers.”
Tianyi blinked. It seemed that he had underestimated his mother’s care towards Daoyi. He didn’t say anymore as the boat made its way to Jade Peak.
Although there are many masters who would put much importance on their disciples, Mengfei was not one of them. Inheriting the seriousness her master treated her, Mengfei was wholeheartedly preparing Daoyi for her future cultivation.
When they stepped onto her palace on Jade Peak, Mengfei immediately sent out messages towards the elders as well as the residents on Jade Peak. As this was Sword Empress Xi’s first official, it was not a matter that should be rushed, but due to her solemn personality, the date was set to be three days later. Tianyi was technically without a master, but he didn't need to find a master in the Buzhou Immortal Sect with a Grand Elder as a parent.
“Yi’er wait,” Mengfei said to Tianyi, who was about to return to his own estate. Tianyi looked back to his mother, who motioned for him to follow her.
Jiang Daoyi had already been arranged for a Nascent Soul elder to take care of. On Jade Peak, the lowest level cultivators were Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, so they were assigned to do most of the chores. That is, aside from Tianyi and now Jiang Daoyi as well.
Mengfei led Tianyi into an inner room where he saw a frosty beauty with ice-white hair who seemed to be in her late twenties. She wore the customary white robes of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. But on her, it made the plain robes seem to be the most beautiful dress woven from strands of ice crystals.
“Greetings, senior.” Tianyi politely greeted the unknown senior with a salute. This was the inner room of his mother’s palace, and those without her permission would never be allowed to enter.'
The senior moved her head a little, and her ice-blue eyes looked at Tianyi, causing him to feel a chill as if every secret on his body down to his soul was exposed.
“Yi’er, this is Grand Elder Zhang. The people outside the sect addressed her as Empress Voidink. When I was still a Qi Gathering Pupil, Senior Zhang was already an Immortal Monarch.” Mengfei introduced.
“Grand Elder Zhang.” Tianyi greeted once more, although inwardly he was thinking of another matter. Mother, are you trying to brag about your fast cultivation speed?
Grand Elder Zhang didn’t say anything and instead took a step forward and grabbed Tianyi’s wrist, and Tianyi instantly felt a cold energy seep into his body from the contact point. But he didn’t resist, his mother didn’t react, so this must not be anything detrimental to him. If Grand Elder Zhang was capable of harming him without his mother’s notice, then Tianyi could only lament his fate.
Grand Elder Zhang finally released Tianyi’s wrist when Tianyi was at his limits from the cold energy and felt that his body would undergo hypothermia. Grand Elder Zhang had her brows slightly furrowed when she released Tianyi’s hand. She gave Mengfei a look. “It’s fine. You can tell me here.” Mengfei said.
Tianyi inwardly raised an eyebrow. Is it something she doesn’t want me to know?
After deliberating for a few moments, Grand Elder Zhang glanced at Tianyi before turning her attention towards Mengfei. “His Spiritual Veins have gone past the limits of what a Heavenly Spiritual Vein should be able to accomplish. It even harbors concepts of the Grand Dao.”
“The Grand Dao? How can Yi’er’s Spiritual Vein hold the concept of the Dao? He hasn’t even reached the Core Formation Realm yet.” Mengfei said.
Grand Elder Zhang shook her head. “There are records of Spiritual Veins holding concepts of the Great Dao.” She sneaked a glance, Tianyi without him noticing before sighing once more. “Junior Xi may not have heard of it, even I only have heard of it by chance. Back during the primordial era where divinities still roamed, there was a supreme Spiritual Vein known as the Dao Spiritual Vein.”
“Dao Spiritual Vein?” Mengfei said, testing the words on her lips.
“Indeed. It is called the supreme Spiritual Vein because it holds the concept of the Grand Dao within. If the holder manages to survive, their Immortal Ascension will be all but guaranteed—a mortal who is both loved and hated by the Heavenly Dao. There are only records of one Dao Spiritual Vein, the Dao Chaos Spiritual Vein. However, he does not have that. If I were to name it, it would be known as the Dao Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Vein.”
“I do not know what you or he did, but he managed to steal the power of tribulation from the Heavenly Dao and refine it into his own power.” There was a tinge of reluctant amazement hidden in her voice. “However, to claim the power of the Heavenly Dao is not to be taken lightly. If he does not cultivate well, there will be a high chance that he will fall on his Immortal path.”
Grand Elder Zhang looked at the expressionless Mengfei. Although there was no outward change, how could an old monster like her who lived for countless ages not know the worry and concern beneath her facade? “I’ll go search the records, Junior Xi. Until then, you should do everything you can.”
After saying those words, Grand Elder Zhang left without looking back as if she couldn’t wait to leave Jade Peak Palace.
“Mother, I get the feeling that Grand Elder Zhang doesn’t like me that much.” Tianyi idly said as he processed the information he just received.
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Mengfei glanced at Tianyi. “Her master sacrificed her life in order to create an opening for us to kill the Dragon Emperor. For you who shares the exact same features except for your eyes, naturally, she is unwilling to accept you.”
“...” Tianyi. Fine, against this face, I have nothing to defend it with.
For the next three days, Tianyi quietly focused all his efforts on his martial cultivation. His mother had already told him that if he wished to complete his Sole Yin, Eight Trigrams Yang Core Revolution Formation, he should first increase the strength of his body to the Core Formation Realm at the very least before attempting to form his Spiritual Cores.
The Core Formation Realm of the martial cultivation was known as the Martial Body Realm. When a cultivator reaches the peak of the Body Transformation Realm, it was suitable to be altered into a martial body. There were numerous martial bodies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. But a Dragon Martial Body was top tier.
As for the information concerning his Spiritual Vein becoming a Dao Spiritual Vein? Tianyi simply put on the side. He originally had a noble birth as Sword Empress Xi’s son and the resources that came with it, the supreme cultivation scripture, Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique, the talent and inheritance of the Dragon Emperor. So for his Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Vein to mutate into the Dao Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Vein was just adding flowers onto gold for him. In the end, the gold was still gold.
But today was different. After all, today his mother would accept Jiang Daoyi as her second official disciple.
Tianyi exited out of his estate and made way for the Jade Peak Palace, where the ceremony would be held. He passed by many cultivators he normally didn’t see outside of their estates along the way.
Jade Peak was a bit different compared to the other peaks of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Their lineage was descended from the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wangmu. But there were many cultivators of other lineages residing on the mountain as his mother's control, at least in name. The reason for this was perhaps because they all had a heart focused on the Dao, and they didn't want to be bothered by the power struggle between the factions of the sect.
And because of this, they were considered the strongest neutral faction within the Buzhou Immortal Sect that didn't fight for greater power or influence. Of course, if one were to treat the people of Jade Peak as easy to bully, they would discover that they kicked a board made of divine steel. But they would only react. His mother didn't have any true authority over them.
Upon entering the palace, Tianyi immediately noticed many Immortals that he recognized. It had to be said that during Tianyi’s time on the mountain, he was impacted too much by these Immortals. Thus he committed them to his memories. His mother usually reigned in her aura and appeared like an ordinary mortal. But these Immortals did not have the same gentleness, leading to Tianyi remembering them even though he was terrible at remembering names.
The two that stood out the most were Elder Zixue, known as Monarch Violetsnow in the outside world, and Elder Luhou, known as Monarch Jadeflame.
Tianyi blinked, and then he realized he skipped over the Sect Master who had also shown up. It couldn’t be wholly blamed on Tianyi. Sect Master Xia Meng had the appearance of a forty-year-old man with an ordinary appearance. Even his elegant white robes embroidered with blue clouds didn’t seem to bring out anything but ordinariness.
Tianyi didn’t go over to greet Sect Master Xia and instead went over to great Xia Yushan, a descendant in the Xia Clan where Sect Master Xia was part of. Xia Yushan was also Sect Master Xia’s disciple and the strongest acknowledged Core Formation Spiritual Master in the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
“Senior Brother Xia.” Tianyi greeted.
“Junior Brother Xi.” Xia Yushan glanced at Tianyi and felt the qi that resembled heaven and earth and couldn’t help but sigh. “You really surprise me with your cultivation speed. Not only have you reached the Spiritual Crucible stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, but your martial cultivation is almost on par. It took you five years to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm, but it took only a year for you to reach the late Foundation Establishment realm. Truly admirable.”
There was no jealousy in Xia Yushan’s voice, only admiration. Was he not the least bit jealous of Tianyi? Of course not. But he was also supremely confident in himself. Cultivating fast in the early stages could be seen as good, but anyone could accomplish the same things if they used enough treasures. The later realms were even more important because the further you walked, the more critical the Dao and your Daoheart were.
Xia Yushan was in his forties, but he was at the peak of the Core Formation Realm, and within the next few years, he would be able to enter the Nascent Soul Realm. This meant that he was not that far off from Xi Mengfei’s record of reaching the Nascent Spirit Realm under the age of fifty.
Those who entered the Nascent Spirit Realm under the age of fifty and those that entered the Unity Realm under the age of one hundred all had high chances of becoming Immortal and were important disciples that sects would pour resources into.
Tianyi spent a few moments talking to this senior brother of his for no other reason than he admired Xia Yushan. People called him a sword genius, but the true genius of the sword was Xia Yushan, and even his mother had told him that Xia Yushan had even embarked on the Dao of the Sword.
Unfortunately, Tianyi just wasn’t suitable for the sword, according to his mother. Tianyi could have still chosen to persist in the sword, but he didn’t like to force himself to do things that he wasn’t good at, and in the end, he chose a different path. Though Tianyi still practiced sword arts as a hobby.
Very soon, the Jiang Daoyi's Disciple Acceptance Ceremony began. Tianyi stood behind his mother, who was standing at the center where two rows of people stood across from each other, creating a scene that resembled judgment.
Jiang Daoyi stilted when she walked through the entrance and was blasted by the aura of people inside. Her legs trembled as she stood there slightly shocked, and she turned her gaze towards Xi Mengfei for reassurance, but all she was met with was an expressionless gaze, neither happy nor sad.
Her sight found its way towards Tianyi, who was standing behind Xi Mengfei, his gaze was gentle, and he gave an encouraging smile to her. Daoyi sucked in a deep breath and steeled herself. Step after step, her feet carried her forward through the evaluating gazes of the people. Her mind was numb as she could only repeat in her head the procedures of the Disciple Acceptance Ceremony like a mantra.
Daoyi felt an eternity had passed when she stood in front of Xi Mengfei, her posture rigid. But she persevered and kneeled and kowtowed. Because of her nervousness, Daoyi harshly hit her head on the ground during her first kowtow, making her slightly dazed. But Daoyi could only grit her teeth and rise and kowtow eight more times. By the time Daoyi was done with her nine kowtows and stood up, she saw stars.
Right after, a Nascent Soul Realm elder walked forward carrying a tray with a cup of tea on it. Daoyi had to consciously restrain herself from holding her head as she held onto the teacup with both hands. But after she lifted it off of the tray, she felt her body sway. Daoyi paled, but she soon discovered that her body had miraculously stabilized. She didn’t know who helped her, but she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Mengfei took the teacup from Jiang Daoyi’s hand and took a sip. “En, with this, you are officially my disciple,” Mengfei said as she handed the teacup to the elder who brought the tray with the tea.
Soon rounds of congratulations rang about, congratulating Xi Mengfei for accepting another disciple and continuing her lineage.
Jiang Daoyi stood still, unsure of what to do. Then Tianyi came forward, he looked incredibly out of place with his child’s stature, but his walk was full of confidence as if he belonged in this world. Tianyi smiled at Daoyi and said. “Greetings, Junior Sister Daoyi.”
Daoyi found a smile rising up on her own face. “Greetings, Senior Brother Xi.”