"Master, I want to eat candied hawthorn..."
"Master Ye, can you teach me kung fu?"
"I want to fall in love..."
"Hey, wake up!"
As Zhang Xiaoxia slept soundly, murmuring in her dreams, Ye Ling's voice echoed in her ears, startling her awake!
"Master Ye?" Zhang Xiaoxia saw Ye Ling standing beside her and immediately jolted. She quickly looked around, "Where is Grandma?"
"I was about to ask you," Ye Ling said, feeling a bit helpless. He hadn't expected Zhang Xiaoxia to be able to let Zhang Muya leave so silently.
When he returned to the room, he found it filled with a peculiar aura, and Zhang Xiaoxia had a sleep-inducing talisman stuck to her.
Zhang Muya's cultivation had been crippled, rendering her unable to use spiritual energy. Ye Ling had no idea how Zhang Muya had managed to recover her cultivation, or if she had been abducted by someone else.
However, there were no signs of a struggle in the room, and Zhang Xiaoxia's weapons and talismans had been removed. Ye Ling leaned towards the possibility that Zhang Muya had left on her own.
How did she regain her cultivation?
Ye Ling pondered.
"How could this happen? Grandma was sleeping so soundly just now, why am I lying in bed?"
Zhang Xiaoxia began to panic. The outside was chaotic, and the people from Hongchen Pavilion were still searching for Zhang Muya. She feared that something might happen to her grandmother if she went out!
"I swept through Longdao Mountain with my divine soul, but I couldn't find Zhang Muya, nor could I sense her aura. With her condition, it's impossible for her to have descended the mountain alone. She could only have gone to a place that can conceal her aura, or perhaps she has changed her appearance and her aura is completely altered, so I wouldn't recognize her even if I found her," Ye Ling explained, not showing much alarm.
Regardless of whether Zhang Muya left on her own or was taken away, her safety was not a concern.
Zhang Muya was a witness to the history of a hundred years ago. There were likely many people who wanted to extract secrets from her. As long as Zhang Muya did not reveal them voluntarily, she would not die.
"Xiaoxia, does your Zhengyi Sect have any hidden places? Or forbidden areas?"
"Forbidden areas?"
Zhang Xiaoxia was taken aback. After a moment of thought, she replied, "There aren't any forbidden areas, but there's a place in the back mountain that Master never let me approach. Would that count as a forbidden area?"
"The back mountain..."
Ye Ling mused. He had searched the Zhengyi Sect for Zhang Muya before and had been to that place in the back mountain. He knew that there was a place where the old ancestor of the Zhengyi Sect had gone into seclusion to cultivate.
However, he had been in a hurry to find Muya at the time and hadn't lingered there.
Thinking about it now, that place did indeed have the effect of concealing auras and blocking divine soul detection. Furthermore, the seventh-grade异士 cultivating there appeared to be over a hundred years old based on their bone age, suggesting they were contemporaries of Zhang Muya.
Xu Shuya was still with Tianyi in the back mountain. He had not allowed Xu Shuya to interact with Zhang Muya, so Zhang Muya could not have known Xu Shuya's whereabouts.
If Zhang Muya had indeed gone out on her own, she would most likely have gone to the back mountain to see that seventh-grade 异士!
"I know where she is, follow me!"
With this thought, Ye Ling spoke quickly and stepped out of the room without waiting for Zhang Xiaoxia.
"Master Ye, wait for me!"
Zhang Xiaoxia, still confused about where Ye Ling was going, quickly got out of bed and followed Ye Ling.
...
Zhengyi Sect, back mountain wilderness, the Zhengyi Sect ancestor's secluded cultivation place.
There were only four hours left until the Heavenly Master Ordination Ceremony.
An elder with an immortal demeanor stood before a mountain cave, with Zhuge Yehan respectfully standing behind him.
This elder, dressed in a feathered fan and silk robe, was none other than the current head of the Zhuge family in Xichuan and the sect master of the Wuhou Sect, Zhuge Feng!
It was rumored that Zhuge Feng was nearly one hundred and fifty years old and had led the Zhuge family in Xichuan for a century. In China, both in terms of strength and prestige, he was at the pinnacle of the pyramid.
There were even rumors in the circles that Zhuge Feng had learned the "Seven Stars Longevity Art" left by the former Wuhou, and even if he hadn't become a Red Dust Immortal, he had several hundred years of lifespan!
Because of this rumor, many 异士 in the circles coveted the Zhuge family's cultivation techniques. However, due to the Zhuge family's power, few dared to trouble the Zhuge descendants.
As a result, Zhuge family disciples rarely emerged, and when they did, they were generally not provoked.
Yet, Zhuge Yexun had died in Daocheng!
This was the first descendant of the Zhuge family to die in decades. The entire family was shaken. To prevent the tragedy from repeating and to defend the dignity of the Zhuge family, Zhuge Feng personally came to Longdao Mountain.
In the eyes of the outside world, Zhuge Feng's appearance was to seek justice for his disciple. However, only Zhuge Feng himself knew that he had another purpose in coming to Longdao Mountain.
"Patriarch, why are we here?"
Zhuge Yehan stood behind Zhuge Feng, his face full of confusion, and asked in a low voice.
With the Heavenly Master Ordination Ceremony about to begin, instead of confronting the Heavenly Master of the Zhengyi Sect at the Zhengyi Sect, they were in such a deep mountain and old forest. He found it extremely perplexing.
The order he received from Hongchen Pavilion was to instigate a war between the Wuhou Sect and the Zhengyi Sect. But now they were in such a desolate place, and Zhuge Yehan didn't know what to do.
"I'm here to see an old friend," Zhuge Feng said to Zhuge Yehan. "Yehan, do you know why I brought you along?"
Zhuge Yehan respectfully replied, "This junior does not know."
"You will know soon."
Zhuge Feng smiled, clasped his hands behind his back, and stepped into the mountain cave.
Zhuge Yehan, though finding Zhuge Feng's actions somewhat inexplicable, did not dare to say anything and quickly followed.
Zhuge Feng was a solid eighth-grade 异士 with over a hundred years of cultivation. Coupled with the Wuhou Sect's peculiar formations, Zhuge Feng was far more powerful than ordinary eighth-grade practitioners, possessing an aura that hinted at a land immortal.
Facing such a powerful ancestor, Zhuge Yehan naturally dared not be presumptuous.
Inside the mountain cave, the walls were carved with murals of figures in various strange postures, with meridians depicted on their bodies.
Zhuge Yehan scanned the murals on both sides and suddenly realized something, exclaiming, "Could these be the cultivation techniques of the Zhengyi Sect?"
He was shocked.
A sect's cultivation techniques were always a closely guarded secret. Even if a disciple died outside, their cultivation techniques would be self-destructed to prevent them from leaking.
But now...
The profound cultivation techniques of the Zhengyi Sect were openly carved on the cave walls, as if they were not afraid of anyone learning them.
Zhuge Yehan asked with suspicion, "What exactly is this place?"
"This is the secluded cultivation cave of Zhang Zhiyue, the former sect master of the Zhengyi Sect," Zhuge Feng said calmly, stopping deep within the cave entrance. His cloudy eyes looked forward.
There, a hunched, emaciated old man was sitting cross-legged on a stone platform, his limbs bound by iron chains.
Beside the old man, Zhang Muya had already removed the old man's clothes and was carefully wiping his scarred body with a cloth.
"Zhang Zhiyue?"
Zhuge Yehan looked at the old man on the stone platform ahead, his pupils contracting sharply, his face filled with disbelief. "He's still alive?"
Zhang Zhiyue was a legend of the previous era!