Cen Yuchi gazed with delight at Yin Xiaoyang’s handsome, dashing, and distinguished profile, secretly pleased with himself for having latched onto such a remarkable thigh.
It had to be said Immortal Feather Peak truly lived up to its reputation as the top Immortal Sect; the grandeur was undeniable. Just a few disciples heading out to capture some Evil Spirits got to ride in such a luxurious flying carriage, and an hour of flight consumed several top-grade spirit stones. This kind of extravagant indulgence was exactly to Cen Yuchi’s taste. With the eldest brother in charge, everything was done in style!
But once aboard, Cen Yuchi discovered that the flying carriage wasn’t powered by spirit stones at all, it was powered by Mu Linyuan.
Mu Linyuan had boarded first, taking the innermost middle seat, then closed his eyes and circulated his Dharma power around his body, providing the flying carriage with a continuous stream of energy for flight.
Truly, impressively strong.
Cen Yuchi carefully observed the attire of the others, only now realizing that the carriage was full of talent.
Yin Xiaoyang and several others wore the sect robes of Immortal Feather Peak, each sleeve embroidered with six immortal cranes, representing the Twelve Immortal Feathers. These robes came in four colors, representing the four main disciplines of Immortal Feather Peak or rather, the four Formulas: Ling, Ding, Sheng, and Yan. The decorative patterns also varied slightly according to one’s cultivation level.
The Ling-character Mantra naturally focused on sword arts, with a metal attribute. It was the most orthodox path of study in the Immortal Sect and a required course for entry-level disciples of Immortal Feather Peak. The robe Yin Xiaoyang wore was predominantly white, marking him as a Ling-character Mantra disciple. As everyone knew, Immortal Feather Peak’s Lingyun Sword Technique was unrivaled in the world. All disciples had to study the Ling-character Mantra for a period upon entry before being assigned to a Formula based on their individual aptitudes. Only the most outstanding disciples could remain in the Ling-character Mantra and continue receiving instruction from the Peak Master.
The Ding-character Formula mostly involved movement techniques, with a water attribute and predominantly black robes; the Sheng-character Formula focused on medicine and pharmacology, with a wood attribute and green robes; the Yan-character Formula specialized in Artifact Refining, with fire and earth attributes and predominantly red robes.
Cen Yuchi had previously studied the golden patterns on Yin Xiaoyang’s robes in detail his cultivation should be at the early sixth rank, which was already quite impressive.
Just how impressive? Put it this way: back in the day, Cen Yuchi had only reached the threshold between the fourth and fifth ranks mediocre to the point of being only slightly better than the most mediocre.
As the saying goes, fourth-rank cultivators were everywhere; everyone was stuck at that bottleneck, unable to break through the fourth rank. But once one reached the fifth rank, their cultivation would leap forward in quality, and subsequent cultivation would proceed smoothly, climbing rapidly crossing the sixth rank to reach the seventh was only a matter of time.
Cen Yuchi’s eldest brother, Mu Linchuan, was the most outstanding cultivator in all of Immortal Feather Peak, indeed in the entire Shangyang Continent. At Yin Xiaoyang’s age, he had been about the same. Before Cen Yuchi’s death, Mu Linchuan had already reached the breakthrough point from the seventh rank to the eighth.
The seventh to eighth rank was also a major threshold. Those who could break through the seventh rank were exceedingly rare, many could only stop there, and each level beyond grew harder and harder to climb.
According to the information Cen Yuchi had gathered in his previous life, the several First Venerables overseeing each Formula at Immortal Feather Peak were all at the eighth rank. The Peak Master of Immortal Feather Peak, Mu Lian his master was at the Tenth Step. Beyond that lay a realm like that of immortals themselves, and since the Twelve Immortal Feathers, only one person had ever broken through the Tenth Step: Mu Qing.
As for the current situation, Cen Yuchi naturally didn’t know much about it, but no matter what, for Yin Xiaoyang to reach such a level at his age was already remarkable.
At this thought, Cen Yuchi probed his own cultivation neither good nor bad, fourth rank.
Strangely enough, Cen Yuchi had been exceptionally gifted in his youth. While his peers were still struggling at the first and second ranks, he had already reached the third rank at a rapid pace, and continued to advance quickly, reaching the fourth rank together with Mu Linchuan, who was two years older than him.
Everyone believed Cen Yuchi was the most promising cultivator of his generation. But no one expected that just at the critical moment of his breakthrough to the fourth rank, he suffered a sudden heart ailment that nearly cost him his life. After that, due to his health, he could never make the slightest progress in martial cultivation again.
So when he saw a child as blessed by heaven as Yin Xiaoyang, amid his admiration there was also a trace of envy.
As for the little immortal he now possessed, one could tell he was a cultivator who had come out of a proper Immortal Sect, with impressive movement techniques, only his Dharma power was meager. Presumably this cultivator had originally been quite talented, but had lacked proper guidance, or perhaps had taken up cultivation halfway through life, or given up partway. Truly a pity.
The girl with the Sheng-character Formula and the young man with the Ding-character Formula were both seventh-rank cultivators. And Mu Linyuan was even more impressive Cen Yuchi did the math: the man was exactly twenty-five this year, and had already reached the eighth rank. He was probably the youngest eighth-rank cultivator on the entire Shangyang Continent.
Cen Yuchi looked around and realized that Yin Xiaoyang, this “big thigh” he’d been counting on, was actually just hitching a ride too.
Excellent. It seemed the most outstanding young cultivators of this generation on Immortal Feather Peak were all gathered here. To be riding with so many talented young prodigies this was the peak of life, wasn’t it?
The young man with the Ding-character Formula was very kind and talkative. As soon as everyone was seated, he said to Cen Yuchi, “My name is Su Yuan. May I ask how I should address you, fellow immortal? And under whom do you study?”
This question left Cen Yuchi stumped.
After his rebirth, Cen Yuchi had first encountered Yin Xiaoyang, and a prickly little brat like that would hardly volunteer to ask his name. Then all these troublesome matters had happened one after another, so Cen Yuchi hadn’t yet had time to fabricate a plausible identity for himself. Feeling somewhat guilty, he glanced around at the people in the carriage and found that, apart from Mu Linyuan, who was still resting with his eyes closed, everyone was staring straight at him, apparently waiting for his response including Yin Xiaoyang.
Better to rely on yourself than on others. Cen Yuchi had no choice but to bring out the fake identity he often used when traveling in the past. He cupped his hands in a salute to Su Yuan and said, “So it’s Immortal Master Su. My surname is Chen. I have no sect and no school. I must also thank you all for letting me ride along with you.”
Su Yuan smiled. “No need to be so formal. I’m the oldest here, and from the look of you, you should be about the same age as Xiao Yuan and Zhizhi. Just call me Brother Su.”
Cen Yuchi immediately called out, “Brother Su!”
The girl also smiled at Cen Yuchi. “My name is Gong Zhizhi. Just call me Zhizhi.”
Cen Yuchi gave a cheeky grin and said, rather shamelessly, “Sister Zhizhi!”
Gong Zhizhi had been speaking in a gentle, soft voice, but at these words her fine brows knitted, and she said reproachfully, “How do you know I’m the older one? I’m only two years older than Junior Brother Yin!”
With that, she turned her head away and ignored him.
Su Yuan laughed heartily, then said casually, “Your surname is Chen? What a coincidence, I have a junior brother who’s also surnamed Chen. You look a bit familiar to me too…”
Just then, the vehicle suddenly jolted, and everyone cried out in alarm, grabbing hold to steady themselves before turning to look at Mu Linyuan together.
Mu Linyuan had opened his eyes and was staring straight at Su Yuan.
Su Yuan was baffled by the stare. He blinked in confusion and asked, “What’s wrong, Xiao Yuan? Are you tired? Want me to drive for a while?”
Mu Linyuan frowned and said, “No need.” Then he closed his eyes and continued channeling his energy, and the flying vehicle returned to its smooth course.
Su Yuan smiled at Cen Yuchi and mouthed the words: How bizarre. Then he asked, “By the way, Brother Chen, back at that farmhouse, how did you tell something was off about that man?”
Cen Yuchi frowned and said gravely, “That man disguised himself well, at first I was only guessing. The one who set the trap chose a child born with a natural wood spirit body, then built a temple enshrining a withered tree, waiting ten years for this inverted space to take form. To complete such a work and ensure nothing went wrong, he needed someone to lure the boy into the trap when the time was ripe. When Immortal Yin… when Immortal Yin asked the boy for his birth date and hour at the foot of the mountain, even the boy’s mother showed a moment of confusion, but that uncle wrote it down without missing a single word. That’s against all reason, highly suspicious. So I deduced that the one who set the trap had most likely possessed the boy’s uncle to guide this whole affair into motion.” Cen Yuchi paused here, then shook his head.
“But why would he write down that birth date and hour? Why not stop us from finding the boy? Wouldn’t that have exposed his entire plan…”
After a moment of silence, Yin Xiaoyang, who had been quiet all along, suddenly spoke up.
“Because he knew that with just the two of us and our cultivation levels, we couldn’t break the trap. We could only watch helplessly as it all unfolded, without any way to stop it.”
When Yin Xiaoyang finished, he looked at the wound on Cen Yuchi’s chest and clenched his fist. “That boy would have died. You would have died. And I could only watch it all happen, with no way to break the trap.”
“Junior Brother Yin, there you go again everything’s fine now.” Seeing that Yin Xiaoyang was spiraling again, Gong Zhizhi hurriedly comforted him. “Besides, we have Senior Brother Linyuan here! With Senior Brother Linyuan around, there’s nothing to be afraid of!”
At those words, Cen Yuchi and Su Yuan simultaneously lowered their heads, covered their mouths, and broke into violent coughing fits.
Gong Zhizhi didn’t seem to understand what the two of them meant and asked, puzzled, “What’s wrong with you two? Senior Brother Su Yuan, why are you coughing too? Do you need me to take a look?”
Su Yuan quickly waved his hand to indicate he was fine.
Cen Yuchi glanced at Yin Xiaoyang, who gave a very displeased snort, then crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and leaned back against the side.
Cen Yuchi sighed again. Even he could see that Yin Xiaoyang and Mu Linyuan couldn’t stand each other, this junior sister really was remarkably naive. At that thought, Cen Yuchi cast a sympathetic glance toward Su Yuan.
“Oh right, Senior Brother Linyuan, Senior Brother Su Yuan, shouldn’t we report this matter to the Peak Master first when we get back?” Gong Zhizhi said.
Su Yuan nodded thoughtfully. “Mm. This inverted space seems to be the same kind of thing we encountered before in Fengyao Town.”
At the mention of this, Gong Zhizhi’s expression grew grave as well, and she said solemnly, “Cen Tower.”
Hearing those two words, Mu Linyuan opened his eyes, and Yin Xiaoyang seemed to clench his fist.
“Cen Tower?” Cen Yuchi repeated in confusion.