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Although Daoist Guang Cheng’s sword possessed nearly the speed of light, he himself couldn’t achieve such a velocity.
His sword was nearly as fast as light because both of Guang Cheng’s swords had been refined from solid to void, essentially becoming a form of light, hence they were capable of reaching such extre speeds, but his physical body couldn’t transform into light, and naturally couldn’t match the sword’s supre velocity.
Golden light broke through the sky; it took quite so ti to travel from West Kunxu to Yuxu Temple, and by the ti he reached Yuxu Peak in East Kunxu, dusk was nearing.
At this ti, as nightfall approached, Kunxu Mountain grew three tis colder than during the day, with bone-chilling winds blowing in sharp gusts.
However, the climate near Yuxu Temple was in complete reversal with the seasons, permanently fixed in the ti of spring.
This temple, situated atop a high peak, covered an extensive area with its halls and pavilions arranged in an ordered fashion, revealing the solemnity and grandeur of the Mystic Sect. Its surroundings were lush with vegetation, in an everlasting spring, a vibrant scene in stark contrast to the icy snowscapes outside, yet it didn’t seem out of place; instead, there was a natural fit.
As the golden light descended before the temple, Daoist Guang Cheng waved his hand lightly, and the vermilion gate slowly opened, its deep sound startling two dozing Daoist acolytes.
"Ah!"
One of the acolytes woke with a start, saw Guang Cheng entering, and hurriedly nudged the other acolyte. Both paid their respects in unison, "We greet the temple master."
"Bai He, Ling Yu, have you two been punished to stand again?"
Daoist Guang Cheng sighed upon seeing the two acolytes, "Even standing punishnts tempt you to doze. I truly don’t know whom you’ve learned this from, it’s clear that the most lethargic Uncle Master Shen, who’s always away, couldn’t possibly be the bad influence."
Both acolytes, around thirteen or fourteen years of age, had brows imbued with spiritual energy, their cultivation obvious and not shallow, rare for their age.
Hearing Daoist Guang Cheng’s sigh, the two acolytes were not panicked, rely gave sheepish smiles; one even tried to argue, "Temple master, I wasn’t dozing, at least not . I was closing my eyes for Breathing Control, cultivating while standing."
"Wipe the drool from your mouth first, and maybe I’ll believe three words of your ghostly tale," Daoist Guang Cheng retorted unamusedly.
"Temple master, don’t tease , there’s no drool at the corner of m—"
The acolyte was clever; upon hearing this, he didn’t change his expression and didn’t go to wipe his mouth but instead began to speak with a smile, only to realize midway that there was indeed sothing odd at the corner of his mouth. He reached up to wipe, and sure enough, there was drool.
"Can’t even tell a lie clearly, I’m convinced now you haven’t been corrupted by Uncle Master Shen. As punishnt, copy the ’Yellow Court Scripture’ a hundred tis. Also, where is Uncle Master Shen now?"
Daoist Guang Cheng ted out the punishnt and asked simultaneously.
"Uncle Master Shen is currently in the alchemy cauldron room, taking care of Grandmaster Yin," the acolyte replied with a gloomy face.
"Um."
Daoist Guang Cheng nodded slightly and led Jiang Li and Gongsun Qingyue inside the temple, not towards the alchemy cauldron room they had asked about, but through various pavilions and halls, taking more and more remote paths.
No one else was encountered along the way, making the place seem rather deserted. Additionally, the arrangent of the surrounding buildings gradually changed: from ordered to disordered, with pavilions and palaces jumbled together, appearing bizarre and abnormal.
Seeing this, Gongsun Qingyue lowered her gaze to the Wordless Heavenly Scripture in her hand, and unsurprisingly, she detected invisible Qi veins revealing changes in the surrounding Array.
Within this Yuxu Temple, a hidden Array integrated with the pavilions, towers, and temple halls lay concealed. Unwary travelers might be trapped within, unable to exit.
As Daoist Guang Cheng led the way, the more they walked, the more frequent the changes in the surrounding Array beca, causing both Jiang Li and Gongsun Qingyue to unconsciously concentrate so as to avoid any mishaps.
However, this situation didn’t last long. As Daoist Guang Cheng suddenly advanced three steps, the scenery changed in an instant, and two tightly shut doors appeared before them, with a row of bronze pillars on either side; behind them were flowers, trees, and the silhouette of distant pavilions.
A mont ago they were walking on the path, but now they stood before the great doors of a palace.
’Spatial shift within an Array, perhaps?’
Jiang Li felt a surge within, growing eager.
He had sensed what might be inside the grand hall before them.
If he wasn’t mistaken...
"Hum—"
The heavy gate made a sonorous noise, opening slowly, and an ancient breath carrying a strong spiritual chanism leaked out from the gate.
What appeared before the two was a vast space, displaying the color of jade; both the ground and the surrounding walls seed to be made of green jade, crystal clear. The hall was so high that its top couldn’t be seen, only the water-like brilliance pouring down from above, illuminating one exquisite divine statue after another.
The statues were of males and females, old and young, and even included beasts, all in various attires.
So were dressed as Daoists, holding horsetail whisks, with swords on their backs.
Others were clad in robust and sharp armor, exuding the bravery and coldness of a seasoned warrior from the battlefield.
There were also statues of beasts, with dragon whiskers, looking like dragons and tigers but with only one leg, mystical creatures; others had features of four different species of beasts...
Row after row, the statues extended from the entrance to the end of the hall, where divine light burst forth, with more than ten statues, much larger than the others, standing majestically.
"This is the place where Yuxu Temple stores the Dao Fruits," said Daoist Guang Cheng as he led Jiang Li and Gongsun Qingyue inside, proceeding along the way. "The Dao Fruits from third grade to fifth grade are all here. If a temple disciple undergoes featherization, their Dao Fruit will also be brought back to this place."
In so statues, the form was there but not the spirit, evidently lacking a Dao Fruit within.
But those with Dao Fruits within had flowing charm and faintly revealed auspices, concealed with mysteries and also concealed with danger. Approaching incorrectly would likely bring about an extrely violent backlash.
The three arrived at the end of the hall in front of the statues, and Jiang Li looked up to see thirteen statues standing, eight of which had charm flowing on them, occasionally evolving anomalies.
’The Dao Fruits of the Twelve Golden Immortals... just don’t know if they are all third grade. If they are all third grade, that would be too terrifying.’
However, there were thirteen statues in the place of the Twelve Golden Immortals...
Jiang Li scanned them and finally, his eyes landed on the statue of an old man.
’Is that not the Yellow Dragon Immortal?’
He thought among these thirteen statues would include the Yellow Dragon Immortal, who had been removed from the records, but now it seed not quite so.
The statue was of an old man with white hair and a long beard, dressed in a white robe, holding up with both hands an ancient wooden whip. The whip had twenty-one segnts, each with four symbols, making a total of eighty-four symbols. Revolving charm wrapped around the whip, showing an invisible and stern pressure and a magnificent aura.
Jiang Li’s gaze was almost instantly attracted to this wooden whip, and a na automatically popped up in his mind.
—God-beating Whip.
"This is the Dao Fruit of Grandmaster Jiang Ziya, who sealed gods on behalf of Heaven, a master of a hundred schools. It is also the beginning of the link between Yuxu Temple and the Jiang family," Daoist Guang Cheng noticed where Jiang Li’s gaze rested and said, "As for the Dao Fruit of Qingyuan Miaodao True Monarch... Guang Yuan disciple."
As Daoist Guang Cheng called out, a statue on the left side burst into brilliant light, and its imposing aura instantly suppressed all the other statues except those of the Twelve Golden Immortals and Jiang Ziya.
Jiang Li turned to look back and saw the image of a person who seed Daoist but not quite, worldly but not completely.
He wore a Fan Cloud Crown and a Water Integration Robe, with a silk sash around his waist and hemp shoes on his feet, ethereal and above the mortal coil; a vertical wrinkle on his forehead seed like a third eye, with flashing bright light, appearing to have the aspect of seeing through all ten directions. With a Three-pointed Two-edged Sword in hand, he had the fierceness of a military general and the courage of the battlefield.
This was indeed Jiang Li’s goal for this trip—Qingyuan Miaodao True Monarch, Yang Jian.
His gaze t with the statue, and it triggered the charm on the statue, with a stream of information spontaneously erging in his mind.
[Fourth Grade Dao Fruit: Qingyuan Miaodao True Monarch, Yang Jian]
[Category: Human, Divinity, Immortal]
[Fitting Conditions: Fifth Grade Dao Fruit, of Human Species, Three Elents all reaching the God Realm]
[Promotion Ceremony: Undergo the Three Calamities to achieve Dao]
[Divine Skills: Half-human and half-god, Body Sanctification, Eight-Nine Profound Skill, Howling Celestial Dog, Heavenly Eye]
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