Chapter 203: Riding With An Immortal
On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, the sunlight was just right.
Qiu Zhou Prefectural City was already bustling with excitement, carriages streaming endlessly, clamor unending. The vast majority of residents could not sense the tense atmosphere of the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival; only the participants knew that when night fell, the true challenge would arrive.
The hidden people in Zhuo Garden were still contemplating the Silver Skeleton Heavenly Clan bones, shrouded in death qi, showing none of the joy fitting for a festival.
People should cherish and love life, yet they had become silent monsters who only knew cultivation.
How could this be allowed?
Li Weiyi went to the courtyard where the silver coffin was placed and made a circuit, unable to bear watching any longer. Thus, he pulled along Yin Eleven, drove a carriage to a large restaurant in Southern City, and bought an entire cart of delicious food, cooked and raw dishes, as well as several jars of century-old brew.
Returning to Zhuo Garden.
Li Weiyi covered the silver coffin lid.
All the hidden people who were contemplating and cultivating were completely driven out of the courtyard.
“Cultivation ends here today. Tea, wine, and dishes have all been bought back. Even if cultivating, there must be time to eat New Year’s Eve dinner.”
“Yin Twenty-Five, go set up a table, a big one, right by the lakeside.”
“Twenty-Four, go stir-fry a few hot dishes, Yao Yin help.”
“Yin Fifteen, you go build a bonfire; it might snow again in the evening.”
“Yin Sixteen, you go buy more fireworks and firecrackers…”
…
After Li Weiyi’s arrangements and deployments, the hidden people gradually shifted from initial resistance and displeasure to busying themselves.
When everything was prepared, everyone sat together at the long wooden table, looking at the full table of dishes and fine wine, their emotions actually heating up.
The hidden people clinked glasses, sharing strange tales from recent years, laughter filling the air.
What kept Li Weiyi frowning was that the dishes stir-fried by Yin Twenty-Four were truly hard to swallow.
She seemed not very skilled; the wrong person had been entrusted.
The sky had already darkened.
Yin Nine and Yin Ten, dressed in night-walking clothes, entered Zhuo Garden, manifesting their forms from invisibility. Hearing the laughter from the distant lakeside, both were extremely surprised, thinking they had come to the wrong place.
The two arrived at the lake’s edge, gazing at the bonfire and gathering on the opposite shore, both feeling an unreal sense of daze.
Since entering the hidden sect, everyone had always been rushed, either discussing serious matters or in secluded cultivation and carrying out missions. At most, two or three would gather to discuss cultivation; there had rarely been this kind of warm, home-like joyful enthusiasm.
Yin Eleven stood tall like a snake, rolled up his sleeves, and talked animatedly, spittle flying, recounting his perilous battle with an ash spirit master on Bing Zu Marsh.
The Hidden Lord silently appeared behind Yin Nine and Yin Ten, smiling: “Go on, you are also hidden people; young people surely have common topics.”
Li Weiyi spotted the three on the opposite lakeshore and immediately waved and shouted to them.
The other hidden people also all looked over.
“Dragging your feet, I’ll go call those three.”
The thoroughly drunk Yin Twenty-Three ran across the water, forcibly dragging all three from the opposite shore to the table, pressing them into seats, not even sparing the Hidden Lord.
Another three rounds of drinks.
Yin Twenty-Three directly placed a hand on the Hidden Lord’s shoulder, hugging his neck and sobbing, saying he was neither a pure immortal body nor able to obtain the Jiu Li God’s battle intent, feeling immense pressure, and so on.
The other hidden people were all dumbfounded, exchanging glances.
Who had dared to be so unrestrained in front of the Hidden Lord before?
Fortunately, the Hidden Lord not only did not blame Yin Twenty-Three but warmly comforted him for a while, like brothers or father and son.
After New Year’s Eve dinner, Yin Nine, Yin Ten, Yin Eleven, Yin Fifteen, and Yin Sixteen entered the main hall of the three-section courtyard to discuss matters of the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival.
The Hidden Lord listened in.
Li Weiyi did not join, as if he had already given up on the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival, instead setting off fireworks and firecrackers by the lake with the young hidden people, preparing to welcome the first New Year in this world.
Firecrackers crackled, fireworks bloomed.
Li Weiyi saw that though Yin Twenty-Four wore a smile, she was preoccupied, worry filling her brows, so he walked over with hands behind his back: “White-eyed Twenty-Four, I’ll teach you a finger technique; learn or not?”
Yin Twenty-Four was stunned, then laughed: “It wouldn’t be that Ci Hang Kai Guang Finger that’s already spread throughout the entire Qiu Zhou Prefectural City?”
“Why not? It’s exactly that move.”
Li Weiyi continued: “If you can cultivate results like me, you might connect mind to god, condensing a special divine mind.”
“You think everyone is like you, easily connecting mind to god?” Yin Twenty-Four knew this guy had not only cultivated one divine mind but had utterly trampled them Nine Springs pure immortal bodies into the dust.
Li Weiyi walked in front of her: “Learn or not?”
“Learn!”
Of course Yin Twenty-Four was willing to learn.
To be precise, among the young martial cultivators of the entire Qiu Zhou Prefectural City, few did not want to learn it, all feeling this martial art had unparalleled power, surely profound and extraordinary in origin.
Under the sky full of fireworks, Yao Yin glanced at the two teaching and learning in the distance, a stunning smile appearing on her exquisite, fair, and pretty face.
Though those two always bickered and played, there was genuine care between them.
After the five strongest hidden people finished discussing, Yin Ten left first.
Her identity was still the Qin Li Immortal Official of Immortal Forest.
Yin Nine and Yin Eleven then headed to Taoli Mountain; less than two hours remained until the final batch of invitation slots and Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival rules were announced.
Many young martial cultivators had already gathered below Xuantian Stone Wall since morning.
Those as unhurried as them were the minority.
The Hidden Lord found Li Weiyi: “Two hours until five quarters before midnight, when the New Year bells ring. It’s not too late to regret now. Once the bells ring, this lord can’t protect you out of the city anymore.”
Li Weiyi smiled: “I didn’t join their discussion because I know they represent Jiu Li Hidden Sect and Jiu Li clan. They bear heavy responsibilities, fighting for Jiu Li clan, inevitably unable to control their own fate, facing immense danger.”
“But I’m different; I’m just going to join the fun, not getting involved in the hidden dragon competition, so it shouldn’t be that dangerous.”
The Hidden Lord shook his head with a sigh: “You… the best thing you said is the truth. Going to hone yourself is good too. Your generation of young martial cultivators can be called the golden generation in a millennium; those who can enter the top ten would be number one or two in other eras.”
“Ten years of chaotic times hone countless young dragons.”
“Think of it as going to see the world, to see what kind of stunning figures the young masters under heaven today are. In as short as five years, at most ten, many of them will rise against the tide to become longevity realm tycoons, young dragons turning true dragons.”
“Don’t feel too much pressure, and don’t do anything risky. Yin Nine and Yin Eleven said they will help you seize dragon seed and longevity pill, repaying the debt of Jiu Li God battle intent, so your cultivation speed won’t fall behind theirs.”
Without longevity pill, Jia Zi Forge Longevity is a heavenly difficulty.
In the past Jia Zi, only Zuo Qiu Ling succeeded.
But with dragon seed and longevity pill, the top outstanding people have a chance to forge longevity in a few years.
What a temptation?
It was precisely because he worried Li Weiyi could not restrain himself and touch things beyond his current cultivation realm that the Hidden Lord said this.
Someone would desperately fight for him.
“You said it yourself: know contentment to avoid humiliation, know when to stop to avoid peril.” The Hidden Lord warned repeatedly.
…
Under the night curtain.
Li Weiyi, dressed in black night-walking clothes, walked out of Zhuo Garden, along the Qiankun Grand Avenue wide enough for ten horses abreast, heading toward Xuantian Stone Wall below Taoli Mountain in the prefectural city center.
To get the invitation!
Qiu Zhou Prefectural City’s inner city was divided into city areas in an eight trigrams formation, streets named after the trigrams.
Upper Qian lower Kun, this street running north-south.
Night was deep, pedestrians on the streets gradually thinning, only from the majestic and mysterious ancient ancestral mountain in the city center came boiling clamor, faintly audible from over ten li away.
The young heroes of the twenty-eight prefectures had already gathered there.
“Clop clop!”
Behind him, hoofbeats sounded on the empty and wide street, accompanied by turning metal carriage wheels.
Li Weiyi did not pay attention at first; tonight many martial cultivators were driving toward Xuantian Stone Wall, but the hoofbeats grew closer, coming to the right side of the street, squeezing toward him.
Li Weiyi stopped, immediately mobilizing magic power, on alert.
Pulling the carriage was a silver horned deer exotic beast, massive in size, silver horns gleaming, extremely common in Lingxiao Life Realm.
The carriage stopped beside him.
A familiar and pleasant female voice came from inside: “Get on.”
Li Weiyi was greatly surprised, hesitated a moment, then boarded.
Immediately, a intoxicating fragrance wafted, the carriage spacious inside and luxuriously decorated, a stark contrast to the simplicity seen outside.
A magic tool bone lamp was embedded in the right compartment wall, emitting eerie blue light.
Jiang Ning wore a white veil, sitting at the innermost part of the carriage, her jade hands hidden in her robe sleeves.
The blinding veil had been removed.
A pair of stunningly beautiful eyes seemed even brighter and more radiant than the magic tool bone lamp.
Anyone meeting this pair of suffocatingly beautiful eyes would find it hard to look away, wanting only to forever immerse themselves, exploring the secrets in the owner’s heart, seeking her most essential emotions and thoughts.
Li Weiyi was someone who knew how to control himself, not wanting to fall into the emotional abyss hidden in her eyes, so he quickly shifted his gaze to Zhuang Yue sitting on the right side, smiling: “What a pair of scarlet demon eyes, even prettier than your previous ones, just doesn’t match your temperament.”
Zhuang Yue had been sitting primly, but at his praise, she immediately felt awkward, a faint blush rising on her face.
The old man driving, dressed in black robes, lightly cracked the whip.
The exotic beast carriage continued forward, at a slow speed.
Li Weiyi sat opposite Zhuang Yue: “If I remember correctly, Yu Xianzi once said Luan Tai Angels cannot share a room with men? Are we sharing a room now?”
Zhuang Yue corrected: “It’s cannot share a room alone.”
“At our first meeting, you didn’t say that; I didn’t even have the qualification to see an angel’s true form.” Li Weiyi said.
Jiang Ning looked at him faintly: “Our current way of meeting is actually against the rules too; if someone really impeaches, it’s no small trouble. But after much thought, I still felt I should see you before the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival. Li Weiyi, what will it take for you to give up participating in the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival? I hope you leave Qiu Zhou Prefectural City immediately.”
Li Weiyi met her fairy eyes so close at hand, clearly seeing each curved, long eyelash, and the complex emotions in her gaze.
Li Weiyi felt a slight tremor in his heart, shifting his eyes to the bone lamp on the compartment wall.
Jiang Ning and the Hidden Lord’s repeated admonitions undoubtedly showed that the dangers of this Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival far exceeded imagination; everyone smelled blood, and in the face of the situation, felt a powerless sense of drifting with the waves.
Li Weiyi said: “Yu Xianzi must understand one thing: I am your creditor; you owe me a lot of money unpaid, and also owe me favors. Even if commanding to do things, it should be me commanding you, not you…”
Jiang Ning said: “I’m not commanding you; I just want to know an answer, then do all I can to help you escape this danger, repaying your favor. Li Weiyi, why are you so stubborn?”
