Chapter 65: Me, My Junior Sister, and this Wave of Testing, Minimum Excellence!
"God of Marriage, you're just a divine matchmaker, what do you know about love between men and women!"
In the front hall, a drunken celestial warrior was wailing and sobbing.
The God of Marriage wore a helpless expression on his face, offering words of comfort, but dared not make any promises to help the celestial warrior find his destined match.
After serving for tens of thousands of years, the God of Marriage had seen it all. This kind of situation was nothing new to him. He could only offer words of reassurance and try to connect with other celestial warriors to deal with the matter.
The matchmaking mainly depended on one's own efforts. If you wanted to create a wonderful story with a fairy, you had to plan carefully and impress her with sincerity.
Before this, the God of Marriage was repairing the clay figure that was previously damaged by the Grand Master Xuan Du.
The clay figure was formed by the power of the heavens and constantly had a connection with the heavenly laws. Although it could be repaired, the process was extremely complicated. The key was to temporarily remove the clay figure from the marriage wheel, repair it, and then add it back.
Just as the God of Marriage was about to finish his work, the celestial warrior suddenly came to lament his troubles. Since the clay figure couldn't be away from the marriage wheel for too long, the God of Marriage delegated the final, very simple assembly work to two disciples and went to deal with the situation himself.
In the back hall, the two disciples carefully attached the new left arm to the clay figure. A mysterious aura emanated from the clay figure, and it was instantly restored to its original state.
Then...
The younger disciple pointed to the remaining bit of clay on the table and whispered, "Senior brother, what should we do with this?"
"Oh no! We connected the shoulder in the wrong place!"
"Will Master punish us for this?"
"Well..."
The older disciple pondered for a moment, with a pensive look on his face. He examined the clay figure from top to bottom and suddenly brightened up.
He discovered a gap at the bottom of the clay figure, between its feet and legs!
With a glance at each other, the two disciples carefully filled the gap with the remaining clay. Then the older disciple took a small hairpin and gently pressed the clay into place.
Success!
Just as the two disciples finished their remedy, the drunken celestial warrior in the front hall was escorted away by two of his friends who had arrived.
The God of Marriage walked over with his hands behind his back and asked gently, "Have you two finished the repairs?"
"W-We've finished repairing it, Master!"
The God of Marriage took a look at the clay figure and nodded in satisfaction, tossing two bottles of elixir to his disciples.
"You've done well. Go practice in the front hall."
With that, the God of Marriage took the clay figure into the midst of the starry sky and beckoned to the group of clay figures from the Immortal Path Gate, gently pushing them forward.
The marriage wheel appeared, and as the universe turned, the male clay figure slowly returned to its original position. The three female clay figures nearby sensed it and their red threads extended towards the returning clay figure.
The God of Marriage breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, everything was settled.
Then, he saw the clay figure gently swaying and subtly avoiding one of the red threads.
"Is this guy really focused on seeking enlightenment?"
The God of Marriage stroked his beard and smiled, looking at the three unchanged ends of the red threads on the male clay figure.
"Interesting. Let's see how long you can avoid them. I won't force you on this matter. We have the beauty of adulthood; we should not impose undue hardships."
As soon as he finished speaking, the male clay figure gently evaded another red thread, then shook his body, and a bit of clay slipped from between his legs, drifting into the starry sea...
The God of Marriage was immediately stunned, his face frozen in disbelief as he looked at the male clay figure, which had just been repaired and was now surrounded by the other three clay figures...
This?
How... how could this happen?
Is this guy really so ruthless?!
No, it's possible that some debris fell into the clay figure while repairing it.
But then again...
Even if this clay figure really lacked a bit, it shouldn't matter, right?
The Grand Master should not notice, right?
This is a clay figure of destiny, it has no other symbolic meaning. At most, it will have some subtle resonance with the person, and it will not affect his body...
Right?
"Remember to pay close attention!"
The admonition from Grand Master Xuan Du before he hurried away still echoed in his ears. The God of Marriage's Adam's apple trembled up and down, and he quickly took a few steps forward, pinched the bit of clay floating in mid-air.
He crushed it, ground it into powder, put it in his sleeve, and looked around.
"Nothing happened, haha, nothing happened. The auspicious energy of the three stars is so good! So good! Haha, hahaha..."
The two disciples at the door wanted to speak but stopped themselves, and were pulled away by the older disciple. The two of them hurriedly slipped away, each making a secret pact to bury this little secret deep in their hearts.
Back at the Little Qiong Peak, in the underground chamber.
Li Changshou sat cross-legged on the cushion, quietly practicing cultivation. His body was like crystal, his immortal soul pure; the true flames of Samadhi wandered slowly inside his body, making his skin appear translucent, with flashes of immortal light within.
After carefully checking again, he still didn't find any abnormalities in his body.
He thought for a moment, and then settled down to meditate quietly for a few months, until he felt that his minor realm was nearing completion, before relaxing a bit.
It should be fine now.
Although his minor realm was complete, Li Changshou wasn't in a hurry to break through immediately. According to his previous plan, he would re-comprehend this realm.
The first step was to review and learn anew;
The second step was to change perspectives, verify the Dao, and make up for any deficiencies;
The third step was to suppress the realm and strive for perfection.
Repeating these three steps several times would minimize the probability of 'mistakes' and make this section of the realm more stable.
The first opportunity in the world had already been taken by those innate experts. If he wanted to have the strength to protect himself in the future, he could only seek stability in the early, middle, and late stages of cultivation, accumulating steadily until a breakthrough occurred.
His train of thought was always clear.
Nowadays, most of the experts in the world have already reached their peak. What he pursued was the height he could reach in the future, not to rush for time.
After more than half a year of seclusion, Li Changshou finally confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his body, and the itching sensation in his groin hadn't appeared again.
After reaching a certain level of cultivation and comprehending the first volume of the "Way of Non-Action", Li Changshou had not yet found a suitable opportunity to study the second volume. Moreover, secretly practicing the core technique of his sect was a major taboo, and there was also a bit of risk involved.
There are no walls that don't let in the wind.
Setting aside the back-up plans and cards that Li Changshou left behind, his last line of defense was simply not to violate the core rules of the Gate of Immortals and not to do anything that would harm the interests of the Gate of Immortals.
Take it slow.
The "Way of Non-Action" was profound, and the first volume had an outline. If he carefully comprehended it, word by word, sentence by sentence, he would surely gain new insights. Perhaps he could even come up with some new ideas.
Maybe after a hundred years, when his fellow disciples in the sect began to cross the tribulation one after another, he could arrange to 'coincidentally' go out and pass through the heavenly tribulation. At that time, it would not be too late to study the second volume of the "Way of Non-Action".
After returning from the secret room to his alchemy room, Li Changshou put away the paper figure that had been sitting there for a long time, already able to pass as a real person;
Sitting beside the alchemy furnace, Li Changshou began to slowly refine the furnace.
This alchemy furnace, named the 'Thousand Poisons and Hundred Gold Furnace', was a top-grade immortal treasure, prepared by Elder Wanlinjun as a spare alchemy furnace.
The body of the furnace was made of Mingyan Gold forged with a hundred smeltings, mixed with a hundred kinds of precious materials, and even if it was used by a celestial immortal like Wanlinjun, it would not explode directly.
Looking closely at the outer wall of the furnace, under the black metallic luster, there flowed pure spiritual power, and on it, a hundred kinds of poisonous insects and twelve kinds of highly poisonous beasts were meticulously depicted.
However, this furnace itself did not have any poisonous erosion. On the contrary, it could suppress the toxicity of the poison pill during refinement, increasing the safety factor by a few points.
Originally, Elder Wanlinjun wanted Li Changshou to use another more precious furnace, which could increase the rate of pill formation and improve the quality of the poison pill, but Li Changshou insisted on choosing this spare furnace...
This made Elder Wanlinjun quite emotional.
After all, the current environment in the world was no longer ancient or prehistoric, treasures were hard to come by, and there was a preference for treasures over techniques;
Facing the younger generation who held onto treasures without wavering, there were indeed too few of them.
—Although Li Changshou was aiming for safety.
After refining a batch of poison pills, Li Changshou was very satisfied with this alchemy furnace...
Next, he could discuss the 'make money' plan with his master.
"I'm sorry to have you use these small formations for protection," Li Changshou murmured, "when there are precious materials, I'll make sure you're safe here, with no one to bully you."
This alchemy furnace was not a spiritual treasure, so it naturally wouldn't respond to him in any way.
It had been some time since he returned, and it was time to visit Elder Wanlinjun at Dan Ding Peak for the second time.
He couldn't just disappear after receiving benefits.
"Yeah... gonna go catch a few spirit fish, have Ling E cook up some dishes, and bring two jars of good wine to pay our respects." Li Changshou calculated like this, strolling out of the alchemy room and drifting towards the grass hut.
His divine sense easily penetrated the array around Ling E's hut, seeing her resting at the window, her green silk cascading over her fragrant shoulders and willowy waist. Despite her occasional giggles and calling out "Senior Brother," which disrupted the ambiance, her beauty was enough to captivate.
On the stone tablet beside her, there was an unfinished relief carving depicting Li Changshou returning on a cloud...
"Not focusing on cultivation properly," Li Changshou shook his head but didn't disturb Ling E. He rolled up his sleeves and busied himself by the lakeside, cooking for a couple of hours until a delicious meal was ready.
Remembering Ling E's initial struggles with the mountain's hardships when she first arrived, Li Changshou's culinary skills were honed during that time. Later, he actively cultivated her spirit of hard work and taught her cooking after she broke through.
Dividing the leftover dishes into two lunchboxes, he quietly placed one beside his junior sister and the other in front of his master's door.
Then, Li Changshou carried a few side dishes and two jars of wine, floating at an appropriate height to avoid the busier routes inside and headed towards the Dan Ding Peak.
Not long after he left, Ling E's nose twitched slightly, drawn in by the scent of the food, and she slowly opened her eyes.
"Huh?" Puckering her lips, Ling E saw the lunchbox beside her and the bamboo slip placed on top.
"Don't slack off in cultivation. Diligence leads to enlightenment."
Ling E was first surprised, then a joyful smile appeared on her face.
Senior Brother had visited! And he made food for her! Hmm? Unusual. Ling E instantly got up, supporting her chin with her right hand, pondering deeply.
"Hmph, Senior Brother must be testing me, to see if I still remember what he taught!"
With a flick of her finger, a talisman flew out from her sleeve and stuck to the lunchbox. Then she threw the lunchbox out of the window, and the talisman glowed with fire, instantly exploding the lunchbox.
This move might not be perfect, but at least it was excellent!
Pleased with herself, Ling E stepped out of her grass hut, searching for her Senior Brother's figure.
However, her gaze was quickly drawn to the identical lunchbox in front of her master's door.
Her triumphant smile gradually froze on her pretty face, and Ling E placed her hand on her forehead, murmuring softly.
It really was food made by Senior Brother. Haven't had it in so many years... how could I... Sigh, he's really led me astray!
"Master's in seclusion. He probably hasn't noticed. The food is outside the array."
It'd go bad if left out anyway... Ling E looked around discreetly, then tiptoed closer to her master's wooden door, picking up the lunchbox from the ground.
"Master, I'm not trying to steal your food. You're busy comprehending the Dao, and it's not like you'll come out. Wasting it would be a shame, right?"
Creak—
The wooden door slowly opened, revealing Daoist Qi Yuan, who was stretching lazily. He smiled gently when he saw his disciple in front of him.
"Ling E, what are you doing here?"
"Um, well... Master... Senior Brother made some food and asked me to bring it to you."
"Oh?" Qi Yuan's eyes lit up as he took the lunchbox. "Rare to see such filial piety from you both. I'll eat this, then we can go to the Pangu Peak gathering later."
Ling E turned her back to her master, pouting slightly.
I'm crying, Master. I'm really crying, Master...
She took a deep breath and casually asked, "Master, are you going to Pangu Peak for something?"
"Ahem!" Daoist Qi Yuan pretended to be calm. "Nothing major. Didn't I become an immortal? Received a notice from the Hundred Realms Hall about the peak master's biannual gathering. Our Little Qiong Peak can also participate now."
"Oh, really?"