Xuantian Immortal Cultivation Record

The next morning, Two Dragon Mountain finally quieted down.

While Zhang Yuanjing was talking with Yu and Liu, Fire Crow Taoist led Xiao Yousong and Huo Zhengkai to capture more than a dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators, killed twenty or so, and only a few escaped. These were the ones who had secretly slipped away when Fire Crow Taoist was fighting three Core Formation cultivators of Two Dragon Mountain alone.

In between, Fire Crow Taoist also summoned Yuan Zhilin and others, ordering them to search the palace and take away anything useful. If there were any scattered mortals, they were to be sent down the mountain.

After talking with Zhang Yuanjing and learning about Liu Yuanqing's arrangements, he personally led a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators in riding the Wind-Riding Chariot, led by Xiao Youfan, to capture or kill the escaped Foundation Establishment cultivators. As for the Qi Refining cultivators, they couldn't travel long distances, so he didn't bother with them.

On Azure Water Peak, the mountain breeze was gentle, the forest rustled, and occasionally a wild beast roared, making it seem even more empty and desolate.

In the Dragon King Palace, Zhang Yuanjing first introduced Huo Zhengkai to Han Ji, Zhang Jun, and Zhang Yu.

In terms of age, Han Ji was older than Huo Zhengkai, but Han Ji was very quick-witted. As soon as he heard that this handsome middle-aged cultivator had been brought into the Profound Heaven Sect by his master since childhood and that his cultivation was higher than his own, he immediately called him "Senior Brother Huo."

Huo Zhengkai was about to decline politely, but Zhang Yuanjing stopped him.

Zhang Yu was a lively character. After the greeting, she chirped, "Senior Brother Huo, is Heavenly Fault Mountain fun? Master has been mentioning it frequently lately, but he's always vague. It's not just pavilions and towers and Daoists with stern faces all day long, is it? Are there any female cultivators? Can you raise spirit beasts? Master has two himself, but he doesn't allow me to raise any, how disappointing…"

Zhang Yuanjing couldn't help but smile as he listened, while Huo Zhengkai chuckled, but his laughter couldn't hide his envy.

After a few moments of laughter, Huo Zhengkai's expression turned serious, and a look of determination appeared in his eyes. He knelt down to Zhang Yuanjing and said loudly, "Since I entered Foundation Establishment, I have hoped to be included in Master Uncle's sect. Please accept me as your disciple, Master Uncle!"

Zhang Yuanjing felt his pure heart and couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion. He knew that he had not misjudged this child back then. Huo Zhengkai was indeed a person with a very pure mind, whether it was decades ago or now, after experiencing countless hardships.

He gently waved his hand to help him up and said solemnly, "I understand your intentions. However, according to the rules of the Profound Heaven Sect, I cannot formally accept you as a disciple until I become an elder, nor can you formally acknowledge me as your master. When I enter the Golden Disc, hold the Profound Book, and wear the Jade Seal, I will definitely accept you as my disciple, and make you my eldest disciple!"

Han Ji, Zhang Yu, and Zhang Jun were all affected by his tone and couldn't help but put away their smiles, standing solemnly. The way they looked at Huo Zhengkai also changed.

After many years of hoping, Huo Zhengkai's mind and spirit were shaken. He cried out, "Master is above, please accept this disciple's bow," kowtowing three times before rising.

Zhang Yuanjing laughed loudly and stood up, looking at the heroic and energetic disciple in front of him, saying "good" three times in a row.

He then took out a high-grade defensive spiritual artifact and two bottles of low-grade Spirit Gathering Powder from his storage bracelet and handed them to Huo Zhengkai, saying, "This is my gift to you. I don't have a good gold-attribute attack spiritual artifact, so I'll replace it with a defensive spiritual artifact. Work hard in your cultivation and don't let me down!"

Huo Zhengkai thanked his master, accepted the items, and put them into his storage bag.

Han Ji stepped forward, bowed, and said respectfully, "Congratulations, Master, on gaining a good disciple! Han Ji greets Senior Brother!"

Zhang Yu and Zhang Jun then reacted and hurriedly congratulated their master in Han Ji's manner, and greeted Huo Zhengkai.

Huo Zhengkai also greeted the three junior brothers and sisters with a happy face.

At this time, Zhang Yuanjing introduced Han Ji, Zhang Yu, and Zhang Jun's situations to him one by one, how he accepted them as disciples, what their spiritual root aptitudes were, and what their characteristics were, so that this eldest disciple would know.

He then asked the four disciples to sit down.

Zhang Yuanjing asked, "Zhengkai, with your aptitude, you should have established your foundation before the age of sixty. Why did you delay and miss the opportunity? Did Long Yuanshou deduct your pills?"

Huo Zhengkai quickly shook his head, "No. Peak Lord Long has always respected the sect's rules. The reason why my cultivation was difficult to improve was because there was a problem in my understanding of the techniques. The gold and water attributes could not be well integrated, which affected the progress of my cultivation."

Zhang Yuanjing's face darkened, "Now that you have joined my sect, you can tell me anything. When you were refining Qi, there was no such thing as the harmony of the five elements. You only needed to focus on refining the Profound Heaven Qi Circulation Technique to continuously improve your cultivation. What is the reason?"

Huo Zhengkai was silent for a moment. Seeing the anger on Zhang Yuanjing's face, he said, "Thirty years ago, Peak Lord Long stepped down and was replaced by Peak Lord Lu. He implemented an upper and lower court system in Sky Peak. Above the five element branch, there was an upper court. Disciples with outstanding qualifications and comprehension could enter it and receive special training.

"Most of the resources distributed by the sect were allocated to the upper court, and the lower court disciples received much less. Because I failed to enter the upper court, it was difficult to obtain pill assistance, so my cultivation progress slowed down after entering the tenth level of Qi Refining."

Zhang Yuanjing nodded expressionlessly, "How many people are there in this so-called upper court?"

"Twenty people."

"Twenty people! Twenty people and none of them are you?" Zhang Yuanjing snorted heavily, "Sky Peak has changed the sect's rules without permission. Doesn't the Hall of Mysterious Control ask about it?"

"I heard that it was approved by Headmaster Xie and is being piloted in Sky Peak. If the response is good, it will be rolled out to all seventy-two peaks in the outer sect," Huo Zhengkai said softly.

Hearing this, Zhang Yuanjing couldn't help but think of the plaque above the gate of Sky Peak's Sky Hall, which was inscribed by Xie Tianwei. Sky Peak must have a close relationship with him.

"Who is this Peak Lord Lu?"

Huo Zhengkai said, "It's Lu Zhensong, the eldest senior brother of Sky Peak's Geng Metal Courtyard. Master, you have met him. After he established his foundation, Headmaster Xie took him into his sect, made him his disciple, and put him in charge of Sky Peak."

"Oh, so it's Lu Yuansong! Hehe, the Qi Refining junior who was uneasy when he saw me back then is now a peer! What about Guo Yuanmeng, hasn't he formed his core yet?"

Huo Zhengkai said, "No, he's still at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, for more than twenty years. I heard that Headmaster Xie has bestowed many rare pills, but he has failed several times. Therefore, he later accepted this Peak Lord Lu as his disciple."

Zhang Yuanjing snorted softly, somewhat disdainful.

Xie Tianwei previously had three disciples. The eldest disciple, Li Yuanai, was quite old and only reached the late stage of Foundation Establishment before dying of old age. The second disciple, Guo Yuanmeng, had decent aptitude, but could only be considered average. The third disciple, Chen Yuanfei, had the highest talent, but unfortunately lost an arm in the Void Demon Space, cutting off his hope of forming a core.

As the actual first disciple of the headmaster, Guo Yuanmeng has been unable to break through to Core Formation, so it is no wonder that Xie Tianwei is anxious and has accepted a younger disciple.

"Has this upper and lower court system in the outer sect been rolled out in the sect?"

Huo Zhengkai said, "It hasn't been rolled out yet, but more than a dozen peaks have already started implementing this system on their own."

"In Sky Peak, what kind of people can enter the upper court?"

Huo Zhengkai said, "Disciples from other peaks dare not speak nonsense. Half of the twenty people in Sky Peak are those with excellent qualifications, and the other half are said to be the descendants of Core Formation elders, but I don't know much about this, so I can't say for sure if that's the case."

Zhang Yuanjing was silent upon hearing this. This kind of practice seems inappropriate, but in reality, it involves a conflict of ideas that has stretched for thousands of years in the sect. With his knowledge, he is not qualified to comment on it.

However, Xie Tianwei's actions will undoubtedly push this dispute to a more intense level. Yu Tianwan's words "trouble arises within the walls" obviously only spoke of superficial things. Many things hidden beneath the surface have not been mentioned, probably because he has not officially returned to the mountain gate.

Zhang Yuanjing looked at Huo Zhengkai's slightly vicissitudes face and asked, "Without the pill support from Sky Peak, it is not easy for you to establish your foundation before the age of seventy. How have you been cultivating all these years?"

Huo Zhengkai said indifferently, "I just do the errands assigned by the sect, simple ones like finding medicine, collecting materials, and investigating, and difficult ones like slaying demons and killing thieves. I save the spirit stones I earn, and if I'm lucky, I can exchange them for four or five high-grade Hundred Spirit Pills a year. Anyway, I save up pills for a year, and then I focus on cultivating the next year, so my cultivation progress is still decent."

Zhang Yuanjing couldn't help but sigh upon hearing this. A high-grade Hundred Spirit Pill costs about fifteen low-grade spirit stones. A Qi Refining cultivator has to do more than five errands to save up six or seventy spirit stones. This not only means hardship and danger, but also means that the cultivation time is much less than those upper court disciples.

"Where do you work after establishing your foundation?"

Huo Zhengkai said, "I was just about to report to Master. In the past twenty years, in order to deal with enemies in the east and west directions, the sect has established forward camps to the west in Flowing Cloud City and to the east in Returning Origin Peak, with Core Formation elders as deacons, and Foundation Establishment disciples assigned to work there.

"I was originally at Returning Origin Peak, but Elder Liu asked for me to deal specifically with the infiltration of Thousand Sword Sect and Heavenly Demon Abyss in the south. The base has been in Ink Bamboo Mountain Village in the northwest. Half a year ago, several of us came here to investigate secretly, but were discovered by the Water Dragon King. All my companions died, and only I survived by luck."