A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 544 Qingyang Gate

Duan Rong, Lü Qingzhu, and Li Ruojian drank a full six jars of wine that day.

Lü Qingzhu remained silent, yet she could drink quite a lot.

Li Ruojian was completely drunk. She clung to Duan Rong's arm, sobbing and complaining about her miserable fate.

They drank until midnight before parting ways, and Lü Qingzhu returned to the deep valley alone.

Li Ruojian was so drunk that she was unconscious, so Duan Rong carried her into the east wing and threw her onto the bed.

He then climbed into Xiao Yu's bed, half-drunk.

Xiao Yu originally wanted to subtly ask the three of them why they had gathered to drink, but seeing that Duan Rong had fallen asleep as soon as he climbed into bed, she had no choice but to give up.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking.

Inside the Dragon Fish Hall on Cuiwei Peak, more than twenty servants were sleeping on makeshift beds in the central open space. The hall was pitch black, and the sounds of snoring filled the air, like a symphony of calls.

Just then, the closed hall door was gently pushed open, and in the dim light of dawn, an old historian with gray hair walked in.

This person was none other than the Qin historian in charge of decorating the Dragon Fish Hall for this wedding.

These past few days, he's been coming over every day at the crack of dawn to wake up the sleepless dorm mates so they can get to work. He knows they've been working hard lately, but the tasks are there, and they can't afford to sleep!

As Qin Shijian stepped through the door, he looked at the servants sleeping soundly and suddenly felt a pang of pity.

The wedding is scheduled for tomorrow, so we need to wrap things up as quickly as possible today to allow time for final adjustments. Therefore, today's task is quite demanding.

Suddenly, the Imperial Historian Qin turned and left, closing the hall door behind him, leaving the Dragon Fish Hall pitch black once more.

Li Ruozhou has already escaped, so the wedding scheduled for tomorrow will definitely not take place. Why be so harsh on these servants? It would be better to let them get a good night's sleep.

As dawn broke, the elders from both sects were already sitting there, yawning, in the elders' courtyard on the mountainside platform.

Li Yunjing glanced at Chu Qiushan across from him with an unfriendly look, then suddenly put on a smile and said, "Sect Leader Chu, let's begin."

Upon hearing this, Chu Qiushan nodded and said, "Let's begin."

"Li Yunjing! What a fine son you raised!?"

Just then, a thunderous roar suddenly came from the outer gate of the Elder Hall, as if it exploded in everyone's ears.

A thunderous sound rang out, making everyone in the Elders' Council feel a sharp pain in their eardrums. The elders from both sects turned their heads in unison to look towards the gate of the Elders' Council.

A dark shadow appeared, like a rolling dark cloud, rushing in with lightning speed!
The dark clouds arrived suddenly, and the black mist above dissipated, revealing the true face of Li Ku, the patriarch of the Tianyan Sect. His face was full of anger, and his tiger-like eyes swept across the crowd, locking onto Li Yunjing sitting in the crowd at a glance.

"Ancestor?!"

Li Yunjing and the elders of Tianyan Sect were all astonished to find that their ancestor Li Ku had suddenly arrived.

Just then, four figures suddenly appeared from four directions and rushed towards Li Ku.

Those were the four elders of the sect at the Cave-Nether Realm who guarded the Elders' Council.

Li Ku was too fast; by the time they reacted, he had already entered the Elders' Courtyard!
The four figures moved in a flash, and they had already surrounded Li Ku.

One of the elderly men, with white hair and a long beard, looked at Li Ku and said cautiously, "Who are you? This Elders' Council is the sacred ground of my Taiyi Sect. You are not to trespass!"

The four elders of the Guardian Council sensed the speed and aura with which Li Ku flashed in, and knew that he was probably a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. In addition, since it was the time for the two sects to negotiate the alliance, they had already vaguely guessed the identity of the person in front of them.

However, they have a duty to guard their territory, and since this person entered without being asked, they inevitably have to come and investigate.

Upon hearing this, Li Ku merely glanced at the old man with drooping eyelids, completely disdaining to answer him.

At this moment, Li Yunjing, the sect leader of Tianyan Sect, and a group of elders flew over and knelt down not far in front of Li Ku, shouting, "Greetings, Ancestor!"

Chu Qiushan had also arrived and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Senior Li!"

The four elders guarding the area had already retreated, and Chu Qiushan gave one of them a wink.

They left the main hall; three returned to their posts, while the third transformed into a streak of black light and shot into the sky. Chu Qiushan's wink earlier meant for him to inform the patriarch that Li Ku had arrived!

Ignoring the kneeling crowd before him, Li Ku's tiger-like eyes glared only at Li Yunjing.

At this moment, the black aura around Li Ku completely dissipated, and everyone saw that he was actually holding someone in his arms!

"Oh!"

Li Ku threw the man in front of Li Yunjing. "Keep an eye on your son. If he escapes again, you won't be returning to the Tianyan Sect!"

Li Yunjing stared intently at the person on the ground in front of him. He saw that the person was dressed in the clothes of a servant, and his face was swollen like a pig's head. It was none other than his runaway son, Li Ruozhou!
Upon checking Li Ruozhou's pulse, Li Yunjing discovered that he was merely unconscious. Overjoyed and astonished, he knelt down and said, "Thank you, Ancestor!"

Tomorrow is the day of the engagement ceremony. Since the patriarch has captured Li Ruozhou, the engagement ceremony can proceed as scheduled. In this way, they will not have to compromise on the alliance agreement.

All the doubts in Li Yunjing's heart were instantly resolved. At this moment, his heart was filled with emotion, and he even had an urge to cry tears of joy, but after all, he was the leader of a sect, so he managed to suppress his emotions. The past two or three days had been like a nightmare; being the sect leader was truly difficult! Li Ku had come with a heart full of anger, but the moment he saw Li Yunjing, who looked much older in just a few days, his anger subsided by more than half, and he only gave him a lukewarm reprimand.

Chu Qiushan and Yang Sixuan were both there, and naturally they saw Li Ruozhou lying unconscious on the ground. Their expressions showed slight surprise.

In fact, not only were they astonished, but Li Yunjing was also quite surprised!
Li Yunjing only sent the message back to the sect via eagle messenger late the night before last!

Youzhou and Qingzhou are thousands of miles apart. Even if a message were delivered by a flying eagle, it would take at least a day and a night. In other words, the ancestor could not have received the news until last night at the earliest.

However, at this moment, Li Ruozhou was already in front of everyone.

In other words, it only took a few hours for Li Ku, the patriarch of the Tianyan Sect, to find the escaped Li Ruozhou and bring him back to the Taiyi Sect.

This is... truly unbelievable!

In this vast land, finding a person is like searching for a needle in a haystack!
At that moment, a gust of wind rose within the Elders' Courtyard. As the wind passed, the patriarch Lü Yinlin appeared at the entrance, seemingly out of nowhere.

Lü Yinlin laughed and said, "Brother Li! I didn't expect you to personally take charge of this matter!"

Li Ku turned around and said, "Marriage is a major event. If I don't personally take charge, this matter will be ruined."

Lü Yinlin said, "Since you're here, let's go outside and chat for a bit."

Li Ku said, "That's exactly what I was thinking." He really did have something he wanted to talk to Lü Yinlin about.

Li Ku turned to look at Li Yunjing and instructed, "Yunjing! Do your job well and don't cause any more trouble!"

"Yes, ancestor!"

Li Yunjing called out, and Li Ku and Lü Yinlin had already walked out of the Elders' Courtyard.

In fact, the reason why Li Ku was able to find the escaped Li Ruozhou so quickly was because of the longevity lock that Li Ruozhou wore around his neck as a protective magic item.

This item is an heirloom of the Li family, painstakingly crafted by Li Ku from copper collected from the Ye River. He imprinted a protective seal upon its creation.

Not to mention Li Ruozhou, he can sense the location of anyone wearing this item.

Even Li Yunjing, the sect master of the Tianyan Sect, was unaware of this.

Li Ku and Lü Yinlin walked out of the Elders' Council and came to a corner of the outer platform.

As soon as the two stopped, Li Ku went straight to the point and asked, "Have the people from Qingyang Sect contacted you as well?"

Lu Yinlin's eyes flickered. Li Ku's question was clearly a direct way of telling him that Qingyang Sect had already contacted him.

Lu Yinlin nodded and said, "They said they invited me to Qingyang Gate to discuss important matters."

Li Ku sneered and said, "That's the same story you told me."

For a thousand years, Qingyang Sect has used the strategy of balancing sects to control the six sects.

Now that Zhuang Tairu of the Divine Will Sect has suddenly achieved the Nascent Soul Realm, the Divine Will Sect alone has two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. In terms of ability, wouldn't they be able to compete with the Qingyang Sect?

Under such circumstances, Qingyang Sect will definitely try to weaken Shenyi Sect.

When they summoned Lü Yinlin and Li Ku to the Qingyang Sect at this time, their intentions became obvious. The Qingyang Sect's plan was clearly to use these two sects as the vanguard in weakening the Divine Intent Sect, while the Qingyang Sect would provide them with support from behind.

There's a lot more to this than meets the eye!
Taiyi Sect and Tianyan Sect do indeed face pressure from Shenyi Sect, and both sects want to rely on the strength of Qingyang Sect. However, Li Ku and Lü Yinlin share the same idea: to unite in defense and protect their own interests. As for truly weakening Shenyi Sect, they hope that Qingyang Sect can intervene directly.

Li Ku looked at Lü Yinlin and asked, "How did you reply to the Qingyang Sect?"

"No reply yet," Lü Yinlin said. "I was originally planning to discuss this with you, but I didn't expect you to come. What a coincidence."

Li Ku sighed, "Alas, it's a misfortune for our family. I have to handle this personally."

Li Ku then changed the subject, saying, "Brother Lü, this is how I see the Qingyang Sect's matter. You and I definitely need to go, since the Qingyang Sect's stance on counterbalancing the Divine Will Sect is the same as our two sects. However, before we go, our two sects need to reach an alliance agreement. That way, we'll have some confidence when we go to the Qingyang Sect."

Lu Yinlin said, "That's what I think too. We should go back and put pressure on our respective people to try to reach an agreement in the next few days."

Li Ku said, "Okay!"

Lu Yinlin said, "Tomorrow is the wedding day! After the wedding is set and the alliance is finalized, we will send out invitations to inform all the sects of the wedding date! The day the invitations are sent out will be the day we set off for Qingyang Sect!"

Li Ku said, "That suits me perfectly!"

The matter has been settled, so I, Li, will take my leave. "Brother Lü, until we meet again!"

After Li Ku finished speaking, he transformed into a black cloud and soared into the sky.

Lu Yinlin stood there, looked up, and with a gust of wind, his figure vanished like a ghost.

(End of this chapter)