Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 475 Recent Developments of the Sect
After a dizzying moment, when his vision cleared again, Song Xian had returned to the small island.

He looked around but did not see Cheng Zongyuan.

He clearly saw several of Cheng Zongyuan's clones scatter and flee. Others might not understand, but he knew perfectly well that none of the figures formed from the water were real bodies.

As for where his true form went, he didn't know.

Not far away, the array of nearly a hundred large stones remained unchanged, only its light had faded, except for the black, stubborn stone that still emitted a faint halo.

The halo acted like a protective shield, shielding it from view.

Song Xian landed from mid-air and came to the black rock, reaching out to take down the two keys.

There are still secrets to be unlocked in this mysterious ruin; there may be other treasures inside that stone coffin. He thought he would explore it again when the seven stars align and his cultivation level was higher.

However, the two golden rhombus-shaped stones seemed to have merged with the entire black rock, and with the resistance of the surrounding halo, it was already difficult for him to get close, let alone take them out.

Song Xian frowned and glanced at the swirling black hole in the sky.

Since the key cannot be retrieved, there are only two options left: first, destroy this black, stubborn rock.

Second, wait until the celestial phenomenon of the seven stars aligning disappears.

If this stone is destroyed, the passage to this secret realm ruins may never be able to be opened again. If he continues to wait here, he is worried that the stone man will chase after him.

Just as he hesitated, a figure fell into the swirling black hole of space. He looked closely and saw that it was none other than Cheng Zongyuan.

After Cheng Zongyuan came out, he glanced at where he was, but ignored him and headed straight south.

Seeing him flee in a hurry, Song Xian feared that he was being chased by the stone man and that the stone man was following behind him. He dared not stay there any longer and quickly took flight. Because he was afraid that traveling with him would implicate him and cause him to be targeted by the stone man, he went in the opposite direction.

Sure enough, he hadn't gone far when he saw the stone figure fall from the swirling black hole in the sky and chase after Cheng Zongyuan.

Whether it was because Cheng Zongyuan took the treasure from the stone coffin or some other factor, the stone figure seemed to have locked onto him.

Seeing this, Song Xian dared not linger any longer and fled northwards.

.........

The sky was clear and sunny, with not a cloud in the sky.

Inside the magnificent mansion on Luoyun Mountain, a row of men and women stood with their heads bowed. Sitting in the main seat was a woman who looked to be in her thirties. She had a slender figure, a full forehead, a round face, and a dignified and elegant demeanor. She was Yang Qian, Hu Xiaobao's wife.

At this moment, she was reviewing file after file, and the people below all bowed their heads, not daring to breathe, and the room was completely silent.

"There are supposed to be fifty jars of Tiger Bone Jade Dew Wine, so why are five jars missing?" Yang Qian looked at one of the maids.

The woman answered timidly, "It was the young master who took five jars."

"Didn't I say that nothing prepared for this birthday banquet can be touched?" Yang Qian didn't even raise her head, her voice still calm, but it carried an air of authority.

The maid looked terrified: "I've already told him, but the young master wouldn't listen. He forced his way into the storage room and took the spirit wine."

"If that's the case, why didn't you say so sooner?"

"Young Master told me not to say."

Yang Qian finally raised her head, her face as cold as frost: "I entrusted the spirit wine in the manor to your care, and Qiu'er forcibly took it away. You couldn't stop her, and I don't blame you. But you concealed it, and that's your mistake. If everyone acted like you, how could I manage so many affairs, big and small, inside and outside the manor?"

"This servant knows she was wrong, please forgive her, Madam." The maid knelt down in fear and trepidation.

“According to the family rules, anyone who knows something but fails to report it will be beaten with ten strokes of the cane and dragged away.”

"Yes." The two burly men responded and led the maid out. The maid was pale-faced and did not dare to say a word of pleading.

Yang Qian continued flipping through the files until she finished the last page, then waved her hand and said, "You may all leave now! Prepare as I instruct."

"Yes." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as if they had been granted a pardon, and filed away from the room.

"Someone, go and fetch Feng Yuan and the others."

A maidservant responded and left. Shortly afterward, three men dressed in the attire of the Hunyuan Sect entered the room.

"Senior Sister Yang, what are your instructions?" The three bowed and asked the man in the lead.

"My three junior brothers have worked hard these past few days. Please have a seat." Yang Qian had a gentle smile on her face, which was completely different from her expressionless demeanor just now. "Tomorrow is the birthday banquet. I invited my three junior brothers here to verify the details so that there would be no mistakes and we would not make a fool of ourselves."

"Junior Brother Feng, have you notified everyone who should be notified?"

"They've all been notified."

"Junior Brother Li, have all the fellow disciples who are helping us arrived today?"

"A total of fifteen fellow disciples have arrived at the manor."

“Alright. Junior Brother Yuan, I just checked the seating arrangement and I think it needs to be adjusted. It would be best not to arrange Junior Brother Xu Yuan and Junior Brother Zhang Yu from the Personnel Hall together. They once competed for the position of head of the Sili Peak of the Personnel Hall, so there might be some estrangement between them. Let’s separate them! Arrange Junior Brother Zhang Yu at table number seven.”

"And then there's Zhou Fan and Wu Meng. I heard they had a disagreement. Tables nine and ten are too close together. Let's move them a bit further apart to prevent them from getting into trouble after drinking and causing further friction..."

Just then, a handsome young man with delicate features and a youthful appearance barged in. It was none other than Hu Xiaobao's son, Hu Yingqiu.

"Mother, what is it?" Hu Yingqiu's gaze swept over the three of them, looking rather old and stern.

"I'll need to trouble you three junior brothers to take care of things these next two days. You may go now!"

“Senior Sister Yang, you’re being too polite. This is our duty, there’s no need for us to worry about it. We’ll take our leave now.” The three of them got up and left.

"Qiu'er, did you take five jars of Tiger Bone Jade Dew Wine from the manor?" After the three left, Yang Qian's expression darkened slightly.

"Yes," Hu Yingqiu replied softly.

"What are you going to do with that spirit wine?"

"Nothing much, just met up with some friends and drank it."

Yang Qian stared at him and scolded him in a deep voice: "Not to mention your monthly salary, your mother gives you so many spirit stones every month, isn't that enough for you? You still have to secretly steal wine from the mansion. Besides, what kind of people are your friends? Do they need such good spirit wine? Do you know that the spirit wine is reserved for your father's birthday banquet to entertain the Foundation Establishment cultivators of the sect?"

Hu Yingqiu was somewhat unconvinced: "The spirit stones I receive each month are simply not enough. I usually just mooch off other people's meals and drinks. Now that I'm finally being treated to a meal in return, I should at least bring something of decent quality, otherwise wouldn't that be embarrassing for our family?" "You're still talking back." Yang Qian frowned and scolded: "It's one thing to steal spirit wine, but you didn't even allow Xiao Cui to tell us. If Mother hadn't checked the accounts today and found that five jars of spirit wine were missing, we still wouldn't know."

Hu Yingqiu pouted: "It's just a few jars of spirit wine, isn't it? Mother gave Feng Yuan and the others two jars each a few days ago! I just took a few jars to taste."

"Feng Yuan and the others worked tirelessly for your father's birthday banquet, so it's only right that we give them some wine as a token of our gratitude. How can you compare it to stealing it?"

Hu Yingqiu lowered his head. He hated his mother's nagging the most. He knew that if he didn't admit his mistake, she could nag all day long until he did.

To avoid further nagging, he had no choice but to give in.

"Okay, I got it. I won't take it next time."

"Starting today, you are forbidden from leaving the house for the next six months."

"Six months?" Hu Yingqiu's eyes widened.

"Should we tell your father about this?"

"Okay!" Hu Yingqiu replied, looking as wilted as a frostbitten eggplant.

As soon as she finished speaking, footsteps sounded outside, and Hu Xiaobao pushed the door open and entered. Upon seeing him come in, Hu Yingqiu's expression changed instantly, and her eyes frantically signaled to Yang Qian.

"Husband, why are you back so early today?" Yang Qian greeted him with a smile.

"Isn't tomorrow the birthday celebration? I've come to check on things. I won't be cultivating today." Hu Xiaobao turned to look at Hu Yingqiu beside him, his face expressionless, but his tone was very serious: "What are you doing here instead of cultivating in the cultivation room?"

Hu Yingqiu lowered her head, like a mouse encountering a cat, and replied in a low voice, "I was in the cultivation room, but my mother told me to come."

"I instructed Qiu'er to personally invite the Sect Leader's wife tomorrow," Yang Qian said with a smile, trying to smooth things over for him.

Hu Xiaobao sat down beside him: "It's been so long, why hasn't your cultivation level broken through yet? What have you been doing every day?"

Hu Yingqiu lowered her head, her eyes darting around: "I've been practicing the Desolate Heaven Knowledge Expansion Technique that my father taught me lately, and haven't been doing much Qi cultivation."

“Not everyone is as talented as my husband. Qiu’er has to cultivate both martial arts and magic, so it’s natural that she won’t break through her cultivation level so quickly.”

"Mother, if there's nothing else, I'll go back to my cultivation." Hu Yingqiu couldn't wait to leave, so she lowered her head and quickly walked out.

After leaving the inner courtyard, he breathed a sigh of relief. Hearing Feng Yuan directing several sect disciples in the outer courtyard to prepare for the birthday banquet, he immediately dropped his cautious demeanor, put his hands behind his back, straightened his chest, and walked out with a smile on his face, looking calm and collected.

"Senior Brother Feng, are you busy?"

"What are your orders, Junior Brother Hu?"

"It's nothing. My mother just asked me to invite my sister-in-law to the banquet. Senior Brother Feng, you go ahead with your work! I'm leaving." Hu Yingqiu waved his hand and strode away with his hands behind his back.

"Is everything ready? How many people have you invited?" Hu Xiaobao asked casually from inside the room.

"There will be about a hundred people. In addition to the main hall for entertaining important guests, there are fifteen tables set up outside, with six or seven people at each table, and the standard is 1,500 spirit stones. In the main hall, each person will have a separate table, and each table is 3,000 spirit stones. Of course, all the food and drinks will be backed up. In addition, some magic tools, talismans, pills and other prizes will be prepared and distributed in the form of a competition."

Hu Xiaobao frowned slightly: "Who are these people?"

"Of course they're all disciples of the sect. Didn't you say you wouldn't invite any people from outside sects?"

"There are over a hundred disciples in the sect? Where did so many people come from?"

Yang Qian smiled slightly: "Our sect has more than two thousand people! Is it too much to invite a hundred people to celebrate the centennial birthday of a sect elder? Everyone wants to come and support us. If you hadn't told us not to make a big fuss, there would have been far more than a hundred people."

"A token gesture is enough. This kind of thing is a waste of time and energy. In my opinion, inviting only ten or so people is enough. Other members of the sect, like Lin Zixiang, Jiang Zichen, and even the sect leader, have never held a grand celebration for their centennial birthdays. It's not good for us to make such a big fuss."

"This is hardly a grand affair. We only invited disciples of the rank of deputy head or above from each peak of the sect. No one else was invited."

"Since you've already sent out the invitations, let's do it this way!"

…………

Outside Luoyun Mountain, a beam of light shot out and revealed a figure, none other than Song Xian.

After emerging from the secret realm ruins, he traveled for a long time before finally returning to the mountain gate.

Upon entering, he immediately summoned Jiang Zichen to inquire about the sect's recent situation.

The treasure hunt actually took less than a night.

However, the round trip took more than a year, and waiting for the alignment of the seven stars took another year, so it took more than two years in total.

This was the longest he had ever been away from home. Although the journey was full of twists and turns, he managed to absorb the Xuanming Demon Fire, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

During his trip, nothing major happened in the sect, and everything proceeded smoothly.

There were only two things that could be considered important. The first was that the sect had gained another Foundation Establishment cultivator, Yang Shen, who was his former disciple.

Secondly, Zhang Tianda of the Mingyue Sect has also successfully completed the Foundation Establishment stage, and the Mingyue Sect has officially denied the accusations.

After gaining a general understanding of the sect's situation over the past few years, Song Xian went to the training ground on the back mountain. He flipped his hand and took out the crimson lantern. He poured spiritual energy into it, and black flames instantly surged out, transforming into the shape of a giant bull.

He used the Mysterious Heaven Fusion Fire Technique to merge the Mysterious Netherworld Demonic Fire into his body.

Only after the black flames were completely consumed did he breathe a sigh of relief. So far, he had absorbed seven different kinds of strange flames: the Taiyin Nether Flame, the Netherworld Cold Flame, the Golden Crow Blazing Flame, the Azure Profound Evil Flame, and this Profound Nether Demon Flame.

Apart from the Golden Crow Flame, the other types are all Yin-attribute flames.

According to the contents of the previously obtained book on the Different Flames, apart from the Yin Nether Flame and the Yang Essence Flame, any three Yin or Yang attribute Different Flames can be refined and fused into a stronger Different Flame.

Therefore, after absorbing the Xuanming Demonic Fire, Song Xian immediately began his experiment, releasing all the Netherworld Cold Flame, Azure Profound Evil Flame, and Xuanming Demonic Fire from his body.

Three flames of different colors and shapes each occupied a place. Having had the experience of fusing with the Taiyin Netherfire last time, he was familiar with the process this time. After releasing the strange fire, he immediately used the Xuan Tian Fusion Fire Technique again to absorb the three strange fires into his body.

As the crimson light around him grew stronger, all three colors of strange fire were absorbed, but they did not merge and remained distinct. Even after all the flames were integrated into his body, there was no change.

Song Xian showed no disappointment, as this was exactly what he expected. If all three randomly selected strange fires could be fused together, he would have to doubt the records in the Strange Fire Ranking Book.

This wasn't a complete waste of time; at least we can now rule out one combination: the Netherworld Cold Flame, the Azure Profound Evil Flame, and the Profound Netherworld Demon Flame cannot be fused together.

(End of this chapter)