Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 312 He is your brother-in-law

The two supreme beings fought to the very edge of the universe, obliterating even the Great Dao itself...

not at all.

The two sisters fought their way through the sea and sky, and they were quite in sync, not using any powerful or uncontrollable methods. It all looked like they were just throwing punches and kicks, almost pulling out hairpins.

Yuan Muyu was frustrated to discover that everyone was attacking at this level, and she still couldn't beat her sister.

When I left home, my sister had just surpassed the previous level. Logically speaking, it is perfectly normal for someone not to make any progress in ten years at this level. Being able to advance even a small step would be something to be overjoyed about.

But in the past ten years, I have made rapid progress and reached the Super Grade. I thought I could be about the same as her, but my sister has not been idle either.

Is she at the pinnacle of her craft?

This shouldn't be the case.

How can one reach the peak in just ten years?
It's important to understand that the Cloud Ascension level is divided into three ranks, and from rank three to rank one, they are merely different stages of the nine levels of Cloud Ascension. Just the journey from rank three to rank one, within the same Cloud Ascension realm, has honed the skills of countless heroes.
Even Yuan Muyu herself, the youngest third-rank cultivator in history, encountered some unknown situation, making breakthroughs extremely difficult. By the time she left home, she was barely at the second rank, and many years had passed by then. At that time, her sister even said that without the resources of the sect, the path to the first rank would be even more difficult.

However, after encountering the boat, his power developed smoothly, and he gained a different understanding of the world, which allowed him to quickly and successfully reach the first rank.

Although it is said that he went from the third rank to the first rank, in reality, he spent several decades struggling in the Cloud Ascension stage.

She was considered lucky. Many others thought they had overcome the most difficult hurdle after breaking through to the third rank and could make rapid progress afterward, but they were stuck for life and made no further progress. It seemed even more difficult than the hurdle of ascending to the clouds, which did not match the records in the ancient books.

Because after ascending to the clouds, the energy required for cultivation far exceeds that of before, and in many cases, a certain degree of enlightenment or a life-and-death experience sufficient to make one understand is needed. Relying solely on death cultivation is often twice the result for half the effort.

Riding the clouds and mist, soaring through the air and riding the wind—these are the aspirations of immortals, who naturally value a state of mind. However, people today live in the bustling world, and their thoughts are skewed, leading to a severe disconnect in their spiritual cultivation.

Even the so-called immortal sects, isolated overseas, watching this grand competition where everyone harbors their own ulterior motives, are themselves entangled in worldly desires and possess all the poisons of the mortal realm. Their understanding is diametrically opposed to the ancient immortals' concepts of great freedom, the vastness of the primordial universe, the formless heart, and the supreme will, thus preventing their success.

Asking someone like Yuan Muyu, Gu Zhanting, Ye Tinglan, or Long Qinghuang to talk about supreme freedom and transcendence is simply laughable.

Therefore, the more one practices, the more disconnected one feels, and it becomes difficult to make any progress.

Severing sisterly ties and severing ties of friendship are merely what one perceives as the greatest obstacles on the path of spiritual cultivation; only after overcoming them can one achieve oneness with the will of Heaven.

If Yuan Muyu knew why Shen Tang broke through to the second rank so quickly, her thoughts would probably be overturned.

Nothing more than a clear mind, practicing one's own heart, not practicing for the sake of practicing.

Deliberate demands can actually be detrimental.

That's getting off-topic... Anyway, Yuan Muyu was hailed as a genius, yet she struggled for decades in the Tengyun Realm before finally reaching the Huiyang Realm. Ye Tinglan's aptitude was clearly slightly inferior to hers, so how did she reach the peak in the Huiyang Realm in just ten years?

Why should she? She clearly has more thoughts and a chaotic mind, making it even more impossible for her to calmly cultivate.

Is it really because the Heavenly Yao Holy Lord has inexhaustible resources? Or is it because of what he gained and learned from the war against the demon race back then?

"Don't you find my cultivation speed unbelievable?" Ye Tinglan suddenly asked while they were fighting.

Yuan Muyu coldly said, "Nothing special. Back then you said I only truly understood the difficulty of achieving the first rank after leaving the sect's resources. Now that I've surpassed the first rank, does your face hurt?"

Ye Tinglan: "..."

hurts a little.

But it didn't hurt that much: "You were just lucky to have encountered Xingzhou. After I encountered Xingzhou, I went straight from the upper stage of Huiyang to the peak. What's there to brag about in your current state of Tengyun?"

Yuan Muyu gritted his teeth: "Cultivation is a personal matter, what does it have to do with sailing? He was only a few years old back then!"

"You still refuse to acknowledge the crucial role that Xingzhou plays in your life. Or perhaps you're afraid to admit it—not only does it support your career, but it's also related to your spiritual practice. What then truly belongs to you?"

"Nonsense!"

Ye Tinglan caught her sister's punches and kicks with a series of cracking sounds, and said leisurely, "When you were in the sect, your ideas were different from everyone else's. No one understood you, and you were isolated and helpless, which led to you becoming more and more eccentric and extreme. Unexpectedly, as soon as you entered the martial world, you found like-minded people who fully supported you. Didn't that joy and fulfillment in your heart make your cultivation much smoother?"

Yuan Muyu fought silently.

"The reason why it's difficult for independent cultivators is because of the lack of resources; they all have to fight for them themselves. Once they're busy working for a few pills and spirit stones, where do they find the time and energy to focus on cultivation? So you need power, you need to start a business. But starting from scratch, building a business, you're so busy that you don't have time to cultivate." Ye Tinglan sighed, "However, you have Xingzhou."

Yuan Muyu pursed her lips.

“Apart from going into battle when necessary, you hardly have to worry about any of the tedious matters or troublesome things. And going into battle is also a form of training; your entrepreneurial journey is even more comfortable than others' solitary cultivation.” Ye Tinglan sighed, “Xingzhou said you saved him, raised him, and taught him, and that your kindness is as heavy as a mountain. But sometimes I think, it's more like he's the one raising you.”

This is clearly a baseless smear campaign and not worth refuting. Yuan Muyu is too lazy to refute such trolls.

Ye Tinglan's next sentence was: "Or maybe I misspoke... This is about supporting each other and sharing weal and woe."

Yuan Muyu's hands went weak as she tried to parry, and she was knocked back several feet by her sister, drifting away in mid-air.

She immediately lashed out in a rage, slashing back with her hand: "Since you knew, why did you steal it! What kind of sister are you?"

"Steal?" Ye Tinglan smiled and casually parried. "Who are you to him? Are you lovers? What business is it of yours if someone is with him?"

“I…” Yuan Muyu gritted her teeth for a long time, speechless.

After a few breaths of silent fighting, he said sternly, "You did this on purpose! You know about me and him, and you deliberately got close to him!"

"Oh? Then tell me, what's my reason?"

"Of course it's meant to discourage me."

"Are you worthy?" Ye Tinglan sneered, "Are you worthy of me using my emotions and innocence just to spite you?" With a "bang," Yuan Muyu, who was in a daze, was sent flying several miles by a palm strike, and blood finally spilled from the corner of his mouth.

"You injured him, and I injured you. We're even." Ye Tinglan stood with his hands behind his back, his expression indifferent. "Perhaps in your eyes he was just a prop, and you assume that others treated him the same way. But you're wrong."

Yuan Muyu stared at her coldly without saying a word.

Then Ye Tinglan continued, "He's your brother-in-law. Be polite when you see him in the future."

This was supposed to be a super-critical statement, and it was also the sentence Ye Tinglan most wanted to say when she met Yuan Muyu. After saying it, she felt an overwhelming sense of relief, as if she was about to break through to the heavens.

Ke Yuanmu suddenly laughed.

Ye Tinglan frowned: "What are you laughing at?"

“I laugh at you for deceiving yourself.” Yuan Muyu laughed, “If it’s your brother-in-law, why don’t you dare to announce it? Why do you have to use all sorts of excuses, like being a disciple of Fairy Fuyao, or the sect leader caring about his disciples… Ha…”

Ye Tinglan bit her lower lip.

"I have inner demons, and so do you. What kind of virtuous wife and loving mother are you pretending to be in front of me! Brother-in-law, is he really?"

Ye Tinglan's pleasure vanished instantly, her face turning ashen.

"Boom!" A loud explosion came from afar.

The waves weren't caused by the two fighting, but rather by the waves coming from the ring.

Ye Tinglan suddenly turned around: "Something's happened!"

…………

During the battle between the two supreme beings, Ah Nuo and a girl from Nu Jiao Island were standing in the arena. They looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

The host, Tianyao Saintess, has disappeared, leaving no one to host. She even forgot to ask someone else to host in her place.

After a long while, the elders, who resembled an "organizing committee," spoke up in unison: "Presumably, the Holy Master of Tianyao wanted to avoid suspicion. Well then, let's begin the third match between Tianyao Immortal Sect and Nujiao Island."

Ah Nuo cautiously said to the girl in front of her, "Sister, shall we settle this with a game of rock-paper-scissors?"

Girl from Angry Dragon Island: "?"

Ah Nuo said mysteriously, "Sister, look at the person behind you. With the relationship between them and our family, do we look like enemies?"

The girl from Angry Dragon Island also lowered her voice: "It doesn't seem like it. Oh, your master is so handsome and powerful, can you introduce me to him?"

“Then you’ll die, sister.” Ah Nuo looked at her with pity: “There’s a shark behind you.”

"..."

"Let's play rock-paper-scissors. Fighting will only hurt our friendship." Ah Nuo raised her fist.

The girl from Angry Dragon Island thought for a moment, agreed, and raised her fist.

"Three, two, one." The two threw punches simultaneously.

The girl from Angry Dragon Island is a cloth character, while Anuo is a fist character.

So the little fist slammed directly into the palm, blasting the girl out of the ring.

The little girl had no idea what had happened until she fell out of the arena.

Was I tricked by a six-year-old child?
Tens of thousands of onlookers looked constipated and all looked up at the podium. How do you calculate this?
"Ahem." The older generation seemed to agree on this: "In every competition, there have been instances of winning through cunning. Victory or defeat tests not only strength but also wisdom. There is no doubt that Tianyao Immortal Sect will win this match."

With a loud "Wah!", the girl from Angry Dragon Island burst into tears: "That doesn't count!"

Ah Nuo jogged to the sidelines cautiously: "How about I say a few good words for you to Master later?"

The girl blinked, wiped away her tears, and asked, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, really."

The girl stopped crying and started laughing, even forgetting that Anuo hadn't asked her name at all. Would she even bother remembering the names on that list?

"Winning by clever tricks is nothing to complain about." A discordant voice came from outside the arena: "But isn't Tianyao Immortal Sect's so-called clever tricks a bit too much this time? It's unworthy of its title as a holy land."

Dugu Qingli glanced at it and saw that it was indeed Golden Wind Island. She then replied, "What do you mean by that?"

Fang Qihao laughed and said, "In the second match just now, the one on the other side was Fairy Fuyao, right... Your sect is quite cunning, having your own people infiltrate the enemy and manipulate the situation. How could a holy land stoop to such a level?"

This is indeed something many people who recognized Ye Fuyao had been keeping hidden in their hearts, but this isn't the way to reveal it. Such things should be revealed in front of Ye Tinglan; otherwise, it would be a slap in the face to the Holy Land. Since Ye Tinglan isn't here, saying it behind her back immediately loses its meaning.

For a moment, many people were secretly wondering if the purpose of Golden Wind Island was somewhat different from everyone else's...

Ah Nuo, who was in the middle of the field, responded, "Uncle, even if my master lost just now, we still won two to one."

Fang Qihao said, "Since there is suspicion of foul play, then your so-called clever way of winning is questionable. Maybe it was just a charade."

Ah Nuo laughed: "Is that so? Simple. You and I will fight."

(End of this chapter)