Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 428 The Secret of the Ancient Realm
She hides her shyness like a spring mountain, remaining silent; her deepest feelings are hard to express lightly before others.

Aside from showing off some poetry in front of the little vixen, Lu Xingzhou's daily thoughts were usually too complicated for him to think about such impractical literary verses anymore.

But at this moment, countless shy poems naturally welled up in the hearts of young girls, realizing that a woman like Sheng Yuanyao could also be like a poem.

Lu Xingzhou reached out and brushed away the stray hairs that had fallen around her temples from his earlier embrace, and said softly, "Will you come with me to the Dan Academy for a walk?"

Go to the Dan Academy to propose marriage to the "elders"? Sheng Yuanyao found it amusing that she would go along to ask them for a wife, and she laughed to herself, "Okay."

Lu Xingzhou saw a hint of the familiar Gua Mei in her smiling face and smiled back, then took her hand and strolled leisurely to the Dan Academy.

The two remained silent throughout the journey, seemingly unaccustomed to their new identities. Whenever they had something to say, they hesitated to speak.

This is quite a leap from brother to fiancée, they haven't even reached the girlfriend stage yet... Sheng Yuanyao sometimes thinks she feels like she's at a disadvantage, at least much more so than Pei the Green Tea.

But thinking about it, it doesn't seem to make a difference. As long as you treat the self-deceiving so-called female brother as a form of lover, it's not like you haven't kissed or touched her.

Thinking about it this way, Sheng Yuanyao laughed again. Others wanted to experience this form but hadn't!
Lost in thought, Sheng Yuanyao arrived at the Dan Academy and was even more delighted to see the students stealing glances at them. Back then, Lu Xingzhou and Pei Chuyun's campus affair was always clandestine; they'd never openly walked hand-in-hand on campus, had they? "I'll drink this soup first."

"Uh, Instructor Meng isn't here? And Dean Qin? Neither of them? Where did they go?"

When Sheng Yuanyao came to her senses, Lu Xingzhou had already arrived at the office area and was asking a gentleman for news.

The old gentleman replied, "It's always about going to the palace to study His Majesty's condition. It happens every now and then. Sometimes it's for a day or two, and sometimes it's for half a month of closed-door discussions."

Lu Xingzhou was dumbfounded: "Uh..."

This kind of thing happens all the time, but this time it's really bad timing. We're about to get engaged, why wait half a month? Old Pei and Old Sheng will break your legs.

Helpless, Lu Xingzhou had no choice but to take out the communication jade talisman. He never expected that the first person he would actively call using the jade talisman would not be Ye Tinglan or Xiaobaimao, but Feng Ziliu: "Hello?"

"...Where did you get that 'hello' greeting from?" Feng Ziliu answered the phone, bewildered. "Speaking of which, you're quite strong, already at the second rank?"

"Hey, don't worry about that... Has anyone been tipping you off about what's been going on lately?"

"You're talking about marrying four women?"

Sure enough, there are quite a few people in the Guoguan community who can spread messages. This time, their fame has spread overseas.

Feng Ziliu immediately knew what he wanted to do: "You want me to go through the proper procedures as your elder? No way."

"Hey, wait, why is it impossible? Aren't I your unofficial disciple?"

"First of all, unofficial disciples don't have the right to enter the inner sanctum, so they're not considered proper elders. Secondly, if I were to say someone is an elder, it would be someone who catches fish, someone from her maternal family. Help you arrange a marriage with someone else? Do you really think the Holy Lord won't make things difficult for anyone? No way."

The call was abruptly cut off, and Lu Xingzhou tried saying "hello" for a long time without receiving a response.

This time it's really hopeless; there are no candidates left.

Lu Xingzhou scratched his head in exasperation: "Is it too late for me to find someone to be my godfather?"

Sheng Yuanyao, who had been listening nearby, jumped up in anger upon hearing this: "Why did the emperor choose this time of year to fall ill? I think it was intentional!"

Lu Xingzhou thought to himself that it might not be true; he might really be angry.

But Ah Gua finally spoke... Seeing her stomping her feet in anger, Lu Xingzhou felt that this version of Gua Mei was much more familiar to him, and couldn't help but reach out and pinch her puffed-up cheeks.

Sheng Yuanyao stammered, "W-what are you doing?"

"What's wrong? Can't I pinch my own wife's cheek?"

"She's your wife, dream on."

"Still hard." Lu Xingzhou simply hugged her and said, "Give me a kiss."

Sheng Yuanyao reached out and covered his mouth.

Then Lu Xingzhou said, "Do you know how many times I've wanted to kiss you, but because of that damn brotherhood, I only dared to think about it in my heart."

Sheng Yuanyao's hand went limp immediately, unable to stop her at all: "You... I knew it, you never had good intentions."

“Yes, I never have good intentions.” Lu Xingzhou easily brushed her hand away and lowered his head to kiss her.

The moment their lips touched, Sheng Yuanyao embraced her and responded passionately, though it was unclear who harbored ill intentions.

On the treetops in the distance, Yuan Muyu stood quietly. Despite it being broad daylight, no one seemed to be able to see her; she was like a ghost.

Seeing the two holding hands all the way was one thing, but seeing them start kissing made Yuan Muyu subconsciously clench her hands so tightly that her nails dug deep into her flesh.

The urge to vomit blood surged up again, but Yuan Muyu held it back tightly, gritting her teeth.

Fortunately, their kiss didn't last long before the old man grabbed a broom and chased them out: "Even if you were married, this is Dan Academy! Go home and do your thing, it's indecent!"

The two retreated in a disheveled state, then ran away hand in hand.

Even though they were chased away with brooms, it was all filled with the joy of youth.

Yuan Muyu stared at Lu Xingzhou's swift legs for a long time, then looked at his sunny smile, and pursed her lips tightly.

The young couple ran all the way back to the Ministry of Rites, but before they even reached the entrance, Jiang Duxu stopped them and pulled them into a side alley: "My lord, I have been waiting for you for a long time."

Lu Xingzhou smiled and said, "Have you figured it out?"

Jiang Duxu glanced at Sheng Yuanyao, as if to ask if he could say this in front of her.
Lu Xingzhou tightened his grip on Sheng Yuanyao's hand: "There's nothing I can't say in front of my wife."

Sheng Yuanyao's mouth stretched all the way to her ears.

Jiang Duxu was quite annoyed. This marriage prospect was outrageous. She was the only daughter of the head of the Demon Suppression Division, and you actually dared to bring up our petty squabbles with the Emperor in front of her… Never mind. Jiang Duxu lowered his voice: “I’ve come this time to ask the physician to introduce me to the Imperial Preceptor.”

Sheng Yuanyao said, "That's it? Is there anything I can't hear? I can go to the Imperial Observatory too. I should thank the Imperial Preceptor."

Lu Xingzhou asked curiously, "Why are you thanking her for what?"

Sheng Yuanyao hesitated slightly, then said, "Thank you for her accurate divination."

Actually, to be honest, Sheng Yuanyao felt that Anuo's divination was even more bizarre. How did she calculate it? At that time, she and her master had only just met... When the Imperial Advisor made the divination, they were at least already good friends, or at least there was some progress in their relationship.

Unfortunately, Sheng Yuanyao would rather die than admit that she was a concubine, and that she was the Imperial Advisor, talking about a marriage alliance. How shrewd she was, hehe. What could A'nuo possibly know? She was just a nobody.

In reality, how could Lu Xingzhou dare to let Sheng Yuanyao go in to thank the Grand Preceptor? What difference would that make from turning his back on her? Did he really think the Grand Preceptor couldn't deal with a mere general like you?
Furthermore, openly taking Jiang Duxu to the National Temple like this is not a good thing; if Gu Zhanting finds out, he will definitely be furious.

After thinking for a moment, he secretly made another "call" to Ye Tinglan: "Sir, let's find a secluded place to chat with Jiang Duxu?"

Ye Tinglan's divine sense quickly conveyed the location.

Lu Xingzhou hung up the line and said with a smile, "Mr. Jiang, come with me."

Jiang Duxu watched in bewilderment as he led Sheng Yuanyao through a maze of turns into an ordinary house.

Just as I was about to ask, a chill ran down my spine.

Ye Tinglan sat quietly in the room, her face veiled, cross-legged with her eyes closed, surrounded by swirling incense smoke.

With Jiang Duxu's strength, he didn't even realize there was someone inside beforehand!

Ye Tinglan's strength is definitely not just that of a Super Grade...

Half-step to the Qian Yuan realm!

Given his current level of skill, he can only be roughly equal to her at best, and he has no guarantee of victory.

Jiang Duxu's heart grew heavy. Before he could figure out how to greet Ye Tinglan, Lu Xingzhou said with a grin, "You guys chat, we'll head out first."

With that, he grabbed Sheng Yuanyao and fled in panic.

Sheng Yuanyao was about to thank the Imperial Advisor for his divination when the man pulled her away before she could even utter a word.

Ye Tinglan opened her eyes with annoyance.

Jiang Du was dumbfounded. Wait, is this how you arrange things? You didn't even offer a few words at the beginning? How are the Imperial Advisor and I supposed to get to the point?

But then Ye Tinglan looked away from the backs of the young couple, and as if following her gaze, an invisible hand pulled the door shut.

"Please sit down, Mr. Jiang." Ye Tinglan said calmly, "At least on the matter of cooperating with you, Mr. Jiang, what I said is what Lu Xingzhou said, and what Lu Xingzhou said is what I said. We have already reached an agreement, so there is no need to say more. In fact, Xingzhou can represent me fully... This meeting is just to make this clear to you, Mr. Jiang. After this meeting, you can talk only with Xingzhou. Talking to me too much might arouse the Emperor's suspicion."

Jiang Du felt somewhat relieved and sat down opposite him: "With these words from the Holy Lord, I am at ease."

"Xingzhou should have told Mr. Jiang that all we need is some information about the Ancient Realm. There's no real need for in-depth cooperation. It wouldn't have mattered whether we met or not." Ye Tinglan cut to the chase without any preamble: "But Xingzhou believes that cooperation might arise based on the information we have during the information exchange process, and I wholeheartedly agree."

Jiang Duxu said, "What the Holy Lord wants to know is probably how to avoid the Heavenly Tribulation after breaking through to the Qian Yuan realm?"

"Yes." Ye Tinglan did not deny it: "In fact, I can break through at any time. The reason I haven't broken through now is simply because I'm holding back—perhaps similar to Mr. Jiang's current situation."

Jiang Duxu nodded: "I see. Ordinary people can't suppress it... It's quite surprising that the Holy Lord can suppress it on his own without our secret techniques."

Ye Tinglan gently shook her head: "If people from the ancient realm can explore how to sneak into the lower realm, people from this realm will naturally explore how to avoid death. If you can figure out secret methods, why can't people from this realm?"

Jiang Duxu paused for a moment, then said, "That's true."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "The Heavenly Tribulation cannot be avoided, but it is not insurmountable. The reason why one always fails to transcend the tribulation is simply because the Heavenly Tribulation has been tampered with. As long as this problem can be solved, the Holy Lord can ascend..."

"Who did this? Was it something that allowed you to escape?"

"should be."

Ye Tinglan narrowed her eyes.

In other words, the deaths of the master and parents were actually caused by a specific enemy, rather than by some vague and ethereal destiny.

She didn't reveal that for the time being, but instead asked, "So the end of ascension is nothing more than the ancient realm you want to escape from, not the higher-dimensional immortal realm that everyone originally envisioned."

"exactly."

"How to overcome the tribulation is another matter," Ye Tinglan asked, enunciating each word clearly. "What I want to know is, after overcoming the tribulation, is it possible not to ascend to immortality?"

It might not have been possible originally, but Jiang Duxu's existence proves that it was still possible.

Even if they break through and then push back down, they can still stay here.

However, people in this world have no experience in how to handle the guidance at the moment of tribulation, but Jiang Duxu might know a little about it.

Jiang Duxu said calmly, "Originally, people wanted to ascend themselves. If they didn't want to, there should still be a way to directly resist the guiding light and not go up... However, it's hard to say whether someone will come down to hunt them down."

Ye Tinglan nodded slightly, lost in thought and remaining silent.

Jiang Duxu said, "Hmm...may I ask if I may ask, if the Holy Lord is confident in transcending the tribulation, is the reason why he is unwilling to ascend simply because he does not want to go to the Ancient Realm, or is it because he still has things to do in this Realm?"

What he wanted to know was how long Ye Tinglan planned to stay in this realm. If she ascended to immortality soon, then there was no point in cooperating.

Ye Tinglan smiled brightly: "There are things here that I am reluctant to part with... Compared to them, let alone the mere Ancient Realm, even the Immortal Realm may not be in my eyes."

(End of this chapter)