Junior sister, I really need to control you.

In the meditation room of the abbot of Yutan Temple.

Meng Yu knelt respectfully before his master.

The abbess of Yutan Temple was a woman who looked to be in her early forties, with some signs of hardship around her eyes.

Unlike Meng Yu, who always had a cold expression, the abbot of Yutan Temple, while not always smiling, was at least not constantly surrounded by an aloof indifference that kept people at arm's length.

Moreover, at this moment, in front of her apprentice whom she had raised since childhood, she couldn't help but show a hint of affection on her face.

"Yu'er, why are you back early? Are you not used to life as the shopkeeper?"

The woman put down the array diagram in her hand, looked at her apprentice, and comforted him.

"I know that with your personality, you won't like managing a business. But since you'll be taking over the Yutan Temple from me in the future, you'll need to gain experience beforehand."

Meng Yu shook her head: "I'm doing well in the shop, Master, you don't need to worry."

"Then why did you suddenly come back?" the woman asked, puzzled.

"My disciple has returned because I have something to ask you," Meng Yu said.

"Is there something you don't understand about the formation or your cultivation?" the woman asked kindly.

Meng Yu shook his head: "I met a cultivator from an unknown Taoist temple, and I was very curious about the temple he belonged to."

"Are you curious about the Taoist temple he belongs to?" The woman was taken aback, then a knowing smile appeared on her lips as she pressed for an answer.

"Oh? Yu'er, are you curious about the Taoist temple, or about the cultivator himself?"

Meng Yu's eyes darted away twice.

The woman chuckled softly, saying nothing, and stared straight at Meng Yu, her smile growing wider and more mischievous.

Suddenly, Meng Yu spoke up: "He should be two years younger than me."

"Mmm." The woman nodded in response, indicating that she was listening, and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

"He's...very handsome," Meng Yu's voice lowered slightly, her earlobes turning a little red, "more handsome than any man I've ever seen."

"Hmm, hmm!" The woman nodded as she listened, a mischievous smile appearing in the corners of her eyes.

"I was entrusted by him to help him build a small spirit-refining array for his Taoist temple," Meng Yu continued.

"It's a piece of cake for you," the woman nodded and smiled. "Well... I mean the part about setting up the magic circle."

With her disciple's current mastery of array formations, she could even give it a try to oversee the construction of a large-scale spirit refining array.

However, if we're talking about other aspects... well, she still needs to practice.

"After arriving at the mountain peak of his Taoist temple, we encountered people from Huanghe Temple stealing their spiritual essence," Meng Yu continued.

The woman was taken aback.

Hmm? It seems like we've gone a bit off-topic? That's not what I'm concerned about.

"Then, without using any magical artifacts, he only used the Blade Technique and the Artifact Manipulation Technique to subdue a cultivator whose cultivation level was slightly higher than mine and who possessed a high-grade magical artifact."

Meng Yu said calmly.

The woman's eyes widened immediately.

"Are you sure? Is that person really a few years younger than you?" she quickly pressed. "Did he really defeat his opponent so easily, using only close-quarters combat and object manipulation techniques?"

Meng Yu nodded earnestly.

Although Li Yinsheng's melee and object manipulation techniques were unusually strong, she was not so sure that she would mistake these two techniques for each other.

The woman picked up a cup of tea, her brows furrowing slightly.

"So young, yet so handsome, and his cultivation is far superior to yours... I've never heard of any Taoist temple producing such a talented and beautiful person in all these years."

"However, with such talent and cultivation, they are most likely a prodigy from one of the top-ranked Taoist temples..."

She lowered her head and took a sip of tea, but before she could swallow, Meng Yu spoke again.

"The Taoist temple he works at is called Xuanzhen Temple," Meng Yu said immediately upon hearing her master mention the temple.

Her main reason for returning this time was her curiosity about the Xuanzhen Temple.

"Cough cough cough..."

Caught off guard and choking, the woman quickly put down her teacup, circulated her magic power, and calmed herself down.

"Xuanzhen Temple?! Are you sure?!" Her voice cracked slightly.

Meng Yu nodded, looking at her master with a somewhat strange expression.

How can you be unsure? The core of the formation can only be set up inside someone's temple.

"Xuanzhen Temple... That's impossible, it doesn't make sense. No temple could possibly be Xuanzhen Temple..."

The woman frowned and muttered to herself.

"Why couldn't it be Xuanzhen Temple?" Meng Yu asked.

The woman took a light breath, but did not answer. Instead, she took out a scroll of portrait from her Qiankun bag, used her object manipulation technique to hang it up, and unfolded it in front of her disciple.

The painting depicts a man with a handsome face and a refined demeanor, dressed in a simple black Taoist robe.

The woman, holding up a portrait, asked her disciple, "Is the monk you mentioned named Li Yinsheng? Does he look like this?"

Meng Yu nodded subconsciously.

The painting is exquisitely detailed, and the Li Yinsheng in the painting is exactly the same as the one she had seen, only lacking a bit of the spirit.

She suddenly realized what was happening, looked up at her master, and her eyes were filled with doubt.

"Master? How do you know Fellow Daoist Li? And you even have his paintings?"

The woman's face stiffened, and after a pause, she said, "Uh... it was a gift from a friend of mine who is passionate about painting."

"Then why would Master's friend paint Fellow Daoist Li?" Meng Yu was even more puzzled.

The woman's face stiffened even more.

Why? What else could it be?

Of course, it's because Li Yinsheng's portrait has long been popular among female cultivators who practice dual cultivation techniques within the Zhengyang lineage!

Female cultivators who practice dual cultivation techniques often like to find handsome Daoist partners, and they often exchange portraits of handsome male cultivators from the same lineage.

A few years ago, a portrait of an extremely handsome man suddenly appeared in the hands of a female cultivator. It became an instant sensation, and within a month, countless copies were made.

Later, this portrait was no longer only circulated among female cultivators practicing the dual cultivation path; many female cultivators of other cultivation paths also collected it.

The female cultivator who first painted this picture did not know who the person in her painting was. She simply encountered the person by chance on the street of Baoguang Temple and quickly cast a spell to paint it.

However, when the painting soon fell into the hands of several highly skilled seniors, some of whom had even achieved the status of True Person, the identity of the person in the painting was quickly discovered.

Then the female cultivators, who were initially extremely excited and eager to try, were suddenly dampened.

Li Yinsheng, the acting abbot of Xuanzhen Temple, was also the only disciple of Xuanzhen Temple.

The lineage has never imposed any restrictions on cultivators seeking partners in the dual cultivation path, only requiring that it be consensual and that coercion or force be absolutely forbidden, let alone the heretical practice of sexual exploitation.

Otherwise, you'll have to witness the heavenly lightning of the law-wielding cultivators within the lineage.

But Li Yinsheng is different; the current state of Xuanzhen Temple is far too sensitive.

If you want Li Yinsheng to be your Daoist partner, you can't force him, no matter what.

Because theoretically he is now the master of Xuanzhen Temple, but Xuanzhen Temple exists in name only.

In a sense, taking down Li Yinsheng would be equivalent to taking over Xuanzhen Temple and the spiritual veins within Xuanzhen Peak, thus gaining actual control over the spiritual veins.

When it comes to matters involving spiritual veins, that's considered crossing the red line of the Dharma lineage.

The allocation of all spiritual veins is decided solely by the lineage, and no Taoist temple is allowed to overstep this boundary, not even by skirting the rules.

If you dare to violate this rule, then you can expect the law-abiding monks to come to the temple and have a cup of tea with everyone.

Therefore, over the years, no highly skilled dual cultivation practitioner has dared to directly contact Li Yinsheng.

Even though two masters were quite interested in Li Yinsheng and had openly said they wanted to take him as a male concubine, they said that they would only let Li Yinsheng follow them after the Xuanzhen Temple was disbanded and the spiritual veins were taken back by the Dharma lineage.

There are many lustful people in the world, and even more lustful people who practice the dual cultivation method.

But lust is one thing, but taking risks for it is another. Such irrational lustful demons are extremely rare.

Of course, the abbess of Yutan Temple has nothing to do with the practice of dual cultivation; she simply has a close friend who practices dual cultivation.

This painting was a gift from her best friend.

She naturally had no intention of keeping male concubines, but...

The painting is innocent!

Moreover, it's such a beautiful painting, and it embodies my best friend's hard work. It wouldn't be right to just throw it away or burn it, would it?

So naturally she kept the scroll.

But you can't tell these things to your apprentice.

After a moment's thought, the woman spoke, "Let's put aside this Fellow Daoist Li for now. Do you know what state the Xuanzhen Temple is in now?"

"This disciple does not know," Meng Yu shook his head.

"It is said that this Xuanzhen Temple was the number one Taoist temple under the Zhengyang lineage several hundred years ago, and it was far superior to Shouyi Temple, which was ranked second at the time. Some people even thought that Xuanzhen Temple would eventually develop into an independent lineage."

The woman said slowly.

"However, later on, the most powerful patriarch of Xuanzhen Temple mysteriously disappeared, and Xuanzhen Temple gradually declined, from being firmly in first place to fluctuating among the top five."

"Top five?" Meng Yu asked in confusion. "I've never heard of Xuanzhen Temple being among the top five Taoist temples."

"Because that was almost thirty years ago," the woman shook her head, "At that time I was just a newly initiated disciple."

"At that time, Xuanzhen Temple was second only to Shouyi Temple, and it could be described as having a grand presence and a long history."

"At that time, Xuanzhen Temple valued quality over quantity when accepting disciples. The number of disciples in the temple was small, but there were many with profound cultivation."

"Thirty years ago, the Zhengyang lineage fought a great battle against the demonic path. Several True Persons from Xuanzhen Temple, under the guidance of True Persons from my Yutan Temple, went deep into the demonic array and broke through its key points in one fell swoop. Their contribution was truly remarkable."

"But not long after the great battle, a disaster suddenly broke out within the Xuanzhen Temple. Almost all the disciples died, and several masters perished. Only one survived, but his cultivation was completely destroyed as a result."

"Even the ritual troops within the temple, which were specifically tasked with dealing with the crisis of the demise of the Taoist lineage, were killed or fled. Xuanzhen Temple was almost wiped out overnight."

Even with her calm and detached nature, Meng Yu was filled with surprise at this moment.

The destruction of a Taoist temple that might be even more powerful than Yutan Temple overnight is rather alarming.

"What kind of disaster is it? Aren't the Dharma lineages going to help?" Meng Yu couldn't help but ask.

"Logically, we should help, but things happened too fast. The Dharma lineage, which had just finished a great battle with the demonic path, was also severely weakened and couldn't react in time."

The woman shook her head: "As for the specific disaster... there are many rumors, but no one knows the exact truth."

"Some say that Xuanzhen Temple was too prominent in the great battle, which attracted the revenge of a Corpse-Dissolving Immortal from the demonic path."

"Some say that someone from Xuanzhen Temple was turned or possessed by the demonic forces during the great battle, which destroyed Xuanzhen Temple from within when it was at its weakest and most unprepared."

"Some people say that when the Xuanzhen disciples went deep into the heart of the demonic realm to break the formation, they were all placed under a secret curse, which only took effect after the battle."

"Therefore, the several venerable masters of our Jade Altar Temple also bear responsibility for instigating them to infiltrate the heart of the demonic realm and break the formation."

"There is also a rumor that after Xuanzhen Temple went deep into the heart of the demonic path, it obtained an ancient demonic magic weapon, so it brought it back to the temple, intending to refine it to remove its demonic nature and turn it into its own."

"As a result, the magic weapon was too powerful. The cultivators who refined the demonic nature suffered backlash, fell into the demonic path, and died fighting each other in a frenzy."

"There are many different versions of the story," the woman shook her head. "But the truth is probably only known to the surviving master and the higher-ups of the lineage."

Meng Yu remained silent.

This level of event was completely beyond her imagination.

"That's why I was so shocked when you mentioned Xuanzhen Temple," the woman said. "You should know that Xuanzhen Temple has been defunct for nearly thirty years and will be disbanded next year."

"If it weren't for the fact that the lineage takes into account the contributions and achievements of Xuanzhen Temple, Xuanzhen Temple would have been disbanded long ago, and their spiritual lineage would have been divided up to Shouyi Temple."

"Disbanded?" Meng Yu was stunned.

"It's impossible now," the woman said. "The reason the lineage wanted to disband Xuanzhen Temple before was mainly because there was no hope of reviving Xuanzhen Temple's lineage."

"But now it seems that Li Yinsheng... is unassuming and extremely low-key, but in reality, he is a cultivation genius that is rare to see in hundreds of years."

"With this person around, the lineage probably won't disband the Xuanzhen Temple."

At this point, the woman suddenly smiled: "Now Shouyi Temple's wishful thinking is going to fall through."

"These people are arrogant and domineering, looking down on everyone. They sit on the throne of the number one Taoist temple, but all they do is bully their fellow Taoists and take advantage of other Taoist temples."

The woman frowned: "It's a good thing they can't get the spiritual vein of Xuanzhen Peak now, otherwise they would definitely be even more domineering."

Meng Yu nodded in agreement.

She also disliked sticking to one's own views.

"By the way, Yu'er," the woman said, "you must keep Li Yinsheng's cultivation and talent a secret and not spread it, lest the Shouyi Temple be prepared in advance and come up with some evil plan."

"Hmm." Meng Yu nodded. "But what about Huanghe Temple?"

"They're in the wrong and have suffered in silence, so they probably don't want to make a fuss about it," the woman said.

"Moreover, that Master Huanghe is known for his upright conduct, so he probably wouldn't do anything unreasonable."

Meng Yu nodded, and was about to ask again about the painting by Li Yinsheng in his master's hand.

"By the way, Yu'er, don't go back to the shop recently. Send a communication talisman to the shop to inform your junior brothers and sisters not to spread rumors," the woman said.

"Yes," Meng Yu asked, "then what am I supposed to do staying in the temple?"

"The bamboo at Huangzhu Temple, which has been planted for ten years, will be ready to bear fruit in a few months. They need to be wary of the demons that have become spirits in the surrounding area trying to steal it."

The woman said, "That's why they came to my Jade Altar Temple to invite a True Man and several disciples to set up an array to prevent any demons from sneaking in."

"After careful consideration, I realize that most of the stewards in the temple are busy, and your mastery of array formations has surpassed that of many stewards. So I'll trouble you to make the trip."

Meng Yu nodded and bowed, "This disciple obeys."

"Alright, there are still a few months left. Go and prepare well. Study the formations that isolate and restrain demons to avoid any mishaps later."

The woman gave her instructions.

Meng Yu bowed again, then turned and left.

Watching her apprentice's departing figure, the woman quietly breathed a sigh of relief—good, she had gotten away with it.

"Master," Meng Yu hesitated for a moment before speaking as she reached the door, "Could I also have a copy of your painting?"

Abbot of Yutan Temple: ...

……

Late at night, in front of the main hall of Xuanzhen Temple.

With the Cold Leaf Sword in hand, Mu Xiaoyu was diligently practicing the Two Elements Dividing Light Sword technique that Li Yinsheng had taught her during the day.

Li Yinsheng sat to the side, cracking sunflower seeds and giving instructions.

He could cast spells with his fingers instead of a sword, something Mu Xiaoyu couldn't do yet. At this moment, she was holding the Cold Leaf Sword while adjusting the flow of her magic power, and her other hand was making hand seals.

Almost six hours have passed since she started practicing during the day.

Finally, as the Frost Leaf Sword in her hand drew a sharp and smooth slash, a bright sword light flew out from the Frost Leaf Sword, swept across two or three zhang in the night, and dissipated into countless points of light.

"Me! Me! Me! Me!" Mu Xiaoyu, drenched in sweat, exclaimed excitedly, "Senior brother, I did it! I did it!"

But Li Yinsheng didn't have time to respond to Mu Xiaoyu's excitement, because at the same time Mu Xiaoyu unleashed the sword light, a loud and clear sound resounded in his ears.

New gold lettering appeared.

[The Will to Cultivate: The First Steps in the Way of the Sword!]

Congratulations to the Lord of the Cave Heaven for learning the first sword technique of considerable quality in your life. This is the first step on the path of sword cultivation!

The path of sword cultivation emphasizes courage and diligence. In the next three years, please diligently practice the "Two Elements Dividing Light Sword" you have learned, and do your best to improve your mastery of it and cultivate more sword light!

Once the sword light of "Two Elements Dividing Light Sword" reaches a certain level, you can claim the reward.

This training program will last for three years, after which it will be closed.

Cultivation Rewards:

Successfully cultivating four sword beams will be rewarded with two years of cultivation.

Successfully cultivating eight sword beams will be rewarded with four years of cultivation.

Successfully cultivating sixteen sword beams will be rewarded with eight years of cultivation.

The reward for mastering thirty-two sword lights is sixteen years of cultivation.

Successfully cultivating sixty-four sword lights will be rewarded with thirty-two years of cultivation.

[Cultivating 128 sword lights will reward you with 64 years of cultivation]

Looking at the goals and corresponding rewards written in gold, Li Yinsheng's lips twitched involuntarily.

Again.

Don't you have any tasks that are even slightly easier than the ones you give out with your cheat code?

Even someone with average talent might not be able to master four sword lights even after three years of hard training!

So the total time limit is only three years?

Can one cultivate one hundred and twenty-eight sword beams in three years?!

Li Yinsheng felt a splitting headache.

Moreover, the motivation for cultivating this sword technique is quite different from before.

Acquiring cultivation techniques, advancing one's position in the temple, and accumulating talisman money—these are all cultivation goals that can be achieved to some extent through shortcuts.

But how can one take shortcuts in genuine magical practice?