Lady Cultivator

Chapter 224: Return

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Group Summoning Talismans were mainly divided into two types: one type was Disciple Summoning Talismans which were used between disciples of the same group to get in touch with each other. Once one was activated, all the disciples within its range would receive it. Every disciple leaving the monastery was permitted to receive several pieces before they left the mountain.

The other type was Division Summoning Talisman. Once one was launched, as long as one had a Xuanqing School identity tablet in their possession, they would receive it no matter where in the Celestial Pole they were located. However, this talisman was extremely hard to create, and it also drew in a lot of people, so it generally wasn’t used unless it was absolutely necessary.

The one Mo Tiange received just now was a Division Summoning Talisman.

It must’ve been about twenty two years since she left Mount Taikang, but the moment she set foot on Kunwu again, she actually received a Group Summoning Talisman.

With a slight frown, Mo Tiange unfolded the talisman paper.

“To all Xuanqing School disciples that are in the Foundation Building realm, no matter whether you have errands or not, you are to put down the matters at hand and rush back to Mount Taikang before the sixth day of the sixth month.”

It only contained a line of a simple command, but it didn’t mention the reason at all, so Mo Tiange was dumbfounded upon reading it. Xuanqing School had more than twenty hundred Foundation Building disciples in total. Although that number was significantly decreased during the demonic beast riot, considering that more than thirty years had passed since then, that number should’ve been more or less restored. Coupled with the Foundation Building disciples who managed shops or were ordered to handle things on the outside, the number of Foundation Building disciples definitely reached a total of three hundred people.

What were they calling so many disciples back to the monastery for? In addition, Xuanqing School had a lot of important industries outside, and they were all managed by the Foundation Building cultivators. In calling all of them back, many things would come to a halt—how important was this matter in the end?

She shook her head then snapped her fingers, igniting the talisman in her hand. A beam of spiritual light then rose from the ablaze talisman and it flew towards the horizon—this was her reply to the Division Summoning Talisman.

At the same time, there was another identical spiritual light streaking across the sky towards the horizon.

A smile emerged on Mo Tiange’s face when she saw it. This was good; apparently, there was another disciple in the vicinity.

She flew up then rode her Flight Light, flying towards the direction of the other spiritual light. Before long, she sensed with her divine sense that someone was coming her way. The two people’s divine senses came into contact. Seeing as the two of them had the same intentions, Mo Tiange quickly continued to fly towards the other person.

As she expected, the other person was a Xuanqing School disciple. Having spotted her from a distance, the person cupped his hands and greeted: “Senior Martial Sister.” It was a youngster in the early stage of the Foundation Building realm. Although he addressed her as senior martial sister, both his looks and tone were reserved and rather arrogant.

He appeared like a seventeen or eighteen year old youngster; presumably, his real age was still very young. Talented youngsters were always a bit arrogant; she wouldn’t take offense over his behavior.

With a slight smile, Mo Tiange cupped her hand to return his greetings. “Junior Martial Brother’s too polite.”

The two of them greeted each other in mid-air. Both stood still; each rapidly sizing up the other. Despite noticing her young girl appearance, the young man didn’t take the matter to heart. In big cultivation groups, there were many female cultivators who practiced age-stopping cultivation techniques. Even if they couldn’t stop the aging process, they could always afford to buy Look-Preserving Pills.

“Senior Martial Sister, have you also received a summons? Are you going back to the school?” asked the youngster.

Mo Tiange nodded. “Yes.”

The youngster smiled and said, “That being the case, how about we head back together?”

Since their purpose was the same and they came from the same school, Mo Tiange naturally chose to travel with him, so she gladly agreed to his suggestion.

After they set off on their journey back, the youngster introduced himself. “My surname’s ‘Lan.’ My name consists only of one word, ‘Ling’, which means hill, not the ‘Ling’ which means spirit. I’m a disciple of Sweet Dew Peak. May I know Senior Martial Sister’s name?”

Lan Ling? The corners of Mo Tiange’s lips involuntarily curved up. With such a girlish sounding name, it was no wonder he wanted to emphasize that the “Ling” in his name was the “Ling” that meant hill.

“My name’s Mo Tiange. I’m a disciple of Clear Spring Peak.”

“Oh, turns out it’s a senior martial sister from Clear Spring Peak.” The youngster tilted his head slightly to size her up again. “Senior Martial Sister, were you out traveling around or out running errands?”

“Traveling.” Mo Tiange only gave him a short answer then asked back, “Junior Martial Brother Lan, where are we?”

“Oh?” Astonishment flitted across Lan Ling’s face. “Senior Martial Sister Mo, you actually don’t know where we are despite being here?”

Mo Tiange softly shook her head. “I was transported here through a Transporting Formation, and I still haven’t had the chance to ask around.”

“Oh, I see,” Lan Ling said, “We’re now in southeast Kunwu, not too far from Tiandao Sect.”

Mo Tiange was stunned. “So it’s actually this place.”

“What’s wrong with this place?” Lan Ling asked curiously.

Weren’t they close to Yunwu Sect? However, she had neither the time nor the inclination to go back to Yunwu Sect now, so she just said faintly, “I’ve been here before.”

“Oh.” Lan Ling nodded but no longer spoke.

He could see Mo Tiange wasn’t a talkative person, and he himself was a proud person; even though she was a late stage Foundation Building senior martial sister, he also disdained fawning upon her.

Mo Tiange was happier this way, so the two of them just focused on making haste.

They were in southeast Kunwu now, while Xuanqing School was situated in west Kunwu. On their journey to rush back, they ran into some other disciples en route one after another. Two people became three people; three people became four then five until their group eventually grew into a group of eight people.

With so many people, there were bound to be some talkative people, so their journey began to be filled with continuous chatter.

Mo Tiange hadn’t been back for more than twenty years; she didn’t know many of the things that occurred at the school, so she actually listened with relish.

For example, Grandmaster Zhenyang and Grandmaster Lingxu wanted to arrange a marriage between their proud disciples—Martial Uncle Bai and Martial Uncle Jiang. However, when Martial Uncle Bai found out about it, he wasn’t willing because he disliked Martial Uncle Jiang for being unruly. This matter spread to Martial Uncle Jiang’s ears, and all hell broke loose.

The Martial Uncle Bai and Martial Uncle Jiang they talked about ought to be Bai Yanfei and Lord Daoist Lingxu’s disciple, Junior Martial Sister Jiang. Mo Tiange also heard about Junior Martial Sister Jiang before. She was Martial Uncle Lingxu’s blood-related junior and was extremely doted on ever since she was a child, so she was unruly and obstinate. In the Drifting Cloud Peak, she was just like a small overlord and even on other peaks, no one dared to dissuade her.

Someone said, “That Martial Uncle Jiang’s still very young... Our Xuanqing School never attached importance to the passion between men and women; even for Dual Cultivation, we normally only consider it after we reach the Core Formation realm, right? Why did they have to confirm their marriage now?”

The one who first brought up the matter was an old man. Despite being quite old and having grizzled hair and a beard, he was very fond of talking. They didn’t know where he heard this gossip from, but these days, it was always him who dished out the gossip. At that moment, he was grinning as he spoke. “Don’t forget how old Grandmaster Lingxu is. His passing is already imminent!”

Upon hearing what he said, Mo Tiange secretly nodded her head. Correct. The end of that Grandmaster Lingxu’s lifespan was about to arrive, so he must be very anxious to find a backing for his beloved descendant, right? Unfortunately, Junior Martial Sister Jiang was a bit too unruly; she’d most likely fail to live up to his good intentions.

“Oh, so that’s why...” The person who previously asked him finally understood and said, “Grandmaster Lingxu still looks very energetic, yet he’s surprisingly about to pass away.”

The old man caressed his beard then said with narrowed eyes, “In any case, Grandmaster Lingxu’s a Nascent Soul cultivator; as long as he hasn’t passed away, his cultivation is real. Unfortunately, once he passes away, our Xuanqing School will only have five Nascent Soul cultivators again.”

Someone butted in: “What’s wrong with that? Several of our martial uncles are already in the late stage of the Core Formation realm; they should be able to attempt to form their Nascent Souls soon, right?” At that point, he started to hold his fingers up one by one as he counted. “Martial Uncle Danning of the Drifting Cloud Peak, Martial Uncle Yuanyin of the Soul’s Retreat Peak, Martial Uncle Shoujing of the Clear Spring Peak, and there’s also Martial Uncle Lingxi of the Sweet Dew Peak—these martial uncles are all in the late stage of the Core Formation realm!”

“Haha!” the old man laughed out loud. “You guys... how many years old is this news? Let me tell you this; Martial Uncle Danning and Martial Uncle Shoujing are already in the peak stage of the Core Formation realm. They’re about to form their Nascent Souls!”

“Ah!” After hearing what he said, the rest of the people in the group all directed their gazes towards the old man. Even Lan Ling, who always felt it was beneath himself to gossip with the rest, and Mo Tiange, who’d been secretly listening all along, also fixated their stares on the old man.

It was a major cultivation group event for cultivators to form their Nascent Soul. Let alone small or medium cultivation groups, but even in big cultivation groups like theirs, once a cultivator was ready to form their Nascent Soul, the group would increase their vigilance and activate their great mountain-protecting formation, enabling the mountain to enter a half-sealed state, all just to prevent others from coming and causing disturbances.

Now that he suddenly received everyone’s attention, the old man’s gossipy heart was finally satisfied. “You guys didn’t know?”

One impatient person immediately urged him: “Us people... If we’re not traveling outside for several years on end, we normally have a lot on our plates, so we’re not aware of all these matters! Senior Martial Brother Yan, quickly tell us what you know.”

The old man felt extremely complacent. “Alright, I’ll talk about them with you guys. Right now, this is the situation at Xuanqing School: Grandmaster Lingxu reportedly only has about ten years left in his lifespan, so that’s why he was so anxious to marry Martial Uncle Jiang off to a young junior who has both a strong backing and a prospective future like Martial Uncle Bai. If he succeeds, even if he passes away, he won’t have to worry that Martial Uncle Jiang would create problems or anything.”

“Senior Martial Brother Yan, just get to the point!” someone impatiently urged. Although the matter about Martial Uncle Jiang also sounded quite interesting, it was nothing compared to some people at the school forming their Nascent Souls.

“Young people are really impatient.” The old man glared at that person then continued on speaking neither slowly nor quickly: “The impact of a Nascent Soul cultivator’s death on their group is quite profound, especially for us since Grandmaster Xuanyin’s success in forming his Nascent Soul had just greatly increased the strength of Xuanqing School. Now, our grandmasters naturally aren’t willing to watch on passively as Grandmaster Lingxu passes away. However, how could a matter like passing away be stopped? Besides, Longevity Pills aren’t that easy to obtain...”

That old man was really wordy. As she listened to him, Mo Tiange really hoped she could grab his collar and shake him with her all to shake all the nonsense out of him.

She wasn’t the only one with this idea, but the old man wasn’t at all threatened. In the end, they belonged to the same cultivation group, so nobody could do that kind of thing. With no other choice, they could only let him continue on blabbering.

After rambling for a long time about all kinds of irrelevant things, he finally reached the main point. “... That being the case, there’s nothing to be done about it. Grandmaster Lingxu can only hang on for a few years, so they can only let Core Formation martial uncles who have high odds of successfully forming their Nascent Souls to intensify their cultivation. In addition to Martial Uncle Danning, Martial Uncle Shoujing, Martial Uncle Yuanyin and Martial Uncle Lingxi advanced to the late stage of the Core Formation realm only about fifty years ago! This happened precisely because the Nascent Soul grandmasters were supporting them...”

Soon afterward, he once again said several hundred words of rubbish before he finally went back to the main point. “It hasn’t been too long since Martial Uncle Yuanyin and Martial Uncle Lingxi advanced to the late stage of the Core Formation realm, so right now, it should be quite a while before they try to form their Nascent Soul. Martial Uncle Danning stayed in the late stage for about a hundred years but about two years ago, he finally reached the peak stage. As for Martial Uncle Shoujing, he actually reached the peak stage of the Core Formation realm recently. Martial Uncle Shoujing has been in Closed Door Meditation for thirty five years; ever since he came back injured from the demonic beast riot thirty five years ago, he’s stayed inside and never gone out. Ay~ When it comes to talent, Martial Uncle Shoujing indeed cannot be belittled. Among the few of us, I’m afraid there must be some with better spiritual roots than him. But while we’re still struggling in the Foundation Building realm, he’s already formed his Gold Core and he’s even going to form his Nascent Soul soon...”

“Senior Martial Brother Yan!” Someone couldn’t hold themselves back. “We all know about the matter regarding Martial Uncle Shoujing; you don’t always have to mention it, do you?”

The other seven people all had the same expression, so Senior Martial Brother Yan could only stop his mouth. “Alright then. In any case, you know Martial Uncle Shoujing and Martial Uncle Danning are already in the peak stage of the Core Formation realm—they can try forming their Nascent Souls. That’s all.”

“...” The seven people were all dumbfounded.

Under the seven people’s glares, the old man surnamed Yan shouted aggrievedly, “Didn’t you guys want me to be succinct? That’s all there is to it!”

“...”

After a moment of silence, someone else asked, “Martial Uncle Danning and Martial Uncle Shoujing... Can they succeed in forming their Nascent Souls?”

“Who knows?” Senior Martial Brother Yan promptly answered, “Soul-formation, ah~! It’s not the same as foundation-building, which everyone can succeed in doing as long as their aptitudes aren’t terribly bad and they have enough Foundation-Building Pills. For Soul-formation, one can only depend on the will of the heavens; it has little to do with one’s aptitude.”

That was actually right. Foundation-building was the first doorstep in cultivation. Although most cultivators were trapped in the Aura Refining realm their whole lives, for disciples of cultivation groups like them, as long as they were somewhat serious and had a bit of luck, their chances of succeeding in building their foundation were quite large. When it came to soul-formation, on the other hand... There was enough proof that the will of the heavens was unfathomable.