The Quest for Immortality

Xun Ziyou stepped into the Elder’s Residence and silently breathed a sigh of relief.

He hadn’t expected that his sudden decision to seek advice from the Ancestor would lead him to coincidentally encounter Mo Hua at the doorstep.

The Ancestor’s residence prohibited Divine Sense from probing.

Thus, he hadn’t considered that Mo Hua might suddenly emerge from the house.

In this way, he, the ”spy,” ended up running right into the person he was spying on.

Xun Ziyou couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

Fortunately, being a Golden Core Late Stage Cultivator who had lived for two or three centuries, his temperament and experience were well established. In just an instant, he suppressed the unease on his face, pretended not to recognize Mo Hua, and managed to bluff his way through.

”It should be fine...”

Xun Ziyou silently thought.

It was just a chance encounter. Even if that kid is sharp, surely he wouldn’t notice anything...

Besides, earlier, Mo Hua had bowed to him respectfully, calling him Elder, behaving in a perfectly orderly manner.

Xun Ziyou nodded slightly.

He walked deeper into the inner chamber and presented a Jade Slip to Elder Master Xun.

”The matter of reform has been mostly finalized...”

”The Taoist Court has already started proceeding with the formalities.”

”The specific regulations are still under discussion, but overall, it amounts to determining the sect’s ranking through the results of the Tao Discussion Meeting.”

”Using this occasion to reshuffle positions and reconsider the Four Great Sects, the Eight Great Gates, and the Twelve Streams of Taoist merit slots.”

”At the same time, this reform aims to change the sect structure within the Qianxue State Boundary, elevating the status of the ’Four Great Sects,’ along with the share of Spirit Stones they would get from the Qianlong Spirit Mine.”

”In other words, after the sect reform, the title of ’Four Great Sects’ will be more significant than ever!”

”Whoever can seize the title from the existing Four Great Sects will simultaneously obtain power over the new ’Four Great Sects’ and reap enormous Spirit Stone profits from the Qianlong Spirit Mine.”

”Of course, if no one can seize it, then all of this will still belong to the current Four Great Sects.”

Elder Master Xun’s gaze grew slightly heavier.

Xun Ziyou sighed softly:

”This is an open scheme...”

”It’s a plan the Four Great Sects have painstakingly laid out, setting their sights on becoming sect heads comparable to those in Taoist State Taoist Sect, step by step.”

”With such a tempting piece of fat meat laid out in plain sight, even if other sects perceive the risks as high and the odds of success slim, they’ll still want to gamble.”

”Until the final loss, everyone believes they’ll be the one to win.”

Xun Ziyou felt a trace of emotion.

Elder Master Xun nodded faintly.

Yes, until the loss, everyone believes they’ll win...

But now, he also wanted to gamble.

There was no choice but to gamble.

Elder Master Xun frowned.

Recently, he’d been feeling unsettled. Whenever he found the time to calculate, he discovered that the seemingly peaceful situation concealed ominous turbulence. No matter how he calculated, all he saw was foggy uncertainty.

It was strange.

Ordinarily, it should be possible to discern at least a glimmer of fortune or misfortune.

Though Elder Master Xun understood that his Heavenly Secret Calculations weren’t particularly refined and his Cause and Effect Compass wasn’t of a Superior Grade, making his results possibly inaccurate, it shouldn’t reach the point of being entirely incomprehensible.

Not a single trace could be found.

This indicated that the Heavenly Mechanism and Causality had been locked down by something.

There was ”someone” preventing him from deducing anything...

Or perhaps, preventing everyone else from deducing anything.

For someone to mask the Heavenly Mechanism and Causality before a Hollow Void Cultivator like him, the culprit behind this matter might be harboring a ”terrifying” presence.

Elder Master Xun had a faint guess in his heart, but he dared not confirm it yet.

After all, some matters were far too ancient.

Some dreadful presences had long been forgotten by most.

The current cultivators, living in peace for so long, had already lost their sense of reverence.

Unaware of danger and dying amid complacency, they lacked fear of the great terror that truly lingered in the world.

Now, the surface situation is complex, while in the shadows, ominous forces are brimming.

Trying to remain aloof and uninvolved no longer seemed feasible.

That left him with only one option—to gamble.

Elder Master Xun’s gaze sharpened, and he asked, ”How long will the sect reform take?”

Such large-scale reform could never be accomplished overnight. It involved numerous families and sects, touched upon vast interests, and deeply impacted the overall structure. Inevitably, it would require significant time to push forward step by step and implement thoroughly.

Xun Ziyou replied, ”It’s said to be ten years, over three Tao Discussion Meetings, gradually advancing the reform until everything is finalized.”

Xun Ziyou hesitated momentarily before adding:

”But although that’s the word, I suspect that by the next Tao Discussion Meeting, knives will begin to fall.”

”By the one after that, lives will be decided.”

”It may not even take until the final meeting—the situation will likely have settled, and the last Tao Discussion Meeting of the ten-year period will merely serve as the ’coronation’ for the victor...”

Xun Ziyou’s tone turned grave.

”Ten years, three sessions...” Elder Master Xun’s gaze grew heavy as he murmured, ”I hope this kid... makes it in time...”

...

After returning to the Disciple’s Residence, Mo Hua continued his regular cultivation.

In his spare time, he reviewed all the formations he had studied.

From the First Grade Ultimate Formation to the Second Grade Five Elements Bagua Formation, Yuan Magnetic Formation, and even the Divine Tao Array he obtained from the small fishing village—he revisited them all.

He also began comprehensively pondering the framework of formations and the distinctions between different types of arrays.

This constituted an advanced level of insight into formations.

Ordinary Formation Masters his age and at his cultivation realm couldn’t possibly access or master so many formations.

The number of formations Mo Hua had mastered was over tenfold, or even dozens-fold, compared to typical Formation Masters.

The difficulty of the formations he understood was also markedly higher.

Learning a lot necessitated summarization and integration, attempting to unify the Dao of Formations—or at the very least, reflecting them against each other and making connections between similar concepts.

If one only learned without summarizing, no matter how much one learned, it would merely amount to scattered grains of sand.

Yet this kind of summarization and insight was not something that could be achieved overnight.