Chapter 522: Chapter 514: Complaining to the Apprentice
Xuan Qingzi closed the door, glanced outside, and then pulled Yao Feifei aside to admonish her.
“Junior Sister, you were too disrespectful just now.”
Yao Feifei felt a bit afraid, tugged at his sleeve timidly, and said, “Senior Brother, what did I do wrong?”
“You shouldn’t have so rudely inquired about Master Chi Yuan’s cultivation. That was very impolite and diminished the grandeur of our Jinhua Temple,” said Xuan Qingzi in a stern voice. “Not to mention that he is our senior, we are here seeking help. You really shouldn’t have been so blunt and impolite.”
“But I was just curious because he looks even older than our master, can’t I even ask about that?”
Xuan Qingzi said, “For a junior to question a senior’s cultivation is truly dismissive, and you were rubbing salt in Master Chi Yuan’s wounds.”
Yao Feifei was shocked: “Senior Brother, I just asked about his cultivation, how is that such a big crime?”
“You are young and don’t understand. Master once said that Master Chi Yuan of Qingping Temple is a person of profound Taoism. He had reached the threshold of Qi Refining Perfection by the age of fifty, but unfortunately, he sacrified all his cultivation to eliminate a traitor in the temple, which caused his cultivation to regress and made Foundation Establishment an unattainable dream for him. It is truly regrettable.”
Yao Feifei was surprised: “Such a thing happened?”
Xuan Qingzi nodded: “You may not think much of Qingping Temple now for its small size, but its predecessor was a great sect. It later declined to just a temple, but before the Mystic Sect waned, it too was thriving with incense offerings. Unfortunately, thirty years ago, there appeared a traitor who betrayed and caused the downfall of his own masters, and to purge this traitor, Master Chi Yuan dispersed a lot of his cultivation, not to mention closing Qingping Temple.”
“It has been only ten years since Qingping Temple reopened, and its development to this scale has not been easy.” Xuan Qingzi squinted and said, “Did you hear just now? That golden roof and the golden statue of the Grandmaster were only built last year. They also built an Immortal Ascension Tower that rivals our temple’s Star-picking Tower in grandeur, which shows the generous donations from good people.”
Jinhua Temple is large, with many halls and flourishing with incense offerings, partly because of its long-established factions, and partly because it is located in Shengjing, where wealthy and powerful people abound, willing to donate generously with incense oil. Its success is indeed due to its perfect combination of timing, geographical, and human conditions, shining brightly with the grandeur of a Grand Temple.
However, even so, it took nearly twenty years to develop to this point, and our master advanced further only after achieving Foundation Establishment.
Yet Qingping Temple has managed to tidy up this Daoist Temple into such splendor in just ten short years, with a decent surrounding environment, lush forests, making him vaguely feel that the Spiritual Energy here is more abundant than other places. He wondered if there is a Building Protection Array or a Mountain Protection Array.
He wanted to check out the Immortal Ascension Tower later.
Yao Feifei was somewhat unconvinced and said: “No matter what, it can’t compare to our temple. Our master is a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment level. As for Master Chi Yuan, regardless of whether he had the chance at Foundation Establishment, he was fifty thirty years ago, so isn’t he now eighty? What if…”
“Junior Sister!” Xuan Qingzi glared at her: “Mind your words.”
Yao Feifei pursed her lips.
Xuan Qingzi shook his head and sighed again. At the age of eighty, he remembered the master mentioning that when purging the traitor, Master Chi Yuan would rather damage his own cultivation than allow the enemy to survive, leading to a degradation of his cultivation. He wondered if there might be any hidden ailments.
If there were, and the inability to achieve Foundation Establishment were true, he might not even reach the centennial lifespan of the Qi Refinement Realm.
Xuan Qingzi felt sorry but quickly firmed up his resolve. Such is the path of cultivation; if one does not advance, in the end, one only lives a few years longer than a mortal.
…
Qin Liuxi received the message from Master Chi Yuan and then took his disciples in a horse-drawn carriage up the mountain.
One must meet and see who dares to challenge.
Meanwhile, Xuan Qingzi and Yao Feifei had already taken a tour around the Daoist Temple. What interested him the most was the newly built Immortal Ascension Tower. The auspicious beasts carved on the eaves were lifelike, guarding the entire temple from high places. Some pillars inside the tower were engraved with Taoist Scripture runes, whose profound meanings grew more marvelous the more one delved into them.
As he ascended to a high vantage point and looked in all directions, the Daoist Temple was built along the mountain range, with its head and tail interconnected, creating an auspicious flow of feng shui that circled without dispersing due to the mountain’s protective embrace.
The Immortal Ascension Tower, too, must have been shielded by a Building Protection Array, with the second and third floors housing numerous tomes, not only containing precious literature needed by scholars but also some Taoist Scriptures, methodically organized.
It’s said that even the sixth and seventh floors, which prohibit entry without a summon and are also array-protected, contain even more valuable ancient scriptures and some Magic Artifacts.
This piqued Xuan Qingzi’s curiosity—Qingping Temple had been reopened for ten years, yet from where did all these tomes come, or had they been hidden somewhere previously?
In any case, Qingping Temple wasn’t the dilapidated temple without any heritage, as they’d imagined when they first arrived.
“Senior Brother, shouldn’t we go to the senior to have the whereabouts of that Evil Ghost divined?” Yao Feifei had no interest in Xuan Qingzi’s praises for Qingping Temple.
In her eyes, no matter how good it was, it couldn’t compare to Jinhua Temple—she had an innate sense of superiority towards her own temple.
Xuan Qingzi nodded and then headed with her towards the residence of Master Chi Yuan, the old Taoist.
As they reached the doorstep of the residence, they saw two kids shouting “Grandmaster!” as they rushed inside, followed by someone in a green robe, who wore a Daoist bun fastened with a peachwood hairpin, slender in figure, suddenly pausing in step and turning around.
Xuan Qingzi and his companion were taken aback. Was this a man or a woman? This face was androgynous; if said to be a woman, it lacked the gentle and delicate charm customary to females, yet it had a certain heroic air; if said to be a man, it was lacking some masculine grandeur.
She stood with her hands behind her back, her demeanor cool and detached. She observed them from afar, her eyes clear and lucid as if she could see through one’s heart, her gaze slightly indifferent and aloof.
Xuan Qingzi subconsciously stood up straighter, a reluctant notion of not wanting to be outdone emerging within him.
Yao Feifei, on the other hand, stared somewhat displeased at Qin Liuxi’s face, her feminine intuition telling her that this androgynous individual was a girl.
Yet, even knowing she was a girl, she felt that the face, coupled with that aura, didn’t have the slightest bit of dissonance.
Qin Liuxi’s gaze swept over the Jade Talismans hanging at their waists, identical in make, featuring a unified insignia—a golden character paired with runes—an emblem of their identities.
With Spiritual Energy faintly circulating within them, they must both hold cultivation, coupled with their Taoist attire; could these be the people the old man mentioned, those who came to prove their prowess?
Ah, the golden character—could they be from Jinhua Temple, which had been registered here?
Qin Liuxi curved her lips into a smile and performed a Taoist ceremony with a clasped fist: “May I ask from where do the two Daoists hail, and whom you seek?”
Yao Feifei replied proudly, “We are disciples of Jinhua Temple from Shengjing, here to find Senior Chi Yuan; and you are?”
Indeed, it is Jinhua Temple.
“I am the Junior Temple Master of Qingping Temple, Buqiu,” Qin Liuxi said. “Are you here to engage in scholarly debate or to lodge a challenge?”
Master Chi Yuan emerged and spoke, “Disciple, they wish our help in pursuing an Evil Ghost. My cultivation is not profound, I fear I may have the will but not the power; if you can, give them a hand.”
Qin Liuxi’s eyes narrowed.
Xuan Qingzi felt a sudden surge in his chest—was it his illusion, or did it seem like the senior was subtly complaining?
Master Chi Yuan, old Taoist: Be bold, remove your doubts; I am indeed lodging a complaint.