Chapter 128: The Young Master Went to Work
At noon the next day, in Yingxia Town by the Yingxia River, on Long Tao’s plot of land, Dong Jiayuan was releasing fish fry into the newly dug pond, while the Luo siblings were leveling the ground nearby, their spider legs deftly crushing the larger stones into powder.
“Brother Jiayuan, today is the last day of the Disciple Recruitnt Ceremony, right? Aren’t you going to watch the excitent?”
Seeing Dong Jiayuan looking sowhat listless, Luo Yunluo could not help but ask curiously.
If not for the fact that he and his sister were inconvenient to show themselves in their current forms, he would have already taken her to join the bustle.
Dong Jiayuan sighed.
“It’s not that I’m uninterested. Counting my own entry, I’ve already experienced it three tis. Honestly... after Nan Yuchen stunned the entire audience last ti, I felt I’d already seen everything worth seeing. There’s probably nothing much to look forward to this year.”
“That’s true. Geniuses aren’t so easy to co by.” Luo Yunluo nodded in understanding, then suddenly thought of sothing.
“I heard Long Tao’s family might move here permanently. What about your family?”
“I wrote to ask them. They said they’re planning to stay in our hotown for now. If sothing really cos up, they’ll move over then.” Dong Jiayuan gave a helpless smile.
“Our ancestors have deep roots there. It’s not sowhere you can just leave at will.”
At that mont, Luo Yusi walked over and asked curiously,
“Then what about Long Tao’s family?”
Dong Jiayuan was, after all, a normal young man.
He had little resistance to Luo Yusi’s overly alluring upper body and had yet to fully adapt, so he could only keep his head lowered as much as possible and answer while staring at the water’s surface.
“Long Tao’s family originally migrated from elsewhere. He was only two or three years old when they moved here. Now that they’re relocating again, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“Oh… I see. Then where was their original hotown?”
“Well… I rember asking before. They said… it was that empire in the northeast—what was it called again? Ah! I can’t recall the na all of a sudden. It had the character for ‘Phoenix’ in it. The one ruled by the Empress.”
Most people only paid attention to information within their own region and did not care much about distant places.
Dong Jiayuan actually had so knowledge about that empire in his mind, but having not used it in a long ti, he montarily got stuck.
“The Empress in the northeast? Oh! You an the Suhuang Heavenly Dynasty?”
“Yes, yes! That’s it—the Suhuang Heavenly Dynasty. It’s quite far from us, nearly ten thousand li away, with Tai Cang Lake and a whole cluster of forces in between. I have no idea how their family managed to travel all the way here back then.”
When the spider siblings heard the na Suhuang Heavenly Dynasty, they exchanged glances, both revealing faint expressions of nostalgia.
“Eh? The Suhuang Heavenly Dynasty… Brother, didn’t Mother take us there before?”
“Yes. Mother was friends with the Mute Phoenix Empress. She did take us there once. It’s been nearly twenty years, hasn’t it? We even stayed there for quite so ti. Unfortunately, we hadn’t yet mastered the Transformation Technique back then, so most of the ti we could only remain in the courtyard.”
Hearing their conversation, Dong Jiayuan showed no sign of doubt and instead sighed in admiration.
“Your mother is the Matriarch of the Luo Clan, right? To be friends with that Empress… that’s far beyond my level.”
“Haha, Mother does know quite a few important figures. It’s just that we rarely got to go out back then. All we did every day was play, and we covered the courtyard the Empress bestowed upon us with spider silk until hardly anyone dared approach. Only the daughter of one aristocratic family ca by often. Sigh… we never went back again. I wonder how she’s doing now.”
As Luo Yusi spoke, she kicked a pebble into the pond, then looked up at the sky and continued,
“It’s already noon. The Enlightennt Test should be over by now, right?”
“About that. In previous years it usually ended before noon. They should be arriving soon.”
As they were speaking, a small Cloud Vessel flew in from the southern sky and landed steadily atop the small dirt hill.
A group of people then disembarked.
Dong Jiayuan glanced over and saw that it was indeed Long Tao’s family—yet Long Tao and his younger sister were conspicuously absent.
……
“Brother Jiayuan!”
When Xiao Ying saw him, she imdiately ran down from the dirt hill and, as usual, cast wary glances at Luo Yusi behind him—even though Long Tao was not present at all.
“Where are Long Tao and Little Xi?”
“After Young Miss entered the sect, there were still a bunch of procedures to complete. She won’t be able to co until tomorrow.”
Hearing this, Dong Jiayuan imdiately recalled that new disciples indeed had a long list of formalities and procedures that could not be finished in less than a day.
First was identity verification and official registration—confirming one’s na, place of origin, and age.
Then ca the distribution of items: sect-standard disciple robes, an Identity Jade Token, several bottles of basic pills, basic equipnt, a few Spirit Stones, along with the “Sect Rules and Precepts” and the foundational cultivation thod “Nine-Xia Qi-Guiding Art.”
Those were manageable.
The most troubleso parts were the oath-taking and the lighting of the Soul Lamp.
An elder from the Law Enforcent Hall would personally recite the sect rules—countless regulations and restrictions.
The key emphasis was on core iron laws such as “betraying one’s master and ancestors,” “killing fellow disciples,” and “betraying the sect,” along with their harsh punishnts.
After that, each new disciple would swear a Dao Heart Oath, pledging not to betray the sect, not to leak cultivation techniques, and so on.
Of course… nowadays this step was rely a formality.
Those destined to betray would still betray.
Finally—and most troubleso of all—was the “lighting of the Soul Lamp.” Within the Soul Lamp Hall, new disciples had to separate a thread of their Divine Soul through a ritual and ignite their own Soul Lamp.
This symbolized being completely bound to the sect from that day forward.
Dong Jiayuan still rembered clearly how, when his Soul Lamp had been lit, he had felt a profound sense of rging with the sect.
Even now, recalling it made his heart surge with excitent.
“Oh… Little Xi really can’t make it. What about Long Tao?”
“Young Master… Young Master still has a large pile of work unfinished. He was taken by Senior Brother Bonade to see the Vice Sect Master.”
When Xiao Ying said this, her face could not help but show distress.
But the Vice Sect Master… very few in the sect dared to disobey him.
“I see. Then there’s no way to refuse.” Dong Jiayuan could only shake his head, then asked curiously, “But when did you learn to pilot a Cloud Vessel?”
“It wasn’t . Uncle Liu was the one piloting.” Xiao Ying pointed toward the old steward who was looking over at them.
From afar atop the dirt hill, the Long family had already spotted the uniquely shaped spider siblings by the pond.
Although Xiao Ying had ntioned these unusual neighbors beforehand, seeing the half-human, half-spider figures in person still caused the three of them to unconsciously slow their steps.
As a junior who had grown up under their watchful eyes, Dong Jiayuan naturally could not stand there waiting for his elders to approach.
He quickly jogged forward to greet them.
“Uncle Yan, Aunt Long, Uncle Liu—long ti no see.”
Seeing the boy who had grown up playing alongside his own son, Long Tao’s father strode forward, clapped both hands heavily onto Dong Jiayuan’s shoulders, and laughed heartily.
“Jiayuan! You’ve truly grown up! These years, thank you for taking care of Xiao Tao. Oh, right—your family asked us to bring so things for you. They’re on the vessel. Rember to collect them later.”
“It’s nothing. I should be thanking you for going so far out of your way to help bring them.”
He then exchanged greetings with Long Tao’s mother and Steward Liu.
In particular, Steward Liu—he had known long ago that this steward of the Long family was a cultivator, but back then he had been unable to discern his depth.
Now that his own cultivation had reached the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, he could sense that the spiritual power faintly flowing around Steward Liu far exceeded that of an ordinary Foundation Establishnt cultivator.
That steady presence, like a towering mountain, had at least reached the late Foundation Establishnt Stage.
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