“You have worked hard, Senior Heaven Mandate.” Lu Yang returned the jet-black ancient ring to the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace.

The Heaven Mandate Immortal looked at Lu Yang with an inscrutable smile, then patted the shoulder of this junior he thought highly of. He broke into a hearty laugh and encouraged him in his cultivation.

“Young Friend Lu, your cultivation progress is quite fast. You’ve already reached the Advanced Divine Transfiguration Stage. Keep it up. When the time comes for your breakthrough, it’ll be absolutely safe with me having your back!”

Lu Yang smiled stiffly. The Heaven Mandate Immortal’s pats were painful. “Senior Heaven Mandate, there’s no need to take such special care of me. While cultivating, I’ve come to realize that there are ultimately no shortcuts in cultivation.”

The Heaven Mandate Immortal was surprised, feeling that Lu Yang was being overly formal. “What are you saying, young friend? You are the one who saved Everlasting. It’s only right that I look after you.”

“Better not. I’m afraid others might see it and think you’re being unfair, which would tarnish your reputation.

“For instance, I have a close friend named Meng Jingzhou. We’re very close and always share weal and woe. He greatly admires you after hearing of your deeds. As it happens, he also has some affinity with you.

“When we found Immortals’ Quotes in the Twins River secret domain, I wasn’t the only one who read it. Meng Jingzhou read it too. However, that book contains a universe of its own and quietly resonates with the Great Dao. It’s far too profound. After reading it, Meng Jingzhou kept saying he didn’t understand.

“I’m worried that if he finds out you’re treating me differently, it might harm your image in his eyes.”

Lu Yang spoke with conviction, his every word seemingly out of consideration for the Heaven Mandate Immortal.

“Oh? There’s such a thing?” A cold glint flashed in the Heaven Mandate Immortal’s eyes, though he maintained a cordial smile.

“Rest assured, Young Friend Lu. I always act fairly. I’ll definitely treat both of you brothers equally.”

“I feel reassured to hear you say that.”

With his connection to the Heaven Mandate Immortal, Lu Yang had truly hit the jackpot. He no longer needed to worry about his tribulation being too easy. Even so, he didn’t forget his promise to Meng Jingzhou, putting in a good word for him before the Heaven Mandate Immortal to lend a hand wherever possible.

~~~

When the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign returned to the sect, Lu Yang immediately sought him out and was shocked by his injuries.

“Founding Ancestor, your injuries...”

The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign’s face was bruised and battered, clearly the result of a one-sided battle.

He waved his hand. “Don’t mention it. That damned Meng Junzi really has some tricks after becoming an immortal. He is completely different from before and is much harder to deal with. I indeed can’t beat him.”

Lu Yang’s mouth twitched. It’d be strange if you could beat him. I’ve never heard of a half-immortal defeating an immortal.

“Little Lu, you were saying you wanted to hear about the Dao-Seeking Sect from a hundred thousand years ago?”

“Yes. We now have a form of publicity called a newspaper. Since you’ve come out into the world again, I figured we could promote you and our sect.”

“Promote our sect? That’s excellent!” The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign immediately agreed. He had a favorable impression of Lu Yang.

“When I was managing our sect, I wanted to promote it too. But I’m not good with words. Back then, our sect lacked talent like you. Outsiders who heard about us always thought we were some kind of diabolic lair, leading to misunderstandings. Eventually, I just gave up on publicity.

“A hundred thousand years ago... let me think. Then let’s start from when the last Yu Emperor kicked the bucket, and the Great Yu Dynasty went to hell.”

Earlier, Yun Zhi’s punch had caused the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign to see his life flash before his eyes. The memories from a hundred thousand years ago were still echoing in his mind, so when Lu Yang asked, he hardly needed any time to recount that part of history.

“Even before Great Yu went to hell, the world was already beginning to spiral into chaos. After it went to hell, things got even worse.

“Seeing the world in such chaos, I figured that this was my chance to shine, so I chose to descend the mountain and carve out a path.

“But I was just down on my luck. I’d only been out in the world for a few days when my storage ring got stolen. I didn’t have a single spirit stone on me. Then I happened to run into two great cultivators battling, moving mountains and seas. That made me completely disoriented as to where I was.

“Thus, I stopped a passerby, wanting to find out where I was and if they could give me a lift.

“After that, I encountered Moonchaser, Tiankui, and the other two. However, I was in such a sorry state that they mistook me for a robber and started fighting me.

“I suppose it was a case of ‘no discord, no concord.’ After the fight, the misunderstanding was resolved. Moonchaser and the other three took a liking to me and agreed to let me join them and make a name for ourselves in this chaotic age.

“Later, we did make something of ourselves, and we also befriended Meng Junzi and Jiang Ping’an.

“Although we five harbored thoughts of ending the turmoil, we all knew we didn’t have the ability. We couldn’t govern the whole continent; only Meng Junzi and Jiang Ping’an could.

“In the end, the conflicts on the Central Continent left only two factions: the Meng Family and the Jiang Family. You know the outcome—Jiang Ping’an established the Great Xia.” 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

As the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign spoke, Lu Yang scribbled furiously. By the time he finished, Lu Yang had finished taking notes.

In those years, the world was in great chaos, ravaged by endless conflicts. Though without a single coin to his name, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign harbored aspirations of achieving great deeds. He therefore sought like-minded fellow Daoists and happened upon Moonchaser True Person and three others.

At the time, the entire populace revered martial arts. Moonchaser True Person and the other three made friends through combat. Understanding the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign’s intentions, the five formed a bond and set out to make their mark on the world.

The five, including the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign, rose to prominence during the turbulent age, becoming a major force. Though they wished to end the chaos and unify the world, they deemed their abilities insufficient and withdrew from the struggle, leaving the Jiang and Meng families to contend for the position of ruler under heaven, so that the era of turmoil could be brought to an end earlier.

“Founding Ancestor, please take a look.” Lu Yang presented the draft to the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign. “This is the general idea. I just polished it a little bit. I’ll flesh it out further later.”

The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign read through the draft, his head full of question marks. He couldn’t help but feel that what Lu Yang had written wasn’t quite the same as what he had told him. Yet upon closer thought, it was indeed what he said.

”Pretty good.” Leave professional matters to the professionals. I shall not interfere.

~~~

A month had passed since the Battle of the Mountain-Moving Sea-Filling Sect. News of the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign’s reappearance in the cultivation world spread rapidly through the realm. Cultivation Monthly, authored by Lu Yang, produced a special edition to vigorously promote the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign’s glorious achievements.

High-level cultivators were the first to learn of the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign’s emergence. Ordinary cultivators and mortals had not found out about it so quickly. But with Cultivation Monthly, even ordinary cultivators and mortals now understood what had happened.

Apart from recounting events from a hundred thousand years ago, the newspaper also described how the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign had been accidentally trapped in a time rift and how he had fought the Thunder Arbiter Divine Lord with no regard for his own safety after escaping, thereby saving the Mountain-Moving Sea-Filling Sect. It was due to his intervention that the sect suffered no casualties, only some property damage.

The world marveled at the Dao-Seeking Sect’s power—two founding ancestors and two half-immortals. They were unequaled in glory.

Among the common folk, other rumors about the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign also circulated, such as how he had been headstrong in fighting Meng Junzi and was defeated.

But since these weren’t recorded in Cultivation Monthly, they were probably only jianghu rumors and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Everyone was extremely interested in this half-immortal. The newspaper sold out as soon as it was published, and Guan Shanhai worked overtime in his prison cell to print more copies.

With Guan Shanhai busy, the prisoners at Incarceration Peak dared not make a sound, afraid of disturbing the immortal. This granted the place a brief period of quiet.

~~~

Moonchaser True Person lay on a chair built from snow and read this edition of the newspaper three times over. Yet she simply couldn’t match it to the events of a hundred thousand years ago in her memory.

“Maybe we should just have Lu Yang marry into our immortal palace. This is precisely the kind of talent our immortal palace lacks.”