Chapter 34: Foundation Establishment Ceremony

Two months passed in the blink of an eye, and the Fourteenth Uncle's Foundation Establishment Ceremony was about to begin.

To hold this ceremony, everyone in the Lin family, except for the Clan Leader and those little guys in the academy, was mobilized. They prepared half a month in advance, and there were quite a lot of things to do.

They needed to arrange manpower to distribute tasks, rehearse various ceremonies, and prepare meat, vegetables, melons, fruits, spirit tea, spirit wine, etc., to entertain guests.

A clan elder was arranged to accompany the representative of each Foundation Establishment family to show the importance and respect for the other party and their family.

And they had to prepare the best accommodation for these representatives, and also consider not arranging those with conflicts together.

Then there were those who had good relations with the family who would come to support, and the good friends invited by the Fourteenth Uncle himself. They had to consider the relationships of these people and then arrange accommodation, trying their best to ensure that there would be no conflicts or other emergencies during the ceremony.

Fortunately, all major families had a tacit understanding that they wouldn't send Foundation Establishment cultivators to such a ceremony; otherwise, it would be even harder to arrange, and just the safety issue would be hard to solve.

For example, the demon hunting teams were all assigned the task of maintaining order. When the time came, a small part of the demon hunting team would be on the mountain, and the majority of the demon hunting team would be assigned to the foot of the mountain. After all, the scattered cultivators at the foot of the mountain were a mixed bag, so more manpower was needed to maintain order.

And the task assigned to his mother, Xu Wenying, was to help in the kitchen when the time came. For three days, they would need to make quite a lot of spirit meals; otherwise, there wouldn't be enough manpower, and they wouldn't be able to keep up.

Young boys like Lin Zhangqing were not spared either, and his little friends also had their own tasks.

Lin Zhangqing's task was to guide the guests, leading them to the prepared accommodation according to the list, preventing guests who didn't know the way from breaking in randomly, like running to the Scripture Pavilion or the family treasury, which wouldn't be good.

If there was a situation, he just needed to shout loudly; there would definitely be Lin family demon hunting team members everywhere that day.

At the foot of the main peak, the Lin family specifically divided a large area for scattered cultivators to entertain these scattered cultivators who didn't have invitations.

They would set up flowing banquets for three consecutive days, with good wine and meat, to entertain those who were willing to come and join in the fun, including those who wanted to do business or set up stalls, but they could only do so within this planned area.

There would be demon hunting team members patrolling around the clock to maintain public order. And they would ensure that after the Foundation Establishment Ceremony ended, no one would secretly stay on the Ancestral Mountain.

As for the guests with invitations, they would be invited to the main peak to be specifically entertained by the family elders. Lin Zhangqing didn't need to worry about these; he just needed to ensure he completed his own task.

Most importantly, when the time came, the Clan Leader would personally sit in the core of the Nine-Curved Cloud River Great Formation. In case of any emergency, he would activate the great formation at the first opportunity.

To ensure the safety of the family! One had to know that solid fortresses were mostly broken from the inside, so being careful was never a mistake!

Lin Zhangqing was actually quite looking forward to it. After all, being able to see such a lively scene on his own territory and satisfy his expectation of picking up leaks at stalls, he didn't know if the stall owner of that stone gambling workshop would come. He hoped he would! Today was the first day of the official ceremony. Lin Zhangqing specifically got up very early, just to ensure he finished his daily cultivation tasks first.

Cultivation was a matter that relied on self-discipline and self-awareness. Anyway, Lin Zhangqing believed that by accumulating little by little and persisting, there would always be a reward.

After finishing his cultivation, he reported to the family square. Today, the main peak of Nine Peaks Mountain was decorated with lanterns and colored streamers, and the clansmen's faces were full of joy; this was much livelier than the New Year.

He successfully arrived at his assigned post. Because they had practiced several times, there was no risk of mistakes. However, today was the first day, so it would definitely be relatively busy.

Sure enough, once the Chen hour passed, people began to increase, coming and going in an endless stream, and he was so busy that his feet didn't touch the ground, and he didn't even have time to drink a sip of water. Fortunately, the number of guests on the mountain was relatively fixed, and he finally finished before noon.

The only harvest might be getting to know the representatives of the twelve Foundation Establishment families, as well as some cultivators who had good relations with the family. It could be considered a rough understanding of the distribution of forces in Pingyang Prefecture.

He went to the canteen arranged by the family, dealt with a meal casually, and then returned to his post. As long as he persisted until tomorrow, he would be considered to have completed the task. Today, the guests were not familiar with the layout of each building, but tomorrow, there would basically be nothing for Lin Zhangqing to do.

Holding such a Foundation Establishment Ceremony, the family was relatively experienced.

On the first day of the ceremony, the Fourteenth Uncle, as the protagonist, had the main task of participating in various ceremonies of sacrificing to heaven and earth and ancestors.

The representatives of each family were mainly guests who witnessed and watched the ceremony, and presented their respective congratulatory gifts. After the ceremony ended, they enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Lin family.

Everything was orderly, passed smoothly without surprise or danger, and Lin Zhangqing's task could be considered successfully completed.

On the second day of the ceremony, the morning was mainly for the Fourteenth Uncle to preach!

The content of the preaching was carefully organized by the Fourteenth Uncle, from his own Qi Refining stage, the various problems encountered in cultivation, and the solutions. There were also some cultivation insights and techniques he had summarized himself.

The most important thing was the situation encountered when breaking through to Foundation Establishment, as well as the matters needing attention during the Foundation Establishment process, all explained one by one, full of dry goods! This was also an important reason why many scattered cultivators came uninvited. Preaching by a Foundation Establishment cultivator was a good thing that was hard to encounter, and it was very important for these scattered cultivators who had no master!

The people under the stage listened with fascination and were suddenly enlightened. Lin Zhangqing also listened intently, comparing it with his own cultivation journey, and also benefited a lot from verifying them against each other.

And in the afternoon, there was nothing to do; it was the stall treasure hunting that Lin Zhangqing had been looking forward to. He pulled his mother to go shopping at the stalls, while his father had to patrol and maintain order and couldn't come.

When the mother and son arrived at the foot of the mountain, they found that the scale of these stalls was much smaller than the last Pingyang Market.

However, they still shopped with great interest. His mother mainly looked at spiritual objects related to talismans, such as talisman paper, talisman brushes, special spiritual objects needed for drawing talismans, etc.

On the surface, Lin Zhangqing was looking at everything related to spirit plant masters. In reality, he was looking to see if any spiritual objects would emit a halo, allowing him to pick up a leak.

His mother shopped for a while and harvested a few dozen high-quality talisman papers and a special spiritual object needed for drawing talismans. Lin Zhangqing hadn't opened for business until now. He encountered two kinds of spirit medicines, but they were also available in the family, so he didn't need to buy them outside.

Fortunately, after shopping for a while, he finally had a harvest at a stall. The Yellow Essence Fungus and Blood Spirit Grass on this stall were both first-tier high-grade spirit medicines. Yellow Essence Fungus replenished Qi, and Blood Spirit Grass replenished blood. They could just be refined into first-tier Yellow Essence Blood Replenishing Pills, which were spiritual pills for replenishing Qi and blood.

Last time, twenty days ago, he used six drops of essence blood, and his body was weak for several months, which was still fresh in his memory. Now that he encountered spirit medicines for replenishing Qi and blood, he naturally couldn't let them go.

"Boss, how do you sell the Yellow Essence Fungus and Blood Spirit Grass?" Lin Zhangqing asked.

The boss looked at Lin Zhangqing and said, "These three Yellow Essence Fungi are 20 spirit stones each, and the four Blood Spirit Grasses are 15 spirit stones each, totaling 120 spirit stones."

"Can you make it cheaper? Let's make it 70 spirit stones in total, calculating 10 spirit stones for each." Lin Zhangqing tried to bargain.

The boss saw Lin Zhangqing bargaining for such a low price and said a bit angrily, "Take them for 100 spirit stones at the lowest; I won't sell them for any lower."

Seeing the boss's attitude so firm, knowing there was no way to go lower, Lin Zhangqing hurriedly took out 100 spirit stones and handed them to the boss. He also put away the seven spirit medicines.

The scale of the stalls was not very large, and he finished shopping in a short while. Anyway, he didn't see any halos, and he didn't pick up any leaks, but he did see the stone gambling workshop, which was surrounded by many people.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 35 =====