Chapter 13: The Alluring Female Cultivators

Guest-Coming Peak, the Flowing Cloud Plaza before the Flowing Cloud Hall, occasionally a white cloud drifts across the plaza, which is why the plaza is named so.

Neatly arranged long tables form an approximate square area. Long benches line both sides of the tables, and the tables hold spirit fruits, pastries, and drinks. Men and women who came to attend the marriage alliance are scattered inside and outside the square, in groups of three, groups of five, sitting or standing, chatting with each other. At the upper end of the square there is a half‑person‑high platform, a long table, two chairs, occupied by two people: one a graceful Qing Jun, the other a mature, beautiful woman.

Hong Zhi, as the outer gate steward, is in charge of receiving guests from the Azure Luan Sect this time. This is not surprising; for the Cloud Hidden Sect, the marriage alliance is a major sect affair, but its standards are not high.

First, each successful marriage alliance yields only a few dozen couples, which is negligible for a sect whose total population, including affiliated forces, exceeds one hundred thousand. Even if their proportion of excellent spirit‑root descendants is higher, the absolute number remains too small. Moreover, cultivators need a hundred to several hundred years to achieve anything, so overall this alliance has virtually no impact on the Cloud Hidden Sect's strength for at least several hundred years; bluntly put, even after centuries it may have no effect at all, the only change being a slight enrichment of the sect's heritage.

Members of the Azure Luan Sect have been at the sect for seven days, and this time there are as many as one hundred and fifty female disciples from the Azure Luan Sect attending the alliance. In recent days, besides communicating with fellow disciples who previously married into and remained at the Cloud Hidden Sect, they have spent most of their time buying magical items from the shops on Guest-Coming Peak—pills, beast rings, weapons, armor, magical robes, and so on are all on their purchase list.

The Azure Luan Sect, unlike the large Cloud Hidden Sect, has only a few fellow disciples who refine artifacts and pills, let alone dedicated refining rooms or pill chambers.

Steward Hong Zhi and the Azure Luan Sect's leading elder, Yun Yan Fairy, sit on a high platform, chatting casually. The two are old friends; the last time the Azure Luan Sect came, Yun Yan Fairy led the delegation, and Hong Zhi has been in the outer gate steward position for nearly fifty years.

"That disciple looks very handsome! Senior Brother Hong Zhi, how old is he, and what cultivation level does he have?" Yun Yan Fairy asked. Both Yun Yan Fairy and steward Hong Zhi are in the Heart‑Moving Stage, though Hong Zhi is at the Peak Heart‑Moving Stage and Yun Yan Fairy at the Mid Heart‑Moving Stage. Generally, practitioners of the same realm from different sects address each other as peers, while those of different realms use senior‑junior titles.

Yun Yan Fairy is petite, with a delicate figure and charming looks, and her voice is especially coquettish, making even the steadfast Hong Zhi a little unsettled. This isn't Yun Yan Fairy's fault; most female cultivators of the Azure Luan Sect practice enchantment arts, and their every gesture carries a distinct allure.

"Which one?" Hong Zhi followed the direction of Yun Yan Fairy's slender finger; a group of Cloud Hidden Sect disciples were surrounding three striking Azure Luan Sect female cultivators, making such a fuss that he couldn't tell which one Yun Yan Fairy referred to.

At that moment, Hong Zhi's mood was actually terrible; the Cloud Hidden Sect disciples were all showing their ugliness, which greatly irritated him. Though Hong Zhi's appearance is dashing, he is truly a 'hard‑core ascetic'; besides enjoying moonlight, gentle breezes, fine tea, and strong wine, he most opposes cultivator marriages. Although the cultivation world has various dual‑cultivation techniques and forming a partnership does not impede progress, and can even promote it, married cultivators are bound by too many ties, making great achievements difficult and sapping much vigor.

The original purpose of the Cloud Hidden Sect's external marriage alliances is to give those of limited talent a chance to produce outstanding spirit‑root offspring; put nicely, it's a long‑term strategy, put bluntly, it's waste‑utilization. There are actually many excellent female cultivators within the sect, so external alliances are merely supplemental, primarily serving ordinary outer‑gate disciples; the previous two alliances followed this policy. Moreover, such alliances are not solely beneficial to the Cloud Hidden Sect: the Azure Luan Sect receives whatever assistance the Cloud Hidden Sect can provide, and the female descendants of the allied disciples are given priority for selection by the Azure Luan Sect.

Passion and love are humanity's greatest desires, coveted by all. It was unexpected, however, that because Azure Luan Sect's female cultivators practice auxiliary enchantment arts, even though their beauty is slightly inferior to the sect's own female disciples, they are far more attractive to the Cloud Hidden Sect's male disciples.

Thus, the third marriage alliance suddenly attracted many inner‑gate disciples, even direct‑line disciples participated; a few days ago, a ridiculous incident occurred where direct‑line disciples sent all the market's Foundation Establishment pill materials to Azure Luan Sect's female disciples, which contravened the sect's original purpose.

Hong Zhi originally intended to report this situation to the sect leader, but the leader was in seclusion; several senior elders showed no concern, and the only one who inquired, the newly promoted Elder Tai Xiao, instead blamed Hong Zhi for meddling, even though Elder Tai Xiao was the one who initially pushed the matter. Unfortunately, Hong Zhi could not reach Sect Leader Tai Yu, so his frustration was obvious.

"It's the one sitting over there at the back, and the person sharing the table is a tall fellow, not bad!" Yun Yan Fairy pointed to a table at the edge of the crowd.

Only then did Hong Zhi see the two people Yun Yan Fairy mentioned: one was delicate and handsome, the other tall and imposing. They were not circling the female cultivators; in fact, their attention wasn't on the women at all. Sitting opposite each other, they sipped spirit‑fruit wine while earnestly discussing something.

Hong Zhi's mildly angry mood finally found some solace; it seemed the sect's disciples were not all lecherous. Yet, when he looked more closely, a strange feeling rose in his heart.

It turned out to be those two fellows: one, the notorious Da Ben Niu of the entire pill chamber, who hasn't reached Foundation Establishment after five years; the other, a Xiao Bai Lian from the Fallen World, who after a few days' absence looks increasingly handsome, his aura more restrained, and after only a month of entry can already cast the sect's basic spells, with a bizarre trait—if not for his background, he would be a talent worth intensive cultivation.

Although Hong Zhi has always viewed Wei Yuning through tinted glasses, it cannot be denied that this new disciple is both special and outstanding. Aside from his immense cultivation talent, his other abilities are also remarkable; he not only catches insects for profit, but also became Elder Tai Chong's named disciple, conducts himself steadily, and is said to be loyal and responsible, often caring for the senior disciple Da Ben Niu. As the saying goes, if his background weren't poor, Hong Zhi might truly be able to help him change to a more promising hall.

"Oh, so you were talking about these two. They are the sect's miscellaneous labor disciples; they came only to help, not to participate in the marriage alliance!" Hong Zhi said calmly.

Da Ben Niu possesses the rare Earth‑type spirit root; although his comprehension is poor, once he succeeds in Foundation Establishment he will be a highly sought‑after disciple within the sect. As for Wei Yuning, Hong Zhi will certainly not let him leave; he intends to keep the guy from the Fallen World under close watch.

"Is that so? It doesn't look like it; that handsome young master seems to have already reached Foundation Establishment, right? Didn't we say that disciples at the Foundation Establishment stage and above could attend the marriage alliance?" Yun Yan Fairy said softly.