Chapter 26: The Beginning of the Immortal Path

Early the next morning, Wei Yuan finished washing and went to the square at the mountain gate.

The Grand Void Palace's immortal boat was parked in the center of the square, twenty zhang long, light green in color, with several folded masts on the side. This immortal boat would pick up all the new disciples here and head to the mountain gate together.

Wei Yuan followed Zhang Sheng onto the immortal boat. The immortal boat was divided into three layers, the lower layer for cargo and luggage, the middle layer for servants, and the upper layer for six tables.

Zhang Sheng chose a seat at the upper layer at will. After a while, Sun Yu and Daoist Brother Fufeng also boarded the immortal boat and sat at Wei Yuan's table.

As it was close to departure, people boarded the boat one after another. The first to come up were two boys, each led by an elder, each occupying a table, and several followers went to the lower layer. Wei Yuan had some impression of these two boys, who were standing beside Li Zhi and Bao Yun respectively.

Following that, a group of people boarded the boat, their clothing strange, extremely gorgeous and revealing large areas of skin. These people had dark skin, with large scales on their necks and wrists, and the common point was that they all had a pair of amber eyes. Among the four, there was a boy, who was the Yan family boy from the East Sea who rode a nine-colored deer to take the exam.

The Yan family group chose the last, the only non-window seat to sit down. The Yan family, who had always been high-profile, was so low-key, which made Zhang Sheng a little strange.

At this time, two more teams of people came up, surrounding a boy and a girl respectively. Seeing these two, Wei Yuan's heart skipped a beat, and he slowly turned his head to look out the window, watching the scenery.

Wei Yuan recognized both the boy and the girl. The girl was Bao Yun, and the boy was Xiang Xiaoyu, who had slashed Wei Yuan hundreds of times without success and was almost injured by him.

During the martial test, Wei Yuan had 'Heaven-Earth Madman' on his body, had the arrogance of looking down on the world, and didn't care about small details. Now that he had recovered his normal body, Wei Yuan felt that his actions were truly fierce at that time, especially the shot he added to Bao Yun, which felt quite embarrassing when he recalled it.

At this moment, the six tables on the upper layer were already full, and the people had arrived. The ground then rose with screens, separating the cabin into six separate compartments. The screens lit up with faint brilliance, not only isolating sound but also blocking spiritual sense.

After the screens rose, Zhang Sheng asked: "Why are there six people collected this year? I thought there would be at most four."

Sun Yu said: "The collection of disciples this time is a bit complicated..."

Sun Yu looked at Daoist Brother Fufeng and said: "Specifically, it is like this: originally the Yan family in the East Sea made a great effort and paid a lot of price to ask Senior Brother Brother Fufeng to protect the third place. Senior Brother Brother Fufeng also did his best, and the Yan family boy was indeed the third after the Dao and literary tests. But in the martial test, Yuan'er swept everything and took the first place, which was not in the plan, so he squeezed out the Yan family boy."

Zhang Sheng wondered: "Then why is he still on the boat?"

"The Yan

Wei Yuan was somewhat puzzled as he listened; if ranked in order, the one who should have been squeezed out was the Lu family. Zhang Sheng had the same question.

Sun Yu continued to explain: "The threshold for this unified examination was five points. The Yan family's child was only two points higher than the Lu family's young master, but the effort the Lu family put into securing this spot far exceeded that of the Yan family, so in the end, it was still the Yan family that was squeezed out. As for why the Yan family is still on this ship, it's because they lobbied again, but the Palace truly couldn't provide a sixth spot, so it became like this: Yan Ming is actually entering the lower grotto-heaven, but will audit classes at the Grand Tai Tai Chu Gong."

Zhang Sheng was shocked: "It can be like this?"

Sun Yu lowered his voice and said: "I heard that the Yan family will give the Palace quite a lot of offerings every year from now on."

"This, this... how preposterous! Doesn't this mean that if you have money, you can get in?"

Sun Yu said meaningfully: "It's not that if you have money you can get in; it's that if you have a lot, a lot of money, you can get in."

Zhang Sheng was silent for a moment.

The time had come. The immortal ship gave a gentle tremor and slowly ascended. The plaza and mountain gate below shrank rapidly, and then the ship passed through an invisible boundary. The scenery below changed abruptly; the immortal mountains and green trees vanished, and below there was only a small green mountain embedded in an endless yellow earth.

The immortal ship continued upward until it pierced through the clouds and floated above the sea of clouds. Only then did it unfurl the masts on both sides and hoist sails that looked like fish fins.

The sunlight shone down, dyeing the entire sea of clouds gold. Wherever the immortal ship passed, the clouds parted on both sides, as if it were breaking through waves on a golden ocean—indescribably magnificent and beautiful.

The speed of the immortal ship gradually increased, and it rose a bit higher, leaving the golden sea of clouds. The scenery outside the window gradually blurred, and the sea of clouds turned into golden lines. At such high speed, the ship was extremely stable; if one didn't look out the window, one wouldn't feel it moving at all.

Wei Yuan, seeing such an immortal sight for the first time, was naturally stunned and kept looking out the window.

The sun set and rose.

A day later, an immortal mountain suddenly appeared in the sea of clouds ahead of the ship. Looking from afar, it was just a precipitous peak, but as they approached, the peak suddenly transformed, revealing a towering immortal gate.

The immortal ship passed through the gate, and the world around them changed instantly.

The ship landed on a circular plaza. The plaza was paved with white jade, and in front of it was a bluestone avenue leading straight to a group of towering palaces in the distance. On both sides of the avenue were gentle grasslands, green as turf, extending far into the distance, sparsely dotted with wildflowers of various colors.

Most of the white jade plaza was suspended in the air; looking down from the edge, there was only a vast sea of clouds, and the bottom could not be seen at all. This plaza, which was several hundred zhang in circumference, was like a giant jade dish, just resting halfway up the mountainside without any visible support.

Looking out from the plaza, past the palaces, the distance was filled with rolling hills. Several verdant peaks pierced the clouds, and pavilions and towers appeared and disappeared among the waterfalls and pine forests. Further away, several peaks were actually floating above the sea of clouds.

From time to time, one or two giant beasts or immortal birds, whose names could not be called, would rush out from the sea of clouds; some flew toward certain peaks, while others soared straight up, disappearing at the end of the firmament above.

Wei Yuan walked out of the cabin and stood on the deck, gazing into the distance. The scenery before his eyes was something he had never even seen in his dreams. Even the most ordinary grassland was like a soft, bright, thick carpet, extending for a hundred miles. Even the small flowers dotted on the grass were unusual upon close inspection; each flower was different, constantly exhaling misty vapor.

As a child from a farming family, Wei Yuan knew at a glance that this grassland was a fertile field the likes of which he had never seen before. If grain were planted here, wouldn't it produce a thousand catties per mu? But having already witnessed the magnificence of the immortal family, Wei Yuan felt that perhaps he was too ignorant; with the methods of the immortal family, a yield of twelve hundred catties per mu might also be possible.

Wei Yuan followed the grassland, looking further and further. Just by looking at this vibrant stretch of green, he could feel his spirit becoming increasingly lively. As he watched, Wei Yuan's field of vision reached the edge of the grassland, when suddenly everything went black before his eyes, and he nearly collapsed.

Zhang Sheng reached out and patted him on the back. Wei Yuan's body was instantly refreshed, and all the emptiness and weakness he had just felt vanished in an instant.

Zhang Sheng said: "Don't look so far before you start cultivating. You don't have Dao power now; what you are consuming is your primordial spirit."

Sun Yu, however, had eyes shining with excitement and said: "To be able to exhaust your primordial spirit in one go, I'm even a little envious of this disciple of yours."

Zhang Sheng ignored Sun Yu, pointed forward, and said to Wei Yuan: "This is 'Empty Valley Suspended Green,' one of the three great mountain gates of my Grand Tai Tai Chu Gong. What do you think?"

Wei Yuan looked at the white jade plaza used only for parking the immortal ship, looked at the smooth-as-mirror bluestone avenue, looked at the towering palaces in the distance, looked at the ten-thousand-foot green peaks that had the aura of an immortal family, and finally, his gaze fell back on that grassland like emerald jade.

Suddenly he said: "The immortal path is so miraculous, why are there still so many people starving to death in the human world?"

Sun Yu and Zhang Sheng were both stunned.

Suddenly, a deep, resonant voice sounded from behind: "Well asked!"

(End of chapter)