Chapter 138: Next, My First Challenge Will Be Shen Jizhou!!

Lu Yuan’s voice was not a roar, yet it struck like an invisible heavy hammer, smashing into the hearts of everyone in the Celestial Master Grand Ceremony square.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

The wind stopped.

The snow stilled.

The astonishment, the bewilderment, the mockery on the faces of thousands of Daoists all crystallized.

This plaza fell into a deeper, stranger silence than when Lu Yuan first initiated the "Questioning Heaven Challenge."

A silence that could swallow a heartbeat.

On the high platform, the face of Shen Jizhou—usually as calm as a deep well—showed a crack for the first time.

The cold pool in his eyes shattered in an instant, replaced by an extreme, incredulous stupefaction.

The two people Lu Yuan had picked earlier, He Cheng and He Xun, their intentions were blatantly obvious,

squeezing a soft persimmon, finding their own people to throw the match.

That was the outcome everyone expected, the safest and most shameless way to win.

But now...

Shen Jizhou?

Blankness flooded people’s minds; they could not understand what Lu Yuan was thinking.

This was no longer a challenge.

This was suicide!

"You’re insane!!"

Celestial Master He Xun was the first to snap out of petrification, his eyes bloodshot, trembling as he pointed down at Lu Yuan.

"Don’t act recklessly!!"

"Think carefully about who you chose!!"

"Is it Shen Jizhou, or Shen Shulan? Make up your mind before you speak!!!"

He Xun on the high platform recovered and roared angrily down at Lu Yuan.

What! A! Rid! i! cu! lous! Joke!!!

At this moment he should be picking Wuqing Temple, Shen Shulan!!

Pick Shen Jizhou?

This is the true pillar of the Daoist world beyond the Great Wall, the highest mountain of those sects!!

Even if Li Xiuye showed up, he would not be Shen Jizhou’s match!!

No one would choose Shen Jizhou!!

Choosing Shen Jizhou is courting death!!!

If he chooses Shen Jizhou, he absolutely cannot win the "Questioning Heaven Challenge"!!

Choosing Shen Jizhou means a death sentence!

Choosing Shen Jizhou means all of Lu Yuan’s tricks will be rendered useless!!

Lu Yuan could never, ever, ever succeed in challenging Shen Jizhou!!

He Xun hoped Lu Yuan had simply lost his mind.

Maybe his head was still full of that incident with Shen Jizhou, that’s why he accidentally blurted out Shen Jizhou’s name!

So He Xun hurried to remedy the situation.

If he picked Shen Jizhou, it would all be over!

Choosing him would be signing the death knell for his "Questioning Heaven Challenge"!

Not only did He Xun think this, others nearby thought the same.

For the other Daoist sects, this was just entertaining gossip.

They naturally couldn’t fathom why Lu Yuan would be so foolish as to "Question Heaven," but it didn’t matter.

At least they could watch the spectacle.

But if Lu Yuan picked Shen Jizhou...

then there would be nothing entertaining about it.

For a moment, some people jeered and called for Lu Yuan to change his pick, to choose again.

Lu Yuan quietly looked at the anxious, flustered He Xun on the high platform, slightly bowed, and cupped his hands in salute.

"Master Uncle, what nonsense are you talking?"

"How could I possibly choose Senior Sister Shulan?"

His voice was calm and sincere, each word clearly delivered to everyone’s ears.

He Xun’s roar cut off abruptly.

He froze.

The jeering from below was seemingly strangled by an invisible hand and gradually died away.

What...

What does this mean?!

Really not choosing Shen Shulan??

Really choosing Shen Jizhou??!!

Everyone stared intently at Lu Yuan, at his earnest face.

They all wanted to know what exactly Lu Yuan was thinking, or rather...

what he intended to do!

Lu Yuan’s gaze pierced through the crowd, past one stunned face after another.

Finally, it landed on the moon-white figure on the high platform.

Shen Shulan stood there, wind stirring her hair, her face pale as paper, her eyes already rimmed in red.

She looked at Lu Yuan, her lips trembling, as if she wanted to speak, but no words came out.

For Shen Shulan, the most difficult thing in the world had appeared.

The conflict between Lu Yuan and his father had already eroded the clear, cold composure Shen Shulan once maintained.

Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze, raised his head, and looked toward the seven figures on the high platform, toward the one seated at the top, Shen Jizhou.

His voice suddenly rose, like a great bell, reverberating across the square!

"It seems that everyone here has forgotten what the Celestial Master is chosen for!"

"It is chosen by the will of the people!"

"It is chosen by the Daoist community’s recognition!"

"Most of all, it is based on the merits done for the people beyond the Great Wall in the past five years!"

"Senior Sister Shulan has handled more community petitions than I have, she ranks first in the petition-handling segment of this Grand Ceremony, that is the will of the people!"

"Her reputation within the Daoist world is also outstanding among the young generation, that is recognition!"

"As for achievements, the Nurturing Malevolence Site mission, suppressing a century-long calamity, is plain for all to see!"

"By every rule, Senior Sister Shulan is fully deserving of the Celestial Master title, legitimately and rightfully so!"

At this point Lu Yuan shifted his tone, his gaze suddenly sharpening like a blade aimed straight at Shen Jizhou!

"And my 'Questioning Heaven Challenge' targets those who are unworthy of their position!"

"Those who occupy posts but do nothing!"

"Those who, by seniority and influence, steal the title of Celestial Master with hypocrisy!"

"Therefore, there is no way I would ever choose Senior Sister Shulan!"

The words landed like a hammer!

The square again fell into an uncanny silence.

Countless Daoists looked at one another, their faces showing surprise and deep thought.

To be honest, most people had already forgotten how the Celestial Master Grand Ceremony was supposed to select a winner.

They had truly forgotten the selection criteria.

Only when Lu Yuan spoke did they awaken.

Right...

This Grand Ceremony is held every five years, and becoming Celestial Master is not about one’s strength or background...

A person doesn’t even need to be a Daoist; they could be an ordinary civilian.

As long as what they did in the past five years lived up to the four characters "protect the people," they qualify.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten for too long.

According to the original rules...

this year’s Celestial Master, Shen Shulan, would actually be the most legitimate choice,

and as for the others...

Lu Yuan’s words made many fall into shame and reflection.

If judged by Lu Yuan’s meaning...

No, more precisely, if judged by the original rules of the Grand Ceremony...

apart from Shen Shulan, the other six hardly seem worthy of the title.

Because in the past five years, the borderlands have been relatively peaceful, with people living safely.

Those other six have done almost nothing these five years...

They are all temple heads who sit high over the temple halls...

On the high platform, Shen Jizhou watched Lu Yuan coldly, his gaze deep.

Shen Jizhou naturally understood what Lu Yuan’s words implied.

Though he wasn’t named, every sentence was a barb pointed directly at him.

Essentially, Lu Yuan was saying Shen Jizhou was unfit to be this year’s Celestial Master.

Normally Shen Jizhou should be furious.

He should be incensed.

But oddly...

Shen Jizhou did not get angry; he was strangely pleased!

To Shen Jizhou, whether Lu Yuan said he was unworthy of the title meant nothing.

Who was Lu Yuan to point fingers at Shen Jizhou?!

What mattered to Shen Jizhou was his daughter.

This year’s Grand Ceremony was clearly different from previous ones.

That difference lay with Shen Shulan.

A twenty-six-year-old Celestial Master of this era, yet Shen Shulan’s cultivation was only that of a one-star Celestial Master.

Shen Jizhou knew better than anyone how her Celestial Master title had come about.

He used Wuqing Temple’s centuries of prestige to force the process, even pushing out the originally decided Yuce Temple, to secure that position.

To be honest, in Shen Jizhou’s view, his daughter’s title was somewhat undeserved.

And if Shen Jizhou thought that, others certainly thought so in private!

Though, pressured by Wuqing Temple’s influence, the sects beyond the Great Wall dared not openly criticize.

But that didn’t stop private whispers.

And what does a near-autocratic move fear most?

It fears private murmurs and people poking at your ribs in secret.

It fears that Wuqing Temple might be the only power in the borderlands, ruling unchecked, otherwise...

Shen Jizhou would not mind reviving the literary persecution used to purge the Qing demon elements.

Dare to speak?

Lock them up!

But Wuqing Temple could not go that far, so Shen Jizhou was truly afraid!

When Lu Yuan suddenly stood and declared a "Questioning Heaven Challenge," Shen Jizhou’s heart skipped a beat.

At that time Shen Jizhou thought Lu Yuan would attack his daughter!

If Lu Yuan really did that...

it would be a laughingstock...

Questions of "Questioning Heaven" hadn’t appeared for centuries.

If it happened this year, the Celestial Master title Shen Jizhou had just put his daughter into could be contested the same day!

If his daughter won, fine.

If she lost...

That would be the biggest joke for Wuqing Temple in a hundred years.

But now...

Lu Yuan’s words, in front of the entire Daoist community beyond the Great Wall, had publicly vindicated Shen Shulan!

He pulled her out from the swamp of being a "connected case" and raised her high!

He made her the most legitimately qualified and unassailable Celestial Master of this session!

That shut the mouths of everyone beyond the Great Wall!

Naturally, Shen Jizhou was not angry at Lu Yuan’s sarcastic claim that he was unfit for this year’s Celestial Master.

Instead he was pleased!

As for why Lu Yuan said it...

what his purpose was...

To be frank, Shen Jizhou was a bit puzzled and couldn’t figure out what Lu Yuan intended.

Could it be...

the boy was trying to curry favor with him?

Hoping that by doing this, he might get him to throw the match?

No...

Shen Jizhou felt that was unlikely.

If Lu Yuan truly planned that, he would at least have discussed it with Shen Jizhou first, right?

He would have given him a heads-up, not suddenly pull such a stunt.

Besides...

Shen Jizhou had little contact with Lu Yuan—apart from the few hours when Lu Yuan came to deliver the Magic Sword.

Still, Shen Jizhou thought Lu Yuan’s temperament resembled his master Li Xiuye’s...

And judging by Li Xiuye’s temper, he definitely wouldn’t be trying to ingratiate himself...

But those words earlier...

for a moment, Shen Jizhou was completely baffled.

What on earth did this brat want to do?!

Could it really be...

for the sake of that ridiculous fairness?

He could not understand, nor see through this young man.

Lu Yuan no longer focused on Shen Jizhou’s reaction.

His gaze swept like a sharp ruler across the seven figures on the platform.

He Cheng of Beidou Temple, He Xun of Tianlong Temple, Shen Jizhou of Wuqing Temple... three names were settled.

The fourth...

His eyes passed Qingfeng Temple and finally rested on the head of Nanlin Temple, He Zhu.

He Zhu had already been Lu Yuan’s predetermined choice.

But...

Just as Lu Yuan was about to speak his pick...

a voice, unhurried yet cutting through the dead silence, clearly reached everyone’s ears.

"Since you’ve chosen two of the Upper Three Gates — Wuqing Temple and Tianlong Temple — you have no reason to leave Riyue Temple out, do you?"

"How about..."

"Make your last opponent me, Riyue Temple!"

The voice came from the high platform.

An old Daoist in a black-and-white Taiji robe peered calmly down at Lu Yuan.

This was He Ming, head of Riyue Temple.

Lu Yuan’s pupils contracted slightly; he remembered this man.

It was He Ming who had once, by himself, forcibly interrupted the cataclysmic duel between He Xun and He Zhen.

His true power was unfathomable; he stood on the same level as He Xun, a genuine top-tier Grand Celestial Master!

Perhaps in the borderlands, he was second only to Shen Jizhou!

Now He Ming suddenly jumped in...

Lu Yuan had not yet spoken when He Xun, who had just come to his senses, was about to turn and scold He Ming for settling old scores,

claiming it was revenge for something He Ming said during his duel with He Zhen last time!

That this was to get back at Lu Yuan, to get back at He Xun himself, to get back at Li Xiuye’s disciple.

But...

The usually hot-tempered, foul-mouthed He Xun found no words coming out.

In the end his anger dissolved into a long, bitter sigh.

What was the point of cursing?

What good would it do?

How could anyone expect Lu Yuan to win against Shen Jizhou?!

What had already been made clear moments ago was decisive.

When Lu Yuan shouted "Shen Jizhou," the outcome of this "Questioning Heaven Challenge" seemed already written.

Before Shen Jizhou, Lu Yuan, a one-star Celestial Master, could not possibly succeed no matter what schemes or preparations he had!!

One could even say...

even if Lu Yuan played all his cards from the start, even if Shen Jizhou underestimated him.

Even if every calculation and fortune sided with Lu Yuan, he still would not win!!

The chasm between a one-star Celestial Master and a Grand Celestial Master could never be bridged.

And besides...

Shen Jizhou is no ordinary Grand Celestial Master!

He is the highest mountain in the borderlands’ Dao world!

A one-star Celestial Master challenging him?

It’s like a firefly trying to compete with the bright moon.

Impossible!

Lu Yuan could not possibly defeat Shen Jizhou!

If he cannot win against Shen Jizhou, what was the point of anything afterward?

He Xun grew weary and fell silent...

At that moment, Lu Yuan raised his head and looked at the high platform, meeting He Ming’s eyes.

Lu Yuan regarded He Ming intently, as if searching for something in those eyes.

He Ming kept his head bowed, silently looking down at Lu Yuan, his face expressionless.

After a moment, Lu Yuan averted his gaze from He Ming and turned to the red-robed elder presiding over the ceremony, his voice echoing across the square.

"The fourth, I choose Riyue Temple, He Ming!"

Before the words finished, Lu Yuan took a deep breath, as if trying to inhale the storms of heaven and earth into his chest.

Then Lu Yuan suddenly lifted his hand and pointed up toward the highest figure, making a thunderous proclamation!

"Now, prepare to begin!"

"My first opponent."

"Shen Jizhou!!"