Chapter 161: 【Finger to Steel, Never Ascend】(Second update, seeking votes)

"The Eldest Miss has arrived, clear the way, everyone!"

On the main street outside the auction venue of the Tianbao Pavilion in Hai-shen City, two squads of immortal sect cultivators forcefully cleared a path through the crowd, allowing a woman surrounded by many attendants to walk through.

Someone in the crowd said with dissatisfaction:

"Who are they? So overbearing!"

A friend nearby hurriedly covered his mouth and whispered a reprimand:

"Do you have a death wish! Didn't you see the token at that woman's waist? It has the character 'Lu' written on it!"

That person's pupils instantly dilated, and he looked left and right, seemingly afraid that someone had noticed what he had just said.

Seeing that he had stopped talking, the friend let go.

This person then said tearfully:

"Oh my! A noble daughter of the Lu Clan Immortal Clan has arrived; why wasn't the street cleared three days in advance? If I hadn't held back and rushed up just now, wouldn't I have just thrown my life away?"

Now he no longer felt the other party was overbearing; he only felt that the City Lord of this Xiancheng was incompetent for not giving a warning.

In this Lianze Yu, even a servant within an Immortal Clan is not someone they can afford to offend.

"The Lu Clan Immortal Clan has very strict family discipline, so it's impossible for them to clear the streets in advance. This method of forcibly opening a path just now was likely the City Lord of Hai-shen City acting on his own initiative. I heard the City Lord has a son who is pursuing a noble daughter of the Lu Clan; it's very likely this is her."

When the friend mentioned the words "Lu Clan Immortal Clan," his face was full of longing.

"Sigh, in this Donghua Zhenzhou, who doesn't know that marrying a noble daughter of the Lu Clan means reaching the pinnacle, giving one's lifelong cultivation a goal. But such good fortune doesn't fall to people with poor aptitude like us.

Let's go, let's go, lest those noble young masters start fighting out of jealousy over the Lu Clan woman and end up implicating us small fry."

The crowd dispersed, but many people were still talking.

Because there has been too much news about the Lu Clan Immortal Clan over these years.

The most recent major event, which also made the Lu Clan Immortal Clan's prestige unmatched, was the escape of the exotic beast from the Wanling Immortal Sect thirty years ago.

Within the Wanling Immortal Sect, there was a powerful exotic beast known as the 'Canchan Laozu.' Its characteristics were that it was incomparably hard, massive in size, and skilled at tunneling. It was originally at the level of a Second Tribulation Heavenly Monarch, with a body size reaching two hundred zhang.

This fellow had been kept in the Wanling Immortal Sect for over seven thousand years and had always been very docile.

Until that day thirty years ago, when it suddenly evolved.

It stepped into the Land Immortal Realm in one fell swoop.

Exotic beasts, even if they become immortals, do not have much intelligence, and what was even more terrifying was that it had gone mad.

After escaping the Wanling Immortal Sect, it injured people multiple times. It was chased to the edge of the Lianze Yu territory, and before it could even enter the Lianze Yu, it was intercepted.

The Lu Clan Immortal Clan's Land Immortal, Lu Runping, simply raised his hand, and the entire earth turned into a giant metal block, and that exotic beast at the Land Immortal Realm, Canchan Laozu, was sealed inside the metal block.

It is said that when Lingdong Xianren, who had been chasing it the whole way, saw this scene, he was completely stunned.

Raising a hand to instantly turn the earth for a hundred li around and three thousand zhang deep into a large block of metal—such a great means was truly too terrifying.

This kind of means completely countered the art of tunneling. If one were chased by someone who mastered this, and one still used the art of tunneling, then once one tunneled in, one would never be able to come out.

Even an exotic beast as strong as the Land Immortal Realm, once sealed inside, could not even move.

This was the new Supernatural Power 【Finger to Steel】 that Lu Runping obtained in the year 1140 of the Supernatural Power Era, specifically designed to break spells like the art of tunneling, while also having the ability to transmute matter.

Used in conjunction with the 【Parting Rivers to Create Land】 Supernatural Power, it could exert powerful combat strength even when fighting in water.

After using the 【Finger to Steel】 Supernatural Power to seal Canchan Laozu, Lu Runping used another Supernatural Power, 【Five Elements Great Escape】, using the Metal Escape technique to walk into the metal block and drag the entire body of Canchan Laozu to move within the metal.

Finally, he pulled its head out, exposing it to the air, while its body remained sealed by the large metal block.

Seeing this scene, Lingdong Xianren was even more dumbfounded.

Good heavens!

What kind of means was this, to be able to walk so freely within metal? In Lingdong Xianren's understanding, no known Metal Escape technique was this miraculous.

The key was that the other party was also dragging a several-hundred-zhang exotic beast along; that was no different from lifting a mountain and traveling through another mountain of metal ore.

Even for a Land Immortal, this shouldn't be possible!

After Canchan Laozu went mad and escaped, Lingdong Xianren had sent messages to the immortals of various sects, asking everyone to pay attention and help intercept it.

Lu Runping had also arrived after receiving the message.

He was very interested in the fact that an exotic beast had suddenly stepped into the Land Immortal Realm and had gone mad.

He even used the 【Round Light Manifestation】 Supernatural Power to investigate and discovered that at the time, this exotic beast Canchan Laozu had been infected by a powerful aura, which was why it had become like this.

He and Lingdong Xianren tried many methods but could not cure it, so in the end, they killed it.

Although the Wanling Immortal Sect advocated living in peace with demonic beasts, an exotic beast that had lost its reason had already become an evil thing and a demonic thing, and it should be killed.

This exotic beast contained a certain evil aura; in the end, the two did not even want the flesh and blood of the exotic beast and directly burned it to ashes with True Fire.

The great fire burned for twenty-one days before this exotic beast at the Land Immortal Realm was completely destroyed.

Only people at Lu Runping's level knew some of the unusual aspects and inside information of this matter; others only knew a little.

That was that Lu Runping pointed a finger, and a hundred li of fertile soil turned into refined steel, sealing the exotic beast and killing it in one move!

Land Immortals are not uncommon in the Zhongzhou Shisan Yu; after all, among the nineteen top immortal sects, except for the Five Sacred Mountains Immortal Sect, every sect has one.

Moreover, this matter is very legendary.

Because Lu Runping also deliberately let people spread the news that before he achieved the Land Immortal Realm, he had met a person named Xuanjizi, who allowed him to master this means, saying it would be useful later.

Even the current inheritance means of the Lu Family were given by Xuanjizi, who said the Lu Family should have this inheritance.

At the same time, over at the Tianyu Immortal Sect, Lu Runping, borrowing the identity of Lv Gong, also spoke of some news regarding Xuanjizi.

The newly appointed Shang Yi Immortal of the Qingyang Immortal Sect also released information about the origin between Yangming Immortal and Xuanjizi back then, and Yuding Immortal and Mingtuo Immortal even came out to testify.

This directly confirmed the existence of the mysterious figure Xuanjizi, and it even created a legend of destiny.

In the legend, the person sought out by Xuanjizi is the one who carries destiny; generations of Xuanjizi appear carrying destiny to help the Heaven-Chosen Person grow and overcome tribulations, and also to help all living beings overcome tribulations.

Various rumors made everyone very obsessed.

Now, rogue cultivators spend their days daydreaming about two things: first, being favored by a bloodline cultivator of the Lu Clan Immortal Clan and marrying into a wealthy family; second, being visited by Xuanjizi and becoming a person of destiny.

Even quite a few cultivators with holes in their brains were truly deceived by a group of cultivators who claimed to be Xuanjizi.

Lu Runping creating this identity was naturally to lay the groundwork for his future arrangements.

He wanted to send a group of people to ascend.

To ascend to the Upper Realm carrying Dao Fruit, thereby expanding the chances of obtaining True Immortal Realm Dao Fruit.

He also wanted to send some members of the Lu Family to ascend to the Upper Realm, but they would still need a long time to grow, and their purpose in going up would be to pioneer, not to commit suicide to store True Immortal Realm Dao Fruit for the family.

Of course, doing this actually carried a certain degree of danger, as it was unclear what the so-called Upper Realm was actually like.

Among the various Immortal Sects, no immortals who had ascended had ever contacted the Lower Realm.

The reason was unknown; it might simply be that there was no way to make contact.

But the fact remained that the situation in the Upper Realm was unknown, and for Lu Runping, who carried supreme treasures, entering rashly was clearly an extremely risky affair.

After years of consideration, he had already made his decision.

Before thoroughly mastering the situation of the Upper Realm, he would absolutely not ascend!

Before the Treasure Mirror advanced to the True Immortal Realm, he would absolutely not ascend!

Before his avatar ascended first to scout the path, he would absolutely not ascend!

Everything was for the sake of caution.

With the Treasure Mirror in hand, even if he never ascended, his own insights into the Dao could still continue to improve; one day, he might be able to directly attain immortality, and ascending would no longer be a necessary matter.

More than thirty years ago, the Wanling Immortal Sect's exotic beast Canchan Laozu being infected by evil aura and going mad was not an isolated case; since then, evil creatures had emerged everywhere, including both demonic beasts and cultivators.

According to Lu Runping's investigation, they were all suddenly infected by a strand of evil aura.

This gave him a premonition that some kind of turmoil might be about to occur.

Therefore, laying out plans at this time and beginning to sow the Dao in various Immortal Sects was a very necessary thing.

Besides the Immortal Sects, some powerful demonic beast clans that possessed Demon Immortal inheritances could also be included in his plans.

Only by casting a wide net could one possibly increase the probability of catching a big fish.

After these years of paving the way, the timing had already matured.

This year is the year 1433 of the Supernatural Power Era, and he would start first with the Wuyue Immortal Sect.

The Wuyue Immortal Sect is the only one among the current eighteen top Immortal Sects and top Immortal Clans that lacks a Terrestrial Immortal.

Back when dealing with the Southern Barbarian Demon Venerable, the Wuyue Immortal Sect's Longding Immortal and the Luoyun Immortal Sect's Caixia Fairy sacrificed themselves; later, the Luoyun Immortal Sect produced Miaoyun Fairy, a Land Immortal, but the Wuyue Immortal Sect had never had a successor.

After observing, Lu Runping chose a Second Tribulation Heavenly Monarch who went by the name "Kunshan Daoren" from among the four Second Tribulation Heavenly Monarchs of the Wuyue Immortal Sect.

Kunshan Daoren, whose secular name is Liao Zekun, is currently 4,728 years old; at the level of a Second Tribulation Heavenly Monarch, he is not considered young, but he is definitely not old either.

He is in the prime of his life.

The Wuyue Immortal Sect consists of a group of power-type cultivators who cultivate both body and technique; logically speaking, they should have an advantage in undergoing tribulations.

Yet in reality, the unique nature of their cultivation method leads to their Primordial Spirit cultivation being weaker compared to other cultivators of the same rank.

The Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation is most targeted at the Primordial Spirit; unless their physical bodies are strong enough to withstand all the tribulation lightning, this Heavenly Tribulation could absolutely cost them their lives.

Therefore, it is not easy for them to succeed in their tribulations.

And Lu Runping was here to help Kunshan Daoren solve this problem.

"Xuanjizi is here to visit; I request an audience with Kunshan Daoren."