Capítulo 30: Chapter 26 Beginning of the Immortal Path
The next morning, Wei Yuan had already washed up early and headed to the square at the Mountain Gate.
The Immortal Boat of Taichu Palace was parked right in the center of the square, twenty zhang long, and colored in light cyan with a few folded masts on the sides. This Immortal Boat would take all the new disciples to the Mountain Gate together.
Wei Yuan followed Zhang Sheng onto the Immortal Boat. The boat had three layers: the lower layer for carrying goods and luggage, the middle layer for the servants, and the upper layer, where six tables were arranged.
Zhang Sheng randomly picked a spot and sat down in the upper layer. Soon, Sun Yu and Daoist Fu Feng also boarded the Immortal Boat and sat at Wei Yuan's table.
As departure time was nearing, people began boarding the boat in succession. The first to come aboard were two young boys, each accompanied by their elders, occupying separate tables while several attendants went to the layer below. Wei Yuan vaguely remembered these young boys who were standing next to Li Zhi and Bao Yun respectively.
The group that boarded afterward was dressed strikingly, extremely ornate and revealing plenty of skin. Their skin was dark, and they had large patches of scales around their necks and wrists. The common feature was their pair of amber eyes. Among them was a young boy from the East Sea Yan Family who initially came on a Nine-colored Deer.
The people from the Yan Family chose the last seats in the back, the only ones without a window. The normally ostentatious Yan Family being so low-key was somewhat surprising to Zhang Sheng.
Then, two groups came aboard, each surrounding a boy and a girl. Seeing these two, Wei Yuan's heart skipped a beat. He slowly turned his head and looked out the window, taking in the scenery.
Wei Yuan recognized both the boy and the girl. The girl was Bao Yun, and the boy was Xiao Yu, who had struck Wei Yuan with hundreds of swords, nearly injuring him.
During the martial test, Wei Yuan had the Heaven and Earth Madman spirit within him, possessing an inherent dominance that overlooked worldly trivialities. Now back to his normal self, Wei Yuan felt his previous attacks were unduly fierce, especially the extra strike he gave Bao Yun, which, in retrospect, he found quite embarassing.
By now, all six tables on the upper layer were occupied, and everyone had arrived. Screens suddenly rose from the floor, partitioning the cabin into six separate compartments. The screens also shone with a faint light, not only blocking sound but also preventing the penetration of Divine Sense.
Only when the screens had risen did Zhang Sheng ask, "Why are they taking six people this year? I thought at most it would be four."
Sun Yu replied, "This time, the recruitment of disciples is somewhat complicated..."
Glancing at Daoist Fu Feng, Sun Yu continued, "Here's what happened, originally the East Sea Yan Family exerted great efforts and made significant sacrifices, asking Brother Fu Feng to ensure a third-place spot. Brother Fu Feng did his best, and after the Dao Test and Literary Test, the Yan Family's son indeed ranked third. However, in the martial test, Yuan'er swept through everything, indisputably taking first place, which wasn't planned and pushed the Yan boy out."
Zhang Sheng, puzzled, asked, "Then why is he still on the boat?"
"Both the East Sea Yan Family and the originally fourth-ranked Lu Family from Xuzhou were unwilling to accept this. After the exam, each sought their own ways and managed to secure an extra slot, so this time the Examinational Palace gave out a total of five slots. But last night, another change occurred. The Bao Family's young miss was originally going to the Great Treasure Flower Pure Land, where a Dharma Image was ready for her to inherit. For some reason, she suddenly came to Taichu Palace, thus pushing out the East Sea Yan Family again."
Hearing this, Wei Yuan was puzzled, because according to the order, it should have been the Lu Family who got pushed out, and Zhang Sheng also raised this question.
Sun Yu further explained, "This time, the scale of the unified test was five points, and the Yan boy only scored two points higher than the Lu Family's Young Master. However, the effort the Lu Family put in to get that slot far exceeded that of the Yan Family, so it was still the Yan Family who got pushed out. As for why the Yan Family boy is still on this boat, that's because they made another move, but the palace really couldn't issue a sixth slot, so it turned out like this: Yan Ming actually entered the lower Grotto Heaven, but he's here in Taichu Palace to audit and learn."
Zhang Sheng was shocked, "Is that even possible?"
Lowering his voice, Sun Yu said, "I heard that from now on, the Yan Family will make hefty contributions to the palace every year."
"This, this... This is preposterous! Doesn't that mean you can get in if you have money?"
Sun Yu said meaningfully, "Not just money, but a lot of money."
Zhang Sheng fell silent for a moment.
The hour had arrived. The Immortal Boat gave a gentle shudder and began to ascend slowly. The square and Mountain Gate below swiftly shrank in size, and then the boat passed through an invisible boundary. The scenery below changed abruptly, the green trees of the Immortal Mountain vanished, leaving only a small green hill embedded in the endless yellow earth.
The Immortal Boat continued upward until it pierced the clouds and floated above the sea of clouds. Only then did it unfurl the masts on either side, raising sails that resembled fish fins.
The sunlight poured down, turning the entire sea of clouds into gold. As the Immortal Boat moved, the clouds parted to either side, as if it were slicing through a golden ocean, an indescribably magnificent sight.
The speed of the Immortal Boat gradually increased, rising further, breaking free from the golden sea of clouds. The scenery outside the window began to blur, the sea of clouds transforming into strands of golden threads. At such high speeds, the Immortal Boat was extremely stable; if one did not look outside, one would not feel any movement at all.
For Wei Yuan, who saw this scene from the Immortal's realm for the first time, it was indeed shocking, and he kept his gaze out the window.
Sunset, sunrise.
A day later, an Immortal Mountain suddenly appeared amid the sea of clouds ahead. From afar, it seemed but a steep peak, but as they drew closer, the peak transformed abruptly, revealing a towering Immortal Gate.
As the Immortal Boat passed through the gate, they instantly found themselves in a completely different world.
The Immortal Boat landed on a round square. The square, paved with white jade, led to a cobblestone path that reached toward a distant group of majestic palaces. On either side of the path lay gentle grasslands, the green grass like a carpet, extending far into the distance, sparsely dotted with wildflowers of various colors.
The majority of the White Jade Square was suspended in mid-air; looking down from the edge, there was only the vast sea of clouds with no visible bottom. This plaza, hundreds of feet across, appeared as a gigantic jade disc, perched on the side of a mountain without any visible support.
Gazing across the square toward the palace complex, beyond the undulating terrain, several lush mountains pierce the heavens. Waterfalls and pine forests intermingled with pavilions and terraces that occasionally appeared and disappeared. Further away, some peaks even floated above the sea of clouds.
From time to time, gigantic divine beasts and birds, whose names remained unknown, burst from the sea of clouds; some headed towards a particular mountain, others flew straight up, disappearing into the far reaches of the sky.
Wei Yuan stepped out of the cabin onto the deck and looked far into the distance. The scenery before his eyes was something he had never dreamed of. Even the most ordinary grassland appeared like a soft, bright, thick carpet, extending out for hundreds of miles. Even the small flowers dotted among the grass, upon closer inspection, were extraordinary, each one unique, continually exhaling misty vapors.
As a farmer's son, Wei Yuan recognized at a glance that this grassland was the finest farmland he had ever seen; if one were to grow grain here, surely each acre would yield a thousand catties? But having seen the magnificent realm of the Immortals, Wei Yuan felt perhaps he was too inexperienced, as by the means of the Immortal, yielding twelves hundred catties per acre might also be possible.
Following the grassland further with his eyes, the more Wei Yuan gazed, the more vital and lively he felt just by looking. But as his vision almost reached the edge of the grassland, he suddenly felt a darkness before his eyes and nearly collapsed.
Zhang Sheng placed a hand on his back, and immediately Wei Yuan felt revitalized; the emptiness and fatigue instantly disappeared.
Zhang Sheng said, "Don't look so far before you have cultivated any Dao Power. Right now, you're using up your Primordial Spirit."
Sun Yu, his eyes aglow, said, "To be able to deplete one's Primordial Spirit in one go, I'm somewhat envious of this disciple of yours."
Zhang Sheng paid no attention to Sun Yu and, pointing ahead, said to Wei Yuan, "This is the Chu Palace's Xuanqing, one of the three great Mountain Gates. How do you feel about it?"
Wei Yuan looked at the White Jade Square, merely a place for the Immortal Boat to land, at the smooth-as-mirror cobblestone path, at the towering distant palaces, at the truly majestic scene of the jade-green peaks, yet his gaze eventually returned to that jade-like grassland.
Suddenly, he said, "If the Immortal Path is so divine and wondrous, why are there still so many people starving to death in the mortal world?"\
Sun Yu and Zhang Sheng both were startled.
Suddenly, a robust voice from behind them said, "Well asked!"
Regalos
-- Regalo
recibido Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder