Forging Immortality through the Dao Seed

"Huang Liang Talisman!"

As if on cue, gazes swiftly converged on the crumpled talisman held in the hands of the woman in the yellow dress, and their faces soon revealed a hint of realization and disdain.

The reason was simple, they couldn't feel even the slightest fluctuation of mana from the talisman.

Thus, the notion of dispelling disasters was clearly absurd.

So...

For a moment, including the yellow-dressed woman and the young man who had spoken earlier, everyone's attention turned to the old man who had closed his eyes as if dozing off, and the atmosphere suddenly became silent.

After a few breaths.

"Old sir," the yellow-dressed woman named Cai Zhi wrinkled her delicate nose, asking with a hint of disbelief, "Do you mean that I should activate this Huang... Huang Liang Talisman at midnight?"

The old man nodded.

"But, but this is clearly just ordinary yellow paper."

At this point, Yan Caizhi couldn't help but show a look of grievance on her pretty face, and she bluntly asked, "Are you deceiving me?"

There was a steely resolve in her timid voice.

Yan Caizhi had been cultivating from a young age; she wasn't a fool and naturally recognized that what she held in her hand was nothing more than yellow paper used by mortals.

It was precisely for this reason that she became convinced that the old man before her was clearly fooling her. As for the great disaster he had mentioned, it clearly just a coincidental encounter.

With this thought.

Yan Caizhi felt her cheeks burning, and a sense of embarrassment mixed with anger rose within her.

Across from her.

The old man seemed to be asleep, unresponsive to the calls of the people around, as if nothing could wake him.

Seeing this, she clenched and then unclenched her fists, her fists again tightening while a thread of icy mana wandered around her fingertips, emitting waves of dangerous aura.

However, the next moment.

"Cai Zhi, this is Ling Shu Immortal City!"

The very same young man who had spoken at the beginning had somehow silently moved next to Yan Caizhi, grabbing her wrist and gave her a gentle shake of his head as a reminder.

Yet, as he spoke, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.

He was glad he hadn't acted impulsively.

Huu huu——

At his words, Yan Caizhi couldn't help but glare fiercely at the old man before her, her burgeoning chest heaving with intense emotion, but the mana that had been surging at her fingertips began to dissipate gradually.

Time slowly passed.

Including the woman in the yellow dress, the group that had been surrounding the old man turned and left, their figures becoming distant.

The old man, whose eyes had been tightly shut, suddenly opened them, his gaze flashing with a hint of expectation.

"Tch, the first person of destiny has finally been found, it is time to test the results of Huang Liang's work," he murmured in a voice only he could hear.

And as he spoke.

The old man's form slowly faded away while his whole person began to grow younger at breakneck speed. In just a moment, he transformed from a decrepit old man to a graceful young man.

He was none other than Zhang Jing's causal body!

Even more bizarre was that this spectacle went unnoticed by any of the passers-by.

...

...

That night.

The Yan Residence was brightly lit.

Many servants scurried back and forth between the courtyards, and some powerful cultivators concealed in dark corners, their divine sense sweeping in every direction, supervising every little sound and movement within the residence.

In a certain back hall.

A middle-aged couple sat facing each other, silent, creating a somewhat serious atmosphere.

The man, slightly corpulent, had the most striking feature – a pair of mustaches on his lip.

The woman, her entire being exuding a noble air, had her brows tightly furrowed, giving off an aura of quiet authority.

After some time had passed.

"Sigh," the mustached man suddenly let out a sigh and then cautiously looked at the woman opposite him, gingerly asking, "Regarding the issue raised by the Family Head today, may I ask what are Madam's thoughts?"

He stopped short of continuing.

Hearing the sound.

As if having made a certain decision, the middle-aged woman took a deep breath, her furrowed brow slowly smoothing out, "Has the situation become so dire, husband? Let Zhi'er set off for my Lu family first thing tomorrow morning to take shelter for a while."

"That would be very good, I will arrange for you and Zhi'er to leave the city tomorrow."

The man with the beard smiled and said.

However, no sooner had his voice faded than the woman emphatically stressed, "Zhi'er may leave, but I will not."

Upon hearing this, the man's expression froze, and then he began to plead with earnest compassion, "My lady, please do not be obstinate. You should take Zhi'er back to the Lu family first. Once things are settled here, I will personally come to bring you and Zhi'er back."

"If you could handle this matter, why would we ever need to leave Ling Shu Immortal City?" The middle-aged woman smiled, her face easing with relief, "Husband, do not forget the vows we made at the beginning."

"My lady."

"Husband."

Just at that moment, a voice from outside the door suddenly broke the atmosphere within the room.

"The young miss has returned."

"Hush!"

A figure in yellow skirts tiptoed stealthily into the room, only to meet two scrutinizing gazes head-on.

"Hehe, dad, mom, you haven't gone to rest yet?"

Yan Caizhi forced a smile onto her pretty face and let out a naive laugh, as a bead of sweat quietly formed on her smooth forehead.

Thump! Thump!

Her heart beat faster and faster, and the hand clutching the Huang Liang Talisman in her sleeve involuntarily tightened its grip.

Please do not ask about today, please do not ask about today... Otherwise, if her parents were to find out that she had been tricked into giving away ten thousand units of luck movement, she didn't know how they would scold her.

Yan Caizhi prayed silently in her heart.

"Zhi'er, you've come at the right time. There is something I wanted to ask you," Yan's mother said out of the blue.

"It's over!"

Yan Caizhi cried out in her heart, but she tried to maintain a calm facade: "Mother, please go ahead and ask."

In the pause that followed,

she couldn't help but slowly edge towards the other side where Yan's father was standing.

However, the next words from Yan's mother made Yan Caizhi freeze on the spot.

"Would Zhi'er be willing to make a trip to the Lu family tomorrow, to send your aunt my regards? Also, to deliver something for me, make sure it gets into your uncle's hands personally."

...

...

After a while.

"The sending of an item is false, they probably want me to seek refuge with the Lu family. My parents they—"

The girl in yellow, Yan Caizhi, muttered to herself, sitting dazedly on the bed.

For some reason, she suddenly felt a deep sense of unrest, as if even her breathing became constricted.

A fear beyond description seemed to invade every corner of her body.

Her face turned ghostly pale.

Yan Caizhi couldn't fathom that things had come to this. She thought that although there was a crisis, the elders of their clan would surely be able to solve it as always.

After all, the Yan family was a formidable clan of the Immortal Way, with a legacy that had stretched over tens of thousands of years and had some depth to its foundation.

The next moment.

At the hour of Zi!

It was as if lightning had struck her mind.

A sudden clarity flashed in Yan Caizhi's dazed eyes, and then she pulled out a crumpled piece of yellow paper from her sleeve, laying it on the table and desperately trying to smooth it out.

In the process.

An invisible current of Daoist fluctuations spread from the yellow Huang Liang Talisman on the table, and Yan Caizhi quickly started to feel sleepy.

In her semi-conscious state, she felt herself arriving in a mystical domain shrouded in celestial mist.

In front of her stood a majestic archway reaching into the heavens.

"Huang Liang Village!"

Yan Caizhi looked up and couldn't help but read out the name, one word at a time.