Chapter 62: The Prodigy Ranking?
After a short while, from Hundred Flower Valley, Beast Taming Peak, two long rainbows flew out, both emanating Golden Core Stage fluctuations, swiftly landing outside the mountain gate of Hundred Flower Valley, with a look of surprise.
"Lin Jing, how come you've returned?"
The visitors were none other than Elder Yu, who loved mechanical technique, and Elder Mo, who had guided Lin Jing into the sect.
"Could it be that you got expelled?" Elder Mo stepped forward, surprised, then felt a heaviness in his heart.
"Impossible." Lin Jing twitched the corner of his mouth.
"That's good to hear." Elder Yu nodded.
"Elder Yu? Elder Mo?" The female disciple guarding the mountain gate of Hundred Flower Valley clearly recognized these two elders from the Beast Taming Sect. Seeing a mere Qi Cultivation disciple like Lin Jing able to command the personal greeting of two Golden Core Elders, she was immediately incredulous.
Even true disciples probably wouldn't receive this kind of treatment.
She realized she had underestimated this person's status within the Beast Taming Sect.
Could he possibly be... the sect leader's illegitimate child?
"Thank you for your hard work, Lin Jing is indeed a disciple of our Beast Taming Sect. We will take him back to Beast Taming Peak," Elder Yu said to the Hundred Flower Valley disciple.
After the Beast Taming Sect allied with Hundred Flower Valley, Hundred Flower Valley had allocated a mountain peak used previously for silkworm breeding, situated above a spirit vein, for the Beast Taming Sect's use.
"No need for formalities, Elder..." Just then, everyone suddenly looked up towards the sky and saw a spiritual beast resembling a carrier pigeon, dragging a storage pouch, flying towards the mountain gate of Hundred Flower Valley.
"Celestial Secret Dove!"
Upon seeing this dove, the Hundred Flower Valley female disciple immediately stepped forward. In the next moment, the gray dove took out a box of newspapers from the storage pouch and handed it to her before flying off.
"What a coincidence, is this the latest issue of the World Daily? Senior Sister, could I have a copy?" Lin Jing asked, surprised.
"Hmm? That's not a problem." The female disciple nodded, reluctantly took out a newspaper, and handed it to Lin Jing.
In the next moment, Lin Jing stored away the newspaper and returned to Beast Taming Peak with Elder Yu and the others.
Not long after, the female disciple Blue Butterfly who had gone to report also came out, panting, "Who exactly is this Lin Jing that upon hearing his name, Elder Yu from the Beast Taming Sect urgently sends word for other elders to come and greet him."
The female disciple Yellow Butterfly shook her head, "I don't know. He even took a copy of our newspaper. Truly annoying. With the two elders here, I wasn't in a position to refuse, and each copy costs a few spirit stones. Beast Taming Sect disciples really know how to take advantage!"
"Ha?" Blue Butterfly looked at the box full of newspapers and said, "The World Daily has arrived. You better take it to the sect quickly."
Saying so, she picked up a newspaper to read. The initial headlines were events happening far away, more like entertainment, but as she turned the page, her pupils instantly contracted.
"I think I know why there are two elders coming together to welcome him."
"But how is that possible..."
...
"Lin Jing, quickly tell us, why have you suddenly returned?"
The ancient realm lies at the center of the Ancient Country, while the desolation realm is at the frontier, separated by a vast distance. Even Golden Core Stage cultivators would need to fly for years to cross it. The two elders couldn't believe Lin Jing returned just because he missed the Beast Taming Sect.
In the grand hall, Lin Jing looked at the two elders and smiled, "Elder Shen Song wants to take me to a special cultivation site. Passing through the ancient realm, I decided to stop by."
"By the way, Elder Mo, where has Elder Black Bear gone? Why haven't I seen him?" Lin Jing missed Elder Black Bear quite a bit. The demon beasts randomly captured for testing medicine at the academy were too fragile.
"He went home to visit his Nascent Soul mother," Elder Mo waved his hand and said.
"Alright then..." Lin Jing fell silent. Elder Black Bear's mother is a Nascent Soul Demon King as well, and a wild one at that... The Demon King network behind the Beast Taming Sect might be deeper than he imagined.
"You're doing okay at the academy?" The two elders casually inquired, without expecting Lin Jing to make significant progress within three to five years. Longevity Body, this physique, hardly breaks through normally without decades or even hundreds of years of cultivation.
Lin Jing was still at Qi Cultivation, which met their expectations.
However, Lin Jing possessed a Treasure Beast, rarer than a Divine Body, as an assistant, and Elder Shen Song protected him, so Elder Mo wasn't particularly worried about Lin Jing being bullied.
Soon, the topic shifted to the current situation of the Beast Taming Sect.
"The sect leader, Elder Li, and Ouyang Hao along with a batch of disciples have gone to Qingzhou."
"Elder Yu and most of the ordinary disciples are temporarily residing at the Hundred Flower Valley land for adjustment."
"As for the Demon King Ancestors, initially they led the true inheritors to the empty realm for training. However, recently, they have all returned to the desolation realm, residing within Hundred Flower Valley."
"Speak of it, their choice to go to the empty realm for training was related to the information you brought back from the Demon Suppressing Tower," Elder Mo remarked.
"The treasure of the Undying Profound Serpent?" Lin Jing hadn't expected Elder Mo to refer to it before he brought it up.
"Indeed, the treasure of the Undying Profound Serpent caused countless sects of the Great Wilderness to vie for it during the past. Now that the Beast Taming Sect has obtained the location first, of course, they must explore it."
"Did they successfully acquire it? Is the news true?" Lin Jing asked.
"True." Elder Mo replied, "The treasure entrance was guarded by an ancient prohibition array from thousands of years ago, near unsolvable, only openable by the individual themselves."
"But surprisingly, this prohibition considered unsolvable thousands of years ago, had its solution discovered by the 'Qingzhou Grand Thief Sect' twelve hundred years ago and is now widely spread in the cultivation realm."
He laughed heartily and said, "The Demon King Ancestors did not expect the treasure to be acquired so easily."
"If not for the Demon Suppressing Tower now guarded by the Demon Extermination Bureau, they surely would want to mock the Undying Demon for a bit."
Lin Jing was stunned. The Undying Demon claimed the treasure entrance could only be opened by it. Lin Jing didn't believe these absolute words, yet he didn't expect the treasure wouldn't cause even the slightest difficulty for the Beast Taming Sect...
It makes sense. This serpent, having been sealed for thousands of years, its mind deteriorated, mistook him for a Buddhist master, completely forgetting that prohibitions regarded as unsolvable thousands of years ago might be outdated today...
"Then Elder Mo, what's inside the treasure?"
"I don't know," Elder Mo shook his head. "The treasure was obtained by the Demon King Ancestors. We elders aren't aware of its exact contents, only that there are some top-grade spirit plant seeds that need the spirit vein of the Hundred Flower Valley to be planted. For this reason, the Demon King Ancestors have negotiated with the Valley Master of Hundred Flower Valley."
Lin Jing nodded with a smile, "Shouldn't these spirit seeds also include a share for the disciples?"
"Uh." Elder Mo said, "Information was obtained by you, theoretically, this should be so, but I don't know what the Demon King Ancestors would think."
"Currently, the overall strategy of the Beast Taming Sect is to allocate all resources towards enhancing the sect's fortune, nurturing the true inheritor, aiming to at least groom a disciple capable of entering the Tianjiao list to uplift the sect's fortune."
"The Tianjiao list? This one?" Lin Jing glanced at the newspaper he had just taken, handed it to Elder Mo. Elder Mo and Elder Yu were stunned, then scanned it with their divine sense.
Tianjiao List Thirty-two, Lin Jing.
Cultivation Level: Qi Cultivation Level Eleven.
Age: 27.
Affiliated Sect: Beast Taming Sect.
Introduction: Beast Taming Sect disciple and Hidden Dragon Academy student who entered the Immortal Palace Grotto Heaven twice, overcame extreme limits alongside pet beasts, suppressed and subdued the ten terrors of the Cloud Sea, defeated Tianjiao List ninety-eight Chu Ren, sixty-six Tang Yun... able to easily overcome Foundation Establishment Peak.
Both of them: ??