I Have a Compass for Opportunity

Inner Sect.

Liou Yuan followed Fang Yu as they descended onto a short mountain adjacent to the main peak of the Inner Sect.

The mountain wasn’t high, its body surrounded by verdant trees.

The tree crowns simmered with misty spiritual qi under the scorching sun, the fragrance of spiritual sandalwood mingling with the sweetness of spiritual mulberry, entwining with the sandalwood scent wafting from deep within the short mountain.

As they stepped deeper into the short mountain, with the sun hanging high, they saw an ancient, classic ancestral hall standing tall.

The bright sunlight made the gold-plated signboard with the words "Inheritance Ancestral Hall" shine dazzlingly.

At the entrance of the ancestral hall, from a distance, Liou Yuan spotted a venerable elder, none other than Elder Ya Kuan of the Disciplinary Hall.

Behind the elder stood a handsome young figure, who, when catching Liou Yuan’s gaze, made playful eye gestures.

It was indeed Tuoba Xin, the immortal sapling from Five Extremes Mountain.

Had Ya Kuan not been present, this unruly youth might have already approached to greet them.

At this moment, Liou Yuan truly used his Evil Eyes to survey this immortal sapling in detail.

Within Tuoba Xin’s body, the Qi Mansion exuded a bright cyan glow, akin to a cyclone drifting from the nine heavens, captured into his body by mortals.

Centered where Tuoba Xin stood, cyan true essence sporadically drifted through the air, giving the illusion that he might ride the wind away at any moment.

The Qi Mansion’s feel surpassed even Liou Yuan’s and Liou Zhen’s.

"Third Grade!" Liou Yuan softly murmured the grade of Tuoba’s Qi Mansion.

No trace of surprise appeared in his eyes.

Tuoba Xin, with his six-star star acupoints, paired with the Sect’s highest grade-B cultivation technique inheritance, would be an anomaly not to have cultivated to a third-grade Qi Mansion.

Furthermore, Tuoba’s cultivation wasn’t at early-stage Foundation Establishment but rather mid-stage.

That’s why people said he had Golden Core potential.

With senior members of the Sect present, Liou Yuan and Tuoba Xin couldn’t engage in much conversation, just exchanged glances with mutual acknowledgment, and then, together with Fang Yu, respectfully bowed to Ya Kuan.

Liou Yuan wasn’t yet aware that Xuanyi had temporarily relieved the five elders of the Disciplinary Hall from their duties, so he greeted Ya Kuan with a warm smile.

Regardless of interacting with Inner Sect or Outer Sect disciples, Ya Kuan always wore a stern face, merely nodding in response.

Having completed his duty of guiding, Fang Yu didn’t linger long and soon left.

Liou Yuan was then guided by Ya Kuan into the ancestral hall.

Next came a series of elaborate entry ceremony procedures.

Ya Kuan first led him to a secluded room deep within the ancestral hall and stopped.

Aside from an offering table, the room had no other furnishings.

Above the table hung an elder’s portrait.

The elder wore a wide-sleeved Taoist robe, with a starry river pattern embroidered on the dark fabric, each star inlaid with slender moonstones.

In his left hand, he held a semi-transparent jade scroll, which emitted a continuously flowing aura on its surface.

His right hand was outstretched, palm upward, holding a sphere of Qi of Chaos, interwoven with blue, red, yellow, white, and black hues.

His eyebrows arched like distant mountains draped in emerald, his eyes mirrored stars in a cold pond, and his silver hair cascaded like a waterfall, with a red hairband entwining through it, blowing with the wind in the painting.

Liou Yuan only needed a glance to perceive the effortless flow between the strands of hair and the robe, even in the stillness of the image.

More astonishing was the elder’s eyes; their expression seemed to shift with the play of light. As Liou Yuan moved to the left of the painting, those deep eyes seemed to transcend time and space, meeting his gaze, lively with the essence akin to a living person, as if the elder might step out of the painting at any moment.

With utmost reverence, Ya Kuan lit three incense sticks on the offering table’s incense burner.

Then, with a gesture, he indicated to Liou Yuan: "Bow to the founding master Jing Xuzi."

Only then did Liou Yuan realize that the elder in the painting was the one who, five thousand years ago, ended the calamity of the Star Erosion in the Cyan Feather Realm by himself—Jing Xuzi.

He also left behind five inheritances, each placed atop one of the five mountains sealing the Star Erosion at Five Extremes Mountain, forming the foundation that allowed Five Extremes Mountain to stand for five thousand years in the Cyan Feather Realm.

Mention this elder, and not a single disciple throughout Five Extremes Mountain would remain unmoved.

Liou Yuan adjusted his expression to solemnity before completing the ritual of paying respects to the elder’s painting.

Then Ya Kuan led Liou Yuan to the main ancestral hall.

There, over a hundred tablets of the sect’s ancestors were arranged, and as Ya Kuan explained, those enshrined there were either ancestors who made outstanding contributions to the sect.

Or unparalleled Golden Core cultivators.

In the history of Five Extremes Mountain, over a hundred such individuals appeared.

And among them was the tablet of Liou Yuan’s ancestor, Liou Ze, from the Liou Family.

Liou Yuan nodded repeatedly, then followed Ya Kuan through the ancestor-worship ceremony. Specifically, upon facing the tablet of his ancestor Liou Ze from the Liou Family, he even kowtowed, expressing the respect of a younger generation to its ancestors.

Finally, Ya Kuan took Liou Yuan to the side hall of the ancestral hall.

This area was designated specifically for the Disciplinary Hall.

The tokens inside belonged to powerful figures who made significant contributions to the Disciplinary Hall’s history.

"Governance of the sect, with discipline and order as the foundation; the importance of discipline, with the Disciplinary Hall as the pillar. In our hall, the edicts are as weighty as mountains, with ultimate power over life and death, reigning above all peaks."

"In times of war, the cultivators of our hall bear the white banner, leading the charge, clad in armor to face danger, with unflinching courage even in nine deaths. Where our blades reach, blood soaks the yellow earth; amid the heap of corpses, their souls return to the void."

Ya Kuan gazed at the array of tokens of the Disciplinary Hall, eyes filled with fervor.

This elder Ya Kuan, usually known for his sternness, rarely showed such an outpouring of emotion.

In silence, Liou Yuan reflected on those two sentences, looking at the tokens of the Disciplinary Hall members with pure respect in his eyes.

Not to mention, with the Outer Sect Disciplinary Hall disciples Liou Yuan had interacted with, none retreated in times of life and death crises.