Who Let Him Cultivate Immortality

Chapter 124: The Great Elder

Lu Yang was greatly shocked, his heart pounding rapidly. The coffin in the main chamber was a stone coffin, carved with intricate and ancient patterns of the sun, moon, stars, and flowers. It was unknown which era it was from, but its high specifications absolutely meant it contained the remains of an extremely important figure!

And the Great Elder of the Dao Seeking Sect definitely met the criteria of being an “extremely important figure.”

“Could it be that the Great Elder of the Dao Seeking Sect is really buried in here?!” Lu Yang felt like he was facing a formidable enemy. Had he triggered some mechanism that led to the person’s reanimation? Or did the Everlasting Fairy’s ariya-phala cause the corpse to revive? Or was there some other unknown reason?

The coffin lid slowly floated up, and an old man with a long beard sat up from inside. Lu Yang’s pupils constricted when he saw him – it really was the Great Elder of the Dao Seeking Sect!

The Great Elder had once gone to Heaven’s Gate Peak to ask the Eldest Senior Sister something, and Lu Yang had seen his appearance before.

Lu Yang considered whether he should execute the Eldest Senior Sister Shape-Imitating Fist to summon the Eldest Senior Sister, or use the Miles in a Step technique to teleport himself back up to the cliff again.

The Great Elder’s voice was weathered, his eyes filled with confusion. He looked at Lu Yang and said, “Lu Yang? Why are you here?”

Lu Yang was startled. According to his guess, the Dao Seeking Sect had a fake Great Elder, and the real one was in this coffin. He had only seen the fake Great Elder before, so how did this real one recognize him?

“Great Elder, you know me?” Lu Yang asked carefully.

In the spiritual space, Everlasting Fairy pouted. Lu Yang had never been so respectful towards her before.

She was an immortal, yet this brat Lu Yang had no sense of reverence!

Lu Yang’s question made the Great Elder even more confused. “Of course I know you. Aren’t you Lu Yang, the sword cultivator disciple of the Ninth Master? I even saw you through the water mirror when you took the Dao Seeking Sect’s entry test back then.”

“I actually want to ask you, why did you come and disturb my sleep here?”

“Sleep…?” Lu Yang’s brain hadn’t processed this yet. Who sleeps in a coffin?

The Great Elder let out a huge yawn, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. It seemed he had just woken up. “I got too tired from building my tomb earlier, so I took a short nap. I’m old, really old. In the past, I never would have felt this tired. You can’t fight getting old. Speaking of which, I’m already three thousand years old.”

“Building a tomb?” Lu Yang’s eyes went wide. He had heard that cultivators could sense when their end was near, so they would leave a will and make arrangements for after their death, including building tombs.

Lu Yang felt saddened thinking about the Great Elder’s contributions to the Dao Seeking Sect. “Could it be that you are about to… about to…”

No matter what, he couldn’t get the rest of the words out.

The Great Elder nodded. “Yes, it’s time for me to think about what to do after I retire. Dai Bufan said I can live another five thousand years after retiring, so I should find some hobbies and interests. I thought about it and felt building a tomb is a pretty good choice, since I’ll be able to use it eventually anyway.”

Lu Yang: “……”

He had just been moved by the solemn atmosphere, causing his brain to short-circuit temporarily. Only now did he recall that those at the Unity Stage could live at least eight thousand years, and with the Great Elder’s profound cultivation, he could definitely live even longer.

Give me back those feelings of sadness from before!

“You’re building your tomb this early?” Lu Yang thought to himself, what an eccentric hobby.

“What’s wrong with that? I heard that in some places, mortals borrow a large sum of money from banks to buy houses, then spend their whole lives toiling to pay off the debt.”

“If mortals can toil their whole lives for a house, then it’s only natural that I toil in the latter half of my life for a tomb.”

Lu Yang was rendered speechless by the Great Elder’s reasoning.

“I didn’t just build this one tomb chamber either. There are others I’ve already constructed elsewhere. This is just the initial form – I haven’t even prepared any zombies yet and just temporarily threw in some white zombies to set the atmosphere.”

“Oh right, I specifically chose a cliff area of our Dao Seeking Sect to build my tomb. How did you find your way here?”

Lu Yang remained silent, not really wanting to recount the process.

So this was still part of the Dao Seeking Sect’s territory. It seemed he hadn’t been teleported too far away.

Everlasting Fairy lazily said, “You definitely couldn’t have gone far. Teleportation distance is closely tied to one’s cultivation realm. You’re just at the Foundation Establishment stage – how far could you possibly travel? Did you really think you could ascend to the heavens?”

The Great Elder was unable to perceive Everlasting Fairy’s existence.

“So the reason you’re often not at the Mission Hall is because…”

“I left things to Little Dai and started enjoying an early retirement.”

That made sense.

Seeing Lu Yang’s unwillingness to explain how he ended up at the tomb, the Great Elder asked, “Do you need me to send you back?”

Lu Yang nodded eagerly, as this was exactly what he wanted.

The Great Elder came out of the coffin and tapped Lu Yang, enveloping him in a huge bubble. The Great Elder then flew out of the tomb chamber empty-handed, with the bubbled Lu Yang following behind.

The Great Elder moved as swiftly as a thunderbolt, instantly leaving the cliff behind. Only then did Lu Yang realize why he had been encased in the bubble – his body couldn’t withstand the Great Elder’s speed.

After leaving the cliff, a boundless prairie appeared before their eyes, lush with verdant grass. Sheep grazed on the tender grass, accompanied by various ferocious demonic beasts whose terrifying auras made Lu Yang’s heart race.

This must be the “treacherous territory where insufficient cultivation means certain death” that the Eldest Senior Sister had mentioned during the entry test.

With his current cultivation, there was absolutely no way he could have safely fallen from that cliff… Why did that thought sound so awkward?

As the Great Elder flew with Lu Yang, the speed was too fast to make out any scenery below, so there was no issue of vertigo.

During the flight, Lu Yang felt some trepidation. At the Great Elder’s speed, they had flown for so long without reaching Heaven’s Gate Peak – just how far had he been teleported?

Just as Lu Yang’s thoughts wandered, the Great Elder came to a stop. Lu Yang realized they had arrived at Heaven’s Gate Peak.

The Great Elder set Lu Yang down and then left.

While sleeping in the coffin, the Great Elder had encountered a difficult point in his cultivation and wanted to consult his martial uncles about it.

He went to the Herb Garden, but the Second Elder wasn’t there. He went to the Body Refining Peak, but the Third Elder wasn’t there either. He went to the Nobleman Peak, and the Fourth Elder was also missing.

“Where is everyone?” The Great Elder was quite puzzled. He didn’t remember the Second, Third, and Fourth Elders being the type to wander around. Normally they were always in their respective places, so why couldn’t he find a single one today?

Ji Hongwen, the senior disciple of the Fourth Elder, saw the Great Elder looking for his master and said, “It seems the masters found the whereabouts of the Sect Master and went with the Second Elder to Heaven’s Gate Peak.”

“The Old Nine’s whereabouts? Heaven’s Gate Peak?” The Great Elder couldn’t fathom having to return to Heaven’s Gate Peak once more.

He arrived at Heaven’s Gate Peak and asked Lu Yang if he knew the location of Daoist Non-Speaker. Lu Yang pointed him in the right direction, and he successfully made his way to the pine forest, finding his six martial uncles, one martial aunt, and Daoist Non-Speaker eating hot pot together.

Seeing the Great Elder standing outside the cave dwelling, Daoist Non-Speaker warmly waved him over. “It’s been so long since us martial brothers have gathered together. We’re just about to have a hot pot feast, and now the great martial brother has arrived.”

“Great martial brother, come on in quickly. We were just missing you.”

The Great Elder looked at the enthusiastic Daoist Non-Speaker with suspicion.

(End of the chapter)